If you’re familiar with the VICE TV series “Dark Side of the Ring” covering some of the darker backstage stories in pro-wrestling history, VICE is making one for MMA. Not sure if it’s the same people (don’t believe so).

It premiers later tonight with the story of Kimbo Slice and an investigation into his death. Im curious about how the story will be framed, who they talked to, and what the ultimately fall on in terms of ‘blame’. I’ve been highly critical of the state of Texas myself since before the fight was made but we’ll see what comes up.

There’s a lot of stuff I’m disappointed didn’t show up on the show, but I get it. You only have to much of a budget, access, and so much time. And I don’t know who they tried to talk to and couldn’t get a hold of, ya know. Off the top of my head, would have loved to have seen Spencer Fisher on the show. Read his story if you’d like to know why. It’ll break your heart.

In Ivy’s world, everything had a price. Success wasn’t built on luck or hard work alone—it was bought, bargained for, and sometimes stolen. Money had always been the deciding factor, the key to power and survival. She never shied away from an opportunity to make a profit. It was, after all, how she and Diego had first crossed paths. One of her less-than-stellar dates had managed to piss off the wrong people—the kind that didn’t just hold grudges, but settled them in blood. Honestly, she couldn’t blame them too much. Everyone had bills to pay. Slipping seamlessly beside Diego, she kept her gaze on the room, her lips curving into a smirk. “Please tell me you need dirt on my current date,” she murmured, voice light but laced with amusement. “He’s bothering me enough as it is.”

Actual Age Street Fighters (2020)

Joey

February 10th, 2020

A week after chaos and controversy in Texas, we stay in the Southwest as the UFC heads to Rio Rancho, New Mexico for a little bit of a weird ass fight card. The UFC has a tendency to just put together shows in weird locations to fill their schedule and a show from the Santa Ana Star Center in New Mexico sort of just fits that mold with a very blegh card. There's good fights on here but for some reason, most of them lurk on the prelims while the main card is pretty much a big ball of fluff and weird Jackson-Wink style matchups. Corey Anderson vs Jan Blachowicz is a fine enough headliner I GUESS while Diego Sanchez vs Michel Perreira is one of those fights you have a morbid curiosity for live but eventually will turn to disgust once it happens. Names like Jim Miller, Scott Holtzman, Ray Borg and John Dodson lurk on the prelims if you're willing to dig around for them and any card with Tim Means on it probably warrants viewing. IF ANYTHING it feels like this card is really a more painful reminder of the downfall of Jackson-Wink and how most of the name fighters they've relied upon have either left, retired or fallen off the map completely. It's a dying gym and it's sort of brutal to see it go this route even if you found Greg Jackson and Mike WInklejohn to come off as perhaps arrogant and condescending at their peak. Either way, there's live fights and I'll be here so it's my duty to settle in, strap up and get ready to guide us through what is a very weird helter skelter-y fight night from New Mexico.

2020 Stat-O-Matic:

Debuting Fighters (3-2): Daniel Rodriguez, Brok Weaver Main Event Exemption:

Short Notice Fighters (2-2): DeQuan Townsend, Daniel Rodriguez Main Event Exemption:

Second Fight (2-2): Rodrigo Vargas Main Event Exemption: Vs Debutantes: Rodrigo Vargas

Cage Corrosion (Fighters who have not fought within a year of the date of the fight) (5-0):  Yancy Medeiros Main Event Exemption (1-0):

Undefeated Fighters (2-4):   Main Event Exemption (0-1):

Fighters with at least four fights in the UFC with 0 wins over competition still in the organization (2-1): Mark De La Rosa, Tim Means Main Event Exemption:

Weight Class Jumpers (Fighters competing outside of the weight class of their last fight even if they’re returning BACK to their “normal weight class”) (1-3): Ray Borg, Dequan Townsend Main Event Exemption ():

Twelve Precarious Ponderings

1- So does this main event not matter anymore? Regardless of how you might've felt about Corey Anderson and his streaking success or Jan Blachowicz's second half career resurgence, the fact of the matter was that IF Jones beat Reyes convincingly like most expected then Jones vs the winner of this fight felt like a lock for July or August. Consider that the UFC originally brought up the idea of Jones vs Jan in MSG to both camps but Jon passed on it or requested a new deal for it or whatever the case. Corey Anderson has some semblance of heat to him these days after smelting Johnny Walker and trying to develop or rabble up some sort of counter UFC fanbase. This WAS a #1 contender fight in theory but now? Is anybody going to want to see any fight at 205 lbs BESIDES Jones vs Reyes 2? I'm betting that's going to be a hard no. Now it is worth remembering that Jones once turned down Gus 2 (which the UFC thought would be a 1 million buy PPV) so that Glover Teix could get a title shot. This is also the UFC's rise of the champions era where champions can dictate their opponents. That said I bet it's going to be borderline riot territory if the UFC goes with the winner of this fight over a Reyes rematch.

2- The first fight featured a ton of wrasslin' as Jan couldn't stop Corey Anderson takedowns to save his life. The problem repeated itself vs Pat Cummins as well. This has been LESS of a problem for Jan since hitting this insane run he's been on since the Cummins' fight but Anderson hasn't gotten worse as a wrestler and if anything he's rounded out some of the holes in his game as a striker. Feels like a toughie for Jan to win BUT if Jan can take solace in anything, it's that Anderson has been KO'd twice since that fight and got his head bounced off the turf by Shogun Rua in a contested split decision loss. Jan also has rediscovered his kicking game which has been the catalyst for this renaissance run. There's some intrigue here but in all likelihood, this is Bader vs top 10 LHW territory where he can outgrapple dudes en route to the eventual fight with a big hitter who sleeps him.

3- Who WOULD win in a fight between Ryan Bader vs Corey Anderson?

4- Is it fair to just want Diego vs Michel to happen just so you can say you saw it happen?

5- At the risk of opening myself to critique and sassafrass, the main card fight I'm MOST looking forward to is Mara Romero vs Montana de la Rosa. I still think there's plenty of upside for Montana de la Rosa as she's very young but also pretty experienced with a 3-1 UFC record and a sole loss to Andrea Lee who is pretty good. She's got some discomfort on her feet that makes me worried about the ceiling but her grappling, positional awareness and fluidity is well worth seeing if it develops. For Mara Romero, I'm just sort of not sure what she is as a fighter. She debuted, upset the Titan FC bantamweight champ in her UFC debut, lost a close fight to Katlyn Chookagian, upset an undefeated Brazilian prospect in Brazil and then got swamped by Lauren Murphy in her next fight. Like Montana de la Rosa, there's a clear lack of comfort on the feet for extended periods of time but when the fight hits the mat, she's a lot of fun to watch usually. Kinda digging this fight on paper.

6- Jim Miller vs Scott Holtzman is weird because this is a fight that both guys tend to find a way to lose. Miller rolls into this one on a modest two fight winning streak which means he's one more kinda good mid tier guy away from getting thrust into a violence fight vs some sort of stylistic nightmare. Holtzman is still riding his "look great one fight, shit the next" rollercoaster as he comes into this one off violent smelting of Dong Hyung Ma after a loss to Nik Lentz after violently finishing Alan Patrick. So much of Holtzman's game seems to be broken down by whether or not he is "in" the fight after the first round since he seems incapable of grinding out those close brutal fights, especially when he doesn't have a pronounced strength advantage. Chances are this one ends poorly for Miller (who was rocked by Clay Guida twice in a minute) but this is Jim Miller and we are obligated to root for a dude who fought for years with lyme disease and had no idea.

7- Lando Vannata vs Yancy Medeiros in a battle of guys who can best be described as violent enhancement talent should be fun. It's worth remembering that fighters who have taken a year or more off and come back are at a ROUSING 5-0 in the early stages of 2020 and Medeiros hasn't fought since Jan of last year.

8- If Ray Borg makes weight, he's got a REALLY winnable fight against Rogerio Bontorin who is super powerful and hits hard but doesn't bring much else to the dance. How quickly can Borg ascend up the ranks with a win?

9- A bit ago,  @theanticool  and I discussed the plight of Jon Dodson; a super athlete who probably should've rounded out his game more en route to what is now the end of his athletic peak and the start of what would be the crafty veteran portion of his career except I don't think he's particularly crafty. Powerful? For sure. Still plenty fast? Yep. Lacking a change up to his game? Feels pretty evident. Dodson has a chance to pretty much stem the tide of irrelevancy against Nate Wood in another one of those low key great bantamweight fights. Wood was/is a bit of a wild man all action fighter but since coming into the UFC, he's settled down a bit and really refined his game to the tune of a 3-0 record all by stoppage. He's less frenetic, smarter and looks like a dude benefitting from UFC paychecks where he can probably train more/better. Wood vs Dodson should be awesome and especially in the first round where I can see Wood having trouble if Dodson comes out hot early.

10- I'm still not off the Macy Chiasson bandwagon but this fight with Nicco Montano is going to be pretty damn important for her. Nicco got off to a really strong start in her bantamweight debut vs Julianna Pena before she tired out or got sucked into prolonged grappling exchanges or whatever happened. I still think her weight class is down 10 lbs but she's got the stuff to really challenge Chiasson. This feels like a case of two women living in two opposite weight classes and having to meet in the middle to be honest.

11- Speaking of Nicco, she went from the first ever women's flyweight champion to the follow up fight to the curtain jerker. That's tough.