Chicks Heart Fights

This past weekend, Spike reran TUF6, a season filled with broken bones, “pooooosies,” crazy girlfriends/wives and one dominant fighter, Mac Danzig. The knock on last season is that all the preliminary fights were weak-J-Roc working on his deer in the headlights look, Dan Barrera standing over Ben Saunders instead of letting him up to continue striking, Blake Bowman falling, without any help, in a fight with Richie Hightower. Not all fights can be incredibly competitive, but the fighters on last season’s show were not the cream of the crop. Fight fans couldn’t help but ask: isn’t there someone better? I knew of many former wrestlers who had jumped into MMA-why weren’t they on the show?

This season, the team behind TUF clearly listened to the complaints. First of all, the fighters are coming in with credentials and experience. Four NCAA D-I wrestlers, including All-American C.B. Dolloway, are on the cast list put together by MMA Junkie. 18 cast members have at least five fights under their belt. Some have fought for the International Fight League, like Gerald Harris (who I may just nickname The Hotness, because that is exactly what he is). Two fighters, Dave Roberts and Steve Byrnes, even have UFC experience.

To further trim the fat from the TUF pool, 32 fighters were selected for the cast, but before they were even allowed to move into their house, they had to win a fight. Not only will this ensure that the cast members are there to become better fighters, this will also jam pack the first episode with 16 fights.

The best part of this show, though, will be the coaches. Both Forrest and Rampage will say anything at any time, and that will only lead to pure comedy gold. Can you imagine the Coach’s Challenge?

At an event like the NCAA championships, you should absolutely wear your team on your sleeve. Whether you are an Iowa Hawkeye or a Boston U. Terrier, you should be proud of your team. However, there are right ways to do this, and wrong ways to do this. For example: Continue Reading »

For the last season of the Ultimate Fighter, I was concerned that the show would be all about the coaches-this time, I’m HOPING it is all about the coaches. Can you think of any other fighters who are nearly as amusing as Forrest and Rampage? I have heard that the fights are better this season, and I have no doubt that the comedy will be better. Here are a few interviews to wet your appetites for this Wednesday night:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JgPqIuH4ahM&hl=en]

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRgCNdWye6c&hl=en]

Looking at MMA Weekly’s light heavyweight top ten, there is not a whole lot of room to pry in another contender:

#1 Light Heavyweight Fighter in the World: Quinton Jackson
2. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua
3. Chuck Liddell
4. Lyoto Machida
5. Keith Jardine
6. Forrest Griffin
7. Wanderlei Silva
8. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
9. Ricardo Arona
10. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

I am not completely on board with the order of these fighters, but that is not the point of this post, and I don’t disagree that these are the top ten light heavies in the world. Despite Stann’s dominating performance in the cage on Wednesday, I cannot place him anywhere in this top ten.

However, when you look beyond this top ten, I see some intriguing match-ups with Stann in the Octagon. Stann has shown himself as an all-around fighter, but that left hook which knocked out Doug Marshall definitely displayed his skills as a striker. For that reason, I would love to see Stann against Houston Alexander or Michael Bisping. Since all three men have fought/will fight in March/April, the match-up could be put together for an August or September fight. (That was a really poorly written sentence-I apologize.) Stann is going to continue to grow as a fighter, as he has already made huge strides in his short career. It will be interesting to see what Zuffa does with his career.

Adam Frey, Cornell’s 141, was in a car accident this week. Though his injuries from the accident were minor, a CAT scan showed tumors on his lung, kidney and liver. Today, he will have biopsies and find out more information.

A Web site has been set up for Adam to post entries, and for donations.

http://adamfrey.us/

Let’s show Adam why the wrestling family is so fantastic.

UPDATE: The initial diagnosis is Hodgkin’s disease, the same sort of cancer that Mario Lemieux beat. He is now on his way back home to Pittsburgh to begin six months of chemotherapy.

Just tuning into WEC on Versus, and wow, WEC draws a trashy crowd. Here are the fights scheduled for tonight:

• Champ Doug Marshall (204) vs. Brian Stann (204) — for WEC light heavyweight title
• Marcus Hicks (156) vs. Ed Ratcliff (155)
• Bryan Baker (184) vs. Chael Sonnen (186)
• Steve Cantwell (203) vs. Tim McKenzie (203)
• Blas Avena (170) vs. Hiromitsu Miura (170)
• John Alessio (170) vs. Brock Larson (171)
• Richard Crunkilton (156) vs. Sergio Gomez (156)
• Alex Serdyukov (169) vs. Ryan Stonitsch (171)
• Chris Manuel (136) vs. Kenji Osawa (134)
• Logan Clark (186) vs. Scott Harper (186)

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As was reported last week by Chicks Heart Fights, World Extreme Cagefighting announced a June 1 event at Arco Arena in Sacramento. In addition to Mark Munoz’s WEC debut, this fight will feature a match-up of two of my favorites: Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver. It’s a Sunday night fight that will air on Versus; on the Saturday of that week is UFC 85: Evans vs. Liddell. Also that week: my birthday. Happy Birthday to me!

Though I was there live, and watched the broadcast with some friends a few nights ago, I am finally sitting down by myself to watch the finals on ESPN. Our announcers are Tim Johnson (yay), Jeff Blatnick (yay) and some dude who clearly knows nothing about wrestling. Quint Kessenich is the matside reporter, and I feel like I’m going to betray the sisterhood here, but why on earth don’t they have a woman doing this job? The guys are just walking away from Kessenich and not listening to a word he says. If they had a relatively attractive woman in this role, the reporter might have a fighting chance. Match by match analysis, after the jump:

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Like every wrestling fan, I had read about Anthony Robles, Arizona State’s 125 lb. wrestler. Robles was born without a leg. I have seen the videos, read the stories, and voted for him to win the ESPY. Until I saw him wrestle, though, I had no idea how incredible he is.

Watching him hop out unto the circle for his first match, you could sense that the entire arena was watching his match. This was not out of some sense of obligation; rather, it was exciting to see him take the mat. He uses his incredible strength and flexibility to defend shots. Despite not having the leverage to get on both toes, he easily pushes opponents to their backs.

Robles had an impressive run through the tournament for any redshirt freshman. He gave eventual champion Angel Escobedo a scare, taking him down in the first period. Only one match, a loss to Stanford’s Tanner Gardner, prevented Robles from standing on the All-American podium. When his match with Gardner ended, Robles was given a standing ovation by the crowd at Scottrade. I text messaged a friend of mine to tell him the result of the match, and mentioned the standing O. He asked “Were they cheering his wrestling, or was it out of pity?”

There is no doubt in my mind: they were cheering his wrestling.

Obviously, wrestling coaches are not fashion gurus. They are not looking to make the pages of Vogue when choosing singlets. However, there is right, and there is wrong, and I saw a lot of both this weekend. Coaches, when choosing a singlet for your team, remember, less is more. Huzzahs and Harrumphs, complete with photographic evidence, after the jump:

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