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By Anthony De Franco  March 20, 2010, at 11:15 am  Sometimes, I can’t believe the headlines that I read. However, this one is real, according to Sherdog.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship has been banned from German television. The Bavarian state office for new media (BLM) revoked the promotion’s broadcast clearance on Thursday for programming including “The Ultimate Fighter,” “UFC Unleashed” and “UFC Fight Night,” which had been televised on German sports television channel DSF since March 2009.
“The committee deems that television formats characterized by the extend of violence shown to be unacceptable,“ read a statement from the BLM. The BLM also described the programming as a “breach of taboos like punching a downed opponent,” which is illegal under article 111a of the Bavarian constitution. The paragraph deals with the glorification of violence in the media.
The BLM decision did not state an exact date when the UFC programming would no longer be allowed to air.
Marshall Zelaznik, UFC UK president and managing director of international development, took the same line as Karajica in a press release issued on Friday.
“We have been monitoring this development together with our partner DSF for a couple of weeks,” said the release. “Although we are not surprised by the decision, we consider it unusual to take action without listening to the concerning parties first.”
Zelaznik additionally stated that they are in the process of arranging a hearing with the BLM.
The really obvious thing to do here would be to point out the history of the country that is banning Mixed Martial Arts on television. So, we won’t do that. However, we will point out how incredibly stupid this is.
This is another one of those things where people make me crazy. We see worse things on television every single day than MMA. Hell, I walked through my living room today and saw one of the million cop shows on televison where they spent five minutes describing a brutal rape and murder. You are going to tell me that doesn’t cause violence, but punching a downed opponent does?
Please.
By Anthony De Franco March 8, 2010, at 4:05 pm I’ll save everyone the normal speech about how the WEC fighters are treated like second class citizens because they weigh less than 155 pounds. I’ll skip right to the interesting notes.
- Joseph Benavidez wins the night by making 29,000 in his victory. I was surprised when I saw this, but more power the Joe for getting that money. In a preview of a future article, it’s only a matter of time before Joe is the man at 135.
- Miguel Torres made 26,000 in a loss. This makes me wonder he had a symmetrical win bonus. If he made 52,000 in a victory, that is UFC money right there. This is a good sign.
- Of course, this is the last card before the first WEC PPV, and you all should be ordering it. Remember, PPV revenue means more money for the fighters. Think of them.
Here is the full list:
Televised Card:
Dominick Cruz ($9,000+$9,000=$18,000) def. Brian Bowles ($12,000)
Joseph Benavidez ($14,500+$14,500=$29,000) def. Miguel Torres ($26,000)
Javier Vazquez ($6,000+$6,000=$12,000) def. Jens Pulver ($14,000)
LC Davis ($9,000+$9,000=$18,000) def. Deividas Taurosevicius ($9,000)
Bart Palaszewski ($6,000+$6,000=$12,000) def. Karen Darabedyan ($4,000)
Preliminary Card:
Scott Jorgensen ($8,000+$8,000=$16,000) def. Chad George ($3,000)
Chad Mendes ($4,000+$4,000=$8,000) def. Erik Koch ($3,000)
Anthony Pettis ($3,000+$3,000=$6,000) def. Danny Castillo ($9,500)
Leonard Garcia ($14,000) fought George Roop ($3,000) to a split draw
Fredson Paixao ($2,000+$2,000=$4,000) def. Courtney Buck ($3,000)
Ricardo Lamas ($5,000+$5,000=$10,000) def. Bendy Casimir ($3,000)
By Jason Comack February 19, 2010, at 5:00 pm Thanks to Twitter MMA coverage has been taken to a new level. We actually have, for lack of a better term, MMA beat reporters just like the NFL, MLB and NBA have. And now when rumors start to spread you can ask one of many excellent journalists what exactly is fact and what exactly is fiction.
Two false reports came out today both of which have been debunked.
First Bleacherreport.com (Bloody Elbow’s favorite site!) reported that Mirko suffered a bad cut during training that needed stitches.
Talk about bad luck! Just a day after the UFC announced that Ben Rothwell was forced out of his bout with Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filipovic due to an undisclosed illness, Cro-Cop himself received a nasty cut over his eye that required stitches.
Here’s what Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports said via Twitter:
“I dont think he’s cut. I saw him yesterday and he wasn’t cut and he said he was done working out.”
“He was told by UFC official workout room had moved and he said, No problem, I’m finished. And he DEFINITELY wasn’t cut then”
“Just talked to Marshall Zelaznik of UFC International Cro Cop is fighting and nothing happened to him as far as Zelaznik knows.”
“I dont know. I saw the guy yesterday a.m. and he was fine. I just talked to head of UFC Intl and he didn’t know anything.”
Now logic would also back this report by Iole up. If he saw Cro-Cop yesterday and he was fine there is absolutely no way he’s sparring a day before the fight. That’s just insanity and MMA fighters stop sparring as long as a week before the fight. It’d have to be a freak accident to cut him that badly.
Second rumor comes from that same article. It cites a report from Fightersonly.com that the UFC offered the Cro-Cop fight to both Rampage and Randy Couture.
The UFC allegedly asked Randy Couture and Quinton ‘Ramapge’ Jackson if they would take the fight with Filipovic at short notice but both turned it down flat. Perosh – who has an 0-2 record in the UFC from 2006 – took it on two days notice on the understanding he would get a four-fight contract out of it.
Again, nothing about that paragraph makes any sense. ‘Page is fighting Rashad Evans and Randy just fought. Furthermore why would ‘Page all of a sudden fight at heavyweight? Just makes no sense. I asked Mike Chiappetta who writes for AOL Fanhouse if there was any truth to the report.
“None whatsoever. Not on 1 day’s notice and no chance to market it.”
And there you go. It seems one of the side affect of MMA’s growing popularity is websites trying to make a name for themselves by coming up with fake rumors. Thankfully we have still have credible reporters like Kevin Iole and Mike Chiappetta.
You can follow Kevin at @KevinI and Mike at @MikeChiappetta
By Anthony De Franco February 15, 2010, at 8:11 pm It appears that everyone in the world has put their two cents into the recent conversation about the state of the closed guard. Recently, Bloody Elbow put up another article with people’s thoughts about it. The one that I would really like to look at is the words of Japanese lightweight Shinya Aoki. This whole thing started when Jon Fitch said that the closed guard is dead, but mentioned Aoki as someone you still uses it well.
However, that didn’t stop Aoki from agreeing with Fitch.
I heard Jon Fitch said “The closed guard is dead in MMA” oh,yes,yes,i agree! absolutely Yes!!
Long time closed guard means present my lose by decision to opponent. If I am closed position, I have to recover quickly.
Pressure of sweep & submission…..but it is prolog of stand.how can I stand again from guard? it is united technic of submission, sweep,and stand…..We need groud technic to stand again. Do you know it?……….Sorry I can not explain it perfectly,,,it….I want to say “MMA IS MMA.”MMA is not “striking + Ground”…so , it is called as MMA!!
While Aoki’s english is suspect, his point remains correct. The best course of action in a modern day MMA fight is to stay off your back at all times. Fighters who have good wrestling are simply too good to allow the space necessary to pull off a submission from the bottom.
However, there is some merit to being able to work from the bottom. I’m going to make a bold prediction here, but I think we are going to see sweeps become a lot more common over the next few years. The sweep is the quickest way to improve position from the bottom for guys who don’t want to stand back up. If BJJ guys start focusing more on the ability to sweep rather than submissions from the bottom, they could turn it into a more frequent occurrence, and maybe even a serious weapon.
For those who aren’t as skilled, the bottom game is going to equate to the ability to stand back up. The fact that there are so many wrestlers who still don’t look like the have the ability to stand back up is amazing to me. Wrestlers simply need to learn to hip escape, or at the very least make sure that they don’t get taken down.
Is the closed guard dead? Kinda. It’s dead in the way that Royce Gracie used it back in the day. There is no more waiting for your opponent to make a mistake. There is an effective way to use the guard, and that is finding a way to sweep or stand.
By Anthony De Franco February 7, 2010, at 2:28 am Stock Up
- Chael Sonnen – Fuck. The UFC’s newest super-villian seems to actually have something behind his insane rants. We all knew he could wrestle, but no one expect Nate Marquardt to be taken down so easily. Sonnen said that both the flying knee and the guillotine by Nate almost put him out. Best case scenario: Anderson Silva defeats Vitor Belfort and then ends Sonnen’s life with Muay Thai knees.
- Paulo Thiago – Thiago had Swick timed so quickly that the American Kickboxing Academy student couldn’t land anything. Thiago is no joke in welterweight division, and don’t be surprised if he gives up his police job to start training full-time. For some reason, Jason and I both agree that we see him getting the Paul Daley v. Josh Koscheck winner.
- Randy Couture – Obvious? Listen, we all knew that Randy was going to win this fight. It was designed for him to win. The next big fight at 205 is Machida and Shogun. If Machida wins, don’t be surprised if we see Randy get his shot for another light heavyweight championship.
Stock Down
- Nate Marquardt – My bad. I wrote a whole article about how Nate was the next big thing at 185, and then he loses. The sad part? I still beleive it. Take some time to go and train takedown defense against Georges St. Pierre and then come back in a couple of months. My only concern is that someone like Nate who relies so much on knees and kicks will always be susceptible to takedowns.
- Frank Trigg – It’s been fun Frank. This is likely a career for the Rochester, New York native. He said that he would quit if he was cut from the UFC, and after being knocked out by Matt Serra, he’s likely to be cut. Frank should head back to the broadcast booth. He’s better than most out there right now.
- Mike Swick – That’s two losses in a row for Swick. I think that we’ve seen that Swick just isn’t championship material. While his striking is excellent, he just lacks the overall level of skill necessary to really make a mark at 170. Swick can still carve out a career hanging around the top 10, but don’t expect him to get to the top of the mountain. Leave that to his teammates, Koscheck and Jon Fitch.
By Anthony De Franco December 23, 2009, at 2:30 pm I’m not one for pointing out every halfway attractive woman that I see, but I had to make an exception here. Men’s Fitness just did a photoshoot and interview with UFC veteran Rich Franklin’s wife Beth, and my god is she an attractive woman.
In no way shape or from am I taking credit for any of these pictures. They are from the article.
Here’s what she had to say about being an MMA wife:
What’s it like watching your husband enter the Octagon?
When Rich is fighting, it’s hard for me to breathe. I stay pretty relaxed until he walks out to the Octagon. Then my entire body starts shaking as I try taking pictures. I just worry about him getting hurt. I know he prepares fully for each fight, which is comforting, but it is still really hard watching the person you love getting hit. After the fight, win or lose, I feel a sense of relief and can breathe again.
What’s the hardest part about being married to someone who makes a living as a fighter?
This has to be the busiest career anyone can have. From training, to traveling, to appearances, seminars, movie roles, autograph signings—it’s never ending. Everyday there are highs and lows. The hardest part is that everyone wants time with my husband, and to me, time is the most important thing we have.
She also goes on to say that Rich doesn’t plan on getting back in the cage until April or May.
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