(Pat Promrangka savagely knocks out Mitch Heron at FightWorld Cup 9, Saturday night in Queensland, Australia. Props: Doombringer002)
Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail [email protected] for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…
– What’s Next for UFC 133 Winners and Losers? (NBC Sports MMA)
– Chael Sonnen Takes Unique Approach to Selling Brian Stann Fight (5thRound)
– Dana White Talks Shaquille O’Neal, GSP vs. Nick Diaz and ‘TUF 14’ (MMA Fighting)
– ONE FC: Phil Baroni Has Been Put on This Earth to Do Two Things…Chew Bubble Gum and Kick Ass (MMA Mania)
– Jon Jones Insists the “Jealous Snake” Rashad Evans Never Was His Friend (LowKick)
– Jens Pulver Returns to Action Against Ox Wheeler at “MMA Fight Pit: Genesis” (TheFightNerd)
– Check Out This Hi-Res Panel From the First Full-Length MMA Comic Book, ‘Joe Palooka’ (MiddleEasy)
– Randy Couture’s Next Movie: ‘Setup’ Trailer (MMA Convert)
– Thiago Alves: “I’ll Try to Knock Him Out or Submit All Opponents From Now On.” (Five Ounces of Pain)
– Dana White: “I Really Love to Stick It to the Fedor Fans Because They’re Such Lunatics” (FightOpinion)
– ESPN Reports Fox As New Front-Runner For UFC TV Deal (MMAPayout)
(Pat Promrangka savagely knocks out Mitch Heron at FightWorld Cup 9, Saturday night in Queensland, Australia. Props: Doombringer002)
Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail [email protected] for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club…
– What’s Next for UFC 133 Winners and Losers? (NBC Sports MMA)
– Chael Sonnen Takes Unique Approach to Selling Brian Stann Fight (5thRound)
– Dana White Talks Shaquille O’Neal, GSP vs. Nick Diaz and ‘TUF 14′ (MMA Fighting)
Butch Hiles is a gym owner in Charleston, W. Va. But, as you are about to find out if you weren’t aware of him already, Hiles is much more than just your average gym owner.Bleacher Report recently had the pleasure of speaking with Hiles, owner of Butch…
Butch Hiles is a gym owner in Charleston, W. Va. But, as you are about to find out if you weren’t aware of him already, Hiles is much more than just your average gym owner.
Bleacher Report recently had the pleasure of speaking with Hiles, owner of Butch Hiles Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and MMA, about his influence on mixed martial arts (MMA) sanctioning in West Virginia and some major events that have been happening and will be happening at his gym.
A leader in the push to legalize MMA in West Virginia, Hiles spoke about the toughest roadblocks he faced in trying to convince legislature to change their views on MMA.
“I would say [the toughest part was] having your voice heard,” Hiles said. “Everybody wants MMA to be legal, but it’s really hard to try to figure out the way to go about doing it. It sure wasn’t easy because you’ve got to try to meet with the legislatures and things you’re not usually accustomed to doing.
“Luckily, we had really good lobbyist, Sam Minardi, and some really good people on board to help out.”
“The unfortunate thing is there are just some people that don’t like MMA,” Hiles said “Most of our senators are obviously older, so some of them don’t like combat sports, period. In fact, that was kind of what I was told by several of the guys.
“We would come in and say MMA is safer than boxing and safer than Toughman, and they would say, ‘If that’s your argument, we don’t really care because we don’t like boxing, either, and if was up to us that would be illegal as well.’ So, that’s not something you really want to hear, because unfortunately those guys make the decisions.
“But luckily, the majority won out and there was only a few guys that said stuff like that and I think the most of them did their jobs correctly and actually studied the facts and heard both sides.
“Once the true facts are presented and they actually pay attention to them, then obviously the correct thing wins out and it did win out.”
West Virginia became the 45th state to sanction MMA. Since Alaska and Wyoming do not have athletic commissions, that means only New York, Connecticut and Vermont remain as states that do not regulate the sport.
Hiles has been leading this uphill battle for quite some time now. In 2005, West Virginia Athletic Commission Chairman Steven Allred prevented Hiles from holding a jiu-jitsu tournament because he felt submissions and choke-holds were too dangerous.
Now knowing that the athletic commission had been so strongly against jiu-jitsu competitions, it is easy to see why it has taken so long for the state to come around to the idea of legalizing MMA.
With this long battle now won, Hiles can finally look back at what he has helped accomplish for MMA in West Virginia with pride and rightly so.
“It is a big deal because that’s something that we’ve struggled with since 2000-2001, whenever they first made [MMA] illegal. Obviously, it’s probably the biggest thing that I’ve ever been a part of as far as my martial arts career goes and really anything that I’ve done for the state.”
But what caused the change in opinion that West Virginian legislature held for so long? Hiles points to a recent seminar at his gym with MMA legend Wanderlei Silva as a major factor in helping to sway the government officials.
“We were trying to get MMA legal and I wanted to bring somebody in that people would respond well to and that would get some attention, and Wanderlei [Silva] was that guy without a doubt,” Hiles said.
“We had about 200 people show up to the seminar alone. We also did a couple other events later at night and there was another 1,200 or so people there. So, altogether we were looking at around 1,500-2,000 people that showed up for these events that we put on and that brought the media out, and that brought the attention right at the right time.
“When you’ve got 2,000 people coming out to see a guy that does something that everybody respects and likes, I think that speaks volumes.”
“Ultimately, I think that’s what it showed them and I think it really did help us push that bill through because they could no longer argue, which they tried to argue, that there wouldn’t be an economic impact,” Hiles said. “As soon as they say that, we have 2,000 people show up just to see a guy, not even an event. That kind of shut that argument down.”
Just because MMA is now legalized in West Virginia doesn’t mean Hiles plans to slow things down at his gym any time soon. Already, Hiles has planned to bring in former UFC champion Jens Pulver to his gym for a seminar and special screening of Pulver’s recent documentary.
“[The film] kind of dug deeper into his whole life,” Hiles said. “He was an abused child and it was a pretty awful childhood. People are watching this screening of what happened in his childhood and they’re being emotionally touched by what happened to him.
“It’s a really important project and I felt like I could make this something bigger than something just for the gym. I wanted to do something for our whole community. We’re doing a one-night-only screening in Charleston, W. Va., of the documentary.
“It’s a 700-seat theater, so I got an opportunity to invite a lot of people. We reached out to all the local programs that have at risk youth and high schools and a lot of local places that could really impact the community and try to get the right target audience there.”
With the recent legalization of MMA and the legends that he has been bringing in for seminars, Hiles has built a ton of momentum around his gym. Nonetheless, Hiles plans to continue with his recent success by spreading it to the community.
“You can’t be happy with what you already accomplished,” said Hiles. “I feel like, as a local gym in West Virginia, we’ve accomplished a lot. There’s always going to be things that we can do to improve upon and this upcoming [event with Pulver] is something that I can do for the community, and that’s really something that I want to start gearing our gym towards.
“I want everybody at our gym and everybody that trains there to represent our community and our state as a whole and continue to go out there and help everybody that I can.”
To that extent, Hiles’ goals for his gym reach much farther that simply teaching MMA to his students. Hiles hopes to not only impress a positive impact on his gym’s members, but he wishes to help the entire community.
“That’s what I’m more proud of than anything else,” said Hiles. “If we can get a couple guys off the street or help a couple guys out that normally wouldn’t have been helped, then we’ve accomplished our goal.
“When I started this whole thing and chose to have a gym, my No. 1 goal was to help as many people as I can in whatever that was. Obviously that was jiu-jitsu and MMA, but it grew and now I have the opportunity to help people in different ways on a much larger scale.”
Click here for more information on the upcoming event with Jens Pulver, which will take place on June 11 in Charleston, W.Va.
For the latest insight and updates on everything MMA, you can follow Sean on Twitter here.
Today we get to see the 13th Ultimate Fighter Finale. The finales serve as a final showcase for the fighters competing in The Ultimate Fighter and are a tremendous series of free UFC events in general.Not only do we get to see some of the top cont…
Today we get to see the 13th Ultimate Fighter Finale. The finales serve as a final showcase for the fighters competing in The Ultimate Fighter and are a tremendous series of free UFC events in general.
Not only do we get to see some of the top contestants from the reality show prove their mettle, the UFC also treats us to some high-profile matchups between some of their biggest stars.
Ever since the first season we have been treated to some awesome action and we expect to see some more tonight.
Nothing tops great action off quite like a brilliant finish.
For this article, we will be taking a look at the top 10 submission finishes in Ultimate Fighter Finale history.
Are there any of your favorites that you think should have made the cut? Let me know!;
As the Extreme Sports channel continues to wind its repetitive way through a dozen WEC shows, we’re going to take a look at their 38th instalment, where Donald Cerrone challenged Jamie Varner for the lightweight title.The broadcast began in the f…
As the Extreme Sports channel continues to wind its repetitive way through a dozen WEC shows, we’re going to take a look at their 38th instalment, where Donald Cerrone challenged Jamie Varner for the lightweight title.
The broadcast began in the featherweight division as Jose Aldo faced Rolando Perez.
Both of these guys were lightning fast with their strikes and kicks, with Aldo just edging it in the speed stakes.
So when it looked like it could go either way, Perez went for a left, only for Aldo to connect with a knee to the chin that sent Perez down.
Aldo went down for a few more strikes before the referee stepped in to give Aldo the TKO win.
Then it was up to welterweight, as Danillo Villefort took on Mike Campbell.
This was a great back-and-forth battle. After a brief feeling-out period, Campbell scored with the takedown. Villefort countered with the rubber guard so Campbell picked him and slammed him down.
Villefort came back with some nice ground work, going for a couple of leg locks. The fight then went up and down before finally returning to the ground, where Villefort took control, took Campbell’s back and secured the ground-and-pound TKO win.
Bantamweight action followed, as Scott Jorgensen went up against Frank Gomez.
Gomez began his night with a couple of kicks, which Jorgensen countered with a takedown. He immediately went for a guillotine, switching it to a power guillotine before Gomez succumbed to the inevitable.
Then it was onto the big rematch in the featherweight division, as Urijah Faber faced Jens Pulver.
This was another step on Pulver’s downward spiral. Little Evil began with a takedown but Faber quickly got back to his feet.
Seconds later Faber connected with a left to the body that rocked Pulver. Faber went in for the kill, eventually taking the fight down and synching in a guillotine for the submission win, handing Pulver his third successive defeat.
The main event saw Donald Cerrone challenge Jamie Varner for the lightweight title.
This was one of the best spirited fights I’ve ever seen. These two showed each other a tremendous amount of respect, but that didn’t stop them from having a great battle.
For just over four rounds we saw an exciting back-and-forth battle. Each man had their moments. Varner put on a great display of ground-and-pound and striking, while Cerrone’s ground work and kicks looked lethal.
But in the early stages of the fifth, Cerrone caught Varner with a knee to the head while the champion was still grounded.
With the blow ruled an unintentional foul and Varner unable to continue, it went to the scorecards, with Varner taking the win by technical split decision. An unfortunate ending to what was a great fight.
In conclusion: Out of the three WEC shows I’ve seen, this has been the best of the bunch.
There was plenty of great action on offer here, with Faber’s destruction of Pulver the highlight of the night for me, although the Varner/Cerrone encounter would have edged it had it not been for the early ending.
So in all, WEC 38 gets the thumbs up from me. But don’t worry if you live in Britain and you haven’t seen this one yet, because it will definitely be repeated soon.
Don’t forget to check out my website at twoshedsreview.blogspot.com. I’ve just posted some of my old fiction there!
It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that we’d shell out $50 to watch Jens Pulver knuckle up with the top fighters in the world on the sport’s biggest stage. Those days are long gone, brother. Jens’ losing skid on the regional circuit was recently broken by a two-fight win streak, but last night we were reminded once again how far he’s fallen. Pulver took on Brian Davidson and it wasn’t pretty. Unable to match Davidson’s speed in the standup, Pulver looked to take this fight to the ground often, but he found little comfort on the mat. Following his first takedown Lil’ Evil ate an illegal up-kick that had him staggered; his second takedown yielded little action on the ground, and his third attempt ended with Davidson taking his back and securing the rear naked choke. After the fight, Pulver—who has lost seven of his last nine bouts–declared that he had no intentions of retiring and that he wanted to go out on his own terms. He’s a grown man and can do as he pleases, but let’s hope those terms don’t include a long string of KO losses.
In other action, UFC vet Jake Rosholt put a beating on John Ott until landing an illegal knee at 4:23 into the third round. Rosholt used his decorated wrestling background to put Ott on his back and work him over throughout the fight. The bout could easily have been stopped in Rosholt’s favor prior to the knee, as he opened numerous deep cuts across Ott’s face with elbows and punches from full mount and side mount on several occassions. While Ott attempted to stand in the last minute of the fight, Rosholt landed a solid knee to his face, dropping him to the canvas before doctors declared him unable to continue.
It doesn’t seem like all that long ago that we’d shell out $50 to watch Jens Pulver knuckle up with the top fighters in the world on the sport’s biggest stage. Those days are long gone, brother. Jens’ losing skid on the regional circuit was recently broken by a two-fight win streak, but last night we were reminded once again how far he’s fallen. Pulver took on Brian Davidson and it wasn’t pretty. Unable to match Davidson’s speed in the standup, Pulver looked to take this fight to the ground often, but he found little comfort on the mat. Following his first takedown Lil’ Evil ate an illegal up-kick that had him staggered; his second takedown yielded little action on the ground, and his third attempt ended with Davidson taking his back and securing the rear naked choke. After the fight, Pulver—who has lost seven of his last nine bouts–declared that he had no intentions of retiring and that he wanted to go out on his own terms. He’s a grown man and can do as he pleases, but let’s hope those terms don’t include a long string of KO losses.
In other action, UFC vet Jake Rosholt put a beating on John Ott until landing an illegal knee at 4:23 into the third round. Rosholt used his decorated wrestling background to put Ott on his back and work him over throughout the fight. The bout could easily have been stopped in Rosholt’s favor prior to the knee, as he opened numerous deep cuts across Ott’s face with elbows and punches from full mount and side mount on several occassions. While Ott attempted to stand in the last minute of the fight, Rosholt landed a solid knee to his face, dropping him to the canvas before doctors declared him unable to continue.
Brian Davidson def. Jens Pulver via submission (rear-naked choke) – R1, 4:04
John Ott def. Jake Rosholt via DQ (illegal knee) – R3, 4:23
Rudy Bears def. Darryl Cobb via submission (rear-naked choke) – R1, 3:30
Jared Rosholt def. Kirk Grinlinton via TKO (punches) – R1, 1:37
Bobby Cooper def. Nick Budig via unanimous decision
Joe Wilk def. Jesse Zeugin via submission (anaconda choke) – R1, 3:36
Sean Wilson def. Deryck Ripley via submission (toe hold) – R1, 2:00
Filed under: MMA GossipJens Pulver is a former UFC lightweight champion and one of the classiest fighters the sport of mixed martial arts has ever seen. But at age 36, he just doesn’t have it anymore.
That was on display once again when Pulver fought …
Jens Pulver is a former UFC lightweight champion and one of the classiest fighters the sport of mixed martial arts has ever seen. But at age 36, he just doesn’t have it anymore.
That was on display once again when Pulver fought Brian Davidson Friday night on a Titan Fighting Championships card, as Pulver tapped out to a rear-naked choke in the first round, for his seventh loss in his last nine fights. The stoppage officially came at 4 minutes, 4 seconds of Round 1.
In fairness to Pulver, it should be noted that he did start fast, and he appeared to be hurt by an illegal kick to the head on the ground that Davidson landed. But the bottom line is Pulver simply isn’t a good fighter anymore.
“It was his night — I’m not going to take anything away,” Pulver said afterward. “He deserved it. He came out like an animal. You should all be proud of him. Damn, I am.”
Pulver acknowledged in his post-fight interview that many of his fans want him to quit, but Pulver said that’s not going to happen.
“I’ll retire when I want to,” Pulver said.
The co-main event of the Titan card was a debacle, as UFC veteran Jake Rosholt brutalized John Ott for the better part of three rounds, turning Ott’s face into a bloody mess. But Rosholt stupidly bashed Ott in the head with his knee while Ott was on the ground, knocking Ott senseless, ending the fight and resulting in Ott winning by disqualification.
The Titan undercard featured a number of mismatches, with four fights being finished in the first round: Rudy Bears needed just 3:30 to submit Darryl Cobb with a rear-naked choke. Jared Rosholt took 1:37 to take Kirk Grinlinton down and pound him out. Joe Wilk submitted Jesse Zeugin with an anaconda choke at 3:36 of the first round. Sean Wilson got Deryck Ripley to tap to a toe hold after two minutes.