Combat Sports over the weekend

A lot happened during my recent absence and I can’t be fucked writing seperate articles for everything so here it is in brief format:

Hopoate outpointed Mirovic at Super Boxer last Thursday. This was by far the worst card so far with the main event somehow managing to eclipse the first fight in terms of being boring as all fuck. Mirovic did alright early but once Hopoate started landing he went into his shell and resorted to holding. He lost a point in the 9th round for repeated holding (a call I can’t dispute because I actually fell asleep in the 8th). The undercard was pretty ordinary with a bullshit stoppage for Ben Edwards (the guy maybe deserved an eight count and he was outclassed, but you’ve got to let him fight I mean it’s professional boxing, I’ve seen amateurs more outclassed then that and allowed to continue), a decent fight between Erin McGowan and Angie Parr in which McGowan won on points and a mismatch n the first fight that went the distance.

Fox Sports however gave me some more fuel for the fire I’ve lit in terms of referees sucking in this country. The Rob Medley fight was a disgrace by the referee. He took a point off for holding when the guy was punching back and doing alright even though he was losing. He repeatedly warned the import for nothing and even when Medley fouled he warned the import for doing nothing. The stoppage and the footwear was bizzare, but the other guy quit because the referee was that bad. Something seriously has to be done about refereeing in this country because we’re starting to get the reputation that Germany had a few years ago in terms of bad places to come and fight the home town fighter. If I was an overseas fighter I wouldn’t come to Australia to fight based off the recent performances. Australian officiating is that far behind the rest of the boxing world that it’s become serious.

Now for the big MMA news, Affliction: Trilogy is off and Affliction is dead as a fight promoter. They were gonna merge with Strikeforce, but Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker is on holidays and they couldn’t make the deal. So now Affliction has been bought out by the UFC with from what I understand the UFC getting the fight library, some of the contracts and first crack at signing the rest of the fighters under contract. The big possibility here is that Fedor is signed and the fight with Lesnar made, but I’m skeptical. Fedor and his management won’t have changed their tune and will want a co-promotion with M-1 Global for the fight to be made and still probably want an open contract. Vitor Belfort is likely to be signed and will be a nice addition to the middleweight picture. Affliction will now act as a major sponsor for the UFC and fighters will be allowed to wear Affliction T-shirts in the Octagon again (not when they fight of course).

Also news is that Tito Ortiz could be returning to the UFC and could be facing Rich Franklin instead of the Franklin-Henderson rematch at the main event of UFC 103. A press release has been scheduled for Saturday for some ‘big announcements.’

Fedor-Barnett off; Barnett tests positive for steroids (again)

The WAMMA Heavyweight title fight between Josh Barnett and Fedor Emelianenko is off due to Barnett testing positive for steroids which has stopped him getting a licence for the fight. It’s the 2nd time that Barnett has tested positive, the other time coming after he defeated Randy Couture at UFC 37 for the UFC Heavyweight title. I’m quite disgusted by the whole thing to be honest. It took me a while to warm to Barnett because of the Couture fight and the fact that he has always denied it but over the last 12 months I’ve grown to like him. This changes everything. This is not baseball or soccer or athletics where if you cheat in this way you rob another competitor of their place. This is a combat sport and cheating by making yourself better with illegal substances has the potential to seriously injure or kill another fighter. If Barnett’s appeal fails, I’m quite happy to never see him fight again to be perfectly honest.

As for the Affliction card, so far Fabricio Werdum, Brett Rogers and Tito Ortiz have all ruled themselves out of the running. It’s looking like it’ll be Jeff Monson, who’s been doing alright against certain opponents of late. He scored a submission win over Sergey Kharitonov in DREAM this year and scored a controversial decision over Roy Nelson. He’s riding a seven fight win streak since losing to Barnett, with other wins over Mark Kerr and Ricco Rodriguez. Monson’s submission skills make him a dangerous fight for anyone, but I doubt he’ll get Fedor down and he’s likely to get knocked out in the opening two rounds.

Fedor vs Barnett at Affliction: Trilogy

Affliction’s third event will take place August 1st and the main event will again feature the biggest non-UFC MMA star in the world, Fedor Emelianenko. Fedor will again take on another top heavyweight challenger as he meets former UFC Heavyweight champion and PRIDE 2006 openweight Grand Prix Runner-up Josh Barnett. This should further silence critics of Emelianenko as it is the third top contender Fedor will have faced in just over a 12 month period after the PRIDE Heavyweight Champion destroyed Tim Sylvia last July and then scored a dramatic 1st round knockout over Andrei Arlovski in January. Barnett is riding a four fight winning streak since PRIDE where he went 5-4 with all four losses coming against either Mirko Cro Cop or Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Barnett’s last outing in January saw him score a third round stoppage over MMA bad boy Gilbert Yvel.

The undercard has yet to be announced, although a few rumours have been floating around. Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim Sylvia has been rumoured to meet Paul Buentello who is 2-0 under the Affliction banner. Vitor Belfort and Gegard Mousasi could meet in what would be an excellent matchup with the only obstacle being the weight. Belfort wants 185lbs, Mousasi wants a catchweight as he can’t make Middleweight anymore. Mousasi’s request seems more reasonable as Vitor has campaigned as a 205lber for much of his career. There’s bound to be a few developments over the coming weeks.