The MMA/UFC Thread

[duffer]

Cain and Junior would depend on the undercard a fair bit. Not sure the UFC will risk having that as the only blue ribbon matchup on the card and seeing it flop.

UFC 122 looks rather putrid, might give that a miss. Rampage-Machida looks alright but the next really stacked card imo is the Frankie-Maynard one.

 

[masterblaster]

This was mentioned in another thread but is worth mentioning here anyway as it's a very interesting interview.

YouTube - WWE's Undertaker, Brock Lesnar Exchange Words Following UFC 121

 

[King Pietersen]

Brock needs to improve his training. I'd love to see Brock Lesnar just take 2 months away from Minnesota, go to Holland and train his stand-up at Golden Glory. It's not so much the technique I want him to drill, it's the sparring. Brock Lesnar does not like getting hit, and in the UFC HW division, with these talented wrestlers with heavy hands, that's not good. I don't think Brock is being pushed enough in his camp, I don't think the guys are going at him. Check Jon Madsen's performance against Gilbert Yvel, I'd bet he doesn't go anywhere near that hard on Brock in training, and that's an issue.

Holland would be the perfect place for Brock Lesnar to go, even if it's just for 2 months. Holland, and the big gyms in Holland are famed for their incredibly hard sparring. They don't go anywhere near as hard on bag/mits as they do in sparring, and exposure to that would really help Brock. Going out of his comfort zone to learn and spar hard with guys like Alistair Overeem, Semmy Schilt, Gökhan Saki, Sergei Kharitonov and Errol Zimmerman. Big, strong, powerful dudes that are going to put it on Brock, and hit him in the face. It's the only way he's going to get over that flaw in his game. 2 months getting battered by Alistair Overeem would soon sort him out. It won't happen, but I'd love to see him do it.

 

[duffer]

This card looks great. Rooting for Sot, Davis, Harris, BJ and Rampage tonight.

 

[duffer]

What a clinic by Sotiropoulos. Just a sick victory.

 

[Majin]

So stoked with that card, apart from Karo losing which makes me cry, pretty much everything went how I wanted to.

Sotiropoulos looked all class again and I can't believe he's not anywhere in the title mix just yet, he is a complete monster and easily the most entertaining BJJ guy to watch in the UFC imho. Very happy he won, "J-lau" gtfo what an utter ponce. Got teabagged by Sot and deserved it.

Phil Davis is on his way to becoming my favourite fighter, he is a complete hero. His little pink Bret Hart shorts, always working to finish, the Mr. Wonderful sub which was insane, generally all round good guy. Entertaining fight too. Really hope they match him up against Bones Jones at some point would love to see him smash that gimp.

Harris/Random Chute Box guy whose name I forget was random as ****. Some absolutely sick and insane action mixed with Silva/Maia levels of **** all. Could have been great, ended up just being strange. No idea why the hell Harris was putting his arms up in the air at the end of the fight, he literally did nothing.

Penn /Hughes was CRAZY! BJ looked like a total nutcase coming out to the ring, and I was expecting a tough battle out of both of them, but he totally killed Hughes, amazing. Never been a huge fan of Matt Hughes either so I was particularly happy to see him get mashed up like that. Be interesting to see where Penn goes from here.

Main event, pretty much went as you would expect although Machida was extremely negative in the first two rounds. I had Page winning 2-1 and was pretty surprised it went to a split decision. First two rounds were close but Page had aggression and octagon control in the first, as well as a few solid blows (his uppercuts were nasty) and the fact that he spent about 3 minutes of the round Couturing Machida up against the cage and stomping on his foot and attacking the legs, thought that round was his. Second was pretty similar stuff part from Page getting the takedown so again that round was Page's. Third was a clear Machida round for mine, but Machida did absolutely jack **** in the first two so I would have been pretty miffed if he got the nod. Was surprised Rampage thought he lost as well.

Sherdog forums are pretty hilarious with Machida fans screeching about a robbery, though. Especially the ones crying that Machida's leg kicks should have won him the first round and saying **** like "SINCE WHEN DO LEG KICKS COUNT FOR NOTHING?!" Massive karma laid down for Shogun/Machida 1. Not as if any of Machida's kicks were significant or landed hard either.

But yeah overall very enjoyable card for mine, makes up for a few bad ones we've had recently. Apparently at post-fight press conference Dana White said there won't be a rematch between Page and Machida as well which I approve of. For one because I thought Page won pretty clearly, but also because Machida having 4 fights against 2 guys would be ****.

 

[King Pietersen]

Page won that fight. He won the first 2, and Machida clearly won the 3rd. Glad they're not having a re-match. I wanna see Rampage take on the winner of Jones/Bader with Machida taking on Bonnar/Pokrajac. Machida's effectively on a 3 fight losing streak, so I think he needs to move down the food chain a bit.

 

[chalky]

For anyone who hasn't seen it Paul Daley's KO of Scott Smith

YouTube - Paul Daley knocks out Scott Smith (Who wants a KO for christmas?)

Daley is a dick and will get schooled by a half decent wrestler but if matched up correctly will put bums on seats. Strikeforce apparantly looking at a KJ Noons for Daley next which would be an awesome fight.

Anyone think Koscheck can upset GSP tonight? GSP on points is definate favourite but can see a KO or TKO not bad odds at 5/2 IMO.

 

[Goughy]

WMMA3 released

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

WMMA3 released

So so good. I remember thinking how big an improvement WMMA2 was on 1, but this is just so much better. The match engine is fantastic, the game is so much quicker, better looking and I love it. I'm a C-Verse guy, too, so happy to get right into it.

Not strictly MMA, but K-1 spoilers:

Spoiler

Saw bits and pieces of the final tonight. Overeem just ran through Aerts in that final after looking pretty ordinary earlier in the night. Was a brave effort for Aerts to beat Schilt - am pretty disappointed that it wasn't a Semmy-Overeem final - but he was just torn apart in the final. Completes a great year for Overeem.

 

[Majin]

Spoiler

Pretty heartbroken, getting into K1 in the late 90's was my first real experience with combat sports outside of Boxing, my Dad used to watch it a lot whenever I was at his place and he always was a fan of Hoost and Bonjasky but for me it's always been Aerts. He is a hero and I have more love for him than almost any other fighter on the planet. Seeing him take it to Schilt was amazing, so glad he smashed him up in the last round, I was right there with Schiavello YES! YES! YES! on every blow. Fair dues to Ubereem, got nothing against him at all but will have Aerts back until I die.

In other news, pretty excited for 124 tonight. Should be some decent fights on display, and I am really hoping we get to see GSP do to pubehead what he did to Jon Fitch, only with a finish. Anyone catch any of the action from last week? ****, Semtex looked amazing when he completely killed Smith. Was as violent a knockout as you'll ever see, but then you had Lawler/Lindland and Hendo/Babalu as well. Complete brutality. Also Garza/Paxiao on the UFC card was absolutely disgusting, sounded hideous. Be tough for tonights event to follow up on that but I've got high hopes for a good show today.

 

[social]

GSP is obviously incredibly talented and a great athlete

I've now seen him fight in a number of different styles(boxing, wrestling, martial arts, etc) and deserves credit for being able to identify and capitalise upon an opponents weaknesses

However, that really was very little more than a one-sided boxing match between 2 guys that arent particularly good at that discipline. As such, I did not really find it all that enjoyable

Mind you, the crowd was amazing and seemed to love it

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Ridiculous move to allow the fans to pick Fight of the Night. $100,000 is huge for some of these lower level fighters, and GSP/Koscheck don't need it and didn't deserve it.

 

[Uppercut]

St-Pierre's now won 30 rounds in a row.

 

[Goughy]

If you have not seen this yet then you should.

YouTube - Anthony Pettis Superkick

 

[GIMH]

Incredible!

 

[Majin]

Yeah I meant to post that last night as well, didn't catch the event but supposedly he did that in the dying minutes of the last round in a championship match that was dead even up to that point, what an awesome way to win a title. Hero.

edit: Props to Ben Henderson for surviving as well, am a fan of his, hope he goes well in the UFC.

 

[King Pietersen]

Few thoughts:

- Seems Freddie Roach teaches a pretty mean jab. Class performance by GSP, the UFC need to set up GSP vs Silva after he mauls Shields.
- Koscheck's still a ****. Just a **** with a broken orbital.
- Nicky Diaz has successfully ducked Jason Miller. Offered him 178lbs, which is physically impossible for him to achieve in 2 months (the timeframe the Diaz camp wanted); Miller offered Diaz 181lbs, a weight Mayhem could just make, Diaz turned it down.
- Diaz is now going to defend his Strikeforce WW title. Ah, you're thinking it's going to be against a credible opponent right? Paul Daley perhaps, or maybe Tyron Woodley, or as a bit of a surprise package Tarec Saffiedine, the few genuine contenders left in the SF WW division. Well, nope, it's not any of those. It's ****ing Cyborg. Not the 145lb 'womens' champion, but the less accomplished 18-13 Evangelista Santos, with his 1 Welterweight victory, against the hugely over-hyped Zaromskis. Nicky's definitely not hand-picking his opponents is he.
- Mayhem has 1 fight left on his SF contract. Here's hoping he gets away from the pathetic politics of SF and joins the UFC.
- Todd Duffee appears to have signed his death warrant and signed up at a weeks notice to fight Alistair Overeem in Japan at Dynamite!! 2010. Good luck Todd, try not to get your head caved in like Fujita.
- Strong rumours are suggesting that Brock Lesnar is going to use a Wrestlemania appearance as a bargaining chip to help persuade him to sign up to TUF, coaching against Frank Mir. It'd more than likely be a 1 off appearance, with him taking on The Undertaker.
- Anthony Johnson is rumoured to be finally returning to the Octagon in April, surprisingly enough at 170 still. Saw a picture of him earlier, and it appears he'll need to get on the Dolce Diet pretty swiftly. His opponent? Dan Hardy of course. ****ing love this fight. Hardy to win via submission.
- Gilbert Melendez is so desperate to fight some legitimate competition, that he's called out Paul Daley.
- Scott Coker's head has imploded as SF Fighters in the same weightclass don't appear to like fighting eachother, they're much happier calling guys out in other weightclasses.
- Gil Martinez (Gray Maynard's Boxing coach) claims he and Maynard have come up with a way to beat Frankie Edgar on the feet.......
- The Dolce Diet works an absolute treat. How ****ing good did Thiago Alves look against John Howard!? Superb performance, would love to see him take on Penn, should he beat Fitch, if Fitch wins, Alves vs Kampmann makes sense for me.
- Randy Couture's retired (think this is the 7th one)
- Randy Couture is out of retirement, wants to fight either Shogun or Machida.

 

[duffer]

Brock-Mir as coaches would be insanely funny though. More I think about it, the more it needs to be done.

 

[Uppercut]

like Fujita.

! That's an incredible article!