If you recall, Slice and Shamrock were actually scheduled to fight at Elite XC: Heat back in 2008, until a last-minute cut suffered in pre-fight warm-ups saw Shamrock forced out of the bout. He was replaced by UFC alum (and light heavyweight) Seth Petruzelli, who yadda yadda something something EliteXC collapsed.
This, is the greatest piece of news we have heard in quite some time. Seriously, just when you think that Mickey Rourke’s face will be the weirdest thing you’ll see all week, the MMA Gods make their presence known and just…(*kisses fingers*). According to ESPN, Slice vs. Shamrock will transpire on June 20th and be televised live on Spike TV from St. Louis, Missouri. That being said, only the noobiest of TUF noobs would not do everything in their power to see this thing live. I’m already checking TripAdvisor for the cheapest travel/hotel combo. Does the 10 a.m. Greyhound to Ferguson seem like a good idea?
We’ve been publicly stating our desire to see Bellator go full freakshow (“embrace the crazy,” if you will) for some time now, and one Justin-McCully-in-a-clown-rapist-mask at a time, they have been answering our prayers. But this, this is the pinnacle of it all. This is PRIDE. This is Super Hluk. This is the Coker era.
Bless you, MMA, and bless you, Bellator. Scott Coker is our shepherd; we shall not want.
Bellator came back into our lives in a big way last night, as Bellator 132: “Freire vs. Straus 2” took place at the Pechanga Casino Resort in Temecula, Calif. Scott Coker‘s new beloved baby gave us some pretty wild and disgusted finishes from top-to-bottom, proving the second-best MMA promotion in the world is must-see TV every time.
Not one fight went to a decision on the prelims, and the finishes were downright disgusting. Please don’t watch them with your family, hovered around the tube with Michelina’s for everyone (all Vines/Gifs courtesy of ZombieProphet, after the jump.)
(Photo via Bellator.com)
Bellator came back into our lives in a big way last night, as Bellator 132: “Freire vs. Straus 2″ took place at the Pechanga Casino Resort in Temecula, Calif. Scott Coker‘s new beloved baby gave us some pretty wild and disgusted finishes from top-to-bottom, proving the second-best MMA promotion in the world is must-see TV every time.
Not one fight went to a decision on the prelims, and the finishes were downright disgusting. Please don’t watch them with your family, hovered around the tube with Michelina’s for everyone (all Vines/Gifs courtesy of ZombieProphet).
Preliminary Card
Everett Cummings got the better of Jason Glaza in the lone heavyweight bout of the night, scoring a technical submission win via rear naked choke:
Dustin Jacoby will probably need to fine tune his grappling game before entering the Bellator cage again, since the Glory fighter fell victim to a rear-naked choke, courtesy of UFC alumni John Salter:
Chris Herrera nearly murdered Luc Bondole with an early knockout of the year candidate, thanks to the latter walking into the fiesty middleweight’s brutal combo:
Also winning by knockout, Steve Kozola torched Jonathan Rivera with some brutal shots in the second round to win their lightweight contest:
And finally, in one of the more grotesque images you’re going to see this weekend, Albert Morales scored a rear-naked choke over Fabian Gonzalez, and the victim was forced to tap while wearing the crimson mask and blood gushed out of his face:
Main Card
In the main event, Patricio Freire retained his featherweight title in a rematch against Daniel Straus, defending it for the first time since besting Pat Curran at Bellator 123. It was a pretty odd fight, with a handful of nut shots, an eyepoke, and some wild occurences, but “Pitbull” was able to keep the gold with a fourth-round rear naked choke …
…but that came with a price.
Oh, and here’s a bad low blow, followed by some ground and pound.
In his second Bellator stint, former WSOF featherweight champion Georgi Karakhanyan made this MMA stuff look easy, choking out Bubba Jenkins with a guillotine and secured a title shot in his next bout. Herb Dean’s officiating was pretty alarming, to say the least.
Also on the main card, Virgil Zwicker defeated Houston Alexander, and Fernando Gonzalez beat Marius Zaromskis, yet we’d much rather show you a Kimbo Slice hype promo.
Bellator 132 quick results:
Main Card
Patricio Freire def. Daniel Straus via submission (rear-naked choke) at 4:49 of R4
Georgi Karakhanyan def. Bubba Jenkins via technical submission (guillotine choke) at 1:49 of R1
Virgil Zwicker def. Houston Alexander via split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)
Fernando Gonzalez def. Marius Zaromskis via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Preliminary Card
Everett Cummings def. Jason Glaza via technical submission (rear-naked choke) at 1:55 of R2
John Salter def. Dustin Jacoby via submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:33 of R2
Steve Kozola def. Jonathan Rivera via knockout (punches) at 1:25 of R2
Derek Anderson def. Danny Navarro via TKO (punches) at 3:51 of R3
Albert Morales def. Fabian Gonzalez via submission (rear-naked choke) at 3:12 of R2
Chris Herrera def. Luc Bondole via knockout (punches) at 3:21 of R2
The UFC announced Rampage’s return to the company during the UFC Fight Night 58 broadcast Saturday night, though rumors had circulated days before the official announcement.
The legal implications of the signing are more interesting than any of the in-cage ones since Scott Cokertweeted Rampage was still under contract to Bellator and that the promotion would protect its rights in court.
However, Rampage posted a statement to his website Sunday claiming he legally voided his contract with Bellator. Get it after the jump.
(Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in 2016, after he fights twice in the UFC, complains about bad matchmaking and other (perhaps non-existent) slights, leaves, and re-signs with Bellator. / Photo via Getty)
The UFC announced Rampage’s return to the company during the UFC Fight Night 58 broadcast Saturday night, though rumors had circulated days before the official announcement.
The legal implications of the signing are more interesting than any of the in-cage ones since Scott Cokertweeted Rampage was still under contract to Bellator and that the promotion would protect its rights in court.
After five months of grueling negotiations and gray-area contract talks with Bellator MMA and parent-company Viacom, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson officially terminates his contract with the up-and-coming promotion citing multiple breaches since the removal of President and Founder Bjorn Rebney. Jackson exercises a clause in the agreement that allows for a 45-day window to satisfy any contract dispute. Bellator MMA, failing to fulfill the requests of Jackson, was put on notice, failed to respond and eventually notified that negotiations were officially terminated.
Jackson’s U.K.-based fight manager and Wolfslair Academy founder Anthony McGann confirms, late Saturday night, that “Rampage has indeed signed with the UFC.” Details of the deal have not been made public. Jackson was available for comment late Saturday night from his Laguna Hills, CA training center Rampage Family Fitness and provided the following: “I went to the UFC and we put a deal together that worked out for both of us. I’m excited to be here. The UFC had nothing to do with me leaving Bellator. I was done with Bellator when I made the final call and they still didn’t do what they had to do contractually. I wish those guys the best but I’m where I belong.
Rampage posted a link to the statement in a tweet reading “Official statement on my UFC signing and what’s happening at RampageJackson.com (so Scott Coker can shut up).”
The ensuing legal battle is going to be more interesting than anything Rampage does in the Octagon, so stay tuned.
Things changed after Bjorn Rebney‘s departure from Bellator. Scott Coker became president, prompting Rampage to eventually tweet “sometimes u [sic] should just stay with the devil you know,” in reference to the UFC.
Clearly, Rampage wasn’t happy.
But there’s one problem: He’s still under contract to Bellator. The Sherdog report confirmed this. MMA journalist Josh Gross reached out to Coker, who said Rampage was still under contract.
(“So…tomorrow night at Dave & Buster’s?” / Photo via MMAWeekly)
On yesterday’s installment of the Gross Point Blank podcast, UFC middleweight Cung Le revealed that he’s seeking to be released from his UFC contract. Despite having two fights remaining on his deal, Le has asked his manager Gary Ibarra to request his release.
“I’d just prefer not to be part of the UFC anymore,” Le told host Josh Gross. “I’d prefer not to put the effort into something I don’t believe in anymore.”
Le’s negative stance on the UFC stems from the dreadful way that the promotion handled his drug testing at UFC Fight Night 48 in August. In short, the UFC farmed out drugtesting for that event to a fly-by-night laboratory operation in Hong Kong that wasn’t equipped to handle enhanced PED screenings, suspended Le for nine months when his sample came back positive for elevated HGH, bumped the suspension up to 12 months when Le started to make noise about it, then canceled the suspension when it became apparent that the testing lab’s methods were a joke — but never apologized to Le publicly.
It’s not the kind of the thing that Le can easily forgive and forget. Because there was so much speculation about Le’s action-figure physique leading up to the fight, his positive test — despite its total lack of legitimacy — convinced many fans that Le was a cheater, and put a major dent in his reputation. As Gary Ibarra explained to Gross:
(“So…tomorrow night at Dave & Buster’s?” / Photo via MMAWeekly)
On yesterday’s installment of the Gross Point Blank podcast, UFC middleweight Cung Le revealed that he’s seeking to be released from his UFC contract. Despite having two fights remaining on his deal, Le has asked his manager Gary Ibarra to request his release.
“I’d just prefer not to be part of the UFC anymore,” Le told host Josh Gross. “I’d prefer not to put the effort into something I don’t believe in anymore.”
Le’s negative stance on the UFC stems from the dreadful way that the promotion handled his drug testing at UFC Fight Night 48 in August. In short, the UFC farmed out drugtesting for that event to a fly-by-night laboratory operation in Hong Kong that wasn’t equipped to handle enhanced PED screenings, suspended Le for nine months when his sample came back positive for elevated HGH, bumped the suspension up to 12 months when Le started to make noise about it, then canceled the suspension when it became apparent that the testing lab’s methods were a joke — but never apologized to Le publicly.
It’s not the kind of the thing that Le can easily forgive and forget. Because there was so much speculation about Le’s action-figure physique leading up to the fight, his positive test — despite its total lack of legitimacy — convinced many fans that Le was a cheater, and put a major dent in his reputation. As Gary Ibarra explained to Gross:
“The consensus prior to this situation was that Cung was that he was an honorable man,” Ibarra said. “A family man, a true embodiment of what martial arts is: Respect, honor, he embodied all of those things. And now his career will ever be tarnished, or forever have something of an asterisk next to it, due to something that is no fault of his own. Does anybody deserve that? No, absolutely not. I would hope the UFC would understand that and recuse themselves from further drug testing when there are no athletic commissions, and leave drug testing in the hands of people who specialize in drug testing so that this doesn’t happen again.”
At 42 years old, Le’s competitive days are running out, and he hasn’t decided yet if he’ll continue fighting. However:
“If I would fight for anyone, it would be Scott Coker,” Le said. “I would not fight for the UFC after what happened.”
Scott Coker is currently the president of the UFC’s closest rival, Bellator, but Coker and Le previously had a long and fruitful working relationship together in the now-defunct Strikeforce promotion. It seems unlikely that the UFC would let Le out of his contract just so he can skate off to Bellator. Then again, keeping a disgruntled high-profile fighter on the roster might be even more harmful. We’ll let you know how it shakes out.
“Me and Bellator, we tongue kissing right now, baby…Ever since I did that ‘A-Team’ movie it like — it’s like I cheated on [the UFC]. And so, you know what I’m saying, like over here I don’t see any way I can cheat on Bellator, because it seems like, you know what I’m saying, they’re with Viacom. They got me all set up. It’s all in-house and stuff like that…I see me being happy with these guys for the rest of my career. Because, you know what I’m saying, I can just feel it…I’ve done a lot of favors for the UFC, and sometimes, I didn’t get my favors back to me.”
Bellator saved him from a disgruntled existence with the UFC, just like the UFC saved him from a disgruntled existence with PRIDE. And for a while, Rampage and the Bjorn Rebney-led Bellator were in the thrall of new romance, just tongue-kissing their brains out. ‘Page dutifully played along with Spike TV’s awkward pro-wrestling crossover storylines, and he was successful in the cage, going 3-0 under the Bellator banner with first-round knockouts of Joey Beltran and Christian M’Pumbu. (He also beat King Mo in a dubious decision that nevertheless produced one of the best soundbites of the year.)
“Me and Bellator, we tongue kissing right now, baby…Ever since I did that ‘A-Team’ movie it like — it’s like I cheated on [the UFC]. And so, you know what I’m saying, like over here I don’t see any way I can cheat on Bellator, because it seems like, you know what I’m saying, they’re with Viacom. They got me all set up. It’s all in-house and stuff like that…I see me being happy with these guys for the rest of my career. Because, you know what I’m saying, I can just feel it…I’ve done a lot of favors for the UFC, and sometimes, I didn’t get my favors back to me.”
Bellator saved him from a disgruntled existence with the UFC, just like the UFC saved him from a disgruntled existence with PRIDE. And for a while, Rampage and the Bjorn Rebney-led Bellator were in the thrall of new romance, just tongue-kissing their brains out. ‘Page dutifully played along with Spike TV’s awkward pro-wrestling crossover storylines, and he was successful in the cage, going 3-0 under the Bellator banner with first-round knockouts of Joey Beltran and Christian M’Pumbu. (He also beat King Mo in a dubious decision that nevertheless produced one of the best soundbites of the year.)
But the infatuation phase wears off, as it always does, and the person you thought you were sleeping with looks a lot different in the light of day. Now that current president Scott Coker is beginning to clean house and set course for new directions, things at Bellator aren’t the same anymore. Predictably, Quinton Jackson is beginning to regret leaving the familiar embrace of his old wife, the UFC. Only this time, there isn’t a new set of arms waiting to catch him.
“I like Rampage Jackson,” said White. “Rampage and I have a very unique relationship in that all the stuff that goes on publicly, behind the scenes we square away. He’s a good dude.”
Ben Saunders has proven that it’s possible to wash out of the UFC, do relatively well in Bellator, then be brought back to the UFC. The question is, are UFC fans willing to see Rampage back in the Octagon? Considering that the UFC needs Fight Pass headliners now more than ever, a Rampage return could be possible whether we like it or not.
