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Phil Baroni Wants to See Juiced-Up Fighters Kill Each Other

Phil Baroni doesn’t always say the smartest things.Look, I like Phil. He’s always been one of my guilty pleasures in the fight game. Part of that is due to his fighting style, which, if we’re being honest, hasn’t always led him to success in the cage.H…

Phil Baroni doesn’t always say the smartest things.

Look, I like Phil. He’s always been one of my guilty pleasures in the fight game. Part of that is due to his fighting style, which, if we’re being honest, hasn’t always led him to success in the cage.

He goes balls to the wall at all times, and that often leads to him gassing out and being picked apart on his feet.

And then there’s the entertainment aspect he brings to the cage, with the sequined robes, the outlandish sunglasses and the dancing.

Baroni was one of the first to bring the over-the-top buffoonery from the world of pro wrestling and incorporate it into mixed martial arts. Chael Sonnen’s current act may not be a direct descendant of what Baroni did in his career, but at worst it’s a sibling.

Baroni is no longer relevant in the fight game, if he was ever relevant in the first place. He got his shot in the UFC last year and promptly lost both of the fights they gave him. All told, he’s lost seven out of his last 11 bouts dating back to his much-hyped fight with Frank Shamrock in 2007.

You’re probably asking yourself why I’m talking about Baroni today, if he’s really so irrelevant in the fight game. I’m talking about him because Baroni gave an interview to Fight Sport Asia in which he was asked his thoughts on the current performance-enhancing drug epidemic sweeping the industry:

Guys should be able to do what ever it takes to be the strongest. Getting choked and kicked in the head is really bad for you, worse than pot, TRT or steroids. I don’t care who’s the cleanest, I wanna see the strongest, the fastest and the most gnarly fighters.

I don’t want to see who is the best at passing drug tests. Overeem isn’t the only guy taking s***, he just got caught. I wanna see the baddest mother f****** going at it. That’s why pride was the best. I wanna see a 205 (ripped) Wanderlei Silva kill dudes!

I hear a lot of fans say pretty much the same thing Baroni did here, and it’s almost always a stupid stance to take. In fact, I’d wager that 99 percent of the people who say they want to see fighters (or other athletes) legitimately using PEDs are simply doing it for a reaction.

And I think that’s Baroni’s angle here. It’s a way to get attention, and that’s something Baroni craves. Because there’s no way a person of sound thinking and right mind would possibly want to see a version of this sport where the guys who can afford testosterone or HGH are the guys who win fights.

That’s not a sport. Well, it is. But it’s a bloodsport, and it would never be taken seriously by a society that still has a tough time accepting the violence in mixed martial arts.

We’d be relegated back to holding events on Indian territory. The UFC would be banished from pay-per-view. It would regress 10 years and undo all of the hard work that Dana White, Lorenzo Fertitta and Zuffa have done in trying to make MMA a product that is acceptable to mainstream audiences.

You can see why Baroni’s statement is ridiculous, right? Because it is.

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Dana White: Tito Ortiz, BJ Penn Deserve to Be in the Hall of Fame

For all intents and purposes, the UFC’s Hall of Fame isn’t a real thing. Not like the hallowed halls of other sports. All of them have buildings, the places you can actually visit to see the roots of the sport you love and express your fandom by seeing…

There is no such place for the UFC Hall of Fame. Not yet, anyway. And there’s no set criteria.

If Lorenzo Fertitta and Dana White believe you should be in the Hall, well, you’ll be in the Hall. There’s no voting rights handed out to media or fellow fighters; just impress the bosses and you’re in.

But Fertitta and White have done a pretty remarkable job of keeping the Hall exclusive and only including worthy folks. There’s no Tim Sylvia’s here, folks. Of course, the flip side is also true, because Frank Shamrock still finds himself iced out of the honors due to a long-running disagreement with White and Fertitta.

We’re no closer to seeing the now-former “Mr. Decade of Braces” enter the UFC’s Hall, but we are getting close to two other legendary fighters being inducted: Tito Ortiz and BJ Penn.

White told media during a recent lunch gathering in Las Vegas that Penn and Ortiz deserve induction. If the boss thinks you deserve induction, there’s a pretty good chance you’re in.

“Despite my personal problems with Tito, he belongs in,” White told MMAFighting.com. “He was the champion when we first bought this thing. The fact that Tito is still here, Tito and I have had our moments, but it doesn’t change what he did for the company.”

White said the same logic applies for Penn, the ground-breaking lightweight who continues to insist that he’s retired after his October loss to Nick Diaz. White has repeatedly said that Penn will fight at least one more time.

“The thing about B.J. Penn is that what he brought to the lightweight division, there was a point in time when we first bought this company when people thought guys in the lighter weight divisions couldn’t be stars and couldn’t see pay-per-views and couldn’t cross over. B.J. Penn was definitely that first crossover guy for us.”

I completely agree with White on the merits of Penn and Ortiz being in the Hall of Fame. Given what we know about the Hall—that the only true requirement for entry is that you’ve been an important part of history—then both of these fighters are a no-brainer.

Frank Shamrock is also a no-brainer, but that’s another story for an entirely different day.

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The UFC Going to India Is the Death Knell of SFL

The Super Fight League began its life ambitiously. Unfortunately for all of the “Boom. Pow. Punch kick wow” fans, the outlook has went from dim to complete and utter blackness with the announcement from the UFC that they are headed to India…

The market that the SFL attempted to capitalize on has merely opened the door for the UFC to enter and crush their hopes.

The first SFL event drew the eyes of over 300,000 viewers. The second show? A spectacular 99 percent drop-off to a mere 3,000.

Andrew Lu, a magazine editor in India, shed some light on the situation in an interview with MMAMania.com: “The first show got a ton of India viewers, but it didn’t hold their attention for to long because they thought it was going to be like the WWE.”

Lu continued:

I think using Bollywood to promote MMA was a really bad idea. The media spoke to the Bollywood stars present at SFL 1 and 90% of them said that the sport should be banned and that it was fake and setting a bad example for their children.

Not exactly a glowing review.

Enter the UFC, who announced a partnership with Multi Screen Media (MSM)—a subsidiary of Sony Pictures Television—for a multi-year television distribution deal.

The SFL has at least introduced MMA to the media in India. However, the UFC will showcase the elite talent of the sport and introduce it to the massive market before running a show. In addition to the UFC’s marketing power, the organization has plans in the works to film an Indian version of The Ultimate Fighter in the future.

While the UFC takes a deliberate and methodical approach in opening the new market for their brand, the SFL will continue throwing money at it. They are taking their May 6 card to Delhi. SFL co-owner Raj Kundra still had a ridiculous optimistic outlook for the SFL brand in a recent interview with The Times of India.

“First we’re doing North India, then we’ll take it to the south and also film our reality show, before the grand finale in December,” said Kundra.

The SFL seems to be making the mistake that many promotions have already made: trying to make a splash with flash instead of a steady growth with substance.

They have dove in to the deep end of the swimming pool without a life preserver in sight.

And as they open the door for MMA in what could be a large market for the sport, the UFC waits, patiently drawing up a game plan to enter the fray to assert themselves as the premier brand of the sport.

With the announcement that the UFC is coming to India, the SFL brass had to have let out a depressing sigh, as they know their days are numbered. There is the possibility that they could remain on the scene as a smaller national promotion, but when the UFC brings their superior product to the country, it will be an eye-opening experience for the fans.

And the death knell for the SFL.

Dana White is soon to have another promotion to place on a headstone, as the UFC is going to “Boom. Pow. Punch kick wow” the SFL into submission.

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“Overeem, Careful What You Put in Your Ice Cream,” Burn Dizzle Sings

Alistair “The Reem” Overeem claims his ignorance is the main culprit in his failed drug test, and it didn’t help that his doctor was the silent type regarding what really makes up that fateful anti-inflammatory medication he took for …

Ignorance of an “incidentally” banned substance being mixed with a doctor-prescribed medication has been the in-fashion excuse by athletes across many sports. Think baseball’s Barry Bonds, among others.

Isn’t “ignorance of the law excuses no one” an old legal principle? Heck, it traces its roots all the way back to Aristotle, more than 300 centuries before Christ!

Well, sure it wasn’t exactly the law that The Reem was ignorant of, but the presence of testosterone in that injection.

Actually, as the Nevada State Athletic Commission (NSAC) hearing revealed, Overeem was so aware of the law that he tried to flee from its enforcement. And another old legal principle is “flight is an indication of…”

Anyway, ignorance of the law or its possible violation is, in my layman’s book, the same banana.

Now lest we sound legalese or Ancient Greek here, let’s hear from someone who is a legit constituent of the MMA community.

Sounding like a spurned lover, er, I mean former teammate at Golden Glory, fighter Marloes Coenen squeals that, “If you do stuff like that and get caught, just like Alistair now, just suck it up and don’t complain about it. I think the truth will always come out. We know a lot of things about Alistair, a lot of negative things, but we never talked about it and knew that the truth would come out. More dirt will come up.”

She adds, “Alistair will receive his punishment for what he has done, and we don’t have to deliver that to him because karma will come and get him.”

Indeed Coenen, coming from the same stable of horses, must know if Overeem’s taking more than horse meat. She seems to validate Mark Hunt’s same line of thinking that Ubereem is actually guilty of PED use, and “everything that Alistair has done is meaningless now.”

Fortunately for The Reem, he’s not alone, and one of MMA’s most prominent loudmouths (unlike his doctor) has come to his defense, like a black knight in shining armor.

Chael Sonnen basically states that the media is making us fans misinformed in the same way that Overeem was, well, “malinformed” by his Dr. Feelgood and could really be innocent of any wrongdoing.

Is it a surprise that the so-called real UFC middleweight champion is on Overeem’s side on this failed drug test issue?

Well, to paraphrase that old saying, “With defenders like Sonnen, who needs critics?”

After hearing from our fighters of both sexes, let’s now hear it from an überspecial niche of today’s MMA fanbase.

This man represents the musically talented segment of the MMA community, which is different from the mere musically-inclined, who might as well be all of us.

Don’t we all get pumped up when we hear Hans Zimmer’s score while watching the new UFC opening video? And before that to Stemm’s “Face the Pain” song of UFC’s former Gladiator video of not-so-long ago?

Don’t we get all fired up by the entrance songs of our fighters who are blessed with impeccable taste in manly music?

Remember Dave Herman’s double treat of “Do You Really Want to Hurt Me?” by Boy George followed by “Macho Man” by the Village People? Or Mirko Filipović’s “Wild Boys” by Duran Duran?

We MMA fans are true music lovers, but not all of us can make good music. In fact, only a select few belong to this elite, small circle.

The rest of us are to Kimbo Slice what the oh-so-few of them are to Junior dos Santos.

And so this lengthy intro finally leads us back to our new discovery, who’s a singer, songwriter and pianist rolled into one. (So you think MMA athletes are the only ones who can mix ‘em up, huh?)

Patrick Boerner AKA MMABurner AKA Burn Dizzle also jumps in the fray of Overeem’s drug-test debacle—via solo voice and piano.

Burn Dizzle, whose UFC 145 Jon Jones vs. Rashad Evans Hype Song (embedded video No. 2) was aired by Sherdog.com’s The Savage Dog Show radio show on April 18, expresses his musicality, vision and opinion on Overeem through his new song Alistair Overeem – What’s That in Your Ice Cream? (Go watch embedded video No. 1!)

Here are the full lyrics, all caps his, bold letters mine:

Alistair Overeem,
you look like a dream.
Could it be just from munchin’ on horse meat?

To be honest it seems,
there’s more to your scheme
than the horse bites you put on your ice cream.

And you said
that you didn’t know it was juiced.
And maybe that’s true,
YOU SHOULD’VE STILL ASKED YOUR DOCTOR!!

Alistair Overeem
You look like a dream.
Could it be just from munchin’ on horse meat?

You got two slices of bread,
Now add Mr. Ed—that’s the regimen he recommends daily…
He could have waffles and eggs,
but Alistair begs for the legs of Seabiscuit in gravy.

You better be careful what you put in your ice cream, yeah.

Yeah, Overeem, you better heed Calvin’s slogan: “Be careful or be roadkill.”

Our artist’s on a roll with the “frozen delights” motif in his lyrics. First it was “better not take his sno-cone” from the UFC 145 song, and now we have Overeem’s “ice cream.”

Calling Carl Jung!

You can check out Burn Dizzle at his website MMABurner.com.

Previous article: Jon Jones, Silva Pound-for-Pound Debate Now Has Henderson as Common Denominator.

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10 MMA Fighters That Would Make Better Poker Players Than GSP

George St. Pierre recently entered the world of poker, signing a sponsorship deal with 888.com and promising all the proceeds to his anti-bullying charity.Now George may be the most recognisable face in MMA, making him a compelling signing for 888, but…

George St. Pierre recently entered the world of poker, signing a sponsorship deal with 888.com and promising all the proceeds to his anti-bullying charity.

Now George may be the most recognisable face in MMA, making him a compelling signing for 888, but if they wanted a fighter able to make serious bank, they’d be better served looking elsewhere.

Here’s a list of 10 fighters who would be better poker players than GSP.

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MMA: Are MMA Fans the Most Ungrateful in Sports?

People love to hate things. They might not admit it, but as a wise man once said, “Hating something always feels better than feeling nothing at all,” which is why you get people hating on or complaining about things that they’ll profe…

And so it goes with MMA, and with fans of MMA.

For all the praise the sport receives from diehards and the excitement it produces, there’s an astounding amount of negativity as well. Some of it is warranted, some of it isn’t. Most all of it is extreme.

It’s pretty routine to see Dana White’s Twitter absolutely cluttered with fans of his organization complaining to, or outright accosting, him about happenings in the sport. Ignorant to the fact that the president of a multimillion dollar organization doesn’t owe them a personal explanation or even a comment, they’ll actively troll him until he says something nasty in response. Then they’ll attack him for that.

That’s only one example, though. It’s not that long ago that MMA was on life support entirely, kept alive by exchanges and Internet forums. At that time, no one could have ever foreseen pay-per-views every month—sometimes twice a month—or on network television a half-dozen times a year.

A weekly reality show? Out of the question.

Fights all over the world, sometimes accompanied by thousands of fans flocking to an accompanying Fan Expo? Even crazier.

But those things are here.

The UFC recently went seven weeks between pay-per-views, and people complained aggressively. There was a time when seven months was customary. Let’s all relax here.

It raises the question of just how ungrateful fans of the sport have become. Sure, sports fans in general are far more likely to point out the foibles of their favourite club than bask in a winning streak, but MMA fans are in a different position.

Fans pay for the bigger fights, and that probably gives them a right to be vocal to a degree. Not to excess, though. Just because you paid $50 for something doesn’t mean you should go on Twitter and tell the head of the company how much it sucked after the fact. There’s never a guarantee that you’re buying something incredible when you buy something with as many variables as MMA.

Even so, UFC events deliver more often than they don’t. As White is so prone to respond, if you don’t like it, don’t buy it. It speaks volumes that the man would rather not have these people as fans than have to put up with silly complaints.

There’s also the reality that, with so many free fights happening now, with all PPV preliminary bouts being shown at no charge in one way or another and with the long-running TUF program on regularly (which gets a stunning amount of hate in its own right), the average MMA fan is getting his $50 worth per month even if the event he pays for doesn’t seem worth it on its own.

It’s not that it’s unreasonable for fans to be critical or to ask for the best possible product every time out. But it is unreasonable to act as though it’s an entitlement, that just because one considers themselves a fan that they should never have to suffer through a card that doesn’t live up to hype or some names getting shuffled around due to injury or whatever else.

It isn’t fair to call them the most ungrateful fans in sports, because all fans have a hint of ungratefulness to them. But it is fair to suggest that MMA fans aren’t always ungrateful for the right reasons, and the sport as a whole would be better served if that attitude became a thing of the past.

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