Monday, September 7 3:38 pm PT: Yoshiyuki Yoshida must have knocked something loose.
War Machine, the man formerly known as Jon Koppenhaver, stopped EliteXC veteran Mikey Gomez on third-round strikes in the featured bout at Xtreme Fighting Championships 9 “Evolution” on Saturday at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Fla. The end came 19 seconds into round three.
The victory was Machine’s fifth in a row, all of them finishes, since he was left unconscious by a Yoshida anaconda choke at UFC 83 in May 2008. A product of Season 6 of “The Ultimate Fighter” reality series, the 28-year-old vagabond has competed inside a different organization in each of his five bouts since departing from the UFC.
Meanwhile, Pablo Alfonso submitted the previously unbeaten Jason Goodall 2:40 into the fourth round to capture the XFC bantamweight championship. The 27-year-old Miami, Fla., native has now delivered four of his five professional victories by submission.
Monday, September 7 1:23 pm PT: Scott Coker must be cursing all of Hollywood over his morning coffee.
Variety.com is reporting that Gina Carano will star in Oscar-winning director Steven Soderbergh’s next project “Knockout,” which begins filming in February. A press release distributed Monday by Relativity Media (“Atonement,” “Step Brothers”), which will helm the project, said Carano “is in talks to join the cast” of the “female spy story in the vein of ‘The Bourne Identity.’”
Director Soderbergh hasn’t shied away from using unproven talent before, and guided Julia Roberts to her Academy Award-winning performance in “Erin Brockovich.”
He left with mixed martial arts approved in his home state, a drained autograph pen, and wide-eyed adulation from the scores who attended a two-hour seminar the featherweight king held Monday at a new American Top Team affiliate south of Boston. The faux-hawked Maine native, who started fighting locally in 2001 after winning a state title in wrestling at Bonny Eagle High School in the town of Standish, happily obliged all photo and signature requests from locals.
His affinity for Dunkin Donuts coffee -- iced, black, no sugar -- might hint at his local roots, but Brown’s heritage doesn’t hit you over the head like fellow Mainer Tim Sylvia’s does whenever he speaks, without a single trace of an “R” sound. Brown has almost entirely dropped his New England accent.
