The Grinch Who Lost The Belt

Ok so Randy Couture isn't really so much of a grinch as he is a stand-up guy but regardless...pretty great costume.

I'll be back soon, I've been gone a while I know.

-ZP

p.s. as usual this is from bloodyelbow.com from combatlifestyle.com

Nasty Nasty Nasty Injury

If you were unaware, last night the UFC had a full fight card on Spike TV and in one of the undercard fights the above injury occurred. The guy's name is Corey Hill and he is 6'4'' and fights at 155lbs. The average height of guys in the Lightweight class is probably around 5'8''. Now this isn't the first time that a guy has broken a leg this way and unfortunately, it won't be the last but you have to wonder if this guy's ridiculous height/weight ratio might have made this worse than it would have been with a 5'8'' guy.

I don't know enough about anatomy to say much about this except that if I knew this guy I would have begged him to move up a weight class. His legs are so long that he's still an obvious target for leg kicks even at 170lbs, so why not move up to welterweight and use the extra weight to bulk up his leg muscles to protect those giraffe-like legs? He still would have a huge height advantage at 170lbs so whats the point? Also, as you go up in weight class, guys generally get a little slower which only could have helped Corey in his boxing. I'm not saying this wouldn't have happened if he was heavier but it's hard to look at him and not suspect that he was at a much higher risk for sustaining such an injury than other guys.

Having said all this stuff about Hill's ability to take a leg kick, I must note that it wasn't his opponent who threw the leg kick in this instance. The injury actually occurred on a leg kick by Corey Hill which means (as you can also see in the picture) that the contact point was the shin, where there is very little muscle on any person, no matter how big they are. But that really doesn't change anything because as I understand it, your bone mass increases as your body mass increases so if he was heavier his shin bone would be bigger, more massive idk the correct terminology but point is that it would have been harder to break.

I know I went on a bit of a rant here but I just feel like this may have been avoidable and now this guy is probably worrying about the next time he will walk when it's possible that as a welterweight he could be worrying about his next fight instead. And dont worry, I realize that in order for anyone to read this I'm gonna have to post it on some other blog but let me have my kicks. (no pun intended)

If you want to see a video of the fight and probably a little footage of Joe Rogan screaming "STOP THE FIGHT!!!" for a few seconds before anyone realizes what happened it's on the front page of UFC.com.

picture by way of bloodyelbow.com

Priceless

This was simply just too good to not post..

"Crooklyn" on mixedmartialarts.com posts:

"So my good friend Jason (president of LGSM) has this beautiful 15 year old daughter. He recently had a dilemma. She wanted to go to her first high school dance with a boy. Now Jason had met this boy once before, and had some impressive guns out to show the kid, sort of like a scare tactic to keep him in line. The boy only found this to be a "protective dad" gesture, and saw right through his ploy. So what's a worried father to do in a situation like this? I'll tell ya. Better yet, I'll show ya:


CB there to do the handoff has got to be unnerving.



The boy was told that if he stood any closer to her than what Bader was standing to him, there would be a major problem. Now THAT is how you send a girl safely to her first dance, IMHO."


Let me explain a little for those who are a little confused:
LGSM=LG Sports Marketing

CB=CB Dolloway, runner up on The Ultimate Fighter 7 and current UFC Middleweight, LG Sports Mktg client and the guy who this site is named after

Bader=Ryan Bader, Finalist on The Ultimate Fighter 8 (he fights on Saturday night), wrestled with CB Dolloway at Arizona State and LG Sports Mktg Client

But here is my favorite part. In the comments section following this initial post, "Mad Xyientist" wrote "that kid should have had Amir Sadollah drive him". (Amir beat CB Dolloway in the finals of TUF 7 on Spike). By itself I didn't really think this was that funny but the picture the guy added later is perrrrfffect...


"Nice to meet you CB. This is my chauffer Amir".

The only thing missing here is the obligatory Fonz-esque "HEYYYYYYY" that comes with that pose. Amir's photos always seem to be great. (one of my first posts that features another Amir photo)

WEC Rankings

New WEC Featherweight (145lbs) Rankings

1. Mike Brown
2. Leonard Garcia
3. Urijah Faber
4. Jens Pulver
5. Wagnney Fabiano
6. Akitoshi Tamura
7. Jose Aldo
8. Cub Swanson
9. Hiroyuki Takaya
10. Josh Grispi
11. Micah Miller
12. Diego Nunes
13. Cole Province
14. Jonathon Brookins

Cub Swanson moves from #10 to #8 with his win over Hiroyuki Takaya @ WEC 37
As a result, Hiroyuki Takaya moves down from #7 to #9
Jens Pulver moves back up from #8 to #4 due to me coming to my senses about him and remembering his destruction of Cub Swanson...I realize that Pulver's good stand-up skills are still enough to overwhelm most of the weight class and combining that with the fact that he's solid on the ground and his wealth of experience caused me to bump him up.
Any other changes are just a result of these three changes...
Note: Wagnney Fabiano and Akitoshi Tamura's positions would have stayed the same without Pulver's move up -- both guys showed that they belong in the upper half of the rankings but didn't show me enough for me to justify a move up.

My first WEC Bantamweight (135lbs) Rankings

1. Miguel Torres
2. Jeff Curran
3. Brian Bowles
4. Manny Tapia
5. Will Ribeiro
6. Chase Beebe*
   
7. Yoshihiro Maeda
8. Rani Yahya
9. Joseph Benavidez
10. Dominick Cruz
11. Charlie Valencia
12. Damacio Page
13. Danny Martinez

*=#6 Chase Beebe is not currently fighting in the WEC but he's a former WEC Champ and I wanted to include him b/c I feel like he might be back in the promotion following a good showing at UWC: Man O War in February

Dec. 3rd Lineup/Upcoming "Fight Nights" and The Ultimate Fighter Semi-Finals Preview

This week is the first of a number of very busy/awesome weeks for MMA fans we can look forward to in the coming two months or so. Tomorrow (Wed.) is packed full of MMA with WEC 37 @ 8pm on Versus and back to back new episodes of The Ultimate Fighter: Season 8 on Spike at 12am and 1am--six straight hours of MMA...
Schedule

• *12/3: WEC 37 @ 8pm on Versus*
• *12/4: The Ultimate Fighter @ Midnight and 1am on Spike (after WEC 37)*
• *12/10: UFC Fight For the Troops @ 8pm on Spike*
• *12/13: The Ultimate Fighter: Season 8 Final @ 8pm on Spike*
• *12/13: Battle at the Capital I @ DC Armory in SE Washington DC at 5pm (Not on TV)*
• *12/27: UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008 on PPV*

WEC 37 is headlined by a Bantamweight Title fight between current champ Miquel Torres (left) and Manny Tapia and is filled with awesome fights. Needless to say, I'll preview this card later today/tomorrow.


Since the UFC and WEC brands are both under the Zuffa, LLC umbrella, The Ultimate Fighter episodes are being shown late so as not take viewers away from WEC 37. Spike will make up for the lack of a new episode last week by showing two new episodes of the show. A story on Spike.com states that each episode will feature two fights (typically there is one fight) which means that the season finale matchups will be set by the end of the second episode, as the number of fighters drops from 8 to 4 (two 155'ers and two 205'ers).

Wednesday is a great day to start watching the show if you haven't seen it before given the number and quality of fights featured and the fact that it's likely that the winners of these matches (and maybe a couple losers) will end up fighting in the UFC in the future, even if they don't actually win the final match. Along those lines, there is a rumor that Junie Browning (right) gets kicked off the show in the second episode due to another "incident" but even if that is true, I am 100% sure that Junie has or will have a contract with the UFC (see Dana White's video blog from UFC 91).
Look for:

• Light Hvy: Ryan Bader over Eliot Marshall in the first episode
• Lightweight: Phillipe Nover over George Roop by utter obliteration in episode 1
• A battle between 205'ers Vinny Magalhaes and Krzysztof Soszynski--can't say who will win
• Bedlam from Junie Browning that will lead to another visit from UFC President Dana White
• Dana giving Junie yet another chance
• Junie to make quick work of Efrain Escudero--possibly a KO

DC MMA: Take Two

Two bits of DC area MMA news in 24 hours...I thought it was impossible. I don't know how this one slipped by me but apparently the DC area will host another mixed martial arts event on December 13th at the DC Armory. The show is called "Battle at the Nation's Capital" and is being put on by District Combat Productions.

Admittedly, I have never heard of District Combat Productions but a visit to their website and Sherdog.com's announcement of the event actually gave me some good insight. First of all, the promotion is brand new and founded by Geoff Dawson, owner of Bedrock Management and Jonathan Reff, an Olympic Taekwondo fighter and trainer at Somafit in DC. (Note: For those familiar with the DC area, Bedrock Mgmt owns Buffalo Billiards and Atomic Billiards near the Uptown). http://bizjournalshire.com/washington/stories/2006/05/22/story7.html

In general, this event is unlikely to be at the same level as the UWC events but fight card does feature a few interesting fighters most of whom are either unproven or new to the sport, such as former Cornell wrestler John Cholish. The one name that did stick out to me right away was Paul Bradley. Bradley is a former Ohio State wrestler (apparently was dirrty) and a contestant on season 7 of The Ultimate Fighter (ended July '08) who won his first fight but was eventually forced off the show after a contagious rash was discovered on his neck.

Tickets for the event are available at ticketmaster.com and range from $30-175. I will most likely be back in DC by the 13th, so I definitely plan to attend. Hopefully it will be possible to get some of the better tickets for cheap outside the armory but I don't know for sure. I will definitely write more about this event in the coming weeks as I learn more about it, so stay tuned.

Also, thanks to Zack and Claire who first told me about this event the other day and proved that I don't know shit haha.

Big DC Area MMA News

It was just announced today that the co-main event at UWC: Man "O" War on February 21st at the Patriot Center at GMU will be a Bantamweight (135lbs) title bout between Mike Easton and Chase Beebe for the UWC Bantamweight Belt. Mike Easton is a local guy who fighting out of Temple Hills, MD and is 2-0 in the UWC and has a 6-1 career record. Chase Beebe is the big story here. Beebe is a former WEC Bantamweight Champion which is basically the equivalent of being UFC champion for 135'ers and is currently the #10 ranked Bantamweight in the world by Sherdog.com. **This is definitely the biggest MMA fight ever in the DC area and is going to really legitimize the UWC on a national level.

Ultimate Warrior Challenge (UWC) is owned and run by Marcello Foran whose brother was a standout wrestler at Dematha in the early 90's and currently fights in the UWC.

Hopefully the additional media attention that this fight is getting will discourage Mike Easton from wearing briefs/a speedo in this fight...

Mike Easton picture from lloydirvin.com
Chase Beebe picture from versus.com