Mike Moffatt

Or better yet, used to be, the ‘baddest man on the planet’, Mr. Ken Shamrock.

On October 4th on CBS, Kimbo Slice will make his return to the Elite XC cage and take on the former UFC icon Ken Shamrock. Though this matchup will probably be enough to draw viewers to CBS, they may be the highly uninformed viewers who still remember Ken Shamrock for who he was, not who he is. Shamrock has dropped his last five fights, including a very poor performance against Robert ‘Buzz’ Berry in March. He has not fought since that fight and many in the industry even speculated that he may never fight again. Apparently Ken has in fact decided to fight again, and has chosen to fight a man who has tremendous punching power.

Don’t get me wrong. I still don’t believe that Kimbo is as dangerous a fighter as many would have you believe, but one punch to the 44-year-old Shamrock could spell disaster for the UFC Hall of Famer. I suppose that is the very reason that many will be tuning in to see this spectacle. 

In addition, it appears that the winner of this fight (read: Kimbo Slice) will be facing Brett Rogers sometime in the future. Rogers would be the first real test for Kimbo Slice in an MMA setting and was his rumored opponent for quite sometime for October 4th. It appears that Elite XC were not quite ready to give Kimbo a step up in competition and instead opted to give him a very beatable opponent and hope that 4 or 5 more months of training will pay off when he does meet Rogers.

The rest of the CBS Saturday Night Fights card looks like this:

Paul “Semtex” Daley vs. Jake Shields (Welterweight Championship Bout)
Kelly Kobold vs. Gina Carano
Benji Radach vs. Murilo “Ninja” Rua

Hopefully having Kimbo and Gina Carano back on network television will be enough to draw the interest of fans and get the ratings back up to a respectable place. If not, we could see the end of Elite XC on CBS. If that happens, would any of the network television stations give in to Dana White’s demands to air UFC events live? 

Though Dana usually has a few tricks up his sleeve, it is often difficult to pull a rabbit out without a hat.

Mike Moffatt

It appears that Tito Ortiz has not yet signed with Affliction at this point in time, though it is now being reported that the two sides are negotiating. It is very likely that Affliction is still likely to be the front-runner to land the longtime MMA superstar, though his price tag and contract expectations may have caused the promotion to revisit the numbers and see if they could justify paying Tito what he feels he is worth.

Tito is not the only fighter who may be demanding a big price tag to step back into an octagon or ring anytime soon. In a recent interview with Randy Couture the topic of a fight between him and Fedor came up, yet again.

“Appearing on the Adam Carolla Show, Couture, when asked about the size of the purse the fighters should receive said, “somewhere in the region of $6-10 million”. He went onto say that he felt the PPV buys would top 700,000+ and he wished the UFC would step up and make the fight.”

So Couture expects he and Fedor to each receive approximately $8 million for their efforts. Since the PPV distributor is entitled to half of the PPV revenue, the UFC must pay staff, rent a facility, pay the other fighters on the card, in addition to many other costs, how is this even possible? Hopefully this is a case of Randy shooting high and then bargaining way down. In my opinion I think Mr. Couture better worry about clearing up his legal issues before he starts talking about the money he expects to receive, especially any coming in from the UFC. 

And besides, I thought he wanted to fight Fedor for the competition and the good of the sport. Why now does he expect such a high purse for a fight that may already be past its prime? There is one fight that I believe is much more significant at this point in time and that is the upcoming tilt between GSP and BJ Penn. After GSP proved his dominance last Saturday night, although Matt Hughes was not watching the same fight the rest of us are, Dana White has stated that he is going to put this fight together. All that is left now is to determine the when and where. GSP has stated that after his busy schedule he is a little bit fatigued, both mentally and physically, and is considering taking the rest of the year off.

“Several people mentioned that my next opponent should be BJ Penn. Nothing is obviously signed yet, but fighting him is my number one goal. I think he deserves a chance to challenge for my belt, but we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks. I hope deeply [that my next fight is in Montreal]. The President of the UFC, Dana White, said he would like to return to Montreal before the end of the year. For my part, I do not know if I will go back in the Octagon before 2009. I had four fights in the past 12 months. So I need rest. I like my life, but sometimes I have to relax…. I make so many sacrifices for me prepare. During training camps I can hardly live. Therefore, I need to refuel psychologically.”

Perhaps he did not like the idea of fighting in Las Vegas at the end of the year and would prefer to wait until the Bell Centre in Montreal could be booked? It now appears that due to the schedule of the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday nights during November and December that the UFC may not be able to travel back up north until 2009. I think Georges may have figured that out before Dana and thus opted to hold out until next year. 

One fighter who does not want to wait until next year is Kenny Florian, who is fresh off his strategic victory over Roger Huerta at UFC 87. He has already stated that he does not want to wait for BJ Penn to drop back down to the lightweight division and would like to take on another top contender before this year is out. I think this is very commendable of Kenny, though something tells me he is simply feeling a little silly after giving his ‘I finish fights’ speech to Joe Rogan. Get out there and finish your next one Ken-Flo and then let’s see if you’re ready for Penn. 

If you want to give the Boston native a fighter who can be finished I would strongly advise against asking Fitch to drop down to lightweight to take him on. I don’t think words can express what a true warrior Jon was throughout a five round destruction at the hands of GSP. He truly showed that he is the #2 welterweight in the world and that he can go in there and hang with anyone. Just like Georges told him after the fight, this experience will make Fitch even better in the future. That’s a scary thought for anyone in the welterweight division, including the current champion.

The fun just never seems to stop in this sport does it?

Mike Moffatt

In a move that has been rumored for quite some time after the falling out between the UFC and Tito Ortiz, Tito has jumped to the upstart promotion ‘Affliction MMA’. Sports Illustrated first broke the story:

“I guarantee you that my contract will be like no other,” said Ortiz, stopping short of giving away the specifics of a deal that could include responsibilities outside of the ring. “It will be a ground-breaking record contract for sure, without a doubt. There’s so much money to be made right now in mixed martial arts and it’s all about the fighters trying to make that money. It’s going to be a long-term deal where I put my heart and soul into the company and help build them. That’s something I’m interested in doing. They’re going to bring me on, not just as a fighter but also doing some of the back work also.”

Ortiz, who became a free agent on Monday after an 11-year career with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, met with Donald Trump on Tuesday to finalize the deal and is expected to be at Wednesday’s press conference where his first opponent will be Renato ”Babalu” Sobral.

“Babalu has been in my crosshairs,” Ortiz said. “He’s already been talking smack, saying if he sees me he’s going to kick my ass, but right on if he keeps thinking that. He’ll get his face caved in sooner or later. I know Frank Shamrockis another person who’s been opening up his mouth. He beat me the last time we fought and I think that would be a great revenge fight where I kick his ass and finally shut him up. As time goes we’ll see who Affliction signs besides me. I don’t know. I might even go up to heavyweight if the bigger pay days are there.”

…

“Mr. Trump works fast and gets busy in a lot of the things he does and he’s going to give me the best deal possible,” said Ortiz. “I know they want to make some money and I know they got over 100,000 pay-per-view buys on their first show and with me it’s guaranteed to be over 500,000 pay-per-view buys just by the number of fans that are going to follow me no matter where I go so they’re going to get there money’s worth just in pay-per-view no matter what.”

Interesting news to be sure. After his fight with Babulu, however, are there really any big paydays for Tito at light heavyweight in Affliction? And if he is serious about a move up to heavyweight in Affliction where some of the ‘big money’ fights may be, does anyone really think he can be competitive against names like Fedor, Tim Sylvia, Josh Barnett, etc? It will be interesting to see just what type of record contract Tito is talking about. Perhaps it includes shares in the company and their success will be linked to his success. Hopefully for Tito he doesn’t find out that he really doesn’t have the drawing power he thinks he has.

It was also announced yesterday during a press conference in Toronto that Dana White has been considering a return to Montreal before the end of the year. While he mentioned November or December as possible months for the event, the UFC already has an ‘end of the year’ event planned for December where the heavyweight title will be on the line. Having said this, November is the more than likely time to expect the UFC’s return up North. TSN.ca has the scoop: 

“The UFC is looking to return to Canada later this year.

”I literally just left a meeting where we were talking about that,” UFC president Dana White told The Canadian Press on Tuesday. ”We’re looking to come back to Montreal.”

White said the mixed martial arts organization hopes to return in November or December.

…

Should St. Pierre dispose of top contender Jon Fitch in Minneapolis at UFC 87 on Saturday night, the stage could be set for a super-fight in Montreal later this year between the Canadian star and lightweight champion B.J. Penn.”

This is obviously something that all Canadian mixed martial arts fans will be excited to hear. The first event held at the Bell Centre sold out in record time and perhaps the UFC won’t be returning there. Could we see this event held at Olympic Stadium? We know that Dana White has brought up this possibility before and this would be a huge moment for the UFC if they were able to sell out that venue. This is one story that I will surely be keeping an eye on. We all remember how long it took them to get here the first time. Here’s hoping that we only have to wait a few months this time around.