You Mad? - A Recap Of This Week’s Beefs, Twitter Beefs, Squabbles, Rants, Wars Of Words And Other Assorted Drama In MMA

My goodness, we have a lot to talk about again this week! And, a really a wide variety of topics to cover. This week, we have fighters fighting fighters, fighters fighting referees, parents fighting fighters, parents fighting apparent siblings of other fighters, and a few people trying to make nice. All in all, it was a very interesting week in MMA drama and madness. So, let's get to it, shall we?

B.J. Penn vs. Nick Diaz: Last week, B.J. Penn decided to get fired up and call out Nick Diaz, months after their fight at UFC 137 in October. It all seemed quite out of the blue since Penn and Diaz seemed very chummy and drama-free after their fight. According to Penn's people, however, that was not really the case at all. Penn's website manager, Scott Hernandez, says that things were not cool, even though that photo was circulating around that made it look like things were cool. He also says that Diaz shoulder-checked Penn between rounds, which was completely unnecessary and that Diaz yelled at Penn's boxing coach, Jason Parillo, while they were awaiting the decision. In summary, Hernandez says:

"These actions are not of friends; these are actions of people who do not like each other," Hernandez said. "Nick crossed the line with B.J. on more than one occasion and that was all she wrote."

Status: I guess it's nice to see B.J. fired up again. Stay tuned.

More conflict after the jump!

Brandon Vera vs. Thiago Silva: Remember when Thiago Silva beat Brandon Vera via a broken nose and back-bongo playing at UFC 125? I do. Vera was cut after the loss but then he was reinstated after Thiago Silva tested positive for performance-enhancing drugs. Well, Silva is back and, presumably, drug-free and now Vera wants a piece of him to avenge that loss (which was later changed to a "No Contest"). Vera tweeted on Monday:

I guess he didn't get enough the first time. In any case, Silva is a crazy beast so it will be kinda fun to have him back in the cage.

Status: I guess we'll have to see if this will happen. Meh.

King Mo vs. Kim Winslow: At Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine last weekend, Muhammed Lawal won his fight against Lorenz Larkin by brutal TKO. It seemed like a kinda late stoppage with Larkin eating a lot more shots than he probably should have, and many people noticed. King Mo was quite upset with performance of referee Kim Winslow. He kept it to himself in the cage immediately after the fight where he said in his post-fight interview:

"She explained to me that she wants to give us a fair chance to keep on continuing, and I respect that," Lawal said. "Cause if that was me, I’d rather be put to sleep than her jump in and me still be awake."

But later at the post-fight press conference, Lawal was less gracious toward Winslow:

"I'm going to put it like this: The commission, they need to do something with [Winslow]," Lawal said. "Let her take a fight or something and give her a bad ref."

"She said backstage, 'If I hear 'Ow' or 'Ouch' or 'Ooh,' I'm going to stop the fight,'" Lawal went on to explain. "Man, this dude was cussing. I hit him, and he's like, 'Oh, [expletive].' I was like, 'Uh, ref?' I looked at her, so I kept on hitting him. I was like, 'Man, she needs to stop this thing.' I heard people in the crowd yelling, 'Stop it!' Then she jumps in all late."
...
"Let [Winslow] fight 'Cyborg,' and let's do a late stoppage with her," Lawal said. "I watched her almost get Jan Finney killed by 'Cyborg.' I think maybe the tables need to be turned. Put me in there as a ref, and I'll just do a terrible job like her."

He seems to be saying that Kim Winslow is not his favorite referee. Although, that Cyborg fight thing really seems like a bad idea.

Status: NSAC is backing Winslow up on this and not saying the stoppage was excessively late so I don't think the commission will really do anything about this. I don't think the Cyborg fight would get sanctioned.

Ronda Rousey vs. Cristiane Santos: In an appearance on Mauro Renallo's "The MMA Show", Ronda Rousey expresses her opinion on Cristiane 'Cyborg' Santos testing positive for steroid use:

"I feel like anyone with half a brain isn't surprised. I have mixed emotions of Cyborg being caught cheating because I know everyone knew she was cheating and I wanted to make an example of her because you don't need to take steroids to win. I think her getting caught is a great thing too. I don't have the least bit respect for her because I always knew she was a cheater, and now everyone else knows too. If she ever comes back to fight again, she won't be the same beast she was before. She might even try doing different things like HGH that are harder to get caught for. Who knows if Strikeforce even wants her back?"

A few days later, Cyborg had a response for Rousey. On SporTV (and translated by Bloody Elbow), she said:

"I don’t like to talk too much, I like to act instead. But now my hands are tied, I am suspended. This will be the first and last time I will talk. First of all, (Ronda Rousey) has been running away from me for a long time. We were going to fight, she talked a lot but left our division. And now she’s starting to talk because she knows that our fight will be difficult to happen. It’s easy to talk. She’s saying things that she shouldn’t be saying which hurts the sport. She’s directly affirming that I have used things before and disrespecting the Athletic Commission. In all of the fights I’ve had I passed the drug tests. What happened now was a mistake. I always respect my opponents, but with Ronda it will be different. She will have a year to train, that is, if she has the courage to throw hands with me. I will continue to train, I will compete in other sports such as jiu-jitsu and wrestling. It was a mistake, but it was good because I’ll continue to train and improve. She’ll have a year to get ready."

She still scares the crap out of me.

Status: We still need to see how the Strikeforce women's division settles itself out in the aftermath of Cyborg's steroids scandal. The rumor still is that Rousey will face Tate next after dropping down to 135 pounds but I guess she could move back up when (and if) Cyborg comes back.

Ronda Rousey's Mom vs. People: When Ronda Rousey started ripping off people's arms and then calling out a champion in another weight class, many people (including said champion) were quite expressive about their feelings that Rousey did not deserve the title shot against Miesha Tate. Some people said that Sarah Kaufman should get the fight with Tate before Rousey and some said that Rousey hadn't been tested enough in previous fights to know if she is good enough for a title shot and some said she is one-dimensional and only knows how to do arm bars. There were also plenty of people who felt that Rousey should get a title shot. One of these people is Rousey' mother, Ann Maria Demars. In fact, Rousey's mom took to her blog to write a post explaining exactly why everyone who said Rousey did not deserve the fight with Tate was just wrong. It's pretty good stuff. She references such awesome things as "Stupid Olympics", "Whiny Girl Olympics", "Whiny Girl 1" (and 2 and 3), "Random Guy Using the Internet from His Mother's Basement" and "Ex-Boyfriend Ronda Dumped", and says awesome stuff like:

Stupid idea #2: Whiny Girl says Ronda shouldn't fight because, "We don't know how good she is. She has won her fights so fast." That's so stupid it's really hard for me to respond other than wondering if you even listen to the words that come out of your mouth. Are you saying that you don't know how good she is because she has been so much better than the people she fought? I will tell you then. Very fucking good. There, now you know.

You really should check it out.

Status: I think I see where Ronda gets her outlook on her career and life in general. Rousey vs. Tate is still not quite confirmed.

Chad Mendes vs. Gray Maynard: While preparing for his fight against Chad Mendes at UFC 142, Jose Aldo did some training with Gray Maynard. In this video, Aldo and Maynard talk about training together and you hear Maynard explain that he might be able to help Aldo prepare for Mendes's wrestling because he is a wrestler, too. Apparently, Mendes didn't like hearing that. In an interview with ESPN radio, Mendes said:

"It think that's completely wrong just because you're a wrestler doesn't mean you're the samer as me," Mendes told ESPNRadio1100/98.9 FM. "I think our styles are completely different. In MMA, he doesn't really use a whole lot of wrestling anymore."

"When he does wrestle, he's more of the bully. He's a slower, not very explosive [wrestler]. He gets you up against the cage and works for takedown from there," Mendes said. "My style of wrestling is more explosive from the open. Blast a double take you off your feet kind of wrestling."

Mendes was also upset about Maynard saying he might not be ready for the fight with Aldo:

"I don't see it. Him saying that I don't know where he's coming from. He's never trained with me. I don't know how he's saying he doesn't think that I'm ready. Maynard doesn't know anything about me."

This apparently got back to Maynard and he felt kind of bad about it. So, he explained:

"I like Chad; I met him a couple of times, but I like Jose, how he trains, where he's from – his whole story. So I thought it was an opportunity I could help... I'm just trying to learn a lot and evolve and create a new me."

I'm cool with that. No harm, no foul. Also? Jose Aldo's amazing.

Status: Well, we all know how this ended. Moving on...

Keith Jardine's Mom vs. Luke Rockhold's Brother: After Luke Rockhold won his fight against Keith Jardine in the main event at Strikeforce: Rockhold vs. Jardine, someone who was apparently his brother was apparently quite fired about Rockhold's victory. He was perhaps so fired up that went full Delta Bravo on Keith Jardine's mom when they encountered each other after the fight. Jardine's mom did not take kindly to this and told the dude that she'd kick his a$$ and then starting hitting him. You can see that in the video below:

That seemed pretty crazy and dramatic. But, leave it to Luke Rockhold to set things straight and ruin all our scandalous fun. In this interview with MiddleEasy.com, Rockhold explains that the guy yelling that Keith Jardine sucks was actually no relation to him and was just an overly excited fan who didn't realize that Jardine's mom was in the vicinity.

Status: I sort of love Jardine's mom for this. This just proves that you shouldn't yell stupid and mean things about someone to the general public because their mom might be there and she might beat your a$$.

Fedor and the Bus Ride Incident: Last week, we covered the story about how Fedor Emelianenko was a gigantic diva after the New Year's Eve Dream event when he or his people demanded that he get his own bus and that everyone else congregate on the other bus and leave them alone. Now, two people who were on that crowded non-Fedorific bus are giving their side of the story, and it doesn't really sound that bad. Matt Hume and Bibiano Fernandez explain what happened in this video and basically say that Fedor was delayed because he's so so awesome that everyone wants to talk to him, so they tried to get everyone on the first bus so they could all leave and not have to wait for Fedor. Basically, it was just done out of courtesy:

Status: Thank goodness we don't have to continue living our lives blaming Fedor's prima donna behavior for this incident.

Miscellaneous Trash Talk:

Charlie Brenneman:

Doesn’t make my last loss any better, but at least I lost to a 205 lber.

Ronda Rousey (when asked who she was fighting next):

Miesha. And then I'm gonna fight her boyfriend.

Ronda Rousey (when asked how to spell Bryan Caraway's last name):

Tate. T-A-T-E.

Bas Rutten:

If Cyborg wants to clear her name, simple, send the drink to the athletic commission, let them test it. I just don't believe they put it in drinks to LOSE weight. If they DO put roids in, show the drink and her name is cleared. Its what I would do. Like I said before, they all say "I took something over the counter". What? Tell us what you took? Help your fellow fighters not to make the same mistake by accident, just saying

Quinton Jackson (on Muhammed Lawal):

"I don't like the guy. He's a hater. He's a big time hater, you know what I'm sayin'? He's been calling me out on Twitter and stuff. He's just hatin' big time. He, uh, he told me a while ago that he wanted to fight me when I'm on my way out. When I'm over the hill. Like most fighters, we get old and the time comes to retire. He said that's when he wants to fight me, years ago. Now he's comin' at me like I'm on my way out."

Dan Hardy's Dad (@Mark_Hardy4):

@vitorbelfort good luck against Johnson, be aware of the talk. You'll know when he's not telling the truth, his lips are moving.

@Anthony_Rumble this is not about Dan so leave him out of it, this is between me and you. GSP, Condit, lytle = Good guys. You = fake. Period

@Anthony_Rumble Ooops, come on AJ you can do it. Get sweating buddy.