The MMA thread

MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is probably the most exciting, visceral sport that exists. This thread is for discussion about anything MMA. There is lots to talk about. Proof of the awesomeness of the sport?
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8l5e_wfa-quentin-jackson-vs-matt-lindlan

There were two recent big MMA events, Pride 33 and UFC 68. They were both pretty good, but Pride 33 definitely took the prize as there were many upsets and exciting fights.

Some observations I had from them:

-Takanori Gomi was gassed 5 minutes into his fight. He blamed lack of prep time. He also hasn't defended his belt in a while. Has he lost his spot as one of the world's best lightweights?

-On the same note, has Wanderlei also lost his touch? What was with the lack of aggressiveness against a smaller opponent?

-Tim Sylvia finally lost his belt. Couture has 3 fights left on his contract. I don't know how many have to be title defenses, but I think he will probably have to defend it against Mirko Cro Cop. How easily will Mirko dominate his division in the UFC? I'd say he won't have much trouble.

-Chuck Liddell has been saying a lot of things recently, like that he wants to fight Cro Cop and Fedor (not at the same time). He thinks he can beat them. How ridiculous is this? (If you don't know, Liddell is the UFC LightHeavyweight Champ, and Fedor and Cro Cop are the 1 and 2 Heavyweights in the world, respectively.) Both Fedor and Cro Cop outclass Liddell in both size and skill.

-Who do you think deserves title shots now?

If you want to learn more about MMA, there are many resources. You can find many videos online, you can go to the UFC and Pride homepages, or any of the myriad of MMA sites (sherdog.com, subfighter.com, etc)
Basic Rankings for MMA fighters can be found on mmaweekly.com.

BTW, most of the fights from the two previous events are available online. Yes, even the UFC ones. Check dewsaw.com for the UFC, and youtube for practically any Pride fight.

I still can't believe Randy beat up the goofy Timmy.
But I seriously fear for Randy's health if he has to fight CroCop for the HW championship.
If anything, the victory by Randy over Tim just goes to show how weak the HW division has been in the UFC, IMO. Dana has made some great additions to the HW division which should really get the competition level up. Landing the #2 heavyweight in Crocop was a huge acquisition for the UFC, though overall, Pride still has the best HW division in the sport.

Chuck is off his rocker if he thinks he can beat Fedor. Though a fight between Chuck and Crocop has potential to be a very exciting fight, and would almost certainly end with someone being knocked out. Chuck certainly has a punchers chance against either of those guys, but I seriously doubt he'd be able to beat either of them.

Also, if you haven't heard, Nick Diaz failed the drug test for marijuana. Though at times, it seemed like Gomi was the one who was high during the fight.
I kinda feel bad for Nick. People are trying to invalidate his stunning victory over Gomi because Nick failed the drug test for a recreational drug. I'm hoping that Pride doesn't hold it against him, and refuse to give him his much deserved rematch, and a title shot this time, against Gomi.

The UFC's HW division is weak, but some divisions do compare to Pride's. The Welterweight is obviously great, probably one of the greatest divisions of MMA. The middleweight is also comparable to Pride's, but I have a feeling Paulo Filho, Denis Kang, and Dan Henderson outclass anything the UFC can put up, but Anderson Silva, Rich Franklin and others hold their own. When Matt Lindland's contract with whatever he's in, he may go to either, so that will be interesting.

I don't know if I feel sorry for Nick Diaz. He's had a lot of bad press, but some is warranted, like when he started a fight with that guy in a hospital. I'm not sure if I want a title in the hands of a guy like that, but he is skilled enough to take it. There are a lot of Lightweight contenders in Pride though. I'd say Joachim Hansen and Hayato Sakurai are also in line for title shots. Hayato actually just looks a lot stronger than any lightweights he faces, like he is 10-15 pounds heavier. He may be one of the few Asian fighters who cuts weight for a fight.

Syterion said:

MMA (Mixed Martial Arts) is probably the most exciting, visceral sport that exists. This thread is for discussion about anything MMA. There is lots to talk about.

There were two recent big MMA events, Pride 33 and UFC 68. They were both pretty good, but Pride 33 definitely took the prize as there were many upsets and exciting fights.

Some observations I had from them:

-Takanori Gomi was gassed 5 minutes into his fight. He blamed lack of prep time. He also hasn't defended his belt in a while. Has he lost his spot as one of the world's best lightweights?

-On the same note, has Wanderlei also lost his touch? What was with the lack of aggressiveness against a smaller opponent?

-Tim Sylvia finally lost his belt. Couture has 3 fights left on his contract. I don't know how many have to be title defenses, but I think he will probably have to defend it against Mirko Cro Cop. How easily will Mirko dominate his division in the UFC? I'd say he won't have much trouble.

-Chuck Liddell has been saying a lot of things recently, like that he wants to fight Cro Cop and Fedor (not at the same time). He thinks he can beat them. How ridiculous is this? (If you don't know, Liddell is the UFC LightHeavyweight Champ, and Fedor and Cro Cop are the 1 and 2 Heavyweights in the world, respectively.) Both Fedor and Cro Cop outclass Liddell in both size and skill.

-Who do you think deserves title shots now?

If you want to learn more about MMA, there are many resources. You can find many videos online, you can go to the UFC and Pride homepages, or any of the myriad of MMA sites (sherdog.com, subfighter.com, etc)
Basic Rankings for MMA fighters can be found on mmaweekly.com.

BTW, most of the fights from the two previous events are available online. Yes, even the UFC ones. Check dewsaw.com for the UFC, and youtube for practically any Pride fight.

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- Gomi should have lost his belt to Marcus Aurelio 3 fights ago. There is no reason why any fight with a champion should be non-title unless the champ is not fighting in his weight class or the challenger didn't make weight.

- I heard he had the flu; but if there is anything that might prevent you from performing at 100%, then he shouldn't have fought. I underestimated Dan and believe Silva did as well. Honestly I never thought Hendo was that good.

- I don't know about Randy-Cro Cop. People doubted Randy when he fought Tito, Chuck (the first time), Timmy, and now Cro Cop. I think Cro Cop may be too much for Randy but my heart says that this will be more competitive than most people think.

- Chuck was always a big light heavyweight and Cro Cop and Fedor are not exactly Tim Sylvia size. You also can never count out someone with the power of Chuck. It only takes one punch and a follow up to get a referee stoppage. Outside of fighting Shogun, Rampage, and Arona, there is nothing else he can do at his division. There is just no one in the UFC that can touch him right now at that division. Shogun and Arona are in Pride but Cro Cop is in the UFC now and there may be a good chance that Fedor might jump so those 2 opponents are more likely the other 2.

- Jon Fitch (WW). Ranked #6 by mmaweekly, won his last 12 fights, won his last 5 UFC fights, very well rounded, and yet he hasn't fought on the MAIN card of any PPV yet. He should be fighting Diego, Hughes or Karo next though. Karo also deserves a shot. He was supposed to get his but an injury changed those plans. He fought Diego and imo, won that fight.

On a side note, I think UFC fans should be happy. We just saw 4 new champs crowned in the course of 6 months.

Syterion said:

-Takanori Gomi was gassed 5 minutes into his fight. He blamed lack of prep time. He also hasn't defended his belt in a while. Has he lost his spot as one of the world's best lightweights?

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One of the best, yes. The best, no.

-On the same note, has Wanderlei also lost his touch? What was with the lack of aggressiveness against a smaller opponent?

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Hendo isn't really much smaller than him. Anyways, the people he lost to are hardly cans, so I wouldn't say he's down and out yet. I'm glad he lost though so that now the true #1 LHW in the world (rua) can become the champ.

-Tim Sylvia finally lost his belt. Couture has 3 fights left on his contract. I don't know how many have to be title defenses, but I think he will probably have to defend it against Mirko Cro Cop. How easily will Mirko dominate his division in the UFC? I'd say he won't have much trouble.

Click to expand...

Nobody in the UFC right now can really touch mirko. I mean Randy maybe has like a 10% chance, but that's it. I'd love to see Couture win though, even though I like Filipovic. Werdum is probably the closet thing to competition in the UFC right now for mirko, IMO, which sucks because they train in the same organization so its unclear whether they'd fight eachother. Liddell will also probably move up to fight mirko, which would be interesting (filipovic would be the big favorite in that fight).

-Chuck Liddell has been saying a lot of things recently, like that he wants to fight Cro Cop and Fedor (not at the same time). He thinks he can beat them. How ridiculous is this? (If you don't know, Liddell is the UFC LightHeavyweight Champ, and Fedor and Cro Cop are the 1 and 2 Heavyweights in the world, respectively.) Both Fedor and Cro Cop outclass Liddell in both size and skill.

Click to expand...

Fighters are supposed to believe they can beat anyone. Hell even Sylvia thinks he can beat Fedor.

-Who do you think deserves title shots now?

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Diaz (v gomi), Mauricio Rua (v Hendo), Josh Barnett (v Fedor), Filipovic (v Couture), Bring someone from Pride (there are several candidates) to give Liddell an actual challenge at LHW, Franklin (rematch v Silva), I'd also like to see BJ Penn get back in the welterweight mix as I believe he's definitely better than Hughes and arguably better than St. Pierre, but it looks like they're setting him up to take on Jens for the lightweight belt, which he will take with ease. I'd also love to see Kid Yamamoto get back into MMA.

FYI, UFC 70 will be broadcast on Spike TV (tape delayed) due to UFC and HBO not being able to hammer out an agreement (yet).

Personally, I think this is a great thing for the UFC. Generates alot of exposure to the UFC to those who would normally not buy their PPV's, and provides a push for their star acquisition, Mirko CroCop Filipovic.

And, of course, today was the day where the rumors that have been circulating for months finally pan out, the Fertittas have purchased Pride.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=3676&zoneid=2

Some excerpts from linked article :

Sakakibara acknowledged that there were many offers from different parties during the road traveled to selling Pride, but it was the Fertittas that he trusted to take care of his "baby girl." He brought up the fact that the Fertittas bought the UFC in 2001 and it's now a huge success, adding that Lorenzo Fertitta "respects and loves MMA." Sakakibara said that he wanted someone with this strong love for the sport and whom he could trust to run Pride in a desirable way. Sakakibara said, "Lorenzo respects Pride, Lorenzo loves Pride, and Lorenzo will make sure that Pride is here to stay. I wanted to find a way to make Pride 'immortal.'"

Sakakibara pointed out that it isn't the UFC that is buying Pride; it's the Fertittas. He said that the Fertittas will have 100% ownership, unlike with UFC parent company Zuffa, where the Fertittas own the vast majority of the UFC (believed to be 90%) and Dana White owns a minority stake (believed to be 10%).

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Lorenzo Fertitta, co-owner of Zuffa and the UFC, came onto the stage after DSE executive Nobuhiko Takada said a few words, saying that he was happy to announce “the combination of the two biggest and two most important MMA organizations in the world.” Lorenzo recounted how he watched a Pride PPV at his home seven years ago, which included the legendary 90-minute battle between Kazushi Sakuraba and Royce Gracie, and that was the beginning of his "love affair" with Pride. After coming to Japan and seeing Pride live, he was "hooked on Pride forever."

Fertitta said, "Bottom line, I'm a huge fan of MMA. This is not about business. This is not about making money. This is about putting together the dream fights that me and you as fans have always wanted to see." Fertitta continued, "The UFC is like my baby, and now I have another and I love both just the same."

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AWESOME! Although I don't understand why the PRIDE rules are changed to UFC rules when Pride will still be based in Japan. Dana White has even said that he wants knees to the head at all positions legalized in the UFC, so that would be taking that away from PRIDE. Although I do like that that would eliminate stomps.

I'm looking forward to Chuck Liddell vs. Shogun, Georges St. Pierre vs. Hayato Sakurai, Paulao Filho vs. Anderson Silva, and of course Cro Cop-Fedor rematch. These are my dream fights at least.

So Georges St. Pierre lost his championship. That really surprised me, but any given night, you know. And it was striking that did it, against a guy who's known for his BJJ. Watch it at watchtvsitcoms.com

There's been a lot of upsets in MMA these past few months.

If Fedor loses to Lindland, the apocalypse will start soon thereafter.

if there's one thing that you can be sure of that randy does, is to evolve and develop more weapons against his adversary

although his history against bigger guys (barnett, rodriguez) aint so good
so, that one factor is what im afraid of, NOT filipovic's power and strikes

I hope that I'm wrong but I don't really expect much good from Fertittas buying Pride. I don't see them keeping too big organizations for long. I expect that we'll see one or two "Super Bowls" of MMA and at the same time Fertittas keep signing the most marketable stars of Pride to UFC. Then they either sell of pull down Pride

But like I said, I hope I'm wrong. And yeah, I like Pride's rules a lot more than UFC rules - it's such a shame if they change them.

If you live in the US, you can watch UFC 70 for FREE on Spike TV (tape delay) on Saturday night.

UFC also has finally come to terms with HBO.

RE: Pride rule changes, it's almost a given now that the rules used by UFC will also be used by Pride. There is a big push right now to get knees to the head added to the rules, but you can say goodbye to foot stomps and the 10 minute first round.

Fifty said:

Nobody in the UFC right now can really touch mirko. I mean Randy maybe has like a 10% chance, but that's it. I'd love to see Couture win though, even though I like Filipovic. Werdum is probably the closet thing to competition in the UFC right now for mirko, IMO, which sucks because they train in the same organization so its unclear whether they'd fight eachother. Liddell will also probably move up to fight mirko, which would be interesting (filipovic would be the big favorite in that fight).

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Mirko just got his head kicked off. How ironic. It was by a nobody too. Werdum just got beat by AA. Still think those two are going to run the division?

Well Gonzaga isn't a nobody. Mirko I think assumed he wasn't going to try anything radical in the striking and it backfired. Werdum was stupid against Arlovski. When someone tries to kick is when they are most vulnerable for a takedown, and if Werdum had taken him down I think he could have gone to work with his BJJ.

As for the rest of UFC 70, Bisping looked great against Sinosic. He'll definitely be given some high quality matches. All these matches can be found at dewsaw.com, by the way.

And while you're checking out fights online, watch what I think is the best fight I've seen and it's what I use to introduce people to MMA. Quentin Jackson vs. Matt Lindland

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x8l5e_wfa-quentin-jackson-vs-matt-lindlan

Amazing fight.

gonzaga is definitely not a nobody

he just didn't have hyped up fights, but he definitely has the skills as a top fighter. just wasnt able to showcase it much



mirko filipovic wasnt able to strike effectively as gonzaga was circling out and around him, and dipping in and out to throw some hits while filipovic's legs are farthest away from the target(gonzaga)


lots of people can look good against sinosic. really, his only accomplishment is beating "gumby"

OK fine but Gonzaga still had "can" status among many fans on many forums. It was only after the KO that they stopped calling him that. People were asking why is Dana wasting CC's talent by pitting him against inferior talent. That's what I'm drawing from when I called him a nobody.

Most CC marks believed that he was going to come into the UFC and 6 high kicks later, rematch with Fedor. A lot of people were also saying the Werdum was going to be the #1 contender and clean out the division. Basically, these two Pride guys (Zuffa guys now since Pride was bought) were going to come in and expose the UFC HWs. I just can't stand that never-ending org-vs-org debate. Just accept that each org has their own great fighters.

That was a brutal KO.

The irony of Mirko getting KTFO was not lost on me.

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

It really seems that either Mirko has lost his passion for the sport or he just thought he'll walk through UFC HW division without really preparing for the fights. He looked physically soft, unwilling and slow from the beginning of the match. That's not the same Mirko that won the OWGP.

In addition to Mirko Herb Dean was the disappointment of the night. First he let Werdum to hold on to the cage while pinning Arlovski againt it, and the he made that complete BS standing up in the Mirko's match (Conzaga was definetely active enough in the ground) - this time even a little help from the ref wasn't enough for Mirko though.

Herb Dean has got to be one of the worst referees in the sport, which is frustrating since he's also a MMA fighter.

He always seems to be out of position, indecisive, and too often just makes very bad decisions.

He should stick to fighting.