Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 14, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 14, 2014 hmmmmn, dunno. Maybe Legeno was popular for other reasons. The Cage Rage heavyweight division was full of nototious local tough guys so maybe they had hard man reputations coming in and were able to sell tickets? Everyone liked to have a pop saying it was a division full of doormen, but that isn't far from the truth (Ian Freeman was infamous in Sunderland for bouncing on the doors before he did MMA), maybe Legeno had that kind of thing going for him. I always felt there was abit of an organised crime type deal going in Cage Rage, it was full of shady guys. Lee Murray was the best example of that as well as Mark Epstein who was a well known gang banger. Another example in London was Kiane Sabat: Cage Rage at one point tried to set up a fight between him and Tank Abbott. Sabat had never fought MMA but had a reputation in London and i think he owned some nightclubs, that fight was getting some decent buzz at the time but it never happened. Kiane did fight a few times though and went a lousy 1-3 overall. I'd love for someone to write a warts n' all style book about Cage Rage and the UK MMA scene, i bet there's some great stories to be told. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Carbomb Posted July 14, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted July 14, 2014 What happened to Ian Freeman? I remember reading a lot of speculation on here that he'd be a big deal in the UFC, but it didn't seem to go much beyond that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 14, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 14, 2014 Freeman had a fairly successful career, he did alright in the UFC over a couple of stints, the highlight without doubt being the win over Frank Mir in London at UFC 38. Freeman probably thought he was gonna be a massive star after that because that was a pretty big deal at the time, the UFC were getting mainstream press and whatnot (good and bad) and it probably felt like Freeman was the guy that was going to break MMA in this country - i don't really remember it well, it was a year or so before i really got into it - but shit died off after that in UK terms. Freeman in fairness has kept his name fairly relevant in recent years, he promotes, does seminars and does after dinner speaking. He's retired from from active competition. Guy's a true pioneer of the UK game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 Fair point EBB. But I find the movie connections a tad hard to ignore. I would actually love a book on Cage Rage Freeman's book is really good, I would recommend it. I was told he used to do stand up comedy in between fights on Cage Warriors shows, and he was meant to be pretty dire. "Shut up when I am talking" was meant to be a catchphrase of his as well when people chatted among themselves when he was dying on his arse. One of my best mates Dad is the spit of Freeman as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 14, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted July 14, 2014 Don't forget there was that stuff about a Freeman vs Ken Shamrock fight last year (I think?) as well. The fight that was on again-off again more than Dominick Cruz's knee brace. Freeman had a fairly successful career, he did alright in the UFC over a couple of stints, the highlight without doubt being the win over Frank Mir in London at UFC 38. Freeman probably thought he was gonna be a massive star after that because that was a pretty big deal at the time, the UFC were getting mainstream press and whatnot (good and bad) and it probably felt like Freeman was the guy that was going to break MMA in this country - i don't really remember it well, it was a year or so before i really got into it - but shit died off after that in UK terms. Ahh the Mir beatdown was beautiful. I wasn't watching back in '02 but I went back to all those shows eventually a few years later. I saw UFC 38 around 2009, during the height of the Lesnar-Mir feud when Mir was at his slimiest, cocky bastard pinnacle ("I'm working on the intricacies of details of manouevers that you still don't even know the names of"). Seeing Freeman bash him into a fine paste was satisfying as fuck. As Gene LeBell would say, it was almost a sexual thing for me. Then Freeman's post-fight interview, saying his dad was dying in hospital at the time, it was some moment. He wasn't going to be stopped that night. On the bold bit - What was the score there? I've always wondered. They did that one show over here in 2002, then they never came back until 2007. Did UFC 38 do that badly or was there some other reason for the 5 year gap that followed? More than the show itself (which was fun in its own right - Hughes-Newton 2, Freeman twatting Mir, GENKI!), the thing I first think of when UFC 38 is brought up is all the stories you hear about that trip. Lee Murray battering Tito Ortiz in a London alleyway and stamping on his massive head. Tito denying it ever happened. Chuck Liddell being set upon by drunken idiots who bit of more than they could chew and Chuck stood against the wall dropping them one by one. The old bill coming and threatening to pepper spray everyone. Miletich banging on Hughes' hotel room door in the middle of the night to tell him all about it like an excited little kid. Maybe that's why it took them so long to come back actually. Josh Barnett was on that trip cornering Freeman and he was on Rogan's podcast a while back saying how mental the trip was. One of my best mates Dad is the spit of Freeman as well. So your dad looks like Paulie Walnuts and his mate looks like Ian Freeman? Are they available as security for weddings? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 I will have to see if they are available for you Wand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 14, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 14, 2014 here's Matt Hughes' account of the infamous Murray-Ortiz streetfight post-UFC 38: "So it's four o'clock in the morning and they had everybody leave the club, right? Well, the UFC had bussed us all over there but they didn't have a bus to take us back. It's down to Mark, me [Pat Miletich], Tony Fryklund, Chuck Liddell, Tito [Ortiz] and Lee Murray. Lee Murray's crew was still there, Tito's crew was also still there. I walked out the back door to go in the alley. Tito's buddy jumped on my back. He jumped on my back and acted like he had me in a choke hold, just messing around, you know? Then I felt him get ripped off of me. I turned around and Tony Fryklund had HIM in a chokehold, and was really choking him. The guy looked like a mouse that just got trapped in a mousetrap; his eyes were popping out and obviously he wasn't breathing. Tony thought he was actually attacking me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 There was rumor for years that the Murray/Tito fight was caught on tape. Rogan even mentioned it on air once, I think at UFC 46. Would love to see it come to light if it did indeed exist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 14, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 14, 2014 there's no way there's footage of that, it would have been out already. It's mental to think it took place before anyone had a camera on their phones, there's literally no evidence of it other than eye witness accounts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted July 14, 2014 Share Posted July 14, 2014 (edited) I think it was more CCTV footage they were on about. I agree though, no way we will ever get to see it now, which is a shame. Edited July 14, 2014 by jimufctna24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 17, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 17, 2014 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 17, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 17, 2014 not news so i'll bung it in here. Fascinated with the Foxcatcher/Dave Schultz/John Eleuth Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted July 20, 2014 Paid Members Share Posted July 20, 2014 Didn't know where else to put this but thought it was pretty cool. Shogun Rua @ShogunRua Found a pic of @SpiderAnderson & I training,taken by @eduardo_alonso 12+years ago, when we were both chasing a dream! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 24, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 24, 2014 re-watched the UFC produced documentary Bad Blood last night, documenting the feud between Chuck Liddell and Tito Ortiz. For a UFC doc. the production on the documentary is pretty basic, it's pretty much cut and paste type stuff but as a little historical document it's well worth a look. I wouldn't say the doc. is pro-Liddell but it's very anti-Tito Ortiz, Dana in particular says some pretty scathing things throughout the documentary. I think it was produced just after Liddell retired after the Franklin fight and whilst Ortiz was still a UFC employee but i dont recall much backlach as a result but it's pretty damning. As for the feud, it was really at the time when i was becoming obsessed with the sport and the first fight remains one of my favorites of all time. Not in terms of what happened in the fight but the build up and hype hooked me in like no other fight at that point and it's probably one of the main reasons why i became such a fan, i dont remember specifics but i know i followed the build up religiously and i nearly had a fucking heart attack when that first fight started. I didn't watch the full fights on the DVD but judging from the clips it seemed that despite losing both fights via TKO the fights were actually pretty even, but it always a case of how long it would be until Chuck caught him. Historical shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted July 27, 2014 Author Paid Members Share Posted July 27, 2014 thought i'd keep this is here as we may be able to expand on it, but i listened to the Rickson Gracie poscast with Rogan & Bravo. If you're someone who's fascinated by the early years of the sports it's very much a must listen, a lot of the podcast spent discussing Rickson's plan to open his own BJJ federation and his views on the sport, it's also heavy on promotion for his son Kron who will debut in MMA at some point this year...Rickson makes it sound like he's gonna take over the sport. However, the last hour of the podcast was the good stuff....you could tell Rogan & Bravo were absolutely itching to ask Rickson about old stories and he got around to it in the last hour, i only had an mp3 so i imagine both Bravo and Rogan sitting there like a pair of kids with their jaws on the floor, proper fanboy style. Anyway Rickson covers a few of the old gym fight stories and the famous beach fight with Hugo Duarte, it's fascinating stuff and it's MMA folklore and there's some many takes on what went down in certain situations, there's grainy footage of stuff but the stories on how stuff came about is always debated, MMA mythology, i love it! Rickson promised during the podcast to finally release the footage of the infamous Yohi Anjoh fight from his gym in Brazil, i swear i could hear Rogan rubbing one out in the background when Rickson talked about that. I would give you the backstory but it's probably best you listen to Rickson's take on it. http://www.bjjee.com/articles/a-blow-by-blow-account-of-the-rickson-gracie-vs-yoji-anjo-closed-door-fight/ < there's some backstory if you want it though. What i love about Rickson the most though is that he's the one guy that still holds onto that Gracie-myth, whilst Gracie propoganda still runs strong and the family have rubbed a lot of people up the wrong way over the years, the one thing they can always hold onto is the fact that despite all the downfalls, Rickson was always the best and he never lost, so he's the one guy that still sits on top and everyone still debates just how good he was, of course we'll never know but it's still fascinating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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