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From the Houston Chronicle, Jared Barnes talks with Tim Sylvia about the state of his career and the potential for WAMMA’s legitimacy. Sylvia is under the impression that he’ll be fighting on the second Affliction show in October, but won’t say who he might face. He also says that he’d eventually like a rematch with Fedor, presumably because it’s a great way to get paid without having to be in the ring very long. He also manages to talk a little smack about Ricco Rodriguez. Just proves that no matter how low you’re feeling, there’s always someone down there for you to kick.

(Patrick Cote: Dead man.)

The UFC has informed the Chicago Sun-Times that UFC 90 (October 25th @ Chicago’s Allstate Arena) will be headlined by a middleweight title bout between Anderson Silva and Patrick Cote. Get a load of how retarded Cote is:

“This guy will need 10 punches to my face to knock me out, and I’ll just need one,” Cote said. ‘”I have a good chance. He won’t exchange with me, and I’m not scared of him.”

Absolutely nothing in the above statement is accurate. And if that 10/1 ratio thing that “The Predator” mentioned sounds familiar, it’s because James Irvin said something idiotically similar before getting his lights turned out — with one punch! ha! — in his fight against Silva. But don’t worry, because Cote knows that the secret to defeating Anderson Silva is head movement:

“If you want to know how not to fight Silva, just watch tape of [the Silva/Irvin] fight,” Cote said. “He was flat on his feet with no head movement. He threw a lazy kick against a world-class Muay Thai fighter, and that’s what happens. I’m not like James Irvin. I’m a better striker, and I’m faster.”

Translation: Cote isn’t making it past the first round. In other UFC news, Five Ounces of Pain is reporting that if Georges St. Pierre successfully defends his welterweight title against Jon Fitch next month, he’ll face BJ Penn on December 27th, at a yet-unnumbered UFC event that is also slated to feature the heavyweight title clash between Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Frank Mir. One theory making the rounds is that the Penn/GSP match will be a non-title affair that will be marketed as a “battle of the weight divisions.” As cheesy as that sounds, there’s a certain logic to it — assuming the fight is contested at welterweight, it would seem a little unfair for GSP’s belt to be on the line but not Penn’s. We just hope that the UFC has special “superfight rules” in place that would make Penn vs. St. Pierre five rounds instead of three. More to come…

(“I’d like to say fuck you to all my fans, fuck you to everyone at Cesar Gracie Jiu-Jitsu who helped me train for this fight, a huge fuck you to my brother, fuck you to my sponsors Chase Chevrolet and Stagr…” Photo courtesy of Sherdog.)

If CBS’s latest “Saturday Night Fights” card proved anything, it was that the EliteXC brand isn’t strong enough yet to pull in viewers without its marquee fighters. “Unfinished Business” drew 2.62 million sets of eyeballs according to f4wonline.com, and while that’s not a ratings disaster, it does represent almost a 50% drop from the “Primetime” show in May, which was headlined by Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano. Getting the ratings back on track will be priority #1 for EliteXC’s next show; during Saturday’s broadcast, it was announced that “Saturday Night Fights III” (actual title TBA) will go down October 4th at the BankAtlantic Center near Fort Lauderdale, Florida, and Mr. Ferguson and Ms. Carano have been booked to fight.

Now the question is, who will they be fighting? We previously mentioned that Kelly Kobald was being discussed as the next opponent for “Crush/Conviction,” but Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos had a star-making performance this weekend with her double-homicide of Shayna Baszler, and a Carano/Cyborg matchup would probably be the biggest fight in women’s MMA right now. As for Kimbo, who freakin’ knows. Brett Rogers is still the most obvious choice for Ferg’s next opponent, but EliteXC has been cagey about confirming it, leading some to wonder if Rogers is being saved for Antonio Silva’s first heavyweight title defense. Regarding a Slice/Rogers match, EliteXC’s Head of Fight Operations Jeremy Lappen said “I’m not sure if that’s the fight fans want to see right now,” telling Sherdog that EliteXC is now looking at four or five potential candidates for Slice’s next opponent. He wouldn’t name names.

While a grudge-settling bout between Kimbo and the Grim seems like a no brainer to us, EliteXC’s future broadcasting strategy does make the equation a little more complicated. As BloodyElbow’s Michael Rome points out, EliteXC is planning a pay-per-view event for early next year to recoup some of the money they’re currently hemorrhaging, and some of their big-money fights need to be saved:

These competing needs are creating serious dilemmas for EliteXC going forward. In order to pull the numbers they need to stay on CBS, they need to book fights with big names that catch the public’s imagination. At the same time, they can’t just give it all away for free every couple months, or there is no reason to buy the PPV shows…Free television is always the most important tool for building up PPV shows, but if the channel owns the promotion, and gains nothing from strong buyrates, it’s hard to see them foregoing the big fights.

For these reasons, EliteXC’s October show on CBS is very much a do-or-die situation. Only the UFC has a roster deep enough to regularly hold solid cards on free TV and pay-per-view. For EliteXC, the CBS/PPV arrangement will quickly spread them too thin. Just like The Ultimate Fighter, “Saturday Night Fights” has to succeed as a Trojan Horse to hook fans into buying pay-per-views. If people don’t watch when the product is free, what would convince them to pay for it?

Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith

Props to MMA Scraps. Diaz vs. Denny is after the jump.

Nick Diaz vs. Thomas Denny

Never one to miss an opportunity, Dana White announced during last night’s re-broadcast of UFC 84 that UFC 89 will be broadcast for free on Spike TV. The announcement coincided with Elite XC’s Saturday Night Fights presentation on CBS, but we assume that was just a coincidence.

UFC 89 features Michael Bisping and Chris Leben from Birmingham, England on October 18. It also features Thiago Silva and Lyoto Machida. And not a whole lot else at this point. A pay-per-view from England is already a dicey prospect because of the time difference, and the lack of overall star power on the card makes free TV a much better choice.

Keep an eye out during UFC 87 in August, as we expect Elite XC’s Doug DeLuca to get on TV and announce that he is going out for ice cream, and you’re welcome to come along.

(Nick Thompson spices up the weigh-in, courtesy of Combat Lifestyle)

It’s another Saturday night of MMA, Potato Nation. We may not have Fedor or Anderson Silva this time around, but we have got Robbie Lawler and a can-do spirit, so we’re going to make the best of it. Like my grandfather used to say, when life gives you Nick Diaz and Thomas Denny, make lemonade. My grandfather may have been completely insane, but he was wise in his own special way.

Anyway, it’s free so we’re going to stop complaining and start writing. We’ll be liveblogging all the Elite XC on CBS action as it unfolds, so jump on board and let’s do this thing. Remember to hit refresh every so often to keep from getting left behind.

As you’ve probably noticed by now, we aren’t covering the Showtime portion of the card because, to be brutally honest with you, the place we’re watching the fights doesn’t get Showtime. So there it is. If you give a damn about those results anyway, here’s how they’re looking:

Drew Montgomery defeats Brandon Tarns via TKO (cut stoppage) at 4:22 of round 3.
Carl Seumanutafa defeats Mike Cook via KO (slam) at 1:22 of round 1.
Wilson Reis defeats Brian Caraway via unanimous decision.
Rafael Feijao defeats Travis Galbraith via TKO at 3:01 of round 1.
Antonio Silva defeats Justin Eilers via TKO at 0:19 of round 2.

Akihiro Gono has seen better days. The lovely Suki has the story straight from his blog:

I had a high fever last night when I came home from training. I couldn’t sleep and walk straight. I didn’t have anybody who I could ask to take care of me. I got nervous about my condition and didn’t know what to do. So, I called an ambulance. I’m actually ashamed of what I did now. In the ambulance, my temperature was over 40.00 degrees (40C is about 104F.)

My tonsils are swollen very bad still. I took a picture of the tonsils. I think this pic is very gross, but I have been requested to post……….

Don’t feel ashamed Gono. At least, not of calling an ambulance. Posting that picture, just because people “requested” it, yeah we probably could have done without that. Feel better, champ.

- Bet you didn’t know that “the majority of fights/attacks last less than three seconds.” That’s a fact if we ever heard one. (Google)

- Takanori Gomi will fight at Sengoku 4, but not in the lightweight Grand Prix. (Nightmare of Battle)

- A Dana White announcement that suspiciously coincides with a competitor’s event? Get outta town. (Pro MMA)

- Rory Singer says MMA ain’t for everyone. And he should know. (Times Herold-Record)

- Fighters you love to hate. (411mania)

- Mark Coleman and “Shogun” Rua to have injury-riddled rematch? (Fightlinker)

- Bob Arum taking cheap shots at Dana White over Affliction card. (Steve Cofield)

- Jay Hieron patiently waiting for a fight. Some time this year would be just great. (MMA Junkie)

- Local TV reporter, please stop saying ‘glory hole’. (Holy Taco)

- Mark Cuban wants them Cubs, and Cuban gets what Cuban wants. (Wall Street Fighter)

Robbie Lawler highlights In the interest of getting up for some free MMA this weekend, we offer a brief video history of some of the more notable competitors on Saturday night’s Elite XC broadcast. Big ups to Brawl Sports for finding some of these. Scott Smith’s awesome knockout of Pete Sell is below. [...] - [Read more]

(Maybe some fashion help from TapouT isn’t such a bad idea.)

How timely, considering the premiere of TapouT’s second season on Versus. Now they’re officially sponsoring Kimbo Slice. Peep the press release:

Grand Terrace, CA (July 28, 2008) – TapouT, the premier mixed martial arts apparel, gear and lifestyle brand, announced today that the company will sponsor MMA superstar Kimbo Slice and create a joint apparel line under the TapouT brand. TapouT will be Kimbo’s exclusive apparel sponsor.

“Kimbo is the real deal,” said Mask, TapouT Founder. “He is the ultimate underdog who kept his nose to the grindstone and rose up to become one of the most well-known MMA fighters out there. Kimbo is tough, but full of heart, and we’re excited to take him from the cage to the clothing.”

“I want to thank the whole TapouT FAM for taking an interest in me and team Kimbo,” said Kimbo Slice. Also thank you guys for allowing us to be a part of your FAM… and the tightest gear out there. Hey man, my team is psyched, team Kimbo is psyched.”

Further details on the Kimbo/TapouT apparel line will be announced in the coming months.

Please tell me I’m not the only one who stumbled over the phrase “from the cage to the clothing.” With all his mainstream appeal, could the Kimbo Slice TapouT tee replace the Affliction shirt as the go to gear for the casual MMA douche? Only time will tell, but I’m going to go ahead and say abso-goddamn-lutely.

So Robbie Lawler is clearly not into doing this interview with MMA Rated’s Ariel Helwani. That’s nothing new for the Elite XC middleweight champ. Media shy isn’t quite the term for how Lawler deals with the press. More like media contemptuous. But to hear Ariel tell it, Lawler isn’t the only one who seems unenthusiastic about this event:

We just came back from the EliteXC press conference at the Stockton Arena and the only word that comes to mind is “surprised.”

Surprised that there was virtually no media there. Seriously, maybe a handful…tops.

Surprised that the Shaws (Gary and Jared) were no where to be found. Surprised that no one is willing to give a straight answer as to where they are hiding. Trust me, I asked around. Surprised that there appears to be zero excitement online, around town or even in the local media for this event.

What’s going on here? Elite XC broke a major barrier with their first show on CBS, but now they’re on the verge of their second and already people are treating it like their grandparents’ fiftieth wedding anniversary party. Not that we’re saying this is necessarily wrong on the part of the media or the fans or even the fighters. We can definitely relate to those feelings. It’s just odd.

Is it bad timing, coming on the heels of the biggest MMA weekend of the year thus far? Is it the line-up? The promotion itself? The lack of a big media build-up? Lack of MMA lightning rods like Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano? What’s the deal?

(Insert lame “picture in a picture” joke here.) I’ll admit it, I’m having a hard time getting excited for this Elite XC event tomorrow night. Part of it is the hangover from the huge MMA weekend we just had with Affliction, UFC, and Dream all crammed into a couple of days. After that sensory [...] - [Read more]

(Staredown, courtesy of Combat Lifestyle)

In our exclusive interview with Elite XC’s Nick Diaz yesterday, he made mention of what he perceived as a lack of coverage for the Diaz brothers in MMA magazines. At the time we didn’t think much of it. It just seemed like a remark in passing. But after yesterday’s Elite XC press conference, we’re starting to think that Diaz is really serious about wanting to be in a magazine. Maybe it was this quip that did it:

“I’m happy to be fighting Denny because I always see him on every magazine. I’m never in any magazines so maybe when I win I might get some love from a few publications.’’

And now that I think about it, after he beat Takanori Gomi in that epic Pride bout that was ruled a no-contest due to weed, he made this remark:

“I boxed him up. I gogo’d him. Put me in a fucking magazine or something. Fuck.”

Seriously, magazine editors. What else does this guy have to do? You want him to beg you, is that it? You monsters. Just put him in a magazine! We’d buy a copy, and we can barely read.

If Nick keeps this up, magazines may become the obsession for him that airplanes are for Brock Lesnar.

(Just one of the reasons why you should rent “The Story of Ricky” immediately.) Long before we became obsessed with MMA, martial arts flicks satisfied our thirst for blood. We now pay tribute to the best of the best — and the kickass fight scenes and iconic stars that made these movies so essential. Click the [...] - [Read more]

(Sorry, guys.)

As great as the ratings were for CBS/EliteXC’s first “Saturday Night Fights” broadcast in May, it was one the most criticized MMA events in the sport’s history. Both hardcore MMA fans and first-time viewers had bones to pick with everything from the choice of main event fighters, to the unsatisfying stoppages, to the slow pacing (which helped carry the bloated affair nearly an hour past its scheduled runtime), to the regrettable music-video vibe provided by the dancing girls and pyrotechnics. Without the mainstream draws of Kimbo Slice and Gina Carano on the card, CBS knows that they have to cater to the discerning MMA fan with “Unfinished Business,” which kicks off this Saturday at 9 p.m. ET/PT. As CBS senior executive vice president Kelly Kahl tells Yahoo! Sports’s Kevin Iole:

“To be perfectly honest, I think there was more of a wrestling element to that [first] show and I didn’t like it. I’d much rather present them as great athletes and warriors, which they are, but it got a bit clownish and that didn’t do us any favors.”

For tomorrow night’s event, Iole reports that all those cheesy elements (”such as when Phil Baroni ambled slowly to the cage and had women disrobe him”) will be 86′d. Also, cutting out downtime will be a top priority. Whereas “Primetime” featured just two minutes and 12 seconds of fighting in the first 71 minutes of the show, Kahl said that “Unfinished Business” is going to be “commercial, fight, commercial, fight.”

Still, even with the planned changes, CBS and EliteXC are aware that matching the ratings of their blockbuster debut — which peaked at 6.51 million viewers during the Kimbo Slice/James Thompson fight — is far from likely. Said ProElite executive chairman Doug DeLuca:

“We certainly are managing all of our expectations. It is summer. And we did have a number of good PR items going for us on the first event. It was the first event on primetime network television. That alone drummed up a huge amount of press for the event and a lot of people were interested in seeing (it). But, look, I’m confident in our fight card. I’m confident in mixed martial arts and I’m confident at what we can do at EliteXC in terms of producing events…We understand the numbers might not be as big as the first time, but (still) we’re all expecting to do some good numbers.”

Sure, we’re all still recovering from the MMA onslaught of last weekend, but the second chapter of the great MMA-on-network-television experiment should be a must-see for fans. Will you be watching?

(Props: MMA Junkie)

(Props: MMA Scraps)

This trailer for season two of “TapouT” (premiering July 30th) on Versus is absolutely perfect. I can’t imagine a more effective way of capturing how incredibly annoying this show is. Stupid catch phrases, mind-numbing repetition, vague promises of violence, facepaint, wigs, glimpses of girls in their underwear and brief scenes of actual MMA — that’s the show all right.

It takes a lot to create something MMA-related that I won’t watch. TapouT, by sheer cloying perseverance, has done it. For that, I salute them. Having saluted them, I will now go consult the TV Guide to see if there is anything else on that night. If there isn’t, I will read TV Guide from cover to cover. Anything so long as I don’t have to endure an hour’s worth of grown men who are dressed for the world’s worst Halloween party screaming at me as they ride around in a bus for indistinct reasons. I had enough of that during my childhood, thank you very much.

The big question we’ve been waiting to hear an answer to this week is, what of Affliction’s pay-per-view numbers? VP Tom Atencio claimed they did “well over” 100,000 buys. He also said, in the post-fight press conference, that he’d be releasing the numbers on Thursday or Friday of this week. And yet, so far nothing official. Subscribers to Dave Meltzer’s “Wrestling Observer” relayed the following tidbit from the latest issue via the Sherdog forums:

“As far as the numbers went, the big number everyone is looking for is the Affliction PPV number. Based on independent estimates we’ve heard, the number has been estimated at between 50,000 and 85,000 buys. Atencio claimed the number as being higher, saying it topped 100,000, although at press time, any numbers could only be considered rough estimates. Atencio told us that since UFC doesn’t release numbers, he’s not going to either (I know, after saying it was more than 100,000). Keep in mind that Pride claimed 150,000 buys for its first U.S. PPV in 2006, and the real number ended up being 40,000 (we know that because Nevada taxes on PPV revenue so you can get a real number; California does not so getting real numbers will be more difficult).”

“Independent estimates” is a vague phrase to begin with, but with all this speculation floating around the only way for Affliction to silence it is to release the numbers. If they don’t, we’ll have to assume that they probably didn’t hit that golden number of 100,000 buys as Atencio claimed.

It’s a big week for Affliction and dubious numbers. Next you’re going to tell me that the Tim Sylvia Signature Series Affliction t-shirt doesn’t really cost $58. No, that one checks out actually. At least there are some things you can still depend on.

To hype up Saturday’s “Unfinished Business” show, ProElite has made the first fight between Robbie Lawler and Scott Smith — which went down on May 31st at EliteXC: Primetime — available on the Innernets. Smith was getting his ass handed to him in the second half of the first round, but rallied enough to turn it into the most exciting and evenly matched contest of the night. Unfortunately, an inadvertent eye-poke from Lawler in the third round ended things early, but closure to this rivalry is only two days away.

If you can’t put in that kind of time-commitment, just check out this 98-second clip of a recent EliteXC open-workout featuring Smith, Lawler, Jake Shields, and Cristiane “Cyborg” Santos. (Props to MMA Mania.)

(“Conviction” returns in October.)

— Thales Leites and Dean Lister will reportedly meet in a middleweight bout at UFC Fight Night 15 (September 17th; Omaha, NE), while lightweights Thiago Tavares and Kurt Pellegrino are slated to fight at UFC 88 (September 6th, Atlanta); both Tavares and Pellegrino are coming off losses in their last fights, to Matt Wiman and Nate Diaz, respectively. The UFC has also confirmed widely rumored UFC 88 matches between Rich Franklin and Matt Hamill, Dan Henderson and Rousimar Palhares, and Karo Parisyan vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida.

— Gina Carano will fight next at an EliteXC event on October 4th. According to Sherdog, the event is likely to be televised on CBS, and her opponent may be Kelly Kobald, a Minnesota Martial Arts Academy product who started her career on a 16-0-1 tear before dropping her last two fights to Tara LaRosa and Julie Kedzie.

— This may help explain why Affliction’s attendance was so good: All tickets in all sections were discounted to $39.95 on the day of the show.

— Sengoku’s lightweight grand prix — which will go down August 24th in Saitama, Japan — will include IFL lightweight champion Ryan Schultz, King of the Cage lightweight champion Clay French, Cage Force lightweight champion Mizuto Hirota, and former DEEP lightweight champion Kazunori Yokota. Takanori Gomi and Frank Trigg will also be fighting, in separate non-GP bouts.

Here’s the thing: when Carlos Condit (currently ranked #9 in the world at welterweight in the ultra-official Cage Potato Power Rankings) says to you before a sparring session, “Hit me as hard as you want to get hit,” it may not be the best idea to go out there and unload on him with your best right hand. Not unless you want to feel his retaliation in the form of a head kick-right straight combo that will put you on your ass.

At the same time, it is pretty awesome. When that dude wakes up, someone should buy him a beer.