Sengoku Steroid Championship Bad for Mixed Martial Arts

In a recent interview with Tatame, Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva stated that should he emerge victorious from his fight at the upcoming Sengoku 10th Battle with "Big" Jim York, a bout with Josh Barnett for the vacant Sengoku Heavyweight title would take place in November.

Nothing like rewarding steroid users with championship belts and a place to fight when they can't make a living in North America...

While the casual fan may not pay any attention to what takes place in MMA organizations across the Pacific, you can be certain that opponents to the sport will certainly take notice and have something to say about this, and so should those who are passionate about the sport.

At a time when Mixed Martial Arts is on the cusp of breaking into the mainstream and garnering more attention than ever before, presenting a globally-unified front against performance enhancing drugs and honoring Athletic Commission suspensions by all organizations would be a great positive for the sport.

Instead, as organizations like World Victory Road continue to give suspended fighters like Silva and Barnett an opportunity to fight, those who challenge the validity of the sport are given ammunition for their attacks.

Though Silva is no longer under suspension and eyeballing a return to North America in 2010, WVR saw no problems with giving the former EliteXC heavyweight champion a place on the Sengoku 7 fight card just seven months into his one year suspension.

While the fighters themselves are equally responsible for ignoring their suspensions and accepting these fights, the fact of the matter is that they would have no such opportunities if World Victory Road did not disregard for the suspensions that have been handed down.

The message this sends is that steroid use isn't a major concern to World Victory Road; they would rather put on fights with suspended fighters known to use steroids than help MMA fight to remain a clean sport, and that is something detractors will jump all over.

With any athletic competition, the question of steroids is bound to come up.

Openly welcoming fighters who are serving suspensions for positive tests only lends credence to the argument that steroids are common place within Mixed Martial Arts.

Whether that statement is valid or not doesn't really matter; perception is reality and giving those who view the sport as savage brutality the chance to add steroid abuse to their list of complaints and objections is pouring fuel on the fire.

Despite the fact that North American organizations are not condoning this behavior, the scrutiny will certainly turn to Strikeforce, the UFC and the countless smaller organizations that actually adhere to the suspensions.

Unfortunately, there is very little that can be done to keep this from happening.

World Victory Road clearly has no intention or interest in honoring the suspensions, and levying further penalties on the fighters themselves is futile as long as WVR is willing to give them a place to fight.

Thank you World Victory Road.

You've given the ever-watchful eye of the Mixed Martial Arts opposition another platform to attack the sport from.

I can see it now:

"Steroid-fueled monsters covered in blood pummel each other until their faces are unrecognizable. How is this savagery considered a sport?" By John Canzano

Continue reading...

As Affliction Crumbles, White Wins Again

Like it or not, it's time to give it up to Dana White.

His detractors will say that he enjoys the failure of his competitors too much and while it may certainly be true, you have to give the guy credit for what he has managed to accomplish with the UFC.

The current buzz around the MMA world is Josh Barnett's removal from the Main Event at Affliction: Trilogy on August 1st and who his possible replacement might be. Regardless of who fills in to fight Fedor, there is a good chance this will be Affliction's last show. Another one bites the dust.

Meanwhile, Dana White and the UFC are standing stronger than ever.

On the heels of the second-largest gate revenue in the company's history, White has the UFC positioned to break into the mainstream media and garner the kind of coverage not yet afforded to Mixed Martial Arts in North America.

Despite his polarizing personality and heavy reliance on The F Bomb, White has succeed where so many others have failed and that is worthy of recognition in my books.

Affliction's pending demise only further underscores how impressive the success of the UFC as a brand and company truly is. Despite an impressive roster and bi-annual cards stacked to the rafters with talent, Affliction couldn't make a dent in the UFC's stranglehold on the PPV market.

While Affliction certainly succeeded where the UFC failed in landing Fedor, the end result may actually be more beneficial for the UFC when all is said and done.

Paying opposition to get obliterated by "The Last Emperor" cost Affliction a ton of money; Tim Sylvia earned $900,000 for 37 seconds of work, while Andrei Arlovski pocketed approximately $2.2 million for his brief Affliction career.

Meanwhile, Emelianenko's name has slowly began to gain recognition in North America among the casual fan, and just in time for a potential move to the UFC. Funny how that worked out ...

From the moment I heard of Affliction's foray into the promotion business, it sounded like a bad idea to me. Honestly, it sounded like Tom Atencio wanted to get into a pissing contest with Dana White.

Since then, he's called out White and challenged his image as a tough guy, stepping into the cage himself, as if to prove how tough and committed to the sport he is. Now he's on the brink of being out of the promotions game altogether.

Then there is White.

Love him or hate him, his shrewd business tactics and decade of work to build the UFC is paying off in spades, with the future looking brighter than ever before.

New markets continue to open. PPV numbers continue to soar. Life has been pumped back into The Ultimate Fighter series. Toys and video games and trading cards are hitting the shelves and flying off of them just as quickly.

Eleven days from now, Tom Atencio will be back mass-producing ugly t-shirts.

Dana White will be busy continuing to build the UFC Empire.

Your winner, by knockout, and still champion of the world ...



Continue reading...

The UFC 100: The Dirty 30's

With each passing day, we're getting closer to crowning the Greatest Fighter in UFC History.

This is where things really start to get interesting, as from here on out we're talking champions and icons, guys who have had a strong impact on the UFC in one way, shape or form. Like the two guys pictured.

They may have squared off in Pride, but both have what it takes to make it into The Dirty Thirties.

40. Kenny Florian
UFC Record: 9-2
Victories Over: Joe Stevenson, Roger Huerta, Joe Lauzon

Later this summer, we could be referring to him as Lightweight Champion Kenny Florian. It's a real possibility, as few fighters have evolved as much as Florian over his time in the UFC. Now that Diego Sanchez has dropped down to lightweight as well, I'm eagerly anticipating a rematch between the two Ultimate Fighter finalists.

39. Oleg Taktarov
UFC Record: 6-2-1
Victories Over: Marco Ruas, Dave Benenteau, Tank Abbott

My favorite former fighter turned actor, Taktarov is a more forgotten man than Marco Ruas, a man who many consider his chief rival. The winner of the UFC 6 tournament, Taktarov's losses came to Dan Severn and the draw is courtesy of Ken Shamrock, so this is clearly a guy who was performing on the top level back when the UFC was still in diapers.

38. Matt Lindland
UFC Record: 9-3
Victories Over: Travis Lutter, Phil Baroni (twice), Pat Miletich

"The Law" is more widely known these days from his attempted foray into politics, the documentary about said foray and his overall reputation in MMA as a founding member of Team Quest. Before the politics and the movies about fighting and politics, Lindland was a UFC staple who handed out losses to some quality opponents and helped David Terrell earn a place at No. 67 by getting knocked out in 24 seconds.

37. Maurice Smith
UFC Record: 4-3
Victories Over: Marco Ruas, Tank Abbot, Mark Coleman

Smith was a champion kickboxer with an average MMA record when he stepped into the cage with Mark Coleman at UFC 14. Twenty-one minutes later, the judges gave Smith a majority decision and the UFC Heavyweight title, which he defended at UFC 15 by defeating Tank Abbott.

36. Josh Barnett
UFC Record: 4-1
Victories Over: Gan McGee, Semmy Schilt, Randy Couture

Welcome to what could have been. If not for a positive test he still disputes, Barnett could have been a UFC Heavyweight mainstay for years and held the Heavyweight title for who knows how long. Instead, he's another of the "win it and leave it behind group" and the youngest champion in UFC history.

35. Guy Mezger
UFC Record: 4-1
Victories Over: Tito Ortiz

No Guy Mezger, no Tito Ortiz feud with Ken Shamrock. It's as simple as that. Well, that and he was a pretty damn solid fighter in his own right and the winner of the UFC Lightweight (read: under 200 pound) tournament over "The Huntington Beach Bad Boy" after all.

34. Wanderlei Silva
UFC Record: 2-5
Victories Over: Keith Jardine

Introducing the hardest fighter on this whole list to rank. He's 2-5 which is close to Elvis Sinosic territory and the Aussie certainly didn't make the list with his 1-6 record. But despite only one win over a household name, the five losses come at the hands of Vitor Belfort, Tito Ortiz, Chuck Liddell, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson and Rich Franklin. With 33 fighters left to go, none of those guys have made an appearance yet, but all of them will.

33. Dan Henderson
UFC Record: 4-2
Victories Over: Carlos Newton, Rousimar Palhares, Rich Franklin

When you have back-to-back title fights in different weight classes immediately upon returning to the organization, you're pushing the Top 30 in my books. While that opportunity came from his storied career in Pride, Hendo gave both Anderson Silva and Rampage all they could handle and now he's riding a two fight winning streak heading into Saturday's matchup with Michael Bisping.


32. Jon Fitch
UFC Record: 9-1
Victories Over: Akihiro Gono, Diego Sanchez, Thiago Alves

Another member of the fight card at UFC 100, Fitch is looking to become the 13th member of the Ten Win Club. While I won't go as far as saying he gave GSP a scare in his one career loss, the former Purdue Boilermaker did go the distance with the champ and that counts for something with me.

31. Pedro Rizzo
UFC Record: 9-5
Victories Over: Andrei Arlovski, Dan Severn, Josh Barnett

You can add Mark Coleman, Tank Abbott, Tre Telligman (twice), Tyusyoshi Kohsaka and Ricco Rodriguez to the list of victories for "The Rock" during his UFC career. With losses to Randy Couture (twice), Vladimir Matyushenko, Kevin Randleman and Gan McGee, not one of Rizzo's fights in the UFC came against a sub-par opponent. You gotta respect a guy who takes on some of the best every time out.

A couple more days of this and we'll be done. Who will be #1?

Track back to see what you missed with the 40's, 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's.







Continue reading...

Undecided About Affliction

I am 100% torn on Affliction.

On one hand, Tom Atencio annoys the shit out of me wanting to fight Dana White and thinking getting in the ring later this month in Florida somehow makes him more committed to the sport than the guy who made it what it is in North America.

I hate that I have to wait six months between shows. Seriously, with the financial backers that are in place for this organization, you're telling me you can't run a show more than once every six months?


But at the same time, the six month gap means every Affliction card is loaded. I mean LOADED. Take the poorly named Affliction: Trilogy card set for August 1st at the Honda Center in Anaheim:

Fedor vs. Josh Barnett.
Sylvia vs. Buentello - admittedly not that awesome...
Babalu vs. Gegard Mousasi (pictured)
Vitor Belfort vs. Jorge Santiago
Jay Hieron vs. Paul Daley
Dan Lauzon vs. Chris Horodecki

Other than the Sylvia vs. Buentello bout, I'd pay to see the rest of the card.

And you have to give Affliction credit for bringing in a guy like Mousasi and finding a quality opponent for him.

The reigning DREAM middleweight champ is riding a 12 fight winning streak and has done it over top tier competition in various weight classes. After earning the win in the DREAM Middleweight Grand Prix, Mousasi stepped up to fight in the same Super Hulk tournament as Jose Canseco and came away with a first round submission of Mark Hunt.

Now, he comes to North America to spread his name and keep notching wins, something I believe he will do against the Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Sobral. Nothing against Babalu, but Mousasi is on the cusp of making the Keyboard Kimura Pound for Pound Rankings.

While I love the UFC having competition - because competition makes everyone better - I can't help but wish deep down that the Trilogy card is exactly what the name implies: the third and final chapter of Affliction MMA.

Why?

No matter how stack the cards are, six months is a long time to wait and you have to know that the UFC would snap up a bunch of the Affliction talent - as well as make a monster push to sign Fedor - and having all the best talent in the world under one roof is far better than anything having a twice a year competitor could bring.
Continue reading...