Daily Wrap From the Throne - 5/13/11

Daily Wrap from the Throne
by King JB
5/13/11

TOPIC #1: Injuries Changing Main Events to UFC 130 and UFC 131...

Well, as we all know by now, UFC 130 has been changed due to an injury to Frankie Edgar and Gray Maynard both, which completely eliminated that main event. Well, yesterday we heard that Brock Lesnar will be missing the main event of UFC 131 and replaced with Shane Carwin against Junior Dos Santos. Obviously, this entire situation is something that just makes our blood boil, but at the same time, we need these fighters to stay safe. I am not upset at all to be honest with these recent issues, because I would much rather see healthy fighters in the cage. I love the sport, but I do not wish for these fighters to get seriously hurt. Honestly, they do not get paid enough to go out there and risk career ending injuries just to keep us happy at home. I wish all three of them the best when it comes to recovery.

With that being said, in my opinion the biggest loss of that situation is the fact that UFC newcomer, Jon Olav Einemo will no longer be on the card as it looks. I was actually looking forward to seeing him on the card and now all we can really do is just hope that the UFC gives him a replacement fight. With all of these fighters on the roster now, you would think that the UFC would have no problem in finding a replacement for this particular fight. The heavyweight division is more stacked than many people give it credit for being. So, where does this leave us? Junior Dos Santos vs. Shane Carwin to determine the #1 contender for the UFC Heavyweight Championship. Personally, I think this fight is going to be a fight with definite fight of the night potential. I think both men are going to come out BANGING, but the truth is that Carwin's lack of cardio is going to be his downfall in my opinion. I believe that it will be a VERY competitive first round, but in the second, Junior Dos Santos will do much like Brock Lesnar did up against Carwin. I believe he will either pull off a submission and give us a glimpse of the man's ground ability or just plain knock him out. Personally, I am putting my money on the knock out in this fight. I think we are destined to see Cain Velasquez vs. Junior Dos Santos now. I have to admit, I am excited as hell about that possibility.

TOPIC #2: Insurance for the Fighters and UFC Summit

This entire situation is monumental for the sport of mixed martial arts and its potential growth as Zuffa begins to monopolize the industry. The people that are against MMA seem to be most against the way the fighters are treated and the injuries that can result from the sport. Well, in my opinion, Zuffa just fixed a lot of this by giving the fighters a break financially with their hospital issues and injuries. To me, this was long over due and I am happy to hear it. I know that Matt Mitrione recently said on MMAfighting.com that he recently took a Pat Barry kick to the kidneys and it cost him $4,000 bucks at the hospital. Do you realize how many times a year this probably happens to most fighters? The truth is that they also must pay their team around them in terms of coaches and these fighters just simply weren't making a whole lot to begin with. I have to give Zuffa credit for taking this worry away from the fighters and making sure that they get good treatment. I bet there were a lot of fighters that were seriously fighting injured because they could not AFFORD to go to the hospital. Think about it. How many fighters are making $4,000 per fight? There are a lot of them in the undercard of the UFC. So, imagine if all $4,000 of that had to go on the doctor resulting from training for that $4,000 paycheck? Obviously logic says that this is a huge day for these MMA fighters.

Now, I also think that this was a huge event for MMA as a whole in terms of getting sanctioned and regulated everywhere. They are becoming more and more of a professional sport with each decision like this. The fact that they are willing to protect their fighters should mean a lot to the states still thinking that it's human cockfighting. Other sports have insurance for their fighters and now so does the king of the MMA industry, Zuffa. Big ups to them for this decision and a few others during the UFC summit. These fighters are also going to earn a few bonuses for tweeting and networking with us fans, reporters, journalist. I think that makes sure that these fighters will continue to be easy access for all of us and that is a good way to promote the sport. I personally like the fact that they are willing to do interviews for smaller media outlets and radio shows such as ours here at MMA Topics.net with MMA AFFILIATES RADIO. Also at the Summit, Strikeforce fighters are now able to use the same sponsors that the rest of Zuffa uses. That obviously is going to lead to more money for them as well as the fact that the Zuffa team is considering offering fight bonuses on Strikeforce cards now. There was a lot of Good to come out from the UFC summit.

There was some bad however, and here it is...Most of Strikeforce's front office is now gone. Business as Usual? No, it is not. Out of the 12 staff members under Scott Coker, there are only two left and even Coker himself has been demoted to Vice President or General Manager of Strikeforce. The UFC has basically rebuilt Strikeforce from the inside already just in the time that they have had it. I am not against it however considering the fact that the UFC can make their product better. The truth is that Strikeforce will be alive until their Showtime contract is over and then it will exist no more. If there is anyone out there that truly thinks Strikeforce will be around past that contract expiring, you gotta be as high as Nick Diaz wanting to box Jeff Lacy. The truth is that Pride was swallowed up. The WEC was swallowed up. Strikeforce will eventually be SWALLOWED up...Then Bellator is next. We all know what is going to happen, so it is pointless to even consider anything other than that. Zuffa owns the mixed martial arts world and there is nothing that anyone else can do about it. People can knock Zuffa all day long and call their fan's Zuffa Zombies, but lets be real people. Do we wanna see the UFC up there with the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB or not? I personally do wanna see the sport grow to that size and this is the best way for it to happen. I love fights and fighters outside the UFC, but the truth is that 90-95% of this sport I love is owned by the UFC.

TOPIC #3 – Jon Jones and Rashad Evans

I am not sure if you guys are aware yet, but Jon Jones and Rashad Evans almost got into a bar fight during the Summit. Basically Jones was hanging with Tito Ortiz and Rashad was sitting with George St. Pierre. Words and even shoves were exchanged before GSP told them to take it outside and broke it up. Rashad has recently been quoted as saying that he respects Rampage a lot more than Jon Jones because he believes Jones is a snake. He also recently tweeted that it was Jones that backed out of the fight at the bar. He said that at least Phil Davis won't back out of a fight. With all of this being said, I think the build up for this fight is going to end up much like Rashad and Rampage. Despite me being a HUGE Rampage Jackson fan, I have to say that I now like Rashad Evans a little bit due to this feud. I think that Rashad has become a marketing genius and he will make sure that this fight sells quite a few tickets and buys. The real question is whether he will get past Phil Davis. I believe that he will and prove that he is still pretty great at 18-1. I know the entire MMA world is just already picking Jon Jones to steam roll over Rashad Evans, but I also think them same people forget how good Rashad really is. He is easily one of the top 3-4 fighters at 205 and there is nothing that can be said to dispute that. His only loss came against a VERY GOOD Lyota Machida. Personally, I am enjoying the war on twitter and apparently night clubs too between Jones and Rashad. How about we let them be the next coaches on the Ultimate Fighter to get them ratings back up? I would dig that for real...You?

TOPIC #4- Eddie Alvarez seems to be making a push for the UFC

Recently Eddie Alvarez was quoted as saying that his next contract that he signs will be one that will make him millions. Well, lets be honest here. There is only one company out there that can actually provide them type of numbers that Eddie wants. Next, he made it clear that he would have no problem fighting good friend and partner, Frankie Edgar. Now, with these two statements, I would say that he definitely is making his sales pitch to be brought into the UFC. Both of them recent statements have ZUFFA and the UFC written all over it which means that we very well might be seeing that Eddie Alvarez and Gilbert Melendez fight after all. I say that the UFC should bring Eddie in and make it a #1 contenders fight with Gilbert Melendez with the Strikeforce gold on the line as well. I think this fight would set up a PERFECT fight for later down the line with whomever the UFC champ will be, presumably Frankie Edgar. Considering the fact that Alvarez a few months ago said that he didn't need the UFC, I think its safe to say that he has changed his mind. What do you all think? Should he jump ship and who would you like to see him fight?

TOPIC #5 - UFC refuses to pay for Extra Police at UFC 131

Not sure how many of you give a shit about this story, but it seems that the Vancouver Police Department requested for the UFC to pay for extra police officers around the Rodgers Arena on the night of UFC 131. The UFC has let them know that they will NOT be funding any extra police around the arena for the event. Vancouver made this request because they feel that MMA fans are rowdy. Are you fucking kidding me? Them hockey fans up there are far more rowdy than MMA fans and that is simply the truth. How many riots has Canada seen due to hockey? How many have they seen due to MMA? Hell, how many riots has America seen due to MMA compared to other sports? Get out of here Vancouver and either hold the event or don't. Quit trying to get more money out of the UFC. They don't actually need your police there anyways. I am quite sure that they can fight there way out of any messed up issues...lol...Anyways, big ups to the UFC for not paying any more money due to the extortion of these sorry ass police out here. They are more crooked than we are. Sorry Steven Seagal, but its true!

TOPIC #6 – Mark Coleman looks to be done for Good

He didn't say it today, but he spoke of Randy Couture's retirement and he seemed like he is basically ready to hang them up. He did however say that a challenge that Dan Severn made to him recently has him intrigued. I wanted to say a few things about this topic to end up today's report from me. First off, Mark Coleman will go down as a MMA legend, but the truth is that his roid rages that were caught on tape will drastically hurt his legacy in my eyes. We all knew that Coleman was roided out and he himself never changed our minds. I still think about Pete Williams knocking him out with that high kick and its just one of the greatest sights in MMA history. Mark Coleman, the godfather of ground and pound will eternally be remembered mostly for his early UFC fights and style. I think he belongs in the hall of fame, so I will never take that away from him, but he just made himself look foolish later on in his career in my book. I loved seeing him against Couture in a throwback fight, but reading that he admits not training hard for that fight makes me sick and feeling like I was cheated. Mark Coleman had issues with being a professional and it was proven time and time again. I am not the biggest Mark Coleman fan based on his personality captured on camera and on paper, but his fighting career was pretty solid and he was a definite pioneer in the sport. All good and bad aside, I commend Mark Coleman for his great career. However, he better watch out who he considers fighting, because Dan Severn is still doing big things in my book. 100 MMA Pro Wins is just amazing and I do not believe that Mark Coleman really wants any part of that. Dan Severn was always and still is amazing at what he does. I would love to see a Mark Coleman vs. Dan Severn fight, but the truth is that Severn would destroy him. Severn still trains around the clock even at his age. Mark Coleman has admitted that his age prevents him from going 100%. Lets be real here...Dan Severn has 123 pro fights and Mark Coleman has 26 pro fights and a average 16-10 record. He was a different man at UFC 12 when he beat Dan Severn and he would not get that lucky today. WAR DAN SEVERN! Actually, all in all, both of these men are legends. So...WAR BOTH!

WELL....this is it for now, it is 3:00pm on 5/13/11 and I want to announce that I will be doing this daily report EACH and EVERY DAY to discuss the top stories in MMA each day. Don't forget to catch our MMA AFFILIATES RADIO each and every Sunday from 11:30pm-12:30am EASTERN TIME. Big ups to MMAMadhouse.com for showing love, so make sure everyone gets over there and checks them out. See you tomorrow night....

Please feel free to comment and I will respond the next day on the report under a TOPIC entitled “responses to the readers”...Thank you from the Throne...

KING JB (www.facebook.com/mmakingdom)