Contributor: Daniel Galvan
(The Daily Haymaker is a daily series that takes a look back and covers the news, fights being made, and all the other insanity revolving around combat sports. The Haymaker’s purpose is to keep you up to date with the ever changing combat sports world and also provide thought-provoking [hopefully] analysis from yours truly.)
Here’s a look back at all of the big news and notes that happened in combat sports on Thursday, October 24th, 2013.
The News
1. A lot of MMA sites have been running the Chael Sonnen wants Anderson Silva as his assistant coach on TUF: Brazil story, but that’s a non-story. There’s a 98% chance that doesn’t come to fruition. If Anderson ever [emphasis on the word ever] becomes a coach on The Ultimate Fighter, it would be as a head coach for a large sum of money.
2. Legacy Fighting Championship announced the signing of former TUF: Smashes contestant Ben Wall (7-0-1). On the reality show, Wall was eliminated by Colin Fletcher in the first round. The 24 year-old Australian lightweight is an undefeated fighter that is coming off of a recent decision victory over Jai Bradney at Nitro MMA 8.
3. At the Cage Warriors Fight Night 9 weigh-ins, Faycal Hucin missed weight for his middleweight clash against former UFC and DANGEROUS MAN Che Mills. Hucin weighed in at 186.6 pounds. The French fighter has won seven of his last eight, while Mills lost his last fight to Cathal Pendred via doctor stoppage at Cage Warriors 55.
4. WBC Heavyweight Champion Vitali Klitschko is planning on running for presidency of the Ukraine in 2015. The announcement isn’t that much of a shock since Klitschko has been heavily involved with politics in the past. If he does in fact become the Ukraine’s president, his boxing career will, in all likelihood, come to a halt. In honor of Klitschko, here are four political positions, I would love to see fighters hold.
- War Machine, president of China – Bear with me. China is gaining on us in several key categories that determine who has the most badass country, so we’ve got to break the glass and send in weapon X. Can you think of a better way to stunt China’s growth than having War Machine as their president?
- Jacob Volkmann, US Senator – Volkmann makes the list because I’m a huge fan of the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, and he would be such a great source of material for Stewart to harvest on.
- Mark Hunt, Supreme Leader of the Free World – No explanation needed.
- Mamoru Yamaguchi, any political position of Japan – When you have hair like Mamoru Yamaguchi, you deserve respect.
5. The ratings came in for The Ultimate Fighter’s latest episode, and they weren’t good. According to wrestlingobserver.com‘s Dave Meltzer, the episode drew 476,000 viewers. It’s worth noting that the poor number was expected because A. the episode was a recap show that reviewed the last seven episodes with added commentary from Rousey, Tata, and White and B. the episode was going head-to-head against the World Series, Duck Dynasty, and most importantly, Preachers of LA.
Must Reads
1. A fantastic article to read in preparation for UFN 30 is CagePotato’s Adam Martin’s look at the four hidden story-lines of the event. Read all about here: http://bit.ly/17Mxkfd
2. Familiarize yourself with Alexis Vila’s WSOF 6 opponent Josh Rettinghouse by reading MMAJunkie’s Kyle Nagel’s “Fight Path”story on him: http://bit.ly/16yxyGx
3. The best way to get ready for tomorrow’s Cage Warriors Fight Night 9 is by reading Brad Taschuk’s betting preview of the card. Read it on MMAOddsBreaker here: http://bit.ly/1eOhohC
Must Watch
1. If you love watching absurd physical feats, you need to watch Malaysia’s Melvin Yeoh (7-1) do a pull-up while holding a punching bag in his mouth. The Facebook video can found here: http://on.fb.me/1ihqaVe
And that’ll do it for today’s Daily Haymaker. Thanks for reading, and I’ll leave you with a quote from Frank Sinatra.
“The best revenge is massive success.”
-Dan can be reached at [email protected] or @danielgal.
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