MMA

[REmaster]

I'm sitting here watching Wilks/Brown fight. I'm excited about Vera/Couture, Randy is an old favorite of mine who obviously has a lifetime of experience. On the other hand, I've never seen a Vera fight that hasn't impressed me, and he's just a funny guy lol. I'm pulling for Vera on this one, but I'd be happy with whoever wins because they're both extremely good fighters and good guys in general. On another note, what a sore loser Rogers was. I can't wait for Fedor to dominate him in a rematch. I mean Rogers is a strong, dangerous man without a doubt but he doesn't need to have such an attitude. This guy was working at Sam's just a while back when Fedor is a fighting legend who has traveled the globe. It should be an honor just for him to be in the same ring as one the best fighters in the world lol.

[Stu]

How is Roger's a sore loser? Must've missed that. There shouldn't be a rematch, if Fedor had a rematch every time someone had him troubled his career would never move on.

Also, Vera got screwed. Bullshit decision just to send the crowd home "happy".

[REmaster]

How is Roger's a sore loser? Must've missed that. There shouldn't be a rematch, if Fedor had a rematch every time someone had him troubled his career would never move on.

Also, Vera got screwed. Bullshit decision just to send the crowd home "happy".

After the fight, Fedor was like,"He is a good fighter, I'd be glad to give him a rematch"...and Rogers is bitching, not giving any credit to Fedor and saying stuff like if I get a rematch I bet I knock him out. Ugh. I agree that he shouldn't get one, but he probably will eventually since StrikeForce has hyped him up so much ( and he's pretty good ). Holy shit, you're absolutely right about Vera being robbed. He landed several big kicks and even almost finished Randy, yet they give it to Couture because he held him against the cage lol. I love them both but that was bullocks, and it was sad to see Brandon sit on the stairs like,"WTF was that?"

[Stu]

Another fine UFC card at the weekend. Good win for Forrest, just not sure how relevant it'll be in the grand scheme of things. This was a clearly unfit Tito, one who needs to be eased back into things. Still, good for Forrest. Tito wants the two of them to be the coaches for TUF11, which i'd be all for if it meant a rubber match!

Very happy to see Kos take out Johnson as well. Sure Johnson is explosive but he got found out once more who one dimensional he is. Great win for Kos, and he should DEFINITELY be ahead of Dan Hardy as far as the number one contendership goes! Very strange first round though, not quite sure what Josh was thinking there.

Good win for Sadollah against Baroni, was really taking him apart by the end of the fight. Baroni is so fucking tough though!

Fight of the year coming up now on December 12, BJ Penn & Diego Sanchez, what a fucking prospect!

[REmaster]

I picked up Forrest Griffin's "Got Fight?" book, it's a pretty hilarious read lol. I'm excited for the Carwin/Lesnar fight, whenever it gets back on track (both fighter became ill with flu, etc). I still feel bad for Vera, but what can ya do lol. I'm glad both Griffin and Bisping made comebacks from horrible defeats.

[Stu]

I actually LOVE Dana White and Marshall Zelaznik.

On Monday night, i'd noticed that the TUF finale wasn't going to be live on UK TV according to the calendar on UFC.com, or the Sky TV guide. So i raised this on a UK MMA forum, and suggested we badger @danawhite on Twitter, including getting the team from @TweetMMA to spread the word as well.

Well about an hour ago, Marshall Zelaznik announced via Facebook that ESPN in the UK will now be showing the finale live at 2am this Sunday morning.

Incredible effort once again from Marshall, Dana and the team. Earlier in the year UK fans were left without a channel for UFC100. Just four days before the event though, they signed a deal with Sky to use a largely unused channel to bring us the whole of the Top 100 UFC Fights and the live UFC100 PPV, all commercial free.

[REmaster]

^ That's pretty cool man. It seems alot of people give Dana shit but he does put everything he's got into the business. Man, I feel sorry for all of "Big Baby's" opponents lol.

[Stu]

Very good TUF Finale show last night, a ton of talking points!

The Kimbo Slice decision was the wrong one, i had it 29-28 to Houston, definitely took the first and third rounds. Kimbo's suplex in the second round was sick, best i've seen in a while! Sadly for Kimbo though there are far better strikers in MMA (let alone the UFC!) who chop Kimbo's leg down in seconds. Shame, because watching Kimbo mature through the course of the season has been the highlight for me. I think he'll have changed a lot of people's perceptions of him, most notably Dana, Silva and Lorenzo.

As fun as it's been to watch him progress, the show's constant pushing of him was tiresome, i'll admit that much.

The Jones/Hammill finish was confusing. Seemed obvious to me that Jones was DQ'd? I couldn't believe Jones got up and was celebrating. More so when he was surprised at the decision, surely someone in the octagon could've said something to him? In principle, it's the same as kicking someone in the nutsack and thinking you've won because they can't continue! Uber-talented guy though with a bright future though, 2010 will be interesting!

And a beautiful performance from James McSweeney who looks to have improved greatly since the show finished taping in July! I thought Schoonover was going to take it quite comfortably but James was fantastic. Beautiful highlight reel finish as well. James seems to get a whole ton of shit from UK MMA community but hopefully last night will go someway to changing that. Not sure UFC will be in a rush to bring him back, but a few good appearances on some UK UFC cards and who knows. I'd definitely like to see more of him.

And Nelson? Man, fuck him. What a cunt. "Yeah i'm just a fat guy so who cares?" "Yeah i just wanna go get burger king now" and the fucking nerve to question Rashad during the presentation? "I heard who you were rooting for?" Seriously, such a cunt. You won a fight that everyone in the world expected you to. Big deal. I hope Joe Silva throws every fucking beast possible and Nelson so he's eradicated from the UFC as quickly as is possible!

[REmaster]

I think my favorite moments of that program was the sick Kimbo slam, houston running around in circles for the first 3 mintues (and hearing Joe and Mike being like WTF?) and Hammil winning from DQ. I'm pretty letdown by next season's coach picks...Chuck will probably dominate Tito again but in the end no one really cares because they're both old news. I like Chuck, but I think he needs to retire after the Tito fight.

[REmaster]

UFC 107

Wow Penn tore Sanchez apart, I was hoping he would win but Penn barely got touched. God that cut at the end was nasty, and his swollen eyes and ripped lip didn't help matters. Dana said that was the worst he's ever seen someone look after a fight...jeez. Sanchez had heart though, even though he was frustrated as hell he kept coming forward and getting pounded in the face lol. Also, I'm not too fond of the guy but Frank Mir is a beast. He's put on so much muscle,just so Brock can't overpower him...as much. I heard something about Kongo having internal bleeding in his throat or something after that choke. Damn.

Update: I just found out that Dana White has fired Houston Alexander after his loss to Kimbo slice in the TUF finale. Apparently Dana was so disgusted at Houston's performance that the only reason he didn't leave the building during the fight was because he had to hand out the TUF trophy later that night. This last fight was Houston's fourth consecutive loss, and Dana decided it was time to send him packing. I know it seems that this warrior has lost his fire, but I can't help but feel sorry for the guy. He's always been pretty humble, and he's a single father of six kids that gave one of his kidney's to his son. So long Houston.

[Stu]

Such a great weekend for MMA! Strikeforce: Evolution and the WEC both provided really strong cards, definitely two of the best events this year!

Jacare and King Mo both looked very impressive in their bouts, but the two fights that followed will be in many people's fight of the year lists i think.

Josh Thompson was rarely in the fight against Gilbert Melendez but still showed such great heart. Some of the duals between the two were fantastic, both guys just swinging for the fences. In the main event, Cung Le looked like he hadn't missed a beat whilst he was away, but what a comeback from Scott Smith! Le went from looking unscathed to utterly fucked up in the space of a few seconds! Some of the spinning back kicks were phenomenal too.

The WEC show was packed with great finishes also! Most notably Anthony Njokuani's "where the fuck you goin' son?!" high kick to Horodecki! Ed Ratcliffe looked super impressive in his victory, but Jesus Christ, THREE LOW BLOWS!?

And big ups to Brad Pickett from England on the undercard picking up the win!

[REmaster]

Strikeforce: Evolution

^ Cung Le was amazing, I could never have imagined the outcome of the fight after watching him humiliate Smith for two and a half rounds. Smith finally caught him with one of those "hands of stone", followed it up and Le never got the chance to recover. I thought it was stupid to ask Le after the fight if this proves that fighters who act in movies lose focus...he was literally kicking Smith's ass for 90% of the fight lol. Although I must say, besides the point at the start of the fight were it looked like the ref was going to call it, Smith never really looked hurt. He looked more frustrated and embarassed than anything...and he transferred all that anger to his hands at the end. I was amazed at one point when he took a hard head kick from Le and just kinda shook it off lol. Anyways, it was an awesome fight indeed and kudos to both fighters. I tell you what Stu, these Strikeforce cards are very impressive...not bad for being pretty much free if you have Showtime.

[Stu]

Strikeforce are only going to get stronger in 2010 with their newest acquisitions as well. Going to be good to have such strong competition for the UFC, both companies will be working out of their skin to produce the better product. Great times ahead!

[Stu]

Haven't caught up properly with UFC 108 yet, but i've just gone through (lots of fast forwarding) the NYE Dynamite show which was a lot of fun! The Japanese really produce the shit out of their shows! Haven't watched every fight, the K1 stuff doesn't particularly interest me right now...not to mention it's a 7 hour show anyway!

The Super Hulk final was insane, such a boring fight with such a sick finish! Soukudju just looks so amateur, almost clueless in places. Never seen a final round like it though, referee docking both guys 20% of their purse for inactivity...and BOOM! Minowaman with such a devastating shot! You'd have to be the world's biggest optimist to have seen it coming!

Omigawa produced a lovely display of boxing for his KO victory, picture perfect right hand. Beautiful arm bar from Akihiro Gono to finish his fight. Melvin Manhoef with a great left hook but possibly the earliest stoppage in a fight ever surely!? Maybe not as it transpires later on...

The Tokoro/Kim fight was a great one to watch, the knee, the triangle, the attempted armbar, both guys being wrenched on the ground at the same time!

There's not much you can say about Overeem is there? He just WALKED into his opponent with the knee, ridiculous KO.

Gegard Mousasi and Goodridge was ridiculous though. Possibly the worst stoppage i've ever seen? Absolutely nothing in it, and i've never seen a fighter get back up and protest THAT quickly haha!

Aoki was disgusting, both during and after the fight! Such a horrific break, and no need for his actions after the fight either but there's not much to say about that really, enough's been said.

And to finish...the mother of all lowblows in the Yoshida/Ishii fight, just nasty!

Brilliant card from what i saw!

[Stu]

Two average nights of fighting from both the WEC and UFC.

WEC 46 was pretty unremarkable, but the Faber/Aldo fight that's come out of it should be very interesting. The roof came off the building when Assuncao tapped! Only other notable performance that sprung to mind was Kamal Shalorus, great technique.

Then last night's Ultimate Fight Night. Chris Leben won on the undercard which was nice to hear about. Amir Sadollah (probably my tip for 2010 on the back of this and the Baroni fight) and Evan Dunham (perfect submission) were the only guys i thought came away from this with any credibility.

Any sense of gameplan that Gray Maynard seemed to have against Nate Diaz seemed to go out of the window once Diaz started acting the fool. Any chance to see Diaz get fucked up is fine with me, shame it didn't happen. Horrible little shit.

Shame to hear the disrespect coming out of both night's crowds as well. Particularly the second night when even Joe Rogan had to say something to try and turn the tables on the crowd.