At first blush, the UFC’s signing of Yoshihiro Akiyama doesn’t seem like a headline-grabbing news story. Middleweight rivals Denis Kang and Kazuo Misaki signed American deals to limited fanfare. However, the signing is a very significant move both in terms of what it symbolizes and what it could mean for the future. Akiyama, 12-1 with […]
UFC
St. Pierre Trainers File Response with NSAC
This afternoon George St. Pierre’s camp filed a response with the NSAC regarding BJ Penn’s allegations stemming from his fight with St. Pierre at UFC 94. The complete response including detailed statements from Greg Jackson, Phil Nurse, Steven L. Friend, and John Danaher can be found here. In a joint statement Jackson and Nurse issued […]
Punitive Decision Making in MMA: How To Handle The Grease
This is a subject I’ve wanted to write about for sometime now and as it happens, UFC 94 provided the proper timing and context for me to do so. The following is an article I wrote for maximumfighting.com earlier this week: The fight between Georges St-Pierre and BJ Penn this past weekend was many things […]
Float like a Butterfly, Talk Trash like Ali
“Sonny Liston is nothing. The man can’t talk. The man can’t fight. The man needs talking lessons. The man needs boxing lessons. And since he’s gonna fight me, he needs falling lessons.” The art of talking trash is nothing new, as Muhammad Ali demonstrated in 1964, prior to his fight with Sonny Liston. Talking smack […]
Fantasy Fights in 2009
As talent emerges from various MMA promotions, fans are beginning to realize that top fighters exist outside of the Ultimate Fighting Championship. While the popularity and pervasiveness of MMA skyrockets, will the cries of fans grow loud enough to persuade UFC management into acquiring other fighters? With a limited amount of intriguing fights on the […]