The first time we posted a statement from the camp of Brett Rogers it got us kicked off of our server. Well, FiveOuncesOfPain.com was contacted again by Mike Reilly, the manager for Rogers as well as the head trainer at Team Bison, who has issued a second statement released EXCLUSIVELY to Five Ounces of Pain (note to other editors: feel free to use excerpts and post a link to the complete statement on our site, but unless the statement is released directly to you, you do not have our permission to run it in its entirety).

This second statement from the Rogers camp is in response to a rebuttal that had been issued by Team Kimbo late last week.

Below is the response to the response, and we’ll keep our fingers crossed that it doesn’t crash the site:

OFFICIAL RESPONSE FROM THE CAMP OF BRETT ROGERS

We laughed and laughed and then laughed some more… then sort of forgot what we were laughing about and then we remembered and laughed some more; grabbed a bag of Doritos and those KICK ASS brownies they sell at Costco (they fucking rule!) and came up with this response that Kimbo will understand.

With all the talk and about the Kimbo situation let me be Blunt. I would hate to see this whole deal go up in Smoke when Kenny hammers Kimbo. We don’t want to be a Chronic pest; like a Roach on a white rug but we want our shot. Now far be it from us to Harsh anyone’s Buzz so we will be nicer in our comments going forward.

My Auntie Mary Jane said what the world needs is more Tender Huggin Care (THC). So before any bridges get burnt we will put a lid on the negative. We are not just going to huff and puff; we will just wait ’till the numbers are right and then we will get out from behind the 8-ball, jump from limbo and just hope it happens sometime before Kimbo B-40. Right now I know a lot of hoppers be looking at us with Chinese Eyes wondering if we will set the whole world a blaze. But we like they will just have to wait and while our desire to hear the bell go bam grows like a weed; we will just lay in the grass biding our time with our buds.

Thanks

– Team Bison on behalf of Brett Rogers

P.S. Damn it is 4:20… I gots to go… Anyone see Kimbo tell him I said HIGH-HIGH

To read the first statement from the camp of Brett Rogers, click here.

To read the response from Team Kimbo to the Rogers camp, click here.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com was notified through a third-party Wednesday afternoon that the camp for EliteXC heavyweight Kimbo Slice was looking to respond to an exclusive statement issued to us by the camp of Brett Rogers earlier in the day.

We contacted Icey Mike, the manager for Slice, who issued a response that differed greatly from that of Rogers. The nature of Team Kimbo’s response evoked the old proverb that says “A picture can tell a 1,000 words,” as Icey Mike only requested that we run a picture with a simple one line of text below as Kimbo’s official response:

“Rogers, don’t quit your day job.”

The response is a reference to Rogers’ former vocation as a tire repairman at a Minneapolis-area Sam’s Club, where he worked up until this past January before quitting so that he could pursue mixed martial arts on a full-time basis.

(Photo By Esther Lin)

With EliteXC’s recent public announcement that it had decided on Ken Shamrock as the next opponent for Kevin “Kimbo Slice” Ferguson during its next installment of “Saturday Night Fights” on CBS on Oct. 4, it has once again left Brett Rogers and his unblemished 8-0 record on the outside looking in.

Securing a match against Slice has been a tremendous source of frustration for the massive heavyweight, who has compiled a 3-0 record while competing under the EliteXC banner. His angst was never more apparent than during the post-fight press conference that proceeded EliteXC and CBS’ first-ever network primetime telecast on May 31.

During the presser, Rogers offered a negative critique of the effort Slice had turned in during the night’s main event against James Thompson. Rogers went so far as to label the effort as “garbage” with Slice sitting just several feet away from him. Slice eventually took exception to Rogers’ words and stood to face him.

Unwilling to back down from Slice, a near brawl between the camps of both fighters almost ensued.
The post-fight drama was a manifestation of Rogers’ dissatisfaction with the fact that Thompson had been awarded the coveted main event slot vs. Slice in spite of the fact that Rogers had recorded a first round knockout over him just months earlier during EliteXC’s “Street Certified.” Cooler heads prevailed but the frustrations linger to this day.

With Rogers once again being passed over, many reporters have attempted to contact Rogers through his Team Bison camp. While Rogers is expected to start granting interviews soon, his manager and Team Bison head trainer, Mike Reilly, has released an exclusive statement to FiveOuncesOfPain.com that states for the record how Rogers and his camp feels about the recent decision to grant Shamrock the main event slot vs. Slice.

A copy of the explosive statement that was released to us is now available below:

On behalf of Brett Rogers and the Team Bison Camp -

We are getting a lot of requests for interviews concerning the recently announced Shamrock vs. Slice match up. I believe many people are looking for us to be upset and join the pig pile on EliteXC. Well, people have to keep on looking.

Brett has two words tattooed on his arms: one is success and the other is patience. We of course would like to fight Kimbo here and now. We would like to fight him today. We would love to fight a legend like Shamrock as well. We would also like to fight for the title. There is no doubt we will get to do all three; we just need to have patience and then we will have success.

As for Elite – this is our home. We are excited to be part of Elite, CBS and Showtime. We are proud to be part of one of fastest-growing and best backed promotions in the world. We are proud to be part of a show that treats their fighters with love and respect and is not afraid to let their fighters compete outside the boundaries. Elite is also not afraid to give fighters the opportunity to develop and grow as athletes and entertainers. Elite has a growing network of mid-level and developmental shows that are bringing up true up-and-coming talent that will provide the bedrock of the sport for a long time to come.

I know a lot of people want to dog on Elite; but these same people would have an MMA world where no more then a dozen guys were making a living wage. People who think the real world should run just like it does on their PlayStation. But this is a complicated, difficult business for every side of the equation. For the fighters, promoters and everyone else involved. As a camp we have to negotiate, posture, bully, push, plead to get our share of the love. But at the end of the day we are Elite.

As for Oct 4th; that was our spot. Shamrock with his name and giant ego butted in line to get a slice of Kevin. At 103 years of age Ken usurped our rightful place against the YouTube champ. Our sincerest hope is that Ken whips Kimbo and then we can finally euthanize the “World’s Most Dangerous Man” and relegate him to some MMA dinosaur exhibit. Maybe taxidermy him and Severn and place them on a rotating pedestal where they can endless circle each other.

If Ken proves to be more sham then rock and Fergi beats him, then the Slice hype grows even greater. Dude is already more myth then Sasquatch, Chupacabra and a fucking unicorn combined. Kevin is the black Yeti.

Caught between a Shamrock and a hard place, Kevin has chosen the old over the new; the past over the future. But Fergi… the hard place is coming. By putting us off, making us wait will only make matters worse. There is nothing business about it anymore. Kimbo made it a point to go frontin’ to our boys at Big Black. But that street thug B.S. might work well with the fan bois and the Internet dorks who think your street cred means something; but Son… Brett comes from Cabrini Green; the worst 12 blocks of America. Compared to that your street is Sesame Street. So you can say it is very personal between Brett and Fergi. So go ahead and make us wait while you fight Tank and Shamrock. Hell, why not fight Hackney, Harold Howard, Fred Ettish and the rest of Jurassic MMA? And while your shuckin’ and duckin’ we will be hustlin’ and muscilin’ and when the bell finally tolls the only real question left is … do you wake up looking at canvas or arena lights?

On behalf of Brett Rogers – Team Bison

Our good friend at MMARated.com, Ariel Helwani, worked overtime this week getting tons of great video pertaining to the buildup and aftermath of EliteXC’s debut on CBS.

Ariel and his crew were able to get video of the post-fight press conference altercation between Kimbo Slice and Brett Rogers, which you can view here. MMARated.com also has a ton of other video I highly recommend you check out.

During the post-fight press conference for EliteXC: “Primetime” on CBS, Brett Rogers questioned Kimbo Slice’s performance in his bout with James Thompson. Rogers had knocked out Jon Murphy previously during the night within one round. Rogers questioned Slice’s performance before Kimbo was even in the room but then repeated it once Slice had entered the press conference.

Slice shrugged it off at first and was cool about it but eventually Kimbo tried to step to Rogers and get in his face and a brawl almost broke out. People got in the middle and all of Kimbo’s crew were talking trash before the situation was diffused and Slice and his entourage left the press conference.

Keep it tuned to FiveOuncesOfPain.com for more EliteXC on CBS coverage!

Even though it is a couple weeks late, I got to catch up with one of the few who experienced “validation” at UFC 78: “Validation,” Frank “The Answer” Edgar. This soft-spoken fighter has been making quite the splash in the UFC lightweight division, as he has enjoyed three victories since his UFC debut in February of this year. His most recent victory was a dominating unanimous decision against Spencer “The King” Fisher at UFC 78 in Newark, New Jersey, just down the road from Frank’s hometown. In our talk, Frank and I touched on his fight with Spencer Fisher, his status in the UFC, and his thoughts on what is next for his career. 

Paul Balsom: First of all, congrats on your win at UFC 78. How did it feel to fight in front of the hometown crowd? 

Frank Edgar: It was great, man. The crowd was unbelievable. It’s something you dream about growing up, to fight in front of a crowd like that in your hometown. 

PB: You mentioned before your fight that you didn’t think it mattered whether you fought in front of your hometown crowd, as opposed to anywhere else. Did you change your mind once you stepped into the cage and everyone in the place was chanting your name? 

FE: No, it was still the same thing. I had the same mental preparation for it and everything. But you can’t help but notice the crowd. I think it energized me more than anything. 

PB: Did the fight go as you thought it would? Did you have any expectations for the fight going in?

FE: I study a little bit of video. I usually give it to my teammates and have them look at it a little more. I don’t like analyzing it too much. Maybe I’ll watch video a couple times. I try to go into a fight expecting that anything can happen, because in all honestly, that’s the way to goes, anything can happen. When I got in there, the takedowns came pretty easy, so I kind of just stuck with that throughout the fight.

Read the rest of this entry »

Damon Martin from MMAWeekly.com was able to catch up with Karo Parisyan following his win last weekend against Ryo Chonan at UFC 78. It’s a very revealing interview that I recommend you check out.

During the interview, Parisyan responds to criticism about his performance during the unanimous decision victory. He talked about how he only had three weeks of intense training at Xtreme Couture due to the uncertainty of his opponent and that he also entered the fight with a broken hand:

“My right hand is broken,” Parisyan stated. “I fought with a broken hand, on top of my wrist, on top of my hand, right above my knuckles, and I fought with that.”

The fact that fellow welterweight title contender Jon Fitch has been calling Parisyan out was brought up. It’s a match that Parisyan would like to see happen as well:

“I’d love to fight Jon Fitch,” Parisyan said with much enthusiasm.

Outside of a possible match-up with Fitch, the 10x UFC veteran still awaits a shot at the title and is unsure of his next move.

“We’ll see what’s in store for me,” said Parisyan. “Fitch or a title shot or what else is next?”

Click here to read the remainder of the interview.

Here’s more ESPN video. Michael Bisping makes it clear he wants to fight again as soon as possible.

This video is from ESPN.com:

ESPN has made some post-fight video from UFC available for the viewing public. Ed Herman briefly discusses his knockout victory over Joe Doerksen:

Steve Cofield’s got the audio of Michael Bisping saying the fans in Newark can “go to hell” at the post-UFC 78 presser.

Now, the question is, was he kidding? Cofield didn’t think so:

The Brit was asked for his reaction to being booed often by the fans in Newark before and after the event. Listen to the clip below. He said they can go to hell. It didn’t sound like he was kidding. And it did put a slight grimace on the face of UFC president Dana White, who was standing behind Bisping.

After listening to it myself, it sounds like Bisping’s just frustrated. He may have meant it a little, but it doesn’t sound in any way spiteful towards the fans. Putting a grimace on Dana White’s face, however, is never a good thing.

By Ben Fowlkes

I don’t expect anyone to agree with what I’m about to say. I’m not even sure I agree with it, at least not a hundred percent, but something about Saturday’s decision didn’t sit well with me. Is it because I find Michael Bisping a little more likable than Rashad Evans — whose nickname, “Sugar”, could not possibly be less fitting? Maybe. It could also be because I hate seeing wrestlers win decisions for doing very little besides taking people down. I’m not sure, but just for the sake of a spirited argument, here are my reasons why Bisping deserved to win that fight.

1. Simple Mathematics

I’ve gone on and on about how I don’t think the ten-point must system is working for three-round MMA fights, so I’ll spare you that lecture this time around. But even within that system I think Bisping deserved to win. Evans took round one. He landed a couple of shots on the feet and took Bisping down, even if he didn’t do much after that. Bisping, on my scorecard, won round two. Round three was close, and I think it belonged to Bisping for stuffing most of Rashad’s takedown attempts and landing with greater frequency on the feet.

But the reason I think Evans won round three on two of the judges’ scorecards was because of the way the round finished. It almost looked as if Evans was about to mount an effective offense, but that last takedown (kind of) meant nothing. Bisping controlled the majority of the rest of the round, and what happens last in a round shouldn’t influence the judges any more than what happened one minute in.

At the very least, the third round was even, 10-10.

2. Takedowns Do Not Necessarily Equal Offense

Bisping made a point of saying that the reason he thought he won was because he negated Evans’ takedowns by getting back to his feet without sustaining damage. When he first said that, I thought it sounded like a man trying to rationalize things to himself. As I thought about it, however, the idea grew on me.

A takedown is, in some way, like a submission attempt. It is a step in the direction of an effective offense. But it is not, by itself, a significant offense. KO-inducing slams aside, fights have never been ended by takedowns. A takedown is a way of getting your opponent into a position more favorable for you to mount an offense from. If you take a man down and land in his guard, then do nothing to hurt him before he stands back up (note the difference between him standing up on his own and him waiting for a referee standup), why should that decide a fight?

If a fighter preferred to fight in the clinch and was successful at forcing one upon his opponents, even if he couldn’t damage them from the position, should that gain him a victory just for imposing his will?

Think about it: after the first round, what did Evans do well besides take Bisping down? If we reward takedowns that lead to nothing, we’re essentially rewarding a stall tactic. That’s not a strategy I want to see become widespread in MMA.

3. The Pride Edict

I’m not one of the people who believes that Pride was in all ways superior to the UFC. Not at all. But I will admit that I preferred their scoring criteria. Not only was it free of the phrase “Octagon control”, but it took into account attempts made to finish the fight. Sure, an attempt to finish a fight isn’t the same as finishing one, but it does encourage fighters to actively look for the victory rather than doing just enough and then holding on for a judges’ decision. Under that criteria (which is not the UFC’s criteria, I know) Bisping deserved to win. He was looking to damage Evans throughout the fight, not looking to stall his attack.

I also liked the way Pride scored the whole fight and not individual rounds. Especially in MMA, where fights are only three rounds, the ten-point must system is deficient (damn, now I’m back on that sermon). A fight can be drastically different in round three than it was in rounds one and two, but the ten-point must system isn’t equipped to compensate for that. A fighter can just coast through the third if he’s confident he won the first two, and the worst that’s likely to happen is a draw, assuming the final frame is scored 10-8.

What we’re asking judges to do is tell us who won the fight, and how can they do that until the fight is over? I realize that will shift even more focus to what happens last, but fighting should, to some extent, be about who can last the distance and not just who can do enough to win individual rounds. To make a terrible analogy that I will later deny ever making, which part of a war would you rather win: the beginning or the ending? There. Glad that’s over with.

Now, having made all these arguments, I’m still not sure I really believe that Bisping should have won. The fight was close no matter how you look at it, and judges’ decisions are always going to be maddeningly unpredictable. I suspect that a lot of people wanted to see him lose a close decision because they felt he stole one in his last fight. It’s kind of like what’s going on with O.J. at the moment, only Bisping isn’t at fault for what the judges did in his last fight and O.J. is, well, really at fault for a lot of stuff.

I guess what I’m really trying to get at here is what I see as a flaw in the scoring system. MMA isn’t boxing, so why are we using boxing’s scoring system?

The answer (or, for Spike TV fans, the “manswer”) probably has a lot to do with state athletic commissions and their requirements for regulation, but sooner or later MMA is going to reach a critical mass in terms of popularity that will allow it to dictate what form it takes. When that day comes, I hope the scoring system is one of the things they’ll take a long look at.

Ben Fowlkes is the publisher of the MMA blog The Fighting Life, a contributor to CBS Sports, and the editor of the International Fight League’s official website (IFL.tv).

There actually were some exciting fights at UFC 78, however unless you were live you didn’t see them. Two undercard fights earned bonuses.

Fight of the Night: Thiago Alves vs. Chris Lytle. Each fighter received a $55,000 bonus check. That should cover Lytle’s medical bills to stich up that nasty cut.

KO of the Night: Ed Herman got the $55,000 bonus check. He floored Joe Doerksen early in Rd 3 with a big left hook.

Submission of the Night: Akihiro Gono got the $55,000 bonus check for his slick armbar over Tamdan McCrory in Rd 2.

FiveOuncesOfPain.com contributor Gary Herman has made some post-UFC 78 notes available at 15rounds.com.

According to Gary, Rashad Evans no longer has his sights solely set on a rematch with Tito Ortiz:

“If the fight happens, it happens,” said Evans, “I mean Tito is super Hollywood now. He’s doing the Apprentice. It really doesn’t seem like it would be the same to fight him anymore.”

So who’s next? After defeating the light heavyweight winner from the third season of TUF, Evans now wants a shot at the light heavyweight winner from the first season:

“I want to fight somebody else now – like Forrest Griffin,” said Evans.

UFC 78 is in the books and as the 2007 calendar year draws to a close, I don’t think anyone can make a strong case that the card will go down as one of the better shows of the year. In defense of UFC 78, I don’t think it was a bad card and I don’t think you can find anyone at fault as to why we didn’t get to see more excitement.

It’s not like a movie where you pay money and can critique the execution of how the film was produced. Despite the lack of a strong main event, the matchups on paper were solid. And as I’ve said many times before, this is a real sport and it isn’t scripted. It’s like going to a football game and watching two teams go three and out repeatedly — it’s sport and not theater and sometimes things just don’t come together.

In regard to MMA shows which don’t turn out to be great, there are isolated cases where in hindsight you can hold the matchmaker culpable for putting guys together who have styles that don’t mesh well. But how do you second guess Spencer Fisher vs. Frankie Edgar on paper? The two did not have a bad match last night but I think it’s safe to say it fell way short of expectations. Yes, you had a striker vs. a wrestler but these two guys have been in strong fights this year. How do you predict with certainty that Edgar was going to be able to control Fisher like he did?

And as it turns out, what was the weakest match on paper, Joe Doerksen vs. Ed Herman, just may have proved to be one of the best fights of the night, if not the best. Basically, I don’t think you can fault the UFC, the fighters, the judges, the referees, etc. for the fact that last night’s show was only two stars instead of four stars.

During last night’s card we also saw three fights from the main card go to a decision and I think the judges had the outcomes right. The only issue I have is with the one judge who scored the main event in favor of Bisping (was it an error?). There are some fights where there are rounds that could go either and I end up finding it hard to argue with a judge who scores it a different way than I saw it. However, when it came to last night’s scoring, how on Earth could you have given either rounds one or three to Bisping?

Aside from that one judge, I think last night proved that the 10-point must system works well for MMA. I realize many will disagree with that statement and a lot has been written recently to the contrary, but I haven’t seen anyone suggest a viable alternative. There have been some bad calls this year but any system you use that relies on humans is going to have imperfections. And for the amount of times bouts go to the judges, I think the percentage of controversial decisions is relatively small.

Scoring an MMA match is no easy task because you are combining different styles. How can you introduce a true points system when you have so many fighting disciplines being employed? Is a takedown worth more than a clean uppercut? Is a sweep worth more than a kick to the ribs? A true points system has been used in Olympic boxing to take it out of the judges hands. However, judges are still often needed to decide what punches register points. I remember that at one Olympics they used a computer scoring system but they still needed a human to register the punches into the system. I’ve been to several grappling tournaments now and they employ a points system that is pretty cut and try. There are defined point assignments for certain moves. However, the referee still has to use his judgment for when points should be awarded and there are still disputes.

If you’re not a fan of the 10-point must, that’s fine. But please offer a viable alternative. A lot of alternatives have been offered but none are viable in my opinion. To be frank, I find most of them to be Utopian in nature. Some of them sound good but simply aren’t applicable in a real-life situation.

CLICK HERE TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THIS ARTICLE ON SAM CAPLAN’S PROELITE.COM BLOG

By Adam Morgan

Rashad Evans and Michael Bisping proved very little. Well, that may be exaggerating it a bit, but this fight certainly didn’t propel Rashad Evans into the top five light heavyweights in the world, as Dana White had claimed it would. This fight doesn’t even push Rashad Evans into the top ten, in my opinion. As for Bisping, the only thing it proved for him was that he needs to drop to middleweight where he will have the size advantage. He got overpowered by Rashad and paid for it as the fight wore on. Although Bisping pushed the pace and tired Rashad early in the fight, it was eventually Evans’ raw strength and wrestling that won him the fight. This fight did nothing for either fighter’s career or for the fans. Never should another fight like this be booked as a main event.

Someone get Houston Alexander a gi immediately. For all the talk about how his ground game “is as good as anyone in the UFC,” it ended up being Alexander’s glaring weakness and led to his eventual demise on Saturday night. Watching Houston struggle to get out of Silva’s mount and get pounded out reminded me of watching Jon Koppenhaver struggle to escape Tommy Speer’s mount on one of the latest episode of TUF. It was BJJ 101 and Houston looked clueless. Alexander’s ground game was exposed and he needs to strap on a gi tomorrow and start training jiu jitsu extensively.

Read the rest of this entry »

Rashad Evans def. Michael Bisping via split decision
Thiago Silva def. Houston Alexander via KO, R1
Karo Parisyan def. Ryo Chonan via unanimous decision
Ed Herman def. Joe Doerksen via KO, R3
Frankie Edgar def. Spencer Fisher via unanimous decision
Thiago Alves def. Chris Lytle via doctor stoppage (cuts), R2
Joe Lauzon def. Jason Reinhardt via rear naked choke, R1
Marcus Aurelio def. Luke Caudillo via TKO, R1
Akihiro Gono def. Tamdan McCrory via armbar, R2

Bisping vs. Evans might not be the star-studded main event fans crave but something tells me that the performances tonight are going to surprise a lot of people.

Main Card

• Rashad Evans (206) vs. Michael Bisping (205)
• Houston Alexander (203) vs. Thiago Silva (204)
• Ryo Chonan (169.5) vs. Karo Parisyan (170)
• Joe Doerksen (185.5) vs. Ed Herman (186)
• Frankie Edgar (154) vs. Spencer Fisher (154.5)

Undercard

• Chris Lytle (170.5) vs. Thiago Alves (171)
• Jason Reinhardt (155) vs. Joe Lauzon (155)
• Marcus Aurelio (156) vs. Luke Caudillo (155.5)
• Akihiro Gono (169) vs. Tamdan McCrory (170)

Check out more on FiveOuncesOfPain.com

Here’s more UFC video from ESPN.com:

Frankie Edgar gives a solid interview to fellow Jersey native Mr. Sunshine, Steve Cofield.

LISTEN Here!!

He talks about his transition from college wrestler to UFC fighter, where he’s training in the area, and goes into detail about his fight prep. Edgar also discusses being a wrestling coach at Rutgers University. And how he plans on using his superior wrestling skillz to exploit Spencer Fisher’s weaknesses.

It’s a 13+ minute interview and its worth your time. Cofield asks great questions and Edgar can hold a conversation (read: he’s not a meathead)

Check out tons of UFC 78 content on FiveOuncesofPain.com