Tag: title shots

Bellator’s New Tournament Rules Are Pretty Simple Until You Try to Explain Them


(Bjorn Rebney: The Art Jimmerson of MMA promoters.)

Bellator announced some changes to its title-contender structure today, and I’m going to do my best to summarize them in one sentence: Basically, if you win a Bellator tournament and receive a title shot, you no longer have to win another tournament in order to get another title shot. Which is weird, because didn’t they already kill that rule a long time ago? I mean, how else did Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler 2 and 3 get booked? I can think of several instances where Bellator’s vow that “title shots are earned, not given” hasn’t meant a whole lot.

So that’s the short version. Now read the press release that they actually sent out and get the Excedrin ready:

All Bellator Tournament Winners Now In World Title Shot Pool

Newport Beach, Calif. (June 12, 2014) – With Bellator’s 2014 Summer Series having just begun last Friday, Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney announced today that the promotion has made an addition to its real sport, tournament based* format that allows former Bellator Tournament winners the potential to be granted a World Title fight without going back into The Toughest Tournament in Sports.**

“Just like we’ve done since day one, any fighter who wins The Toughest Tournament in Sports will still be guaranteed a World Title*** fight,” Rebney said. “The addition I’m making here, that I’m really excited about, is if you’ve won a tournament, you’ll join an elite group of athletes who we can grant a world title fight to at any time.”


(Bjorn Rebney: The Art Jimmerson of MMA promoters.)

Bellator announced some changes to its title-contender structure today, and I’m going to do my best to summarize them in one sentence: Basically, if you win a Bellator tournament and receive a title shot, you no longer have to win another tournament in order to get another title shot. Which is weird, because didn’t they already kill that rule a long time ago? I mean, how else did Eddie Alvarez vs. Michael Chandler 2 and 3 get booked? I can think of several instances where Bellator’s vow that “title shots are earned, not given” hasn’t meant a whole lot.

So that’s the short version. Now read the press release that they actually sent out and get the Excedrin ready:

All Bellator Tournament Winners Now In World Title Shot Pool

Newport Beach, Calif. (June 12, 2014) – With Bellator’s 2014 Summer Series having just begun last Friday, Bellator Chairman & CEO Bjorn Rebney announced today that the promotion has made an addition to its real sport, tournament based* format that allows former Bellator Tournament winners the potential to be granted a World Title fight without going back into The Toughest Tournament in Sports.**

“Just like we’ve done since day one, any fighter who wins The Toughest Tournament in Sports will still be guaranteed a World Title*** fight,” Rebney said. “The addition I’m making here, that I’m really excited about, is if you’ve won a tournament, you’ll join an elite group of athletes who we can grant a world title fight to at any time.”

“For example, if you win a tournament, fight for the World Title and lose, you forever remain in that elite group of fighters who can be awarded another shot at the title. We will place some fighters back into tournaments, while others may lose a world title fight, win some non-tournament fights and be awarded another shot at the title.**** We won’t be implementing any hard and fast rule as to when a fighter will go back into a tournament and when he’ll fight non-tournament fights and potentially be granted another title shot. What’s great about this addition is that it allows us to stay true to our core format, where title shots can only be earned through a tournament win, while also providing us tremendous flexibility***** to make the great fights fans want to see. And, we can do all this while keeping our fighters busy and battling in meaningful fights on a re-occurring basis.****** This is another step in our constant evolution and most importantly it’s a win for the fighters and the fans.”

“When I heard about this change, I instantly fell in love with it,” Bellator Interim Lightweight Champion Will Brooks said.******* “This is a way to keep guys active after they have proven themselves in a tournament. You always want to stay in the mix as a fighter, and it’s really exciting to me that Bellator is taking the fighters and fans opinions to heart and making decisions to put on the best fights possible. It’s refreshing to see and be a part of, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds.”

“At the end of the day, everyone wants to see guys they know stay busy and active,” Bellator Welterweight Champion Douglas Lima said.******** “As fighters we want to stay busy and keep fighting, and this new change helps keep the talent pool fresh and creates new challengers for us. I know the tournament isn’t going anywhere, it’s how we all came up and got our titles, but now we have a chance to keep staying busy and keep defending our titles.”

* I automatically hear the phrase “real sport, tournament based” in a Russian accent. See also: “I ready fight with light-heavyweight, no problem.”

** Pro tip: Capitalizing the words in something doesn’t necessarily make it accurate.

*** Ditto.

**** It is here that my head began to hurt.

***** “Flexibility” (n.), a euphemism referring to a fight-promoter’s ability to do whatever the fuck he wants at all times without having to justify it.

****** Okay, I actually have no problem with this part.

******* Poor, poor Will. Don’t you understand that they’re only doing this to set up Alvarez/Chandler again?

******** You ever have one of those moments where a fighter is described as a “Bellator Champion,” and you can’t remember how or when he won the title, or even the last time you saw him fight? That’s how I feel about Douglas Lima. Whatever happened to War Machine, anyway?

So that’s the official explanation of the new changes. Now here’s Luke Thomas from MMAFighting trying (and failing) to put this all in layman’s terms:

“For those fighters who’ve already won a tournament at any point in Bellator history, or for those who win any in the future, they move into a position where earning victories outside of the tournament structure enables them to claim a title shot at Bellator’s discretion. Those bouts can be against other fighters in Bellator who belong to this pool, but defeating only them is not essential. Fighters in this pool can face recent acquisitions, and should those previous tournament winners look impressive enough in victory, they can earn a title shot.

“In other words, Michael Chandler could face David Rickels in a non-tournament bout at lightweight as both fighters have won previous lightweight tournaments. However, Chandler or Ricklels could also face any acquisitions who have not competed in a Bellator tournament. If either Chandler or Rickels earn enough victories in this space against other fighters who have won Bellator tournaments or other non-tournament participants, they can earn a title shot without having to re-enter a tournament.

“The one caveat, however, is a fighter must win a tournament before they can enter this pool. Title shots can only be granted to those not actively in the tournament system, if and only if, they’ve already won a previous Bellator tournament.

“In addition, a previous winner of a Bellator tournament is not precluded from entering another tournament if they choose.”

My eyes are about to fall out of my head. The current pool of fighters eligible for title fights without having to win additional tournaments are as follows…

Bantamweight: Eduardo Dantas, Joe Warren, Marcos Galvao, Rafael Silva

Featherweight: Pat Curran, Patricio Pitbull, Daniel Straus, Shahbulat Shamhalaev, “Frodo” Khasbulaev, Daniel Weichel, Joe Warren.

Lightweight: Eddie Alvarez, Will Brooks, Michael Chandler, Pat Curran, Rick Hawn, Dave Jansen, David Rickels

Welterweight: Douglas Lima, Karl Amoussou, Andrey Koreshkov, Rick Hawn

Middleweight: Alexander Shlemenko, Brennan Ward, Doug Marshall

Light Heavyweight: Emanuel Newton, Rampage Jackson, King Mo, Christian M’Pumbu, Atilla Vegh,

Heavyweight: Vitaly Minakov, Alexander Volkov, Cheick Kongo

Jon Jones Responds To Chael Sonnen’s “Punk Kid” Remarks Via Twitter Outburst [UPDATED]


(When all else fails, a hypogonadism burn is always a solid standby.) 

Apparently Jon Jones is unaware that Chael Sonnen is a fight promoter first, troll second, and actual fighter third. Be that as it may, “Bones” must have really took to heart the relatively light bit of trash-talking Sonnen aimed in the champ’s direction when announcing his return to the light-heavyweight division on UFC Tonight, as he has already responded, then deleted, several scathing remarks aimed at the former middleweight title challenger via Twitter, because of course he did.

If we’ve learned anything about what arguments over Twitter inevitably lead to, we’re probably going to need a bigger facepalm and a fresh pair of trousers for one of these gentlemen in the near future.

The rest of Jones’ comments are after the jump.


(When all else fails, a hypogonadism burn is always a solid standby.) 

Apparently Jon Jones is unaware that Chael Sonnen is a fight promoter first, troll second, and actual fighter third. Be that as it may, “Bones” must have really took to heart the relatively light bit of trash-talking Sonnen aimed in the champ’s direction when announcing his return to the light-heavyweight division on UFC Tonight, as he has already responded, then deleted, several scathing remarks aimed at the former middleweight title challenger via Twitter, because of course he did.

If we’ve learned anything about what arguments over Twitter inevitably lead to, we’re probably going to need a bigger facepalm and a fresh pair of trousers for one of these gentlemen in the near future.

The rest of Jones’ comments are below.

True, Jon, but doing the same thing back to Sonnen on Twitter kind of blends into that whole hypocritical aura you seem to exude. Just sayin’.

Forget what I just said, that was kind of awesome. Chael, the floor is yours.

But you know what I hate about this the most? The fact that Jones is playing right into Chael’s game (see below), which can only mean one thing: an expedited, undeserved title shot for Chael Sonnen if Jones is able to dispatch Dan Henderson at UFC 151. Sure, the next shot has been promised to Lyoto Machida, but we all know how much better Sonnen vs. Jones (or Sonnen vs. anyone, for that matter) would do as far as pay-per-view sales go. Rivalries trump legitimate contenders 9 times out of 10, and the fact that Machida has already faced Jones and lost certainly won’t help those numbers. Sonnen undoubtedly knows this, the clever cow, and is leading Bones into his Jigsaw-esque trap like the pro that he is.

Prediction: If Jones beats Hendo, he will suffer an injury significant enough that Machida will be forced to take another fight in his prolonged absence. Meanwhile, Jones and Sonnen will continue to hype their rivalry until Sonnen vs. Griffin is declared a #1 contenders match (hey, crazier things have happened). Sonnen will win, and Lyoto will be left in the dark, drinking homemade Mai Tai after Mai Tai as a means of consoling himself for not talking enough shit over Twitter to get a rematch with Bones.

I could be wrong, but I watched The Mentalist for eight straight hours yesterday, which leads me to believe that I am spot on.

[UPDATE – 4:30 p.m. EST]

Wait a minute…as I’m writing this, it seems Jones has used the Avatarian connection that all people with the same last name share to hack into my brain and respond to my worries before I could even publish them (same wording and everything), stating the following on Twitter:

For everyone who thinks I’m “falling into chaels game” I know exactly what I’m doing.. #AreYouNotEntertained

Touche, Jon. Now stay the fuck out of my head thank you very much.

[UPDATED – 4:45]

This article has officially become a liveblog, people. Here’s Chael’s pair of responses:

Advice to @jonnybones. Take some of that Nike money, hire new writers.

Boarding plane to Oregon now, home of your corporate wage masters. Next time you are in town, knock on my door. Don’t drive.

I don’t really understand hashtags, but I think a #BOOMHEADSHOT is appropriate here.

Tune in for more.

–J. Jones

Even Jon Jones Can’t Make Sense of the Current Title Picture at 205

It’s good to know that we weren’t alone in our confusion when it was announced that the winner of either the Mauricio Rua/Brandon Vera or Lyoto Machida/Ryan Bader bouts, specifically the former, would be in line for the next title shot at 205 lbs. Given that current champion Jon Jones has walked through all four of those gentlemen before, we struggled to find the reasoning behind the alleged title shot that supposedly awaited the most impressive winner from this weekend’s UFC on FOX 4 event. Then again, Rich Franklin has decided to chase after middleweight gold and revenge for a third time (which totally wont end in his untimely death), so maybe we were too quick to write off these former champions, TUF winners, and hype machines. In either case, Bones took to his Twitter account to voice his frustration, sending out the above tweet yesterday which simply states “Scratching my head.”

But perhaps even more confounding than the UFC’s apparent apathy in regards to JBJ was the realization that the light heavyweight division, one of the most stacked and competitive divisions in the UFC for some time, has nearly been cleared out in a little over a year. If Jones gets past Dan Henderson at UFC 151, something he obviously feels he is going to do as evidenced by the above tweet, there will arguably be only two viable candidates left for him to face: Alexander Gustafsson and Glover Teixeira.

Dana White has teased that the man known by the Potato Nation as “Bjones” is “ready for a big fight now”, leading us to believe that a meeting with Rashad Evans could be on the horizon. A victory over the former champ would all but cement the Swede’s position atop the division. As for Teixeira, it’s simply too early to tell. He looked great in his debut victory over Kyle Kingsbury, but needs to face at least one of the upper echelon fighters before we are convinced he is ready for a title shot. But for the moment, it appears that the LHW division needs an H-bomb like Nick Diaz needs a clue.

In other, alcohol-related Jon Jones news…

It’s good to know that we weren’t alone in our confusion when it was announced that the winner of either the Mauricio Rua/Brandon Vera or Lyoto Machida/Ryan Bader bouts, specifically the former, would be in line for the next title shot at 205 lbs. Given that current champion Jon Jones has walked through all four of those gentlemen before, we struggled to find the reasoning behind the alleged title shot that supposedly awaited the most impressive winner from this weekend’s UFC on FOX 4 event. Then again, Rich Franklin has decided to chase after middleweight gold and revenge for a third time (which totally wont end in his untimely death), so maybe we were too quick to write off these former champions, TUF winners, and hype machines. In either case, Bones took to his Twitter account to voice his frustration, sending out the above tweet yesterday which simply states “Scratching my head.”

But perhaps even more confounding than the UFC’s apparent apathy in regards to JBJ was the realization that the light heavyweight division, one of the most stacked and competitive divisions in the UFC for some time, has nearly been cleared out in a little over a year. If Jones gets past Dan Henderson at UFC 151, something he obviously feels he is going to do as evidenced by the above tweet, there will arguably be only two viable candidates left for him to face: Alexander Gustafsson and Glover Teixeira.

Dana White has teased that the man known by the Potato Nation as “Bjones” is “ready for a big fight now”, leading us to believe that a meeting with Rashad Evans could be on the horizon. A victory over the former champ would all but cement the Swede’s position atop the division. As for Teixeira, it’s simply too early to tell. He looked great in his debut victory over Kyle Kingsbury, but needs to face at least one of the upper echelon fighters before we are convinced he is ready for a title shot. But for the moment, it appears that the LHW division needs an H-bomb like Nick Diaz needs a clue.

In other, alcohol-related Jon Jones news…

A ruling has finally been handed down in Jones’ May 19th DUI arrest, which was delayed on several occasions to give Bones enough time to complete his whopping two day court-mandated alcohol abuse and dependency evaluation. The champion received a $1,000 fine and a six month license suspension, a fee that he more than likely carries around in his shoe on a daily basis considering he totaled a quarter million dollar Batmobile in the accident. Meanwhile, you could face a fine of up to $200 if you were caught selling someone a 17 ounce soda in New York City. Clearly lawmakers in this country are determining misdemeanor based fines in the same fashion that the United States Treasury determines the most prudent move for failing insurance companies.

–J. Jones

WTF?! of the Day: Shogun Rua to Receive a Title Shot With a Win Over Brandon Vera?


(In order to cut company expenditures, the UFC recently fired Joe Silva in favor of the new, cost-efficient method of matchmaking seen above.) 

If you are the type of person who is quick to pick up on patterns, you may have noticed that more than a couple of our articles today have featured a headline ending in either the cynical question mark or even the full-on flabbergasted question mark followed by an exclamation point. And indeed, everything from Frank Mir’s temporary descent into the Strikeforce ranks to the idea that a Los Angeles hockey team did something worth writing about has left us nearly speechless. But this one tops them all, Potato Nation.

According to a recent interview that FOX Sports conducted with Dana White, if Mauricio “Shogun” Rua manages to defeat Brandon Vera impressively at UFC on FOX 4, he will have earned a title shot against the very same man that took his title, Jon Jones.

Wait, WHAT?!

Besides the fact that Shogun was, at the risk of receiving even more hate mail than usual, owned by Jones at UFC 128, the man has gone win-loss in his past six fights for Christ’s sake. Can we at least let him collect two wins in a row before we declare him the top contender in the division? And the last we checked, it isn’t 2006 anymore, so how a win over Vera justifies a title shot is simply beyond any measure of sound reasoning that we could possibly offer you. Is this just a ploy by The Baldfather to try and hype the hype-less card that is UFC on FOX 4, or is the UFC’s matchmaking department on a permanent lunch break? As if the Mendes/McKenzie pairing wasn’t odd enough, now this nonsense happens.

And if you think that was the only baffling decision made by the UFC that we’re going to cover in this article, join us after the jump for an equally ridiculous potential matchup at 205 lbs.


(In order to cut company expenditures, the UFC recently fired Joe Silva in favor of the new, cost-efficient method of matchmaking seen above.) 

If you are the type of person who is quick to pick up on patterns, you may have noticed that more than a couple of our articles today have featured a headline ending in either the cynical question mark or even the full-on flabbergasted question mark followed by an exclamation point. And indeed, everything from Frank Mir’s temporary descent into the Strikeforce ranks to the idea that a Los Angeles hockey team did something worth writing about has left us nearly speechless. But this one tops them all, Potato Nation.

According to a recent interview that FOX Sports conducted with Dana White, if Mauricio “Shogun” Rua manages to defeat Brandon Vera impressively at UFC on FOX 4, he will have earned a title shot against the very same man that took his title, Jon Jones.

Wait, WHAT?!

Besides the fact that Shogun was, at the risk of receiving even more hate mail than usual, owned by Jones at UFC 128, the man has gone win-loss in his past six fights for Christ’s sake. Can we at least let him collect two wins in a row before we declare him the top contender in the division? And the last we checked, it isn’t 2006 anymore, so how a win over Vera justifies a title shot is simply beyond any measure of sound reasoning that we could possibly offer you. Is this just a ploy by The Baldfather to try and hype the hype-less card that is UFC on FOX 4, or is the UFC’s matchmaking department on a permanent lunch break? As if the Mendes/McKenzie pairing wasn’t odd enough, now this nonsense happens.

Apparently attempting to soften the blow of such a ridiculous statement by following it up with an equally insane one, White also stated that, were Shogun to lose (or win in unimpressive fashion), then the winner of the Machida/Bader fight would receive the next title shot.

…

I now know what Bill Murray’s character felt like in Groundhog Day, because I am either reliving the same dream over and over again, or the UFC matchmakers have seemingly forgotten that Lyoto Machida was just choked unconscious by Jones at UFC 140, or that Bader was taken to lunch by Jones at UFC 126. What I’m saying is…

Now, whereas one could possibly see how Bader has earned a shot if he gets past Machida — he will have knocked off two straight ex-champions in as many fights — he also outgrappled an overweight and apathetic Rampage Jackson in one of those wins. And unless Machida is able to defeat Bader by flying crescent Shaolin monk kick, it will be hard to understand why he’s earned another shot so quickly. Meanwhile, Alexander Gustafsson has put together a five fight win streak (and not to mention, hasn’t already faced Jones and lost in dramatic fashion before) and wasn’t so much as mentioned in the list of potential contenders.

Granted, Jones has yet to defeat Dan Henderson, but if he does, is this really where the UFC wants their champion to go from here? Essentially, Jones will be returning to the scene of a rape to give one of his victims another go-around on the off chance that they still wont identify him this time. While we’re at it, why not give Travis Lutter another shot at Anderson Silva?

It may sound a bit dramatic, but if Jones beats Hendo at UFC 150, we will officially have crossed over into some alternate universe where Eric Koch is the most deserving fighter currently receiving a title shot, outside of the interim champs at bantamweight and welterweight. Think about that for a second.

–J. Jones

The Rearview Mirror: Five MMA Trends We Hope To Have Left Behind In 2011

“Listen, I know we’ve had our moments, but before you make your list just hear me out…” (Photo: Gossiboocrew.com)

We’re only a few hours into the new year, but unless your head hit the pillow just as the ball dropped, you’ve probably already carried some of your bad habits with you into 2012. We are creatures of habit, and change doesn’t come naturally to us. If it did, we wouldn’t make such a big production out of our ‘New Year’s Resolutions’. The sport of mixed martial arts and its fans are no different. Here’s a quick look at some of the bad habits we’ve picked up and poor decisions we’ve made over the past 12-months. Let’s hope we can leave them behind in yesteryear.

“Listen, I know we’ve had our moments, but before you make your list just hear me out…” (Photo: Gossiboocrew.com)

We’re only a few hours into the new year, but unless your head hit the pillow just as the ball dropped, you’ve probably already carried some of your bad habits with you into 2012. We are creatures of habit, and change doesn’t come naturally to us. If it did, we wouldn’t make such a big production out of our ‘New Year’s Resolutions’. The sport of mixed martial arts and its fans are no different. Here’s a quick look at some of the bad habits we’ve picked up and poor decisions we’ve made over the past 12-months. Let’s hope we can leave them behind in yesteryear.

 

“Faggot”, “Cunty”, Rape Jokes, Etc.

“That’s why pencils have erasers.” (Pic: MMAMania.com)

2011 was a year that pushed the envelope of political correctness, even for a sport largely celebrated for its ‘anything goes’ mojo. After witnessing a gruesome motorboating accident, debating the proper way to address a woman, and being dragged along for Michael Bisping’s one-man homophobia tour, fans heard so many rape jokes that, well, let’s just say they became commonplace.

If I cared about people’s feelings I probably wouldn’t read this site and I certainly would write half of what I do, so don’t look to me to carry the torch for easily offended. And while I also think that it’s certainly not in the best interest of any public figure to use divisive, hateful language, it’s their right to speak their mind and live or die by their words. Lastly, although these incidents have been used by our enemies to suppress our mainstream progress, I don’t think anything short of an in-Octagon death can stop us now.

So why am I opposed to this controversial language? Simple: I don’t want a poor choice of words coming between me and great fights. We’ve already seen one fighter cut, albeit briefly, for an off-color joke, and I don’t want it to happen again. Had the UFC pulled the plug on the Brock experiment after his UFC 100 tirade, we would have missed out on many of the highs and lows of his polarizing career. And just imagine how less interesting the welterweight division would be right now if Diaz’s many past crimes were held against him. If we continue down this road, a major star is going to cross the line and we’ll all be deprived of great fights. That’s why it’s time to draw a line in the sand.

Which brings me to our next item…