Resume: Media-labeled “Most Dangerous Man in the World,” a title held long past its expiration date; UFC 1 entrant who drew attention and ratings as late as 2006. Brand(s): The World Mixed Martial Arts Association (WMMAA), a show that ran once in Atlantic City in 2001 and featured Shamrock winning a seriously devalued title belt against Sam Adkins; the recently organized Ken Shamrock Productions, which co-promoted a “Valentine’s Eve Massacre” event in February. Shamrock -- who fought gelatinous Ross Clifton in the main event -- tested positive for illicit performance substances and was suspended for one year. Evaluation: For a guy with the power to veto his own matchmaking, the Clifton bout -- which resembled a banned and maliciously produced episode of “The Biggest Loser” -- was the lowlight in a career that’s had no shortage of valleys.
LAS VEGAS -- Ricco Rodriguez joined Michael Bisping’s camp Monday night in a brief cameo appearance at the Tapout Research and Development Training Center.
The former UFC heavyweight champion couldn’t stay for long due to prior engagements, so I’ll cut to the chase and say he looked great.
Rodriguez’s weight issues have been his main story line since he lost the title to Tim Sylvia at UFC 41 in 2003.
At one point, Rodriguez, who battled his boozing and gambling addictions publicly on VH1’s “Celebrity Rehab” in 2008
Phil Baroni is impressed with Michael Bisping. Photo by Terry Goodlad.
LAS VEGAS -- When you think of team players, does Phil Baroni’s name come to mind? Well, it should.
Hearing that Michael Bisping’s training camp was forming in Las Vegas in anticipation of his featured middleweight bout with Dan Henderson at UFC 100, the outspoken “New York Bad Ass” requested a spot on the squad.
The first one laced and padded up, Baroni was a constant man in motion Monday night at the Tapout gym, where the team congregated for its evening session. Baroni, Josh Hall, Mario Neto and Zach Light all rotated in on Bisping with sparring for five-minute intervals to keep the Brit on his toes.
Tuesday, June 23 12:48 pm PT: Will East Coast MMA fans ever catch a break? Just weeks after overcoming the blinding ignorance of state assemblyman Bob Reilly, a bill that would legalize the sport in New York has run into another hurdle: bureaucratic quicksand. MMA Weekly reports that a legislative deadlock has bumped all but the most pressing issues from the Senate docket, meaning that any progress is likely to be stalled until January 2010. I expect Reilly is preparing a new PowerPoint presentation on the evils of consensual prizefighting as we speak.
Poor Matt Serra: guy will be collecting a social security pension by the time the sport hits his state.
Tuesday, June 23 11:19 am PT: Thanks to some spectacularly miscalculated management, Andrei Arlovski strolled into a fight with a very dangerous Brett Rogers on only a few weeks’ notice. He exited with a sore jaw, a severely damaged fight reputation and the cancellation of his planned boxing debut on June 27.
Bellator wrapped its first season Friday by passing title belts to lightweight Eddie Alvarez -- who defeated an outmatched Toby Imada -- and middleweight judo animal Hector Lombard, who used Jared Hess’ head as a percussion instrument. Lombard is quickly becoming someone who might pose some very intriguing challenges for the physically diplomatic Anderson Silva.
Tuesday, June 23 7:37 am PT: Affliction Vice President Tom Atencio confirmed to 5th Round that the winner of Saturday’s bout between Gilbert Yvel and Pedro Rizzo would meet Paul Buentello at his Affliction event on Aug. 1. (This assuming the winner doesn’t break his hand on the loser’s head, which is always a distinct possibility.)
Bizarrely, Atencio will share the undercard with the two heavyweights at Biloxi’s “Ultimate Chaos” event, fighting 1-0 Randy Hedderick in a lightweight contest. If this is really what Atencio wants to do, God bless and all, but I could think of better ways to spend time and T-shirt money than voluntary bleeding.
I am not any particular fan of “sports science” programs, which tend to favor sensationalism over any hard and fast facts. (National Geographic’s “Fight Science” once measuredRandy Couture’s lactic acid output during a choke attempt, saw that the levels were actually decreasing -- a physiological near-impossibility -- and more or less deemed him superhuman instead of reaching a more intelligent conclusion: that they screwed up.)
Gina Carano was the latest practice body: She choked out a researcher during a segment of FSN’s “Sports Science” that “measured” Carano’s ability to deliver traumatizing punishment. Following Cristiane Santos’ abuse of a reporter, we can now conclude both women are capable of subduing defenseless dummies. Revelatory.
