It’s been three years since the Gracie name headlined a UFC pay per view event -- a miserable bit of business against Matt Hughes -- and fourteen since Royce Gracie was the promotion’s most popular and dominant fighter. Considering that the family has the breeding philosophy of rabbits, you’d think it would be relatively simple business to get another one in the cage.
Not so, but it’s irrelevant now: according to the fighter’s Twitter, Rolles Gracie has signed a three-fight deal with the UFC that could commence against 0-2 Mustapha al Turk in February.
Rolles, 31 and a Mir-sized 250 pounds at 6’4”, is 2-0 in the largely-stagnant Chinese MMA scene and 3-0 overall: his father, Rolls Gracie, was considered by many to be the family champion until his premature death in 1982. Rolles does not possess quite the same grappling credentials as Roger -- a recent Strikeforce acquisition -- but he is one of the first Gracies to adopt a modern training philosophy, dividing his time between Renzo Gracie’s Academy in New York and Greg Jackson’s gym in New Mexico.
Fair or not, that last name is probably going to earn him a main-card slot and a push in advertising: if the UFC does not capitalize on the most famous name in martial arts, their marketing team needs more Red Bulls.
Earlier in the week, I dutifully reported the infection of MMA personalities and techniques into professional wrestling theater: Sunday’s TNA pay per view event had hybrid athlete Bobby Lashley enjoying a “submission” contest with Samoa Joe. While I found the idea moronic and expressed an ignorance of the appeal in watching someone apply fake grappling holds, I also petitioned readers to enlighten me. Choice excerpts -- including a winner -- after the jump.
Wednesday, October 21 10:20 am PT: No plans for Saturday night? Maybe you could hang out with John McCarthy: the sport’s most recognizable official told Sherdog.com that he won’t be working UFC 104 in Los Angeles this weekend. This despite having officiated several hundred UFC bouts, being licensed in California, and generally having as much business in between two angry prizefighters as anyone on the planet.
You can guess that McCarthy’s absence from the Octagon may stem from his critical comments about the UFC during his broadcasting stint and after “retiring” from refereeing. Either the California Athletic Commission perceives a possible conflict of interest -- no official should comment on the business practices of fighters or promotions -- or the UFC has broadcast word that they don’t want him around.
If it’s the former, the CSAC is correct in discouraging their freelance employees from offering critiques -- but McCarthy was not a referee at the time. His role as a commentator was to have an opinion, and he gave it. And if it’s the latter? I find it unlikely the UFC is making edicts about officials: it would be a lurid, cheap move by a promotion that’s often bemoaned boxing’s lurid, cheap moves. But if they did feel like squeezing, they’re in luck: the CSAC has an open-door policy on controversy.
Wednesday, October 21 10:12 am PT: Recognizing that the sport’s community couldn’t possibly take any more “bad Salmon” puns, the Ohio State Athletic Commission finally put to rest a summertime mini-scandal -- the one involving mid-tier Sean Salmon and his curious admission to tapping too quickly in a fight with Allan Weickert June 6. According to MMAMania, Salmon got a $2,500 fine and a suspension from competition until June of 2010.
Salmon wasn’t the first and won’t be the last athlete to escape further fight trauma by exiting at the first sign of real trouble: some athletes in Brazil’s IVC promotion of the 1990s would sometimes quit because they just felt tired. TKO via malaise was once a viable finish.
Unfortunately, Salmon broke the cardinal rule of stupidity: never admit to it.
MMAMania’s article, incidentally, was titled “Poached Salmon.” Let’s have it end on that high note.
Read enough Kimbo Slice press and you’ll begin to get the idea that this is a man who may have no idea what he’s doing. Sherdog.com spoke to Slice’s current boxing coach, American Top Team’s Howard Davis Jr., and Davis was candid about his protégé’s abilities.
Or lack of. “He needs a lot of work,” Davis said. “…he puts a lot of turning and effort and committing to punching hard, that sometimes, if he misses, he knocks himself off balance where people can take him down…”
This Davis Junior? He’s a no bulls--t type. Which is nice. And for a guy who once noted on camera he didn’t know “what the f--k” Greco-Roman wrestling was, Slice is still 3-1, including a decent showing against Roy Nelson and a sufficiently tenacious bit of resistance against James Thompson. This might come off like a Kimbo apologist’s note -- “please excuse Kimbo’s lack of skill, he’s still new at this” -- but I’ve seen fighters with a better foundation do far worse. ATT is about the best idea his management ever had. That, and the whole YouTube thing.
