 |
 |
 |
 |
Bruce Buffer once took on Frank Trigg in an elevator, and other amusing anecdotes
If his recent Fighters Only cover wasn’t enough to convince you that Bruce Buffer is a pimp, check this story out:
“With all respect to Frank because he’s an awesome fighter, he’s been one of the top welterweights in MMA, Frank and I basically were friends, we are friends, and we went into an elevator in the Hard Rock Hotel on the tenth floor and Dana White happened to be in the elevator. As soon as we’re walking in, Frank’s asking Dana to put him back in the Octagon, which is fine. But I’m a watch freak, and Dana had on this great wristband on his watch, and I stepped in front of Frank to look at the watch, and suddenly I get a ridge-hand in my throat. That’s a fine how do you do from Frank, we just had a drink together! Did I not drink right? I looked at Frank, and I said, ‘You hit me! Why the F did you hit me?’ And he said the wrong thing to me. He said, ‘What are you going to do about it?’ And I just reacted since my old street kicked in. I punched him twice in the stomach, basically with the same power with the old rules of sparring, 60 percent equals 60 percent. But it picked up. We had a lot of fun for 10 floors.”
Chael Sonnen, ever the salesman, stops Buffer there and promises there’s a few more tantalizing details about that particular story in Bruce’s book. Which I’d pick up, but am afraid it might have some creepy sex stories tucked in it. What can I say, Matt Hughes’ book traumatized me.
Florida mayors to duke it out in MMA bout
Instead of using their words to fight eachother, two Florida mayors have decided to let fists fly in the spirit of charity.
Miami Lakes mayor Michael Pizzi and Hialeah mayor Carlos Hernandez have decided to solve a disagreement in the cage.
“This is what happens when two middle-aged men meet and have dinner and talk about who was tougher in their childhoods,” Pizzi said
Over the course of their dinner discussion the self proclaimed “Brooklyn Brawler” Pizzi told Hernandez about his reputation as a fighter when he was younger.
“At heart I am a middle-class street kid,” Pizzi said. “In my neighborhood, I used to box at the YMCA and I used to get into two or three fights on the way to school. I came from a tough neighborhood.”
Hernandez has been involved with martial arts since he was a teen, and currently works out with his 13-year old son who is a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu practitioner.
Uh oh, sounds like Pizzi is stepping into the cage against someone who might have more than just a little BJJ experience.
This is actually a shockingly civil situation for Florida. The mayors aren’t really beefing and all proceeds go to the children’s charity of the winner’s choice. Nary a mention of meth or bath salts to be found!
Pat Healy’s loss is Bryan Caraway’s gain
Pat Healy just lost $135,000 worth of bonus money over a failed drug test for weed. His half of the Fight of the Night money goes back into the UFC’s pocket, but Submission of the Night now goes to everyone’s favorite fighter – Mr Miesha Tate himself, Bryan Caraway.
Caraway, who can never seem to let a moment in the spotlight pass without coming off like a bit of a dickbag, had this to say about the situation:
“All I’ve got to say is that’s some expensive weed,” he said. “I like Healy a lot. I came up through the fighting ranks with him. We used to train together at Team Quest. I love the guy. But I have absolutely zero remorse or guilt.
“I hate weed. I cannot stand it. I’ve never tried it. I’ve never smoked a drug in my life. So I have absolutely zero tolerance for people that do it. I don’t care if it’s legal in some places or not. I think it’s absolutely ridiculous. Whether it’s legal in real life or not, they tell you to follow the rules. You need to follow the rules.”
Yep, because Bryan isn’t into it he is totally cool with the draconian rules and punishments surrounding marijuana. Zero tolerance!
Hey, no one is asking Caraway to feel guilty about getting Healy’s bonus money. But if you see a guy you ‘like a lot’ get screwed over and say it’s okay by you because weed is ridiculous, then I dunno what to say. You’d think a guy who recently petitioned the UFC for his win money after getting screwed over by the judges would understand that sometimes rules are unjust. You’d think he’d be more sympathetic to another fighter who just had their win zapped out of existence. But nope, not Bryan Caraway. At least not when he makes 65k out of it.
(pic by Brad Penner for USA Today)
Getting punched in the face by art
Fightland checks out Fight The City’s art boxing gloves:
Last summer, Pantelis “Pun” Nikolaides noticed this self-expression void in MMA/boxing products and responded by founding Fight the City, a company that collaborates with artists and designers to create unique fight gear. His team’s latest venture was “Fight for What’s Right,” a showcase of custom boxing gloves hand-painted by artists such as Kiyoshi Nakazawa, Cope 2, and Borbay.
“We gave them the gloves and told them to just have fun,” Nikolaides said. “We’re trying to do something new and collaborative that’s going to change an industry. We want to flip it on its head.”
No word on if any of these will be turned into gloves the average athlete can actually buy, but there’s an eBay page where you can get some of my favorites like Smoking Bear and Hand Wraps.
These should be the official gloves of all boxing.
Maxim’s Top 100 chock full of MMA goodness
The scientists at Maxim have completed their vigorous examination of all celebrity females on earth and their rankings are out. This year the Maxim top 100 features moar Fight Hotness than ever: Arianny Celeste finds herself at #18, above #19 Emma Watson (sacrilege) and bumping uglies with #17 Jessica Alba, #16 Olivia Wilde, and #15 Scarlett Johansson. Not bad company for the UFC’s flagship octagon girl, huh?
Also on the Hot 100 list: Ronda Rousey, who clocked in at #29 and has the honor of being the highest ranked athlete on the list. Suck it, all you kids in high school who used to call her ‘Gorilla Arms!’ And then there’s Brittney Palmer at #67 and Kenda Perez at #92. How Perez made it onto the list is beyond me – could it be that the entries around the fringes of this contest are all about sucking up to the various agents and outlets that hook Maxim up with photoshoots and interviews? I refuse to believe that. You might as well tell me that the US government is corrupt too!
So it was a good year for MMA, but not the first year. Here’s how the women in our sport have fared over past years:
Gina Carano—No. 16 (2009)
Arianny Celeste—No. 18 (2013)
Arianny Celeste—No. 23 (2010)
Ronda Rousey—No. 29 (2013)
Arianny Celeste—No. 58 (2012)
Brittney Palmer—No. 67 (2013)
Arianny Celeste—No. 70 (2011)
The UFC is not as confident about Mark Hunt as originally reported
Roy Nelson has been asked by the UFC to apply for a license to fight Junior dos Santos at UFC 160 in the co-Main Event. This was reported by Ariel Helwani on the latest installment of UFC Tonight.
The Nevada State Athletic Commission will discuss Nelson’s application for a license at a hearing on Friday.
Hunt’s visa issues apparently stem from an arrest, which is bad. But that arrest was like ten years ago, which is good. Unfortunately, it seems to have been dragged back up. That’s bad. But the UFC is on it! Which is good! And if it doesn’t work out, Roy Nelson will get that rematch with Junior Dos Santos everyone is clamoring for. Ha, just kidding. That’d be bad. Better than no fight at all, but still bad.
(pic via Brad Penner for USA TODAY)
