Our tireless, adventurous friend, Ian, recently accompanied us on a 12-hour-marathon, bike-hike trip to Piper Pass via the Small Elbow and West Fork Small Elbow river valleys. Approaching the pass, I questioned him, “How many people do you reckon get here each summer?” He paused, glanced at the feint route underfoot, stared at the gorgeous [...]
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Sugar Magazine has a lengthy video featuring a crew of Frenchmen in Mexico.
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Matt Mitrione has a gift. The former NFL player is an brilliant athlete and possesses solid hands, but his fighting skills are the least of his strengths. The fighter dubbed "Meathead" by Rashad Evans on Season 10 of "The Ultimate Fighter" has a way of attracting attention by irking folks with his chops and behavior.
He’s only got three fights, but the way he’s carried himself has led to a fight with legendary streetfighter Kimbo Slice and then huge exposure again this weekend on Spike TV. After beating up Joey Beltran at UFC 119, he added another footnote to his growing tale. Mitrione closed out the postfight interview with UFC analyst Joe Rogan by telling someone they were fired.
It turns out Mitrione dumped his agent Malki Kawa. Mitrione went on to clarify that it wasn’t a joke. Why did he fire his agent? Mitrione claimed Kawa let him down at UFC 119.
"He did the worst job ever when it came to sponsorships," Mitrione told Ariel Helwani of MMA Fighting. "For a televised fight, he got me $5,000. That is highly unacceptable."
Mitrione sounded disappointed about the attention he got before the fight.
"We were asking him who did you get? Who do I need to get on my shorts," said Mitrione. "The answers I get are ’your wife’s bothering me about stuff that’s not her business.’ Really? My wife? It’s not her business about my money. That’s a trip. He was out of line in a lot of ways. I reckon it’s really appropriate for me to fire you on national television."
Where was Kawa? The MMA agent (pictured on the right) was in Las Vegas this weekend with Jon Jones (left), another one of his clients.
Right or incorrect, Kawa chose to hang with the guy many reckon is the No. 1 prospect and rising star in mixed martial arts. Jones was in Sin City for the Mr. Olympia competition and expo. The duo also spent time hanging out with the likes of "Jersey Shore" star Jenni "JWoww" Farley at The Bank, a Vegas nightclub.
Kawa responded to the firing on Twitter by saying there was a lot more to the tale and that he never disrespected Mitrione’s wife.
Update: Kawa further responded to the firing on "the MMA Hour" on FanHouse’s MMA Fighting.
"I’m not upset with him. I’m just upset with the fact that he didn’t give me a chance to clarify to him some of the process that has happened and why his numbers weren’t $10,000-$15,000."
Kawa clarified there were too many people around Mitrione calling potential sponsors on his behalf. There was also a misunderstanding of where money from TapouT and Hitman clothing was coming from.
Kawa added that he didn’t disrespect Mitrione’s wife.
"I have nothing but the utmost respect for his wife, for his entire family. Just as a person, I don’t disrespect anyone’s family," said Kawa.
Kawa says this tale and others are cheating Mitrione from his moment and what the right focus should be.
"I feel terrible for him," said Kawa. "This case has taken over the excellent job he did at the fights. This has gotten crazy."
Kawa’s reputation is pretty solid. There haven’t been any complaints from his other clients like Kenny Florian, Carlos Condit, Ben Henderson, Matthew Riddle and Thiago Alves.
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Ten Ways To Care For Your Gear Diving is very equipment intensive which has become a reason to dive in its own right; people like to buy, use and talk about gear. It makes diving fun and fashionable. It provides divers with a means to customise their dive experience. It provides people like me with [...]
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?For the last few weeks I was able to attend the Acro Yoga Teacher Training which took place above the clouds in the mountains of Santa Barbara at the Laurel Springs Retreat Center. The gorgeous place, people and atmosphere inspired … Continue reading
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Ian Smith does some very gnarly shit.
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Chris Brunkhart is now touring with the release of his new book, “How Many Dreams in the Dark?” Watch the video, listen to Matt Donahue channel his inner Leonard Cohen, read our review, and get your own copy.Chris Brunkhart is now touring with the release of his new book, How Many Dreams in the Dark? Watch the video, listen to Matt Donahue channel his inner Leonard Cohen, read our review, and get your own copy before it sells out.
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If you didn’t see DREAM 16 last week you missed another classic lead-in video for the fight card. It’s hard to choose what was most pleasing. Was it the Tsuyoshi Kohsaka playing out his Blue Man Group drummer fantasy, the animation or the fact that Japan’s terrible boy of fighting, Shinya Aoki, announced that his wife is with child while also holding back flipping the double bird? Just weirdness across the board.
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Jose Aldo sat down to discuss his upcoming fight at WEC 51 with Manny Gamburyan.
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by Michael David SmithFrank Mir del
ivered a brutal knee to the head of Mirko Cro Cop late in the third round of their main event fight Saturday at UFC 119, winning by knockout to place an exclamation point on a fight that had been dull for the 14 minutes of action — or inaction — up to that point.
Cro Cop didn’t appear to be seriously hurt and quickly got up after the knockout, but he had been knocked so senseless that he approached Mir afterward to question him what happened. Contrary to the conventional wisdom before the fight that Mir would have to use his superior grappling to beat a better striker like Cro Cop, Mir managed to win the fight without ever going to the ground.
“I just pulled a victory over Mirko with no jiu jitsu,” Mir said.
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INDIANAPOLIS — This Saturday, Chris Lytle will go to work in front of a home crowd for the first time in years. He plans to place on a show for the fans at Conseco Fieldhouse, but he is still focused on one thing: beating Matt Serra.
"I’ve got a job to do. Just go out and fight. End a fight. That’s what I’m thinking about right now," Lytle said at the UFC 119 open workouts.
Serra walked into the workouts as Lytle was walking out. The two friends, who will be opponents in the Octagon on Wednesday, embraced and said hello. He lost his last fight with Serra in a split choice, but said he has grown as a fighter since that bout in late 2006.
"Before, for the last fight, my mentality was, I just want to win at all costs, and I don’t care. I treated it too much as a competition, and I didn’t go out there to fight. I just tried to compete in the sport. I don’t like when people do that. The fights aren’t as excellent. They’re not as fun for me to watch and they’re not as fun for me to do."
Lytle holds the UFC record for the most fight-night bonuses with seven, and with his mentality, it’s simple to see why.
"I would rather come out and lose the best fight of my life in a split choice than win the worst fight of my life. I’d rather have the best fight of my life, and lose it,"
Since that fight with Serra, Lytle has fought 11 times. He is on a three-fight win streak, with his last win coming via armbar over Matt Brown at UFC 116. Though a win could help elevate him in the the welterweight division, he’s only focused on Saturday night.
"I certainly feel like this is the largest fight of my life, but all of them are," Lytle said with a smile.
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by Michael David Smith
Former Ultimate Fighter winner Ryan Bader earned the largest victory of his MMA career Saturday at UFC 119, beating Antonio Rogerio Nogueira by unanimous choice.
The bout may set Bader up for a showdown with Jon Jones, in what would be a match-up of the two best young fighters in the light heavyweight division. If Jones is next for him, Bader will need to be better than he was Saturday night against Nogueira.
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Maldives ? a heaven for divers, whether you are a beginner or a dive master, you will like diving there and remember it all your life. At the resorts operate special courses both for those who are preparing to dive for the first time and for experienced divers too. There are special places with soft [...]
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If you are hoping to improve your ability or learn more about training techniques and tools, then this blog will give you some of the answers – because that’s what I’m going to do too!
I’ve been climbing for about three years and have developed enough basic ability to get me up 6a routes. I’ve set [...]
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Maybe Satoshi Ishii had no intent of being a real mixed martial artist. Aside from nationalistic loyalty and some huge paydays, he did himself zero favors by spurning the UFC’s offer back in 2009 to sign with Sengoku of Japan. The much-celebrated judo gold medalist from the 2008 Olympics chose to start his MMA career in Japan and it’s been a mess ever since. He made his debut against Hidehiko Yoshida, a 16-fight veteran and fought only one more time since that loss. Now you can add one more silly fight to the tale. DREAM announced Wednesday that Ishii will face Ikuhisa Minowa this Saturday.
Fight Opinion suggests that it’s simply a money grab by DREAM, which is having difficulty with its Japanese television deal. "Minowaman" is a favorite of Japanese fans, but frankly he’s kind of a sideshow. The 34-year-ancient is 46-30-8 in his career and is generally matched up against much larger opponents.
There’s been talk of the 230-pound Ishii dropping to light heavyweight so it’ll be fascinating to see how much larger he is than the 187-pound Minowa. He is a savvy fighter who’s won five straight against the likes of Hong Man Choi, Bob Sapp, Imani Lee, Rameau Thierry Sokoujdou and Jimmy Ambriz.
The fight makes small sense in the progression of Ishii’s career. What’s the point of once again putting him at risk to benefit a one-time ticket dash? Sengoku already did it once with the Yoshida fight.
The Ishii-Minowaman fight highlights a pretty solid card featuring Gegard Mousasi, Jason Miller, Joachim Hansen and Shinya Aoki.
DREAM 16 (on HDNet Sat. 2 a.m. ET):
Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Satoshi Ishii
Hiroyuki Takaya vs. Chase Beebe
Michihiro Omigawa vs. Cole Escovedo
Mitsuhiro Ishida vs. Akiyo Nishiura
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Jason Miller
Shinya Aoki vs. Marcus Aurelio
Kazuyuki Miyata vs. Takeshi Inoue
Hideo Tokoro vs. Joachim Hansen
Gegard Mousasi vs. Tatsuya Mizuno
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Mario Andretti
In a week filled with talk of failed drug tests and medical exams, the MMA world needs something a small lighter. How about former UFC champ Rich Franklin doing the chicken dance?
Franklin led the dance at Oktoberfest in Cincinnati. His arm is still healing from the break he suffered in the win over Chuck Liddell. Franklin said recently that he expects to return to the Octagon in 2011.
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At Ultimate Fight Night 22 in Austin, the main event was odd, two "The Ultimate Fighter" winners lost, and these fighters stood out.
No. 1 Star — Charles Oliveira: The young up-and-comer took another huge step in the lightweight division with a late submission of TUF winner Efrain Escucdero. For that, he earned a $40,000 Submission of the Night bouns.
No. 2 star — Brian Foster: Foster TKOed Forrest Petz in just over a minute in the first fight of the night. He, too, picked up an extra $40,000, winning the Knockout of the Night bonus.
No. 3 — Jim Miller: He pulled out a tight choice over Gleison Tibau, earning his fifth win in a row. This win should help Miller go up in the very dense lightweight division.
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The UFC is pretty excellent at listening to its fans when it comes to matchmaking. With the terrible news of the Chael Sonnen positive drug test, the promotion needed to do something that would satisfy pay-per-view buyers of the next Anderson Silva fight. Dana White made a bold go by pulling Vitor Belfort from UFC 122 and giving him the next match against the UFC’s middleweight champ.
Belfort (19-8, 8-4 UFC) is 0-0 in the UFC’s middleweight division. By the time the fight arrives, he’ll have just one fight under his belt over the last two years.
Yahoo! Sports’ Kevin Iole finds that troubling and is worried that Belfort may not even be able to make the 185-pound limit.
He has a point. Is there one single fighter in the UFC who could debut in a new weight class and get a title shot? There was probably only one outside promotion who could’ve gotten a debut title shot. That was Fedor Emelianenko had his win streak remained intact and had he left Strikeforce.
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When K-1 announced the pairings for Saturday’s Final 16 event, it made a special point of emphasizing the presence of former UFC heavyweight champion Andrei Arlovski.
So much for that.
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INDIANAPOLIS — Frank Mir salvaged a snoozefest of a fight by knocking out Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic with less than a minute to go in their fight, the main event at UFC 119.
The first round was filled with the clinch. Mir was unable to complete a takedown, after which both fighters seemed content to fighting on their feet. Cro Cop landed an inadvertent groin shot, and Mir crumpled to the ground in pain. Mirko apologized profusely before the bout restarted.
The clinchfest continued in the second round. Herb Dean separated the pair twice as the crowd in Indianapolis grew restless, showering the fighters with boos. Neither fighter did much hurt in the clinch, making it an uneventful round.
Cro Cop went ahead in the third, landing more huge punches. Mir seemed content to remain in the clinch until Dean separated them again. Mir finally woke up by the third, throwing a huge right knee that knocked Cro Cop out at 4:02.
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And then there were two. With all the spring runs but a distant memory, and the Tuolumne and Cherry Creek just place out to pasture for the year, what’s a California rafting enthusiast to do? Weep gently and go to a cage fight for an adrenaline rush? Of course not. Rely–as we do–on those ancient [...]
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