Mma Thread

Well, it looks like the old thread popped positive for steroids. At least that's my guess--it was looking pretty big, wasn't it? In case it doesn't turn up, here's a place to get down to business and talk about UFC 80.

I had been really looking forward to Gonzaga v. Werdum. I thought that this would be a chance to see a BJJ clinic, with Werdum's more technical approach against Gonzaga's power. I guess that I was surprised to see Gonzaga give up the initiative and gas so early. Maybe it's just a case of selective memory, but it seems to me that conditioning has been a real problem for a lot of the Brazilian fighters transitioning to the UFC. Gonzaga has been around for a while now--he should know better. I just didn't think that the fight would end with Gonzaga turtled up while Werdum beat him like a dog.

Penn looked fantastic. To Stevenson's credit, he fought a hard fight but BJ was really on. That cut that he opened on Stevenson's head looked brutal, but I think that Stevenson registered more damage from the standing exchanges. And BJ looked so fluid and strong on the ground. I can't wait to dig up the fight on YouTube and watch it again. I suppose we should've expected the WWE-style confrontation with Sherk after the fight (who looked like he borrowed a dress shirt from Joe Rogan for the occasion), but I thought that it seemed pretty hokey. I don't expect Sherk v. Penn to be an exciting fight, but I'll put a circle around May on my calendar anyway. Depending on how things break, maybe we'll see BJ fight three times in 2008?

There were other good fights too, but dinner isn't going to cook itself.

Kelly and Taylor came out banging. Taylor has a strong standup--he throws punches like a boxer (I think that he had some pro fights before getting into MMA). Unfortunately for Taylor, his ground game was shaky. He kept trying to get an arm from Kelly, but he didn't have any control over Kelly's body. In the end, Kelly kept him down and beat on him enough to get the decision.

I could hardly believe the way the blood was pumping out of him. There was so much that it almost looked fake. BJ licking his gloves turned me off a little.

I've been seeing a lot of comments about Penn gassing, so I thought that I'd bring this up. Do you really think that he looked that exhausted? It didn't occur to me at the time at all. I just thought that he had a serious post fight adrenaline crash. I mean, I wouldn't say that Stevenson was emotionally unstable because he was crying after the fight--I just think that the end of something so intense hits different people in different ways. It could be that Penn was tired, but he didn't show anything like that in the ring. For better or for worse, BJ is going to always carry the burden of being "The Prodigy," but he's also going to be always rememberd for undertraining too. No matter how well he performs, the suspicion of poor conditioning is always going to be there.

I think that he has a "Fight Night" match against Joe Lauzon coming up. I saw April 2 somewhere on Sherdog, but I can't find it now.

This is my nightmare scenario. Three rounds of Mir splayed out under Lesnar's massive bulk, broken by shots of Mir panting on his stool in the corner and Lesnar blinking like an angry bull.

I'd like to see somebody really deliver a beating to Lesnar. Obviously there are a number of pro wrestling crossovers in MMA, but at this stage of the game, it would be nice to see the UFC avoid the carnival sideshow thing. If only we could count on Mir to come across with the goods.

C'mon IML81--don't get your singlet in a twist. It's not that I don't like Pro Wrestling. Hell, truth be told, I'm wearing boots and a mask right now myself. And if Sakuraba would pull up in front of UFC HQ in Las Vegas with a busload of young Japanese wrestlers trained by a reanimated Karl Gotch, I'd be the happiest guy in the world. It isn't like Lesnar's wrestling background is a secret either--even the guys who frequent the MMA boards at other sites have had somebody type in some stuff about that for them.

Sure, I think that the heavyweight division could use a jolt. I'm just not that excited about watching a gargantuan, steroid-inflated guy get OJT while I'm shelling out 40 bucks a pop. And I would be happy to have UFC keep the sideshow crap to a minimum. What's next after Lesnar? Bas Rutten cornering some giant Mongol while wearing a turban and sunglasses? A washed up sumo rikishi fighting a washed up pro lineman? Dana feuding with his daughter? UFC has already dipped its toes in those waters before, and I'd like to see it take a more sober, legit route. Like boxing.

Yeah, I think that another loss is exactly what Mir doesn't need. If he loses to Lesnar in a protracted, boring fight, people will begin to wonder if he was ever really Heavyweight Champion at all. It'll seem like it was just some kind of vaguely remebered crossover from Earth Two. Or like the bearded Spock.

Changing the subject, did anybody see Fight Quest on Friday? Boxing in Mexico City? Although there were no secret rituals or hidden training camps revealed, it was another excellent episode. From training (again, they were split--Jimmy in the city and Doug up in the mountains) to the fights, the show was great. The only thing that would have made the experience more authentic was to have somebody throwing 16 oz plastic cups of piss at me from the balcony.

I think that the next episode is going to be Silat--hopefully it will be just as intense as the Kali training.

Here I was, kidding around about MMA and pro wrestling today and then I hear something like this. You just gotta wonder. Is Mir the biggest slacker of all time? Or is the fight worked? Thanks for the tip, HR--I'll save my bet after all.

I had to work late tonight and missed the fights. Why does that only happen when they're free?

Later, I sat down to watch TV for a little while and came across a documentary on the National Geographic Channel about the Dog Brothers. It was called "Fight Club: No Limits." The show focused on a "Gathering of the Pack" and showed how people set up fights--knife, stick, etc.

If you're interested in this kind of thing, it's worth a look. For my money, there was a little too much analysis by sociologists and sociobiologists about "man's violent nature." What's wrong with just liking to do something? But that's a small complaint--it was a fun program overall.