The MMA thread (mk1)

[Edward Yee]

Ooomph... whoops. Yeah, misreading posts. I'm over on BE as well, best community out of all of them in my opinion.

[weemadando]

BE are way too stuck up for my liking. Sherdog is still my no.1, but I love Cage Potato for the sheer trollishness.

[Edward Yee]

Ironic as those very traits are why I tend to stick to BE over them both.

Daley has since apologized, though admitting that it's way too late to save his job. Also, in funny news, supposedly Chieck Kongo is too injured to fight Roy Nelson, and Dana White doesn't want to have to "tarnish" either of his young heavyweight stars Cain Velasquez or Junior dos Santos, so... cue JDS vs. Big Country.

[weemadando]

From Miguel Torres' twitter (courtesy of BEs regular MMA tweet review).


"New Mr. T or Old Mr. T, who wins in a fight? Im goin wit the old school cause he is a night elf mohawk." -Miguel Torres, referenced this commercial.

"Airport security asks what kind of mouth wash is in this bottle. I say the tequila kind. He says what. I say its ok, I'm Mexican." -Miguel Torres

"In the airport restroom, I was washing my hands and speaking to myself loudly in the mirror. There was 7 other people in the room. A man asked why was I talking to myself in the mirror. I say I wanted to talk to the only other intellegent person in the room." -Miguel Torres

"Kid asks me, why are you so great? I say, if I'm so great give me 20 dollars. Kid says hell no. I say I aint that great." -Miguel Torres

[weemadando]

Let this be a lesson to you. Don't mess with blind Brazilian kids.


Now. Strikeforce Heavy Artillery.

Overeem needs to face Fedor. If Fedor ducks him can he really keep his no.1 mantle? Overeem didn't even look concerned about Rogers and straight smashed him. Fedor got busted up badly and took a full round more to finish him. True, it was in classic Fedor "Destroy my hand to kill my enemy" wild swinging crazy style, but the fact remains that Overeem looks like a genuine force once more. In fact, I'm tempted to agree with Schiavello and Rogan (tell me that you all watched that special) that Overeem v Brock is a more interesting match.

Arlovski is done. Yeah, that pretty much says that. He landed a jab. Three rounds. A jab. At least his protective beard prevented complete embarrassment though.

Jacare needs cardio. He dominated the opening round and then fell apart. Not to say he wasn't still winning rounds, but that kind of drop in pace will lead to you getting destroyed against serious competition.

[aerius]

Not quite sold on Overeem yet, Rogers was scared shitless and backing up from the very start of the fight, in the fight against Fedor he actually came out aggressively and tried to take the fight to Fedor. Rogers was beaten before he even stepped in the cage with Overeem, and it showed. Besides, everyone knows that if you put Overeem on his back he's helpless, Shogun ruined him twice after putting him on his back.

Arlovski got his soul stolen by Fedor and Rogers, it looked like his 3rd fight with Timmy, but worse, couldn't get a punch to land, looked slow & scared, he just wasn't in it. He should've just pulled a Wandy in the 3rd round and unloaded with everything he had, at least he would've had a chance at winning.

The Roger Gracie fight was just sad, Gracies just can't punch for beans and he was lucky that Randleman was so over the hill that it's not even funny.

[weemadando]

It was a really disappointing card overall and I think that Strikeforce is not going to be at this level for much longer - Coker confirmed that they haven't even talked to CBS since the brawl (make of that what you will). But it sounds like they might be losing Fedor (too much chance of him actually having to face someone who might beat him). They have lost Jake Shields - and so there goes a champion who just made a mockery of their biggest acquisition of late. And their production values are awful.

Meanwhile Bellator has been going to town, putting on shows weekly with decent cards and really good production values and suddenly Strikeforce is saying "We're open to the idea of co-promoting with them".

[Edward Yee]

Hey, Bellator's business model is probably more attractive than Strikeforce's for fighters at this point, especially prospects: "Have exciting fights and/or great finishes and we give you instant Internet fame!"

Oh, if anyone cares about the whole collapse of Shine Fights 3, which had been supposed to be headlined by Din Thomas vs. Ricardo Mayorga until Don King got a last-minute injunction (so that Shine would have no time to appeal) and was then outright canceled by the North Carolina Boxing Authority after fans had been seated...

According to the superintended of the NCBA, Shine Fights did not provide a doctor for pre-fight examining (as required by the state authority), and had not provided to the NCBA enough money to cover all the contracted fights, to guarantee that the fighters would be paid; the deadline had been two hours before the first fight of the night; depending on their contractual obligations fighters will be fully or partially paid, and the matchmaker has now resigned.

EDIT: Part of the reason I don't quite like CagePotato -- sometimes hilarious articles, but the comments section wouldn't be as dumb over at BE, and would have received this advice to MMA managers more positively. (The writer worked with Ranger Up, but also has written three books on MMA, two of which are associated with Greg Jackson's MMA.)

[weemadando]

Also the fact that if you are a lower level guy on Strikeforce you will never EVER get featured. Showtime's broadcast model is based on boxing and just DOES NOT allow for them to broadcast prelims even when they have ample time to spare. Because of course, MMA must be just like boxing wehre prelims are there for the local crowd only, and indeed they've even gone so far as to subcontract prelim bookings to local groups to feature local guys, rather than using them to build talent or try and create exciting content for filler or future broadcast. So they just spend time with Gus Johnson being useless in front of camera or Frank Shamrock doing more jits-baiting.

Meanwhile Bellator features prelims, builds big narratives for their fights and gives fighters a great platform.

*edit* And Bloody Elbow just put up a massive dissection of this fact

[weemadando]

Oh jesus. I'm quivering in anticipation - I just realised that this weekend is Moosin! Tim Sylvia v Pudzianowski. Hilarity will ensue.

[Edward Yee]

To paraphrase WWE's Chris Jericho on an episode of their Tuesday night show NXT:

"Talk about Tim Kennedy!"

"We are..."

"MORE!"

Seriously, he's the most glaring example of Strikeforce's lack of dropping the ball on promoting a should-be star. They've already "let" him headline a Challengers show and he came through (decisive finish by north-south choke after a lot of ground and pound). If I recall, his current billet/MOS in the Texas National Guard doesn't even require him to deploy, so that (unlike his time overseas when he was active duty) shouldn't be a reason for Strikeforce to miss the boat...

[weemadando]

You need both at once.

[Edward Yee]

Georges Saint-Pierre vs. former Montreal Canadiens enforcer Georges Laraque in grappling... Georges wins.

[weemadando]

That was great. During the first round in the initial feeling out I was just watching GSP baiting and watching and setting up that right leg single leg. Had he been that obvious in a MMA match I have to imagine he would have copped a knee on the shot.

[Koolaidkirby]

That was great. During the first round in the initial feeling out I was just watching GSP baiting and watching and setting up that right leg single leg. Had he been that obvious in a MMA match I have to imagine he would have copped a knee on the shot.

it was wrestling, theres a lot of things you can do differently due to the fact that theres no striking

[Edward Yee]

That's true; GSP has admitted that the extent of the difference is why he changed his mind about trying out for the 2012 Olympics.

[weemadando]

That was great. During the first round in the initial feeling out I was just watching GSP baiting and watching and setting up that right leg single leg. Had he been that obvious in a MMA match I have to imagine he would have copped a knee on the shot.

it was wrestling, theres a lot of things you can do differently due to the fact that theres no striking

And also due to the fact that his opponent had NO FUCKING CLUE what was going on. GSP was being very, very easy going about it all for his stuff to be that telegraphed.

[aerius]

Freak show fights live! Tim Sylvia, looking fatter than ever somehow managed to get Mariusz Pudzianowski in what looked like the crucifix and submitted him with strikes. Mariusz flopped on his back early in the 2nd and from there Timmy got side control and beat his face in till he tapped. I couldn't tell from the angle, but Timmy might've had him in the crucifix.

[Edward Yee]

Pudzianowski blamed the tapping out on his conditioning, though recognizing that he was done and deciding not to continue... well, that's not an attitude that'd have gotten him to the top.

A shame that this is overshadowing Roxanne Modafferi vs. Tara LaRosa.

JDS vs. Nelson, BABY! Personally I'd have been more interested in someone who could really press JDS at the wrestling department, as Nelson's two main things going for him -- ground grappling and hands of doom -- are already shared by Junior. Unfortunately, pretty much the only candidate would have been Cain Velasquez or Shane Carwin.

[weemadando]

Not sure if anyone is aware of it, but Middle Easy just jumped to the top of my list of MMA websites.

It's like someone crossbred Cage Potato and Cracked. In a good way.

[Edward Yee]

Oh, I've been there, and it's a fun place to be... reminds me of Seanbaby, without CP's trolling. Recently there was a CP post about Hire Heroes USA because it's headed by UFC LHW Brian Stann, but the comments devolved into another argument over the military (kicked off by one who considers the troops themselves a drain on society... there's no way I actually believe him when he claims to wish the best for them just to get them to stop being "guns for hire" on the public dime*), which eventually became more of the same. It's nothing like BE for sheer wealth of learning about technique, but for sheer light-hearted fun I like Middle Easy (not familiar with any of their regulars).

Oh, and thank you Bellator XIV for Wilson Reis' half-guard power. Seriously. (Disclaimer: Apparently Reis has cross-trained the wrestling enough to be able to take down the collegiate-trained Shad Lierley in the first place.)

Also, watch Roxanne Modafferi's reaction to her opponent's intro taking so long. (Seriously though, good fight, or greatest fight?)

* I don't have sympathy for what might be called the "anti-troops" position (as distinctly separate from "anti-war") thanks to Stuart's The Salvation War.

[weemadando]

I don't even bother reading comments on MMA sites. It's like reading YouTube comments. I go to CP for things like Gus Johnson flipping out on them.

[Edward Yee]

I don't even bother reading comments on MMA sites. It's like reading YouTube comments. I go to CP for things like Gus Johnson flipping out on them.

Whereas for me BE's Judo Chops are the best place to go for technique; shit, some of my learning about technique (particularly BJJ) has been through comments on BE, and when writing about Wilson Reis' half-guard one of the writers/mods just had a BJJ-practicing commenter explain that half-guard.

[weemadando]

BREAKING NEWS (not really). Tito officially and whining bitch.

First the injury news. Sure, I'll accept that. But he does always seem to have an injury to fall back on.

Second. The soccer kick right in the goddamn face. That wasn't on the chest. That was a shin straight to the jaw. And really, it would have been the best fight in TUF history if everyone had just jumped right in.

[weemadando]

Also, 9 month suspensions all around for the Strikeforce brawl. Beautiful. That's as good an outcome we could hope for.

Except of course that Nick Diaz doesn't give a shit as he's fighting in Japan who flip the bird at anyone who even mentions commissions, Jake Shields is sidelined for at least that long with contract bullshit about to come to a head, so it'll be Gilbert, Nate and Mayhem who are probably worst affected by this. I wonder what the UFC will do if they have to sideline Nate for that long?