Cage Talk – MMA – All The Latest Mixed Martial Arts News

(Video courtesy YouTube/lookoutawhale)

If lookoutawhale doesn't do video editing for a living, he has to be one of the best weekend warriors out there making MMA-themed comedy classics. His Knee to Crotch Party, GSP is Not Impressed at Awards and the History of the Nipple Tweak videos are must sees.

In honor of K-1's surprise announcement that Todd Duffee will be taking on K-1 OWGP winner and Strikeforce heavyweight champ Alistair Overeem, Whale put together this sweet little Sega Genesis Mortal Combat throwback that should help make it a bit easier for you to trudge through hump day.

News Alistair Overeem, lookoutawhale, Mike Russow, MMA video, Mortal Combat, Todd Duffee

(Propers: YouTube/UFC)

Would it surprise you much if we told you Gray Maynard’s UFC 125 video blog wasn’t – how do we put this – the most exciting thing in the world? Nope, the No. 1 contender for the UFC lightweight title just kind of grinds this one out. Give Maynard some credit for tooling around Vegas in a black-on-black Caddy with dark tinted windows and retiring to what appears to be his very sweet condo to play with his dogs, but that’s about as exhilarating as this one gets. At one point, dude makes a sandwich. Open-face. Peanut butter and banana on a rice cake. In a four-minute video, it takes about a minute. And that’s sort of a metaphor for the whole thing.

Anyway, we know it’s still officially the holiday weekend and you’re still trying to ease back into this thing, so after the jump you’ll find a smattering of weekend videos to keep you entertained. Think of it as like our Xmas gift to you. Our Xmas gift for you that we stole from other places without so much as a tremor of good conscience. Hey, we never said we were nice guys.

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News Alistair Overeem, Gray Maynard, Josh Thomson, Roy Nelson, Video Evidence

(No, really, I love it. It's much better than something practical like a new hoodie or pair of glasses.")

Since it's the holidays and we haven't been spitting out as many Photoshops as we used to, we figured it would be appropriate to put together a collection of illustrations depicting what a handful of fighters and MMA luminaries are angling for this Christmas, Hanukah, Kwanzaa or putting up with obnoxious relatives just so you can get a crappy token gift day.

The possibilities were pretty much endless, but these are the best we could come up with on an hour's notice.

Enjoy.

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News Alistair Overeem, Ben Goldstein, Brock Lesnar, Scott Coker, Strikeforce, Todd Duffee, UFC

(Todd Duffee does curls for the girls and testosterone replacement therapy for his opponents. PicProps: XPE Sports)

Alistair Overeem’s New Year’s Eve bout with recently exiled UFC malcontent Todd Duffee is officially going down, according to a report out Thursday morning from MMA Fighting.com’s Ariel Helwani. Overeem’s status for the event was confirmed yesterday as rumors of the Duffee fight simultaneously began to percolate. At first it appeared the honchos at FEG wanted to keep the identity of The Reem’s opponent secret – at least until they’d, we don’t know, slipped Duffee through customs in a giant duffle bag marked “Perishable Goods” or something like that – but then the fighter himself let the cat out of the bag by posting (and immediately deleting) a message on his Facebook page.

Smooth move, T-Duff. Hey, since it's the holiday season, please allow us to express our heartfelt thanks for social media and the unfettered opportunity it provides fighters to broadcast the worst parts of their personalities and prematurely release time-sensitive information to the public without checking with anyone (anyone at all) beforehand. Without you, beloved Facebook and Twitter, this sport wouldn’t be nearly as fun. Isn't that right, Marcus Davis?

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News Alistair Overeem, K-1 Dynamite!! NYE 2010, NYE, Todd Duffee

(Ishii misunderstood the SEG reps when they offered for him to sign for a K-1 bout with LeBanner. He thought he was signing for to get a K-1 belt with LeBanner.)

In keeping with Japanese tradition of announcing bouts at the last minute,  K-1 revealed the majority of its competitors for its FieLDS Dynamite!! show on New Year's Eve at a special press conference held in Japan last night.

Besides the rumored featherweight championship bout between champion Bibiano Fernandes and Hiroyuki Takaya and welterweight title tilt between Marius  Zaromskis and Kazushi Sakuraba, SEG also confirmed Satoshi Ishii vs. Jerome Le Banner, Sergei Kharitonov vs. Tatsuya Mizuno, Shinya Aoki vs. Yuichiro Nagashim, Kyotaro Fujimoto vs. Gegard Mousasi and Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Josh Thomson among among other bouts.

They also announced that Strikeforce heavyweight champion and K-1 Open Weight Grand Prix winner Alistair Overeem will be on the card against a yet-to-be-named opponent and that depending on the caliber of his  challenger, the fight could be for the DREAM heavyweight strap. Bobby Lashley and Todd Duffee are the two leading candidates to face The Reem, but according to sources, an announcement likely won't happen until next week as they are working through a few hurdles with their number one choice.

A strange addition to the card is a pro wrestling bout between Bob Sapp and Shinichi Suzukawa which will be contested under Antonio Inoki's Inoki Genome Federation (IGF) rules. At least it will give us a chance to go to the washroom and to grab a sandwich and a beer.
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News Alistair Overeem, Josh Thomson, K-1 Dynamite!! NYE 2010, Satoshi Ishii

Well it looks like his detractors won't be able to call Alistair Overeem a can crusher after New Year's Eve.

According to heavyweight prospect Todd Duffee, he and the the Strikeforce and 2010 K-1 Grand Prix champion will meet in Japan that night as the main event of Fields' K-1 Dynamite!! show.

Duffee made the announcement via his Facebook page, but quickly took the post down, but not before we grabbed a screenshot of the message in which he asked, "Have no plans on NYE? Dream Dynamite 2010: Duffee VS Overeem on HDnet!!!"

The 6-1 Evansville, Indiana native, who only fought once this year and was dropped by the UFC for his "bad attitude" according to the promotion's president Dana White, has not fought since being knocked out by Mike Russow in the third round at UFC 114 after pounding on the Chicago, Illinois native for the first twelve and a half minutes of the fight. He's scheduled to face 6-3 TUF 10 veteran Abe Wagner under the Titan Fighting Championship banner on January 29.

Overeem (33-11-1) has been equally as inactive in MMA this year, logging just one fight against Brett Rogers, whom he defeated by TKO in just under four minutes at Strikeforce: Heavy Artillery in St Louis, Missouri in May.

The fight has not officially been announced, but Overeem stated last week that he was hoping for a decent opponent and that he was hoping that DREAM would put their heavyweight belt up as the prize for the winner if the match-up was belt-worthy and this fun little scrap fits the bill.

News Alistair Overeem, DREAM, K-1 Dynamite!! NYE, Todd Duffee

(Surprise, Strikeforce may be making a mistake with matchmaking.)

I never thought I'd ever speak out against a grand prix tournament, but because the proposed Strikeforce heavyweight tournament has so many question marks surrounding it, I'm almost hoping it doesn't happen.

When Scott Coker mentioned earlier this year that Strikeforce was either going to piss or get off the pot when teasing its fans with heavyweight fights that never seem to come to fruition because of those crazy Russians for whatever reason, I thought he meant it.

What Sco-Co should have said was, "We'll likely milk the current roster for whatever we can and if we can make the fights fans want to see, then we will, but we likely won't."

According to Tatame, the California-based promotion is planning on stretching the tournament over three events and will likely anchor Strikeforce's foray into pay-per-view TV -- a move necessitated by the fact that it's unlikely that CBS will be having them back on network TV in 2011 and the costs of greasing the pockets of M-1 Global for each Fedor-featured event are likely more than most Russians make in their lives.

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News Alistair Overeem, Bigfoot Silva, Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, M-1 Global, Sco-Co, Sergei Kharitonov, Strikeforce

(Oh yeah. The person who made this wallpaper just *gets it*.)

After months of negotiations between Strikeforce and Fedor Emelianenko's useless management company, the Last Emperor may finally have a return date. According to MMA Weekly, Emelianenko will face fellow heavyweight contender Antonio Silva at a yet-unannounced January 29th Strikeforce event. It will be Emelianenko's first fight since his shocking submission loss to Fabricio Werdum in June. Silva also dropped a fight to Werdum last November, but has posted wins over Andrei Arlovski and Mike Kyle since then. Emelianeko is already 1-0 against fighters with acromegaly.

The January 29th event is expected to take place at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, and will allegedly feature the return of Herschel Walker, and — get this — the third meeting between Jason Miller and Tim Kennedy, now that the trash talk between Miller and Nick Diaz has officially reached a stalemate, with neither fighter willing to leave their weight class.

But enough about non-freak-show fights. Let's get to the good stuff...

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News Alistair Overeem, Antonio Silva, Bobby Lashley, bookings, dynamite 2010, Fedor Emelianenko, Rumors, Strikeforce

(Propers: YouTube/zikobeetlejuice)

Alistair Overeem clearly does most of the heavy lifting during the first two rounds of last night’s K-1 2010 World Grand Prix tournament final. After edging Tyrone Sprong via close(ish) decision in the quarterfinals and surviving a game but overmatched Gokhan Saki in the semis, the outcome is basically in the books for The Reem against 40-year-old Peter Aerts in the championship. As you can see in the above vid, Overeem is so sure he has Aerts down and out with a flurry early in the first round that he’s already standing on the ropes preparing to celebrate as the referee is issuing the count.

People who actually know stuff about K-1 contend Overeem was the odds-on favorite to win the GP anyway  – and indeed he looks like the smart choice in each of these three fights – but it’s still pretty damn impressive to see the erstwhile MMA fighter stalking down and roughing up these professional punch-fighters at what we’re led to believe is the highest level. When it’s all said and done, surprisingly quiet color commentator “King Mo” Lawal even proclaims Overeem “the combat sports athlete of the year, hands down.” Kind of hard to argue with that, after this display.

Overeem’s back-and-forth slugfest with Sprong and his bout with Golden Golory teammate Saki – which Michael Schiavello dubs “Kebabs vs. Horse Meat” – are obviously the better fights. Sprong appears to have Overeem’s number early (and we can’t help but notice that The Reem is kind of allowed to cheat his ass off in that one), while Saki comes out and tries to do some video game shit during their entertaining scrap. It almost works. Those vids are after the jump.

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News Alistair Overeem, grand prix, K-1

Werdum talks Ubereem - Watch more Funny Videos

After a hard workout at Rafael Cordeiro's Kings MMA gym in Huntington Beach, Strikeforce heavyweight contender Fabricio Werdum sat down with CagePotato West Coast correspondent Ruben Vera to discuss his health and Strikeforce return. If all goes according to plan, Werdum says he'll be back in March, fighting Alistair Overeem for the heavyweight title. Werdum and Overeem met once before at Pride Total Elimination Absolute in May 2006, with Werdum winning by second-round kimura. At the time, Werdum says he had zero standup training to speak of. Now, he's a more complete fighter, and is certain that he'll finish Overeem in the first round of their rematch. "Overeem is my son, there's no problem" Werdum says with a laugh.

Other notes: His elbow is in good shape, and he's currently going through physical therapy following his recent surgery. He doesn't consider himself the world's #1 heavyweight after upsetting Fedor Emelianenko in June — he still thinks Fedor is #1, though Cain Velasquez is right up there. As for Saturday's fights, Werdum predicts that his training partner Babalu Sobral will defeat Dan Henderson in the main event, and tells us to keep an eye on the undercard fighter Fernando Bettega.

News Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, MMA interviews, Ruben Vera, Strikeforce, Videos, videos interviews

(Jeez, Georges, casual Friday? Vid courtesy of ESPN.)

Some selected highlights from our friends around the MMA blogosphere. E-mail feedback@cagepotato.com for details on how your site can join the MMA Link Club...

- Helwani vs. Dundas: MMA Awards Edition (Versus MMA Beat)

- 'Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu' Media Conference Call Highlights (LowKick)

- UFC-WEC Merger Brings Excitement, Warning About Jobs on the Line (MMA Fighting)

- CSAC’s George Dodd Pokes Holes In Chael Sonnen’s Rumored Testosterone Defense (MMA Convert)

- Prodigimon: Which BJ Penn Will You Get on Fight Night? (MiddleEasy)

- Mike Swick and Frank Shamrock Engage in Online War of Words (Five Ounces of Pain)

- Anthony Pettis Discusses 'Fast Track to a UFC Title' (FIGHT! Magazine)

- Alistair Overeem Discusses Steroid Accusations With Michael "The Voice" Schiavello" (MMA Scraps)

- Sean McCorkle Addresses Internet Fame, Trash Talk, and Stefan Struve (Heavy.com/MMA)

- Joe Rogan Calls MMA Writer a 'F*ggot', Internet Explodes (SBNation.com/MMA)

News Alistair Overeem, bj penn, Chael Sonnen, Georges St. Pierre, Joe Rogan, Misc., MMA link club, Sean McCorkle, Strikeforce: Henderson vs. Babalu

(Video courtesy Vimeo/TheReem)

While speaking with Golden Glory founder and manager Bas Boon a couple weeks ago, I told him how much the Potato Nation was digging The Reem series and I asked him if there were any plans to profile other GG fighters like Marloes Coenen, Sergei Kharitonov or Semmy Schilt in a similar fashion. 

According to Boon, the cost of making The Reem (which is completely produced out of pocket by his company) is very high as they have had to hire a crew to follow Alistair 24-7. Although it isn't something he says they are working on at the moment,  he says he hasn't closed the door on the notion altogether.

This isn't the only fan-centric initiative Golden Glory has put on.

If you recall, the Holland-based gym also streamed its Glory MMA and kickboxing event last month for free, although they could have easily charged fans to watch it. Boon told us that the reasoning behind the decision was that they simply wanted to increase the exposure of their fighters and the sport, which is why they decided to give it away.

We need more people involved in MMA who value the fans as much as Golden Glory does.

News Alistair Overeem, Japan, K-1, The Reem, web documentary

Oh man, you thought last week's Rumor Funhouse was grossly irresponsible? You guys have no idea what's in store for you. Today's installment features five warm 'n fuzzy tales, all about the romantic bond. Four of them have been completely made up, either by us or by other people. One of them is actually legit. Can you separate the bullshit from the chicken salad? (That's what they say down South, right?) Read on if you dare. Actually, don't. Just move along. You'll be a lot better off for it...

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News Alistair Overeem, bj penn, Dana White, Matt Hughes, MMA rumors, Randy Couture, rumor funhouse, Rumors

("By my calculation this guy is number 12 right behind Chris Tuchscherer, Anthony Perosh and Mike Russow.")

Does anyone else get the feeling that whenever Dana White loses out on getting a fighter he has been coveting, he badmouths said fighter to help soften the blow to his ego?

Remember when he thought he was close to signing Fedor Emelianenko and he came around, admitting that "The Last Emperor" was a pretty good fighter, only to turn around and call the Russian "a mythological creature made up by the MMA media?"

Well, according to The Baldfather, apparently Alistair Overeem is now a piece of shit fighter who doesn't deserve to be in the top ten of any media outlets' heavyweight rankings, despite the fact that White has been courting the K-1 star for some time to sign with the UFC.

Here's what Dana had to say to MMAJunkie about Overeem's universally accepted top-ten ranking:

"Listen, I like Alistair Overeem. I see him all the time. Cool guy. But there's no urgency on my part to get him into the UFC. I actually find it hilarious that he's ranked in the top 10 by some of the websites. I find it hilarious. What has he done in MMA to be ranked in the top 10? I'd like somebody here to answer that question. We've got a lot of media guys here; what has Alistair Overeem done to be ranked in the top 10 of mixed martial arts' heavyweight division? How do you figure? Because he's such a good K-1 fighter (that) he can parlay that into being a mixed-martial-arts fighter? That's what makes the mixed-martial-arts media fucking stupid – that they would even rank this guy in the top 10 because he's fighting in K-1," White said. "That makes absolutely no fucking sense sense, and I would love to hear somebody make sense of this guy being ranked in the top 10. Has he fought anybody worth mentioning? Uh, yeah that would help. Guys that fight the top guys in the top 10, three times a year in mixed martial arts – those are the guys that are ranked in the top 10. How bout the fact that he's fighting in K-1, where you just kick and punch? There's no wrestling, there's no this, and there's no that. How does any credible fucking MMA guy put him in the top 10 in the heavyweight division? It's hilarious."

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News Alistair Overeem, Dana White, flip flop, he sucks this month but last month he was one of the top fighters., I didn't want him anyway

(Smile, and the whole world smiles with you. Except for Scott Coker, who might be throwing himself off a bridge at this point. / Photo courtesy of sports.sho.com)

With his left elbow healthy again following surgery, you'd figure that Fabricio Werdum would be itching to get back in action and challenge Alistair Overeem for Strikeforce's heavyweight title, or take that rematch with Fedor Emelianenko that he wanted for some reason. Well, yes and no. Yes, he wants to fight. But no, he's not going to fight any of those dudes in Strikeforce — mainly because he doesn't have to. Werdum laid out the situation to Sherdog in an article about his recent BJJ seminar world tour:

“I used this trip to make a couple of good contacts in Abu Dhabi and Japan. Strikeforce want me to return in March against Fedor [Emelianenko] or [Alistair] Overeem, but I'm looking forward to having a fight before that one. I don’t have an exclusive contract with Strikeforce, only for the U.S., and I got a nice proposal in Abu Dhabi and another one in Japan...My arm is 100 percent now and I feel that by February, I'll be ready to fight in Abu Dhabi or Japan."

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News Alistair Overeem, Fabricio Werdum, Fedor Emelianenko, Strikeforce