The MMA Hour With Werdum, Barnett, Coker, Marquardt, Walker and More

Filed under: MMA Videos, UFC, Strikeforce, FanHouse Exclusive, VideosThe MMA Hour makes its 2011 debut in a very big way. Monday’s show will be a three-hour, nine guest extravaganza, featuring some of the biggest names in the sport. The show will also …

Filed under: , , , ,

The MMA Hour makes its 2011 debut in a very big way. Monday’s show will be a three-hour, nine guest extravaganza, featuring some of the biggest names in the sport. The show will also start at a special start time of 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT.

* Fabricio Werdum, Josh Barnett and Scott Coker will all be in studio to discuss Strikeforce’s upcoming heavyweight tournament.

* Another Strikeforce heavyweight, Herschel Walker, will return to discuss his Jan. 29 fight against Scott Carson.

* UFC middleweight Nate Marquardt will talk about his 2011 plans and his recent loss to Yushin Okami.

* Mike Roberts, Chael Sonnen and Anthony Pettis’ manager, will lay out what’s next for his clients.

* Jacob Volkmann will talk about getting a visit from the Secret Service and being featured on The Tonight Show after making comments about President Obama.

* Mark Hominick will talk about his UFC fight against George Roop on Jan. 22 and a potential title fight against Jose Aldo.

* And Matt Mitrione will stop by to deliver his “Mitrione Minute.”

And of course, we’ll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193 or 212-254-0237.

Watch the show live below beginning at a special start time 12 PM ET / 9 AM PT. Download previous episodes of The MMA Hour on iTunes here.

Afternoon Video Dump: Jon Jones’s Funkiness, Penis Cobbler + More

(Props: Cyberplex)
"Ryan’s mentioning that he thinks that I’ll cut down on my flashiness? That’s what he’s afraid of. So that’s exactly what I’ll probably give him the most, is a lot of weird, unorthodox techniques that he’s never seen, even …

(Props: Cyberplex)

"Ryan’s mentioning that he thinks that I’ll cut down on my flashiness? That’s what he’s afraid of. So that’s exactly what I’ll probably give him the most, is a lot of weird, unorthodox techniques that he’s never seen, even in wrestling."

So says light-heavyweight contender Jon Jones, who’s set to face off against Ryan Bader in a high-profile matchup at UFC 126: Silva vs. Belfort on Super Bowl weekend. In his most recent fights against Vladimir Matyushenko, Brandon Vera, and Matt Hamill, Jones simplified his gameplan so that he was pretty much just taking guys down with his Greco throws then smashing them with elbows and punches until the ref pulled him off. Bader will be expecting that, which may be why Jones is promising brand-new techniques. But what can he throw that he hasn’t shown us already? Is there such a thing as a spinning-flying-knee?  

After the jump: Chuck Liddell‘s guest-spot on Blue Mountain State (damn right it’s horrible!), Michael Schiavello repeats his catch-phrase over and over again, and MMA makes it onto Comedy Central’s brand-new Sportsdome series. Sort of.

read more

Fight Video Roundup: All 12 Previous Meetings Between Strikeforce Heavyweight GP Participants [UPDATED]

(Remember when Sergei Kharitonov sent Alistair Overeem’s lifeless body through the ropes at K-1 Hero’s 10? No? Then you really need to watch these videos…)
In our excitement for Strikeforce’s potentially insane heavyweight tournament, one point see…

Sergei Kharitonov Alistair Overeem MMA photos K-1 Hero's 10 Middleweight Tournament Final Strikeforce heavyweight grand prix
(Remember when Sergei Kharitonov sent Alistair Overeem‘s lifeless body through the ropes at K-1 Hero’s 10? No? Then you really need to watch these videos…)

In our excitement for Strikeforce’s potentially insane heavyweight tournament, one point seems to be getting lost in the narrative — namely, that these guys have already fought each other many, many times before. Five of the eight competitors (Werdum, Arlovski, Overeem, Emelianenko, Rogers) have previously faced at least three other fighters in the tournament field. Fabricio Werdum has actually fought everyone except Brett Rogers and Josh Barnett, and only Barnett himself has managed to go his entire career without bumping up against anybody else in this year’s bracket.

All told, there’s eleven twelve fights worth of shared history among the Strikeforce HWGP competitors, dating back over five years. To help you study for the quarterfinals next month, we’ve posted them all below in chronological order…

UPDATE: We originally forgot to include Fabricio Werdum’s decision win over Antonio Silva. So actually, there have been 12 previous meetings, not 11. The video has now been added. 

(Sergei Kharitonov def. Fabricio Werdum via split decision; PRIDE 30, 10/23/05)

(Alistair Overeem def. Sergei Kharitonov via TKO, 5:13 of round 1; PRIDE 31, 2/26/06)

read more

And Now They’re Fired, Too: Brandon Vera and Marcus Davis

(Above: Brandon Vera gets smashed up by Jon Jones in March. Below: Marcus Davis does his best Abobo impression during his fight with Nate Diaz.)
It’s not like we didn’t see this coming. After Phil Baroni and Antonio McKee lost their jobs, there was …

Brandon Vera Jon Jones UFC MMA photos
(Above: Brandon Vera gets smashed up by Jon Jones in March. Below: Marcus Davis does his best Abobo impression during his fight with Nate Diaz.)
Marcus Davis face eye swollen UFC Nate Diaz MMA photos

It’s not like we didn’t see this coming. After Phil Baroni and Antonio McKee lost their jobs, there was no way that the axe wasn’t going to drop again on UFC 125‘s other repeat-losers. Here’s the latest…

Brandon Vera: The Truth has been released from his UFC contract after his shutout decision loss to Thiago Silva, which represented Vera’s third consecutive defeat, and sixth loss in his last nine outings. Due to the nasty broken nose he suffered last weekend, Vera won’t be able to compete anywhere until March 3rd at the earliest.

Marcus Davis: The Irish Hand Grenade has also been bounced out of the Octagon. Davis’s knockout loss against Jeremy Stephens was his fifth loss in his last eight attempts, and second-straight defeat by stoppage. The TUF 2 vet was hoping to re-invent himself as a lightweight, and had controlled Stephens in the first two rounds before having his lights put out in the third. Davis is one of only eight UFC fighters who have earned five or more performance bonuses.

Instead of piling on the abuse, let’s remember Vera and Davis for the dangerous, exciting fighters they used to be before their luck abruptly ran out. Video proof is after the jump…

read more

Classic Freak-Fight: Olympic Gold Medalist/’Biggest Loser’ Contestant Rulon Gardner vs. Hidehiko Yoshida

(Props: russinapanzer)
The 1980 Miracle on Ice still gets more recognition, but Rulon Gardner’s legendary Greco-Roman triumph over Alexander Karelin at the 2000 Summer Olympics was just as unlikely. One of the most intimidating figures i…

(Props: russinapanzer)

The 1980 Miracle on Ice still gets more recognition, but Rulon Gardner‘s legendary Greco-Roman triumph over Alexander Karelin at the 2000 Summer Olympics was just as unlikely. One of the most intimidating figures in sports history, Karelin had been undefeated for 13 years, and hadn’t even given up a point in six when he met Gardner in Sydney. The American managed to shake loose a point from the Russian Experiment while shutting down Karelin’s offense, and went home with a gold medal. It was just one of many brushes with death that the former farm-boy managed to survive.

Gardener retired from wrestling four years later after taking a bronze medal in Athens, but he wasn’t done competing. On New Year’s Eve 2004, Gardner competed in his first and only MMA match at PRIDE Shockwave 2004, where he won a unanimous decision against 1992 Judo gold-medalist (and PRIDE/Sengoku veteran) Hidehiko Yoshida. The second round of that fight is above. Gardner never competed in another MMA match.

Somehow, Rulon has managed to gain 200 pounds since then. That’s the bad news. The good news is, he can currently be seen as a contestant on the eleventh season of The Biggest Loser, which premiered last night on NBC. Hey, if it worked for Fat Gina Carano, why not an Olympic legend? After the jump: A video feature on the historic Gardner vs. Karelin match, and Gardner’s intro package from TBL

read more

Classic Clip: Phil Baroni Was Never Really Great at Losing

(Props: ix3623vault)
At this point, emotional post-fight breakdowns are the norm for Phil Baroni. (Remember this old classic?) Since each loss seems like it could represent the end of the road for the veteran slugger, we understand …

(Props: ix3623vault)

At this point, emotional post-fight breakdowns are the norm for Phil Baroni. (Remember this old classic?) Since each loss seems like it could represent the end of the road for the veteran slugger, we understand why he takes them so hard. But as the above clip demonstrates, Baroni has always had a difficult time coping with losses, even the ones that came before he really had a professional career.

Prior to making his MMA debut in 2000, Phil Baroni was a standout on the Toughman amateur boxing circuit. Though he won most of his fights, he lost a decision to a dude named Sam Rodriguez (date of fight unknown), and reacted by storming out of the ring and beating up every inanimate object in sight, including a defenseless fire hose door. His longtime training partner Mark Coleman would later pay tribute to the incident in the acclaimed short film "FUUUUUUUUCK!"

And now that we have this bit of footage, we’re only missing one thing: A clip of Baroni throwing a tantrum after a loss at one of his old bodybuilding competitions. Make it happen, Internet.