PODCAST: UFC 130 review, Michael Bisping talks TUF 14 and more on new edition of ESPN UK UFC Podcast with MMATorch's Chris Park

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The ESPN UK UFC Podcast is back with another new episode this week. The show features MMATorch UK Specialist Chris Park, along with ESPN UK's Ben Blackmore and the UK Telegraph's Gareth Davies. Here's a description of this week's episode, along with links for the show below:

"ESPN UFC Podcast: Hand it to Rampage

As Rampage Jackson thrashes Matt Hamill at UFC 130 (with a broken hand no less), did any fighter on the card prove themselves on a 'night of bad tactics'? Plus, we talk to Michael Bisping as he returns to TUF."

iTunes Link:

http://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/espn-ufc-podcast/id422840754

ESPN UK Links:

http://www.espn.co.uk/ufc/sport/video_audio/93968.html

http://www.espn.co.uk/UFC/sport/story/91246.html

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/MMATorch_Podcast_45/article_9479.shtml

Karen Grigoryan Kendall Grove Clay Guida Jason Guida

The MMA Hour With Askren in Studio, Guida, Swick, Mendes, Kingsbury, Browne

Filed under: , , ,

The MMA Hour will be off on Monday due to Memorial Day, but the show returns on Tuesday at its usual 1 p.m. ET / 10 p.m. PT start time with another loaded lineup. Here's who you will hear from:

* Bellator welterweight champion Ben Askren will be in studio to talk about his upcoming title defense against Jay Hieron.

* Clay Guida will discuss Saturday night's lightweight battle against Anthony Pettis.

* Mike Swick will talk about his long road back to the Octagon and his upcoming fight at UFC 134.

* Chad Mendes will explain why he chose to fight at UFC 133 instead of wait for Jose Aldo to get healthy.

* Kyle Kingsbury will discuss his TUF Finale fight on Saturday night against Fabio Maldonado.

* Heavyweight Travis Browne will discuss his first round knockout win against Stefan Struve at UFC 130.

Of course, we'll be taking your calls. Give us a shout at: 212-254-0193 or 212-254-0237.

*** You can now stream the show live on your iPhone or iPad by clicking here.

Watch the show live below beginning at 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT. Subscribe to The MMA Hour on iTunes: audio feed here; video feed here. Download previous episodes here. Listen to the show via Stitcher here.

Editor's Note: Today's show is over and a replay will be available by Wednesday.

 

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Source: http://mmafighting.com/2011/05/31/the-mma-hour-with-askren-in-studio-guida-swick-mendes-kingsb/

Marcelo Brito  Rob Broughton  Mike Brown  Junie Browning

Video analysis: Iole/Meltzer on what’s next for Sonnen

Kevin Iole and Dave Meltzer give their reaction to what went down with Chael Sonnen in front of the California State Athletic Commission.

Update this afternoon from MMAWeekly:

The commission has now finalized Sonnen's timeline as to when he would be able to re-apply for a license in the state. According to the California State Athletic Commission, Sonnen's suspension will run through his current license expires on June 29, 2011.

Folllowing the expiration of his license, Sonnen will not be able to re-apply for a new license in the state until at least May 18, 2012. At that time, Sonnne can re-apply for a license in the state of California, but there are still no guarantees he will be approved.

Looks like Sonnen and UFC will be faced with the choice of snubbing California and heading elsewhere or the fighter will be sidelined until the middle of 2012. The extension of the penalty is similar to what California did to Antonio Margarito. We're not comparing what Margarito was caught doing (loading his handwraps with a plaster-like substance) to Sonnen's offense, but the state left the fighter with no recourse and no way to make a living. Frankly, that's a ridiculous penalty in this case.

Update: The CSAC was "confused" and now Sonnen is eligible to re-apply this year.

"Upon reviewing the May 18, 2011 decision of the commission, an error in the applicability of Rule 399 was made," stated a release issued today by the commission. "The rule states that, 'Any applicant who has been denied an application for a license may not file a similar application until one year from the date of the last previous denial by the commission. Any application filed within the one year period may be denied without the necessity of a hearing. Anyone who has had his license revoked may not petition for reinstatement or apply for a new license until one year after the date of such revocation. Any petition for reinstatement filed within the one year period may be denied without the necessity of a hearing.'

"Since the commission did not revoke or deny Mr. Sonnen's license, the rule does not apply."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Video-analysis-Iole-Meltzer-on-what-s-next-for-?urn=mma-wp2398

Yoshiyuki Yoshida Yoon Dong Sik Gilbert Yvel Ishkhan Zakharian

HANSEN: A Stupid and Ridiculous Proposal To Spice Up The Ultimate Fighter, and It Just Might Work

By: Rich Hansen, MMA Torch Columnist

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I'm a night owl by nature. Having a nine-month old baby which comes with a 6AM wake-up call - that includes the weekends - sleep is hard to come by (the astute reader already knows where I'm going with this). Everyday is clockwork; my alarm goes off at 5:58AM, look in on the sleeping baby, go to the bathroom, look in on the baby again and she's wide awake.

Unfortunately, she is not just a morning-person but a night owl as well. She's up until 10 almost every night, no matter what her mother and I do to try to get her to go to sleep at 8. I think we're overpaying for daycare, because if she's supposed to sleep 13 hours a day, and she only sleeps 8 hours a night, well, she's sleeping way too much when we're paying someone to look after her, ya dig?

So, clearly, sleep is at a premium in the Hansen household. Even when she goes to bed at 10, I need a couple hours to unwind and relax, otherwise literally every moment of my week is spent watching the baby, driving to the office, working, driving home, and tending to the baby. When else am I going to do anything other than keeping that fragile little ball of crawling energy safe and secure?

The wife and I trade off, giving each other breaks every night for sanity's sake. I take the baby downstairs so the wife can clean up the upstairs a little and watch America's Next Top Anorexic, and she takes the baby from time to time so I can, well, so I can fix the sink, mow the lawn, hang the new light fixtures, install the garbage disposal, and not catch up on sleep.

It's a wonderful life, and I wouldn't trade a moment of it with anyone for any reason. It's just also a sleepless life. With one exception.

Every Wednesday night when I get time to myself, I tell the wife I'm not fixing the sink, mowing the lawn, hanging new light fixtures, or installing jack doodoo (I'm a parent). I'm getting one catnap a week by God. And since I only get an hour, and since I normally need a couple hours to unwind, there's only one solution. And that solution is found on Channel 241-1 on my DirecTV HD receiver.

The Ultimate Fighter, once the best reality show on television (a low bar, to be sure), is the one and only thing that I can count on for a solid 50 minutes of shut-eye. The franchise which was once the best reality show on television, and was also the most important programming in the history of the sport, is now more potent than Nyquil. On the bright side, if my household were a Nielsen household, I'd definitely count as a consistent viewer. After all, once I fall asleep at 8:06 PM every night, which is about 30 seconds before Brock Lesnar talks about chicken excrement for the second time every week, I'm physically unable to change the channel, even through the commercials. I can't honestly make a snarky joke about the quality of the sponsors, because I'm unconscious.

Because of my love of unexpected sleep, I want the format of The Ultimate Fighter to stay in tact forever. After all, I can't be the only one using TUF to get in a good power nap, so the ratings can't get much lower than they are right now because of us sleepers, which is a metric Nielsen can't ever account for.

That said, eventually the baby will be on a proper sleep schedule, and when that time comes I'm going to want TUF to not, well, suck. Eventually I'm going to want to see TUF return to its rightful place in the MMA landscape, as opposed to the boring, meaningless pile of dreck that it has been reduced to in recent seasons.

I am confident that pretty much everyone with any knowledge of the MMA landscape realizes that TUF is never going to recruit the depth of talent they had for Seasons 1, 2, 3, 5, etc. And for every Ryan Bader or Roy Nelson that they're sporadically able to sign, there will also be 30 guys taking part in the show who wouldn't even catch a sniff from all but the lowest level of independent promotions. As a result, any proposal for improving TUF can't include the idea of improving the talent pool.

It's also unrealistic to say that the easy way to improve the show is to pick two charismatic coaches, or to pick two coaches who will cap off the season by fighting for a title or for a title shot. Chemistry isn't manufactured, it either exists or it doesn't. Case in point: The MMA world went gaga over the idea of Brock Lesnar appearing on TUF, until Brock Lesnar appeared on TUF. Lesnar might be a lightning rod, and he might be the most compelling figure in the sport, but clearly the combination of him and TUF didn't work. And frankly, it doesn't matter why he didn't work. Lesnar as a coach didn't catch on with the public as a coach; proof of that is in the ratings.

Even the combination of face vs. heel, champion vs. cocky challenger can be a total dud. Don't believe me? Well, "you're a male nurse, you're a male nurse, well you're a male nurse, so nanny nanny boo boo." That, gentle reader, is bad television.

So if I'm going to improve TUF, I can't count on improving the talent pool, and I can't just rely on the two coaches to make for good television, because for every season of Rampage vs. Rashad (which did get old by the end), there's plenty of Brock Lesnar vs. JDS and Mir vs. Nogueira seasons to go along.

For Season 14 of TUF, Dana White has booked UFC mainstay - and paragon of all that is wrong with the universe Michael Bisping - to coach against UFC newcomer* Jason Miller. An inspired matchup for sure. It's also a matchup which guarantees absolutely nothing for ratings. And of course, ratings is what it's all about. If no one watches, the show will eventually disappear.

*-Miller is 0-1 in the UFC, losing a decision to Georges St-Pierre at UFC 52. But relative to 99% of UFC fans, Miller will be making his UFC debut.

Miller vs. Bisping on TUF may very well provide a ratings spike for Spike TV (I kill me), but the improved ratings it would provide would be a one-time deal. First of all, at this point you could pit any two UFC fighters against each other as coaches and not do worse than Lesnar and Dos Santos have done this season. Season 14 could be Rich Clementi vs. Kurt Pellegrino, and they're likely to generate a cumulative 1.1 rating, so Miller and Bisping seem fated to improve from the ratings of Season 13. And while they may provide a substantial ratings increase for Season 14, what about Season 15? And Season 16? And infinity and beyond? They can't coach every season. And even if they did, the law of diminishing returns pretty much guarantees that their ratings would degrade every subsequent season. So what to do?

Three coaches; three teams.

Who says there can only be two coaches and two teams? If the formula you're using is providing a stale product, change the formula. Zuffa has changed the formula several times already.

Season 1 was totally random. Sam Hoger made the semi-finals of the show without having to fight his way to the semi-finals in the first place, while Josh Koscheck, Chris Leben, and Diego Sanchez each had 42 fights apiece* to qualify for the semi-finals. So after Season 1, they implemented a format where every fighter had to fight in order to advance. They also pretty much dispatched of hostess Willa Ford as Dana White's popularity (notoriety?) expanded exponentially.

*-I'm rounding up to the nearest factor of 42, so don't quote me exactly on that one...

Other seasons featured other formula changes. The first three seasons featured two divisions of young fighters. The fourth season featured two divisions of journeymen. The fifth and sixth seasons featured only lightweight fighters. The UFC changed the way fighters were assigned and the manner in which fights were booked. They even instituted a policy where fighters had to fight their way into the house. So it is apparent that the UFC isn't married to any one specific facet of the show.

The UFC wants you to believe that the coaches are competing against each other; that they have a burning desire to see all of their fighters win every single week. They feel a need to convince the viewer at home that there is nothing more important to any coach on TUF than for their team to win. But that just isn't so. Ask Ken Shamrock. Ask Rampage Jackson. Ask Rampage Jackson again (he did appear on two seasons, after all).

The simple fact is that these celebrity coaches are being paid to appear on the show, and their primary motivations are either money or exposure. And of course they all try to impart some wisdom. And they all want to do at least enough coaching so that their reputations don't take a hit (sans Rampage). And of course there are coaches who do fit the narrative, who give their all and want nothing more than to not only win, but to just be a good coach.

The percentage of coaches who fit that bill is a small number indeed. Their needs to be some juice, an inducement, a bribe even.

Enter the three coaches, three teams concept. 18 fighters, six fighters per team, which allows for a little more personal instruction than when a coach has eight fighters to manage. Fights are decided round-robin style. A Team A fighter fights a Team B fighter week one. The next week, a Team B fighter fights a Team C fighter. The next week, a Team C fighter fights a Team A fighter. Lather, rinse repeat until we're down to nine winners.

We just had nine first round fights, which left nine quarter-finalists. After those nine fighters advance, Dana White eliminates the one quarter-finalist who displayed the worst performance in victory. So now we've got fighters who are inspired even more to fight an exciting style of fight. No more Roy Nelson vs. Kimbo Slice fights in the first round. Also, if one of the nine opening round winners can't continue due to injury, then no winning fighter needs to be chopped, which eliminates the concept of a losing fighter advancing.

Once Dana chops one fighter, we're down to our standard number of eight quarter-finalists. Those eight fighters fight down to four semi-finalists; and those four fight for the right to fight in the finals at the end of the season. And either on the Ultimate Fighter Finale or on the subsequent PPV, the coaches fight each other, just like normal. See? It's just a small tweak.

Now, if you're still paying attention, you've probably noticed something. Um, if there are three coaches, how in the hell are the coaches fighting at the end of the season? Is there going to be a three-way dance? Is that really your proposal, you jackwagon? Well, worry not, friend. Here's the part that gets the coaches motivated, which provides intensity to every week's show.

The first coach to lose all of his fighters doesn't get to fight at the end of the season.

Think about that one for a second. There's nothing a prizefighter likes to do more than to fight for, well, prizes. Imagine having to coach for six weeks, with no fight at the end of the tunnel. To dedicate that much time and energy into a project, only to be told by Dana White on national television that you didn't do well enough, and you don't get a fight.

If you want the coaches to be inspired by more than just reality television hijinks and weak trash-talk, there you go. Not to mention the fact that the only fighters willing to coach an entire season, knowing that there's a 1/3 chance of not getting a high profile fight at the end of the tunnel, are men who would be completely dedicated to their own success. Fame and money are great motivators, but so is the fear of failure in front of your peers.

That's it. Three teams of six. The most unimpressive of the nine opening round winners gets cut. When a coach loses all of his fighters, he too gets cut. Like I said at the top, this is a stupid and ridiculous proposal to spice up The Ultimate Fighter, and it has no chance whatsoever of being implemented. But I'll tell you one stone cold fact about my proposal:

I'd give up my weekly Wednesday night nap for it.

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/richhansen/article_9476.shtml

Gleison Tibau Anthony Torres Miguel Torres Roberto Traven

A Closer Look At UFC 130: Stefan Struve vs. Travis Browne

Once again, fans and friends, it?s time for ?A Closer Look at UFC 130?. My special three-day mini-series has now officially entered its third and final day and will now feature the last three fights of what should be an awesome UFC 130 fight card. And before we get to the two big Light Heavyweight [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/26/a-closer-look-at-ufc-130-stefan-struve-vs-travis-browne

Crosley Gracie Gregor Gracie Ralek Gracie Renzo Gracie

UFC 130 AFTERMATH: Quinton "Rampage" Jackson's hand injury may give shot at Jon Jones to Lyoto Machida or Rashad Evans

By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

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With his unanimous decision victory over Matt Hamill at UFC 130 on Saturday night Quinton "Rampage" Jackson punched his ticket for a UFC Light Heavyweight Title fight with current Champ Jon Jones. However, a hand injury that Jackson revealed after the event could allow for someone else to get that spot.

After the decision was announced in the one-sided main event - where Jackson outclassed Hamill in the striking department while stuffing all 17 of Hamill's takedown attempts in the fight - Jackson said he came into the fight with a fractured hand, and apologized for not being able to put Hamill away.

He explained during the post-event press conference that he had broken the hand while in Japan in December, goofing around with friends. He thought it would heal on his own, but then re-injured it while sparring in camp leading up to this fight.

The UFC will send him to get the injury assessed by their doctors this week, and depending on the severity of the injury and Jackson's length of time out, UFC President Dana White said they might stick someone else into the fight against Jones.

"If Rampage can't go, we'd either have to do Machida ? because Machida is ready to go ? or have [Jones] wait for Rashad [Evans] because Rashad wants to [fight him]," White said. "Rashad is 100 percent confident he's going to win this fight (with Phil Davis at UFC 133) and wants to turn right around and fight Jones too. We'll see what happens."

Evans was of course initially slated to face Jones before the Champ's own hand injury derailed him for longer than the UFC or Evans wanted to wait. With Jones likely ready to return in October, White said last week that it wouldn't make sense to wait until after UFC 133 to determine Jones' next challenger, as they'd need to have promotional materials taken care of before that, and thus they were looking at Jackson and Machida.

With Rampage winning but coming up injured, however, White may be changing that tune. But it's all dependent on what the doctors tell Jackson this week, and more will be determined on this situation then.

Penick's Analysis: They might wait out for the Evans fight if Rampage can't go, but I think it's more likely that they'd ultimately put Machida in that fight with Evans taking on the winner. That said, it didn't seem like it was a major issue, and Jackson didn't seem like he was in a lot of pain with it at any point, so it may not be a serious hand injury. He said after the event that he felt he could be ready for the Jones fight, so we'll just have to wait to see if that will indeed be the case.

[Rampage Jackson art by Cory Gould (c) MMATorch.com]

Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/UFC_2/article_9463.shtml

Andrew Gardner Tiki Ghosn Dennis George Kultar Gill

Cain Velasquez: Carwin right choice to replace Brock

Former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Lesnar, the largest pay-per-view draw in the UFC, has recently been sidelined once again with a second battle with diverticulitis, an intestinal disease which previously had him sit out from active competition for just under a year due to the [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/15/cain-velasquez-carwin-right-choice-to-replace-brock

Jens Pulver Mike Pyle Nathan Quarry Jordan Radev

Cain Velasquez: Carwin right choice to replace Brock

Former UFC heavyweight champion Brock Lesnar is now stuck between a rock and a hard place. Lesnar, the largest pay-per-view draw in the UFC, has recently been sidelined once again with a second battle with diverticulitis, an intestinal disease which previously had him sit out from active competition for just under a year due to the [...]

Source: http://www.fighters.com/05/15/cain-velasquez-carwin-right-choice-to-replace-brock

Jens Pulver Mike Pyle Nathan Quarry Jordan Radev

Quinton Jackson moves one step closer to title shot with win over Matt Hamill

Back in Las Vegas for their annual Memorial Weekend event, UFC presented “UFC 130: Rampage vs. Hamill” on Saturday night with headliner Quinton Jackson holding off Ultimate Fighter alumnus Matt Hamill and likely earned a title-shot in the process as long as he checks out medically. Another of the night’s notable performances belonged to Frank [...]

Source: http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2011/05/28/ufc-130-rampage-vs-hamill-live-results-and-play-by-play/

Eddie Alvarez Thiago Alves  Andre Amade  Dean Amasinger