The MMA thread (mk1)

[Edward Yee]

So... Jon Fitch V2.0? Put those two together to see who gets killed by GSP on the feet... whether or not he gets past Koscheck. (I assume that Koscheck is nowhere as dumb as he appears on TUF12, he just has no ability to impart his winning ways onto anyone not named Nam Phan.)Spoiler

MEXICO BITCHES

EDIT: If you haven't already seen this:

[Solauren]

Brock Lesnar gets his ass handed to him after a fairly good start.

That once puch sent him across the cage wonderfully. Unfortuantely for Brock he never got a chance to really recover.

[weemadando]

Personally I think that once Cain did his human spring impression of the back of two massive takedowns it was all over. It seemed to break FRATE TRANE's brain that Cain was getting up that fast.

Jake Shields should have lost. Who the fuck gave him that 30-27? Was it the same person that gave Diego 30-26?

And Court McGee looked great. Sure it's a tune-up fight, but it's great to watch him fight.

And fuck you Tito.

[aerius]

Personally I think that once Cain did his human spring impression of the back of two massive takedowns it was all over. It seemed to break FRATE TRANE's brain that Cain was getting up that fast.

I think Brock was still in it till Cain took him down, Brock just has no defence at all when he's down other than curling into a ball and covering up. He doesn't try to grab an arm or leg to hold on and stop the punches and I don't think he's figured out what a guard is either.

Jake Shields should have lost. Who the fuck gave him that 30-27? Was it the same person that gave Diego 30-26?

Cecil Peoples was one of the judges, if it wasn't him I'll punch myself in the balls.

The Diego fight was great though, Thiago took it to him hard in the first round then Sanchez makes a nice comeback in the 2nd & 3rd, complete with what is now known as the "YES!!! Slam". It was like a vintage Matt Hughes slam.

[Edward Yee]

Personally I think that once Cain did his human spring impression of the back of two massive takedowns it was all over. It seemed to break FRATE TRANE's brain that Cain was getting up that fast.

I was more impressed by his "conceding position standing to avoid bottom position and pop back up standing, negating the takedown" with a dramatic spin/hop, most BALLER-ish moment of that fight to me:

I'm told that on a successful Lesnar takedown, unlike Lesnar's complete lack of a guard, Velasquez actually used the butterfly guard to keep Lesnar's weight off of him, created space, kept his lower body from being controlled, and thus pushed Lesnar off.

By the way, in this GIF of the "yes" slam you'll actually see it was preceded by a pro wrestling-style monkey flip -- or, in less exaggerated form, the balloon sweep. Unfortunately for Paulo Thiago he overdid it to the point that he didn't back-roll into full mount, hence the scramble that led to the slam.

Now watch Lesnar SPIN.

[aerius]

I'm told that on a successful Lesnar takedown, unlike Lesnar's complete lack of a guard, Velasquez actually used the butterfly guard to keep Lesnar's weight off of him, created space, kept his lower body from being controlled, and thus pushed Lesnar off.

There were 2 things going on there, Brock never secured his position before trying to pass guard which then allowed Cain to use half-butterfly guard to create distance, push off, and scramble back to his feet. Brock got greedy and tried to pass to side control without locking down on Cain's upper body or even really getting his weight on him, he basically tried to jump position while barely having a hold of his leg. What Brock should've done was get his arms around the neck & shoulders to secure a grip and keep Cain from moving, then adjust his weight & balance to get a good half-guard and start working the ground & pound. It would actually be best to keep it in half-guard since it's easier for Cain to scramble out of side-control.

By the way, in this GIF of the "yes" slam you'll actually see it was preceded by a pro wrestling-style monkey flip -- or, in less exaggerated form, the balloon sweep. Unfortunately for Paulo Thiago he overdid it to the point that he didn't back-roll into full mount, hence the scramble that led to the slam.

Yeah, I saw that one, I wasn't sure if Thiago was going for the reversal or if he was trying anything he could throw Diego off so he could get back to his feet. I was trying to remember where I've seen it before, and when you mentioned pro-wrestling I was like yeah, that's where I've seen it like a million times.

[weemadando]

Everyone at BJJ was going nuts on Monday night. The balloon sweep from Paulo got a lot of talk and demonstrations of how to do it right. And Cain's takedown defence and scrambling were also well regarded.

Also:

WAR ROY NELSON!

@danawhite how is boston, so who do we got next for me @roynelsonmma ? Did you give shane the are u an fn fighter speech? Lol

[weemadando]

The biggest news of the sporting year:

UFC/WEC merger confirmed! HELLS YEAH! UFC now going down to bantamweight. Jose Aldo to defend the *UFC* Featherweight title at UFC125.

[weemadando]

Jean Charles Skarbowski Highlight reel. 1:30 for the most epic teep of all time.

[TheFeniX]

The biggest news of the sporting year:

UFC/WEC merger confirmed! HELLS YEAH! UFC now going down to bantamweight. Jose Aldo to defend the *UFC* Featherweight title at UFC125.

I think this was the first time White has ever promised an announcement that actually turned out to be worthwhile. A year ago, this would have worried the Hell out of me. There was a pretty shitty HW division right and a huge roster of other guys jockeying for title-contention. But, I also heard he's promising somewhere around 14 free UFC cards on VS next year as well. This would give a lot of up and comers a venue to fight in and still be considered a big promotion.

I have to say I'm pretty stoked. Out of any division in the UFC, only the LHW seems to be very stacked lately. Even after Machida took the title and everyone was talking about a new "era," I still had a pretty good feeling someone was going to get in his face and make him fold or knock him out. Contrast to the old Liddell (who was the last LHW champ to defend his title more than, what, twice?) who, when pressured, just knocked you out.

Right now we're looking at GSP vs Kos II which will be a 25 minute wrestling match, rather than the 15 minute one before it. Edgar is going to fight.... whoever the fuck, I don't care. And Anderson Silva is probably going to bore us with whatever can they find to put in front of him.

The lighter-weight guys scrap and I used to get my fill from watching BJ Penn massacre his competition, but I just can't stand watching Edgar win kick-boxing matches on points. That and I've got a Bellator backlog I need to go through.

[Edward Yee]

After Liddell, the last champs to defend their titles at all (with a W) were Rampage and Machida. In an interview Machida suggested that the LHW stackedness is because it's that "sweet spot" in terms of 'the best mix of power, speed, technique' compared to the other divisions.

WEC GM Reed Harris is sticking around even after WEC folds, as allegedly are all the backstage staff, and even ring girl Brittany Palmer.

Jose Aldo vs. Josh Grispi is the January 1st UFC featherweight title defense. Dominick Cruz vs. Urijah Faber for the final WEC bantamweight title defense, Ben Henderson vs. Anthony Pettis for the final WEC lightweight title defense, winner of that fights the winner of Edgar vs. Maynard to unify.

Apparently I was the only one to notice that this merger gave Zhang Tiequan a free "bye" into the UFC...

[weemadando]

OK, well more with the WEC/UFC merger stuff. It sounds like we'll be getting free events just about fortnightly between Spike and VS and monthly PPVs. With 7 titles in rotation then there's a much better chance for every PPV to have a title fight headlining.

Featherweight and Bantamweight TUF seasons are upcoming. Those are untouched pools of talent - which means that we get awesome fights on TUF and the traditional 5 can recover a bit between seasons instead of having to scrape for talent.

The Zhang stuff was noted on the Jordan Breen show pretty much immediately.

Lightweight is going to be a total bloodbath for the next 12 months. I just feel totally bummed out for George Sotiropoulos and J-Lau who are about to fight for what was going to be a number one contender slot. But who the fuck knows what's going to happen now. I guess I don't get to see George v Edgar/Maynard in Sydney for a title next February now...

Best matchmaking suggestions I've heard: Roy Nelson v the entire bantamweight division.

[weemadando]

I've heard that Jake Shields is going to be cageside for the GSP v Koscheck match so he can come in afterwards to build hype.

Two things.

1) Shields is an even worse trashtalker than GSP or Koscheck.

2) If Shields comes in and asks where his title shot is does that mean that we can have Greg Jackson and Phil Nurse jump him and beat the shit out of him?


Edit:

Roy Nelson news. He's been pulled from UFC125 for lack of opponent (and to make way for Jose Aldo). But in no particular order he has called out:

Cro-Cop
Big Nog
Overeem
The Undertaker

I can get behind any of these fights.

[weemadando]

Ahem.

Brock Lesnar vs Roy Nelson. Superbowl weekend.




...so it's a total rumour at this point, but both of them have publicly called out the other and you know that Dana isn't going to walk away from that. Unless he's worried about his cashcow getting KTFO by Big Country.

[Edward Yee]

How can he be worried about, Lesnar's already had MEXICAN FIGHTERISM~ inflicted on him.

[weemadando]

How can he be worried about, Lesnar's already had MEXICAN FIGHTERISM~ inflicted on him.

But at least that was designed to technically draw in the latino market. What's losing to Nelson going to achieve? Bringing in more fatty-nerd keyboard warriors? Who aren't going to pay for PPVs anyway?

[Edward Yee]

Good point there. Apparently the UFC'd rather get Lesnar vs. Mir III.

... wowzers.

[weemadando]

Good point there. Apparently the UFC'd rather get Lesnar vs. Mir III.

Good point there. Apparently the UFC'd rather get Lesnar vs. Mir III.

Apparently the UFC'd rather get Lesnar vs. Mir III.

Lesnar vs. Mir III

Roy Nelson has been tweeting up a storm about this. I love it. From reactions I've seen everywhere it sounds like no one wants to see Lesnar v Mir 3.

And yes, SRC15 was apparently the most amazing MMA event of the year. I will have to watch it.

[Edward Yee]

I wonder if Maximo "MAX Power" Blanco's beatings of Japanese are revenge for his university days?

And, if imported to America, whether his game would be hurt by the needed mental adjustments due to rule differences, like how you saw Wanderlei Silva disrupt his own offense after knocking down Bisping because he almost went for a soccer kick.

In another news, after getting his little Zombie Apocalypse headkicked into oblivion, Chan Sung Jung has vowed to leave "Zombie Style" behind him.

[weemadando]

Koscheck: "I don't associate with those sort of guys..." What, black guys?

[weemadando]

Whoever the editor is for this season of TUF is a goddamn genius. Cutting straight from the tap to "I guess I need to work on my guillotine defense."

Champagne comedy.

[TheFeniX]

Yea, that little blurb was comedy gold. Sucks for the guys who fought their hearts out, lost, then got passed over for the wildcard because "Well, this guy got his ass kicked, but he's still a better fighter than you." I love the weight-cut excuse as well.

Once again, Koscheck proves to be a parody of himself. He starts all the shit-talking, keeps up the constant ribbing of team GSP, then someone calls him out on his oscar-award winning performance in the Octagon against A. Johnson and he almost immediately shuts-up and becomes violent. The parody starts afterward when he claims GSP brought this guy in specifically to start shit and rib Kos constantly to provoke a reaction. That Kos claims this "male nurse" started the little spat and that it got to him so fast really shows how fucked up his world-view is.

Later, during the fight picks, he throws a fit because he thinks GSP is feeding Bruce Leeroy to MJ to ensure his top-pick gets into the finals. Now, this isn't a bad thing in of itself. No coach should want any serious fighter sent to the axe. But Kos's entire motivation for his hissy-fit is that Alex isn't getting fed to one of his fighters. He has no problem with Alex being a sacrificial lamb as long as he gets the benefit of it. And his little camera crying session afterward had me laughing hard.

What sucks is we really don't even need GSP here for any of this comedy. Someone should just dig up one of those full-sized carboard cut-outs of GSP and stick it in front of the camera for reaction shots. Hell, Koscheck would probably just try and lay on it for 15 minutes anyways.

[weemadando]

I've got to say, I'm really pumped for all of those quarter final fights. There are some great match-ups there.

As I said in the comments over on this link: "Goddamn you for making me hate Koscheck less."

But it's OK, because everyone still hates Koscheck. Cracked hates Koscheck especially effectively. So does the whole of Jackson's MMA.

But it's OK. Because the internet also hates him:

[Edward Yee]

What the "unaired footage" didn't show is apparently Sevak actually starting the shit-talk with Tate first that led to Tate mocking Sevak/Sako's accents. (According to Kyle Watson, he eventually found out that Tate is an actual medic... tied to Jackson's MMA, so he may not have been brought in entirely to shit-talk on GSP's behalf.) From the official recap:

Personally, I say that since Marc has such trouble escaping the guillotine and is now done making weight, "let him eat cake."

[weemadando]

What the "unaired footage" didn't show is apparently Sevak actually starting the shit-talk with Tate first that led to Tate mocking Sevak/Sako's accents. (According to Kyle Watson, he eventually found out that Tate is an actual medic... tied to Jackson's MMA, so he may not have been brought in entirely to shit-talk on GSP's behalf.) From the official recap:

Personally, I say that since Marc has such trouble escaping the guillotine and is now done making weight, "let him eat cake."

That's a damn good line.

As for Tate, he is indeed the staff medic at Jackson's.