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By Anthony De Franco  March 15, 2010, at 7:26 pm  The other day, we were amongst the thousands of websites that jumped all over the Tito-Chuck-Franklin TUF triangle that was happening. Well, Dana has denied everything, but I still refuse to believe that something isn’t up. Now, Tito’s wife, Former (I think she quit?) Pornstar Jenna Jameson, He is in the hospital.
Screen Cap courtesy of Bloody Elbow
As we all know too well, Tito is notorious for back issues. He has struggled with it for years, but declared himself healthy before UFC 106. When he lost to Forrest Griffin, he then claimed he had cracked his skull. No one really believed him because the commission would not let him fight with a cracked skull.
So, god only knows what’s up with Tito. However, We do wish him a speedy recovery from whatever is wrong. That being said, You can’t tell me that the Chuck and Tito fight is not very much up in the air right now.
Update: 8:35 PM – Of course, moments after I publish this post, Tito comes on Twitter himself and outs the problem.
This is the worst flu I have every had. More IV’s please.
We’ve all learned that the flu is no joke over the last couple of years. Since he is in the hospital it must be pretty bad. Get well, Tito.
By Anthony De Franco March 13, 2010, at 12:45 pm Is the Iceman coming back sooner than we thought?
According to Fighters only, his return may be roughly a month away. Chuck would forgo his UFC 115 fight with Tito Ortiz to take on former middleweight champion Rich Franklin on April 15th. This, of course, is the same day that Strikeforce will be on CBS, with the main event being Dan Henderson v. Jake Shields.
Chuck Liddell will be fighting Rich Franklin in his next bout and not rival TUF 11 coach Tito Ortiz, Fighters Only has heard from a reliable source. The switch was initially reported to us just under two weeks ago but was only a rumour at that time.
However, the rumour hit message boards late last night and an industry source confirmed that Liddell will indeed be facing former middleweight champion Rich Franklin. The fight is to headline an April 17th Fight Night event which will counter Strikeforce’s show on the same date.
Bloody Elbow (which is just an awesome site) is quick to point out that Fighters only is credentialed by the UFC, which means that this claim probably has some legitimacy to it.
Let’s look at what this does for the UFC. First off, they will lose the UFC 115 main event between Ortiz and Liddell. This fight had a chance to be a big PPV moneymaker, so there are some who will question Zuffa’s logic. Instead, they will put the Iceman on free cable, and some that he draws some eyes over from CBS.
Inside the cage, this should be an interesting fight, and it’s a win-win for Dana White. If Liddell loses, he will likely retire, which Dana publicly said that he would like Chuck to. That would mean that Franklin is back on the map in the light heavyweight division with a win over someone who, at the very least, is still a name.
If Liddell wins, then Chuck will likely be given another fight, and that one would not be free. Even if Liddell isn’t a championship caliber fighter anymore, he is still a name that can make money.
It’s also an interesting test of Liddell’s drawing power. Can Chuck still draw like The Iceman could a couple of years ago or are people going to think of him like they do LaDanian Tomlinson nowadays and react with general apathy?
If this fight goes off, there are a lot of interesting dynamics involved
[Update: (1:37 PM) Okay, maybe not. MMA Junkie is now reporting that Liddell and Franklin will take place as the main event of UFC 115, not on a new card scheduled for April. They also are reporting some other strange news...]
By Anthony De Franco February 25, 2010, at 5:22 pm Sorry for the late start today, guys. I just got done rear-naked choking the Jon Fitch of spyware programs. The thing simply would not freaking die. Anyway, for those who are interested in non-mainstream MMA, we bring you this wonderful piece of news from Brazil.
Paulo Filho has pulled out of his bout at tonight’s Bitetti Combat card, according to Bloody Elbow and PVT. Filho pulled out of this fight a week ago, and then declared it was back on a day later. Now, he’s out again, and my head is spinning. This also comes on the heels of Jeff Monson not being able to get down to Brazil for the card. People have suggested his legal troubles (for vandalism, of all things) have prevented him from leaving the country.
Filho has long been dealing with emotional problems including depression. If you read his Wikipedia page, the last few years sound like the dude is roaming around in the woods lost. Jason will still make the claim that Filho could be the world’s most talented middleweight, but I think he’s crazy.
At this point, I think the writing on the wall is clear. Until Filho can prove to everyone that he is mentally ready to fight again, he should not be booked on another card.
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 11, 2010, at 1:49 pm Sorry, but comments are closed Nothing like another good striker v. grappler matchup. Here’s the news from Bloody Elbow:
Welterweights are set to do battle on May 29 in Las Vegas at UFC 114 as “Ultimate Fighter” winner Amir Sadollah returns to action to face Korean Judoka Dong Hyun-Kim.
The bout was confirmed to MMAWeekly.com by sources close to the fight, with both fighters verbally agreeing to the tilt. Bout agreements are expected soon.
Sadollah has quietly worked his way back from the being the forgotten TUF winner and become a fan favorite. His self-depricating sense of humor reminds many people of Forrest Griffin. For me, he mention the Family Guy Road House running joke in his post-fight. I’m sold.
Hyun-Kim will look to take the fight to the ground and work the ground and pound that earned him victories over Matt Brown and T.J. Grant. Kim is 12-0-1 (1). Yea, that’s a lot of columns.
This should be a good fight to see where both of these guys stand. If Kim wins, expect a jump in competition for his next fight.
By Anthony De Franco February 9, 2010, at 7:17 am I always like to highlight well done videos and pictures from across the web. People are a lot funnier than the realize most of the time.
Here is another one from the Bloody Elbow community, from a guy who refers to himself as LBO.
Come on, that’s funny.
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