So, here I am. It’s a Saturday night, and I’m sitting here not watching a fight. I can’t believe I used to wait four or five months for another UFC to roll around, but now I go two weeks and I’m about ready to pay the neighborhood kids to fight in my empty swimming pool out back. While I love having a nearly constant stream of fights on my over-priced cable package, one thing bothers me about the modern age of MMA. All these damn fights are fair!
When did knees on the mat become an international incident? These days, a fighter will take a full knee from a plum clinch just fine, but if you tap him with it when he has his fingers on the mat, he’ll act like he’s taken an ice pick to the face. There was a time in MMA when a knee to the face while you were on all fours was a good thing. It meant the guy wasn’t smart enough to soccer kick you in the throat. The good old days of MMA were full of brutal insanity, but there are a few fights that really take the cake, whether for sheer violence or some Hannibal Lector style creativity.
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson has recently been on a crusade to have himself removed from the UFC roster. Following his loss to Ryan Bader at UFC 144: Japan, Rampage has been publicly voicing his displeasure with the UFC as well as the business practices conducted by ZUFFA, and has verbally professed his desire to leave the flagship MMA organization.
It was February 16th, 1996. The UFC was on the cusp of major reactionary law-making that would plunge the sport into the underground for years, though this was largely lost on me. Just your average everyday fight fan, I settled down in front of my Grandmother’s awesome projection TV with friends and family for our latest cage fight fix with UFC 8. We were ready to feast on the craziest concept to hit the UFC since……I guess the entire thing was still crazy at that point. The event was titled “David vs. Goliath” and while there were never any weight classes to begin with, the UFC was determined to throw that in our faces HARD.
Ultimate Fighter winner Ryan Bader said that Quinton “Rampage” Jackson would not pull off one of his famous slams against him at UFC 144. He also stated that he’d defeat Jackson in front of the Japanese fans that adore the former PRIDE star. Well Bader was only half right on his predictions, lucky for him though he got the most important one right.
UFC is back in Japan huh? I don’t see what the point is. Unless you’re holding a tournament with Sakuraba and Tank Abbott in the same weight bracket, I’m not interested in what’s going on in the land of the rising sun. Back in my day, the only reason you fought in Japan was to avoid an athletic commission. Who’s to tell two men they can’t fight with razor blades strapped to their foreheads? It boggles the mind it does. The men of old school MMA weren’t afraid of anything though, and you couldn’t keep them out of a thumb-tack filled cage if you tried. There are, of course, a few bad apples in the bunch though.
Last night’s episode (#17) of The MMA Pulse primarily featured talk of the upcoming UFC Undisputed 3 video game set to hit store shelves next month. The demo was recently released on both the PlayStation Network and Xbox Live and MMA Pulse host Josh Wood talked to Rich Butler from MYTakeRadio.com about the game and its features.
Flyweights are coming, and we’re already infested with Bantam and Featherweights. As for me, the only weight class I recognize is the open weight class. Back in my day, no one ever cut weight. They were too busy cutting your face with full mount headbutts to give a shit about what a scale said. Ah, the good old days of MMA. They’re long gone now; Swallowed by commissions and legislations, but an old man can still reminisce about how things used to be.
