MMA Roundup: Frank Shamrock, Rashad Evans, Fedor

If you’ve finally wrapped your head around Jon Jones’ one-in-a-million day last Saturday, there are plenty of other topics that have jumped to the forefront this past week, including a supposed offer to fix a fight by an MMA legend, a rift between a former UFC champion and his coach and more. Here are the stories that are most important to note for this week.

Shamrock denies offering to fix Kimbo Slice fight

Former shady promoter and all-around dirtbag Jared Shaw slithered his way into the headlines recently by saying that former UFC star and MMA legend Frank Shamrock offered to “work” a fight with Kimbo Slice back in the EliteXC days. Shaw, who famously jumped up and down incredulously when his meal ticket (Slice) was bested by a UFC cast-off (Seth Petruzelli), made the allegations on one of Sherdog’s radio shows.

On Sherdog’s “Savage Dog Show”, Shamrock retorted, saying that it would have been “retarded” for him to jeopardize his career and reputation with such a move. Shamrock says that the possible misunderstanding may have come when he offered to replace his brother Ken (who was not allowed to fight due to a cut) at the last minute, saying he’d make Kimbo “look like a million bucks.” Shamrock says what he meant was that he would “kick the crap out of [Kimbo] with style.”

Shaw says he knew that Shamrock would vehemently deny the allegations. He says that Shamrock’s motivations came from being a “percentage owner” of EliteXC. Shaw says the alleged offer made him feel sick because he always suspected that Shamrock had fixed his fight with Cung Le. “I just can’t understand why Frank Shamrock didn’t go to the ground on Cung Le.”

Shamrock says he enjoyed the challenge of fighting a stand-up battle with Le and that the prospect of doing so “[kept] me excited about fighting.” For his part, he said clearly in his radio interview that he “never participated in the carrying of a fight or the throwing of a fight.”

Shamrock is pretty clear in his denial, and other than Shaw misunderstanding the “million bucks” line or making the story up, it’s hard to imagine any other scenarios. Part-owner of EliteXC or not, it’s hard to think he would offer to fix a fight or “carry” Kimbo. I do believe that Shamrock was confident he would beat Le standing; that confidence has been one of his most memorable features. Shaw was a pretty fishy dude on his best day, and though I’m not sure what he’d get out of making the story up, I’m not going to believe his account, either.

Rashad Evans says he’s done with Greg Jackson

After former teammate Jon Jones completed his journey to the light heavyweight championship with a vicious thrashing of Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, we all saw Rashad Evans admit in the cage that he would be the first man to face Jones for the title. What some didn’t know, however, is that Evans took to Twitter after the event and announced that he was no longer going to work with longtime coach/trainer Greg Jackson.

Evans has since elaborated, saying that he feels that Jackson no longer has his best interests at heart. Jackson responded by telling Ariel Helwani that “I’m hoping that it’s just emotion talking and that that won’t be the case because we love him to death and I love him to death.” Jackson had previously said in the interview that he would not corner either man due to not wanting to show favoritism to either one, though it’s unknown whether that will hold true if Evans carries through with his plan to cut ties with Jackson permanently.

Evans says he’s not worried about making the decision, as he still plans to work with some of his former coaches and teammates in the future. “I still maintain great relationships and I’ll work with Keith Jardine, Nate Marquardt, Georges St. Pierre….all of my teammates, all of my brothers. I’ll still work with all of them but I’m not going to be a team guy anymore.” He credits Mike Van Arsdale for much of his success and says that with Van Arsdale helping him, he’ll be able to maintain the success he’s always had to this point.

This certainly adds a little more drama to the upcoming Jones-Evans fight. We’ve seen this happen before in similar situations, including in Jackson’s own camp when Diego Sanchez decided to jump ship after being offended by Jackson’s decision to work with Georges St. Pierre. The extra wrinkle to this story, of course, is that it was Evans’ shot to begin with, and only because of a knee injury was Jones able to step in on late notice and turn it to his opportunity. Evans clearly sees that as the wrong move on Jones’ part, and whether or not Jackson claims to be impartial, Evans does not seem to buy it.

Fedor to return to Strikeforce in July

Although there’s no word yet on a possible opponent, Strikeforce CEO Scott Coker confirmed on Sherdog’s “Beatdown” radio show that Fedor Emelianenko will return to Strikeforce’s cage this summer, most likely in July.

“It’s probably toward the end of July or mid-July, but we have fights with Fedor that we’re gonna honor and continue forward. We’re gonna do the co-branding exercise that we do with M-1 every time we do fights with them.”

Depending on how the heavyweight tournament goes, we may not have seen the last of Fedor there, either. “The opponent has not been chosen, but I think having Fedor involved close to the tournament as an alternate is definitely a possibility.”

Now, I’m as excited as the next guy at the prospect of getting some more Fedor fights as part of his Strikeforce deal, but I’m very opposed to the idea of him possibly returning to the tournament as an alternate. Considering that there were several alternates already decided by bouts between Strikeforce heavyweights, why should a guy who already lost possibly leapfrog those four guys that fought and won to earn that distinction?

Oh, that’s right…because of money. Hey, I get that. Fedor returning to the tournament if someone gets injured or Josh Barnett fails another drug test is more interesting to the fans than having Valentijn Overeem or Shane del Rosario step in, but it’s not the right thing to do. Let Fedor fight someone else who has lost in the tournament or who didn’t participate, and maybe by the time the tournament concludes he can get a couple of wins under his belt and be a fairly legitimate title contender again. Don’t give Fedor an unfair second opportunity to win it all, though, by having him step in on the weaker side of the bracket or jump back in during the semifinals or finals due to an injury or other issue, though.

Quick Shots

–Michael Bisping admits that he lost out on a bonus from the UFC because of his actions after the Jorge Rivera bout, saying that “after nearly every fight they have gone above and beyond the call of duty and given me a very, very generous bonus. And that didn’t happen this time.” While he didn’t elaborate on how much he may have missed out on, he did say that he would normally have gotten a bonus and that “this time, I never received anything. Rightly so, I was out of order. And the UFC had to do something.”

I don’t doubt that Bisping feels badly about his behavior after and maybe even during the fight. On this particular issue, I think Dana White’s response was a little extreme. Though it is no one’s decision but his (and the Fertitta brothers, of course) to decide whether a bonus should be given, I don’t understand why White would be just fine with marketing fights as real-life feuds, then act appalled when the feuds actually turn out to be real and end with actions like Bisping’s. If he’s going to allow fighters to try to get under each others’ skin because, let’s face it, it’s good for business, he has to expect some fallout afterward, because it’s hard to simply let go of all of those bad feelings the moment a fight ends.

–Bellator 44 will feature an appearance by destructive middleweight champion Hector Lombard, who will face Falaniko Vitale in what will disappointingly be a non-title matchup. I like the fight, though I expect Lombard to win big, but I don’t get the non-title designation. I’ve never liked non-title fights featuring champions, and I certainly don’t like it here. If Vitale isn’t worthy of a title shot, why is he fighting the champion? I’m a big fan of Bellator’s format, fighters and overall presentation, but I remain disappointed at their consistent featuring of champions in non-title bouts. Every time a champion fights in the weight class they are the champion of, his or her title should be on the line, period.

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Tags: Bellator, Dana White, EliteXC, Fedor Emelianenko, Frank Shamrock, Greg Jackson, Jon Jones, Kimbo Slice, Michael Bisping, Rashad Evans, Strikeforce, UFC