Brock Lesnar is not an easy prey for Aistair Overeem

Brock Lesnar doing his thing

Zuffa have a pleasant gift for all the MMA fans out there - UFC 141 features a main event bout between Strikeforce's former champion Alistair Oereem and the former UFC champion Brock Lesnar. A fantasy matchup that the fans have demanded and now have it given to them. Good job, Dana!

You know that I'm the last person on Earth to make predictions. With that said, I feel that Brock Lesnar is going to beat Overeem.

I just watched Brock's newest "I'm back after the surgery" video (the one where he shot an innocent buck deer) and to me Brock looked super fucking depressed, mentally beat up and almost... hmmm...  crazy?
His mumbling about still being the baddest man on the planet didn't look scripted to me. It looked like Brock really had lost his mind.
It's not a surprise after the horrible experience he had gone through - the guy just lost 30 centimeters of his colon bowel, so he most probably is not in a good physical shape either.
Add to this the fact that Brock Lesnar is considered to be an one-trick pony, a newbie and a learner of the game of MMA, a glass-hearted gold digger and a Zuffa cash cow who is afraid to get punched in the face, and you may start to think that he'd be an easy prey for Alistair Overeem.
I mean, Overeem is that unstoppable Dutch striker, he is the Strikeforce champion and the K-1 GP winner, so Lesnar has no chance against him, right?

Let me explain why you punks are all Wrong.

It's very easy - this fight is a super bad matchup for Overeem.
Lesnar may not have a whole lot of diverse tools and weapons in his arsenal, but the guy has the only thing that is required to beat Overeem: Wrestling - the skill that so many MMA fans fail to understand is the single most important martial art in the whole game.
I know what people are going to reply to this and I kind of sorta agree with that: Lesnar's wrestling is a tad overrated. Maybe it is!
But no matter how mediocre Brock's wrestling has become, it is still *WAY* better than the wrestling skills of the fighters Overeem's been fighting so far. Brock has scored a takedown in every single one of his fights. Including against a top wrestler in Cain Velasquez.

So you can forget about Overeem stuffing Bock's takedowns. Lesnar is not Werdum - he simply takes people down at will, and when he takes them down, he fucking runs through them. His top control and the pressure he applies on a grounded opponent are hard to overcome. Plus I am pretty sure that 90% of Lesnar's training camp will be focused on taking Overeem down and mauling him from the top position.

In  other words, I am pretty sure that Overeem is going to be taken down by Lesnar.
I'm tired of listening to all those claims about how good Overeem's ground game is. The Reem's grappling is good, and it is more than OK in the standup - he has submitted quite a few people with a standing guillotine... but great grappling skills from the guard he does not possess.
So what the fuck is The Reem gonna do from the bottom? Triangle Brock?
And let's not forget that Overeem CHOKES in big fights and that he has one of the weakest chins in the HW division. Once Lesnar starts ground and pounding him, I don't see him coming out of this.

So, will Overeem beat a sick, depressed, weak, coming from a 12 month lay off Brock Lesnar?
I wouldn't bet the house on that!
Brock Lesnar by ground and pound KO.

Fedor "loses" to Dan Henderson via TERRIBLE early stoppage ROBBERY

Fedor Emelianenko and Dan Henderson

So, Fedor just lost to Dan Henderson...This is what his MMA record will show from now on - a loss to Hendo. However, what his record will not be showing is the way he lost: via ref robbery!

The early stoppage in a nutshell:

Fedor loses position in the ground game and while on all four gets hit by an upercut from Dan Henderson, coming from behind his back and underneath his armpit. As a result Fedor suffers a flash knockout for about one second, he then recovers and starts fighting back immediately, but Herb Dean stops the fight in a great hurry.

What kind of bullshit is that???! Fedor was robbed.

When Brock Lesnar was flash KO-ed by Cain Velasquez and when he hit the ground face-first, the referee, Herb Dean, gave him all he time in the world to recover. But when Fedor got rocked by Hendo, the same damn referee, was in a bloody hurry to call the fight off!

BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT! BULLSHIT!

So, you bums don't think that Fedor deserves at least the same recovery time they gave to fucking Cheick Kongo when he got dropped by Pat Barry?
Don't you, punks, remember the Paul Daley vs Nick Diaz fight? Don't you? Are you telling me that when Daley flash-KO'ed Diaz and Nick did a faceplant and was out for a second, the fight should have been stopped? Don't you, morons, remember what happened when Diaz recovered from that short flash knockout? He freaking beat the snot out of Daley - the guy who just knocked his ass out for a second.
...Bloody teenage punk ass emos...

You know what?  Screw you, screw Herb Dean and screw Herb's closest friend - Dana White too!

Not to get too deep into conspiracy theories, but hey: you know what I mean? *wink*

Fedor's Sweater Is Back!

Fedor Emelianenko sporting the legendary sweater.

Few things in MMA have reached cult status. Fedor's legendary sweater is definitely one of them. And guess what: The Sweater is back and it is being worn by no oher but Fedor, of course.
It is great news that the cult piece of clothing is still in the possession of The Last Emperor.
For fuck's sake, Fedor, do NOT give the sweater to Ariel Shillwa... err, Helwani, like you promised in your last interview. The sneaky, big-nosed Zuffa shill should never be allowed to even touch The Sweater, let alone have it on his wall.
I wonder what happened to the promised release of fan shirts emulating Fedor's sweater pattern... wonder if they're out already.
I would fucking buy three of those and would wear them only on special occasions. Hurry up, Evgeni Kogan, the legend is back - just fucking print those shirts.

Fedor Knocks Out A Movie Stuntman

It looks like some funny shit happened at the set of  Fedor Emelianenko's first movie - "The Salamander Key".
In this video interview Fedor tells the story and I took my time to translate it for you, you MMA weirdos. Next time learn Russian just like I learned English, you punks. Transcription is below the video:

Fedor:
You know, I actually liked acting in a movie - it was interesting, but I feel that at this stage I should not be doing this because I am a sportsman and I have to compete. 

Fedor:
There was a curious and not very pleasant situation involving me and a stuntman. The scene didn't go the way we rehearsed it.

Journaist:
What happened?
Fedor (smiles):
He suffered a light knockout.

Fedor:
I wish that people started thinking a little bit more and always tried to do good things, it doesn't matter whether in a movie or in real life.

Dana White / Zuffa refuse to renew Fedor Emelianenko's contract?

Fedor Emelianenko

I was browsing the internet a second ago when I saw this fucking news. Let me start by saying that this most probably is a bullshit rumor but one that is worth analyzing.
It was posted on somebody's Facebook wall  - a link to a Russian sports web portal: http://lifesports.ru/news/54627

Basically, what the news says is that a "source" close to Fedor told the Russian news agency that the Zuffa guys have refused to renew Fedor's contract.
The source's commentary was that Fedor's price has dropped down dramatically after his latest back-to-back losses in Strikeforce. The Russian article says that Fedor was offered two options: to serve as a stepping stone to young fighters or to leave.
Hmmm.. That sounds pretty fucking phony, if you ask me.

I really don't know if this fucking news is true or not, but if it is true, let's analyze the reasons why Zuffa wouldn't want the former Pride FC heavyweight champion's contract to be continued. They may be more complex than it seems.
And before all you nutcases start ripping on Dana White & Co. for being a bunch of Fedor "haters", please be aware that Dana never takes things personally - he doesn't give a flying fuck about what a person or a manager has to say about him. Dana only cares about Zuffa's market, Zuffa's business and about the money this or that fighter can generate for Zuffa.

So, one reasonable explanation may be that Zuffa sees M1 as the new competition on the MMA market. Especially now, when M1 have a Showtime deal. So why resign and build up M1's most prominent fighter? Why not kill M1's cash cow and thus make them die off? Why not erase Fedor from history and in this way solve a whole bunch of potential problems in the future?
Sounds like a good business plan to me.

Or maybe it is that Dana made a market research and it showed that Fedor is not that big of a draw as the fans think that he is and therefore is not worth the money his management is asking?

Maybe all of sudden Dana cares about fighters' legacies and Fedor's 1:2 record in Strikeforce is the reason? Haha, not likely, I know...

We have a lot of "maybe's" going on here but whatever the real reason is, I am sure that it is not a personal thing. It is something money-related. As it has always been the case - business as usual.
Dana's dirty business.

One more time: let's not forget that this whole shit is not confirmed yet. It could be just a fucked up-rumor. And most probably it is.

So stay tuned for confirmation or disapproval of this shit.

Fedor Emelianenko's Movie Is Finally Out - 'The Salamander Key' (previously titled "The Fifth Execution")

Russian Poster for 'The Salamander Key'

The MMA community has been waiting for Fedor's first feature movie to come out for quite some time. Two years or so, if I'm not mistaken.
Don't know what took the movie crew so long to release the thing but it's great news that the film is finally going to see the day light with its Russian  premiere on the 24-th of March.

The name of the movie has been chaged from "The Fifth Execution" to "The Salamander Key". I like the new title better - makes things sound more mysterious and catchy. And this is a good thing even for an action movie - it's good to see they have dumped the dudebro approach, even though no body was going to complain should they've left the old title anyway.

Poster for the old title - 'The 5th Execution'

Just saw the new trailer (the old one was a 30-minutes long excerpt on YouTube) and it looked promising.
You can't go wrong with names like Rutger Hauer & Michael Madsen. The film is going to deliver lots of violence, firearm figths and explosions, all of this combined with a touch of female nudity. Sounds good enough to me. I'm gonna watch it.
And you know what, I think The Salamander key is a must-watch movie for every MMA fan. No body expects great acting from Fedor but hey, no body expects great acting from the whole cast anyway. Action movies are not meant to please the intellectual elite of the population, are they? All we want to see is the greatest MMA fighter of all time kick some ass in a movie. So go see the film, you chumps.

Scot Coker Speaks Up About The Zuffa Purchace of Strikeforce + Fedor's Next Fight

A great video interview with Scott Coker by the Inside MMA guys. Don't know how to comment on this. Just watch it.

Or maybe I'll just sum it up: 

- Scott Coker believes that the Strikeforce brand will not die off and will not get engulfed by the UFC.

- The relation between Strikeforce and the Japanese MMA promotion Dream remains intact.

- Women's MMA will be kept alive in Strikeforce.

- A Strikeforce / CBS deal is possible.

- Fedor has "multiple fights" remaining in Strikeforce and his contract is with the San Jose MMA promotion, not with Showtime.

- M-1 Global had to learn about the purchase from the news.

- UFC vs Strikeforce superfights will be happening. It is a matter of time.

- Looks like Dana White is not directly involved with Strikeforce. Lorenzo Feritta is.

 

Fedor Emelianenko's Latest Photo After The Antonio 'Big Foot' Silva Fight

Fedor's latest photo after the Antonio Silva fight. His eye still looks bad. Some serious hemorrhage is going on behind his iris. Damn, I hope he recovers soon. We all know that the greatest MMA fighter of all time will fight the loser of Overeem vs Werdum next. Wait, with the recent purchase of Strikeforce we actually don't know shit.

PS: Fedor's youngest brother is a huge Russian motherfucker. 

Click on photo for larger version.

Fedor Emelianenko

Sad day for MMA: Josh Barnett kisses Dana White's ass. That's not very Metal of you, Josh!

Josh Barnett

The feud between elite MMA fighter Josh Barnett and UFC's CEO Dana White has been going on for 9 years now. It's been a funny soap-opera-like thing that we all enjoyed following.
Barnett used to be one of the most outspoken Dana haters - in his interviews with fans and the media he never spared any heat and always brought it in Dana's face. And we loved him for doing this!
Dana didn't spare Josh any bashing as well. He never missed the opportunity to bring up the fact that Barnett has tested positive for steroids not just once, but a whole lot of three times.

It sure was a fun thing to witness one of the latest episodes of this drama: The Fight Nerd's recent video interview with Josh Barnett where Barnett declared that he would piss in Dana's mouth and thus convince him that he's clean of PEDs.

With the recent purchase of Strikeforce (Barnett's workplace) by Zuffa (Dana's company), things have changed dramatically in the Josh Barnett world.
The viking beard-sporting catch wrestler and an avid metalhead has changed the tune dramatically.
In his most recent interview for Sherdog he all of a sudden proclaims that, despite the beef, he has respect for Dana White. Wow, that's new.
Now Barnett suddenly says Dana White is quite "Metal" (means "solid" & "cool" in metalhead slang) and goes on to say that "If Dana White has an office that I have to write into every day, because that’s the person I report to for my business, well that’s what I’ll do"

Barnett doesn't stop here: “As much as I may have ever had difficulty with Dana at the end of the day there is a part of me that absolutely vibes with what he is does. Whether he wants to think about it or not, here and now, no bullshit, Dana White is pretty fucking metal and I am a metal dude… we’ll at least have that sort of respect that can’t be overlooked.”

All I have to say is: What the fuck, dude?
Is a world renowned fighter of your caliber really that scared of losing his job?
You say Dana White is metal now?
Hmm... I'm not sure Dana is Metal at all but I wonder what happened to your own Metal attitude, Josh.
Going from "I would piss in Dana's mouth" to basically saying "Dana is a kick ass guy that I admire" is not very metal of you. I mean, no body expects you to just quit the whole scene because it's now completely owned by Dana White, no body expects you to leave Strikeforce on your own before you get fired or something like that, but we didn't expect you to wimp out like that either! I mean, no body expects you to keep bashing Dana like you did before he became your new employer, but there is a huge gap between keeping your mouth shut about somebody that you don't like and blatantly KISSING HIS ASS!

So, what happened to your death metal "fuck the world" attitude, mate? Are you just a money-chasing Mercenary who doesn't have any Honour, Valour and Pride?
Or are you still in this whole shit ...For Victory?

This story just reminds me how bad for MMA the newly established Zuffa monopoly is.

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Was Scott Coker robbed by Zuffa & Dana White? Update on the UFC / Strikeforce purchase

Scott Coker.

In my recent blog post (here) I suggested that the Strikeforce crew must have been offered a ton of money to sell out their profitable and flourishing business.

But maybe there is more to it.
As time goes by, new details about the UFC's purchase of Strikeforce become apparent.
It is rumored that recently Scott Coker tried to gain control over the Strikeforce brand, the MMA brand that he created and built up, but was unsuccessful at doing that and as a result was forced to play the game his business partners wanted to play and basically to just give his company away to Dana White & Co.
Don't know if this is true or not but it sucks big time for MMA if it is.

Here:  http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/mma/news/story?id=6209923

UFC / Zuffa purcase Strikeforce. Another step in monopolizing MMA.

Well, it's a fact that we all have to deal with. The UFC's owners, Zuffa, just bought Strikeforce. Good news for Dana & Co, bad news for the hardcore MMA fans.
But what the Strikeforce guys did doesn't make sense to me.
Granted, I don't know what their real goals were or what was going on behind the scenes of their organization.  Maybe their plan from the very beginning was to make a couple of Mil and call it quits? Maybe they were not ready to handle the monster that Strikeforce turned out to be? Fuck knows... But the fact remains - they just sold out a flourishing business, a business that by no means was in danger of bankruptcy, a business that was going up and up only, to their biggest competitor.
And in this case it may look like they just made a pile of fast/easy money. But the reality is that this must be the biggest loss a company can possibly suffer. A huge mistake.

It was not like the Zuffa purchase saved them from bankruptcy, was it?

Selling out your ass while you are having so much momentum doesn't make any sense. Because Strikeforce were doing more than good and Dana White himself admitted that in his interview with MMAFighting.com.
They had the best Heavyweight division, they had the better shows, with lots of action, lots of finishes and more importantly - they had the sympathy of the hardcore MMA fans, the portion of the MMA community that Dana White has been dreaming to put in his pocket for so long.
Congrats, Dana, that dream just came true. Not sure how many of us will still support Strikeforce after it is officially owned by Zuffa but I'm guessing a big portion of the hardcore MMA population will still root for them. Until they are gone in a year or two...
And until all the lay-and-pray, wall-and-stall, play-it-safe-or-lose-your-job shit starts happening in Strikeforce.

What the fuck happened?
The only explanation is that Strikeforce were offered A TON of money. It must be it.
Even if this was the case it doesn't compensate for all the missed opportunities that Strikeforce just sold out to Zuffa. Strikeforce could have become the N1 organization in a matter of 3 years. Easily!!! They had a great roster, a great and successful TV deal, great financial backup, they had all that was necessary to do that.
But I guess it all required a lot of work and dedication, so why bother? Why not just sell that shit and let other people do the hard work?
You guys are all delusional for believing the promise that you will keep your jobs.

R.I.P. Strikeforce.