Contributor: Ben Kohn
So a bunch of stuff happened last week in the world of MMA, some important and newsworthy while others less so. These are the random cobbled together thoughts that I have on the various tidbits coming out of our crazy little world of cagefighting.
- May 13th: Referee Leon Roberts should be the next big prospect in the world of MMA. He applied one of the slickest back-takes I’ve ever seen in my life on debuting amateur Lightweight Nathias Fredrick when Fredrick continued to try and pummel his unconscious opponent’s head through the mat, despite Roberts trying to pull him off. Excellent job on making Joe Rogan cream his pants and yell “IT’S DEEP MIKE!!!” 40 times while watching the video.
- May 13th: Former UFC Welterweight champion GSP will team up with former WWE champion Dave “Batista” Bautista in a remake of the Jean Claude Van-Damme movie “Kickboxer” and I for one have no idea what the hell to even think. From what I’ve heard, GSP did pretty well in Captain America and I will not pass judgment on Bautista until I see him in Guardians of the Galaxy (holy shit I cannot wait for that movie!!!). Despite the seriousness of this situation, that’s among the funniest headlines I’ve seen for any topic this week due to the random factor alone. Seriously, did someone think “you know what we need? A movie with GSP and Batista together, it’s a guaranteed success!”?
- May 13th: The New York State Senate once again voted in favor of legalizing MMA in NY by a vote of 44-16. This would be great news if they had not previously passed the bill 4 times only to be stopped by the venerable and honorable Sheldon Silver, Assembly Speaker, who has refused to allow the bill to even go to the floor for a vote. Keep fighting the good fight you fucking asshole because the last thing NY needs is to generate tens of millions of dollars’ worth of revenue and create more jobs right?
- May 13th: Former UFC Superfight champion and MMA legend Ken Shamrock is currently a personal bodyguard for rapper 50 Cent and had some harsh criticism for Jay-Z’s bodyguard for allowing crazy lady Solange Knowles to attack him in the elevator. People may not like Ken very much but when it comes to beating the crap out of people, he knows a thing or two. HIRE THIS MAN JAY-Z!!!!
- May 13th: Dana White told the media why Big Timmeh would not be brought back to the UFC citing his recent record as proof that he doesn’t deserve it. While his less than stellar recent record is a very good reason, we all know it has far more to do with Sylvia’s inability to fight at a weight less than that of a baby Orca. Also, Dana blocked him on twitter which is fucking hilarious.
- May 14th: Soa Palelei is fresh off a first round knockout finish of Ruan Potts and is looking to get back in the cage relatively quickly. Matching up with Jared Rosholt is actually an interesting fight as it poses two possible outcomes. Rosholt comes out and wins the fight, beating a crafty veteran and thrusting him forward in the rankings or Palelei gets a four fight win streak and will have beaten a good prospect setting him up for a top 10 fight. Either way, the Heavyweight division gets a new contender to work with. Also, it’s in New Zealand because of course New Zealand and Australia is the same thing according to the UFC and Soa is Australian. Hooray?
- May 14th: Alex Caceres gets the chance to fight one of the best Bantamweights in the world and former 96-time title challenger Urijah Faber at UFC 175. This is a huge opportunity for Caceres to get his ass kicked and I’m sure he jumped at the chance to be beaten up by Faber. Seriously though, Caceres can come out of this looking good if he can avoid getting totally outclassed so for his sake, I hope Faber is totally gun-shy after his TKO loss to Barao. I’m probably gonna be like $20 on Caceres though just in case there’s a hail mary upset.
- May 14th: Travis Browne is apparently upset with Fabricio Werdum’s trolling during their fight and I for one find that hilarious. You were in the cage with the guy and had the ability to stop him from trolling (I mean, obviously he didn’t have the ability but he did have the chance!) you and instead got your butt whooped on for 5 rounds. At least no excuses though right?
- May 15th: Jessica Aguilar is defending her title against Emi Fuji. I would comment on this but Aguilar won the belt against a fighter who had only 4 fights before so this is pretty pointless honestly.
- May 15th: Bas Rutten had to take to Facebook to explain why he called Jon Jones a dirty fighter and he really did make a lot of sense. Jon is most definitely a cerebral fighter and knows what he’s doing when he extends those fingers out in front of his opponent’s faces. Bas comes out of this looking pretty good in my opinion and didn’t even go bongity-dongity-dong-dong once.
- May 15th: Ronny Markes was released and quickly picked up by WSOF to fight in their Light Heavyweight division. This is good for Markes honestly as he seemed like he had solid potential and it would be a shame to see it wasted. With Rumble gone, the path to a WSOF title is pretty clear for him and he most likely will be able to hone his skills against lesser fighters and gain confidence back and hopefully a few finishes. At 26, he can still reach the potential many felt the Brazilian once had. I’m excited to see him in his WSOF debut and it he looks better at Light Heavyweight.
- May 15th: Glover Teixeira manages to avoid surgery on his injured shoulder which is excellent news as it shortens his rehab time from the fight and leaves him open to fight other contenders in the division should the need arise (paging Anthony Johnson). This is overall great news as Glover is a very good fighter and is generally very exciting too. I for one can’t wait to see him back in the cage sooner rather than later.
Alright everyone, these are my thoughts on the goings-on of the MMA world and I do hope to be able to provide you with more of my pseudo-brilliant insight every week. Have a great weekend fight fans and remember to know where your children are at 10 PM sharp every night. Seriously, install tracking devices, the news told me to.
-Ben can be reached at [email protected] or @agentbenten.
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