April 2020 – culturesink

The MMA Depressed-us: Prospect busts vol. 3 – Duffee vs. Russow

Posted on April 30, 2020 by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA History, MMA Podcasts

This could be the last week of the MMA Depressed-us for a hot minute. At least assuming that the UFC gets back to business like they intend to starting next week. To really wrap things up right, we’re diving back into the deep waters of MMA prospects that never panned out. All to get to a fight we should have done ages ago: Todd Duffee vs. Mike Russow.

To get there, we’ll kick things off with disgraced former featherweight prospect (and now convicted felon) Josh Grispi getting a hype derailing whooping at the hands of Dustin Poirier. Then jump over to ‘Baby Fedor’ Kirill Sidelnikov and his Affliction battle against Paul Buentello. All ending on Todd Duffee’s tragically fated bout against the one and only Mike Russow.

As always, we’re watching all these fights on UFC Fight Pass; starting them at the beginning of each video. So just hit play when Zane says “go” to watch along with us. Or, if you’re not using Fight Pass, look for Connor to announce the start of the first round of each fight, so you can sync whatever other video you may have.

Be sure to follow Zane on twitter @TheZaneSimon, follow Connor, @BoxingBusch, follow Phil @EvilGregJackson, and follow @BloodyElbow for all the latest in MMA happenings. If you enjoyed our show, give us a shout out in the comments here on Bloody Elbow, or give us a “like”, share & subscribe over on one of our other BE Presents Channels: SoundCloud, YouTube, iTunes & Apple TV, iHeartRadio, Stitcher, Spotify, Google Play, TuneIn, OverCast, or Player FM – whichever one happens to be your listening platform of choice. While you’re there, don’t forget to subscribe to Bloody Elbow Presents; that way you’ll always be the first to get all of BE’s daily MMA offerings. For previous episodes of the show, check out our playlists on all of our BE Presents channels.

Quarantine for the rich & famous? Dana White shows off private pool, arcade, basketball court

Posted on April 28, 2020 by Zane Simon in Front Page, Quick Hits, UFC News

A recent issue of the Sports Business Journal gave a brief update as to how Scott Coker is spending his time during quarantine. Apparently the Bellator president has been spending a lot of time working and taking Zoom calls from his back yard.

“Get that fresh air and sunshine on you and it makes a difference,” Coker told the outlet. A picture of the longtime mixed martial arts promoter showed him sitting in the shade, with an exercise bike in the background, and something like a built in firepit or hot tub.

Never one to be outdone, Dana White is offering his own brief glimpse into his Quarantine Lifestyle. Much like Coker he’s been putting in a few hours of work every day from his home office, prepping for the UFC’s big return to PPV next month and construction of ‘Fight Island.’

But, he’s also been making time to work on his jumpshot on his home basketball court. And spending a lot of time in his private swimming pool.

“The weather’s been perfect here in Vegas, so I’ve been doing a lot of swimming,” White revealed to Haute TV, as the camera panned to his palatial multi tiered swimming area.

He’s even been doing a little gaming, including a few family board games, but also some quality time in his fully stocked home arcade—complete with multiple cabinets and a big two-person racing arcade machine. You can see the whole thing below.

The UFC hopes to be back in action on May 9th with a series of events in Jacksonville, FL. The state seems adamant about easing quarantine measures, so it seems likely the events will go ahead as planned. That should mean some badly needed cash in fighters’ pockets again. And an end to the challenges of self-isolation for Dana White.

New May UFC events get headline fights: Teixeira vs. Smith & Overeem vs. Harris

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC News

The UFC is starting to finalize their plans for their newly announced upcoming fight cards. Over the course of the past week, the promotion revealed that they would be hosting their rescheduled UFC 249 event at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena in Jacksonville, FL on May 9th.

Alongside the upcoming PPV offering, the UFC also unveiled plans to host two more events at the arena in the same week—Fight Night cards scheduled for May 13th and May 16th. Now it looks like those cards have headline fights as well. Anthony Smith will fight Glover Teixeira in the main event of the May 13 card, and Alistair Overeem will fight Walt Harris in the main event of the May 16th card. Both fights had been previously planned for now-cancelled shows. With Overeem vs. Harris set to be the headliner for the UFC’s April 11th show in Portland, OR, and Smith vs. Teixeira planned for April 25th, in Lincoln, NE. MMA Junkie first reported the news, and MMA Fighting has since confirmed the story.

For Anthony Smith, this will be his second fight back since losing his 2019 title shot against champion Jon Jones. Smith returned in June of last year against Alexander Gustafsson, submitting the Swede in the 4th round. Teixeira is currently coming off a surprising run of success. After going win-loss in six fights between 2016 & 2018, the Brazilian racked up three straight victories last year, submitting Karl Roberson and Ion Cutelaba, and taking a split decision over Nikita Krylov.

Alistair Overeem enters his bout against Walt Harris on the back of a shocking last-second KO loss to newly minted contender Jairzinho Rozenstruik back in December. That defeat broke a two fight win streak for the ‘Reem,’ with victories over Sergei Pavlovich and Alexey Oleynik in his two previous bouts. For Harris, his fight against Overeem will be his first since the tragic kidnapping and murder of his stepdaughter Aniah Blanchard. The two men were actually scheduled to fight late last year, when the ongoing search for Blanchard led Harris to step away from competition. Harris is unbeaten in his last four fights, going back to a DQ loss to Mark Godbeer in 2017.

Report: Bellator still planning to hold about 30 events by the end of 2020

Posted on April 25, 2020 by Zane Simon in Front Page

In comparison to the UFC, Bellator has been the picture of caution during the COVID-19 pandemic, shutting their doors all the way back on March 13th, with no plans to return before June or July. But when they do come back it sounds like it’ll be with all guns blazing.

Promotion president Scott Coker recently told MMA Fighting that he planned to start holding events over the summer in a Hollywood studio lot owned by Bellator parent company Viacom. And if they can make that happen, reports are that they’ll be hosting shows at a pretty much weekly clip. That’s according to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal (h/t Jason Cruz).

Bellator put on four events this year before the sports shutdown and is still aiming to complete its full slate of about 30 fights by the end of the 2020. While Coker believes fighting is well-positioned to be one of the first sports back, he won’t rush anything. “We’re going to make sure that we have the ability to … get all the testing done properly because there’ll be some type of protocol,” he said.

Assuming they start in early July, having already cancelled their single June event in Chicago, that would leave somewhere around 27 weeks to put on 26 fight cards. With the UFC planning four events for the month of May, and looking to dive right back into their schedule with events hosted on a private island shortly afterward, it could end up being that the second half of 2020 will be a massively busy time for mixed martial arts in America.

UFC announces run of four May events, starting with Ferguson vs. Gaethje

Posted on April 24, 2020 by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC News

With the constantly changing current regulatory landscape in the US, as states attempt to manage their pandemic responses and potentially re-open their economies, the UFC has found an opportunity to once again start putting on fight cards. But, for just how long will that opportunity last? That’s anyone’s guess.

To that end, the UFC appears to be taking full advantage of their fortunate circumstances, incase another wave of pandemic-induced lockdown hits. The promotion sent out a press release shortly after word broke that they were hosting their May 9th UFC 249 PPV in Jacksonville, FL. In the press release, the UFC revealed that they are now planning events for May 13th and May 16th as well. These events will all be closed to the public and, from the sound of things, will all be hosted at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.

“I can’t wait to deliver some great fights for the fans, “said UFC President Dana White. “I want to give a big thanks to Mayor Curry, VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena and Florida State Boxing Commission Executive Director Patrick Cunninghamfor getting this thing done and giving us a venue to put on these incredible cards, as well our media partners including ESPN and ESPN+, for bringing it to fans. My team is ready to go and the fighters are excited to get back in there with these back-to-back events.”

Three events in one week is hardly unheard of territory for the world’s largest MMA promotion. In past years, they’ve hosted three events in just three days for their annual “International Fight Week.”

Additionally, however – while speaking to ESPN’s Brett Okamoto (h/t Marc Raimondi) – Dana White also revealed that the promotion would be looking to put on a May 23rd fight card as well. Whether or not it will be at the same Florida location remains to be seen. After those shows, it sounds like the whole production will move over to “Fight Island” for the foreseeable future. And the UFC will be doing its best to catch up on the shows they’ve had to cancel.

White: We’re gonna catch up to our regular schedule and then we’ll be off and running. Keep the dates we have, hopefully.

— Marc Raimondi (@marc_raimondi) April 24, 2020

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With more than two weeks until fight time, that’s still a lot of opportunities for the regulatory picture in Florida to change—and take away the UFC’s latest batch of plans with it. But, for the moment, it appears that all parties are full steam ahead on getting live sports back on TV screens.

Bellator postpones June Chicago event, Chandler vs. Henderson 2

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA News

The UFC is expecting to be back in business by early May. The promotion has their rescheduled UFC 249 PPV card all set for May 9th in Jacksonville, FL. And while the UFC has been forced to cancel and postpone other, smaller events, it sounds like they still expect to be holding fight cards fairly regularly in the near future. Bellator, however, is far less gung-ho on a return to business as usual.

Bellator was much quicker to respond to the pandemic crisis than many others in the MMA promotional sphere, cancelling their March 13th event just hours before the fight card was supposed to take place. Soon after they announced that they would be postponing their run of May events (not having had any planned for April, already). That meant that Bellator 242: Bader vs. Nemkov, Bellator London, and Bellator 243: Carmouche vs. Bohm were all put on ice. Now it looks like the promotion will be adding their planned June 6th card in Chicago, IL as well.

Bellator 244 was set to be headlined by a rematch of the 2016 lightweight title fight between then-champion Michael Chandler and former UFC champion Benson Henderson. Chandler defeated Henderson by split decision in their first go-round, losing his title to Brent Primus via injury TKO just 7 months later. The Paramount Network based promotion announced the decision via a recent press release:

Due to the ongoing safety concerns surrounding the COVID-19 outbreak, as well as current federal, state and local government mandates, Bellator MMA officials today have announced that Bellator 244, originally scheduled to take place on June 6 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, Ill., has been postponed.

The organization will continue to monitor the situation closely and fully intends to reschedule the event as soon as possible.

As always, the health and safety of our athletes, fans, partners and staff remains our top priority. We appreciate the understanding and patience of everyone involved during this incredibly difficult time.

The next event on the Bellator calendar isn’t set until October 3rd in Dublin, Ireland. It seems likely that many of the COVID-19 travel and event restrictions will be eased by then. But will Bellator really wait all summer to put on another fight card with states in the US looking to ease some restrictions already?

A recent report from MMA Fighting suggests they’re much more likely to start scheduling new events over the summer, to take place behind closed doors in California. Starting in June or July, the promotion apparently intends to move to a Viacom owned Hollywood studio lot—where they will be able to produce small scale events, requiring less than 50 people.

“We want to be back in there as soon as possible, but we want to do it the right way, and health and safety comes first,” Coker told MMA Fighting. “This situation is real, and we’re going to do everything we can to protect our staff, our fighters and our contractors.

“We expect to get back to work and get all those protocols worked out sometime in the next 60 days, and we’re going to get right back to work after that.”

The MMA Depressed-us: More movie madness w/ Never Surrender

Posted on April 23, 2020 by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA History, MMA Podcasts

MMA is the gift that keeps on giving. Even when there aren’t any events going, the rich tapestry that makes up this sport’s impact on popular culture is filled with a wonderful diversity of treasures. Not only are there amazing events, but music, literature, and yes, even films. One such masterpiece of mixed martial movies (if you’ll pardon the pun) is an wonderful 2009 effort from amateur director, writer, and actor Hector Echavarria.

A former kickboxer and actor from Argentina, Echavarria has brought his artistic vision to the screen seven times in his direct-to-video career. Never Surrender is his first effort, seemingly fueled by his own actual life story and featuring a wealth of famous UFC talent. From BJ Penn and Georges St-Pierre all the way to Anderson Silva. So, rent the YouTube version, like we did, sit back relax, and enjoy… it’s one hell of a ride.

‘It’s a big hit for UFC reputation’ – Petr Yan reacts to Dominick Cruz’s title shot

Posted on April 21, 2020 by Zane Simon in Front Page, UFC News

It seems to be the never-ending story in the UFC’s bantamweight division. Fighter blazes his way up the rankings, with quality wins over quality opponents; shows he has every right to take on the champion in a bid to win their own piece of UFC gold—and stamp their names in the MMA history books along the way. And then they just sit there, waiting and watching while Urijah Faber or Dominick Cruz fights for the title again.

Despite Cruz not having competed since Barack Obama was in office, he’s the man top contender Petr Yan is watching get yet another bid to win the bantamweight belt. This after Cejudo’s plans to take on former featherweight champion Jose Aldo fell apart—due to travel and visa problems amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. For men like Yan, Cory Sandhagen, and Aljamain Sterling, it seems they just can’t find their way into the UFC’s plans. And at this point it sounds like Yan is getting tired of it all.

He’s not blaming Cejudo for this mess, though, Yan says he knows the champ is “playing his game.” For him it’s all about the decisions being made upstairs.

“It’s weird that the UFC also agrees with [Henry Cejudo]—that’s kind of weird,” Yan told the Eurobash podcast (transcript via MMA Fighting).

“To be honest, moments like this in UFC kind of upset me,” Yan admitted. “[Dominick Cruz] didn’t fight for three years and now he’s getting a title shot? It kind of upsets me and it’s a big hit for UFC reputation, in my opinion.”

Yan even theorized that in his case it could be that the UFC doesn’t want to have two Russian champions. And if he were American that this might be a much different story. That, of course, doesn’t really account for why Jose Aldo was on deck for his own title shot, or why fighters like Sandhagen and Sterling are getting left behind as well. For Yan, though, it sounds like he’s just grasping for any sensible explanation.

“I don’t think that [UFC’s] main goal,” Yan said, of his own idea that they might be avoiding him because he’s Russian, “but to me it’s kind of unclear why they gave it to Cruz. I don’t think, in my opinion, he’s going to bring a lot of pay-per-views buys. I don’t know why, it’s kind of a difficult question for me.”

“I think there are more active and deserving fighters that could fight for the belt and I don’t understand why they’d give it to a guy that’s been so inactive for so long.”

For the moment, at least, the re-re-booted UFC 249 fight card is set to take place on May 9th in parts unknown. Reports were that the event would be headlined by a trio of title fights, including an interim lightweight title bout between Tony Ferguson & Justin Gaethje, as well as a women’s featherweight title fight between Amanda Nunes and Felicia Spencer. All that to go alongside the bantamweight title bout between Henry Cejudo and Dominick Cruz.

However, with Nunes recently reporting that she was off the card, and with no location finalized it’s still unclear exactly what, if any UFC bouts will actually occur on the day.

Lyman Good is first UFC fighter to reveal positive test for COVID-19

Posted on April 20, 2020 by Zane Simon in Front Page, MMA Health and Science, UFC News

Whether he picked it up in training or elsewhere, at least Lyman Good was willing to take proper precautions once he started to come down with symptoms of the coronavirus. ‘Cyborg’ told ESPN that he began to feel unwell about a month ago, during camp prep for his planned fight against Belal Muhammad on April 18th. Fortunately, he was able to get tested—the results came back positive for COVID-19.

Eventually Good, his girlfriend, and one of his coaches all tested positive. Forcing Good to self-quarantine while fighting off the symptoms of the virus. Fortunately, his training partners’ tests came up clear, and Good himself has now recovered and tested clear as well.

“I knew something was up,” Good told ESPN. “I know my body. I’ve been through it all. I’ve been through a lot of injuries and a lot of other things. But this was different. … As a professional athlete, we’re always constantly pushing our bodies. For me, my body was like my point check to see how physically I feel and everything. And my body just wasn’t there at all.”

“My real concern was really just my teammates, my coaches and anyone I was exposed to,” Good continued. “God forbid they get it, they spread it, and someone else gets sick really bad. I would feel responsible.”

Good told MMA Fighting at the time that he had withdrawn from the fight due to injury. He admitted to ESPN that he kept his diagnosis under wraps from the general public (he did tell people around him), because he didn’t want to “feed into the fear.” He has however been working with the Red Cross to donate his antibodies in order to “take this negative and try to turn it into a positive.”

“We didn’t want to feed into the fear, the imminent fear going on in society now,” Good said. “It’s a pandemic, it is a real thing happening. But I didn’t want to stoke the flames.”

Now that he’s healthy, though, he’s reportedly already back training. Good told ESPN that he wants to “get back on a card” soon and that while he was “out of commission for a little bit,” he’s now “ready to go back there.” If the UFC finds a way to start putting on events again, it sounds like he’ll likely be in their future fight card plans.

Jon Jones tells Anthony Smith to buy a gun – Someone ‘like me’ could’ve ‘had his way with you all night’

Posted on April 18, 2020 by Zane Simon in Crime, Front Page, Quick Hits, UFC News

Free time really doesn’t seem to be a great friend to Jon Jones. The UFC light heavyweight champion has already turned his stint of self-quarantine into some of the most inglorious kind of headlines, after getting arrested for driving while intoxicated and reckless use of a firearm charges—eventually pleading guilty to a DWI.

With that behind him, however, he’s found himself pursuing a war of words with recent title challenger Anthony Smith. Smith fought Jones for the belt back in March of 2019, losing a clear unanimous decision—this despite Jones getting deducted two points in the fourth round for an illegal knee. In the months since, however, Smith has been adamant that he feels he can solve the Jones riddle. And when ‘Lionheart’ ended up the victim of a recent, terrifying late-night home invasion, Jones leapt at the story as a chance to needle his former opponent.

Jones sent out a message that he was glad Smith was alright, but there was “no way” the intruder would have left his house walking. Smith shot back at the champion in an episode of MMA on Sirius XM.

“Just for a second I thought you were human and you had a soul and then I realized, yo, you’re still the same piece of sh-t you’ve always been.”

All of which led Jones back to Twitter, and a Tweet that was probably best left in drafts. Or maybe just in Jones’ head, and off his phone altogether (h/t MMA Mania).

Jones quickly deleted the message. But, the internet is undefeated.

Currently, both Smith and Jones are sitting on the sidelines, waiting to see if the UFC can get back to business in the coming weeks. If – as Dana White has been adamant they would – the promotion does start putting on events sometime in May, it just might be that there’s enough heat brewing between these two to push the promotion to make a rematch.