Fedor and M-1 calling out Overeem

It's the fight Strikeforce has wanted to book for a while. Alistair Overeem has called out Fedor Emelianenko but been rebuffed at every turn. He's gone as far as ripping Fedor's management, suggesting it didn't want to put its fighter in harm's way. Well, either Fedor is tired of the talk or M-1 Global realized that the guy many considered the best heavyweight in MMA needs a big win to restore his reputation. Fedor told mixfight.ru that he wanted a rematch against Fabricio Werdum. If that doesn't happen, he'd like Overeem by the end of the year."Absolutely, I would like a rematch with Werdum. But as he was recently operated on , then as soon as this fight is unlikely to happen," said Fedor. "This year, in November/December, I would prefer to meet in a cage with Alistair Overeem." M-1 just sent out a release echoing those wishes.Conversations have been taking place behind closed doors between M-1 Global and Strikeforce for some time and injuries, timing and differences of opinion have been roadblocks to putting Overeem and Emelianenko together. "M-1 Global wants to make this fight happen," says M-1’s Director of Operations, Evgeni Kogan. "As a global mixed martial arts company committed to driving the evolution of the sport and showcasing match-ups that the fans deserve to see, we want to make this bout a reality in 2010."There's been doubts in the past whether Fedor was really in full control of his career. Sounds like he is now. "This is an important match for me and something that I personally want to happen," says Fedor. "There have been conversations about putting this match-up together in the past and now is the time to begin making this bout possible."  In late June, Fedor (32-2) lost for the first time in 10 years when he was upset by Werdum. Werdum could be considered Strikeforce's No. 1 heavyweight, but it's Overeem who holds the promotion's heavyweight title belt. We called it shortly after the fight, Showtime and Strikeforce needed to make the best fight possible for Fedor, in his last match under contract. Some said Werdum and Overeem should match up. That was nonsense. The promotion needs to make maximum dollars in what could be Fedor's final fight with the promotion, and the bout even casual fans want to see is Fedor versus Overeem.  While this fight is speculative, Strikeforce did announce Wednesday that K.J. Noons will turn around quickly, move up to 170 pounds and challenge Nick Diaz for his Strikeforce welterweight title on Oct. 9. Diaz has been a floating up to 180 pounds for fights over the last 18 months. Now he gets a chance to avenge his 2007 upset loss against Noons. The cries for a Diaz-Jason "Mayhem" Miller fight fell on deaf ears. That fight might make for some great trash talk, but frankly Miller is better served worrying about the middleweight title mix. A rematch against Ronaldo "Jacare" Souza, the new Strikeforce 185 champion, is a natural as well. Miller lost to Jacare in 2008 and the rematch in 2009 was declared a no-contest when Souza suffered a nasty cut because an illegal kick by Mayhem.

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Decompression Sickness

What is DCS? Decompression Sickness is a term that you, as a diver, will hear mentioned many times throughout your diving career. It is a term used by professionals to describe the two main pressure related sicknesses that commonly afflict divers in an emergency situation: decompression sickness and lung over-expansion injuries. Decompression Sickness Decompression sickness, [...]

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Brezinski's Birthday and Shoe Release

Adio is giving Joey Brezinski a pro shoe and throwing him a birthday party at the same time and everyone's invited. It's happening this Sunday September 5th at Stoner Park in LA.

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Some of Boston's old guard media not impressed by MMA

MMA isn't for everyone. We know that. Too often when folks from the 50-plus demographic speak about the sport they complain about the violence and the blood. So it cames as no shocker that there was complaining from veteran writers like Bob Ryan and Dan Shaugnessy. But they took a different stance both pointing out that they didn't see what all the excitement was about."In all honesty, I’m just telling the truth. The biggest revelation I got from
spending that evening at the Garden was how astonishingly BOOOOORRING this thing
is," Ryan said CSN's New England’s "Sports Tonight". "It is the most overrated … I do not remotely understand the appeal. There
isn’t enough blood, there isn’t enough action."Ryan said the first fight on the pay-per-view between Marcus Davis and Nate Diaz was solid but he didn't enjoy the ground work in the later fights."The fans don’t like the wrestling," said Ryan, who is now an expert after taking in one live MMA card.Ryan also knows how knowledgeable each of the 15,000-plus in attendance were. "There are a sophisticated few martial arts experts who appreciate
when there is a well-executed martial arts move to create a submission, yes,
that is not the majority, it’s a small minority," said Ryan. Apparently, Ryan spoke with lots of fans to find out what they enjoy. "The people want to see boxing,
slugging, and they want to see when a guy gets down his face punched, that’s
what gets them excited. It is the most boring nonsense," said Ryan. "Most of the fights in the
early, and granted it was described to me as batting practice, the early bouts,
are guys in wrestling matches in which they were bad collegiate wrestling with
nothing happening." Who gave Ryan that description? Someone on press row? We'd love to know what MMA media regular says the early fights are "batting practice". This is why shows like CSN's "Sports Tonight" and ESPN's "Around the Horn" are unbearable at times. The panel is made of older media dudes who are speaking for the fans yet most haven't had anything beyond a 10 second conversation with a fan in 10 years.  The crew on the embedded CSN video was mostly pro-MMA. Longtime boxing and NFL scribe Ron Borges has more than given MMA a fair shake. He's the "expert" on this panel. Sadly, you can't count on one hand the number of boxing writers who've really embraced MMA. Check out the lead host Mike Felger, he describes the Davis-Diaz fight as sort of gruesome and then says he loved it!Quotes via Fight Opinion

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UFC 118 Press Conference Video

by Michael David SmithUFC lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, former champion B.J. Penn, UFC Hall of Famer Randy Couture and former boxing champion James Toney will all meet the press, joined by UFC President Dana White, at Wednesday's UFC 118 pre-fight press conference. And if you can't be there in person in Boston, you can watch it right here at MMAFighting.com.

The star of the show is likely to be Toney, who will draw plenty of mainstream media attention and talk plenty of trash about Couture. It's going to be easy to forget that Edgar-Penn 2 is actually the main event.

The UFC 118 pre-fight press conference begins Wednesday at 3PM ET and the video is below. Permalink | Email this | Linking Blogs | Comments

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Where to Find Maui?s Best Snorkeling

Finding the best snorkeling on Maui isn’t hard; it’s paring down the choices to a single vacation that becomes challenging. Maui is one of the premiere snorkeling locations in the world, with a wealth of underwater adventure and sights to see. Whether you are looking for snorkeling opportunities right off the beach or further out [...]

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Sounds like Strikeforce has some doubts about Bobby Lashley

It wasn't a great night for Bobby Lashley. Once again, he looked one-dimensional in his fight against Chad Griggs. He suffered a nasty cut under his left eye that didn't exactly motivate him to fight harder. Lashley also gassed out midway into second round. Worst of all, he his first loss in MMA was to a guy no one thought had a chance. After that performance, it will be pretty tough to sell Lashley in a fight against a big name opponent. It even sounded like Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker was going to need some convincing. "We'll be talking to Bobby later. You know he's going to have to do some soul searching and really decide what he wants to do," said Coker. "But if he decides to fight, we'll have him back."  The MMA blogosphere reacted strongly to that statement. Was it an overreaction by the MMA pundits? We're not sure. It was a bold statement by Coker about a guy who had just lost his first fight. Lashley, 34, is still a good prospect but clearly has things he needs to work on. That certainly doesn't mean his career is without a future. Especially if we find out that he was dealing with some kind of serious ailment going into or during the fight.  Coker explained his stance on WJFK's MMA Nation radio show (5:25 mark)."Mixed martial arts is sport where sometimes you're going to get hit, you're going to get hurt. It's not like pro wrestling," said Coker. " As he's working his way up he's going to come to a point where he says 'is this something I want to do?' You're working your way up and now you get a real clear picture of what mixed martial arts is and do you want to work through it and continue, or do you want to do something else?"  Coker may have questions about Lashley's dedication but he knows one thing, the Lashley hype machine needs to slow down. "The thing that's not fair for Bobby is he has all these high
expectations from all these people," Coker told host Luke Thomas. "People think he should be right in
there with Fedor. I mean come on, let's be real, he's not at that level
right now."  The PW Torch reported on what forced Lashley to the hospital after the fight.Lashley was said to be "extremely dehydrated" after his fight against Chad
Griggs on the "Showtime: Houston" fight card. At the hospital, Lashley was
treated with multiple IV bags to pump fluids back into his system.Coker said he still believes Lashley would continue his MMA career but was non-committal on a fight against fellow pro wrestler Dave Batista. Coker said on MMA Nation that Lashley had already reached out to Strikeforce and wants to fight immediately.

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