Alistair Overeem (far left) and Bob Sapp (far right) went head-to-head in an arm wrestling contest.

By Joshua Molina

The awesome Alistair Overeem appeared in a Japanese Arm Wrestling contest earlier this week.

Doesn’t Overeem have better things to do?

Question the wisdom of locking up with the likes of humongous Bob Sapp a month before he is scheduled to fight Bigfoot Silva.

In fact, Overeem is supposed to go before the Nevada State Athletic Commission Jan. 8 to get relicensed, a year after he crushed Brock Lesnar and tested positive for elevated levels of testosterone.

Overeem is in line for a title shot against Cain Velasquez if he beat Silva. How stupid would Overeem feel if he tore a bicep or injured a wrist competing in a comedic celebrity arm wrestling contest?

Worse, Overeem jobbed to Sapp in the contest. It’s the guaranteed only time the headline will read “Overeem loses to Sapp,” who is strong, but can’t fight.

Overeem, by the way, didn’t look super-jacked like he has in the past. He looked more like a big, well-conditioned dude who lifts weights, than the hulk-ish bodybuilder type who fought Lesnar.

. . . Bellator Fighting Championships debuted its new Bellator 360 show last night on Spike TV – but without its biggest star, the enigmatic Eddie Alvarez.

The UFC and Bellator are competing for Alvarez’s services.

Alvarez has long been considered one of the best lightweights in the world, but as his star grew, so did his salary needs.

Alvarez, tired of being a big fish in a little pond, put himself in a bidding war with UFC and Bellator – a move that has him watching from sidelines as “MMA Comes Home” to Spike TV.

Bellator apparently matched the UFC’s offer, which means Alvarez will have to decide where he wants to fight based on factors other than straight cash.

If Alvarez is smart, he will sign with Bellator. He would get lost in the UFC and probably forced to prove himself all over again. He’s a star, whether he’s fighting for the “A” or “B” company.

. . . The Honda Center has sold fewer than 6,000 tickets for the Ronda Rousey vs. Liz Carmouche fight.

The show, which features Dan Henderson vs. Lyoto Machida on the undercard, should sell out by showtime on Feb. 23. The fight will get a ton of press, and Anaheim, California isn’t exactly a hotbed for MMA.

Expect a lot of walk-up, day-of-fight sales for the Rousey show.

UFC President Dana White

By Joshua Molina

Dana White and Bob Sapp are two legends of MMA for entirely different reasons.

Yet, they have so much in common.

And it’s more than just the fact that they are both bald and that people turn their heads when they walk by.

While UFC’s White was busy blasting Jon Jones, Greg Jackson, Lyoto Machida, Frank Shamrock, Roy Nelson and 15-year-old hackers, (and that’s just in the last couple of weeks), his real enemy was pummeling him senseless.

At the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas in front of more than 14,000 people Saturday night, Sergio Martinez upset Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. for the WBC middleweight championship. The fight aired on HBO Pay Per View and was covered by media outlets ranging from the Los Angeles Times and Sports Illustrated to the Wall Street Journal and USA Today.

It’s trouble for the self-proclaimed king of combat sports when a Pay Per View boxing card not involving Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather Jr. dominates Saturday night and Sunday morning news coverage. Julio Cesar Chavez was trending on Google Sunday morning.

It shows that mainstream sports writers still love boxing and don’t need a loud-mouthed, overly tight t-shirt-wearing man who can’t fight for real to hype fights in order to get their attention.

In case White forgot, sometimes sports writers like to focus on fighters. The boxing show came one week before the UFC 152, when Jon Jones will defend his light heavyweight championship against Vitor Belfort, in a battle that has received significant mainstream attention for all the wrong reasons.

White should think about stepping out of the limelight for six months and focusing on the business-end of his shows. Even if it is just a symbolic move, he needs to let the fighters build up fights among themselves, without throwing himself into the mix.

At this point, the biggest fight most MMA fans would want to see is Dana White vs. anybody.

Since that can’t happen because White isn’t a fighter, he needs to stop flapping his gums and be the businessman he is.

He needs to resist his impulse to open his mouth and criticize anybody and everybody who crosses him just because they will listen.

His bombastic, obnoxious, overly-confident, “it’s-all-about-me,” mentality isn’t helping the great sport of MMA right now.

White is overexposed. Just like someone else we know.

MMA fighter, (can he even be called that?) Bob Sapp lost his 10th fight in a row last night in Siberia. He has a 22-31 record and has lost in 14 out of his last 17 fights. He was once a big draw, for reasons that are unclear, but Sapp for years has been a joke and stain on the sport of MMA.

Promoters need to stop paying this guy.

There’s a market out there to see Sapp because he’s huge and charismatic. Even though he’s been knocked out and submitted multiple times, like a car crash and Dana White, fans can’t help but watch. It’s always funny to see someone much smaller knockout the humongous, but slow Sapp.

Sapp needs to retire forever from all aspects of the sport. White just needs to retire from the public eye temporarily and let the fighters step into the limelight.  But they both need to go away to help the sport.