MMA News Roundup
MMA News Roundup |
|
Former UFC Champ Evan Tanner Dies
Former UFC middleweight champion Evan Tanner's body was found September 8 in the desert near Palo Verde, California. Tanner's management team, Driving Force Sports, issued the following statement:
by Jon Sattler According to Tito Ortiz, Affliction promoter Donald Trump just made his former apprentice the highest paid fighter in MMA history. “It will be a groundbreaking record contract for sure, without a doubt,” Ortiz says. “It's going to be a long-term deal where I put my heart and soul into the company and help build them. That's something I'm interested in doing. They're going to bring me on, not just as a fighter but also doing some of the back work." In other words, Ortiz won’t just be promoting himself; he’ll be promoting Affliction, and he believes that the Huntington Beach Bad Boy brand can generate pay-per-view numbers comparable to his record breaking UFC days. “I know they got over 100,000 pay-per-view buys on their first show,” Ortiz says, “and with me it's guaranteed to be over 500,000 pay-per-view buys just by the number of fans that are going to follow me no matter where I go, so they're going to get their money's worth just in pay-per-view no matter what.” Although Ortiz’s contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship technically expires on August 11, he met with Trump on August 5 to finalize the deal. And now that we know whom he’ll be fighting for, the only thing left to determine is whom he’ll be fighting against. “[Renato] Babalu [Sobral] has been in my cross hairs,” Ortiz says. “He's already been talking smack, saying if he sees me he's going to kick my [expletive], but right on if he keeps thinking that. He'll get his face caved in sooner or later. I know Frank Shamrock is another person who's been opening up his mouth. He beat me the last time we fought, and I think that would be a great revenge fight where I kick his [expletive] and finally shut him up.” Because of the hand injury Fedor Emelianenko suffered during his 36-second demolition of Tim Sylvia, Ortiz will most likely be headlining the next Affliction card, which takes place October 11 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas. Update: Ortiz’s announcement was a bit premature. Michael Cohen, Affliction’s COO and special councel to Donald Trump, told MMAWeekly.com on August 6 that he’s not sure whether Ortiz is allowed to negotiate at this point. “Donald Trump, myself and Tito engaged in a conversation,” Cohen says. “There was nothing substantive that was discussed other than that we are interested in sitting down with him, which we are planning on doing in the very near future, to discuss with him the opportunity to join the family of Affliction fighters.” Due to legal concerns, official details on Ortiz's future in mixed martial martial probably won't emerge until his contract with the UFC ends. Tito Ortiz on Kevin and Bean by Jon Sattler Former UFC light heavyweight champion Tito Ortiz will be on the L.A. radio show Kevin and Bean on Friday, July 31 to do what he does best: self-promotion. Along with selling his new autobiography, This Is Gonna Hurt, the most marketable free agent in mixed martial arts will be shopping for a new home now that his career with the Ultimate Fighting Championship is seemingly over. Kevin and Bean airs on KROQ from 5-10 a.m. PST. Update: In case you missed the interview, here's the show. And as an added bonus, KROQ posted Ortiz's epic foosball game with one of the DJs. Seriously. Never Back Down Hits Home Theaters by Edward Pollard Summit Entertainment’s teen-oriented MMA movie Never Back Down—which made $24 million at the U.S. box office—is now available on DVD and Blu-ray.
The movie offers a smart and stylish treatment of the grass roots of MMA, touching on questions of popularity, loyalty, self-discovery and the origins of the fighting impulse. An effective ensemble cast led by Djimon Hounsou (Amistad, Gladiator, Blood Diamond) as the jiu-jitsu instructor keeps the story from veering into clichéd territory. However, the MTV-flavored treatment of the teen elites who “sponsor” the underground tournaments provides enough eye candy in the form of bikinis, hot cars and flashy acrobatics to entertain even the most jaded of moviegoers.
by Jon Sattler America’s finest will have a chance to meet some of MMA’s finest in late June because B.J. Penn, Michael Bisping, Urijah Faber and Carlos Condit are flying to Afghanistan to visit with U.S. soldiers stationed at six military bases. “We are honored to send UFC and WEC fighters to visit the men and women of the United States Military,” UFC President Dana White says. (UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, also owns the WEC.) “We are pleased to be giving back to such a great cause; many of our fighters have served in the military and understand what a great contribution our troops are making overseas.” “Their presence will certainly help boost the morale of the soldiers, which is so important during their duties overseas,” says Sgt. Bart Murphy of the 101st Airborne Division. We’ll have more info following the tour.
by Jon Sattler When you go to a Marvel Comics film, you expect to see plenty of cameos from icons like Stan Lee. Still, we did a double take when we saw undefeated mixed-martial arts legend Rickson Gracie staring down Bruce Banner, The Incredible Hulk's alter ego. Minor spoiler alert: When Banner flees to Brazil, he turns to a martial arts master played by Gracie for lessons in anger management. After teaching him some takedowns and deep breathing exercises, Gracie tests Banner’s control by slapping him—hard. Here’s hoping we’ll hear the big green guy shout “HULK ARMBAR!” in one of the sequels. Weekend Free-For-All by Jon Sattler Following mixed martial arts isn’t easy—or cheap. Fight promotions form and fold with almost no advance notice, and watching an MMA event on television can cost more than going to a Major League Baseball game. So you can imagine our delight when we saw that HDNet is hosting two free events the weekend of June 13. Here’s what HDNet Fights has to say about its upcoming events:
by Jon Sattler When news broke that clothing designer Affliction would be officially announcing a major partnership with a true heavyweight on Thursday, June 5, we admit that Donald Trump wasn't the first name that came to mind. But Tito Ortiz must have opened Trump’s eyes to the business possibilities of mixed martial arts while Ortiz was competing on The Celebrity Apprentice because the Don King of real estate is staking his claim in the world of mixed martial arts. "I have been a fan of professional sports since childhood, and I am particularly impressed by the athleticism, courage, and strength of these disciplined athletes," Trump said. "This particular sport resembles my business style of being fast paced, strategic and aggressive … remembering to never give up. I am particularly excited to partner with Affliction and become a major player in promotion of MMA, the youngest and fastest-growing sport to emerge in the last century." "We are very excited to be partnering with the most recognized and accomplished business mogul in the world," said Tom Atencio, vice president of Affliction. "Trump is a true visionary who shares our belief in the future of MMA." At Thursday's press conference, Trump will reveal the details of his partnership with Affliction, who is promoting the fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia, which takes place July 19th, 2008, at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California. Update 1: Michael D. Cohen, the executive vice president of The Trump Organization, confirmed that Trump is now an equity partner and owns “a significant amount” of Affliction. Cohen also confirmed that former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski has signed with Affliction.
"We'll probably be asking Tito to come along also," Trump said. "We have many, many great fighters, but we'll be asking Tito to come along." Trump also discussed how his partnership helps Affliction. "I've got a lot of money," Trump said. "That helps, right? But also and perhaps more importantly, I seem to get a lot of attention. For instance, if I wasn't here today, you might have maybe one writer. And now the place is packed." Trump avoided taking any swings at his new rival Dana White. "I have great respect for Dana White," Trump said. "Some of the people in the room may not like him. I like him and I think he's done a very good job." Instead, Trump believes the rivalry between the two organizations will help mixed martial artists. "If there's only one organization," Trump said, "you can pay the fighters five dollars and they'll be happy to fight." Affliction Promotes Star-Studded Card text and photos by Edward Pollard CENTURY CITY, CA—The nearly ubiquitous clothing manufacturer—whose stylish and popular distressed T-shirts are worn by many top mixed martial artists—has entered the fight promotion game in stunning fashion. Succeeding where others have fallen short, Affliction has signed PRIDE Fighting Championships’ heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko to face former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight titleholder Tim Sylvia on July 19, 2008, at the Honda Center in Anaheim. Holding a roped-off press event on the Westfield Mall’s restaurant terrace, Affliction showed off an impressive array of top-notch fighters slated to appear at the event, a number of them former UFC athletes: Josh Barnett, Pedro Rizzo, Renato “Babalu” Sobral, Mike Whitehead, Ben Rothwell and Fabio “Negao” Nascimento. The conference was emceed by sports analyst Jay Glazer. Affliction employees gave away box loads of the popular shirts and many event posters to fans who waited in line to have their picture taken with the stars, but Emelianenko received the most attention throughout the presentation.
Kimbo and Carano Land in Studio City text and photos by Edward Pollard STUDIO CITY, CA—CBS hosted a media day with ProElite and EliteXC at the broadcaster’s Radford Studios on May 19, 2008. Gary Shaw, EliteXC president of live events, greeted the press, who were then treated to some basic demonstrations of mixed-martial arts techniques by a handful of the athletes slated to appear on the first major MMA event broadcast live on network television. The event takes place May 31, 2008, at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. Following the action in the cage, many of the upcoming event’s fighters and announcers participated in a generous Q&A session.
By Jon Sattler Since becoming a UFC and Pancrase champion, Bas Rutten has set out to conquer every corner of the entertainment world. The Black Belt Hall of Fame member’s become a TV commentator, an Internet sensation, and even starred in an award-winning comedy. Still, we were genuinely surprised to see him hosting The Men’s Room, an in-game television show in Grand Theft Auto IV. When our managing editor, Edward Pollard, last spoke with Rutten, he filled us in on the challenges of stand-up comedy, his love of crazy roles, and why he turned down a part in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. Have you ever thought about being a comedian? Actually, stand-up comedy is on my list of things I really want to do at least once. The other one is to sing the National Anthem at a big place with a big crowd. I think that’s as nerve-wracking as doing stand-up comedy. I have a lot of respect for those guys. I mean, I’ve fought in front of an audience, but it’s got to be so bad when you crack three or four jokes in a row and nobody laughs, oh my God. (Laughs.) It must be demoralizing to just hear crickets. Yeah, and if you can save the show, then it’s good, but if you can’t … You hear lots of comedians say they had at least one show where they bombed, even Richard Pryor. I truly believe that all these comedians are really good actors all the time. Performing in front of live audiences is difficult. Sounds like you’ve been talking to (comedian and MMA fan) Kevin James a bit. I went to his shows a couple of times. He’s also buddies with Joe Rogan. I love stand-up comedy. If I feel down, which is almost never, I go to XM Radio’s comedy channel, number 150, and boom, everything’s good again. Comedy heals all wounds; that’s what I say. Can you tell me the craziest or stupidest role you’ve ever been offered in a movie? That would be an MMA movie this guy wanted to do. He wanted to sit down with me—and I’m not going to mention names but he’s a big writer—and he wanted to get inside my head and see what kind of training I did. I gave him some good things, but I thought, I don’t know about this. He was going to give me a part, but I didn’t give him everything I had, and later on I realized it was smart of me to hesitate. He got frustrated because I turned him down. Check this out, the part was this: I would be together with Quinton Jackson, we would be bouncers and then the lead actor would come into the bar, we would ask him to leave and in a second he would get us in a “double choke,” like two guillotine chokes. I don’t know what he meant by that, but he would dispatch us and we’d be gone. I said to him, “Listen, that’s just not realistic.” Two professional fighters, he comes in and that’s like really using somebody’s name and putting it into the ground. Afterward, I heard that he was really upset that I turned down his movie and I said, “Man, that’s just not a part for me.”
You have a distinctive voice. Has anyone ever asked you to do voice-overs for cartoons or animated movies? They’ve asked me because I do it all the time just for fun. (Adopts breathy, reptilian promotional voice.) “And now, in the new motion picture …” They always tell me I should go in, but right now I’m too busy. I turned down Sirius Satellite Radio who wanted me to do a show. Everything’s piling up and I have no time. You need a clone. That would be unbelievable if you could do that. I would make a couple of my wife, too. Would you like it if someone would make a cartoon out of you? How cool would that be? I was in Japanese comic books a few times, two of which were notable. In one of those I hooked up with a K-1 fighter, Sam Greco. We were the criminals. They made a whole nice little story about me and Funaki and the guy I was going to fight. It was pretty cool. Did anyone ever ask you to play a genie or something in a movie? No, but I would really like to do stuff like that. I really enjoy doing crazy parts. What made you shave your head, and when did you first do it? Oh, this is a good one. I did it when I was 21. Believe it or not, I used to be a model, the Zoolander type. I was always taking care of my hair because obviously it’s very important. One day it didn’t work, my hair wasn’t cooperating and I had to be somewhere. I got really stressed about it and I wet it again and I started putting gel in it—something that I never did—and it didn’t work, either. I tried three or four times, fighting it again, and I saw my ex-wife’s purple hair dryer laying there, so I grabbed it. I never used a blow-dryer, but I aimed it at my head and turned it on.
No more combs or worries. Man, you know, I jump in the pool and get out and wipe my head off and it’s dry. There’s nothing like it. If you could choose any film director to work with, who would that be? I’ve always been a big Quentin Tarantino fan. I’m trying to reach him with a really cool script with some big names attached to it and they want to do it because they read it. That would be really good. I’m a big fan of Guy Ritchie, also. Those directors would be a dream because I’ve liked them for so long. Any of the older, more classic directors? Martin Scorcese, of course, is really good. You can’t say anything bad about Steven Spielberg. I like Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Bay, Scarface director Brian De Palma. Like Spielberg, if you can make a movie like E.T., you’ve got talent.
UFC Welterweight Title by Edward Pollard On April 19, 2008, a year and two weeks after ceding his first title defense to Matt Serra, native French-Canadian Georges St. Pierre won it back at the Bell Centre</ |
