MMA News Roundup
MMA News RoundupBy Jon Sattler |
Since becoming a UFC and Pancrase champion, Bas Rutten has set out to conquer every corner of the entertainment world. The Black Belt Hall of Fame member’s become a TV commentator, an Internet sensation, and even starred in an award-winning comedy. Still, we were genuinely surprised to see him hosting The Men’s Room, an in-game television show in Grand Theft Auto IV. When our managing editor, Edward Pollard, last spoke with Rutten, he filled us in on the challenges of stand-up comedy, his love of crazy roles, and why he turned down a part in a Jean-Claude Van Damme movie. Have you ever thought about being a comedian? Actually, stand-up comedy is on my list of things I really want to do at least once. The other one is to sing the National Anthem at a big place with a big crowd. I think that’s as nerve-wracking as doing stand-up comedy. I have a lot of respect for those guys. I mean, I’ve fought in front of an audience, but it’s got to be so bad when you crack three or four jokes in a row and nobody laughs, oh my God. (Laughs.) It must be demoralizing to just hear crickets. Yeah, and if you can save the show, then it’s good, but if you can’t … You hear lots of comedians say they had at least one show where they bombed, even Richard Pryor. I truly believe that all these comedians are really good actors all the time. Performing in front of live audiences is difficult. Sounds like you’ve been talking to (comedian and MMA fan) Kevin James a bit. I went to his shows a couple of times. He’s also buddies with Joe Rogan. I love stand-up comedy. If I feel down, which is almost never, I go to XM Radio’s comedy channel, number 150, and boom, everything’s good again. Comedy heals all wounds; that’s what I say. Can you tell me the craziest or stupidest role you’ve ever been offered in a movie? That would be an MMA movie this guy wanted to do. He wanted to sit down with me—and I’m not going to mention names but he’s a big writer—and he wanted to get inside my head and see what kind of training I did. I gave him some good things, but I thought, I don’t know about this. He was going to give me a part, but I didn’t give him everything I had, and later on I realized it was smart of me to hesitate. He got frustrated because I turned him down. Check this out, the part was this: I would be together with Quinton Jackson, we would be bouncers and then the lead actor would come into the bar, we would ask him to leave and in a second he would get us in a “double choke,” like two guillotine chokes. I don’t know what he meant by that, but he would dispatch us and we’d be gone. I said to him, “Listen, that’s just not realistic.” Two professional fighters, he comes in and that’s like really using somebody’s name and putting it into the ground. Afterward, I heard that he was really upset that I turned down his movie and I said, “Man, that’s just not a part for me.”
You have a distinctive voice. Has anyone ever asked you to do voice-overs for cartoons or animated movies? They’ve asked me because I do it all the time just for fun. (Adopts breathy, reptilian promotional voice.) “And now, in the new motion picture …” They always tell me I should go in, but right now I’m too busy. I turned down Sirius Satellite Radio who wanted me to do a show. Everything’s piling up and I have no time. You need a clone. That would be unbelievable if you could do that. I would make a couple of my wife, too. Would you like it if someone would make a cartoon out of you? How cool would that be? I was in Japanese comic books a few times, two of which were notable. In one of those I hooked up with a K-1 fighter, Sam Greco. We were the criminals. They made a whole nice little story about me and Funaki and the guy I was going to fight. It was pretty cool. Did anyone ever ask you to play a genie or something in a movie? No, but I would really like to do stuff like that. I really enjoy doing crazy parts. What made you shave your head, and when did you first do it? Oh, this is a good one. I did it when I was 21. Believe it or not, I used to be a model, the Zoolander type. I was always taking care of my hair because obviously it’s very important. One day it didn’t work, my hair wasn’t cooperating and I had to be somewhere. I got really stressed about it and I wet it again and I started putting gel in it—something that I never did—and it didn’t work, either. I tried three or four times, fighting it again, and I saw my ex-wife’s purple hair dryer laying there, so I grabbed it. I never used a blow-dryer, but I aimed it at my head and turned it on.
No more combs or worries. Man, you know, I jump in the pool and get out and wipe my head off and it’s dry. There’s nothing like it. If you could choose any film director to work with, who would that be? I’ve always been a big Quentin Tarantino fan. I’m trying to reach him with a really cool script with some big names attached to it and they want to do it because they read it. That would be really good. I’m a big fan of Guy Ritchie, also. Those directors would be a dream because I’ve liked them for so long. Any of the older, more classic directors? Martin Scorcese, of course, is really good. You can’t say anything bad about Steven Spielberg. I like Francis Ford Coppola, Michael Bay, Scarface director Brian De Palma. Like Spielberg, if you can make a movie like E.T., you’ve got talent.
by Edward Pollard On April 19, 2008, a year and two weeks after ceding his first title defense to Matt Serra, native French-Canadian Georges St. Pierre won it back at the Bell Centre in Montreal in front of a packed house at the Ultimate Fighting Championship 83. The fight generated huge interest and sparked a hot debate over whether Serra had St. Pierre’s number or if his surprise win during their first meeting was just a speed hump in the rising superstar’s career. Every nook and cranny of each fighter’s career was examined and raked over the coals by the time the two faced off in the octagon. St. Pierre adopted a near sprinter’s stance during the face-off, demonstrating that there was no hesitation or doubt in his mind. From the first moment, St. Pierre took the fight to Serra and spent the majority of the bout punishing Serra on the ground. In much the same way he’d bested Matt Hughes on his territory (wrestling, ground and pound), he demonstrated his mastery on Serra’s (Brazilian jiu-jitsu). It was all the Gracie jiu-jitsu black belt could do to fend off the kyokushin karate fighter’s hailstorm attack. Before this report degenerates into a laundry list of techniques employed, let's just say that St. Pierre controlled Serra and punished him at every opportunity, no easy feat against a jiu-jitsu expert. From a standing position, St. Pierre landed numerous hard knees to his downed opponent’s unguarded rib cage, forcing referee Yves Lavigne to stop the fight after four minutes 45 seconds into the second round. Showing his good-natured side, Serra hoisted St. Pierre and carried him to the center of the floor. St. Pierre reciprocated and asked the crowd to respect Serra, a worthy opponent and a good person, turning the grudge match into a virtual love fest. ***
In undercard action, Rich Franklin took the steam out of Travis Lutter after only one round. Lutter appeared more willing to lie on the ground and defend than stand and trade. At one point, Lutter was on his hands and knees grabbing for an ankle as Franklin kept his distance and continued dismantling him.
Middleweight contender Michael Bisping faced off against Charles McCarthy and found him a tough man to hurt. McCarthy made it clear that the Englishman’s attacks didn’t faze him much. To Bisping’s credit, he kept attacking while the New York native was unable to make more of his ground skills. An end-of-round flurry against the fence brought McCarthy to the mat in pain. When he stayed there, unwilling to move, the referee stopped the match. Vegan standard-bearer and TUF Season 6 welterweight champ Mac Danzig showed his stuff as a lightweight against Canadian Mark Bocek. After controlling most of the first round, Bocek eventually succumbed to Danzig’s superior striking techniques and ground game in the second round, but it was Danzig’s knee strikes that softened him up for the kill. Bocek’s face grew swollen, and he was even checked by ringside doctors for serious injury in the third round. The match was probably the fight of the night until St. Pierre’s display of dominance, but Danzig’s successful rear-naked choke after three minutes 48 seconds in the third round kept it from going to the judges. (For our complete breakdown of UFC 83, check out the August 2008 issue of Black Belt.)
Now that he’s fulfilled his duties as an Olympic torchbearer, Fedor Emelianenko is finally ready to step back into the ring against a worthy opponent—and no, we’re not talking about South Korean beekeepers. (For more on Emelianenko's battle with big honey, check out "Fedor Emelianenko: The Two-Million Dollar Man" below.) The former PRIDE champ confirmed that he will be fighting fellow heavyweight Tim Sylvia, who the Ultimate Fighting Championship recently released from his contract. "[Sylvia] is a good fighter, a strong fighter, the former UFC heavyweight champion, which is important," Emelianenko says. "I am looking forward to fighting him and training hard for this fight." Sylvia had equally kind words for his opponent. "He’s ranked No. 1 in the world. I want to challenge myself, and I want to fight him," Sylvia says. "It’s the best fight out there for the both of us right now." It looks like we’re finally going to get our PRIDE vs. UFC: Clash of the Champions matchup—it just won’t be with Randy Couture. Update: Emelianenko's announcement about the upcoming fight may have been a bit premature. His manager, Vadim Finkelstein, says that the fighters still need to work out a few details. "At the moment, we can't certainly say the bout will take place come July because the contract is not signed," Finkelstein says. "However, both parties are involved in the negotiation process and we are about to break the finishing tape, although we haven't come to an agreement concerning every detail as of yet."
by Edward Pollard On March 29, the HP Pavilion in San Jose was yet again the location of a massive Strikeforce/EliteXC co-promotion, this time pitting Strikeforce’s middleweight champion Frank Shamrock against its most dangerous contender, world sanshou champion Cung Le. The crowd of 16,326 fans watched Le fight the kind of battle he always does: a kicking, punching, stand-up bout that Shamrock adopted for some personal reason. Only twice did he try to take the fight to the ground, and even then it was halfhearted. Apparently, he’d given his word to keep the fight standing. Was it a matter of pride or a wish to show his courage in the face of a superior opponent in that field? Le, who displayed amazing stamina and durability, was completely at home kicking Shamrock’s head, body and legs. In response, Shamrock threaded hard shots through Le’s more obvious spinning kick attempts and landed a number of painfully direct shots. But while Shamrock stayed light on his feet, he also absorbed more consistent punishment. Shamrock tried to use mental games to unsettle Le. He taunted, kept a running score on his fingers and even flashed his “I’m putting you to sleep” gesture at Le after the first round. Granted, Shamrock could have ended the fight at any time with the right combination, and he appeared to be headed for a come-from-behind finish as the third round came to a close, but Le’s vicious kicks had already done their damage. His arm broken at the wrist, Shamrock was unable to answer the fourth round bell and conceded the bout. While Shamrock’s attacks may have been less conspicuous than Le’s flashy kicks, they left their mark on the new middleweight champ. Le entered the post-event press conference with a noticeable limp, his body battered and his face cut and bruised from his opponent’s strikes. He noted being surprised that Shamrock deflected his high kicks with one arm because he teaches his students to always block with two arms. It must be tough choosing between blocking with both arms or protecting the other side of your head. Still, Le earned the belt in stunning fashion with crowd-pleasing backfists and a relentlessly accurate attack. His calm and focus allowed him to weather the crazy emotional storm in the packed arena and power his way to the top.
Now that he's parted ways with M-1 Global, Fedor Emelianenko is looking to become the highest paid mixed martial artist on the planet. "[Fedor] wants $2 million per fight," says Gary Shaw, EliteXC live events president. "We keep going back and forth, but he has to fight soon. It's been almost two years." While it's true that he defeated the 7-foot-2-inch, 350 pound Choi Hong-man in December 2007, it's been two years since Emelianenko's fought a top-tier opponent—unless you count South Korean beekeepers. In one of the most bizarre legal complaints in MMA history, Emelianenko is seeking 1.55 billion won ($1.56 million) in compensation from a South Korean beekeepers' association for using his image without consent in a TV commercial. In the ad, the former PRIDE champion drinks from a honey jar and tells the camera, "Seonyu Honey is good." Emelianenko's agency says, "The defendants damaged Fedor's image by producing commercials that do not fit his powerful image and were made with shoddy footage." Instead of arguing whether the commercial is befitting a champion of his stature, we'll let you be the judge. |
