I'm not covering WEC live tonight, first time that I've not been the one to do live coverage, but our report will be here and I'm sure to have comment when it is over.
If you don't have Showtime, or if you want a different view Showtime will have a cage cam for the main event which you'll be able to see live on Sho.com.
You may not miss Tim Sylvia but the UFC Heavyweight division will miss him badly. I don't know all the reasons he's leaving but Sylvia has been in the UFC a long time. He's expected to sign with M-1 Global which boggles my mind because I still don't think that promotion is going to run a show and even if they do run a show I don't see them making it more than a year.
Speaking of Kimbo...I was watching the season finale of Joe vs. Pro on Spike and Bob Sapp (I think that's his name) was one of the pros. Sapp used to be a football player who decided to venture into mma. I didn't know about him until this show and the guy is just a monster. 6'5", 345lbs!
Where does he fight? I'd really like to see him in action. Him against Kimbo would be sweet.
Well, Sapp last fought for the Strikeforce promotion in February on HDNet fights, Sapp lost in less than a minute. He made his name in Japan and he has fought some tough guys, I'm sure he fought Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira once. He mainly did K-1.
You can also see Bob Sapp in Adam Sandler's remake of the Longest Yard, which is where I well, thought I had seen him for the first time but that wasn't actually true.
Bob Sapp before getting in to MMA was under a WCW developmental contract in 2001. He has also negotiated to come in to both WWE and TNA at times. I'm pretty sure I saw him on WCW Thunder once, ah Thunder, good times...or not.
If you're interested in what I think of/thought of tonight's Strikeforce/EliteXC show you'll find my live thoughts/commentary here
Oh, and if you don't have Showtime, this is available on PPV as well but if it were me I'd just subscribe to Showtime for a day or 2, you'll pay less money.
My thoughts on the Frank Shamrock vs Cung Le fight. (set in spoiler tags for late watchers)
For a significant portion of the first two rounds, I felt like Frank Shamrock was toying with Cung Le to build up the fight and make the fans feel like they were getting their money's worth. That feeling had a lot to do with Cung's relative inexperience in MMA, and a few times when I felt Frank got close enough to take Cung to the ground (where I expected Frank to excel), but didn't do so.
As the fight went on, I had to entertain the notion that maybe Cung just has decent takedown defense. I still think Frank should have been able to take him down, but maybe not.
Somewhere in the later third round, Frank started unloading on Cung Le and my sense of apprehension rose. Those punches had bad intentions. If some of those punches had landed cleanly, Cung (or anyone else) would have been in trouble. I lost track of whether it was a 3-round or 5-round fight (yeah, I know... but I did), which robbed me of some of the impact of what happened to open the 4th round. Unable to answer the bell? I didn't see that coming. If I'd have been aware there was a 4th round coming, I would have guessed that Frank would continue unloading those power punches and continue to get Cung in trouble.
As it is, Cung Le defeats Frank Shamrock when Frank is unable to answer the 4th round bell.
I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that I'm one of those folks who doesn't particularly like Frank Shamrock (the person -- or at least the showman, not the fighter). But I saw some things in that fight. I saw a man with the heart of a champion, and I saw a very skilled guy. But in the end, the guy I wanted to win is the guy who won. Now the MMA world will have to give Cung Le at least a little more respect.
He means that in the time between the end of round 3 and the beginning of round 4 Shamrock told the doctor of his injury and that he couldn't continue so the Dr. stopped the fight at that point. So because round 3 had ended, and round 4 was set to begin, it was said that he couldn't answer the bell for the forth round.
The term answer the bell essentially means to come out for the next round, if you throw in the towel between rounds you are said to be unable to answer the bell for the next round. It is a common term especially in Boxing.