SB Nation User Blog: Brent Brookhouse

Late Night Fights: Mamoru Yamaguchi Double Header

Brent Brookhouse — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 15:00:16 -0000

The "holiday rush" got in the way of a post going up last night so to make it up to you I come bearing a Mamoru Yamaguchi doubleheader. Yamaguchi is one of those Shooto fighters who it's a shame more American fans are not aware of. In his career he fought at Flyweight and Bantamweight, winning the Shooto title in both weight classes.

Rather than try to explain why Mamoru is so awesome, let's take a look at a couple of his fights.

Photo via Sherdog.

Mamoru Yamaguchi v. Stonnie Dennis 05/04/05:

Mamoru Yamaguchi v. Setsu Iguchi 05/12/06:

Phil Baroni v. Marcus Davis Not Yet Official

Brent Brookhouse — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:19:53 -0000

According to an article at MMA Weekly it appears that the rumored Phil Baroni v. Marcus Davis fight may not happen after all. Baroni is stating that he needs some time off. From the piece:

“I haven’t had fun training in a long time,” Baroni said. “A lot of people were asking me, ‘how does it feel to be back in the UFC?’ I was like, no different. Just like any other fight. At this point in my life, it’s just become my job. That’s the problem. It’s like punching the time clock to go train. It’s not fun at all. It hasn’t been fun at all. It’s just been miserable. I’ve just got to find fun and be happy. Not to just feel like I have to go train….(expletive) that.”

HT: Bloody Elbow

Dana White Talks Boston

Brent Brookhouse — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 17:14:53 -0000

“Boston’s got a big chip on its shoulder. It’s a place that says, ’We’re the best and we’re gonna kick everybody’s ass.’ It’s got that whole fighting vibe to it and I love it. Boston has a great history as a fight town, but boxing has fizzled out from where it was. I’m going to bring the fight game back to Boston. I’m going to bring back the excitement of big fights, the energy of it. Everybody’s always telling me, ‘Hey, I bet you can’t wait till you can bring the UFC to Madison Square Garden. No, I want the [expletive] Boston Garden, OK? One of the things I love about a Boston show is that you’re not just pulling people from Massachusetts, you’re pulling people from Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Rhode Island, even New Jersey and New York. We’re going to blow people away with how many fans come.”

- Dana White talks about the UFC going to Boston.

Prior to negotiations with the Boston Garden it was that Dana wanted Fenway Park. But I suppose it’s a welcome change to be more realistic and shoot for the Garden.

Strikeforce Challengers VI Not Happening in January

Brent Brookhouse — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:20:05 -0000

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It looks like there is no plan to have Strikeforce Challengers VI on January 22. From MMA Junkie:

Despite recent rumors of a Jan. 22 date – and an official mention of the card on this past Saturday's "Evolution" broadcast – Strikeforce will not be hosting a "Challengers Series" event prior to its Jan. 30 "Strikeforce: Miami" event.

MMAjunkie.com today confirmed with Strikeforce Director of Communications Mike Afromowitz that despite mention of the show on Saturday's broadcast, the Jan. 22 date was simply "under consideration" and was "never set in stone."

These are the bumps in the road that promotions have to learn to avoid. Yes, the Challengers show isn't a huge deal that is going to make or break the promotion; but over time things like talking about shows on-air that are not actually taking place will add up. There are plenty of potential complications in running a company that creating additional problems on your own is a really bad idea.

Don't get me wrong, I am really enjoying the Strikeforce product and they are doing a lot of the right things. But the stage is much bigger now, everyone needs to be on the same page. A date can't be "under consideration" and then talked about as official on a broadcast only to be confirmed as not happening a few days later.

Jon Jones Loses Appeal of Loss To Matt Hamill

Brent Brookhouse — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 14:07:24 -0000

From Heavy.com:

Jon Jones’ appeal to the Nevada State Athletic Commission to overturn referee Steve Mazagatti’s decision in his bout against Matt Hamill earlier this month has been denied. The NSAC stated that they don’t overturn decisions and decided against ruling on the appeal.

The chances of this ever getting overturned were very, very slim. This was the first time the new replay rule was used in action and for the commission to overturn a decision made by the ref the first time the rule was used would send a very mixed message.

Jones clearly isn’t being punished and is continuing to be moved up by his management as his next fight will be against Brandon Vera.

New SB Nation MMA Blog Launched: Gals Guide To MMA

Brent Brookhouse — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 13:56:07 -0000

We'd like to welcome the newest SB Nation MMA blog to the network. The Gals Guide To MMA is a truly unique blog in the MMA space. With features such as "Pantydropper of the Week" you're certainly not going to find similar content on the other SB Nation blogs.

Welcome aboard ladies!

Condom Depot Banned As Sponsor For UFC Events

Brent Brookhouse — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 20:46:00 -0000

Dana White Took Food From The Mouths of Our Sponsored Fighters Just In Time For Christmas! Sorry Spencer, Josh, Gabe, Jake and everyone else...
We have been notified that we have been Banned From the UFC and WEC!
We have provided fighters 100's of thousands of dollars DIRECTLY over the last 2 years but can no longer do so! Not to mention word came down during AIDS awareness month!!
UFC a Classy Organization runned by an even Classier Guy.

- Condom Depot responds to it's recent banning by the UFC

The timing is awkward what with the whole AIDS Awareness Month and everything but this always felt like an inevitable move by the UFC. As much good as Condom Depot has done for fighters you just had to know that the UFC wasn't crazy about them having their name all over fighters on their shows.

Sad news for the fighters and I'm sure the e-mail CD sent out will keep them from being welcomed back any time soon.

Phil Baroni v. Marcus Davis At UFC 111

Brent Brookhouse — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 15:26:05 -0000

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Hard-hitting (and crowd-pleasing) welterweights, Marcus Davis and Phil Baroni, have verbally agreed to throw leather at UFC 111 from the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J., on March 27, 2010.

The promotion has made no official announcements about the 170-pound match up or the actual pay-per-view (PPV) event at this time; however, that's expected to change very soon.

- MMA Mania reports that Marcus Davis and Phil Baroni will trade punches at UFC 111.

Phil Baroni was an odd addition to the UFC roster. He's leveled out at being basically a .500 fighter and it appears fairly clear that he can't compete with many fighters of note in the UFC. After being completely dominated standing by Amir in his last fight I don't see any way Phil goes the full three rounds with the hard hitting Davis.

It makes sense to use Baroni in exciting fights, but look for Phil to hit the free agent market following a devastating knockout.

Shinya Aoki v. Mizuto Hirota Added To 'Dynamite!! 2009'

Brent Brookhouse — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 13:52:01 -0000

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Two Japanese lightweight champs will battle on New Years Eve.

The biggest Japanese MMA event of the year will have a lightweight showdown between the champions of the two biggest Japanese promotions. From MMA Junkie:

The organizations announced two additional MMA-rules contests for the Dec. 31 event, as Shinya Aoki meets Mizuto Hirota and Tatsuya Kawajiri faces Kazunori Yokota.

The HDNet-televised event features both MMA and K-1 bouts and takes place at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, Japan.

The current DREAM lightweight champion, Aoki (22-4) enters the contest having won five of his past six bouts. "Tobikan Judan's" lone loss in the stretch came in a welterweight grand prix contest to Hayato "Mach" Sakurai. The 26-year-old is quickly becoming a New Year's Eve staple, as "Dynamite!! 2009" will mark Aoki's fourth-straight Dec. 31 appearance.

Meanwhile, Hirota (12-3-1) fights for the first time since claiming World Victory Road's Sengoku lightweight title with an August TKO win over former champion Satoru Kitaoka. Hirota enters the bout having gone 6-1-1 in his past eight outings.

It is a very big fight in the Japanese MMA scene and it carries a lot of meaning beyond this single fight. Aoki is rumored to be coming to America to fight Gilbert Melendez as a part of Strikeforce's next CBS event which will also feature Fedor and Dan Henderson. A loss for Aoki will likely drop him out of the top five in the weight class and take away some of the meaning of that fight as Gilbert attempts to prove that he is a top ten level talent.

If Aoki should win and carry his #2 world ranking into the CBS show then we'd be looking at a Strikeforce event featuring Fedor (#1 Heavyweight) v. Werdum (#11 Heavyweight), Aoki (#2 Lightweight) v. Melendez (#13 Lightweight) and Henderson (#3 Middleweight) v. Shields (#7 Middleweight).

Late Night Fights: Scott Smith v. James Irvin

Brent Brookhouse — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:46:12 -0000

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Apologies for the feature's absence the past few evenings. I'm not going to run it over weekends just due to schedule conflicts with any live events.

Anyway, tonight we go back to February 12, 2004 when a 5-0 Scott Smith stepped into the cage to face James Irvin who had gotten his career off the ground with three straight wins. The fight took place at a Gladiator Challenge event and was contested at heavyweight. Irvin is now a light heavyweight and Smith is a middleweight and the size difference is quite clear in the cage.

Fun fact for the event: Dan Quinn (of insane internet ramblings about Stevia) picked up his third career win at the event with a submission victory over Adrian Perez. Adrian Perez is, of course, the guy with King of the Cage tattooed on his face who last fought in 2007 after his record had tumbled to 2-11 (he was finished 11 times). The win brought Quinn's career record up to 3-3-1.

Anyway, on to the fight: