Wednesday, August 12 3:57 pm PT: Hey, combat athletes: What could be more fun than a lifelong wrestler grinding your head into the cage and suffocating your spirit by making you bleed all over the Bud Light logo? According to a press release circulated by the Zinkin management team, two-time Olympian and six-time National Freestyle Champion Daniel Cormier is threatening to do exactly that: the absurdly-decorated grappler is set to begin training at AKA in San Jose, California for an MMA career.
Though it’s had its share of fits and starts, wrestling has remained one of the more foreboding base styles to build a combat approach on. And when you can actually manage to snag a win over someone who’s cut their teeth on an international mat, a free ambulance ride is usually part of the prize.
A 211 lb. entrant in Beijing, there’s no early word on where the 30-year-old plans on fitting in. It’s unlikely, though, Cormier will face anything more severe in competition than he has outside of it: he was forced to exit the 2008 Beijing Olympics prematurely due to severe dehydration; a spot on the 2003 World Team was preceded by the death of his 3-month-old daughter in a car accident.
Wednesday, August 12 2:01 pm PT: It’s not quite the seven-day delay of the HBO boxing pay per views, but it’s getting closer: UFC has issued word that UFC 100, by all accounts the most commercially successful in company history, will be airing on free television this Saturday at 10 PM ET, only a month after its live date.
This is obviously an attempt to counter-program TV Land’s durable “Cosby Show” block and undermine the viewership of “Geraldo at Large”; by sheer coincidence, it also happens to be airing opposite “Strikeforce: Carano vs. ‘Cyborg’” on Showtime in the same time slot.
How, exactly, these programming rebuttals work in an era of time-shifting technology is beyond my scope: if you’re an MMA fan, you’ve almost certainly watched UFC 100 in its entirety. (Wisely, the UFC is airing three never-before-seen preliminary fights from the event.) This sniping is presumably in an effort to attract fence-straddling brand loyalists who can be swayed by some freebies. For anyone with a DVR, it’s a big nothing.
Wednesday, August 12 1:30 pm PT: If you had doubts M-1 Global was clueless when it comes to actually producing events, by God, you were absolutely right: after coming up short in a California promotional bid, Fedor Emelianenko’s parent company has now set up shop in Kansas City, Mo., for their August 28 event. Co-headlining will be Emelianenko against training partner Gegard Mousasi in a grappling “exhibition.” And if that makes you twitch, you’re likely to be apoplectic at the idea of Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal facing once-formidable Mark Kerr in the main event.
Which non-fight exhibits poorer judgment? Lawal is a rising light-heavyweight making a name for himself, but taking a heavyweight fight against a nearly comatose Kerr is a waste of hand wraps; Emelianenko in a glorified grab-ass session with Mousasi will probably go over about as well as a vomiting hobo in the lobby of Trump Tower. I’m numb to either one.
Wednesday, August 12 12:38 pm PT: Only a few months removed from one of the most embarrassing evenings in the sport’s short history -- a KO loss to geriatric boxer Ray Mercer, who was once handled with ease by street fixture Kimbo Slice -- Tim Sylvia is looking for a return to form. (If you’re wondering what form that is, your guess is as good as mine.)
According to FiveOuncesofPain.com, Sylvia will enter a September 18 Adrenaline event against Jason Riley, a largely anonymous heavyweight with a regional 11-1 record. That Sylvia went from a UFC championship and large-scale paydays to practically fighting in barns on public access television is one of the more precipitous drops we’ve seen. It has some strange parallels to Ricco Rodriguez, who was knocked out badly by Sylvia and went on a sandbagging circuit he has yet to escape.
The Riley fight is presumably intended to be a confidence booster. It may work for Sylvia. It’s less likely to work for his fans.
Wednesday, August 12 12:37 pm PT: Sherdog has -- wait for it -- unleashed its rankings for August, and it should come as little surprise that a re-adored Anderson Silvais sitting on top of the pile.
Coming off an effortless win over notoriously scrappy Forrest Griffin, Silva sits at 25-4 overall, with a record 10 straight Octagon wins and no real dent on his armor since a submission loss in late 2004. Number-two bruiser Georges St-Pierre, by way of hypothetical statistic, would have 13 straight victories if not for the clobbering delivered by Matt Serra in 2007, a fact alternately meaningless and worth mentioning.
Wednesday, August 12 9:38 am PT: Tito Ortiz wants to come home for the holidays.
“The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” anticipates a Nov. 21 return to the Octagon, where the polarizing fighter became a light heavyweight champion and a must-see superstar.
UFC President Dana White has already announced that Ortiz will face perennial favorite Mark Coleman, who delivered a rejuvenating performance against a much younger Stephan Bonnar at UFC 100. UFC 106 will be held on Nov. 21 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.
“Mark knows it’s coming. I know it’s coming, so it’s just the factor of me letting (UFC matchmaker) Joe Silva know that I’m ready to compete,” Ortiz told host Bruce Buffer on the Sherdog Radio Network’s “It’s Time” show Tuesday. “I have about a week-and-a-half to two weeks before I can start wrestling, and once I start wrestling at 100 percent –- right now I’m just drilling –- but once I’m at 100 percent, I’ll let them know. Hopefully, November 21 will be the date.”
Wednesday, August 12 9:16 am PT: Ultimate Warrior Challenge bantamweight champion Mike Easton will defend his belt against Chase Beebe in the UWC 7 “Redemption” main event on Oct. 3 at the Patriot Center in Fairfax, Va.
The two were originally scheduled to meet in February, but Beebe pulled out of the match with a knee injury, only to compete at Dream 7 two weeks later.
Easton (7-1), a Lloyd Irvin protégé, has posted four consecutive victories.
Wednesday, August 12 12:00 am PT: If something in this business sounds too good to be true, bet that it isn’t: after a weekend report from Yahoo’s Dan Wetzel that recounted a discussion between Dana White and Anderson Silva’s manager, Ed Soares, Soares told ESPN’s Franklin McNeil that no such talk ever occurred.
Wetzel wrote that Soares and White indulged in some speculation that Silva should make a permanent move to the 205 lb. class, a logical step for a fighter who’s reduced his middleweight division to bomb rubble. But Soares insisted to McNeil that the talk was entirely fictional.
“That is totally false,” Soares said. “I never said that to Dana.” Soares’ plans for Silva instead lean toward alternate weight-class bouts. But “he is going to keep defending that [185 lb.] belt.”
Too bad, but not unexpected: Silva disassociating himself from the middleweight division would involve increasing pressure to face friend Lyoto Machida in a 205 lb. title fight. Despite remaining cool to that idea, Soares only wants “the big fights” for his man; hopefully both he and the UFC understand that a run of rematches at 185 don’t live up to that proposal.
