Issue 034
February 2008
Forrest Griffin and Rampage Jackson have been announced as coaches for the seventh season of The Ultimate Fighter, which Dana White keeps promising will be totally different to past series. In regards to a fight between Forrest and Rampage as a climax to the season, can we just say “Sweet!”.
There is definitely more to the Randy Couture situation than meets the eye. He said it was about money, then he said it was about respect, now he’s just plain refusing to fight, turning down a fight with Antonio ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira. We’re disappointed, as this could mean he gives up his belt (again).
EliteXC continues rolling out the contracts. Examples: Heavy-handed former UFC middleweight Scott Smith has joined Pro Elite, while Antonio ‘Big Foot’ Silva, Jake Shields and Murillo ‘Ninja’ Rua have all signed extensions on their existing contacts.
It seems Evan Tanner is back in the UFC. Having gone AWOL for much of the last two years, he’s back in training and is said to have signed a four-fight deal.
Big John McCarthy has quit as the game’s greatest referee to take a job as a broadcaster with Canadian channel The Fight Network. We’re still gutted, but at least he’s not given up the game completely.
Gina Carano, currently flying the flag for women’s MMA, has taken a bizarre second job as a new American Gladiator, appropriately entitled ‘Crush’.
Vitor Belfort has been dissing Cage Rage and is apparently in talks to return to the UFC. We’ll believe it when we see it, but we like the fact that Vitor has been quoted as saying he wants to “rip [Tito Ortiz’s] big head off”.
Bob Sapp is saying he’ll return and will fight on American soil in February. Headlining a Strikeforce event in Washington State, no opponent has yet been named. We wonder if he’ll pull out of this fight like he has his last few?
Tito Ortiz has said he’s not fighting again until May. It seems injuries, TV show appearances and travelling to Iraq to visit troops takes up most of his time nowadays, not to mention hanging out with his ex-porn star girlfriend.
By Ryan Harkness, fightlinker.com
If you feel like being depressed, you should go check out the article on Sammy Vasquez on Sherdog.com. In fact, I think we probably owe it to take the time to fully acknowledge and actually feel something for someone who died fighting in MMA. I know that up until reading this article I hadn’t really allowed the story to connect.
Lots of people are going wah-wah about the type of coverage or lack of coverage regarding Vasquez’s death, but really what is there to say? From all accounts it was a complete fluke… There is no fault to be laid at the feet of either fighter, the officials, the medical staff… Anyone. Shit like this happens and people want a reaction, but there’s really nothing to react to. Rules were in place. Safety procedure was followed. Someone still died.
People die doing dangerous things all the time, be it driving to their girlfriend’s place on a Sunday night or jumping out of a plane at 10,000 feet. People will always say the person driving the car died a more tragic death, because unlike the sky diver, he wasn’t doing anything inherently dangerous and life threatening. But that’s just a dumb subconscious buffer… A car is a deadly thing that kills thousands every week around the world.
So to me, the lesson people should take away from the death of Sammy Vasquez is that MMA is a dangerous sport, and the people fighting can still die despite the best intentions and precautions. People like to say that MMA is safe. No, it’s not. Most of the people involved do the most they can to make it as safe as it can be, but in the end it’s still two guys beating the shit out of each other. The least we can do is drop the pretence (at least amongst ourselves outside earshot of mainstream media).
RIP Sammy Vasquez.
