MMA Thread (UFC, Pride, K-1, etc) - Page 64

The Edgar Maynard thing is a bigger bummer for me. They lit 2011 on fire last time they met and now we have to wait even longer for the rematch, let alone clearing the air at the top of the 155 division.

Indeed. The UFC Bookers could make it up to the fans by booking Pettis-Henderson 2 in it's place. I wanna more flying Matrix kicks please :)

So, the rumored Fedor vs Henderson superfight is true. Scheduled for a July 30th Strikeforce event at a catchweight of 220lbs. I'm super excited about this fight, as a big fan of Fedor and Dan Henderson it could be a great matchup.

In the two main fights tonight I've got Big Country taking out Frank Mir, and Rampage beating Hamill by decision.

HUGE news that I missed a couple days ago. The matchup a lot of people wanted to see next for GSP has been made for UFC 137. George St. Pierre vs Nick Diaz, for the UFC Welterweight Title. To me, this is the last fight GSP has at Welterweight. There's really nobody else out there for him. I mean, yeah, he could keep fighting against lesser opponents and beat them all. Solidifying his status as the greatest Welterweight fighter ever.

I'd make GSP a strong favourite in that one.

He's gonna make Diaz look like a nobody.

Oh I dont doubt this at all. Diaz is good, dont get me wrong...but GSP is just levels above him. It should be a great fight to watch though.

I hope GSP trains specifically for the moments when Diaz likes to drop his hands, stick his chin out and taunt. He could use that moment as a glorified Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!! exploit and send the audience into a frenzy.

There's no quit in Shane Carwin.

I loved the Einimo vs Peewee Herman fight, with Peewee grinning like a loon and Einemo looking like the scariest Scandanavian since the vikings. The techniques weren't the sharpest but the sheer power and size made it seem like a genuine battle between titans.

Maia against Munoz was a fun tussle too, again with some less than perfect standup techniques but some great chess on the ground. Whichever judge scored it 30-27 to Munoz needs his marching orders though. There's no debating the fact that Maia at least won the first round.

Barnett looked decent in doing what he was supposed to do in dispatching a no-talent Rodgers.

Werdum showed every reason why he was cut from the UFC in the first place, and I saw no evidence to believe the BS that Overeem is the best HW striker in MMA.  It's kind of odd to realize that a discipline dedicated to grappling, BJJ, seeming does no training in how to actually get the fight there in the first place.  What's more annoying than watching a wrestler take a guy down and lay on top?  Watching a BJJ guy flop on his back an beg the attacker to climb on top.

Cormier looked to have some talent, could be interesting if he develops and continues to improve.  Masvidal looked legitimately good, definitely interested in seeing him some more, just dominated Noons.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kernel 

 and I saw no evidence to believe the BS that Overeem is the best HW striker in MMA.

Truer words never written...shame, since if he'd have won in style, a fight with the winner of Cain-Santos could have been a money maker down the road.
 

All that after a 4 month training camp for Overeem. Training what? The fight looked like a Benny Hill Sketch...his tits are big enough.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kernel 

Barnett looked decent in doing what he was supposed to do in dispatching a no-talent Rodgers.

 

Werdum showed every reason why he was cut from the UFC in the first place, and I saw no evidence to believe the BS that Overeem is the best HW striker in MMA.  It's kind of odd to realize that a discipline dedicated to grappling, BJJ, seeming does no training in how to actually get the fight there in the first place.  What's more annoying than watching a wrestler take a guy down and lay on top?  Watching a BJJ guy flop on his back an beg the attacker to climb on top.

 

Cormier looked to have some talent, could be interesting if he develops and continues to improve.  Masvidal looked legitimately good, definitely interested in seeing him some more, just dominated Noons.

Takedowns are part of BJJ too, they've just proved less effective when fighting MMA rules than wrestling/rugby takedowns so we see less of them. Werdum fought a very smart fight, playing unpredictable and keeping Overeem off his timing for pretty much the full 15 minutes. Why Overeem didn't just kick the shit out of Werdum's legs when Werdum was on his back is a mystery to me though. You're a K-1 level kickboxer so why not do some risk-free damage when the other guy puts his legs there for you to smash? Overeem needs to impress like crazy against Bigfoot or he's going to be tagged Alistair Overrated.

Watching Barnett work was entertaining enough but in a card stacked with heavies Masvidal vs Noons was by far the best fight of the night. Those boys proved once again why the little guys are the best to watch in this game.

So, Dana cut Nate Marquardt from the UFC completely for some reason. Steroids, maybe?

Whatever the reason, the reaction to fire him, when compared to what others have pulled, seems strangely knee-jerk.

I love Lauzon. I love Meathead. I love 5 hours of free fights.

Holy Lord.

I love this game!

If 132 has anything even half as amazing as what Kongo did I'll be happy.

Njokuani's muay thai dominating Andre Winner's boxing was entertaining enough for a while but I'm at a point now where a 15 minute MMA fight with zero ground game feels wrong to me.

Yeah that totally sucks! I was hoping to see him come back really strong. Too bad. He's just had too many big battles and cant hold up anymore.

I don't think old and worn out comes into it when it's a 27 second fight. It was a simple case of living by the sword and dying by it. When you haul in there paying no heed to defence it's death or glory.

Apart from that minor bummer though, what a fucking great night of fights. Five first round finishes, including Condit's meeeeeeeeeean flying knee and Tito storming back into relevance, and then in the main event the most fun five rounds since Gray and Frankie threw down at the start of the year.

Worth every penny.

Yeah, that is how Wanderlei has always fought. Usually it works out pretty well for him.

It's just getting easier and easier to knock Wanderlei out. When someone hits him with a good shot, it's instant coma.

Dana said he's probably done in the UFC. It's sad, he was one of my favorites.

But he had a good run!

You guys might be right but all three of his ko losses in the last four years have been to guys with super heavy hands. Hendo, Rampage and Leben. That's what happens when those guys land one on you, no matter how fresh you are. In the same four years he's survived battles with Chuck, Rich Franklin and Michael Bisping, all guys with better than 50% ko counts in their win column.

Maybe I'm in denial about one of the greats and Dana's probably right that the time is now but I doubt Wanderlei wants his last fight to be a 27 second ko loss.

I'm sure Wanderlei will have atleast one more fight before he's done. He's a legend, he deserves to go out with a win.

I listened to what Dana said and it sounds like another Chuck situation. So I'm guessing if Wanderlei pushes hard enough for another fight, he'll probably get one. But if he gets knocked out again, that's probably it.

Great main event, but shame about Cruz winning. It would have been great box office to see Cruz chase champ Faber over the next 12 months leading to a rematch. And a win would have made Faber into a legit superstar.

I'm really puzzled as to why Cruz is so seemingly unpopular.  The guy is so fun to watch.  Faber comes across as a cool guy &  is entertaining too, but it just turned me off that people were actively booing Cruz.  I guess I find it hard to get behind thatlevel of disrespect/hate in combat sports which really shouldn't be as tribal as team sports.

Overeem is out of the HW Strikeforce tourney.

Jones/Rampage staredown

http://i.imgur.com/LoSHf.gif

Reposting the news about Overeem since that link posted requires you to sign up for the site.

http://mmajunkie.com/news/24460/overeem-yanked-from-strikeforce-grand-prix-cormier-to-fill-in-against-bigfoot.mma

Am I the only one who sees the irony in the fact that "Bigfoot" is no longer able to fight Overeem due to "little toe"?

No, I also found that ironic!

Nothing against Henderson, but was hoping Fedor would pull through. Sport is more interesting with him as a force. Great round though.

I fucking love Hendo. He's 40 years old - 6 years older than Fedor - and a blown up middleweight and yet he does that to the man who once put fear into even the devil's heart.

I hope Fedor drops to 205 and finds a new camp to train with though. Dan is proving if you look after yourself you can have a longer career but Fedor just can't hang with guys who're taking the sport on in a much more professional manner these days.

Yeah, Tito and Rashad aren't the guys I think of when it comes to highlights reels, but there's a nice amount of drama to that match-up at least, what with the stalling of Rashad's career for so long and the resurgence of Tito's after that win against Darth Bader.

And I can't look at a card with Rory MacDonald, Vitor Belfort, Bryan Ebersole, Nam Phan and Jorge Rivera on it and expect it to suck. Rory is hugely impressive - remember him dominating Carlos Condit, who's a total badass himself, for about 12 minutes of his UFC debut with some great muay thai before he gassed in that last round and Condit caught him, not to mention the way he was literally throwing Nate Diaz around like a rag doll back in April at UFC-129.

And Brian Ebersole's loopy drunken monkey style beating the heavily favoured and heavy handed Chris Lytle on the Aussie card at UFC-127 in Februrary. You have to at least remember the massive, ridiculous arrow he had shaved in his chest hair. Then there's Nam Phan who doesn't stand before the judges too often these days, who had that epic war with Leonard Garcia near the end of last year. Even if Vitor and Jorge with their love of stand-up battles don't fire I feel like there's a bunch of potential in the card.

Unfortunately, the lack of names seems to be what delivers the best cards as of late, like Bucho was stating. I no longer put stock in a card just because it's swamped with names, but quite the reverse. (I still watch 'em all, though!)

Oh yeah, I get you now. In terms of how it'll draw it might struggle - it's really a ravaged card compared to what it was originally. But a lot of the drawing power is on Tito's shoulders now and he's a guy who can really bring eyeballs to the screen just because of his wildly entertaining and divisive personality. It'll be interesting to see what numbers 133 ends up doing.

And how about the new champ?

That dummy should've ignored the M-1 stooges and signed with the UFC when he could've. Dana continues to laugh at how often he's been proven right, as usual.

Given how bad he's been in Strikeforce, the top UFC heavyweights would have eaten him alive...