MMA Experts Blog

UFC president Dana White has produced some classic rants and explosions over the years but his take on EliteXC and the alleged fight fixing in the Kimbo Slice-Seth Petruzelli debacle might be his most passionate ever.

"They don't care about mixed martial arts. These (expletive) jerkoffs are in it for the money. These guys want to come in, take a piece of the pie and in it they don't give a (expletive) if they destroy the whole sport. Me and my crew have been busting our ass for 10 years and you've got these boxing scumbags coming in and trying to fix fights. It's unbelievable."

White 100% supports an investigation by the Florida commission and wants the FBI involved too. Warning with six f-bombs this video is NSFW.

White draws a good parallel in saying it's like the NFL telling a team to run their offense a certain way to give the other 'chosen' team a better shot at moving forward in the playoffs. He says the promoters with EliteXC don't get it:

"Gary Shaw if you think going to the ground is boring and Jeremy Lappen and rapper, whatever the (expletive) your name is, Shaw Jr.... That's called mixed martial arts. You (expletive) morons need to be in the kickboxing business."

If this rant is blown up by the mainstream media, it could be the beginning of the end for EliteXC on CBS. If the company survives and the rumors are true that CBS/Showtime is buying into Pro Elite more heavily, how can Jeremy Lappen and Jared Shaw be kept around?

It's been a terrible week for Lappen, EliteXC's Director of Operations. His latest explanation of what happened before the fight is ridiculous:

"We gave Seth a knockout bonus before the fight started. That was part of the deal.”

FightOpinion.com has done a great job of tracking the story. And points out Lappen's contradictory words on Wednesday and Thursday. Who pays a bonus before the fight? The spin on this gets worse by the day.

Coming off of Elite XC's event in Florida, it's been another nutty week of MMA.

Kevin Iole wrote about Gina Carano's issues revolving around her weight class and her biggest fan, Ariel Helwani of MMA Rated, asked if Carano has finally won our respect. Kim Couture says that Carano was disrespected by Elite XC in Florida. 

Seth Petruzelli found himself in the middle of a storm when he said that Elite XC offered him more money to fight Kimbo Slice standing up, though he later recanted the accusations. The Florida Department of Professional and Business Regulation is looking into the claims. Meanwhile, a respected sports journalist showed that he knows absolutely nothing in MMA. 

After the drunkest Ultimate Fighter ever, Shane Nelson said in an interview with Steve Cofield that it's not a great idea to get drunk and act like a jackass on a TV.

Randomness ruled the MMA blog scene this week, as Cage Potato advised you on what shirt to wear to show that you are an MMA fan, but you're not that guy. Five Ounces of Pain took a look at the best fights left in the year, and Fanhouse found Vladimir Putin's judo instructional video. 

Thanks for reading us this week and have a good weekend.

Michael Wilbon has been one of my favorite sports columnists for a long time. He has many great insights on basketball and the Washington Redskins. Having seen some of the stupid things he has to say about fighting, he should really just stick to hoops and the 'Skins.

As we mentioned earlier today, Wilbon said on ESPN's Pardon the Interruption that the Kimbo Slice loss was thrown. He then went on compare MMA to WWE and the Slice loss to Ali-Liston II and the "phantom punch." It turns out that this is not the first time that Wilbon opened his mouth about MMA and shown that he has absolutely no knowledge of the sport. 

In May 2007, Wilbon called MMA bare-knuckles:

“Well, but they [young athletes] go into UFC, and that’s like bare-knuckles. That’s like a trip back to 1880’s and John L. Sullivan [the last bare-knuckles era Heavyweight Boxing Champion].”

This makes me wonder if he has ever truly watched any MMA, or even any martial arts in its base elements. Do you know what jiu-jitsu is, Wilbon? He must have been too busy following the Redeem Team in Beijing to notice the excellent amateur wrestling going on at the Olympics, or noticed the fact that many of those wrestling Olympians have gone onto successful careers in MMA. 

But wait, there's more. In 2003, former boxing Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson considered going into MMA against veteran fighter Bob Sapp. Again on PTI, Wilbon said:

Michael Wilbon: Isn't he getting closer to fighting the lions, as you once said you would watch on pay-per-view?

Kornheiser: That's next. Absolutely.

Wilbon: You know, he has to do this...

Kornheiser: Because he has no money?

Wilbon: We know that Mike Tyson, at least 13 million dollars in debt and maybe more, has to continue to fight his way out of debt. And a lot of people would watch this. It would not... you know, I think this other fighting martial arts thing that Bob Sapp does, some of it looks like WWE, but this guy's huge.

Again, Wilbon shows that he would be better off not talking at all. Comparing an MMA fight between two competitors of equal abilities and size to the gladiators of ancient Rome is just stupid.

Wilbon, you really are an excellent writer, one I admire and read often. But when it comes to MMA, I really just wish you would shut up, because you have no clue what you are talking about.

Photo via Getty Images 

There's been crazy drama on this year's season of The Ultimate Fighter 8. The latest episode featured two of the 155 pounders, going on a drunken rampage and trying to fight half the house. UFC Dana White president came to the disheveled mansion and tore apart Junie Browning and Shane Nelson but he did let them stay on the show. Nelson seems like a decent kid but Browning just appears to be a disaster waiting to happen.

Yahoo! Sports tracked down TUF vets Josh Haynes and Gideon Ray to talk about what this behavior is doing for the sport. Haynes said he refuses to watch the show anymore:

"The show is a mess. The third season was the last time it was really good. (Now) you got guys they put together specifically to cause problems. They matchmake not based on skill but how much b.s. they've got loaded in their background."

Haynes, who is now fighting at 170, made it to the final of The Ultimate Fighter 3 where he lost to Michael Bisping at 205 lbs. He was proud to shock the field and provide a good storyline for the UFC but now it seems like it's more about the drama than the conquest:

"My brother calls me saying some douchebag kid that's on there right now is picking fights. It blows my mind. It's a false misrepresentation of the sport. I think right now that show is doing a lot more damage for the sport than good."Read More >>

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Kim Couture is big part of a 'Night of Combat II' in Las Vegas tomorrow. She got into the game late to help out the multitude of fighters who were left hanging when the Affliction Oct. 11 event went under. Yahoo! Sports grabbed Couture after the Thursday press conference and got into the experience around Gina Carano and the Elite XC event in Florida last weekend.

Couture said EliteXC turned the Carano weigh-in into a debacle:

"It was an awkward situation. Thank god her Dad was there. She would've much rather had me holding that towel for her than Jared Shaw in the background trying to peek over the towel. I thought that was pretty low."

As if the week hasn't been rough enough for the younger Shaw, now Couture is claiming that the EliteXC VP is a pervert:

"He's got a little bit of an obsession with Gina Carano as most guys do. He was trying to sneak a peek, it was ridiculous."

Couture spoke at length at the pathetic salary breakdown on the EliteXC card. Kimbo Slice and Andrei Arlovski made in excess of $500,000 while Carano made just $25,000. Carano did a ton of promotion including multiple appearances on network television to drive much of that big audience to the CBS show.Read More >>

When I tell people I'm an MMA fan, the conversation usually goes like this:

"What, like Ultimate Fighting?"

"Well, the  Ultimate Fighting Championship is one promotion, but there is also Elite XC, Affliction, DREAM ..."

"But that stuff seems so violent."

"It may seem that way, but there have been way fewer catastrophic injuries or deaths than boxing, football or even equestrian events! The fighters are in great shape, so that lessens injur-"

"It's probably fixed, y'know."

That is usually where I change the subject, because I feel like when my acquaintance has to bring in gambling, they are grasping for straws. MMA bouts have as much or as little of a shot of being fixed as any other sport, so there is no point in singling out MMA as a sport that will be fixed when it is just as likely to happen in football. Then I wake up to find out that Florida Department of Professional and Business Regulation is starting a preliminary investigation into Seth Petruzelli's now-recanted claims that Elite XC management encouraged him to fight Kimbo Slice on his feet only. I also read that Michael Wilbon, a columnist for the Washington Post and host of ESPN's Pardon the Interruption claimed that Kimbo Slice threw the fight.

The fact that a state agency that oversees the State Boxing Commission is even checking into allegations of fight-fixing is scary. No matter what they find, the allegations are more damning than the findings. Opponents of MMA will be able to bring up the word fraud when they discuss the sport. With MMA proponents in New York trying desperately to get the sport regulated, this will not help.

In Wilbon's conversation with Miami Herald columnist and MMA fan Dan LeBatard, Wilbon compares MMA to WWE, and Slice's knockout to the Muhammed Ali's "phantom punch" knockout of Sonny Liston. These two comparisons cement the fact that Wilbon, though very knowledgeable in many other sports and one of my favorite columnists, has no clue what he is talking about. MMA uses no chairs, no fake plot lines or any of the fake things that dress up WWE. Ali's so-called "phantom punch" has been shown to be a well-connected jab on an already woozy Liston. Wilbon has fallen prey to "whichever way the wind blows" thinking when it comes to MMA. The problem is that he is a well-known, widely-read columnist, and his ideas can influence other sports fans. All the years of work that MMA fighters, fans and promotions have put into building up the credibility of the sport can be called into question with one quick punch from a national figure like Wilbon.

Now when I talk with people about why I like MMA, I will have to be ready to defend it against claims of fight-fixing. It's funny how one 14-second fight can completely change the conversation.

Photo via Sherdog.com 

While watching the Efrain Escudero/Shane Nelson fight, I was a little sad. Not because I was concerned for Junie Browning's bout with alcoholism, but because referee Steve Mazzagatti was still sans mustache. Why, Steve, why?

As you can see with the picture at right, his mustache was a work of art. I would even place it in the company of MJD' s Greatest Mustaches of the NFL. It was the perfect amount of lip fuzz that said "I'm here for business ... and pleasure."

I first noticed the lack of mustache on Steve during the April Ultimate Fight Night. It made me a little sad then, but I assumed it would be brought back. Maybe he lost a bet, or he got rid of it for the warmer months! Since the Ultimate Fighter was taped over the summer, this could be a plausible explanation. Perhaps we will see the 'stache again come UFC 89 or 90? It gets cold here in Chicago, Steve! You might need the extra warmth that lip fur provides!

The 'stache needs to come back. It was as much of a fixture at UFC events as Joe Rogan's one black shirt with gray pinstripes, Mandy Moore and the cut man. Please start growing it back, Steve. The world of fighting will thank you.

Photo via UFC.com 

The first lightweight is gone from the main field on The Ultimate Fighter 8. Shane Nelson is disappointed but it was certainly better than the fate he expected. Nelson joined forces with TUF8's resident nutcase Junie Browning on a drunken rampage on last night's episode. Nelson tried to push both Efrain Escudero and Roli Delgado to fight him.

Dana White came to the house the next day and read the idiots the riot act. But he did allow them to continue on the show. Nelson says he cleaned up his act. As for Junie, he hints that the madness didn't end:

"This guy's a little off the wall. It multiplies by a 100 when he drinks."

Nelson said it really hit him that guy wasn't sincere about staying out of trouble when he was talking trash and starting a fight with Escudero the day after White nearly kicked Browning off the show:

"What an idiot. I was fearing for my life. I thought I just messed u the biggest chance of my career. There was no way I was going to do it again."

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN TO THE YAHOO! SPORTS EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH NELSON:

Like many before him, Nelson said the house is like a prison. There's nothng to do and the liquor is like a magnet. He said there were guys on the show who hadn't opened a bottle in six months or a year and even they started drinking.

He also talked about the restraint shown by many of the 205-pounders who were pushed to the brink by Browning. He thought at any moment they could've killed Junie.

As we get deeper into this season of the Ultimate Fighter, two things have become clear: Junie Browning is a drunk idiot, and I need a flat-screen television. Read on to find out more. Read More >>