Komikazee's MMA Smackdown #25 (5/30/2007)

News

• PRIDE Fighters Suing DSE (Dream Stage Entertainment)
  • Citing breach of contract
  • Want to get paid for possible income that could have occurred in their contracts
  • obviously not happy with UFC merger and unwilling to jump ship
    
• MMA Featured on Cover of Sports Illustrated
  • (http://mma.komikazee.com/news/comments/mma_featured_on_cover_of_si/)
  • Roger Huerta has the cover
  • Very neutral article that lets the UFC speak for itself
  • Liddell featured very heavily
  • Touched on the history, present, and future
  • Very well written and informative
    
• AOW3 postponed
  • was going to be June 30th, now August 18th
  • Komikazee first got wind of this at a WEC press junket
  • Site now appropriately reflects the correct date (http://www.artofwarlive.com/)
  • Will be on PPV
  • Delay is to facilitate getting the details of the PPV done
    

• K-1 finally gets CSAC license for June 2nd show
  • CSAC was slow because apparently the right paperwork wasn't filed
  • Now they just have to sell 99,000 seats in a L.A. where sports don't draw that well
    
• Media all of the sudden in love with the UFC
  • NBCSports does complete coverage of UFC 71. (http://www.nbcsports.com/ufc/1550129/detail.html)
  • SI has UFC on the cover
    
  • ESPN (owned by ABC)
    
    • Featured a 1 on 1 between Joe Rogan and Lou DiBella, a boxing pundit
      • boxing pundit pulls out human cockfight
      • Joe Rogan then brains him upside the head with quote
    • Showed Mayweather's quip about UFC then Liddell answering
    • Liddell featured in an interview
• Dan Henderson to fight Rampage in future
  • Dorky challenge in the ring after the Rampage win
  • Dan walked in with his 2 PRIDE belts on his shoulders
  • Acknowledged that they were both friends
  • Never actually issued the challenge, just said he was happy to fight him next
    

Rumors

Calendar

• Jason Day vs. Patrick Côté
• Jonathan Goulet vs. Travis Axworthy
• David Fraser vs. Steve Bossé
• Tyler Jackson vs. Martin Grandmont
• Steve Pouliot vs. Yves Lemelin
• Stéphane Dubé vs. David Medd
• Syd Barnier vs. Éric Leclerc
• Valérie Létourneau vs. Sarah Kaufman
• Brett Pierson vs. Marcus Célestin
• Jon Mirasty vs. Sébastien Gauthier
• Guillaume Lamarche vs. Adrian Wooley
• Dave Pariseau vs. TBD

• Sabres vs. Wolfpack
• Anacondas vs. Tigersharks
  

• Brock Lesnar vs. Choi Hong-Man/Kim Min Soo
  
• Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie
• Mighty Mo vs. Choi Mu Bae
• Marvin Eastman vs. Ray Sefo
  
• Melvin Manhoef vs. Yoon Dong-Sik
• Gabe Ruediger vs. Katsuhiko Nagata
• Brad Pickett vs. Hideo Tokoro
• Johnnie Morton (former NFL star) vs. Bernard Ackah (Japanese TV personality from the Ivory Coast with one pro. fight)
• J.Z. Calvan vs. Nam Phan
• Antonio Silva vs. Jonathan Wiezorek
• Jake Shields vs. Ido Pariente

• TBA vs. Brock Larson
• Urijah Faber vs. Chance Farrar
• Mark Hominick vs. Rani Yahira
• John Alessio vs. Alex Serdyukov
• Mike French vs. Jeff Bedard
• Micah Miller vs. Cub Swanson
• Alex Karalexis vs. Josh Smith
• Brian Stann vs. Craig Zellner
• Charlie Valencia vs. Brian Bowles

• Rich Franklin vs. Yushin Okami
• Rory Singer vs. Jason MacDonald
• Tom Murphy vs. Jake O'Brien
• Forrest Griffen vs. Hector Ramirez
• Clay Guida vs. Tyson Griffin
• Colin Robinson vs. Eddie Sanchez
• Stephen Lynch vs. Dustin Hazlett
• "The Celt" Marcus Davis vs. Jason Tan
  

TV Calendar

Wednesday (5/30)

Thursday (5/31)

Spike TV: The Ultimate Fighter Ep. 9 (10 et / 9 ct)

Friday (6/1)

FSN: IFL (11 pm on most FSN affiliates) - ???

Saturday (6/2)

Sunday (6/3)

Monday (6/4)

MyNetworkTV: IFL Battlegrounds - ???

Tuesday (6/5)

ION: BodogFIGHT Ep. 6 (11 et / 10 ct)

• Thompson vs. Deans
  

• Alvarez vs. Henze
  

Reviews

• Kalib is from ATT (America's Top Team)
• Leben is from Team Quest
•  Great back and forth battle with Starnes looking a little cleaner but Leben looking stronger
• Leben was getting the better of the top exchanges and bloodied Starnes early over the eye
• Awesome kick to the stomach hits the mark in third round
• Starnes was getting the takedowns but wasn't doing anything with them except at the end of first round. Always tries to finish big.
• Starnes wins the match by decision but defers to Chris
• Leben states, "You know what: screw the judges, screw the scoring, I judge my fights by what the fans think".

• Keith Jardine came out looking supremely confident
• Keith was the heavy favorite
• Jardine is considered light heavyweight contender with beating Forrest Griffin
• Houston Alexander came out looking extremely focused
• Jardine got a hook in but mistook a slip on a decal for being hurt and dove in fists down.
• Houston came back and dropped Keith three times. Once with a knee and twice with right uppercuts
• Jardine went from contender to pretender in about 38 seconds flat
• That wasn't a beatdown. That was downright Assault and Battery
  

• Terry came in to Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean". Takes a real man to do that.
• Terry suplexed Ivan to the mat and briefly stunned the BJJ expert
• Jumped in with Hammer and forced the ref to stop the bout
• Stopped a bit to soon
• Ivan didn't want to be there from his comments before the fight and acted the part
  

• Classic matchup between Judo expert and wrestler
• Back and forth battle for three rounds
• Karo lived up to his nickname "The Human Pinwheel"
• Karo gets a couple spectacular Judo throws in and rev's the crowd up.
• Karo also dominated the up-top bout
• Josh only able to get 1 or 2 takedowns and has to abort many because Karo would have thrown him
• Josh Burkman's cardio is still not there. Gassed at the end of the second round.
• The outer hip wheel throw in the first round started Burkman's cardio to decline.
• Karo wins by decision after three hard fought rounds
  

• Surprisingly good war
• Denis Kang in Din's corner
• Din is coming off 2 straight wins in the UFC, the last being Goveia
• Din really dominates the first round except for the waning seconds
• Jeremy capitalizes off his back on a mistake Din makes, sweeps him and starts to throw bombs
• Stephenson carries momentum into second round and looks very confident
• Din gets a shoot and a takedown and eventually works to armbar by passing the leg over the head
• Jeremy tries to slam out of the armbar (bad move) and instead tightens it down
• Jeremy taps out instead of getting every tendon in his elbow ripped.
• Din proceeds to call out boxers.
  

• Rampage comes in to the arena with his customary howl.
• Chuck comes in and the crowd goes crazy
• Rampage looks a little tense but that is his normal thing
• Chuck is like ice and very loose and confident.
• The bout starts with Chuck on his bike and Rampage stalking but not overextending
• Chuck throws a sloppy body shot and Rampage comes over the top with a right hook that lands flush
• Chuck crumples like a sack of potatoes and Rampage pounces with some overhands
• Chuck able to collect senses and makes a couple miss but one lands and knocks him senseless again
• "Big" John McCarthy has to step in and stop the bout
• Chuck protests even though he is still cross-eyed
• Rampage is pumped and howling at the moon
• "As long as the belt gets me some bills, know what I'm saying?" he said later. "Maybe a Bentley. I saw all the stuff Chuck's riding around in. I look up to Chuck. I wanna be a baller like him. I see him riding around in those Ferraris. I'm from the streets. I want to ride like Chuck."
  

Interviews