Anything MMA, except thumb wrestling

[#98QBKiller]

on a sidenote, Bill Goldberg should not be allowed anywhere near an MMA cage in a commentary capacity.:doh:

Thank you :applause:

Someone tell him to STFU please.

[Chachie]

on a sidenote, Bill Goldberg should not be allowed anywhere near an MMA cage in a commentary capacity.:doh:

Haaaarible.

[StillUnknown]

crazy finish to a fight

[herrmag]

sig bet. I got cung le.

Done.

[#98QBKiller]

crazy finish to a fight

Damn I thought that was Anderson Silva for a second there.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

crazy finish to a fight

Like I said in the Kimbo thread it's an early canidate for KO of the year.

[Sebowski]

Babalu is serving his suspension for the lengthy rear naked choke he pulled a little while ago. I dunno if he's coming back to the UFC or not, that's the last I heard about him. I think Kimbo should be 2 fights away from the EliteXC belt. One fight for #1 contender, the next for the title.

I don't think Babalu was ever suspended. The UFC did release him though. He was suppose to fight in San Diego last month, but the event got canceled the day of. Besides, Babalu fights at 205; not at heavy weight.

Paul Buentello would be a great fight. They exchanged words a year ago about a fight and Paul just called him out again:

http://mmamania.com/2008/02/19/kimbo-slice-next-fight/

“People want to see it. I think everybody wants to see it. Me and Kimbo should lace up the gloves. Everybody wants to see it and I think it’s time. He’s fighting all the guys I’ve already knocked out and I’ve already exposed. He needs to get off that buffet line I put out there and come over to my Paul Buentello taco shop and see if we can get to work.”

This would be a great fight. I never bet against the head hunter.

[Sebowski]

This is awesome news:

http://mmajunkie.com/2008/02/19/ufc-fight-night-13-will-be-a-three-hour-broadcast/

Spike is stepping up and airing 3hrs of Fight Night 13. Here is the card. I wish we could see all 11 fights.

* Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon

* Thiago Alves vs. Karo Parisyan

* Tim Boetsch vs. Matt Hamill

* Houston Alexander vs. James Irvin

* Nate Diaz vs. Kurt Pellegrino*

* Frank Edgar vs. Gray Maynard

* Marcus Aurelio vs. Spencer Fisher

* Josh Neer vs. Din Thomas

* Clay Guida vs. Samy Schiavo

* Roman Mitichyan vs. George Sotiropoulos

* Anthony Johnson vs. Tommy Speer

[#98QBKiller]

This is awesome news:

http://mmajunkie.com/2008/02/19/ufc-fight-night-13-will-be-a-three-hour-broadcast/

Spike is stepping up and airing 3hrs of Fight Night 13. Here is the card. I wish we could see all 11 fights.

* Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon

* Thiago Alves vs. Karo Parisyan

* Tim Boetsch vs. Matt Hamill

* Houston Alexander vs. James Irvin

* Nate Diaz vs. Kurt Pellegrino*

* Frank Edgar vs. Gray Maynard

* Marcus Aurelio vs. Spencer Fisher

* Josh Neer vs. Din Thomas

* Clay Guida vs. Samy Schiavo

* Roman Mitichyan vs. George Sotiropoulos

* Anthony Johnson vs. Tommy Speer

Holy ****, when that came out we were complaining because we wouldn't be able to watch the entire card...hell yeah!

[StillUnknown]

great decision to move that to 3hrs

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

I don't think Babalu was ever suspended. The UFC did release him though. He was suppose to fight in San Diego last month, but the event got canceled the day of. Besides, Babalu fights at 205; not at heavy weight.

Paul Buentello would be a great fight. They exchanged words a year ago about a fight and Paul just called him out again:

http://mmamania.com/2008/02/19/kimbo-slice-next-fight/

“People want to see it. I think everybody wants to see it. Me and Kimbo should lace up the gloves. Everybody wants to see it and I think it’s time. He’s fighting all the guys I’ve already knocked out and I’ve already exposed. He needs to get off that buffet line I put out there and come over to my Paul Buentello taco shop and see if we can get to work.”

This would be a great fight. I never bet against the head hunter.

That would FOR SURE be a good fight. Buentello isn't good against upper-echelon guys, but he's a good filtration system to see who has it and who doesn't. Kimbo better work on his muay thai like mad for that one.

Babalu has fought in HW before. He can move up pretty easily with his frame.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

This is awesome news:

http://mmajunkie.com/2008/02/19/ufc-fight-night-13-will-be-a-three-hour-broadcast/

Spike is stepping up and airing 3hrs of Fight Night 13. Here is the card. I wish we could see all 11 fights.

* Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon

* Thiago Alves vs. Karo Parisyan

* Tim Boetsch vs. Matt Hamill

* Houston Alexander vs. James Irvin

* Nate Diaz vs. Kurt Pellegrino*

* Frank Edgar vs. Gray Maynard

* Marcus Aurelio vs. Spencer Fisher

* Josh Neer vs. Din Thomas

* Clay Guida vs. Samy Schiavo

* Roman Mitichyan vs. George Sotiropoulos

* Anthony Johnson vs. Tommy Speer

You guys are right about every fight being good on here. Hopefully each one is shown. March is looking good.

[Chachie]

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-cubanufc021808&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Cuban enters Couture tug-of-war

By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports

February 18, 2008

The likely promoter of a potential Randy Couture vs. Fedor Emelianenko match was revealed last week when Mark Cuban's HDNet Fights filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Dallas against Zuffa LLC, the parent company of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The suit is an attempt to get a court ruling on when Couture's contract expires and when he can fight for Cuban, who is best known as the billionaire owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, or another non-UFC promoter.

The suit comes on the heels of Zuffa’s attempt through the Nevada courts to get an injunction to bar Couture from appearing on rival MMA shows, citing a non-compete clause in Couture's employment contract. Couture’s employment contract is separate from the fighting contract, which is the basis for Cuban’s suit.

"Obviously we're going to address the lawsuit that was filed in Dallas, Texas, in a timely and very direct fashion," said Zuffa attorney Don Campbell. "Our point is that Couture is still obligated to the requirements of the terms of the contract, which are unambiguous."

Cuban’s HDNet, a television station available in only a small percentage of U.S. homes, has heavily focused on building around MMA programming. Cuban previously made headlines by engaging in talks with Floyd Mayweather Jr., the pound-for-pound boxing king, about potential participation in MMA.

A Couture-Emelianenko match would likely have more business potential on pay-per-view than any MMA fight not promoted by the UFC. Not only would it possibly put another promotion on the map as a genuine, significant rival to UFC, something many groups have tried to be but none have really succeeded at, but it would answer probably the most important question regarding the future of the sport:

Is MMA popular, or just the UFC?

UFC has run numerous pay-per-view cards that have drawn from 600,000-1.05 million buys. No non-UFC promotion has ever done more than 75,000 buys.

Emelianenko, in particular, has been a pay-per-view flop in North America as a headliner for Pride and Bodog Fight. The Russian fighter, who was long considered the world’s pound-for-pound best, did an anemic 13,000 buys for his lone 2007 match, against Matt Lindland.

Couture topped 500,000 buys on both of his 2007 UFC matches. A match with Emelianenko will likely show the upper limits of what the best fight possible, without UFC backing, could draw on pay-per-view.

The 44-year old Couture signed a four-fight, 18-month contract, on January 19, 2007, with UFC. This included a $500,000 signing bonus, half of which was paid upon the signing of the contract and the other half upon the completion of the first fight, the March 2 match where he defeated Tim Sylvia to win the UFC heavyweight title in Columbus, Ohio.

Between all monies, which included guarantees and a sliding percentage of pay-per-view revenue, as well as a second employment contract, Couture earned about $3 million in his two fights during 2007, along with some other outside work with the company. This includes money from a secondary contract as a company employee, paying him $200,000 per year, which included a one-year non-compete provision.

On the second contract, it appears both sides agree that when Couture quit the company on Oct. 11, he couldn't work for a rival promotion until that date this year.

But the fight contract is what is under dispute in the lawsuit filed by Cuban's company. Couture is claiming when the 18-month period expires on July 19, the contract is over, although he has done interviews in the past stating he'll honor the non-compete from the employment contract and feels he can fight again in October.

Zuffa is claiming that Couture didn't fulfill his contract, and that he owes them two more fights. There is a specific clause in the contract that stated in the event Couture retired, the 18-month time frame is frozen in that he's still bound to the company to fulfill the time frame if he decides to fight again. Couture has never used the term retirement, but used the term resignation. UFC president Dana White has stated that he believes you can't just resign in the middle of a valid contract, and has publicly offered him title defenses.

Couture is the currently recognized UFC heavyweight champion, although he personally claims he has not been champion since he quit the company. Zuffa has since created an interim heavyweight championship, which Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira won on Feb. 2 in Las Vegas in a match with Sylvia. Immediately after the match, White talked of trying to get Couture back for a match with Nogueira. Couture has been adamant that he is done with UFC unless UFC agrees to do a co-promotion with the M-1 Global promotion, which owns Emelianenko's contract.

White last year attempted to sign Emelianenko, an offer which included a seven-figure signing bonus and $1.5 million per fight, but the Russian's management turned it down, claiming it was too restrictive. Couture then announced he was leaving UFC, citing his goal was to fight Emelianenko to determine who was the top heavyweight in the world. Ironically, Couture felt disrespected by those terms, because Emelianenko's offered UFC guarantee was much higher than his, and Couture helped build the company and was, at the time of his resignation, the company's most popular fighter.

Couture was on Cuban's Inside MMA TV show on HDNet on Friday night, where both the lawsuit filed by HDNet Fights and UFC's attempt to file an injunction against Couture appearing for rival groups were discussed.

He said the fight with Emelianenko was the one the public wants to see and that the sport has to evolve to where the top fighters face each other, regardless of promotional affiliation. He noted that in boxing the rival promotions work together to promote major fights.

Emelianenko, who is 27-1, is generally considered the best heavyweight MMA fighter. Until recently, he was ranked No. 1 pound-for-pound in the Yahoo! Sports rankings, a ranking he would likely have retained if he had fought even one match against top heavyweight competition in 2007.

He was the champion of the Pride organization when it was sold to Zuffa last year, and then subsequently was folded. But to some, his stock as the true king and best fighter has dropped because he hasn't faced a legitimate top contender since an August 28, 2005, match in Japan against Mirko Cro Cop. Cro Cop, who was just dropped from his contract by UFC after consecutive losses to Gabriel Gonzaga and Cheick Kongo, is being talked about in Japan as an opponent for Emelianenko in a proposed summer match.

Zuffa sued Couture and then filed an injunction against him, claiming he has violated the non-compete clause by appearing on rival promotion's television shows to do interviews, in specific shows on Cuban's HDNet.

They also are claiming it's a violation because the International Fight League has a new team for the 2008 season called Team Xtreme Couture, featuring fighters from his Las Vegas gym. Couture's argument is that the gym, which bears his name, is separate from himself, and that he is not the coach of the team.

However, the IFL did put a photo of Couture on its web site, briefly, to promote its Feb. 29 show in Las Vegas where Team Xtreme Couture debuts.

The photo was quickly taken down, but Zuffa lawyers captured a screen image and then filed for an injunction to ban Couture from having anything to do with any rival shows.

The request for an injunction, filed in Las Vegas, stated, "If Couture is permitted to terminate his employment and promptly take his well-known name and likeness during the restricted period to one, or more, of Zuffa's competitors so that it can be used to promote upcoming events in other MMA leagues, the harm to Zuffa's business goodwill cannot be calculated."

It has been common knowledge and never a source of conflict in the past when fighters under contract to one organization corner fighters on different shows. Couture has seconded fighters from his gym on shows all over the world, both during his tenure with Zuffa and since his resignation. He was planning on seconding the fighters from his gym at the IFL show, which the injunction is attempting to prevent.

[Sebowski]

A new twist on that story

http://mmamania.com/2008/02/20/randy-couture-signs-hdnet-fight-contract-that-will-be-effective-when-ufc-term-expires/

Cuban has signed Couture

snipet:

Cuban and HDNet Fights contend that Zuffa’s position regarding Couture is illegal because it interferes with his ability to seek gainful employment and practice his craft. As there is a small window though which Couture can compete as an elite-level athlete, HDNet Fights will look to expedite the court decision.

It’s important to note that Texas law prohibits indefinite employment restrictions such as the restrictions Zuffa is attempting to place on Couture.

--------

Looks like Couture-Fedor might be on by the end of the year in Dallas ( :puke: :dallasuck )

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

If you guys don't have HDNet, it's freakin' awesome. I watched that show Randy was on last week. Here it is, all one hour of it:

http://www.sherdog.com/videos/videos.asp?v_id=1451

Bas is the co-host. They had Kim Couture (Randy's wife) on and she apparently has a fight this coming weekend. Muay Thai fight in Randy's gym (I think it's being televised somewhere). Gina Carano (that hot fighter who's "Crush" on American Gladiators) was on at the same time as Randy and Kim.

Anyway, Randy and the host talked a lot about the court cases.

Bas is absolutely hilarious. :rotflmao:

[Chachie]

If you guys don't have HDNet, it's freakin' awesome. I watched that show Randy was on last week. Here it is, all one hour of it:

http://www.sherdog.com/videos/videos.asp?v_id=1451

Bas is the co-host. They had Kim Couture (Randy's wife) on and she apparently has a fight this coming weekend. Muay Thai fight in Randy's gym (I think it's being televised somewhere). Gina Carano (that hot fighter who's "Crush" on American Gladiators) was on at the same time as Randy and Kim.

Anyway, Randy and the host talked a lot about the court cases.

Bas is absolutely hilarious. :rotflmao:

I'll check this out when I get home tonight. Thanks, Str0kes.

[Stricknn]

Anybody here from the Annapolis area? There's a new Lloyd Irvin camp opening in Annapolis on March 3rd:)

http://www.annapolismma.com/

Hope to see some Skins fans there!

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

Hey guys, this is Wandy's new blog from his website. He's training with Randy and Phil Baroni now. Looks like Jardine vs. Wanderlei soon:

http://www.wanderleisilva.com.br/blog/

FIST TRAINING SESSIONS

This week I went to talk to Couture to know whether he can be my new coach and he was very glad with my request and he will give me wresting lessons on person. I'll do the fight training with his athletes when everyone train together, as now is the time that lots of fighters have bouts scheduled so everyone is training really hard. The pictures on his website [refering to Randy] are from our first class. I'm a very lucky athlete to have such a great private lesson. Aside from being a great athlete he's also a great teacher. I trained together with Phil Baroni because he's an athlete from the camp and he was chosen by Couture to train with me on that day. I'm not aware of his fighting schedule and I don't know if he'll really fight Ninja [Murilo Rua - Shogun's brother] or not. I'm just doing my job and taking care of my life. The good news is that I'm leaving right now to sign the contract of my fight against Jardine and you guys are the first ones to know officially. I'm getting ready and I'll train hard to get the victory. I'd like to thank everyone who supported me with messages here on the website [refering to his blog]. A hug to everyone and Godspeed!

[#98QBKiller]

Hey guys, this is Wandy's new blog from his website. He's training with Randy and Phil Baroni now. Looks like Jardine vs. Wanderlei soon:

http://www.wanderleisilva.com.br/blog/

FIST TRAINING SESSIONS

This week I went to talk to Couture to know whether he can be my new coach and he was very glad with my request and he will give me wresting lessons on person. I'll do the fight training with his athletes when everyone train together, as now is the time that lots of fighters have bouts scheduled so everyone is training really hard. The pictures on his website [refering to Randy] are from our first class. I'm a very lucky athlete to have such a great private lesson. Aside from being a great athlete he's also a great teacher. I trained together with Phil Baroni because he's an athlete from the camp and he was chosen by Couture to train with me on that day. I'm not aware of his fighting schedule and I don't know if he'll really fight Ninja [Murilo Rua - Shogun's brother] or not. I'm just doing my job and taking care of my life. The good news is that I'm leaving right now to sign the contract of my fight against Jardine and you guys are the first ones to know officially. I'm getting ready and I'll train hard to get the victory. I'd like to thank everyone who supported me with messages here on the website [refering to his blog]. A hug to everyone and Godspeed!

That will be the fight that snaps Wanderlei's losing streak.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

That will be the fight that snaps Wanderlei's losing streak.

I think Jardine is one of those guys that will **** up a division by beating higher-ups from time to time. I think Forrest is a better fighter, same with Chuck...but he beat them both, somehow. I might have to go with Jardine here, but I'll wait it out.

[#98QBKiller]

I think Jardine is one of those guys that will **** up a division by beating higher-ups from time to time. I think Forrest is a better fighter, same with Chuck...but he beat them both, somehow. I might have to go with Jardine here, but I'll wait it out.

If he does, that's going to be it for Wanderlei, that would be 4 straight losses.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

If he does, that's going to be it for Wanderlei, that would be 4 straight losses.

Seriously. I think he's doing the right thing training with Mr. Gameplanner Randy Couture. Jardine had a good gameplan for Chuck. But Chuck is one dimentional. If Wandy gets Jardine down, fight should be over.

[Chachie]

Wandy better start fast. Jardine's leg kicks are getting better by the fight. He takes his opponents out of their gameplan by the end of the 1st round with those kicks.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

Wandy better start fast. Jardine's leg kicks are getting better by the fight. He takes his opponents out of their gameplan by the end of the 1st round with those kicks.

True I may not be giving Jardine enough credit. It's obvious the kid works hard. He might have given Alexander more of a fight if he didn't get pressed against the fence. And even though Houston rocked Jardine's world, Jardine took a ton of big shots and kept trying to get on his feet. He walked right through Chuck's standup, too. Kid has a good game. Beating Wandy would be a huge step for him and I wouldn't be surprised to see him a fight or two from the championship.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

Bodog Fight's Strikeforce is on tonight. Bob Sapp fights some 6'11' dude that's 25-17. Lot of beef will be in the ring.

K-1 fighter Rick Roufus is making his MMA debut against a 10-10 dude. That should be a nice 'ole sloppy match.

Joe Diesel Riggs fights 12-2 Cory Devela. Should be the fight of the night.

Enjoy on a relatively off-weekend for fights. I believe Kim Couture fights tonight, might want to check out HDNet or Sopcast/TVU for that.