Joe Rogan once said that Alistair Overeem looks like he was genetically engineered to fuck your girlfriend.  Then he showed up for the Bigfoot Silva fight looking less gigantic, less aggressive, less sharp, and generally less Ubereemy than the superhero who once utterly destroyed foreign kickboxers and American wrestlers alike.  But that’s because he has low testosterone now, donchaknow.  I still doubt I’d dare do anything if he started putting the moves on my woman though… except maybe film and sell it as black-on-white cuckhold porn.

Anyways, at least “The Reem” is still the undisputed heavyweight champ of MMA documentaries, and it’s already three episodes into its third season.  In the first above, The Reem faces armwrestlers in Japan and the athletic commission in Nevada.  In the second after the jump, he lives it up in Miami as he and his Blackzillian teammates prepare for their fights.

Continue reading →

Steve Hickey’s Twitter avatar.  No, seriously.

Praise Odin, praise Xenu, hail Crom!  The South Dakota House of Reps easily passed a bill to regulate combat sports yesterday, and also shot down an amendment to ban human cockfighting “the child porn of sports” championed by Rep. Steve Hickey, every MMA fan’s new favorite religious leader.  Even the Governor’s “stong opposition” is rendered moot, since the bill passed with a big enough margin to override his veto powers.

Thank Zeus, I guess most politicians in SD aren’t ridiculous God Squaders like Hickey, whose response to a message from Cage Potato’s Seth Falvo includes such gems as “who would Jesus elbow in the face?”  I dunno… Satan?  Hitler?  Abortion doctors?  I’m just spit-balling here.  Hickey’s already catching shit in the comments section of his blog from the likes of WMMA fighters Shayna Baszler and Rosi Sexton, but I’d love to hear him debate fellow Jesus fans like Vitor Belfort, Benson Henderson, or Michael McDonald.  One might also counter with “who would Jesus shoot in the face?” since he supported a recent bill to arm school teachers.

Ironically, Hickey has hosted at least one event in his own church by a group called Next Generation Power Force, in which strongman feats of physical strength are somehow equated to spiritual strength.  You’d think a guy like this would view professional fighting similarly, as an opportunity to test oneself in the name of God, but it goes to show you can never tell how folks will rationalize things.  If the hymn “Onward Christian Soldiers” has ever been sung in Hickey’s church, he’s a goddamn hypocrite.

Paul Daley is supposed to be fighting in Bellator, but visa issues have forced him to feast on scrubs in his native UK for the time being.  He tried calling out Marcus Davis to no avail, probably because Davis is prepping for his own Bellator debut on March 21st (on the undercard, for shame).  Enter a warm body named Patrick Vallee, sporting a record of 9-4 with 3 losses in his last 5 fights.  This video starts late in the 2nd round, but the word is Vallee was basically playing keep-away, so only the money-shot and subsequent celebration are worth watching.

Afterwards, Daley declared himself “the UK’s pound-for-pound best fighter”.  Well hey, I hear Che Mills might be available these days to test that theory.  There’s also talk that Daley will return to kickboxing at Glory 5 on March 23rd (headlined by Bonjasky vs Spong), but his name is nowhere to be found on the Glory website, so who knows.

After the jump, Miguel “Mikey” Saenz suffers a delayed reaction KO at the hands foot of fellow bushleague noob Vaughn Govia at South Texas FC 24.  Enjoy!

Continue reading →

It seems obvious that the reasons for the IOC’s sudden decision to drop wrestling from the 2020 Olympic Games were entirely political.  By that I mean that certain well-placed insiders feel that silly shit like horse dancing, ribbon dancing, and pool dancing are somehow more important than one of the Olympics’ — and indeed, the world’s — oldest sports.  More specifically, modern pentathalon was thought to be the most likely cast-off, which makes sense considering that all of its five disciplines are already covered by other existing events, and that wrestling scores higher in pretty much all of the IOC’s own evaluation criteria (most importantly popularity).  Except a current board member and son of the former president is apparently a big pentathalon fan, so fuck all that noise.

While this is definitely a kind of conspiracy on the part of the highbrow powers-that-be, the Russian coach of two Greco-Roman champs went much further with his own conspiracy theory, all the way into predictably trite homophobic territory.  In summary, blame The Gays.  From R-Sport by way of Bloody Elbow:

“If they expel wrestling now, that means that gays will soon run the whole world,” coach Vladimir Uruimagov said, calling the decision “a blow to masculine origins.”

He added: “It turns out this committee is headed by representative of these minorities,” clarifying that he meant sexual minorities.

“It is necessary for millions around the world who understand that this is a man’s sport and who understand the need to continue the human race to go out and explain their position to the Olympic Committee,” he said. “We should prove and explain that in any other case there is no future.”

B.E. goes on to discuss how pervasive homophobia still is in Russia, which I guess isn’t too surprising coming from a country whose chief exports are dead-eyed fighters, dead-eyed strippers/hookers, and vodka.

Beyond it’s shameless bigotry, this theory also seems counter-intuitive, since we’re talking about a sport where buff, sweaty, spandex-clothed men roll around and grab each other.  I’d expect The Gays to be rather fond of such things, and a quick Google search for “gay wrestling” confirmed my presumptions and then some.  I’ve met enough gay dudes to know that most don’t fit the limp-wristed effeminate stereotype, and it’s not safe to assume that even those who do are anti-wrestling.  Or to quote a guy who once told me a story about getting beat up outside a gay bar: “Don’t think all queers are pussies… they’ll kick your ass just like anybody else.”  Wise words, sir.

Wrestling has always been a sport that offered little future to its participants.  Prior to the rise of MMA, the post-college career options for wrestling stars were limited to either the Olympics or the WWE, and only the latter pays.  So it’s no surprise that so many wrestlers have found their way into MMA in recent years, and regardless of how you feel about fighters with a wrestling-heavy game, there’s no denying that it’s an integral part of the sport.

Thanks to the International Olympic Committee, you can now bank on the immigration rate of wrestlers into MMA climbing even higher, as the IOC has shockingly announced that wrestling has been cut from the 2020 Summer Olympics program.

The IOC board acted after reviewing the 26 sports on the current Olympic program. Eliminating one sport allows the International Olympic Committee to add a new sport to the program later this year.

Wrestling, which combines freestyle and Greco-Roman events, goes back to the inaugural modern Olympics in Athens in 1896.

Actually, it was the first non-running event in the ancient Greek games, and its lineage goes back for thousands of years before that, so to say that wrestling has historical significance is putting it mildly.

Continue reading →

Enjoy Dana White’s latest video blog, which as usual consists of backstage footage from the previous event, including: UFC newcomers kissing the king’s ring as he gushes about their performances, Chuck’s ringside shadowboxing, Overeem already looking a bit winded after his warmup,  Overeem getting savagely KTFO’d, and Edgar getting stitches into his goddamn eyelid.