(I have no joke prepared. I simply wanted another opportunity to remind you that this was a thing that happened.)
Desperate times call for desperate measures, Nation. And since the ratings for The Ultimate Fighter are nose-diving faster than Charlie Sheen into a silica sandbox, old Dana White has had to step up his obligatory pre-TUF hype a notch. You might recall this from last season’s TUF: Smashes, which Dana declared to be the “CRAZIEST SEASON OF TUF EVER!!!!” in the weeks leading up to it; a claim that — although we cannot refute — we are going to go right ahead and call bullshit on.
So perhaps you should take his recent bit of insider info regarding The Ultimate Fighter 17 with a grain (or a 10-pound bag) of salt. The Baldfather recently told MMAFighting that there is apparently one contestant on the upcoming season so dangerous, so terrifying, that he is “scaring the shit out of” his fellow contestants:
I know you guys are going to call bulls— on me and all that (Ed note: Well, at least he’s honest.). I told you guys, last season of The Ultimate Fighter was the worst season in the history of TUF (Again, props DW). This next season is so awesome and so badass. We have a guy on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, every fight he’s in, someone goes to the hospital.
The whole house is terrified of this guy. F– terrified.
(I have no joke prepared. I simply wanted another opportunity to remind you that this was a thing that happened.)
Desperate times call for desperate measures, Nation. And since the ratings for The Ultimate Fighter are nose-diving faster than Charlie Sheen into a silica sandbox, old Dana White has had to step up his obligatory pre-TUF hype a notch. You might recall this from last season’s TUF: Smashes, which Dana declared to be the “CRAZIEST SEASON OF TUF EVER!!!!” in the weeks leading up to it; a claim that — although we cannot refute — we are going to go right ahead and call bullshit on.
So perhaps you should take his recent bit of insider info regarding The Ultimate Fighter 17 with a grain (or a 10-pound bag) of salt. The Baldfather recently told MMAFighting that there is apparently one contestant on the upcoming season so dangerous, so terrifying, that he is “scaring the shit out of” his fellow contestants:
I know you guys are going to call bulls— on me and all that (Ed note: Well, at least he’s honest.). I told you guys, last season of The Ultimate Fighter was the worst season in the history of TUF (Again, props DW). This next season is so awesome and so badass. We have a guy on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, every fight he’s in, someone goes to the hospital.
The whole house is terrified of this guy. F– terrified. Everybody. I picked this fight, and this guy is lined up with the guy I’m telling you about, and the guy has a nervous breakdown in the house over the weekend. Has a f– nervous breakdown. Freaks out and has a nervous breakdown. This guy scared the living s— out of everyone. It’s awesome.
That’s right, TUF has officially fallen so far that Dana is hyping the episodes where the fights don’t even happen because one of the fighters is too scared. Next week, Pacey and Jen share a kiss at the barnyard dance and Jesse hilariously struggles with a pill addiction.
Now, we’re not going to get into whether or not Dana should find it “awesome” that these fighters are being sent to the hospital on a regular basis. We’re not even going to discuss how sad it is that the president of the UFC would rather trot out this same dog and pony show each year instead of putting Old Yeller down once and for all. Instead, we’d rather like to speculate about the supposed injuries these fighters are being hospitalized with. Based on recent events, we’re going to go with the following: wet locker room floor, salmonella, and of course, air hockey table accident. We swear to God, that last one has a mind of its own and it hates British people.
The list of TUF 17 contestants has yet to be released, but we’ll make sure to keep you updated as details are made available. Until then, we’ll continue to slap a pair of ballroom shoes on this turd and call it a princess.
(Welterweight, middleweight, we don’t care. Just don’t ever lose that twinkle in your eyes, you handsome son of a bitch.)
Although Patrick Cote managed to secure his first UFC win since 2010 at UFC 154 last month (by way of DQ), we’re still not quite sure if his decision to cut down to welterweight falls into “last ditch effort to save career” territory or not. Regardless, Cote recently told MMAWeekly that he is planning on cutting down to 170 for his next bout now that his UFC 158 rematch with Alessio Sakara has been cancelled due to Sakara’s kidney issues. His reasoning: They build middleweights a lot bigger than they used to.
We’ve been thinking about it since about a year now. I think now it’s the time. I was a pretty decent middleweight a couple years ago, but now those guys are really, really big. They’re cutting from like 230, 225, and I’m walking around at 205 so I spoke with my coach and my nutritionist and it’s doable so we’re going to do it.
Although it seems like Cote might be exaggerating those numbers a little bit, one must first consider that Anthony Johnson walks around at upwards of 230 pounds and used to fight in the same division Cote is shrinking down to. Hell, Thiago Alves still fights at 170 and that dude regularly eats Adam Richman under the table in between training camps.
(Welterweight, middleweight, we don’t care. Just don’t ever lose that twinkle in your eyes, you handsome son of a bitch.)
Although Patrick Cote managed to secure his first UFC win since 2010 at UFC 154 last month (by way of DQ), we’re still not quite sure if his decision to cut down to welterweight falls into “last ditch effort to save career” territory or not. Regardless, Cote recently told MMAWeekly that he is planning on cutting down to 170 for his next bout now that his UFC 158 rematch with Alessio Sakara has been cancelled due to Sakara’s kidney issues. His reasoning: They build middleweights a lot bigger than they used to.
We’ve been thinking about it since about a year now. I think now it’s the time. I was a pretty decent middleweight a couple years ago, but now those guys are really, really big. They’re cutting from like 230, 225, and I’m walking around at 205 so I spoke with my coach and my nutritionist and it’s doable so we’re going to do it.
Although it seems like Cote might be exaggerating those numbers a little bit, one must first consider that Anthony Johnson walks around at upwards of 230 pounds and used to fight in the same division Cote is shrinking down to. Hell, Thiago Alves still fights at 170 and that dude regularly eats Adam Richman under the table in between training camps.
Still, Cote could quickly find himself up shit creek without a paddle at welterweight. Maybe it’s just us, but we kind of look at Cote as the rich man’s (or perhaps just upper middle class man’s) Scott Smith, ie. a powerful, albeit limited striker with subpar grappling. Cote has fought as high as 205 before and has shown in his losses to Cung Le and Alan Belcher that he doesn’t exactly have the fastest footwork at middleweight, let alone in the deep waters of the welterweight division.
We’re not counting him out, we’re just saying that sometimes cutting weight isn’t necessarily the best move to jump start one’s career in as high-level a promotion as the UFC. For a perfect example of this, look no further than Scott Smith, who attempted the same weight cut under the Strikeforce banner in 2010-2011, only to get faceplant KO’d by Paul Daley and picked apart by Tarec Saffiedine before moving back up to 185. And don’t even get us started on James Irvin…*shudders*
However, Cote also claimed that he was only holding out at 185 for his rematch with Sakara. But now that that fight has been cancelled, “The Predator” would still like to fight at UFC 158 in his native Canada if the option is still available.
I was staying at 185 because of this rematch, but it’s not going to happen. We’re not sure when he’s going to be ready to fight, so for me it was just the right time to do it.
In my mind the target is March 16. If it’s not happening there I’ll be ready to fight around that, but I’m hoping to fight in Montreal.
So what do you think, Potato Nation? Is this a good move for Cote and if so, who would you like to see him square off against at 170?
(And another thing that bugs me about the guy is his insistence on using curse words so often. It’s like, for fuck’s sake Bob, our fucking children are watching this shit.)
When it comes to picking sides in a fight between Dana White and Bob Arum, it often feels like we’re simply choosing the lesser of two evils. Don’t get us wrong, aside from his stance on marijuana in combat sports, Bob Arum comes off as a chode for the most part, especially when he decides to open his mouth about how MMA fans are all a bunch of homosexual skinhead racists. But every now and again, The Baldfather says something so pants-shittingly stupid and drenched in irony that it makes us wonder whether or not he has been completely blinded by his own power. Take the following for example, in which DW calls Arum “the dumbest promoter in the history of the world” for allowing Manny Pacquiao to fight Juan Manuel Marquez a fourth time:
Dumbest fight in history. Bob Arum is a moron. You don’t take that fight, you idiot. Why would you do that fight? It’s all about the money, that’s why. That was a money fight, that’s what that fight was done for. He should have fought Bradley. Bradley’s the fight they should have done. He would have knocked Bradley out, he would have got his belt back and now he’s back in the position he should have been in. [Pacquiao’s] one of the best fighters in the world. He goes out and fights Marquez again? Bob Arum is the dumbest promoter in the history of the world.
Right…but Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen and Georges St. Pierre vs. Nick Diaz are somehow not “money fights.” In case you’re wondering, this is where I’d normally insert a Scanners headsplosion gif, but I’m too busy trying to nurse the puppy I just kicked after reading this quote back to life.
(And another thing that bugs me about the guy is his insistence on using curse words so often. It’s like, for fuck’s sake Bob, our fucking children are watching this shit.)
When it comes to picking sides in a fight between Dana White and Bob Arum, it often feels like we’re simply choosing the lesser of two evils. Don’t get us wrong, aside from his stance on marijuana in combat sports, Bob Arum comes off as a chode for the most part, especially when he decides to open his mouth about how MMA fans are all a bunch of homosexual skinhead racists. But every now and again, The Baldfather says something so pants-shittingly stupid and drenched in irony that it makes us wonder whether or not he has been completely blinded by his own power. Take the following for example, in which DW calls Arum “the dumbest promoter in the history of the world” for allowing Manny Pacquiao to fight Juan Manuel Marquez a fourth time:
Dumbest fight in history. Bob Arum is a moron. You don’t take that fight, you idiot. Why would you do that fight? It’s all about the money, that’s why. That was a money fight, that’s what that fight was done for. He should have fought Bradley. Bradley’s the fight they should have done. He would have knocked Bradley out, he would have got his belt back and now he’s back in the position he should have been in. [Pacquiao’s] one of the best fighters in the world. He goes out and fights Marquez again? Bob Arum is the dumbest promoter in the history of the world.
Right…but Jon Jones vs. Chael Sonnen and Georges St. Pierre vs. Nick Diaz are somehow not “money fights.” PLEASE Dana, go on about how Chael “Coming off a loss and hasn’t fought at LHW since 2005″ Sonnen vs. the most dominant LHW champion since Chuck Liddell is something other than a money fight. Or how the man coming off both a loss and a marijuana suspension who threw away his first opportunity to fight the champ vs. said champ is just matchmaking 101. Because, as we all know, Jones and Sonnen (or GSP and Diaz for that matter) have fought to three incredibly close decisions before and there was a public outcry for some closure. WAIT A MINUTE, NONE OF THAT HAPPENED. Pot, meet kettle.
Meanwhile, Mark Sanchez has been quoted as saying that Tim Tebow “Needs to learn how to throw the fucking football to right team.” Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to go correct someone on their grammatically incorrect blog post.
In less than an hour, Bellator’s final card of the year will kick off live from The Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana. Fighting in the only women’s bout of the night will be none other than Felice Herrig, a former Muay Thai wrecking machine turned MMA starlet who has been featured in such programs as Oxygen’s Fight Girls. Tonight, she squares off on the preliminary card against late replacement opponent Patricia Vardonic in a strawweight fight that is sure to convert more than a few fans to this thing called WMMA.
Being the humanitarian that “Lil’ Bulldog” is, she recently set aside some time in her busy schedule to discuss everything from the great injury plague of 2012 to the role of sexuality in female sports with us, so join us after the jump to get inside the head of one of WMMA’s fastest rising prospects in this surprisingly candid interview.
CagePotato: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us, Felice. First off, we were wondering if you could talk about the controversy surrounding Michele Guitierrez’s withdrawal from Bellator 84. When did you first suspect that she wasn’t being exactly honest about the alleged injury that forced her out of your scheduled fight?
Felice Herrig: “I had suspected since I signed to fight Michele that she was going to do it. I’ve been in this game a long time and I heard a couple people that trained around her say that she was like 20-some pounds overweight, that she wasn’t going to make it, and that she was asking [her training partners] for tips on how to cut weight. For so long, Michele has done so many things to me that I’ve had to keep quiet about and now I feel like I got to expose her for what she really is.”
In less than an hour, Bellator’s final card of the year will kick off live from The Horseshoe Casino in Hammond, Indiana. Fighting in the only women’s bout of the night will be none other than Felice Herrig, a former Muay Thai wrecking machine turned MMA starlet who has been featured in such programs as Oxygen’s Fight Girls. Tonight, she squares off on the preliminary card against late replacement opponent Patricia Vardonic in a strawweight fight that is sure to convert more than a few fans to this thing called WMMA.
Being the humanitarian that “Lil’ Bulldog” is, she recently set aside some time in her busy schedule to discuss everything from the great injury plague of 2012 to the role of sexuality in female sports with us, so join us after the jump to get inside the head of one of WMMA’s fastest rising prospects in this surprisingly candid interview.
CagePotato: Thanks for taking the time to talk with us, Felice. First off, we were wondering if you could talk about the controversy surrounding Michele Guitierrez’s withdrawal from Bellator 84. When did you first suspect that she wasn’t being exactly honest about the alleged injury that forced her out of your scheduled fight?
Felice Herrig: “I had suspected since I signed to fight Michele that she was going to do it. I’ve been in this game a long time and I heard a couple people that trained around her say that she was like 20-some pounds overweight, that she wasn’t going to make it, and that she was asking [her training partners] for tips on how to cut weight. For so long, Michele has done so many things to me that I’ve had to keep quiet about and now I feel like I got to expose her for what she really is.”
While we’re on the subject of injuries, could you give us your take on the ridiculous string of injuries that have plagued MMA this year? Do you think that many of these fighters are being deceitful like your original opponent was?
“I think a lot of fighters are being dishonest. Not all of them, of course; things do happen in this sport that you can’t control. But there’s no real consequences for a fighter if you do that, so why wouldn’t they? If there were fines and you had to prove to a doctor that you were really injured, then yeah, maybe more people wouldn’t pull out so often. I know it happens all the time and it stinks because it’s going to continue to go like that until there’s more harsh consequences. And right now there’s just not.”
Your replacement opponent is Patricia Vadonic, who you defeated by unanimous decision earlier this year. Did you have any hesitation accepting the fight based on that fact?
“Of course I had hesitation, but at the same time, I’m a fighter and I fight who’s going to step up on short notice. I had already been through my training camp and I was already preparing for Michele, so yeah, there was some hesitation because I didn’t really want to fight her again. But it was also a good thing because I had already fought her, so a last minute replacement who I had already fought wasn’t a bad gig.”
That must relieve some pressure from the fact that this will be your first fight under the Bellator banner since 2010.
“Yeah actually. The thing is, I do really well under pressure. I get really excited, I get motivated, and I want to put on a good show for Bellator. It’s also fortunate because I never really wanted to fight Michele. I had nothing to gain by fighting her. I had already beat her as well, and she’s also on a two fight losing streak and had lost to a girl that I finished. It really didn’t make a whole lot of sense and there was a lot of emotional drama heading into that fight, so I really didn’t want it. But with this fight, I just want to put on a show and make a statement.”
Speaking of Bellator, did you happen to catch the Jessica Eye/Zoila Gurgel fight a couple weeks ago and if so, what did you think of it?
“I did! Oh my God, I was really looking forward to that fight. Here you have two top-level girls and I never knew how the fight was going to go. But the way Jessica finished her like that, so quickly, I was shocked. I thought it was going to be more of a war, but damn, that standing arm-triangle is a bad gig (laughs). It was amazing. It’s sad to me that the people that have always gotten the most attention in MMA are the bigger girls, the ones in Strikeforce. And here you have two smaller girls like that out there who only diehard MMA fans really know who they are because they haven’t really competed in the same platform. That’s something that will hopefully change now that they’re going to Spike TV.”
Being that you compete in one of the smaller divisions, is it harder to find training partners as opposed to the higher weight classes you mentioned?
“Yeah, I actually don’t have any (laughs). I mean, I have training partners but they’re all men and they’re all bigger. For this training camp I brought in four women, but I don’t have consistent female training partners. It’s frustrating; you go to the gym every day and you never really know where you’re at because guys are either going too hard or way too soft and you don’t have the same feel of a female body. Men move different, they’re bones are different, and it’s just different all around.”
Would your gal pal (All American Wrestler) Carla Esparza be one of the women you brought in, and which would you say has evolved faster: your wrestling or Carla’s striking?
“I’ve had a ten week training camp for this fight actually, so I flew Carla out to help me get ready and she was out here for a few weeks. This is the second time I’ve trained with her since we fought but she’s just become a really good friend of mine. We get along real well together, we see eye to eye.
I think that I’m getting there with wrestling quicker because there’s more of an urgency to. For a lot of wrestlers, their gameplan is the same, it’s always to take their opponent down and take fighters into their world, which is why wrestlers are so dominant in the sport. That’s why I made it a point to get as good as I can at wrestling, whereas Carla’s striking isn’t a main focus.”
Some of your past opponents like Carla and Michele are currently fighting for InvictaFC. Has Invicta they approached you to fight for them yet?
“They actually have, but I had a year contract with XFC and Bellator has been trying to get me on board for awhile. When I did sign with Bellator, Invicta approached my manager and was like ‘Hey, we’ve heard about this Felice girl and we’d like to have her fight for us.’ But for me, I don’t really have a desire to fight for Invicta. Bellator kind of wants to make me their poster girl and I would rather fight for an organization where there are all men on a card with the one female bout, because then I get a little more attention as opposed to getting thrown in with all these other girl fighters. You kinda get watered down so much that the only people that are gonna watch [those cards] are diehard WMMA fans.
So for me, I’m a fighter and I’m all about fighting, but I’m also about maximizing my exposure. I’m only going to be in this sport for so long and I want to get as much attention as I can so that I can make my name in the sport, but also have a career outside of the sport when I’m done.”
That’s an incredibly honest answer.
“(laughs) Well, when you do all of these interviews, you always have to be so politically correct. I’m not taking anything away from Invicta; I think they’re a great promotion and what they’re doing is great for females. If I’m given an opportunity to fight [for Invicta], I’m gonna fight, but if I had a choice then probably not. I think the thing with women’s MMA is that you either accept it or you don’t, and more people have accepted male MMA than female, so when I’m on a fight card with all men, then [fans] kind of have no choice whether they want to watch it or not. I’m given more of a shot for someone to give me a chance who might not have before.”
In light of what you just said, were you surprised that Ronda Rousey was recently declared the UFC’s first female champion considering Dana White said that we would never see WMMA in the UFC as little as a year ago?
“No, it doesn’t surprise me at all. Dana White is first of all a money man and for whatever reasonm he’s been promoting Ronda Rousey really heavily. I kind of saw it happening; she’s been the one getting all the publicity and attention so it makes sense that they’re pushing her [in Strikeforce] so that when she made the move over to the UFC there would be more publicity surrounding her. Things change, people change, and when somebody says “I’ll never,” maybe at that point in time they mean it, but things change down the road and different opportunities arise so you have to shift things too.”
Do you think the move will ultimately be a good thing for WMMA, or is the UFC setting themselves up for failure by basically building a division around one person?
“That’s the only thing I have a problem with. Dana White doesn’t care about women’s MMA. He is not creating a division for women, he’s creating one for Ronda. Dana is just going to promote Ronda, so I’m not really that excited. I don’t really care. Megumi Fujii was the top ranked female fighter in the world for a while, but only diehard fans knew about her. Why? Because no one gave her the opportunity to showcase what she could do. Right now, Dana has this thing where he thinks Ronda is the only girl who can fight, but she’s not.
She has her thing and obviously can fight, but just look at the Eye/Gurgel fight. Those girls can both fight and it’s a shame that it’s kind of being put on the back burner as if Ronda is the only woman out there that can fight. I’ve been in this sport a long time and I know that they’re are a lot of women out there who deserve the opportunity as well.”
Some critics of the sport have said that sex appeal has played a larger role in the advancement of WMMA than the actual skill of the participants. As someone who embraces both parts of the equation, what would you say to those critics?
“I mean, it’s always going to play a role and I don’t think that’s ever going to change in general with female sports. Men will always be bigger and stronger; when you think of sports, you think of men’s sports. Look at the WNBA compared to the NBA. Most people aren’t going to be diehard WNBA fans because they love basketball. With women, people need more of a reason to want to watch because mostly men are watching anyways.
If you know that, you’d be stupid not to use it if you had it. People say things about me using my sex appeal, but of course I’m going to use it. It’s good for me, it’s good for my sponsors. It helps me afford to train full time and do other things outside of fighting, because it’s not like fighting pays the bills. Most pop singers who get their big breaks are beautiful and they get those breaks because those are the ones that you can market.”
So can we expect an ESPN: The Body shoot in your future?
“I honestly would love that. A lot of those things have to do with the right opportunities coming at the right times. I’m actually going to be on The Jeff Probst Show on January 11th and I’ve got a lot of things in the works, but whatever happens, happens. I’m sure something like will come out.”
Thanks again for your time. Is there anyone you’d like to thank before you go?
“I’d just like to thank my sponsors: Alienware, Outerwear, Extreme Fit Nutrition, Soldier Fit, True Rival, and Bail Bond.”
I don’t know how to segue into the second exclusive photo Felice sent us, so I’m just going to place it below.
*Super Friends announcer voice* MEANWHILE, IN THE DINING ROOM…
If you thought watching the sixteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter was hell, just wait until you hear how bad it was to be one of the show’s participants, and a winning one at that. As finalist Mike Ricci will tell you, TUF 16 wasn’t exactly Dancing With the Stars, where everyone got to take their perfect-bodied Ukranian supermodel partner home and have their way with them (although to be fair, the above video makes the case that there certainly was a lot of banging going on). No, TUF was much, much uglier. In fact, during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Ricci admitted that he hated his time on the show so much — despite being a finalist, mind you — that he wished he could sue the show for the “psychological damages” he suffered:
It was an absolute nightmare, I wanted to sue for psychological damage, I wasn’t the same person. I actually thought I had a case, ‘I’m not the same person, I can do this and win.’ But, I felt like don’t get me wrong, I knew what I was getting into I knew how I was going to react. Even some of the producers in the house toward the end were like, ‘Geez, you’re the most institutionalized fighter we’ve ever seen, we’ve done 11 seasons and we’ve never seen anyone like you, you’re like a robot now.
Much more from this interview is after the jump.
*Super Friends announcer voice* MEANWHILE, IN THE DINING ROOM…
If you thought watching the sixteenth season of The Ultimate Fighter was hell, just wait until you hear how bad it was to be one of the show’s participants, and a winning one at that. As finalist Mike Ricci will tell you, TUF 16 wasn’t exactly Dancing With the Stars, where everyone got to take their perfect-bodied Ukranian supermodel partner home and have their way with them (although to be fair, the above video makes the case that there certainly was a lot of banging going on). No, TUF was much, much uglier. In fact, during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour, Ricci admitted that he hated his time on the show so much — despite being a finalist, mind you — that he wished he could sue the show for the “psychological damages” he suffered:
It was an absolute nightmare, I wanted to sue for psychological damage, I wasn’t the same person. I actually thought I had a case, ‘I’m not the same person, I can do this and win.’ But, I felt like don’t get me wrong, I knew what I was getting into I knew how I was going to react. Even some of the producers in the house toward the end were like, ‘Geez, you’re the most institutionalized fighter we’ve ever seen, we’ve done 11 seasons and we’ve never seen anyone like you, you’re like a robot now.
Now I know what you’re thinking, “How will Danga shoehorn a Shawshank Redemption reference into the next couple sentences?” Truth be told, I thought about it. Hell, I even wrote a couple quotes down. But I’m not going to do it, Nation, because I honestly feel for Ricci here and wouldn’t want to reduce his plight to a few lines from a film, albeit a great one at that. Because CagePotato is kind of like the TUF set, if you replaced wannabe fighters with wannabe writers. In here, we’re important men, we’re educated men. On the outside, we’re nothing, just a bunch of used up cons-DAMN IT.
Anyway, Ricci also claimed that it was the time away from his family and friends that truly made the experience unbearable. Again, I just want to clarify that we’re talking about the favorite to win the season here:
I was taken away from my family and from my friends and from life, you literally, you vanish, you’re gone, there’s no sign of you whatsoever. Its almost like to everyone in the outside world you’re dead and you’re gone. There’s no sign of you whatsoever. And, things like for instance I didn’t know what was happening with my people on the outside, it was upsetting, people had gotten new jobs or changed their hairstyle or experienced different things I missed out on, it just upset me. It still upsets me to this day.
OK, Ricci, now I’m kind of glad I went the Shawshank route when breaking down your case. If the sacrifice you had to make in order to launch your career – the career you chose, by the way – was to miss out on a friend getting a haircut or telling you that they now work at the Jiffy Lube instead of the Outback’s Steakhouse (quite a career change, I realize), then I’d say you’ve got fuck all to complain about. For Christ’s sake, Michael Chiesa lost both his father AND his home last season, and cried about it for approximately five seconds. But yeah, continue to talk about the dark, depressing loneliness that eats at your soul because you missed out on a trip to Fantastic Sam’s.
So why, one would ask, would Ricci choose to partake in such a venture, knowing full well how grueling TUF can be from the 15 previous seasons that documented this exact process?
I feel it was an opportunity for me to get ahead and go faster than I would have by the usual route, fighting your way up on undercards. I know that it was a lot of work that was going to be crammed into a short amount of time, but if I looked good and was successful … I feel like I brought in just as much exposure and gone as far forward fighting four fights for TUF than I would have four fights outside of TUF. But the time status is those four fights could be in a year, and I did it all in the span of a summer. That’s why I did it.
So there you have it, in order to become semi-famous in one’s trade, one might be forced to neglect their tanning regimen for a few months. No wonder Colin Fletcher is one of the TUF: Smashes finalists, dude must have been neglecting his G.T.L. for years now.
(Related clip: Tito and Cyborg rolling together in June 2011. Skip to 2:30 to see Cyborg lift Tito like a damsel in distress. Anyway, they’re business partners now. / Props: MMA Heat)
A few heads were scratched when the UFC announced yesterday that UFC 157 would be headlined by Ronda Rousey taking on Liz Carmouche. Rousey’s star is certainly on the rise and is as good a bet as any first-time pay-per-view headliner would be, but Carmouche is relatively unknown outside of hardcore Women’s Mixed Martial Arts circles. and WMMA as a PPV entity is unproven on the whole.
It made more sense once it was revealed that several opponents, including currently suspended former 145-pound champion Cristaine “Cyborg” Santos, had turned Rousey down. The potential Rousey/Santos fight is the biggest women’s match out there, as both have held Strikeforce world titles and have a running feud with one another.
According to White, however, his former friend/client/contracted worker/sworn enemy Tito Ortiz is to blame for Rousey vs. Cyborg not taking place at UFC 157. “That’s the fight that should be happening,” White said during yesterday’s UFC on Fox pre-event presser in Seattle. “Tito Ortiz is her manager, and he advised against it.”
Well, of course it’s Tito’s fault. It’s been forever since White was able to complain about and blame something on Tito. All must feel right in the world once more for the Baldfather.
(Related clip: Tito and Cyborg rolling together in June 2011. Skip to 2:30 to see Cyborg lift Tito like a damsel in distress. Anyway, they’re business partners now. / Props: MMA Heat)
A few heads were scratched when the UFC announced yesterday that UFC 157 would be headlined by Ronda Rousey taking on Liz Carmouche. Rousey’s star is certainly on the rise and is as good a bet as any first-time pay-per-view headliner would be, but Carmouche is relatively unknown outside of hardcore Women’s Mixed Martial Arts circles. and WMMA as a PPV entity is unproven on the whole.
It made more sense once it was revealed that several opponents, including currently suspended former 145-pound champion Cristaine “Cyborg” Santos, had turned Rousey down. The potential Rousey/Santos fight is the biggest women’s match out there, as both have held Strikeforce world titles and have a running feud with one another.
According to White, however, his former friend/client/contracted worker/sworn enemy Tito Ortiz is to blame for Rousey vs. Cyborg not taking place at UFC 157. ”That’s the fight that should be happening,” White said during yesterday’s UFC on Fox pre-event presser in Seattle. “Tito Ortiz is her manager, and he advised against it.”
Well, of course it’s Tito’s fault. It’s been forever since White was able to complain about and blame something on Tito. All must feel right in the world once more for the Baldfather.
MMA Junkie reached Ortiz for comment via text message. According to Tito, “Cyborg” will fight Ronda at 145 — her competitive weight, not Rousey’s — at any point, but would want more time to safely cut down to 135 than February and UFC 157.
“That was never said!” Ortiz reportedly texted Junkie. “‘Cyborg’ will fight her anytime, anywhere at 145. Cris said she would kill herself trying to make 135. I won’t allow it, (and) neither should the UFC or Dana. Cris wants the fight, fans want the fight, and so does the UFC.”
Meanwhile, Rousey tore into Santos while speaking with MMA Junkie, and claimed that Miesha Tate and Sara McMann also both turned down title fights with her for UFC 157.
“I know [Cyborg] can make 135, and so does she,” Rousey told Junkie. “It just takes her a little while to realize that this is the only option she has. It took her a little bit longer because I don’t think she’s that bright. Once she does sit down and think about it, we’ll have the only fight that really makes sense.
“I think it’s really funny that when me and Miesha were supposed to fight, she was going on and on about how I didn’t deserve to fight her, and now she doesn’t want to fight me,” Rousey said. “And I also think it’s really funny that Sara was telling all these people that I was running away from her, and then she turns down a fight for the UFC title. I mean, c’mon,” Rousey continued.
MMA Junkie also reached Tate for comment, who claimed that she was never, in fact, offered a fight against Rousey. “I’ve made it pretty clear that I wanted to take some time off since my last fight, and that was back in August, so maybe because of that, the opportunity wasn’t presented to me. But it was never offered to me,” she said.
“The only thing that I can say is when I was down in Brazil, (UFC matchmaker) Sean (Shelby) asked if I might be interested in fighting in February. There was never any mention of an opponent or it being in the UFC. So I said, ‘I still want to take a little more time off and find myself as a fighter and a person. It was never made clear to me at all that it would be such a huge opportunity, that it could be against Ronda or in the UFC. At that point, they hadn’t even announced that women were coming to the UFC. This was back in early October when the UFC was down in Brazil.”
There’s no way of telling for sure where, exactly, the truth sits on this topic, between all this he/she said stuff. We cannot, however, even imagine a world where White would present a story in a particularly subjective way and without full context given, especially ones involving Tito Ortiz or fighters turning down fights.
