Contrary to the basketball flick White Men Can’t Jump, UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre might even have Wesley Snipes beat. Check out the spring on St. Pierre during this training clip. You’ll have to go about three minutes into the video to get a look at him leaping (easily) over five consecutive 44 inch hurdles but it’s worth it. Although he’s not throwing around monster weights a la Matt Hughes, his weight lifting routine is impressive none-the-less.
Lovely ex-UFC ring card girl Ali Sonoma will soon be a contestant on ABC’s The Mole. Ali Sonoma, once engaged to UFC Diego Sancehz, recently moved to LA in order to pursue acting and modeling (judging by her pics she shouldn’t have much problem there). We’ll see if reality television jumpstarts her career.
The new season begins Monday June 2nd on ABC.
Check out the ABC webside for the season’s trailer.
I remember reading a while back that unknown fighter Lew Polley was going to be the next great light heavyweight to take the MMA world by storm. At that time Polley had won 9 out of 10 fights with all of those wins coming by way of submission or TKO. Well I decided to check in on Lew and came across this clip of his last fight which occured in the IFL this past February.
Sports Illustrated has put together a list of 10 mixed martial arts fighters that you’ve probably never heard of, but you soon will. This SI.com article does a nice job of recognizing talented, yet relatively unknown, MMA fighters on the rise. One of their stand-outs is Jim Miller “with his only loss being a decision against Frankie Edgar. Miller dominated Bart Palaszewski in his last bout, and though he still may be a few wins away from really making waves, he’s worth keeping an eye on.”
The rest of the top 10 up-and-coming MMA fighter list includes Jake Rosholt (Oklahoma State wrestling champion), Cain Velasquez (explosive UFC newbee), Deividas Taurosevicius (Gracie fighter with power), C.B. Dollaway (cast member of this season’s The Ultimate Fighter), Ronaldo Souza (submission wiz), Mike Massenzio (takedown machine), Johny Hendricks (NCAA wrestling champ with KO power), Wilson Reis (young and fast BJJ blackbelt), Andre Gusmao (big, strong light heavyweight with IFL experience).
Which is growing faster, MMA or Facebook? I think it’s safe to say Facebook is (reports say over 200,000 new sign ups every day), but mixed martial arts and the UFC’s presence on the hugely popular social networking site is growing like crazy.
I did a search for “UFC” and “MMA” on Facebook today and was surprised that between the two of them there were over 1,000 groups dedicated to the sport. While some of these groups only have a few hundred members, others have tens of thousands of members. I think Sherdog is in the hundreds of thousands in members, but don’t be surprised if Facebook eventually becomes home to the largest collective community of mixed martial arts fans.
The content kind of sucks, but it’s pretty easy to become a fan of these groups once you are a member of Facebook and really easy to upload your own photos and videos.
Join the Facebook page below and let all of your Facebook friends know you support the sport. (FYI, I have zero affiliation with the page below)
Chris “The Crippler” Leben turned himself in today after a bench warrant for his arrest was issued by a judge in Clackamas Oregon. Looks like Leban (the same guy who pissed on the bed of a fellow fighter and housemate on The Ultimate Fighter season 1) did not complete certain requirements of his parole stemming from a DUI arrest in 2005.
According to the Oregonian newspaper,
“He came in yesterday afternoon,” said Detective Jim Strovink of the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office. “He knew he had violated his parole and he admirably turned himself in.”
Leben (18-4) is being held without bail. His next hearing is 9 a.m. May 8 at Clackamas County Circuit Court.
His next scheduled bout is against Michael Bisping at UFC 85 in London on June 7.
