B.A., Hannibal, Murdoch and Face

The first photos from the Vancouver set of the new A-Team movie have been published by London’s Daily Mail.

Now look, I didn’t give a shit about the new Gi-Joe movie and you couldn’t pay me to sit through another Transformers movie after barely surviving the first 20 minutes of the previous one. But an A-Team movie? An A-Team movie with Quinton “Rampage” Jackson as B.A. Baracus? This has the makings to be a piece of art.

A piece of art with lots and lots of ‘splosions!

Fedor is always ready to fight. Even at the park!

So Affliction has called it quits in the fight promotion business after the cancellation of their upcoming pay-per-view. While failing to find a suitable victim for their heavyweight champ Fedor Emelianenko – after Josh Barnett was revealed to be on the juice! – the company realized they were bleeding cash by the second and tapped out, thus proving once again that it’s impossible for an MMA promoter in the States to run up against the UFC. Elite couldn’t do it with a primetime network TV deal, Bodog couldn’t do it will a reckless billionaire investor and Affliction couldn’t do it with Fedor  as their champion.

Jonathan Snowden at mmapayout.com has his own compelling theory as to what killed Affliction however – he blames Randy Couture.

The upside of all of this is that it could pave wave the way for Fedor to fight Brock Lesnar to determine the true undisputed heavyweight champion. Which would be insane. Fedor’s team is reportedly in the US and willing to meet with UFC boss Dana White. What happens now will depend not on strength or fighting styles, but upon money and the big Russian’s willingness to cede control of his career to White’s American empire.

To deal with Fedor is to deal with his entourage as well as the numerous strings they’ve already attached. White would be nuts to sign any fighter – let alone one who might beat his champ – to a one fight contract. But Fedor wants to be able to make his own decisions about who to fight, not have his fight card handed to him by a boss. It’s a unique situation and one that would never exist were it not for the fact that White sees two things in Fedor: dollar bills and perhaps the greatest heavyweight fighter of all time.

Fedor vs. Hong Man Choi

So this is weird...

Tag Team Back Again! Straight from the “MMA today is really just the old days of pro-wrestling” department – Tag-Team MMA! Seriously!

The flaws with this sort of match arrangement are obvious from the start – whoever manages to catch the first tag gains a huge advantage and once one team member is tapped, the other is basically left in a handicap match against two opponents.

Purists will see this as a bastardization of the sport and I’d be hard pressed to disagree. Still, one can’t help but imagine how exciting such pairings might be in the UFC should Dana White ever lose his mind completely.

Heavyweight Champion of the World

re: my picks… 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, though GSP/Pitbull went to decision after five rounds I was right on calling Lesnar over Mir as a 2nd round TKO. And FWIW I did pick Henderson  once I saw how skinny Bisping looked at 185. But yeah, blew that one.

Also — Lesnar’s post match promo ripping on Bud Lite, the fans and most of the rest of the world was pure genius. A fiery, hilarious rant that infuriated MMA purists and delighted the fans that have followed him from his days in WWE. Anyhow, now everyone of course has to pretend to be horrified by the whole thing and so here is Brock apologizing…

"My bad."

Lesnar taps for the last time ever.

Easily the biggest fight card of the year and likely the biggest PPV in UFC history, UFC 100 should be an awesome night featuring some of the best fighters in the world.  Predictions for the three marquee match-ups…

Brock Lesnar over Frank Mir for the Heavyweight Championship by second round TKO stoppage; GSP over Thiago Alves for the Welterweight Championship by third round submission; Michael Bisping over Matt Henderson in a battle of TUF coaches by decision.

I’ll be back later to brag about the accuracy of my calls.

The Value of Determination

Not fun.

Two relatively unknown fighters, Toby Imada and Jorge Masvidal, squared off back in May at the Bellator Fighting Championships IV. Despite getting his face mashed into putty in the first two rounds, Imada came back in the third with an inverted triangle choke that may very well be the submission of the year. Brutal yet ingenious, it highlights something MMA has taught me again and again over the years – just because someone looks to be losing doesn’t mean they are. And the fight ain’t over until it’s over.

The Infliction of Pain

Sylvester P. Smythe

As a kid, Cracked was my favourite magazine ever. Every issue was hilarious and timely and far, far more awesome than Mad, which seemed like a nasty old relic from the 70s. Anyhow, kids can’t read anymore and so Cracked stopped publishing after a failed revamp a few years ago. Like all of life, it’s on the web now though, and it’s where you’ll find this very rad list of the Top 8 ‘Oh Shit!’ Moments from Mixed Martial Arts by Legendary Internet Something-or-other seanbaby.