Family Feud is No Game
Lotfi Sariahmed (lotfi@sherdog.com) - If the Gracies are the first family of fighting, the Shamrocks certainly aren’t too far behind.
However, adopted brothers Ken and Frank have brought a whole new meaning to the term.
“If he were to walk in front of my gym right now, I would beat his ass,” said Ken Shamrock on the Sherdog Radio Network’s “Beatdown” show on Monday.
“Whether it’s going to happen other than that I have no idea because I’m not in charge of that. I’m willing to beat his ass. I’ll make this loud and clear.
I will beat his ass. I don’t need a contract.”
While a bout between the volatile siblings –- both legends of the game -- has been bandied about for the last couple of years, it’s a matchup the brothers
have had to fight to keep alive and are starting to doubt will ever happen.
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Mailbag: Who’s next for Silva?
Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports - There are a lot of opinions about UFC 95 and the state of the game now, so I’ll get into all of it in this week’s
edition of the MMA mailbag.
My comments are in italics.
GOING AFTER THE SPIDER
It seemed like every middleweight who fought at UFC 95 had a challenge for middleweight champion Anderson Silva. Has Silva lost some of that legendary
status that he had before his last fight? I don’t think he’s unbeatable but he’s still the best. Do you see Anderson Silva cleaning up his weight class as
planned or is there an upset brewing?
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Ryan Couture goes 2-0 at Tuff-N-Uff
MMAFighting.com - Ryan Couture, the son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy, won Sunday at the Tuff-N-Uff " Future Stars of MMA" amateur event in Las
Vegas.
Couture tapped out Team Fubar's Arthur Martinez with a rear-naked choke at 28 seconds of round two in the lightweight bout.
Couture, who trains out of his father's Xtreme Couture in Las Vegas, got a small taste of revenge with the win. Martinez, on Jan. 9 at the last Tuff-N-Uff
event, defeated a member of Xtreme Couture in the first round.
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Mailbag: Coker’s Strikeforce vision
Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports - Almost by acclamation, Strikeforce is being hailed as the No. 2 mixed martial arts promoter in the U.S., after
its purchase of the remnants of Pro Elite.
Clearly, the combined company has the strongest roster of fighters this side of the UFC. And its television deal is, bar none, the best in the industry.
But Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker said he’s not going to operate any differently now that he has television dates with CBS and Showtime and quality fighters
like Jake Shields on his roster.
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Report: Nick Diaz vs. Frank Shamrock set for Strikeforce in April
MMAjunkie.com Staff - As the pieces continue to fall into place for the rapidly expanding Strikeforce organization, the California-based
promotion now apparently has a main event for their April 11 return to the HP Pavilion in San Jose, Calif.
According to Fiveouncesofpain.com, former Strikeforce middleweight champion Frank Shamrock (23-9-2) will take on UFC and EliteXC veteran Nick Diaz (18-7).
An official announcement of the bout could come as early as today.
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Wagnney Fabiano to meet Fredson Paixao, not Urijah Faber, at WEC 40
John Morgan and Dann Stupp - Former International Fight League featherweight champion and recent World Extreme Cagefighting signee Wagnney
Fabiano (11-1) has agreed to meet Fredson Paixao (8-2), not Urijah Faber (22-2), at WEC 40.
A source close to the bout told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) the fight could be finalized as early as today.
WEC 40 takes place April 5 at Chicago's UIC Pavilion and features WEC bantamweight champion Miguel Torres vs. Brian Bowles in the night's Versus-televised
main event.
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5 Ways to Cheat (And Not Get Caught)
Jake Rossen (jrossen@sherdog.com) - Admit it or don’t, but the media upchuck surrounding Georges St. Pierre’s “GreaseGate” -- the debate over
whether the athlete maybe, possibly obtained a slight advantage from some rogue petroleum jelly on his back -- is one of the reasons MMA rarely gets
boring.
(That, and Maurice Smith figuring out how to keep from getting smothered by wrestlers. But I digress.)
Whether or not you believe GSP premeditated the lubing to garner an advantage, the fact remains that athletes who get kicked in the crotch for a living
may not be universally honorable. Some are going to bend the rules, some are going to break them and some may think of foul techniques that haven’t even
occurred to regulators yet.
Five ways you can turn a fair fight into something else:
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MMAWeekly.com divisional rankings
MMAWeekly.com staff - The latest MMAWeekly World Rankings were released on Wednesday, February 3. This system ranks the Top 10 MMA
fighters from all across the world in each of the seven most widely accepted weight classes.
Taken into consideration are a fighter’s performance in addition to his win-loss record, head-to-head and common opponents, difficulty of opponents, and
numerous other factors in what is the most comprehensive rankings system in the sport.
Fighters who are currently serving drug-related suspensions are not eligible for Top 10 consideration until they have fought one time after the completion
of their suspension.
Fighters must also have competed within the past 12 months in order to be eligible for Top 10 consideration.
Below are the current MMAWeekly World MMA Rankings, which are up-to-date as of February 3.
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Fight Path: After 2008 Olympics, Ben Askren's few options included MMA
Kyle Nagel, MMAjunkie.com - When Ben Askren was a kid, his family kept crude pairs of boxing gloves in the basement of their Hartland, Wis.,
home. Askren and friends would sometimes fight with them on the wrestling mats placed for the Askren brothers' true sport.
Like in wrestling, Askren dominated.
"I always won, but not because I was great," Askren said. "The other guys just weren't good. I was trying something new."
It could've been the last time Askren was dabbling in a different sport, until this weekend. The college national champion and Olympic wrestler will make
his mixed-martial-arts debut on Saturday when he headlines "Headhunters Fight League: The Patriot Act," an event he's promoting to bring an MMA presence
to mid-Missouri.
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“Fighting Words” – What UFC Fighters Have Learned From Boxing
David P. Greisman - They are different sports with different fan bases, different histories and different strategies. But boxing is a part
of mixed martial arts, or MMA. The skills used within the squared circle are incorporated into the arsenals of those who step into the cage. The ability
to punch is as essential as the ability to wrestle, to kick, to fight on the ground and to defend against all of the above.
Fighters may excel in one aspect, but they cannot specialize and merely expect to get by. From the very first Ultimate Fighting Championship (or UFC)
pay-per-view, Royce Gracie turned conventional beliefs upside-down, using Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to take out experts in various fighting forms. More than a
dozen years later, Gracie would be dominated by a modern MMA fighter, Matt Hughes.
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Biggest fight not on the card
Dan Wetzel, Yahoo! Sports - The Ultimate Fighting Championship claims it’s spending a whopping $1.7 million for just three episodes of “UFC Primetime”
airing on Spike TV. The show follows the training of B.J. Penn and Georges St. Pierre in advance of their Jan. 31 megafight in Las Vegas.
The show looks expensive and is not just visually captivating, but smartly establishes a sort of good vs. evil story line that can draw in casual viewers
to mixed martial arts. It may translate into enough pay-per-view buys to immediately make the investment worthwhile. Even if it doesn’t, UFC president
Dana White says the investment is worth it in the long term.
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SHOGUN PROMISES BETTER RETURN
Tom Hamlin, MMAWeekly.com - From the outset of UFC 93’s post-fight press conference, it was clear Mauricio “Shogun” Rua had many questions
to answer.
While he managed to stop former UFC heavyweight champion Mark Coleman in the final seconds of their co-main event fight, his gas tank ran empty after
just one round with the 44 year-old Hall of Famer.
Widely regarded as the number one light heavyweight in the world at the time of Pride Fighting Championship’s collapse, Rua again appeared to be a
shell of the fighter who dominated opponents in Japan.
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Andrei Arlovski's boxing passion not distracting from "Day of Reckoning" prep
John Morgan - As former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski (14-5) nears his Jan. 24 bout with current WAMMA heavyweight champion Fedor
Emelianenko (28-1), much attention has been given to the Belarusian's legendary boxing trainer Freddie Roach.
And while Roach joined Arlovski on a recent media call in anticipation of Saturday's "Affliction: Day of Reckoning" in Anaheim, Calif., Arlovski was quick
to point out that he hasn't abandoned the rest of his normal routines.
"Of course I like boxing right now," Arlovski said. "I spent a lot of time in a boxing gym, but I concentrate on everything -- wrestling, jiu-jitsu and
everything else -- so I practice every night. I'm ready for standing or if the fight is going to be on the ground. I'm ready in both ways."
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Despite announcement, Frank Trigg hasn't signed for Feb. 14 XCF headliner
Dann Stupp - Despite an announcement from the Xtreme Cagefighting Federation that Frank Trigg will headline its Feb. 14 "Rumble In Race
Town" event, the UFC and PRIDE veteran said he hasn't signed a contract for the fight.
Although expected to compete at the event, Trigg recently told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com) nothing is official.
XCF announced on Saturday that Trigg would headline the event, which coincides with NASCAR's Daytona 500, against an opponent to be determined.
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Serra confirms May bout with Hughes
Mick Hammond/MMAWeekly.com - While it has long been commonplace for coaches of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series to face each other
after the series finale, few took to a personal disliking of each other like season six’s Matt Hughes and Matt Serra.
Throughout the season’s run, the two traded barbs with each other almost every chance they could get, thus it came as no surprise that their intended
title showdown at UFC 79 was one of the most anticipated fights of 2007.
Injury forced the initial fight to be postponed, eventually leading to Georges St. Pierre defeating both Hughes and Serra to claim the undisputed
welterweight championship; still fans clamored to see the two Matts finally square off.
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Fight Path: Why the lure of MMA proved strong for NFL lineman Rex Richards
Kyle Nagel, MMAjunkie.com - Several years ago, Rex Richards arrived at a submission grappling tournament hosted by Brad Barnes, a
professional fighter. Richards, the skilled offensive lineman standing at 6 feet 5 and 320 pounds who was still a mixed-martial-arts novice, was
placed in the beginner division.
“He walked right through it,” Barnes told MMAjunkie.com (www.mmajunkie.com).
Barnes, meanwhile, was handling the advanced division with ease, including a quick disposal of an opponent at least Richards’ size. When both were
through, they agreed on a friendly exhibition.
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Simple toughness serves Henderson well
Kevin Iole, Yahoo! Sports - DUBLIN, Ireland – Dan Henderson’s face reflects the carnage a 12-year career as a mixed martial artist will
inflict upon a man.
His nose meanders east and west like a country road along his tattered face. He has bumps where it should be smooth and dents where there should be
bumps.
Inevitably, though, Henderson has given more than he’s gotten when it comes to rearranging faces, as was the case on Saturday at a packed and roaring
O2 Arena.
The 38-year-old former U.S. Olympic wrestler won a split decision over ex-UFC middleweight champion Rich Franklin in the main event of UFC 93 by nearly
willing his way to the victory.
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