The MMA thread (mk1)

[weemadando]

Yeah, it's not like any of those fights (short of Scott Smith landing a hail mary punch) had any chance of going either way. I guess Scott Coker doesn't want to risk anything after having Shields, Jacare and Calvacante kill his stars.

[Edward Yee]

Yeah, it's not like any of those fights (short of Scott Smith landing a hail mary punch) had any chance of going either way. I guess Scott Coker doesn't want to risk anything after having Shields, Jacare and Calvacante kill his stars.

Whose star did Jacare kill off? Shields is obvious, and I think by Calvacante you mean King Mo.

Mindja, Smith did have that real hail-mary chance... maybe Rich Chou picked Paul Daley on the idea that Smith could pull a Koscheck? As for Lawler... what do Belfort, Lawler, and the last guy to wreck Lindland at MW all have in common? (To rip off BE, "it rhymes with 'mouth saw'.")

As for the KOs... did you not see Garza vs. Paixao? Mazzagatti did the right thing for once and hurled himself into the victor to save the unconscious from further damage.

[weemadando]

Haven't seen any of the fights, except some KOs in gif form, but listened to the Beatdown After The Bell.

I have to say that judges need to be cleared out. All the changes in rules and criteria won't help because it's the fucking judges who are getting it wrong. I'm yet to see a fight that the 10pt Must system couldn't score correctly if the judges just fucking paid attention.

Anyhow - back on the Strikeforce getting boned this year. This card might have slightly made up for it, but Cage Potato is still dead on teh money with this piece: Scott Coker Probably Can't F*cking Wait for 2010 to Be Over.

[weemadando]

I just saw this in the comments on BE. It says it all.



Also, another great bit of MMA wiki vandalism:

[Edward Yee]

And now you have Garcia claiming that after a rewatching, he thinks he won...

[weemadando]

And Keith Kizer saying that there's no problem with judging in MMA.

Though at least in that interview he also put the smack down on Joe Rogan and Dana for blaming NSAC for everything while they happily employ these so-called "problem judges" when they run their events in non AC states/countries.

[aerius]

Though at least in that interview he also put the smack down on Joe Rogan and Dana for blaming NSAC for everything while they happily employ these so-called "problem judges" when they run their events in non AC states/countries.

That's the part I can't figure out at all. How the fuck does Cecil Peoples get to be a judge when the UFC is doing events in Canada, the UK, and Europe? How the hell does that happen? Is there some unwritten rule which states that the blind retard must be one of the judges for every MMA event or something? Someone tell me how the fuck that works.

[weemadando]

How the fuck are they flying up Tony Weekly to judge GSP v Kos when he just made that shitfest of a call on Saturday?

Because Dana likes to have a reason to say: "Don't leave it in the hands of the judges". Because KOs make the UFC more money, because people tune in for that shit.

[aerius]

And I bet Mazzagatti will be the ref too. On the bright side he might let GSP get a few extra shots in on an unconscious Kos or snap his arm in half. Or choke him out till he flops & twitches like Leben did.

[weemadando]

Are you kidding? Mazzagatti has been in form lately. Just look at his body check hit on a guy from the TUF finale.

[Edward Yee]

A fascinating discussion on another angle to the judging-in-MMA problem: How many of these so-called "better judges" (among the fans) are willing to actually become judges?

(Disclaimer: Luke Thomas was color commentator for Ultimate Warrior Challenge and was there during the infamous UWC 7 bantamweight title fight between Mike Easton and Chase Beebe. Here's the story of one guy's attempt to get licensed as a judge after that fight.)

Oh, speaking of the UFC selling KOs... one BE commenter's Fanpost suggests that the risks associated with being cut from the UFC, as well as the financial difference between winning and losing -- are only going to make the "Ultimate Staring Championship" phenomenon worse... until the UFC starts cutting guys who're unexciting but win.

[weemadando]

Well I'm in the process of getting my paperwork together to get my judge/cornerman/matchmaker license for Vic. So that's something at least. Even though it's still almost entirely controlled by boxing down here.

[weemadando]

Some of the day's MMA news:

Sakuraba to commit ritual suicide in the ring on New Years

[Edward Yee]

Josh Koscheck prepared for this fight mentally and physically for months. When it is all said and done, he'll have nothing but memories and a badly swollen eye to show for it.

Also, if Joe Rogan didn't already lower his respectability with the Tomas Rios incident, now there's him denigrating the doctor check-up of Koscheck's eye, which I'm told deserved a doctor stoppage as far back as round 3... and Koscheck apparently throwing a kick from nine feet away.

[aerius]

http://img94.imageshack.us/img94/1416/f ... spcopy.jpg

Fitch on the left, Koscheck on the right, I don't think a stoppage was justified. It wasn't until the 5th round that Kos started bleeding out of his eye area. Joe Rogan going "not even the judges can screw this one up" at the end of the fight was pure comedy gold.

[Edward Yee]

Doesn't matter if there's no visible external bleeding, it's all about whether or not Koscheck can even see out of that eye.

[Norade]

You'd think Koschek would learn to move out of the way of at least some of those jabs. I mean fuck, GSP landed nearly everything he threw all match and KOS never even came close to landing anything solid even when he could still see.

[aerius]

Doesn't matter if there's no visible external bleeding, it's all about whether or not Koscheck can even see out of that eye.

I don't think the doc or Koscheck would've made it out of the Bell Centre alive if he stopped the fight in the 3rd. Besides, Kos wanted to fight on and it gave us 2 more rounds of Kos getting his face punched in. Everyone is a winner when that douchebag gets his head used as a punching bag.

You'd think Koschek would learn to move out of the way of at least some of those jabs. I mean fuck, GSP landed nearly everything he threw all match and KOS never even came close to landing anything solid even when he could still see.

The problem for Kos is that GSP's striking is just too good. No other welterweight controls range & timing as well as GSP and it's not something that can be learned overnight, it takes many years of training to get that good. Combine that with his speed and athleticism and it would be a small miracle if Kos did manage to land something solid. This is what happens when you put a basic to intermediate level striker up against an expert, he gets tooled every time.

[Norade]

You'd think Koschek would learn to move out of the way of at least some of those jabs. I mean fuck, GSP landed nearly everything he threw all match and KOS never even came close to landing anything solid even when he could still see.

The problem for Kos is that GSP's striking is just too good. No other welterweight controls range & timing as well as GSP and it's not something that can be learned overnight, it takes many years of training to get that good. Combine that with his speed and athleticism and it would be a small miracle if Kos did manage to land something solid. This is what happens when you put a basic to intermediate level striker up against an expert, he gets tooled every time.

I don't doubt that most of that was GSP just being dominate as usual, but I didn't expect it to look so effortless. I'd be curious to see the strike numbers and percentages for that fight because GSP seemed well above 75% in landing his shots.

[weemadando]

Soooo. Yeah.

Shields is meant to have a chance how?

Who is pumped for that fight? Anyone? Anyone at all?


However, the hints that GSP has been dropping about the middleweight move... SQUUUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE.

[aerius]

In even better news, Koscheck got his face broken, GSP really did punch his face in.

Soooo. Yeah.
Shields is meant to have a chance how?
Who is pumped for that fight? Anyone? Anyone at all?

Remember the total beating that Shields took in the first round against Hendo? I can't wait to see Shields get beaten that way until he's either TKO'd or the towel's thrown in. It'll be another fight where GSP gets to showcase his standup and that's always fun to watch. Besides, Shields can always try the flying scissor heel hook.


In the other fights, the mount to triangle transition by Bocek was pretty sweet. He got mount then noticed McLovin's arm was trapped in his legs and quickly rolled him over to lock in the triangle.

[Edward Yee]

I don't doubt that most of that was GSP just being dominate as usual, but I didn't expect it to look so effortless. I'd be curious to see the strike numbers and percentages for that fight because GSP seemed well above 75% in landing his shots.

FightMetric's report is already out

TOTAL STRIKES
* St-Pierre: 136
* Koscheck: 30
SIGNIFICANT STRIKES
* St-Pierre: 110
* Koscheck: 16

They were almost even in credited connecting body strikes (Koscheck 12 to GSP's 11), and GSP had worse-than-usual TD success (albeit FightMetric apparently counts every individual yank, tug or pull as a TD attempt -- hence why Sanchez went 0-for-27 against Penn), but in all other categories it was beyond lopsided, with GSP having ~80% of the offensive output. Effectiveness Scores were 357 GSP to 95 Koscheck.

EDIT: Here's GSP's UFC 124 entrance music.

[weemadando]

In the other fights, the mount to triangle transition by Bocek was pretty sweet. He got mount then noticed McLovin's arm was trapped in his legs and quickly rolled him over to lock in the triangle.

The best statement I heard about htat fight was from Tomas Rios: "Fundamentals wins over being able to bend your leg over your opponents head any day."

Which is true. Turns out that having a really flashy BJJ game is pretty much redundant when your opponent has rock solid fundamentals and can shut you down and then grind into a fantastically tight triangle.

[weemadando]

OK, so some fun news.

I'm getting involved with a local promotion down in Tassie. I'm still in negotiations, but I approached them about getting some judging experience (as Tasmania has no Boxing/Athletics/Combat Sports commission so I can hop straight in) as I want to get my Judge, Corner and Matchmaker licences in Vic, but they like you to have some experience before they grant them.

Anyhow - it looks like I'll be a judge for a card of theirs early next year. I'm keen to see how the experience is.

At any rate, I'm sure I'll be better than Cecil Peoples.

[TheFeniX]

Anyhow - it looks like I'll be a judge for a card of theirs early next year. I'm keen to see how the experience is.

From what I heard, it's pretty rough. There's no slow-mo replays like Fight-Metric uses to ensure all the hits are scored correctly. You don't have 6 camera men and a director ensuring the best possible view at all times. Depending on where your sitting, you may not even see half the strikes thrown.

This seems to be why a lot of judging seems to come down to who is backing up more, even if the other guy is just bull-dogging and throwing wild, ineffective strikes while moving forward. Basically, if you smile a lot when you get hit, put your arms up and make a "hit me" motion, and/or just swing your arms really hard at empty air: you can eek out decision wins.

At any rate, I'm sure I'll be better than Cecil Peoples.

You could be the first judge to score a 10-10 round, or even a 9-9 in the event neither of the fighters did anything. But you might have to fall on your sword for that one, and that's not a great way to start a career.

At any rate, you'd think Koscheck would have learned at some point to quit dropping his right hand. Every time he even thought about dropping it, there was already a jab in his face. I was hoping the fight would be more competitive, but I had a good idea all of Josh's talk about improving his game was bullshit.

The rest of the fight-card was pretty damn good.