Bloody Elbow: All Posts by Brent Brookhouse

Manager makes weak excuses for Nate Diaz's use of homophobic slur in tweet

2013-05-17T13:57:56Z

With Nate Diaz "suspended" by the UFC over a tweet yesterday calling Bryan Caraway a "fag" for "taking" Pat Healy's bonus after Healy tested positive for marijuana it was inevitable that the excuses would start quickly. Diaz's manager, Mike Kogan, has taken to a line of defense that shows that he also "doesn't get it."

Here are Kogan's quotes from MMA Junkie:

"Nate voiced a personal opinion about an incident that took place involving Bryan Caraway in which he chased Dana all over Twitter to try to get a bonus, which was taken away from Pat Healy, got the bonus, and then had the nerve to go back out there and bash the guy and talk s--t about weed-smoking and how much he hates it and how it's wrong, which was, at best, a s--t move on his side," Kogan said.

"Guess what? The word f----t, at least in Northern California, and where Nate is from, means bitch. It means you're a little punk. It has nothing to do with homosexuals at all. So when Nate made the comment that he made, he didn't make it in reference to homosexuals or calling Caraway a homosexual. He just said it was a bitch move."

...

"I'm sure some people got offended, and hopefully this article will explain what his intent was. But how people view it is how people view it. I can't control that. His intent was not to make a derogatory term toward homosexuals. He used the word to refer to a punk or a bitch."

It's sad how often this has to be repeated...but that argument is not a good argument.

Fag is a derogatory name for homosexuals. The reason that it is used by some to denote someone being a "bitch" -- a slur in it's own right -- or "punk" is the implication that they're not "being a man." Associating homosexuals -- via a derogatory slur, no less -- with with undesirable or insufficiently masculine behavior is what gives those words any power.

It's really that simple. It has nothing to do with the world being "too PC" or "putting it in context." Words have meanings and their usage stems back to those meanings. There are some words, and "fag" is among them, that have too ugly of a history and have simply caused too much pain to allow them to be dismissed as "that's just what the boys do where I'm from."

Acting as though adults have no ability to realize this or handle it with any sort of common sense is insulting to everyone involved.

The timing by Diaz is also pretty amazing given that today is the International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.

Tweet of the day: Georges St. Pierre lends voice to Monsters University

2013-05-16T17:10:04Z

Georges St. Pierre has landed a role in one of the biggest movies we've yet seen a UFC star associated with according to his latest tweet...sort of.

GSP tweeted out earlier today that he has lent his voice to Disney / Pixar for the French-Canadian version of the animated film. Here's the tweet:

Proud to give my voice to French-Canadian version of @monstersu! Merci à Disney-Pixar & Studio SPR à Montréal!! twitter.com/GeorgesStPierr…
— Georges St-Pierre(@GeorgesStPierre) May 16, 2013

Monsters University is a prequel to Monsters Inc. and follows main characters Sully and Mike during their "college" days at (of course) Monsters University.

Monsters Inc. did $562,816,256 in total business (U.S. release and international) the first time around so the follow-up is likely to do similarly big business.

While it's just the French-Canadian version that will feature GSP in a role, it's still another one of those nice moments that we all like to cling to where a fighter is being given a "mainstream opportunity."

Here's a trailer for the film:

UFC on FX: Belfort vs Rockhold - Live streaming video of pre-fight press conference

2013-05-16T13:59:24Z

Live video of the pre-fight press conference for the UFC's next FX card which is main evented by Vitor Belfort taking on Luke Rockhold.

Showtime's Stephen Espinoza: Mayweather vs Guerrero 'definitely hit the million buy threshold'

2013-05-13T22:39:48Z

Speculation last week between major names in boxing journalism had Floyd Mayweather's Showtime PPV bout with Robert Guerrero doing "well under" one million PPV buys. That would be a massive disappointment for Showtime and would have been a fairly heavy monetary loss.

Later in the week Golden Boy's Richard Schaefer stated that the PPV would end up doing over one million buys, stating "If you look at the DirecTV and the Dish, which are heavy in the Hispanic market - in the Hispanic market the fight underperformed and in the general market the fight over-performed. It is amazing. It's not just on the pay-per-view,. but the general market really carried this fight."

Today saw Showtime Sports head Stephen Espinoza appearing on The MMA Hour where he backed up Schaefer's claims that the show would indeed go over one million buys (via MMA Fighting):

"There were early reports as early as Tuesday, 72 hours after the fight, about what the (PPV) results had been, which is really way too early, from my perspective, to speak meaningfully about this," Espinoza said on Monday's edition of The MMA Hour.

"So when enough data had come in that we were able to speak meaningfully, which was probably Friday, that's when we went ahead and confirmed that we will definitely be over a million buys. I'm not sure exactly how much over a million it will be, whether it be a little or a lot over a million, a lot of that depends on how some of the lagging buys come in and are reported over the next few weeks, but we definitely hit the million buy threshold."

When Schaefer made his statements last week, Scott Christ pointed out that even 1 or 1.1 million buys is still a bit of a "letdown" for a Mayweather PPV and would be his lowest since his fight with Juan Manuel Marquez in 2009. He continued:

Mayweather-Guerrero was always going to be a struggle to sell, and there's really no doubt that the promotion just wasn't hot. I don't know, it never took off. If this fight did as well as Schaefer says, that's a big credit to Mayweather's name appeal, because Robert Guerrero did not help at all. Not that he didn't try, but it just appears the public didn't buy into him. That's not Robert's fault, that's just something that can happen.

Would the PPV performing at this rate be a bit of a letdown for Golden Boy and Showtime and Floyd, no matter what they say? Yes, but that doesn't mean it's a critical failure that's going to kill the whole "experiment." It means they've learned something over this process, most likely. They might need a more compelling opponent next time out, or risk some of these "general market" folks who picked up on this one -- the "Lakers crowd," as Richard describes it -- not coming back for the next one.

In other words, I don't think you can get away with, say, Floyd Mayweather vs Devon Alexander next. That might be pushing it. Maybe you don't need to rush right into Canelo Alvarez, but it has to be someone bringing more to the table than Guerrero did this time, and an Alexander sort of fighter is not that guy.

The Canelo vs. Mayweather subject did come up on The MMA Hour and Espinoza explained that he is hopeful the bout can be done, but there is no guarantee:

"I'm still cautiously optimistic," explained Espinoza. "I think that's a fight that makes sense for both guys, and both guys want it. There are details to work out; weight is one of them. But, those things, I think, can get worked out when both fighters want the fight.

"The goal is always to set a new record, the record being 2.5 million (pay-per-views buys) with De La Hoya and Mayweather. ‘Canelo,' as much of a star as he is, doesn't have the awareness that Oscar did as the time of the Mayweather fight, but he has a lot of heat behind him. So, 1.5 (million), 2.5 (million), I'd be happy with any of those," Espinoza said in closing.

Of course, Espinoza has to hold back from being candid about the truth of De La Hoya vs. Mayweather which is that Floyd wasn't anywhere near the star that Canelo is now when he took that fight. Floyd became a star through 24/7 being a brilliant vehicle for his personality and then the fight with Oscar being exciting, competitive and Floyd coming out on top.

Floyd was a well known boxer, but Canelo is already a massive superstar for the Hispanic market.

Daniel Cormier planning to continue as heavyweight while slowly cutting to make 205

2013-05-13T17:00:06Z

Daniel Cormier is in one of the most unique spots of any fighter in the world. He could easily challenge for the UFC heavyweight title were he willing, but he doesn't want to fight teammate, friend and current champion Cain Velasquez. As a smaller heavyweight, the obvious answer seems to be for Cormier to consider a drop to light heavyweight. He does have a rivalry already established with 205 pound champ Jon Jones.

Cormier missed out on the 2008 Olympic games where he was captain of the U.S. Olympic wrestling team because a bad weight cut caused kidney failure, so the prospect of cutting down a weight class isn't as appealing for him as for many other fighters.

It appears that the plan now is for Cormier to take a long view of getting down to light heavyweight. That means staying at heavyweight while dieting to lose the weight (via ESPN):

"It’s going to take some time for me to get to 205 pounds, if that’s the route that I go," Cormier told ESPN.com. "But in that time is it possible for me to still fight at heavyweight, while working my way down so that I can stay busy and still make money, instead of being out of the cage for an extended period of time?

"I can’t be the champion at heavyweight hen Cain has the belt, and I don’t want him to lose. I can’t cut the weight from 235 pounds; I have to diet. So while I’m in the process of dieting I can fight still. That’s really all it is.

"I think I can [make 205] or I wouldn’t have started the dieting process. I’m smaller now than I’ve been [in a long time]."

The process is likely to take at least a year, but the focus on his health is certainly a good thing.

This does mean that Cormier will be slowly losing weight while still competing against the biggest men in the game. But his wrestling skills have given him a tremendous grasp on leverage that allow him to muscle around huge men like Frank Mir and Josh Barnett with relative ease.

Of course, Antonio Silva could settle the whole thing by beating Cain Velasquez to win the title in their rematch at UFC 160.

...but that's not going to happen.

Bellator headed for yet another time change in the fall

2013-05-13T16:00:03Z

One of the largest obstacles facing Bellator in attempting to become a top-tier mixed martial arts promotions, at least in terms of public opinion, is inconsistency. Bellator has aired on ESPN Deportes, Fox Sports Net, MTV 2 and currently Spike TV. While each move has been a positive one for the promotion in terms of exposure, there have been day of week and time changes along the way that have made it a chore to follow the promotion without a deep preexisting commitment to the sport.

While Spike remains Bellator's home, Thursdays at 10 p.m. ET will no longer be the assigned time slot.

MMA Fighting's Dave Meltzer has some of the details:

...Spike's pro wrestling franchise, TNA Impact Wrestling, is moving from its current 8-10 p.m. start time on Thursday to 9-11 p.m., effective at the end of this month.

How that affects MMA? Well, in quite a few ways. The most obvious is that the musical chairs that has been Bellator's time slot will have yet another change. Bellator had been following Impact from 10 p.m. until midnight, or sometimes well past that, during its first season on Spike. The weekly show in the early part of 2013 garnered an average of more than 800,000 viewers, more than triple that of any other season in company history, due to the station upgrade.

The first thing is not only is Bellator's time slot changing, but it looks very likely its night will change as well. A 7-9 p.m. time slot would be difficult. For one, the company that was booking a lot of West Coast venues, and getting fans to an arena for live main card fights at 4 p.m. Pacific time, let alone prelim fights at 2 p.m., in a West Coast venue on a Thursday is going to be death at the box office. Plus, the unpredictability of MMA means that it will frequently run past two hours, which would delay the wrestling show, which runs live every other week.

Running from 11 p.m. to past 1 a.m. takes it out of prime time and in that time slot, there is very limited possibility of growing and creating new fans.

Meltzer does go on to point out that Bellator had already booked two Thursday dates, so they may have some shuffling to do. He also points out that Wednesday is likely the leading candidate for the new event nights. That would mean going head to head with The Ultimate Fighter, UFC Tonight as well as the live fights that the UFC will have on Fox Sports 1 on a semi-regular basis.

I just hope that they don't end up in another time slot that sees shows running until well after midnight. That's just too late for live fights on a weekday for old fellas like myself.

Chris Lytle open to another UFC fight, but only on short notice

2013-05-12T15:30:05Z

Chris Lytle had one of the more unlikely successful UFC careers in memory. A fighter who never felt particularly "great" at any aspect of the fight game, even with a limited pro boxing career that the announcers always oversold a bit.

Lytle's 10-10 UFC record is a bit misleading as he went 3-7 in his first ten UFC bouts before flipping that record to close out his career, including becoming an almost guaranteed bonus winner, including five fight of the night bonuses in his last eight bouts.

He retired after a thrilling win over Dan Hardy, but in speaking with BJPenn.com, Chris left the door open for a possible return, but only in very specific circumstance:

"I can’t say it’s always closed. I’ve made this comment to them before, I said, ‘hey man, I’m not willing to put in eight weeks of training but if you called me and said, hey, I have this possible fight Chris. Somebody backed out and we need you in a week. We need you in five days, we need you here. I could take it. There’s a couple guys I do want to fight on short notice because I wouldn’t have to spend all that time away from my family and, like I said, I’m still training some, I still feel like I’m in good shape right now. And as veteran I know how to condition myself to where I could last three rounds. So, you never know. If you have something last minute, let me know. That’s the only way I could see it. If it was like two weeks before a fight or something, but you give me two months I don’t think I could…I mean, I can’t say never. There is a couple possibilities if they said, if Dana or somebody came to me and said, hey Chris, I would really like you to do this, take this certain fight for one reason. I’d say ok, I can do one but I’m not planning on coming back long term. I could do something possibly but I definitely don’t see that happening but you never can tell."

That's not exactly the standard line of thinking for coming back as most guys would want time to shake off the rust in the gym. But Lytle isn't the normal kind of fighter.

Junior dos Santos on Mark Hunt fight at UFC 160: 'I'm going to stop him; it's over for him'

2013-05-11T14:30:04Z

Junior dos Santos stresses that he is a better fighter than Mark Hunt ahead of their UFC 160 bout.