The MMA thread (mk1)

[aerius]

I want to know what some people are smoking, including one of the writers for Fighters Only mag. They claim that Dan Hardy has better standup & striking than GSP. I bet these are the same clowns who thought BJ and Thiago Alves would tool GSP in the standup, gee, how'd that work out? Oh yeah, that's right, GSP picked them apart on the feet. They also go on & on about Hardy's one shot knockout power and how he has a big power advantage over GSP. Yeah, sure, whatever, I guess they forgot the 1 punch knockdowns GSP had on Fitch and Alves, and how no one else has managed to do that to either one of them.

The only way Hardy'll win is if he pulls a Matt Serra. The odds of that aren't good at all seeing how he doesn't have Serra's punching power.

[weemadando]

I think the other factor is that GSP won't get drawn into being a stupid fucking toolbox like Marcus Davis and Mike Swick were. Hardy is brilliant at baiting people into making a dumb mistake and entering his world. GSP has never fallen into that trap (not in his current title run anyhow).

I do think Hardy has a chance. But not a brilliant one. Though if he can sucker GSP into a slugfest that could work in his favour.

[aerius]

Hardy will have to turn the fight into an ugly brawl if he wants to win, that's where GSP's weakness is. But unless GSP and his entire training camp have suddenly gone retarded, they know that and they'll prepare for Hardy trying to make the fight down & dirty.

If he stays at range and strikes GSP will pick him apart all day long with his superior standup, you're not going to win a technical striking match with GSP unless you're Anderson Silva. If it goes to ground it'll be another beating like the ones dished out on BJ and Fitch.

Hardy has a chance, but let's be honest, it's not much if any better than one Matt Serra had.

[aerius]

UFC on Versus last night should've been done under Pride rules, that way there wouldn't be a stoppage every 2 minutes because some fighter did a foul, never before have I seen so many illegal moves in one event. It started with a weird ending in the opening fight and went downhill from there, only JDS vs Gonzaga was clean. Sakara vs. Irvin was going well till Irvin got finger poked in the eye, or so everyone thought when the action got stopped for a time out. The slow-mo replay showed it was a knuckle and the fight was declared over.

Kongo showed he's the dirtiest fighter in the game, the fight went to time outs every couple minutes since Kongo kept kneeing Buentello in the head every time he got a takedown, then he kneed him in the balls for good measure. I swear to god this fight must've lasted a good 40 minutes with all the injury time outs. Should've just used Pride rules and gotten the fight finished cleanly in the 1st round instead of dragging it out till the 3rd with all the fouls. Oh yeah, and Buentello deliberately putting his hand on the mat so Kongo couldn't knee him in the head, but Kongo didn't give a fuck and did it anyway so Herb Dean had to stop the fight yet again. Should've used Pride rules damnit.

JDS made Gonzaga look slow and punched his head off, he's pretty badass.

Vera chokes it up again. Jones threw him around like a ragdoll, but when he had Vera down he left his arms out and was just begging to be armbarred, but Vera just lay on his back working for wrist control. Then he hit Jones with an illegal upkick (Jones had his knees down) which caused another time-out, then he almost did it again when the fight was restarted. Then Jones cracked him with an elbow and broke his face, fight over. Kind've an anti-climactic ending, I wanted to see them fight more, which would've happened under Pride rules since the upkicks would be legal and there's no elbows to the head.

[The Spartan]

Though if he can sucker GSP into a slugfest that could work in his favour.

Any Given Sunday phenomenon aside, I'm really skeptical that will happen.

[weemadando]

Herb Dean showed what an awesome ref he can be.

-Penalising without warning where there was blatant fouls, but also telling Buentello to "stop playing the game" when he was trying to sucker a penalty with his "oh my hand was down" bullshit.
-Offering Jones the choice of a reset on the ground or a standup after Vera's kick, which is something that I've never seen a ref do before.
-Not rushing standups and giving plenty of warning that he's going to. But seriously, he should have let Kongo be when Buentello was turtled. If a dude is turtled and the guy is trying to figure out how to hit him without compromising his position or giving up more penalties then that's OK. You're not going to stand up a guy up when he's got mount would you?

But otherwise that card just was weird.

Sakara v Irvin, with Irvin going into pause anytime he got hit and then the borked stoppage because Irvin had already begun receiving treatment on what was assumed to be an illegal shot.

Kongo v Buentello, Kongo might be dirty, but damnit if I don't want to see him face fellow Eurotrash Cro-Cop.

Gypsy v Big Nose, Dos Santos needs more time but he's going to get sacrificed on the altar of Cain Velasquez come July so they can have Cain win on the same card that BROCK SMASHes either Mir or Carwin so that the next title shot is lined up.

Jon Jones v Vera, Vera is on the way out of contention and will remain a gatekeeper to the stars. He was panicky and missed chances to end Jones' night with submissions. His lack of composure represents... something... not good. Jones again needs a lot more experience, but will likely be thrown in with someone like Forrest or the loser or Rampage/Rashad and will take a loss to someone with more ring time and experience who won't let him get away with rookie mistakes. Actually, scratch that. Rashad and Rampage would almost certainly fail to get that armbar...

Also - John Howard will get thrown to Rumble Johnston or Paul Daley just for fireworks on a (co)main event of a fight night card.

[weemadando]

Also - if you haven't seen the pics of Duane Ludwig's fight ending ankle injury... DAMN. Just... DAMN.

[Edward Yee]

Gypsy v Big Nose, Dos Santos needs more time but he's going to get sacrificed on the altar of Cain Velasquez come July

Oh FUCK THAT dos Santos is damn just about ready; timing-wise it'd be better for the UFC to keep dos Santos in line as a backup in case somehow Velasquez falls off the face of the planet or something.

[weemadando]

This is Dos Santos in the UFC.

Win Gabriel Gonzaga TKO (Punches) UFC - UFC on Versus 1 3/21/2010 1 3:53
Win Gilbert Yvel TKO (Punches) UFC 108 - Evans vs. Silva 1/2/2010 1 2:07
Win Mirko Filipovic Submission (Punch) UFC 103 - Franklin vs. Belfort 9/19/2009 3 2:00
Win Stefan Struve TKO (Punches) UFC 95 - Sanchez vs. Stevenson 2/21/2009 1 0:54
Win Fabricio Werdum TKO (Punches) UFC 90 - Silva vs. Cote 10/25/2008 1 1:21

I'd prefer to see him get at least one more fight, but there just isn't the depth at heavyweight that there is in other divisions. I think Velasquez will murder him if they do that fight and we lose a high grade prospect because they weren't ready for that level.

[Edward Yee]

I'd just slot dos Santos ahead of Velasquez to be safe.

[weemadando]

I think it makes more sense to have Dos Santos make an early run and keep building Cain because he's probably going to be the guy who will actually beat Lesnar at some point. Dos Santos can go through a rebuild cycle and hopefully keep improving. The problem is that every bit of chatter and rumour points to Dos Santos/Velasquez, and it makes narrative sense as well as Velasquez' last win was over JDS' coach.

*edit* and it turns out that JDS is now asking to fight Velasquez next.

And in better news, Dana has announced that Jon Jones is at least a year away from a title shot. Give him another 3 fights this year and we might have someone who can really rock this division.

[aerius]

Herb Dean showed what an awesome ref he can be.

No kidding, the fights could've been total disasters if he wasn't there to keep things under control and sort them out. Can you imagine the shit that would be going on right now if Mazzagatti had been in there and fucked up half the calls? Not only would the fights get fucked, we'd probably have several crippled fighters on top of it.

Kongo v Buentello, Kongo might be dirty, but damnit if I don't want to see him face fellow Eurotrash Cro-Cop.

Again? I don't think Cro-Cop's balls are liking that idea after the beating they took the first time.

[weemadando]

I think that they'll do Cro-Cop v Kongo again at some point because those guys are on an inevitable arc that has to meet sometime. Either they'll save it for their Japan card because that's the kind of fight that would go down well there, or will just have it as a main card on a fight night for some name recognition.

[Edward Yee]

Have some JDS dealing more damage to himself celebrating than Gonzaga did all night.

Speaking of the Gypsy, fortunately Dana White's gonna wait on the result of Mir vs. Carwin before deciding JDS' next fight. Here's hoping to everyone staying healthy and nobody Matt Serra'ing JDS... although, my mind pictured the sight of Cain Velasquez contending while JDS has to stay busy by fighting Kimbo.

Jon Jones is twirling, twirling, TWIRLING towards freedooooom!... and smacking some poor sap in the meantime.

Oh yeah, if anyone noticed that the "V2" poster for UFC 111 is missing Dan Hardy's abs tattoo? Dana White admitted that it was airbrushed out because it's a Tibetan Buddhist prayer in Sanskrit, and:

I'm trying to get into China. I don't need anti-Chinese government stuff on my fighters.

[Edward Yee]

The good news: Looks like it's going to be separate title shots for JDS and Velasquez, rather than the title eliminator.

The bad news: Due to a failed CAT scan showing a "brain irregularity" (TMZ), Thiago Alves is off of the UFC 111 card, and Jon Fitch is off the card due to no replacement opponent; ATT wants them to fight at UFC 112. Kurt Pellegrino vs. Fabricio Camoes gets upgraded to the main card.

[aerius]

Ben Saunders steps up to replace Thiago Alves. Talk about short notice.

[Edward Yee]

Aye... at least Saunders' former opponent Jake Ellenberger is getting his win bonus; too bad he'll probably lose the sponsor money due to being off the card. EDIT: He's also bummed about having to sit out.

Also, in return for Hulu-style ads, have every episode of The Ultimate Fighter straight from the source.

[weemadando]

Man, until I read the Sherdog previews, I'd forgotten just how monstrously stacked this card is.

[weemadando]

Also, in the tiniest fight that I'm most pumped for news (TM)

Braulio Estima will be making his MMA debut against Rick Hawn (US Olympic Judoka with a 4-0 record).

My hope is that we see a wicked judo trick like such:


Followed by Braulio doing this:

[Edward Yee]

Behold... asshole in Tapout shirt wants a cheeseburger, gets a "kimuramericana" (someone else's term).

[aerius]

I don't think Frank Mir understands game plans. Let's play a clinch game on the cage with Carwin who has deadly 1 punch knockout power with almost no windup. If you're gonna clinch you need to get a bodylock so he can't punch you in the face, or Mir could stay at range and try to pick him apart for a while. Nope. They were doing collarties on the cage when Carwin got an arm free and rocked him good with a few hooks & uppercuts, and that was the beginning of the end. Dropped him, back mounted him, pounded him out. Carwin still hasn't had a fight make it out of the first round.

[Edward Yee]

Shame about a reportedly late stoppage -- better too early than too late.

[Koolaidkirby]

I don't think Frank Mir understands game plans. Let's play a clinch game on the cage with Carwin who has deadly 1 punch knockout power with almost no windup. If you're gonna clinch you need to get a bodylock so he can't punch you in the face, or Mir could stay at range and try to pick him apart for a while. Nope. They were doing collarties on the cage when Carwin got an arm free and rocked him good with a few hooks & uppercuts, and that was the beginning of the end. Dropped him, back mounted him, pounded him out. Carwin still hasn't had a fight make it out of the first round.

After watching Carwin fight I'm really getting excited for his upcoming match against Lesnar.

Carwin has some ridiculous KO power with even his short punches.

Also

pity GSP couldn't tap out Hardy, I'll give Hardy credit though, he fought the whole way through.

[aerius]

The main event was about as competitive as the Frank Trigg vs. GSP fight that took place 5 years ago. Which is to say Hardy never got in any offence and got molested on the ground for the entire fight, except unlike Trigg he didn't get finished. Hardy was beat in what little standup there was and completely dominated on the ground, and if GSP had spent more time pounding on him instead of going for submissions his face would've looked a lot like Jon Fitch's after the fight.

Speaking of Fitch, another typical performance from him, took down Saunders, beat the shit out of him for 3 rounds for the decision win.

Nate Diaz also looks a lot better at 170 and fought a much better fight this time. He took the fight to Rory Markham and Nick Diaz'd him for the TKO. I wonder when he'll start testing positive for weed like his brother.

Behold... asshole in Tapout shirt wants a cheeseburger, gets a "kimuramericana" (someone else's term).

Should've pulled out the Chute Boxe playbook after he got the guy down. Shogun shows how it's done just after the 1:30 mark in this video.

[weemadando]

GSP v Hardy - GSP comes in with a gameplan that everyone knows, but no one can stop. However, I have to wonder how many more times he can do this gameplan before he gets a chat with Dana about "fucking finish the fights", because even for a dominant performance, there was a lot of booing in the later rounds. Not to mention that every opinion piece that I've seen post event has labelled GSP as "tedious" at best. At worst, he's being compared to Matt Hughes at the end of his run as the lay-and-pray king of welterweight. Hardy will end up like Fitch and Alves most likely, top of a big pile of guys, but never able to beat GSP. That wrasslin' is just too damn good. That said, at some point (probably when you're unquestionably down 3 rounds and one of those a 10-8 in a five rounder) you just need to put your head down and just fucking wade in throwing the craziest haymakers you can manage, because you're too gassed to win the fight in the long run and clearly your current gameplan ain't fucking working. Had Hardy just come out and gone Wandy on GSP then he might have had an incrementally better chance, as it was it seems he didn't even want to give himself that chance.

Carwin shows that he can stop guys. Again. Mir shows that he overestimates himself. Again. But fuck me, seeing him next to Brock was ridiculous. Brock truly is a man-monster. That fight will at least be interesting, but the fact is that Brock is some kind of terminator sent back from the future who won NCAA titles, while Shane Carwin might be a national champ but it was Div III or something. I guess we'll see whether Brock's self repair systems work correctly.

Palhares has been suspended for 90 days for failing to release a submission. He can say all he wants, but he cranked the shit out of that knee even once the guy had tapped and the ref was in his face. Drwal will be lucky to be walking again in 90 days.

Pellegrino was fucking awesome, as ever. I love his fights.

Diaz was impressive, if not amazing, especially given that Markham was coming off a years layup, and had missed weight by seven fucking pounds and so was probably blown out. That said, if he can actually get better strength at 170 it might be worth watching, but really, I can't see him on the level of even guys like Swick.

Saunders shows that he's willing to step up and likely gets a bump in his next contract negotiations, but Fitch is a monster. A monster in the same rut as Hardy as long as GSP is around.

Miller takes a close decision over Bocek. A good fight.

Ummm, what else? Apparently Matt Riddle is indefinitely suspended pending further tests. He must have taken some serious shots to the head. Matt Brown gets choked out by Almeida? No big shock. And that 3 rounds of biff that they showed at the tail of the card. I don't even know what to say, except that "Sho Nuff Tha Masta" is edging towards "Dean of Mean" as the best nickname in MMA. And I hate myself for saying that.

One final note. Fuck stand ups. Fuck breaking up clinches. As Rogan puts it "If you can't get out of it yourself, then that's your problem".