When I wrote this there was 11,730 votes and of these votes 28% of the people who voted said no and another 28% said they don’t care they are no longer interested. That is way too many people that have no interest in this fight. Possibly one of the best heavyweight match ups ever!

How can this be? I was beyond shocked when I saw these numbers. I understand that there have been controversy after controversy about these two fighters, and the fight seems more distant than the Chuck and Wandy fight back in the day, but c’mon! This is Randy and Fedor! I understand that Randy seems to be doing more legal fighting than MMA fighting, and Fedor has been running around with the Olympic torch and sleeping his way through the Sambo tournament, but it is Randy vs. Fedor!

Do you remember that feeling you had right when the bell rang for Chuck and Wandy? If you are like me I said to myself, I can’t believe that these two are finally fighting! Here we go! Would it not be the same feeling if not more?

Speaking of here we go, we are almost in a similar lull that we had prior to that fight. As of right now it is unsure if these two legendary fighters will ever square off. It is like that time when your parents said there was no way you were getting that Nintendo, but in a way you knew you would still get it… I am hoping
that one day soon we will get that surprise package under the tree and inside will be a Randy vs. Fedor PPV!

I can understand why many of the fans have lost interest. I get that, I only hope that the minute that the fight is announced that those same fans will change their mind. If they don’t it is possible that they could miss one classic battle! At the same time, if these two never fight, every single fan of the sport will have been done wrong, and all in the name of money!

For those who have the seen the video recently posted on mmaopinion, where I work and where the best news and analysis in the sport is.

Now lets forget Bill’s economic stupidity. Let’s forget that the 16-34 year old males are the second most potent viewer groups in the entire country (in, the minds of many producers of big advertisement buyers, like beer companies, the most important). Let’s forget that the sport has been approved by state athletic commissions, that it has fewer fatalities than boxing, hockey or football.

Let’s forget that when John McCain commented on the sport and called in “human cockfighting”, Ken Shamrock destroyed him in civil debate on Larry King’s live interview, one of the crowning moments for the sport, and one I would like to see Shamrock repeat. Personally, I’d be happy to debate O’Reilly myself, since he clearly knows nothing about the sport and about the way that it’s marketed.

As far as the “redeeming moral value” of MMA that the twit Jane Hall, there’s as much redeeming value in mixed martial arts as there is in football.

The sport teaches discipline and the value of pushing yourself. It teaches that the only person that can be held accountable in failure is ourself. It teaches that the fighter who develops his mind, his body and his craft wins, and that sometimes that guy comes from the school of hard knocks, and sometimes he comes from priviledge.

The sport offers us at least as much in terms of fantastic stories and tragic failings as any other sport. Some people love football, and just because, as my grandfather once described it to me, “it’s just a bunch of fat guys running into each other,” that doesn’t mean they aren’t entitled to watch it and that the networks aren’t entitled to carry it. (for the record, I’m a football fan, go Raiders)

If Bill O’Reilly would attack the rights of a network to carry the fastest growing sport in the country, it just makes him come off like an angry pissant who’s upset that it’s not on his network. The money that the UFC has made Spike has turned the heads of every network executive who isn’t an idiot. Obviously, this is why FOX is late to the table on this issue.

Big Bad Bill has tried to attack the sport for years, saying that he honestly believes that this sport is deteriorating the moral fabric of our nation. Really, Bill O’Reilly?

Is it deteriorating the moral fiber our country as quickly as you would like to deteriorate a network’s right to broadcast anything you don’t like?

Bill O’Reilly has bastardized and trivialized the rights of Americans, and makes every show he does an attack on somebodies right to do something for no other reason than because it doesn’t straighten out his lap pinky. He’s a shock jocky, but most importantly he’s a hypocritical psycho who thinks that, for some reason, his opinions matter more than the facts.

If Big Bad Bill wants to get in touch with me, or anyone wants me to post their thoughts on this, feel free to send me an email at jstein.ironsport@gmail.com

Comments are welcome.

I realize that this is an old video, but it really is something that makes me want to puke when I see an idiot like O’Reilly try and justify his bigoted bullshit with no data and no knowledge of the topic he’s flapping his lips about.

Fans don’t want a new fighting surface. Professional wrestling would have seen the benefit of a cage with banked edges to help set up crazy tag team combinations, but MMA fighters only saw it as an obstacle which discouraged takedowns and encouraged stalling. The “pit” was a novelty idea that we’ll hopefully never see again in a real MMA competition.

Ring announcing shouldn’t be turned into a comedy show to distract from the action inside the cage. Although poor announcing really can’t ruin anyone’s night, it’s just a bad way to attract attention to a promotion. Howard Stern talk show host Scott Ferrall used phrases like “Please, give some loooove, to Chris Tuscerer.”, “And in the red corner, pacing again like he wants a piece”, and “In charge of the leverage tonight in the YAMMA Pit, once again, Big Dan the Man, how can I be the Man if you’re the Man, Dan, Miragliotta” only added to the ridiculousness of the overall show. Complain about Bruce Buffer all you want, but he doesn’t try to steal the attention from the fighters inside of the UFC cage with a poor comedic performance aimed at teenagers.

Moving on to who could be the biggest problem with MMA these days. YAMMA promoter Bob Meyrowitz was a driving factor behind the largest MMA organization back in the early 90’s and he seems to still be stuck in the years when MMA was truly no-holds barred. While the current owners of the UFC are lobbying to get MMA legalized in as many U.S. states as possible, Meyrowitz is still looking for fighting sensationalism. Sorry Bob, present day MMA fans want the MMA that has been around for the past few years. MMA fans don’t want something new and crazy and they don’t want the resurgence of the crotch-smashing MMA from the early years of the UFC either.

Now I realize that the proven MMA organizations are just looking at YAMMA as a joke, but I certainly hope they don’t try to borrow any ideas. I doubt the UFC, the old stable Republican of MMA, will do anything crazy this year, but the smaller organizations like EliteXC and King of the Cage need to just keep doing what they are doing right now in hopes of attracting larger crowds. YAMMA just proved that good old fashioned MMA fighting on a flat surface, with stable announcing, and weight classes is what the fans want.
Nobody wants to see a circus in MMA anymore. The early 1990’s have come and gone.

It doesn’t matter where you train - if you want it, you can get it.

While other fighters are training at Top Team, Serra’s BJJ Academy, and Team Quest, Riddle reminds us that he trains out of Palmerton, PA at Rat Pack Fighting Systems. And with his performance last night, you can clearly see that while a professional training team may help a fighter, it’s certainly not what makes a fighter.

It was a great bout between the trash talker and “Chipper”. The veteran fighter from Lousiana, Tim Credeur, was talking a lot of trash before the fight as he touted his long record in the sport. “The Answer” took everything in stride and merely laughed Credeur off as someone who only had five years left in the sport with a lot to lose. We last saw Riddle break Dan Simmler’s jaw in multiple places and nobody in the house knew what to expect. Both fighters made weight with Credeur talking more trash at the weigh-in as Riddle continued to smile on.

The fight went almost two full rounds with Riddle and Credeur trading on the ground and standing evenly throughout. Riddle took advantage of his wrestling abilities as he swept Credeur at will throughout both rounds, but was slightly edged on the ground. Coming out into the second round, we saw Riddle explode and nearly take off Credeurs head repeatedly with a nice punch kick combo. What’s funny is that Credeur said Riddle’s previous fight was just a lucky fluke, yet Riddle dominated while standing and showed much better form. Credeur was able to use his Black Belt Jiu-Jitsu to pull off an arm-bar over the Blue Belt riddle before the end of Round 2 as he nearly gassed.

Although Riddle’s coach, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson was not upset with Riddle, he did say he was disappointed. We also learned that Credeur is indeed the supposed top guy on Team Forrest. The preview of the next show highlights Rampage as he rips through his fighters, but if Credeur is the top opponent, I don’t see Team Rampage having too much trouble throughout the rest of the season.

Still, I’m willing to look past the Serra vs. St. Pierre matchup because I want to aware that the best matchup the UFC has promised this year is coming, and while there’s been some talk, it’s not getting the credibility it deserves, and part of that is political, and all of it is crap.

If you’re still not aware of which fight I’m talking about, I’m talking about UFC 84’s main event: Sean Sherk vs. BJ Penn. It’s going to be a war, and everybody knows that this is going to a challenge for both fighters, because of how perfectly their skill sets match up.

I’m a bit BJ biased, because I think that Sherk is guilty of steroid use, and I think that BJ is, pound for pound, one of the greatest warriors in this sport. When BJ steps in with Sherk, though, he’ll be stepping in with a fighter that is, realistically speaking, the ultimate sparkplug.

Both of these guys have come down from 170 and have run the 155 pound division both have fought way above that weight class. Since Dana reestablished the division and brought these two warriors into it, the two are undefeated, and both have wins over top guys in other organizations. Penn choked out Takanori Gomi. Sherk beat Nick Diaz.

This is, without a doubt, a top fight for me. While I do think that it’s questionable whether or not they are the top two guys in the division (which could be argued all sorts of ways, with the chaos of Gomi, Diaz, KJ Noons and all of the other players who are making this division so much fun to watch) they are certainly the top two guys in the Octagon, and they are two fighters that many would have liked to see fight in the 170 pound division a long time ago, when they made up the top tier of that division with Georges St. Pierre and Matt Hughes.

My technical analysis of these two fighters and their matchup will come soon, but I do think that this is the greatest fight of the year thus far, as far as the quality of the two fighters stepping into the cage.

After watching Matt Serra dismantle Georges St. Pierre during UFC 69 last April along with St. Pierre’s domination of Matt Hughes, this fight could easily go either way. Bodog is showing lines of -500 for St. Pierre and +300 for Serra while BetUS has Serra up at +350. You could make $350 for every $100 if Serra pulls off another “upset.” It’s only an upset if Serra wins because it’s one of those fights where many are thinking St. Pierre will come away with the victory, but there’s some uncertainty. Remember the last time this happened? It was Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson and although a great fight ensued, the upset just wasn’t there. Things may change this time around if Serra doesn’t let the Montreal crowd get to him.

The Rich Franklin/Travis Lutter fight has the two men who can’t seem to get past Anderson Silva up against each other. Bodog says -350 Franklin and +250 Lutter while BetUS says Franklin has even more of a chance of taking this fight with odds of -400 and +300. Lutter’s last fight was in February 2007 when he lost against Silva in the second round while Franklin’s last defeat, also at the hands of Silva, was more recent; UFC 72. While Franklin has only lost to one other fighter during his long fight career and carries an impressive 22 wins, you know he’s not feeling too great about himself after failing to get past the Middleweight champ - twice. As for Lutter, he’s had a long time to get ready for this fight. There’s big upset potential and with odds like those, you almost feel dumb not wanting to drop a few bucks on Lutter…just in case.

As for Mark Bocek, well, he’s up against Mac Danzig. You can’t take much away from The Ultimate Fighter 6 winner, except that he was up against a house of inexperience while he walked around with his 20+ fights. Danzig dominated in the finale, but has yet to fight since and aside from his finale win, he has two recent losses to content with. Mark Bocek hasn’t done much yet, but with odds like +350 against Bodog and BetUS’s -550 and -500 respectively, there’s upset potential that could yield a few extra bucks if you’re willing to take a small risk on this fight.

Many of the other fights on the UFC 83 card also have extremely contrasting odds, more than normal for a UFC event. Spend that extra cash from your income tax return, providing you overpaid, have kids, or paid your mortgage last year, and let us know what happens!

I doubt that most fans care either way. Although Sylvia is a league above most of Fedor’s past opponents like Hong Man Choi and Wagner da Conceicao Martins, It’s still not Randy vs. Fedor. Don’t forget about the fact that there’s still a risk of this fight not even happening. If you go back to my last article which referenced the Houston Chronicle article about Cox and Emelianenko, Cox said that it was difficult to deal with Russians because of the language barrier coupled with paying a fighter $2 million for a fight before any tickets are sold. Even top UFC fighters, like Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell, only make 1/8th of what Fedor wants before gate percentages and other endorsements are factored in. This is a huge risk in an attempt to please 25% of the MMA fanbase.

Even so, I’d kinda like to see it happen. I honestly don’t think Sylvia is going to stop Emelianenko in his quest to take on Randy Couture in what could be the biggest fight of the decade. After watching Emelianenko totally dominate an even larger fighter like Choi in the first round, I don’t think Sylvia will be able to use a reach advantage and will need to rely on keeping the fight standing without stalling. If you remember Sylvia’s last fight with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, once the fight got to the ground, Nogueira took immediate control and submitted Sylvia quickly. Speaking of the Brazilian, who wouldn’t want to see Big Nog up against the Russian again for what could be an amazing rematch? Their last fight on New Years Eve in 2004/2005 ended in a decision with their prior fight resulting in a no contest. Not many fighters have gone that far with Emelianenko in a ring lately so I’d love to see what the cage could do for both of them. See, it didn’t take long for me to get bored with Sylvia with the prospect of some other big fights this summer. But with Nogueira under contract with the UFC, I don’t know if that will happy anytime soon unless he pulls a Sylvia and leaves the largest MMA organization to fight the most dangerous heavyweight in the world.

Let’s hope that Cox can pull this all together and bring in more contenders for Emelianenko after the Sylvia fight. I’m tired of waiting to see him fight someone skilled and exciting again.

Check the video after the jump…

Rampage continued the conversation and the talk about Silva. He goes to say that they call Wand “The Axe Murderer”. Quinton then said that Pride fed Wand chumps and he murdered them. Then he called Wand “The Chump Murderer”. He then talks more about Wand and their relationship. He states that when I am around Wand I speak my mind, and Wand looks at me like I am crazy. He then says that the referees took payoffs and were corrupt.

When told that street fighter extraordinaire Kimbo Slice had been calling him out, he simply said “hold on dawg, you aint even in my weight class! You don’t even fight in my organization! Why don’t you call out the Heavyweight champ?”

Quinton has been a big part of one of the deepest divisions in all of MMA. He did the unthinkable and knocked out Chuck Liddell. Since that time he has had one successful title defense against Dan Henderson. Jackson is known for his comical take to life and other fighters. Hilarious clips of him can be found all across the internet. He was a big deal in the Pride organization, but is flourishing in the American UFC. He looks to continue his championship run as he defends his title against Forrest Griffin in Vegas on July 5^th at “The Ultimate Fighter” finally. Forrest is also a very colorful fighter. The mix looks to make this if not the best season of TUF, definitely the funniest. TUF makes its debut on April 2^nd on Spike.

(Most of the comments in this article are paraphrased and not quoted)

With three rounds of nearly non-stop action, Frank Shamrock and Cung Le helped to solidify EliteXC as worthy of prime time MMA viewing. Why, you ask? Well, there’s quite a few reasons.

1. Frank Shamrock is hilarious in the cage. Cung Le wasn’t too bad himself. Whenever there was a chance to showcase some personality, both fighters didn’t waste any time. With finger pointing, hit counts, and smiles between the fighters, there wasn’t a time during the fight that I wasn’t laughing at the antics between both fighters. The casual fan could enjoy the display of personality and hopefully it could help some people see that both men were more than just punching and kicking machines.

2. A standup war that went 15 minutes. Who can complain? Sure, you might want some technical BJJ every once in a while, but were you really expecting a ground battle between these two? Shamrock and Le went the distance and delivered a great performance to an eclectic crowd.

3. Mutual respect that left me doubting whether Rich Franklin and Anderson Silva are the only two fighters these days who can actually show casual fans that MMA is not evil. Throughout the fight, both were more than willing to touch gloves and the post-fight interviews displayed enough class to make up for Bill Goldberg’s ramblings.

EliteXC would be doing the right thing if they put a Shamrock vs. Le rematch on one of their upcoming CBS cards, but will they do it?