Inside MMA TV report
*** This week, Vitor speaks about preparing for his "almost" fight with Fedor, Paul Buentello reveals what he did after he first learned of the Affliction show being cancelled, and Fedor's management speaks on the UFC and practically threatens Affliction. We also learn that Fedor isn't exactly innocent in M-1's negotiations with the UFC and why, plus we learn that Scott Coker isn't the "real power" behind Strikeforce. Tito Ortiz expalins what type of relationship he has with Dana now, and what it took for Dana to bring him back to the UFC, the latest homes for the orphaned “Affliction Trilogy” fights and we find out who Diego Sanchez wants to fight for the Lightweight title. All this and much more this week on Inside MMA!
Inside MMA report by Steve Te Tai (
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Originally aired July 31 at 9pm EST on HDNET
Kenny Rice & Bas Rutten with guest panelists: Vitor Belfort (formerly of Affliction), Paul Buentello (formerly of Affliction), and Josh Gross (Sports Illustrated)
“Affliction Fallout”
Kenny talks about how the UFC gets stronger with the pile of would-be competitor bodies stacking up higher and higher, with the latest being Affliction.
Vitor Belfort says he found out about the show cancellation from his friend and PR man in Brazil. He began cutting weight about two weeks before the show, and he was offered Fedor. He jumped at it because he really looked forward to the challenge of fighting Fedor. When he has an actual goal, and has passion in his heart, he can perform very well. So he was very motivated by this challenge and saw it as a win-win situation. Everyone knows he has the speed and power, etc. but it’s a matter of putting it altogether. He trained with Ray Sefo and Shawn Tompkins specifically to prepare and motivate for Fedor. And then one day he wakes up, a week before the fight, and he is told the show was cancelled, just before contracts were being drawn up.
Paul Buentello says his people are working on what compensation he’s going to be getting since his fight was cancelled. On the Friday morning he got a call from Tom Atencio. For a second he thought that maybe he was being offered the Fedor fight, but when he found out the entire show was cancelled it took the wind out of his sails. He talks about how he really needed this fight since times are hard these days. He felt like any other “common man” who worked for some company and was just laid off and he’s now unemployed. Upon news first breaking, his trainers tried to encourage him to keep training anyway, but he declined and started relaxing by drinking sodas and going to his favorite Mexican restaurant.
Kenny questions whether this show should have been cancelled at all with so many fighters willing to step in to fight Fedor. Josh Gross references Brett Rogers/Belfort possibilities and the issues with Showtime not wanting to go forward with a show with an advertised main event that would not take place. He adds that there were those on the clothing side of Affliction more in charge of the money, who were leaning towards pulling the plug. While others in Affliction looked at the MMA show as part of the marketing budget with the goal of the Affliction shows being promoting the “Affliction” brand more so than running a profitable company. Once Affliction had an “out” with the UFC it made it that much easier a decision. Gross says that Affliction wanted out of the fighting business back in October of last year. He doesn’t think they should’ve cancelled because the card was so strong. (For my two cents, as soon as Barnett was out, there wasn’t a non-UFC opponent I’d pay $55 to see fight Fedor except Tito, no matter how strong the undercard was.)
Kenny says the common denominator among these failed promotions is the “money guys” always come out and proclaim future dominance over the UFC, while Strikeforce never has. He also points out no one points out all those years that UFC was swimming in red ink, they only focus on recent successes as their basis for their new promotion succeeding.
“Newscage with Ron Kruck”
He covered the M-1 Global press conference where he hoped they would announce Fedor’s next fight or employer but instead just announced that Fedor would be “headlining” the new EA Sports video game. They showed a clip of Jerry Millen, (the US representative for M-1 who Bas Rutten referred to “off camera” as “that asshole” at the Affliction 2 weigh-ins.)
Fedor (with his new California tan probably picked up from riding roller coasters all day), was interviewed and said he found out as soon as he arrived in America. It became very unpleasant. President of M-1, Vadim Finkelchtein (speaking via translator) added how disappointed he was that “they gave up so fast, and the whole world was waiting for that event.” Fedor says he is negotiating with different companies and if God allows he’ll be able to fight this year. Vadim says he is negotiating with Strikeforce, UFC, and Japan. He says they are looking for a “partner”. He jokes about the irony of Dana White having just left for Europe when Dana and Lorenzo used to accuse them of “hiding from them”, and now they are in America waiting for them. “Fedor is not a common European fighter, he does not need to prove to anybody, we made our offer, they made their offer, at the moment we did not come to an agreement.”
Kruck says the main sticking point is that M-1 wants to do a co-promotion to which M-1 says is a must. As for the status of Fedor with Affliction since he had one fight remaining, American attorney for M-1, Mark Hines, says in an almost threatening manner, “At this time they won’t disclose what they’re going to do right now, but they promise Affliction if something was done wrong, somebody will be held responsible. The M-1 folks are very honorable and they will do everything to protect their rights in the courts of the United States.”
Kruck spoke to Tom Atencio. Tom says he’ll go back to the sponsorship programs working with fighters.“ As for his thoughts on the all around lifespan of Affliction, Tom rattles off a plethora of clichés in one big Sarah Palin-like mish mash of a sentence. He says, “In life you learn lessons if you don’t then um… I don’t know … hindsight’s 20/20 you know .. and we’re always gonna learn, all we can do is say shoulda coulda woulda, at least that’s how I live my life.”
They post a statement from Dana White basically saying he’s doing everything he can to sign Fedor because the fans want it. Kenny states the UFC doesn’t need Fedor, or any one individual for that matter. Bas says that shows how passionate Dana is for the sport, that he acknowledges it’s a fighter that the fans want. Kenny strikes back and says Dana didn’t care about the people when Randy Couture wanted to fight Fedor (whooaaa snap!)
Josh Gross says Dana wants the fight but under his conditions. He says Fedor has equity stake in M-1, and the way it was told to him is that M-1 is a safety net for Fedor. Something he can rely on when his fighting days are done for money and promoting the sport internationally since M-1 has presence in Europe, Russia, and everywhere else. The co-promotion aspect is more Fedor’s directive than his management. Gross hopes a deal can be done before Fedor ages and moves past his prime, but he doesn’t think anything will be done soon if the co-promotional aspect is still a demand. He remembers years ago Dana and the Fertititas were anxious to co-promote, as they did with Pride by sending Chuck Liddell (to get beat by Rampage the first time), but they felt burned by that arrangement since Pride ended up never sending anybody back in return. But for the growth of this sport, promoters need to learn to work together and if Dana truly wants to give fans the fights they want then sometimes they can’t happen only under their terms. The UFC won’t lose any credibility by co-promoting major events with Fedor.
“Strikeforce on August 15”
They highlight the top three fights as Gina Carano vs. Cyborg Santos, Babalu Sobral vs. Gegard Mousasi, and Gilbert Melendez vs. Ishida. Buentello looks forward to the womens fight and Bas says everytime the women end up with the best fight on a given card. Kenny compliments Scott Coker for being a smart businessman and not boasting they can beat the UFC. Buentello puts him over as straight forward business man and doesn’t act like a “fan”.
Josh Gross puts over Showtime as being the top competitor to UFC, not so much “Strikeforce” because it is understated how much pull Showtime has with Strikeforce and they have to sign off on everything and they’re the ones who call all the shots in a lot of ways.
“UFC 101: Declaration”
The Philadelphia debut card is listed as BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian, Anderson Silva vs. Forrest Griffin, Sadollah vs. Hendricks, Grove vs. Almeida, and Neer vs. Pellegrino. Bas adds that Thales Leites is fighting as well.
“Sengoku 9 preview”
Michael Schiavello previews the show. Featherweight semi-finals will take place with Hioki vs. Kanehara and Omigawa vs. Sandro. Also Kitaoka defends the 155 belt against Hirota (who just beat Gomi).
“Highlights”
Shark Fights from Amarillo, TX (Paul Buentello’s home town) in a free show before 10,000 fans to see Tony Castillo over Josh Milward, Bryan Humes over Elmar Nicely, Willie Scott over Thomas Grissom, Nissen Osterneck over Kyle Bracey, Marcus Sursa over Ricky Shivers, and Doug Evans over Douglas Frey to win the Featherweight title.
“MMA Junkie/Inside MMA Poll”
Who is the best pound for pound fighter?
38% GSP
30% Fedor
15% Anderson Silva
12% Lyoto Machida
4% Miguel Torres
1% Other
(Where’s Mike Brown? Maybe his “wrestling fans are hillbillies” line didn’t go over too well with the MMA Junkie crowd)
“Boxing in MMA”
Kenny puts over Paul Buentello’s boxing experience and they show highlights of his pinpoint jabs he threw against “Baby Fedor” Sirilnikov at Affliction 2. Then he gets more technical with Bas talking about the execution of a jab and they lost me.
Kenny talks about Vitor’s incredible knockout of Matt Lindland at the last Affliction show. Vitor says he started BJJ when he was around thirteen years old. He noticed that BJJ was effective on the ground but that Jiu-Jitsu guys didn’t know how to fight like Vale Tudo fighters did. While BJJ is great on the ground, you might have a weapon that you are never able to use because everyone has good takedown defense. In today’s MMA those that know how to give a punch, block a punch, and take a punch and can put the combination together, while they might not be great on the ground, they are the best fighters.
Paul Buentello says if you live by “that” sword, whether it be BJJ, striking, etc., you will die that same way. He points out as a stand up fighter, he received a devastating knockout at UFC 55, but its how you rebound from those types of knockouts that define you. He says he won four in a row after that.
Josh says the sport has put more recent importance in boxing and talks about the effectiveness of the jab. He references when Noguiera was getting killed by Cro-Cop, his corner made a change and he started using the jab until he was able to get Cro-Cop on the ground where he won the fight. Bas and Paul talk about the importance of not being lazy or weak with your jabs referencing how Tim Sylvia threw his weak jabs at Ray Mercer and got knocked out for it.
“Highlights”
Pure Combat from Denver, CO, Danny Martinez over Nick Honstein, Jesse Bowen over Phillip Perez, Steve Ramirez over Darvin Wattree in a 3 second knockout (does that beat Bret Hart’s record win over the Mountie?), and Anthony Ruiz over Gan McGhee (that 6’11” guy who fought Tim Sylvia in the early Zuffa days.)
“Mickey’s Lights Out Moment of the Week”
Ramirez’ 3 second KO of Darvin Wattree.
“Newscage with Ron Kruck”
He talks about Dana White’s press conference from Friday, and an interview with Tito Ortiz on his return to the UFC. Tito says he and Dana White are friends again and that Dana apologized for things he did, and his goal is be UFC Light Heavyweight champion again. Tito says he and Dana’s feud is squashed and they will embrace him as the champion he was once before and will continue to be.
Diego Sanchez would like BJ Penn to beat Kenny Florian, since it would be a huge marquee fight between the two of them. But if Kenny wins, then good for him, since Diego earned his title shot, and by beating BJ, Kenny will have earned the right for a rematch with Diego (Diego beat Kenny in the TUF 1 Finals for 185. Yep, 185.)
“Quick Hits”
--Ben Rothwell debuts at UFC 104 against Chase Gormley (this was originally scheduled for Affliction 3)
--Tim Kennedy (was on the military Inside MMA show a while back) will be free of his military service on November 4 and will devote full time to fighting in Strikeforce.
--Xtreme Fighting Championships will begin shows in Germany (Dec 12), Switzerland, and Austria after forming a partnership with a German based promotion, and the next show will be in Tampa on September 5 on HDNET.
--Sobral-Mousasi will be moved from Affliction 3 to the Strikeforce show on August 15. Mousasi talks about Sobral not being the type to try to win on points and predicts the fight will end in the first round.
--Josh Thomson’s ankle break has not completely healed and has pulled out of the fight against Gilbert Melendez.
--Jay Hieron will step into Joe Riggs spot to face Nick Diaz for the first ever Welterweight championship.
Back at the studio, Kenny says it would be nice for Strikeforce to establish itself as good for the sport, comparing it to fans being able to enjoy College Basketball and the NBA at the same time.
Josh Gross says he felt 2009 would reveal a lot about the next ten years in MMA. For Affliction to just jump on PPV without TV was dumb. He likes how Strikeforce is doing it by starting on Showtime. Kenny brings it back to the Ultimate Fighter as the first exposure for folks who weren’t around when Bas and Vitor were in the UFC in the 90’s. He says the reality show allowed people to get to know the players in MMA since its tough to jump in if you don’t follow MMA week to week. Bas adds you also got to see what it took to be a fighter training-wise as far as clearing up the stigma that it’s just a street fight in a cage.
Kenny credits a viewer for pointing out that Bas’ oft used expression about quality fighters training each other to improve each other with the “iron sharpens iron so one man sharpens another” line is from the Bible, Proverbs 27:17 (And Austin 3:16 says I just … oh forget it)
“Toe to Toe with El Guapo”
When asked if a beginning fighter should take amateur fights as a better way of learning than just training, Bas says if you are already unsure about it, then you shouldn’t take on a fight. And if you do take a fight at an early stage and lose miserably you’ll never want to fight again. If you feel comfortable and you have a lot of stamina, then be prepared training wise, then take the fight. Paul Buentello adds that you really have to “love” the sport before you do it, or it’s not worth it.
When asked if a fighter’s ability to come back after a KO is more physical than mental, Bas says everything is mental. If you think you are unstoppable and can’t be knocked out, but then you are, you now have a seed of doubt in your head and you won’t be the same. He says fighters like that send subliminal/telepathic messages to their opponent that they are vulnerably just like guys with secret injuries who somehow communicate the injury and get hurt by it. If you can mentally turn that off, then you’ll be ok and references the K-1 fighters who always come back from knockouts.
“Split Decision”
--Best Pound for Pound fighter? Vitor says GSP, Anderson Silva, and Lyoto deserve the title, Buentello says its GSP’s time right now, Josh says it’s tough to say its not any of those guys from the poll, but in terms of pure dominance he’s had Fedor #1 for a long time and can’t back down from that.
--Who wins, Penn or Florian? The panel all picks BJ Penn
--If Bas came out of retirement to face Fedor, who wins? Paul picks Bas because he drinks red wine every night and because Paul wants to be back on “Inside MMA”, Vitor goes with Bas too, and Josh reluctantly goes with Fedor. Bas announces Josh Gross will not be back on “Inside MMA”.
If you don’t get HDNET or missed the show, you can see extended video highlights at http://hd.net/insidemma.html.
So like El Guapo always says, Godspeed and party on!
