ARTICLE: My thoughts on the UFC which has stemmed from the ESPN saga

Posted in articles Posted on 01/20/2012 by Joel Allen

The UFC has received a lot of stick from ESPN this past week regarding fighters pay, that it’s below acceptable – which is false. I take great interest into business models and how they run of any company that comes in to conversation. The UFC is one of my favourite ones to follow step-by-step due to their sheer no ‘bs’ attitude and progressing forward with it at the same time, which amazes me. This interview where ESPN tried stitching UFC up just proves it. Whether you like MMA/UFC is irrelevant to this point, this company has balls and doesn’t back down. I love this company!

NEWS: Jobs at The Suplex

Posted in news Posted on 01/06/2012 by Joel Allen

Do you have an interest in wrestling or mixed martial arts and a talent for writing? Have you always wanted to write about wrestling but never knew where to start? This could be your chance.

The Suplex is looking to recruit some new, dedicated and enthusiastic writers to join its established writing team. We are looking for writers with an interest in, but not restricted to:

Current WWE
TNA
ROH
US Indy Wrestling
Current British Wrestling
Puroresu
Lucha Libre
Mixed Martial Arts
Wrestling History

If you are interested in writing for us, send an email to writers@thesuplex.com with your name, your areas of interest from the list above (Maximum of 3), and a sample of your work (No more than 1,000 words).

Once we have received your submission, we will read everything we get sent and if you are successful at this stage of the application process you will then be set two time- and word-restricted articles to test your knowledge and research skills. One will be based on one of your specified interests, and one will be set to all candidates.

Please note these are non-paid positions at this time. Please e-mail us at writers@thesuplex.com to apply and we’ll send you the relative information to you to start the short process to work for The Suplex.

Kind regards,
Joel Allen (Editor)
Chris Corker (Head Writer and Head of Content)

NEWS: Chris Jericho is back | Video interviews from 2011

Posted in news Posted on 01/04/2012 by Joel Allen

Here are the two video interviews with Chris Jericho during his last stint away from the WWE:

NEWS: Cage Side December 2011 Roundup

Posted in news Posted on 12/31/2011 by Chris Corker

UFC 141: Having not fought for some 14 months due to a second bout of diverticulitis, many questions were surrounding Brock Lesnar’s return to the Octagon on December 30^th 2011 against the Dutch multiple-time Heavyweight Champion Alistair Overeem. Having had surgery to remove 12 inches of his intestines, through a seven inch incision no less, many wondered if Brock could still go, or if his surgery had made him more human and less of the super-human fighting machine he was in his fights against Randy Couture, Frank Mir, and Shane Carwin. It only took 2:26 to find out, and it certainly didn’t favour the former UFC Heavyweight Champion. Starting the fight somewhat tentatively, Lesnar traded some kicks and punches with his opponent, and even opened up a cut above Overeem’s eye, before attempting a single-leg takedown which Overeem expertly defended against, at which point the commentators asked why Brock hadn’t just charged in and freight-trained Overeem to the mat. Overeem then started attacking Lesnar’s body with knees, before hitting a pin-point kick to Lesnar’s liver-area, which took him to the mat, after which Overeem hit a flurry of un-answered punches, leading to the referee stopping the fight via TKO in Overeem’s favour at the 2:26 mark. Post-fight, a humble Lesnar congratulated the new number-one contender to Junior Dos Santos’ UFC Heavyweight Title, and announced his immediate retirement from the Octagon. ‘I’m going to officially say that tonight is the last night you will see me in the Octagon. Brock Lesnar is officially retired,’ announced the former Champion, stating he had promised his wife and children that if he won the fight he would take his title shot and then retire, or retire if he lost this fight. As we write this, mere hours after the end of the fight, the rumour mill has already started turning towards Brock appearing at Wrestlemania 28 in Miami next year. As for Overeem, the former Strikeforce, DREAM and K-1 Champion will face Junior Dos Santos for the UFC Heavyweight Title some time in 2012, and depending on timing, a Brazilian Stadium show could be likely… In the semi-final bout, Nate Diaz took a unanimous decision victory over Donald Cerrone to win fight of the night honours, and also on the main card Johny Hendricks defeated Jon Fitch at the 12 second mark to win knockout of the night.

UFC 140: Marking the promotion’s return to Toronto after the huge success of UFC 129 in April, UFC 140 on December 10^th was perhaps one of the most spectacular MMA cards ever to take place. On the main card, just one of the five matches went to a decision, and they all delivered spectacular action. In the opening match, home-town hero Mark Hominick was downed in just 6 seconds by the Korean Zombie Chan Sung Jung by KO, winning the knockout of the night in the process. That was followed by the three-round war between Claude Patrick and Brian Ebersole which ended in a split decision 29-28, 29-28, 28-29 to Ebersole. Halfway through the main card, Tito Ortiz fell to Antonio Rogerio Nogueira via TKO at 3:14 of the first round due to body strikes, in what may be the final fight of Ortiz’s career, whose last eight fights read 1-6-1… On to the semi-main event, with Frank Mir taking on Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, which ended with what Dana White later described as the ‘Submission Of The Century’, and rightfully winning the submission of the night in the process. The two began the fight standing before heading to the mat, where Mir attempted to gain a Kimura on Nogueira, who countered by rolling through the lock, which Mir then countered by rolling back into the Kimura arm-lock. Still, Nogueira didn’t tap, and Mir took a deep breath and put as much pressure on the lock as he could, resulting in Nogueira suffering a broken arm and dislocated shoulder, after which he tapped. Mir is now the only person to knock out and submit Nogueira, and is now on a three fight win-streak. He is certainly pushing for a title shot very soon… The main event of the show saw Jon Jones take on his biggest challenge to date in Lyoto Machida, attempting to make his second defence of the UFC Light Heavyweight Championship against the former champion. The bout ended at 4:26 of the second round when Jones caught a tight standing guillotine choke on Machida. The hold was so tight that Machida passed out, his arm going limp by his side, which was luckily spotted by the referee, who had Jones release the hold as an unconscious Machida slumped to the canvas. Jones has now had perhaps the best year in not just UFC, but MMA history, having defeated Ryan Bader at the start of the year to gain a shot at the UFC Light Heavyweight Title, which he lifted from Mauricio Rua, before defending the title against both Rampage Jackson and Machida. Who is next for the 24 year old?… The show attracted 18,303 to the Air Canada Centre, and looks to have drawn in the region of 480,000 buys on Pay Per View.

Strikeforce News: The big news for Strikeforce at the start of December was that a deal had been reached with Showtime, the channel in the US which broadcasts the promotion, to continue broadcasting until 2014. The current deal runs through to March of 2012, with many predicting that had it not been renewed, Strikeforce would have been fully folded into the UFC. What this means is that, like in previous years, Showtime has the option on broadcasting up to 16 Strikeforce events per year, including the Strikeforce Challengers shows. Part of the deal was an agreement that no other Strikeforce fighters will move to the UFC, which means that Gilbert Melendez will be sticking with the promotion, despite rumours he was UFC bound, and it will be Zuffa’s home to the 135 and 145 pound women’s divisions. With this agreement in place, I’m expecting the winner of the Daniel Cormier-Josh Barnett match to close the Heavyweight Grand Prix will be named the new Strikeforce Heavyweight Champion… Strikeforce: Melendez vs. Masvidal, the first show to take place after the new deal was signed, emanated from San Diego on December 17^th, with Gilbert Melendez successfully defending the Strikeforce Lightweight Championship against Jorge Masvidal, in a five round battle which ended 50-45, 50-45 and 49-46 to the Champion. Melendez is now on a six fight win streak, with no one in the promotion looking able to stop him… Speaking of unstoppable, also on the card Cristiane Santos knocked out Japanese fighter Hiroko Yamanaka in just 16 seconds to retain her Women’s Featherweight Title. Yes it did look like the referee stopped the fight early, but regardless Yamanaka would have been out cold very soon after if he hadn’t stopped it. Santos’ next challenger looks likely to be Ronda Rousey, a 24 year old judo fighter who has won all of her three amateur and four professional MMA bouts within 57 seconds, and all by armbar. That should be an exciting fight if it gets put together… The next Strikeforce show is on January 7^th from the Hard Rock Casino and Resort in Las Vegas, with Luke Rockhold defending the Strikeforce Middleweight Title against Keith Jardine, who is making his debut at the weight.

UFC News: At the UFC 140 post-fight press conference, Dana White announced that the promotion would be starting a Flyweight division starting at UFC on FX 2 on March 3^rd 2012 from the Allphones Arena in Sydney, Australia. Two matches are set to take place at 125 pounds on the show, as current bantamweight fighter Demetrious Johnson looks to move down to take on Ian McCall, the current Tachi Palace Flyweight Champion and number one ranked flyweight in the world. In the other match, as UFC bantamweight Joseph Benavidez moved down to take on current Shooto Bantamweight Champion (Bantamweight in Shooto is 123 pounds) Yasuhiro Urushitani. The winners of those two fights will face each other later in 2012 to crown the first UFC Flyweight Champion… The next time the UFC is on Pay Per View is UFC 142 from the HSBC Arena in Rio de Janeiro, which features the Brazilian UFC Featherweight Champion Jose Aldo taking on American Chad Mendez in the main event. Also on the card, Vitor Belfort takes on Anthony Johnson in a Middleweight bout, and the undefeated lightweight Edson Barboza, who is 9-0 and 3-0 in the UFC, takes on British fighter Terry Etim, who has a 15-3 record. The preliminary card, which airs in its entirety on FX in the US, features the return of heavyweight Gabriel Gonzaga against Edinaldo Oliveira. Gonzaga was cut from his contract in 2010 after two losses to Brendan Schaub and Junior Dos Santos. He had previously challenged Randy Couture for the UFC Heavyweight Title and famously defeated Mirko Cro Cop at UFC 70 in Manchester.