Meister Watches link up with MMA icon Anderson Silva for a special limited edition version of the watchmaker’s popular Chief design. Built around Silva’s signature bumblebee logo, the timepiece takes on a black and yellow colorway, with a tonal rubber band and stainless steel case, as well as glow-in-the-dark dials. Only 200 units were produced, with availability starting Black Friday via select retailers, as well as the Meister

http://meisterwatches.com/collectionmain

Members:

Anderson Silva
Andre Galvao
Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira
Rogerio “Minotouro” Nogueira
Chase Gormley
Diego Nunes
Fabricio “Morango” Camoes
Glover Teixeira
Jose Aldo
Junior “Cigano” dos Santos
Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida
Mario Miranda
Paulo Filho
Pedro “The Rock” Rizzo
Rafael “Feijao” Cavalcante
Thales Leites
Wagnney Fabiano

RAMPAGE, THE GUY FROM THE HANGOVER AND LIAM NEESON, FRESH!!

BJ Penn x Frost Tee from RVCA on Vimeo.

Sometimes, it seems like Ed Soares is nothing more than the voice of fighters embroiled in controversy.

He faced an angry press at the side of Ultimate Fighting Championship middleweight king Anderson Silva in April, defending Silva’s performance at UFC 97 in a victory over Thales Leites.

He delivered light heavyweight champion Lyoto Machida’s version of events on Saturday at UFC 104 to media that largely believed Machida was given a victory at UFC 104 that belonged to Mauricio “Shogun” Rua.

Soares, though, is not only the interpreter for mixed martial arts superstars like Silva, Machida and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. He’s also one of the industry’s most influential managers with a deep and talent-laden roster and an uncanny ability to make deals.

Whenever you have a portfolio that includes two of the four best fighters in the world, as Soares and partner Jorge Guimaraes do, you instantly command respect.

It’s been a long road for the 37-year-old native of Redondo Beach, Calif., who got his start in business as a ski instructor, nightclub promoter, hip-hop band manager and apparel salesman.

His parents are native Brazilians and, though he was born in Southern California, Soares spoke only Portuguese until he entered kindergarten. Fate, though, might have brought him into mixed martial arts long before he even realized it.

Soares’ mother, Sonia, babysat for Guimaraes’ daughter, Gabrielle, in Redondo Beach, so the two got to know each other and become friends. Soares said Guimaraes has “always been like a big brother to me.”

Guimaraes, a Brazil native, was a close friend of Rorion Gracie, who initially conceived the idea of the UFC as a way of proving the superiority of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu over other fighting forms.

Soares and Guimaraes drifted apart but reconnected in 2003, when they met in Japan at a PRIDE Fighting Championship event. Soares owned Sinister Clothing by then and attended the event with UFC star Chuck Liddell, for whom he designed his now-familiar fight shorts. Guimaraes was producing an MMA television show at the time, and Soares offered to help. He began frequently interviewing fighters for the show and helped Guimaraes find an affiliate in Los Angeles.

But Soares had been on the fringes of the MMA industry for years prior to reconnecting with Guimaraes. When his soon-to-be wife became pregnant with his first child, Soares decided that being a nightclub promoter didn’t jive with his idea of what a family man should be. So he made the move to the apparel industry.

Guimaraes brought him fully into the business after their 2003 meeting in Japan. Guimaraes had so many connections with MMA fighters in Brazil that they began thinking about changing businesses.

They both believed the sport was going to erupt and felt they could impact the industry as managers. They’d developed relationships with fighters and promoters while doing their television show, which at the time was one of the few – if not only – MMA show on U.S. television.

Their production company, Tough Media, eventually became the name of their managerial firm.

“It was a natural evolution,” Soares said.

And while Soares concedes he was a neophyte when it came to the nuances of the MMA business, he actually was well prepared for it.

He knew how to structure contracts and cater to clients from his days as a band manager. Guimaraes, who had managed fighters in Brazil, had a pipeline to elite talent that would fill the client list.

“There’s not that much difference from managing a hip-hop group or managing a band and managing [MMA fighters],” Soares said. “Yeah, there are a few differences, but at the end of the day, it’s about putting asses in seats and getting these guys well known. It’s pretty much the same formula with a few different variables.”

Soares and Guimaraes are very top-heavy with elite talent, but don’t have a deep stable. He likes to keep only 10 or 15 fighters under contract in order to provide the personal attention he thinks the fighters deserve. As a result, his company is one of the industry’s smaller firms, but there are few that are more influential.

Start with Silva, who is No. 1 in the monthly Yahoo! Sports rankings, and add Machida, the only major undefeated champion, and it’s a good start. Nogueira has been a star and an elite fighter for years, but Soares and Guimaraes also manage Junior dos Santos, a heavy-fisted Brazilian who figures to be in the heavyweight title picture by mid-to-late 2010.

“We don’t have a tremendous amount of guys in comparison to some who are out there,” Soares said. “I’ve seen some management companies with 60, 70 guys that they’re representing. I kind of look at it as a car dealership. When you look at the car dealership, well, thank God there are Toyota dealers. There’s nothing wrong with Toyotas. They’re great cars, reliable cars, but there are 3,000 of them on the lot. Walk into a Bentley dealership, though, and there are only 12, 15 cars in the place.

“There are two things about that: The guy’s walking in to buy the car, and you know they’re not going to be negotiating price when they’re buying a Bentley. And that’s how I feel about our fighters. You want one of our fighters, you’re going to get a high-performance fighter. I like to keep it that way.”

It’s hard not to like it when your top-end clients are on just about everyone’s short list of the world’s best fighters.

But perhaps the reason for Soares’ success, in addition to his intensity and preparedness, is the passion and respect he has for his clients. He clearly is in love with his fighters and is willing to go to just about any length to protect them or advance their causes.

“We have what I consider our ‘Three Kings,’ ” Soares said. “Anderson Silva is the pound-for-pound king. Lyoto is the king of karate, and we have Nogueira, who is the king of heart because he has so much heart. Those are our three big cards.

“In a card game, if I were playing poker and I had three kings, I’d think I had a pretty good hand.”

Add Soares and Guimaraes to the three kings and it becomes an MMA Royal Flush.

LOS ANGELES – Lyoto Machida, the Ultimate Fighting Championship’s unbeaten light heavyweight champion, had the look of a loser in the waning moments of Saturday.

His lip was split, bruises dotted his face and he walked very gingerly on his right leg. More telling, a frown creased his face throughout the entire postfight news conference, 45 minutes after his bout with Mauricio “Shogun” Rua had ended at the Staples Center.

UFC president Dana White, who promised a rematch as soon as he could make it, felt Rua had won. Undercard fighters Joe Stevenson and Anthony Johnson agreed. The majority of the media scored it for Rua.

And though Machida’s body language said he felt the same way, the three men who were paid to render the decision disagreed.

Judges Nelson “Doc” Hamilton, Cecil Peoples and Marcos Rosales each scored the fight 48-47 for Machida, who improved to 16-0 in the most difficult bout of his career. Hamilton gave Machida Rounds 2, 3 and 4. Peoples and Rosales each gave Machida the first three rounds.

That was all he needed to become the first man since Quinton “Rampage” Jackson in 2007 to successfully defend the UFC’s light heavyweight belt.

“I would have liked to have performed better,” Machida said glumly, “but it’s not always possible.”

But while the majority opinion seemed to be that Rua deserved to win the title – Yahoo! Sports also had it 48-47 for Rua, giving him Rounds 1, 4 and 5 – this verdict was hardly an outrage.

Many in the crowd of around 16,000 let Hamilton, Rosales and Peoples know how they felt. Internet message boards lit up immediately with howls of protests.

The men who should be facing the wrath of those who felt Rua had won should not be Hamilton, Peoples and Rosales, who rendered their opinions in a very technical, taut affair. Rather, Rua supporters should be angry at his corner men, who continually told him he was well ahead.

Rua said he didn’t press the action in the final two rounds because his corner had told him he was in control. If that’s true, it’s that advice that cost him the fight. And it’s always the worst kind of advice to give a fighter in any match, but particularly a technical fight like Machida-Rua.

And while many disagree with the judges, their decision is at least defensible. White blasted them for their scoring, but he and many of the angry fans didn’t take time to consider that the judges weren’t drinking beer and eating popcorn and slapping five with their friends or doing any of the things that fans do as they watch a bout. Their concentration was on the cage and the action inside it for all five minutes of every round.

Fans, who are distracted by other things, tend to look away from the action for a split second or two several times in a fight, whether it be to talk to a friend, grab a snack or gesticulate after a big blow. When a bout is as close as Machida-Rua was, that’s often the difference between scoring the round correctly and getting it wrong.

“It was a matter of each round being won on maybe one or two little things,” Hamilton said following the fight. “There was no sustained action by anybody in that fight. There were no combinations thrown. It was always one punch, one kick. So you look at it and say, ‘What was effective in that fight? What was effective in that round?’ Based on that, somebody wins the round.”

Those advocating a Rua victory point to the fact that Machida appeared to take far more damage in the bout. Rua’s kicks were tenderizing Machida’s leg and the welts on his face gave away, perhaps for the first time, what he does for a living.

Hamilton, though, said it’s hard to judge a fight on damage sustained in a bout like Machida-Rua.

“They’re assuming he’s hurt,” Hamilton said. “You don’t really know, though, do you?”

This was a fight that was there for Rua to win and he simply didn’t win it. Had the decision gone Rua’s way, Machida couldn’t have complained, because there was little to choose from in many of the rounds. It was a very close fight and a case could be made for either man in most of the rounds.

Rua (18-4) was hurting Machida with kicks – Machida said the large welt on the left side of his midsection wasn’t causing him pain, but he conceded at the postfight news conference his right leg was giving him problems – and he seemed to control the tempo.

Machida said after the bout he hadn’t been busted up as badly since his sixth professional mixed martial arts bout. But Rua, who was trailing on all three scorecards after three rounds, didn’t pick up the pace because he was told he was in command of the bout.

“I feel I was able to use my strategy well in the fight to do a good fight,” Rua said. “My corner was telling me I was winning the fight and that is why I didn’t press the action so much in the final rounds. I felt I was winning. Everyone who has spoken to me has told me they felt I won the fight.”

He could have won the fight. And he probably should have won the fight.

But he only has himself and his own people to blame. Had they sent him out with a sense of urgency for the fourth and fifth rounds, history might have been different on Saturday. Rua managed to shatter some of the Machida Myth with his performance, but he didn’t leave with the belt around his waist.

As outraged as many are at the call, the culprits aren’t Messrs. Hamilton, Peoples and Rosales.

Rather, the bad guys in this scenario are Rua’s friends, partners and coaches who were all too willing to pat him on the back and cheerlead rather than to encourage him and go and finish a fight he had within his grasp.

ANDERSON SILVA AND GRACE YOON

DR HOLLYWOOD

W&CK DANCERS

THE HOST WILMER AND W&CK DANCERS

WISE FRAME AND GRACE

WHITE AND CRAZY KIDS

YOU SHOULD GET THIS ON PAY PER VIEW OR COME TO THE FIGHT AND AFTER YOU SHOULD COME TO CLUB NOKIA FOR THE AFTER PARTY.

I HAVE MY MONEY ON LYOTO MICHIDA………

Anderson Silva

Bj Penn

Good work Fellas enjoy the victory and enjoy the day off.

My first UFC fight

Eddie Donaldson, BlackHouse super MMA manager Ed Soares and Magic Intl’s Ron Walden

Clinton Sparks and his actress friend

Jay Giannone in the spot at Hard Rocks Body English

RVCA sponsored fighter BJ Penn has a sick pair of ring trunks. You can fight in these or take them to the ocean and surf. Dont forget to scratch and sniff the BJ tag on the trunks.