THE TORCH: THE #1 WORLDWIDE BRAND IN COMBAT ENTERTAINMENT COVERAGE - OVER 250 MILLION VIEWS & LISTENS PER YEAR REREACHING MORE FANS EVERY WEEK THAN ANY OTHER INDEPENDENT SOURCE • VIA THE WEB, MOBILE, PRINT NEWSLETTER, AND ITUNES
Oct 28, 2009 - 11:06:48 AM By Frank Hyden, MMATorch Contributor
I saw the video of Brock Lesnar at the Minnesota Vikings game on Oct. 18. The video is on YouTube if you want to see it. The fact that Brock was there doesn't necessarily mean that he's ducking Shane Carwin. It doesn't look real good, though, to be honest. The timeline doesn't match up. That game was a week and a half ago. During that time, Brock was supposed to be in the middle of the worst illness he's ever had. Dana White said that Brock's been sick for three and a half weeks.
That means that he got sick two weeks before appearing at that Vikings games. I don't think that Brock's ducking Carwin, I believe him when he says he's sick. However, this shows a huge lack of forethought by Brock and his camp. If you've been sick for two weeks, why would you make a public appearance in front of 60,000+ people? Firstly, you can get even sicker, that may have happened here. Secondly, you have to know that there are going to be people waiting in the bushes to pounce on anything that might make you look bad. You have to be more savvy than that.
The regular fan on the street is going to hear that Brock was at a Vikings game a week ago and think he's scared of Carwin. Brock may not care what people think, but he needs to. Right now this is just a short-term hit. As soon as the fight happens in January, people are going to forget about this. However, if Carwin were to jump at this opportunity, and start lobbing accusations at Brock of being scared, this could mushroom. That probably won't happen, though. Carwin doesn't really seem the type to do such a thing. The fact remains, though, that it could happen
The other aspect of the postponement is that it really leaves UFC 106 lacking a big fight. Tito vs. Forrest II and Anthony Johnson vs. Josh Koscheck isn't going to get it done. AJ vs. Kos is a fight I'm personally looking forward to, I think Rumble's got a great chance of knocking out Koscheck. It's going to be a war, and it should be a great fight. However, Tito hasn't fought in a year and a half, and Forrest has looked bad in his last few fights. There's a little crossover appeal with those guys, but not on the level of Brock Lesnar. I really think that they need to put one more big fight on the card. It doesn't have to be a mega-fight, just a nice supplemental fight that'll add some more name value to the card. As it stands right now, the card's looking pretty weak in regards to big names. I hope they can pull something out.
ALERT: Every Tuesday night, listen to the MMATorch Livecast from 9-10:30 p.m. ET or listen now to the most recent shows by clicking here. Listen live this coming Tuesday as Jamie Penick, Rich Hansen, and Matt Pelkey discuss the latest MMA happenings. Online listen at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/mmatorch or call into the show at 646-716-8090 to either just listen or participate.
"There's still a large contingent of people, that they just want to see these guys almost die, or the other guy almost die and come back, and sometimes fights are like that. Certainly they are. But sometimes you get technical masterpieces too, and to hate a beautiful, technical fight - you're not really a fight fan...
Diaz has a granite chin, possesses perhaps the best recovery in the sport, his pace and conditioning are second to none and he sets records with the volume of his punches almost every time he steps into the cage. Nick Diaz is simply designed to fight the way he fights, and not many other fighters are...
"There was a lot of poison going on around there and I'm really disappointed because we had a good thing going. It was a good thing and I think people's egos got in the way. Well, not people just Javier, his ego got in the way, and too many cameras in the gym and him trying to build himself up and his brand, his AKA brand...