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Wednesday hot topics
By Zach Arnold | March 7, 2007
The top story today in Japanese media circles and also in the US wrestling press is the death of Bad News Allen (Allen Coage, who more famously worked as Bad News Brown in the then-WWF). Coage worked a pretty famous Judo Jacket match against Seiji Sakaguchi in New Japan Pro-Wrestling during the time that Inoki was running a series of “World of Kakutougi” matches in the late 70s and early 80s. Other notable gaijin Judokas like Willem Ruska and Anton Geesink also participated in the Japanese pro-wrestling scene after Olympic competition. Coage would later team up with Abdullah the Butcher to cement NJ’s heel gaijin vs. native babyface match foundations for the time.
Some interesting video clips of Bad News Allen…
Here’s a clip of Bad News Allen vs. Kazushi Sakuraba in UWF-International:
More UWF-International footage, this time against Gary Albright:
And here’s a favorite clip of mine (it’s Bad News Allen vs. Bret Hart from Stampede Wrestling):
Onto today’s media headlines.
- Radio: MMA Smackdown #13 w/ evil commentator Zach Arnold
- Fox Sports: Tokyo Sabres rattle the IFL after show start
- The Canadian Press (via CBC Sports): Canadian MMA fighter Jason MacDonald looks forward after tough outing at UFC 68
- The Fightworks Podcast: Mac Danzig radio interview
- MMA California: Warrior’s Cup – The Takeover
- The Vernon Morning Star: Kevin Manderson shocks Sean Huffman
- UFC Mania: Video – Randy Couture on ESPN Hot List
- Mad Squabbles: A word about immediate title shot rematches in UFC
- C-Objectively: Post UFC 68 thoughts
- The Baltimore Sun: UFC 68 winners and losers
- The Washington Post: First MMA event in Washington D.C. planned for May 12th at D.C. Armory
- The Palm Beach Post: Hermes Franca pins hopes on being contender in world championships
- The Houston Chronicle: Reflection on history-making night for “The Natural”
- The Pioneer Press: Brock Lesnar’s MMA debut happening this Spring
- The San Mateo Daily Journal: HMB martial arts champion Joao Pierini convicted of molestation
Topics: All Topics, IFL, Japan, Media, MMA, Pro-Wrestling, UFC, Zach Arnold | 43 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
RIP Allen Coage
Interesting timing in the comic book world:
http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/story/503132p-424376c.html
Rule #72 Euth.
No one’s really dead except for Uncle Ben and Bucky.
BTW, a lot of comics fans were pissed offby that. Especially how it was built up.
BTW Bucky isnt dead he’s alive as the Winter Soldier (and he killed one of Wolverin’es lovers)…so really its only Uncle Ben.
Sad about Bad News Brown, I remember his match with Piper at WM where Piper painted ahlf of his body black to show it wasnt about color, really powerful stuff for its time.
DAMMIT!
Crap, I shouldn’t have clicked that link…now it’s spoiled for me 🙁
Royal B.:
Actually, unless I miss my guess, Bucky is alive again. He’s the “Winter Soldier” or something like that.
I feel the need to bring this back to MMA. I agree with the Mad Squabbles article about not rushing rematches. Too bad there isn’t a reasonable solution that can make everyone happy. Either you…
A) Rush the Jackson/Liddell rematch before Jackson’s ready, allowing Chuck to likely beat him much more handily than if Jackson had time to get used to the UFC style.
B) Throw Evans, Jardine, or someone like that in with Chuck before they’re on his level, potentially crushing their hopes for defeating him.
C) Keep Chuck on the sidelines until someone’s ready, allowing Chuck to age and lose his fire.
Oops, JOSH beat me to it.
lol 😉
Ah to be a kid again wasting my money on comics…though if I had a chance I would probably do it again i mean some of thiose stories were tight like the AoA…good stuff.
But yes back to MMA, I agree the situation for the LHW title is tough because u have a dominant fighter who pretty much cleaned out the competiton. He beat the vets (Tito and Babalu) and now all thats left are the new kids (Jardine, Evans). This of course is the whole reason why Dana brought in Jackson in the first place. I think its better to Silva the Jackson/Liddell match rather than feed Liddell Evans because ur killing apotential star (cant believe I just said that about Evans). But again what are u going to do? Its tough…
I cannot believe people are torn on this matter!?! You have a guy in Rampage who’s an amazing personality, great standup fighter/brawler with some HL reel athletic ability and slams and you have Rashad Evans. While he’s been doing well of late, I dont think he has the kind of “ceiling” talent-wise or marketability-wise as Jackson and is a pretty “vanilla” personality.
If you have to make the choice you damn well sacrifice Evans to Chuck and spend the extra time hyping the hell out of Rampage. He’s “Tito”-esque on his ability to talk up big fights with the added bonus that he’s actually an elite fighter. Watch how well he built up fighting Wanderlei and this was in Japan with an opponent who spoke Portugese.
To me this “problem” is a no brainer…besides the way the UFC is going now they could easily just toss in Jaradine, Lambert, Evans or Griffin and the buys would be amazing anyways.
From the way Dana’s talking, it sounds like they’re trying to lock someone new in under contract to fight Liddell in May. However, considering Dana is making the Pride boys generally climb the ladder, the only thing I can think is it must be someone who *was* in the UFC and who is coming back. My bet is it would be something similar to the Royce Gracie fight – non-title, and this means it can also be in a different weight class, opening up the possibilities to heavyweights. That end stuff is all speculation on my part, but the initial point that Dana’s trying to get someone new in for the May fight seems pretty solid right now. I don’t think Rampage will go up against Liddell until the end of the summer unless Dana can’t find anyone else.
I think in the short term they have to throw Rashad or Jardine at Chuck, then wait for the rematch with Rampage. After Rampage, you can throw the other of Rashad/Jardine at the winner of Rampage/Chuck, then have the loser fight someone like Lyoto.
And Gaijin, I agree : i’d throw Evans in there before Rampage. But while Dana White can basically force anyone to fight anyone, there are still repurcussions to sending an unwilling fighter out to the slaughter. At the very least it’s not unreasonable to force Rampage – he was brought in at great expense and effort specifically to fight Chuck.
I can’t wait for mma to come to DC!
Chuck has two meaningful fights since his loss to Rampage. The two Randy fights. Can he please get in the Octagon with legitimate competition?
I love Liddell. But I want to see him be tested. It just annoys me how people buy into this “he’s an MMA god” stuff. Yeah he’s an awesome fighter, but he’s got some flaws and when they are exploited which isn’t easy because he is a deadly striker but when they are exploited he can be beat. And I think it is perfectly fair for me and anyone else to say Chuck (and Randy too) has not fought the same heavy schedule of opponents that Silva, QJ, Shogun and Arona have. Now it may in fact be the case that Chuck can and would beat all of those guys. But he hasn’t fought any of them. Maybe he and Randy would be #1 and #2 in PRIDE like they are in UFC. But for all the Jeremy Horn, Tito Oritz and Vernon Tiger White fights Chuck gets Silva, Arona, QJ, Shogun, Lil Nog, Overeem and Ninja are all fighting each other. Sure those guys get some cake fights too. But since 2003 when Chuck lost to QJ we’ve seen:
Silva vs QJ I & II
Silva vs Arona I & II
QJ vs Arona
Shogun vs Arona
Shogun vs Lil Nog
QJ vs Ninja
Shogun v Coleman
Shogun v Randelman
Lil Nog v Dan Henderson
Silva v Dan Henderson
Lil Nog vs Overeem
Arona vs Henderson
Arona vs Ninja
And that’s just off the top of my head. But you get a lot more fights from those guys. I left out all of Nakamura’s fights against those guys. Nakamura would be top 5 in UFC’s 205lb division if not top 3.
I”m not trying to start a PRIDE/UFC flame war. I’m just throwing some reality and facts into this debate. I said maybe Chuck and Randy would run through that division like a hot knife through butter. But until they fight those guys there is no question that there have been more competitive and meaningful fights in Pride’s 205 pound class than in UFC’s.
Since Chuck and Rampage fought the matches that have mattered in UFC’s 205 lb division are:
Randy vs Belfort II & III (really if II wasn’t a screw job there wouldn’t have been a third so this should count as one fight)
Randy vs Chuck II & II
And that’s it. Chuck v Tito II is about as meaningful as Silva v Saku III.
Chuck Liddell, in 2006, had three fights. All against people he’d ALREADY BEATEN. Even Old Randy, who looked good vs. Sylvia, was very tired and sluggish against Chuck in ’06.
In PRIDE the 205 lbs. fighters were fighting the best of the best, and even top heavyweights. So yeah, I’d like to see Liddell fight someone who actually has a chance of beating him.
Great post by Mr Roadblock.
I agree with Mr. Roadblock and The Gaijin on their points. Like I said on Luke’s post’s comments, this is the perfect time to bring in a “mercenary” fighter so to speak, be it a PRIDE guy or anyone else high caliber, to fight Chuck while Rampage is built up with the UFC audience and the other contenders are still learning and growing. My best suggestion would be Matt Lindland if he wasn’t busy with the Bodog people. Is that contract exclusive? If not, UFC should push to get him a fight with Chuck in the summer. He is a legitimate threat to Chuck and is basically a mercenary/free agent in the game. It would also be easier and more likely to get Lindland in the UFC ring than a guy signed to PRIDE right now.
That said, if neither of those “free agent” options pan out, I agree that it is better to throw Jardine or Lambert at Chuck than Rampage. Although they are a hard sell as legitimate threats, I am sure that Chuck’s drawing power alone would salvage the card. Rampage has great potential to become a, if not THE, fan favorite in the UFC. He is a great fighter, is genuinely funny, and the fans can connect or relate with him in a way that they just can’t with Cro Cop.
Cro Cop is arguably an even better fighter than Rampage but the guy is an ex-Croation anti-terrorism policeman, a member of Croation parliament, and generally a guy who goes about his business of knocking people’s heads off without making a huge fuss of things. He certainly won’t crack jokes in post-fight interviews like Rampage will. Fans will eventually go crazy for him too, but not the way they would for Rampage.
I think I heard that Matt Lindland won’t sign with the UFC because he doesn’t want to sign an exclusive contract, and Dana doesn’t want him if he won’t be exclusive to him.
The way Lindland has been tearing up the ranks these days he’s really not a smart idea to bring in as a “mercenary”. If he ended up winning you’d be fucking up a lot of your future plans. The best bet for them is to bring in a guy with name value enough to make the hype seem believable but that you’re generally sure that Chuck will blow away so that the inevitable Chuck – Rampage fight is off the charts.
Lindland is a super dangerous guy for anyone right now and he’s a far better wrestler than anyone the 205lb guys have faced – I’d say better than Randy even given the size difference. And he’s shown an ability to stand and bang it out as well.
Yea Lindland wants to do it freebird style, so unless Dana is happy to just let Lindland fight scrubs (which will be pointless) we wont be seeing Lindland anytime soon (hopefully we will be able to see him anywhere after his fight/execution by Fedor).
I don’t know why Lindland insists on remaining a free agent *all* the time. I think signing a deal to fight Chuck in the summer would be a huge win for him as far as growing his name and recognition as a top fighter with what is now the HUGE casual MMA audience the UFC holds captive in this country.
Maybe they could work the contract so if he actually won the title, then the contract would turn into a 3-fight deal? I don’t know. I just know Rampage/Chuck shouldn’t happen until fall.
The impression I got from listening to all the interviews was that Dana wants a Chuck-Rampage fight, but Rampage may be holding it up. Listen to Dana dismiss the idea of Rampage needing a tune up fight.
The outsider that makes the most sense right now would be Shogun. I keep hoping that I wake up and find Shogun has signed with the UFC.
Personally, I think all the Rampage hype is just that. He hasn’t been old Rampage in a while and Chuck will finish him easily. He is however a valuable asset to the UFC because of his mic skills and would be able to keep his popularity even through several defeats. On the other hand, don’t be fooled. Being good on the mic isn’t going to make you the most popular fighter in the UFC. The often ridiculed fans aren’t as stupid as some people think. Results stil count and I don’t see JAckson getting to the top of the LHW division. Besides, a cool, distant, dangerous Cro Cop has a lot of appeal in his own right.
Rampage only ever looked bad against Shogun and Silva – two of the best LHW’s on the planet and both with similar styles (re: clinch fighters, which Liddell is not). Liddell hasnt exactly been fighting the best in the world (not to say he couldnt beat them, but he really hasnt) since their last fight either. I think people are pretty quick to gloss over this “new rampage, not old rampage” and assume that Liddell will just plow through the guy.
Rollo the Cat says:
“Being good on the mic isn’t going to make you the most popular fighter in the UFC. The often ridiculed fans aren’t as stupid as some people think.”
Haha – see Tito vs. Shamrock I, II, III for the opening chapter of why that statement is pretty damn inaccurate.
I honestly agree that Rampage is the one holding it up BUT he’s not stupid. He knows Chuck will beat him and he definitly doesnt want that to tarnish his image ESPECIALLY considering he can easily be a big star in the UFC. Hell if he gets a win streak going he can easily be as big a star as Chuck which means BIGGER payday for him when he fights Chuck. So Rampage is just playing it smart which means Dana will have to struggle to find Chuck a fight in between (poor poor Rashad).
As mentioned before, however, the same can be argued against the PRIDE fighters, as while they did fight each other, they didn’t take on Chuck, Randy, Tito, Babalu, etc., either. That’s the problem with trying to ‘raise’ one organization’s division against the other: they are mutually exclusive and unless a fighter from one organization suddenly jumped to the other after fighting all the guys in that one, you can’t really rank the quality of the fighters against one another. While it’s like Shogun, Silva, Arona, Little Nog, etc. would do quite well against the aforementioned, there’s also the chance they’d all get bombed out in 10 seconds combined by Chuck. We don’t know and trying to crap on Chuck for fighting whoever the UFC had contracted at the time and being dominant with the (apparent) lemons given to him should not be grounds for slapping him down. The PRIDE guys can be condemned for not taking on those UFC guys and ‘proving their definite dominance’ in the weight class as well – just because PRIDE may or may not have more ‘quality’ LHWs doesn’t mean UFC doesn’t have some quality opponents that should be faced before rendering judgement.
Unless one organization forms or there is massive ‘free agency’ to allow fights between the top guys in both organizations, we won’t ever really know what the top 10 looks like.
But how about Tomer (because u like boxing so much) we compare it to boxing; where u would have one champion fight abunch of cans while another champ fights very competitive fighters. Granted the champ fighting cans COULD be a better fighter than the other champ BUT would they be perceived thta way by the public? And would the public be wrong to make that assumption?
The article didn’t give details on Lesnar’s plans. Can someone update me? Last I heard he was signing with K1. Who is he training with? I haven’t followed Pro rasslin in years so can someone tell me if he has any serious injuries like Angle does?
Tomer:
One thing is for sure – they would NEVER be getting bombed out in 10 seconds combined by Chuck.
BTW:
Its nice to see that the UFC fighter salaries are slowly starting to creep up there especially with respect to the mid-card guys – but I was pretty surprised to see that Franklin a former champ and poster boy was making $42,000 and Sylvia the HW champ only making $100K.
Two things:
1) I don’t think Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz & Renato ‘Babalu’ Sobral are ‘cans’. Maybe they aren’t the greatest fighters of all time (or in their peak shape if regarded overall as great fighters), but they certainly aren’t cans. The analogy you are trying to make doesn’t really work because Chuck isn’t fighting Ross Pointon, Shannon Ritch and Travis Fulton-level guys. The quality of the competition is significantly closer than what you are giving credit for. In addition, it’s impossible to truly know where these guys rank against one another because they are only able to compete with one another in their own organizations rather than in a large pool. And, given situations like ‘Minotoro’ Nogueira-Sokoudjou where a heavy betting favorite gets KTFO (or subbed) by a heavy underdog, you can’t really make a broad generalization that the quality of the fighters of PRIDE is completely overshadowing UFC’s.
I personally feel overall the talent pool may be better (due to the relative dearth in terms of actual fighters with potential to grow, etc.), but I can’t say the pool itself would be raped by PRIDE’s guys. In fact, with Silva’s visible sliding/ring aging (4-4 in the last 8 fights), ‘Minotoro’s surprise KO loss and Overeem’s more or less ‘jobber to the stars’ role at this point in PRIDE, I can only see Shogun and Arona being ‘reliable’ opponents to challenge Chuck with either even or better than even odds of winning. Is it possible Silva, ‘Minotoro’ or even Overeem can beat Chuck? Certainly (as anything can happen in combat sports with the hundreds or even thousands of examples available throughout history of the upset win), but as it is, I wouldn’t bet the house on any three of them with any real form of confidence at this point. But, that’s just my opinion.
2) It depends on whether the quality opponent champion himself is marketable to the public or if the ‘bum killer’ is the more marketable one. Just because a fighter does take on the best (and may suffer a not-so-perfect record as result) does not mean the public at large will recognize his value over the padded fighter. However, generally the fighting champion will get the ‘props’ from the hardcore fanbase of the sport.
Hyperbole is always fun. 😉
Oh is that the same NEVER from, “Lil’ Nog will NEVER be KTFO in 10 seconds by Sokoudjou”? 🙂
Well to be true to the letter – he would need to knock out Lil Nog, Arona, Shogun and Silva in that 10 seconds ;). Hyperbole noted.
I know I’ll probably get flamed for this big time, but if they’ve got nothing coming down the pike in the way of a legit challenger OR someone willing to step up at the moment from the pool of guys they have … I’d love to see a non-title match b/w James Irvin and Chuck. You know this would not go to the ground, Irvin is a pretty legit striker that would make an exciting fight and Chuck would probably end up winning a nice little slugfest and come out looking good.
I was just rewatching UFC 68 and noticed WWE Heavyweight Champion Batista in the crowd behind Anderson Silva. I guess Eddie Goldman got his way, because I never heard a mention of his presence in the crowd:
http://img87.imageshack.us/img87/1716/bscap000hq8.jpg
(between Anderson and his trainer/interpreter)
Silva doesn’t have the chin to fight Liddell.
Shogun is too wild, his standup is overrated, and IMO he would get ko’d. He is a typical Chute Boxe fighter; great at stomping on the head of a downed fighter and soccer ball kicking, but just good at other stuff. I think Liddell would knock him loopy.
Arona is an amazing wrestler and he has hard fucking low kicks; I would give him a pretty good shot of beating Liddell, though I don’t think his chin is very good.
Lil Nog would have a good chance because his boxing technique is better than Chuck’s, but his chin looked less than convincing against the dude who just destroyed him in 20 seconds.
I don’t understand why people on here are hating on Chuck for beating Tito and Randy twice apiece. Randy is a better fighter than any of the Pride 205ers, and Tito is not much different than Arona, yet you guys act like Chuck beating Tito was an easy task.
For the person asking about Brock, supposidy when HEROs (K-1’s MMA diviison) makes thier US debut it will be headlined by Brock and Royce (in speerate matches). Who knows who Brock will face but rumors for a while was it would be 7 foot K-1 giant Hong Man Choi. sigh….
BTW, that Randy Couture on ESPN video was great.
“JOSH Says:
March 7th, 2007 at 9:14 pm
For the person asking about Brock, supposidy when HEROs (K-1’s MMA diviison) makes thier US debut it will be headlined by Brock and Royce (in speerate matches). Who knows who Brock will face but rumors for a while was it would be 7 foot K-1 giant Hong Man Choi. sigh…. ”
That’s likely the only match the NSAC would be willing to “ok” for Brock…or not.
No one is hating on Chuck. We all respect him as one of the best fighters in the world. We just want to see him fight new guys, but established top dudes, not Jardine/Rashad.
He’s getting older and with only 3 fights a year we’re running out of time to see him against the other top dudes.
“Arona is an amazing wrestler and he has hard fucking low kicks; I would give him a pretty good shot of beating Liddell, though I don’t think his chin is very good.”
I fail to see how Arona has a bad chin. Or perhaps better, I fail to see how anyone can make any real statements about how good his chin is. Despite his terrible stance, how many guys have really clocked him? Yeah, Shogun hammer fisted him out, but Mezger roundhoused him in the face while wearing a pair of Air Jordans, and Arona stood there. It can’t be both, and I’m not sure we know for sure quite yet.
Also, just cause I feel left out… Liddell plunks Shogun. Mark it.
I thought Arona was out on his feet against Mezger (I seem to remember his head snapped back, staring up at the ceiling and his body staggering back against the ropes), but Mezger admired his on-the-feet KO too much and Arona woke up and took control of the fight pretty quickly. Maybe I’ve forgotten what happened since that was pretty much the highlight of that fight, however.
I haven’t watched the Shogun-Arona fight in a while, but I do remember thinking that those hammer fists shouldn’t have been able to knock him out. Maybe he just hit him on the right spot.
I remember Arona being pretty much out on his feet when Guy kicked him, but I guess that doesn’t indicate a bad chin, considering he had just gotten a fucking foot/shin to the face. It was a long time ago. Arona is usually a good enough wrestler that he doesn’t get hit clean much at all because defending his takedowns requires a monumental effort.
I was pretty sure he got a decent stomp (or at least glancing one) in there before the hammerfists. But as hammerfists go – those were pretty good ones.
I’ll throw in my 2 cents: Shogun takes Chuck.