UFC Ongoing Thread - Page 41

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Likely that SpikeTV will be carrying UFC 89 this October. I can't say for sure that was it because I was watching Cotto-Margarito on PPV at the time but that's pretty much what everyone expected going in.

I was listening to Dave Meltzer's audio update today and he had a few interesting tidbits that relate to the discussion of Affliction, Fedor and the UFC that has gone on in this thread.

• He mentioned that UFC did try to sign Fedor offering him $1.5 million per fight and a $2 million signing bonus. The sticking points were that Fedor didn't like the fact that in a standard UFC contract a fighter can be cut after a loss but Meltzer said he could've negotiated for a provision that wouldn't see him cut unless he lost twice. He also said that Dana didn't like that Fedor didn't want to fight exclusively in the UFC and that Fedor's people tried to get fight contracts for Emelianenko's fight team as part of his contract.

I knew most of that stuff but it was nice to see Meltzer confirm. So, when it comes to Fedor nothing is ever simple and Meltzer said that you can't even count on Fedor-Arlovski happening on that second show yet even though he thinks it will happen.

• He said that cable industry people are telling him between 50,000 and 85,000 buys for the Affliction vent last week. There has been some argument on messageboards because Affliction sources are claiming they were told around 100,000 buys. The point is that Affliction estimated needing 300,000 buys to break even on the show. Expect a scaled back second show.

• He also said something which I had already known but not mentioned here. Even though Affliction did a 2 million gate it is misleading because the company purchased a number of those tickets itself and gave them out as comps. He thinks the gate was probably closer to $1.6 million.

Also last night's CBS/EliteXC show's ratings came in 50% lower this time around as compared to May's broadcast. Fortunately, neither side expected a big rating for show #2. Having no Kimbo Slice or Gina Carano will reduce your expectations quite a bit.

I have the show on my DVR but everyone says that I need to see the women's bout and Cristiane Cyborg Santos.

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well lets just one of the ladies thought they had the fight won and jumped up on the side of the cage while the girl was on the ground. Pretty hilarious.

I dont know if this was announced during the replay of Ill Will but I know it was just announced that Anderson Silva is fighting Patrick Cote at UFC 90 in chicago in late Oct. Goodnight Cote.

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I did watch the Cyborg fight and it was pretty funny when she thought the fight was over when it actually wasn't. What wasn't quite so funny was her pounding on Shayna Baszler until there was nothing left that was more amazing and brutal than funny.

The Ill Will announcement was the airing of UFC 89 on SpikeTV.

But yes, I don't like Cote's chances in Oct.

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The most amazing drug test failure I have ever seen

Seriously, this amazes me more than the time Nick Diaz tested positive for Marijuana and the commission said his numbers were such that he was probably high during the fight itself.

This beats the test where Kevin Randleman's test came back with a reading of no human hormones.

It even impresses me more than the time Melvin Guillard accused Joe Stevenson of being on HGH, then lost to Stevenson in 30 seconds and then tested positive for Cocaine.

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Casey, are you going to 87? Have you seen anything about any special events that they will be putting on, if any? Do you know what time the weigh ins typically are? Did you get tickets yet? Stub has some upper deck ones pretty cheap or you can sit lower deck for under $200. I think people will start to panic and drop prices more in the coming week. I had some upper deck and sold them to some friends, now I will be trying to get lower level.

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Josh, I am not going to be attending UFC 87. I have given some consideration to going to Fight Night 15 in September. It isn't that I didn't want to go to UFC it was more a legistical and travel decision.

I'll see if I can get the weigh-in time/location for you.

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Josh, weigh-ins are at the Target Center at 4:00 PM CT on Aug. 8.

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sweet, thanks. I cant wait. I think its going to be an awesome card. The only thing that would have made it better had Tito been on the card I did read where Babalu and Tito might be going at it in the next Affliction show. Lets hope so!

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EliteXC Medical Suspensions
EliteXC Fighter Salaries
Affliction 'Banned' Medical Suspensions

Also, I know a few of you were fans of my Power Rankings. Well, I didn't do them in June due to having way too much going on but they are back as of last Sunday.

• Lightweight

• Welterweight

• Middleweight

• Light Heavyweight

• heavyweight

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Woman miscarries after crash with Quinton 'Rampage' Jackson.

A Huntington Beach woman who was more than 16 weeks pregnant and who police said was injured in a hit-and-run crash with mixed martial artist Quinton “Rampage” Jackson on the 55 Freeway two weeks ago has had a miscarriage, her fiance said Friday.

Holli Griggs, 38, was driving her 2007 Cadillac Escalade in the left lane on the southbound 55 Freeway just south of Bay Street on July 15 when Jackson’s gray-and-green pick-up truck sideswiped her as he drove along the median lane at about 45 mph, California Highway Patrol officials said.

More bad news for Rampage if they try to pin the miscarriage on him -- even if the case goes to court and he eventually wins. You don't just wake up skipping and whistling when someone accuses you of killing their baby. Whether there'd be a preponderance of evidence that being sideswiped in an Escalade contributed to the miscarriage would be up to the courts to decide.

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sorry for the mom and dad. this is not good news for quinton either.

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Yes, the miscarriage is bad news for all involved, chiefly of course the family.

On a better note, WEC 35 is tonight with 3 title fights. I think it will be a good night of MMA as usual from the WEC.

I'm doing the honors so if you want my thoughts you'll be able to get them here

That link also has links to the Odds, Weigh-ins and my preview which actually has some substance even if all my picks end up wrong.

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Man that WEC main event was great!

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Hey guys, I know I've been quiet lately but I've been covering the Olympics so I have been otherwise occupied.

Anyway, some MMA news to catch up on Kimbo Slice reportedly has an opponent for Oct 4

It is Ken Shamrock and my post explains why I think that even if this fight displeases the purists, this was the fight that needed to happen.

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Hmm, were that Frank Shamrock going up against Kimbo I'd say he'd be in for a good fight. I might even give Frank the nod. But Ken? Unless he has really improved since his last fight, I think this is going to be a "big" name fed to Kimbo and he'll make quick work of him.

I don't think I said anything about Kimbo's last fight, but without saying there was a fix, I do think he was gifted that victory. At the end of the second round when he was pinned, I'm pretty sure I've seen fights called for what he was taking. I was pretty sure they were looking for some reason to call the fight in the third round and when Kimbo busted the guys ear open they had it.

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You probably have seen fights called for that, but that doesn't necessarily make those calls right or the decision to allow the Kimbo fight to go on.

I've watched the fight a few times since it first aired and really even though he was down and taking shots, they weren't exactly hard punches. Yeah he took a lot of them but if I take a lot of shots to the body with a feather pillow it probably isn't going to do that much damage.

So yeah, he was down and taking shots but none of them did all that much damage quite frankly and I really don't think they were cause to stop the fight.

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CBS, Oct. 4.

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I'll be watching. I don't think I'm a purist, with one possible exception -- I'd think it's "unfortunate" if the face of MMA is Kimbo Slice. But using people's morbid curiosity to rope them in and unsuspectingly hitting them with some high quality MMA fighters is fine by me.

Prediction for Kimbo vs Ken? Ken hasn't been a top tier fighter for some time, but the knowledge and skills are still there. Still, he'll gas if he can't catch Kimbo early. Does Kimbo have enough submission and takedown defense yet? I don't see Ken winning a stand-up. I have no prediction, which I guess is why we watch them.

I thought they were talking about matching Kimbo with one of the other heavyweights from the last card. The guy who has been calling him out. Unfortunately, I forget his name, which is probably another reason we ended up with Ken Shamrock.

[edited for typos]

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My prediction, Kimbo ends it quickly.

Shamrock hasn't won a fight in ages and looked terrible back in March against Robert Berry. Just typing that part about Berry makes me think I've said enough.

If Ken can get him down, he has a chance to do some damage, he did put Rich Franklin on crutches for a week back when they fought in 2005 but even with Kimbo's shotty takedown defense, I just don't see it.

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This is the stupidest thing that I have ever written about and that covers some serious, serious territory.

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If the news on Brock Lesnar's potential next opponent can't generate a good discussion then this thread is in a world of hurt.

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I don't get too invested in the rumors until I see some reason to believe there's a real basis for them. I don't know why Brock would want that fight. I don't like handicapping UFC events, but in exactly what area does Brock surpass Randy? The one skill Brock has in his favor -- wrestling -- is an area where Randy is no slouch himself. If I line up attributes, all I see are youth and strength in Brock's favor.

Casey's talked before about matchmaking that benefits the UFC. I'd have to sit back and think about how this benefits the UFC. If Brock is their star of the future, why sacrifice him like this? On the other hand, if you remind people Randy's a top fighter, then get Fedor into the UFC, I can see why Dana'd do it. Following that line of thinking, Brock could survive a loss and still be in line for the title down the line after Randy retires (after the Fedor superfight) and a few more wins against others. After all, his loss to Mir is doing nothing to stifle his popularity.

I'd love to see Randy back in the ring where he belongs. He may have done some amazing things, but I can tell you from experience that you cannot beat Father Time -- you can only stall him. The last year has been a significant year to lose for Randy. Maybe age would finally even that fight to some degree.

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Thats funny, I came to this thread to post that I had read about this rumor! I read that Cotoure is in training now for a possible fight. I think Randy is coming to the realization that he is getting old and only has so much time left. I think the Lesnar nut huggers have convinced Randy that Lesnar is getting to be a legit threat and can add to Randy's legacy. For the record, I really like Lesnar.

Then the rumor is that Randy would face Fedor(IN THE UFC) in the Super Bowl weekend show in Montreal. GSP and Penn are rumored to be fighting that night too. Fedor cant fight in the US with another promotion but obviously with Montreal not in the US, he could fight Randy there.

Its a win-win for the UFC with Lesnar. Even if he loses to Randy, they can say "well he lost to a UFC hall of famer and champ". If he wins, well the benefits would be obvious. I hate to say it, but I think Lesnar could actually take this.

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First off, it isn't a rumor, they're talking, whether that means they'll come to an agreement for the fight is a different matter but they are absolutely negotiating for it.

Second, why would they do it? They are having a lot of trouble finding a main event for the November show, that's why they would do it.

Brock isn't just younger than Randy and he isn't just stronger...he's much younger and much stronger. I believe Brock has more power in his hands than Randy and I also think he is quicker than Randy. I see Randy's advantages as being his ability to finish and his ability to gameplan for any opponent (his game planning is why I gave Forrest a better chance of beating Rampage than a lot of people).

As for Fedor it just isn't going to happen. Fedor wants too much that the UFC just doesn't want to give him. He wants large sums of money and he wants a non-exclusive contract and the last time he was talking to the UFC, he wanted spots in the company for members of his red devil fight team. Fedor's management doesn't exactly have the reputation for being reasonable negotiators often described as hard to deal with and even as those crazy Russians. It is part of the reason the whole M-1 Global disaster happened the way it did.

It benefits the UFC to make this match because the PPV will with out any question do one of the best buyrates of the year which will be quite an accomplishment given it probably won't do anything serious without that match with everyone waiting for December instead. Plus, if Randy wins you do Randy Vs. Nogueira and Randy has even expressed an interest in fighting Liddell once more. If Brock wins, well then he just beat Randy Couture and cements himself as having arrived. Even if Randy wins, losing to Randy Couture will bring no shame to Lesnar because how many guys has Couture beaten?

Why Randy would do this is quite simple. I think that he has finally realized something which I could have told him on day 1 of this whole situation. I think he is finally starting to realize that he has to fight for the UFC. There is no difference between this Couture situation and a situation where an NFL player under contract holds out to get a better contract. The NFL player cn't simply retire and then come back and play for another team when his contract runs out, his contract freezes with the number of years it had left on it being unchanged so the team he retired from retains his rights.
Randy simply tried to quit the UFC, made no bones that he still wanted to fight thus he didn't even pretend to retire. Well, his UFC contract says 2 more fights, so he still owes them 2 fights. His legal ground was shaky to start with and he's finally starting to realize it.

That is at least my best guess.

Incidentally, they're talking a 3-fight contract.
and

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One more thing. If you're asking me today who I would pick to win this fight, I am going with Lesnar. I've been burned by picking against Randy before which is why I hesitate to make such an early prediction. However, not only is Lesnar stronger and younger and quicker...he'll also come in to this fight with some 60 pounds on Randy who would probably walk in to the Octagon at 220 while Brock would probably be at around 280. I don't know about him finishing Randy he'd probably win by decision but it isn't hard for me to imagine Brock taking him down and pounding on him for X-number of rounds using his strength to keep Randy down, not to mention his bulk.

Randy would have to hope for either catching Brock with a submission off his back or somehow gaining top position and executing some lethal ground and pound and I don't know how he can out muscle Brock Lesnar.

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Casey, so say Randy fights Lesnar in Nov, do you think Randy is introduced as the champion, interim or nothing at all? I wonder if a Randy loss would take any luster off a Fedor fight, I mean, if he cant beat Lesnar, he sure aint beating Fedor. There are going to be some sick fights rumored/happening the next 6 months...A Silva v Liddell, Filho v A Silva, Forrest vs ?, Nog v Mir, GSP v Penn and many others associated with Fedor, Randy and Lesnar. Cant wait!

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Well, the championship thing is interesting because if he comes back as the champion, he has to defend against Lesnar. Non-title matches involving champions are never a good idea because if the champion gets beat it weakens the value of the belt because...the champion just got beat and is still the champion. Pride used to do those all the time in Japan but that's a different crowd.

A 5-round fight with Lesnar is in Randy's favor just because it allows for a longer fight in which Brock could make a mistake that could cost him.

As for the next few months, it looks great for the UFC. Penn Vs. St. Pierre on Superbowl weekend, possibly Couture Vs. Lesnar on Nov. 15 and if Liddell wins on Saturday, especially if he looks good than pencil in Liddell Vs. Forrest for Dec. 27 and maybe Quinton Vs. Wanderlei as well. I still think Anderson Silva Vs. Chuck Liddell is awhile off yet, maybe not until May of next year at the earliest and I'm not going to count on Filho-Silva anytime soon because they keep saying different things as far as whether they'd even do it. Plus, I'm not convinced that Filho is as good as his middleweight ranking would indicate and I'm not totally sold on him beating Chael Sonnen next week.

Besides, to me the most intriguing possible fight coming up is once again in the WEC. If Miguel Torres and Manny Tapia meet in December as has been rumored I think it will sneak in just in time for fight of the year consideration. Also, Urijah Faber Vs. Waggney Fabiano intrigues me. But, maybe the dream match I would most like to see down the road more than Fedor V. Couture, Liddell V. Silva, Penn V. GSP II is Faber Vs. Torres.

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It looks like Tuesdayy at 12:00 PM PT will be the announcement of the fight.