Elsalvajeloco

Not to dissect the interview or Jon Jones even more than necessary, but what I took from many of Jon's answers (FWIW I missed a couple minutes when Rogan got right into the UFC 200 thing) is he understands that he doesn't understand some of the greater responsibilities he is taking on. So much of his mindset reads of a fighter who would be at home if he was in the sport ten or fifteen years ago. Fighters don't have to be saints now, but you can't be out here doing rails and bumping random broads before fights now. The same goes with popping dick pills random strangers give you or getting blackout drunk for that matter. The part time rockstar/pseudo good guy doesn't jive with what is feasible, and clearly he's not the rare person who can maintain that lifestyle. I think based on him talking about invincibility and the fact that he's hard to keep down, his psyche is always going to feed into his habits. You don't think when he wrecks Dan Henderson on 12/11 in this submission grappling match that's not going to be feeling himself? Dude doesn't even know the rules, and it's pretty damn obvious he doesn't have to. Shit, he didn't even have to bring in Tussa to train with. When you're that great, you feel like you can do whatever. We see it with Conor. We see it with Ronda. Perhaps, it gives us more greatness and also leads to more questionable shit. Either way, that's the common denominator with Jon Jones.

I am planning on watching Friday Foster in the near future. I was watching Fort Apache, The Bronx a couple weeks ago, and it's like Pam Grier and Paul Newman are in different films. I am still not sure what the point of Pam's character was besides cutting up tricks with a cheap razorblade in her mouth. That's a neat trick, I guess.

Speaking of this interview, it seems pretty damn strange (and dangerous) to let random people (w/ minimal experience) spar with top pros at Jackson-Wink unless it's a specialist in a specific discipline.

I'm listening to the interview right now (missed about a few minutes here and there), but I don't think there was anything too bad so far that I've heard. Given some of the softballs lobbed his way the last 2 years or so, he has been forthcoming on a lot of things. He just comes off as a really peculiar dude, which isn't uncommon at all for pro athletes. He reminds me so much of Ricky Williams.

Since Shelton vs. Pantoja are fighting on the Denver card, I am guessing Ogikubo will be brought back and fight around then.

If Wikipedia didn't spoil it for you already, Tim Elliott is indeed fighting Demetrious Johnson on Saturday for the Flyweight championship.

Besides the obvious, I think a big part of the problem (especially in a 2 hour call) is they didn't really give a lot of pertinent details. I get that you don't want the UFC/WME-IMG to counter, but if this is for the fighters (we're talking about almost 600 people), you have to sell them big. Fighters already know about MMA unions (or in this case, an association) attempts, but nothing has compelled them to join yet. It's underselling vs. overselling. You can't promise an industry changing announcement and then be light on the details. In addition, it seems like they didn't really have a strong meeting beforehand about what was going to be said. I believe Cerrone didn't even have anything prepared. However, for something like this, everyone should be on code especially if the fighters are supposedly running the association. You can't have Bjorn saying the UFC is an egregious monopoly and the association has no plans on contacting the UFC, and one or two of the fighters say they just want to work with the UFC to get things right. It makes no fucking sense...at all. Once again, the fighters are in charge of running this. Plus, you have people on the call talking about a possible labor strike but you also see reputable legal experts following the call actually talking about the UFC possibly being able sue their independent contractors and/or association members for collusion. You can't have Bjorn downplaying a union and then have people on the call talk about benefits that would probably be best achieved as a union and not as an association. I didn't personally listen to the call, but IMO everything tweeted about it ranges from wishful, theoretical possibility to "Hey, this isn't a pyramid scheme! Honest!*wink*" w/ Bjorn's involvement. There is nothing that was said in that 2 hour call that couldn't be said inside of 45 minutes. If you didn't know beforehand what this might have been about, you would swear that some shady dude was trying to get you to buy a timeshare.

The lineup for the show is set with the final piece being who DJ fights. Moreno vs. Benoit is on the main card, which makes sense as Moreno has the upset of Smolka.

Helwani just said on Twitter what I was going to say here. Using the guy who went out of his way to make sure Bellator contracts were as coercive as UFC contracts might not be the best way to go about this. Moreover, angling to make it CAA vs. WME will not end well for several fighters. You thought Zinkin Ent. vs. Zuffa that one day was ugly? This is going to turn into some intense power struggle type shit MMA has never seen before. Not sure you want to draw the line that quickly when you need a large amount of the roster sign on. I can't imagine that being enticing to someone who wants to unionize without making enemies with teammates and the like.

Maybe we can scratch off a PFA alliance/merger thing because Jeff Borris might not have his shit together based on the open letter from Leslie Smith. TLDR version of said letter: Leslie Smith is stepping away from PFA because Borris was giving away fighter info to the agents, breaching an agreement. Poor Borris didn't last long enough to get a class action lawsuit out of the deal.

"To no one's surprise, Alabama has won the Nick Saban is Going for Tears regional..."

The Ultimate Fighter 24 Finale: Tournament of Champions December 3, 2016 Las Vegas, NV (Palms Casino Resort) UFC Flyweight Championship: Demetrious Johnson © (124.5) vs. Tim Elliott (125) (ninth defense) - Johnson, DEC (unanimous) Joseph Benavidez (125.5) vs. Henry Cejudo (125.5) - Benavidez, DEC (split) Jake Ellenberger (170.25) vs. Jorge Masvidal (171) - Masvidal, TKO (referee stoppage), R1 (4:05) Ion Cutelaba (205.5) vs. Jared Cannonier (204) - Cannonier, DEC (unanimous) Sara McMann (135.5) vs. Alexis Davis (134.75) - McMann, SUB (arm triangle choke), R2 (2:52) Brandon Moreno (126) vs. Ryan Benoit (125.5) - Moreno, DEC (split) Fox Sports 1 Preliminary Card: Gray Maynard (145.5) vs. Ryan Hall (145) - Hall, DEC (unanimous) Rob Font (135.5) vs. Matt Schnell (135.5) - Font, KO (knee and punches), R1 (3:47) Dong Hyun Kim (155.5) vs. Brendan O'Reilly (155) - Kim, DEC (unanimous) Kailin Curran (116) vs. Jamie Moyle (115) - Moyle, DEC (unanimous) Fight Pass Preliminary Card: Elvis Mutapcic (185) vs. Anthony Smith (185.5) - Smith, TKO (standing elbow and punches), R2 (3:27) Josh Stansbury (204.5) vs. Devin Clark (205.5) - Clark, DEC (unanimous) Event Bonuses ($50,000): Performance of the Night: Anthony Smith Performance of the Night: Sara McMann Fight of the Night: Ion Cutelaba vs. Jared Cannonier Attendance: 2,044 Gate: $188,602 Rating: 1.03 million viewers Cancelled Bouts: Josh Stansbury vs. Jake Collier - Injury to Collier Alejandro Pérez vs. Rob Font - Injury to Font

Probably that they signed their unions cards or plan to. It would be weird if they started a union when someone just started one for the very reason of getting those fighters. IIRC Rob Maysey's org (MMAFA) is basically competing with the one that was started this year (PFA). If they joined PFA, that would basically show the lack of faith in Maysey's efforts. The reason why I don't think it's PFA is that the PFA reps would probably be involved in this explicitly. If Rebney is trying to do the CAA vs. WME thing, that may be tough because why would somebody split resources between 3 different unions? Now if they joined up with PFA that would make sense because the backing is better. However, they have shunned Rob Maysey so why would this be any different other than having name fighters?