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Monday, May 25, 2009

Jose Canseco pumped up for MMA fight in Japan

The former Oakland A’s slugger is fighting 7-foot-2, 330-pound super heavyweight Hong Man Choi of South Korea on the Dream 9 card Tuesday night at Yokohama Arena.

“I’m not gonna lie to you, I’m scared. This guy is huge,” Canseco said Monday at a press conference to promote the fight. “I’m a 44-year-old rookie and have had a lot of challenges in my baseball career and hopefully, I can do well tomorrow.”

Canseco, who hit 462 home runs over 17 seasons in the major leagues, has had several fights inside the ring since leaving baseball but has never taken on professional fighters like Choi, who has a 1-2 record in MMA.

“I have a lot of respect for these guys,” said Canseco. “A lot of baseball players are fans of mixed martial arts and so am I.”

I feel so dirty posting so many Canseco “news” items.

Gamingboy Posted: May 25, 2009 at 02:49 PM | 15 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: japan

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1. JB H Posted: May 25, 2009 at 07:58 PM (#3192476)

Part of me is hoping for Canseco to win (he has no chance) so he has to face one of the legitimate fighters in the tournament. Not that Choi is a total joke, he's easily one of the top couple hundred fighters in the world.

2. RJ in TO Posted: May 25, 2009 at 08:01 PM (#3192481)

Unless he spends the entire match with the other guy in some sort of bearhug, he's going to get his head kicked in, and I can't see how he's going to be able to tie up someone that big.

3. Rafael Bellylard: Built like a Molina Posted: May 25, 2009 at 08:08 PM (#3192490)

I figure the over/under on time of fight is about 45 seconds...just long enough for Canseco to get hit enough to justify collecting a check.

4. AJM Posted: May 25, 2009 at 08:13 PM (#3192496)

I thought the headline said "Canseco pummeled in MMA fight", I guess that's next week headline.

5. RJ in TO Posted: May 25, 2009 at 08:16 PM (#3192501)

I figure the over/under on time of fight is about 45 seconds...just long enough for Canseco to get hit enough to justify collecting a check.

I doubt it'll take that long. I remember, a long time ago, reading a book about an instructor talking about the difference between sparring, and fighting to cripple or kill and how, in the second case, you use a whole bunch of stuff which you would never, ever use in sparring.

Canseco has experience with the former (from whatever martial arts training he claims to have), whereas this other guy (even though there's always a referee) essentially has experience with the latter. Canseco has a pretty decent chance of being seriously injured (much like in the Butterbean vs. Bart Gunn fight from Wrestlemania about a decade ago).

6. gay guy in cut-offs smoking the objective pipe Posted: May 25, 2009 at 08:30 PM (#3192516)

I'm baffled by Choi's selection of opponents -- in four MMA bouts, counting the Canseco "fight", he's got two guys who didn't have a chance in hell, and two guys who were among the top five heavyweights in the world at the time he fought them. There's no middle ground there at all.

7. andrewberg Posted: May 25, 2009 at 08:44 PM (#3192530)

(much like in the Butterbean vs. Bart Gunn fight from Wrestlemania about a decade ago).

Every day with a Brawl for it All reference has to be considered a good day.

8. jwb Posted: May 25, 2009 at 09:07 PM (#3192551)

Ditto for any day Canseco gets his ass kicked.

9. Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Griffin (Vlad) Posted: May 25, 2009 at 09:28 PM (#3192575)

Choi is a joke fighter. When he fights a top guy like Fedor, it's the MMA equivalent of Honus Wagner batting against Victory Faust.

He's still going to clean Canseco's clock, though.

10. RJ in TO Posted: May 25, 2009 at 09:37 PM (#3192587)

Every day with a Brawl for it All reference has to be considered a good day.

It was a better day back then, when we found out that we hadn't just watched Bart Gunn get killed.

11. YR Denies Jesus Montero Posted: May 25, 2009 at 11:40 PM (#3192718)

Choi is a joke fighter. When he fights a top guy like Fedor, it's the MMA equivalent of Honus Wagner batting against Victory Faust.

Choi's a very dangerous kickboxer but a novice at MMA. In kickboxing scored a win over Semmy Schilt who is absolutely top-notch and an extremely dangerous striker.

ANYONE who takes on Fedor Emelianenko in only his second professional MMA fight is going to get slaughtered. It's ridiculously unfair to expect greenhorn Choi to succeed where the very best MMA fighters in the world - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Andrei Arlovski, Semmy Schilt, Mirko Filipovic, Mark Coleman, Matt Lindland, Ricardo Arona - have failed, and frequently failed brutally.

Fedor may be the Babe Ruth of MMA, but Choi is certainly no Max Patkin for losing to him. He'd actually be a terrible matchup for current UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir.

12. Joe Bivens, Idiot Posted: May 25, 2009 at 11:44 PM (#3192724)

I find MMA disturbing. Canseco is a fool.

13. gay guy in cut-offs smoking the objective pipe Posted: May 26, 2009 at 01:02 AM (#3192888)

ANYONE who takes on Fedor Emelianenko in only his second professional MMA fight is going to get slaughtered.

Lately, it hasn't much mattered how many professional fights a guy has before taking on Fedor Emelianenko. Tim Sylvia was 24-4 against some of the best in the world and lasted all of 36 seconds. Arlovski was 15-5 and lasted three and a half minutes.

When are we opening MMA Think Factory? The replacement level for online fight commentary is ridiculously low right now.

14. Frenchy's Disapppearing VORP Posted: May 26, 2009 at 01:42 AM (#3192976)

I could not care any less. I am only here because this appears to be the only thread where spammer "Dan's least favorite fan" has failed to make an appearance with his endlessly and inane BoSox rookie "best of" post.

15. Gamingboy Posted: May 26, 2009 at 01:43 AM (#3192978)

Apparently, the fight (along with the other MMA bouts in that Japanese event) will be on TV on HDNet at 5:00 AM.

More reason to sleep in tomorrow, if you ask me.

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Jose Canseco pumped up for MMA fight in Japan

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