You Mad? - A Recap of this Week’s Beefs, Twitter Beefs, Squabbles, Rants, Wars of Words and Other Assorted Drama in MMA

I'm still on vacation!  And, in the battle of Katgirl vs. The Gaming Tables of Las Vegas, I am currently a complete loser.  Las Vegas loves me!  As I overheard at a table yesterday during a particular rough patch, "It's amazing these places stay in business."  That was sarcasm.  Status: I still have money left so I'm gonna keep playin'!

Also, have you seen what's been happening in NASCAR??? Bunch of thugs over there!  Of course, I'm kidding. I love NASCAR.

Here are the dramatic MMA conflicts we saw this week:

Stephan Bonnar vs. Josh Koscheck: A little background first.  Stephan Bonnar's t-shirt company, NGAUGE, has a line of t-shirts called 'Trash Talkin' Kids'.  One of the shirt designs is called 'Josh Kosh M'Gosh' (and, it's super cute) and it features a figure that is a parody of Josh Koscheck.  There are also other t-shirt designs for Georges St-Pierre, Bonnar himself and Brock Lesnar (all super cute). 

In an interview with MMA Fight Corner, Bonnar talked about the guy he'd most like to fight in the UFC.  He said it would be Koscheck for "sicking his lawyers on me" for using his likeness on the t-shirts.

Well, trash-talkin'-kid-at-heart, Koscheck, had something to say, too.  In an interview with Bleacher Report, he claims that Bonnar never got permission to use his likeness or a parody of it, that he has an exclusive contract with another company to use his image, and that he actually asked Bonnar to stop using his likeness because it has put him (Koscheck) in breach of that contract.  Koscheck also doesn't know of any pre-existing issue between himself and Bonnar, but he does have some thoughts about Bonnar calling him out.

"Now, Stephan Bonnar is calling me out and it’s absurd, that p***y really needs to think about who he’s calling out because when he becomes a B level fighter, then I’ll take him serious. But right now, he’s not even a B level fighter so I’m not taking him serious. If he does want to fight me and run his mouth and continue to run his mouth personally, then we can settle this. I’ll fight him at 185 for the fans, because I know there’s a lot of people out there right now that this is a big deal and I’ll make that my comeback fight hopefully in October."

Koscheck continues on to say that a catchweight fight against Bonnar appeals to him "all day long, that’d be a nice, easy comeback fight. I’d like to have a nice warmup fight and Stephan Bonnar would be that fight."

Naturally, Bonnar fires back on Twitter, where respectable people go to settle legal disputes:

@StephanBonnar: c'mon @joshkoscheck. we're season 1 homies #ufc. How bout I give u $$ from all 7 jkm'goshes @TrashTalkinKids we've sold? #don'tbeadickdude!

@StephanBonnar: Kos is full of shit. @TrashTalkinKids is a line of UFC merchandise. We can make shirts 4 any fighter who signs the merch agreement w the ufc

@StephanBonnar: any merchandise the ufc sells with a fighters image/likeness including @TrashTalkinKids shirts, gives 10% of profits to that fighter

@StephanBonnar: any merchandise the ufc sells with a fighters image/likeness including @TrashTalkinKids shirts, gives 10% of profits to that fighter

This is so much better than just having lawyers handle it in a lawyerly way!  Let the fans be your jury!  Actually, I think Kos may realize that anything decided by fan jury may not be a decision in his favor, so the lawyerly route may work out better for him.  In the meantime, we'll just watch to see the fate of those adorable little t-shirts.  (Also? I want one.)  Status: Left in the hands of the judges?  I mean, the real ones.

More drama after the jump...

Josh Barnett vs. The Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation: Bloody Elbow initially reported on June 10 that Josh Barnett was unlicensed in Texas for his upcoming Strikeforce fight in Dallas on June 18.  Scott Coker told the media that Josh would be licensed for the fight but then the Public Information Officer for the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation indicated he was not yet licensed but had until 72 hours prior to the fight to complete his application.  The Bloody Elbow story stated:

She declined to state what additional materials Barnett needs to submit to complete the application, but she did confirm that he has submitted some materials to begin the application process.

Ominously, Stanford also indicated that Texas authorities would weigh Barnett's status with the California State Athletic Commission when deciding whether or not to license him to fight.

Now, this is all true stuff but considering Josh's sordid past with CSAC everyone, of course, was speculating about what the problem was with CSAC.  And, people did start to come down on Josh pretty hard for not having his act together and getting the licensing done sooner.

It turns out that of the 16 fighters on the June 18 Strikeforce card, seven of them still needed to be licensed as of June 10 with Josh being one of them.  Apparently, that is not uncommon.  Additionally, it later came out that any suspensions a fighter might have would only be considered if the fighter was in the registry of the Association of Boxing Commissions, and Josh is not.  The Bloody Elbow story was updated with the new details and now everyone knows the right things.  Before that happened, however, Josh get off a nasty little tweet aimed at our friends at BE:

@JoshLBarnett: I would just like to give a warm and hearty "F*** You" to BloodyElbow and anyone else for irresponsible "gotcha" journalism.

Beau Dure at USA Today tweeted with Barnett to inform him that updates had been made to the story but he didn't seem all that placated.  Oh, well.  Hopefully all will go well with the licensing and Josh will fight on that card. Status: Not an issue and hopefully it will not be, but it gave everyone something to talk about on a dull Wednesday.

Jason Miller vs. Michael Bisping: TUF 14 began filming last week and since we're all anticipating the high-level trash talk between opposing coaches Jason 'Mayhem' Miller and Michael Bisping, Mayhem just threw us a bone here.  In an interview with heavy.com, he said:

"I feel great getting the TUF spot. It’s a little early to start the smack talk but I’m going to beat the bangers and mash out of Bisping after my team smashes his team. Now that Osama is dead, Bisping is the most hated man in America. Everybody hates that guy. I wonder what it’s like to actually be hated that much. You would have to put a terrorist attack together to be hated any more than he is."

Mayhem continues on to talk about how he can help with TUF ratings by bringing in some of his 'Bully Beatdown' audience as TUF viewers.  He just wants it to be both the best and the highest rated TUF season ever and to, ultimately, "smash a Brit at the end of it".  Huzzah!  Status: TUF filming is just getting started so this can only get better, but I reckon we'll have to wait a while to see it or hear of it.

Chael Sonnen vs. Anderson Silva/Lyoto Machida/Brazil/Steven Seagal: Chael's back on Twitter this week with some new material.  Honestly, I could write a weekly story just about Chael and his Twittacks.  I think he's still upset about what Anderson Silva told a newspaper about Yushin Oakami's choice of Sonnen as a training partner.  Here's what Chael had to say:

@sonnench: Brazil likes to boast that it's the power seat of MMA, yet it's so-called champions bow to the man behind "Under Siege 2."........ Classy.

@sonnench: I still admire Steven Seagal. Anyone that can be that self-possessed without doing a damn thing to earn it, knows something that I don't.

This reminds me of when I met one of my friends for the very first time and she told me she was a Aikido practitioner and I said, "Oh! Like Steven Seagal!", and that's how I learned that Aikido practitioners don't necessarily always love when you talk about Steven Seagal representing their art.  I followed my comment up with, "Did you see Anderson Silva KO Vitor Belfort with the front kick that Steven Seagal taught him?", and she rolled her eyes at me.  Oh, well. 

And, then Chael's in Brazil!  Talking trash about Brazil

@sonnench: Yushin and I are in Brazil to follow in Andy's ways. Got ballet shoes, a team of has-beens, even brought a fat talentless celeb for trainer.

@sonnench: I could write a dissertation on this experience:"The Tragic Interplay of Delusion, Insecurity, and Incompetence: the Nog Brothers' Story".

@sonnench: Stay tuned for the sequel, "Help, an Asian Judako is Beating My Ass: The Anderson Silva Story".

Sonnen's tweets drew the attention of Brazilian cable sports network, SporTV, which published a story documenting Chael's comments on its website.  This apparently resulted in threats being sent to Chael (probably via Twitter) and prompted Chael to respond with:

@sonnench: I'm amused by the threats, meus amigos. If you are really so brave, ride your little scooters over here and say it to my face.

@sonnench: 40 minutes and not one tatted up tough guy. Come on Sao Paolo, send anybody you want. Just don't send anybody you like...

Then, he sends a tweet to Anderson Silva and includes a message for Lyoto Machida (and Brazil):

@sonnench: Hey Anderson, stick to what your country does best; like soccer or harboring infectious disease. Oh, and tell Lyoto that I'M CALLING HIM OUT

Finally, Chael is leaving Brazil and sends some parting words.

@sonnench: Yushin and I go back to civilzation tomorrow. Thanks for everything, Brazil. It was like camping in Compton.

@sonnench: Everyone is asking about my broken nose, here you go. About like Rich every time he fights Andy.

That last tweet came with this pic, BTW.

I really wish someone else would start calling people out to give me something to write about (and, thank you Donald Cerrone!)..  In the meantime, I'll be reading what Chael tweets.  Status: None of this is at all relevant to anything, yet I'm still reading and writing.

Donald Cerrone vs. Cole Miller and Mac Danzig: So, Cerrone doesn't like Cole Miller and Mac Danzig.  That's old news.  But in the week leading up to Cerrone's fight against Vagner Rocha at UFC 131, Cerrone got the opportunity to talk a little more trash to MMAWeekly.com about those guys. Cowboy sure seems fighty! 

About Danzig:

"It’s hard to get motivated just to train, and the training you want, and for Mac I was. I was ready to go in there and show him that I’m not just any guy, I deserve to be there," Cerrone told MMAWeekly Radio.

"I still have motivation, I’m going out there to do what I gotta do. I’m going to kick ass and take names. It would have just been a bigger smile on my face beating his b—h ass, that’s all."

"Whatever your reason is for pulling out of the fight is, now you just put a target for me to come and get you. You want to talk s–t and now you get the fight and you get scared and want to pull out? P—y. That’s how I feel about that," Cerrone said about Danzig.

About Miller:

"They tried calling Cole and he said he was injured, too. That little b—h don’t want to fight either," Cerrone said. "I’ll just keep talking s–t and someone will step up, right?"

Cerrone does continue to say that he is looking forward to his fight against Rocha and he hopes "he comes to (expletive) fight".

Status: Rocha did come to fight but Cowboy won it and after the fight, he called out Sam Stout, who was also victorious last night.  He even said nice things about Stout and said they both talked and would love to throw down.

Fabricio Wedum vs. Junior Dos Santos:  Honestly, who could be calling out JDS???  He's so nice!  Apparently Fabricio Werdum (along with almost everyone else) didn't watch the past season of The Ultimate Fighter because he's been talking to ESPN.com about wanting Dos Santos to beat Carwin so he can get an eventual shot at him. You see, Werdum wants Dos Santos to be the eventual UFC champion and then he wants to win the Strikeforce Grand Prix himself and then they can have a big ol' fight to decide who's the very best.  Sounds cool to me.  And, he'd like to avenge his 2008 TKO loss to Dos Santos.

"I hope Cigano wins his fight," Werdum said through a translator after a frenetic training session at Kings MMA. "I was beating him when we fought. I have a big dream that Cigano wins the UFC belt and I win the Strikeforce Grand Prix and we fight to see who's the best. It's going to be revenge for me."

So, he's not really talking trash, he's just saying that he'd like another crack at JDS, and for the fight to decide who's the best of the best.  Man, these guys are so polite!  Status: Werdum saw the Dos Santos victory he wished for.  Now let's see how he does in his own fight next weekend against Alistair Overeem.