Now this…makes us nervous. Many of you probably remember the inaugural ONE FC: Champion vs. Champion event that took place back in early September, which featured a plethora of previously unheard of talent in addition to a ton of great fights. Shortly thereafter, CEO and owner Victor Cui announced that his promotion had big plans for 2012, which included adding over 23 gyms and 15 promotions to their partnership and scheduling three events in three different countries. Though it wouldn’t do much to detract from the UFC’s ever-expanding market, many of us looked at ONE FC as the spark that could possibly reignite the Asian MMA scene, a flame that had long been quelled since the demise of PRIDE.
If the above poster for ONE FC’s second event, entitled Battle of Heroes, says anything, it’s that PRIDE is back. Unfortunately, it might not the epic, blood soaked glory PRIDE that we were all hoping for, but rather, the ridiculous, freak show fight filled PRIDEthat we both loved and silently resented for all those years.
Now this…makes us nervous. Many of you probably remember the inaugural ONE FC: Champion vs. Champion event that took place back in early September, which featured a plethora of previously unheard of talent in addition to a ton of great fights. Shortly thereafter, CEO and owner Victor Cui announced that his promotion had big plans for 2012, which included adding over 23 gyms and 15 promotions to their partnership and scheduling three events in three different countries. Though it wouldn’t do much to detract from the UFC’s ever-expanding market, many of us looked at ONE FC as the spark that could possibly reignite the Asian MMA scene, a flame that had long been quelled since the demise of PRIDE.
If the above poster for ONE FC’s second event, entitled Battle of Heroes, says anything, it’s that PRIDE is back. Unfortunately, it might not the epic, blood soaked glory PRIDE that we were all hoping for, but rather, the ridiculous, freak show fight filled PRIDEthat we both loved and silently resented for all those years.
Featuring none other than perennial punching bag Bob Sapp pasted atop its logo, it’s safe to say that this poster has surpassed Lindsay Lohan’s Playboy photos as the most disappointing thing we have seen in quite some time. No, we are not providing a link to Ms. Lohan’s photos. They’re really not worth your time anyway.
Now, we understand that ONE FC is in the early stages of its life, and that bringing in wider audiences is the number one goal of any promotion; you have to get your name out there, one way or another, and bringing in someone like Bob Sapp is surefire way to get you some attention. But Bob Sapp does not bring the kind of attention that a young organization may necessarily want. The man is a black hole (no pun intended) in the MMA universe, a publicity stunt of a fighter if there ever was one. Let us not forget that this is the man who once fought a Japanese cartoon character.
Worst of all, Sapp is scheduled to face Rolles Gracie. Yeah, the same Rolles Gracie who disgraced his family’s name in one of the most pathetic octagon appearances of all time back at UFC 109. So, not only do we get Bob Sapp, but now we have to sit through a match in which he won’t even be dispatched via some satisfying form of KO or TKO? To quote Will Ferrell, “WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED?!”
Battle of Heroes is set to go down February 11th in Jakarta, Indonesia.
What do you think of this, Potato Nation? Bad idea, or worst idea?
(Before she became MMA’s sweetheart, Ronda battled through some tough personal bouts growing up.)
We’ve all read stories about how Ronda Rousey became a beast on the mats training with the tough Armenians like Karo Parisyan and Manny Gamburyan as a girl at Gokor Chivichyan’s gym, but few actually know the real battles the bubbly Strikeforce number one bantamweight contender has gone through in her life.
In a recent feature by SI’s Loretta Hunt, Rousey revealed that her precarious life path began early in life as she could not speak until she was six due to complications at birth.
Of any fighter, it’s fitting that Rousey knows the value of making her voice be heard — she couldn’t put together coherent sentences until the age of six.
Rousey was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck; her body was blue and she wasn’t breathing. She was revived in the delivery room, but when her communicative skills quickly fell behind the norm, the doctors thought she’d suffered brain damage or that she might be deaf.
When she began to talk, Rousey’s words were jumbled and she was sent to speech therapy classes. Frustration was a daily occurrence, as nobody could understand her.
(Before she became MMA’s sweetheart, Ronda battled through some tough personal bouts growing up.)
We’ve all read stories about how Ronda Rousey became a beast on the mats training with the tough Armenians like Karo Parisyan and Manny Gamburyan as a girl at Gokor Chivichyan’s gym, but few actually know the real battles the bubbly Strikeforce number one bantamweight contender has gone through in her life.
In a recent feature by SI’s Loretta Hunt, Rousey revealed that her precarious life path began early in life as she could not speak until she was six due to complications at birth.
Of any fighter, it’s fitting that Rousey knows the value of making her voice be heard — she couldn’t put together coherent sentences until the age of six.
Rousey was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck; her body was blue and she wasn’t breathing. She was revived in the delivery room, but when her communicative skills quickly fell behind the norm, the doctors thought she’d suffered brain damage or that she might be deaf.
When she began to talk, Rousey’s words were jumbled and she was sent to speech therapy classes. Frustration was a daily occurrence, as nobody could understand her.
Soon after Ronda began speaking and had overcome one of her biggest challenges, one of the most important people in her life was struck with a double-whammy.
She watched her father break his back after crashing into a snow-covered log at the bottom of a hill on a family sledding trip. He was later diagnosed with Bernard-Soulier syndrome, a rare blood disorder that made a full recovery from his back injuries impossible.
What came next would change Rousey’s life forever.
When doctors told him he’d be paralyzed and would die within two years, Rousey’s father committed suicide in 1995 rather than have his family watch him deteriorate. Rousey was only eight years old.
“He said he didn’t want our last memories of him laying in a hospital bed with tubes coming out of him,” Rousey told Hunt. “He was a proud man, a provider. He didn’t want to drain the family anymore.”
As if we needed another reason to root for “Rowdy.” Now we have one.
Do yourself a favor and check out Hunt’s story. It’s worth the read.
Sarah Kaufman saw the internet reports of a Miesha Tate–Ronda Rousey title at about the same time the rest of the MMA world did. She wasn’t terribly surprised, she told MMA Fighting on Thursday, but neither was she particularly pleased.
“I think it’s terrible news,” the former Strikeforce 135-pound women’s champ said, and you can probably guess why.
“I put in my time and, being the former champ and having had two fights since the only loss of my career, I’ve definitely earned the right to fight Miesha Tate and fight for the 135-pound title with Strikeforce,” Kaufman explained. “Then there’s Ronda, who’s only been fighting for a year. Granted, she has her judo experience, but she hasn’t fought anyone of a high caliber. She’s fought at 145 pounds — hasn’t even competed at 135 pounds at all — and for her to be given the opportunity to fight for the title, it’s pretty ridiculous.”
The good news, if there is any for Kaufman, is that the fight is not yet official. Though first reported by MMA Weekly on Wednesday evening, both Tate — the current 135-pound women’s champ — and the unbeaten Rousey took to their Twitters to explain that the rumored March 3 title fight wasn’t yet signed. Kaufman said she was still holding out hope that her phone might ring with a fight offer before Rousey’s does, but noted that “usually when rumors happen it’s for a reason.”
The way Kaufman sees it, if Rousey has earned herself a title shot in any division it’s the 145-pound class, where most of her professional bouts have taken place. That Rousey is angling for a shot at Tate rather than at Strikeforce 145-pound champ Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos can only mean one thing, Kaufman said.
“She’s scared to fight Cyborg, for sure, and understandably. Cyborg is a formidable fighter. But if you’re saying you want a title, it shouldn’t matter whether it’s at 145 [pounds] or 135 [pounds]. Now she’s backpedaling and saying, ‘Oh, I want Cyborg to come to 135.’ Or maybe she’ll do it as a catchweight. Or maybe in four or five fights. She’s pretty much just pushing the fight off, clearly running from it.”
“It’s frustrating to see,” Kaufman said. “Gina [Carano] is a prime example, but she didn’t push her own looks. Everyone else pushed her looks, and she fought. She had good fights that she looked impressive in. Miesha’s been a little bit the same. She’s definitely pushed her looks and marketed herself in that manner, but she’s also put her time in and worked her way up in the fighting game. Ronda’s just the opposite. She’s had a couple impressive wins, and really fast, and then just told people, ‘I’m pretty so I deserve it.'”
While there’s no official word on whether Rousey will get the next shot at Tate, all signs seem to be pointing in that direction, and even Kaufman seems resigned to it. She might have nearly four times as many fights as Rousey, and five years more experience in MMA, but with the fickle nature of the women’s division she knows that doesn’t guarantee her a title shot. What she’s left wondering is, what will?
“I’ve been pushing for the Miesha fight since I fought her,” said Kaufman. “That’s all I can do, is get in interviews and say what I think, which is that I deserve the fight. Maybe that’s not what they want to hear. They want to hear, ‘I’m the prettiest and you can market me and sell me to guys.’ That’s not my thing, and I won’t do that. I’ll present myself as an athlete and be feminine in my own way without being over the top.”
Sarah Kaufman saw the internet reports of a Miesha Tate–Ronda Rousey title at about the same time the rest of the MMA world did. She wasn’t terribly surprised, she told MMA Fighting on Thursday, but neither was she particularly pleased.
“I think it’s terrible news,” the former Strikeforce 135-pound women’s champ said, and you can probably guess why.
“I put in my time and, being the former champ and having had two fights since the only loss of my career, I’ve definitely earned the right to fight Miesha Tate and fight for the 135-pound title with Strikeforce,” Kaufman explained. “Then there’s Ronda, who’s only been fighting for a year. Granted, she has her judo experience, but she hasn’t fought anyone of a high caliber. She’s fought at 145 pounds — hasn’t even competed at 135 pounds at all — and for her to be given the opportunity to fight for the title, it’s pretty ridiculous.”
The good news, if there is any for Kaufman, is that the fight is not yet official. Though first reported by MMA Weekly on Wednesday evening, both Tate — the current 135-pound women’s champ — and the unbeaten Rousey took to their Twitters to explain that the rumored March 3 title fight wasn’t yet signed. Kaufman said she was still holding out hope that her phone might ring with a fight offer before Rousey’s does, but noted that “usually when rumors happen it’s for a reason.”
The way Kaufman sees it, if Rousey has earned herself a title shot in any division it’s the 145-pound class, where most of her professional bouts have taken place. That Rousey is angling for a shot at Tate rather than at Strikeforce 145-pound champ Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos can only mean one thing, Kaufman said.
“She’s scared to fight Cyborg, for sure, and understandably. Cyborg is a formidable fighter. But if you’re saying you want a title, it shouldn’t matter whether it’s at 145 [pounds] or 135 [pounds]. Now she’s backpedaling and saying, ‘Oh, I want Cyborg to come to 135.’ Or maybe she’ll do it as a catchweight. Or maybe in four or five fights. She’s pretty much just pushing the fight off, clearly running from it.”
“It’s frustrating to see,” Kaufman said. “Gina [Carano] is a prime example, but she didn’t push her own looks. Everyone else pushed her looks, and she fought. She had good fights that she looked impressive in. Miesha’s been a little bit the same. She’s definitely pushed her looks and marketed herself in that manner, but she’s also put her time in and worked her way up in the fighting game. Ronda’s just the opposite. She’s had a couple impressive wins, and really fast, and then just told people, ‘I’m pretty so I deserve it.'”
While there’s no official word on whether Rousey will get the next shot at Tate, all signs seem to be pointing in that direction, and even Kaufman seems resigned to it. She might have nearly four times as many fights as Rousey, and five years more experience in MMA, but with the fickle nature of the women’s division she knows that doesn’t guarantee her a title shot. What she’s left wondering is, what will?
“I’ve been pushing for the Miesha fight since I fought her,” said Kaufman. “That’s all I can do, is get in interviews and say what I think, which is that I deserve the fight. Maybe that’s not what they want to hear. They want to hear, ‘I’m the prettiest and you can market me and sell me to guys.’ That’s not my thing, and I won’t do that. I’ll present myself as an athlete and be feminine in my own way without being over the top.”
Yesterday, the UFC announced that its second UFC on FUELTV event was set to transpire in Stockholm, Sweden, prompting fight booking rumors to materialize faster than an Ikea entertainment center. First off, a clash between middleweight strikers Brian Stann and Alessio Sakara is apparently in the works, and promises to be what JR would call, “a good old fashioned slobber knocker.”
After putting together a three fight win streak between 2008 and 2010, “Legionarius” has not fought since dropping a unanimous decision to last minute replacement and fast rising middleweight contender Chris Weidman at UFC Live 3. Sakara was set to face Jorge Rivera on two separate occasions, at UFC 118 and 133, but was forced to pull out from both fights due to some bad fish and a torn ACL, respectively. Stann similarly saw a three fight streak snapped at UFC 136, when he was dominated on the mat by Chael Sonnen en route to a second round arm triangle submission. Given Sakara’s somewhat suspect chin, you gotta imagine this match is Stann’s to lose.
When the UFC first announced the location of this event, there were a couple of names, mainly Alexander Gustafsson and Papy Abedi, that most figured would have to be included on the card. Though “The Mauler” has yet to be given an opponent, Abedi has already been booked to take on James Head. Abedi will be looking to rebound from a first round submission(!) loss to Thiago Alves in his UFC debut back at UFC 138 when he takes on Head, who is also coming off an unsuccessful octagon debut. The Oklahoma native was choked out by Nick Ring in the third round of their UFC 131 battle.
(Ain’t that the truth.)
Yesterday, the UFC announced that its second UFC on FUELTV event was set to transpire in Stockholm, Sweden, prompting fight booking rumors to materialize faster than an Ikea entertainment center. First off, a clash between middleweight strikers Brian Stann and Alessio Sakara is apparently in the works, and promises to be what JR would call, “a good old fashioned slobber knocker.”
After putting together a three fight win streak between 2008 and 2010, “Legionarius” has not fought since dropping a unanimous decision to last minute replacement and fast rising middleweight contender Chris Weidman at UFC Live 3. Sakara was set to face Jorge Rivera on two separate occasions, at UFC 118 and 133, but was forced to pull out from both fights due to some bad fish and a torn ACL, respectively. Stann similarly saw a three fight streak snapped at UFC 136, when he was dominated on the mat by Chael Sonnen en route to a second round arm triangle submission. Given Sakara’s somewhat suspect chin, you gotta imagine this match is Stann’s to lose.
When the UFC first announced the location of this event, there were a couple of names, mainly Alexander Gustafsson and Papy Abedi, that most figured would have to be included on the card. Though “The Mauler” has yet to be given an opponent, Abedi has already been booked to take on James Head. Abedi will be looking to rebound from a first round submission(!) loss to Thiago Alves in his UFC debut back at UFC 138 when he takes on Head, who is also coming off an unsuccessful octagon debut. The Oklahoma native was choked out by Nick Ring in the third round of their UFC 131 battle.
In other fight booking news, Shane Roller will be stepping in for an injured Cody Mckenzie to take on TUF 12 alum Michael Johnson at UFC on Fox 2, and bantamweight contender Dustin Poirier is set to face UFC newcomer Max Holloway, who is replacing the injured Ricardo Lamas, who was replacing the injured Erik Koch. Sheesh. Not that we have anything against Holloway, but we really can’t wish the best for any fighter with the audacity to carry the nickname “Lil Evil,” because every time we hear that phrase, we are reminded just how far the real “Lil Evil” has fallen. And that makes us sad pandas.
UFC on FUELTV 2 goes down April 14th at the Ericsson Globe Arena in Stockholm, Sweden.
(Can you train yourself to be double-jointed? I’m just wondering, y’know, for Miesha’s sake.)
Though the match has yet to be confirmed by the fighters or the promotion, MMAWeekly and MMAJunkie are both reporting that Miesha Tate will defend her Strikeforce women’s bantamweight title against fast-rising prospect and Olympic judo bronze-medalistRonda Rousey in Columbus, Ohio, on March 3rd.
Tate is riding a six-fight win streak, but hasn’t competed since July, when she won her belt by submitting Marloes Coenen via fourth-round arm-triangle choke. A relative newcomer to the sport, Rousey had all four of her professional fights last year, winning each one by armbar in under a minute. But all those fights took place at featherweight or above, and this will be the first time she’ll compete at 135.
Because Rousey’s first fight in her new weight class is a title fight (see also: Keith Jardine), Miesha Tate has made it clear that she doesn’t think Ronda deserves the opportunity, telling FightHubTV:
(Can you train yourself to be double-jointed? I’m just wondering, y’know, for Miesha’s sake.)
Though the match has yet to be confirmed by the fighters or the promotion, MMAWeekly and MMAJunkie are both reporting that Miesha Tate will defend her Strikeforce women’s bantamweight title against fast-rising prospect and Olympic judo bronze-medalistRonda Rousey in Columbus, Ohio, on March 3rd.
Tate is riding a six-fight win streak, but hasn’t competed since July, when she won her belt by submitting Marloes Coenen via fourth-round arm-triangle choke. A relative newcomer to the sport, Rousey had all four of her professional fights last year, winning each one by armbar in under a minute. But all those fights took place at featherweight or above, and this will be the first time she’ll compete at 135.
Because Rousey’s first fight in her new weight class is a title fight (see also: Keith Jardine), Miesha Tate has made it clear that she doesn’t think Ronda deserves the opportunity, telling FightHubTV:
“I would have no problem fighting her. My only qualm with her is she is 4-0, 2-0 for Strikeforce. She’s challenging in a weight division she hasn’t competed in yet, and I just don’t think at 4-0, she has earned her title shot. She hasn’t beaten any top contenders in the weight class.”
“What happens when she gets a failed arm bar and someone ends up on top pounding her face in? Is she going to tap out or quit? We don’t know. We haven’t seen that yet. I think it’s kind of silly to put her in with me because that’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to take it to her. A lot of people are underestimating me. That’s fine. That always seems to be the case. Make no mistake; if Ronda is my next fight, I’m going to come in with a vengeance you’ve never seen before, because to be quite honest, it’s probably going to piss me off…If you weren’t pretty, it wouldn’t matter what you said or didn’t say. That’s why you’re getting this attention. I don’t know, I guess I personally like more of a humble approach.”
So yeah, this should be a good one. Though as Ronda tweeted herself last night, “I haven’t signed anything nothing is official everybody calm down.”
Watch below as Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold talks about his unexpected title fight against Keith Jardine on Jan. 7, earning the respect of the MMA world, staying with Strikeforce, and much more.
Watch below as Strikeforce middleweight champion Luke Rockhold talks about his unexpected title fight against Keith Jardine on Jan. 7, earning the respect of the MMA world, staying with Strikeforce, and much more.
Sarah Kaufman saw the internet reports of a 
