Kevin Iole has a new mailbag up where he discusses revisiting the Machida-Rua fight and adds that Machida has received a 60 day medical suspension from CSAC, so he won't even be able to train until near Christmas Eve.

Machida was given a medical suspension after the fight from the California State Athletic Commission, banning him from having contact in training for 60 days. That means he won’t be able to begin training in earnest until Christmas Eve.

He could fight earlier if he is cleared by a doctor, but if not, it makes March look like the most likely month.

If a doctor doesn’t waive the 60-day no-contact suspension and Machida took an eight-week training camp starting on Dec. 24, he wouldn’t be prepared to fight until late February. The UFC could make Machida-Rua II the main event of the planned show on Feb. 21 in Sydney, Australia, but a more likely scenario is the fight will be pushed back until March or later unless he requests and receives permission from a commission doctor to fight sooner.

 

It's not looking like he'll be in the Jan 2 mega (?) card then, will the UFC still try to book Silva-Belfort?

via www.mmaspot.net

 

 

 

Former WEC Bantamweight Champion, Miguel Angel Torres, talked about joining WBO Welterweight Champion, Miguel Angel Cotto's camp, as he prepares for his mega-fight against boxing's top pound-for-pound fighter, Manny Pacquiao:

"Well, me, and Pacquiao have totally different styles. You know, Pacquiao is a southpaw and I’m orthodox so it wouldn’t make any sense for me to spar with Cotto this close to his fight. But coming into this situation his camp was real sketchy -- they didn’t think I had any boxing ability whatsoever. I was working pads with his coach and they had me sparring with some of his guys that were southpaws and I was doing a great job against those guys. They were very impressed with my jab and my head movement. There were little things that I did differently because I box for MMA, I don’t box for boxing. But other than that my game was pretty solid. They were very impressed."

"We met each other … and we share the same sponsor, ECKO, which laid down the foundation for us to meet each other a long time ago. Our schedules were just so crazy we could never hook up. Him allowing me to come into his training camp was an act of faith on his part. I was worried because I wouldn’t allow someone to come into my training camp like that (spur of the moment), you know? But the fact that he allowed me to do that and to get a taste of what he does shows he’s trying to build a relationship. It’s a big thing, him letting me be here."

On training with Miguel Cotto in the future:

"When I train for my next fight he is going to come down and train with me for two weeks. That’s a big thing for him to do that. So however we set it up, I’ll have one of the best boxers in the world helping me train. And I will have his staff at my disposal also.... Imagine a training staff made up of a Miguel Cotto, Mark DelaGrotte and Robert Drysdale – imagine if those three were your coaches. And then I had a world-class wrestling coach, which I’m working on getting right now. And a strength and conditioning coach, and a nutritionist and a chef and all that stuff. Cotto has a personal chef, a personal trainer, a strength and conditioning guy, his manager, and everybody is staying here, away from everything. I mean, the cook is complaining to me how he hasn’t seen his girl in like six weeks and he’s horny as s---. It’s a real camp."

If he thinks always going hard in sparring will be a bad thing against a guy like Cotto:

If you want to learn how to walk on fire, you have to walk on fire, you have to step on hot coals. If you’re going to learn how to climb a mountain, you start climbing the mountain. I want to learn how to box like one of the best boxers in the world and I want to test myself to see where I am at and what I have to learn. And I don’t take coaching well. If Miguel Cotto beats my a--, then I know I have to work on some things, and then I’ll go from there.

The November 7th Strikeforce card has suffered its first casualty, according to MMAWeekly.com:

A Nov. 7 fight that was bound to determine a contender to Strikeforce 145-pound women’s champion Cris "Cyborg" Santos is off.

Sources informed MMAWeekly.com on Tuesday that the showdown between Erin Toughill (10-2-1) and Marloes Coenen (16-3), scheduled for the undercard of Strikeforce: Fedor vs. Rogers, is off the card.

Toughill had to withdraw due to an undisclosed medical condition.

Hopefully this isn't a sign of things to come as Strikeforce has had trouble with fighters dropping out of fights before. Diaz and Overeem are two names that immediately come to mind, with all the big names on this card and the exposure it will get being on CBS Strikeforce can't afford to have this event run anything but smoothly.

 

It's hard to miss Kimbo.  Not hard, actually, impossible.  If you have your TV turned to Spike

for any length of time, you're going to see either an ad for the show, a clip from the show, or

a head shot in the bottom-right corner of your screen.  As the tenth season rolls on with full-

force, one can't help to think that there is Kimbo-overload.  How can an entire season full of

talented fighters including a former IFL heavyweight champion, several UFC veterans, and four

former football players be overshadowed by a fighter who made his name in backyards and on

youtube.  Is this fair?  No.  Is this good for the UFC?  Hell, yes.  Is this good for mixed-

martial arts?  Absolutely.  In fact, as hard as it is to say, Kimbo may be one of the more significant

things to happen to MMA in a while.

Look at the numbers: Kimbo's fight with Roy Nelson reached a population of 6.1 million viewers. 

Aside from the same season's premiere, the most watched TUF episode or event was the third

season's series finale with 2.8 million viewers.  In fact, forget limiting it to The Ultimate

Fighter, look at the numbers for the most watched fights in American history.  The highest

honors go a fight with 7.2 million viewers - Kimbo Slice versus James Thompson.  Next goes to

Tito and Ken Shamrock with 6.5 million.  Third most watched had 6.4 million, featuring Kimbo and

Seth Petruzelli.  The fight with Roy Nelson comes in fourth.  See a pattern?  Three of the four

most watched fights in American history featured Kimbo Slice.  Two of them were with EliteXC,

which aired 21 events over the period of 19 months, only three of those events were not on pay-

per-view or a premium channel.  Imagine what Kimbo would do in the UFC, which in 2009 alone will

have held 21 events, eight of them being free.  Who better and in what better organization to

bring mixed-martial arts to the casual fan than Kimbo and the UFC?  And... wait a second.  We've

been loyal fans.  Who cares about the people who are just starting to watch UFC because of some

guy off the internet?  I do, and so should you.

When the Kimbo-machine has gotten the most work it can on the fuel that it has, 8-10 million

people will have tuned in to his biggest fight.  Who would be watching somthing else if the UFC

announced Kimbo and Chuck Liddell?  Pretty sure a few curious Dancing With The Stars fans will. 

When all those casual fans take a moderate-to-serious interest in MMA, several things are going

to happen.  First, advertisers and sponsers are going to want their names in-between fights and

all over the bloody-stained trousers, which brings in more money, which of course means better paid fighters.

 Better paid athletes means more talent.  A rush of new and dynamic talent means that not one company, not even

the UFC, can contain all of it and fighters would have to be divided amongst two or more.  Competition between

companies means more frequent cards and, quite possibly, and more competitive price for them.  Everybody wins:

 the advertisers, the fighters, and you.  Remember, I said Kimbo was one of the most significant things in a while to

happen to mixed-martial arts, not just the UFC.  So next time you're thinking that Kimbo doesn't

belong in the cage with such talent, try to remember he's walking in there with his greatest

weapon - his popularity. 

Though many fans thought that promoter Sustain could add another fight (or two) to Vale Tudo Japan '09 this week, it looks like the card is complete at eight fights. Here's the full slate and bout order, as released on Shooto's site today. Stay tuned - with any luck, Bloody Elbow will have live results and play-by-play of the show on Thursday night / Friday morning.

 

Vale Tudo Japan '09
October 30, 2009
JCB Hall - Tokyo, Japan

 

#8 - 71kg (156 lbs) VTJ Rules - 5R x 5 min.

Takanori Gomi
30-5, 1 NC / Kugayama Rascal
vs.
Tony "Lionheart" Hervey
11-4 / Team Mash
King of the Cage Lightweight Champion

 

#7 - 65kg (143 lbs) VTJ Rules Bout - 5R x 5 min.

"Lion" Takeshi Inoue
16-3 / Shooting Gym Yokohama
Shooto World Lightweight Champion
vs.
Alexandre "Pequeno" Nogueira
13-5-2 / Clube da Luta

 

#6 - 63kg (139 lbs) VTJ Rules Bout - 3R x 5 min.

Rumina Sato
24-14-2 / roots
vs.
Cory Grant
3-0 / Team Quest

 

#5 -67kg (147 lbs) VTJ Rules Bout - 3R x 5 min.

Tenkei "Fujimiya" Oda
7-4-2 / Shooting Gym Yokohama
vs.
Tito Jones
6-3 / MMA Inc.

 

#4 - Shooto Welterweight (70kg / 154 lbs) Championship Bout - 3R x 5 min.

Willamy "Chiquerim" Freire
13-2 / Nova Uniao
vs.
Kenichiro Togashi
10-6-5 / Paraestra Hiroshima

 

#3 - 56kg (123 lbs) Pro Shooto Bout - 3R x 5 min.

Mamoru Yamaguchi
20-5-3 / Shooting Gym Yokohama
vs.
Jesse Taitano
7-5-2 / Spike 22

 

Opening Fights

#2 - 70kg (154 lbs) Pro Shooto Bout - 2R x 5 min.

Yoichiro Sato
5-1-1 / Gracie Barra Tokyo
2009 Middleweight Rookie Champion
vs.
Jung Min Kang
debut / Jin HQ

 

#1 - 62kg (136 lbs) Pro Shooto Bout - 2R x 5 min.

Kosuke "Jukucho" Eda
7-3-3 / Purebred Kyoto
2008 Featherweight Rookie Champion
vs.
Makoto Sannai
2-1 / Gutsman Shooto Dojo

Anthony Johnson certainly put on a dominating performance at UFC 104, but was it truly impressive? Joe Rogan himself commented how it looked like the fighters were separated by multiple weight classes.  The miss begs a few questions, like if Rumble took the fight with too little time to diet and train, due to need or whatnot; and exactly what is the cap for these fighters missing weight before commissions will stop the fight?  Before there were weight classes and in the now supersized Heavyweight division we'd see certain size advantages and differentials; but If a cut by a 220 pound person who brings himself to the brink of dehydration to get to 6 pounds over the weight limit, in actually 5 pounds due to the one pound given, how can the commission let that fight happen? 

I have no answers for those questions, unfortunately.   But I bring you to the true topic of my post, Johnson's atttitude in reference to missing the weight.  I was waiting to see what Rumble would say post-fight when he inevitably knocked his opponent unconscious.  He did the right things, apologizing to the fans and the UFC brass, but he never apologized to the person who is most harmed by Johnson' indiscretions, Yoshiyuki Yoshida himself.  Already thinking that was in poor taste, i stumbled onto an article today on MMAJunkie.com about the change Johnson's life has undergone since missing weight.

Originally this comment stuck out at me:

"It's nobody's fault but mine for not making weight. So I accepted the punishment of not getting $60,000, but trust me, my feelings were hurt."

 

Continue reading this post »

via www.sherdog.com

I am pretty tired of all of the talk being focused on so-called “robberies” in this weekend’s close main event battle and very little attention being paid to the failures of the current MMA judging/scoring system.  Based on the entire outcry from the fights this weekend, I feel like no one is satisfied with the current system in place.  The 10-point must system is inadequate to determine the winner of a fight in which a majority of the rounds were tight.  The first 4 rounds of the Machida/Rua fight were really close and really tough to judge.  The scoring system in place now doesn't take into account that each judge may be looking at the fight differently and has different views on what is being done effectively.  It also fails to determine which type of attack should be valued higher.  Is a leg kick from Shogun worth more than a straight left from Machida? We rarely see 10-10 or 10-8 rounds in MMA and 10-9 rounds are not being equally valued.  For example the 10-9 round in the Velasquez/Rothwell fight for Velasquez is not the same as a 10-9 round of Machida.  A 10-9 round that is clearly for one fighter should be given more credit than a 10-9 round for a close fight.

 

I am suggesting that a new scoring method should be created and adopted for MMA.

I know the amateur boxing scoring system is not widely accepted within the boxing community, but I believe it can be adapted to work well within MMA.  Fighters will be given points on what they do during the round: effective striking, dominant positions, submission attempts, ground transitions, escapes/reversals, and overall damage.  To get points, 2 of the 3 judges have to score the exchange for that fighter.  The judges will have a buzzer type of tool where they ring in what they deem is point worthy.  From here, I see two viable options. Keep the round-winning system, or use a Pride-based system where the whole bout is scored in its entirety.

 

Keeping the system similar to the current round-winning system goes as follows: at the end of the round the points will be tallied and the fighter with the higher point total wins the round.  The fighter with the majority of the rounds wins the fight.  The cumulative tallies are used in the event there is a draw for one or more of the individual rounds. In those cases where we have a tie for rounds won, the winner will be determined by the overall point totals. 

 

Another option would be to adopt the old Pride system where the winners were determined by what the fighters accomplished over the course of the entire fight. The winner of the fight would be determined by the cumulative totals. I believe this takes all the pressure off judging fights.  Instead of forcing the judges to make 3 or 5 separate decisions on 5-minute intervals of action, they will instead be relying on their instantaneous reactions to the fight in the ring. No longer will they have to replay each round in their head and convince themselves of who had the better cagemanship.

 

Regardless of which system is chosen, the move to the amateur boxing scoring system will force the judges become more knowledgeable on MMA and it will value more aspects of the fight rather than just giving the round to one guy because of a general set of criteria.  With a more specific set of criteria I hope the fighters will win based on their merits and not on what is perceived to be happening.

 

There are a few shortcomings with this system: competent judges, consistency between commissions, landing clean shots compared to power shots, judging between 2 simultaneous strikes, and valuing aggression.  Also it would need to be determined how many points are taken away if there is a foul by one of the fighters, and whether points will be taken away based of the severity of the penalty (i.e. intentional low-blows compared to a fighter stalling).   

 

By Davey S. and Desertsamurai31 

 

 

 

Poll

What type of scoring/judging needs to be implemented for MMA to stop robberies and controversial desicions

11%

Nothing, current 10pt must system works

6 votes

48%

More emphasis on giving 10-10 or 10-8 rounds in current system

25 votes

25%

Old Pride system

13 votes

7%

This awesome idea of a system

4 votes

7%

Other...

4 votes

52 votes | Poll has closed

So I've been bitten by the MMA betting bug (say that three times fast) and wanted to ask the BloodyElbow betting community for help, namely in finding the right website for me.

Here's my situation: I live in Portugal (the sport has next to no steam here) so I can only bet MMA online. My only betting (MMA and other sports) has been on Bwin (which is the most popular betting site in Europe if I'm not mistaken).

 I really like the site and their service/odds/etc are very good. The problem is they don't have the most extensive offereing of MMA bets in the world (they had 4 fights to bet on for UFC 104, 3 of them being only available a week before the event) and they don't allow parlays for MMA. This is my biggest issue. Because i could only make single bets, my UFC 104 winnings were 22$ for 3 sepperate fights instead of 75$ for a 3 fight parlay.

I also found Pinnacle Sports but they too do not have the option to parlay MMA bets.

So I'm asking for your help. What website do you use/suggest? Mind you I'm looking for a site that will facilitate deposits and withdrawals (being that for me it will mean international transactions) and you think provides a good service (and odds, etc.) overall. Thanks in advance!

I read a reply in a different post where it was suggested that Machida should go down a weight-class. The suggestion was, as should be, not taken very kindly by most other BloodyElbowers and I must admit that I chuckled somewhat when I read about it. But... then I thought about it some more...If Machida wins against Shogun, the disussion is moot. He is then the reigning LHW-champ and will likely remain so for quite some time. But if Machida loses he is stuck in limbo.

The logical challengers to Shogun would be Rashad Evans (if he wins against Thiago SIlva), Little Nog (if he beats Cane). Rampage is out and Tito Ortiz would need a couple of wins before he can be passed off as a challenger.

However. The most likely challenger of them all would be Anderson Silva. Shogun would have beaten the "pupil", time for the master to step forward. Anderson wouldn`t fight for the title since it was MAchida`s, but if MAchida is out, Anderson Silva would probably step in.

Machida could in the meantime drop down to middleweight, which he probably could do tomorrow and would soon be fighting for and very likely winning the middleweight title that Anderson Silva would vacate as soon as he had won the LHW-title. As soon as Anderson Silva lost the LHW-title, or retired, Machida could once again move back up a weight-class.

All this depends of course on a lot of "if"s and "maybe"s but if:

a) Shogun beats Machida in the rematch

b) Anderson SIlva gets the next title-shot (not unlikely)

c) Anderson Silva beats Shogun and then vacates the MW-title.

...Machida may drop down to MW.

I actually think that some of Anderson`s posturing regarding the Shogun-Machida fight is partly to put himself in the limelight and position himself where he can legitimately challenge Shogun.

That being said, I will still be rooting for Machida on January 2.

via cache.gawker.com

The first screenshots of EA's new MMA game appear in Sports Illustrated this week (anybody got a sub?) but one screenshot has been posted on Facebook by EA Sports and is currently featured on videogame blog Kotaku. It shows Fedor arm-barring a character that I would guess is Randy Couture.

Continue reading this post »