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Mid-Evening Muesli: Rankings, 84, Regal…

A couple of notes to close the day with…

* Check out my latest Media & Cultural Rankings at MMARated.com. I really enjoy doing these and think it’s kind of different from what everyone else is doing with that ever-so-popular rankings concept.

* I’m headed to Las Vegas tomorrow to cover UFC 84 for The Rated Republic (aka MMARated.com). We’ve got some potentially interesting things planned so keep it locked all weekend (and beyond, of course) for the latest and greatest.

* Quite the interesting conference call starring Gus Johnson, Mauro Ranallo, Frank Shamrock and Karyn Bryant today. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, once again, that’s alredy the best announce crew in the combat sports world.

* I totally missed this one but, apparently, Versus is airing the Hatton-Lazcano fight this Saturday. Seriously, I had no idea but that’s pretty cool news. From HBO’s 24/7 to Versus…interesting. But, seriously, go to Versus.com, you’ll have to work pretty hard to find any mention of the telecast.

* What the hell happened to TNA? For the first time in a while, I am having a real hard time watching iMPACT! I was always able to stomach their stupidities in the past but I am simply bored by the current product.

* Preach on, Lovemore. Preach on.

* Finally, William Regal. I’m still not sure what he was suspended for but I don’t care to ever watch him on my television again. For a close friend of Chris Benoit’s to get suspended TWICE following that whole tragedy is a tragedy in itself. Actually, its a joke. How many chances is Regal going to get and what kind of monster push is he going to receive when he returns?

Posted in Muesli | No Comments »

MMARated Radio: Where Have You Gone, Elvis Sinosic?

The last time we saw Elvis Sinosic compete was in December 2007 for Cage Rage. An eleven-year veteran of the sport, Sinosic has fought all over the world, including in his home-country of Australia.

So, where has he been? Well, that’s a good question, I was wondering the same thing.

“The King of Rock ‘n Rumble” has been looking for a good fight and may be on the verge of finding one too. He’s mixed it up with the likes of Tito Ortiz, Frank Shamrock, Forrest Griffin and Michael Bisping and is now itching to get back in there.

Thanks to our friends at Lojak Fightwear, we caught up with Sinosic to talk about his career and other topics:

* His stalker fan page

* His loyal fan base in Australia

* When is he looking to fight next?

* Which major promotions has he talked to recently?

* Does living in Australia make him less attractive to bookers?

* How popular is MMA in Australia?

* A look at some of his memorable opponents

All that and much more from the veteran fighter.

LISTEN TO THE ELVIS SINOSIC INTERVIEW HERE 

Posted in Elvis Sinosic, Interview, MMA | No Comments »

Who’s The Sexiest MMA WAG Of ‘Em All?

We’re doing some hard-hitting journalism over MMARated.com today while taking a look at the best MMA WAG’s around.

The good folks over at The Sun (UK) ran an interesting feature recently on the sexiest WAGs in MMA.
For the uninformed, “WAG” is an acronym for “Wives And Girlfriends.” It’s a popular term used to describe the countless number of beautiful soccer wives and girlfriends floating around Europe.

The paper’s website ran down their favorite MMA WAGs so I thought I would recreate the magic by posting their picks. As you can see, they, expectedly, made a plethora of mistakes along the way.

Take a look…

Posted in MMA | No Comments »

MMARated Radio: Patrick Schultz Reflects On His TUF Chances

Every season of the “The Ultimate Fighter” always seems to have a happy-go-lucky guy who comes off as just feeling blessed to be on the show. There’s also usually a guy who gets a second chance to chase his dream due to an injury or some kind of controversy.

Just so happens that Patrick Schultz played the role of both those guys on TUF 7. The Massachusetts-native lost a prelim bout to Luke Zachrich but after Paul Bradley’s herpes epidemic, he was quickly brought back because no one wanted to see Rampage get the “heeby jeebies.”

So, there was Schultz with a golden opportunity to advance to the quarter-finals with only Cale Yarborough standing in his way. That was also his biggest problem; Cale Yarborough was in standing in his way.

Schultz lost a tough two-round affair via decision with some even thinking the bout should have gone three rounds (I, on the other hand, thought the judges made the right call).

MMARated Radio spoke to the new father (his wife gave birth to a baby girl an hour before the interview!) about his experience on the show and a few other issues:

* Finding out that he had to fight his way into the house

* What happened after the loss to Zachrich?

* How did he find out that he was back on the show?

* The reception he received from his teammates when he returned

* Training with Rampage

* What went wrong against Yarborough

* The injury he sustained in the bout

Nice to hear how genuinely happy and excited Schultz was to be on the show.

LISTEN TO THE PATRICK SCHULTZ INTERVIEW HERE 

Posted in Interview, MMA, Patrick Schultz, The Ultimate Fighter, UFC | No Comments »

Mick Foley Needs To Clean It Up

Very excited to see Mick Foley back in the WWE mix, especially in his current role. Of course, the hardcore legend is now the color analyst on Smackdown and, in case you haven’t been paying attention, he’s doing, expectedly, a masterful job. Foley seems to understand the business and, more importantly, the art of selling a storyline to the public better than most.

On a seperate Foley note, he appeared on MLB.com’s “The Dish” to talk about meeting Barry Bonds and a bunch of other things. I could have sworn that I saw him wearing the exact same leopard shirt outfit on Smackdown a couple of weeks ago (or was it last week?).

This certainly isn’t new territory for Foley as we all know his wardrobe cycle is quite limited but now that he is representing the sport on the other side of the camera, so-to-speak, I think he needs to clean up his act a little. Basically, the look worked as a wrestler but not so much as announcer.

And before you tell me wrestling announcers are supposed to have their own style (see: Ventura, Jesse) let me say that I completely agree with that notion. Except Foley looks more like the guy who hangs out at the corner of my street than a man wearing sunglasses and boa. I think it must be the hair. I am glad to see wrestling move on from the long hair, fanny pack days. That was a much need evolution. However, it appears as though Foley didn’t get the memo.

I will always love his work but, for some reason, his appearance in this video just sort of rubbed me the wrong way.

Posted in Mick Foley, Wrestling, WWE | 2 Comments »

Gus & Mauro: A Match Made In Heaven

(The following entry appeared first at MMARated.com)

Anyone who’s listened to my appearances on Fight Network Radio knows that I am an unabashed Mauro Ranallo supporter. I have no problems saying that I think he’s the best play-by-play man in the combat sports world. Just my opinion, don’t get all worked up.

So, today’s news that Mauro has been (finally!) tabbed to call the 5/31 Elite XC on CBS card alongside longtime CBS Sports announcer, Gus Johnson, is probably the best thing I have heard all month.

Johnson gets his feet wet in the MMA world while the rest of the world is exposed to Ranallo. Sounds like a good deal. Johnson will handle the play-by-play duties alongside Ranallo, Frank Shamrock and Showtime boxing reporter Karyn Bryant.

As a longtime New York Knicks supporter (please hold the comments), I am well aware of Johnson’s wizardry on the mic. Someway, somehow he’s always calling the most exciting games and his reactions throughout said games are always tremendous.

Ranallo and Johnson might be two of the most easily-excited broadcasters in sports so this pairing will probably end up being the ultimate match or a colossal clash. I’m thinking, given the talent we’re dealing with here, it will be the former.

One thing to watch out for is how Ranallo handles being in the Stephen Quadros analyst role. This is certainly new territory for him.

For those who are somehow unaware of Johnson’s fantastic abilities, please take a look at the following video and then join me in getting really excited.

Update: I contacted Ranallo to get his thoughts on the announcement and this is what he had to say:

Oh that Mauro, always a jokester. Of course, he was kidding about the whole Kellerman thing. Everyone knows Max is the fairest of them all.

Posted in Elite XC, Gus Johnson, Mauro Ranallo, MMA | No Comments »

MMARated.com: Dueling Penn & Sherk Interviews

It’s a busy morning at MMARated.com (and FOXSports.com too) because we’ve got dueling BJ Penn and Sean Sherk interviews.

Some of the highlights include:

Ariel Helwani: Penn has been very outspoken when the topic of your suspension, your appeals and steroids in MMA has come up. Basically, he’s not very happy with you right now. What do you think about all the stuff he has said leading up to the fight?

Sean Sherk: To be honest with you, I don’t even know what he’s talking about. I don’t really read up or follow any interviews online or anything, so I don’t know what kind of comments he’s made as far as him having a beef with the way I handled my situation. I didn’t take Nandrolone so I mean everything I did was pretty much all innocent. I’ve passed three lie detectors tests and then explaining all the mistakes that the California (State Athletic) Commission made in the process and the testing facility, I felt like there was plenty of evidence there to prove that I hadn’t taken anything. To be honest with you, I think BJ wants to keep bringing up that steroid stuff because maybe he feels like that’s what brings legitimacy to the belt that he’s got. I don’t think he deserves it. I think that if you want to be the champion, you’ve got to beat the champ. (That) belt was taken from me for something that I didn’t do. He wants to keep sticking the steroid stuff in my face, but for him to be talking about me like that, it’s kind of a hypocritical because I know he’s got some habits, some professional habits that professional fighters shouldn’t have. And he knows it just as well as I do, so he should maybe take a look in the mirror and think before he speaks.

AND

Ariel Helwani: I recently spoke to Sean Sherk and he’s still very adamant that everything he did was kosher. Obviously, you don’t believe him, right?

BJ Penn: Well, I asked him (on a conference call last week), ‘did you do steroids?’ He said no. I said, ‘did you do growth hormone?’ he didn’t answer. I said, ‘did you blood dope?’ He didn’t answer. Then somebody asked me, ‘so do you think he did steroids when he fought Hermes (Franca)? I said ‘well, if he didn’t do steroids then his test should come out the same way with his Nandrolone and testosterone level.’ The same thing because I’m sure he trained just as hard for this fight as he did for the Hermes fight. So, if he didn’t do anything, he should be exactly the same as last time. So, we’ll see. We know there’s more people than just him on performance enhancement drugs in the UFC. (But) you know what? It’s time to just focus on myself. A lot of smack talk has been going back and forth but come Saturday it’s all going to end the next time I get in the ring.

Pretty solid stuff from both combatants. Check out the Penn interview here and the Sherk interview here.

Posted in BJ Penn, Interview, MMA, Sean Sherk, UFC | No Comments »

The Evolution Of The Iceman Should Not Be Televised

(The following post also appeared on MMARated.com)

As a long-time boxing enthusiast, I’m well aware of the ugly side of the sport. Mainly what happens to the guys who stick around a little too long. Brain damage, impaired speech…that kind of thing.

One of the worst examples of this is what has become of former Olympic Gold Medalist and welterweight champion, Meldrick Taylor. Take a look at the following clip courtesy of HBO Sports’ “Legendary Nights” series (fast forward to 4:42 of the clip):

Since MMA is fairly new to the sports scene (especially compared to boxing) we have yet to witness such effects on the sports’ top stars. However, that might be changing sooner rather than later.

I recently came across a startling interview featuring Chuck Liddell on “Last Call with Carson Daly” from 2004. Listen closely to how he sounds:

So, what’s so special about that? He sounds normal, right? Right. Now, take a listen to this recent interview with the UK’s “Daily Telegraph”:

Read the rest of this entry »

Posted in Chuck Liddell, MMA | 1 Comment »

MMARated Radio: The Week’s End Update

Another week is about to be put in the official record books so it’s time, once again, to look at the week that was and the weekend ahead in the world of mixed martial arts. It’s little thing we like to call “The Week’s End Update.”

Today, we welcome the editor-in-chief of the new-and-improved bloodyelbow.com, Luke Thomas, to help make sense of everything.

Some of the topics we delved into it were:

* Tonight’s IFL event

* How would Luke help revamp the IFL

* Roy Nelson vs. Brad Imes

* World Victory Road’s growth

* Sengoku match-making

* Roger Gracie vs. Yuki Kondo

* This week’s TUF 8 announcement

* The problems with TUF

* Will Andrei Arlovski sign with Affliction?

* Affliction’s future

And that’s just a taste so check ‘er out.

LISTEN TO THE LUKE THOMAS INTERVIEW AT MMARATED.COM

Posted in Interview, MMA | No Comments »

Haye To Klitschko: “Don’t Run From Me”

The majority of boxing fans are excited about David Haye making the move to the heavyweight division. Is he good enough to hang with the big boys? Well, we’ll see about that.

However, one thing’s for certain, the man is doing a great job of selling himself as well as a potential showdown against Wladimir Klitschko.

Case in point: The following video of Haye confronting Wladi. The former cruiserweight champ has yet to fight in the heavyweight ranks but he is already my favorite big man out there. Screw building him, give us Haye vs. Klitschko now!

Posted in Boxing, David Haye, Wladimir Klitschko | 1 Comment »