Kimbo Slice v. James Thompson a Critical Matchup

Elite XC’s CBS event on May 31st is a pivotal night for both of fighters. Some content on the MMA blogosphere sounds really stupid lately talking about Kimbo like he is some some magical bearded unicorn. Everybody starts somewhere. He is just a dude that likes to fight and has the opportunity to be successful. He is a marketing genius; making the best out of his God given talents using Youtube.

Ben Fowlkes from CP said in an MMARated.com interview with Areil Helwani that Elite XC is not grooming Kimbo to be a great fighter, they are just taking advantage of his “Internet celebrity” to make a quick buck. Arent all fighters Internet celebrities? They are grooming Kimbo by giving him the Thompson fight. Fighting tougher but not over matched opponents as your career progresses is the very definition of properly grooming a fighter. I think there is a future for James Thompson in EliteXC, this is his 2nd fight in the promotion and they are in need of heavyweights. Thompson has a decent record and has fought tough competition for a guy that started fighting in 2003. He has fought in a lot of different promotions and I have the feeling he will end up in Japan. This is a great opportunity for him, even if beaten to come out looking like a fighter who is both not a can and not a stand-and-pound goof-ball (providing he can get it to the ground and can work his clinch game).

Thompson had an amazing 2006 fight in Pride against Kazuyuki Fujita, he showed he had a patience not running in like a lunatic, sprawled well, threw great knees which we had never seen from him before, had Fujita reeling and lost only because Kazuyuki Fujita had a bigger heart and thicker skull. (The blood splatter at 9:08 is one of my favorite moments in pride, very cinematic). There seems to be too much emphasis on Thompson being a can. Granted, he was KO’d by Butterbean but he has shown progress in his career and hit a rough patch after the Fujita fight against non-scrub competition. Its funny to me how lop-sided the talk is. When you have a fights like Mike Bisping v. Elvis Sinosic, Ortiz v. Shamrock times two, Brock Lesnar v. Frank Mir, and people talking about them like they were anything BUT a joke. Now you have Kimbo v. Thompson in Elite XC and all you hear is about how bad the match up is, what a can Thompson is, and how money hungry the Elite XC brass are.

Most people are afraid of two things (1.) change and (2.) things they dont understand. Now I am the first to tell you that I am no MMA insider, but I think I at least have an idea about how promotions work and what it takes to run a sucessful business. Frankly a lot of what I read or hear latley about Elite XC sounds like crap and makes no logical sense. Some of this stuff makes me think I am going crazy. Then I remember that these are just regular people like me with thier own biased opionions and everyone has the right to be wrong (looking at you LZ Granderson).

**UPDATE**

Kimbo Slice v. Mike Tyson makes me want to vomit.  Forget what I said about Elite XC brass.

Steve smarter than Tony, Chip still smartest (best at guessing)

After Strikeforce and UFC 83 the RBD fight picker tally put us at:

Chip - 20/29 - 68% correct and still the Winner
Steve - 18/29 - 62% surpassing Tony for 2nd place
Tony - 17/29  - 58%  but I did get Quarry v. Starnes as worst fight of the night…

RBD Still Writhing in Relative Obscurity (with others)

The numbers speak for themselves.  I randomly stumbled upon this fancy little tool looking at our “blog stats” if you can even call them that.  They are a joke really.  I have been thinking a lot lately about doing something I love for a living and trying to figure out the odds of success.  Even with the quickly growing popularity of the sport (insert metaphor) I think it is a tough road ahead for bloggers and site minders who want to make it big.

The super saturation of the MMA website is stunning with a few simple searches.  Shitty copy-paste sites like us Google hacking to get top billing is really ruining it for the sites who put up quality, original, thought provoking content.  To all those sites getting screwed, we salute you here at RBD!  Now please give us jobs…  Or at least some referrals so that we can get more comments about how bad our blog sucks.

CagePotato/BetUS/Fightlinker Squaretable Rant

I thought my day was ruined at work listening to the UFC 83 Square Table with Fightlinker and CagePotato and I stream-of-consciousness-typed the following between spreadsheets and emails…

really? the ufc is trying to make real fans? giving them credit for instructing the unwashed masses fighlinker? wtf are you talking about ryan or the other canadien? seriously you just posted about the ufc being money hungry cocksuckers… get a fucking message and stick to it. that is annoying. elitexc is great for the sport because its lighting a fire under the asses of the other money hungry promotions who dont want thier piece of the pie eaten by someone else. kimbo is the real deal and its going to be funny when you pull a 360 and begin talking about him as a legitimate fighter. dont be stupid man.

ufc is the kleenex of mma. i agree there, but you clearly know nothing about brand recognition. its obvious to me that mma is going to feel the same pain boxing did. with all the different promotions all that is created is fan confusion. if the fighters you like fight on the elite xc cbs event, guess where you are going to go to find out more about them? ill give you a hint, its not the ufc website.

i just made our first post of some mma clothing/gear yesterday so this blathering about the affliction clothing bs is pissing me off too. the affliction thing is another simple marketing growing pain of the sport. the ufc will eventually cave in, and make it look like they did not cave in. unless dana is bigger moron than i thought. btw, there is nothing that makes allfiction any less legitimate than ANY of the other promotions, including the ufc. yeah, i just said that, i know your brain just melted. just because you have 85 events (or 49 podcasts) does not make your events any better (or content more interesting) than anyone else. DAMNIT.

Thoes are some big dreams for fightlinker to get snatched up by a clear-channel monster. I think you guys do great things and would deserve it! man this friggin betus podcast has me rilled up. i cant even type/spell/proper gammer i am so angry. WE MAKE FUN OF KEITH JARDINE! its our shtick! we have that shit copy righted! Check the archives bitches! Ok, that line about watching coleman is cracking me up and I cant hate you guys anymore… I am calming down.

Sell your soul for theoretical internet dollars indeed! Awesome podcast. Like, the Fedor/Cro-Cop of fucking podcasts. Seriously.

Anyway good luck on the bet boys, I still need to post my ideas, still stewing on that one…

Iron Bling No More (Episode 5)

Between my new Triumph United t-shirts, a great trip to Ann Arbor MI, someone on staff getting a friggin masters degree (sorry about no podcast btw, we were busy celebrating), and all of Dream comming to my precious HDNet, life is looking sunny to say the least. Even this weeks Iron Ring was excellent. Wait, what? You heard me! Except for a few stupid comments (nothing we dont hear on TUF from Dana on occasion) the episode was great and it seems like the show has hit some kind of stride.

Its not the best show, but there is a lot of value in it especially for a fan of the sport. I am guessing that everything that I hated and condemned about the show was not ‘for me’. Commence racist hate mail now. In all seriousness the show is about to get better and the finale is going to be a success. I know, a bold prediction from the guy who thought Serra was going to take GSP. Maybe I have a better sense when it comes to reality tv? I certainly watch enough.

A quick run down of this weeks episode 5…

The episode began at Dipset’s NYC tryouts where we got to see the aftermath of the Derrick Strong v. Danyo (Daniel?) Affuyeme battle. Strong had a tight arm bar on Affuyeme and he got his face slammed through the mat Rampage style. Both fighters went down in piles but Affuyeme was declared the winner (after getting his shoulder put back in by the medical staff). Dipset mentioned that he would have lost his bet as Strong looked to be more focused.

TI proved once again that he knows nothing about fighting and less about good sportsmanship or the use of the word ‘redeem’. Despite having to hear TI talk during the fight, Joe Thomas pulled off a 46 second TKO over George Yerden. Hearing TI may have been the fuel for his nice ground and pound.

The show went again to Luda in the ATL. Jamal Bowman proved he had the heart to get “outta da hood” with an impressive KO of some dude who looked like he could fight. Duchebaggery abounded as Rashon Khan in a two minute fight said there was “too much grappling” and told the ref to stand it up. Rashon proves once again that belongs only as lord and master of bum fights (not physical combat).

Luda mentioned again that the fights are too short to make good decisions, anything can happen in the ring and he and his coach are looking for a mix of spirtit and good technique. They then watched a couple of heavywieghts go at it. I was impressed with a 350 pounder who bucked the current trend and wore a shirt. He managed a great low-kick, trip takedown and key lock submission for the win in the first round. This guy needed to lose the shirt, 50 lbs and be immediatley be air-lifted to the UFC.

After the commercial break more Rashon blathering and a whole lot of Coach Novella berating contestant Mike Mullero for hurting his ankle and wearing a superman shirt. Not exactly subtle irony which Novella pointed out verbally a hundred times in rapid succession. I was tempted to turn it off, but hung in there. Novella whoes whose mouth rarley stops when he is on camera convinces Mullero to get back in there and take his shot.

My fortitude paid off as I got to see Puerto Rican heavyweight Carlos Moreno redefine KTFO with a sweet sweet lunging right hook. His opponent was taken care of well by the ringside Dr. who informed him after his awakening that had a seziure and was just in a fight. To which the fighter responded “Did I win?”… never a good sign.

United We Triumph

Bas Rutten, Kimbo Slice, Razor Rob McCullough, Dennis Kang and Mayhem Miller all call Triumph United their gear supplier of choice… or at least are paid to do so. I love their designs and recently bought a couple of tees. I have never had a ANY company give me a call after making an order online (most of what I own I bought online). Within 20 seconds of clicking ‘complete order’ I received a phone call and the following conversation ensued.

“What up? Its duder at Triumph United, i just got your order. I am listening to Ronny James Deo and living the dream. Cant really go wrong with the Deo, ya know? We just got in the size you ordered and I am shipping them now, sound cool?”

“Uhh… yes… awesome?”

“Ok, later.”

Well, props to the crew of TU in Oceanside CA! The shirts are truly pimp, awesome customer service and I am awaiting new designs (and hopefully a redesigned website) before I order some more for me and the crew of RBDMMA. Thanks dudes!

UFC 83 Diddies

Steve and I managed to catch the “big fights” at about 3 in the morning off the interwebs and then caught the full event the next day.  Some of the things we found interesting:

• How pathetic Travis Lutter is (again).
• What a goofball Ken-Flo was commentating and interviewing with that hand on everyones shoulder move.
• How slick Rich Franklin was getting out of that arm bar.
• What a big heart Mark Bocek has.
• Jonathan Goulet proved Ad’s do not belong in your hair, especially when they are a web address.
• What a silly mess the Affliction/UFC “thing” is.
• Never thought I would actually see Muai Thai knee skip drills used on someones face so generously (Thanks Bisping!).
• What a janky douchebag Kalib Starnes is.
• How knowledgeable, fair,  respectful and excellent the Canadian fans are.
• What a great sense of humor Serra, Franklin, and St. Pierre have.
• Did I mention how pathetic Lutter is (again)?
• How despite some horrid fights, the truly great fighters made the event a success.

We should have our prediction breakdown later in the week and a surprise podcast live from the University of Michigan Wednesday!

Frog Overload

If I read another thing about St. Pierre I am going to puke. To combat this feeling of extreme nauseousness I post this: The Fightmetric blog has a great post about Serra’s career and the information is hard to argue with.

“With all the hubbub surrounding his win over Georges St. Pierre, it’s easy to forget that Serra was one cranky judge away from quite a different career reality. The judges’ scores for the Serra-Lytle fight were peculiar, to say the least. Two of the judges gave the win to Serra 30-27. The other judge gave a 30-27 victory to Lytle. There have been more than 700 fights in Nevada since MMA was regulated in 2001, more than 300 of which have gone to a decision. This is still the only decision in which two judges thought one fighter won every round and the other judge thought that same fighter lost every round.”

But I just put $1000 fake dollars on that Yank and he is going to win. Enough of the numbers, talk, posts and videos. He has what it takes, has already done it once and is going to do it again tomorrow. Period.

**************Update**************

Ok, I suck at picks… at least there will be a great rematch at some point!

At last… Episode 9 - “Glass Chins”

Sorry for the delay… between school, work and house remodeling we have been slacking on our favorite hobby. We are trying to make up for it with this MASSIVE 97 minute podcast. Enjoy!

UFC 83 Fight Picks
Main Card Bouts:
-Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre
tony: FOTN serra, chip: staintp, steve: FOTN St. pierre
-Rich Franklin vs. Travis Lutter
tony: franklin, chip: lutter, steve: lutter
-Nate Quarry vs. Kalib Starnes
tony: WFOTN draw, chip: FOTN starnes, steve: starnes
-Michael Bisping vs. Charles McCarthy
tony: bisping, chip: bisping, steve: bisping
-Mac Danzig vs. Mark Bocek
tony: danzig, chip: danzig, steve: macattack

Preliminary Bouts:
-Jason MacDonald vs. Joe Doerksen
tony: macdonald, chip: macd, steve: macd
-Sam Stout vs. Rich Clementi
tony: stout, chip: stout, steve: stout
-Ed Herman vs. Demian Maia
tony: maia, chip: maia, steve: herman

Top 10 Biggest MMA Monkey Wrenches
10. BJ Penn v. Matt Hughes I
9. The UFC and HD DVD
8. Fedor v. Herring
7. Liddell in Final Conflict 2003
6. Cro Cop in ufc
5. Travis Lutter himself
4. Cro Cop v. Randalmann I
3. Couture v. Sylvia
2. Forrest Griffen v. Shogun Rua
1. Serra v. St Pierre

MMA KO’s Boxing, NPR and Old People

Doing my best to keep my mind fresh on the way into work I caught some of NPR’s Morning Edition. When I heard the voice of Frank Deford I expected to hear his usual ramblings on the basketball brackets or the start of the baseball season. To my delight he began talking about MMA. My delight immediately turned to bitter cynicism as his piece quickly became more about boxing than MMA and all of his conclusions and talking points were outdated, stereotypical, ill-researched and just plain wrong. They were exactly the type of this I would expect to hear from a dried up old commentator/author who uses a verb like “to cotton” in 2008.

“Boxing is being superseded by what is called the mixed martial arts — emphasis on martial — which apparently is especially attractive because it’s like a video game, only featuring flesh-and-blood human beings. Emphasis on blood.” Believe me Frank, I wish there was a video game as dynamic and exciting as MMA; if it existed I would play it everyday. Frank pulls the typical violent-human-cockfighting-bloodsport arguments, mentions the fact that it is in a cage, and manages to upset 99% of the population of the earth by trashing the arts wrestling, boxing, jujitsu and kickboxing.

He babels on trying to explain that because our wacky X-Game loving generation likes video games and since MMA is “a live video game” it appeals to not only video-gaming adolescence but also to people with short attention spans. I would usually agree with the part about short attention spans since I often make that comment hearing boo’s during some of the most technically exciting matches in the UFC. Except I realized he is talking about me. I am 27 (not exactly an adolescent) and I do take part in activities most old bats think of as “for the kiddies” such as my Xbox live account or my precious Patapon. But I am also a working professional for a fortune 6 company responsible for millions of dollars in data. Needless to say, I have an attention span.

He continues to describe one of the current boxing champions Wladimir Klitschko as the “pugilistic equivalent of going green” and the difficulty for boxing to compete with stars that are simply not exciting. Which I did kind of appreciate because its both true and funny. I am still not sure where the evidence in the piece is for “digital technology” spawning MMA. He never mentions Youtube, popularity of combat blogs or MMA being one of first sources of original HD content when the format took off. Sadly Frank’s piece only managed only to further my depression, realizing that its going to be a long time before people realize how obsolete their views on MMA are and how badly we need someone to change them.

The older generation needs to understand that sport is sport, and traditional sport vs extreme sport is a battle raging only in their minds. There is fight for viewership for sure, but when you have a quality product the results speak for themselves or don’t speak at all. (Looking at you Slamball!) I love my options in this age of technology; I guess if it were up to Frank there would still only be one combat sport - hunting woolly mammoth.