SB Nation User Blog: Blackout612

Strikeforce Named as EA MMA "Premier League"

Blackout612 — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 00:36:10 -0000

Strikeforce Named as EA MMA "Premier League"

Not only is EA Sports getting the Strikeforce brand, it's getting some of its talent. That includes commentary team Frank Shamrock and Mauro Ranallo, ring announcer Jimmy Lennon Jr. and referee "Big John" McCarthy. Strikeforce fighters Brett Rogers and Jake Shields will join the previously announced Fedor Emelianenko, Jason Miller, Randy Couture, Jason "Mayhem" Miller, Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal, Gegard Mousasi and Renato Sobral.

Call to Arms 2: Called Out Fights Notable Results; Roman Mitichyan over Mike Dolce via UD in a...

Blackout612 — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:01:15 -0000

Call to Arms 2: Called Out Fights Notable Results;

Roman Mitichyan over Mike Dolce via UD in a battle of TUF alums.
Gabe Ruediger stuns previously 10-0 BJJ maverick Wander Braga via Round 2 Guillotine.
Thomas Denny defeats Joe Cronin via Round 2 Guillotine.
Daniel Puder remains undefeated after a UD victory over Mychal Clark.

Complete results in Sherdog link.

http://www.sherdog.com/events/Call-To-Arms-Called-Out-Fights-10690

August MMA Calendar - Still Loaded

Blackout612 — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 21:11:58 -0000

The cancellation of Affliction: Trilogy may have been a heartbreaker for many MMA fans, but that doesn't mean the month of August is a slouch in the scheme of mixed martial arts. With two UFC's, a huge Strikeforce card on Showtime, Sengoku's Ninth Battle and WEC 42, the month of August is one of the best MMA fans have ever seen.

August 2 & 7 - Sengoku's Ninth Battle

Featherweight Grand Prix Semifinal Bout: Hatsu Hioki vs. Masanoru Kanehara
Featherweight Grand Prix Semifinal Bout: Michihiro Omigawa vs. Marlon Sandro
Sengoku Featherweight GP Finale
Featherweight Grand Prix Reserve Bout: Matt Jaggers vs. Chan Sung Jung
Sengoku Lightweight Title Bout: Mizuto Hirota vs. Satoru Kitaoka
Kazuo Misaki vs. Kazuhiko Nakamura

August 8 - UFC 101: Declaration

UFC Lightweight Championship: BJ Penn vs. Kenny Florian
Anderson "The Spider" Silva vs. Forrest Griffin
Amir Saddolah vs. Johny Hendricks
Kendall Grove vs. Ricardo "Cachorrao" Almeida
Josh "The Dentist" Neer vs. Kurt "Batman" Pellegrino

August 9 - WEC 42: Torres vs. Bowles

WEC Bantamweight Championship: Miguel Angel Torres vs. Brian Bowles
Joseph Benavidez vs. Dominick Cruz
Danny Castillo vs. Ricardo Lamas
Jeff "The Big Frog" Curran vs. Takeya Mizugaki

August 15 - Strikeforce: Carano vs. Cyborg

Gina Carano vs. Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos
Strikeforce Lightweight Championship: Josh "The Punk" Thompson vs. Gilbert "El Nino" Melendez

August 28 - M-1 Global: Breakthrough

Muhammed "King Mo" Lawal vs Don Frye
Nick "The Goat" Thompson vs Karl Amoussou

August 29 - UFC 102: Couture vs. Nogueria

Randy "The Natural Couture" vs. Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueria
Demian Maia vs. Nate "The Great" Marquardt
Keith Jardine vs. Thiago Silva
Chris Leben vs. Jake Rosholt
Krzysztof "The Polish Experiment" Soszynski vs. Brandon "The Truth" Vera

Yves Lavigne Does It Again

Blackout612 — Sun, 24 May 2009 15:44:43 -0000

While no video seems readily available, it's being reported at Sherdog that Yves Lavigne repeated his dubious stop-and-start refereeing performance last night at UFC 98 in the Kyle Bradley vs Phillipe Nover bout.

Kyle Bradley grasped his first Octagon victory in three outings with a controversial first-round TKO against debutante Phillipe Nover in their lightweight bout. Bradley shrugged off Nover’s first takedown attempt, then connected on "The Ultimate Fighter 8" runner-up with a stinging right hand. Reaching for a single leg, Nover slipped forward onto his face. Referee Yves Lavigne stepped in and halted the bout, but backed away when a cognizant Nover rolled onto his back.

With the fight still in play, Bradley landed some glancing blows on the 25-year-old Nover. Lavigne intervened a second time and waved off the bout just as Nover rose to his feet, much to the Brooklyn, N.Y., native’s and the rabid crowd’s disapproval. The official time was 1:03, while replays inside the arena did little to bolster referee Lavigne’s actions.

This is bad. I was a major detractor of Lavigne after his actions at UFC 96 in the Matt Brown vs Pete Sell fight, which took place only two short months ago; suggesting that if he makes a similar error in the future, he should be punished by the athletic commission. I'm interested to see if any video surfaces of this newest instance. If things went down as suggested, something needs to be done. We have to hold our referees accountable to mistakes of this gravity for our sport to grow and be given the credibility it deserves.

GIF by Chris Nelson

Who doesn't love a cartwheel kick KO?

Blackout612 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:20:50 -0000

Who doesn't love a cartwheel kick KO?

"Certainly Dana White thought I was criticizing him, that I was talking bad about his event, but it...

Blackout612 — Wed, 22 Apr 2009 19:06:35 -0000

"Certainly Dana White thought I was criticizing him, that I was talking bad about his event, but it wasn’t. I didn’t want to belittle the athletes of the UFC, that wasn’t my intention", says Arona, asking for a chance to show his value in the octagon. "I never had a direct position from him, I wasn’t contacted by the Ultimate. Dana White could give me an opportunity to know if I’m good or not"

Ricardo Arona responds to Dana White's criticism of his recent comments.

"He had invited me to train at his gym in Las Vegas before this fight had been scheduled. I have...

Blackout612 — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 16:37:28 -0000

"He had invited me to train at his gym in Las Vegas before this fight had been scheduled. I have enormous respect for Wanderlei Silva... I’m always in Vegas and intend to train at his academy after this fight. We’re great fighters but UFC wanted to make this fight."

Rich Franklin suggests to Graciemag that he plans to train with Wanderlei after their UFC 99 headlining bout.

Qualifying the Challenger: Thales Leites

Blackout612 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:34:42 -0000

This article is the first in what may become a regular series. In this article I will evaluate title challengers and qualify them as threats to their opponents. The purpose of this is to illustrate the legitimacy of fighters that may otherwise be overlooked; be it from a lack of public interest, lack of available information, or having a heavy favorite as their opponent. The fact remains that no fighter at this level of competition receives a title shot without a great deal of legitimacy. Today, my subject is Saturday's challenger to Anderson Silva's 185 pound crown; Brazilian BJJ maverick Thales Leites.

At 27 years of age, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt and Nova Unaio trained Thales Leites has accumulated an impressive record of 14 wins and only one loss, with key victories over Pele Landi-Jons and Nate Marquardt and his only loss coming at the hands of Martin Kampmann in 2006. Leites, a veteran of Shooto, MARS, Rumble on the Rock and Jungle Fight, is 5-1 in the UFC's octagon. Of his 14 total victories, nine have come by way of submission, with 11 total stoppages.

Offensive Abilities

Possessing great all-around BJJ submission profieciency, Leites' favorite maneuver is widely considered the arm triangle, which he has used to dispatch four of his previous opponents (with armbar ranking second at three total submissions). At times, Leites has flashed powerful standing strikes, through his training in Muay Thai kickboxing, though his technical profieciency has left something to be desired. It is likely that he has spent a lot of time training to overcome his striking deficiencies due to his impending bout with Anderson Silva.

Defensive Abilities

His chin and standing defense are tested, having absorbed and defended blows from vicious strikers such as Landi-Jons, Marquardt and Kampmann, and having never been stopped in a bout. Leites was famously illegally kneed by Nate Marquardt in a controversial June 2008 bout at UFC 85 in London England. Leites absorbed the devestating knee and went on to win a split decision over Marquardt. His BJJ defense is presumed to be excellent, though untested. He is considered to be in elite company among submission specialists in the UFC's middleweight division.

The Road to Victory

Thales is almost entirely unlikely to find a path to the 185 crown by way of striking, as Anderson Silva is without equal in his striking decision-making, accuracy and force. It is likely, however, that he will be forced to use striking to set up his inevitable take down attempts. Possessing a chin and defense proven capable of taking damage, Thales could prove capable of weathering The Spider's opening salvos (and to an increasingly lesser degree, subsequent onslaughts) and somehow coerce him to the mat. In doing so, Leites has the abilities necessary to potentially ensnare Silva in one or several submission attempts, and quite possibly finish him (Silva has been finished by way of submission twice in four career losses). In waging his war on the mat, Leites must use ground and pound striking to soften Silva's submission defense and pass his guard; using Travis Lutter's February 2007 fight with The Spider as a template.

The Road to Failure

Though Leites has superb BJJ and ranks among the top 10 in UFC BJJ-for-MMA skills, in 15 previous career bouts he has not faced an individual with the BJJ skills of Anderson Silva. He has faced some dangerous strikers in his brief career, and still; none the likes of Anderson Silva, who is without parallel. If Leites doesn't approach the standing game defensively (while trading some blows and remaining conservative) and work for a takedown, his night will be brief. Silva is accurate and elusive, so this task is arduous. Additionally, if Leites is expecting the same Anderson Silva that faced Travis Lutter 26 months ago to show up this coming Saturday at UFC 97, he's going to wake up in the hospital wondering what happened. Anderson Silva is a BJJ black belt under the Nogueria's and an obsessive training perfectionist, so Leites should approach the fight expecting that any weaknesses Silva has possessed in the past he has trained to eliminate.

Thales Leites Career Statistics:

Career Win Percentage - 93.3%
UFC Win Percentage - 83.3%

Total Fights won by Submission Percentage - 60%
Total Fights won by Stoppage Percentage - 73.3%

Combined Opponent Win/Loss/Draw Record - 231-147-19
Total Opponent Winning Percentage - 58.2%

Combined UFC Opponent Win/Loss/Draw Record - 81-28-2
UFC Opponent Winning Percentage - 73.3%

Tito Ortiz and Babalu Split Up After Verbal Altercation During Strikeforce

Blackout612 — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 20:38:59 -0000

Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.

MMAnews.com reports:

MMANews.com is on location at Strikeforce tonight and can report that moments ago, Tito Ortiz and Strikeforce Light Heavyweight Champion Renato "Babalu" Sobral exchanged words and had to be seperated before throwing down in the crowd.

This is the first I've seen about Tito and Babalu having to be physically split up during the show. However, it isn't unlikely that the two "worked" the altercation for the sake of marketing a future bout. The story goes on to note that while the camera was fixated on Babalu, he could be seen flipping off Tito, which led to an exchange of words and subsequently moving Babalu to a different part of the facility for the remainder of the program. Of course, Tito could be seeing more money fly out the window if Sobral is unable to get past Feijao this coming June.

UFC: Undisputed Publisher THQ safe for now

Blackout612 — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:51:10 -0000

American video game company THQ, publisher of the forthcoming and highly anticipated MMA video game UFC: Undisputed, has succesfully shed over $220 million dollars in costs and salaries, effectively saving them from bankruptcy for the forseeable future.

THQ has a lot of eggs in one basket between three games that are due out in the 2009 fiscal year; Red Faction: Guerrila (due in June), Darksiders: Wrath of War (due in the Fall) and the aforementioned UFC 2009: Undisputed (available May 19th). Additionally, all three titles are already slated for sequels to be developed in close proximity to their releases. The successes or failures of these titles will undoubtedly cast the die for THQ's future viability in the video game marketplace.

For now, UFC 2009: Undisputed is not only assured of its impending release, but UFC 2010 is now likely to see the light of day as well.

Source: Kotaku THQ Successfully Trims $220 Million In People, Costs