Championship Kickboxing Comes To HDNet With “It’s Showtime”

Today, HDNet announces a long term deal with “It’s Showtime,” Europe’s leading kickboxing promotion provided by Fighting Spirit, the international fight sport programming distributor. “It’s Showtime” will make its HDNet debut with “HDNet Fights: It’s Showtime Lyon” on Friday, May 20 at 11:00 p.m. ET – immediately following the network’s broadcast of “The Voice vs. Hulk Hogan.”

In the main event of the evening, Badr Hari makes his much anticipated return to the ring against Tony Gregory. Plus, Tyrone Spong and K-1 MAX Champion Giorgio Petrosyan will also be in action.

Founded in 1998, “It’s Showtime” is known for attracting the biggest names in kickboxing and drawing some of the largest crowds in combat sports – regularly packing over 20,000 fans inside the Amsterdam Arena.

In 2011, the promotion will present ten events for HDNet from venues across Europe including the recently announced, “It’s Showtime- Fast & Furious 70 Max” grand prix on September 24 in the Forest National in Brussels, Belgium. Elite 70kg fighters participating in this prestigious one night tournament include Giorgio Petrosyan, Andy Souwer, Artur Kyshenko, Gago Drago, Murat Direkçi, Chris Ngimbi, Harut Grigorian and Pajunsuk Superpro Samui.

Fighting Spirit is an international media rights agency based in France and is the only worldwide company that specializes in the management, brand development, and distribution of combat sport TV programs. Its portfolio includes a full range of combat sport programs from wrestling with CMLL Lucha Libre, to MMA with TKO Major League and Cage Rage, going through documentaries, Reality TV shows such as Enfusion, and live events of It’s Showtime – The World Championships of Kickboxing.

“I am excited to announce that ‘It’s Showtime’ is coming to HDNet,” said Andrew Simon, CEO of HDNet Fights. “The addition of ‘It’s Showtime’ solidifies HDNet’s position as THE PLACE to watch the best strikers and stand-up action in combat sports today.”

“It is a real privilege to collaborate with HDNet. ‘It’s Showtime’ is now the number one kickboxing promotion and one of the top brands in the universe of Fighting. With this program, HDNet shows its willingness to delight American martial arts fans with top fight shows,” said Simon Rutz, CEO of “It’s Showtime.”

UFC & Twitter: Moving Towards Mainstream by Going against the Stream?

MMA and the UFC in particular have been working very hard over the years to gain mainstream acceptance, both in sanctioning and in the sporting world. It has been a steady climb during this time, with nearly all states and provinces being sanctioned, and with major sports stations covering UFC events on a more regular basis.

Perhaps the best example of the MMA world gaining mainstream acceptance here in Canada was the recent success of UFC 129. Selling 55,000 seats to any event has to be considered a huge success and proof that the sport is quickly becoming significant in the sporting world.

While becoming more and more relevant in recent years, Dana White has never made any attempt to behave like a mainstream commissioner or president of any other league. In fact he has often gone the complete opposite way most mainstream sports generally operate.

At the MMA summit this year Dana White announced that the UFC approach to Twitter will also be drastically different than any other major sport. While the NFL, MLB and NBA are putting more and more restrictions on players tweeting or using other forms of social media during sporting events, Dana White and the UFC are encouraging it.

The UFC announced this week that they will begin separating their fighters into four different groups based on the number of twitter followers they have. They will then begin giving awards out each quarter to three fighters from each group. One for who gained the most followers, another for who gained the highest percentage of followers, and finally one for who has the most interesting tweets. The last award will be judged by Dana White himself, and is certainly the most interesting.

While it is debatable whether or not fighters twitter accounts are interesting enough to follow, the move is certainly a 180 when compared to mainstream sports such as baseball, football and basketball. This is not the first time that Dana White has made a friend out of social media though. His experiment with playing undercard fights on Facebook has to be considered a success to hardcore MMA fans that now have access to almost twice the number of live fights during each event.

Will this move to lead the UFC closer to the mainstream acceptance they so covet? Or will inappropriate tweets by fighters give more ammunition to the anti-MMA community?

Diverticulosis Sidelines Brock Lesnar For A Second Time

Brock Lesnar has been sidelined by Diverticulosis for a second time, forcing him to withdraw from his June 11th bout against Junior Dos Santos. In a last minute conference call Lesnar expressed his disappointment with not being able to fight and apologized to the UFC and Dos Santos for not being able to go through with the fight. Lesnar also went on to say that he tried to continue his training for the fight but it got to a point where he no longer had the strength to continue.

Lesnar made it clear to the media that his family and his health came first in his life and fighting came second. Lesnar will consult with his doctors and family on how to proceed with the troubling news, although Lesnar made a point of stressing that he will not retire, that fighting is his life and that he will work hard to make a return to the Octagon.

Shane Carwin will step in for Lesnar against Junior Dos Santos at UFC 131 in Vancouver.

Should Teammates Fight Each Other

Rashad Evans made headlines while champion when he said he would not fight his teammate and friend Keith Jardine. Although, not many seemed to care as Jardine never got far enough in his UFC career to warrant a title shot, hence, a championship bout between the two fighters was never seriously discussed.

UFC fighters Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch also stated they would never fight each other. Kos even went as far as to say he would “cut his leg off and move down a weight class” rather than fight Fitch.

Even more people began talking about friends and teammates fighting each other when Jon Jones won the light heavy-weight title and said during an interview that he would fight whoever Dana White told him to because that was his job. Teammate Rashad Evans took that as a slap in the face, and left Greg Jackson’s camp not long after. Evans has since taken to Twitter to engage in a battle of insults with his former teammate, a battle that is usually reserved for a playground.

The problem with teammates choosing not to fight each other is that it takes away from the fans and leaves the organization with one less high-calibre fight to put out. In the case of Bones Jones and Evans, two of the very best fighters in the Light Heavyweight division would potentially not have squared off. By choosing not to fight a teammate, the fighter is limiting his value to the company, and limiting his value to himself by placing further restrictions on how he will earn money.

There are three ways to look at a fighter’s choice to fight or not to fight a teammate. There is the perspective of the fans, the organizations perspective, and the fighter’s perspective.

From a fans view the idea of a good fight not happening because the fighters are friends is a hard pill to swallow. Fans want to watch the best possible fights, and as a fan I can tell you that I really don’t care if the men in the ring like each other or not. If the best matchup for the light-heavyweight belt is indeed Evans versus Jones, then as a fan I want to watch that fight especially when my hard earned money is going towards the purchase of this fight (whether watching live or on TV).

Looking at the issue from the eyes of the organization is not very different from the point of view of a fan. The organization wants to put on the best fights it can, because the better the matchups, the better the event and the more money the organization can make as a result.

It is the perspective of the fighters that makes the idea interesting. Fighters have said they do not want to fight teammates because they need to have complete trust in one another while training. If a fighter feels he may eventually be meeting his teammate inside the Octagon, they may naturally be more inclined to hide weaknesses during training. Teammates also have a better chance of finding each other’s weaknesses, which could then be exposed in the Octagon when the two meet. Fighters have also mentioned how it would be harder to get in the Octagon and try to hurt someone they consider to be a good friend. But by choosing not to fight someone, a fighter may also be taking money away from his own family. If a fighter is friends with a title holder, and instead of fighting for the belt chooses to take another fight because he does not want to fight a teammate, he will not be making as much money as he could in a title fight. When the average career of a fighter is only a few years that money could be very important to the fighter, and to his family.

In my opinion the best fighters have to fight the best fighters. They owe it to the fans, which ultimately pay for the luxurious lifestyle that the best fighters enjoy. The fans also pay for the middle class lifestyle that lesser fighters enjoy. While they may not be rich, they are still getting paid to do what they love and are making a living without having to get a job that they are not as passionate about. It will always be hard for a fighter to train with someone that they may eventually meet inside the Octagon, but most fighters evolve quickly these days and train not just for fights anymore, but for the actual person that they are going to fight. The chance to spar or roll with someone in the past does not mean you will know any special knowledge that will give you the upper hand, because each fighter will have the same opportunity to gain inner knowledge of their opponent.

Strikeforce Challengers Returns On June 24

Seattle’s Caros Fodor and Ryan Couture set to coompete at Showare Center in Kent.

MAIN EVENT:
CAROS FODOR vs. JAMES TERRY

PLUS:
RYAN COUTURE vs. MATT RICEHOUSE
LORENZ LARKIN vs. GIAN VILLANTE
ANTWAIN BRITT vs. DANILLO VILLEFORT
JULIA BUDD vs. GERMAINE DE RANDAMIE

FRIDAY, JUNE 24
SHOWARE CENTER – KENT, WASH.

Live on SHOWTIME at 11 p.m. ET/PT (Delayed on West Coast)

TICKETS ON SALE TODAY

SAN JOSE, Calif. – The sport’s fastest-rising stars continue their budding careers when STRIKEFORCE returns to ShoWare Center in Kent, Wash., on Friday, June 24. In the main event of STRIKEFORCE Challengers, lightweight Caros “The Future” Fodor (8-2) of nearby Kirkland, Wash. defends his home turf when he meets the hard-hitting James Terry (10-2), a protégé of middleweight star Cung Le.

The night’s co-feature is equally explosive, as Woodinville’s Ryan Couture (2-0), the son of UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture, looks for his third straight victory when he battles undefeated Matt Ricehouse (4-0).

STRIKEFORCE Challengers also features Lorenz “The Monsoon” Larkin (10-0) taking on Gian Villante (7-2) at light heavyweight, a middleweight bout betweenAntwain Britt (11-5) and UFC veteran Danillo Villefort, as well as a women’s 145-pound contest between Julia Budd (1-1) and Germaine de Randamie (2-1).

STRIKEFORCE Challengers, which is presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, will air LIVE on SHOWTIME at 11 p.m. ET/PT (delayed on the West Coast).

“Washington has become a hotbed for mixed martial arts and we’re excited to head back to Kent with this exciting card featuring local stars Caros Fodor and Ryan Couture,” STRIKEFORCE CEO Scott Coker said. “Our Challengers events have delivered some outstanding fights and we expect nothing less on June 24.”

Tickets for the event are priced at $100, $75, $50 and $25, not including applicable service charges, and are on sale TODAY. Tickets are available at ShoWare Center’s Box Office in downtown Kent, online at ShoWareCenter.com, Facebook.com/ShoWareCenter or by phone at 253.856.6999 or 866.973.9613.

Caros Fodor (fighting out of Kirkland, Wash.), a 27-year-old former Marine, has won three straight STRIKEFORCE bouts, including a third-round TKO of David Douglas in April. Now, the grappling ace seeks his ninth professional win when he meets James Terry (fighting out of Livermore, Calif.) at ShoWare Center. A training partner of former middleweight champion Cung Le, the 30-year-old Terry is riding a three-fight win streak of his own. He would like nothing more than to spoil Fodor’s homecoming by scoring a knockout victory on June 24.

Ryan Couture (fighting out of Las Vegas, Nev.), the son of UFC pioneer Randy Couture, returns to his native Washington with hopes of carrying on his legendary family name. Two straight submission wins have kicked off Couture’s career, and now the 28-year-old faces the toughest test of his career when he locks horns with up-and-comer Matt Ricehouse (fighting out of St. Charles, Mo.) in 155-pound action.

Perhaps no fighter heads to Kent with as much momentum as undefeated light heavyweight Lorenz Larkin (fighting out of Riverside, Calif.) The 24-year-old Larkin has finished eight of 10 opponents, including a knockout of Scott Lighty in his STRIKEFORCE debut in April. “The Monsoon” hopes to keep his streak alive when he enters the cage against 25-year-old Gian Villante (fighting out of Bellmore, N.Y.), whose seven victories have all come by way of stoppage.

Former UFC competitor Danillo Villefort (fighting out of Coconut Creek, Fla.) makes his STRIKEFORCE debut on June 24 in search of his fifth consecutive victory. The American Top Team product, known for his slick submissions and heavy hands, expects a war when he meets knockout artist Antwain Britt (fighting out of Virginia Beach, Va.). The 33-year-old Britt has 11 victories, nine of which have come by knockout, and looks to fuel a run in the 185-pound division by besting Villefort.

An outstanding women’s 145-pound content pits Julia Budd (fighting out of Port Moody, British Columbia, Canada) against Germaine de Randamie (fighting out of Utrecht, The Netherlands). Nicknamed “The Jewel,” Budd is a devastating kickboxer with the ability to finish any and all opponents. Her bout with de Randamie could be a slugfest, as “The Iron Lady” has won two straight fights, including a brutal knockout over Stephanie Webber in January.

For more information, visit www.strikeforce.com. All bouts live and subject to change.

Should UFC 130 Be Free On TV?

The UFC announced this afternoon that the main event at UFC 130 will not be taking place due to injuries to both Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard. Edgar has broken ribs while Maynard suffered a knee injury in training camp.

The Co-Main event will be moving up to take the headline spot, as Rampage Jackson will square off against Matt ‘The Hammer’ Hamill in a battle of light-heavyweights. This has many people wondering if the UFC will remove the event’s PPV status and allow the fights to air live on free television.

The card is still strong enough to draw decent PPV numbers, even though it is clearly lacking a main event draw. Rampage still has a strong following, and while Hamill has had ups and downs in his career, he is a fighter capable of providing highlight finishes.

The middle of the card is also very strong. The Frank Mir – Roy Nelson fight will likely be moved to the co-main event, which has the potential to provide fans with either a highlight reel Knockout or an equally impressive submission finish.

With Stefan Struve, Brian Stann and Thiago Alves all having bouts on the main card, UFC 130 still has a lot of big names on the card, and should still be an exciting event to watch for the average MMA fan.

The omission of the lightweight championship fight leaves UFC 130 lacking true PPV status. With that in mind, should the UFC remove the card from PPV and allow fans to watch it on TV for free? Let us know in the comments section below.

MMA Judging — A Real Issue

As we all know, the judging system in MMA has to be changed. Fighters get robbed at almost every major event because of bad judging, and the athletic commissions seemingly want nothing to do with it. Despite a clear problem with both the system and the people that are using the system, the Nevada Athletic Commission for some reason is choosing to sit still and stay the course.

There are hundreds of issues that we could talk about when it comes to the state of judging in MMA, but the biggest one has to be the fact that the Nevada State Athletic Commission will not allow judges to use video or video replay while judging a fight.

This is absurd in every way. Even baseball, the sport that holds on to tradition more than any other, is now allowing instant replay. To not allow the judges to use every available tool they can get a hold of to fairly judge a contest is to say that the outcome of these fights does not matter.

As anyone that has been to a live fight and up close to the action will attest to, you can only see half of the Octagon at best when watching it live from floor seats. At UFC 129, I was convinced that Pablo Garza had dominated his fight from start to finish when he applied a flying triangle to finish the fight. It was not until the next day that I saw the real story, Garza was the one being dominated from the opening bell, but all the action was on the opposite side of the octagon and out of my line of sight.

By not allowing the judges to use televisions to assist in watching the fights, you are taking away from any human beings ability to watch and correctly judge a contest. Until something is done to move the judging system into the 21st century, we will continue to see bizarre judges’ decisions that anger and upset not just the fighters and MMA management, but all fans in general.

The Interns MMA Pound for Pound Rankings: May 2011

This is the Interns first ever Pound for Pound list. Since this is the beginning, there are no falling has-beens on the list, without a previous list I have no reason to justify leaving out someone like Shogun Rua. This allowed me to ignore fighters such as Rampage, BJ Penn and Brock Lesnar that in the last two years have slowly made the fall from devastating to pedestrian. One heavyweight makes the list despite the popular belief that heavyweights have no business in pound for pound rankings.

10. Jake Ellenberger
Since his UFC debut loss to Carlos Condit, a loss that had some wondering how the ref allowed Condit to get to the second round, Ellenberger has won his last four fights, including wins over Mike Pyle and John Howard. His last win was his most impressive, as he showed the world just how out of his league Sean Pierson was in the UFC. Knocking him out at 2:42 of the first round, Ellenberger let the rest of the division know that he is coming, and in full force.

9. Gray Maynard
Maynard is the only man to beat lightweight champ Frankie Edgar and the first round during their second fight was one of the greatest rounds in recent memory that did not end in a stoppage of some sort. During that fight he made it clear that he is not happy with his reputation as being the guy that goes the distance no matter what. The problem was once he smelled blood he followed up by throwing nothing but haymakers and emptied his tank, a big problem in a five round championship fight.

8. Frankie Edgar
It was very hard to choose between Edgar and Gray Maynard after the New Years Day bought between the two. The edge has to be given to Edgar. After he was beaten beyond belief in a one sided first round, Edgar found the heart and courage to come back and out point Maynard the rest of the way to earn the draw and keep his belt. The biggest surprise of the bout was Edgar’s takedowns of elite wrestler Maynard, while Maynard could not take the smaller Edgar down. While Maynard showed signs of life throughout the fight, it wasn’t enough as Edgar continued to press forward and force the action.

7. Dominick Cruz
Facing the only man that has ever beat him at UFC 132, a Cruz win will cement him as the man in the UFC’s smallest division. Looking to avenge his only loss, four years ago to Urijah Faber, a win will prove Cruz is one of the elite pound for pound fighters. Look for this rematch to be one of the most exciting fights of the year.

6. Nick Diaz
Nick Diaz surprised everyone when he decided to come out and bang with Paul Daley, one of the hardest hitters in the game. But bang he did, and after 4:57 seconds of pure excitement it was Daley on the ground while Nick continued to celebrate his dominance over the Strikeforce welterweight division. Often knocked for his questionable head and a lack of solid competition, Diaz is exactly the kind of fighter that could give GSP a hard time. Look for Dana to find a way to match this natural villain up against GSP in the near future, possibly the last and hardest obstacle for GSP before he has no choice but to move on from Welterweight.

5. Jose Aldo
Through four rounds on April 30 Aldo showed why many people have him in the top three Pound for Pound fighter lists. Then the fifth round came, and the previously superhuman Aldo came crashing down to earth. In fact, if Hominick had been able to pass guard, Aldo might have been the victim of the greatest upset since Matt Serra shocked GSP. A possible meeting with Kenny Florian down the road should further test Aldos tank, and allow us to find out if it really was sickness that emptied that gas tank. However, Aldo’s next challenge may very well be Chad Mendes.

4. Jon Jones
Yes, he is young. Yes, he has only one or maybe two wins against elite level talent. He may even have been a little gassed at the end of the Shogun fight. But while others have been able to beat Shogun in recent years, Jones made him look like an amateur. That’s an amazing feat when you consider Shogun has beaten a who’s who of Pride heavyweights in his career, and is still only 29 years old. On top of that, Jones is finishing everyone Joe Silva puts in front of him. With Jones’ recent injury it may be quite a few months before he gets back to action.

3. Cain Velasquez
While he has been on the shelf for a while now, he is still the man that made a human out of the mighty Brock Lesnar and proved that heavyweights need to be as well rounded as every other division. A possible upcoming bout with Junior Dos Santos could provide a stand up war that could go down in history. A rematch with Brock however will most likely yield the same result: a smaller MMA fighter with a legitimate background taking care of a hulk of a man that cowers as soon as he is punched in the face.

2. Georges St Pierre
Easily handled Jake Shields, despite only one good eye. Although the fight was one of the least interesting of the night during the Toronto extravaganza, Rush was never in trouble. Critics who complain that he doesn’t finish fights should talk to Josh Koshcheck. While Kos may have made the final bell, he did so completely on heart and his orbital bone was so badly broken he will miss at least a full year of competition. Nick Diaz must be given a shot before GSP has truly cleaned out the division.

1. Anderson Silva
He destroyed Vitor Belfort in 3:25, and the length of the Chael Sonnen fight is better understood after watching ‘Like Water’ and seeing the Spider tell the camera that he was going to submit him. A fighter confident enough to take a beating for four rounds because he knew he could catch his opponent and defend his trainers name as well as his entire camp is a fighter with no real peers. If he gets past Okami it will certainly be time to test his abilities elsewhere; GSP or a move up will be necessary.

‘The Interns’ UFC 129 Experience

Prior to UFC 129 and after having watched every UFC event since Rampage Jackson KO’d Chuck Liddell at UFC 71, I never had the opportunity to attend a live event. When UFC 129 was announced for Toronto my friends and I jumped at the opportunity to finally be able to attend a live UFC event (well worth the 300$ price tag for the floor seats). The seats weren’t that great, but with the floor crowd not coming until later in the night, we decided to make the most of it.

After the first fight we slowly made our way down to the front of the octagon, smiling and talking to the security guards as we went by, acting like we belonged. We ended up in the sixth row.

A pause in the action allowed me to survey the crowd around us. Three rows in front sat UFC heavyweight and rising star, Brendan Schaub, wearing GSP’s famous karate headband. Being the first UFC fighter I had ever been close to, I quickly found the courage to walk up to him and ask for a photo. He was more than happy to oblige, putting down the food that I so rudely interrupted him from eating, standing up, and putting his arm around me for a great picture that I will never forget. In my nervous excitement I mumbled something about him KO’ing Mirko Cro Cop, he smiled and tried to make a joke while still complimenting Cro Cop, but I was so nervous I couldn’t even make out what he was saying. It was still early in the night, and he was sitting alone, so after the picture he sat down and went back to his food. Clearly I was star struck because I then looked at that man while he picked up his food, and calmly asked him who he was cheering for. I know he trains on Team Jackson, and I know he has trained with GSP in the past, but I was so shocked to be so close to an elite fighter it was all I could think of. Shaub was a true gentleman, although he was clearly surprised when he looked up at me, dumbfounded by my ignorance. ‘Are you serious?’ he said calmly and almost to himself, in a clear attempt not to embarrass my stupidity. ‘George is going to win.’ was all he said, and realizing my mistake the only thing I could muster was a sheepish ‘thanks for your time’ as I walked away with my head down in embarrassment.

The seats and the atmosphere were like nothing I have ever experienced before. Everywhere around us fighters were slowly coming in and filling up the seats in our section. In front of our newfound seats Luke Burrett and Charis B, the founders of Silver Star, took a seat. I ended up meeting too many fighters to list, but the highlight was Clay Guida coming back twenty minutes after he said he was in too much of a hurry to take a picture. He walked up to me and told me he recognized me, and then asked if I still wanted a picture. I could not have been any happier at that moment.

There was one fighter that wasn’t so appreciative of his fame. Frank Mir came to take his seat, like the many other fighters in attendance. He had no mob chasing him, and had no problem getting to his seat but he refused to take pictures or sign autographs for anyone, instead choosing to isolate himself.

After Randy Couture’s fight I quickly ran behind the floor seat bleachers to a quiet area that I had found earlier. It was a tiny spot along the fighters’ exit where the pathway that they take out of the octagon ends and backstage begins. When we got there, we were alone but were quickly joined by four other people who had noticed what we were doing and followed us. As Randy was leaving, I was able to reach out and exchange hand slaps with him. Face to face with the greatest ambassador the sport of MMA has ever had, I thanked him for all the memories. Being the man he is, he looked me straight in the eye and said ‘Thank you’. Then he was gone, taking his legendary career with him.

The fifth round of the Hominick vs. Aldo fight was surreal as the crowd erupted with every punch he landed. Hominick seemed to come alive with the home crowd so clearly behind him. With every punch he rained down, the crowd grew louder and louder, it felt like we were watching someone being raised from the dead.

All in all, UFC 129 was without a doubt a spectacular event. The seats were well worth the price, the event was a homerun for the UFC, and for Toronto tourism as a whole. It will no doubt pave the way for bigger stadiums all over the world.

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