The MMA thread (mk1)

[Edward Yee]

Yup, but try telling that to the conspiracy whack-a-loonies, they're even worse than 9/11 truthers. It's pretty hilarious seeing the shit they come up with, "he's a Greg Jackson fighter, therefore GREASE!!!" Fucking awesome.

On the other hand, it brings up the legitimately interesting issue of whether that's an ongoing Greg Jackson thing... the pre-fight sweat buildup, that is.

[weemadando]

Yup, but try telling that to the conspiracy whack-a-loonies, they're even worse than 9/11 truthers. It's pretty hilarious seeing the shit they come up with, "he's a Greg Jackson fighter, therefore GREASE!!!" Fucking awesome.

On the other hand, it brings up the legitimately interesting issue of whether that's an ongoing Greg Jackson thing... the pre-fight sweat buildup, that is.

I'm a sweaty motherfucker. When I go no-gi, people have a real hard time holding on. It must be greasing.

[weemadando]

Also, did anyone see Inside MMA's 3rd birthday show last week? Mark Cuban, Mayhem and Joe Rogan as the panelists. They run an interview with Bob Reilly and as soon as they fade back in the first words are Joe Rogan going: "THAT IS A LYING MOTHERFUCKER!"

[Edward Yee]

Bob Reilly's comments on amateur boxing vs. pro boxing are interesting too.

[weemadando]

Chael Sonnen tests positive for UFC117

[aerius]

Good work Chael, good work. Apparently he's going to appeal the decision and make a statement to the media in the next few days.

[weemadando]

Good work Chael, good work. Apparently he's going to appeal the decision and make a statement to the media in the next few days.

Clearly it was just some hispanic guy pretending to be him at the tests with the aim of giving him cancer.

But seriously, the reports are that it was an artificial steroid that was found and that he admitted at the time of testing that he was going to test positive. Where can he really go from there?

[aerius]

But seriously, the reports are that it was an artificial steroid that was found and that he admitted at the time of testing that he was going to test positive. Where can he really go from there?

Could've been prescription cold medication or an asthma inhaler, there's a lot of common medications which contain steroids. Hell, coulda been a skin cream for the rashes he gets from rolling with Matt Lindland.

[weemadando]

Pic from Cage Potato - allegedly showing increased bacne and muscle.

Either that rash cream isn't working or he's for some other issues.

[weemadando]

And the middleweight division just completely exploded.

Sonnen's got the drug shit happening.

Belfort v Okami was going to be a title eliminator, but now Belfort has gone and gotten himself injured.

So Marquadt is stepping in against Okami.

WHAT THE SHIT.

[Edward Yee]

LOL... Cageside Seats' Gene Mrosko wondering if this isn't one big work, considering that Lesnar-Mir II got moved off of UFC 98 to UFC 100 due to an oh-so-convenient Mir knee injury... that was never brought up again after those shows. The conspiracy theory:Spoiler

A work with the intent of "anyone but Okami!" The why?

There are two reasons for this and it's all speculation at this point due to his injury not being made available. One, Okami represented a very bad matchup for Belfort and the very real possibility that he would win and down goes the fight they wanted to make. Two, Marquardt makes sense to fill in and he represents the perfect foil to Okami. He's got a well balanced attack and that's likely to win him the fight and down goes the guy that drew flies in his one main event appearance.

Emphasis here on "down goes the fight they wanted to make," aka why Dana White may not care about drug testing except when it (or failures) hurt his bottom line.

In far less cynical things, this grappling sequence between Ryan Hall and Hermes Franca is absolutely BOSS.

Any thoughts on 2010 as "year of the wrestlefest in MMA"? *Prods the Duke with a spork*

[weemadando]

The whole "year of the wrassler" is nothing new. It's a result of several things:

1) Fucking terrible judging in MMA. Examples: a guy who scores a takedown at the last moment during a round and does nothing with it, despite getting fucking destroyed on the feet for the other 4:55 OR a guy who gets a takedown and lies in someone's guard for 5 minutes getting fucking pummeled from the bottom OR a guy who scores a takedown and then spends the rest of the round desperately avoiding getting swept or submitted. All of these would usually be scored as 10-9 for the guy scoring the takedown when in most cases it should be 10-9 for the other one or 10-10 depending on events. But because we've got a pack of boxing judges who are fuckheads they are too scared to used 10-10 rounds and don't understand what they are looking at half the time.n

2) Fucking terrible reffing in MMA. Don't stand guys up. That's the big thing here. It seems counterintuitive, but really, why would you learn how to sweep or escape if you know that you can just tie a guy up in close guard for 15 seconds and the ref will stand you up? Worse still is having a ref warn the top guy for inactivity when the bottom guy is working for sweeps and submissions - JUST BECAUSE SOMEONE IS ON TOP DOESN'T MEAN THEY'RE CONTROLLING THE FIGHT.

3) Fucking terrible fighters in MMA. If you come into MMA and you don't know how to a) sprawl, b) sweep or c) scramble then you fucking deserve to lose a terrible, grinding, painful decision to an one dimensional fighter. Sure, there are outliers here like GSP who it seems can take down the moon if he feels like it and then just hold them there, but then we get onto part 2 of this point. Look at the Dan Hardy fight: GSP was actively trying to finish on the ground, but when it was standing up (even when it was clear he couldn't win a decision) Hardy was reluctant to let fly with strikes because he might be taken down. At some point you just have to accept that you'll be taking a ride and play to your strengths and hope that the rest of your game is good enough.

[weemadando]

Just watched TUF ep2.

Oh dear lord. I don't think Koscheck is going to go well. That was an absolutely epic troll by GSP.

[Koolaidkirby]

Just watched TUF ep2.

Oh dear lord. I don't think Koscheck is going to go well. That was an absolutely epic troll by GSP.

I missed it, mind elaborating?

[weemadando]

GSP, Greg Jackson et al are sitting around planning their picks and stumble at whether they want first pick or first fight choice. Then they come up with an idea to effectively get them both. They figure Koscheck is going to want the same guy that they do for no.1 pick, Michael Johnson - which it is revealed that he does. So they decide to play on Koscheck's loyalty to his team. They put together a fake draft list with one of Koscheck's former college wrestling trainees as no.1 in HUGE EASILY READABLE LETTERS and GSP makes sure to hold it in such a way that Koscheck can see it. Dana warns GSP that his list is readable and GSP tells him that it's all part of his plan. Koscheck wins the coin toss and after some deliberation with his coaches, as he's now worried that GSP might steal "his guy", decides to take first pick. And then picks that guy. GSP and Greg Jackson share knowing glances and Dana looks like he wants to crack up as GSP then picks Michael Johnson, who both guys really wanted to draft first and then goes on to get the first fight pick anyway.

[aerius]

The Chael Sonnen situation is getting stupid. The CSAC takes a month to do the tests and all they've come up with to date is that he had a high testosterone/estrogen ratio. They don't say what the limit is or how much he was over by. Did he go over by 5% in which case there are explanations which do not involve performance enhancing drugs or did it go 10X over the limit which would be clearly steroids. We don't know and they ain't talking. A week ago we find out he tested positive for a PED, then they say it was steroids, now they tell us it was a high T/E ratio. Are these guys fucking incompetent? Even if Chael is completely guilty of taking steroids they've left so many holes in their case that he should be able to get out on a technicality.

[weemadando]

Everything that had come out of CSAC between the announcement of a failed test and the official statement was a leak or rumour. Chael is guilty as sin. And if he isn't then he is certainly acting like he is. He hasn't responded to any requests for statements or information, and has buttoned down tight. He announced that he was going to appear on MMA Live to talk about it, then has bailed on that at the last moment. And if you can't go on a show where you are a frequent guest and even the fill-in host sometimes to discuss it, then clearly you know that even the most slow-pitch soft-ball question is going to sink you.

[aerius]

Well, so far Dana White sums it up best for UFC 119

Robbed! Judging FUCKING SUCKS!!!! 6 minutes ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®-dana white

edit: they just announced Cecil Peoples as one of the judges. That pretty much explains everything.

[aerius]

Most important fight of the year:

Sakuraba's entrance v Mayhem's entrance at Dream 16. Who will win?

I think Mayhem takes this one.

[weemadando]

Tonight is for watching both UFC119 - apparently one of the worst UFC events of all time and DREAM16, which hopefully can clock in at under 15 hours for once.

I've heard that 119 suffered from terrible fights and worse judging. This should be amazing.

[aerius]

The judging and the last couple fights kinda ruined it, but Lytle vs. Serra was fucking awesome and Sherk vs. Dunham was another awesome fight which was unfortunately ruined by Cecil fucking Peoples and the retard judges.

[TheFeniX]

Cecil fucking Peoples

Was he the guy that gave Melvin the 30-27 for backpedalling that whole fight? Why am I even asking, of course he was.

This card has really made me start to hate so-called "MMA fans." The kind of people who laugh at those who claim their favorite fight was "Liddell vs Ortiz" or "Griffin vs Bonner." They bring up old names and masturbate to Pride, yet completely forget that besides the main event: UFC 119 was a pretty damn good card marred by two idiotic decision (which even the dumbass crowd knew).

The pre-lims were like 3 for 4 on slick submissions and even Meat Head didn't disappoint with his decision win. Dunham stopped Sherk from being boring as always and did everything to not get layed on for 15 minutes. Lytle and Serra beat the hell out of each other because Serra once again forgets his black-belt is not in "punch-fu." When Guillard wasn't running away (I'm sorry, being evasive), him and Stevens went at it.

Anyone who claims to know MMA should know going in that if Cro-Cop didn't show up to fight, he was going to spend 15 minutes with his back to either a cage or a mat. That's just how it is. He broke somewhere after his head-kick KO loss to Gonzaga. They can only put him back together every other fight or so. Anyways, it was definitely worth the money to me, and fortunately a boring main event only cost me 15 (or 14 and some change) minutes, rather than 25.

[aerius]

Yeah, overall it was an above average card, other than the main event and dumbass judges I have absolutely nothing to complain about. The prelims were better than half the fights on the average main cards, Dunham stepping it up in the 2nd & 3rd round was awesome, and Lytle & Serra beating the hell out of each other had me grinning like an idiot and going "holy shit! I can't believe they're doing this!" I was fucking giddy after that fight.

[weemadando]

I'm still yet to watch it, but I tested the waters of Dream 16. As soon as it started I had Schiavello and Trigg doing a to-camera piece in luchadore masks. Ever get the feeling that everyone is just making fun of the Japanese now?

[Edward Yee]

Thank gosh for Zhang Tiequan -- ring name "The Mongolian Wolf," even though his given name is literally "Iron Fist" or a homonym -- didn't screw up his debut; Garza may have seemed on the surface like a can, but that's a 9-0 "can" and I've heard he was supposed to be a live dog.

Also, WAR ALDO~ for holding the banner of Blackhouse when the rest have choked.