They’ve been showing a some good martial arts shows lately. I’m sure most people have seen the first episode of “Human Weapon” where two dudes travel across the world learning various martial arts, and at the end of each episode one of the guys fights someone. The first episode was in Thailand, and of course the dudes were studying different Muay Thai styles. It was a pretty good show, but they should’ve showed more of the fight at the end, instead they chose to edit some of it and show other parts in slow motion. Neither guy really seemed to hurt the other one, but the local Muay Thai champ won a decision.

Also last night on “Cities Of The Underworld” on The History Channel, the show was about Portland, Oregon’s shady history and some of the underground (literally) rooms where various illegal activities took place in the late 1800′s and early 1900′s. One of the last segments of the episode was about an illegal “fight club” which depending on who was talking, was mostly referred to as “bareknuckle boxing” but the host of the show kept calling “Mysterious” Billy Smith an “Ultimate Fighter.”

No doubt, Mysterious Billy Smith sounds like a badass. He’s known as the “Dirtiest fighter of all time”. Supposedly, he was biting dudes ears off long before Mike Tyson was even born.

I’m sitting here watching Jimmy Kimmel Live, and comedic actor Rob Schneider is talking about some movie he’s making and that he’s working with “a lot of these ultimate fighting guys.” He said he took his shirt off on the set and Don Frye asked him “have you been doing steroids?” Haha.

It’s for some prison movie he was filming recently, and in it he says he has to someone to teach him to be a fighter, so in the movie he hires David Carradine (Kung Fu), but evidently a lot of MMA fighters are being stunt coordinators for the show.

 Junior Assuncao (5-2, 1-1 UFC). The fight will most likely take place on the UFC Ultimate Fight Night 11 event on Sept. 19. at The Palms Las Vegas. This will be Nate Diaz’ first fight since winning the lightweight contract on The Ultimate Fighter television show. The event will be aired live on Spike TV and is expected to be the promotional lead-in for the new season of The Ultimate Fighter. The upcoming sixth season of the reality show will feature current UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra and former champion Matt Hughes as the coaches. All competitors will be welterweights.

Here’s a link to his arrest page along with a mugshot

http://www.hcso.tampa.fl.us/pub/default.asp?/Online/qdisp/bn=07045179#CHARGE

awesome that he’s wearing a shirt with his name on it.

I can’t believe I just wasted my time watching the preliminaries. A friend sent me a copy of the show, I thought I was gonna get to see Butterbean and Herb Dean’s fights. Damnit.

These first two dudes fighting, Tom Watson and Ed “Smasher” Smith. They had a good staredown anyway. I don’t really know who either of these two dudes are. Tom Watson has homeboy in sidemount now but is back on his feet now. Trying for sidemount again, Watson stays in total control but not really doing much. Gets to his feet for a bit, Smasher stays on his back. Watson now back down in sidemount, no full mount. Ed Smith bucks him off, Watson back in sidemount. KIMURA, ARMBAR ATTEMPT, didnt work for him. Tom Watson on bottom now AXE KICKS by Smasher Smith, Watson stays on his back, curls up to try for a single leg, gets it as the round ends. ROUND 1 goes to Tom Watson.

Also, Tom Watson looks like Datsik. And I’m going to take round 2 off I think, they’re staying on their feet more, but I think they’re gonna fight through this round. Smasher just tried for a spinning backfist that didn’t work, for the 3rd time. Smith just shot in and got a double leg takedown, is in guard now and trying to defend a kimura attempt by Watson. Slide your hips to the left to the left, everything ya own in a box to da left. Watson reverses into the mount, smashes the Smasher in the face a few times but the round is almost over. Homeboy is getting pummeled though. saved by TEH bell.

Here come the round 3. This is gonna go to a judges decision. damnit. Smasher Smith got owned by low kicks and everything else in round 3. Like i said though, judges decision. Tom “British Datsik” Watson won.

Ok I had to go to the kitchen and get something to eat. The next fight is a couple of dudes I dont know. Michael Johnson vs. Damien Riccio. Damn, are punches to the back of the head allowed in the U.K.? because Michael Johnson is pounding homeboy on the back of his noggin. The ref does nothing. Anyway, to make a long story short, Riccio’s corner threw in the towel after his nosed was mashed to oblivion. Michael Johnson wins 3rd round TKO.

Next up, Ross “Balls” Pointo! WAR POINTON! Ross won by submission (neck crank/guillotine) against Dean Bray. After the fight, Ross Pointon shows us that he chopped off part of his thumb while chopping onions a couple days ago. The thumb was re-attached, but came back off during this fight.

Ok I had to step away from the TV for a few minutes, so I missed a fight or two I think.

Next up, James McSweeney vs. Mark Buchanan. That didn’t last long. McSweeney by TKO (referee stoppage) first round. McSweeney reversed, mounted and pounded him out.

Cage Rage announces the losers as “runner-up” and gives them a trophy. As in “Lets give a big round of applause to our runner-up Mark Buchanan!”.

Mark “The Beast” Epstein vs. Paul Cahoon next for the Cage Rage LHW championship
“great technical fight” = boring. I hate decisions. They stood up and puched each other a lot, but no finish. The winner and new Cage Rage British LHW champ is Paul Cahoon by judges decision. Ian “The Machine” Freeman comes into the cage to challenge the new champion.

+1 for the Cage Rage Babes, Caroline and some other chick who i didnt hear her name. They look like they want to make out with each other. +1 for that too.

Ok, now some British dude is saying a bunch of stuff I dont understand. Hurry up and bring on The Bean! and wtf? is the Herb Dean fight gonna be shown? WAR HERB! I hope it wasn’t an undercard fight.

More cage rage babe promos now. They must’ve heard my +1 comment. I still didn’t catch the other chicks name. Thats not unusual though.

Farkin A, the show is over and it was just the prelims. Damnit. I had to read about the Butterbean fight to find out he got TKO’d, and Herb Dean stopped his own fight early due to an eye injury.

Also, Mario Sperry will have his first fight in over a year. Edson Drago will be fighting, so will Ross Pointon (of The Ultimate Fighter fame), Wesley “Cabbage” Correira, and Gary Turner. It should be a good show.

I mainly want to see Eric “Butterbean” Esch win. How can anyone not be a Butterbean fan?

I’d also like to see Herb Dean get a little more recognition as a fighter.

Taken from Matt Hughes’ own website and message boards at: http://z13.invisionfree.com/Matt_Hughes_Forum/index.php?showtopic=7754

Matt says “If Rich losses then I would move up and fight Anderson. I would never fight Rich. ”

Personally, I’d love to see it, but it’ll never happen. Matt Hughes said the same thing I believe after the first Franklin/Silva fight. Of course, it’s probably not Matt Hughes decision to make, I’m sure he’d like to fight Silva, I just don’t see it happening.

According to American Fighter, the fight will be at UFC 77 in October? I would think UFC 77 to be in November, considering 76 will be on September 8, but I dunno. I could be wrong. Regardless, I’m stoked to see a rematch, no matter what happens. Of course, I’d like to see Rich Franklin win this one, although he didn’t look too happy that Silva won his fight against Nate Marquardt recently, so I hope Rich is ready.

Oh well, I didn’t 100% expect it to happen anyway. I dont think Wanderlei Silva is the same fighter he once was, plus he would have to be roid-free to fight for the UFC. Well, I guess he would, unless his piss test didn’t show up until after the fight.

Anyway, UFC president Dana White said Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva will not be fighting Septempber 22 in Anaheim, California. He also told Yahoo!’s Kevin Iole that the fight between the former champions would probably never happen now.

Dana White is quoted as saying “I have done everything in my power I could do over the last six years to make this fight and it’s still not happening, I just don’t see it happening now.”

According to Dana White, he was informed by someone representing Silva that he didn’t want to fight Chuck Liddell. I believe it, too.

Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva has been a fantasy match-up for MMA fans for a long time, but if it ever happens, I have a feeling Silva will be just a fragment of what he once was, and Chuck Liddell is not getting any younger either, although I suspect he’ll be around the sport a lot longer than Wanderlei Silva. Whether or not Chuck Liddell will still fight in September has not been decided.

Discuss Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva on our new MMA Forum!

Yeah, I didn’t get to see it happen LIVE, damnit. I did finally get to watch it though, a day late and a dollar short, hell I saved Pay-Per-View money.

Anyway, maybe it’s because I didn’t see it LIVE, but it didn’t live up to the hype for me. Mike Goldberg commented before the first fight about this being the greatest UFC event ever. Even Dana White said something like that on the Countdown show earlier in the week. Bah. Yeah, it had some good fights, but not the best evah.

It started out great, with great entrances by both Heath Herring and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and their fight was good too. Of course, this is the 3rd fight between both of these guys, with Nog winning both previous fights. The first round of this fight was great, obviously Nog was the favorite to win. BEWARE THE HEAD KICK FTW. Some good stand up in the first round, a good pace. Damn I wanted Herring to win this fight. I think he was scared of Nogueira on the ground during the first round, otherwise why the hell didn’t he go in for the kill after he kicked Nog upside the dome? Nogueira was hurt bad, but Heath didn’t finish him with a few seconds left in the round. Nog was still not clear-headed at the break. Round 2 was uneventful, Heath Herring wasted the round letting Nog recover. Round 3 was controlled entirely by Nog, i think he had Herring in Chris Benoit’s Crippler Crossface hold for awhile too. Nog wins judges decision 29-28

next up was Franca and Sean Sherk. Meh.. great fight I guess, and yeah I wanted Sherk to win, but I’m really not a fan of his fights. The fight went the distance at 5 rounds, and was a great fight technically, but not “excitingly” (is that a word?). Sherk won easily, all 3 rounds, with his great wrestling and stamina.

next up Tito and Rashad fought to a friggin DRAW. When was the last time that happened in the UFC? Ok, the fight has a few good spots, but it was a DRAW! that doesn’t answer anything. Tito lost a point for grabbing the fence, and Rashad got a takedown in the last 10 seconds of the fight. They should rematch next week for free.

Next up is Nate Marquardt and Anderson Silva. I have hopes of Silva getting his ass kicked sometime soon, but I don’t see it happening. He kicked Marquardts ass in the first round, the camera goes to a shot of Rich Franklin who doesn’t exactly look thrilled, even though he supposedly wants his rematch with Silva.

Sweet, Kenny “Kenflo” Florian is fighting in the last fight of the night? Some dude named Alvin Robinson is his opponent, homeboy is built for a 155lber… Hell, Kenflo is looking kinda ripped compared to some of his past fights, he’s trying to look diesel. Anyway, I’ve always though Kenny was a better fighter than a lot of internet people give him credit for. He whooped this dude Robinsons ass, Robinson tapped from striked, and Kenny hit him once more for good measure. (In Kenny’s defense, he didn’t see Robinson tapping right away and respectfully apologized). Also, didn’t Alvin Robinson play for the San Antonio Spurs? oh wait no, that was Alvin Robertson the NBA player, who has like a 10-0 record against ex-girlfriends by TKO.

Oh yeah, and click here to sign up on my MMA forums. True dat.

http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/070611/20070611005875.html?.v=1

International Fight League Enters into Strategic Partnership and Licensing Agreement with The Topps Company
Monday June 11, 11:22 am ET
World’s Number One Team-Based Mixed Martial Arts League Joins With The World’s Preeminent Brand in Collectible Trading Cards

NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–The International Fight League, the world’s number one team-based professional mixed martial arts league, today announced a multi-year strategic partnership and licensing agreement with The Topps Company, one of the most storied brands in sports collectibles. The partnership will include the first-ever line of cards featuring IFL coaches and athletes, and will capture the league’s action and personalities in a collectible, consumer friendly, and high-quality format.

“We are very excited to begin this relationship with Topps, one of the most storied brands in the card business,” said Gareb Shamus, IFL co-founder and CEO. “This partnership is the latest in a series of moves by the sport of MMA and the IFL brand that shows how the sport will be able to reach a larger audience with compelling and unique content. It will be great way to showcase our stars through a combination of traditional trading cards, unique collectibles and new media projects.”

“The sport of Mixed Martial Arts is exciting and rapidly growing, and we are proud to partner with the IFL, their world class coaches and rising stars to make our entry in the sport,” said Ira Friedman, Topps’ vice president of publishing and licensing. “We have looked for the right entry point for the MMA category from a collectible standpoint, and feel that the IFL model is the best fit for both now and for the long term.”

The first Topps IFL branded product is currently in development. The card marketer plans its initial presentations to customers during the fourth quarter of 2007, with an expanded program in 2008 and beyond.

Topps joins an ever-growing group of IFL partners that include Microsoft Xbox, Brothers Apparel, Headline Headgear, Sandals Resorts, Warner Home Video, Dale and Thomas Popcorn, Fairtex Equipment and HeadBlade shaving products.

IFL events are televised weekly on FSN (Fridays at 11 p.m.) and Mondays at 8 p.m. Eastern and Pacific/7 p.m. Central on MyNetworkTV “IFL Battleground.”

About Topps

Topps is an international marketer of entertainment products, principally collectible trading cards, confections, sticker collections, and collectible strategy games. The Topps Company was founded in 1938 as Topps Chewing Gum, and in its early years produced a popular penny “Topps Gum” from a factory in Brooklyn, N.Y. After World War II, the company developed Bazooka Bubble Gum, and in 1950, added trading cards to its product line. Baseball cards appeared in 1951 and quickly became a vital part of pop culture, a tradition that continues to this day, and includes football (both American and European) and basketball, in addition to entertainment cards and stickers and albums, Topps also manufactures the popular lollipop brands marketed as Ring Pops, Push Pops, Baby Bottle Pops and other novelty candy and gum products.

About the IFL

International Fight League(TM) (IFL) is the world’s number one professional mixed martial arts sports league. IFL has its headquarters in New York and offices in Las Vegas. For more information about IFL, please see: www.ifl.tv

Forward-Looking Statements: This release contains forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which are subject to various risks and IFL’s management’s expectations, hopes, beliefs, intentions or strategies regarding the future financial condition, and results of operations. There can be no assurance that future developments actually affecting IFL will be those anticipated.

Important factors that could cause actual results to differ (favorably or unfavorably) from the expectations stated in this release include the risks and uncertainties such as the conditions of the markets for live events, broadcast television, cable television, pay-per-view, Internet, entertainment, professional sports, and licensed merchandise; acceptance of the Company’s brands, media and merchandise within those markets; uncertainties relating to litigation; risks associated with producing live events; uncertainties associated with international markets; risks relating to maintaining and renewing key agreements, including television distribution agreements; effects of competition, including locations of competitors and operating and market competition.. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should any of the Company’s assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary in material respects from those projected in these forward-looking statements.

IFL undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as may be required under applicable securities laws. This press release may include the opinions of IFL and does not necessarily include the views of any other person or entity.

The names of all International Fight League, Inc. televised and live programming, teams, images, and logos are trademarks, which are the exclusive property of International Fight League, Inc. All other trademarks and tradenames mentioned in this release are the property of their respective owners, and are not affiliated with IFL in any way.

Contact:
The International Fight League
Jerry Milani
212/356-4009 (o)
917/797-5663 (c)
jmilani@ifl.tv

Wow, I watched the “Countdown” show on SpikeTV Monday night, and I heard Dana White bragging about how “stacked” this event is, I think his exact words were: “this is as good as it’ll ever get”. I might have my quote wrong though, but he said something like that.

I hope he’s not serious. Sure, there could be some good fights on this card, but seriously, I can think of better events that could be made.

The main draws for UFC 73 are it’s two title two title fights, Anderson Silva vs. Nate Marquardt, and Hermes Franca vs. Sean Sherk. Also considered a big fight is Tito Ortiz vs. Rashad Evans. We’ll also get to see a couple of Pride fighters in the UFC octagon when Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira takes on Heath Herring.

Anyway, here are my ideas on a few of the fights.

Tito Ortiz vs Rashad Evans – man I hope Tito takes this one, but I have a feeling it’s gonna be tough for him. I’d like to see Rashad get his first loss. And I’m not really a Tito fan either, but Rashad needs to get KO’d. Tito needs to win. If Tito loses here, I’m going to consider him a “gatekeeper” in the LHW division. If he still wants to be considered a contender, he needs a victory here.

Nathan Marquardt vs. Anderson Silva (UFC Middleweight Championship Fight) – Anderson Silva is going to lose this fight. Nate Marquardt will win by decision. Probably a long, rather boring decision. I hope not though. Ideally, I’d like to see Marquardt sub him, or do the highly unlikely and KO Silva standing. Yeah, right. Anyway, Rich Franklin gets the winner.

Sean Sherk vs. Hermes Franca (UFC Lightweight Championship) – Sherk by ground & pound TKO.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Heath Herring – Damn, I gotta say Nog by sub. Even though I’d like to see Heath Herring win this, I don’t think it’ll happen. This will be the 3rd time they’ve fought (the other 2 in Japan for PrideFC), and Nog has won both prior battles.

Also, Stephan Bonner will be fighting Mike Nickels, I’m sure everyone knows who Bonnar is. Well, Nickels is the overly tatt’d dude from one of the TUF seasons who talked about how many streetfights he’d been in, but if I remember correctly in his fight that season he threw windmill punches with his eyes closed and head down. I don’t know if I’ve seen him fight since then, I know he’s been on some UFC undercards though. Anyway, Bonnar by roid rage.

Jorge Gurgel over Diego Saraiva by something

Chris Lytle over Jason Gilliam by something.

sign up on my UFC Forums and post your picks to win.