Ivan's Blog

2009-11-22T05:42:00.006-05:00

UFC 106 Turns into an Embarrassment for the Nevada State Athletic Commission
by Ivan Trembow

In the big picture, beyond the things that happen on most MMA events (some fights are good, some fights are bad, etc.), UFC 106 was a very bad event, not for the UFC or for the fans, but for the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

First of all, 48 hours before the show even took place, Karo Parisyan withdrew from his fight against Dustin Hazelett because (according to one of Parisyan's own coaches in an interview on Five Ounces of Pain) Parisyan has a serious problem with painkiller addiction. Parisyan did not want to fight with painkillers in his body and subsequently test positive for painkillers (which he would have, unless the NSAC inexplicably failed to drug-test a prior offender after his fight, like they just did when Sean Sherk fought in Nevada in May).

This left Hazelett, who has spent the last couple months of his life preparing for the Parisyan fight, without an opponent, and if there were fans who bought tickets to see Parisyan vs. Hazelett, they were out of luck.

All of that could have been avoided if the NSAC's out-of-competition drug testing program had been used to test Parisyan, whom the NSAC certainly had probable cause to test, not that they even need probable cause. They can drug-test any licensee that they want, anytime that they want.

Based on the facts that Parisyan was taking painkillers in the weeks leading up to the fight and that there was no positive drug test announced regarding Parisyan, that means the NSAC chose not to test Parisyan in the weeks leading up to UFC 106.

If the NSAC had tested Parisyan in the weeks leading up to the fight, Parisyan would have either pulled a Nick Diaz and pulled out of the fight at that time, or he would have tested positive for banned substances (ie, prescription painkillers) and would have been removed from the fight. Either way, there would have been several weeks to find a replacement opponent to fight Hazelett, instead of 48 hours.

Then there was the Ben Saunders vs. Marcus Davis fight. After Saunders knocked out Davis, he landed another punch to the head of his already unconscious opponent, which was perfectly legal because the referee hadn't intervened... but then, after the referee stopped the fight and was trying to pull Saunders off of Davis, Saunders landed another punch on the still-unconscious Davis, which is absolutely not legal.

Punching your unconscious opponent after the referee has already started pulling you off of him should at the very least be grounds for a fine, even if it were to just be a nominal fine in order to establish that it's not acceptable behavior.

But what is the NSAC going to do about this? Based on recent history, the most likely answer is "absolutely nothing." When Quinton Jackson landed two punches on an unconscious Wanderlei Silva after the referee was clearly and unambiguously pulling Jackson off of Silva (in December 2008), the NSAC did nothing. Given that the NSAC didn't think that Jackson's actions warranted any punishment of any kind, I don't think that they will do anything about Saunders' actions. (A request for comment from the NSAC on this particular matter is currently pending, and I will update this post when or if the NSAC comments.)

Most embarrassing of all for the NSAC may have been the mess of the Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson fight. After Johnson landed an illegal knee to the head of Koscheck when he was grounded and also poked him in the eye, Koscheck was grabbing his eye and saying that he couldn't see.

Referee Mario Yamasaki, who is not exactly the best referee in the business (he has made a career out of dangerously late stoppages such as Silva vs. Irvin, Lawler vs. Ninja, and many others), was quick to re-affirm his "safety first" reputation by repeatedly asking Koscheck, "Do you need me to call a doctor?"

You'd think that would be Day 1 stuff in Referee Training. If someone just ate an illegal knee to the head and got poked in the eye, they're clutching their eye and saying that they can't see, calling the ringside doctor into the cage should be one of the first things that you do as a ref.

The referee and the doctor are there to protect the fighters, often protecting them from themselves. If you think that the doctor should take a look at the fighter, you call the doctor into the ring, period. You certainly don't ask the fighter if he'd like a doctor.

Yamasaki finally called an NSAC-licensed doctor into the cage, at which point Koscheck told the doctor that he still couldn't see clearly and was experiencing blurred vision. The doctor could then be heard telling Yamasaki that Koscheck had blurred vision and that the fight could not continue. Yamasaki then said, "But he still has five minutes, right?" The doctor's reply was essentially, "I don't know." Yamasaki's reply to that was essentially, "I don't know."

So, the doctor and the ref each demonstrated that they don't know the rules of the sport, as they both make it clear that they have no idea whether a fighter has five minutes to recover in such a situation, or whether the five-minute rule is only for low blows.

Then, without the doctor having spoken to Koscheck again, the doctor left the cage and Yamasaki could be heard saying to Koscheck, "Are you ready? Are you ready?" and Koscheck apparently said yes, so Yamasaki resumed the fight.

So, to recap, in the span of 30 seconds, the situation went from the doctor telling Yamasaki that the fight could not continue, to Yamasaki asking Koscheck, "Are you ready?" and resuming the fight, all apparently without Koscheck and the doctor speaking any further.

Adding to the embarrassment for the NSAC was yet another case of a fighter with a major injury getting cleared to fight by the NSAC's doctors, as Forrest said after his fight against Tito Ortiz that he went into the fight with a broken foot, and Ortiz said that he had issues with bulging discs in his back. There have been countless cases of the NSAC clearing fighters to compete who are in need of major surgery, and in the case of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira last December, he not only needed knee surgery, but he also had a severe staph infection that hospitalized him not long before the fight.

If the NSAC was serious about making sure that fighters don't lie to the NSAC's doctors during pre-fight exams and go into fights with major injuries or illnesses, there would be actual consequences for doing so.

It is indeed against the rules of the NSAC for a licensee to lie to an NSAC doctor about pre-fight injuries, and the NSAC re-affirmed this fact at a public meeting earlier this year.

However, until someone likes Griffin or Ortiz gets suspended or fined for lying to the athletic commission's doctors about major injuries, it's going to keep on happening, in great part due to the lack of consequences.

Finally, if there's one thing that you can count on in MMA, it's that the Three Stooges of MMA Judging (Glenn Trowbridge, Abe Belardo, and Dalby Shirley) will continue to be incompetent. I'm not suggesting that there are only three incompetent judges in MMA, because the last few months alone have demonstrated that's not the case, but Trowbridge, Belardo, and Shirley have historically been as bad as they come.

Shirley has an extensive record of shameful judging in both boxing and MMA that will be hard for anyone to match.

Belardo inexplicably scored the first Griffin vs. Ortiz fight in favor of Ortiz, 30 to 27, meaning that he thought that Ortiz won all three rounds.

Finally, Trowbridge has just added to his legacy of incompetence by somehow scoring the second Griffin vs. Ortiz fight in favor of Ortiz. Common sense dictates that as long as there are no consequences for MMA judges' incompetence, there will continue to be many incompetent judges in the sport.

Other UFC 106-Related Thoughts
Tito Ortiz is now 0-3-1 in his last four fights and should not be put anywhere near the main event of a $45 pay-per-view event unless he goes on a long winning streak.

The end result of Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson was exactly what it should have been for a fight with someone who has Koscheck's ground skills going against someone who has Johnson's ground skills.

Koscheck's decision to stand up and trade strikes with Johnson for so long in a misguided outburst of machismo could have easily gotten him knocked out, and it makes no sense in the context of trying to win the fight, given how good Johnson's kickboxing is and how mediocre his ground game is.

As for why Koscheck would do such a thing, it's no mystery. The UFC often rewards that kind of behavior with their kickboxing-happy Fight of the Night Award bonuses, and surprise, surprise... Koscheck vs. Johnson was determined by UFC management to be the Fight of the Night at UFC 106.

On the bright side, Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann ended up being a damn good, back-and-forth, very close grappling battle with plenty of big shifts in momentum.

I also enjoyed the display of great Jiu-Jitsu skills from George Sotiropoulos, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira's impressive UFC debut.

2009-11-13T05:47:00.005-05:00

Minute-by-Minute Ratings for Strikeforce on CBS
by Ivan Trembow

The average viewership levels for each individual fight that aired on CBS' broadcast of "Strikeforce/M-1 Global Saturday Night Fights" on November 7 are now available, using minute-by-minute Neilsen ratings data.

The viewership figures listed below are based on live viewership, plus same-day DVR, rounded to the nearest 1,000 viewers, and the times listed are ET/PT. The indicated times begin at the opening bell of a fight and end at the minute in which the winner of the fight is known.

(In the case of a fight that ends in submission or KO/TKO, the ending time is obviously when the fight ends. In the case of a judges' decision, the ending time is the minute in which the judges' decision is announced. In the case of a doctors' stoppage, the ending time is the minute in which the fight is officially stopped by the doctor. The ending time is always the minute in which the winner of the fighter is known.)

The first fight on the November 7th broadcast of "Strikeforce/M-1 Global Saturday Night Fights" was Fabricio Werdum vs. Antonio Silva, which aired from 9:14 PM to 9:34 PM and averaged 3.704 million viewers.

The next fight on the broadcast was Gegard Mousasi vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou, which aired from 9:44 PM to 9:54 PM and averaged 3.952 million viewers.

The next fight was Jake Shields vs. Jason "Mayhem" Miller in a title fight that lasted five full rounds, which aired from 10:11 PM to 10:44 PM and averaged 4.381 million viewers. While the viewership of most fights tends to increase as the fight goes on, this was not the case for Shields vs. Miller, which was like a tale of two fights in terms of viewership.

The typical growth pattern for the fight's viewership ceased to exist after the beginning of the slower-paced Round 4, as the fight's viewership was never able to bounce back to its high mark, which came during the final minute of Round 3.

Instead of the final two rounds of Shields vs. Miller being the most-watched rounds of the fight, the audience level stayed relatively even and actually decreased very slightly. The first three rounds of the fight averaged 4.411 million viewers, and the last two rounds of the fight averaged 4.347 million viewers. Nonetheless, the Shields vs. Miller fight still drew significantly more viewers than the previous fight on the broadcast.

When the Shields vs. Miller fight ended, CBS had gone over 30 full minutes without a commercial break in most markets. In order to make up for lost time as a result of the Shields vs. Miller match being so long, the majority of the next 13 minutes were filled with several different blocks of commercials.

The average viewership during this period (from 10:45 PM to 10:58 PM) plummeted by nearly 500,000 viewers. While the preceding Shields vs. Miller fight drew an average of 4.381 million viewers, the average viewership for the aforementioned 13-minute period was down to 3.894 million viewers.

The next fight was the main event of the evening, Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers. Emelianenko vs. Rogers aired from 11:01 PM to 11:09 PM, and it drew an average of 5.467 million viewers.

The viewership level often decreases right after a fight ends, but the viewership level actually increased shortly after the Emelianenko vs. Rogers fight ended, as channel-flippers may have been stopped in their tracks by the instant replay of the fight's finish.

While there were 5.847 million viewers watching during the minute when the Emelianenko vs. Rogers fight ended, the next two minutes, which were filled with instant replay after instant replay of Emelianenko knocking out Rogers, actually drew 6.120 million viewers and 6.151 million viewers, respectively. (Those two minutes have not been counted in the average viewership for the Emelianenko vs. Rogers fight because they came after the fight was over.) After that, the rest of the broadcast stayed true to the usual pattern for live MMA broadcasts, which is that viewers tend to leave in droves after the main event is finished.

Below is a listing of the most-watched individual fights on the November 7th CBS broadcast, followed by a comparison of viewership gains for each fight, as well as a comparison to the fighters' previous live fights on free TV.

Most-Watched Individual Fights on November 7 Event "Strikeforce/M-1 Global Saturday Night Fights"

Based on Average Number of Viewers using Minute-by-Minute Ratings

1. Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers: 5.467 million viewers

2. Jake Shields vs. Jason Miller: 4.381 million viewers

3. Gegard Mousasi vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou: 3.952 million viewers

4. Fabricio Werdum vs. Antonio Silva: 3.704 million viewers

Viewership Gains
In terms of the increase or decrease in average viewership compared to the previous fight on the broadcast, the Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou fight gained 248,000 viewers; the Shields vs. Miller fight gained 429,000 viewers; and the Emelianenko vs. Rogers fight gained 1,086,000 viewers. This statistic does not apply to the Werdum vs. Silva fight because it was the first fight on the broadcast.

Comparisons to Fighters' Previous Matches
Several of the fighters on the November 7th broadcast had previous fights on live event broadcasts that premiered on broadcast television or basic cable.

The Emelianenko vs. Rogers viewership of 5.467 million viewers was higher than the 3.824 million viewers who watched Rogers fight Jon Murphy on May 31, 2008 during an EliteXC broadcast on CBS. The Rogers vs. Murphy fight was actually the first MMA fight on CBS, giving Rogers the unique distinction of competing in both the first MMA fight on CBS and the most recent MMA fight on CBS.

The Shields vs. Miller viewership of 4.381 million viewers was down from the 5.338 million viewers who watched Shields fight Paul Daley on October 4, 2008 during an EliteXC broadcast on CBS. On the other hand, the Shields vs. Miller viewership of 4.381 million viewers was higher than the 2.867 million viewers who watched Shields fight Nick Thompson on July 26, 2008 during an EliteXC broadcast on CBS.

The Mousasi vs. Sokoudjou viewership of 3.952 million viewers was higher than the 2.738 million viewers who watched Sokoudjou fight Luis Cane on October 18, 2008 during the UFC 89 broadcast on Spike TV.

Finally, the Werdum vs. Silva viewership of 3.704 million viewers was higher than the 3.508 million viewers who watched Werdum fight Andrei Arlovski on April 21, 2007 during the UFC 70 broadcast on Spike TV.

Related Article: Top 30 Most-Watched Fights on Live Event Broadcasts in U.S. MMA History

2009-11-13T05:41:00.008-05:00

Top 30 Most-Watched Fights on Live Event Broadcasts in U.S. MMA History
by Ivan Trembow

Ratings figures for individual MMA fights are typically based on quarter-hour ratings, which measure the average viewership for an entire 15-minute period. Given that some fights last for well over 15 minutes and some fights last for well under 15 minutes, measuring a fight's average viewership based on quarter-hour ratings has always been an inexact science.

Using minute-by-minute Nielsen ratings data, the most accurate possible viewership information for any given fight can be determined.

The viewership figures listed below are based on live viewership, plus same-day DVR, rounded to the nearest 1,000 viewers, and the times listed are ET/PT. The indicated times begin at the opening bell of a fight and end at the minute in which the winner of the fight is known.

(In the case of a fight that ends in submission or KO/TKO, the ending time is obviously when the fight ends. In the case of a judges' decision, the ending time is the minute in which the judges' decision is announced. In the case of a doctors' stoppage, the ending time is the minute in which the fight is officially stopped by the doctor. The ending time is always the minute in which the winner of the fighter is known.)

Please note that all of the fights listed below aired on a live event broadcast, either live or on a same-day tape delay, as opposed to being taped months in advance for a reality show such as The Ultimate Fighter. Based on the minute-by-minute ratings for the fight between Kimbo Slice and Roy Nelson, which aired on the September 30 episode of The Ultimate Fighter 10 from 10:45 PM to 10:56 PM, that fight drew an average of 5.931 million viewers (based on premiere viewership, plus same-day DVR viewership).

The Kimbo Slice vs. Roy Nelson fight on The Ultimate Fighter notwithstanding, there have not been many additions to the top 20 all-time most-watched list over the past year.

On the recent Strikeforce broadcast on CBS, only two of the event's four fights made it on to the top 20 list. While the Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers fight clocked in at #8, and the Jake Shields vs. Jason Miller fight is #16 on the list, the other two fights did not make the top 20.

There has not been a fight on a UFC live event broadcast in the past year that has cracked the top 20 on the all-time most-watched list. However, if one expands the list to include the top 30 fights instead of only the top 20 fights, there is one fight from the past year that makes the list. The fight between Nate Diaz and Melvin Guillard drew 3.6 million viewers in the main event slot of a UFC Fight Night event on September 16, immediately before the premiere of The Ultimate Fighter 10.

Please note that CBS is in approximately 114.9 million U.S. households, while Spike TV is in approximately 98.6 million U.S. households.

In addition, please note that these are just the most-watched fights on live event broadcasts in U.S. MMA history, not the most-watched in worldwide MMA history. In Japan, a fight would need to draw over 30 million viewers to crack the top five.

Most-Watched Individual Fights on Live Event Broadcasts in U.S. MMA History

Based on Average Number of Viewers using Minute-by-Minute Ratings

1. EliteXC on CBS (5/31/2008): Kimbo Slice vs. James Thompson: 7.281 million viewers (Aired from 11:27 PM to 11:40 PM)

2. UFC: The Final Chapter on Spike TV (10/10/2006): Tito Ortiz vs. Ken Shamrock: 6.524 million viewers (Aired from 9:42 PM to 9:45 PM)

3. EliteXC on CBS (10/4/2008): Seth Petruzelli vs. Kimbo Slice: 6.451 million viewers (Aired from 11:08 PM to 11:08 PM)

4. EliteXC on CBS (5/31/2008): Robbie Lawler vs. Scott Smith: 5.867 million viewers (Aired from 10.39 PM to 10:57 PM)

5. UFC 75 on Spike TV (9/8/2007): Quinton Jackson vs. Dan Henderson: 5.811 million viewers (Aired from 11:29 PM to 12:03 AM)

6. EliteXC on CBS (5/31/2008): Gina Carano vs. Kaitlin Young: 5.508 million viewers (Aired from 10:09 PM to 10:17 PM)

7. UFC 75 on Spike TV (9/8/2007): Michael Bisping vs. Matt Hamill: 5.475 million viewers (Aired from 10:41 PM to 11:06 PM)

8. Strikeforce on CBS (11/7/2009): Fedor Emelianenko vs. Brett Rogers: 5.467 million viewers (Aired from 11:01 PM to 11:09 PM)

9. EliteXC on CBS (10/4/2008): Jake Shields vs. Paul Daley: 5.338 million viewers (Aired from 10:34 PM to 10:44 PM)

10. EliteXC on CBS (10/4/2008): Gina Carano vs. Kelly Kobold: 5.171 million viewers (Aired from 9:45 PM to 9:59 PM)

11. EliteXC on CBS (10/4/2008): Andrei Arlovski vs. Roy Nelson: 5.154 million viewers (Aired from 10:12 PM to 10:20 PM)

12. UFC: The Final Chapter on Spike TV (10/10/2006): Kendall Grove vs. Chris Price: 5.100 million viewers (Aired from 9:13 PM to 9:17 PM)

13. UFC 75 on Spike TV (9/8/2007): Cheick Kongo vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic: 5.098 million viewers (Aired from 9:58 PM to 10:24 PM)

14. UFC 75 on Spike TV (9/8/2007): Marcus Davis vs. Paul Taylor: 5.023 million viewers (Aired from 9:35 PM to 9:39 PM)

15. UFC Fight Night on Spike TV (7/19/2008): Anderson Silva vs. James Irvin: 4.795 million viewers (Aired from 11:38 PM to 11:38 PM)

16. Strikeforce on CBS (11/7/2009): Jake Shields vs. Jason Miller: 4.381 million viewers (Aired from 10:11 PM to 10:44 PM)

17. EliteXC on CBS (5/31/2008): Joey Villasenor vs. Phil Baroni: 4.348 million viewers (Aired from 9:47 PM to 9:48 PM)

18. UFC: The Final Chapter on Spike TV (10/10/2006): Jason MacDonald vs. Ed Herman: 4.297 millon viewers (Aired from 8:44 PM to 8:47 PM)

19. UFC 75 on Spike TV (9/8/2007): Houston Alexander vs. Alessio Sakara: 4.204 million viewers (Aired from 9:13 PM to 9:14 PM)

20. UFC: The Final Chapter on Spike TV (10/10/2006): Matt Hamill vs. Seth Petruzelli: 4.007 million viewers (Aired from 8:09 PM to 8:28 PM)

21. Strikeforce on CBS (11/7/2009): Gegard Mouasi vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou: 3.952 million viewers (Aired from 9:44 PM to 9:54 PM)

22. UFC Fight Night on Spike TV (7/19/2008): Brandon Vera vs. Reese Andy: 3.847 million viewers (Aired from 10:58 PM to 11:19 PM)

23. EliteXC on CBS (5/31/2008): Brett Rogers vs. Jon Murphy: 3.824 million viewers (Aired from 9:26 PM to 9:27 PM)

24. UFC 70 on Spike TV (4/21/2007): Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic: 3.806 million viewers (Aired from 11:51 PM to 11:56 PM)

25. UFC/Ultimate Fighter 5 Live Finale on Spike TV (6/23/2007): B.J. Penn vs. Jens Pulver: 3.726 million viewers (Aired from 11:35 PM to 11:44 PM)

26. Strikeforce on CBS (11/7/2009): Fabricio Werdum vs. Antonio Silva: 3.704 million viewers (Aired from 9:14 PM to 9:34 PM)

27. UFC Fight Night on Spike TV (7/19/2008): Cain Velasquez vs. Jake O'Brien: 3.684 million viewers (Aired from 10:02 PM to 10:04 PM)

28. UFC Fight Night on Spike TV (9/16/09): Nate Diaz vs. Melvin Guillard: 3.600 million viewers (Aired from 9:53 PM to 10:02 PM)

29. EliteXC on CBS (10/4/2008): Benji Radach vs. Murilo "Ninja" Rua: 3.528 million viewers (Aired from 9:18 PM to 9:27 PM)

30. UFC 70 on Spike TV (4/21/2007): Andrei Arlovski vs. Fabricio Werdum: 3.508 million viewers (Aired from 11:06 PM to 11:26 PM)

Related Article: Minute-by-Minute Ratings for Strikeforce on CBS

2009-10-16T00:06:00.005-04:00

October 16, 2009: The October 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites.

In addition to the numerous MMA web sites that publish the Independent World MMA Rankings, you can also access the rankings at any time by going to www.IndependentWorldMMARankings.com.

Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel. These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Freelance), Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline); Jim Murphy (The Savage Science); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion), Ivan Trembow (Freelance); and Dave Walsh (Total MMA).

Note: Joachim Hansen, who was previously ineligible to be ranked due to 12 months of inactivity, has regained his eligibility to be ranked as a result of his recent return to competition.

October 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on October 13, 2009

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Fedor Emelianenko (30-1, 1 No Contest)
2. Brock Lesnar (4-1)
3. Frank Mir (12-4)
4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-5-1, 1 No Contest)
5. Shane Carwin (11-0)
6. Brett Rogers (10-0)
7. Randy Couture (16-10)
8. Alistair Overeem (29-11, 1 No Contest)
9. Junior dos Santos (9-1)
10. Fabricio Werdum (12-4-1)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Lyoto Machida (15-0)
2. Quinton Jackson (30-7)
3. Rashad Evans (13-1-1)
4. Anderson Silva (25-4)
5. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (18-3)
6. Forrest Griffin (16-6)
7. Gegard Mousasi (26-2-1)
8. Dan Henderson (25-7)
9. Thiago Silva (14-1)
10. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (17-3)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (25-4)
2. Nathan Marquardt (29-8-2)
3. Dan Henderson (25-7)
4. Yushin Okami (23-4)
5. Jorge Santiago (21-7)
6. Vitor Belfort (19-8)
7. Demian Maia (10-1)
8. Robbie Lawler (16-5, 1 No Contest)
9. Chael Sonnen (23-10-1)
10. Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-1, 2 No Contests)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (19-2)
2. Jon Fitch (19-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Thiago Alves (16-4)
4. Jake Shields (23-4-1)
5. Josh Koscheck (13-4)
6. Matt Hughes (43-7)
7. Mike Swick (14-2)
8. Paulo Thiago (11-1)
9. Carlos Condit (23-5)
10. Marius Zaromskis (12-3)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. B.J. Penn (14-5-1)
2. Shinya Aoki (22-4, 1 No Contest)
3. Eddie Alvarez (17-2)
4. Kenny Florian (11-4)
5. Tatsuya Kawajiri (25-5-2)
6. Diego Sanchez (21-2)
7. Gray Maynard (8-0, 1 No Contest)
8. Frankie Edgar (10-1)
9. Joachim Hansen (19-8-1)
10. Mizuto Hirota (12-3-1)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Mike Brown (22-4)
2. Urijah Faber (22-3)
3. Jose Aldo (15-1)
4. Hatsu Hioki (20-3-2)
5. Leonard Garcia (13-4)
6. Bibiano Fernandes (7-2)
7. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (16-3)
8. Wagnney Fabiano (12-2)
9. Raphael Assuncao (14-1)
10. Mackens Semerzier (4-0)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Brian Bowles (8-0)
2. Miguel Torres (37-2)
3. Takeya Mizugaki (12-3-2)
4. Masakatsu Ueda (9-0-2)
5. Dominick Cruz (14-1)
6. Akitoshi Tamura (14-7-2)
7. Joseph Benavidez (10-1)
8. Damacio Page (12-4)
9. Rani Yahya (14-4)
10. Will Ribeiro (10-2)

The Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of MMA, from heavyweight to bantamweight, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters' actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they've actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win fantasy match-ups.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that he is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until he has his first fight in the new weight class.

Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

2009-10-08T06:04:00.007-04:00

More Bad Than Good at Dream 11 in Japan; and Junie Browning Gets Arrested After More than a Year of His Behavior Being Rewarded
by Ivan Trembow

I have been a bit puzzled by the online reaction to a couple of things related to the recent Dream 11 event in Japan.

Apparently, Shinya Aoki was somehow protected and it was somehow a crime for him to get time to recover after getting kicked in the groin. Really? The instant replays used a reverse camera angle from which you couldn’t actually see Joachim Hansen's foot hit Aoki's groin, but if you go back and look at the original camera angle as it happened live, it’s clear as day that he was kicked in the groin.

Are fighters not supposed to get a break to recover when they get kicked in the groin? The fact that Hansen kicked Aoki twice in the head after kicking him once in the groin doesn’t change the fact that Aoki was kicked in the groin.

Also, the Bibiano Fernandes vs. Hiroyuki Takaya fight was apparently a Fight of the Year candidate. Really? I didn’t come away from the fight with that feeling at all. I thought it was a good fight, but a Fight of the Year candidate? No way.

Apparently following in the footsteps of C.B. Dollaway, Joe Warren lost by submission and then tried to claim that he didn't tap out, even though it certainly appeared that he did (with his fingers). Even if, hypothetically, Warren hadn't tapped at all, his arm was in such a position that the referee would have been completely justified to stop the fight at that moment by technical submission, because otherwise Warren could have suffered a major arm/elbow injury.

On the whole, there was far more bad than good with this event. The "good" was the Aoki-Hansen fight and the Featherweight Grand Prix.

The "bad" was the embarrassing mismatches given to Kazushi Sakuraba and Tatsuya Kawajiri, as well as the awful Hong-Man Choi vs. Ikuhisa Minowa fight and the predictably one-sided fight between Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou and Bob Sapp (although at least the Sokoudjou-Sapp fight didn’t appear to be a badly-worked pro wrestling match with a pre-determined ending, which is more than I can say for Sapp’s previous fight in the Super Hulk Tournament against Minowa).

I know that this "Super Hulk Tournament" crap is the key to Dream's success in the ratings on Japanese TV, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it. The same could be said of EliteXC putting Kimbo Slice in fight after fight on major events, and I didn’t support that, either.

Junie Browning Gets Arrested After More than a Year of His Behavior Being Rewarded
The Las Vegas Review-Journal is reporting the sad news that infamous Ultimate Fighter 8 contestant Junie Browning tried to harm himself by overdosing on anti-anxiety medication, and then attacked three nurses after he was taken to the hospital.

Browning was arrested and charged with battery on a health care provider, and he was shortly thereafter released by the UFC. Browning's coach, Shawn Tompkins, has subsequently said in interviews that Browning was not merely trying to "harm" himself by overdosing, but was actually "trying to take his own life."

The UFC did not release Quinton Jackson after he endangered numerous pedestrian's lives in a Monster Truck in July 2008; nor did the UFC release Jon Koppenhaver when he was convicted of assault for punching and choking a man unconscious (Koppenhaver was only released after his comments about the late Evan Tanner); nor has the UFC released repeat criminal Josh Neer (who should be serving a prison sentence right now instead of fighting on the main card of a PPV event in two weeks).

The fact is, committing a serious crime doesn't usually cause a fighter to be released by the UFC, so it's much more likely that the attempted suicide aspect of Browning's incident is the primary factor behind the UFC's decision to release Browning from his contract.

As you may recall, Browning repeatedly became drunk and violent in the fighters' house during the filming of The Ultimate Fighter 8. During the filming of TUF 8, Browning threw a glass at Kyle Kingsbury; got into a poolside scuffle with Ryan Bader; jumped over the Octagon fence and went after Efrain Escudero in an aggressive manner immediately after Escudero defeated Shane Nelson in an NSAC-sanctioned match; threw a glass at Shane Primm's head; and threw two punches at Primm.

Fighters have been kicked off of The Ultimate Fighter for doing far less in the way of rule-breaking, but Browning was not kicked off of the show or released by the UFC for any of these incidents, nor did the UFC release him when he was eliminated from the TUF 8 lightweight tournament in a one-sided fight.

Instead, Browning was rewarded by the UFC, which gave him the one and only main card fight on the live finale that involved TUF 8 contestants who were not tournament finalists.

I wrote about the UFC's decision to reward Browning for his behavior at the time in the following article: Sleazeball Promoters and Trash TV: What The Ultimate Fighter Has Become.

Browning's own coach on TUF 8, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir, said at the time, "Putting him on the main card, it does reward his behavior. It shows people that if you act like a moron or idiot, you'll get face time. That equals money, so it's creating a shortcut, and they don't have to invest as much time into fighting... I realize that Spike has to sell TV time, and I understand that's part of the whole game, but as far as me as a martial artist, I find it an insult."

Rather than being released by the UFC at any of the aforementioned times, hitting rock bottom, and realizing that he needed help with his addictions, Browning was rewarded every step of the way. It's sad that it took an arrest and an attempted suicide for the UFC to finally stop rewarding Browning's behavior. Hopefully, Browning will now get on the road to recovery.

2009-09-30T23:20:00.008-04:00

Kimbo Slice Dominated by Roy Nelson, UFC Very Impressed with Kimbo Slice
by Ivan Trembow

Well, Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson has had his chance on The Ultimate Fighter, and in the first round of the 16-man tournament, he lost to Roy Nelson by TKO. The fight itself wasn't as ugly as the heavyweight fight on the previous episode of The Ultimate Fighter, but it was pretty ugly in its own right.

So, THAT is the fight that caused UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta to tell the L.A. Times Blog last week, "We've been very impressed with Kimbo’s performance"? What a joke.

And that's the fight that caused Dana White to tell the L.A. Times Blog last week, "Are you going to see Kimbo Slice fight again in the UFC? Yes," as well as, "The ratings do not influence our decision. The guy can either fight or not" (a quote which leaves no explanation for Junie Browning's continued UFC employment).

I was surprised to see the fight go that way, given Fertitta and White's public statements. What is not at all surprising is White's child-like behavior when his favored fighter lost. "Roy Nelson did just enough to win!" White exclaimed. Really? Because it sure seemed like he shut down and TKO’ed the fighter around whom White built a whole season of The Ultimate Fighter.

And Roy Nelson's 44 unanswered punches on Kimbo's head at the end of the first round reminded Dana White of his daughter playfully punching him? That was just an unnecessary low blow by a man who continues to feel no shame from constantly insulting the professional fighters who work for him.

Of course, whether or not Kimbo got TKO'ed in his fight first isn't what really matters, right? It's the ratings. The UFC and Spike TV have gone from publicly mocking Kimbo and even Kimbo's ratings-drawing power in press releases and public statements when he was fighting for EliteXC, to now fully using that ratings-drawing power for themselves, even though he's still not actually much of a fighter.

Despite saying before this season of TUF that the only way Kimbo would be a UFC fighter is if he went on TUF and won the tournament, the UFC has now amended that position, affirming what many people thought all along, which is that Kimbo is going to be a UFC fighter in the future, no matter how poorly he performs on TUF.

The biggest farce of all is the fact that Kimbo is still going to be a UFC fighter in the future, despite that performance, and despite his performance against Seth Petruzelli, despite the claim that the UFC would never push an un-talented fighter for ratings purposes.

I also want to be clear that I have nothing against Kimbo personally; he has just taken the opportunities that have been given to him. The problem is the con-men who have pushed Kimbo far more than his talent has warranted, from the beginning of his career to now and well into his future career in the UFC.

So, what's the over/under on how much money it would be worth for the UFC if one of the other contestants on the show just happened to come down with an injury that caused them to have to withdraw from the competition, which would lead to another contestant coming back (like, I don’t know, maybe Kimbo Slice). They already hinted at that in the preview for the next episode. Let the "farce" continue.

2009-09-25T00:06:00.004-04:00

September 25, 2009: The September 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites.

Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel. These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Freelance), Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Jonathan Snowden (Heavy.com); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion), Ivan Trembow (Freelance); and Dave Walsh (Total MMA).

Note: Josh Thomson is not currently eligible to be ranked, due to the fact that he has been inactive for over 12 months.

September 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on September 22, 2009

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Fedor Emelianenko (30-1, 1 No Contest)
2. Brock Lesnar (4-1)
3. Frank Mir (12-4)
4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (32-5-1, 1 No Contest)
5. Randy Couture (16-10)
6. Brett Rogers (10-0)
7. Shane Carwin (11-0)
8. Alistair Overeem (29-11, 1 No Contest)
9. Junior dos Santos (9-1)
10. Andrei Arlovski (15-7)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Lyoto Machida (15-0)
2. Quinton Jackson (30-7)
3. Rashad Evans (13-1-1)
4. Anderson Silva (25-4)
5. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (18-3)
6. Forrest Griffin (16-6)
7. Gegard Mousasi (26-2-1)
8. Dan Henderson (25-7)
9. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (17-3)
10. Thiago Silva (14-1)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (25-4)
2. Nathan Marquardt (29-8-2)
3. Dan Henderson (25-7)
4. Yushin Okami (23-4)
5. Jorge Santiago (21-7)
6. Vitor Belfort (19-8)
7. Demian Maia (10-1)
8. Robbie Lawler (16-5, 1 No Contest)
9. Chael Sonnen (23-10-1)
10. Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-1, 2 No Contests)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (19-2)
2. Jon Fitch (19-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Thiago Alves (16-4)
4. Jake Shields (23-4-1)
5. Matt Hughes (43-7)
6. Josh Koscheck (13-4)
7. Mike Swick (14-2)
8. Paulo Thiago (11-1)
9. Carlos Condit (23-5)
10. Paul Daley (22-8-2)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. B.J. Penn (14-5-1)
2. Shinya Aoki (21-4, 1 No Contest)
3. Eddie Alvarez (17-2)
4. Kenny Florian (11-4)
5. Tatsuya Kawajiri (24-5-2)
6. Gray Maynard (8-0, 1 No Contest)
7. Diego Sanchez (21-2)
8. Frankie Edgar (10-1)
9. Mizuto Hirota (12-3-1)
10. Sean Sherk (33-4-1)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Mike Brown (22-4)
2. Urijah Faber (22-3)
3. Wagnney Fabiano (12-1)
4. Jose Aldo (15-1)
5. Hatsu Hioki (20-3-2)
6. Leonard Garcia (13-4)
7. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (16-3)
8. Raphael Assuncao (13-1)
9. Josh Grispi (13-1)
10. Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto (17-2)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Brian Bowles (8-0)
2. Miguel Torres (37-2)
3. Takeya Mizugaki (12-3-2)
4. Masakatsu Ueda (9-0-2)
5. Dominick Cruz (14-1)
6. Akitoshi Tamura (14-7-2)
7. Joseph Benavidez (10-1)
8. Rani Yahya (14-4)
9. Will Ribeiro (10-2)
10. Damacio Page (11-4)

The Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of MMA, from heavyweight to bantamweight, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters' actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they've actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win fantasy match-ups.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that he is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until he has his first fight in the new weight class.

Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

2009-08-30T23:24:00.001-04:00

Thoughts on Nogueira/Couture Fight; Oregon Athletic Commission's Doctors
by Ivan Trembow

Last night's fight between two of MMA's all-time greats, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Randy Couture, a fight which Nogueira won via a one-sided unanimous judges' decision, was a wildly exciting, hard-fought, gutsy fight. At the same time, it was sad to see just how far both fighters have fallen.

When Couture got knocked down in previous fights, it was against fighters with a lot of power (Chuck Liddell, Brock Lesnar). In this fight, he was repeatedly knocked down and almost out, against a man who has never been known to have strong punching power (Nogueira certainly has strong punching technique, but not strong punching power).

As for Nogueira, the lengendary chin that was missing in the Frank Mir fight was back in the Couture fight, but that was about it. In his previous couple of fights and also in the Couture fight, Nogueira’s reflexes were gone, his defense was gone, his head movement was gone, and he was moving like he was underwater. Just because he looked much better than Couture doesn't mean that he looked good in the fight.

In the Couture fight, even Nogueira's legendary submission-finishing ability was missing against an opponent who was semi-conscious at the time of the Round 1 submission attempt (and someone like Nogueira losing their submission-finishing ability would be the equivalent of a knockout artist losing their power). The drastically diminished reflexes and movement are far more troubling, though.

So, for me, while it was a very exciting fight to watch, it was also sad to watch.

On another note, there seemed to be repeated instances of questionable judgment by the doctors of Oregon’s athletic commission last night.

The doctors allowed Ed Herman to continue on to Round 2 even though he clearly had a badly injured knee, only for Herman to predictably suffer an even worse knee injury seconds into Round 2.

That wasn’t the only case of a fighter being sent out for another round who might not have been medically fit to continue. From Bryan Alvarez’ play-by-play of the Mike Russow vs. Justin McCully fight on f4wonline.com: "So the second round was about to start and as McCully was getting out of his chair he stumbled. They stopped the clock between rounds and brought the doctor into the ring and he looked at McCully, asked some questions, and then shook his head no. The fans started booing. So the doctor pushed him sideways and McCully couldn’t keep his base. Doctor did it again, same thing. More booing. And they booed and booed and the next thing you know, they took the stools out of the ring and THE FIGHT CONTINUED. Everyone in press row was wondering what the hell this was all about."

The judgment of the Oregon athletic commission’s doctors looks even worse as a result of this line in Sherdog's post-fight press conference recap: "[UFC president Dana] White said nobody went to the hospital when asked if Tim Hague was OK following his loss to Todd Duffee."

I'm assuming that White meant nobody in the Hague-Duffee fight went to the hospital, because it couldn’t possibly be the case that nobody on the entire card went to the hospital (especially given that several fighters were knocked out cold, an unconscious Chris Leben had a seizure in the cage, etc.). If it's accurate that the Oregon athletic commission's doctors didn't send Hague to the hospital for testing after his knockout loss, that is a travesty.

2009-08-21T00:06:00.003-04:00

August 21, 2009: The August 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites. Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel.

These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (Fight Opinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Houston Chronicle); Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (Freelance); Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Jonathan Snowden (Author of "Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting"); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion), Ivan Trembow (Freelance); and Dave Walsh (Total MMA).

Joachim Hansen is not currently eligible to be ranked due to the fact that he has been inactive for 12 months; and Josh Barnett is not currently eligible to be ranked due to his recent positive drug test.

August 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on August 18, 2009

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Fedor Emelianenko (30-1, 1 No Contest)
2. Brock Lesnar (4-1)
3. Frank Mir (12-4)
4. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-5-1, 1 No Contest)
5. Randy Couture (16-9)
6. Alistair Overeem (29-11, 1 No Contest)
7. Shane Carwin (11-0)
8. Brett Rogers (10-0)
9. Andrei Arlovski (15-7)
10. Fabricio Werdum (12-4-1)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Lyoto Machida (15-0)
2. Quinton Jackson (30-7)
3. Rashad Evans (13-1-1)
4. Anderson Silva (25-4)
5. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (18-3)
6. Forrest Griffin (16-6)
7. Gegard Mousasi (26-2-1)
8. Rich Franklin (25-4, 1 No Contest)
9. Keith Jardine (14-5-1)
10. Dan Henderson (25-7)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (25-4)
2. Yushin Okami (23-4)
3. Dan Henderson (25-7)
4. Nathan Marquardt (28-8-2)
5. Demian Maia (10-0)
6. Jorge Santiago (21-7)
7. Robbie Lawler (16-5, 1 No Contest)
8. Vitor Belfort (18-8)
9. Chael Sonnen (23-10-1)
10. Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-1, 2 No Contests)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (19-2)
2. Jon Fitch (19-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Thiago Alves (16-4)
4. Jake Shields (23-4-1)
5. Matt Hughes (43-7)
6. Josh Koscheck (12-4)
7. Martin Kampmann (15-2)
8. Mike Swick (14-2)
9. Carlos Condit (22-5)
10. Paulo Thiago (11-1)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. B.J. Penn (14-5-1)
2. Shinya Aoki (21-4, 1 No Contest)
3. Eddie Alvarez (17-2)
4. Kenny Florian (11-4)
5. Tatsuya Kawajiri (24-5-2)
6. Diego Sanchez (21-2)
7. Gray Maynard (7-0, 1 No Contest)
8. Frankie Edgar (10-1)
9. Josh Thomson (16-2)
10. Mizuto Hirota (12-3-1)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Mike Brown (22-4)
2. Urijah Faber (22-3)
3. Wagnney Fabiano (12-1)
4. Jose Aldo (15-1)
5. Hatsu Hioki (20-3-2)
6. Leonard Garcia (13-4)
7. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (16-3)
8. Raphael Assuncao (13-1)
9. Dokonjonosuke Mishima (19-6-2)
10. Josh Grispi (13-1)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Brian Bowles (8-0)
2. Miguel Torres (37-2)
3. Takeya Mizugaki (12-3-2)
4. Masakatsu Ueda (9-0-2)
5. Dominick Cruz (14-1)
6. Akitoshi Tamura (14-7-2)
7. Joseph Benavidez (10-1)
8. Will Ribeiro (10-2)
9. Rani Yahya (14-4)
10. Damacio Page (11-4)

The Independent World MMA Rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of MMA, from heavyweight to bantamweight, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters' actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they've actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win fantasy match-ups.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions, or who have been denied a license for drug test or disciplinary reasons, are not eligible to be ranked.

Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that he is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until he has his first fight in the new weight class.

Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

2009-07-30T16:46:00.003-04:00

Thoughts on Fedor/UFC Negotiations
by Ivan Trembow

I continue to be amazed by the fact that in the eyes of the "clapping seals" who must be proud to put forth the UFC’s agenda on any given issue, Fedor Emelianenko's entire legitimacy as a fighter is riding on whether or not he accepts whatever it is that the UFC is offering him.

News flash: Even if Fedor retired from MMA tomorrow and never fought again, he would go down in history as the fighter who was the #1 heavyweight in the world for six straight years (from 2003 to 2009), and arguably the greatest fighter in MMA's history up to this point (of course, as with any G.O.A.T. in any sport, there's no assurance that another athlete wouldn't eventually replace him in that position).

But don’t tell that to the "clapping seals." To them, one successful title defense can prompt questions of who can possibly stop a UFC champion, while Fedor is both illegitimate and irrelevant if he doesn’t sign with the UFC... and he's not just illegitimate and irrelevant in 2009, but it also means that the last six years never happened.

Of course, if every fighter's legitimacy and relevance as a fighter is determined by whether or not they accept whatever it is that the UFC is offering them, that adds a tremendous amount of leverage to the UFC's side and takes a tremendous amount of leverage away from the side of all fighters. That's a big part of the reason why the UFC and its surrogates tend to portray it as though any fighter, even Fedor, is irrelevant if he doesn't accept whatever it is that the UFC is offering.

Yesterday, the UFC leaked out inflated contract numbers through one of their friends in the media (the Carmichael Dave Show), claiming that Fedor was offered $5 million per fight for six fights. The Pavlovian response to the UFC's leak of inflated dollar figures has worked far better than the UFC could have possibly hoped. One little leak and now it's being regarded almost everywhere as the undeniable truth. Wow, that was easy.

Inflated dollar figures are the easiest thing in the world to leak out in an effort to put pressure on the other side, because of the obligatory, "OMG, he turned down that much money!" response, which is exactly the response that the UFC's leak has produced on a massive scale.

In fact, dollar figures have never been a major factor in holding up the UFC/Fedor negotiations. In 2007, the UFC offered a guarantee of $1.5 million per fight, and Fedor's side was understandably happy with that figure. It wasn't the money that held up the deal, and I'd be shocked if that's what is holding up the deal now. There are more important things than dollar figures, such as not having the standard UFC contractual clause that auto-renews the contract for life if you're a champion. Leaking out such an inflated dollar figure is very transparent on Zuffa's part.

Regarding the champion's clause in UFC contracts, it renews one year at a time, and does it so indefinitely, until the champion loses the title. If it expired after just 12 months, Randy Couture would have been a free agent in August 2008. Rob Maysey, who has written more about UFC contracts than anyone, confirms regarding the champion's clause that the "UFC version, as drafted, keeps renewing."

Here's more information from someone who (unlike Carmichael Dave) actually is a credible source, the author of what is widely regarded as the best book about MMA (Jonathan Snowden): The guarantee per fight offered by the UFC was less than the guarantee per fight in the Affliction contract (roughly $1.5 million). But don't let that stop anyone from spreading misinformation. Zach Arnold wrote a very good article about this here.

If Fedor ever wanted to fight the champion's clause in court as Randy Couture did for a year before giving up, there would be a solid 18-to-24 months from the time that the lawsuit was filed to the trial date, and even then, there is no guarantee that he’d win in a Nevada court system with judges like the Xyience/Bergeron case judge who got elected with campaign money from UFC owners Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta (that is not a secret, a rumor, or a conspiracy theory, as the judge publicly thanked the Fertittas on his web site for their contributions to his election campaign).

There are currently more highly-ranked heavyweight fighters in the UFC than there are outside of the UFC, but let’s not act like there are NO highly-ranked heavyweight fighters outside of the UFC. Even with Josh Barnett out of the picture, other top-15-ranked heavyweights who are not in the UFC include Brett Rogers, Alistair Overeem, Jeff Monson, Fabricio Werdum, and Andrei Arlovski, only one of whom Fedor has already beaten (Arlovski).

That's a stronger heavyweight division than the UFC had a few years ago (a UFC heavyweight division that Dana White now says completely sucked), but it’s still not as good as the UFC's current heavyweight division. Randy Couture, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, and Mirko Cro Cop are all closer to the end than they are to their primes, and Fedor beat Nogueira and Cro Cop in their primes, but Brock Lesnar beating the Shane Carwin/Cain Velasquez winner would indeed be another big achievement and I would look forward to that fight.

2009-07-24T16:03:00.004-04:00

California Commission Explains Why Josh Barnett Has Not Been Suspended
by Ivan Trembow

Some MMA fans have been wondering why Josh Barnett is not being suspended by the California State Athletic Commission for his recent positive test for an anabolic steroid. The answer is that Barnett has no license for the CSAC to suspend.

As the CSAC's Assistant Executive Officer, Bill Douglas, said, "It's impossible to suspend someone for something that they do not possess."

Barnett's CSAC license expired after his fight with Gilbert Yvel earlier this year. He requested a renewal of his expired license, and that request was denied as a result of his failed drug test.

While the CSAC can (and has) denied Barnett's request for a renewal of his license, they can't suspend his license due to the fact that he doesn't have one.

I asked the CSAC's Douglas specifically, "If Barnett did currently have a CSAC license, would it have been suspended? In other words, is it only because of the fact that he did not have an active CSAC license that he's not being suspended?" Douglas said, "Yes, there is nothing to suspend."

What's next for Josh Barnett? Well, the fact that he happened to be in between active CSAC licenses will mean that he won't have to wait 12 months before he can re-apply to receive a license. However, before he can fight in California, "We simply need a clean drug test administered by a CSAC representative," Douglas said.

As for Barnett taking a fight outside the state of California, Douglas said, "Technically, he can fight out of country or even in another Commission state if they decide to license him." There is no active CSAC suspension on Barnett, so there would be no CSAC penalties if Barnett fought outside of California.

Regarding the possibility of Barnett applying for a license in Nevada, Keith Kizer, the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, said, "Anyone can apply, but I do not know how the Commissioners would vote of any specific application."

Regarding the possibility of Barnett applying for a license in New Jersey, Nick Lembo, the Counsel to the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, said, "If California denies the license but does not or cannot issue a suspension, we would likely require him to get licensed in California first."

UPDATE on 8/4/09: After this story was published, The California State Athletic Commission conducted a legal review and determined that they do have the legal authority to not allow Josh Barnett to apply for a new fighters' license in California for the next 12 months. So, while Barnett is still technically not "suspended," he also can't re-apply for a CSAC license for the next 12 months. As the CSAC Assistant Executive Director Bill Douglas put it, "There was a legal analysis performed by the attorneys that assist CSAC and a rule in place may prohibit Josh from being licensed in California for one year."

2009-07-17T00:25:00.002-04:00

July 17, 2009: The July 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings have been released. These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites. Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel.

These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (FightOpinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Houston Chronicle); Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (MMA Payout); Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA); Leland Roling (Bloody Elbow); Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Jonathan Snowden (Author of "Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting"); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion), Ivan Trembow (Freelance); and Dave Walsh (Total MMA).

The rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of MMA, from heavyweight to bantamweight, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters' actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they've actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win fantasy match-ups.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions are not eligible to be ranked.

Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that he is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until he has his first fight in the new weight class.

Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.

July 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings
Ballots collected on July 14, 2009

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Fedor Emelianenko (30-1, 1 No Contest)
2. Brock Lesnar (4-1)
3. Josh Barnett (24-5)
4. Frank Mir (12-4)
5. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-5-1, 1 No Contest)
6. Randy Couture (16-9)
7. Alistair Overeem (29-11, 1 No Contest)
8. Shane Carwin (11-0)
9. Brett Rogers (10-0)
10. Andrei Arlovski (15-7)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Lyoto Machida (15-0)
2. Quinton Jackson (30-7)
3. Rashad Evans (13-1-1)
4. Forrest Griffin (16-5)
5. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (18-3)
6. Rich Franklin (25-4, 1 No Contest)
7. Keith Jardine (14-5-1)
8. Dan Henderson (25-7)
9. Renato "Babalu" Sobral (32-8)
10. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (17-3)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (24-4)
2. Yushin Okami (23-4)
3. Dan Henderson (25-7)
4. Nathan Marquardt (28-8-2)
5. Demian Maia (10-0)
6. Jorge Santiago (21-7)
7. Robbie Lawler (16-5, 1 No Contest)
8. Gegard Mousasi (25-2-1)
9. Vitor Belfort (18-8)
10. Thales Leites (14-2)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (19-2)
2. Jon Fitch (19-3, 1 No Contest)
3. Thiago Alves (16-4)
4. Jake Shields (23-4-1)
5. Matt Hughes (43-7)
6. Josh Koscheck (12-4)
7. Martin Kampmann (15-2)
8. Mike Swick (14-2)
9. Carlos Condit (22-5)
10. Paulo Thiago (11-1)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. B.J. Penn (13-5-1)
2. Kenny Florian (11-3)
3. Shinya Aoki (20-4, 1 No Contest)
4. Eddie Alvarez (17-2)
5. Joachim Hansen (19-7-1)
6. Tatsuya Kawajiri (24-5-2)
7. Diego Sanchez (21-2)
8. Frankie Edgar (10-1)
9. Gray Maynard (7-0, 1 No Contest)
10. Satoru Kitaoka (25-8-9)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Mike Brown (22-4)
2. Urijah Faber (22-3)
3. Wagnney Fabiano (12-1)
4. Jose Aldo (15-1)
5. Hatsu Hioki (19-3-2)
6. Leonard Garcia (12-4)
7. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (16-3)
8. Dokonjonosuke Mishima (19-6-2)
9. Raphael Assuncao (13-1)
10. Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto (17-2)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Miguel Torres (37-1)
2. Brian Bowles (7-0)
3. Takeya Mizugaki (11-3-2)
4. Masakatsu Ueda (9-0-2)
5. Joseph Benavidez (10-0)
6. Akitoshi Tamura (14-7-2)
7. Will Ribeiro (10-2)
8. Rani Yahya (14-4)
9. Damacio Page (11-4)
10. Manny Tapia (10-2-1)

2009-07-12T05:02:00.009-04:00

Post-UFC 100 Thoughts
by Ivan Trembow

-I realize that Brock Lesnar is just playing a heel pro wrestling character, but the casual fans who make up a big percentage of the audience for such a huge show wouldn't know that. They would just think that's how the UFC Heavyweight Champion behaves. You don't have to play a trashy heel pro wrestling character to be a superstar, and one doesn't need to look any further than Georges St. Pierre on the very same event for evidence of that.

-The clip of Brock Lesnar screaming in his semi-conscious opponent's face and then slobbering all over the camera like a bad 1980s pro wrestler made it onto the overnight SportsCenter. So did the clip of Dan Henderson punching his already-unconscious opponent's head.

Between these two things and the recent E:60 segment about Dana White's obscene rant, I don't think that the average ESPN viewer has a very good impression of MMA at this point. Neither does the average potential advertiser, for that matter.

-Here's a quote from UFC play-by-play announcer Mike Goldberg, leaving his credibility at the door in a post-event segment on ESPNews: "Lesnar is undoubtedly the best heavyweight in the world!" He obviously wasn't going to go on ESPNews and say, "Lesnar is still not the best heavyweight in the world!" But he could have also retained a lot more credibility if he had chosen different wording.

-I didn't catch it on the live broadcast, but all of the quotes from Dan Henderson’s post-fight interview include Henderson openly saying that he knew Michael Bisping was unconscious and he hit him one more time anyway. That is just classless garbage. At least he didn't throw two more punches at his unconscious opponent's head after the ref was literally pulling him off (like Quinton Jackson did against Wanderlei Silva), but it's still classless garbage.

-That was a masterful performance by Georges St. Pierre, but why was cornerman Greg Jackson talking to GSP like he was five years old in between rounds? I'm not even exaggerating; that is literally how Little League coaches talk to five-year-olds.

-Were the judges distracted by a piece of flying lint during the Yoshihiro Akiyama-Alan Belcher fight? I had it scored 30-27 for Belcher, although I could understand scoring it 29-28 for Belcher. But one judge had it 30-27 for Akiyama? As Jake Rossen said on his ESPN/Sherdog blog, "Do they test the judges for recreational drugs?"

-The fact that Mark Coleman is still fighting at his age and in his condition is sad. The fact that Stephan Bonnar lost to him is almost as sad.

-According to USA Today, during a recent Q&A session with fans, UFC co-owner Lorenzo Fertitta recently "called out EA Sports for passing up a deal with the UFC on a video game and then coming around after the success of UFC 2009 Undisputed to do another MMA game."

That is some nice revisionist history (from someone whose company has been engaging in plenty of revisionist history recently). The launch (and sales success) of UFC 2009: Undisputed came in May 2009. EA Sports has been working on an MMA video game since 2008, and multiple media outlets wrote about it in 2008, including MMA Payout and the Wrestling Observer.

Were the writers at MMA Payout and the Wrestling Observer blessed with psychic powers that enabled them to write about EA’s MMA game and some of the specific fighters that signed to appear in it (Randy Couture, Frank Shamrock, etc.) one year before EA even started working on the game?

No, they weren't. In fact, IGN also wrote about EA's MMA game in May 2008, a full year before UFC 2009: Undisputed was released.

The UFC's management was fully aware of the existence of EA's MMA game in 2008, as that was one of the major reasons that the UFC threatened its roster of fighters into signing away their lifetime exclusive video game rights for free (ie, to ensure that they couldn't appear in EA's game).

As Steve Barry wrote on MMA Convert, "It's just another example of Zuffa bending the truth to spin an ugly situation in their favor. And quite frankly, it's starting to get old, especially when the majority of people listening don't know any better."

2009-07-12T04:06:00.000-04:00

No Out-of-Competition Drug Testing for UFC 100 Fighters
by Ivan Trembow

None of the fighters on the UFC 100 card were subjected to the Nevada State Athletic Commission's out-of-competition drug testing program, as confirmed by NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer on Sunday morning.

Out-of-competition drug tests differ from the NSAC's usual drug tests in the sense that with the out-of-competition testing, fighters do not know when they are going to be tested ahead of time.

Drug testing on the day of the weigh-in or the day of the fight is, of course, going to fail to detect a significant percentage of dopers because they will have had weeks to use advanced methods of flushing performance-enhancing drugs out of their bodies.

None of the "Big Four" major sports in the United States have a drug-testing program in which the athletes know ahead of time exactly when they may be tested.

Even in the out-of-competition drug tests, fighters are given 48 hours to take their drug tests, whereas other sports require their athletes to take their drug tests immediately upon notification that a test has been ordered.

As The Ring Magazine's Mark Zeigler wrote earlier this year about the NSAC's out-of-competition testing, "Here's how it works: The commission contacts a licensed fighter, notifies him he has been selected for an out-of-competition test and provides instructions about locating the nearest accredited laboratory. The lab is also contacted, and the fighter has two days to show up, present photo identification and submit a urine test. Here's the problem: Two days is ample time for someone to flush their system of many banned substances."

Even when no other out-of-competition drug testing is performed, the NSAC usually orders out-of-competition tests to be performed on fighters who have previously failed drug tests in the state of Nevada.

In the case of UFC 100, that was not done. Stephan Bonnar was not ordered to take an out-of-competition drug test, despite the fact that Bonnar previously tested positive for Boldenone after a fight against Forrest Griffin in 2006. Boldenone is an anabolic steroid used by veterinarians to rehabilitate injured horses.

2009-06-19T00:16:00.001-04:00

June 19, 2009: We are proud to announce the launch of the Independent World MMA Rankings. Some of the best and most knowledgeable MMA writers from across the MMA media landscape have come together to form one independent voting panel.

These voting panel members are, in alphabetical order: Zach Arnold (FightOpinion); Nicholas Bailey (MMA Ratings); Jared Barnes (Houston Chronicle); Jordan Breen (Sherdog); Jim Genia (Full Contact Fighter, MMA Memories, and MMA Journalist Blog); Jesse Holland (MMA Mania); Robert Joyner (MMA Payout); Todd Martin (CBS Sportsline); Zac Robinson (Sports by the Numbers MMA; Michael David Smith (AOL Fanhouse); Jonathan Snowden (Author of "Total MMA: Inside Ultimate Fighting"); Joshua Stein (MMA Opinion), Ivan Trembow (Freelance); and Dave Walsh (Total MMA).

These rankings are independent of any single MMA media outlet or sanctioning body, and are published on multiple web sites.

The rankings are tabulated on a monthly basis in each of the top seven weight classes of MMA, from heavyweight to bantamweight, with fighters receiving ten points for a first-place vote, nine points for a second-place vote, and so on.

The rankings are based purely on the votes of the members of the voting panel, with nobody's vote counting more than anybody else's vote, and no computerized voting.

The voters are instructed to vote primarily based on fighters' actual accomplishments in the cage/ring (the quality of opposition that they've actually beaten), not based on a broad, subjective perception of which fighters would theoretically win fantasy match-ups.

Special thanks to Eric Kamander, Zach Arnold, and Joshua Stein for their invaluable help with this project, and special thanks to Garrett Bailey for designing our logo.

Inactivity: Fighters who have not fought in the past 12 months are not eligible to be ranked, and will regain their eligibility the next time they fight.

Disciplinary Suspensions: Fighters who are currently serving disciplinary suspensions are not eligible to be ranked.

Changing Weight Classes: When a fighter announces that he is leaving one weight class in order to fight in another weight class, the fighter is not eligible to be ranked in the new weight class until he has his first fight in the new weight class.

Catch Weight Fights: When fights are contested at weights that are in between the limits of the various weight classes, they are considered to be in the higher weight class. The weight limits for each weight class are listed at the top of the rankings for each weight class.

June 2009 Independent World MMA Rankings

Heavyweight Rankings (206 to 265 lbs.)
1. Fedor Emelianenko (30-1, 1 No Contest)
2. Frank Mir (12-3)
3. Josh Barnett (24-5)
4. Brock Lesnar (3-1)
5. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira (31-5-1, 1 No Contest)
6. Randy Couture (16-9)
7. Alistair Overeem (29-11, 1 No Contest)
8. Shane Carwin (11-0)
9. Brett Rogers (10-0)
10. Andrei Arlovski (15-7)

Light Heavyweight Rankings (186 to 205 lbs.)
1. Lyoto Machida (15-0)
2. Rashad Evans (13-1-1)
3. Quinton Jackson (30-7)
4. Forrest Griffin (16-5)
5. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua (18-3)
6. Rich Franklin (25-4, 1 No Contest)
7. Keith Jardine (14-5-1)
8. Dan Henderson (24-7)
9. Renato "Babalu" Sobral (32-8)
10. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (17-3)

Middleweight Rankings (171 to 185 lbs.)
1. Anderson Silva (24-4)
2. Yushin Okami 23-4)
3. Nathan Marquardt (28-8-2)
4. Demian Maia (10-0)
5. Dan Henderson (24-7)
6. Jorge Santiago (21-7)
7. Gegard Mousasi (25-2-1)
8. Robbie Lawler (16-5, 1 No Contest)
9. Vitor Belfort (18-8)
10. Thales Leites (14-2)

Welterweight Rankings (156 to 170 lbs.)
1. Georges St. Pierre (18-2)
2. Thiago Alves (16-3)
3. Jon Fitch (18-3, 1 No Contest)
4. Jake Shields (23-4-1)
5. Matt Hughes (43-7)
6. Josh Koscheck (12-4)
7. Martin Kampmann (15-2)
8. Mike Swick (14-2)
9. Carlos Condit (22-5)
10. Paulo Thiago (11-0)

Lightweight Rankings (146 to 155 lbs.)
1. B.J. Penn (13-5-1)
2. Kenny Florian (11-3)
3. Shinya Aoki (20-4, 1 No Contest)
4. Eddie Alvarez (17-2)
5. Joachim Hansen (19-7-1)
6. Tatsuya Kawajiri (24-5-2)
7. Frankie Edgar (10-1)
8. Josh Thomson (16-2)
9. Satoru Kitaoka (25-8-9)
10. Gray Maynard (7-0, 1 No Contest)

Featherweight Rankings (136 to 145 lbs.)
1. Mike Brown (22-4)
2. Urijah Faber (22-3)
3. Wagnney Fabiano (12-1)
4. Jose Aldo (15-1)
5. Hatsu Hioki (19-3-2)
6. Leonard Garcia (12-4)
7. "Lion" Takeshi Inoue (16-3)
8. Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto (17-2)
9. Dokonjonosuke Mishima (19-6-2)
10. Raphael Assuncao (13-1)

Bantamweight Rankings (126 to 135 lbs.)
1. Miguel Torres (37-1)
2. Brian Bowles (7-0)
3. Takeya Mizugaki (11-3-2)
4. Masakatsu Ueda (9-0-2)
5. Joseph Benavidez (10-0)
6. Akitoshi Tamura (14-7-2)
7. Will Ribeiro (10-2)
8. Rani Yahya (14-4)
9. Damacio Page (11-4)
10. Manny Tapia (10-2-1)

2009-05-26T02:52:00.002-04:00

Mixed Martial Arts--- As the MMA world reflects on Lyoto Machida's dominant KO win over the previously undefeated Rashad Evans, the fact that Machida didn't get a title shot sooner has been made all the more amazing by his performance against Evans.

Earlier this year, with a UFC record of 6-0 and an MMA record of 14-0, Machida was still passed over for a title shot in favor of Quinton Jackson (even with Jackson’s legal issues), who had won an incredible two fights in a row.

Even when Jackson’s injuries made it clear that he couldn’t fight on the May 23rd card, Machida still wasn’t going to get the next title shot.

It was only because both Jackson and Frank Mir were injured (thus preventing the UFC from delaying Evans’ first title defense until July) that Machida got a title shot before Jackson.

Even then, published reports at the time said that it still would not have happened if Zuffa had been able to convince Georges St. Pierre to move up his title defense against Thiago Alves to May 23.

The only reason they finally gave Machida the title shot when they did, rather than having him fight yet again before getting a title shot and likely against another tough opponent like Thiago Silva, was because all three of these things happened:

1. Quinton Jackson was hurt and couldn't fight on May 23

2. Frank Mir was hurt and couldn't fight on May 23

3. GSP was not willing to move his fight up to May 23

If any two of those things had happened, we’d be looking forward to Evans vs. Jackson in July, and Machida would have yet another tough fight before getting a title shot.

It’s only because all three of those things happened that Evans vs. Machida happened on May 23.

It’s kind of crazy to think that such an historic night would not have even happened if not for all of those things happening at the same time.

Other MMA Thoughts: I’m not surprised by Mirko Cro Cop’s return to the UFC, but I am surprised that he’s fighting in June. Cro Cop is fighting just five months after reconstructive knee surgery? And he’s having a training camp three to four months after reconstructive knee surgery? That doesn't sound like a great idea.

Andrei Arlovski vs. Brett Rogers being added to the June 6th Strikeforce event is fantastic news. Having said that, the idea that Phil Baroni vs. Joe Riggs is going to be a main card bout, while Rafael Feijao vs. Jared Hamman is going to be an untelevised prelim bout, is beyond pathetic.

Recent Boxing Events: Jermain Taylor vs. Carl Froch was a very good fight with an incredible 12th round. I had Froch down by a large margin going into the 12th round, as did two of the judges. The one judge who had it 8 rounds to 3 in favor of Froch going into the 12th round is right up there with the two judges who had Michael Bisping beating Matt Hamill in the “incompetent at best” category.

Play-by-play announcer Gus Johnson added so much to the incredible 12th round of Froch vs. Taylor. I was initially against it when Showtime replaced Steve Albert with Gus Johnson, but after that 12th round, I’m not so sure anymore. Albert is more of a traditional boxing play-by-play man, whereas Johnson is more of a “telling the story of any given fight” announcer, much like Jim Lampley, only not constantly missing it when big punches land or saying that something landed when it didn’t like Lampley does. Johnson can add a lot of drama and excitement to a big fight finish, as play-by-play announcers are supposed to do, without saying the same thing every time like Mike Goldberg does (”and it is all over!”).

Andre Ward's recent win over Edison Miranda was a star-making performance for Ward. Miranda is a legit top-level fighter, and dominating him like that is a big accomplishment.

Play-by-play announcer Nick Charles may have been too hard on Miranda during the fight, but I usually enjoy the commentary of Nick Charles and Steve Farhood just about as much as I enjoy any announcing team in boxing or MMA. They tend to be very straightforward and honest with their assessments of up-and-coming fighters, and that’s a particularly big deal on a show like “ShoBox” with all of the up-and-coming prospects that appear on it.

2009-05-13T00:06:00.003-04:00

ESPN Segment on Dana White Prompts Questions about Long-Term Growth Potential of UFC
Editorial by Ivan Trembow

One could get a sense of how much homework the producers of the ESPN show "E:60" had actually done fairly early in the segment about UFC president Dana White when correspondent Tom Farrey said that "the MMA" has exploded in popularity (as opposed to, "MMA has exploded in popularity").

The show's credibility didn't improve very much from there, as there was no questioning of White's claim, "I built this business without help from anybody."

Additionally, the segment did not even mention the Dana White/AKA debacle of late 2008, where it was not a journalist, but multiple UFC fighters who were on the receiving end of a bullying tirade that would have gotten the public face of any legitimately mainstream sport fired in under a day. White made those statements about Jon Fitch and other AKA fighters in an impromptu interview with Yahoo Sports' Kevin Iole.

The segment also failed to mention an important point that is closely related to the AKA explosion, which is the fact that the managers of UFC fighters, and even some of the fighters themselves, are actually terrified of White because of the publicly demonstrated consequences for any manager or fighter who criticizes White in public or doesn't sign something (ie, anything) that he wants them to sign. (Part 1 of my coverage of the AKA mess; Part 2 of my coverage of the AKA mess).

During the E:60 segment, Farrey also reacted with a shocked facial expression to White's oft-repeated claim that the UFC will be the biggest sport in the world ten years from now. If Farrey had done more research, he wouldn't have been so shocked to hear that from White because he would have known that White has been saying that on a regular basis since 2007.

There was also the fact that The Zuffa Myth about Dana White changing the sport's rules was repeated and not refuted. Farrey also repeated The Zuffa Myth once again during an interview with the Orlando Sentinel.

Even more than The Zuffa Myth, this segment (and the promotion of it) put forward what one might call, "The Dana White Myth." The commercials on ESPN that hyped this particular episode of E:60 said, "Meet the brain behind the fastest-growing sport in the world!"

If The Zuffa Myth is that Zuffa created the rules of MMA, then The Dana White Myth is that White is some kind of super-genius and that nobody else could run the UFC without him, ignoring the fact that Lorenzo Fertitta already makes most of the big business decisions, and ignoring the fact that Joe Silva already does the matchmaking.

Not surprisingly, White remained completely unremorseful for his tirade against Loretta Hunt during the E:60 segment. I say "not surprisingly" because I don't know how that could be surprising to anyone at this point. Pressure from an organization with as much influence as GLAAD meant that White essentially had no choice but to apologize for his use of an anti-gay slur, regardless of whether or not he would have otherwise done so.

White was not forced to apologize for anything else that he said, and he's never going to do so. From White's perspective, why should he? If nothing else, White's tirade against Hunt (and the lack of consequences for that tirade other than those that were self-imposed) clearly served to demonstrate that White can say literally anything he wants, because Fertitta is never going to assert any consequences for White's behavior.

After all, as Iole said in an interview shortly after publishing White's tirade against AKA, it was Lorenzo Fertitta who could be heard in the background during that tirade, acting "just as impassioned" as White and strongly backing what White was saying.

Near the end of the E:60 segment, Farrey asked the only question of the segment that could be classified as anything even close to a "tough question," as he essentially asked White if the UFC could ever be truly mainstream with someone like White as its president. White's response was, "Maybe not." Somehow, there was no follow-up question along the lines of, "Wait a minute... but you said earlier that the UFC is going to be the biggest sport in the world in ten years."

It continues to amaze me that media outlets like E:60 continue to fail to pick up on the obvious contradictions of Dana White and the long-term growth potential of the UFC.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out the fact that "This is going to be the biggest sport in the world in ten years" is a statement that is incongruous with the obscene tirade that White publicly directed towards Loretta Hunt.

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out that "This is going to be the biggest sport in the world in ten years" is a statement that is incongruous with the obscene tirade that White publicly directed towards AKA's fighters.

The fact of the matter is that the UFC is never going to be "the biggest sport in the world" or even a truly "mainstream" entity as long as it has a president that behaves like a vulgar, dogmatic bully.

Maybe it will take two more obscene public tirades for more people to come to that realization, maybe it will take four more obscene public tirades, or maybe some people will never come to that realization, particularly if they remain ignorant of just how much of a role Lorenzo Fertitta and Joe Silva already have in running the UFC.

2009-05-06T16:06:00.000-04:00

I am no longer associated with MMAWeekly after quitting earlier today. I will always have fond memories of most of my six years at MMAWeekly, and I will always be grateful to the late Ryan Bennett, who gave me a chance and became my friend and mentor.

2009-05-03T16:42:00.003-04:00

Boxing--- Manny Pacquiao is truly a once-in-a-generation talent. Last night, the world witnessed another amazing performance from a fighter who has been putting on amazing performances for years now.

However, when it comes to the PPV buyrate of last night's show, I don't think it's going to be as high as some of boxing's other huge fights, at least not when it comes to North American PPV buys. Ricky Hatton's fights always perform amazingly well on PPV in the United Kingdom, but I'm just talking about and referring to North American PPV buys in this post.

Consider that when Floyd Mayweather, Jr. fought and beat Oscar de la Hoya, that PPV shattered all of the records in the PPV industry with 2.4 million buys. But when Mayweather, coming off of that win over De la Hoya, fought Hatton, it "only" drew 850,000 PPV buys. That is still a gigantic PPV buyrate no matter how you look at it, but it was barely one-third of the record-setting Mayweather vs. De la Hoya PPV buyrate.

Now Pacquiao is in a similar situation, having fought and beaten De la Hoya and then fighting Hatton in his next fight after that. Unlike Mayweather vs. De la Hoya, Pacquiao vs. De la Hoya didn't shatter all of the records in the history of the PPV industry. It drew around 1.2 million buys, which is incredible, but not Mayweather vs. De la Hoya numbers.

So, let's say Pacquiao's fight against Hatton draws roughly one-third of the North American buys that Pacquiao's fight against De la Hoya drew. That would be 400,000 buys. I do think it's going to do better than that, but probably not by too much, even though HBO's four-part "Pacquiao/Hatton 24/7" series was absolutely brilliant television and probably the best "24/7" series since the original "De la Hoya/Mayweather 24/7."

If I had to guess, I'd say that the final number will be more than 500,000 and less than 600,000.

Remember, the initial estimates that are released by HBO are generally at least 10% smaller than the final number, so if they announce an initial estimate of 500,000, that means the final number would likely be a little more than 550,000.

That is the neighborhood in which I think the Pacquiao vs. Hatton PPV buyrate is going to end up in terms of North American buys and not counting the huge U.K. PPV sales.

Now, as for the potential fight between Pacquiao and Mayweather, I think that would draw more buys than Pacquiao vs. Hatton in North America, but first Mayweather has to get past Juan Manuel Marquez, and that is a major task.

Mayweather picked a hell of a fight for his comeback match, facing one of the top boxers on the planet after not having fought in a year-and-a-half.

If Marquez does beat Mayweather, then Pacquiao vs. Marquez III would do pretty well in its own right (after all, Pacquiao vs. Marquez II already drew a solid 450,000 or so buys in early 2008), but Pacquiao vs. Mayweather would draw a lot more buys.

2009-04-19T17:33:00.003-04:00

Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC 97 Thoughts
by Ivan Trembow

-The people who are criticizing Anderson Silva by saying things like "he doesn't care" or "he's not interested in fighting" are way off-base. Silva is a counter-striker. Some counter-strikers are better than others at adjusting their style and their gameplan when their opponent calls their proverbial bluff and forces them to be the one to come forward and be the aggressor. Thales Leites’ gameplan against Silva wasn’t all that different from Patrick Cote’s gameplan against Silva, or from Rashad Evans’ gameplan against Chuck Liddell.

-As Sports Illustrated wrote last night, "The champion [Anderson Silva] enters the cage after a coat of Vaseline is slathered on his face. I’m sorry to say this, but it was pretty obvious that Silva took his hands, wiped down his face and rubbed his chest and arms."

The accuracy of the previous sentence is made clear as day by this video: http://mmafrenzy.com/files/2009/04/anderson-silva-ufc-97-greasing.gif

The video starts just after Silva enters the Octagon with Vaseline on his face, just prior to the beginning of his fight. I have no way of knowing whether it was intentional, but whether or not it happened is not something that's up for debate.

-If that was indeed Chuck Liddell’s last MMA fight, he had an incredible career and provided MMA fans with a lot of great memories. The UFC is doing the right thing by pressuring Liddell to retire before he suffers permanent injury.

-On a related note, It’s amazing to me that there hasn’t been more talk of Wanderlei Silva retiring, just as there has (rightfully) been for Liddell.

While Liddell has been TKO’ed three times in recent years, only one of those was a knocked-out-cold KO. Wanderlei Silva has, in his last five fights, gotten brutally knocked out cold by Mirko Cro Cop, gotten brutally knocked out cold by Dan Henderson, taken a horrible beating in a unanimous decision loss to Chuck Liddell, beaten Keith Jardine, and gotten brutally knocked out cold by Quinton "Delirium Absolves me of Any Responsibility" Jackson.

If there was a list of fighters who should retire (for their own sake) as a result of taking too much punishment over the years and suffering too many bad knockouts, Wanderlei Silva would be far higher on that list than Chuck Liddell.

-More of UFC president Dana White’s credibility went flying out of his mouth and into the night at the UFC 97 post-fight press conference.

White said, "Fedor [Emelianenko] is not the pound-for-pound best fighter in the world. These guys [referring to Anderson Silva] continue to fight the best. Fedor is at a buffet somewhere in Russia."

Let me get this straight. Fedor’s last two fights were stoppage wins over the #4-ranked heavyweight in the world and the #3-ranked heavyweight in the world.

Anderson Silva’s last three fights were against nowhere-near-ranked James Irvin, nowhere-near-ranked Patrick Cote, and not-quite-top-ten-ranked Thales Leites... and yet it’s Fedor who is not fighting the best in the world?

That's not even the most credibility-shattering quote. Dana White also said this: “So until this guy [Fedor] decides to get in shape, take it serious, and consistently fight the best in the world, for you guys to even think about calling him the best pound-for-pound fighter in the world is insane.”

Someone break out the clown make-up and honking red nose.

-The Montreal commission wouldn’t comment in the months leading up to this event, but we got our answer in the main event about whether the UFC agreed to use something other than the Unified Rules of MMA for this event. Silva did a foot-stomp, and the referee clearly said, “No foot stomps, no foot stomps.” Other MMA promotions do this with elbow strikes, but this is the first time I can recall the Zuffa-era UFC using anything other than the Unified Rules of MMA.

-Cheick Kongo may not be too far away from a UFC Heavyweight Title match, but I believe that is going to be a squash match for anyone with good takedowns. I’m sure Kongo is better now than he was when Carmelo Marrero dominated him with takedowns, but I don’t think he’s so much better that he wouldn’t be taken down and pounded and/or submitted by any number of heavyweights in the UFC. The UFC is not stupid. They know this, and that’s why Kongo’s last three fights (after the loss to Heath Herring) have come against Dan Evensen, Mustapha al Turk, and Antoni Hardonk, three fighters who were overmatched against Kongo and also had limited ground games.

2009-02-03T04:34:00.005-05:00

Mixed Martial Arts--- Detailed Summary of St. Pierre vs. Penn Vaseline Incidents, Including Possible Influence on Round 2
by Ivan Trembow

Much more information has come out in the past couple of days about the incidents in which vaseline was allegedly rubbed on Georges St. Pierre's back by one of his cornermen in between the rounds of his fight against BJ Penn at UFC 94 on Saturday night. Rubbing vaseline anywhere other than on a fighter's face would be illegal.

There has been a lot of noise on all sides of this issue, including from many fans (and even a few journalists) who are taking the “bury your head in the sand” mentality of just wanting this story to go away, regardless of whether or not any wrongdoing was committed.

The statements from Penn's side about what happened are naturally going to be slanted in one direction, and the statements from St. Pierre's side about what happened are naturally going to be slanted in the other direction.

This makes the quotes from Keith Kizer, the Executive Director of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, especially relevant because he's not on the Penn side or the St. Pierre side.

So, based on video evidence and numerous statements made by Kizer, here are the actual facts as we know them.

First of all, the video of the cornerman, Phil Nurse, rubbing St. Pierre's face with vaseline and then immediately thereafter rubbing St. Pierre's back is now on YouTube at this URL: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vKuJSQJOiwM. This occurred between Rounds 1 and 2.

There is also confirmation in numerous interviews with Kizer that this was not the only time during the fight that vaseline appeared to be have been rubbed on St. Pierre's back by his cornerman. Kizer has said in multiple interviews that he saw it happen with his own eyes between Rounds 2 and 3, at which point he entered the cage and started yelling at St. Pierre's cornermen.

Here are quotes from MMAWeekly and Sherdog articles about the two separate vaseline incidents.

From MMAWeekly:

"After round two, I watched him like a hawk," said Kizer. "I've only entered the ring maybe three or four times (in my career) during a fight, but I did this time.

Watching the pay-per-view, Nurse is clearly seen on camera applying Vaseline to the face of St. Pierre following round one. It is difficult to tell the amount of residual Vaseline on his hands, but he does clearly rub St. Pierre's shoulders and then reach around to touch his upper back. The extent to which such actions affected the actual in-ring action are unclear, but what is clear is that such action was a violation Nevada's regulations.

"They didn't take a big glob and throw it on his back. After putting Vaseline on (St. Pierre's) face, he put his hands on his body. I don't know if it was intentional or not, but it was improper," Kizer continued, who confirmed that an inspector did use a towel to wipe St. Pierre's back between rounds two and three, and three and four."

From Sherdog:

[Kizer said] “After the second round, we observed Mr. Jackson putting Vaseline on Mr. St. Pierre’s face and then putting his hand on his back.”

...

“I told them I was disappointed and that they may have tainted Mr. St. Pierre’s victory…Whether it was intentional or not, I don’t know. It was improper.”

An important detail that has come out in multiple interviews with Kizer is that while the first application of vaseline to St. Pierre's back appeared to happen between Rounds 1 and 2, it wasn't until after the second round that the NSAC intervened.

This would mean that if vaseline was applied to St. Pierre's back after Round 1, it would have still been on his back throughout Round 2.

There is confirmation of this important detail from Kizer in various interviews, but perhaps most clearly in this one from MMA Junkie in terms of the timeline of events:

[Kizer said] "The first round, one of the inspectors that was on the outside of the cage came over to me and said it looked to him that when the cornerman, who I think in that case was Phil Nurse, put the Vaseline on Georges’ face then rubbed his shoulders — which you see the guys rubbing the other guy’s shoulders to help him out — he didn’t wipe off his hands between doing that. I said, ‘Well, I’m going to watch very closely after this round.’”

Kizer watched intently to see if the questionable actions would be repeated as the second round came to a close.

“At the end of the second round I watched, and then another cornerman who I believe was Greg Jackson, he put the Vaseline on Georges’ face, and then he put his hand on his back to do the breathing thing they always do,” Kizer said. “As soon as I saw that, it looked like there was still some Vaseline on his hand. Not a lot, but still some.

“Tony Liano and I immediately yelled at him, and I don’t think he heard us because of the noise. So I actually went into the octagon, and I said, ‘Take your hand off of his back. What are you doing?’ We wiped it down. We made sure it was wiped down after the third round as well. This was after the second when I was in there. I was very upset. I don’t know if they were doing it intentionally or not. Either way, they shouldn’t have done it.

...

[Kizer said] "His cornerman should have been more careful if it was an accident. If it was intentional, that's even worse. Just very, very disturbing."

Now, with all of these facts and statements in mind, look at these five animated GIFs from the Underground Forum of five different times in Round 2 that Penn's legs slipped on St. Pierre's back while Penn was trying to utilize his rubber guard techniques from the bottom:

http://free-zg.t-com.hr/bhz/mma/penn_vs_gsp/slip1.gif
http://free-zg.t-com.hr/bhz/mma/penn_vs_gsp/slip2.gif
http://free-zg.t-com.hr/bhz/mma/penn_vs_gsp/slip3.gif
http://free-zg.t-com.hr/bhz/mma/penn_vs_gsp/slip4.gif
http://free-zg.t-com.hr/bhz/mma/penn_vs_gsp/slip5.gif

Again, Round 2 was after St. Pierre's cornerman rubbed his back immediately after applying vaseline to his face; and Round 2 was also before the athletic commission intervened to towel off St. Pierre's back, which did not happen until after Round 2.

Based on all the facts, quotes, and video evidence, it does look like it COULD have aided St. Pierre in Round 2. I don't think the outcome of the fight would have been any different, but as for whether it COULD have aided St. Pierre in Round 2, the video evidence is pretty overwhelming that it could have.

Although the outcome of the fight would have likely been the same even if St. Pierre did have an advantage in Round 2, that does not make this a non-story. It has been amazing to see some people saying, "It didn't affect the outcome of the fight, so it's a non-issue that we should all stop talking about!" That is such backwards logic.

They are two different situations, but the stand-up agreement in the fight between Seth Petruzelli and Kimbo Slice didn't affect the outcome of that fight because Petruzelli won by knockout anyway in 14 seconds. Were people saying after that fight, "It didn't affect the outcome of the fight, so it's a non-issue that we should all stop talking about"? Of course not, and if they were, that would have been an equally ridiculous argument.

As for where this goes from here, there is a possibility of fines and/or suspensions for any of St. Pierre's cornermen that the athletic commission deems to have broken the rules.

Perhaps just as significantly, St. Pierre's brilliant performance in the fight may be tainted in some fans' eyes. As Kizer said in his interview with MMA Junkie, "This may have tainted [St. Pierre's] victory in the eyes of many fans, and it's his cornerman's fault for that. It doesn't take away his victory, but it does take away from his victory in the eyes of many fans, I believe."

2009-02-01T04:09:00.010-05:00

Mixed Martial Arts--- UFC 94 Thoughts
by Ivan Trembow

As usual, Georges St. Pierre and Lyoto Machida looked like machines, in this case by dominating B.J. Penn and Thiago Silva, respectively. The best sporting event of the weekend was on Saturday, not on Super Bowl Sunday.

Machida Deserves Title Shot in Next Fight: Machida is long overdue for a title shot and he absolutely deserves to get the next shot at Rashad Evans' belt, not the winner of the upcoming fight between Quinton Jackson and Keith Jardine.

Update: Dana White said at the post-fight press conference that it will be Jackson who will be getting the next title shot, not Machida, provided that Jackson beats Jardine. He said that Machida will “probably” get a title shot by the end of 2009. At this point, the continual snubbing of Machida is just pathetic.

St. Pierre vs. Penn: In the GSP-Penn fight, Penn showed up to fight and looked to be in good shape, but GSP was simply too good.

For all the hype that went into this fight as two all-time greats with both of them at their absolute peak, Penn’s peak in terms of accomplishments was not beating Jens Pulver, Joe Stevenson, and Sean Sherk in the three-fight winning streak that he had going into this fight. Realistically, Penn's peak in terms of accomplishments was beating the #1 lightweight in the world and then beating the #1 welterweight in the world, and that was in late 2003 and early 2004, not in 2008 and 2009.

St. Pierre has Thiago Alves next on his plate, although if Jon Fitch could take down Alves at will like he did, then I’m guessing St. Pierre will also be able to take Alves down at will.

Vaseline Controversy in St. Pierre's Corner: According to this report on Cage Potato: "B.J. Penn's camp has filed a formal complaint with the Nevada State Athletic Commission over Vaseline that was allegedly rubbed on Georges St. Pierre's back between rounds one and two. UFC president Dana White said at the post-fight press conference that he was aware of the complaint, and said he personally witnessed members of the commission take the Vaseline away from GSP's camp and rebuke them in the Octagon between rounds."

White was also quoted as saying that the Nevada State Athletic Commission was "flipping out" about it and was "screaming" at St. Pierre's cornermen about it.

I am in shock about this. I would imagine that if this had been anything other than a huge fight, the fighter who got vaseline put on his back would have been disqualified on the spot, although I don't know that for sure.

I wish we could have seen what actually happened... how much vaseline was applied, who applied it, what the commission did, etc. The UFC has cameras in both corners in between every round, and it sounds like it would have been a big commotion, but the UFC apparently decided not to show the incident during the fight or after the fight, unless they did and I missed it.

Update: From looking at the tape, it was hard to see too much because the director kept cutting away every time vaseline would be on-screen or a towel would be on-screen. However, you can clearly see that one of GSP's trainers rubs his back between Rounds 1 and 2. You can't see in the shot whether the trainer has anything on this hands, but you can see that he is using the same hand that was just applying vaseline to GSP's face seconds earlier, and that is on the tape clear as day.

The athletic commission "flipping out" can be seen on the tape between Rounds 2 and 3. You can see as the round was about to start that one of the NSAC inspectors was thrown a towel and gave St. Pierre's back a very brief rub-down in the seconds right before Round 3 started. Then, between Rounds 3 and 4, it looks like St. Pierre's back got a much more thorough rub-down with towels. Again, it's hard to determine more from this because the director kept cutting away from it.

Zach Arnold also wrote about this on Fight Opinion: "If the NSAC agrees that indeed rules were violated, it will immediately taint St. Pierre’s dominant win over Penn. I realize and you realize that St. Pierre put on a dominant performance, but Penn’s camp has a perfectly legitimate gripe here if the accusations of vaseline usage (in this manner) are true. While Dana White tried to soften the blow of the allegations about possible illegal vaseline usage on St. Pierre, the fact that White is trying to deflect all the heat for the incident on a cornerman and not on St. Pierre is unacceptable."

Fights Going the Distance is Not Necessarily Bad: A lot of people online are complaining about UFC 94 because of the high number of fights that went the distance of three rounds. I don’t think that most fights going to a decision automatically makes an event worse than if most fights end quickly. Even with the one-sided main event, I thought this event was better than the recent UFC event with a bunch of quick finishes that most people said was a great event because of all the quick finishes (UFC 91).

Another Curious Decision for Fight of the Night: Seriously, Clay Guida vs. Nate Diaz gets a Fight of the Night award? And last month, Mauricio "Shogun" Rua vs. Mark Coleman did? And the month before that, Junie Browning vs. David Kaplan did? There were more deserving fights on all three of those events.

2009-01-31T00:41:00.000-05:00

Mixed Martial Arts--- No Out-of-Competition Drug Testing for UFC 94 Fighters
by Ivan Trembow
Originally Published on MMAWeekly

The Nevada State Athletic Commission did not test any fighters on the UFC 94 card as part of its out-of-competition drug testing program.

In addition, there were no fighters subjected to the out-of-competition drug testing program who competed on the WEC event on December 3; or on the UFC events on December 13 or December 27. All four events took place in Nevada and fall under the NSAC's jurisdiction.

When asked on January 15 if any fighters on the January 31 card had been tested as part of the NSAC's out-of-competition drug testing program, NSAC Executive Director Keith Kizer replied, "Not yet."

When asked earlier this week, on January 28, if any fighters on the January 31 card had been tested as part of the NSAC's out-of-competition drug testing program, Kizer replied, "No."

The out-of-competition drug testing program allows the NSAC to order random drug tests at any time on any fighter that the NSAC licenses as a mixed martial artist, boxer, or kickboxer.

Like many other major sports, this out-of-competition drug testing is in addition to day-of-competition drug testing. The day-of-competition drug testing was still conducted at all of the aforementioned events and will be conducted at UFC 94 as well.

However, when athletes know the exact date of an upcoming drug test ahead of time, the testing is not going to catch very many users. There are numerous ways to mask banned substances if you have days, weeks, or in this case months of notice before a drug test.

Therefore, the out-of-competition drug testing program is a vital step towards detecting the use of banned substances during training camps.

A total of fourteen fighters (some boxers, some mixed martial artists) whose fights were scheduled between February 1, 2008 and October 31, 2008 were tested as part of the out-of-competition drug testing program, which was announced in January 2008.

In the weeks prior to UFC 91 in November, ten fighters were tested as part of the program, and all of them passed their tests.

Between November 15 and the end of January, there were four major MMA events scheduled in the state of Nevada: a WEC event on December 3, a UFC event on December 13, another UFC event on December 27, and another UFC event that will take place on January 31.

None of the fighters on these shows were tested as part of the out-of-competition drug testing program.

In other news related to the NSAC's out-of-competition drug testing program, The Ring Magazine Online recently reported that instead of having several hours to submit to a drug test from the time that they are notified that they need to take a drug test, fighters actually have two days to take an NSAC-ordered drug test.

The Ring's Mark Zeigler wrote, "Here's how it works: The commission contacts a licensed fighter, notifies him he has been selected for an out-of-competition test and provides instructions about locating the nearest accredited laboratory. The lab is also contacted, and the fighter has two days to show up, present photo identification and submit a urine test. Here's the problem: Two days is ample time for someone to flush their system of many banned substances."

The NSAC's Keith Kizer confirmed that fighters do have two days to take an out-of-competition drug test from the time that they are notified, but added that this is subject to change.

2009-01-30T02:09:00.006-05:00

Mixed Martial Arts--- Zuffa Breaks News of Affliction MMA's Impending Demise Using Psuedonym
by Ivan Trembow

It appears as though Zuffa/UFC took it upon themselves to break the news of the impending demise of Affliction's MMA promotion, while hiding behind a psuedonym on Bloody Elbow.

Anyone who has read Bloody Elbow’s comments section long enough knows that the poster called “mmalogic” works for Zuffa and is not even particularly good at hiding it.

One example: In the comments section of a post from a few months back, “mmalogic” wrote this: “Zuffa adjusted their sponsorship model from creating OUR own sponsors” (capitalization added by me).

When another user pointed out what “mmalogic” just said and asked if he’s Joe Silva or someone else like that, “mmalogic” responded with this non-denial and followed it with flattery towards his accuser: “I won’t say who I am but I will say who you are judging by your past comments and analysis … You either own your own business, have owned your own business or very high up in a business either in Marketing or Sales… Did I call it?”

When the original accuser responded by saying that he just graduated with a degree in marketing and finance, “mmalogic” responded with more flattery: “You got the head for it… try to hook up with a good consulting firm – you will do well.”

In this case, it’s easy to see how high-level executives at Zuffa would know so much about Affliction MMA’s pending demise, particularly if Affliction has contacted Zuffa to work out a peace deal.

So, what do they do? They make a post about it under their “mmalogic” psuedonym to give themselves more leverage in the negotiations for the aforementioned peace deal (Affliction has even less leverage in negotiations if everyone is already reading about how little leverage they have and how their MMA branch is about to go out of business anyway).

A lot of people think that the UFC doesn’t care about blogs, but they must realize what kind of influence a very popular blog like Bloody Elbow has, based on the fact that they (Zuffa) are willing to take the time and effort to try to spread information and influence opinions by making posts under psuedonyms like “mmalogic.”

-More on "mmalogic": Even putting aside how blatant it is in his comments, look at the previous FanPost blog entries by “mmalogic”:

Shinya Aoki is not a top five fighter (in January 2009); EliteXC ratings are below CBS’ expectations and now ProElite people are looking for work; HBO is unhappy with the Affliction/Golden Boy partnership; Randy Couture to Headline UFC 91 (before it was widely reported); and a post about why Zuffa has no reason to co-promote with anyone.

Like I said, not very subtle. I’m guessing Zuffa will try to be more subtle when posting under psuedonyms in the future.

-FightOpinion and Bloody Elbow Posts About This: Zach Arnold wrote about this on FightOpinion.com

"What makes this interesting is that by leaking claims that Affliction wants to wave the white flag in terms of no longer competing with Zuffa that it all but eliminates any sort of leverage Atencio might or might not have if he is in fact doing this.

It’s no secret that Zuffa employees read message boards, blogs, etc. What is interesting is whether or not more and more UFC employees will start using blogs to manipulate the message they want the public to hear. The organization already has friendly broadsheet media outlets that aren’t willing to push back against them, and then you add on the generally UFC-safe Yahoo Sports coverage team, and what you end up with is a pretty sophisticated strategy to influence both hardcore and casual MMA fans."

In response, Bloody Elbow editor Luke Thomas wrote an angry response on BloodyElbow.com.

Personally, I think Luke is misinterpreting the point of Zach’s post. I don’t think that Zach or anyone else (including me) is saying that Bloody Elbow’s “coverage is nothing more than a mouthpiece or distribution channel for Zuffa.” It’s not that Bloody Elbow is guilty of anything, it’s that this one specific poster “mmalogic” certainly appears to be a Zuffa employee from looking at the evidence.

As for Bloody Elbow not having any dialogue with the UFC, this is informal communication, but literally one post down from Luke’s, Michael Rome wrote this as an update to the original post by Zuffa employee mmalogic: “I have been digging at this story for the last 3 or 4 hours since I first heard it. I believe it to be true. A source at UFC informed that Lorenzo Fertitta was contacted today by Affliction looking for a ‘beneficial’ way out.” There’s nothing wrong with having communications with the UFC.

Also, it doesn’t take “some grand Zuffa scheme” for this to happen. “Astroturfing” is something that corporations have been caught doing in the past, it’s probably not that hard for them to do it, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Zuffa had other screen names on other sites doing the same thing.

-Affliction Head Denies his MMA Promotion's Demise: Affliction head Tom Atencio has already denied that his MMA promotion is on the verge of going out of business, but of course he’s going to say that.

Realistically, even before any of this came out today, I think the vast majority of hardcore MMA fans have thought for weeks that Affliction’s MMA division would be kaput shortly after their second show (if not before their second show).

It’s likely that it’s over except for the negotiations of how, and under what financial terms, Affliction will stop promoting MMA shows and will re-enter the fray as one of the biggest sponsors of UFC fighters. Zuffa has a lot more leverage than Affliction already, and they attempted to tip the scales of leverage in their direction even further with that post made under one of their psuedonyms — “mmalogic” (and I only use the plural form “psuedonyms” because it would be naive to think that if they’re using one psuedonym that it’s the only one that they have on any web site).

Now, Atencio is trying to tip the scales of leverage back in his direction by denying that they’re getting out of the MMA promotion business.

In that respect, it’s no different than what Zuffa is doing. What is a big difference is the fact that Atencio is using his real name in those interviews, while Zuffa made their post under a psuedonym.

-What's Wrong with the UFC Leaking Information Under Psuedonyms: To anyone who may take the position that a person still has a right to post even if they’re a UFC employee, it’s not being a UFC employee that is objectionable; it’s the lack of disclosure. It’s the fact that there is information coming from the UFC, information whose release benefits the UFC, but without the public knowing that it came from the UFC and being able to judge its veracity (or the motives for its release) in that context. That is what is objectionable about "mmalogic." Now that "mmalogic" has been exposed, Zuffa will likely use other screen names instead (ones that haven’t been exposed).

2009-01-29T14:37:00.006-05:00

Mixed Martial Arts--- Affliction & WEC Thoughts
by Ivan Trembow

-Affliction Thoughts: Fedor Emelianenko brutally defeated a top-five-ranked heavyweight for the second time in seven months, further establishing himself as the greatest of all time. And yet I’m sure that in just a few months, the Kevin Ioles of the world will still be questioning who Fedor has ever fought...

Who were those announcers? Those guys were actually pretty good. (I mean Sean Wheelock and Jimmy Smith, not Tito Ortiz.) They made a couple of ridiculous statements (”Renato Sobral is one of the top light heavyweights in the world now!”), but for the most part they were surprisingly good.

I don’t understand why Affliction didn’t show the Jay Hieron vs. Jason High fight. They had plenty of PPV satellite time left. For the fights that happened earlier in the night on HDNet, it's possible that HDNet had the exclusive rights to those fights, but Hieron vs. High had not actually happened at that time. It happened after Fedor vs. Arlovski (ie, after the PPV went off the air) because of time constraints. Why couldn’t they have shown that fight?

-WEC Thoughts: As usual for a WEC event, the show itself was very good. I hope that the WEC keeps Jens Pulver. Yes, he has lost three fights in a row, but those three fights were against Urijah Faber, Leonard Garcia, and Urijah Faber again. There's no shame in that. And what was he doing having a major fight just one month after one of his long-time best friends (Justin Eilers) was murdered?

Craig Hummer’s question, “Are you still relevant?” was not a good question for a post-fight interview immediately after a fight. Pulver has been beaten twice in quick fashion by two world-class fighters (Leonard Garcia and Urijah Faber). Did Joe Rogan ask Chuck Liddell if he was still relevant after his third loss in four fights? Did Joe Rogan ask Wanderlei Silva if he was still relevant after his fourth loss in five fights? No. There’s no shame in losing to world-class opposition, and it doesn’t make one irrelevant.

I'm sure that I'm not the only one who was thinking this, but what in the hell was wrong with the crowd in San Diego? That has to have been one of the most ignorant MMA crowds in recent memory.

The crowd was booing for no reason throughout the night, even though they were seeing a pretty damn good MMA show.

A good example: Danillo Villefort. What were they thinking? "Boo! You just won a fight decisively and impressively by TKO! Boo!" Villefort got booed out of the building as if his opponent was a hometown guy, but he wasn't (Villefort's opponent was from Massachusetts).

Then, in Varner-Cerrone fight, one fighter (Cerrone) threw an illegal knee to the head of his grounded opponent, and the other fighter (Varner) was unable to continue as a result of that illegal knee. So, the crowd strongly boos Varner and strongly cheers Cerrone. The ignorance was astounding.

The ignorance of many MMA judges also continues to be astounding. Alejandro Rochin was the judge who inexplicably had the Varner-Cerrone fight scored 3 rounds to 2 in favor of Cerrone.

On a semi-related note since it delayed the start of the WEC broadcast by eleven minutes, The Sports Soup is a horrible show, even though its sister show (The Soup) is a great show. Someone needs to tell the people at The Sports Soup that just airing clips of people in various sports getting seriously injured and then laughing at those people for getting seriously injured is not the least bit funny.