All Purpose UFC/MMA/That Kind Of Thing Thread

Mr7134 · Nov 13, 2007

The first UFC took place fourteen years ago yesterday. An interesting article on how it came about can be read at the link below.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-earlyufc111207&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Also, a nice companion article about the evolution of elite level amateur wrestlers in MMA can be found below.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-102907wrestlers&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Mr7134 · Dec 2, 2007

The first death to occur as a result of regulated MMA bout out came this past Friday...

http://www.sherdog.com/news/news.asp?n_id=10203

Update: Sam Vasquez Dead at 35

Sunday, December 02, 2007
by Sherdog.com Staff

Regulated mixed martial arts has experienced its first casualty.

Sam Vasquez, who was stopped by Vince Libardi on Oct. 20 at the Toyota Center in Houston, died Friday at the age of 35, according to a report by TheFightNetwork.com.

The Harris County Medical Examiner, which confirmed Vasquez passed at 8:15 p.m. CT, has not yet released the cause of death, the report said.

After enduring separate surgeries to remove blood clots from his brain as well as a massive stroke, Vasquez was discharged from downtown Houston's Saint Joseph Medical Center Critical Care Unit and transferred to an area hospice on Nov. 26.

On Wednesday Sandra Vasquez, the fighter's wife, told Sherdog.com, "He's about to go." Two days later, Vasquez, the father of a 7-year-old boy, lost his battle with the apparent affects of a regulated mixed martial arts fight.

Vasquez joins Douglas Dedge as the second known fighter to lose his or her life due to complications stemming from a MMA bout. Following an unregulated contest in the Ukraine on March 16, 1998, Dedge collapsed and died.

Vasquez, who was licensed to compete by the Texas Boxing and Wrestling Program, took rapid combinations and a hard right punch to the chin from Libardi (4-3) in the third round.

In his third professional fight -- each of which were promoted by Saul Soliz, a veteran trainer who has worked with several UFC champions and a host of local Texas fighters, including the fallen Vasquez -- the referee allowed Vasquez (1-2) to stand after he was dropped. When the fighter subsequently collapsed the bout was called.

Repeated attempts to reach Soliz for comment went unreturned.

Eight minutes elapsed while Texas-mandated EMTs attended to the incapacitated Vasquez, who was eventually placed onto a stretcher and supported with a neck brace. His exit from the arena to Saint Joseph Medical Center was marked with a slight, occasional seizure visible to the cage-side audience.

Vasquez's hospital stay was first complicated by what doctors called a large "acute clot" that formed within the brain and required surgery on Nov. 4 to relieve pressure. The first clot was not a result of the initial injury Vasquez suffered, said his wife, Sandra. A "rare" second clot developed soon afterwards, said Vasquez's doctor, demanding another invasive procedure.

Listed in critical condition, the fighter was placed in a medically induced coma after suffering a stroke on Nov. 9 that prompted Vasquez's family to contact LifeGift, an organ donation center.

Like in the case of Dedge, concerns about Vasquez's pre-fight health have surfaced. At his age, Vasquez would have been required to undergo extensive pre-fight medical screening to gain a license in Texas.

Steve Bruno, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation, said federal laws prohibit his agency from disclosing particular information regarding a fighter's application.

Prior to Vasquez's death, Bruno said the state has no plans for any sort of moratorium on mixed martial arts competition.

Jaime Martinez contributed to this story
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Mr7134 · Dec 15, 2007

CNBC Business Nation piece on the UFC...

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x122it_jan2407cnbc_sport

Mr7134 · Jan 27, 2008

Brock Lesnar makes his UFC debut this coming Saturday.

One of the best articles on Lesnar and his venture into MMA can be found below...

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-lesnar012108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

UFC gambles on untested Lesnar

By Dave Meltzer, Yahoo! Sports
January 21, 2008

In the spring of 2000, Brock Lesnar was a University of Minnesota senior, just two weeks and a handful of workouts away from the NCAA Division I wrestling tournament.

Today, the 30-year-old Lesnar finds himself in a similar situation as he trains for his match against former Ultimate Fighting Championship heavyweight champion Frank Mir in the most publicized debut in UFC history.

The former â€œNext Big Thingâ€ of pro wrestling has become ultimate fighting's next gigantic question mark, a 1-0 fighter with 69 seconds of ring experience thrown into the deep end of a shark-infested pool.

Whether he's in over his head remains to be seen, but the reason he's being billed as the semi-main event of UFC 81 on Feb. 2 in Las Vegas is because of his fame as a former World Wrestling Entertainment champion.

The success of this card hinges on people buying the novelty of a former WWE champion fighting a former UFC champion. The idea, if it clicks, is to rally the UFC fan base to want to see the fake wrestler get smashed, and for the pro wrestling audience, to whom the show is being heavily marketed, to tune in out of curiosity to see how one of its all-time tough guys can do.

Lesnar knows his role is to antagonize UFC fans, as he did in dismissing Mir's submission ability in a commercial. Lesnar noted upon signing with UFC a few months ago that when it comes to promoting a fight, he "learned from the best."

"I've got eight workouts left (as of late last week) and I'm very excited for February 2," Lesnar said. "I've got it all to lose and I've got everything to gain. Frank Mir doesn't have the same kind of pressure."

Lesnar knows the knee-jerk reaction is to say a WWE champion would get destroyed in an MMA match. He's heard all the wise cracks: No scripts. No dance partners allowing you to do your moves. With his big muscles, he'll gas out in a minute of real fighting. But what makes this match different from a Kimbo Slice-type of freak show is that those on the inside are even more intrigued than those on the outside.

Oddsmakers are heavily favoring Lesnar, likely because they think people will bet on him because of name recognition as opposed to handicapping the match based on who they think has the best chance of winning.

It would be a mistake to dismiss Lesnar as an over-muscled fake; he's arguably the best all-around athlete of any heavyweight in UFC history. Certainly nobody can match his combination of strength, explosive power, and speed to go along with his 265-pound fighting weight.

After one week of training with Lesnar in late 2006, MMA coach Pat Miletich, a former UFC champion, came away impressed. "In a year, there won't be a man alive who can beat him," Miletich said. Lesnar has spent the last 18 months training at Greg Nelson's Minnesota Martial Arts Academy in Minneapolis, concentrating on striking and jiu- jitsu. He often works out with the national champion University of Minnesota wrestling team -- in particular, Cole Konrad, the 2008 Olympic hopeful who was NCAA heavyweight champion the past two years. Suffice to say, Lesnar gets a regular reality check of where his wrestling stands.

"I'm going to stay in his face and control him," Lesnar said. "I can guarantee I'll be in better condition than Mir."

But will tremendous athletic gifts and 18 months of training help Lesnar overcome a lack of MMA experience and an opponent with enough submission skills to finish even ground experts? People will be watching to see.

Lesnar's pro wrestling fame has allowed him to start as one of MMA's highest-paid fighters. The downside to that fame is it forces him into the spotlight. While most people with his potential would be brought along slowly and shielded from such a dangerous opponents so early in his career, because of what he's getting paid, he has to be in a match like this one with a theme that will grab attention.

Lesnar's strengths as a wrestler were conditioning, physical power, takedown ability, and his ability to turn his opponents over. But outside of his workout partners, the only evidence anyone has seen of him as a fighter was his June 2 win over Min Soo Kim at the Los Angeles Coliseum.

Min Soo was a 1996 Olympic silver medalist in judo, so he was no slouch. But he has also had struggles adapting to MMA, with a 4-6 record. Lesnar did a quick takedown and showed unusually powerful short punches in quickly knocking out the Korean on the ground.

But the spot Lesnar put Min Soo -- on his back -- is the exact place Mir wants to be, working for an armbar or a triangle. Mir's most famous moment in UFC was an armbar from the bottom that broke Tim Sylvia's arm and won him the heavyweight title on June 19, 2004.

The question is, if Lesnar can connect from the top with his heavy artillery, how long does Mir have to get that submission before he's knocked silly? While Lesnar will have a significant size advantage over most UFC heavyweights, Mir, at 6-foot-4 and 250 pounds, will be slightly taller and nearly as heavy as Lesnar, and he does have a wrestling background, including a Nevada high school state championship. If he can keep his distance and avoid a takedown, he'll have a reach advantage, and while not a great striker, Mir has a huge experience edge in that aspect of the game.

"Frank Mir is a black belt in jiu jitsu," Lesnar said. "I've been training a lot in jiu jitsu, and a lot of jiu jitsu defense and a lot of striking and defense. My wrestling workouts have taken a back seat because I did that for 18 years." Lesnar says he has visualized this fight a thousand times and the only consistent thing is his hand being raised at the end.

"Anybody can get knocked out in this sport if you get hit with the right punch with the size of the gloves," he said. "I don't have a weak jaw, but if you get hit in the right spot, anybody can lose. You just try to lower the odds of being in that situation. If I can avoid that, I can win a lot of fights."

Dave Meltzer covers mixed martial arts for Yahoo! Sports. Meltzer, who has published the pro wrestling trade industry publication the Wrestling Observer Newsletter since 1982, began covering MMA with UFC 1 in 1993. He is a graduate of San Jose State University, and has written for the Oakland Tribune, Los Angeles Times, and The National. Send Dave a question or comment for potential use in a future column or webcast.
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The UFC also have the hype site up at...

http://81.ufc.com

Inky_Wretch · Dec 15, 2014

No links to the photos of Melvin Costa circulating the sports blogs this week?

You know, the ones of his Aryan Brotherhood swastika and "I Have A Small Penis" tattoos ...

hockeybeat · Dec 15, 2014

Inky_Wretch said:

No links to the photos of Melvin Costa circulating the sports blogs this week?

You know, the ones of his Aryan Brotherhood swastika and "I Have A Small Penis" tattoos ...

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Well, that's a real good way for MMA and one of its fighters to be taken seriously.

Inky_Wretch · Jan 27, 2008

I'm just glad he confirms what most people think about neo-Nazis and their ilk.

jgmacg · Jan 27, 2008

"Mixed Martial Arts Forever! Mixed Neighborhoods Never!"

Mr7134 · Dec 15, 2014

Alexander Emelianenko, Fedor's brother, also has some tattoos that feature Nazi emblems.

Supposedly a lot of Russian prison tattoos incorporate some kind of nazi symbols asâ€¦

Taken from some forum.

As well he (Alex) has "Gott Min Uns" on his back, which was the slogan for the Nazi SS, and was engraved on the belt buckles of all Nazi soldiers. A lot of Russian prison tattoos will carry something from the Third Reich. However, this has little to do with allegiance to the Nazi party or ideals, but sprang out of Soviet era prisons as a sign of ultimate rebellion against the authority of Stalin's reign. The Nazi's were the greatest, most vile, despised enemy of the Soviet government during WWII, and only the bravest, toughest, courageous prisoners dare to carry the mark of the sworn enemies of the Soviet empire on their bodies as a way to really give Stalin the finger. The tradition carried on, and is usually given with great respect to the toughest criminals.
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hockeybeat · Jan 27, 2008

jgmacg said:

"Mixed Martial Arts Forever! Mixed Neighborhoods Never!"
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That made me laugh.

Mr7134 · Jan 29, 2008

Fight Science: Mixed Martial Arts.

http://www.joesondo.org/_/display.php?vidid=1042&pt=1

Tests with crash dummies and such.

Mr7134 · Jan 31, 2008

Countdown to UFC 81.

http://www.stage6.com/user/EvilMasterMMA/video/2161484/Countdown-To-UFC-81

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