mano a mano combat

“There’s No Points on the Street”: Royce Gracie Talks BJJ, Exit From Fighting + More [VIDEO]

(Props: YouTube.com/CagePotato) In this chat with CagePotato.com reporter Elias Cepeda at the Metamoris 2 pro jiu-jitsu invitational, UFC godfather Royce Gracie gives us his thoughts on modern BJJ — he prefers the old-school basics, big surprise — and tells us how he's been spending his days now that his MMA life is officially behind him. And believe us, it's behind him: "You gotta know when to stop. It's not an easy business to be in. I'm just teaching and enjoying life [now]. I'm 46 years old, been there, done that, fought everybody. There's always gonna be a new guy that [says] 'Hey, can we fight?' Nahhh. Been there, done that." Follow Royce on Twitter @RealRoyce, and subscribe to our channel for more good stuff. Previously — Backstage Interview: Renato Laranja, The Unofficial Rabbi of Metamoris 2 [VIDEO]

Backstage Interview: Renato Laranja, The Unofficial Rabbi of Metamoris 2 [VIDEO]

(Props: YouTube.com/CagePotato) While attending the Metamoris 2 pro jiu-jitsu invitational in Los Angeles on Sunday, CagePotato reporter Elias Cepeda had a backstage run-in with 27-time BJJ World Champion Renato Laranja, who gave his thoughts — if you can call them that — about Rickson Gracie, "poonchang," Eddie Bravo's facial hair, somebody named Señor Aoki, and how Andre Galvao vs. Rafael Lovato Jr. looked like two guys fighting for the covers in bed. It's a moral victory for Elias, just for surviving to the end. Stay tuned for more of Elias's Metamoris 2 interviews, and subscribe to CagePotato on YouTube for all of our latest vids.

Let the Ratings Decline Begin: Bellator to Begin Airing Events on Friday Nights

(Aaaaaaaannnnndddd it's gone.)  The study of TV trends/viewership is an interesting and incredibly thorough one, but there is perhaps no television trend more notorious than the Friday Night Death Slot, which maintains that any program placed in the graveyard slot (approximately 8 p.m. to 11 p.m.) on a Friday night is ultimately destined for cancellation. Countless examples can be cited to back this theory: Malcolm in the Middle, Firefly, the criminally overlooked Happy Endings, and of course, Fridays. In fact, the dreaded time slot can even be held (at least partially) accountable for the abysmal ratings of TUF 15 and TUF 16. Of course, some scheisters out there will try to convince you that Friday night is primo advertising time, throwing all sorts of fancy "facts" and "numerical data" at you in the process, which probably explains why Bellator is voluntarily moving their events to Friday nights starting in the fall. Loretta Hunt was the first to pass along the news:

To avoid the NFL crush, Bellator MMA will move from Thursday to Friday nights this fall, Spike TV president Kevin Kay exclusively told SI.com during a screening this week forFight Master, its original MMA reality series debuting on June 19. I don’t want to see Bellator going head to head with the UFC,” said Kay. “I don’t think that makes any sense for fans. No matter who would win in that scenario (Author's note: The answer you're looking for is "the UFC"), you don’t want to not give the fans the choice to watch both.

Kay goes on to cite TUF 16 as an *example* of a show doing well during the Friday slot, as well as the Discovery Channel's "Gold Rush", which averages 4 million viewers on Friday nights. Yes, a show that captures all the drama of sifting through sand reels in 4 million of us -- week, after week, after mind-numbing week -- before we switch over to the History Channel to watch people drive trucks across icy roads for the eighth year in a row. Meanwhile, Arrested Development was cancelled after 3 seasons. This is why we can't have nice things, Nation. -J. Jones

The Entertainer: Quinton Jackson Heads Into an Uncertain Future

By Elias Cepeda The past week or so has been an exciting one for fans of Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. It’s also been a little bit of a worrisome one as well. Jackson has gushed about his new deal with Bellator and the TNA Impact professional wrestling organization. He says he’ll only be asked to fight when he wants to, that he’s excited to finally get to try out a long-time love of his — pro wrasslin’ — and that the Viacom family that owns Bellator might create opportunities for him on television and in movies, through their Paramount pictures movie house. Jackson left the UFC earlier this year, not just on a three-fight losing streak, but also embittered by what he felt was poor treatment from the organization. Likening promoter/fighter relationships to that of personal, romantic ones, Jackson told CagePotato last week, “…me and Bellator, we tongue kissing right now, baby.” The fan in me has a soft spot for Jackson. Like many of you, I’ve watched him fight for over a decade. He’s always done so with courage and in exciting fashion. Back in the day, “Rampage” may have also been the most accessible top fighter in the world. There was a time where he set up a phone line specifically for fans. He made the number public and waited for calls. When they came in, he’d pick up whenever he was available, and chat with whoever wanted to talk to him. Not a whole lot to dislike about a guy like that, right? So, if Jackson has found a new, better situation for himself, where he feels happy, no one can begrudge him that. The thing is, we’ve seen this situation play out before with the fighter. Being enamored with an organization before ultimately souring on them, and feeling rejected and disrespected when it was all over. While with Pride, Jackson often seemed quite happy. He defended the Japanese promotion in public and compared it favorably to its competitor at the time, the UFC. By the time the UFC signed Jackson, however, he acted as if it was a life-saving event. I remember speaking with Jackson near the end of his Pride tenure and again shortly after he’d signed with the UFC. At that time, Jackson didn’t only express satisfaction with his new UFC contract, he spoke of Dana White as if he were a personal friend who had saved him and done him a favor. Six or so years later, Jackson and White routinely trash each other publicly. During a media conference call last week, Jackson said that Bellator promoter Bjorn Rebney is a guy who “gets it,” and is the type of boss he’s been waiting for his entire career. Jackson says that things are different this time around.

Gross Video of the Day: Mark Hunt Has a Gaping Hole in His Leg

(Props: FightSummary via Reddit MMA) Over the weekend, UFC heavyweight Mark Hunt revealed that he was in the hospital to have surgery on his left leg, to address an infected hematoma stemming from his fight against Junior Dos Santos. "Right leg is fractured big toe lol and left left is infected bruise lol I’m a walking infection," Hunt tweeted, laughing out loud twice to signify how badly injured he is. But we had no idea exactly what shape Hunt was in until we saw this video, in which Hunt peels back some dressing/tarp-thingy to reveal a giant freaking hole in his leg. Randleman vs. Staph comes to mind. If there was ever any doubt about Hunto's toughness, just listen to the nonchalant way he discusses how it looks like a bullet hole, and it's a lot cleaner than it was before. Blugh. That'll do, Mark.

VIDEO: Kron Gracie vs. Shinya Aoki at Metamoris II — Main Event [w/FULL EVENT RESULTS]

And now for something completely different. Here at CagePotato, we were fortunate enough to secure a ton of great interviews with the participants, the crossover stars, the headliners, and even the founder of Metamoris II, Ralek Gracie, thanks to Elias Cepeda's tireless work (he actually managed to secure a few video interviews at the event as well, which we will have up soon). We discussed what is was like to compete in a unique, submission-only based Jiu-Jitsu event such as Metamoris with everyone from "Mini Megaton" Mackenzie Dern to UFC heavyweight Brendan Schaub. And yesterday, it all came to a head at Metamoris II. The good: Kron Gracie and Shinya Aoki put on a relatively entertaining scrap in the evening's main event, the results of which we will not spoil for you. The bad: Every other match on the PPV card tested (and exceeded) both the limits of the "submission only" pretense of the event and that of the crowd's patience. The ugly: Brendan Schaub...we'll get to that in a minute. Let's stick with the main event for now, which featured a meeting of Jiu-Jitsu masters in Gracie and Aoki (video above).