First, you’ve got in one corner, a group of sweaty athletes waiting in line, answering boring questions, and taking photos for the press. Friggin’ glamorous, right?

Second, you’ve got the #1-ranked pound-for-pound female MMA fighter in the world, in the other corner, letting off some steam on who she doesn’t want influencing her younger sister.

I would beat the crap out of Kim Kardashian, actually. Any girl who is famous and idolized because she made a sex video with some guy and that’s all she’s known for.

Now that is what I call class, and I’m being serious. Finally, we have someone who speaks the truth, and isn’t afraid to voice it whenever. When TMZ Live took the matters further with a follow-up, Ronda didn’t change her opinion one bit about Kim Kardashian, and also managed to gain a few extra fans with the TMZ crew. Brilliant work Ronda!

I think it’s official now. Ronda Rousey is definitely following in the footsteps of Chael Sonnen. Expect to see her inside the cage against Sarah Kaufman in STRIKEFORCE on August 18, 2012, in San Diego, California.

Kim, in the meantime, try not to cross paths with the Women’s Bantamweight Champion anytime soon. Unless you want a real ass kicking, and not another ass plugging.

Ronda Rousey Gets Rowdy On Kim Kardashian – Round 1

Source: SHOWTIME

The Top 5 Reasons To Watch MMA

I’m making it a bit of a personal mission of mine this week to bring some positivity to the various internet hubs where I post my random ramblings. I don’t actually have a name for this series yet, but perhaps it doesn’t need one. The point is simple: while there’s always a lot to complain about in MMA, sometimes we should just remember how amazing this sport can be. With that in mind, here are my top 5 reasons why we should do exactly that.

No.5 The level of competition continues to rise.

Back in the old-school days, it was very rare to see a relative unknown rise to the top quickly and dominantly. That’s why those fighters quickly became the most talked-about athletes in the sport. Today, and especially in the UFC, there’s an enormous influx of incredibly gifted, young talent. Jon Jones is the primary example, but in general, the quality of competition continues to improve in MMA, and it’s been improving drastically for the last several years now. Some examples include the explosion of the lighter-weight divisions, the amazing roster of fighters in the UFC’s Light Heavyweight division, and the complete overhaul and drastic spike up in quality of the UFC’s Heavyweight division.

No.4 Now more than ever, there’s plenty of MMA to see.

If a UFC show isn’t going on sometime throughout the week, I honestly feel like my week is missing something. Does that mean I’m spoiled? Maybe. But nevertheless, with or without the UFC there’s generally always something you can catch on TV or online if you try hard enough. Alongside the UFC you’ve got Bellator and Strikeforce, in addition to online programming and HDNet. There’s a whole lot of live MMA on nowadays, especially live and televised UFC events, and that’s definitely something to be thankful about.

No.3 Incompetency is a far lesser evil than corruption.

One of the biggest issues of the last several years has been the judging system in Mixed Martial Arts. I’m fully behind the majority on this issue: enough is enough and it’s time for a change. The one thing people seem to overlook, though, is that stupid judges aren’t as bad as corrupt judges, or corrupt officials in general. As it stands right now, incompetent judges are a frequent nuisance and a problem that sorely needs to be corrected. But corrupt judges and officials have set whole sports back by decades, and in the case of PRIDE FC, allegations of corruption not only killed that promotion but the Japanese MMA scene in general. I’ll take a stupid judge over a corrupt judge any day.

No.2 We’re primetime now.

It doesn’t get much bigger than a multi-year deal that includes several live shows put on during primetime on one of the largest television channels in the United States. The UFC signing with Fox was one of the largest steps forward the sport of MMA has ever taken, and it’s only just begun. Judging by press releases and the rumor mill, everyone involved in the deal seems pretty happy and excited, and it’s that positivity and energy that’s going to lead to bigger and greater shows.

No.1 Everything you love about MMA still exists; sometimes you just have to look harder for it.

Every show can’t be the greatest event of all time, every fight can’t be a five-star classic. But there’s still a lot of amazing promotions and amazing fighters out there. There’s still three-round all-out wars, there’s still amazing submissions, there’s still “OMGWTF” one-hit KTFO’s. Those moments you can’t miss, those moments that make you leap out of your seat and cheer, the moments you’ll be talking about with your friends (both online and off) for months… those moments still happen in MMA. That, above all else, is why I’m proud to still be an MMA fan. And I think that’s a fact we should all remember: while negative news stories and periods of negativity in general are cyclical, amazing moments in MMA will happen no matter what.

About the author

Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan, and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews, and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.

Source: STRIKEFORCE

Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal

The latter half of 2011 has not been kind to Strikeforce, which entered the year with a massive amount of potential, riding high from a 2010 that saw them put on arguably the best non-UFC events ever seen since the fall of PRIDE FC. Under the guise of “business as usual”, Strikeforce had almost all of its champions leave to the UFC, it had several other big-name fighters either leave to the UFC or outright fired by the new company heads, and it saw its promotional muscle severely cut back while attendance figures practically plummeted. It’s no wonder that former Strikeforce champion Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal called Strikeforce a “dying cancer patient”. But recently Lawal went back on those remarks. So which “King Mo” said the right thing? Here are my thoughts.

First, here are some quotes from Lawal himself that explains why he chose to go back on his earlier remarks. Courtesy of MMA Fighting:

“I was wrong to say it was a cancer patient. The cancer went into remission and Strikeforce is back. I’ve got one more fight on my contract and then my contract ends in February. King Mo just wants to go where he can get paid and get paid without the check bouncing.”

Recently, it was confirmed that Strikeforce had renewed its deal with Showtime until 2014. Alongside the official confirmation came a host of interesting developments: the dissolution of Strikeforce’s Heavyweight roster, a renewed focus on its women’s division, the promise of UFC fighters potentially coming down to Strikeforce, etc. If you believe the rumors, the goal is to make Strikeforce a “feeder league” to the UFC without ever actually coming out and admitting that it’s a feeder league.

To be honest, I don’t blame Lawal one bit for the comments he made about Strikeforce being a dying cancer patient. At the time he made them, those comments weren’t that far off the mark. We can debate whether or not it was offensive for Lawal to mention cancer patients in particular, but I think it was very clear that Strikeforce was headed towards the end at the time Lawal said what he said.

As one of the biggest Strikeforce fans out there, even I can admit that Lawal was being open, honest, and true about the state of Strikeforce at the time when he made that comment. And at that time… I honestly agreed with him.

For a few months now, I’ve felt that Strikeforce should just get it over with and pull the plug already. They’ve got almost nothing left: the UFC took it all from them. I’m not even an anti-UFC fan, those are simply the facts. The only champions left untouched in Strikeforce were the two women’s champions and the Lightweight and Middleweight champions. Everybody else went to the UFC, and worse off, the UFC even snatched up most of the good contenders in Strikeforce.

STRIKEFORCE

But now… now there’s hope. Now Strikeforce does have a shot at surviving… albeit in a completely different form, as a completely different company, with a completely different vision. It’ll still be Strikeforce… just a very, very, very different Strikeforce. So I do agree with Lawal that the end is no longer near. But I still agree with his original comments, because for a good stretch of weeks and months, it seemed like the end of Strikeforce was very near indeed.

About the author

Oliver Saenz, also known as PdW2kX, is a freelance journalist, opinion columnist, hardcore MMA fan, and lifelong video game nerd. For more news, views, previews, and reviews on all things Mixed Martial Arts as well as video games, be sure to visit FightGamesBlog.net.

Mallory Kane is a highly trained operative who works for a government security contractor in the dirtiest, most dangerous corners of the world. After successfully freeing a Chinese journalist held hostage, she is double crossed and left for dead by someone close to her in her own agency. Suddenly the target of skilled assassins who know her every move, Mallory must find the truth in order to stay alive.

Using her black-ops military training, she devises an ingenious—and dangerous—trap. But when things go haywire, Mallory realizes she’ll be killed in the blink of an eye unless she finds a way to turn the tables on her ruthless adversary.

Haywire (2011) Trailer

Source: Haywire

Fedor Emelianenko

Fans of the MMA pages of this magazine remember a short while ago an article I wrote on the difference between great and greatest when speaking of the best fighters in the sport. I included examples that separated the great fighters from the greatest fighters. In this list I named Fedor as one of the greatest and Dan Henderson as one of the greats (read the article if u fail to understand the difference).

I also mentioned that the greatest fighters are not cemented to that category if they are still active as a losing streak in their careers could drop them down a notch into the less stupendous but still elite category of great fighters. With Fedor’s loss at STRIKEFORCE’s event at the Sears Center on July 30th, 2011 to Henderson, his third loss in a row, it seems the polish is off the brass. Fedor is plummeting back down to earth and is in jeopardy of tarnishing what was once the greatest career in the history of the sport.

STRIKEFORCE: Dan Henderson vs. Fedor Emelianenko

Fedor is now at a crossroads. He must decide whether his desire for fighting outweighs the legacy he has set over the last decade. Will his place in history overcome his desire to continue to put fists to heads? Many fighters continue past their prime, and although Fedor is only 34 years of age at the time of the writing of this article, he could now have entered this stage of his career. He has mentioned in the recent past that injuries have been a concern, and are an influence when he was considering retirement after the Antonio Silva loss.

Photo via Darren Shuster, PR Representative for Dragon Door/RKC

The three losses by Fedor puts him at the cusp of the fall from being one of the greatest of all time. Another loss to a quality opponent will drop him into the great category along side Henderson, BJ Penn, Randy Couture and others. It’s great company to be in, just not the greatest.

STRIKEFORCE Nearing Its End?

STRIKEFORCE, an MMA promotion that was once hot on the heels of the UFC, looks like it’s getting ready to close up shop, just a few short months after Zuffa, LLC purchased the promotion. With the recent events surrounding STRIKEFORCE, it’s only a matter of time before they completely close their doors.

The first clue pointing to STRIKEFORCE’s demise was the departure of their Welterweight champion Nick Diaz. Diaz took an offer with the UFC to fight Georges St-Pierre, in the process leaving his STRIKEFORCE Welterweight championship vacant and without a champion.

Another indicator pointing towards the absolution of STRIKEFORCE was the firing of every fighter under the Golden Glory banner. This includes current STRIKEFORCE Heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem, brother Valentijn Overeem, former women’s Bantamweight champion Marloes Coenen & Jon Olav Einemo. According to Dana White, the mass firing was because of the way Goldon Glory ran their business, and in turn, their fighters.

The latest indication for STRIKEFORCE is the recent news that their poster boy and main prized possession Fedor Emelianenko would be cut from STRIKEFORCE following 3 straight losses.

To add insult to injury (at least for the STRIKEFORCE fan in all of us) is that the man that put Emelianenko in the unemployment line, Dan Henderson, just fought the last fight on his STRIKEFORCE contract and rumors are that he is in contract talks to re-enter the UFC.

Nothing is quite official yet, but it does look like the odds are clearly stacked against STRIKEFORCE. What do you think, is STRIKEFORCE going to join Pride and WEC in MMA heaven? Let us know in the comments section below.

Source: TheCageDoctor.com

Royce Gracie

What has always irked me is the over hype of many of the MMA stars by writers, commentators and fans over the years. Being a personality that prefers hard facts over emotional utterances, I find now is the best time to dispel some stupidities fostered over the last couple of decades. The main reason is that the sport has reached its defining stages. Every combatant out there now has a pedigree of expertise in every major form of fighting that has been proven successful in the cage and we now see (and have seen for quite awhile) that the better athlete with the best game plan is the one that dominates the sport. In other words there are few differences between one fighter and another other than talent, hard work, and planning and therefore comparisons should start to made.

But it seems that many of the writers, announcers and fans still don’t understand the difference between what is great and what is the greatest. Even the UFC Hall of Fame, like other sports, fails to show this difference.

I write this article knowing that once it is done I will be in the minority opinion, but that has never been a deterrent in this writer’s push to say what needs to be said, and that is, there is a major difference between the great and the greatest. The two should never be confused and they should never be interchanged.

Before I decide to write what many will consider some sacrilegious utterances, it’s time to define the difference that is the gulf between what is great and what is the greatest. When speaking of these two terms, as it pertains to MMA, and sport in general, the most important thing to mention is the failed attempts to compare athletes from different eras. In the end it never works.

Photo Credit: Susumu Nagao

If you tell me that Matt Hughes is greater than Royce Gracie, and you cite the fight at UFC 60 as your proof, then you fail to comprehend the importance of the term era. All that the fight in Los Angeles did was show that cage fighting had moved on the from single discipline contests it displayed in its early days to the Mixed Martial Arts contests we see today.

The fact is, the only way to rightly distinguish between great and greatest is to look on each fighter and see what he did against the competition he faced during his career. The great fighters were successful but the greatest fighters were dominating, and that is the clear difference. To interchange the two, as if they are both the same animal, which it seems most do on a consistent basis, is both stupid and insults the legacy of the greatest fighters in the history of the sport.

More on BJ Penn and Randy Couture on the next jump…

MMA Weight Classes

1. Flyweight under 125.9 lbs.;
2. Bantamweight 126 lbs. – 134.9 lbs.;
3. Featherweight 135 lbs. – 144.9 lbs.;
4. Lightweight 145 lbs. – 154.9 lbs.;
5. Welterweight 155 lbs. – 169.9 lbs.;
6. Middleweight 170 lbs. – 184.9 lbs.;
7. Light Heavyweight 185 lbs. – 204.9 lbs.;
8. Heavyweight 204 lbs. – 264.9 lbs.; and
9. Super Heavyweight over 265 lbs..

Most just round the numbers to show them this way:

1. Flyweight 125 lbs. and under;
2. Bantamweight 135 lbs.;
3. Featherweight 145 lbs.;
4. Lightweight 155 lbs.;
5. Welterweight 170 lbs.;
6. Middleweight 185 lbs.;
7. Light Heavyweight 205 lbs.;
8. Heavyweight over 205 lbs.; and
9. Super Heavyweight over 265 lbs..

But in reality they are wrong…

It’s just easier to say and show them that way on television and in conversation. At least that is my explanation as I took the information from Sub Chapter 24A (or to be more precise: 13:46-24A.1 Weight classes of mixed martial artists) of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board Regulations for the sport for the first list. Other jurisdictions have mostly adopted these weight classes as well.

The finer details of the discrepancies between what has become common language to television watchers and what the regulations state I’ll leave for another time as it is not the point of this article. I just thought the information would be useful as a starting point for what I will argue in the following paragraphs below. I will also use the second set of weight classes in my argument for the same reason as everyone else, that is ease of use.

As the title indicates, it is time for the world of MMA, in my opinion, to change its weight class designations. What I suggest isn’t a radical change but a relatively minor one and it only involves the Heavyweight and Super Heavyweight divisions.

If you look at the weight classes as they presently stand you see a pattern develop. If you start at the smallest, flyweight (125 lbs.), you see ten pound increases as you jump up in weight. Once you hit welterweight the jump to middleweight is 15 lbs., then 20 lbs. to light heavyweight. Lastly, you see a huge jump of 60 lbs. to reach super heavyweight.

Presumably the larger increases as you rise in weight class has to do with the human body’s structure. Meaning as weight classes rise the difference in weight between one fighter and another becomes less significant. The logic of this premise means a featherweight would has the exact same advantage over a bantamweight due to his extra 10 lbs. that a light heavyweight has over a middleweight with his 20 lbs.

Whether this is true or not, and there are arguments on both sides, it is easy to see that this does not apply to the heavyweight division. There is 60 lbs. of room within this weight class and routinely the bigger guy wins. If you go back in time when weight was less important than skill, smaller men could beat larger ones on a regular basis using better techniques and game plans. But that time has long since passed.

Fedor Emelianenko

Although it is fun to watch the exceptional fights at heavyweight where the lighter guy triumphs, mostly what you see is the bigger man over-power the smaller and take home a relatively easy win. What this has resulted in is many natural heavyweights dropping 20-30 lbs. to fight in the light heavyweight division (such as Couture) or face being out weighed by much larger men (such as happened to Cro Cop among others).

Josh Barnett

Each time the UFC saw that its competition was being raised it formed new divisions. As the sport became more popular, the number of professional fighters both increased and improved, and weight started to be an important factor in the outcome of fights. New divisions were a necessary evolution and the UFC responded. Now is the the time to continue that progression. Although there is no need to add another weight class to MMA, there is a need to modify two of its divisions to reflect the physical nature of their fighters. Hence the super heavyweight division should lower its weight requirements to the 235 lbs. range.

The super heavyweight division has always been a vacant weight class. Which seems like a shame to this writer. The Brock Lesnars and Shane Carwins of the world deserve their own division rather than fighting men much smaller than themselves and calling it a fair fight.