SB Nation User Blog: snet tim

Patriot Act 2 Recap

snet tim — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 17:27:27 -0000

So I'm a bit late in getting this up, but late is better than never. It became a lengthy, yet awesome night.

A few corrections from my last post. I erroneously used Sherdog.com as my source for the records of the fighters and would now like to correct that. Lucas Lopes' record was not 8-8 before last night but was 27-8. How Sherdog missed those other 19 fights, I'm not sure. Also, he did not fight CJ Fernandes, but rather fought Whisper Goodman. So I've learned my lesson that in regards to the next Patriot Act card (which is around June 20th), I will not use Sherdog as a source. (And one more thing on Sherdog is that "Eduardo Silva" is really Eduardo Cunha, there was a mix up in communicating the proper name.)

The rest of the info after the jump will be from the events program (unless stated as IMO).

Pic via www.purefight.org

All fights and interviews from the Patriot Act 2 can be seen at PureFight.Org

Amateur Fight Card

Nathan Van Loo 2-0 (ATT) vs Nick Hunt
Fight Video

Jacob Thorton 6-2 (Hulett House) vs Michael Haun 2-2 (Martial Arts Center)
Fight Video

Chris Hayes 0-0 (ATT) vs Kyle Lesniak 0-0 (Independent)
(Haven't found it yet, I will add later).

James Rose 1-0 (ATT) vs Nick Felix 2-0 (Team Kayo)
Fight Video

Johnny Andrews 0-0 (Askren FC) vs Mike O'Rielly 2-2 (Devastation FC)
Fight Video

Chase Miller 2-0 (ATT) vs Chris Rapa 2-1 (HIT Squad)
Fight Video
IMO this is the amateur fight to watch. One of the best fights on the night.

Professional Fight Card

Bradon Barger Pro Debut (ATT) vs Charles Hackman 1-2 (HIT Squad)

Fighter Background: Barger makes his debut after a very successful amateur career going 5-0 and winning the Capital City Welterweight belt. Hackman makes his debut at 170 after fighting three pro fights at 185.

IMO This fight was a battle with constant back and forth action. Hackman looked big for 170, but I have no idea if the cut helped or hurt him. Entertaining. Good fight to watch.

Eduardo Cunha Pro Debut (ATT) vs TJ Thomas 1-0 (HIT Squad)

Fighter Background: Thomas out of the HIT Squad made his pro debut in the inaugaral Patriot Act on Feb 7. He managed to stop American Top Team fighter Brendan Domingo in the 2nd round by strikes. He will look to continue his winning ways in the Patriot Act II. He will face a stern test in Cunha who is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belt.

Lucas Lopes 27-8 (ATT) vs Whisper Goodman 9-6 (HIT Squad)

Fighter Background: This fight features the most experienced fighters of the night. Lopes hails from Natal, Brazil and has a Muay Thai and BJJ background. Whisper Goodman brings a 9-6 record to this bout after making the jump to MMA from a professional football background.

Lopes will be featured on the Strikeforce card in St. Louis, MO on June 6th. This was released on Tatame (and I saw it last night while Kiko France and Lucas were reading it), but now I can't find it.

IMO this fight shows that Lopes can kick like a mule simply by the numerous times Goodman collapsed from them. There's a lot of good action in this fight. I look forward to his bout for Strikeforce.

Ben Askren 1-0 (ATT) vs Mitchell Harris 1-2 (The Martial Arts Center)

Fighter Background: Askren comes into this fight after winning his debut in the inaugural Patriot Act with a ref stoppage only 1:30 into the fight against Josh Flowers. Harris brings a 1-2 pro record into this fight but has a strong background in wrestling and will look to make a name for himself in this fight.

IMO this was another great fight for Askren. Can't wait to see more of him.

The Patriot Act 2

snet tim — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 18:56:37 -0000

Today is the day for the Patriot Act 2 by Headhunters Productions. The event will be occuring at the Holiday Inn Express in Columbia, MO. Headlining the event is ~~Jeff "Snowman" Monson versus Pat Smith~~ and Ben "Funky" Askren versus Mitchell Harris.

This will be Askren's second professional MMA match. He won his first fight against David Flowers by TKO in the first round back in February. Harris is coming in with a record of 1-3 with his most recent fight resulting in a win by decision. His losses are 1 by submission and 2 by TKO. If I were to bet on this fight, I'd have to pick Askren.

Also fighting tonight is ATTs Lucas Lopes against CJ Fernandes. Lopes (8-8) has a strong background in Muay Thai and a brown belt in Brazilian Jiujitsu, I am excited to see him fight tonight. Fernandes has more experience with a record of 14-8-3, but I'm still going to go for Lopes to pull out the W.

Purefight.org will provide live coverage of the event here.

It appears as Monson's fight has been canceled according to the event update on Sherdog. When I find out why I'll let you all know.

Pic via www.yorkblog.com

Akiyama sporting the UFC logos. pic via Fightlinker

snet tim — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 14:48:45 -0000

Akiyama sporting the UFC logos.

pic via Fightlinker

Megumi Fuji No-Gi Grappling Tournament. She's pretty amazing!

snet tim — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 05:04:50 -0000

Megumi Fuji No-Gi Grappling Tournament. She's pretty amazing!

Fast and Furious

snet tim — Sun, 29 Mar 2009 18:35:59 -0000

Fast and Furious

This is by far the best promo for a Fast and the Furious movie. (Also does not feature Vin Diesel or Paul Walker).

personal favorite is #7.

The Best MMA Fighter in the World Video

snet tim — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:39:20 -0000

The Best MMA Fighter in the World Video

Greatest Fighter in the world, at least that's his notion. I really enjoy the 3:30 mark. :D

Speculation on Gina Carano

snet tim — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:28:00 -0000

In watching the interview where Carano talks about Strikeforce and Cyborg, I couldn't help but notice that she seemed a bit burned out in regards to MMA. There's several things from this interview that have me concerned.

First off, she was most excited at the beginning of the interview talking about hanging out with the Make-A-Wish kids, which is a great thing. But when asked where has she been, she talks about traveling, "detoxing", and training "here and there".

What I'm most concerned about is how's she handling her training regime if she's wanting her next fight to be against Cristina "Cyborg" Santos. Cyborg is no joke of a competitor, and this fight is getting a lot of tension built up under it in anticipation for it to happen. It's becoming quite "surreal". Hopefully it's not as mythic as the Fedor-Coutue fight. But, a Carano walking in 4.5 lbs overweight again just would not fly.

pic via www.cagepotato.com

More after the jump.

To continue, throughout the video she talks about how she has not been in the gym much lately and has been taking sometime away from it. She's a bit notorious for not prepping enough for fights. Her last few for CBS she looked okay, and that was good enough to get the wins, but she didn't look that great as a fighter. She even stated that she was sloppy in one of them and should have trained more. I am glad to hear though that her next move is a fight, and she wants that fight to be with Cyborg. But she just sounded completely burned out from training and competing sans the Cyborg fight.

Regrettably, it wouldn't surprise me if she retired after that fight. If that's the case, what would that mean for female mma? Carano has the most going for her as far as getting female mma into Zuffa cards. She is a great fighter, has the sex appeal, and has proven to draw some pretty big numbers consistently. Women's fights may never make it on to UFC cards, but with other organizations with female cards continuing to disappear, women's MMA needs a place that will hold some consistency. If for nothing else, to have a home and a set of standardized weight classes. I think that the WEC could provide this and then the more hardcore MMA fans would see these on VS and it could infiltrate from there.

IF Carano were to retire, what would happen with the promotions of female mma since most of them are focused through her? Who would be the next Carano per se? Kim Couture has a big name, but she's too new to the fight scene to take such a burden. Cyborg is a fantastic fighter, and she's a great candidate, but she looks a bit more like a fighter and isn't quite as pretty as Carano or Couture. Megumi Fuji is AWESOME, but would she move from Japan? Also, her name isn't as well known to the non-hardcore fans.

Maybe this isn't something to be too concerned about just yet, and I sincerely hope it's not. But I would really like to see female MMA continue to grow and can a steady outlet.

Below are a few more issues from the video worth mentioning but not what I had wanted to focus on.

What is/was she detoxing from? It seems as if she's about to say why but quickly states she doesn't have to always be in the limelight. Agreed, she needs time to herself. So is she simply detoxing from the poisons of the media? Also, what kind of detox is "interesting and fun"? Hopefully she stays clean from whatever it was? Please no more Carina Damm steroid-esque runs.

For somebody who states that she doesn't really like all of the attention she gets and some of the pressures for being the head of female MMA, I find it odd she would do a photoshoot for MAXIM. Granted, she is very attractive and nobody minds looking at her whatsoever, but if you don't want attention sensual photoshopped pics aren't going to help you out. (but for those so inclined you can check them out here: http://www.cagepotato.com/hot-potato-new-gina-carano-pics-maxim )