MMA Thread (UFC, Pride, K-1, etc) - Page 2

Well, back then there really was no organization in the US where you could put Kung v. Judo, Jiu-Jitsu v. Kickboxking, etc... There was a big debate about which martial art was the best (i.e., most effective in a "real" fight). A lot of tough guys and true believers in one fighting style or another wanted to prove that they (or their style) was the best. I guess it was that mentality that led to a lot of these challenge matches in dojos. That's what led directly to the creation of the UFC as a showcase for BJJ against every other martial art. Now you have a lot of organizations with rules and regulations put in place by athletic commissions to protect fighters. If you think you are really tough or that your style is the best, you have plenty of opportunities to fight in a controlled environment to prove it.

Anyone watching UFC 57 tomorrow night? Couture-Liddell 3 and the return of Frank Mir are good enough reasons for me. Also, Joe Riggs against Nick Diaz should be the fight of the night. I'll post some thoughts on the show after Saturday night.

I thought it was a pretty good PPV.

Liddell-Couture 3 wasn't a long fight, but it was solid. Chuck looked pretty active in creating his own angles for his punches, which seemed to be the big difference between this fight and the first one. Chuck definitely hurt Randy towards the end of the first and was getting up a good deal of confidence. If Randy hadn't slipped, the fight probably would have gone another round or two, but the result would probably have been the same. Chuck's takedown defense in the first where he easily got up from Randy's takedown meant that Randy was going to have to stand and bang with Chuck for awhile. Chuck was bound to land that big right sooner or later.

Randy's retirement is probably for the best. He could stay and fight a few more times, but who would he fight? He won't be challenging for the belt again as long as Chuck has it. All he could really do is play spoiler now to Forrest, Bonnar, Tito, Babalu, Sakara, or any of the other 205 guys coming for the belt. I never found Randy to be all that exciting of a fighter, but I respect who he is and what he's done for the sport.

Babalu is next line for a shot at Chuck after easily submitting Mike Van Arsdale with a rear naked choke in the first round. His fight against Chuck should be pretty exciting contrast in styles.

Brandon Vera knocked out Justin Eilers with a great left high kick, Crocop style, causing Eilers to flop forward on the mat. On the way down, Vera landed a flying knee, followed by a punch to put Eilers out. Vera is now 6-0, has two great UFC knockouts to his name, and a great personality as he had Joe Rogan and the crowd laughing after the fight. Vera could be a big star and a legit challenger to either Liddell or Arlovski if they bring him along the right way. Like the UFC announcers said last night, Vera is kind of like a heavyweight George St. Pierre. On a side note, no one is the UFC gets knocked out like Justin Eilers. His staggering flops against Buentello, Arlovski, and now Vera are good enough that you would swear he studied at the feet of Ric Flair. I hope we see this guy back in the UFC before too long.

In the only televised fight to go the distance, Joe Riggs won a unanimous decision over a very aggressive Nick Diaz. Diaz pushed the action the whole fight and even landed a shot that put Riggs down on one knee. But Riggs landed more shots and did a lot more damage. That was the difference as everyone but Joe Rogan thought Riggs won the fight. Riggs did look gassed most of the fight, probably because he cut 30+ lbs before the weigh-in on Friday. Over the next 24 hours before the fight, he went from a weight-in weight of 169.5 to 202. The man is crazy.

Jeff Monson looks like he will be challenging for the heavyweight belt in the future as he dominated and choked out Brandon Lee Hinkle. Althought I don't know how fair it was to put an Abu Dhabi Heavyweight Submissions Champ against a wrestler from Hammer House, which is known for its terrible sub defense. I would have been shocked if this fight had gone any other way.

The biggest disappointment of the night was with Frank Mir. After winning the UFC Heavyweight title in 2004, he broke his femur in a motorcycle accident. In his first fight back, his left leg looked unstable as Cruz took him down. Cruz got dominant positioning and started raining down blows. Cruz opened up a nasty cut over Mir's left eye. Mir, despite not being able to see out of his left eye, decided to continue with the fight. He couldn't escape and ended up just eating shot after shot until the ref finally called it in the first. Mir looked like he just gave up. He looked scared and admitted after the fight that it was probably too early for him to return.

Pride has a PPV this weekend, but it doesn't look like one of their better cards. I probably won't be ordering this one. Only two decent fights on the whole card: Mark Coleman v. Shogun and Kharitonov v. Overeem. I will be all over the Open Weight Grand Prix in May, though.

UFC 58 is on March 4th. While Rich Franklin, the Crow, and Sanchez are all on the card, the only fight I really care about is BJ Penn v. George St. Pierre. BJ's a big wild card at this point. If he shows up in shape, GSP will probably be tapping. If BJ approaches GSP the same way he approached his last 3 or 4 fights (i.e., just cutting a lot of weight after 2 months of living on pizza and Ho-Hos), GSP will pound out a win. Either way, these guys will be agressive as hell.

I am so pissed I missed the show. I had family in town Saturday night. I will probably order the replay this weekend. A friend called me at the end of the first round of GSP-Penn to tell me about the first round that Penn dominated. I thought Penn was going to finish GSP off in the second. Sounds like GSP has got some guts and definitely proved he is world class by getting the win. I heard that Penn wasn't very aggressive in the second and third after a dominating first. I wonder if came into the fight with the conditioning needed to go three rounds with GSP.

What's next for Penn? A title shot against Hughes? Seems like GSP is in line after the Hughes-Gracie fight. Moving up to 185 to fight Franklin a little early? Franklin is on the shelf for a few months with a broken hand and foot. Penn-Diego? I don't really see that fight doing much for Penn, but what other high-profile fights can the UFC give him at 170 right now?

Time to revive this thread as we've got an Ultimate Fight Night coming up on Spike TV on April 6. The full fight card is listed here.

If you are/were a fan of The Ultimate Fighter, this card looks pretty good. Otherwise, well, I wouldn't be watching if it weren't free. Bonnar-Jardine is the headlining fight. As usual, I will be looking to see how Josh Burkman does, if they even bother to put his fight on the main card. I also want to see Rashad Evans who will be fighting at 205. I don't really see any "fight of the night" candidates this time around. But, Pride: Unbreakable looked lackluster on paper and turned out to be a pretty exciting show.

This guy? They might bring him in to give Hominick, Florian, or there other up-and-coming lightweights an exciting knockout win. The guy's got great hair, though.

IIRC, Cummo and Von Flue didn't fight during TUF 2. Cummo beat Morgan and Stevenson beat Von Flue in the semis.

Kimbo's kind of an underground legend. The story going around is that he is a bodyguard for some guy in the porn industry. He supposedly gets hopped up on drugs right before his fights. He's got some pretty heavy hands, but no real skill. Gannon has limited MMA experience and is in terrible shape. But Gannon still managed to beat Kimbo. The fight almost cost Gannon his job as a cop in Boston. There were a few articles about the cop who fights underground illegal cage fights.

After that, Gannon actually got a shot at the big time when he fought the swing bout at UFC 55 against Branden Lee Hinkle. Joe Rogan talked a lot about how much he liked that Kimbo-Gannon fight during the broadcast. He pretty much acknowledged that the video and the surrounding controversy were the only reasons Gannon was getting his shot. Gannon looked out of shape and scared out of his gourd. Hinkle is a mildly talented guy who is too muscular for his own good. Hinkle, a wrestler who loses a lot of fights by submission, beat the piss out Gannon. He took Gannon down almost immediately and pounded on him until Gannon eventually tapped out towards the end of the first round.

Ultimate Fight Night 4 starts in about an hour on Spike TV. I expect to see Koscheck and Rashad go down tonight.

Well, that sucked. Apparently, my boy Burkman got dominated and choked out by Jon Fitch. Fitch is on a 9 fight win streak with victories over Burkman, Shonie Carter, and Brock Larson. Not that I saw the fight because the main card featured 4 fights that went the distance. Chris Leben won an easy decision over Luigi Fiorivanti. The biggest upset of the night was Josh Neer getting a unanimous decision victory over Joe Stevenson, who won the WW division on TUF Season 2. Stevenson almost ended the fight in the first with a deep knee bar, but Neer refused to tap. Once Stevenson released the hold, he was pretty tired. Neer then used his reach advantage to pound on Stevenson and get the win.

Rashad Evans won a lackluster fight against Sam Hoger. Rashad needs to learn to pass guard and look to finish fights if he wants to have a future. The UFC won't keep putting him on the main card if they know he will go the distance every time out.

The main event was actually a really good fight. Stephan Bonnar and Keith Jardine both pushed the action almost the entire fight. Jardine kept nailing Bonnar with leg kicks, even throwing in some high kicks towards the end. Bonnar almost choked out Jardine and later stunned him with a solid shot that put Jardine on the mat. But Jardine landed more shots and controlled the fight. I though Jardine won every single round, but the judges gave Bonnar the unanimous decision.

UFC 59 coming on Saturday night. Forrest Griffin-Tito Ortiz and Andre Arlovski-Tim Sylvia are the co-main events. Sylvia will probably be carried out of the Pond on Saturday. Arlovski's just too good right now. I'm also picking Forrest in an upset. I'm usually not too big on The Ultimate Fighter alums, but I think Forrest is legit. He has a win over Jeff Monson, who is fighting Cruz on the card in a #1 contender's match for the HW title.

This also has the potential to suck if Tito and Sylvia go into survival mode. Tito is pretty good at controlling fighters on the ground, pushing the action just enough to keep from being stood up. Sylvia might just use his long jab to keep Arlovski away, like Sylvia did with Silva. Hopefully, these guys come in actually trying to finish their fights.

Sorry I hadn't written anything up on this yet. It was probably one of the better PPVs the UFC has put on in a while.

Jeff Monson beat Pe De Pano Cruz by unanimous decision in kind of a slow-paced fight. Cruz is the guy who beat Frank Mir a few months ago. Monson landed a decent number of shots on the feet and controlled the positioning on the ground. Neither guy is that exciting, but Monson will aparently be challenging for the heavyweight title soon.

Evan Tanner returned getting a first round triangle choke on Justin Levens. Tanner looked really good in this fight, controlling the action from the start.

In the swing bout, Sean Sherk won a unanimous 30-27 decision against Nick Diaz. The fight wasn't too exciting, as Diaz did little to put Sherk in any danger. Diaz has now lost three in a row and will probably not be back in the UFC till he picks up a few more wins in smaller shows. Sherk will be dropping down to the new 155 division.

Tito beat Forrest by split decision in one of the most exciting fights I've seen in a long time. Forrest sprinted out to the center of the ring to start every round. Tito took Forrest down easily in the first and pounded him with elbows for the first 3 minutes. Forrest was cut up pretty badly over his left eye. I thought the ref was going to stop it, but then Forrest used the fence to stand up. They traded some shots and Tito took Forrest down again, pounding him until the end of the round. I didn't think Forrest would survive the second round. In the second, Tito tried and failed about 6 times to take down Forrest. They traded a lot of shots on the feet, with Forrest landing a lot more shots. In the third, they traded some more punches. Forrest landed more shots, but Tito's punches did more damage. Tito finally took Forrest down in the last minute, but couldn't really do much damage as the third ran out. Eddie Bravo (not an official judge) scored it 29-28 for Forrest (9-10, 10-9, 10-9). Two of the official judges scored it 30-27 and 29-27 for Tito. One scored it 29-28 for Forrest. The crowd was really hot for this fight.

The biggest shocker is that Tim Sylvia got the TKO on Andrei Arlovski to win back the Heavyweight belt. Andrei pushed the action early and landed a few decent shots. About 2 minutes in, Andrei landed a solid shot to Sylvia's chin that sounded like a sledgehammer cracking cement. Sylvia went down flat on his back but quickly scrambled back up to his feet, showing that his chin is rock solid. Arlovski, smelling blood in the water, put his head down and came in swinging. As he came in, Sylvia threw a short right that landed right on the button. Andrei went down face-first and Sylvia took his back. After about 10 unanswered punches to the side of Arlovski's head, Ref Herb Dean stopped the fight. Two days later, I'm still in shock.

He's got great punching power. He could knock out just about anyone if he lands his shots. Arlovski's problem was getting too confident after he got the knock down. Arlovski threw caution to the wind and came in swinging and he paid for it.

I don't think Tim is the most skilled fighter in the world, but being 6'8" with heavy hands and good take down defense means there aren't a lot of fighters out there who could beat him. Of course, I would put Fedor Emelianenko and Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira on that list, along with two or three other guys from Pride. And I think Arlovski will beat him in the rubber match. But, you've got to give the big guy credit for being the better man last Saturday.

Now the UFC has the unenviable task of trying to market two champs (Liddell and Sylvia) with mohawks and love handles.

Well, Tim Sylvia will get a chance to prove his tko of Arlovski wasn't a fluke. Dana White announced last week that Sylvia-Arlovski 3 is on in July. Also, since Tito will be out for a little while, his fight with Shamrock is being postponed. Instead, Forrest Griffin is stepping up to fight Shamrock on the same card as Sylvia-Arlovski. Should be a good one.

In the meantime, I'm gearing up for Pride's Absolute Grand Prix on May 5. There are a lot of great fighters on the card, but not a lot of great matchups. I'll probably wait till the next round in July before ordering one of the Grand Prix PPVs. With Cro-Cop, Minotauro, Mark Hunt, Fujita, Josh Barnett, and Yoshida involved, the tourney will get more interesting in the later rounds.

Turtling up isn't considered intelligently defending yourself. Sylvia landed a lot of unanswered shots to the side of Arlovski's head. Herb Dean watched to see if Arlovski was going to change positions or fight back and Arlovski never did. Another 5 seconds would mean another 5 punches to the head. It was a judgment call that I kind of disagreed with at first. I thought they should have given Arlovski the benefit of the doubt and allowed it to continue a little longer. After I saw the replay a few times, it seemed a little clearer to me that Herb Dean made the right call to protect Arlovski from further damage.

I thought that the UFC might use Arlovski and Sylvia as the coaches for the next season of The Ultimate Fighter leading to their rematch. They obviously aren't doing that and we are seeing the rematch almost immediately. I guess that means the UFC really wants Arlovski to get the belt back, as they aren't wasting any time building up Tim Sylvia as the champ by giving him guys like Buentello, Monson, Cruz, or Mir for his first few title defenses.

And Forrest is going to beat the hell out of Shamrock.

Pride's absolute weight tournament, set for May 5, is looking pretty bad right now. No Fedor Emilianenko. No Wanderlei Silva. No Shogun Rua. No Takanori Gomi. Dan Henderson probably won't compete. Not a single weight class or Grand Prix champ is involved in this one so far. This is a nightmare for Pride. Right now, they don't have too many good matchups announced. A week away, they still haven't even announced two of the fights. We don't even know who the last two fighters participating are. I will definitely be skipping this one unless they announce a couple more big fights in the next few days. Once the herd is thinned down to 8 fighters, I will probably ordering the PPV. Any combination of Mark Hunt, Rodrigo Nogueira, Cro-Cop, Fujita, Barnett, Yoshida, and Overeem will be worth watching.

My other Pride rant has to do with the weakening of Pride's 205 lb division. Wanderlei Silva's $500,000 per fight contract has expired and he is holding out for a lot more money. Rampage Jackson won't be resigning with Pride. Shogun is on the shelf for at least 6 more months. Ninja Rua and Dan Henderson have dropped down to the 183 lb weight class. Alistair Overeem has moved up to heavyweight. Vitor Belfort is fighting elsewhere. Pride has gone from a stacked 205 division to having basically four or five decent 205 fighters. Nakamura is decent. Sakuraba is really a 183 lb fighter who has been killed lately at 205. Igor Vovchachyn has been sucking wind at 205 and should move back up to heavyweight or get out of the game. Only Ricardo Arona and Rogerio Nogueira are world class at that weight and they are teammates who won't fight each other. They really need to resign Silva or this division is in serious trouble.

The Pride Absolute Grand Prix is airing tonight. I'm still up in the air as to whether I will get this one or not. There aren't a lot of must-see matchups. I actually checked the spoilers (it finished live in Japan early this morning) and the fights were supposedly pretty good. If I do see it, I will do a write-up over the weekend.

The big news this week is that Pride lost Kazushi Sakuraba to K-1. Sakuraba is the guy who beat all four Gracies he fought in Pride. K-1 is throwing a lot of money at fighters right now trying to build up its MMA division beyond the freakshow fights they put on with Bob Sapp, Akebono, and other huge guys. K-1 is rumored to have offered Wanderlei Silva (the Pride 205 lb champ) a lot of money to jump ship. BJ Penn will be fighting there soon with the permission of the UFC. Maybe K-1 will put on a decent MMA card in the next few months.

I caught a bit of the first fight from the IFL show, but couldn't stick around to watch it. When it replays, I'll let TIVO do its job. I guess they are supposed to be airing the second set of teams going at it next week some time.

I won't complain about free MMA, but I just don't see the team concept taking off in MMA. I don't care about the teams on The Ultimate Fighter. I don't care that Tito's team is 5-1. I like Bas Rutten, but I don't care if his team wins or loses in the IFL. To me, MMA is all about the individual, not the team, coach, or system.