The day the MMA world doesn’t have any news is the day the terrorists have won. In an effort to combat terrorism, we’re going to look at this XFC 9 card a little deeper and see what we should expect.
Headlining this card is the friggin war-machine himself ‘War Machine‘. Not that War Machine, but this War Machine. The War Machine formally known as Jonathan Koppenhaver. You may remember seeing him on The Ultimate Fighter: Team Hughes vs. Team Serra in which he depressed half of America by telling a story of how when he was 14, War Machine tried to give CPR to his dad, was unsuccessful, and pretty much watched his father die. After getting cut from the show due to a somewhat controversial decision, War Machine went on to sign a 10-fight contract with the UFC. After getting offered names like Brandon Wolff, Mr.Machine (we’re serious, that’s his legal last name) told Joe Silva that he needed better competition and he wasn’t going to fight until he could bang against the big namers. After War Machine’s blog post in which he wished someone would place a bullet between Barack Obama’s head, the UFC had enough of War Machine being War Machine and cut him from their organization. In retrospect, War Machine retracted the statement saying “First, I need to admit that my comment regarding Obama was completely out of line…In all sincerity I do not wish any harm done to the President and I realize that it was a very stupid thing to write so I am publicly apologizing to the President and to his supporters.”. His Obama statement actually forced the newly formed Bellator Tournament to cut War Machine from their organization before the dude even fought. War Machine responded in a way that is entirely too rawesome not to post in its entirety:
Seems War Machine is being censored again. I can’t speak my mind at all without all the [expletive] higher-ups in the industry getting their panties in a wad. Just how my Evan Tanner bulletin got me kicked out of the UFC it seems that I have been kicked off the Bellator show before it has even begun. Seems they don’t like it when their fighters speak their mind on the politics of the USA and its [expletive]-ass presidents.
Guess I should just erase my MySpace page and/or just keep MY opinions to MYSELF? So much for living in a “free” country right? So much for the “freedom of speech” right? I guess you’re only allowed those things if you are a natural born citizen of the US…..or maybe you only pay 30K+ a year in taxes….maybe only if you’re not a convicted felon….HMMMM….wait a minute I match ALL of the criteria above. SO maybe the real answer is you can only enjoy your “freedom” when they think you say exactly what THEY want you to.
Well I say [expletive] that! I’m not changing for anyone or any dollar amount. I could have earned over a quarter million in that tournament but I don’t give a [expletive]. I’m no one’s sheep and I will always be true to my beliefs.
WM
P.S. [Expletive] an Obama, [expletive] a Disney, [expletive] an ESPN and [expletive] the Bellator Fighting Championship.
War Machine also said that he doesn’t like to be around too many humans. Dude is a true renaissance man and we think having him on the XFC 9 is reason enough to watch it live on HDNet this Saturday (we didn’t even mention the felony charges where he just choked some dude out on the street or the Evan Tanner stuff). His opponent is Mikey Gomez a Bellator fighter (ironically) who actually caught a lost to one of our buds, Eric Bradley in EliteXC (RIP). Nick Thompson was supposed to be War Machine’s original opponent but he was turned down by Machine’s camp.
If XFC 9 is a fraction of how entertaining XFC 8 was (One word: spinning back kick by a hobbit. That’s actually six words) then we’re definitely getting the cosmopolitan mix and box of devil food cakes out for this one. Here is the rest of the lineup:
Mikey Gomez (8-7) vs War Machine (8-2)
Pablo Alfonso (3-1) vs Jason Goodall (5-0)
Tim Snyder (9-3) vs Bruce Connors (6-1)
Jeremy Thurlow (1-0) vs Julien Williams (0-0)
Nate Jolly (3-1) vs Frank Santore (4-0)
Daniel Perez (3-0) vs Chris Barnett (1-0)
Hayder Hassan (2-0) vs Gerardo Julio Gallegos (2-0)
Rey Trujillo (4-0) vs Shah Bobonis (5-3)
Jesse Benton (1-0) vs Sean Bartlett (3-2)
