The MMA thread (mk1)

[Enigma]

I saw the Lesnar\Couture fight on Youtube and was not impressed. Is that how the fights are usually done? A lot of hugging and some homoerotic positions?

[Zadius]

I saw the Lesnar\Couture fight on Youtube and was not impressed. Is that how the fights are usually done? A lot of hugging and some homoerotic positions?

Randy was an Olympian Greco-roman wrestler, so he likes to work from the clinch. Watch Couture vs. Gonzaga to get an idea of what he was trying to do. It didn't work as well against Brock, because the man is 275 lbs of pure muscle.

Actually, I think Brock has good chances against Mir or Nog if he applies that tactic against them. Clinch fighting against the cage is a way for him to use his superior wrestling without entering their world of submission fighting. He has shown he can land effective elbows and knees from close distance, so I think that would be a smart game plan against Nog or Mir. Clinch-and-pound instead of ground-and-pound.

[TheFeniX]

I saw the Lesnar\Couture fight on Youtube and was not impressed. Is that how the fights are usually done? A lot of hugging and some homoerotic positions?

Heavyweight fights are generally pretty shitty, but I don't know what fight you were watching. I've seen a Hell of a lot worse. They stood up and exchanged for a good part of the fight. Brock showed he's improved his striking since his UFC debut, but he still has a long way to go. I will say I'm impressed at the speed of his improvement though. Then, two exceptional wrestlers jockeyed for position in the clinch.

Randy was making comments after the fight about how he was negating Brock's reach advantage, but finally got clipped. And this is my big issue with the HW division. Everyone wants a brawl and they just don't last long like in Commando or Demolition Man. When two guys that size throw punches with abandon someone is going to go down. I've found this mentality in the HW division (across the board, not just UFC) has lead to a bunch of worthless fighters relying on size alone to carry the day for them.

I may despise Brock for being a homophobic meat-head with a giant penis tatooed on his chest, but I like what he can (hopefully) do for the HW class: bring in a younger and smarter crop of fighters. And maybe one day we'd have a HW division more like the current LHW and WW divisions. With the WEC cutting their MW+ classes, we might see an influx anyways (although the pickings are real slim for talent).

[Ericxihn]

I saw the Lesnar\Couture fight on Youtube and was not impressed. Is that how the fights are usually done? A lot of hugging and some homoerotic positions?

Yeah, mma's pretty homoerotic. It's a neccesary consequence of the fact that all ground in clinch work relies on controlling your opponents body and more importantly, his hips. hence: this

[weemadando]

OK, now that I'm back from o/s I'm finally going to watch the latest UFC PPV and see just how Couture lost.

In fucking awesome news, a guy who I've met a few times and trains at the BJJ school run by my best friend has been accepted onto Xtreme Couture's pro-team in Vegas. He's Priscus Fogagnolo and we are all hoping like hell that he gets a good break and can find his way into the big leagues soon.

[weemadando]

My picks for the huge card today:

Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira
VS
Frank Mir

-It's gotta be Big Nog. Mir is still on the comeback trail, he's a douchebag and even in his prime, once past the first round, he's never had the cardio. Nog by submission in the 4th is my pick.


Forrest Griffin
VS
Rashad Evans

-The heart says Griffin, the brain says Rashad. That said, I definitely do not want Rashad with a belt. It's that whole arrogant fuckhead thing. So, here's to hoping that its Griffin (probably by decision). But it will likely be Rashad by [T]KO in the 2nd.


Quinton "Rampage" Jackson
VS
Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva

-Wanderlei has Rampage's number and for all the talk of "ring v cage", I think Wanderlei has adjusted fairly well. And unless Rampage suddenly decides to pull his head out of his arse, or mistakes Silva for an LAPD officer, then I think we know what the outcome is. Wandy by KO in the 2nd.


Cheick Kongo
VS
Mustapha Al-Turk

-Al-Turk by submission in the 2nd.


Dean "The Boogeyman" Lister
VS
Yushin Okami

-I want this fight to be good. I really do, because both these guys are awesome. I'm saying Lister by sub in the 3rd.


Brad "Bad" Blackburn
VS
Ryo "Piranha" Chonan

-Would it be bad to wish for another flying scissor leg-lock by Chohan?


Matt Hamill
VS
Reese "Riptide" Andy

-Matt Hamill, one of the genetic freak prodigy wrestlers will grind out a decision or if lucky, will get a KO standing. Reese Andy just isn't in his league.


Dan Evensen
VS
Pat Barry

-Evenson in the 1st by KO.

Antoni Hardonk
VS
Mike Wessel

-Hardonk gets thrown a can to kick in the face for a highlight reel/filler spot during the PPV. KO in the first.

CB Dolloway
VS
Mike Massenzio

-Please, can the retarded Matt Damon clone go home now? Massenzio by very, very boring decision or better yet - another armbar.

[aerius]

What the hell. !t's like the 2007 year of upsets all over again, except it was all on a single card.

[weemadando]

What the fuck was that? I mean, besides probably the best card of the year?

HOLY FUCKING SHIT is all I can really say at this point. I mean... Fuck...

[aerius]

Yeah, no kidding, this card was fucking badass.

The Rampage fight wasn't too much of a surprise for me, other than the part where he gets kneed to death in previous fights he was holding his own quite nicely against Wanderlei, in the first fight he was ahead until the ref stood them up and in the 2nd he almost put Wandy away at the end of the 1st round. It's not like the previous fights were one-sided beatdowns by Wandy, at least not until he got the clinch and put the knees to Rampage.

Highlight for me was the Pat Barry fight, holy shit those were some brutal leg kicks, it hurt to watch the replays where he leg kicked Dan Evensen until Dan's knee blew out. Those kicks were vicious, Evensen was limping around after taking a few kicks and he literally got his leg chopped out from under him. TKO by leg kicks, that was so badass.

[weemadando]

Yeah, no kidding, this card was fucking badass.

The Rampage fight wasn't too much of a surprise for me, other than the part where he gets kneed to death in previous fights he was holding his own quite nicely against Wanderlei, in the first fight he was ahead until the ref stood them up and in the 2nd he almost put Wandy away at the end of the 1st round. It's not like the previous fights were one-sided beatdowns by Wandy, at least not until he got the clinch and put the knees to Rampage.

Highlight for me was the Pat Barry fight, holy shit those were some brutal leg kicks, it hurt to watch the replays where he leg kicked Dan Evensen until Dan's knee blew out. Those kicks were vicious, Evensen was limping around after taking a few kicks and he literally got his leg chopped out from under him. TKO by leg kicks, that was so badass.

Pat Barry looked awesome.

My big hope now is that Machida gets past his next fight and (FINALLY) gets given a title shot against Rashad. Rashad v Machida would be awesome to see.

[aerius]

Shogun needs a strength and conditioning coach, badly. There were glimpses of the old Shogun brilliance in the first round but after that it was all downhill, and that was pretty ugly win. Shogun needs to get his ass in shape if he wants to make a run at the LHW title, he's still got the skills but his speed & conditioning is gone.

[weemadando]

I had honestly picked Coleman to beat him, Shogun has just never been at his best when facing guys who can physically dominate him and to say that he's been shit in his past few fights would be an understatement.

[aerius]

Just finished watching Affliction: Day of Reckoning. Damn. Fedor. Mid air knockout punch on Arlovski. Great card, unfortunately they got the commentation crew backwards, they should've had Bas Rutten doing the main event and put Tito Ortiz on the prelims. What the hell were they thinking? Also good to see Big John back in the ring.

[weemadando]

It was a really good card, but Affliction have GOT to be done. Dead. Finished. Fight day and they still have floor seats on sale? Giving away thousands of tickets? Total anticipated PPV buys not even enough to cover Arlovski's fight fee?

C'mon. Give it up already. Can people stop trying to do somethign that clearly isn't working?

[Zadius]

Affliction: Banned had 11,242 paid spectators and 100,000+ PPV buys. Affliction: Day of Reckoning had 8,946 paid and PPV numbers haven't been reported on yet, as far as I can tell. It doesn't look as good as the first show, but I'm optimistic they'll continue. And I hope so because I want Fedor vs. Barnett.

[weemadando]

Affliction: Banned had 11,242 paid spectators and 100,000+ PPV buys. Affliction: Day of Reckoning had 8,946 paid and PPV numbers haven't been reported on yet, as far as I can tell. It doesn't look as good as the first show, but I'm optimistic they'll continue. And I hope so because I want Fedor vs. Barnett.

I'm keen for Fedor v Barnett too. A few more notes on Affliction.

-It's bad when the refs are getting bigger cheers from the crowd than the fighters.
-Dan Lauzon should have had a point deducted for wasting time.
-Sokodjou is amazingly over-rated and needs to not try and fight high level competition for a while and actually build his repertoir a bit more.
-MMA in a ring is stupid (see Sokodjou diving through the ropes constantly to avoid getting taken down/beat up; see also at the last Affliction the Arlovski/Rothwell fight being constantly stopped to untangle Rothwell from the ropes).
-Addendum to above: Except when someone does a rope a dope => flying knee and then gets smacked in the face by a huge superman punch.

[weemadando]

My picks for this weekends UFC [join MMA Playground and the SDNet group - we need more people so I mightn't come 2nd all the time.


Georges St. Pierre
v
BJ Penn

BJ has great talent - yes, but GSP has shown that he can out-wrestle all-American wrestlers, he can outstrike kick-boxers and can win on the ground against BJJ guys. BJ just cannot match him in any area of the game at hte moment. A few years ago maybe - but not the GSP of today. If GSP wins this, then I want him v Anderson Silva as the next UFC superfight (probably on the NYE show after another title defence or two).


Lyoto Machida
v
Thiago Silva

Machida will win unless Silva can pull some crazy BJJ stuff. We haven't seen much of Machida's BJJ - but isn't he a Brazilian Top Team black-belt? Machida takes it via convicing decision or amazing counter-KO.



Jon Fitch
v
Akihiro Gono

Fitch should out-point Gono for a decision. Maybe gets a KO. Gono is good, but Fitch is the kind of guy who can beat everyone in Welterweight except GSP.


Karo Parisyan
v
Dong-Hyun Kim

I really want Dong-Hyun Kim to win - but he's been a little lack-lustre. Then again, he's up against the king of lack-lustre in the form of Karo. So I think I will back Kim to win via KO.


Nate Diaz
v
Clay Guida

Nate Diaz or Guida? Damn - I just do not know. Both have looked amazing of late, its a case of two guys with good striking (though I'd give the edge to Guida here) so it'll probably come down to Guida's wrestling v Diaz's BJJ. And I think I'll give that to Diaz. So my pick? Diaz via sub in the 1st - otherwise he gasses and Guida gets a KO in the late 2nd/early 3rd.


Jake O'Brien
v
Christian Wellisch

Gotta go with Wellisch, it's a fight that I have no real interest in, but will probably be the one to produce KO of the night.


Stephen Bonnar
v
Jon Jones

Bonnar is getting given a can to beat in order to try and bring him back. I pick the can by shock KO - just because.


Dan Cramer
v
Matt Arroyo

Gotta go with Matt Arroyo - as long as he's healthy he can beat most outside the top 10 or 20, which Dan Cramer is just not in.


Chris Wilson
v
John Howard

Chris Wilson v John Howard? I don't want to know - I know several Chris Wilson's and they're all tools. I know several John Howard's and similarly, they're all tools. Maybe one of these two can prove me wrong.


Manvel Gamburyan
v
Thiago Tavares

Gamburyan/Tavares - Judo/BJJ fest confirmed. Which last I checked in the unofficial MMA handbook means that this will be two lack-lustre strikers swinging for the fences until one sticks his chin out and leaps forward into an opponents punch. I want Tavares to win - probably via Gamburyan spontaneously injurying himself again.

[aerius]

Georges St. Pierre
v
BJ Penn

BJ has great talent - yes, but GSP has shown that he can out-wrestle all-American wrestlers, he can outstrike kick-boxers and can win on the ground against BJJ guys. BJ just cannot match him in any area of the game at hte moment. A few years ago maybe - but not the GSP of today.

Agreed. The only way I see BJ winning is a lucky punch à la Matt Serra. People keep saying how good BJ's striking is and how he has mad knockout power and so forth, I disagree. When was the last time BJ knocked someone down with punches? 4-5 years ago?

Chris Wilson
v
John Howard

Chris Wilson v John Howard? I don't want to know - I know several Chris Wilson's and they're all tools. I know several John Howard's and similarly, they're all tools. Maybe one of these two can prove me wrong.

Chris Wilson gave Jon Fitch a good deal of trouble a year ago while losing to him in a decision. I remember his standup being pretty decent since he managed to wobble Fitch a couple times.

[weemadando]

Yeah, I backed Wilson in my actual picks - hopefully these guys will put on a good show to get themselves some exposure.

And can people PLEASE shut the fuck up about Machida being boring? I would rather watch 20 Machida fights than the one fight by the vast majority of the wrestler-turned-MMA tools who think lay-and-pray combined with awful ground-and-pound.

[aerius]

No kidding, Machida fights smart and wins, and often makes his opponent look like a complete amateur in the process. He doesn't have the big knockout power of Rampage or Liddell, and he's smart enough not to brawl and get himself caught and knocked out which for some reason makes people hate him. In terms of skills and strategy he's brilliant, he just doesn't have the size and power of some of the other LHW fighters. Watching Machida tool people and make them look stupid is pretty damn entertaining to me, the knee to the liver on Tito was priceless.

[aerius]

Who's the quitter now BJ? Who's the quitter huh?

Damn that was good, first round was pretty even, then GSP turned up de riddum and tooled him for the next 3 rounds, popped him good with jabs, slammed him with leg kicks, and took him down almost at will. And once he got the takedown, BJ couldn't do shit off his back and got pounded silly. BJ just couldn't handle the pace and the doctor stopped the fight after the end of the 4th round. Too bad, I wanted to see GSP beat him up some more after all the trashtalking he did.


Machida. If his next fight isn't for the LHW title I'm going to punch Dana White in the face. Once again, Lyoto makes his opponent look like a complete idiot, and it looks like he's picked up Shogun's diving KO punch to a downed opponent. That was sweet, he trip-tossed Thiago Silva down on the mat seconds before the round ended and hit him with a diving punch just as the buzzer went off to end the round, Silva was out cold.

[Zadius]

I'm going to say it: Machida will be the next LHW champ, and GSP is the best hope to beat Anderson Silva.

Machida. If his next fight isn't for the LHW title I'm going to punch Dana White in the face. Once again, Lyoto makes his opponent look like a complete idiot, and it looks like he's picked up Shogun's diving KO punch to a downed opponent. That was sweet, he trip-tossed Thiago Silva down on the mat seconds before the round ended and hit him with a diving punch just as the buzzer went off to end the round, Silva was out cold.

That's what you call a buzzer beater.

[Chardok]

I wonder if GSP will go to the club after the fight.


While Penn is in the hospital. LOL? Yes, LOL.

[Koolaidkirby]

Who's the quitter now BJ? Who's the quitter huh?

Damn that was good, first round was pretty even, then GSP turned up de riddum and tooled him for the next 3 rounds, popped him good with jabs, slammed him with leg kicks, and took him down almost at will. And once he got the takedown, BJ couldn't do shit off his back and got pounded silly. BJ just couldn't handle the pace and the doctor stopped the fight after the end of the 4th round. Too bad, I wanted to see GSP beat him up some more after all the trashtalking he did.
.

GSP's next fight after his upcoming defense is supposedly gonna be setup against Spider Silva since no way Dana's gonna let Silva retire before he fights GSP, and if GSP wins that fight he'd secure his spot at the top of the pound for pound fighters ranking (well, except for Fedor, but we all know that fight can never happen due to weight, although Silva could probably bump up to fight him if it struck his fancy)

[Chardok]

Who's the quitter now BJ? Who's the quitter huh?

Damn that was good, first round was pretty even, then GSP turned up de riddum and tooled him for the next 3 rounds, popped him good with jabs, slammed him with leg kicks, and took him down almost at will. And once he got the takedown, BJ couldn't do shit off his back and got pounded silly. BJ just couldn't handle the pace and the doctor stopped the fight after the end of the 4th round. Too bad, I wanted to see GSP beat him up some more after all the trashtalking he did.
.

GSP's next fight after his upcoming defense is supposedly gonna be setup against Spider Silva since no way Dana's gonna let Silva retire before he fights GSP, and if GSP wins that fight he'd secure his spot at the top of the pound for pound fighters ranking (well, except for Fedor, but we all know that fight can never happen due to weight, although Silva could probably bump up to fight him if it struck his fancy)

As much as I like Spidey, it would be foolish of him to fight Fedor - Silva may be calculating and strategic, but Fedor is a fucking machine - He'd eat silva alive in two rounds - if that. Arlovsky got taken down on a lucky shot, true enough - but he'd have run out of gas long before The Russian Experiment anyway.