Jonathan Snowden
Aug 08, 2009 Apr 07, 2012 705 6941
Jonathan Snowden is a long time MMA fan and MMA "journalist."
website: The MMA Encyclopedia
email:
a fan of
St. Louis Cardinals
Pittsburgh Steelers
South Carolina Gamecocks
Winthrop Eagles
Rumina Sato, Frank Shamrock
Sugar Ray Leonard
Kevin Nash
RSSUser Blog
UFC 141 Fight Card: Swaggering Striker Alistair Overeem Prepares For Brock Lesnar
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 21, 2011 11:59 AM EST
in UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem
on MMA Nation
UFC 141 Fight Card: Will Brock Lesnar Be Able To Face His Fears Against Alistair Overeem?
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 20, 2011 10:31 AM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
Dana White's Unlikely Deal With Showtime Saves MMA On The Network
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 16, 2011 10:20 AM EST
in Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine
on MMA Nation
UFC 141 Fight Card: Why We Love (Or Love To Hate) The Diaz Brothers
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 15, 2011 10:15 AM EST
in UFC 141: Lesnar vs. Overeem
on MMA Nation
Can Gilbert Melendez Stay Focused In The Face Of A UFC Fantasy Future?
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 14, 2011 12:44 PM EST
in Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal
on MMA Nation
Post-Fight Interview Shows Frank Mir To Be A Very Dangerous Man
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 13, 2011 10:26 AM EST
in UFC 140: Jones vs. Machida
on MMA Nation
UFC 140 Results: Jon Jones Proves He's The Best Fighter In The World Against Lyoto Machida
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 10, 2011 11:45 PM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
M-1 Global Returns To Showtime With Shamil Zavurov VS. Yasubey Enomoto Rematch
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 9, 2011 12:37 PM EST
on MMA Nation
Fast Forward: Can You Really Know Which UFC Stars Will Reign Supreme A Decade From Now?
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 8, 2011 4:54 PM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
Loss Of Georges St. Pierre Is Particularly Damaging For A UFC In Transition
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 7, 2011 1:39 PM EST
in UFC 143: GSP vs. Diaz
on MMA Nation
UFC 140 Fight Card: Jon Jones And Lyoto Machida Meet In A Culture War
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 6, 2011 9:48 AM EST
in UFC 140: Jones vs. Machida
on MMA Nation
Does Michael Bisping Stand A Chance Against Anderson Silva?
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 5, 2011 9:42 AM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
UFC: The Ultimate Fighter 14 Results: Jason 'Mayhem' Miller Talks The Talk But Fails To Walk The Walk
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 4, 2011 10:35 AM EST
in The Ultimate Fighter 14
on MMA Nation
Is Ronda Rousey Vs. Miesha Tate A Money Match For Strikeforce?
by Jonathan Snowden on Dec 1, 2011 10:13 AM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
Fedor Emelianenko, Vadim Finkelstein Talk Vladimir Putin Booing Incident, Moscow Success And M-1's Future
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 29, 2011 11:11 AM EST
in MMA Interviews
on MMA Nation
Five Things I'm Thankful For In Mixed Martial Arts: The 2011 Remix
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 24, 2011 8:45 AM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
UFC 139 Results: Stephan Bonnar On A Collision Course With Rampage Jackson?
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 21, 2011 11:12 AM EST
on MMA Nation
Eddie Alvarez And MMA's Culture Of Quitting
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 20, 2011 11:18 AM EST
in MMA Editorial
on Bloody Elbow
Last year, Chicago Bears quarterback Jay Cutler quit in the middle of the biggest game of his career. Cutler had an injured knee, but nothing that seemed to be more than a nuisance. He didn't get carried to the training room on a stretcher. He didn't even have to leave the field. He stood, calmly, on the sidelines and watched his teammates lose a close game to the Green Bay Packers.
The response was instantaneous and intense. Cutler was a quitter. A loser. A coward. Jason Whitlock's was a typical column:
In the biggest game of his career, shortly after playing 30 minutes of awful football, Cutler laid down on the Bears and the city of Chicago. Hiding behind a knee injury, he tapped out in much the same way LeBron James tapped out with an elbow injury against the Celtics during last year’s playoffs.
I’m sorry. I don’t need an MRI to confirm King Cutler quit.
FOX cameras provided all the evidence I need.
Whitlock and his cohorts in the media weren't alone. Fellow players like Maurice Jones Drew called him out on Twitter. The idea of Cutler = Quitter is now inescapable. It defines his career, despite the revelation that Cutler had actually suffered a torn MCL in the first half.
Sports fans have a zero tolerance policy for quitters, for athletes who don't perform when it means the most. Roberto Duran, arguably the greatest boxer of his generation, never lived down quitting in a fight with "Sugar" Ray Leonard. How many jokes did you hear about Lebron James disappearing in the fourth quarter of important basketball games? To sports fans, these are moral failures. Only mixed martial arts fans seem to permit them.
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UFC 139 Results: Dan Henderson And Shogun Rua Fight To Bitter End In Instant Classic
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 20, 2011 12:15 AM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
Is Elaina Maxwell's Kickboxing Debut A Sign Of Trouble Ahead For Women's MMA?
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 19, 2011 3:01 PM EST
in MMA Interview
on Bloody Elbow
Muay Thai is called the art of eight limbs. For many kickboxers, it's just a clever turn of phrase. If your career is concentrated in Japan or Europe, it's likely you really practice the art of four limbs - hands and feet. Only rarely will knees come into the picture. Standing elbows are out of the question. To purists, K-1, the kickboxing brand most familiar to North American MMA fans, is barely Muay Thai kickboxing at all.
"You're allowed to throw one knee at a time. There's pretty much no clinch in K-1 fighting," fighter Elaina Maxwell said. "In traditional Muay Thai, there's elbows, knees, and what most fans know as 'kickboxing' all combined together."
Tonight at the Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, while many fans will be watching Wanderlei Silva fight Cung Le, Maxwell and some of the best strikers in North America will be letting all eight limbs go. Nevada is one of the few athletic commissions that allows professional Muay Thai fights in their purest form. It's not for the faint of heart. But promoter Scott Kent from Lion Fight Promotions thinks it's a level of violence Americans are ready for.
"I think the time is right," Kent said. "With the explosion of the UFC and MMA across America, we have the advantage of promoting a sport that everybody in MMA already trains in. Because you have to in order to be a complete MMA fighter. So we are able to hack into our traditional Muay Thai audience, since the sport is already very popular in many parts of Asia, but also expand that audience because of the exposure of MMA."
The show will stream live from The Joint at the Hard Rock on Go Fight Live. While many smaller shows like Kent's have gravitated towards HDNet, which features a rotating cast of North American based promotions, Lion Fights has taken a step into what could be the next big thing in content distribution - streaming pay per view.
"I think it's a great way to bring our fights to a global audience," Kent said. "With their distribution, a lot of folks get a chance to see these fighters that wouldn't normally have the opportunity."
Maxwell is one of the MMA crossover stars Kent is hoping will make a difference at the box office. Her record shows a blank kickboxing slate, but don't be fooled. Although she's never competed in a professional Muay Thai rules match, the San Francisco based fighter has lots of experience using all the tools of the trade. Maxwell is also one of the most successful American San Shou fighters of all time, combining punches, kicks, and wicked throws with devastating ease. The Cung Le protege won a gold medal in the Chinese sport in Macau in 2003 and is a dynamic striker.
"We rocked the house in 2003 and 2005. Cung Le is the best San Shou coach that the United States has ever had...That was an awesome experience," Maxwell said. "I want to go back again, but the politics in traditional martial arts are not fun. And all I want to do is fight. Plus, it's hard to go from getting paid to fight, back to paying to fight. "
Maxwell has turned her attention instead to mixed martial arts. She's lost her two highest profile bouts, Strikeforce fights with Gina Carano and Miesha Tate, but has won both of her bouts this year and four of her last five. Fans shouldn't read too much into her appearance in a kickboxing event. With Strikeforce on the verge of folding and the UFC remaining steadfast in a refusal to promote women's fights, the future for women in the sport seems bleak. But Maxwell is taking it all in stride.
"I don't think women should be afraid. Sure, they're not going to be in the UFC unless they're holding the ring card," Maxwell said. "I don't think the women's sport is dying. There are more than a few organizations out there that will showcase MMA. I just wanted to stay busy. I love to fight and really wanted to test my standup game.
"That's where I come from and I love it. One of the last times I actually fought a kickboxing match in Las Vegas it was at the Stardust," Maxwell said, referencing a Las Vegas hotel that was blown up in the name of progress in 2007. "So, that was awhile ago right? It should be fun."
Lion Fights: Battle in the Desert 4 will be available live tonight on Go Fight Live. The event is also available on demand for UFC fans who want to purchase the kickboxing event and watch it sometime after UFC 139 is complete. Elaina Maxwell would like to thank kickboxing coach Kirian Fitzgibbons, Dan Russell at Mainstreet Chiropractic, and Fight Chix.
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UFC 139 Preview: Cung Le And Wanderlei Silva In A Clash Of Styles
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 19, 2011 12:11 PM EST
in UFC 139: Shogun vs. Henderson
on MMA Nation
UFC 139 Fight Card: Dan Henderson Funds His Wrestling Addiction With MMA In Japan
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 17, 2011 12:26 PM EST
in UFC 139: Shogun vs. Henderson
on MMA Nation
VIDEO: Wanderlei Silva's UFC 139 Training Camp
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 16, 2011 2:25 PM EST
on MMA Nation
The legendary Wanderlei Silva returns to the cage this weekend against a debuting Cung Le. Silva, once the most feared man in the sport, has fallen on hard times. Silva is just 2-4 since leaving his long time home promotion Pride to come to the UFC.
Can he get his groove back against Le, a San Shou specialist likely to give him the standing fight he craves? It's one of the most intriguing fights on a card tailor made for hardcore fans.
New York MMA Ban: UFC Attorney And Plaintiff Speak Out About Lawsuit
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 16, 2011 9:25 AM EST
on MMA Nation
Lifting The UFC Ban: The History Of New York's Mixed Martial Arts Law
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 15, 2011 2:58 PM EST
on MMA Nation
UFC 139: How Dan Henderson's First Octagon Battles Helped Forge An Incomparable Warrior
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 15, 2011 9:39 AM EST
in MMA History Lesson
on MMA Nation
UFC On Fox Results: Dana White Offers Fighter Criticism As Analyst
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 13, 2011 2:17 PM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
UFC On Fox Results: MMA Sells Out And It's A Great Thing To See
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 13, 2011 10:20 AM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
UFC On Fox Results: Historic Broadcast Leaves Room For Improvement
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 12, 2011 10:48 PM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
UFC 141: Brock Lesnar Looks Roughly The Size Of A Barge
by Jonathan Snowden on Nov 12, 2011 12:54 PM EST
in Jonathan Snowden's View
on MMA Nation
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