Magnum Milano Posted January 19, 2011 Share Posted January 19, 2011 Belfort is getting some special treatment for sure. That's what KTFO'ing Matt Lindland gets you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 20, 2011 Â Look at the size of Jones compared to Arlovski Surely a move to heavyweight in a few years? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 20, 2011 Interesting interview with Cesar Gracie from MMAFighting.com. Covers the Diaz/Mayhem feud, possibility of a UFC return for Diaz, Greg Jackson, Batista. Good read.  Strikeforce welterweight champion Nick Diaz is about 10 days from his title defense against Evangelista "Cyborg" Santos. If most fans had their way, Diaz would be fighting Jason "Mayhem" Miller that night. The rivalry between Diaz and Miller exploded last April, when the two were among the participants in a post-fight brawl following Jake Shields' championship win over Dan Henderson.  On Wednesday's edition of The MMA Hour, Diaz's manager and trainer Cesar Gracie explained why the matchup has yet to happen.  According to Gracie, Strikeforce ultimately decided that Diaz-Cyborg was the company's direction, although company president Scott Coker at one time believed that Miller-Diaz would happen.  "Part of me was disappointed because I wanted Nick to shut him up," Gracie said. "That's about it, to beat him up. But the other part, I kind of realized why that fight can't happen. You can't give a guy a fight just because he talks a lot. It sets a precedent."  Strikeforce did look into the possibility of putting the feuding duo in the cage, but the bout may have been undone by the weight differential between the pair. Gracie said Diaz is lighter than usual because he's been competing in triathlons, and would not go all the way to the middleweight division's 185-pound weight class.  According to him, Miller only wanted to meet him at 183.  "You don't ask the champion to move up a weight class just because you want to fight him. That's stupid," he said. "If that happened in the UFC, Dana [White] would shut people up. It'd be the equivalent of Chris Leben calling out [Georges St. Pierre] and saying, 'I don't like you. You have to fight me at 185.' Dana would ridicule that. Everybody would ridicule that. I don't know how this thing got legs. It's stupid."  Diaz recently signed an extension with Strikeforce. Though Gracie could not discuss the exact terms, he said reports the contract was for a three-year deal were inaccurate.  He confirmed that the UFC was interested in Diaz but noted that the decision was ultimately made to stay with Strikeforce because Diaz's brother Nate and his main training partner Jake Shields also fight in the UFC's welterweight class.  Diaz, however, is not closing the door on a return to the UFC (he fought 10 times for the promotion between 2003-2006, going 6-4).  "There's definitely scenarios where I could see Nick back in the UFC," he said. "Right now though, we've got a very good contract with Strikeforce. They treat Nick very well. The terms of the contract are favorable, and as a manager, I'm happy with the contract."  In April, Gracie will take Shields into battle against the aforementioned St. Pierre, who is viewed by most as a Greg Jackson-trained fighter. Gracie, however, doesn't see it that way, referring to Shields and GSP as "two Gracie-trained fighters fighting each other."  Interestingly, he disagrees with people who call the noted trainer Jackson a great coach, or who refer to him as a coach at all.  Gracie said he believes Jackson often receives too much credit for his fighters' successes. In the case of St. Pierre, he noted, technical coaches like Firas Zahabi, Phil Nurse, John Danaher and Renzo Gracie are the ones handling the details that are often the difference between winning and losing.  "He's more of a coordinator where he puts things in perspective," he said. "And he's great at what he does. Training's at this time, let's go run the mountain or something. Let's go train with this guy. He's more of a motivational speaker possibly, but as a true sense of the word 'coach,' he's not on the same page as great coaches of the world. He's not."  Gracie said if someone were to credit him on Nick Diaz's striking progress, for example, he would have to credit Diaz's striking coach rather than accept the praise himself.  "I've got nothing against Greg Jackson in particular," he said. "It's just that we're talking about him. There's a lot of guys like that. I'm sure he's a great guy and everything. But the guys from [American Top Team] in Florida, it's like, you don't have Dan Lambert doing that. He doesn't get in the limelight and he's great, he does everything. He sets it all up, and he's done an incredible job. You never see him pretending he did something he didn't do. The great coaches are in the background."  Gracie, himself a black belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, also trains Strikeforce lightweight champ Gilbert Melendez.  Asked about another student, the former WWE wrestler Dave Batista, who was rumored to one day be fighting in a Strikeforce cage, Gracie said it's still a possibility.  "I really hope to see him in Strikeforce," he said. "Strikeforce said they want him. They're doing so many things at once that they're a little slow sometimes on doing stuff. But he's become a friend and that would be great.  "He's not going to beat Fedor," he continued. "Everybody has what it takes. Everybody can fight and push yourself. This is a sport, like anything else. He's not going to be world champ, probably, because he's older. But If Herschel Walker can have a shot, why can't Batista?" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted January 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 20, 2011 From this week's Observer. Â Just for the record, if Cain Velasquez hadn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Posted January 20, 2011 Author Share Posted January 20, 2011 Absolutely gutted. A Mir vs. Lesnar season of TUF would've been amazing. Yeah, it would certainly have made for more entertaining television, but having Mir vs Lesnar to see who gets a crack at the title would have been a bit off. Â Dos Santos has done everything asked to deserve his shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Happ Hazzard Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Apparently, Paul Daley is main eventing BAMMA 5 in Manchester next month. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 20, 2011 Absolutely gutted. A Mir vs. Lesnar season of TUF would've been amazing. Yeah, it would certainly have made for more entertaining television, but having Mir vs Lesnar to see who gets a crack at the title would have been a bit off. Â Â Â it doesn't have to be for the title shot...it can just be a 3rd fight. Â I think that was always the plan, Cain Velasquez' injury fucked everything up because Junior Dos Santos didn't want to wait for his shot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 20, 2011 Apparently, Paul Daley is main eventing BAMMA 5 in Manchester next month. nice coop! i like where BAMMA are headed. Thankfully they haven't adopted the 'diamond geezer' persona that Cage Rage/Ultimate Challenge think is so essential (but does a lot more harm than good). Â Be cool if BAMMA set up some kind of promotional-partnership with Strikeforce...kinda like EliteXC had with Cage Rage, they were sending some great names over here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted January 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 20, 2011 Lesnar vs Mir or Sonnen vs Wanderlei would have both been awesome seasons of TUF from a coaches standpoint. Â I'm happy with how it's turned out though, JDS vs Lesnar is a fresh fight and I'm expecting TUF to be really good for Dos Santos. He seems like a likeable guy and that coupled with him coaching opposite Brock, I'm sure he'll gain a lot of new fans coming off the show. Â I really hope JDS beats Brock, I'm not a Brock hater I like Brock but I'm a bigger fan of JDS and him vs Cain is a lot more interesting to me than Brock vs Cain 2. The questions about Brock vs Cain have all been answered for me, there would be literally no doubt in my mind that the outcome would be the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted January 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 20, 2011 Absolutely gutted. A Mir vs. Lesnar season of TUF would've been amazing. Yeah, it would certainly have made for more entertaining television, but having Mir vs Lesnar to see who gets a crack at the title would have been a bit off. Â Dos Santos has done everything asked to deserve his shot. It wasn't going to be for a crack at the title. Dos Santos was going to get the shot, until Velasquez got injured. It was going to be Dos Santos vs. Velasquez, Lesnar vs. Mir and Nelson vs. Carwin, and then the title's future would've been decided once the dust settled. The winner of Lesnar vs. Mir may have gotten the shot after Dos Santos, but before that was decided upon we'd all have gone blind anyway from having our retinas burnt out by the greatest season of any show in the history of television. Â Fucking hell, can you imagine a Lesnar vs. Mir season? The more I think about it the more saddened I am that it's not happening. Brock would've gone fucking bonkers listening to Mir's shit for six weeks. It would've been like the Rashad vs. Rampage season multiplied by infinity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 20, 2011 more about BAMMA...the card gets announced tomorrow, the show will be on February 26th. I'm thinking of making the trek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted January 20, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 20, 2011 Also from this week's Observer, just because it's funny reading about how naive Roy Nelson is to the wrestling business. Â There was some dialogue, significant may be overstating things, involving Roy Nelson and WWE even recently. This did not involve Jim Ross, although Nelson Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hbk4life Posted January 20, 2011 Share Posted January 20, 2011 Thinking about how awesome Mir/Lesnar on TUF would've been does make me sad, but i'm just happy to get Lesnar on the show at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted January 21, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 21, 2011 just when i was giving BAMMA some props...A statement from Tom Watson pops up online:  I am disappointed to announce that I have been left with no choice but to vacate my BAMMA title due to a number of issues which have taken place over the past few months. I have given BAMMA so many opportunities to correct their wrong and they have failed to act which has left me no choice but to make this statement,  In May 2010, I was scheduled to fight Alex Reid at the LG Arena in Birmingham. He pulled out for one reason or another and I agreed to a bout with Matt Horwich. From the date of this event I was not paid for well over 2 months.  I was assured that if I signed for the Reid fight in September I would be paid half of my purse 28 days before the event and  the rest 72 hours after the event. I was paid nothing.  It is well publicised that Alex Reid failed to make weight at the agreed time and arrived on the scales some 4 hours late. The contract clearly states that if an opponent does not make weight his opponent gets 25% of his purse. At the time, my management spoke to David Green  about what happens since he has not made weight. David asked us not to  make a scene and assured us he was in complete control of Alex's purse and I would be paid the extra 25%. I was informed Reid was earning 18k for this fight so the extra 4,500 to me was a huge difference. I also spoke with Jude Samuel who informed me this had happened previously with others fighters not making weight or missed weigh ins and they were fined the 25%.  Although Alex and his team said they were delayed in traffic, how could I know he was not using the extra time to cut weight hence giving himself an advantage? I am not suggesting he did this, however I could not possibly know which is why the financial penalties are in place. My management, Alex Reid and David Green discussed the fight still going ahead and it was me who still agreed to 5 x 5 minute rounds as live TV was at stake and the title still on the line even though Marc Goddard was righly against this. My point here is if Bamma didnt want to pay this why didnt they just be honest or remove this clause from the contract.  I was contractually obliged to fight on MFC in Canada two weeks previous to the Reid fight and gave BAMMA my 100% assurance that I would fight Reid so long as I could physically walk in the cage. I found the date strange that they had scheduled a show only 2 weeks after they knew I was fighting at MFC. To be honest as long as Bamma kept Alex happy that seemed to be their only concern. I never considered pulling out of this fight as I would never want to let down BAMMA, fans , critics and everybody else who so desperately wanted to see this fight finally happen. I would go as far to say I risked a major setback in my career to take this fight especially when I was not 100%. I put my trust in BAMMA that they would act fairly and stick to the points in the contract which i originally signed. I had made my decision to fight.  I feel that I gave my everything in the fight and myself and Alex put on the show BAMMA needed to propel them into the mainstream. With nearly a million  viewers as Bamma have declared I would have thought the company's defending champion would have been paid & not been treated with the lack of respect I have been shown. In the initial first few weeks after my fight I had received no payment from BAMMA. They then asked me to attend an event by EA Sports at London Shoot Fighters. I was sceptical as I had not been paid but David Green met me and explained the payment was imminent so I took part in the event. I was told that by attending this event EA sports would look into sponsoring me and Bamma would appreciate me helping them out. No money came for at least 6 weeks until I was finally paid a % of my purse. A thread then started on CW forum about BAMMA 5 being cancelled, I posted on the forum saying I had not been paid. This came across wrong in some ways as I had been paid some money but not the part of my purse I was owed for Alex missing weight but I wanted the fighters to be informed. I am also owed my expenses which included flights for my corner which I also had to pay in advance as Bamma told me they would refund this after the event. BAMMA immediately asked me to withdraw this statement and say I had been paid, I refused to do this as I was still owed over 6 thousand pounds! My management convinced me they would clear up my statement. I was assured I would be paid by the end of December so I once again kept quiet. I have not been paid a penny since this day.My management and BAMMA have been in negotiations for weeks and now BAMMA have asked me to sign a 3 fight deal and have said they will make up the money I am owed through extra payments with my purse and up front cash payments. They have now told me this money is now a grey area?? I have declined this offer as I feel like I am being blackmailed to fight for them again in order to recieve money Im owed from september. It is rather upsetting to me that Bamma seem to think its okay to work out new deals with fighters and pay for new arena's (MEN) upfront before they have even paid their dues for September. I think I deserve some honesty and frankly I will not sign anything becuase 'once bitten twice shy'. I do not want this money to live a lavish lifestyle, I want it so I can be able to pay my rent and continue to train full time in this sport. As im sure most people are aware the only reason I took this fight was for the money. I havent even recieved money from some sponsors or even from the producers of Alex Reid's programme. Only people in the mma community will understand we are not on footballer wages let alone Mcdonald wages for that and this whole episode has really depressed me. Luckily I have a great team in Jacksons MMA where money does not come first and they have seen me through this period. I would have loved to have defended my title with BAMMA throughout this year but I have been left with no choice but to leave the organisation and take legal advice. I have just had surgery on both of my elbows which has cost me in excess of Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Snake Plissken Posted January 21, 2011 Paid Members Share Posted January 21, 2011 Hopefully Dana will pick him up and through GSP will get him into the UFC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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