Luis "Sapo" Santos vs Alfreda Moralesa Fight Video - Frontkick KO
Statistics: Posted by MS — Mar 31. 2014, 23:23 — Replies 0 — Views 3
lundi 31 mars 2014
WSOF 9 payouts
Main Card (NBC Sports Network)
Rousimar Palhares ($25,000 + $25,000 = $50,000) def. Steve Carl ($20,000)
Marlon Moraes ($25,000 + $25,000 = $50,000) def. Josh Rettinghouse ($4,000)
Yushin Okami ($20,000 + $20,000 = $40,000) def. Svetlozar Savov ($4,000)
Josh Burkman ($25,000 + no win bonus = $25,000) def. Tyler Stinson ($7,000)
Johnny Nunez ($2,000 + $2,000 = $4,000) def. Ozzy Dugulubgov ($6,000)
Preliminary Card (NBCSports.com)
Mike Corey ($4,000 + $4,000 = $8,000) def. Shane Kruchten ($3,000)
Bryson Hansen ($1,500 + $1,500 = $3,000) def. Sean Cantor ($500)
Chris Gruetzemacher ($6,000 + $6,000 = $12,000) def. John Gunderson ($2,000)
Brenson Hansen ($3,000 + $3,000 = $6,000) def. Boostayre Nefarios ($1,000)
Preliminary Card (Unaired)
Danny Davis Jr. ($1,000 + $1,000 = $2,000) def. Phil Dace ($1,000)
Jimmy Spicuzza ($1,000 + $1,000 = $2,000) def. Gil Guardado ($1,000)
Mma fighting.com
Rousimar Palhares ($25,000 + $25,000 = $50,000) def. Steve Carl ($20,000)
Marlon Moraes ($25,000 + $25,000 = $50,000) def. Josh Rettinghouse ($4,000)
Yushin Okami ($20,000 + $20,000 = $40,000) def. Svetlozar Savov ($4,000)
Josh Burkman ($25,000 + no win bonus = $25,000) def. Tyler Stinson ($7,000)
Johnny Nunez ($2,000 + $2,000 = $4,000) def. Ozzy Dugulubgov ($6,000)
Preliminary Card (NBCSports.com)
Mike Corey ($4,000 + $4,000 = $8,000) def. Shane Kruchten ($3,000)
Bryson Hansen ($1,500 + $1,500 = $3,000) def. Sean Cantor ($500)
Chris Gruetzemacher ($6,000 + $6,000 = $12,000) def. John Gunderson ($2,000)
Brenson Hansen ($3,000 + $3,000 = $6,000) def. Boostayre Nefarios ($1,000)
Preliminary Card (Unaired)
Danny Davis Jr. ($1,000 + $1,000 = $2,000) def. Phil Dace ($1,000)
Jimmy Spicuzza ($1,000 + $1,000 = $2,000) def. Gil Guardado ($1,000)
Mma fighting.com
Statistics: Posted by JM Barrie — Mar 31. 2014, 20:50 — Replies 1 — Views 23
The Tao of Dean Lister
Dean Lister is a classic example of the unlikely athletic savant--the hard-drinking Babe Ruth of the grappling world. Where the Great Bambino would stumble into the stadium after a weeklong bender and hit another homerun, Dean’s been known to stumble onto the mat after a weeklong bender and hit another heel-hook.
Lister isn’t the caliber of athlete as, let’s say, a Georges Saint-Pierre, but he’s a brilliant artist. His jiu-jitsu ability, specifically his innovative leg-locks, has taken him to the UFC and Pride, and he is one of the top-rated grappling competitors in the world. In March, he will face Renato “Babalu” Sobral at the Metamoris grappling event.
I flew to San Diego, California, to hang out with Dean at his small two-bedroom apartment on the beach near the academy where he teaches. He shares the place with various traveling journeyman fighters who come to train with him and who sleep in one of the two bunkbeds in the extra bedroom he rents out for 30 bucks a night. He owns just a couple of pieces of furniture. The rest of the place is mostly filled with trophies and plaques.
Dean is an introspective guy, and we spent most of the day talking about his life, his vices, and the personality archetype of fighters. The following are some selections of his musings, from what I’m calling the Tao of Dean.
On Drinking and Women
MMA is more mental than physical. I feel the difference in my performance when I’m not partying, but there’s this weird little thing about fighting: If you are having a hard time in a match and you mentally accept that you are going to lose, then you lose almost every time. It’s like a flame that you can’t let go out. It could start out as the biggest fire, but as long as it’s still lit, you can keep fighting. In a lot of matches I have had, I had a big flame that went down to the size of a candlelight, but I never, never let it go out. So, that’s the biggest thing. I think people that have not gone through crazy struggles in their life allow their fire to go out completely. This is more important than conditioning. This is a prerequisite.
I started drinking a lot when I got divorced. I was married to Miss Brazil. I went a little nuts. It was a perfect storm. At the same time I was getting divorced I was switching from Pride to the UFC. I was doing the Ultimate Fighter show in Vegas with Tito [Ortiz]. So I’m all fucked up in the head, I’m living in Vegas, I’m on a TV show so wherever I go out people are like, ‘Dude, you want a free bottle?' It was like that.
It sounds stuck-up but I got used to dating all these supermodels, like really … Miss Brazil, Miss Switzerland, Turkey. You get to the pinnacle of what western society would consider a beautiful woman and then it’s like, “What’s more than that? Nothing.” I was married to one of the most beautiful woman in the world and it was boring. Boring. Boooooring. You can get used to anything in life. You can get accustomed to misery or comfort.
I went to Ireland and fought this guy Rodney Moore in 2012. All the Irish fighters kept telling me that yanks couldn’t drink a lick. We lined up Guinnesses and I downed eight of them in a row. I made them apologize.
In 2011, I got roofied by accident. It was meant for a girl--this girl from L.A., and she didn’t want to drink it. She knew I can drink a lot, so she came over and gave it to me like, “Here, drink this for me.” It was this big plastic cup of cranberry vodka. I downed it real fast. It tasted salty at the end. I don’t remember much after that. They brought a priest into my room at the hospital and my heard stopped. I woke up with a tube in my throat and a catheter. That wasn’t comfortable by the way [laughs]. I started winning more after that. Something changed subconsciously. I’m a lot more assertive now.
I have a $28,000 medical bill from that. Ten hours in the emergency room. I’m not ever going to be able to pay that. If I do it will be in 10 years when they will accept 10% of it or whatever. It’s absurd.
I haven’t drank for three weeks. But yeah … who knows?
On Moderation
I fought in front of 90,000 people when I fought Ricardo Arona in Pride. 90,000 people watching me walk down to the ring to fight another guy. You get used to that and you want to do that again and again. And then what happens is fighters will start taking higher and higher chances. And then when that is no longer available, it’s “What can I do now? You know what? Let’s go drinking, lets go crazy, let's see what will happen.” It can get dangerous. It’s a typical thing for my kind of personality--the personality that needs action.”
Fighters can focus in on their art because it’s their drug of choice. The addictive personality can be used in a very good way or a very bad way. Taking some things in life in moderation is wise, but if you keep everything moderate you will probably go crazy.
On Living a Simple Life
If you strive for more material comfort you will get used to it. So then you bust your ass to get even more comfort and you get used to it again. I don’t know … what’s the point?
I try to invest my energy in experiences and not possessions. The immaterial--anything involving my passion like my experiences, languages, and my skill as an artist. Why bust your ass to buy that shit you don’t need?
I’m going to come back from doing seminars in Europe with a little bit of money. I wont buy anything with it. I’ll use it on things involving jiu-jitsu, not on some Rolex watch … but I heard they make some pretty good fake ones now [laughs].
I heard that only 3% of people are doing what the want in life. That’s because sometimes in order to live the life you want, you have to pay your dues. When I first started training I used to live in my car. I would take showers at the beach. I had my little bathroom kit. In the morning I would go buy a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. Back then it was real cheap. That’s how I lived for years.
When I was younger I lived in Grants Pass, Oregon. Up there is a river called the Rogue River. It’s actually a decently dangerous river if you don’t know what you’re doing. You really need a guide. My parents divorced when I was 15 or 16 and Mom was dating a guy named Brad. I liked him, he was a cool guy, and he had hired a guide to take us out on the river on day. The guide almost looked like a homeless guy. He lived in a van. He inflated this big raft--it took him 20 minutes to do it. His thing was that he knew the river. He’s like, “This part of the river--if you drop in right there the current will take you to the bottom and you’re dead.” He would point out, “Well this rock here you have to steer left of.” He was bragging. You could tell he was happy. The guy’s life was around that river. He was happy! We spent eight hours on the river and I got a sunburn. I’m just saying that that guy is a three percenter.
On the Sociology of Fighters
What did the old western gunslingers do? They ate beef jerky, drank whiskey, and shot up towns.
I have a friend who went to jail for armed robbery. I won't say his name, but he’s a very accomplished fighter. He told me that the personality types of a UFC fighter, a bank robber, and a Navy SEAL are all the same. Not accomplishment-wise, but the personality type. "I’ll charge across the battle field, I’ll jump out of the airplane"—it’s not always a healthy lifestyle. But as the saying goes, “There are many brave men in the graveyard.”
Fighters? They party. They party like maniacs.
In sociology you learn that in life there’s five main personality types. There’s the Conformist, the Retreatist, the Ritualist, the Rebel, and the Innovator. A Conformist is someone who accepts society’s values and goes about conventional ways to achieve things, like a stockbroker or a doctor. An Innovator accepts what society tells them they need but goes about getting those things in unconventional ways. The Ritualist doesn’t really care about society's values and what is expected of them. He hangs legal; he’s just a little weird. That’s the guy on the river. He’s not doing anything wrong. He blows up his boat everyday. He’s not rich, but he’s happy. A Retreatist is like a crackhead: someone who doesn’t accept society’s values but who also doesn’t work the same way in society. A Rebel, the most difficult to find, is someone who tries to redefine society and redefine the way you should get things. I don’t know if I’m part Rebel, an Innovator, or a Ritualist. You don’t have to be just one thing. Those are just the archetypes.
I used to be a Conformist. I used to think in the typical douchebag way. If all you have are things, you are empty. Money is just a tool. I’m far from that now.
Listen to me getting crazy with the sociological terms, man.
http://ift.tt/1jw46MK
Lister isn’t the caliber of athlete as, let’s say, a Georges Saint-Pierre, but he’s a brilliant artist. His jiu-jitsu ability, specifically his innovative leg-locks, has taken him to the UFC and Pride, and he is one of the top-rated grappling competitors in the world. In March, he will face Renato “Babalu” Sobral at the Metamoris grappling event.
I flew to San Diego, California, to hang out with Dean at his small two-bedroom apartment on the beach near the academy where he teaches. He shares the place with various traveling journeyman fighters who come to train with him and who sleep in one of the two bunkbeds in the extra bedroom he rents out for 30 bucks a night. He owns just a couple of pieces of furniture. The rest of the place is mostly filled with trophies and plaques.
Dean is an introspective guy, and we spent most of the day talking about his life, his vices, and the personality archetype of fighters. The following are some selections of his musings, from what I’m calling the Tao of Dean.
On Drinking and Women
MMA is more mental than physical. I feel the difference in my performance when I’m not partying, but there’s this weird little thing about fighting: If you are having a hard time in a match and you mentally accept that you are going to lose, then you lose almost every time. It’s like a flame that you can’t let go out. It could start out as the biggest fire, but as long as it’s still lit, you can keep fighting. In a lot of matches I have had, I had a big flame that went down to the size of a candlelight, but I never, never let it go out. So, that’s the biggest thing. I think people that have not gone through crazy struggles in their life allow their fire to go out completely. This is more important than conditioning. This is a prerequisite.
I started drinking a lot when I got divorced. I was married to Miss Brazil. I went a little nuts. It was a perfect storm. At the same time I was getting divorced I was switching from Pride to the UFC. I was doing the Ultimate Fighter show in Vegas with Tito [Ortiz]. So I’m all fucked up in the head, I’m living in Vegas, I’m on a TV show so wherever I go out people are like, ‘Dude, you want a free bottle?' It was like that.
It sounds stuck-up but I got used to dating all these supermodels, like really … Miss Brazil, Miss Switzerland, Turkey. You get to the pinnacle of what western society would consider a beautiful woman and then it’s like, “What’s more than that? Nothing.” I was married to one of the most beautiful woman in the world and it was boring. Boring. Boooooring. You can get used to anything in life. You can get accustomed to misery or comfort.
I went to Ireland and fought this guy Rodney Moore in 2012. All the Irish fighters kept telling me that yanks couldn’t drink a lick. We lined up Guinnesses and I downed eight of them in a row. I made them apologize.
In 2011, I got roofied by accident. It was meant for a girl--this girl from L.A., and she didn’t want to drink it. She knew I can drink a lot, so she came over and gave it to me like, “Here, drink this for me.” It was this big plastic cup of cranberry vodka. I downed it real fast. It tasted salty at the end. I don’t remember much after that. They brought a priest into my room at the hospital and my heard stopped. I woke up with a tube in my throat and a catheter. That wasn’t comfortable by the way [laughs]. I started winning more after that. Something changed subconsciously. I’m a lot more assertive now.
I have a $28,000 medical bill from that. Ten hours in the emergency room. I’m not ever going to be able to pay that. If I do it will be in 10 years when they will accept 10% of it or whatever. It’s absurd.
I haven’t drank for three weeks. But yeah … who knows?
On Moderation
I fought in front of 90,000 people when I fought Ricardo Arona in Pride. 90,000 people watching me walk down to the ring to fight another guy. You get used to that and you want to do that again and again. And then what happens is fighters will start taking higher and higher chances. And then when that is no longer available, it’s “What can I do now? You know what? Let’s go drinking, lets go crazy, let's see what will happen.” It can get dangerous. It’s a typical thing for my kind of personality--the personality that needs action.”
Fighters can focus in on their art because it’s their drug of choice. The addictive personality can be used in a very good way or a very bad way. Taking some things in life in moderation is wise, but if you keep everything moderate you will probably go crazy.
On Living a Simple Life
If you strive for more material comfort you will get used to it. So then you bust your ass to get even more comfort and you get used to it again. I don’t know … what’s the point?
I try to invest my energy in experiences and not possessions. The immaterial--anything involving my passion like my experiences, languages, and my skill as an artist. Why bust your ass to buy that shit you don’t need?
I’m going to come back from doing seminars in Europe with a little bit of money. I wont buy anything with it. I’ll use it on things involving jiu-jitsu, not on some Rolex watch … but I heard they make some pretty good fake ones now [laughs].
I heard that only 3% of people are doing what the want in life. That’s because sometimes in order to live the life you want, you have to pay your dues. When I first started training I used to live in my car. I would take showers at the beach. I had my little bathroom kit. In the morning I would go buy a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk. Back then it was real cheap. That’s how I lived for years.
When I was younger I lived in Grants Pass, Oregon. Up there is a river called the Rogue River. It’s actually a decently dangerous river if you don’t know what you’re doing. You really need a guide. My parents divorced when I was 15 or 16 and Mom was dating a guy named Brad. I liked him, he was a cool guy, and he had hired a guide to take us out on the river on day. The guide almost looked like a homeless guy. He lived in a van. He inflated this big raft--it took him 20 minutes to do it. His thing was that he knew the river. He’s like, “This part of the river--if you drop in right there the current will take you to the bottom and you’re dead.” He would point out, “Well this rock here you have to steer left of.” He was bragging. You could tell he was happy. The guy’s life was around that river. He was happy! We spent eight hours on the river and I got a sunburn. I’m just saying that that guy is a three percenter.
On the Sociology of Fighters
What did the old western gunslingers do? They ate beef jerky, drank whiskey, and shot up towns.
I have a friend who went to jail for armed robbery. I won't say his name, but he’s a very accomplished fighter. He told me that the personality types of a UFC fighter, a bank robber, and a Navy SEAL are all the same. Not accomplishment-wise, but the personality type. "I’ll charge across the battle field, I’ll jump out of the airplane"—it’s not always a healthy lifestyle. But as the saying goes, “There are many brave men in the graveyard.”
Fighters? They party. They party like maniacs.
In sociology you learn that in life there’s five main personality types. There’s the Conformist, the Retreatist, the Ritualist, the Rebel, and the Innovator. A Conformist is someone who accepts society’s values and goes about conventional ways to achieve things, like a stockbroker or a doctor. An Innovator accepts what society tells them they need but goes about getting those things in unconventional ways. The Ritualist doesn’t really care about society's values and what is expected of them. He hangs legal; he’s just a little weird. That’s the guy on the river. He’s not doing anything wrong. He blows up his boat everyday. He’s not rich, but he’s happy. A Retreatist is like a crackhead: someone who doesn’t accept society’s values but who also doesn’t work the same way in society. A Rebel, the most difficult to find, is someone who tries to redefine society and redefine the way you should get things. I don’t know if I’m part Rebel, an Innovator, or a Ritualist. You don’t have to be just one thing. Those are just the archetypes.
I used to be a Conformist. I used to think in the typical douchebag way. If all you have are things, you are empty. Money is just a tool. I’m far from that now.
Listen to me getting crazy with the sociological terms, man.
http://ift.tt/1jw46MK
Statistics: Posted by jitsubr — Mar 31. 2014, 18:52 — Replies 0 — Views 13
Kron Gracie on Jiu-Jitsu, Skateboarding, Brother, Father
“I’m losing the match. I am doing everything I can to survive. I put my life into escaping. I finally escape and I look over at my Dad and I ask him how much time is left. He says, ‘One minute,' and I can feel in the way he said it he was so disappointed--like, ‘Oh, you f*cking idiot, how could you let this happen to you?'
“So I’m like, ‘Okay.' I had been training a lot of one-minute drills. So in my mind one minute is a long time. I drilled for hours where I have a fresh guy come in every minute for months. I’m going nuts--I pass his guard and I get his back. I look over at the score. I thought it was 3-3, but it was 6-3; I didn’t know he had gotten the back points twice. So I’m going for the choke, he’s defending well. I’m like, ‘I’m not going to stop, I’m not going to stop.' I squeezed with everything I had left. He tapped out with three seconds left on the clock.
“So that was my first day.”
– Kron Gracie
Kron Gracie just got back from Beijing, where he won his division in the Abu Dhabi Combat Club (ADCC) finals, the most prestigious grappling tournament in the world. He submitted all his opponents, a feat only a few have ever achieved. A few days later he was back in Santa Monica, California, ready to get back to his first passion: skating.
“My first love was skateboarding,” Kron says when he picks me up in his blue vintage Ford Bronco and we head to the famous Venice Beach bowl. “I got decent when I was 10. I had little skate shop sponsors, but I was never really good like the kids my age who were in the magazines. They were twice as good as me. If I was ollie-ing an 11-stair, they were ollie-ing 20 stairs."
Kron drops in as soon as we arrive. As I fumble around with my camera he lands a few tricks and falls (rather gracefully) a couple of times. “Nobody has ever taken pictures of me skating before,” he says grinning. Kron is good-looking and charismatic enough to seem famous to those outside of the fighting world. In fact, the skatepark is the only place in town where he doesn't appear to know everyone, and the pro skaters seem a little confused as to why a B-level skater is getting his photo taken.
"I miss skating so much," Kron says. "Sunday is the only day I skate. I need something to release my stress, something to enjoy. I do so many things for my profession that I need to release the pressure that builds up. I usually skate on a little street cruiser. You saw how I do those little slides--it helps me stay calmer. It makes me come back on Monday stronger. I will be so refreshed because I had fun and it had nothing to do with jiu-jitsu, nothing to do with training my body to get better, just letting loose. It’s always a risk. But that risk is what I like. I like the fact if I go too hard I could get hurt and f*ck my life up.
“I hurt my wrist two months before ADCC. I was at the half-pipe just killing it. I’m grinding like, ‘Woo, I got this shit,' and just when I thought I was doing good and tried to stick it, I fell on my wrist. I thought I had broken it. I was thinking, ‘Fuck, my dad is going to be so mad.'”
Kron’s dad is Rickson Gracie, a world-renowned mixed martial artist and trailblazer in the sport. Rickson is considered by some to be the most dominant jiu-jitsu fighter in the whole Gracie family, and he made his name proving the effectiveness of the art in open-weight exhibition matches in Brazil. After moving to California in 1989, Rickson and his brothers’ Los Angeles academy became the center of the rapidly expanding Gracie jiu-jitsu universe.
“I was here when my Dad had his first academy in a shitty building next to an auto body shop,” Kron says. “It was so smelly. The UFC had just started, so it was only people that wanted to learn how to fight to defend themselves on the street. And that was it. There was no fandom. It wasn’t bougie, and nobody was trying to sell jiu-jitsu to you. There were no franchises or market for it. At that time there was no other competition.
“I grew up when it was the most real it could possibly be. And that’s how I try to keep it now. I keep it real, cause that’s what I believe in, and that’s what I believe is right. I’ve been working so hard to prove that my dad’s jiu-jitsu is the best and my image is the same. But what people don’t know is that I’ve only put my gi on with my dad under 100 times. I’ve been on my own since I was 17. My dad only taught me when I was very young.”
Kron’s older brother Rockson was tough, outgoing, and outrageous. As a teenager he tattooed his last name across the back of his head and “21st Century Warrior” on his shoulders. Kron was more of a surf-kid and more passively set himself to training and competing in jiu-jitsu tournaments alongside his brother. When Rockson passed away in 2000 Rickson went into seclusion and Kron put down his skateboard to focus on stepping into the role of the next great hard-nosed Gracie.
"By the age of 12 I had broken each of my ankles twice [skating]," Kron says. "That’s when my brother told me that whatever I do, I should do it 100 percent, whether it’s being a skater or a doctor--don’t take it lightly. He said I am lucky enough to have access to the best jiu-jitsu family, the best jiu-jitsu father, and the best academy. It would be stupid for me not to take advantage of it. But he ended the conversation by telling me I could do whatever I wanted. I listened, but then when he passed away I felt like it was my mission to do what he wanted.“
Like his father before him, Kron is a polarizing personality in the grappling world. Even as a kid at BJJ tournaments, he had that garage-academy vibe. He is way more hip-hop than his cousins. His attitude echoes the young and wild Rickson of yore.
Still, Kron says for years he felt little but resentment for his father, who left his mother when Kron was still young.
“My mom and my dad have had a tough marriage and he stuck with it for the kids, until he thought I was ready to be on my own. Right when he felt that moment, he left,” Kron says. “It was literally overnight and he was like, ‘Well I’m outta here and I’m going back to Brazil.' I was decent at jiu-jitsu at the time but I was still just a kid. I was really upset. I was thinking that he should be here supporting me and teaching me lessons and doing all these things for me and making sure my hip movements were right. I had nobody to turn to. All I had were my students and my training partners. So I just trained. Up until last year I had resentment. He could have made me so much better!”
Kron looks out over the beach. “But then it just clicked for me: My dad is not ever going to be my coach again,” he says. “I was still expecting him to come train with me before Worlds every year. He would call me and be like, ‘Oh I’ll come train.' He would show up a week before, say, ‘Whatsup’ to me, disappear, and then show up right at the time of my fight.
“A year ago, right before the first Metamoris, he told me he was going to show up and train. He showed up again right at my fight, and we sat next to each other. And you know, at that time I had resentment towards him because I was thinking, ‘You told me you would show up three weeks before my fight like always and you didn’t.' But that’s not what mattered. All that mattered was that he’s sitting there right then. I started thinking about my brother and I started crying, and then we both started crying. Nobody said a word. It was very spiritual. He continued not to say anything to me, and I went into fight. I won and I realized it has nothing to do with jiu-jitsu anymore, you know? He’s just my father. I can’t expect him to be my coach. So now, every time he comes into town, I don’t even ask him to train. I don’t even ask him questions about jiu-jitsu. And since then, he’s come down and helped me train and he shows up! It’s very weird.
"Now I think that leaving me at such an early was his way to make me a man and let me do it all my own way. Now, at 25 I feel like I’m so much more than I would have been. As soon as I was on my own and I had to fight for myself, I started to win. I have a responsibility and obligation to compete and represent my father and grandfather. That’s owed. I can’t just live off my family’s name. I don’t feel like that’s right. I could just run my academy and sell merchandise, and I could just do seminars and stuff. I could have done that six years ago, after I was already kind of good at BJJ. I have to give back and that means attempting to keep my family name alive.
"My dad always told me to be a warrior, to fight for what I believe in. That’s where my foundation comes from."
While we sit there on the Venice boardwalk, watching skaters run through their repertoires, I ask Kron if he thought he would have chosen to be a professional fighter if his brother were still alive.
“I don’t think so,” he replies. “I just know at the moment, I picked jiu-jitsu over skating. Maybe if he was doing really well I would train, but I don’t know, man--maybe it would have pushed me away.
"Nobody knows what would have happened to me if my brother were still here. But his spirit is still here and that’s what drives me.”
http://ift.tt/1htHdTe
Statistics: Posted by jitsubr — Mar 31. 2014, 18:16 — Replies 0 — Views 7
DC vs Hendo at UFC 175
Daniel Cormier will not be fighting Rafael "Feijao" Cavalcante next after all.
Instead, Cormier (14-0) will face Dan Henderson (30-11) on July 5 at UFC 175, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. The promotion is expected to announce the news in the coming days.
On last week's episode of "UFC Tonight," it was reported that Cormier vs. Cavalcante was being discussed for the event -- and it was -- however, the promotion decided to offer Henderson the Cormier fight following his thrilling comeback win over Shogun Rua on March 23. Had Henderson turned down the fight for whatever reason, the UFC most likely would have booked Cormier vs. Cavalcante.
The fight will pit two former Olympians. Cormier, a 2004 and 2008 member of the USA Wrestling Olympic team, improved to 14-0 in his light heavyweight debut last month when he defeated Patrick Cummins via first-round TKO.
The 43-year-old Henderson, a 1992 and 1996 member of the USA Wrestling Olympic team, snapped a three-fight losing streak when he defeated Rua last week.
UFC 175, headlined by Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida for the UFC middleweight title, will take place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
(Source: http://ift.tt/1iTIiXZ)
I hope this has something to do with April 1st...poor Hendo.
Instead, Cormier (14-0) will face Dan Henderson (30-11) on July 5 at UFC 175, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. The promotion is expected to announce the news in the coming days.
On last week's episode of "UFC Tonight," it was reported that Cormier vs. Cavalcante was being discussed for the event -- and it was -- however, the promotion decided to offer Henderson the Cormier fight following his thrilling comeback win over Shogun Rua on March 23. Had Henderson turned down the fight for whatever reason, the UFC most likely would have booked Cormier vs. Cavalcante.
The fight will pit two former Olympians. Cormier, a 2004 and 2008 member of the USA Wrestling Olympic team, improved to 14-0 in his light heavyweight debut last month when he defeated Patrick Cummins via first-round TKO.
The 43-year-old Henderson, a 1992 and 1996 member of the USA Wrestling Olympic team, snapped a three-fight losing streak when he defeated Rua last week.
UFC 175, headlined by Chris Weidman vs. Lyoto Machida for the UFC middleweight title, will take place at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
(Source: http://ift.tt/1iTIiXZ)
I hope this has something to do with April 1st...poor Hendo.
Statistics: Posted by GermanSuplex — Mar 31. 2014, 18:03 — Replies 2 — Views 14
Head Trauma in MMA
So, anyone want to dig into this study from Toronto? My best friend was a research assistant in his psych undergrad where they have to adhere to really strict research guidelines and he seems to think the data is thoroughly handled. The article states that MMA, with its repetitive strikes to the head, has more TBI's than other combat sports.
Compare the report and its findings to this article by David Zinczenko, a guy with zero health creds who built himself a small fortune with the "Eat This Not That!" books, coming out in defense of MMA with....well, no proof whatsoever. Apparently, it does more than look dangerous after all, David.
http://ift.tt/1hcNCBs
So,are there people out there who thought this was the case? If there are problems with the study, could you say specifically what you think the weaknesses are?
Compare the report and its findings to this article by David Zinczenko, a guy with zero health creds who built himself a small fortune with the "Eat This Not That!" books, coming out in defense of MMA with....well, no proof whatsoever. Apparently, it does more than look dangerous after all, David.
http://ift.tt/1hcNCBs
So,are there people out there who thought this was the case? If there are problems with the study, could you say specifically what you think the weaknesses are?
Statistics: Posted by DocMidnyte — Mar 31. 2014, 16:42 — Replies 0 — Views 1
UFC Fight Night 39: Nogueira vs Nelson Discussion,picks,POLL
UFC Fight Night 39: Nogueira vs Nelson
Friday 04.11.2014 at 11:30 AM ET
U.S. Broadcast: UFC Fight Pass | Undercard: UFC Fight Pass
Location: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
TV Announcers: Dan Hardy, John Gooden
Ring Announcer: Bruce Buffer
Number of Bouts: 10
Main Card
2PM/11AM ETPT
#11 HW Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Roy Nelson #9 HW
Main Event | Heavyweight | 265 lbs (120.2 kg)
Decision
#12 FW Tatsuya Kawajiri vs Clay Guida #9 FW
Co-Main Event | Featherweight | 145 lbs (65.8 kg)
Decision
John Howard vs Ryan LaFlare
Main Card | Welterweight | 170 lbs (77.1 kg)
Decision
Ramsey Nijem vs Beneil Dariush
Main Card | Lightweight | 155 lbs (70.3 kg)
Submission
Prelims
11:30AM/8:30AM ETPT
Jared Rosholt vs Daniel Omielanczuk
Preliminary Card | Heavyweight | 265 lbs (120.2 kg)
Decision
Johnny Bedford vs Rani Yahya
Preliminary Card | Bantamweight | 135 lbs (61.2 kg)
Decision
Thales Leites vs Trevor Smith
Preliminary Card | Middleweight | 185 lbs (83.9 kg)
Submission 2nd
Andrew Craig vs Chris Camozzi
Preliminary Card | Middleweight | 185 lbs (83.9 kg)
Decision
Alp Ozkilic vs Dustin Ortiz #14 Flyweight
Preliminary Card | Flyweight | 125 lbs (56.7 kg)
Decision
Jim Alers vs Alan Omer
Preliminary Card | Featherweight | 145 lbs (65.8 kg)
Decision
script
We got the new working crew for this event. Also Its early on Friday.
Poll will be up when there are 7-8 days left till the event starts.
Side-note
Both those guys in the second gif actually died for a little bit.
JM Barrie Bets on UFC Fight Night 39: Nogueira vs Nelson
$2.00 on Noke
Barring any shenanigans from the Canadian judges, I think Noke has it in the bag. He's an underdog.
I will be putting money on Nog. He is also an underdog. I want to see them at the Weigh-ins.
Friday 04.11.2014 at 11:30 AM ET
U.S. Broadcast: UFC Fight Pass | Undercard: UFC Fight Pass
Location: Abu Dhabi, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
TV Announcers: Dan Hardy, John Gooden
Ring Announcer: Bruce Buffer
Number of Bouts: 10
Main Card
2PM/11AM ETPT
#11 HW Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Roy Nelson #9 HW
Main Event | Heavyweight | 265 lbs (120.2 kg)
Decision
#12 FW Tatsuya Kawajiri vs Clay Guida #9 FW
Co-Main Event | Featherweight | 145 lbs (65.8 kg)
Decision
John Howard vs Ryan LaFlare
Main Card | Welterweight | 170 lbs (77.1 kg)
Decision
Ramsey Nijem vs Beneil Dariush
Main Card | Lightweight | 155 lbs (70.3 kg)
Submission
Prelims
11:30AM/8:30AM ETPT
Jared Rosholt vs Daniel Omielanczuk
Preliminary Card | Heavyweight | 265 lbs (120.2 kg)
Decision
Johnny Bedford vs Rani Yahya
Preliminary Card | Bantamweight | 135 lbs (61.2 kg)
Decision
Thales Leites vs Trevor Smith
Preliminary Card | Middleweight | 185 lbs (83.9 kg)
Submission 2nd
Andrew Craig vs Chris Camozzi
Preliminary Card | Middleweight | 185 lbs (83.9 kg)
Decision
Alp Ozkilic vs Dustin Ortiz #14 Flyweight
Preliminary Card | Flyweight | 125 lbs (56.7 kg)
Decision
Jim Alers vs Alan Omer
Preliminary Card | Featherweight | 145 lbs (65.8 kg)
Decision
script
We got the new working crew for this event. Also Its early on Friday.
Poll will be up when there are 7-8 days left till the event starts.
Side-note
Both those guys in the second gif actually died for a little bit.
JM Barrie Bets on UFC Fight Night 39: Nogueira vs Nelson
$2.00 on Noke
Barring any shenanigans from the Canadian judges, I think Noke has it in the bag. He's an underdog.
I will be putting money on Nog. He is also an underdog. I want to see them at the Weigh-ins.
Statistics: Posted by JM Barrie — Mar 31. 2014, 15:30 — Replies 0 — Views 3
Metamoris 3 all fights
Royler Gracie vs Eddie Bravo
script
Dean Lister vs Babalu
script /
Rafa Mendes vs Clark Gracie
script
Roberts vs Zak Maxwell
script
Gui Mendes vs Samir Chantre
script
Keenan Cornelius vs Kevin Casey
script
script
Dean Lister vs Babalu
script /
Rafa Mendes vs Clark Gracie
script
Roberts vs Zak Maxwell
script
Gui Mendes vs Samir Chantre
script
Keenan Cornelius vs Kevin Casey
script
Statistics: Posted by nahowlett — Mar 31. 2014, 10:54 — Replies 0 — Views 12
Frankie Edgar on early stoppages
http://ift.tt/1kcALTy wrote:
The fine line between early and late stoppages in MMA has become increasingly muddled in recent months.
Between Herb Dean’s perceived early stoppages in UFC 169 and UFC 170 headliners, to the nearly criminal late stoppage at a EFC event a week ago, there’s no denying that MMA refereeing is inconsistent at best.
If it were up to former UFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, though, he wouldn’t have a referee stop one of his fights until the final possible moment.
“If it’s me, let me be limp before you stop it,” Edgar recently told MMAjunkie Radio. “It’s tough to be a ref, especially in that situation when they’ve got to protect the fighters. But I want every chance I can get. Let me go out on my shield.”
Edgar has about as much experience as anyone when it comes to walking that fine line. Few can forget his epic battles with Gray Maynard at UFC 125 and UFC 136. In both fights, “The Answer” was badly hurt by his opponent’s power strikes, and he suffered multiple knockdowns in the early rounds of each contest.
Many MMA referees would have stopped one or both of those fights in Maynard’s favor. In these instances, though, Edgar was given the opportunity to fight on, which ultimately allowed him to rally back and hang on to his lightweight title.
If Edgar hadn’t been given the opportunity, though, it’s very likely his career would currently have an entirely different complexion. That’s just one reason why he thinks all fighters should be given the same opportunity to fight out of a compromising spot.
“It’s definitely the referee’s discretion, but I want every chance to come back,” Edgar said. “In the Maynard fights, someone else may have stopped it. Obviously the ref didn’t, and he made the right choice because I bounced back. That was the right choice.”
With MMA still in such an infantile state, no one really knows the true long-term repercussions Edgar may experience because of those grueling bouts. There’s constant pressure on referees to not spoil a fighter’s chance to come back and win – but also not to allow him or her to take a prison-style thrashing inside the confines of a regulated MMA bout.
From the perspective of a fighter, Edgar knows the potential pitfalls of unnecessary blows to the head. At the same time, though, this sport is his livelihood, and he wants his chance of winning to bottom out at zero percent before a referee saves him.
“I’m a fighter; I can’t help it,” Edgar said. “I’m a competitor. I want to win, and if I feel a ref stopped it too early, I would be upset.
“I just want the chance to come back. I’m sure it would never be like that where I’m getting my head beat in and the ref wouldn’t stop it, but I just want a chance to come back.”
Edgar (16-4-1 MMA, 10-4-1 UFC) will look to avoid putting himself in any such situations when he faces fellow head coach B.J. Penn (16-9-2 MMA, 12-8-2 UFC) for a third time in the main event of The Ultimate Fighter 19 Finale on July 6.
Statistics: Posted by wobbelyhead — Mar 31. 2014, 08:17 — Replies 0 — Views 19
Chris Weidman Tells Us His Most Embarassing Moment
Now we know the name "Chris Weiner" fits him well
Statistics: Posted by The__Piano__Man — Mar 31. 2014, 07:00 — Replies 0 — Views 11
Rumor:Demetrious Johnson to face Ali Bagautinov at UFC 174
Last Friday, the general producer of FIGHT NIGHTS Kamil Hajiyev said that in the next fight Ali Bagautinov will qualify for the championship belt UFC flyweight champion , owned by Demetrius Johnson, and today several foreign resources confirmed this information . According to sources close to the situation , Johnson and Bagautinova fight will headline UFC 174 event , which takes place on June 14 at Rogers Arena in Vancouver , Canada.
Currently Bagautinov Ali is on a strip of eleven victories, three of which were produced under the banner of UFC, where he made his debut in September last year . Previous fight against Russian fighter Brazilian John Lineker , whom he defeated by unanimous judges' decision at UFC 169 in Newark, Candidates considered , although officially organization officials have not announced Ali Bagautinova next challenger for the title .
His rival , Demetrius Johnson, won the UFC championship belt in 2012 , winning the mini grand prix of four members , and managed to hold three successful defenses of his title . And the last two fight it completed ahead of schedule , zasabmitiv SIDS and knocking out John Joseph Benavideza is considered atypical for a lower weight class fighters .
As for officials UFC, they have not yet made official statements about it.
Source
Statistics: Posted by Hulaku — Mar 31. 2014, 06:04 — Replies 0 — Views 4
Johny Hendricks Reflects On Path To The Title
On March 15th, 2014, a new champion was crowned. After a controversial loss to Georges St-Pierre, Johny Hendricks got a second chance at UFC gold -- and he claimed it. After his five-round war against Robbie Lawler, Johny sat down with us to discuss how it feels to finally have the UFC welterweight championship belt around his waist. He talked to us about his past, present and future in the sport of mixed martial arts, and told us what he hopes to achieve as champion.
Statistics: Posted by HappyBoozeMore — Mar 31. 2014, 05:50 — Replies 0 — Views 14
Scott Smith dealing with demons
http://ift.tt/1hOxkzJ
Scott Smith will forever be known for the Hail Mary he landed while clutching at his liver against Pete Sell back in 2006. The knockout wasn’t a "miracle" in the theological sense, but it was improbable, and it did redirect fate before we even knew whose fate was being decided.
The sequence lasted all of a few seconds.
Smith getting caught with a short left to the body…Smith doubled over, rapidly retreating towards some safe haven that didn’t exist while Sell’s nostrils flare to the smell of blood in the water…Smith glancing up, still holding his side with his left hand, as Sell closes in for the finish…Smith planting and erasing the onrushing Sell with his right hand.
The whole thing felt like a cinematic put on. Real life fights just don’t end like that.
Yet it wasn’t fiction that night at the Hard Rock Hotel. It happened at The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale -- the "Comeback" season -- and Smith, as if on cue, showcased one of the fight game’s most ridiculous comebacks. People were lining up outside to get their picture taken with the man who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Mark DellaGrotte, who was one of Smith’s coaches, had to pull Smith aside afterwards to emphasize the gravity of the moment.
"He said, ‘you need to understand how big this fight will be for your career and the rest of your life,'" Smith says. "It was pre-recorded, so it hadn’t aired on TV yet. To me it was just another fight. It all sunk in a little later when I saw everyone’s reaction, and I was like, wow, guess it was a big deal."
At that moment, at 26 years old, the owl-eyed fighter who came from a family of steel workers -- who, in fact, carried the apt nickname of "Hands of Steel" -- hit the high-water mark of his career.
In 2014, that particular comeback feels like a lifetime ago.
"Those were the best times for me because my alcoholism hadn’t really kicked in yet," Smith says from his hometown of Sacramento, where he is doing another stint of rehab. "I had some really good fights after that, but I think being on the show, that was the best shape I’d ever been in my life. And with the WEC right before, I wasn’t doing it for the money. It was a true passion for me. I think that’s when I was peaking."
Smith is now 34 years old. As of Sunday, March 30, it has been 41 days since he last took a drink. This is important, because today’s Scott Smith fights himself constantly, hour by hour, day by day, craving by craving. He battles the urge to drink and be done, once and for all, with the endless feat of deprivation. He deals in words terms "triggers" and "pink clouds." The Comeback Kid is trying to keep going, to keep coming back, to keep fighting, but the lure of the bottle keeps dragging him off.
In fact, he was supposed to fight in early February for the West Coast Fighting Championship, to defend the middleweight belt that he won in August when he competed in the midst of an eight-month run of sobriety, but he fell off the wagon.
"It was eight months and two days that I’d stayed sober, to be exact," Smith says. "But I kind of f---ed the promoter over, who’s a friend of mine. I was supposed to fight, and thought I’d be ready, but it was one of those, well, next weekend I’ll start. Then okay, next weekend. And then it never happens. I have a lot of amends to make there. I haven’t personally talked to him and I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t trust me to fight for him again."
How did Scott Smith end up here?
There was a time when people like Pete Sell and Justin Levens and David Terrell worried about getting taken down by the muay Thai practitioner who just happened to be a wrestler-at-root. In the TUF house, this was a big chunk of the scouting report. He had hands, he had the eight limbs, but he had an ability to dictate where a fight took place and he knew how to grind. Yet as time went on, as he began fighting the Robbie Lawler’s and Benji Radach’s, as he went through his Cung Le days and into the vertigo of the Strikeforce tailspin, he just preferred to stand and trade.
"I got away from the wrestling, to where I only really cared about the muay Thai and the stand-up," he says.
By the time he was fighting Tarec Saffiedine and Lumumba Sayers at the end, he was essentially an immobile target, an automaton standing still and getting clubbed in the head to the point that people were worried about his well being. It was hard to watch. His chin was diminishing, because his chin was always flashing neon and open for business. Realistically, he’d become a punching bag for people to tee off on -- and that’s exactly what everybody was doing.
But what most people didn’t realize was that Smith was already a full-blown alcoholic, who by his own admission would drink "at least a fifth of vodka" after getting his kids in bed, while making their lunches for the next day and doing household things. "A closet drinker," he says. "To the point that even the people I usually drank with became supportive of me."
And with each fight camp, he’d drink as long as he feasibly could before getting down to business. Right up until fight week, when Smith would essentially go cold turkey right as he left for the airport. He became a clammy, barely functioning mess just when most fighters are building themselves towards optimum shape.
"You leave Tuesday for a Saturday fight, and I remember my last Strikeforce fight I drank that Sunday night," he says. "I didn’t sleep that Monday night, Tuesday night or Wednesday night. I was throwing up. I finally got a little bit of sleep Thursday night. I weighed in on Friday. I was a complete wreck, and I had no business fighting."
Smith lasted only 94 seconds against Sayers in Columbus, getting choked out mercifully in the first round. That was it for Smith in the well-lit theaters.
"You know what’s crazy, though, is when I fought in August [against Mark Matthews], in probably the longest period of sobriety I’d had before ever fighting, it was sort of the opposite," he says. "It was like a head game to me. I was sort of questioning myself, like, ‘man, can I even do this? Maybe I can only do it when I’m drunk.'
"That was worse than the first fight I ever had in the cage. I kept thinking, you shouldn’t be doing this. Everybody was like, you’ve been in so many battles, he’s never been in the battles that you’ve been in. And I’m thinking, yeah, but this is a different battle. All that means nothing. I was really questioning myself. That’s why I had stage fright going in, to where really I didn’t do anything in that first round. It was a really big mental hurdle. Even there, in the cage, I was thinking maybe there’s something in my head where I need to drink to fight."
script
He didn’t though. And he won via TKO in the second round. It was the first fight Smith won since his 2009 upset of Cung Le, the fight that sent him on a delusion course that only now is straightening itself out.
A little while after that triumph, he was drinking again. That’s now 41 days in his rear view mirror as of Sunday, March 30. The fact is, he’s counting.
Smith’s second most improbable comeback -- in a career that sustained itself on comebacks -- happened at Strikeforce Evolution, when he played the role of a melon on a fence post for Cung Le’s assortment of kicks. Smith was dropped in the first round with a spinning kick, and pounded on. He was slapped with a roundhouse kick. There was a spinning heel kick. Le was on a striking spree, just doing demonstrations for an adoring public, and Smith kept dropping. And kept standing back up.
Second round, ditto. Referee "Big" John McCarthy hovered over the action for ten minutes in a ready position to stop the fight. Smith kept standing up, all heart and fumes. Le kept teeing off. Then in the third, after more of the same, Smith, still moving forward, clipped Le with a short left hook. Le was hurt. Then Smith came on, and went for the finish. It was a right hand straight down the boulevard that effectively put Le away. The lid blew off the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Blood streamed down Le’s nose as they shined the flashlight in his pupils.
That fight was prototypical Smith on every level: Perseverance and heart ahead of movement and self-preservation. He won by simply not perishing. And for as glorious as it was at the time, that fight enabled Smith to delude himself to the point of no turning back.
"I was talking about this in class last night, because you try to pinpoint everything in your rehab," he says. "Five weeks to the day before the Cung Le fight, I was in Chicago doing some Strikeforce commentating, and that was when Fedor Emelianenko was fighting. I was on Inside MMA doing the weigh-ins, and I was told live on television that I was fighting Cung Le five weeks out.
"I wasn’t drunk, but I was actually drinking before I went on the show. I just remember thinking to myself, oh my god, I’m not training, I’m five weeks out and I’m fighting one of the biggest fights of my life. Yet, I did come back, I did get my s--t together for five weeks which isn’t long enough to get ready for Cung Le, and I did get ready for the fight. I got ready for the fight as well as I could in that time, and got lucky and won the fight, and I think maybe my ego took over. I thought, see, I can do this. And then I went straight downhill after that fight. I definitely wasn’t ready for the rematch. I got a big head. I thought, hey, I can drink, I can party, and I can beat Cung Le."
Le avenged the loss six months later at the same venue in San Jose, this time finishing the job with a spinning kick and a barrage of screaming punches. Smith lasted a little over two minutes against Paul Daley in St. Louis. It was all downhill, and fast. By that point he was fighting strictly for a paycheck, something he’d sworn he’d never do. And he was drunk bell-to-bell, save for the five days or so of fight week matters.
After losing to Saffiedine and Sayers, and looking like a human piñata in both, Smith’s relevance as a fighter was all but over. He still wanted to fight, though. He still had fight left in him. Enough that, after his family intervened and tried to get him help to no avail, he voluntarily checked himself into a detox center in Sacramento in early-2013.
For the next eight months (and two days), he lived in the bewildered state of sobriety, returning to the cage in August for his fight with Matthews. It was a new and foreign way to look at the world. During that time he kept away from triggers, things that would make him want to start drinking. He built his streak day upon day, and was feeling in control.
"In sobriety they call it a ‘pink cloud,' where you think you’ve got it made, you can have a drink here and there," he says. "I wasn’t on a pink cloud, but I really thought that there was no way I was ever going to drink again. That’s how confident I was."
Then the cravings took over. He fell off the wagon late in 2013. And he knew when he did there would be nothing casual or social or manageable about it, but that he’d go right back to where he was.
"Which was drinking in the mornings, drinking all day everyday," he says. "I did that, and I’ve been kind of battling that for the last three or four months. I couldn’t do it on my own again, so I went back into detox. It’s kind of just a kick in the ass for me."
That’s where Smith is now, building on his new day-to-day sobriety. The whole thing is cyclical in his chosen field. Among Smith’s many triggers is the act of watching fights.
"I’ve realized it through counseling, that I need to let go of the past," he says. "I f---ed up a good opportunity, which not completely -- I’m not done -- but I still dwell on the fact that in my prime I kind of pissed that away with drinking. So, it’s easy for me to drown my blues and drink while watching fights.
"Even a couple of weeks ago, when Robbie Lawler fought Johny Hendricks [at UFC 171]. Lawler is somebody I fought. I was on the same level as him for a little bit. So things like that…people, places, things, I just didn’t want to watch the fight. I was rooting for him, wanting him to win, read it online, but I just rather distance myself from things that might be a trigger."
Smith says he’s began training again, and that he still feels like he has it in him to fight, perhaps to a potential that he let slip away. At 34 years old, that would seem improbable. Then again, if there’s a fighter who turns improbable on its ear, it’s the Comeback Kid himself. He's not kidding himself, and he's very honest about it.
"It’s a daily battle, but this anti-craving med I just started when I went into a detox house a month ago, is helping," he says. "It’s a non-narcotic, non-benzo, because I don’t like medication at all. So, it’s nothing that would show up on a drug test. It’s actually helping.
"The first couple of days I took it were ridiculous on how bad my cravings were. But I was told, after the fact, that your cravings would get worse before they got better. But it’s very manageable. You can’t control triggers...triggers just show up. My cravings are manageable, to where I’m not thinking about it three hours after the fact. Now it’s triggered, I deal with it, it’s gone."
Whether it stays gone is the question. That alone will determine what happens next for Smith. Right now he’s trying to feel comfortable in the cage he wakes up in every day more than the cage he competes in. Fighting, in fact, is a dangling carrot he keeps just within reach. It’s a destination as much as a reward.
And right now, on March 30, 2014, it’s all Smith can do to stay towards it, and to keep away from that place where there’s no coming back.
Scott Smith will forever be known for the Hail Mary he landed while clutching at his liver against Pete Sell back in 2006. The knockout wasn’t a "miracle" in the theological sense, but it was improbable, and it did redirect fate before we even knew whose fate was being decided.
The sequence lasted all of a few seconds.
Smith getting caught with a short left to the body…Smith doubled over, rapidly retreating towards some safe haven that didn’t exist while Sell’s nostrils flare to the smell of blood in the water…Smith glancing up, still holding his side with his left hand, as Sell closes in for the finish…Smith planting and erasing the onrushing Sell with his right hand.
The whole thing felt like a cinematic put on. Real life fights just don’t end like that.
Yet it wasn’t fiction that night at the Hard Rock Hotel. It happened at The Ultimate Fighter 4 Finale -- the "Comeback" season -- and Smith, as if on cue, showcased one of the fight game’s most ridiculous comebacks. People were lining up outside to get their picture taken with the man who snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Mark DellaGrotte, who was one of Smith’s coaches, had to pull Smith aside afterwards to emphasize the gravity of the moment.
"He said, ‘you need to understand how big this fight will be for your career and the rest of your life,'" Smith says. "It was pre-recorded, so it hadn’t aired on TV yet. To me it was just another fight. It all sunk in a little later when I saw everyone’s reaction, and I was like, wow, guess it was a big deal."
At that moment, at 26 years old, the owl-eyed fighter who came from a family of steel workers -- who, in fact, carried the apt nickname of "Hands of Steel" -- hit the high-water mark of his career.
In 2014, that particular comeback feels like a lifetime ago.
"Those were the best times for me because my alcoholism hadn’t really kicked in yet," Smith says from his hometown of Sacramento, where he is doing another stint of rehab. "I had some really good fights after that, but I think being on the show, that was the best shape I’d ever been in my life. And with the WEC right before, I wasn’t doing it for the money. It was a true passion for me. I think that’s when I was peaking."
Smith is now 34 years old. As of Sunday, March 30, it has been 41 days since he last took a drink. This is important, because today’s Scott Smith fights himself constantly, hour by hour, day by day, craving by craving. He battles the urge to drink and be done, once and for all, with the endless feat of deprivation. He deals in words terms "triggers" and "pink clouds." The Comeback Kid is trying to keep going, to keep coming back, to keep fighting, but the lure of the bottle keeps dragging him off.
In fact, he was supposed to fight in early February for the West Coast Fighting Championship, to defend the middleweight belt that he won in August when he competed in the midst of an eight-month run of sobriety, but he fell off the wagon.
"It was eight months and two days that I’d stayed sober, to be exact," Smith says. "But I kind of f---ed the promoter over, who’s a friend of mine. I was supposed to fight, and thought I’d be ready, but it was one of those, well, next weekend I’ll start. Then okay, next weekend. And then it never happens. I have a lot of amends to make there. I haven’t personally talked to him and I wouldn’t blame him if he didn’t trust me to fight for him again."
How did Scott Smith end up here?
There was a time when people like Pete Sell and Justin Levens and David Terrell worried about getting taken down by the muay Thai practitioner who just happened to be a wrestler-at-root. In the TUF house, this was a big chunk of the scouting report. He had hands, he had the eight limbs, but he had an ability to dictate where a fight took place and he knew how to grind. Yet as time went on, as he began fighting the Robbie Lawler’s and Benji Radach’s, as he went through his Cung Le days and into the vertigo of the Strikeforce tailspin, he just preferred to stand and trade.
"I got away from the wrestling, to where I only really cared about the muay Thai and the stand-up," he says.
By the time he was fighting Tarec Saffiedine and Lumumba Sayers at the end, he was essentially an immobile target, an automaton standing still and getting clubbed in the head to the point that people were worried about his well being. It was hard to watch. His chin was diminishing, because his chin was always flashing neon and open for business. Realistically, he’d become a punching bag for people to tee off on -- and that’s exactly what everybody was doing.
But what most people didn’t realize was that Smith was already a full-blown alcoholic, who by his own admission would drink "at least a fifth of vodka" after getting his kids in bed, while making their lunches for the next day and doing household things. "A closet drinker," he says. "To the point that even the people I usually drank with became supportive of me."
And with each fight camp, he’d drink as long as he feasibly could before getting down to business. Right up until fight week, when Smith would essentially go cold turkey right as he left for the airport. He became a clammy, barely functioning mess just when most fighters are building themselves towards optimum shape.
"You leave Tuesday for a Saturday fight, and I remember my last Strikeforce fight I drank that Sunday night," he says. "I didn’t sleep that Monday night, Tuesday night or Wednesday night. I was throwing up. I finally got a little bit of sleep Thursday night. I weighed in on Friday. I was a complete wreck, and I had no business fighting."
Smith lasted only 94 seconds against Sayers in Columbus, getting choked out mercifully in the first round. That was it for Smith in the well-lit theaters.
"You know what’s crazy, though, is when I fought in August [against Mark Matthews], in probably the longest period of sobriety I’d had before ever fighting, it was sort of the opposite," he says. "It was like a head game to me. I was sort of questioning myself, like, ‘man, can I even do this? Maybe I can only do it when I’m drunk.'
"That was worse than the first fight I ever had in the cage. I kept thinking, you shouldn’t be doing this. Everybody was like, you’ve been in so many battles, he’s never been in the battles that you’ve been in. And I’m thinking, yeah, but this is a different battle. All that means nothing. I was really questioning myself. That’s why I had stage fright going in, to where really I didn’t do anything in that first round. It was a really big mental hurdle. Even there, in the cage, I was thinking maybe there’s something in my head where I need to drink to fight."
script
He didn’t though. And he won via TKO in the second round. It was the first fight Smith won since his 2009 upset of Cung Le, the fight that sent him on a delusion course that only now is straightening itself out.
A little while after that triumph, he was drinking again. That’s now 41 days in his rear view mirror as of Sunday, March 30. The fact is, he’s counting.
Smith’s second most improbable comeback -- in a career that sustained itself on comebacks -- happened at Strikeforce Evolution, when he played the role of a melon on a fence post for Cung Le’s assortment of kicks. Smith was dropped in the first round with a spinning kick, and pounded on. He was slapped with a roundhouse kick. There was a spinning heel kick. Le was on a striking spree, just doing demonstrations for an adoring public, and Smith kept dropping. And kept standing back up.
Second round, ditto. Referee "Big" John McCarthy hovered over the action for ten minutes in a ready position to stop the fight. Smith kept standing up, all heart and fumes. Le kept teeing off. Then in the third, after more of the same, Smith, still moving forward, clipped Le with a short left hook. Le was hurt. Then Smith came on, and went for the finish. It was a right hand straight down the boulevard that effectively put Le away. The lid blew off the HP Pavilion in San Jose. Blood streamed down Le’s nose as they shined the flashlight in his pupils.
That fight was prototypical Smith on every level: Perseverance and heart ahead of movement and self-preservation. He won by simply not perishing. And for as glorious as it was at the time, that fight enabled Smith to delude himself to the point of no turning back.
"I was talking about this in class last night, because you try to pinpoint everything in your rehab," he says. "Five weeks to the day before the Cung Le fight, I was in Chicago doing some Strikeforce commentating, and that was when Fedor Emelianenko was fighting. I was on Inside MMA doing the weigh-ins, and I was told live on television that I was fighting Cung Le five weeks out.
"I wasn’t drunk, but I was actually drinking before I went on the show. I just remember thinking to myself, oh my god, I’m not training, I’m five weeks out and I’m fighting one of the biggest fights of my life. Yet, I did come back, I did get my s--t together for five weeks which isn’t long enough to get ready for Cung Le, and I did get ready for the fight. I got ready for the fight as well as I could in that time, and got lucky and won the fight, and I think maybe my ego took over. I thought, see, I can do this. And then I went straight downhill after that fight. I definitely wasn’t ready for the rematch. I got a big head. I thought, hey, I can drink, I can party, and I can beat Cung Le."
Le avenged the loss six months later at the same venue in San Jose, this time finishing the job with a spinning kick and a barrage of screaming punches. Smith lasted a little over two minutes against Paul Daley in St. Louis. It was all downhill, and fast. By that point he was fighting strictly for a paycheck, something he’d sworn he’d never do. And he was drunk bell-to-bell, save for the five days or so of fight week matters.
After losing to Saffiedine and Sayers, and looking like a human piñata in both, Smith’s relevance as a fighter was all but over. He still wanted to fight, though. He still had fight left in him. Enough that, after his family intervened and tried to get him help to no avail, he voluntarily checked himself into a detox center in Sacramento in early-2013.
For the next eight months (and two days), he lived in the bewildered state of sobriety, returning to the cage in August for his fight with Matthews. It was a new and foreign way to look at the world. During that time he kept away from triggers, things that would make him want to start drinking. He built his streak day upon day, and was feeling in control.
"In sobriety they call it a ‘pink cloud,' where you think you’ve got it made, you can have a drink here and there," he says. "I wasn’t on a pink cloud, but I really thought that there was no way I was ever going to drink again. That’s how confident I was."
Then the cravings took over. He fell off the wagon late in 2013. And he knew when he did there would be nothing casual or social or manageable about it, but that he’d go right back to where he was.
"Which was drinking in the mornings, drinking all day everyday," he says. "I did that, and I’ve been kind of battling that for the last three or four months. I couldn’t do it on my own again, so I went back into detox. It’s kind of just a kick in the ass for me."
That’s where Smith is now, building on his new day-to-day sobriety. The whole thing is cyclical in his chosen field. Among Smith’s many triggers is the act of watching fights.
"I’ve realized it through counseling, that I need to let go of the past," he says. "I f---ed up a good opportunity, which not completely -- I’m not done -- but I still dwell on the fact that in my prime I kind of pissed that away with drinking. So, it’s easy for me to drown my blues and drink while watching fights.
"Even a couple of weeks ago, when Robbie Lawler fought Johny Hendricks [at UFC 171]. Lawler is somebody I fought. I was on the same level as him for a little bit. So things like that…people, places, things, I just didn’t want to watch the fight. I was rooting for him, wanting him to win, read it online, but I just rather distance myself from things that might be a trigger."
Smith says he’s began training again, and that he still feels like he has it in him to fight, perhaps to a potential that he let slip away. At 34 years old, that would seem improbable. Then again, if there’s a fighter who turns improbable on its ear, it’s the Comeback Kid himself. He's not kidding himself, and he's very honest about it.
"It’s a daily battle, but this anti-craving med I just started when I went into a detox house a month ago, is helping," he says. "It’s a non-narcotic, non-benzo, because I don’t like medication at all. So, it’s nothing that would show up on a drug test. It’s actually helping.
"The first couple of days I took it were ridiculous on how bad my cravings were. But I was told, after the fact, that your cravings would get worse before they got better. But it’s very manageable. You can’t control triggers...triggers just show up. My cravings are manageable, to where I’m not thinking about it three hours after the fact. Now it’s triggered, I deal with it, it’s gone."
Whether it stays gone is the question. That alone will determine what happens next for Smith. Right now he’s trying to feel comfortable in the cage he wakes up in every day more than the cage he competes in. Fighting, in fact, is a dangling carrot he keeps just within reach. It’s a destination as much as a reward.
And right now, on March 30, 2014, it’s all Smith can do to stay towards it, and to keep away from that place where there’s no coming back.
Statistics: Posted by moose84 — Mar 31. 2014, 02:24 — Replies 2 — Views 17
dimanche 30 mars 2014
Mirsad Bektic UFC debut Training V log
script
This guy is making his debut on April 19th. Seems to have a bit of hype surrounding him. Check out his highlight.
script
This guy is making his debut on April 19th. Seems to have a bit of hype surrounding him. Check out his highlight.
script
Statistics: Posted by meh00 — Mar 30. 2014, 23:54 — Replies 0 — Views 8
Royce allegedly threatens Eddie Bravo after Royler match
http://ift.tt/1gRFs7k wrote:
Last night at Metamoris 3, Eddie Bravo and Royler Gracie put on a riveting 20-minute sport jiu-jitsu match that was a rematch of their famous 2003 match at ADCC.
Although the fight ended in a draw, as neither fighter submitted the other in the time-limit, Bravo controlled more of the match with his sweeps and submission attempts.
The fight took place with a live audience and was captured on video and live streamed on the internet, but what took place after the match was something unanticipated.
The Underground spoke to a person who wished to remain anonymous, but was back stage at the event. After exhausting himself for the 20-minute match, Bravo left the stage and proceeded to throw up as his adrenaline dumped. It was then that UFC Hall of Famer Royce Gracie approached Bravo and began to berate him.
Allegedly, Gracie threatened to kick Bravo's ass because he believed that Bravo disrespected his brother Royler, his family, and his father Helio. Bravo was apparently caught off guard by the attack, and friend and trainer Jean Jacques Machado intervened to keep the situation from escalating.
Bravo later relayed this story to a group of people back stage after the event
Statistics: Posted by wobbelyhead — Mar 30. 2014, 18:45 — Replies 2 — Views 27
Potential Matchup Josh Barnett vs Alistair Overeem with Poll
Josh Barnett Thinks Fight With Alistair Overeem Would Be “Sweet”
By Dana Becker
It appears as if UFC heavyweights Josh Barnett and Alistair Overeem are playing the role of matchmaker with their respective careers.
During a recent appearance on Submission Radio, Overeem stated that he would like to return to the Octagon against either Mark Hunt or Barnett. Overeem, a former Strikeforce champion, is coming off a recent victory over Frank Mir that snapped a two-fight losing skid.
“I believe Josh is ranked one place better than me,” Overeem said. “I also think the fight with Josh would be nice considering his long Japanese history, as well as mine.”
Both fighters were entered in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, but Overeem was removed after contract issues. Barnett went on to fall to Daniel Cormier in the finals after Cormier stepped in for Overeem.
Barnett, himself coming off a knockout loss to Travis Browne, was asked about the potential fight on Twitter and replied with “Sweet.” Both fighters hold wins over Mir, a former UFC champion, and losses to Browne – who is currently locked in a No. 1 contender fight with Fabricio Werdum.
Submission Radio @SubmissionAus
Overeem on who he wants to fight next: "There's two names, actually @JoshLBarnett and @markhunt1974." via SR -"http://**we dont accept tiny urls **/1h8jNmi #MMA
✔ @JoshLBarnett
@SubmissionAus @markhunt1974 Sweet
8:30 PM - 27 Mar 2014
http://ift.tt/1hRdWCf
By Dana Becker
It appears as if UFC heavyweights Josh Barnett and Alistair Overeem are playing the role of matchmaker with their respective careers.
During a recent appearance on Submission Radio, Overeem stated that he would like to return to the Octagon against either Mark Hunt or Barnett. Overeem, a former Strikeforce champion, is coming off a recent victory over Frank Mir that snapped a two-fight losing skid.
“I believe Josh is ranked one place better than me,” Overeem said. “I also think the fight with Josh would be nice considering his long Japanese history, as well as mine.”
Both fighters were entered in the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix, but Overeem was removed after contract issues. Barnett went on to fall to Daniel Cormier in the finals after Cormier stepped in for Overeem.
Barnett, himself coming off a knockout loss to Travis Browne, was asked about the potential fight on Twitter and replied with “Sweet.” Both fighters hold wins over Mir, a former UFC champion, and losses to Browne – who is currently locked in a No. 1 contender fight with Fabricio Werdum.
Submission Radio @SubmissionAus
Overeem on who he wants to fight next: "There's two names, actually @JoshLBarnett and @markhunt1974." via SR -"http://**we dont accept tiny urls **/1h8jNmi #MMA
✔ @JoshLBarnett
@SubmissionAus @markhunt1974 Sweet
8:30 PM - 27 Mar 2014
http://ift.tt/1hRdWCf
Statistics: Posted by I_need_a_ light — Mar 30. 2014, 18:10 — Replies 0 — Views 4
WSOF Champ vs Fitch in July. Fitch wants a fight before June
Rousimar Palhares scored a heel hook submission over Steve Carl last night (Sat., March 29, 2014) at Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, to claim the World Series of Fighting (WSOF) Welterweight belt.
Even before the victory, the winner of the WSOF 9 main event, which aired live on NBC Sports Network (read full play-by-play results here), was booked to fight former No. 1-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 170-pound contender, Jon Fitch, next at WSOF 11 on July 5, 2014.
Or so it seemed.
Shortly after "Toquinho" tapped Carl, Fitch revealed via Twitter.com that he agreed to fight in June ... no later. That would mean that he agreed to return to mixed martial arts (MMA) action at WSOF 10, which is penciled in for June 14, 2014, at an undisclosed venue location.
Perhaps that hard-nosed Fitch -- who was released from UFC after losing to Demian Maia at UFC 156 last year -- has a schedule conflict. Then again, the former Purdue University wrestling captain declared months ago that he would turn down a fight against Palhares because of his checkered past.
Or, it's just posturing ... a little push back to drive up the price. Time will tell.
Meanwhile, WSOF 11 is shaping up to be a fantastic card, according to the promotion's twitter account, with Nick Newell vs. Justin Gaethje planned to serve as the co-main event, as well as Tyrone Spong returning to the cage against a soon-to-be-announced opponent.
http://ift.tt/1dGHerq
Even before the victory, the winner of the WSOF 9 main event, which aired live on NBC Sports Network (read full play-by-play results here), was booked to fight former No. 1-ranked Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) 170-pound contender, Jon Fitch, next at WSOF 11 on July 5, 2014.
Or so it seemed.
Shortly after "Toquinho" tapped Carl, Fitch revealed via Twitter.com that he agreed to fight in June ... no later. That would mean that he agreed to return to mixed martial arts (MMA) action at WSOF 10, which is penciled in for June 14, 2014, at an undisclosed venue location.
Perhaps that hard-nosed Fitch -- who was released from UFC after losing to Demian Maia at UFC 156 last year -- has a schedule conflict. Then again, the former Purdue University wrestling captain declared months ago that he would turn down a fight against Palhares because of his checkered past.
Or, it's just posturing ... a little push back to drive up the price. Time will tell.
Meanwhile, WSOF 11 is shaping up to be a fantastic card, according to the promotion's twitter account, with Nick Newell vs. Justin Gaethje planned to serve as the co-main event, as well as Tyrone Spong returning to the cage against a soon-to-be-announced opponent.
http://ift.tt/1dGHerq
Statistics: Posted by Rex Fortune — Mar 30. 2014, 15:27 — Replies 0 — Views 11
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