(“If this isn’t a world where Mitt Romney is president, you can just put me back to sleep thank you very much.”)
As we mentioned in our head to head assessment of this weekend’s UFC Macao main event matchup, Rich Franklin is one tough SOB. So tough, in fact, that he not only managed to fight through a broken arm in his UFC 115 match against Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell, but even made sure to finish Liddell before the bell rung, for the fight could have likely been called in Liddell’s favor had both men made it to their corners.
So with the main card action kicking off at a completely reasonable 9 a.m. EST this Saturday, the UFC has released a couple of Franklin’s (as well as Le’s) fights online to give us all a little refresher course on what our two headliners have been up to. It’s a noble effort, but there’s simply no way in hell I will have recovered from my night of binge drinking, bum fighting, and huffing paint thinner through an old grease rag in time to catch any of the main card matchups live. They’re called priorities.
Anyway, head after the jump to take a stroll down memory lane, even though you probably remember the intricacies of this fight better than ol’ Chucky boy does.
(“If this isn’t a world where Mitt Romney is president, you can just put me back to sleep thank you very much.”)
As we mentioned in our head to head assessment of this weekend’s UFC Macao main event matchup, Rich Franklin is one tough SOB. So tough, in fact, that he not only managed to fight through a broken arm in his UFC 115 match against Hall of Famer Chuck Liddell, but even made sure to finish Liddell before the bell rung, for the fight could have likely been called in Liddell’s favor had both men made it to their corners.
So with the main card action kicking off at a completely reasonable 9 a.m. EST this Saturday, the UFC has released a couple of Franklin’s (as well as Le’s) fights online to give us all a little refresher course on what our two headliners have been up to. It’s a noble effort, but there’s simply no way in hell I will have recovered from my night of binge drinking, bum fighting, and huffing paint thinner through an old grease rag in time to catch any of the main card matchups live. They’re called priorities.
Anyway, head after the jump to take a stroll down memory lane, even though you probably remember the intricacies of this fight better than ol’ Chucky boy does.
The fight starts at the 10:20 mark, with a paunch-less Liddell throwing the arm-breaking kick shortly thereafter (11:26). At first, Franklin addresses the injury with less concern than most of us would address a hangnail with, but his moment of clarity comes the 12:14 mark, where he cleverly disguises an attempt to assess the damage with classic “checking my invisible watch” technique.
As for Liddell, he was truly in the zone that night, delivering a more diverse array of strikes and takedowns than we had seen in years, which makes it all the more disappointing when he gets overzealous with approximately 10 seconds left to go in the round and is promptly knocked the fuck out. The power of pink shorts, ladies and gentlemen. It’s a brutiful thing.
On the heels of his second unanimous decision victory over Wanderlei Silva at UFC 147, Franklin will be looking to string together his first two fight win streak since 2008 with a win over Cung Le. Do you think he can pull it off?
According to MMAFighting, the Vancouver police department had requested the UFC pay for extra policing for the upcoming UFC 131 event at Rogers Arena. The UFC has denied the request with their Canada Director of.
According to MMAFighting, the Vancouver police department had requested the UFC pay for extra policing for the upcoming UFC 131 event at Rogers Arena. The UFC has denied the request with their Canada Director of Operations, Tom Wright explaining:
“…While we remain supportive of law enforcement in every city we bring shows to, we weren’t prepared to be ‘treated differently’ than other events/concerts/shows (Canucks, Rolling Stones etc). This is a particularly important consideration when ‘incidents’ at UFC events are typically fewer than other big events. As I explained, if I were the Chief I’d be more worried about Canuck fans (celebrating or crying in their beers) than UFC fans.”
The request came after residents apparently complained of “public drinking, rowdy drunks, and public urination” during UFC 115, Vancouver’s first held UFC event. *Note: That shit happens outside my apartment every night.
Police Chief, Jim Chu wanted to take extra precaution and asked for the funding. But we agree with the UFC that this request is a little excessive. I mean, if Paris Hilton can have a nip slip (*see below) and not fear being ravaged by thousands of testosterone high fans, then you’re safe, Vancouver.
And if you still don’t feel like joining the rambunctious UFC crowd, then you can always stay home and have an old fashioned viewing party:
There is mounting evidence to suggest that the city of Vancouver – and indeed the entire province of British Columbia – views MMA and its fans as a roving band of savages who are going to storm the town with torches and two-by-fours, burning every building and raping every damsel before climbing on their snarling horses and moving on to pillage the next village. At least that’s the impression we get from a number of local news reports leading up to June’s UFC 131. First there were reports from the Vancouver Courier that the police chief in The Couv was asking the UFC to foot the bill for extra cops outside the Rogers Arena during the event. The UFC rightly said no to that request last week. Now older reports are beginning to surface that the local government squashed a planned MMA expo last year and even one (from our own M-Russ in his previous incarnation at The Fight Network) alleging that area nightclubs tried to ban Affliction clothing as far back as 2007.
So, what gives? Why so petrified, Vancouver? Did somebody forget to tell them Brock Lesnar’s probably not even going to show up now? We hate to break the news this way, but the UFC has actually been doing shows all over the world for kind of a lot of years now and all of them – as far as we know – are still standing and operational as, you know, cities. From where we’re sitting it seems way more dangerous to say, have your team win the NBA championship than host a UFC event. Oh, wait. Sorry. Forgot. Anyway, more on this story, the UFC’s reaction and the possible roots of Vancouver’s MMA phobia after the jump.
There is mounting evidence to suggest that the city of Vancouver – and indeed the entire province of British Columbia – views MMA and its fans as a roving band of savages who are going to storm the town with torches and two-by-fours, burning every building and raping every damsel before climbing on their snarling horses and moving on to pillage the next village. At least that’s the impression we get from a number of local news reports leading up to June’s UFC 131. First there were reports from the Vancouver Courier that the police chief in The Couv was asking the UFC to foot the bill for extra cops outside the Rogers Arena during the event. The UFC rightly said no to that request last week. Now older reports are beginning to surface that the local government squashed a planned MMA expo last year and even one (from our own M-Russ in his previous incarnation at The Fight Network) alleging that area nightclubs tried to ban Affliction clothing as far back as 2007.
So, what gives? Why so petrified, Vancouver? Did somebody forget to tell them Brock Lesnar’s probably not even going to show up now? We hate to break the news this way, but the UFC has actually been doing shows all over the world for kind of a lot of years now and all of them – as far as we know – are still standing and operational as, you know, cities. From where we’re sitting it seems way more dangerous to say, have your team win the NBA championship than host a UFC event. Oh, wait. Sorry. Forgot. Anyway, more on this story, the UFC’s reaction and the possible roots of Vancouver’s MMA phobia after the jump.
Much of the current hysteria appears to stem from a bump in calls to police in the wake of UFC 115 last summer, particularly one sort of nasty act of violence. In that incident, a gay couple was beaten by two men while returning to their home in the hours after UFC 115. For whatever reason – thought they’ve been a little coy about it – police believe the men responsible may have been all charged up after watching Rich Franklin KO Chuck Liddell that night. Here it is from the most recent Courier report:
“Police have not linked the beating to the UFC event, although (one of the victims) said in an interview a few days after the incident that he believed his attackers attended the fights at Rogers Arena.”
So that seems vague. According to the Courier, other incidents of concern following UFC 115 included “public drinking, rowdy drunks and public urination before and after the UFC event.” You know, sort of like what happens any time there is any sort of significant gathering of fans for a sporting event, concert or large scale happening. Fact is, you’re always going to have a few idiots sprinkled in with the rest of the crowd.
Inexplicably, BC seems to have decided that MMA fans are also prone to “gang activity,” though if there are any MMA-centric gangs out there, we’ve never heard of them. It’s not like the Hells Angels, Crips or Latin Kings are known to mobilize for UFC events. Apparently however, the powers that be believe these gangs exist, and that they fancy $60 fashion T-shirts as their colors. Dude, those aren’t gangs. They’re just douchebags.
Anyhow, “gang concerns” were the reasons given last year when authorities reportedly told a promoter his planned MMA expo could not include “two people competing in any manner.” As result of finding out that no MMA, jiu-jitsu or kickboxing could be expo’d at his expo, the promoter canceled the event.
That pretty much brings us up to date, when Vancouver asked the UFC to pay for extra cops around Rogers Arena next month. The company said no, with Director of Canadian Operations Tom Wright explaining in an email to MMA Fighting: “We remain supportive of law enforcement in every city we bring shows to, (but) we weren’t prepared to be ‘treated differently’ than other events/concerts/shows.”
As it stands, it doesn’t seem like this sticking point will threaten the viability of UFC 131. On the other hand, it does kind of feel like British Columbia needs to chill the fuck out.
Filed under: UFC, FanHouse ExclusiveUFC heavyweight Ben Rothwell and Andrei Arlovski aren’t friends, exactly. Not in the strictest sense of the word. They spent a little over ten minutes in the ring together back in July of 2008. Since then the two hea…
UFC heavyweight Ben Rothwell and Andrei Arlovski aren’t friends, exactly. Not in the strictest sense of the word. They spent a little over ten minutes in the ring together back in July of 2008. Since then the two heavyweights haven’t talked much.
Still, Rothwell said, it was a strange feeling watching the latest stop on Arlovski’s precipitous decline last Saturday night. Watching his former foe laid out on the canvas after getting knocked out by Sergei Kharitonov in the first round of the Strikeforce Grand Prix, he felt sick to his stomach, though he’s not entirely sure why.
“Seeing him knocked out like that, it makes me feel bad,” Rothwell said. “I couldn’t even be like, hey, awesome knockout. It’s like seeing that happen to a friend, and I don’t even know Andrei all that well. I just know him from when we fought, and before he was really cool to me and after he was really cool to me. I haven’t really talked to him since, so I don’t know why I feel that way, but you just have that kind of connection with someone you fought a war with. I don’t want to see him like that.”
Pat Barry may be the only fighter in the UFC who’s willing to admit it, but he’s pretty sure he’s not the only one who feels it.
When his impending fight against Joey Beltran at the UFC’s Fight for the Troops 2 finally began to seem a little more real this week, he wasn’t exactly feeling eager to get in there and slug it out. More like eager to get it over with.
“Honestly, I don’t think it’s anything new or particular to me,” Barry said. “I think most guys feel this, but they won’t tell you. Hell man, I can admit it. It’s the week of the fight; I don’t want to fight no more. You know? [Laughs] It’s like all of a sudden, the idea of fighting is very stupid.”
Now depending on how you’ve been spending your free time since June (as certain ‘recreational activities’ have been known to diminish one’s memory), you may or may not recall Pat Barry dropping Mirko “Cro Cop” at UFC 115, only to let the legendary fighter get back to his feet. At the time many were perplexed […]
Now depending on how you’ve been spending your free time since June (as certain ‘recreational activities’ have been known to diminish one’s memory), you may or may not recall Pat Barry dropping Mirko “Cro Cop” at UFC 115, only to let the legendary fighter get back to his feet. At the time many were perplexed by the fact that Barry didn’t swarm in for the finish, particularly because the bout soon turned in Cro Cop’s favor, who went on to tap out his younger opponent in the third round.
Well as it turned out, Barry had a pretty damn good reason as to why he didn’t swarm Cro Cop early in the bout; the punch that put Mirko on his ass also shattered Barry’s hand. We’re guessing searing pain like that justifies some hesitation…In an interesting interview with MMA FightingBarry discussed not only breaking his hand in the fight, but also his foot, which apparently had Cro Cop wondering soon after:
“We were on the ground in the second and he was on top of me punching me and he asked me what was wrong,” said Barry. “He said, ‘What’s wrong with you? Why’d you stop fighting?’ I told him, ‘I broke my hand,’ and he was like, ‘Bullsh*t.’ I said, ‘No sir. My hand is broken. That hand is gone.’”
Wow. There’s some honesty for you. Maybe Barry’s injuries partially explain why Cro Cop has been humming and hawing about retirement; taking nothing away from the legend, but this does dampen the ‘Cro Cop’s back’ mood a little no?
UFC heavyweight 
