The segments from this past weekend have been put together in a podcast that you can download here. In this podcast, I make a few picks for UFC 118, discuss MMA being sanctioned in Ontario and give you my take on the welterweight division in the UFC and who should get the next title shot.

From  The Franchise’s website:

Gary Whittaker is on the last week of his 2 week hiatus so Nick Murdocco and Julie Veilleux AKA metricjulie on Twitter give their take on  UFC 118’s top 3 fights.

MMA IS LEGALIZED IN ONTARIO!! What impact does that have on Quebec MMA?

Julie also looks at the welterweight division of the UFC and the who faces who if X wins or Y loses..

Guest co-host Sean Campbell, Nick and Julie review the Jean Pascal Unanimous decision victory over Chad Dawson and we have our own “insider” Darwich Midani who caught the fight, breaking it all down.

Click here to listen to the podcast!

Thanks to hosts Nick Murdocco and Amanda Stein for having me on, as well as guest co-host Sean Campbell for talking MMA with me!

Will MMA regulation in Ontario affect the game in Quebec?

On Sunday night’s edition of Game Points on Team 990 in Montreal, my usual MMA segment was a lively discussion between Dave Simon, Dave Kaufman and I following the regulation of MMA in Ontario. This latest development brings forth a few questions that we address and discuss on this most recent episode of Game Points:

1. What does it mean for MMA in Quebec and will Quebec’s athletic commission, La Régie des alcools, des courses et des jeux, adopt the unified rules for mixed martial arts?
2. How does this help the sport grow in terms of mainstream perception and acceptance of mixed martial arts (karate, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay thai, etc.) as opposed to the often demonized term “MMA”?
3. Will it affect/improve certain key elements of the game such as quality of refereeing and judging, both on the local and international levels?

Listen to the segment for more on the potential for growth of the fast-growing sport now that the doors to a huge, untapped market have been opened, and the importance of MMA being further developed, regulated and properly supervised.

Thanks to my MMA blog crush MiddleEasy, I discovered this guy NickTheFace who, so far anyway, creates MMA event trailers on youtube and they are AMAZING.

Like, really.

If you love MMA and get goosebumps while watching trailers for highly anticipated fights like I do, you have to click the following videos.

1. The next big fight we’re all waiting to see, Anderson Silva defending his middleweight title against real estate agent politician fighter clown WAIT WHAT he’s a fighter? Alright, FIGHTER Chael Sonnen.

2. You knew I was going to plug GSP (not literally… IF ONLY). In all fairness, though, he IS fighting later this year, and it’s GOING to be a party. Like, HUGE. Montreal is going to be on FIYAAAHHHH and not just because the Habs play the Leafs and cop cars will be burning all over Ste-Catherine.

From RingsideReport.net’s website:

Listen to the June 18, 2010 episode of Ringside Report Radio hosted by Dave Simon and Julie V. Kevin “Big Tuna” McKough was on location at Centre Pierre Charbonneau watching Ringside MMA 7: No Escape and phoned in after the event with results and thoughts from the arena.

Thierry Quenneville appeared on the program to talk about his bout on June 19 against John Fraser for the Warrior-1 featherweight championship. W-1 fight correspondent Adam Reid also appeared on the show to talk about Warrior-1: Judgment Day, taking place on Saturday June 19 in Laval, Québec.

Dave and Julie previewed The Ultimate Fighter Season 11 finale and WEC 49. They also talked about Quinton “Rampage” Jackson’s appearance on The Tonight Show, Miguel Torres’ tweets about Cyborg Santos and much more MMA on this 2 hour episode of Ringside Report Radio.

What’s cool about this episode is:

• We’re back to our regular two-hour programming now that the NHL playoffs are over
• We get live results of Ringside MMA 7: No Escape
• Dave Simon addresses one of the points raised in the blog I wrote earlier in the week, I Wish I Were A Dick. I Mean HAD A Dick. Big, big thanks to Dave for giving some air time to the issues I discussed this week that were important to me.
• Also, it’s just Dave & I which means I get a lot of air time YAY!

That’s all for now! Tonight the Ringside Report Radio team will be at Warrior-1: Judgement Day and it should be a great night of fights. A report of sorts will be up tomorrow. Thanks for reading!

Honorable mention

Dave Simon tweeted this a few days ago, YAY.

@davesimonmma

On Ringside Report Radio’s Friday night episode, Dave Simon, Kevin McKough and I give our picks & predictions for UFC 115. We were also joined by strength and conditioning coach Jonathan Chaimberg. Here’s the write-up on www.ringsidereport.net:

June 11, 2010 episode of Ringside Report Radio hosted by Dave Simon and Kevin “Big Tuna” McKough and featuring weekly contributor, Julie V.

Strength-and-conditioning coach to some of the best in MMA, Jonathan Chaimberg, appeared on this program and talked about Rashad Evans’ win over Rampage, GSP starting the filming of TUF 12 and more.

Dave, Kevin and Julie gave a full preview and their predictions for UFC 115 including David Loiseau’s return to the octagon and the main event bout between Chuck Liddell and Rich Franklin.

All this and much more MMA on this episode of Ringside Report Radio.

Click here to listen to the episode!

My picks and results for UFC 115

Chuck Liddell vs Rich Franklin

Prediction: Franklin over Liddel

Result: Rich Franklin def. Chuck Liddell via KO (punch)

Mirko Cro Cop Filipovic vs Patrick Barry

Prediction: Pat Barry over Cro cop

Result: Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic def. Patrick Barry via submission (rear-naked choke)

Paulo Thiago vs Martin Kampmann

Prediction: Thiago over Kampmann

Result: Martin Kampmann def. Paulo Thiago via unanimous decision

Ben Rothwell vs Gilbert Yvel

Prediction: Yvel over Rothwell

Result: Ben Rothwell def. Gilbert Yvel via unanimous decision

Carlos Condit vs Rory MacDonald

Prediction: Condit over Rory Mac

Result: Carlos Condit def. Rory MacDonald via TKO

Mac Danzig vs Matt Wiman

Prediction: Wiman over Danzig

Result: Matt Wiman def. Mac Danzig via submission (guillotine choke)

Tyson Griffin vs Evan Dunham

Prediction: Dunham over Griffin

Result: Evan Dunham def. Tyson Griffin via split decision

David Loiseau vs Mario Miranda

Prediction: Miranda over Loiseau, grudgingly.

Result: Mario Miranda def. David Loiseau via TKO (strikes), sadly.

James Wilks vs Peter Sobotta

Prediction: Wilks over Sobotta

Result: James Wilks def. Peter Sobotta via unanimous decision

Richardo Funch vs Claude Patrick

Prediction: Patrick over Funch

Result: Claude Patrick def. Ricardo Funch via submission (guillotine choke)

Jesse Lennox vs Mike Pyle

Prediction: Pyle over Lennox

Result: Mike Pyle def. Jesse Lennox via technical submission (triangle choke)

First, I participated in Team 990’s late-night show, Midnight Snack, hosted by Moe Khan and Trexis Griffin, my co-hosts on the Tuesday night edition of Game points. Second, they had me on to chat MMA with them and their special guest, MMA and sports reporter for AOL’s FanHouse and Versus.com, as well as host of The MMA Hour, Ariel Helwani. Those of you who know me know just how excited I get when I talk MMA, and to exchange briefly on UFC 115 (taking place this Saturday, June 12 in Vancouver, BC) with one of my favorite people ever in MMA was truly a pleasure.

Thanks for your time, Ariel; it was an honor to have you back en territoire Montréalais!

Click here to listen to the interview with Ariel Helwani

BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar

Watching the fights again, right off the bat in the first round, what I can see is Edgar moves really fast, moves A LOT, is dynamic and wants it. What is also obvious is Penn controls the pace and connects with the better strikes at least in the early rounds. As I judge the fight for myself, I cannot help but get a sense of déjà vu. In my entry posted on October 27, 2009 titled UFC 104 – The One With The Immediate Rematch featuring the controversial championship fight between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, I gave my own breakdown of the fight and how I scored it:

Upon watching the fight again more sober attentive, this is how I would score the fight, with my non-existent knowledge of MMA scoring and complete lack of experience judging fights professionally:

the metricjulie scoring system
Round 1: Machida
Round 2: Rua
Round 3: draw, but let’s say Machida for the sake of my post so it’s more interesting
Round 4: Rua
Round 5: Rua

Now, to score this BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar fight according my own highly UNscientific scoring system:

the metricjulie scoring system

Round 1: Penn
Round 2: Penn
Round 3: Penn (in a less dominating fashion than the two previous rounds, but still.)
Round 4: draw, but let’s say Edgar for the sake of argument
Round 5: Edgar

Result: 48-47 in favor of BJ Penn but really pushing it so that my point comes across.

Pushing it, I could give rounds 4 & 5 to Edgar. Even if I really wanted to favor Edgar in this fight and give him round 3, that still doesn’t explain how the judges could have scored the fight as follows:

50-45, 49-46 and 48-47, all in favor of Edgar.

… with all due respect, which isn’t that much, WHAT ON EARTH WERE THEY THINKING and WERE WE WATCHING THE SAME FIGHT? Did Edgar get points for moving quickly and looking like he wanted it more? Did he get a million bonus points for sorta taking Penn down when none of his opponents had managed to do so in the last 55 years? I guess you could say Penn was fighting not to lose his title. This is stretching the limits of what my inner rational fan is willing to endorse from the crazy and/or casual fan, which constitutes 92% of any fanbase.

Perhaps the 10-point must system isn’t suited for MMA; if you want to read the “world’s first comprehensive mixed martial arts statistics and analysis system”, go to FIGHTMETRIC.com and read their breakdown of the Penn-Edgar fight. Their system also has Penn winning in dominant fashion.

So I guess my biggest question is this: If Machida won his fight against Shogun, how does BJ Penn lose his title against Frankie Edgar?

Anderson Silva vs DemianMaia

As I write this, I am afflicted with the world’s most gigantic headache caused by my eyes being stuck in the back of my head from too much EYE ROLLING. I won’t reinvent the wheel here with my comments on whatever the hell happened, but I will say this:

1. I am a fan of Anderson Silva’s mind games, as evidenced by this tweet of mine in the early stages of the fight:

I have weird sexual fantasies. I never act on them though.

2. … but after the first two rounds, ENOUGH ALREADY, frig.

I read some pretty intense comments, ranging from people wanting their money back to others being utterly embarrassed by Anderson Silva’s existence. Not just in the sport. His existence, period. To those people, I would like to suggest getting dolled up, going out to your favorite bar, having a few drinks, and then perhaps hooking up in the bathroom with the first random person with whom you make eye contact. You all need to get laid. Honestly, if Silva felt he had some sort of mental toughness & advantage over Maia, which he did, why wouldn’t he make good use of it? I admit it was a little much, and the line can be hard to see, which is why I came up with the following point system to properly evaluate Silva’s game:

the metricjulie taunting system

Round 1: Silva
Round 2: Silva
Round 3: It was starting to be a little annoying, but let’s say for the sake of my post, we let Silva have this one.
Round 4: It was exasperating. Just fight already. It was more annoying than Fedor’s excuses not to fight ever. Advantage: Maia for having the patience not to bitchslap him (as opposed to landing a, you know, regular strike)
Round 5: I was touching myself, I was so happy Silva got a warning for literally RUNNING AWAY IN CIRCLES AROUND MAIA. Advantage: Maia

Result: I think the mindgames Silva was playing were legit in the early rounds and effectively managed to break Maia a little bit, but it WAS rather disappointing in the second half of the fight. It’s a little shameful to goad someone so much when you’re not actually doing anything. It’s almost as embarrassing as making the playoffs by one point in an overtime loss, but not quite.

I won’t get into the fact that Dana White apologized about Silva’s performance because frankly I could care less and am highly annoyed by all the drama surrounding the UFC that is often caused by its own president. In fact, this whole event was kind of a circus. I’ve been tweeting on and off about it; I can’t get over how weird it was. Sometimes I think I’ve made my peace with it, then another surge of whatthefuck makes its way to the surface, as you can see in the following tweets that were written at various moments over the past 48 hours:

Plus the Habs lost, frig.

CLOWNSHOES.

At least I amuse myself. Wait that sounds wrong --

Also, is it just me or is it sort of silly that Renzo Gracie asked for Matt Hughes to help him upduring their fight? What a weird, weird night of fights. I don’t even know what to say in conclusion.

UFC 112: Invincible. IT'S SERIOUS BUSINESS.

UFC hosts its first event in the Middle East and presents its fans with UFC 112: Invincible in Abu Dhabi. Kudos to UFC for putting together a pretty sick card with 2 title fights and making Matt Hughes a heavy favorite at -500.

Last night on Ringside Report Radio on Team 990, Dave Simon, Kevin McKough and I gave our UFC 112 picks and predictions. You can hear the entire episode here: Ringside Report Radio April 9, 2010.

Here are my picks:

Jon Madsen over Mostapha Al Turk

Paul Kelly over Matt Veach

Brad Blackburn over DaMarques Johnson

Nick Osipczak vs Rick Story

John Gunderson over Paul Taylor ** EDIT: Paul Taylor will not be able to fight due to medical reasons appearing to be linked with the weight cut, therefore, this bout is canceled

Phil Davis over Alexander Gustafsson

Mark Munoz over Kendall Grove

Terry Etim over Rafael Dos Anjos

Matt Hughes over Renzo Gracie

BJ Penn over Frankie Edgar

Anderson Silva over Demian Maia

I have over an hour to kill in NYC before heading home to Montreal, so I decided I’d write some random/quick thoughts about UFC 111. I was in attendance and will have some pretty cool videos to share with you later tonight when I get home.

Trip down to Newark - It was eventful, to say the least. We were stuck at customs for over 2 hours, and the agent that spoke to me thought I was coming to “beat people up” when I said I was here for UFC. I asked to step aside and asked many questions, much to the dismay of a bus full of people eager to get the F back on the road already.

Arrival in New York – I missed my connection to Newark and was misinformed by 2 different people. Consequently, I was thoroughly confused and arrived 2 hours late for breakfast with Zak of www.watchkalibrun.com, one of my favorite MMA blogs. Thankfully, Zak is a gentleman and a sweetheart and was unfazed by my tardiness and eight-hour-bus-ride smell.

UFC pre-party – Coors Light, Yuengling, Hoegaarden, OH MY! We met some interesting and cool people, as well as some interesting people in the not-so-cool way. I swear, while we were waiting for a cab at the hotel, as a town car approached us, a horrible woman said, and I quote (and Zak can vouch for me, she actually said this) “I’m not getting into an unidentified vehicle with a Hispanic man.” I wish I could have put her in a guillotine choke, but the stink of her perfume and the dye in her hair were so toxic, I probably would have passed out.

UFC 111 – Random thoughts all over the place because I’m tired and don’t care quite as much as I could/should about being coherent right now:

This was my 2nd live UFC event. Balcony > Ringside. SERIOUSLY. Looking into the octagon as opposed to having it right in front of you and having to look UP into it is much, much better. If you’re interested in going to a UFC event, save the cash and buy a $200 ticket in the balcony instead of shelling out anywhere from $300 to $600 for lower seats.

I don’t know if it’s because the two UFC events I’ve attended were in Philly and Newark respectively, and I will preface this by saying I do not mean any disrespect to anyone in those areas, but holy crap were these two crowds full of meatheads and douchebags. The incessant booing any time there is grappling in a fight for more than two seconds, the rude and disrespectful comments constantly hurled toward the fighters and the general misconception of what MMA is – this all takes a lot out of the live UFC experience. All the more reason to save when buying tickets for UFC, in my honest and humble opinion.

There are two decisions I did not get at all. The Jim Miller one and another I can’t remember, Hamman maybe? I must re-watch these fights, because I had the decision win going to the opposite fighter in two cases and don’t really get how they were judged. Maybe I was drunk, but I’m still pretty alert when I drink. Actually, no, never mind. No I’m not. I still think these two decisions were borderline at best.

My favorite fight of the evening has to be the Kurt Pellegrino one. Some sick moves by both fighters and they kept us on our feet.

My least favorite fight was the Matthew Riddle vs Greg Soto one. Disqualifications always suck, but to me it looked like Riddle was fine, the ref motioned to both fighters to regain their corners and was about to start the fight, then Riddle shook his head and looked like he was convincing his corner that he couldn’t fight. But I was way up there in the balcony so I don’t know. Please refer to comment about being drunk above.

I’m so happy my Mir vs Carwin prediction was wrong and that Carwin pulled off the TKO. What the hell happened to Mir? I’m not saying Carwin wasn’t a worthy opponent, but he got ROCKED. Could it be that his obsession with beating Lesnar went overboard and messed with his head instead of making him plain hungry for victory? In any event, Carwin will face Lesnar this summer and I am thrilled. Frank Mir is too smart for some of the shit he says, and I think he lowers himself to unnecessary levels. He lost me as a fan of him as a person, that’s for sure. On the other hand, Shane Carwin is classy, works hard and is one of the good guys. I always appreciate a fighter who doesn’t feel need to convince us that he has balls with ridiculous trashtalk.

And finally, my Georges’ fight. Total domination by GSP (I believe judges scored it 50-43, 50-44 and 50-45) (feel free to correct me). Much like everyone else who watched, I cannot BELIEVE Dan Hardy didn’t tap out to that deep armbar and kimura GSP sinked. During his post-fight interview, Dan Hardy said, “I never tap, I told you this. I don’t know the meaning of the word “tap”.” That was the quote of the night as far as I’m concerned. I have a great deal of respect for Dan Hardy’s heart and determination in this fight. Lasting 25 minutes in the cage with GSP is worthy of anyone’s admiration. On the other hand, I feel bad for GSP who felt like he had to apol0gize to his fans. He mentioned he had made mistakes and would work on them with his coach – is this accurate? I’ll have to watch the fight again to see what there mistakes were. To me, it looked like GSP was on the defensive because there was some booing during his fight and he probably felt bad he wasn’t able to finish the fight. In your defense, mon beau Georges, many a fighter would have tapped in Hardy’s place. He’s still number 1 in my heart and I can’t help but love him more when I see him so dejected about a CHAMPIONSHIP VICTORY. Maybe Joe Silva and Dana White need to stop giving him opponents who are good at stand up, and put him up against a grappler to ensure a truly spectacular fight that won’t make ignorant fans boo all the live long day, much like giving Anderson Silva a striker as opposed to a submission artist who just lays there on his back waiting for Silva to step into his guard (Thales Leites anyone?).

Oh, and how’s this for complicated: In order to get back to our hotel, we took a fifteen-minute walk to Penn Station; waited half an hour for a train to the Newark Airport; train + air train to appropriate terminal; half-hour wait then waited half an hour for our hotel shuttle. Moral of the story? Newark needs more cabs, especially around Prudential Center.

Overall this was a night of epic proportions and I want to thank everyone who was included in it in some form. Must run to catch my bus, but follow me on twitter and subscribe to my RSS feed for notification of when pictures & videos of my UFC 111 are up! Thanks to all for the continued support and I hope you enjoyed reading and sorry for spamming you for 3 months about this night!