Just when the legalization of MMA in NY seemed tantalizing close to becoming a reality, passage of the bill to legalize it has been tabled until 2010.
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Came across a good interview with Joe Rogan on MMA Fanhouse.
IMOP, Joe contributes alot to the UFC and MMA in general. He is an incredibly articulate, knowledgeable and entertaining guy whose commentary really adds alot to the events he covers. Maybe someone like Bas Rutten might be my distant #2 as a commentator.
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Schweet! Couture is back. After his pummeling by the big beast Brock Lesnar, I wasn’t sure whether we would be seeing him again any time soon, but Randy is going to fight Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who is also coming back after being pretty much owned by Frank Mir. The fight will be on August 29, 2009 at the Rose Garden in Portland, Oregon.
Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira officially announced as UFC 102 headliner
After Mir and Lesnar meet again to settle the heavyweight crown (at least for the moment) in July, the winner of Couture-Nogueira would then be in line to potentially re-challenge for the heavyweight crown.
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Gina Carano has signed on with Strikeforce to fight Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos on Aug. 15th.
Good to see Gina back in action!
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I have to admit to be a bit bummed by David’s passing. I grew up watching Kung Fu and really loved it. Overall I enjoyed his style of acting and characters. He was also classic as “Bill” in the Kill Bill series.
“Kung Fu” Actor David Carradine Found Dead in Bangkok
RIP David…
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Legalized mixed martial arts moves closer in NY
Chalk another one up for the big grinning smug bastard Dana White and the UFC. Although not necessarily all UFC, certainly their lobbying was a huge factor in the movement to get MMA legalized in the ultimate nanny state, New York.
Ultimately, I’m sure the dire budget situation in New York helped create a more receptive (desperate?) audience for the lobbying to legalize MMA competitions. I think it would be great to see MMA events in New York City, Albany, and Buffalo.
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I had thought that Kimbo would be working at a car wash by now, or maybe pop-up in a Japanese MMA venue, but it looks like Dana White and the UFC have signed Kimbo to be in the next The Ultimate Fighter as a contestant.
I gotta say, Mr. Smug Bastard, Dana White, made a brilliant move on this! The Ultimate Fighter’s ratings and publicity will be huge with Kimbo on it. Good move for Kimbo as well to (a) learn real MMA skills; (b) publicly do his pennance and potentially “earn” a spot in the UFC through legitimate means; and (c) just get back in the limelight. Plus, I’m sure he is getting a decent pay day (although not up to his former star attraction purses), certainly more than any other contestant. Win, Win for the UFC, Kimbo and fans.
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Saw Terminator Salvation this last weekend. I suppose it was decent enough, but I have to say the “magic” is somewhat gone from the [movie] series (I actually like the Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles tv series on Fox and am personally pissed it was cancelled - Damn Fox to Hell!! Remember, these are the idiots that cancelled Futurama and just about missed the boat with Family Guy early on…). I left the movie theater totally pumped after the first two Terminator movies, and even the third one was decent (even as an emotionless cyborg Arnold could still carry the relatively weaker movie purely through his own inimitable screen presence as THE Terminator).
From a special effects and action standpoint the movie moved pretty fast and had some cool new Terminator models like towering Terminator giants, Terminator motorcycles, and some wicked Terminator water snake thingy’s. The special effect were great but at this point in the series, and in the movie world in general, I think the level delivered is basically what you would expect and there were no great surprises. So, I don’t think the effects alone were enough to carry the movie.
Christian Bale was decent as John Connor, but I wasn’t dazzled by his performance. Moon Bloodgod as Blair Williams (how’s that for a name — I seems like her real name should be the character name, and vice versa), in my opinion, gave the best acting performance.
Overall, the movie had the cool gritty Terminator future look and effects you would expect but at the end there was just some “spark” that it was lacking that would catapult it from being just a good movie to a great one. I would give it a “3 beer” (out of 5) rating.
By comparison, The Terminator: Sarah Connor Chronicles series is [or was] a better legacy to the original Terminator movies. The series relies more on interesting story lines than special effects, and explores the potential of artificial intelligence and our relationships with AI’s, as well as the paradoxes of time travel and whether fate is immutable or fluid.
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Move over Gina Carano, a new MMA hottie is in town… LaTasha Marzolla, a former Playboy bunny. Actually, LaTasha and Gina are apparently friends and train together at Xtreme Couture. Wow! What a sight that must be. Carano vs. Marzolla is a viking’s Valhalla wet dream. I’m sure the potential of this match up hasn’t been overlooked by promoters, so hopefully we can see it soon!
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Finally got to catch the headline matches from UFC 98…
Lyoto Machida vs. Rashad Evans
This fight was interesting. I have to admit I wasn’t especially familiar with Lyoto and had to go back and watch some of his old matches to get up to speed on him. Lyoto is quite the enigma, a Japanese Brazilian who’s primary style is karate (although he is a jiu jitsu black belt)…go figure. His defensive technique is flawless though. I never especially like Rashad, but the one thing you could say about him was that he would usually find some way to come back and win even when the chips were down. Not this time though. Lyoto totally shut him down.
Video of Machida vs. Evans UFC 98
Just perusing the ranks of the UFC light heavyweights it’s hard to spot someone there who realistically has much chance agains such a technical defensive virtuoso. Randy Couture is only 220 as a heavyweight, maybe he could drop 15 (course he’s always pretty lean and conditioned at 220) and give Lyoto a shot — it’s got to be a better chance than fighting a giant beast like Lesnar. Randy is incredibly technical and has a knack for figuring out holes in fighters styles (Lesnar was just a pure brute force of nature).
Anyway, it will be interesting to see if Lyoto has a bona fide reign of terror in the light heavyweight division. So far it has been hard for anyone in recent times to defend the title for very long.
Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra UFC 98
In some respects this was the more entertaining fight since it wasn’t nearly as one-sided as the Lyoto-Rashad fight. I think the judges scored it well giving Hughes the edge, but it was really close in round 1 and somewhat in the 3rd. Moreso than any other fighter, Matt Hughes has this amazing ability to fight on auto pilot when he is virtually unconscious. When Serra tagged him with the headbutt, Hughes was on full autopilot in his defense. Matt also has the indomitable will and ability to tough it out and “just win” in situations where he is really just scrambling to stay alive (like when he beat GSP with the “Hail Mary” arm bar after being dominated the rest of the fight). Hughes was, in my opinion, much the worse for wear by the end of the fight and was looking a bit ragged. If the fight had gone on Serra looked much fresher and like he would have ultimately worn Hughes down.
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