The MMA/UFC Thread

[King Pietersen]

Glad you enjoyed it. Was posted on MMAF the other day, and I just had to mention it on here. It's one of those articles that are funny no matter how many times you read them, genius stuff.

 

[Majin]

Was gutted when the Melendez/Alvarez fight fell through, was really looking forward to that one. Rate Eddie Alvarez highly, and from interviews and what not that i've seen, seems like a gun bloke. Wish Dana would get him in the UFC, reckon he'd tool most anyone in the lightweight division.

Alves did look absolutely amazing against Howard, and while a Penn/Alves match does interest me, I don't think BJ is going to be able to get past Fitch. Boring as he is, think Fitch will be too big and too strong for BJ. Who knows though, can never really count BJ out in any fight, I still think he could smash Edgar if he could be arsed to fight him properly (well, not properly, just with a better gameplan. Dunno why he persisted trying to outstrike him in the rematch, unless he's lost faith in his BJJ or something).

Hardy/Fatboy is a crazy fight, hope Dan rebounds strong from the Condit fight. Fatboy to come in 7 pounds overweight.

 

[King Pietersen]

It can't be healthy for Johnson to cut as much weight as he does. He dwarfs Pat Barry in the picture I posted, he is huge. If he actually manages to make the weight he will be emaciated at the weigh-ins and that will massively impact on his cardio. 1 more failed weight cut from Johnson and he'll either have to move up to 185, or get cut from the UFC. Think he needs to get on the phone to Mike Dolce, and fast.

 

[Majin]

While I understand and generally appreciate the role cutting weight has in the fight game, there are just some guys who **** me right off with it. Johnson is one of them. As you say, he is ****ing huge. He would dwarf almost everyone a middleweight and could easily hang sizewise with most guys at LHW, yet he insists on fighting at 170 even though he can barely make the weight and no matter how I look at it, it's just trying to stack such an advantage in his own favour. Is he really that scared of fighting guys over the WW class? That's how it seems to me. Look at Thiago Alves for example, he has to cut a ****load of weight as well and has had problems in the past but the difference is he is stacked and almost a midget. I'd have hated it if Dana tried to force him to fight at MW because his stumpy short arms and height would have had him in severe trouble against bigger guys. Johnson doesn't have that excuse, he's just a flange and I hope he comes in stupidly fat, gets smashed by Hardy and then is forced to move up a division or **** off out of the UFC.

 

[King Pietersen]

Johnson walks around at over 220 ffs, that's only 16lbs less than Jon Jones, and Jones is a pretty massive LHW. It's ridiculous. He's going to **** his kidneys up just because he wants to have a size advantage. Should probably work harder on the technical side of his game, move up to his natural weight class or if he wants to stay at 170 get on a ****ing diet. Pisses me off. Hope he comes in 10lbs over, Dan gets 50% of his purse and then knocks Johnson out. Also love the way Barry, McGee and the guys are laughing and joking in that picture, and then there's Johnson to the side giving it the hard-man act. WAC.

 

[Goughy]

As the world already knew, Overeem is a stone cold beast

 

[chalky]

As the world already knew, Overeem is a stone cold beast

YouTube - Chael Sonnen trashes Alistair Overeem

Chael Sonnen doesn't seem to agree. Used to enjoy MMA live but with this weeks episode (Sonnen also said that 'Overeem would cheat his way to victory' Pot Kettle?) and Bonner & Florian trashing Fedor on last weeks it just seems to be a UFC mouthpiece. Think I will be giving it a miss from now on.

Oh Yeah and Chael Sonnen has a face for radio and a voice for print the guy sounds like a constapated donkey if I never have to hear his whiney voice again it will be too soon.

 

[Goughy]

YouTube - Chael Sonnen trashes Alistair Overeem

Chael Sonnen doesn't seem to agree. Used to enjoy MMA live but with this weeks episode (Sonnen also said that 'Overeem would cheat his way to victory' Pot Kettle?) and Bonner & Florian trashing Fedor on last weeks it just seems to be a UFC mouthpiece. Think I will be giving it a miss from now on.

Oh Yeah and Chael Sonnen has a face for radio and a voice for print the guy sounds like a constapated donkey if I never have to hear his whiney voice again it will be too soon.

Sonnen is the biggest **** in MMA and, given the calible of some of the gentleman in the game, that is saying something. Ive not read anything he has said for a while. I still watch evey UFC event but I do find what happens outside the hyped bubble more interesting.

 

[King Pietersen]

I love Chael Sonnen, I think he's hilarious personally, and his whole appearance on MMA Live was brilliant. If you take everything he says with a pinch of salt he's hilarious, funniest man in MMA for me.

Dynamite!! was a fantastic show, 125's gonna have to do a lot to match-up. Alistair destroyed another opponent in super quick time, but as much as I rate his skill-set and believe in his potential, I still can't rank him in the Top 5. Rankings wise there's no way Alistair is Top 5. Skill wise definitley, but wins over Buentello, Tae-Hyun, Hunt, Goodridge, Sylvester, Thompson, Fujita, Rogers and Duffee does not get you a Top 5 ranking, it barely scrapes him into the Top 10. Hopefully Alistair will fight out his contract at SF in quick time, hopefully with wins over Silva (maybe Werdum) and Fedor, and then move over to the UFC. He needs to get away from Strikeforce, they're a sinking ship. They can't get their fighters to fight, especially their Heavyweights, and especially Fedor. If he can actually get M-1 to sign an agreement, and manages to beat Fedor, he should get snaffled up by the UFC. Strikeforce really have nothing else at HW after him.

Back to Dynamite!!; Aoki getting KTFO was hilarious, that entire fight was ludicrous. Mousasi looked good beating Kyotaro under K-1 rules, but anyone that watched the fight could tell that wasn't Kyotaro at 100%, he was clearly feeling the effects of the K-1 GP a couple of weeks ago, and the grueling fight he had with Semmy Schilt. Sakuraba looked dreadfully past his best, and ended up getting mauled by Zaromskis, which just about sums the 2010 Sakuraba, Zaromskis should never be beating him, he's stupidly over-rated due to a few flashy head kick KO's. Kharitonov almost killed Kizuno with a knee, was vicious stuff, the right hand that landed after the knee was just savage. Kikuno was out cold. Kawajiri was very impressive against Josh Thomson, and it sets up a decent cross-brand fight between him and Melendez. Melendez is another that needs to get out of SF too, there are just no legitimate opponents for him outside Kawajiri, and he's already beaten him. Unfortunately my stream died before Fernandes-Takaya finished, so I missed that fight, but from what I've read, Takaya dominated. Great win for him!

Few UFC 125 predictions:

Frankie Edgar vs Gray Maynard
Chris Leben vs Brian Stann
Brandon Vera vs Thiago Silva
Clay Guida vs Takanori Gomi
Nate Diaz vs Dong Hyun Kim

Great card, really hoping Frankie pulls out a win!

 

[Majin]

Holy crap man. Was expecting a great card, was generally disappointed with how it turned out (wanted Leben to win, Guida/Gomi wasn't as epic as I hoped it would be, Vera/Silva was...weird. But funny. DHK/Diaz was an interesting ground battle but not a lot happened) and was expecting the main event to be a turd...turns out might have been the fight of the year on the first card of the year haha. What an absolutely amazing fight. Wanted Edgar to win and was distraught in the first, man he got completely ****ed up. But what an absolute hero to come back into it the way he did. That massive slam was a thing of beauty. Smashed Maynard with some beautiful shots and combos as well (poor bastard, I wish he was bigger. he would be a beast. Imagine him at Feather/Bantamweight, he would destroy guys.) and turned in two awesome rounds. Last round was incredibly close, I actually thought Maynard had done just about enough in the last round to pull out the victory, but really happy it went to a draw just because Edgar did not deserve to lose for the amount of balls he showed. Great, great fight, and I think there's no way Edgar makes the same mistakes in a rematch and takes a comprehensive victory. Looking forward to it.

 

[Goughy]

Edgar-Maynard was a great fight, especially as most had pretty low expectations. I gave the fight to Edgar. I agreed with the judge that had it 48-46 Edgar. 2 bad things with this fight, it was a draw and that pleases noone and no we have to see it headline again and this fight doesnt sell tickets.

Holy crap though, the way Edgar took a beating and didnt quit in that 1st round was amazing. I want my kids to be like him.

 

[King Pietersen]

You gave the fight to Edgar, but agreed with the judge that had it 48-46 Maynard? =/ Awesome, awesome fight. I called it as FOTN on MMAF, and was proven correct, was a fantastic fight. For Frankie to come back from that beating in the first round was remarkable, even more so when you consider he completely dominated all facets of round 2, the slam was awesome. I personally scored the fight in favour of Edgar, and had him winning all 4 rounds after the 1st. The only one that was up for discussion AFAIC was the 3rd, but even that one I gave to Frankie. Hopefully he'll go away, continue to improve and dominate the re-match like he did to BJ before moving onto fight, what will hopefully be the winner of Pettis/Soti. Sucks for Pettis to miss out on a shot, but he could seriously prove himself worthy of a title shot with a win over Soti, and if Soti takes it it'll be a much needed big win, and propel him upto challenger status; could even be for the WEC title if they still want to unify those belts.

 

[chalky]

Had money on Maynard to win by points but was screaming from Edgar to win what a freaking comeback after the 1st round.

On the scoring had it 48 46 to Maynard had him winning the 1st round 10 - 8 then winning the 3rd and 5th 10/9 can see how the 5th could have been called the other way though.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

I don't think they'd bother with making it for the WEC belt. If they are really keen on unifying the titles, it gives them problems about whether they give Pettis a fight before a title shot. I'm not sure anyone knows where these WEC Lightweight guys really are at the moment.

While this is a bit of a setback for Sotiropoulos, I think it is probably the perfect time to put he and Jim Miller together provided both win their next fights (which they should). Winner of that should really get a shot at the title.

 

[chalky]

Edgar-Maynard was a great fight, especially as most had pretty low expectations. I gave the fight to Edgar. I agreed with the judge that had it 48-46 Maynard. 2 bad things with this fight, it was a draw and that pleases noone and no we have to see it headline again and this fight doesnt sell tickets.

Holy crap though, the way Edgar took a beating and didnt quit in that 1st round was amazing. I want my kids to be like him.

Think Edgar has some marketability as an underdog champion and he has bit of charisma where as Maynard would be very difficult to market due to his fighting style and lack of perosnality. Reckon Dana White would have been ****ting himself with a Maynard win.

 

[Goughy]

You gave the fight to Edgar, but agreed with the judge that had it 48-46 Maynard? =/ Awesome, awesome fight.

My mistake. Slip of the pen. Corrected.

 

[duffer]

I gave it to Edgar but wouldn't disagree at all with a draw there. Seriously was inspiring stuff watching Frankie rise after that first round and just be the man again. Hope he sorts out the kinks and smashes Maynard in the rematch.

Puts Sot in a bit of a bind but if he goes through Siver then he has a few interesting matchups with the likes of Pettis, Miller and even with a guy like Bocek calling him out. Fun division this. Wonder who Henderson and Cerrone are going to get first up?

Rest of the card, I enjoyed Diaz-Kim even though I was rooting for Nate. Thiago was bloody hilarious against Vera. Guy is a pure loon but a badass fighter when he's on. If only he'd shown half the nuts against Rashard when he rocked him in the 3rd of their fight. Made my day seeing Leben get smashed the **** up, Stann looks good. A big holy **** at Jeremy Stephen's knockout of Davis though. Out of nowhere.

 

[King Pietersen]

Strikeforce have announced an 8 man HW GP. Really exciting stuff that potentially sets up some fantastic fights. Fedor vs Reem should happen as a Semi Final, and I expect to see Arlovski vs Barnett (if he gets licensed) in the 2nd Semi. It's not as strong a division as some of the massive SF fans claim, but man this tournament is an exciting prospect. Reem will more than likely be favourite, but I'm going to back the 'upset' if you can call it that, and call a Fedor vs Barnett final, though I'll be backing the UK's best HW, Alistair Overeem.

 

[King Pietersen]

Even bigger news than the SF GP; Chael Sonnen's been suspended by the UFC after money laundering charges were revealed.

The oft-controversial middleweight on Monday plead guilty to federal charges of money laundering, and today he's been suspended by the UFC,

The news was first reported by TMZ.com, and MMAjunkie.com (UFC blog for UFC news, UFC rumors, fighter interviews and event previews/recaps | MMAjunkie.com) subsequently confirmed the suspension with a source close to the fighter.

"Chael Sonnen has gone through a lot in the last few months, and we think it's important for him to focus on getting his personal life together before focusing on his career in the UFC," UFC president Dana White told TMZ.com.

MMAjunkie.com was not immediately able to reach White for comment.

On Monday, MMAjunkie.com reported that Sonnen had been targeted for a UFC 128 matchup with Yoshihiro Akiyama. That bout is now apparently on hold, as TMZ.com reports Sonnen's contract "has been temporarily frozen."

The length of Sonnen's suspension has yet to be revealed.

Sonnen was charged with money laundering after taking part in a scheme to illegally net more than $69,000 in loan proceeds through the submission of a falsified repair order.

As part of his plea deal, Sonnen agreed to give up his realtor's license and pay a $10,000 fine, and the U.S. District Attorney's office is said to be seeking a two-year probation. Sonnen's official sentencing is set for March.

Sonnen is also currently serving a sentence of another sort, a suspension handed out by the California State Athletic Commission for elevated levels of testosterone following his fight-of-the-year candidate at UFC 117 with middleweight champion Anderson Silva. He was unsuccessful in appealing the punishment this past month at a CSAC hearing in Sacramento, Calif., though the commission voted to reduce his suspension from one year to six months while also issuing a $2,500 fine.

Not been a great time for Chael since the Silva fight. First the positive drugs test, the suspension and now money laundering charges. Hopefully he manages to sort things out and get back to the UFC, would be a crazy way to leave the sport.

 

[Majin]

Overeem will smash Fedor. Yeah, I said it! And I'll stand by it. No one is stopping Ubereem.