Yamma Pit Fighting Debuts This Weekend, Bringing Back Old Style UFC.

MMA is about to get another contender in the ever growing world of fighting promotions. Yamma Pit Fighting is going to be a lot different than most. First off, it is being run by Bob Meyrowitz, who was the major force behind the original UFC. Now back in my day, when i first discovered UFC via the local video store, it was basically a tournament of tough guys from various disciplines, or hell even some that had no discipline, they were just good at fighting in bars and such. The tournaments were great fun to watch, but did have some problems, the main one being, fighters who would would get hurt and couldn't advance to the next round, thus causing replacement fighters, and unfair advantages and disadvantages throughout the tournament.

Well, Yamma is bringing back the tournament format for the first time in years, and Yamma has gone with a new surface for this tournament, which will both make things more safe for fighters to continue on in the tournament, and keep the action non-stop. Basically the surface will be a bowl like structure, which will keep fighters from being pressed up against the cage for long durations during the fight, and force continued action. The tournament, will crown the first ever Yamma heavyweight champion, and will even feature former UFC Heavyweight Champion, Ricco Rodriguez. So we get a tournament, which were always fun years ago, and we get a champion right away off the first show, and hopefully that will mean no weight divisions in Yamma, which in my opinion, just take away from the excitement of MMA. On top of the 8 man heavyweight championship tournament, Yamma gives us 2 "Masters Superfights." Now this is another cool concept, that will take 2 big name fighters, some even from the golden era of UFC, and have 1 big grudge fight, to settle a score, resolve an issue, or maybe even start a new feud of sorts. Originally on this card, we had the return of "The Russian Bear" Oleg Taktarov, who was one of the legends of the original UFC, taking on Don Frye, who is also a legend from that era. Unfortunately, Don Frye had to back out of the fight due to an injury, so Mark Kerr, who is another UFC tournament winner, will now take on Taktarov, in Oleg's return fight. Also, Butterbean was scheduled to battle "Big Daddy" Gary Goodridge in the other Masters Superfight, but Goodridge cannot fight due to a loss in Korea he incurred a couple of weeks ago, so Butterbean will now battle Pat Smith, who some may remember for his impressive performances in the earlier UFC tournaments.

All the changes to the Masters Superfights, and even a few to the tournament, dont look good on Yamma, but I personally hope they can get past it, and give us a new MMA product to those of us who aren't fans of the super strict rules and regulations that UFC, and a lot of other MMA promotions go by. The tournaments were action packed years ago, and I'm sure they still can be. The early tournaments allowed small guys to showcase their skills, and take out guys twice their size, so why can't that still happen? And why not let some of the older guys that paved the way for UFC, get in the cage and prove they can still go, instead of being pushed aside for the latest young star. Yamma will hopefully blow the doors of opportunity open for guys to come in and prove themselves, tournament style, and give MMA fans a product based on pure excitement. With the people that created the early UFC behind this, I hope they pull it off, and Yamma tournaments will be a force in MMA, that will bring in many big name fighters, and contend with UFC, EliteXC, etc.

For more information, including the full fight brackets, check out YammaPitFighting.com.

Is MMA the Biggest Threat to WWE, and even TNA?

I figure it's time for my debut here at the Pro Wrestling Roundup. I told the owners that I would sit back for awhile and get a feel for how the site works before jumping in, but well, there's absolutely nothing going on here, so I'm going to jump right in and light this place up. I am the Midnight Writer, and as I blog from the woods, while sitting at my campfire, I'll be giving my views on pro wrestling happenings, and even some MMA. I've decided to kick things off with a little bit on my views on MMA's popularity over the past few years, and if it will be a threat to the pro wrestling world.

I think MMA has recently become so popular due to the aspect of 2 bad asses entering a cage, and just beating some ass. I also think this was the reason WWE and to some degree WCW's popularity sky rocketed in the late 90's. Wrestling made the change, which some would say was caused by Hulk Hogan joining the nWo, and tossing the red and yellow and joining the super cool Hall and Nash in the nWo. Things were taken to the next level of course, when Stone Cold Steve Austin was let loose on WWF, cussing, drinking beer, flipping off everyone in sight, all of which had never been seen or allowed on a WWF show. And of course, there was ECW, which basically invented this whole movement that WWF called the "Attitude Era." ECW was doing the "cool heels," the swearing, the violence, years before WWF or WCW changed directions. None the less, this era gave males 18 and up something to watch, and wrestlers to cheer for. No longer were good guys the smiling do gooders, but they were shit talkers who just wanted to fight. Around this same time....UFC became popular, and over the past few years especially, has gotten hugely popular. UFC is the biggest U.S. MMA company, but its popularity has sparked other companies to pop up, with rosters that include former UFC names, and other popular MMA fighters from around the world. While wrestling (especially WWE!) has taken a step backwards, and has gone back to a stale format of forcing cheezy babyfaces down our throat whether we like them or not, MMA brings no non-sense action that appeals to the same demographic that I feel pro wrestling had back in the 90's. And while UFC does have people who complain about how it's gone to a more rule filled format, and less of a pit fighting style, other promotions such as the new YAMMA Pit Fighting organization that has been started up by UFC founder Bob Meyrowitz, which will be bringing back the tournament and superfight concepts that made the original UFC so great to watch, and will also feature MMA Legends like Don Frye and Oleg Taktarov. I think this MMA promotion will be one to watch, as the tournaments were always fun to watch, and big name legendary fighters are always fun as well. Also EliteXC will produce a dream match of sorts this weekend, as Tank Abbot takes on internet fighting icon Kimbo Slice (both pictured above.) Sure this won't be a great martial arts battle of skill, but who cares! This is a great match up, with 2 great brawlers, and what the original UFC was all about. Do fans older then 17 years old or so, want to see the above pictured fighters go at it, or John Cena doing a fireman's carry on someone new (sometimes the same guys over and over,) every single week, sometimes more than once. I'll admit, Cena's surprise return got an awesome reaction, but I'm afraid we are doomed to have a repeat of the past, with Cena being the main focus of every show, and RAW becoming horribly repetitive once again. TNA wrestling is enjoyable to me, and its a different product, but something is still missing there, maybe it's having shows in different arena's instead of every Thursday show in the same place? Maybe it's lacking a couple more big name guys (Lashley anyone?) But TNA is just not on WWE's level, may never be, but is a nice alternative in wrestling terms, but has nothing that will spark a wildfire of interest and hook people like MMA has.

With all this diversity going on, and even the recent hype for Brock Lesnar's fight...MMA is pulling in more fans, giving them more options, and not mixing it with kids programming, and childish humor on a weekly basis like wrestling. In closing, I'll always love wrestling, and I'll be reporting on things that interest me, but I am taking notice that MMA is bringing in more and more fans, and bringing in levels of intrigue and excitement that wrestling has not been able to produce since around 2002. Wrestling needs to decide if they're a kids show, or an adult show, as mixing the 2 just doesn't work, and MMA may keep on capializing, but as long as WWE keeps selling T-Shirts (which seems to be their main goal these days,) they'll remain in business....in The Midnight Writers opinion!