Off-Topic/Minor MMA News and Notes

[djohn14]

IMO this is some pretty big news...

Bellator Fighting Championships has reportedly secured a television deal with ESPN’s Spanish-speaking channel, ESPN Deportes, to broadcast an MMA program in 2009. The Communications Manager for ESPN Deportes, Santa Brito, confirmed today that the channel was in the early stages of development for MMA programming in 2009.

This news comes via a report at Sherdog this afternoon.

Brito did clear the air that ESPN does not have plans to develop any MMA programming for its English-speaking networks. According to the report, fighters such as Jorge Masvidal as well as Eddie Alvarez have been approached in regards to appearing on what looks to be a reality television show largely focused on Hispanic fighters.

The report also indicates that the program is set to be a 12 week series that will focuse on the 145, 155, 170, and 185 lbs. weight classes. Each weight class will have an eight man tournament and non-tournament bouts will also be broadcast.

[desflood]

Once again, Karo "Do you know who I am?" Parisyan opens his mouth and... just doesn't know when to close it:

"The deal is I always said I’m an entertainer. I don’t really get into politics. If I gotta go with somebody, it’s Obama. First of all, McCain was against MMA, which is my field, and second of all, the overall outlook for Obama, how composed he is, what kind of proposals he puts on every single thing we think about and we do. Everything he does, bro, it fits me and suits me. I like his tax issues, and I like him recognizing the genocide of Armenians, and I think it’s time for an African-American president. If McCain wins, he’s old, and if he dies, who’s gonna be the president? A woman? The world is already mad at us. They’ll lash out at us even more. "

[ATRAIN]

Once again, Karo "Do you know who I am?" Parisyan opens his mouth and... just doesn't know when to close it:

"The deal is I always said I’m an entertainer. I don’t really get into politics. If I gotta go with somebody, it’s Obama. First of all, McCain was against MMA, which is my field, and second of all, the overall outlook for Obama, how composed he is, what kind of proposals he puts on every single thing we think about and we do. Everything he does, bro, it fits me and suits me. I like his tax issues, and I like him recognizing the genocide of Armenians, and I think it’s time for an African-American president. If McCain wins, he’s old, and if he dies, who’s gonna be the president? A woman? The world is already mad at us. They’ll lash out at us even more. "

I hate Karo more than any MMA fighter out there but that was funny hahaha.

[desflood]

yo homeboys and lady...we need your WEC picks.

Yo - the lady's picks are already over in the thread.

[ATRAIN]

Yo - the lady's picks are already over in the thread.

you tell him Des!!!

[desflood]

Hey, wow. Totally off topic, but - I didn't realize how close we were to 100 pages.

[Evan]

Hey, wow. Totally off topic, but - I didn't realize how close we were to 100 pages.

on a basketball forum......

[ATRAIN]

Wow this thread is very old!! Im glad I was on page 3 . LOL did you guys see what I wrote about with Lesnar over a year ago. That was of course before I saw him fight.

[dbreiden83080]

I wonder what Lesnar will do once his MMA career fails.... I mean he has gone all backwards....arent you supposed to be a football player, then mma fighter, then pro wrestler. Maybe he will do dancing with the stars next.

LOL did you guys see what I wrote about with Lesnar over a year ago. That was of course before I saw him fight.

Ahh A-Train, now he is one of your favorite fighters, my how times have changed...

[polandprzem]

What a big penis can do with people minds ?

[ATRAIN]

Ahh A-Train, now he is one of your favorite fighters, my how times have changed...

LOL yeah I know it cracked me up when I went back and re-read some of this stuff hahahha. Like I said that was before I watched him fight. That was right before his first MMA fight and I thought for sure he would fail. Im glad he proved me wrong.

[ATRAIN]

What a big penis can do with people minds ?

???

[dbreiden83080]

LOL yeah I know it cracked me up when I went back and re-read some of this stuff hahahha. Like I said that was before I watched him fight. That was right before his first MMA fight and I thought for sure he would fail. Im glad he proved me wrong.

I actually used to watch a lot of pro-wrestling and was a fan of his from his WWE days. I got out of WWE just before he left so when he made the move to MMA he for sure had my support. Even though he dessimated his first opponent he fought a bum like half his size, so i was not sure how he'd do against Mir. But he blew me away obviously even in defeat that night..

[ATRAIN]

I actually used to watch a lot of pro-wrestling and was a fan of his from his WWE days. I got out of WWE just before he left so when he made the move to MMA he for sure had my support. Even though he dessimated his first opponent he fought a bum like half his size, so i was not sure how he'd do against Mir. But he blew me away obviously even in defeat that night..

Yeah man same here, I used to watch him on RAW and thought Holy Crap he is a beast. Then I followed him when he tried out for the Vikings. THEN he said MMA and I was like well he was a collegiate wrestler maybe he can do it but I didnt expect a rise like this at ALL. When he fought MIR I was shocked he had such a high profile fight against a former champ and thought for sure he was going to get his ass kicked. Well to my surprise he slapped MIR around and made a rookie mistake against a vet. I am pretty sure if MIR can beat NOG, he is prob worried about facing Brock a 2nd time. YES I SAID it BROCK a 2nd time cause Brock is going to beat Randy and face the winner of that fight hahaha.

[ATRAIN]

Looks like the UFC is getting closer to having Fedor...

Post #138 LOL over a year ago hahahah Well Evan have they gotten closer?

[Evan]

Post #138 LOL over a year ago hahahah Well Evan have they gotten closer?

I blame Josh Gross….

[ATRAIN]

Awesome job on keeping this thread alive guys, for a while it was all we had. We were like a family of 10 living in a shack and now we have this mansion. PROPS to everyone who kept it alive. I have had fun going back and reading the stuff we were talking about a year and a half ago. Its amazing how things have changed since then.

[Evan]

its good stuff

[polandprzem]

???

You saw him and all of sudden changed your mind and fell in love with him

[ATRAIN]

You saw him and all of sudden changed your mind and fell in love with him

saw him fight you perv lol. I was a fan of his in WWE like stated before. I just wasnt sure how he would translate to MMA and wasnt very optimistic. I was surprised for sure.

[polandprzem]

[Evan]

MMAweekly with its typical outstanding writing. Man those guys are good.

************************************************** ********

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell is fighting a battle of meaning in the public eye: can one punch change everything?



Liddell, 38, built his reputation giving and taking punches. From 2004 to 2006, he cleaned out the sport’s marquee division, collecting wins against stars like Randy Couture and o Ortiz, who, like him, built the foundation for the UFC’s explosion in popularity.



But a new guard has encroached upon Liddell’s legacy, and s have begun to appear in his armor. Spearheaded by the minds at Jackson’s Submission Academy in Albuquerque, N.M., Liddell has lost to three out of his last four opponents, and his light heavyweight le to Quinton Jackson at UFC 71.



A spectacular knockout loss to Rashad Evans at UFC 88 brought the subject of retirement into sharp focus. After the fight, Liddell said he’d decide in the gym, not in the pressroom, whether to hang up his four-ounce gloves.



Nearly two months later, Liddell is sitting on the mats at training home The Pit, texting away on his beloved Sidekick. He has just celebrated his son Cade’s birthday, and is beat from a month and a half of travel.



Not a whole lot’s changed in his lifestyle. He’s still crisscrossing the country doing publicity junkets for the UFC, as popular as ever. A recent itinerary took him from the Philippines to Hawaii to Nebraska, in no particular order.



Trainer John Hackelman stands by the heavy bags in the brightly lit room, about to take a staff member to lunch. He says the conversation following Liddell’s loss to Evans was pretty short.



“Chuck, how you feeling?” he recounts. “Do you want to go on? ‘Yes.’ Alright, let’s go. I don’t think one punch – I’ll never say lucky punch because Rashad trained for that punch too long – is going to separate Chuck from his career. It landed just like Chuck knocked out many, many, many opponents and they didn’t all quit right away. It was the first time Chuck was KO’d, and I don’t think that would warrant talks of retirement.”



Liddell bristles at the idea of one fight changing everything.



“You don’t ever want to get caught like that in a fight, but it happens,” he says. “I don’t think that says I can’t perform anymore. Up to that point in the fight I was winning the fight. If he hadn’t caught me, most likely we would have gone another round and a half, or maybe I would have caught him.”



Of particular irritation are critics who say Liddell’s striking style sets him up for defeat. Outsiders have often characterized it as a “looping” punching style, focused exclusively on the knockout punch. Obviously, it’s worked for Liddell more than it hasn't. But against Evans, who used a more compact striking style, many questioned whether it was outdated.



“I think it’s unfair,” Liddell told MMAWeekly.com. “I do have some great looping punches but most of those are started off by some good straight punches, good solid punches. But I do like to throw with power, and it shows. I’ve done well with it.”



It’s a situation he has been largely immune to until now. Once unquestioned, he finds himself defending his legacy. All he wants to do is fight.



“I have one fight I get caught, and all of a sudden my striking is no good?” Liddell poses. “That’s kind of how you guys feel in the sport. You media guys, (if) you lose a fight – nobody was saying that when I beat Wanderlei (Silva). Nobody was talking about how my striking was overrated. Now eight months later, I lose a fight, and my striking is no good.”



Liddell does acknowledge his mistakes in the Evans fight, and says he’s still working on “bad habits.” In the gym, he could get away with dropping his hands, leading with body shots. As he knows now, those days are over. The key is a stricter gameplan – everything measured to maximize offense and defense.



“It’d be me changing my game plan, not my style,” Liddell says. “I mean, you’re not going to change how I punch, how I strike. (I can) change what I decide to do just like I did for Wanderlei, I planned on taking a couple of shots. That’s not changing my actual style. My style includes everything, it’s just what I decide to use in the fights.”



Hackelman says he wouldn’t want his prized student to change. At this point in Liddell’s career, there’s not much he can.



“Keeping the hands up is great to say, everybody knows they should do it, but it’s a big problem for fighters of all levels,” he says. “You could get the best fighters on the planet in boxing, kickboxing, MMA, everyone drops their hands, because of simple physics of gravity. Everyone’s going to drop their hands occasionally, and when you do, you expose certain things, so yeah, we’ll work on that. You just work on some of the things that need to be tweaked, that’s all.”



Then Hackleman goes stiff, keeling over on the mats. He gets up with a big smile. This MMA business can’t be too serious.



Liddell says he anticipates another fight in early 2009, but thinks the UFC is waiting to see how the light heavyweight picture looks at the end of December before giving him an opponent. One idea, Anderson Silva, was floated at the post-fight press conference for UFC 90. Though he doesn’t call fighters out, Liddell welcomes the idea, and says a fight with Silva would be a perfect place to showcase different skills.



“I think it would be a great fight,” he said. “I think I match up well. I hit very hard, and I’m a big 205-pounder. And he’s going to have to worry about me taking him down. I have a good shot mixed in the middle of that. So he’s definitely a guy that I would take some shots on.”



That said, Liddell only has so many opportunities to get his le back. He still burns for it, and another setback could be devastating. But another one of his patented knockouts could silence fickle MMA fans... and that's the way he'd like to go out.



“My timetable is still the same,” he said. “I want to make another run at it. I think another loss could put an end to making a run for it, cause I think that would put me way too far out of le contention. Now, I still feel like I get a few wins, get a le, get a few defenses, maybe. So we’ll see.”

[dbreiden83080]

Nice piece. Chuck is a step slower than he used to be with his reflexes and timing and he has become incredibly one dimensional. His loss to Jardine and to Evans, he just pokes at you with that left, loading up big time with the right. He rarely even throws a strong jab anymore. All he wants to do is land one punch KO's. If he mixed it up better with Rashad he'd have taken a decision. He fought much smarter with Silva..

[Evan]

The most well-known referee in the history of mixed martial arts is set to return to the profession that saw him officiate over 500 fights over a 15-year-career. The California State Athletic Commission has assigned “Big” John McCarthy to referee selected bouts at Strikeforce’s “Destruction” event on November 21 in San Jose according to Sherdog.com.

“I missed doing it,” McCarthy said referring to his days as a referee to Sherdog.com.. “Sometimes when you walk away from something and you think it’s time, once you’re away you realize what you’re missing –- it’s kind of like why guys come back to fighting. It’s what I like doing. It’s what I was meant to do.”

[polandprzem]

100 pages guys and gals !