We review WEC 47 - Bowles Vs Cruz.
Also news, including the brewing conflict between Strikeforce and the UFC/WEC for the coveted April 17 show date!
The Hammer MMA Radio
The HAMMAR - March 10, 2010 Show!
(upbeat music) - Good evening and welcome to the Hammer live at 93.3. - This is WCFMU, we are back on our regular show time of Wednesday evenings at seven. I am your host Dave, joined us always by. - Greg, how's it going guys? - And Steve, hey. - So we had the WVC card on this Saturday, WVC 47, that is a world extreme cage fighting. Now this is the light weight, or the lightest weight divisions is still owned by the UFC, but it's basically the Phantom weights, the Feather weights, and a few of the light weights who have not yet made their break into UFC. - And a really exciting organization. - Very, very exciting. - Every show I've seen of theirs has been awesome. And this one was no exception. - I think that's a reflection of the fact that, when you have the lighter weight divisions, you have people with a lot more cardio, a lot more quickness, so it creates fast pace fights, whereas a lot of the heavy weight fights are, you know. - They're fast paced, but it's also the fact that a lot of the fights get finished too. And they're just, like a lot of people criticize the lighter weighted fighters and say, "Oh, they can't finish, they can't finish." So a lot of these guys finish and they finish hard. Well, that's the thing with the UFC. I love the light weight division, but the light weight guys, a lot of those fights go to decision, just because they just don't have the strength. - They go to the decision, or it winds up being just a massacre with VGA 10s involved, so. - So Dave, what do we see on the WC card? - So what we saw on the WC card, the original fight was Ricardo Lamas defeating Bendy Kazmir. Courtney, I'm sorry, Fredson Pacquiao defeated Courtney Buck. Garcia and Rup fought to a split draw. - This is a George Rup from all the fights. - Yeah, it's a bit fighter, yeah. - And he's cut down to the feather weight. He actually looked to be winning this fight, but he got docked a point for shots to the groin. - To Garcia, so it-- - There was a lot of that on this show. I know there was a lot of groin shots. - People get a little bit sloppy with a low kick. - Yeah. - So you had Anthony Pettis defeating Anthony, or for defeating Danny Castillo, Anthony Castillo is someone else. - This was a crush kick. - Yes. - You guys saw that kick, right? That kick was awesome. - This was like a murderous roundhouse kick to the head. - Yeah. - A murderous roundhouse kick to the head, followed by repeated punches to like a lifeless body. - It was kind of ugly too. Like it just, he was like just, he just got slapped inside the head with like his foot bone. - Well, it was his shin, it was a lower part of his shin. That's why it just knocked the hell out of him. And it was incredible. Like every time they showed it in slow motion, I made a noise. - It was a different noise every time. - And they showed that kick like 10 times in replay. - Oh yeah. - It was like, oh, ah, ah. - And this is a beautiful example of someone who knows how to throw a high kick, 'cause he set it up with some shots to the body. The second that Castillo dropped his hands, Pettis just went high, kicked him right in the face, and that's the fight. - Yeah. - That's what it was over. So that was an extremely interesting fight. Very quick. - Did that win off over the night? I haven't seen the bonus yet. This one did win their knocker of the night, yes. - Well, I knew. - And well, GM surprised. You never know, though. Yeah, that's true. - So yes, Anthony Pettis walked home with $10,000 in addition to his $6,000 for winning the fight. So he gets a $16,000 payday with knocker of the night. And also Garcia and Rup was the fight of the night with another $10,000 bonus. - That's awesome. - Because they didn't near that one. - I think it was because of time, they had five cards. - You noticed all the undercard ones that they showed. They were all quick and short. They were one round fights. - Yeah, that makes sense, I guess. - So we go forward to Scott Jorgensen versus Chad George. Now, Jorgensen and George are both very colorful fighters. Both of them had opted in this fight to paint themselves with different colors in their mohawks. This was a very, very quick one. George came out for attempting for a shoot. Jorgensen grabbed him by the neck. - Big mistake. - He, George, is a very good wrestler. He took it right to a guillotine choke. George tried to power out of it and ended up pushing Jorgensen into it, even deeper guillotine choke against defense. At one point, George was off his feet entirely. 30 seconds, he collapsed, he was out. - Yeah, he finished off that guillotine. You were like, "Oh my God, he's killed him." He's dead, that's it. - This was one of the most brutal jokes I've seen. This is a very, very powerful looking choke from Jorgensen. So Jorgensen wins the fight, deservedly so, and this actually was the, no, it was not the submission of the night. - It deserved it. - You know what, there were a few this night that deserved submission of the night though. I mean, there were three possible candidates and I can think, I'm on the top of my head. We'll talk about those in a minute. - So then we go forward to Chad Mendez, defeating Eric Koch by unanimous decision, 30-27. This wasn't a particularly amazing fight, but we go forward from there to Karen Derabedien versus Bart Palaszky. - Polaszewski. - Sort of Polaszewski. Bart annihilated him in the first round. Karen came up with a lot of heavy strikes, knocked Bart down, was pounding him from guard, really, really looked to be in control and dominant. Bart was grappling bit from the dog from the bottom position, looking for an arm bar. He caught Karen's arm, flipped him over, and just branched back on it. It looked like he snapped Karen's arm. Karen goes out at four minutes and 40 seconds in round one. - Yeah, Karen looked pretty sore after that, but I don't know whether to call this an annihilation. I mean, the submission was very impressive, but Karen had control until that submission. Bart caught him, and this is my first failed call. I called Karen and there were a lot of failed calls by me. I really dropped the ball on this pay review or this show. - It looked like this would be your first right call, Karen, nice in control up to about four minutes and 30 seconds. - I was really worried though, because he looked like he was in control and Polaszewski kept on doing the spider legs and getting the triangles, and I'm like, "Be careful, Karen, be careful, you have to be careful." And what was also worrying me was, the announcers were saying that Polaszewski likes to come from behind. He gets a little bit pushed around in the early rounds, and then he comes back, so there were a lot of things worrying me, but then he just came up with this ridiculous submission, and he had as soon as he got his arm, I was like, "Oh God, I'm over one," you know, so. - And you certainly were for this evening. Bart wins with a very, very impressive submission on Bart. This is a beautiful looking arm bar, one of the best I've seen, so definitely another contender for submission of the night, but he did not get it. - This is the first I'd seen Bart fight, and I thought his submission had to have for great. No matter how much he was getting grounded and pounded, he was always going for something. - Something cool from the bottom. Tough guy, very cool head, yeah. Good fight, I really enjoyed it. - So then we go forward to Davidius Terracevic, versus-- - Terracevicius. - Terracevicius versus Elsie Davis, that one I can pronounce. (laughing) Now this was another very, very good fight to aggressive guys with good wrestling skills. We thought that Terracevicius was going to win, because of his very, very impressive strength. - I basically said that he was going to take, he was going to be ridiculously close, but Terracevicius was going to have a slight edge and probably win by decision. - And Elsie Davis is another very strong wrestler, managed to push Terracevicius up against the cage, hunt him with a lot of hard shots, a lot of punches, a lot of kicks. Davidius was fighting back really well with a lot of knees to the body, a lot of elbows. - And a good little bit of groin activity. - This was a lot of dirty boxing in this fight. The dirty boxing got especially dirty in round two. Davidius landed two consecutive knees to the groin. Elsie cried out in pain both times, but the ref called out, "I didn't see it, I've got to see it." Elsie Davis flipped them to a different position, putting Terracevicius against the cage, started punching him in the gut, and Davidius countered with another knee to the groin, which the ref also didn't see. So interesting attempt there. Now Elsie, after this, the commentary was commented that sometimes the guy gets fouled twice, and the rook doesn't get the call. He gets a little bit angry. Elsie definitely came out of this looking angry. - Yeah, definitely. - We made some good shots, some good takedowns, attempts, came out the third round, took Davidius to the ground, put him up against the cage, locked him up a little quite a bit, and ended up getting the majority decision win 29, 28, 29, 28 with one ref calling it a draw at 29, 29. - Was this the fight where they stood the two fighters up, where Terracevicius had a dominant position on the ground? - He was going for the plot. He was going for the own plot and then the ref stood him up. I would have preferred the ref, leave them, you know, grapple a little bit at that point. - I think it was Bonner on commentary, who said that actually that wasn't a great place to be, because the guy going for the submission, he wasn't, he was down on point so far on the fight. There's only 30 seconds to go, that even though he probably should have left him on the ground, he wasn't gonna finish him there. - Yeah, true. - I don't know, they could have done it, it didn't really matter. Do you guys think like this fight, it was kind of slow. - Yeah, I enjoyed it. - You know what, it was like a slow WEC fight, which is a great fight in any other measuring stick. - The crowd turned on it, far ago. - The crowd did turn it, but you know what, I think the WEC fans are a bit spoiled, because for them to boo that fight, I mean, that was still a great fight. - I really enjoyed it, yeah. - You know, like, you compare that to another grapple, like wrestle fest, like the couture vera fight, and I mean, that fight was, this fight was so much more exciting than that. It was so much more exciting. - Oh, in all fairness, I did turn on couture for that fight, 'cause I think couture has a very boring style, a lot of times. - Yeah, that's my point, yeah, that's my point. Like the couture vera wrestle fest, cage fest, was boring for me, but this fight was great. I mean, it was back and forth. It was so close, you didn't know who was gonna win. You know, I was like, "Go, DeVita's, go DeVita's, "I called you," and I lost again, and I went over two. - There was the occasional, uncalled groin shot for flavor. - Yeah, there's a little bit of drama going on there. - And yes, the fight did end with, after L.C. Davis pulled off an impressive takedown, DeVita's went to try to get into rubber guard, which is a leg behind the back of his opponent's neck, and attempted to pull an omelet plata. - Yep. - Davis was holding this off, was landing a couple of good shots to the body and head. It did not look like this fight was gonna end there, so the ref did stand it up, but I mean, it was a fair call in my opinion. It wasn't, I mean, it was certainly as fair as missing the two groin shots at L.C. - It was a fair call. I mean, DeVita's definitely had the upper, even though he was on the bottom, he had the upper hand in that position. I mean, I'm not saying he was going to finish him, but he looked like he was in control from the bottom. - It looked like he was progressing to something, but at the same time, he was on this back guard. - Yeah, and the fans had already started to turn on this fight a little bit, so I'm sure that that factored into it as well. - But if you were advancing your position, you shouldn't be stood up. - Yeah. - And he was. - He got it. - He was two seconds left, though, off an iron bar. There's no way. L.C. would have taken the arm break rather than to have another tap at that point. - So. - He would have pulled an effort. - So we go forward to Jen's Elievo Paulvar versus Javier Vasquez. - And this was a big fight for Jen's Paulvar. - This was a big fight for both of these guys. Jen's Paulvar has been on a five-fight losing streak. Well, he's a former UFC feather, or lightweight champion who's cut to featherweight. He's built as an MMA legend, and there's legitimate truth to that. Now, Javier Vasquez is an incredible submission artist, very, very good on the ground. He's won a lot of grappling and nagas and whatnot, but at the same time, he hasn't quite made his breaks in the MMA world due to being very light, and the featherweight's not getting a lot of tension. - Yeah. - So, Paulvar came out with a lot of striking, low to be doing okay, was foolish enough to overextend a little bit. Javier pulled the fight to the ground. Was foolish enough to go anywhere near the ground. - Javier, well, Paulvar managed to jump up and Javier managed to trip him from the ground with a leg. - Yep, it was really cool, look at that, it was cool. - Used his right foot to hook Paulvar's leg and yank it out from underneath him. Then, Javier jumped in the top position, and this is basically where the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu surgery began. - Oh, God, it was absolute surgery. Like, this was, it was beautiful. - It was all it was, it was art, it was just art. Like, it was art, totally. I mean, you could tell that Vasquez is amazing on the ground and Paulvar, I mean, he admitted himself that he's not the, he's not the ground guy, he's not a big ground guy. So, yeah, it was just, it was just a feast. The second he hit the ground, it was over. - Yeah, so, Javier advanced to guillotine, or sorry, advanced to crucifix position. So, I'm learning some hard elbows. Almost locked into guillotine. Paulvar rolled out of that, but in rolling out of that, managed to give up his back. And then, somehow from his back, Javier managed to twist him around and grab his arm, pulling off an armbar submission. Three minutes and 40 seconds in the first round. Paulvar gives up the fight. Javier Vasquez wins, which hopefully will mean something important for him, 'cause he is also a little bit older for the division. And then, in his post-fight interview, Paulvar said he loves the fans too much to keep losing in front of them, to ruin what they've remembered him for, that he loves his family too much, to put himself in them through the pain. - Yeah, man, I managed to gather that from that interview. I mean, it was kind of a haphazard interview. I don't blame the guy, I mean, I think he got all these guys' bell rung a little bit, so he wasn't really thinking properly. The emotion was getting to him, but man, he was stammering through that thing. - Yeah, I think it was emotional, but if you thank the fans, you thank the fans, and you thank Dana White, you said that a lot of people have a bad impression of Dana White. - He did promote his t-shirt. - Yeah, he did. - A couple of times. He promoted his t-shirt. He modeled after Mike Tyson's punch-in. - Yes. - So, but Paulvar, in his somewhat discombobulated speech, seems to have called it a day, and it says that he is going home now. So, Paulvar possibly is probably his last fight in my sports. - So, Paulvar's probably top three most popular guys in WBC, they can't really use him anymore because he can't win, does Strike Force grab him and start off a smaller division? - I don't think so. - Or do you just let him go? - I think that you would let him go. You know, to pay the guy something for his needs trouble, let's send him on his way. Unfortunately, I don't think at this point he'd be a wise investment for Strike Force just because he can't win. - Yeah, but the thing is, though, Strike Force, I mean, they're still at risk of losing the saucy, are they not? So, every name they can sort of soak up would probably help them out. And then I think, right now, I mean, Strike Force's biggest problem is that they just don't have a deep enough roster. So, yeah, okay, Jen's Paulver is having trouble in WBC, but, you know, get some depth in your roster, you know, he can only help. - Well, the other thing is, does Jen's Louisville, Paulver, want to go? - Yeah, that's the question. I mean, like, that's a totally different story. - He's older, he's been on six fights. He's now six fights, lost in a row. He's taking a lot of damage, taking a lot of hard shots. You know, and he didn't come out looking like a little evil in this. He didn't come out with his typical tattoos in Mohawk and whatnot. He just looked like a normal guy. I think they... - Well, I'm pretty sure he's still had his tattoos. - No, he actually has them on the sides of his head, which he normally shaves. - Yeah, I know, I know. - How do you guys care about going for this? So, well, he didn't have his tattoos. - Yes, he still did have his tattoos. They were hidden under hair. - Well, in any case, they were showing it out visible. I think he's basically ready to go and become an accountant. You know, like, I think he's done with the-- - Can you mention the commercials for that? Do you want your taxes done by a little evil? - Yeah. - So, Leaver, it works for you. - So, Paulver, in my estimation, I don't think he'd want to go to Strike Force. Even if Strike Force did want him, I think he's basically just going to call it a day. Hang up his clothes. - Yeah, it is probably the right move. - Probably the right move. - All I'm saying is if he wants to stick around, then Strike Force is not going to be a place for him to do it. Yeah, for sure. There's still a market for him, I think. - Yeah. Then we go forward to-- - Well, by the way, I actually, this was the one prediction I got right. - That was the one product you mentioned. - That's the one product you mentioned to call. He mentioned to call it the very old and-- (laughing) - Good job, Greg. - Well done, well done. Hey man, you know what, at least I went around and eliminated some calls. - No, we didn't. - No, I made a call or two. I was actually-- - A call or two, I made five. - I didn't recognize a lot of the fighters. - Well, there you go. - Yeah, so we go forward to Miguel Torres, or says Joseph Benavides. Now this was another one where we both made calls. We said that Torres was a very heavy-handed fighter, but Benavides was no joke and nothing to be underestimated. - Oh yeah, I agree. - And as it turns out, Benavides definitely no joke. Comes up with a beautiful guillotine choke after landing a couple hard shots that left his blood in. - Too much blood soaked Torres. Wow. - What did he bust him open with again? Was it an elbow? - An elbow, elbow, elbow, yeah. - Oh, he was, at one second he was bleeding. The next second he was covered in blood. It was instant. - This was an elbow to the wing of the eyebrow, I believe. - Yeah. - The eyebrow tends to bleed rather profusely. - Like it's face exploding. - Yeah, it was like, he looked like he was off of the descent. I mean, the box art for the descent. - Yeah, the box of the box of the descent. - So he was-- - Great movie by the way. - This is a little bit of a horror movie. Benavides rolled onto his back, grabbed the guillotine, and choked him out, and it was a beautiful chokeout. Benavides picks up the win. - Now Torres had this ridiculous height and reach advantage. - I know. - You know what, Torres like, I expected more from him, so did I, but-- - I really did. - They were mentioning Bonner and those guys on commentary. They were mentioning that he didn't look himself after his last fight either. - Yeah. - I think maybe he's just, he just hit a wall. - I thought he was gonna come out hard. I thought he was hungry, and he was gonna go after it, and he was gonna be ravenous, and he just go for it. - Thank you. - And Benavides just, he looked, yeah, he looked so cautious, and Benavides just jumped on him. Just absolutely jumped on him. - And if he was young, great. - Oh yeah. - And this is a reflection of, I think, Torres had said that he'd changed his training camp and was focusing more on his defensive wrestling. - Yeah. - He didn't come out fighting like a former Benavides champ. - No, he didn't. - Because Torres is known for his powerful striking. So he came out looking to be a little bit more defensive, and I think that tripped him up. - Oh yeah. - I don't think it worked well with what is-- - It comes out that he had an injury, he was sick or something, I wouldn't be surprised. - Oh, same here, totally. I agree. There's something just didn't look right with him. It really didn't-- - So then it's a big win for Benavides. - Huge win. - Huge win. - He's getting the next title shot. - Absolutely. This was actually-- - Actually official. - Maybe not. Oh, is it official? - Huge title shot? - Nope, but that's in the news coming up. So we'll keep going. - So we go forward to Brian Bowles versus Dominic Cruz. Bowles is a very heavy-handed Bantamweight champ, facing Dominic Cruz, who is a beautifully well-rounded fighter. This one was an extremely fast fight. Dominic Cruz is very elusive, very light on his feet, ducking a lot of shots. Bowles managed to keep up with him, which a lot of opponents can do. They needed a couple hard shots, including in the very first round of the fight, a really, really beautiful right hand to Dominic's fight, to Dominic's face. In the second round, Cruz was coming up with a lot of low kicks. Bowles was trying to grab his leg and trip him up. - Which he caught his leg a couple of times, because Bowles is really, really good for that. I mean, you throw a kick, a low kick. Bowles can catch it and come back at you. He's well-known for that. - He loves to grab the leg and counter with the right hand. So the second round ends, and they go to the third round. Unfortunately, Bowles was not able to answer the belt the third round due to injury. So Cruz wins a TKO victory by due to Bowles walking on the fight. Bowles broke his hand in the first set on-- - Yeah, the first punch that he landed, he broke his hand. - He broke his hand on Dominic Cruz's jaw. And then after that, as Dominic Cruz was letting a low kick up for a low kick, and Bowles was putting his hand down to stop the low kicks-- - Jamming his hand, making it worse, and just compounding the fracture. - They had to cut his glove off with scissors in the ring. His hand looked broken, his fingers were distorted. Kind of another horror show injury, but you know, he's not the first fighter with a broken hand, and I'm listening, he'll be back. - And this is really straight to the face. - If you're right, Faber is tired of sending. - I was really enjoying the fight. Just watching these two guys go two excellent exit rounds. Then they go to commercial after round two. They come back and they're announcing a winner. - I know. - They blew my mind. - I was like, I was praying for this to go five. I was like, oh my God, I don't even care if my prediction is right anymore. It wasn't, I've called Bowles. - What a great team rounds. Imagine what those rounds would have been if Bowles' hand was okay? - Oh my God. - Oh my God. - Like Cruz, I couldn't believe how he was switching stances and he looked at the character and he had been around the ring. - Yeah, totally, it was just a video moving. - So fast and so many different stances. - And so quickly, so fluid. - And he was landing more shots, but Bowles is so quick too, that Bowles was actually catching him. - I mean, you think somebody that fast is not gonna get caught. And then Bowles would come up and catch him. - Yeah, this is like a Liodo and Shogun fight. - Yeah. - Like, Shogun's not quite as fast as Liodo, but he's fast enough to land the big shots when he needs to. And that's the thing, Bowles wasn't as fast as Cruz, but he's fast enough to catch him with, you know. - With some shots, yeah. - Who's some shots to punish him. - I do think that at the end of the second round, I do think Cruz was winning the fight though. - I agree, I agree, but the thing with fast guys is, generally speaking, the conventional wisdom is the way to beat them is to slow them down. - Yeah, slow them down, let them gas. - Made them burn their energy in the first couple rounds, and then when they gas in the third, fourth, and fifth round, that's when you take them. - Cruz just seems like the type that's got an unlimited tank though, like a lot of the guys. - So I mean, he does seem like he's got some energy, but at the same time, Bowles was catching him with some hard shots. He was taking punishment. He took a couple of good shots to the body. You know, so it remains to be seen whether had they gone to the fourth or fifth round, whether he'd have had enough to resist Bowles, particularly with Bowles being very, very powerful and able to land that one punch knockout. - Well, the first thing we said after the fight ended was that we were really looking forward to seeing a rematch. Hopefully the next title fight now that Cruz is the new champion, but turns out today. - Well, I would imagine the broken hand. I didn't say the next title fight 'cause I thought the broken hand, he's out for six months. - Well, it looks like there's two choices. They're thinking Benavides. - Yeah, obviously. - Very obvious choice, and Jorgensen. - Jorgensen? - Yeah, he's on the short list. - No, Benavides. - Yeah, they have to, but you don't give it to, why would you give it to Jorgensen? - Jorgensen's win over Chad was a good one. - Wow, I beat Chad George. Good for him. Give him a title shot. No, Benavides. (laughing) - I agree, but they haven't announced it yet. Those seem to be the two choices. I said Benavides is the obvious choice. - I think that they'll go with Benavides as well, but I mean, Jorgensen's definitely made his name for himself as an up-and-comer. I think this is four wins in a row for him. He's getting title shot worthy. - I think that depending on whether Bulls gets his hand healthy or not, I think that you go Benavides and then you give Bulls the next shot after that to whoever it is. And then if you want to give Jorgensen a shot, you can have him wait 'til after that, 'cause Bulls did not deserve to lose that title. He broke his hand, and he's a great fighter and he did not deserve to lose, so. - Well, I mean, he didn't defend it, so he did deserve to lose, Chris is the new champion, but with that being said-- - He's the new champion, he doesn't deserve to lose. - Definitely his earned himself the first, you know, he's got next. - He should definitely get next. I mean, if he was healthy, he should get next over Benavides, but he's not, so. - So what else do we have in the news to you? - So speaking of fast, exciting fighters, Phil Baroni-- (laughing) - He's heading to Thailand for two months to train. - Really? - Yeah, so that's good. I mean, if we won't see him fight for at least two more months. - You know what, though? He is entertaining to watch. - He is entertaining to watch. - It's really fun to watch him stand there and get punched. - Well, Phil Baroni is also going to Thailand to improve his Mai Tai game because he feels that that was his weakness. I merced all and knocked him out with knees. - Yep, that's very awesome. - He didn't knock him out. (laughing) - He didn't knock him out, I'm like a piece of meat in him, he broke freezer. - So Phil Baroni is looking to improve his Mai Tai game. So, well done, Phil. - And Mike Swick versus Matt Sarah was supposed to be happening on this mystery UFC show on April 17th, but Swick now needs surgery on his arm, which is badly messed up in his fight with Dan Hardy last November. He can't even straighten his arm all the way, so Swick is over a while. - Yeah, no. - Now, this is the big story about this mystery April 17th show, Strike Force. The promotion is supposed to be having their second and possibly last CBS show on April 17th. UFC has decided to counter program with a live show on Spike, so UFC scrambling around, trying to find guys that can fight on what? A month's notice? - Yeah. - To stuff, Strike Force. - And yeah, and so they need the main event and that would have been a good one. But-- - Well, Swick Sarah, you think? - Free TV. - Free TV, but that Strike Force is gonna dominate that. - Oh, plus, the Strike Force show is on CBS, we're just seeing by many more people. - Yeah. - But if you can take anything from this, what's happening in the Strike Forces, this is our last contract at CBS show. They don't draw a good rating. - CBS made a little custom. - Yeah, that's right. - So UFC, the UFC was taking a book getting Kimbo in there and it's just-- - No, that's the rumor. It doesn't look like it's gonna happen. - I just think if you're gonna do something like that, you gotta come at them with more than Swick Sarah. - Yes, that's true. - Well, Strike Force also said that because they have the option of what they want to put it on. - They don't actually have the option, the network. CBS has the choice. - That's okay. - So yeah, so they've got the choice of which day to air, but Strike Force doesn't want them to go on the, they don't want to go on the 24th because Showtime, the boxing network or whatever, they have a boxing show that night in CBS on Showtime. So you'd have Strike Force going against boxing owned by the same company. But they might just take a bullet, run the Strike Force show on the 24th, the same night as the WBC pay-per-view, the first WBC pay-per-view. - That's, I mean, that's another reason why Dana might want to rethink the whole UFC because I think that WBC has more to lose than Strike Force has so much more to lose because the Strike Force is going to beat WBC. It's unfortunate, but it's true. - Strike Force is going to beat UFC that night too because it's not in more homes. But WBC is counting on people to pay 40 or 50 dollars to watch the show. That's the first time that you've gotten a saucy fighting on free TV. - Exactly. - No, but Henderson fighting on free TV. Who's a UFC? - Well, there's three title matches in that card in there. - Yeah, yeah. - It's a shields versus Henderson, a saucy versus-- - King Mo. - King Mo, yeah, like there's-- - And Wolverine's fighting. - No, no, no, Wolverine's fighting the next month. - Oh, okay. - Is that the lightweight title? - All right. - So yeah, but that's an insane card. - Yeah. - But how do you choose? Like, you know, UFC and Strike Force, Strike Force and WBC? I mean, these companies are going to war. - Yeah. Well, I don't think, I think that UFC wants to prevent, definitely prevent Strike Force from doing that 24th show. They want, I think that they want, I think that they need to step away and let Strike Force have their April 17th show and get WBC over and make some money because I think that they have a lot more to lose by having Strike Force go against WBC 'cause if Strike Force goes on that day, WBC's crushed, they're absolutely crushed. - Plus, the big thing isn't stopping Strike Force's TV show, it's stopping their pay-per-view, which is not enough. - Oh, no. - Well, eventually. But I mean, a successful TV show is going to go a far way to having a successful pay-per-view down the line. - Well, regardless, they're going to have viewers, whether they have it on the 24th or the 17th, people are going to watch, it's CBS. So, putting a UFC event on what versus-- - That's not going to have it spike. I mean, that's not going to take that many, I don't think that's going to take that many viewers away. I really don't know. - Let's say it takes half a million to a million viewers, which is more, like, you see, which is realistic. That could be the difference between Strike Force doing a good rating and doing less than the crime dramas they usually are at that time. You know, like, it's a million people. The last Strike Force you only did four. - Is that worth giving up almost your entire WBC pay-per-view? - They have cost on their CBS. - Oh, actually, I know where you're coming from now, Greg. Yeah, like, maybe if UFC just pulled out and let them run, then WBC would be safe. - Yeah. - I don't know, I think it's just in Dana's blood that if someone's there-- - Yeah, he needs to go out of the war with them. - Well, I mean, yeah, it's just both are options. I mean, and only time's going to tell us whether it's a good option or a bad option. So, I mean, if he wants to go for it, then it makes life a little more interesting. - We will probably know within the next week or so. - Yeah, and to the last bit of news is James Tony, isn't it? - Yeah, James Tony, the pro boxer was, he's been wanting to come into UFC for months and months, and Dana's been like, no, you know, he's a 41-year-old boxer, sure he's a former champion, but I don't really have much interest. Strike Force wanted him to face Herschel Walker, which would draw some interest. - Oh, yeah, for sure. - And so, Dana, in his first ever time doing this, he offered him a non-exclusive contract. James Tony can box, James Tony can do anything except go to Strike Force, right? So, he's going to, so he'll be in the UFC, he has no MMA training. He's just a boxer, which is ridiculous. - Well, I mean, seeing that he has no MMA training, I think he has no MMA training. - Lights out Tony's a tough guy, he can fight. I mean, he doesn't take that much to learn enough counter-wrestling to sprawl, and I mean, lights out. - He's not getting any younger. - Yeah, exactly. - Herschel Walker makes it pull it off and Herschel Walker's eight years older. Tony's an athlete and lights out and Herschel Walker's a freakin' nature. - Herschel Walker's a freakin' nature. He's one of the most athletic people on the planet. - Yeah, but-- - And also, Herschel Walker was training a longer time. Herschel Walker was training a longer time. Like, James Tony hasn't started training at all. - Herschel Walker's a wrestler in college. - Exactly, he was a wrestler. I mean, it's easier to do it from wrestling than it is to do it from boxing. - Yeah, but hey, the big point of this is sure, you know, like James Tony, maybe he'll do some good, maybe he won't, he probably won't win very many fights if at all, but this is a move by Dana to keep him away from Strike Force because he will do anything to stop the smart move. - The other interesting thing about this is Dana had previously been very negative about bringing boxers into Strike Force. - Including James Tony. - Including James Tony. And also Roy, who wanted to fight-- - Oh, Roy, I'm Roy Jones Jr. Why don't you invite Andrew and Sylva? Dana didn't want to make UFC a freak show. - He said he didn't wanna bring Roy Jones Jr. And I think if that's Tony and why not bring Roy Jones Jr. - Well, the thing is, it's a non-exclusive contract. Is he under contract to actually have a fight in the UFC? Or is it just Dana signing him to shelve him and keep him away from Strike Force? - I think the idea is he will fight, but I expect him fighting. There's talk of him and Kimball. Freak show fight. - I see, I don't consider Kimball a freak show though. - Yeah, but I think Kimball's proven himself enough to the point where he's a fighter. - Oh, they'd be marking as a freak show fight. - They would be. And I mean, well, I guess it just depends on the terms of the contract. I mean, I guess he has to fight at some point or else the point of having the contract. - And he wouldn't have signed a contract if he wasn't gonna fight. Like, he wants to fight. - Maybe they'll bring back Greg Noge. - Get him off Strike Force. - Wait, he was the jobber that got beat down by her short walker. - If you're gonna make a freak show, you might as well have a jobber in it. - Cool, and yeah, that looks like it. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)