Reminder: UFC 106 fantasy picks
Friday, November 20th, 2009 by Rodriguez
Let’s get our fantasy picks in for UFC 106. Members can login and go here to make picks, and anyone not already wearing a Team Fightlinker jersey can get in on the action by following this post’s instructions.
For the record, my picks for the aired fights are after the jump:
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Story time with Mac Danzig
Friday, November 20th, 2009 by Shawn
Here’s an interesting story from Mac Danzig I read on Sherdog:
Seven years ago, I was coming off a decision loss in the WEC that was held in Connecticut. As if a five-hour plane ride back home after a disappointing loss wasn’t miserable enough, Tito Ortiz was sitting directly in front of me. He had been wearing his UFC belt everywhere the entire weekend of the fight and was still wearing it in the airport and now on the plane ride home, too. He had to turn it backwards to comfortably sit on the plane.
He proceeded to tilt his seat back as far as it could possibly go. This left nothing in my forward vision except for a giant yellow head, not to mention the fact that his seat was basically in my lap, which was more than mildly uncomfortable. Over the course of the next five hours, I tried my best to sleep, but every time I opened my eyes, there was a huge sphere of yellow hairs with dark roots coming in no less than 12 inches from my face. I was bordered on the right by a window and on the left by Colin Oyama.
Luckily for me, I was able to suppress this memory for quite some time, but after seeing that giant yellow head bounce around the ring a few times afterward, I’d get flashbacks. Rumor had it that just a few weeks earlier, Lee Murray soccer-kicked a giant yellow beach ball in a British pub. Forrest by TKO in round three.
Tito has been playing a giant douche bag on TV for over a decade. After hearing this little story, one thing is for certain: “The Huntington Beach Bad Boy” is a committed method actor.
Karo Parisyan gets himself kicked out of the UFC
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 by fightlinker
I think the tweets from Dana White (via Cage Tater) above are pretty self explanatory. Very little info coming back from Karo, but MMAWeekly has one of those ‘excuses’ Karo gave - the old “It’s the government’s fault” line, with Karo claiming the Nevada State Athletic Commission wouldn’t re-license him until he paid the 32k he owed due to a failed drug test back in January. Not too shabby a reason, Karo. Unfortunately, at the same time Karo was telling this to MMAWeekly, NSAC head Keith Kizer was telling Steve Cofield in detail how they had worked out a very reasonable payment plan for that money.
And here’s Kizer telling Sherdog that Karo’s license is just fine. So what the fuck, Karo? Anxiety issues again, perhaps? Perhaps. But in the video above, Kizer also mentions that in a recent conversation, Karo was awful interested in knowing exactly what kind of pain medication he was allowed to take … not exactly the most confidence inspiring line of questioning from someone who just got off a suspension for having several different kinds of painkillers in his piss.
Anderson’s elbow is still screwed up
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 by fightlinker
The UFC headliner trainwreck continues as Anderson Silva sends word that his recently surgerized elbow isn’t healing as quickly as originally expected.
“I went to the doctor who takes care of me in Brazil on Monday. I had surgery in the United States but there is communication between the two medical teams. To sum it up, some movements aren’t at the expected stage [of recovery],“ he revealed to Portal das Lutas.
“I’m crazy to come back, train hard and fight but some moves still hurt so much. I just came from jiu-jitsu training where I was teaching my students and I could not even make some positions with them,” the UFC middleweight champion added.
Fighters Only tacks on a guess that he’s got a month to heal up before his fight with Vitor Belfort - currently penciled in for UFC 109 in February - is in danger. Obviously this is a pretty shitty possibility, but Big Nog is being eaten by bacteria and Brock Lesnar’s insides have melted. It’ll take a lot more than the prospect of a fight maybe being pushed back a month to phase me now.
JackalFights: Genki Sudo vs Jackson Page
Thursday, November 19th, 2009 by Reverend Clint
More Genki Sudo!
Does Karo have his shit together?
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by fightlinker
Karo Parisyan has had a pretty shitty two years - he went from being a top contender in a stacked welterweight division to unimpressive headcase in the span of a few fights. This weekend he’s taking on Dustin Hazelett, and I have no doubt that if Karo isn’t the Karo of old he’s gonna have a short night and a sore arm from McLovin’ twisting it out of shape.
From the looks of this UFC.com article, it at least sounds like Karo is training properly. But what about his health and his head? He’s just gotten off a 9 month suspension for three different types of painkillers, and then there’s his well known anxiety issues which have sucked away a lot of the Armenian aggression that made him such a kickass fighter. Here’s all he had to say about that:
“I’m not making any excuses for my last few fights, but anxiety played a huge role in me not being properly prepared. Anxiety takes over your life. I have it under control now, but imagine having anxiety all night and not being able to sleep because you’re worrying about every little thing. How are you going to be able to train and fight when you’re dealing with something like that? When I’m not in shape mentally and physically, I see submissions that are there for the taking but I don’t finish because I’m over-thinking things. In my mind I’m telling myself ‘You have to pace yourself; if you waste your energy on trying to submit him now, you aren’t going to be able to finish strong in the fight if he escapes’. I used to not care about getting hit or the power of the guys I was fighting when I used to fight against strikers; I’d just go in there and try to kill them. That’s the style I need to go back to. I need to stop thinking so much and just do what I know I can do and I need to try to finish the guy I’m fighting. I need to bring back “The Heat”.
I don’t think Karo is gonna win. But I’m at least hoping he manages to put on a good performance before getting taken out.
Couture vs Coleman at UFC 109
Wednesday, November 18th, 2009 by fightlinker
Poor Dana White. He’s trying to put together some winning hands here with half the royalty missing from his deck of cards. Considering everything, I think he and Joe Silva are doing decent job with their lemons to lemonade matchmaking. Sure, there’s barely any belt defenses, but we all know why. It’s time to accept the fact that it’s gonna be cold for a while in terms of title defenses and try to enjoy the consolation fights the UFC manages to put together. Like Randy Couture vs Mark Coleman at UFC 109.
A lot of people have been shitting on this fight, and I have some advice for them: Tell your jaded inner cynic to shut up and instead embrace your fanboy. Do it now, and save yourself a few months of misery and aggravation as the UFC doesn’t manage to live up to your expectations. Seek out one of those crazy hypnotists and ask them if he can trick you into the same “Who cares who’s on the card, I’m just excited for another event” mentality your noob friends have. Because really … Couture vs Coleman ain’t THAT bad. It just MAY be possible to enjoy it.
