Issue 094
November 2012
UFC middleweight Vitor Belfort is a shaving product vigilante. He and a band of his fighter buddies, recently appeared in an advert for the Gillette shaving range in Brazil, where he intimidates a shopper into buying a Gillette disposable razor. The nerdy-looking customer reaches for a yellow-colored no-name brand before the ex UFC light heavyweight champ smashes his head through the shelving partition and verbally berates the chap.
Belfort’s cohorts join in and the man quickly succumbs to peer pressure and opts for Gillette. Google told FO the advert’s catch line, ‘Vai amarelar? Ou vai de Gillette?’ means, ‘Will turn yellow? Or will the Gillette?’ We get it… we think.
London, England: Mixed martial arts makes the Olympics
After a short campaign, mixed martial arts has (kind of) already become an Olympic event – as a sub-discipline of women’s soccer. It appears the use of grappling and striking attacks was permitted for use in the female portion of the ball game discipline at this year’s London 2012 Games, where the women chose to engage each other with sweep kicks, clinch work and trip takedowns through the tournament.
Most effective, however, was USA striker Alex Morgan who stone-cold KO’d New Zealand goalkeeper Jenny Bindon with a running knee to the head of her grounded opponent in the tournament quarter-finals. With the US team 1-0 up and 17 minutes of regulation left to play, Morgan blasted Bindon with her left knee as she leapt over the sliding keeper on the edge of the penalty area. An entirely unconscious Bindon lay on the field for several minutes. Remarkably, Bindon was able to play on and Team USA was not deducted a point.
UFC not Hawaii-bound soon, says White
A long rumored UFC visit to Hawaii is not in the promotion’s immediate future, company president Dana White told reporters recently. As far back as 2008 the UFC has mooted the idea, with the 50,000-capacity, open-air Aloha Stadium the likely venue.
White has long wanted to take a card headlined by Hawaiian star BJ Penn to the US state, but revealed it was no longer on the cards even though he’s fond of the concept. “I’d love to go to Hawaii,” said White. “I’d love to go there and do an event. It kind of scares me to be outside. It rains every 15 minutes out there.”
MMA has been popular in Hawaii for decades, homing promotions IconSport, Rumble on the Rock and, reportedly, pre-UFC events.
Bellator scores MMA-best Russian TV deal
Furthering MMA’s worldwide expansion, US promotion Bellator has signed the largest Russian TV deal of any MMA organization. Bellator, home to Russia-based talent like middleweight Alexander Shlemenko, will be broadcast on the R2 sports channel, which is available in 83 million homes. Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney said of the agreement: “R2 carries the world’s greatest sports to Russian viewers. So, aligning Bellator with this industry giant is another very exciting step forward in the evolution of the Bellator brand worldwide.”
The 45-7 Shlemenko said it was an honor to have Bellator screening in his home nation. “I take a lot of pride in my family and friends being able to watch my fights.”
7 of 7
Recent retiree Kenny Florian had a perfect record when attempting rear naked chokes. He got the tap with all seven he attempted in the UFC according to FightMetric.
1,168ft
While promoting their UFC 152 bout, Michael Bisping and Brian Stann squared off 1,168ft above Toronto’s streets on the ‘EdgeWalk’ of the city’s CN Tower, one of the world’s tallest towers.
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