Premature Deification: A (short) cautionary tale

It happens at least once a month. An up and coming fighter or a “reborn” veteran pulls off an exciting KO or crazy submission and the online MMA Community goes nuts. Talks of being a contender fill message boards and comment sections. The hype machine builds them up as a “KO Artist” or a “Submission Master” before their next fight. Then the unthinkable happens…. they lose. Usually in a way that makes us fans complete disown them.

Take Todd Duffee for example, one of the UFC’s latest cast-offs. He made his debut with an outlandishly fast KO at UFC 102. That performance coupled with his chiseled physique [PAUSE] garnered him a huge wave of hype. Then he fought Mike Russow, who was supposed to lose, and got KTFO’d. Sure, he beat the piss out of Russow for nearly 3 rounds, but that means nothing to the ravenous MMA Fan. Getting KO'd means that you have a glass chin and need to retire. The next day he was thrown out like 3 week old Chinese Food by the online MMA community. All of a sudden he was overrated and his 1st win was a fluke. But wait...wasn't this the man that was supposed to be the next BROCKLESNAR?

The same thing has happened countless times in MMA. Brandon Vera, Houston Alexander, Marius Žaromskis, et cetera et cetera. What's the moral of the story? Don't deify a fighter after one or two exciting performances, because anything can happen in MMA.

Three Cheers for Josh Barnett!

Josh Barnett is a man that wakes up every morning with the realization that perhaps he's one of the most hated men in MMA and that the last noteworthy move he could make in the sport would be sticking his head in his oven, but regardless he continues to go on about his life quoting death metal lyrics on twitter and dodging career relevance like oncoming traffic. He’s a thrice proven juicer with a pro wrestling mindset and a personality that would lead you to believe he's never had a romantic encounter that didn’t start with “you gotta pay me upfront.” Some of you might bring up the point that realistically there’s probably a multitude of fighters that use steroids that just have never been discovered, but those guys have the decency to at least try not to get caught. When Josh Barnett shows up for testing he still has the bottle of pills in his front pocket, and his piss comes back so hot his penis looks like a burn victim afterwards. His shame is non-existent, like Santa Claus or the female orgasm.  

Now I know what you're thinking, “Fake Emcee, why didn’t more of us take the time to read and appreciate your incredibly well crafted take on the life of Brock Lesnar entitled 'The Examination of Brock Lesnar by the Coward Fake Emcee'" and to answer that question I have no idea, perhaps you just wouldn’t recognize brilliance if it copped a squat over your face and blew truth up your nose. But anyway I’m sure the second question you’d be asking is “why take the time to celebrate a loser like Barnett” and for the answer to that question I would say this; despite coming off like an arrogant d-bag there’s almost an admirable quality to his shamelessness. Josh Barnett truly doesn’t care what you think of him, and he’ll continue on with his “haters gonna hate” mindset throughout the rest of his days. Also not to mention the fact that the man was considered to be the #2 Heavyweight in the world not to long ago, has still yet to lose a fight in two years, and has accomplished some truly great achievements in his career despite going on to make misguided decisions that would further continue to shrink his legacy as well as his scrotum. Now I may not particularly be a fan myself but for the sake of going against the grain on this one instead of dissing the man how about we take a second to give him three cheers?

 You ready? HIP HIP…(crickets), HIP HIP…(crickets), HIP HIP…(the crickets died from exhaustion)

Alright that went well, so now here are some completely fabricated quotes from fellow fighters on their opinions of Barnett and his achievements.

Top 10 p4p ranked blanket Rashad Evans:

“Man that dudes sorry. I call him Sauce Barnett, get it Sauce Barnett cause it’s like it sounds kind of like his real name but I really altered his first name into something else that’s actually insultin…HE GONE TAKE YO WILL RASHAD, remember when I said that everybody, wasn’t that funny?”

Former UFC Champion and the only man required to wear condoms to interviews, Quinton Jackson:

“Ayo, Josh ma boy but he know he trippin. He need to get off all that illegal stuff cause it aint good for yo package, and he white too so he already disadvantaged. But for real homey needs to go live out on the sun for bout a week cause he pale as hell, homey got the same complexion as a marshmallow. And his head is big as hell too! His head so big when he be driving he gotta look out the sun roof to see where he goin, when he walk around he gotta swat clouds out his face, he don’t got eyelids he got curtains, and his such and such…ghetto rambling.”

Of course wherever Rampage goes he accompanied by his own personal human jockstrap Tiki Ghosen, Tiki:

“Slurp slurp slurp.”

Alright big guy don’t talk with your mouth full, we’ll get back to you as soon as you’re done down there.

#1 of the M-1 Mafia hit list, Fabricio Werdum:

“I think he real cock and I would beat him if I ever get my hands on him.”

Straight from under his bridge, Chael Sonnen:

“Who cares about this guy, I mean honestly he’s got about as much heat going for him in his career as a dead possum’s anus, and he looks enough like one too. There’s only room enough for one pasty, trash-talking, drug test failing troll wrestler in MMA and I already got both my boots laced up, so if he ever wants to go I’ll make sure to bury one of those size 7s straight up his colon. P.S. Brazilians are lazy.”

And finally UFC President and self-fellatio enthusiast, Dana White:

“Listen, do you people really think we have any interest in ever signing this guy? We’d be more likely to sign one of GSP’s bowel movements in the next week, and I’ll tell you what if we did it’d be one of the top p4p pieces of crap in the UFC today just behind James Toney. Now if you’ll excuse me I have this hot young prospect named Mark Hunt I gotta go meet for the first time.”

I'm taking my talents to South Beach...So suck it Cleveland!

Good evening ladies and gentleman I am happy to announce that I, Fake Emcee, have been accepted on as part of the new team that makes up Unintelligible drunken ramblin...Unintelligent Defense.blogspot.edu.org. I imagine myself as somewhat of a designated driver since I personally don't partake in the sauce, but that doesn't mean we wont still be getting plenty sexy. So get ready 8 followers of this site cause we're going to New York, we're going to L.A.. we're going to Nebraska, we're going to Washington, then we're gonna take a break for a while at that sketchy looking truck-stop bathroom, but after that we're pulling back up our pants and going to Nevada, then New Jersey (just make sure you roll up your windows), and then Miami HYYYYYYAAAUAUUUAUAUAU!!!!!!!!!!

Get ready for some inane ramblings, recycled articles, and n words all around. Hide your children and drop those panties fellas, cause it's about to get real messy. The shit is about to hit the fan and you my friend are without umbrella.

Now how do I start banning people?

K1 World Grand Prix Final 16: Why I Stay Up Till 7am

I am a proud member of the Bloody Elbow Night Crew. We stay in on Friday nights and find ways to stay awake to watch K1, DREAM, and Sengoku. We get drunk and rowdy and often times will create a playlist to pass the time until "The Voice" and "Twinkletoes" kick off the show. Last night/this morning (I don't want to get into semantics) FEG kicked off the K1 World Grand Prix from Seoul, South Korea.

The card had to be changed up last minute with Andrei Arlovski pulling out of his fight with Raul Catinas due to a broken nose. His late replacement was "Mighty Mo" Siligia, famous for his knockout of Hong Man Choi, a Korean giant. Ray Sefo was also a late replacement, with only three weeks to prepare for his fight with Tyrone Spong . K1 mainstays Badr Hari and Remy Bojansky were also missing from the card. Badr was removed from the tournament after being DQ'd at It's Showtime 2010 Amsterdam for kicking Hedsy Georges while he was down. Hedsy took his spot in the K1 tournament. Remy Bojansky was unable to compete for health reasons. The show's competitors were comprised of K1 legends Semmy Schilt, Peter Aerts, Jerome LeBanner, and Ray Sefo and the young fighters that will carry K1 for the next 6 years in Gokhan Saki, Daniel Ghita, Tyrone Spong, and Kyotaro, who many in the FEG office hope will fill the space created at last year's Dynamite!!! event when Masato retired.

The card opened up with three fantastic fights that weren't part of the tournament. The highlight was the absolute clinic that Sergei Kharitonov put on Takumi Sato. He ended it in devastating fashion with a punch combination followed by a knee. Sato was out at 2:30 in the first round.

The tournament opened with a bout between the aging legend in Ray Sefo and the young lion that is Tyrone Spong. For those that aren't aware, Tyrone Spong is the heir apparent of Mr. Perfect himself, Ernesto Hoost. He showed it last night with hard leg kicks and fast hands. Sefo was unable to really get off and lost 30-27, 30-28x2. The next two fights were complete routs with Gokhan Saki and Daniel Ghita putting their opponents on queer street with combinations only seen in the most destructive of power punchers. Errol Zimmerman, Ghita's opponent, was still down while Daniel was being awarded his trophy.

The "What the fuck?" moment came at the end of the absolute war between Kyotaro and Jerome LeBanner. LeBanner was furious and tried to put the fear of French Jesus in Kyotaro's heart before the fight by getting in the young Japanese fighter's face, but French Jesus doesn't exist in Japan. The first round was fairly even with both men landing. Jerome LeBanner tried to end the fight in the second and ended up blowing out, unable to finish the K1 HW champ. Kyotaro took the best that JLB had and returned the favor in the 3rd, pummeling his face and causing a broken nose. The Judges scored the fight a draw, Kyotaro was ready for the extended period but JLB walked out of the ring and backstage in protest. Everyone watching was left scratching their heads.

The next three bouts showed that the old guard still can compete Aerts, Siligia, and Schilt victorious over the young upstarts. The final fight was the one everyone was waiting for, with the sun coming up Alistair Overeem entered the ring to take on the K1 Oceana champ Ben Edwards. Prior to the fight, many pundits commented how this wasn't as easy of a fight as most thought, as Edwards was extremely heavy handed. Overeem quickly told those pundits to shut their whore mouths and proceeded to send Edwards to the canvas three times in just over two minutes.

I stay awake until 7am because while the UFC may not deliver as seen with UFC119, K1 will always showcase the best standup fighters in the world. I can forget about a shit UFC card when I have FEG booking their Grand Prix. I stay awake because while I still like the intricacies of the ground game, a highlight knock out will always excite me more than an armbar. I stay awake because everyone else does. I stay awake because at the end of the day, I am a degenerate.

K-1 Level Striking.....

OH MY GAWD!!! I really have no idea how Ben Edwards survived that Overhand Right. I'm still a neophyte when it comes to K-1, but I think I might have to watch more.

He Could Have Been Great: Jake Rosholt

As part of our mission to provide unique content, we'll be covering fighters that had the potential to be great but due to circumstance, never was able to fulfill their potential in a weekly piece we like to call "He could have been great". The first fighter discussed is Jake Rosholt, a 3x NCAA D1 Champion out of Oklahoma State University and Team Takedown member.

Some background about Team Takedown before discussing what could have been with Jake Rosholt's career. Team Takedown is a management company that pays their fighters a salary as well as provide food and shelter to take the worry of having bills out of the fighter's mind during training for SEVEN YEARS. In return on their investment, they take the fighter's purse and sponsorships. The fighters on their roster are all former OSU wrestlers with fantastic credentials and all train out of Las Vegas at Marc Laimon's Cobra Kai Jiu Jitsu.

Jake Rosholt is considered one of the best wrestlers to enter MMA, winning the NCAA D1 championships in his Freshman, Junior, and Senior years at OSU. He was a 4x All American and in his Sophomore year, he won the Big 12 championships. Needless to say, his wrestling pedigree is phenomenal. He went 4-0 fighting in smaller shows in Oklahoma before his management received a call from the Zuffa offices. Initially they wanted him to be a cast member of the Ultimate Fighter, as his overall marketability would have increased from the exposure on Spike TV. His management team decides to forgo the opportunity and instead signed a very odd deal with the WEC to fight in their Middleweight Division. Jake's deal required the WEC to book him on the televised portion of the card, which isn't the norm for prospects. Jake had one fight in the WEC against a Hawaiian fighter named Nissen Osterneck. During this fight Jake had difficulty dealing with Osterneck's stand up and was only able to win after getting the takedown and getting the TKO stoppage. This fight should have been where his management saw that Jake was not ready for the WEC. Unfortunately, when the Zuffa dissolved the WEC MW division, Jake's contract was transferred to the UFC.

The UFC contract had the same "televised bout" condition which meant that Joe Silva had to bring Jake along faster than he normally would with a highly touted prospect. His first fight in the UFC was supposed to be against Alessio Sakara, who is notorious for having horrific takedown defense. Unfortunately, Sakara withdrew due to injury and Jake faced Dan Miller instead. Honestly, who at Team Takedown thought this was a good idea? Dan Miller is the former IFL champion who is one of the most well rounded fighters in the Middleweight Division. Why would you accept a fight against him for your most promising fighter's SIXTH fight?! I look at this booking by the UFC as a way to show the Team Takedown management that if you want special considerations in contracts, you better deliver when offered fights.

Continuing the trend of throwing Jake to the sharks, Joe Silva booked his next fight against TUF1 vet and fan favorite Chris Leben. Chris Leben was returning from a suspension from testing positive for steroids in his fight against Michael Bisping and fans expected fireworks. Unfortunately Leben, who has under-rated takedown defense, was unable to stop Rosholt's takedown in the third round and was put to sleep with an arm-triangle choke. He was then matched up with TUF 3 winner Kendal Grove at UFC 106 in a fight many considered to be Grove's last chance to fight in the UFC. Jake was able to get an early takedown but dove into a triangle choke. The UFC management decided to cut ties with the OSU wrestler after going 1-2 in the organization with a relatively high paying contract the required the organization air his bouts.

Since his release from the organization, Jake has only fought once in a small organization in Oklahoma where he picked up a win over an unknown fighter whose current record on Sherdog's fightfinder is 11-11. One would think this is evidence of his management team now handling his career intelligently, but you'd be wrong. His next fight is against Matt Horwich on November 12th in a fight I fully expect Horwich to win.

So here's to you Jake Rosholt, you could have been great but your management team valued short term gains in exchange for your growth as a fighter. You are now known as the biggest failure in the Team Takedown stable of fighters.

What I learned from WEC 51

Here are some quick thoughts on last nights Matches:

- Zhang Tie Quan lived up to his hype and was probably boost for Zuffa's Chinese office.

- Oh, Leonard Garcia. We all love your Haymakers or GTFO approach to fighting, but that sh*t will get you picked apart once you stop fighting the WEC's B-Squad.

- Headshots really do stop zombies...in spectacular fashion. I remember talking to thisredengine a few months ago before Jung/Garcia I. We both agreed that Chan Sung Jung's plodding Zombie like style would get his ass knocked out. Taking Garcia's terribly thrown punches is one thing, but you can't do that with someone that has good striking. Don't get me wrong, I'm still a fan. I've just been brought back to reality.

- I knew that I'd seen Miguel Torres' New Stance somewhere. He jacked that from M. Bison. Good to see him win again though. That Body Triangle was serious business.

- Donald Cerrone embraced his hatred and unleashed the Dark Side on Jamie Varner last night. He beat the bricks off'em. He still needs to improve on his head movement though.

- JOSEALDO!!!!!!! I will admit, I had a flashback of Rashad rocking Rampage when Manny landed that first punch. Annnndddd then the 1st leg kick landed, and all was right in the cosmos. Seriously, who can beat him? He trains with Sandro, so that's not happening. Who I ask you? WHO??!?!

- Lastly, I ♥ the WEC.

Follow me on Twitter, @DeoWade

George Roop: The Man Who Stopped A Zombie Apocalypse!

After the amazing fight that was Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung at WEC 48: Aldo vs. Faber, everyone was expecting the experienced Korean fighter who has faced tough competition in Japan with a win over Michihiro Omigawa and a close decision loss that some have called a robbery to Masanori Kanehara to run through George Roop. George Roop is a fighter who was completely forgettable on TUF 8 and dropped from 155 to 145 after a 1-2 run in the UFC. He lost a decision to Eddie Wineland and drew against Leonard Garcia in the WEC making his overall record in Zuffa run organizations 1-3-1 until tonight. Needless to say, absolutely no one thought he stood a shot against Jung.

The first round was action packed with the Zombie moving forward with his hands down and throwing haymakers only to get peppered with jabs from the lengthy American fighter. The round ended in a nice exchange and score cards had to have Roop up 10-9 for damage and pace. The second round saw Jung come out the aggressor and missing everything that he threw. Roop landed a massive switch kick to the chin and the Korean Zombie was out before his head bounced off the mat.

The WEC is now in a precarious situation, they have a marketable fighter now 0-2 in the organization in their deepest division. Sean Shelby is now faced with the tough decision of either setting up a complete squash match for Jung or cutting his losses and letting him return to Japan where he will fade into obscurity in a dying MMA scene. My expectation is a final chance for Jung to pick up a win against a fighter like Cole Province. George Roop just jumped up the rankings and if they weren't teammates, I'd say a perfect fight would be against Mark Hominick.

Leason learned today? George Romero was right. The only way to kill a Zombie is with a shot to the head.