HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -- Two Russian fighters, heavyweight champions both, rose Saturday morning on different contents intent on defending titles in their respective sports. For boxing's lumbering giant Nikolay Valuev the call was not answered, as he surrendered the WBA belt on points to Brit David Haye. The fate of his mixed martial arts counterpart, the revered Fedor Emelianenko, will be known shortly as he steps into a cage for the first time in his career.
Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Dec. 1. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer. You love mixed martial arts. No, you hate mixed martial arts. It's the hottest, rawest, awesomest sport going, a video game come to life, the main cause of boxing's death spiral. No, it's legalized assault and battery, an affront to civilization, the Church of the Lowest Common Denominator. As mixed martial arts -- and the UFC in particular -- continue to grow, it also continues to polarize. And both sides are, of course, entitled to their opinion.
As mixed martial arts gears up for a hectic November, here are five questions worth asking before Thanksgiving rolls around.
November is shaping up to be the most important month of fights this year.
If you were willing to commit yourself to it, Saturday evening turned Sunday morning and live mixed martial arts engulfed your time like an inappropriate Michael Schiavello analogy.
Tito Ortiz has a game plan and he's sticking to it.
Before Fall's massive schedule kicks off a week from now in Los Angeles, mixed martial arts fans are looking ahead at what promises to be a compelling few months.
For the seventh time since he entered mixed martial arts as a promoter, S. Marcello Foran hit the road for a 12-hour drive from Pondra Vedra Beach, Fla., to Washington D.C. on Wednesday. The ambitious 40-year-old CEO of Mid-Atlantic-based Ultimate Warrior Challenge says the journey to the city of his youth, a tradition for the self-described entrepreneur, marks one final break from the manic pace of putting an event together.
Wednesday night's Ultimate Fighter elimination bout between Kimbo Slice and Roy Nelson might have been the most watched fight in the show's 10-season history on Spike TV. It also may have been among the most predictable.
It's all about turnover in mixed martial arts rankings. With aging fighters leaving the sport, established contenders pursuing options away from the cage and young challengers clawing their way to the top, job security reads like an oxymoron for the men atop SI.com's MMA rankings.
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. -- Two Russian fighters, heavyweight champions both, rose Saturday morning on different contents intent on defending titles in their respective sports. For boxing's lumbering giant Nikolay Valuev the call was not answered, as he surrendered the WBA belt on points to Brit David Haye. The fate of his mixed martial arts counterpart, the revered Fedor Emelianenko, will be known shortly as he steps into a cage for the first time in his career.
Sports Illustrated will announce its choice for Sportsman of the Year on Dec. 1. Here's one of the nominations for that honor by an SI writer. You love mixed martial arts. No, you hate mixed martial arts. It's the hottest, rawest, awesomest sport going, a video game come to life, the main cause of boxing's death spiral. No, it's legalized assault and battery, an affront to civilization, the Church of the Lowest Common Denominator. As mixed martial arts -- and the UFC in particular -- continue to grow, it also continues to polarize. And both sides are, of course, entitled to their opinion.
As mixed martial arts gears up for a hectic November, here are five questions worth asking before Thanksgiving rolls around.
November is shaping up to be the most important month of fights this year.
If you were willing to commit yourself to it, Saturday evening turned Sunday morning and live mixed martial arts engulfed your time like an inappropriate Michael Schiavello analogy.
Tito Ortiz has a game plan and he's sticking to it.
Before Fall's massive schedule kicks off a week from now in Los Angeles, mixed martial arts fans are looking ahead at what promises to be a compelling few months.
For the seventh time since he entered mixed martial arts as a promoter, S. Marcello Foran hit the road for a 12-hour drive from Pondra Vedra Beach, Fla., to Washington D.C. on Wednesday. The ambitious 40-year-old CEO of Mid-Atlantic-based Ultimate Warrior Challenge says the journey to the city of his youth, a tradition for the self-described entrepreneur, marks one final break from the manic pace of putting an event together.
Wednesday night's Ultimate Fighter elimination bout between Kimbo Slice and Roy Nelson might have been the most watched fight in the show's 10-season history on Spike TV. It also may have been among the most predictable.
It's all about turnover in mixed martial arts rankings. With aging fighters leaving the sport, established contenders pursuing options away from the cage and young challengers clawing their way to the top, job security reads like an oxymoron for the men atop SI.com's MMA rankings.
On Saturday in Dallas, Texas, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre hoped to learn the name of his next challenger.
Odds are you last saw Kevin "Kimbo Slice" Ferguson on CBS on Oct. 4, 2008, fighting Seth Petruzelli in EliteXC's final mixed martial arts event.
There's a longstanding tradition of athletes eschewing what made them famous to explore their inner muse. And vice versa for some of Hollywood's top stars. There's always something the other side has that, regardless if you're Steve McQueen or Quinton "Rampage Jackson, appears brighter.
Boxing analyst Larry Merchant once quipped that the reason the number of American heavyweights in boxing has declined was because "they're all playing linebacker." For the big, strong, athletically gifted kids growing up in contemporary America, it's almost guaranteed that, at some point, they'll end up in a pair of shoulder pads. Depending on what they do with them, many could end up on a college football field and, if they're good enough to turn pro, some could tackle their way to excellent living.
Randy Couture said it simply enough after dropping a competitive decision to Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: The Brazilian great is who the former two-division UFC champion thought he was.
Zuffa isn't promoting a UFC championship fight tonight in Portland, Ore., but one could certainly make the case that titles are on the line.
Two great fighters searching for relevance in a bout dripping with questions over legacy; in a sentence, that's what fans should expect from the main event for UFC 102 Saturday when Zuffa brings its brand of mixed martial arts to Portland, Ore., for the first time.
With a little more than a week remaining in what has been a wild month in mixed martial arts -- both in and out of the cage -- SI.com readers aren't short on opinions or questions. From the heavyweight legends and 185-pound contenders on the UFC's upcoming card in Portland, Ore., to the thought of Anderson Silva moving up two weight divisions has readers curious, perplexed and somewhat annoyed. After Cris "Cyborg" Santos demolished Gina Carano at Strikeforce, several SI.com loyalists were left wondering whether the new champ deserved to be ranked among the 10 best fighters in the world, regardless of weight -- and gender.
Anderson Silva wants big-money event fights. And he's willing to work at heavyweight to make sure they happen.
No one was more surprised than Shane Carwin to learn that his bout with Cain Velasquez was being scrapped in favor of an immediate title shot against UFC heavyweight champ Brock Lesnar at UFC 106 in November.
It's been a while since SI.com's last set of rankings, and the volatility of mixed martial arts has taken its toll on each division's top 10. A chemically enhanced Josh Barnett caused movement among heavyweights, while Anderson Silva and Gegard Mousasi forced light heavyweights to shuffle. At middleweight, Dan Henderson has re-emerged as a force, and the welterweights find new order in their bottom five.
You can see it out the window of the rickety SEPTA car, as you rumble down the R7 line past Joe Frazier's gym and through the hardscrabble neighborhoods of North Philly, where alternating blocks of pristine brownstones and bombed-out vacants make the brick-and-mortar landscape.
UFC middleweight champ Anderson Silva isn't simply in search of a new challenge when he moves up in weight to fight Forrest Griffin at UFC 101 in Philadelphia this weekend. What he needs is someone who will give him an actual fight. He needs an opponent who can knock him out of his current holding pattern and force him to be the exciting finisher he used to be. He needs a Rocky Balboa to his Apollo Creed, to put it in terms that Philly can understand, and he needs it now.
It's always fun basing columns off assumptions.
LAS VEGAS -- If UFC president Dana White were in the business of creating characters instead of fighters, storylines instead of matches and superheroes instead of champions, he still couldn't have dreamt up a villain as perfect as Brock Lesnar.
Not everything related to UFC 100 is about big fights. Big business is also brewing under the surface, which, when it comes to mixed martial arts' most visible promoter, shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.
Though there was no shortage of fights over the past four weeks, SI.com's mixed martial arts rankings remain fairly stable as a packed couple of months near.
No matter who wins, who loses and who leaves the UFC, most of us are still stuck on one scenerio: Fedor Emelianenko signing with the leading organization.
ST. LOUIS -- Continuing on his mission to prove jiu-jitsu, aggressive submission-seeking jiu-jitsu, is a mighty fine and effective way to win a fight, Jake Shields snagged Robbie Lawler's neck and strangled him in front of 8,867 fans Saturday at the Scottrade Center.
With newly crowned UFC light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida supplanting Rashad Evans atop the deep division, volatility is once again the story of SI.com's monthly mixed martial arts rankings.
As Lyoto Machida walked through the corridors of the MGM Grand Garden Arena back to the locker room after knocking out previously undefeated Rashad Evans in the second round of their main-event fight Saturday, tears welled up in his eyes as he looked down at the new UFC light heavyweight championship belt wrapped around his waist.
LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- Lyoto Machida proved to be both precise and extremely efficient as he used his unorthodox fighting style to dismantle Rashad Evans and claim the UFC light heavyweight title on Saturday night. With no wasted movement and a patient, minimalist attack, Machida devastated Evans with a second-round knockout that made an indelible impression on the 12,606 fans in attendance at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
'Round and 'round we go, Machida or Evans nobody knows. Well, not for another hour or so.
Saturday in Las Vegas, Lyoto "The Dragon" Machida will call upon generations of martial arts wisdom and practice as he attempts to defeat Rashad Evans and claim the UFC light heavyweight title.
Upon hearing that Roy Jones Jr. had offered to step into the cage to face Anderson Silva, one of the world's best MMA fighters, under MMA rules, I had just one question: Is he serious?
You really don't need to look further than the style matchup generated by Anderson Silva and Forrest Griffin to get excited by their August fight. But if you did, it's not difficult to find scenarios that make Silva-Griffin meaningful beyond the mere potential of a great fight.
UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva isn't bored. Nor is he frustrated. About his decision win over Thales Leites at UFC 97 on Saturday, Silva is said to be satisfied. And criticism following the contest, in which Leites refused to engage while trying anything he could to avoid the champion's infrequent attacks, has fallen on deaf ears.
MONTREAL -- UFC President Dana White knew this would be Chuck Liddell's last fight before it ever began. He knew the moment that Liddell stepped into the Octagon at the Bell Centre to fight Mauricio "Shogun" Rua that it would be the last time he would ever see "The Iceman," who helped build the UFC into the giant it is today, hit the mat with his signature Mohawk and tattooed scalp.
In a world of celluloid action stuffed with CGI fights and sci-fi gadgetry, thank heavens for Jason Bourne, the amnesiac assassin who's so lethal that he can turn a hardback book into a weapon.
Ranking mixed martial artists is, to be fair, an inexact science. Rules across the sport are dissimilar, weight classes don't always conform and fighters have been known to jump from division to division. And all such factors played into SI.com's latest MMA rankings.
So long as Quinton Jackson is healthy following his three-round scrap with Keith Jardine at UFC 96 on Saturday, the former light heavyweight champion will return to the cage in May for his third fight in five months.
With so many stories unfolding in the last 10 days, it felt appropriate to hit on a bunch of topics. Judging from the emails in my inbox, fight fans aren't sure where to focus. There's plenty of clutter from St. Pierre-Penn 2, some positive and negative reaction to my latest rankings, and a sense of excitement following news that MMA would return to CBS and Showtime.
One month down, 11 more to go. If they're all as busy as January, we're in trouble. Of course, an active schedule means plenty of fights between ranked competitors, and as we pause to see how the world's best mixed martial artists stack up, a sense of stability seems to be setting in.
James Johnson last entered the cage on May 13, 2006. Since then the Wake Forest sophomore has competed exclusively on a basketball court, but just pose the question -- "When you were a fighter... " -- and he's visibly offended by the verb tense. He slides forward in his seat at the Demon Deacons' practice facility. "I'm not done fighting," he says, throwing a few air jabs while exhaling sharply for effect. "I think about fighting all the time." His last fight seems as fresh in his mind as the previous night's 92-89 home court upset of North Carolina, an outcome that had fans storming the court and, for one week anyway, made Wake Forest the No. 1 team in the nation.
Minutes after telling the press he felt "totally comfortable" with a 6-foot-5, 237-pound speed merchant buzzing rights and lefts past his ears, Fedor Emelianenko decompressed in the Honda Center's aptly named Red Room.
Stepping into a new year seems like a fine time to pause for a snapshot of mixed martial arts' weight classes. MMA has sprouted vibrant divisions from heavyweight down to 135, creating scenarios for relevant fight after relevant fight. And a look at seven of the most widely utilized classes reveals just how rich Zuffa has become with elite fighters.
My final column of 2008 comes with the help of SI.com's MMA readers. We've got reaction to UFC 92, a look ahead for Rashad Evans, my latest pound-for-pound top 10 and Andrei Arlovski's plan to defeat Fedor Emelianenko.
LAS VEGAS -- It was billed as one of the deepest and most anticipated fight cards that the UFC had staged in its 15-year history. With two title fights, a third grudge match amongst MMA legends and a bevy of up-and-coming stars littered throughout the under card, Saturday's UFC 92 pay-per-view not only showed the depth of the company's talent pool but highlighted the impact that The Ultimate Fighter reality television show has had on the sports' growth since TUF premiered four years ago next month.
Three headline fights. Three definitive endings. Once again, parity and power made a wonderful mess of things.
Sada Jacobson may be a world champion fencer with three Olympic medals, but dressed in a T-shirt and sweats, she looked like any other student getting a lesson at the gym.
Cutting remarks, "helpful" suggestions, subtle (or not-so-subtle) stabs -- how to handle these verbal ambushes?
Just as the neighborhood drag racing champ isn't necessarily NASCAR material, winning a bunch of no-holds-barred brawls -- no matter how spectacularly -- doesn't make you a professional mixed martial arts fighter. Yet after his back-alley Miami street-fighting prowess had rendered him a YouTube sensation, Kevin Ferguson (nom de guerre: Kimbo Slice) wasn't merely offered a hefty contract in 2007. The founders of EliteXC based their entire fighting organization and its TV deal with CBS on Kimbo's menacing presence.
Jet Li, the multi-talented star who counts martial arts, acting and extensive humanitarian work among his many accomplishments, joined CNN's Anjali Rao for a special edition of Talk Asia filmed in front of a live audience in Hong Kong.
Phew. If you haven't already, you may want to take a moment and catch your breath. In June I wrote the "summer of 2008 could go down as a tremendously important stretch for the sport" -- it sure didn't disappoint.
Rich Franklin used to spend his days teaching math to high school students. Today, he spends his evenings in an octagon-shaped cage grounding and pounding fighters into submission in front of thousands of screaming fans.
Boxing and mixed martial arts attract different audiences. In coming together Saturday, Golden Boy Promotions and Affliction Entertainment hope to fuse generations connected by little more than the love of a good fight.
Much has happened since my last mailbag. I received a lot of reaction to the passing of Evan Tanner, some of which are posted here. Thanks to all of you who shared your thoughts. I also received some questions about Rashad Evans' knockout of Chuck Liddell and the impact of Randy Couture's return to the UFC.
Randy Couture isn't used to having people root against him. During his 10-year career in the UFC the man nicknamed "The Natural" and "Captain America" has been one of the biggest fan favorites in mixed martial arts. It's one of the reasons Couture took on the role of Sargon, the villain in The Scorpion King 2: Rise Of A Warrior, which is being released on DVD Aug. 19 and is the prequel to the 2002 film The Scorpian King starring Dwyane "The Rock" Johnson.
Although they live on opposite sides of the world, Charlotte Craig and Luo Wei share the consumer habits typical of their generation. Craig, a shy 17-year-old from Murrieta, Calif., texts her friends on her cell. She goes to the mall. She paints her fingernails black and her toes pink.
Hoping to erase the disappointing no-contest that marred Robbie Lawler's EliteXC middleweight war against Scott Smith in May, the pair met again Saturday -- in primetime on CBS -- picking up where they left off.
As introductions go, Fedor Emelianenko's encounter with Tim Sylvia was terse.
ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The first sanctioned world title fight in mixed martial arts history became official Friday afternoon when Fedor Emelianenko and Tim Sylvia made weight at the Honda Center.
More and more, mixed martial arts -- not boxing -- has sports fans asking, "Did you see the fight?" But after July 19, such an inquiry could have double meaning.
After turning down a lucrative offer to fight in the Ultimate Fighting Championship last fall, Fedor Emelianenko has since changed the face of mixed martial arts' heavyweight division.
From reality TV star to UFC champion, Forrest Griffin's mixed martial arts ascendancy hit its highest mark Saturday in Las Vegas.
Evan Tanner came to mixed martial arts looking for adventure. He found fame, success and a UFC championship.
Of the things that might work up a sweat this summer, simply flipping channels between mixed martial arts events may be one of them.
Rodolphe Guenoden, 39, originally from Noyon, France, is an animator at Dream Works, and a martial arts veteran. He's worked on blockbusters like Prince of Egypt, The Road to El Dorado, and Madagascar.
DreamWorks' latest ani-movie offers sublime kung-furious panda-monium
The classical music blasting over the phone as I waited on hold for a World Extreme Cagefighting conference call was a real disconnect.
Two very different animated features stake their own ground at Cannes.
Bad dubbing, angry men with extraordinary facial hair, balletic fighting and more blood than you can shake a nunchuck at: just some of the key ingredients to make a perfect kung fu flick.
Ringside seats don't necessarily guarantee the best view of a fight. Especially, thought Renato Verissimo, if you don't know what you're watching.
David Mamet's homage to jiu-jitsu plays a little too rushed and breathless
He's the butt-kicking, karate-chopping, kung fu superstar who rose from nowhere to conquer Hollywood in a spectacularly visual style.
Western cinema's relationship with martial arts has been a rocky one. Like many genres, kung fu has drifted in and out of fashion, but it has never regained the same popularity as its glorious heyday in the early 1970s.
If you ever questioned the adage "looks can deceive," check out Chris Horodecki. Though Horodecki just turned 20, he resembles an unimposing high school freshman who hasn't quite lost all of his baby fat. Yet in ten professional mixed martial arts fights, he is undefeated, mauling some of the baddest dudes on the planet. Just check out the kick at the end of this sequence.
The bridge had been dangling in the river for less than a week, but it had already become a macabre civic landmark, the Twin Cities' answer to Manhattan's Ground Zero. On a scorching day last August, Roger Huerta was piloting his Jeep Commander from downtown Minneapolis to the St. Paul YMCA, where he trains in mixed martial arts. He drove slowly as he crossed the Mississippi River, pointing out the remnants of the I-35W bridge, whose collapse had caused the deaths of 13 Minnesotans six days earlier. When Huerta saw a slab of folded highway bobbing in the water, his eyes widened, and he rested a hand on his beard. "Unbelievable," he said, his voice dropping to a whisper. "One second you're driving home from work, wondering what you're going to eat for dinner. Then wham! In the snap of a finger you're underwater."
For UFC fans looking for the newest up-and-coming fighters, World Extreme Cagefighting's TV special from Las Vegas on Sunday, with a double headliner of Paulo Filho vs. Joe Doerksen and Carlos Condit vs. Brock Larson is a must-see. The promotion, owned and operated by UFC parent company Zuffa, focuses on lighter weight classes and fighters on the rise.
This Where Are They Now feature and others like it can be found in the July 2nd issue of Sports Illustrated.
The controversial sport now has female participants -- with Brazil in the lead
Saturday night was all right for fighting. But the pageantry for the 69th card in the Ultimate Fighting Championship's tough-and-rumble existence began much earlier that week. Long before the fighters unhinged the latch of the steel Octagon on April 7 and fought on a card titled UFC 69: Shootout, thousands of fans had converged on Houston, tribalists on a pilgrimage. The prefight weigh-ins drew massive crowds. The line for the fighters' autograph show wreathed the girth of the Toyota Center, the venue for UFC 69. The downtown bars and restaurants were overrun by fight fans.
Heart problems? Me?
On TV, Michael Imperioli honors the godfather. Off-screen, he bows to a martial arts grandmaster.
At 21 years of age, Ng Wai-Sze has decided that the 9-to-5 grind in an office is not for her.
• Martial Artist | Bruce Fenton
Hero, Crouching Tiger and House of Flying Daggers -- Chinese martial arts movies have been making some breathtaking moves on the international cinema circuit in recent years.
For Ralph Macchio, there's just no escaping "The Karate Kid."
When it comes to working out, no exercise regimen is "one size fits all," but one particular martial art form comes pretty close.
Surfing isn't fun unless it's dangerous. I got injured last Easter at my house on the north shore of Hawaii. I pulled my hamstring--tore it two inches off the bone. I'm still recovering from that. ...
Spurred by the pizza-tossing Ninja Turtles and action heroes like Chuck Norris and the late Bruce Lee, children ages four to 17 have given a kick to enrollment in karate classes. Some 60% of the es...
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