Friday, August 14 11:50 am PT: Why do I keep bringing up athletically-irrelevant Jose Canseco in this space? For the same reason a train de-railing itself, going airborne and smashing into an orbiting space shuttle is going to catch your attention: you can’t understand why it’s happening, and you can’t look away.
The latest lap in Canseco’s marathon of shame: opposing onetime LAPD victim Rodney King in celebrity boxing rules (headgear, puffy gloves, no dignity allowed) in Philadelphia on Sept.12. Where this leaves Danny Bonaduce and Todd Bridges in the rankings is TBD.
Update 08/15/09: Celebrity Boxing has issued a press release stating
that reports of Canseco and King fighting are "erroneous"; King will
instead be facing former Pennsylvania police officer Simon Aouad on
September 12. Insert your own joke here.
Baroni has been an inconsistent commodity over the years: after surging with some lip-splitting victories in 2001-2002 -- including a KO over Dave Menne that that turned Menne’s eyes from blue to green -- the fighter ran into conditioning walls and was set loose overseas, where he notched some impressive wins against durable talent. Most recently, he’s earned a 3-1 mark at 170 lbs.
Already, there’s speculation Baroni could be an indication that the UFC will begin grabbing talent from new rival Strikeforce as soon as their contracts allow; Strikeforce countered the rumors late Thursday by circulating a release that spun the transaction as a “release” of Baroni, with Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker hoping “he can revive his career” somewhere else. Yeah. Nothing to see here. Move along.
If the UFC’s strategy is simply to out-spend Strikeforce, then Coker’s company has some serious problems. Unless CBS intervenes with some major-money deals for star talent like Cung Le, it’s entirely possible they’ll become what the UFC once was to PRIDE: a cash-strapped farm system.
Friday, August 14 8:57 am PT: Tim Kennedy will lock horns with hot-and-cold Pride Fighting Championships veteran Evangelista “Cyborg” Santos in the featured bout at Strikeforce “Challengers Series 3” on Sept. 25 at the SpiritBank Event Center in Tulsa, Okla.
Finished only once in his eight-year career, Kennedy (10-2) will carry a two-fight winning streak into the match. The World Extreme Cagefighting and International Fight League veteran last appeared in June, when he stopped form Bodog Fight champion Nick Thompson on second-round punches. Kennedy, 29, also holds notable victories against Jason “Mayhem” Miller and Ryan McGivern. He expects fireworks from Santos.
Friday, August 14 1:50 am PT: BloodyElbow was first to catch wind of a Randy Couture appearance on CBS Sports’ Lavar Arrington Show where Couture -- after being teed up by the hosts -- expressed interest in a fight with Anderson Silva. (This will probably turn into “Couture Agrees to Silva Fight” and, later, into “Couture, Silva to Fight in Yankee Stadium on Thanksgiving” by the end of the business day.)
“They [Zuffa] certainly haven't approached me with it,” Couture said. “I think the idea's been kicked around, but I don't know if it's being kicked around by the executives at Zuffa.”
What it needs is to be kicked out. It’s great box office, but not worth much in the way of intrigue. Couture is 46 and gets by in the heavyweight division because the man-beasts there don’t move like they’re on amphetamines.
