blonde poker forum

thought it might be worth having a rolling fight thread for all things Boxing / MMA related as there's quite a few of us follow it.

For a start there's a big UFC on next weekend. it's pay per view in US on saturday but we get it free Sunday night on Bravo. Randy Couture is coming out of retirement ot fight reigning heavyweight champ Tim Sylvia. Tim is a massive 6'8" and 18 1/2 stone and although he looks messy he hits like a train. Randy is smaller by 6" and gives away at nearly three stone but as he's a world class wrestler, if he can get the fight to the matt that should cancel out Tims advantages. Other highlights on the card are come back fights for recently dethroned champs Matt Hughs and Rich Franklin. Hughes has Chris Lytle who, if he connects could K Hughes TFO but would struggle on the ground. Franklin is a favourite in his fight but Jason Asrmstrong is no mug.

regular fans or curious newcomers shouldn't miss this one.


UFC.com for the details

Mark Bisping on that card? I heard he's got a UFC fight coming up.

Had a couple of blinding fights with Mark Epstien on cage rage.

Anyone seen butterbeans two cage rage fights? he's second was on the other night and as soon as he tagged his opponent the ref jumped in and stopped it, it was stupid! but to be fair to the ref his oponent went down and he probably anticipated that he wasnt getting up(as is usually the case if butterbean catches you square)but he was fine and the replay showed that he only glanced him so it was a shame, it was the main event.

I think Bisping will be saved for UFC 70 in the summer as it's in Manchester. He'll most likely fight Quentin Jackson or Forest Griffin. I thing the Jackson fight would be hard work and messy but he's do ok if he could keep it standing. Griffin / Bisping would be a legendary tear up. Bisping would win it by KO for sure but it'd be blood and guts. The third possibility would be Tito Ortiz. I'd love to see him beat Ortiz but I can't see that match up until Ortiz is on a winning streak.

Yeah, I saw both Butterbean fights. Rob Broughton beat him up in the first one. no contest. The recent one was a disgraceful decision. he caught James Thompson with one solid punch then clipped his nose with a second. Thompson went down more out of suprise than from the punches and Butterbean fell on top of him. Thompson blocked 4 or 5 punches then the ref stepped in. travesty.

I have just seen on the cage rage site that not only have they got Bob Sapp but Vitor Belfort is fighting in cage rage in April.

UFC 70 - Tickets went on sale Friday.

Bisping is billed to fight Elvis Sinonic.

Gonzaga vs Mirko Cro Cop is currently top of the bill.

Couple of the undercard fights look OK as well could be worth a look.

wow, very kind of UFC. He'll destroy Sinosec. nice guy but not up to the job.

Opinions on Cro Cop?

I always liked mirko in the pride contests but after his fight with fedor there was no where for him to go and assume he got offered serious money to go to UFC. I think he will struggle in UFC when he fights a really top wrestler but he sure is tough as the fedor fight showed.

I don't think we will ever see it but fedor in the UFC would be amazing (he would destroy them, i'm pretty sure he is the hardest man in the world), they should sort a challenge match between UFC and Pride champions. That would be great.

I'll be going to manchester.

Careful boys, this thread may get deleted

Keep out links to videos of men trying to kill other men with their bare hands and it's all good.

(Women trying to kill women we may be ok with, if jelly is involved)

I'm sure the Mods will tell us links to licensed legal fights like boxing or UFC will be ok.

I think Cro cop will strenthen the UFC heavy weight division. He'd make light work of Tim Silvia but my hunch is that he will have been replaced by Couture, and then Arlovski before he gets his shot.

most of them are away today, but I imagine that'll be fine with them yes.

from Kimbo thread


Heavy Weight.
current champ - Tim Silvia
contenders Randy Couture, Mirko Cro Cop, Andre Arlovski

Light heavyweight
Champ Chuck Liddell
Contenders Quentin Jackson, Tito Ortiz, Michael Bisbing (British fighter) Forest Griffin

Middle weight
Champ Anderson Silva
contenders Rich Franklin plus several on the fringe

Welterweight
George StPierre
Contenders Matt Serra, Matt Hughs plus several on the fringe

some big fights coming up over next few months. All the above belts will be contested before the end of April.


In the past maybe. when he was predominantly a wrestler he looked unbeatable. now he's making the effort to be an more rounded fighter he looks like he's lost it. George St Pierre stuck him with a couple of stiff jabs and he didn't look like he fancied the job. he tried a few takedowns and when they failed he was out to sea. I have money on Chris Lytle to beat him Saturday. Hughes is definitely favourite but Lytle hits harder than GSP so if he can connect it might be an upset.


the top fighters are pros on 6 figure contracts plus sponsorship deals. they aren't making top boxing money yet but as I said, the Pay Per View take is higher than boxing in the US so it's only a matter of time.

As someone said, Tyson wouldn't last a round in the cage. if it wasn't a take down and submission, it's be thigh kicks until he stood still. Most of the UFC heavy weights are giants. Tyson was a master of fighting bigger boxers in his day but when kicks and knees are a possibility he wouldn't want to be bobbing and weaving too much. Imagine the last one sided Tyson v Lewis fight (Current champ is 2 inches taller than Lewis) but his opponent also being able to kick, Clinch, Knee, Elbow, throw, mount, Crank joints, choke...etc.

Moved from Kimbo thread

UFC cat hall of fame.

Tank Abbot is the funniest UFC fighter there has been. No frills nutter.

Royce Gracie was the man who started it all. LEGEND.

Kimo, for best pantomime entrance carrying a cross.

Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock for best feud.



Did anyone(adam?) ever see the vale tudor where Rickson Gracie won it. He beat a guy known as Dragon Slayer in the final. This guy was about 9/10 stone and 5'2 or soemthing but beat a guy weighing 350 lbs+ in the first fight and a 6`2 inch savatte champ in the next round.

By the time he got to the final he was in very bad shape, especially to be fighting someone as good as Rickson and lost, but the guy was truly amazing to overcome such weight, height and reach deficiencies.

yeah, the good / bad old days of Mixed Martial Arts. I do still watch the old DVDs but the game's moved on alot. street fighters like Tank Abbott got left behind, as did single discipline fighters like Royce Gracie (although he was and still is a legend)

think I've seen the Rickson Gracie fight you mean but a long time ago. I've studied Gracie instructional DVDs in the past and Rickson is probably the best of the whole clan.

favourite fighters for me. Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Pat Militich, Royce Gracie, Dan Servern, Genki Sudo, Ian Freedman, Vitor Belfort (early career) and I honestly believe Michael Bisbing will be a world beater in time.

Phone call from old freind last night giving me the date for another friends much anticipated stag night, 21st april, yeah fine. Drive past sign for UFC manc this morning, guess what date. Twat it.

I think Crocop would tear through the UFC heavyweight division, his takedown defence is good enough to stop him getting dominated on the mat by anyone othe than Mir and Couture but he has a huge stand up advantage on them.  I think he also possesses a stand up advantage over Sylvia and Arlovski.  Crocop V Arlovski and Sylvia are the ones  want to see most.

Frank Mir, forgot about him. I can't see him contesting the title again.

I think you're right about Cro Cop. I think his stand up is far too good for Silvia. Arlovski would be a tear up. Randy Couture can give anyone trouble and if your sprawls not top draw or you're finished.

Frank Mir is 1 of my favourite fighters, he was in an awkward position coming back from injury, he needs some lower card fights to get him back on the trackof contesting at the top of the division

first Frank Mir fight I remember was him being battered by Ian Freeman in London. that was before he held the title or had the accident. each to their own but I think we'll have to agree to disagree on his pedigree. I don't think he'll get anywhere near Cro Cop, Arlovski, Couture or Sylvia and he can't go down to Light Heavy because Chuck is there and would be too hard to take down to stand a chance.

That said, seems like a nice guy so good luck to him

That was also the first Mir fight I saw and wasnt impressed. is endurance was always questionable and his stand up was decent but he didnt have KO power.  He could be the best ground fighter (note-not wrestler but general fighting ability) Heavyweight in MMA. Mir ripping of Sylvia's arm is 1 of my favourite MMA moments.

Chuck would probably crush him but I think Chuck would take most of the heavyweights anyway

Wow!!!! just found this fight, Kimbo Slice would get ruined by either of these!!!

Serious hardcore street fighting!!!!!

*WARNING CONTAINS EXTREME VIOLENCE*

hope the mods dont take this down, its that bad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S9N4p-ZteQw

The mods will definitely remove that!

Especially that Tank... ::)

You just cant get the staff!! ::)

Talk about scraping the barrel with his appointment... ::)

After you, me, Flushy and IFM, turned em down they were struggling, but it was only after they tracked down mystery721 and he knocked em back that they asked tank ::)

It is about time that the above got out.... ::)

lol

right, so UFC 68 is tonight but we get it tomorrow on Bravo 9pm.

I'm going to stick my neck out with some predictions
Mark Hamill to beat Rex Holman TKO 1st round
Babalu to beat Jason Lambert TKO 2nd round
Rich Franklin to beat Jason Macdonald on the judges cards.
Chris Lytle to beat Matt Hughes KO 1st round (definitely betting against the odds here)
Randy Couture to beat Tim Sylvia 3rd round TKO / Cuts stoppage. either that or an early Submission

any other predictions?

Do you know anything about Lytle?  I thought he was just a jobber thrown in there for Hughes to destroy before his middleweight title rematch.

not at all. he came a close second in the last 'Ultimate Fighter' TV show. he's got a mixed record for sure but he hits harder than george St Pierre and GSP hurt Hughes. if it goes to the ground he has no chance but Hughes seems determioned to prove he can fight on his feet too and if Lytles Sprawl is any good it could be a good fight.

to change the subject slightly, just caught last nights British Heavyweight fight between Scott Gammer and Danny Williams.

Tough fight.

I know he has his critics here but I  respect Danny Williams. He's a good British Champion. He took his shot a step higher and didn't make it. heart of a lion though. I know Tyson was far from his peak but to step in the ring with him takes a lot of nerve and he destroyed him.

I expect him to retire as British Champion and good luck to the guy.

4 fights televised
Babalu v Lambert
round 1 went as expected, Babalu dominating on the ground. last 30 secs of round Lambert got to his feet and landed a couple of shots. came out 2nd round and put Babalu to sleep with a monster left hook. Fair enough.

Hughes v Lytle
Hughes abandoned his quest to become respected as a striker and went back to his wrestling. An ugly three rounds of smothering and an easy points win for Hughes. Chris Lytle couldn't evade the take downs and did his best to resist on his back but a one sided fight.

Franklin v MacDonald.
MacDonald make easy work of Ed Herman and Chris Lieban in his last two fights. Last night showed the gulf in class between Herman/Lieban and Franklin. MacDonald had enough by the end of round 2 so a solid win for Franklin. He looked good but I don't see any improvement that would make him any more likely to win a rematch with Anderson Silva.

MAIN EVENT
Randy Couture v Tim Silvia.
One Randy Couture
There's only one Randy Couture...

Awesome performance by Randy. Surprisingly, Randy knocked Tim on his ass with the first overhand right he threw, despite a 7" height disadvantage. Round one was a stalemate on the ground. Randy got Tims back but couldn't develop it. rest of the fight he had Tim Silvia in all kinds of trouble. out striking the big man, taking him down and pounded him. some good submission attempts.

Just a totally dominant performance. Not pretty, but then Randy Couture fights rarely are.

Unfortunately I don't see Randy having the same success striking with Mirko Cro Cop, infact he could get Knocked clean out. However without the reach disadvantage I expect he'll go straight for the take down and if he succeeds,  Randy will breeze through a ground fight. 

Not a vintage night of UFC but Randy Couture winning makes it a great nights viewing

seems I got Matt Hamill v Rex Holman right, though it was TKO 2nd round rather than 1st round

http://blondepoker.com/forum/index.php?topic=21021.msg425965#msg425965

some of my students have mentioned Tony Jaa. just had a look. although 95% of whats in the youtube clips is film stunt work rather than real martial arts, the 5% that's actual Muay Thai basics look pretty good. Keeps the kids coming to Kickboxing clubs which is a good thing but trouble is you spend half the time explaining why jumping spinning back kicks are no use if you're getting mugged down a Nottingham side street.

that said, if Tony Jaa,  Jackie Chan, et al were to get mugged, they wouldn't do any of the flashy film stuff either. It'd be best thigh kick and 10 punches to the noggin.

If Van Damme got mugged, he'd just get mugged

WOW

you are not going to believe Tito Ortiz's next fight

http://sports.bostonherald.com/ufc/view.bg?articleid=187736

Fair play to White. Mind you how much did they want Tito back? "I'll come back if you'll step into the boxing ring with me" - OK says the boss  :o >:?

Yeah, fair one.

My old master in Notts used to say Bruce Lee was better becuase 90% of what he used on film was useable in real life.

From what I've heard though Tony Jaa is also harder than a coffin nail. Jet Li was the Wu-Shu All China champion for his age at 11 - he even went to the White House. I've heard stories from Jackie Chan's youth about how good he was from ancient masters in documentaries etc. (Look out for Jackie's cameo in Tony Jaa's "Warrior King")

There are so many good martial artists in the far east you have to be pretty good to get to the level where you're doing films that "make it" in the west.

Whilst some of it is, as you say, not real, I wouldn't go picking a fight with any of them in the street!

who did you train with in Nottingham? was it the Kickfit guys across from the bus station?

I've been to a couple of Richard Bustillo Seminars organised by the Nottingham JKD guys, including one in an underground carpark. scarey night

worth googling Richard Bustillo. one of the all time greats

What does everyone think about Wanderlei Silva?

Personally, I think they guys the most exciting fighter ever to grace The Octagon, or the Pride ring. If you watch some of his early Vale Tudo bare-knuckle videos, he really does make a mess of people. You just simply cannot beat the guy for out and out aggresion, and the "psychopath" factor. The fights he had with sakuraba were great, when he booted him in the floor and Saks nose exploded... TAXI!

It was a shame to see him lose to Mirko and Henderson. What I admire most about the fella though is the way he took the defeats. At the post-match interview, he said that he has nothing but respect for his fellow fighters, and he wished them good luck for the future. A true warrior.

Mind you, when he took apart Jackson with his knees, he was actually smiling in his face...

Some more cage fighting coming up.

Monday 9th on Bravo there's programme on Mike Bisping at 9 followed by UFC 69

George St-Pierre Vs Matt Serra 
GSP should be too much for Serra who's more comfortable fighting at 155lb than 170lb

Diego Sanchez Vs Josh Koscheck
Sanchez will submit him early I think

Yushin Okami Vs Mike Swick
Swick KO late

Alan Belcher Vs Kendall Grove
Kendall Grove suprised me in the final of UF3. Expect him to get a KO

Thales Leites Vs Pete 'Drago' Sell
Drago by KO early.

Marcus Davis Vs Pete Spratt
Pete Spratt, another quick KO

Josh Haynes Vs Luke Cummo
Cummo easily

made the predictions as I went but looking at how many KOs I picked, hopefuly it'll be a great show.

Also, Incidentally, UFC have bought Pride so there could be some big unification fights in the future.

Gay fights ?          :dontask:

they do get VERY close come to think of it

 ;bump;

2 out of 7. shows what I know

some great fights though

The streetfighter, Kimbo Slice, is to fight Ray Mercer in a MMA fight in June.  Should be sweet.

from what I've seen, a decent boxer or MMA fighter will do a job on Kimbo. 

His streetfights on youtube are enjoyable but he never seems to be up against much.  And he looked poor against Gannon who produced some MMA moves, and has since been defeated in UFC. Still, should be interesting.

have you seen Gannons UFC fight? total one sided beating. Gannon is a tough guy but nowhere  near the standard of the professional fighters.

don't know much about mercer. looks like he's been in with some quality over the years but he's lost to his better opponents. I'd still expect mercer to win it.

I'd bet the farm on a top heavyweight like Couture/Silvia/Arlovski/CroCop/etc against Kimbo but I can't see it happening. even if UFC threw Kimbo a one fight shot (they did it with Gannon so it could happen) it'd be against a fighter lower on the food chain and I'd still expect kimbo to lose.

Yeah, I've seen it.  Gannon was destroyed.

I don't know if Kimbo will lose to Mercer (he's not a MMA fighter either of course), but I would imagine him losing to a decent UFC fighter.

I think the Koscheck/Sanchez fight showed them both up.  koscheck was blatantly playing for the decision win and nothing else while Sanchez didnt have an answer.  Time to stop coddling Sanchez and throw him in against some quality.

I think, to be fair, Koscheck did what he had to to win. He's a world class wrestler so the fight going to the mat or not was up to him. one mistake on the ground and Sanchez might sumbit him. on the feet, Koscheck felt he couldn't lose. I quite enjoyed the fight.

Sanchez losing is great, however it comes

big weekend of MMA in the UK

UFC is in Manchester.
Top end othe card has Mirko Crocop smashing Gonzaga up in 1 round, Michael Bisping Smashing Elvis Sinosic in round 1 and Andre Arlovski smashing Werdom up in round 1. It's PPV on Setanta TV

Also on it Cage Rage in London. Bob Sapp was meant to be fighting but has pulled out at the last minute. The good news is Tank Abbott has been drafted in to fight instead. I think Abbott will beat Gary Turner but you never know whats going to happen with Tank.

Also Cage rage has Vitor Belfort. He looked unbeatable in the UFC but ended up a step below Chuck, Randy and Tito at the top of the weightclass. be good to see him fight again.
Also fighting are Ross Pointon and Mark Weir.
Cage rage is on sky sports so I'll be tapping that for watching sunday.

KFC chose a bad time to do their buy one get one free promo! I love bob sapp, he's hilarious! What he lacks in skill he makes up for in bulk.

I remember his fight against crocop where crocop caught him with a sweet punch and he fell over in slow motion. It was like watching a giant red wood being felled.

Tank's great too. All action mentalist!

lol, perfect discription

you watching either / niether / both?

UFCs main event

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABfm8ofsYFc&mode=related&search=

an out and out wrestler like Randy Couture might give him trouble in the future, but I don't see any current UFC heavy weight striking with him.

Croatian special forces. one serious dude. When he 'goes in for the kill' it's not always metaphorical  ;hide;

why was this not on that video?  ;D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RvLz0wCCXaw&mode=related&search=

Cro Cop is a phenomenal striker, looks like his kicks could take an ordinary person's head off!

He broke Sapp's eye socket with that one punch, very impressive!

Adam - I'm going to start betting against your predictions ;) - although none of us could have forseen the kick that for a scary moment I thought had killed Cro Cop.

Arlovski spoke well at the end after 2 non-rounds.

Bisping probably should have been given it in round 1 - but he came damn close to losing it in 2. Showed some great strenth & skill to escape.

I know, I'm not even getting close sometimes.

Bisping smashed Sinosic up in round 1 but the Kimoura was on hard at the start of round 2. looked like it was going to get snapped off. Did well to roll him and finish the fight. good performance from Bisping

Arlovski fought an inteligent fight but he never went in for the kill. I think he could have took it in round 1 if he'd gone hell for leather but he's not had the best 18 months so wins under his belt are more important I guess.

and Crocop got KTFO. we were all impressed with Gonzagas ground and pound. those elbows were really racking up some damage. Herb Dean stood them up while Gonzaga was still working which seemed unfair. Then what a kick?? Crocop was asleep before he hit the mat. his leg was bent backwards too but 5 minutes later he was walking around. amazing what the body can do to protect itself.

the good thing about this is that while Randy Couture is seeing to Gonzaga in the summer we might get Arlovski v Crocop as an eliminator to fight Randy end of the year. now that will be a fight to see.

haven't watched the cagerage yet. got that to do this afternoon

Cant beleive the Crocop fight, he saw the kick coming!!!!!

There is talk over at Sherdog of foul play to "create a new star" out of gonzaga to boost the HW division and although it is plausible since its good business for Crocop for a rematch and then the title shot in his remaining fights on his deal I doubt Crocop is the type of guy to take a dive.

I dont think Gonzaga was hurting him much on the ground, Crocop defended it really well but Gonzaga got the takedown too easily.  The ankle turn was sick!!!

dont bother Adam                  yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn

sorry, cant agree with any of that (except the ankle turn)

he didn't see it coming. he dropped his arms to defend what he though would be a body kick. then got sparked out.
The heavyweight division doesn't need boosting. it's got the best fighters in the world in it and if anything, UFC could be accused of fast-tracking Crocop when Arlovski probably deserves the shot at Couture more.

Crocop was getting hurt on the ground. a bad cut was starting to open up on his hairline and those forearms hurt alot.

The suggestion that the fight might be fixed to boost ratings of a sport that already outsells boxing on PPV is frankly daft. What we have here is a lot of people on the web have been giving it "Pride pwns UFC" and  "Crocop will destroy UFC fighters" and a relative UFC nobody has knocked him out. Couture would have finished it even quicker on the ground and Crocop needs to sort his takedown defence before he fights for the title. He's an awsome fighter but he's not invincible.



as for the Cage Rage, I thought it was ok. there's a huge gulf between that and UFC at the minute but it's vastly improved on only 5 years ago. It was a shame about alex Reids injury because he's a good fighter and that would have been a good bout.
Zikic looked hopeless in round 1 but showed some bottle to grind out a win. He'll need more than Jesus on his side when he fight Vitor Belfort though. He's a different gravy and will make light work of Zikic. Reid might be able to give Belfort a fight at a later date..
Tank Abbot hit Gary Turner HARD but after the opening 2 minutes there was only going to be one result. I still dont know anything more about Gary Turner other than the fact he's no quitter.

I'm optimistic that Cage Rage will keep improving but there's a long way to go.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkhxIa8qV_w

happening tonight, we get it on Bravo (sky 121) tomorrow night

come on chuck

ill never ever want chuck to get beat, he is awesome, but i do think that being a champion this long (2 years) can make a man (anyman) a little complacent.......for chuck's sake...and for mine, i truely hope that im wrong....



....Come on Iceman avenge that lose, and retire a true legend of this underestimated sport!

UFC is massive back home and the buildup to this fight is insane. I have watched a lot of pre match stuff on the Jackson and Liddell fight and I think Jackson will win. Nothing against Liddell, he is an amazing fighter (and I wont be surprised if he wins) but if I had to choose, I go with Rampage Jackson.

Nice call, Canuck!

Gutted tho!

Watched the video on youtube.  Liddell is seemingly unhappy about the ref stopping it but looks the correct decision to me.

yeah, he was unconscious, if only for a second.

Chuck's going to have to look at his game. the very characteristics that make him difficult to fight (the odd guard, over hand rights and looping left hooks) seem to be what makes Jackson effective against him. If chuck lands with one of those shots Jackson goes down same as anyone, but his tight guard and powerful short punching are always going be be a problem for chuck. I see him kicking hell out of Jacksons legs from the opening bell next time.

Leben and Jardine also let me down. Karo Parisian was the only fight I picked right in a 4 fight accumulator. I thought Leben won his easily and the judges got it wrong but Jardine got pummeled so no doubt there.

On a side note, amused me when Din Thomas laid down that challenge.
"Where's Mayweather? All these boxers talking shit. I'm the MF to fight. Step up!"
Din is a UFC light weight which is 155lb
that's roughly equivalent to the boxing middle weight (a touch under).
ideal match up too. I think a skillful ju-jitsu practitioner with good enough striking to stand with a boxer would be a great show of superiority in the cage.
To put on MMA v Boxing, there's no point putting an MMA striker in but someone like Din Thomas or even better BJ Penn would be great.
The PPV would be massive too.

Only an insane boxer would do it.  None of the boxing organisations would let one of their champions or contenders go near the UFC and any boxer wanting to retain his boxing career wouldnt go near it, they must know that unless they connect early with a big punch theyre doomed to go down and tap.

but at the end of the day, money talks and UFC is getting more PPV than boxing. The take up on, for example Mayweather V Liddell (the first fighter Mayweather started bad mouthing) would be a stagering. not a good choice as chuck fights at 205lb (14st 9lb). isn't mayweather fighting at 11st7lb. I know I've always said size isn't the be all an end all in Martial arts but in the cage/ring you don't want to give up 4st if you can help it He'd be better against a lightweight of welterweight

All the bad blood has been coming from the Boxing side. UFC has been happy to co-exist with boxing but some of the queensbury boys seem determined to engage in a war of words about the relative merits of the two disciplines.

It's not across the board there are many Boxers and MMA fighters who train together, most notably De La Hoya has been training with Diego Sanchez and I'm sure when Golden boy goes into retirement his promotion business will start playing a big role in MMA managements aswell as boxing.

Boba Fett is right though. in a cage it's only going one way. In a ring it could go either way. The top, most well rounded MMA guys have boxing coaches and train their striking very seriously. they can stand and trade in a ring. add to that the kicking, the Thai elbows and knees, the  Greco-Roman wrestling and the Ju-Jitsu and it's an argument boxers don't want to get into.

Dana White, UFC president

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nvDAeosvDNw

The money for a boxer V Ultimate fighter would make a staggering PPV profit, but, and lets use Mayweather as an example, what next for him once he gets into the right and gets his ass handed to him.  It would take a good few boxing matches for him to get his credibility back as a fighter.  Boxing is slowly fading away because of MMA and for one of its stars to get KTFO by a UFC star it would be disastrous for the sport.

first thing to say is that Mayweathers ego would never allow him to think for a second that he'd lose. he's get in thinking he was underlining his superiority as a fighter.

secondly, as Dana White points out, Boxings problems aren't caused by UFC, they're caused by how boxing is run. appart from the suggestions of corruption and the judging fiascos that come up, there's the fact that you have four or more 'world champions' in each weight class.

When UFC started, it was a raw experiment to prove what martial arts worked and what didn't. It was brutal and was never going to be a threat to boxing. A Republican senator went after UFC and tried to shut it down completely. In order to avoid being wiped out UFC embraced alot of the best things about other combat sports like Boxing or Kickboxing.  introducing rounds and weight classes. making gloves compulsary. banning footwear. strict rules, particularly with regards stopping kicks, knees and elbows to the head grounded opponents. Judges, Doctors, better training for refs, the list goes on. As UFC became more of a combat sport, the competitors also looked to boxing as an example. The work ethic of even run of the mill amature boxers would have put proffessional martial artists to shame 15 years ago.
If Boxing is to sort itself out it needs to look the other direction to MMA and see what examples it can draw. Unification of governing bodies would be the best thing but with the money, egos and power involved I don't see it happening.

As to individual boxers/fighters proving themselves as hard men, thats pointless. Boxing isn't 'fighting' it's boxing. The reason MMA will never completely replace boxing is because at times, technically excellent fights are ugly, brutal, dirty looking things. Boxing is sometimes called the sweet science. you could never call a ground and pound cage fight that and consequently, it's not to everyones tastes.

off to watch UFC on Bravo now.

Mercer VS Kimbo tomorrow  "LET'S DO THIS PLAYA" ::)


If Mercer's anywhere near is best, 40%+, he will smash Kimbo to pieces but TBH he didn't really look confident in his pre fight interview so i think he's not in good shape but could be a good little ruck, ppv i think but it should be on youtube soon after

Almost forgot about this!  Anyone know if its available to watch online?

Watched Kimbo's latest fight on youtube and he was introducing elbows and the like, as opposed to his usually fists only approach.

I agree that if Mercer is in any kind of shape he should beat him.

Kimbo is 2's on.  Surely has to be a lay at that price.  As stated if Mercer is in any sort of shape and trained properly for the fight then he should win easily.

who's taking bets on illegal street fights?

It's sanctioned, in a cage

ah, interesting

by who?

new jersey athletic commission apparently.

seems Kimbo has been training with Bas Rutten. serious stuff.
http://www.break.com/index/kimbo-prepares-for-the-big-fight.html

He's said he'll still take street fights in the future
With UFC working hard on it's image they'd never give him a shot in their cage while he was still doing that.

who is it that's betting on this, european firm?

Pinnacle definetly are (thats where I saw the price)  not aware of any others at the moment

Had a quick look and can't find any Euro firms with prices.

Amazingly, Kimbo Slice defeated Ray Mercer in the 1st round via a guillotine choke!!!!

Adam, have you had a chance to see the video of the fight?  It only lasts for about a minute.  You obviously know your stuff, what do you  make of it?

haven't seen it. got a link?

I thought Mercer would win easily if it was the kind of slugfest punch up all Kimbos other fights have been. A pro boxer of Mercers level, even at 40 would have too much power and stamina for Kimbo

I started changing my mind on who would win yesterday when I found out,
a) it was in a cage
b) Kimbo was being coached by Bas Rutten

If Kimbo would clean up his act and publically say if he got a contract with a MMA organisation he'd quit the street fighting then he might get a shot.

Kimbo vs any UFC heavy weight would be a one sided beating though, which is perhaps why he's not being quick to do that

http://www.mma-extreme.com/

Its the video on the home page there.  Tank Abbot up next seemingly.  He'll destroy him too I think.

Are we absolutely sure that was Kimbo? my suspition is that was Bas Rutten with a wig and a suntan :D

seriously though, very impressed. Kimbo did exactly what a skilled MMA fighter would have done against a heavy weight pro boxer. Close distance, Knees and elbow, take down, choke.

I take it back, I think Kimbo could do ok in the cage IF he cleans up the street fighting thing.

Yeah, obviously the guy has ability and its just a case of adapting it to this new style of fighting.  For a first fight I don't think it could have went better. 

Interesting listening to the commentators saying that Kimbo thought he would be 260 pounds at fight time but trimmed down to 240.  40 pounds less than when he fights on the street seemingly.

That was impressive although he has to finish his opponents off quickly otherwise he is in big trouble due to his lack of stamina.

Yeah, I was going to make that point.  But we don't know his stamina hasn't improved.

the way Bas Rutten trains, I imagine it has. that's where the 40lbs has gone.
sweated out in the gym

I've no doubt his fitness has improved but this is a guy who was previously breathing out of his arse after a minute or so, so I'd suggest lack of stamina will still be a major weakness.

Hope Mercer calls it a day as it was pretty sad to see him in that state (had 2 losses in K1 as well), although I'm guessing it was financial reasons that got him in there as opposed to anything else.

shocking, kimbo looked rounded though, impressive

UFC 74 is on tomorrow in Vegas, showing on Bravo Sunday night 9pm

headline is Randy Couture v Gabriel Gonzaga. The shock KO of Mirko Crocop by Gonzaga earlier in the year has suprisingly made him a slight bookies favourite. I'm more than happy to bet on Randy Couture at better than evens. I think he'll ground and pound this one out fairly easily.

other good looking fights are Josh Koschec v George StPierre. GSP has an obvious stand up advantage but if Koschec wants it on the ground it generally goes to the ground and his wrestling is MILES better than GSP. can't pick it.

Roger Huerta is on the card and has looked very impressive so far. don't know his opponent but he'll have to be damn good to stop Huerta.

Kendall Grove should beat Patrick Cote but it'll be a war.

can't see Joe Stevenson losing to anyone but the top of the lightweight division

sadly I don't expect Frank Mir losing and Babaloo winning to make the edit for Bravo.

should be a good card.

definently value about couture at + evens

yeah, saw the price on the blonde sportsbook a few days back and think Couture will win.  Pity I have no money.

As found out against the bear.

By the bear, do you mean Gannon?

yep

stamina problems seem to run through the kimbo camp

he couldn't kick, knee or elbow before either but he seems to have learned all that. I'm sure his stamina has been worked on too.
I was very sceptical of Kimbo in the past but he looked like a real cage fighter against Mercer. Working with Bas Rutten will have that effect.

Hope someone had money on Couture.

  :tikay:

crap.... um, cos he lost?   ;angel;

Yep after being reminded of the fight by Adams post had a small bet on Couture

I'm only even for the night because although my bey on Randy came in, I got tempted into a bet on Koschec + Randy both to win.

Randy was brutal as usual. not pretty to watch but awesome none the less.

GSP was a different class to Koschec. I tought it'd be closer than it was.

Huerta made light work of his opponent as expected.

Cote hit Grove with a bomb. right behind the ear. I thought Grove looked like he was getting the better of it until then but he was never recovering from that shot.

Joe Stevenson got a tougher fight than expected but still looked very strong. must be due a title shot now.

Babaloo tapped out David Heath. I'll make a point of watching that on UFC.tv.

Frank Mir managed a win but I don't see him anywhere near the class of the rest of the heavyweight division. maybe he could slim down to light heavyweightas he's not a huge guy but even then, the talent at that weight is probably too good.

not long till UFC 75 in London. that looks a good card too.

are they trying to hype it up in this country so that they can get it onto Pay per view?

The London show is PPV on setanta I think. They're planning to do 4 PPV events per year over here, which they give the US audience free. They do double that PPV over there which we get free. plus loads of shows free to view here and there.

In the US the PPV is smashing what even the biggest boxing matches do. no reason to think that eventually, the same wont happen here.

eat my words

efficient job by Mir. not sure he can hang with the new wave of heavyweights but good stuff anyway

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yan9HElpwo

the babalu fight.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=KL2sNyfaths

absolutely awsome display of MMA by Babalu. The guy can strike well, ground and pound from the top and his submissions are devastating.
unfortunately steve Mazzagati (worst ref in the business) let it go too long then to make things worse, to pay back some abuse at the weigh in, Babalu kept the choke on a few seconds after the tap. he's being fined half his purse for it but you call a guy like him names and then step into the cage with him, what do you think is going to happen.

betting against the favourites in UFC 75 this weekend. It's on Setanta so as a sky subscriber I'm having to gate crash a friends house to watch it.

I think Cheik Kongo will beat Mirko Crocop. Crocop is a hell of a fighter but his confidence may be rocked after getting sparked out by Gonzaga in Manchester. Kongo is on a winning streak and the only hole in his game is on the ground, which against Crocop probably won't be a factor. Kongo is massive and a very good striker. it'll be brutal but I'm saying Kongo KO /TKO 2nd or 3rd

I also think Dan Henderson will beat Quentin Jackson. Henderson has never been KOd and on the ground I think he has the edge. Henderson late or by decision

Can't bet against Bisping though. I think if he can get his timing going early he could knock Hamill out. if Hamill is really sharp with the take downs it'll be a hard night for Bisping but he'll finish it within 3 rounds.

incidentally, Kongo, Jackson and Bisping have all prepared for this fight in Big Bear California, where the boxing coach is Sugar Shane Mosely. De La Hoya is also involved up there. seems some of the top boxers are getting into this MMA thing.

Let's get it on!

Kongo and Bisping to win for me.  Don't think I've ever seen Henderson fight so should interesting.

Kongo has shifted to 4.1 on bet fair and it has to be an even money fight.

blonde has a four fight parlay available. I stuck to three though and went for Kongo, Bisping and Henderson at a little over 10/1 I think Alexanders a good bet too though.

off to watch it now.

Kongo v Crocop. Kongo fought a dirty fight. repeated knees to the groin were careless rather than intentional but Crocop looks very uncomfortable with Kongos power before the groin shots landed. after he looked beat. Won a bit of money on this but shame about the manor of the victory

Bisping had a tough fight against Hamill. First round was clearly Hamill. Bisping managed to do the better work in the 2nd and pick off Hamill coming in. Personally I think Hamill got the better of the 3rd but Bisping finished the round standing up and throwing bombs. that and the home advantage swung a split decision. Hamill looked sloppy and unskilled but too strong for Bisping. against Liddell, Jackson, Henderson, et al Bisping would have serious problems. no doubt he'll have to seriously consider cutting from 205lb to 185lb. He'd be a big middle weight and. Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin aside, there's not the depth of talent in the devision.

Jackson v Henderson. comfortable first round for Henderson and it looked like he'd breeze through the fight. round 2,3 & 4 though Jackson dominated and looked alot stronger. Henderson doesn't usually get out muscled on the ground but Jackson smothered all Hendersons work and despite a stronger 5th round a deserved points victory by Jackson spoiled my accumulator. glad I got on Kongo at 4.1. Henderson could well also move to middle weight.

I thought the show was a good one and a good advert for the sport. not too bloody for the more squeamish view, not too technical for the layman but enough skill shown for the connoisseur

UFC 76 this weekend.

Main event should be a walk over. Chuck Liddell is a different class to Kieth Jardine. should walk through him.

couple of other bouts might be worth a few pennies on.

Diego Sanchez v John Fitch. I've managed to get Sanchez at evens although he's currently at 1.73 He's coming off the back of his forst ever defeat and will be looking to impose himself big time. he's been boxing with Oscar De La Hoya, grappling with the Gracies and is already well thought of in the ground and pound dept. if you can get anywhere near evens on this it's a decent bet

my other bet is on the Mauricio Rua v Forrest Griffin fight. Rua has an excellent record in the ring including beating nogiuera and Quentin Jackson, but moving from the ring to the cage is hard. You only have to look at Mirko Crocop who came across from Pride as a dominant heavyweight and has lost two out of three in the cage.
Griffin lost to Keith Jardine by a flash KO in UFC 66 and lost a tough three round split decision to Tito Ortiz in UFC 59 but he also has two first round wins and three more grueling three round brawls under his belt and is no easy fight for anyone. He's currently at 3.65 but I think later in the week you could get 3.8 and he's not that big a dog here.

also the betting has started on UFC 77 and if you can get anywhere near evens on Tim Sylvia or Anderson Silva, get on because these are nailed on winners

edit;
Tim Sylvia IS currently even money on betfair. that's a cock up. get on it

I didnt see the event, in your opinion.....why the hell is Crocop bombing so badly??

Against Gonzaga he got took to ground early and pounded with elbows. He admited he'd under trained on the matt and against elbows. Being on your back in the cage is very different to being on the ground in the K1 / Pride rings. For a start, when you are touching the ropes the ref stands you back up in the ring. The cage is more than double the size and there's no help from the ref if the guy on top is working. Although Gonzaga finished the fight with a show-reel KO kick, the damage was done on the ground.

Against Kongo, he was up against a very big, strong striker who his ring-craft could possibly handle but there was some clumsy ground and pound from Kongo and in the clinch his knees were very inaccurate and Crocop took several heavy knees to the groin which took all the fight out of him.

There's no doubt that Crocop is world class but he should have got half a dozen fights before taking on seasoned cage fighters, but because of his Pride / K1 record he's been fast tracked and it's cost him. Thats why I'm tipping Forrest Griffin. Rua is obviously the better / more experienced fighter but the cage is different to the ring and Griffin is looking to prove he belongs

I thought Liddell/Jardine was a great fight. I don't really understand what's going on when they start cuddling on the floor, it seems a bit boring to me but they stayed standing up and kicked and punched the shit out of each other. Jardine deserved to win imo.

Jardine definitely won rounds 2 & 3 so deserved the decision. bit of a worry for me with Liddell. He hits so hard that most of his opponents over recent years have gone for the takedown. Liddell has got really good at sprawling to stop the take down but he's become a total counter puncher and he's stopped kicking and clinching to avoid takedowns. the guy can wrestle and also has some Ju-Jitsu but he's so determined to stay on his feet and bang, he doesn't seem to have a plan B. The Lightheavy weight division is packed with talent and Chuck could get left behind.

My tip came good again. I got on Forrest Griffin at 3/1 to beat Mauricio Rua. These ring fighters keep coming across and getting their asses kicked in the cage. Griffin was bigger and stronger and by the end of round one has axhausted Rua and, to a degree himself. the Gash on his forehead in round 2 was a really bad one and would have ended a boxing match. for the rest of the fight he pounded on Rua and thoroughly deserved the win.

The Sanchez / Fitch fight was very technical. Sanchez must have throw two dozen good submision attemts, any of which could have finished the fight. As it was, Fitch managed to resist them all and grind out a win.

The opener, Tyson Griffin v Tavares was a cracking technical fight. Tyson Griffin will get a few pennies on him next time he fights

next big event is October 8th and Tim Sylvia is STILL trading at better than evens against Brandon Vera. Definitely worth a bet. I have him a big favourite in this fight.

Anderson Silva is a good favourite over Rich Franklin but unfortunately thats reflected in the odds

Does Kimbo ever get beat in one of his streetfights?

Gannon ruined him

Kimbo would destroy Gannon now imo.  Kimbo is scheduled to fight Tank Abbot in October - ridiculous fight for Kimbo to take, it'll prove nothing when he knocks him out in the 1st round. 

no he didn't both were exhausted and throwing wild unaimed punches long after they'd run out of gas. could have gone either way.

Gannon got destroyed in the cage against Brandon Lee Hinkle, who hasn't himself had another UFC win. At the time of the Gannon / Kimbo fight, the same would have happened to Kimbo but he seems to have worked very hard and has some skill. next month Kimbo only has to avoid Tanks bombs for a minute, then it'll be easy for him. 5 years ago Tank would have made light work of an unskilled kimbo or gannon.

I think Scott's right to say Kimbo would walk through gannon now.

Excellent interpretation of the fight

Gannon kept laying him out, although kimbo got some good shots in Gannon dominated the whole of that fight

the kimbo / gannon fight was brutal, unskilled and neither did anything that'd get them through a cage fight.
Gannon proved that by getting destroyed by Brandon Lee Hinkle and, to my suprise, Kimbo showed it in the improvement he made for his cage fight against Ray Mercer.

The UFC when Gannon fought Hinkle was the first UFC DVD I bought ever, it was a terrible show. First fight got cancelled due to a low blow, the second one had two guys who punched while stepping back. Griffin fought Sinosic (terrible fighter, terrible match) and Arlovski knocked out Buentello in 20 seconds!! Well worth my money, not!

Saw on YouTube, Kimbo called out Tank after the Mercer fight and Tank was adamant they take it to the car park right there, proper nutjob! Kimbo done quite well to not get wound up. It would be a shocking fight if it was put together, it would be just for the freak show element, both would gas in under 30 seconds and one would ground and pound the other out. Would be much like the Kimo Sapp fight in Pride.

Have had some on Tim Sylvia, will prob trade it nearer the time

It has been put together, October 13th iirc.  Kimbo won't gas early, Tank will.  Kimbo to win 1t round.

didn't see the card at the time but I've seen the griffin / sinosic and Arlovski / buentello fights. Arlovski was unbeatable at the time and was nailed on to win that fight quick

Griffin or Sinosic terrible fighter? I guess you mean sinosic? I disagree. at the time he was not a full time fighter and usually travelled from Aus to fight at short notice. he's actually a pretty gifted submission fighter and a cracking guy. he's never going to worry the best in the 205 class but he's always a tough test. I actually thought he was beating Griffin comfortably until the KO.

Tim Silvia at 2.3 now.

holding back from lumping on. already on at evens but if it goes past 2.5 I'm gonna have to get more on

I meant Sinosic, every fight I've saw of his he's been well beaten, and his record of 8-9-2 isn't what you would call world class. He does seem like a decent bloke though and he's willing to fight anyone, anywhere, anytime.

like I said in the Boxing meets MMA thread, anyone who steps through the ropes / cage door deserves a great deal of respect. Sinosic is a long way from the top of the pile in the UFC but believe me when I say, that still puts him head and shoulders above fighters from all other cage fighting associations, let alone joe public.

Like in boxing, you need the journeyman fighters for up and coming superstars to earn their stripes with. Sinosic is one of those servants of the sport.

just watched the warm up show they seemed to be bigging up Vera as the favourite, maybe that's just to hype the fight up?

I'm not under estimating Vera. he's a decent prospect for the future, although probably at light heavyweight rather than heavyweight.
People underestimate Sylvia and I'm not entirely sure why. He's 6'8" and as a result looks pretty sloppy and cumbersome when he fights but he's a huge, powerful man and Vera is an undersized heavyweight.

I think alot of the issue is that Vera beat Frank Mir not long ago. for those that don't know, Mir was the heavyweigh champ a few years ago and was the UFC golden boy. He is a top Ju Jitsu guy and snapped Sylvias arm in a title defence, then went and had a serious motorbike accident. He's never really recovered and Vera beat him recently. UFC pundits and fans still hero worship Mir so if Vera beat him, it MUST be Vera > Mir > Sylvia.

personally I think Vera will try and stand with Sylvia because he saw Randy Couture do it successfuly last year. Vera may think he's the same class of fighter as Couture but I don't think he is, and I doubt Sylvia does either.

Sylvia TKO 1st / 2nd

In the main even I see Anderson Silva beating Rich Franklin again. Franklin has showed he's a class above the rest of the middleweight division in his fights since his big loss to Silva, but I also don't think he's shown anything that's going to overturn the total domination enjoyed by Silva last time.

Silva TKO 2nd / 3rd

What are peoples views on the Calzaghe v Kessler fight?
Personally I think Kessler is overpriced for this so have waged accordingly

Agree with both predictions, I'd like to see Franklin win and if he had better takedowns and ground game he'd have a chance but I think it'll stay on the feet which is a bad situation for him. Silva by KO 1st round

Don't see how Silva/Vera got second billing it will be a terrible fight and I don't really care who wins. Where the f*ck is Arlovski by the way?

It's Calzaghe all the way.

don't forget Silva is a black belt BJJ so the ground isn't a safe place for franklin either.

I disagree about Sylivia v Vera being boring (I know it's the commonly held view on forums) but I think Tim will shut a few critics up and give Vera a bit of a beating.
Someone managed to get £10 at 3/1 on betfair. I've got £20 at 2.22

Calzaghe to win but it's closer that the odds suggest. I can't back him cause the price is no good.

Heard this last night:

Mixed martial arts star Randy (The Natural) Couture announced his retirement Thursday, leaving the UFC heavyweight title up for grabs.

The inability to secure a fight with Russian heavyweight star Fedor Emelianenko and issues with UFC management appear to have driven the decision. But at 44, Couture also knew Father Time was catching up. The barrel-chested Hall of Famer, who left the sport for almost a year in early 2006, exits a champion - and with plenty of opportunities in other fields

So Sylvia/Vera is now a final eliminator for the championship fight!

division is wide open. I think Randy would have won a couple of defences easy.

Arlovski I think will take hold of the division
Crocop (when he gets his head in the game)
Sylvia / Vera (money is on Sylvia)
Nogueira coming in
Frank Mir finally put in a good performance last fight
Kongo is a hard fight for anyone
Gonzaga can obviously cause an upset

I want to see Arlovski v Cro Cop, although Arlovski v Congo or even Arlovski v Mir
winner to fight Sylvia / Vera for the title

Nice call on Tim Sylvia AdamM.
I had a free bet to use so had £40 on him at 13/10.

Fuck. Thought UFC 77 was tonight.  Bugger.  Didn't get a bet on.

 :)up

on a bit of a run for picking these

had Couture to beat Sylvia, Kongo to beat Crocop, Couture to beat Gonzaga, Griffin to beat Rua, Sylvia to beat Vera, all between evens and 3.8.

I should start a tips service

Shame Sylvia didn't find the confidence with his striking until 3rd round. I think he realised late in the fight that Vera really couldn't take the power. Vera was perhaps stronger in the clinch than Sylvia expected and managed to at least neutralise him for a couple of rounds. Right decision by the judges though.

Wasn't Anderson Silva incredible again? Rich Franklin is head and shoulders better than the rest of the middleweight division, and Silva is miles better than Franklin. Silva is settled in for a very very long reign in that division.

some other good fights with a variety of Ju Jitsu, Muay Thai and ground & pound on show.

UFC 77 was a good night. Don't worry Scott, I'll sort you a tip for the next one  ;)

looking at the fight card for UFC 78 I see most of the favourites winning.
Houston Alexander should beat Thiago Silva
I think Ed Herman should beat David Terrell
Karo Perisian is a favourite over Ryo Chonan
On the under card, Chris Lytle should beat Thiago Alves
and Jason Lauzon should beat Jason Reinhardt

I think the upset will come in the main event, Michael Bisping v Rashad Evans.
Evans is a decent fighter. In his last outing he got a controversial draw against Tito Ortiz. A fight that people generally thought he won, and I agree. He was much better than Ortiz on the night and given that only losses to Randy Couture and Chuck Liddell spoil a record of 11 wins since 2000. That's an impressive result for Evans, even if he didn't actually get the win

Bisping, however, has just had a controversial win over Matt Hamill. most US fans think Hamill won the fight, but I disagree with this. He expected Hamill to go straight for the takedown as he's technically a pretty shite striker. As a world class wrestler with what the americans charmingly call 'tard strength ( ;carlocitrone; ) that would have seemed the most likely tactic. Instead, Hamill used his strength and charged into a striking war. Bispings timing was poor in round 1 and he got badly knocked about. Rounds two and three he managed to stay at longer range and pick Hamill off with long jab / crosses and kicks but he was fighting backing off and at the end of the fight he was the one with the messed up face. add in the sympathy card because of Hamill being profoundly deaf (not that I'm suggesting HE uses that as an excuse, I'm not) and the public are left thinking Bisping was wrong to get the tick in the win column.

What Hamill brought to the table was his superior physical strength which he surprisingly chose to utilise mostly on his feet, rather than wrestling, which is his strength.
Rashad Evans is also a great Wrestler. Better than Hamill probably. BUT he's not as physically strong. Striking, Bisping has a big advantage.
Evans is the shorter fighter so I think he's going to have trouble getting Bisping to the mat. He's going to have to exchange on their feet and hope to land a big shot and then, if he can get Bisping stunned, go for the take down.
I think he'll struggle to land that shot and Bisping will pick him off. Evans won't charge, bull-like as Hamill did. Evans will try and stalk and spring into exchanges and Bispings stand up will be too good.
IF Evans does manage a take down one of thes things will happen.
1 - Bisping will be able to hold him and get the ref to stand them up, because Bisping is stronger.
2 - Bisping will reverse the position on the way down and land on top. If Evans ends up on his back, I think he's in big trouble. Wrestlers like Evans on their back are like tortoises. Add Bisping on top pounding down and he's in a very bad spot.
3 - If Evans gets sloppy on top, Bisping could grab an arm bar, or even scramble for Evans' back. Although it's not his strength, but Bisping does have some Ju Jitsu and this might be a rare occasion where he has the best Ju Jitsu in the match up.

All in all, I think Bisping has more ways to win than Evans. Evans is extremely unlikely to KO Bisping. Evans has no chance of submitting Bisping. Ground and pound is his only way to win.
People have forgotten how dominant Bisping was in the Ultimate Fighter series he won. With the exception of Hamill, no-one else was even close to him.

with Bisping trading at 2.22 and likely to go higher, that's where my money is going. I think I'll ask for 2.5 on Betfair and then, closer to fight time, see if I can get some action up near 2.8 or beyond.

given the right opponent, good money could well be made betting against this guy. weighing 300lbs is not a great advantage in the cage. a guy with that much muscle needs a lot of oxygen pumped round his system. 5 x 5 minute rounds against a big hitting cage fighter is a VERY big ask. Randy would have slaughtered him. as it is he'll probably have a banger to deal with.

next heavyweight champ? Arlovski will hopefuly fight in December / January and if he wins will probably face Sylvia for the vacant title.

pretty efficient start

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=5XLkqQwIT2k&NR=1

Hard to tell with the quality of the video but he looks like hes dropped some weight, which can only be a good thing.

the more they hype him up, the better odds I'll get on his first UFC opponent.

If accomplished Ring fighters like Crocop and Rua struggle when they first step in the cage, WWE stars are really going to have it hard.

Long term he might do ok but first few fights he'll have a tough time.

The first time I heard he was gonna do this I thought your having a laugh, not so sure now. He's weighing 265 and cut at 6'3. Give him a few fights and I reckon he's got a real chance of making it in the UFC, after all he was an amazing amateur wrestler. They're more than likely going to give him a few Muppet's he can manhandle to start off his career there. The UFC have given him a 2 year contract so they wont be wanting him losing in his first few fights for fear of losing the ticket sales he's gonna bring in. Can't wait to see a match with him against one of the UFC's name heavyweights.
Who's next John Cena, now that would be rotflmfao

I've done a bit of youtubing of him, trying to find non 'entertainment' wrestling stuff of him.

His K1 fight looks OK.

the college wrestling was pretty unimpressive to be honest. didn't see anything that'd help him in the cage.

I'm not writing him off because he obviously doesn't lack drive and determination, and I'm sure he'll be seeking expert coaching.

I'll give him a fair crack of the whip but I'm sceptical.
 
I just wish they could persuade a big boxing name to give it a go. I'd love to see a boxer get pwned in the octagon.

Calzaghe v Kessler, should be a good match up Calzaghe at 1.77 Kessler at 2.5 at the min. I'm backing Joe by decision at 2.52

No boxer in their right mind would give it a go as they would lose.  Similarly any top boxer would beat any mma fighter under the marquess of queensbury rules.

Max bet for me on Britains best boxer.  I expectd him to be a lot shorter.

Britains best boxer isnt fighting until 8th December.

Britains second best boxer should win inside the distance Saturday.

not necessarily. Many MMA fighters can Box to a very high standard.

I would lay any MMA fighter against a top boxer until the cows come home if it ever happened (not that it ever will).

and given the right MMA fighter, I may well take it.

Big name boxers like Oscar De La Hoya and Shane Mosely have already started training with / coaching UFC fighters and increasingly, the best strikers in the UFC can throw hands as well as most boxers.

I'd still rather see the fight take place in the cage because I prefer the test of all round fighting skills, rather than one aspect only.

I've got another tip

UFC 80 top of the bill is Matt Serra v Matt Hughes.
Matt Serra to win.

Hughes was a dominant champion in the welterweight division 2001 - 2006, with only one loss to BJ Penn in that time, which he later avenged.
Then in 2006 George St Pierre destroyed him. I mean it wasn't even close, he just hammered him. He's had only one fight since. A three round war against Chris Lytle who, although a great fighter to watch, is no more than a UFC Journeyman. Talking to his team on the current TUF season he admitted to them he was nearly done in the UFC and had maybe one or two fights left in him.

Serra WAS a UFC journeyman with losses to BJ Penn, Karo Parision and Din Thomas (all of which were questionable decisions in my opinion). He reinvented himself in the last TUF season and and showed himself to be head and shoulders above the other contenders (figuratively speaking, he's a short arse). He also won a 3 round war with Chris Lytle in the finale. He then went on to Knock George St Pierre out in the Welterweight title fight.

There are a few reasons I'm backing Serra. Hughes' Wrestling is top draw but recently he's been trying to man it out by standing and striking with his opponents. Lytle gave him a hard time and GSP battered him standing.
Serra beat Lytle and GSP standing and I think has a decent edge if it stays upright.
On The ground, Hughes of old would of had a significant advantage. today I think it's a lot closer.

The main reason I think Serra will win though is that his team in TUF is destroying Hughes' team. The title will likely be won by a team Serra fighter and Hughes is REALLY pissed about it all. Serra is confident and Hughes is effectively ON TILT. you know what that does to your poker game. Imagine the results in a cage.

SERRA IS TRADING AT 3.55. That's crazy value for me and it might even go higher.

Also, If you're not already on Bisping to beat Evans in UFC 79, watch the price. He's at 2.84 at the minute but you can get over 3 if you ask for it. I've some on spread between 3 and 4.

Carl Froch said in an interview with the BBC the other day that people would prefer a British showdown with him and Joe Calzaghe.  In what World would anyone ever want this more than Calzaghe against Bernard Hopkins ?

Carl Froch is using Calzaghes name to build a higher profile for himself.  Its easy to call a man out when you know there is not a hope in hell of the fight actually happening.  I actually think Froch is a very classy fighter but is doing himslef no favours by calling out Calzaghe every time he opens his mouth.  If he is serious about making his way to the top of the division he should be looking to fights omeone like Lacy, Bute or Kessler. 

Former streetfighter Kimbo Slice had his 2nd MMA fight this past weekend.  Seemed to be a pathetic opponent, over in 19 seconds and I couldn't see a true hit.

Found the video: http://www.ufc-forums.com/showthread.php?t=261


Really looking forward to the Hatton fight now!!!

thanks for that scott.

fight was supposed to be Tank Abbott. Don't think Tank would have backed off and gone down to one elbow.

I think MMA Kimbo would easily beat Tank.
Street fight Kimbo of two years ago would have lost to tank, but he's starting to look like a reasonable MMA fighter.
I hope someone gives him a shot at a name fighter soon.

This fight was actually meant to be against Mike Bourke, but pulled out with an injury.  Cantrell replaced Bourke at quite short notice I bleieve.

The Tank Abbot fight was scheduled for October 12th-ish but was cancelled when the company had promotion problems.  The Cantrell fight was with EliteXC.

Really looking forward to Slice fighting someone decent.

I hate to see that in a fight, he browned his shorts before the fight even began and then tapped out before he needed to!

I've noticed as well, especially in Ultimate Fighter 6, that there's more to being a fighter than just being an athlete and in good shape, which I think these guys are learning on the show - the number of them shitting themselves and pussying out is quite shocking. MMA is definitely 25% physical 25% skill and 50% mental.

A few good fights/events coming up - Bisping/Evans, Liddell/Silva, Serra/Hughes but the fight that's got the potential to be great is Guida Vs Huerta. Huerta's on a role at the minute, destroying everyone but I don't see him doing this to Guida - very accomplished and comfortable in the cage. Can't remember who he got beat off at one of the UFC events in the UK, maybe Tyson Griffin but it was a shocking decision but great fight.

Huerta's very entertaining.

nice to see him getting top billing for the first time.

Title shot as soon as the 155 division mess is sorted out
(Sherks positive steroid test & Penn v Stevenson interim title)

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Definitely the right decision. One round each going into the third and I couldn't find a reason to give Bisping the final round (and I really tried). The worrying thing is Evans looked pretty ordinary.

If Bisping can't get through an ordinary Evans and a determined but unskilled Hamill, I don't see how he has any chance against the top 10 in the division.

I don't see him getting through Griffin, Jardine, Thiago Silva, Alexander, Rua etc, never mind Jackson, Henderson, Liddell.

In TUF3 he looked a devastating striker with a reasonably dangerous submission game. He looks like he's totally lost the confidence to let his hands and feet go. Being up against wrestlers hasn't helped but he's not fighting the cream of the light heavyweights. His only option is to move down to 185 where, except for Franklin and Silva, I think he could cause anyone else in the division a problem. He needs to get the confidence back to start throwing his strikes again.

Fight of the night was Edgar v Fischer. good technical performance by Edgar. Silva's destruction of Alexander was impressive too.

December 30th Matt Serra to beat Matt Hughes  ;applause; and Wanderlai Silva to beat (and maybe retire) Chuck Liddell  :'(

I really think he needs to move down.  I thought it after the Hamill fight, but was still sure he would have had too much for Evans.  Neither man was very impressive.  Evans could fight at middleweight too.

Has Bisping fought at middleweight before?

No, but he walks around and fights at 205 lbs where as most light-heavyweights walk around and fight at 220 lbs+, Evans included. and cut over a stone for the weigh in.

Not all fighters rely on a size / strength advantage, but as a hang over from his kickboxing days, Bisping has a counter punching style that means if the guy walking on is much heavier than him, it's harder than if they were smaller.

Picturing in my mind Bisping punching a middle order Middleweight like Leben, Herman, Grove, MacDonald, etc I imagine him having a much bigger impact than on the bigger light-heavys

 

Middle weight division just got a hell of a lot stronger.

Dan Henderson drops down to 185 to fight Anderson Silva in March.

why are 83.7% of UFC fighters called Silva?

very common Brazilian name I imagine.

Brazilians are well represented in the UFC

turns out its 1.47% (4/272 listed fighters)

Absolutely gutted.

Matt Serra had injured his back in training and has had to withdraw from his fight with Matt Hughes Dec 30th. I was really looking forward to Serra beating Hughes but I'll have to wait till at least the summer now

probably makes Liddell v Silva (yes Byronkincaid, another one) top of the bill, which I'm not looking forward to, because I've been a huuge fan of Chucks and I see him losing this one, and maybe closing in on retirement.

Just heard the Serra news, bummer.  What you make of Hughes vs St. Pierre?

I hope GSP pounds Hughes chin into the matt!

This may mean Hughes v Serra never happens.

I see GSP beating Hughes again, then in the summer fighting Serra for the title.
That means win or lose, Serra wouldn't be available to fight Hughes until this time next year.
If Serra beats GSP and retains the title, Hughes would have to beat one of the top contenders in the summer to justify a title shot at the end of 08 and I just don't think he has enough left in him.
if Hughes beats GSP (which I don't expect) it's title fight with Serra, then retire
if He loses to GSP, and so does Serra in the summer (possible, but I'm backing Serra) then it's non title fight v Serra then retire
if Serra beats GSP in a title fight in the summer, we never get to see Serra beat Hughes, which I'm very unhappy about.

We'll have to see how it pans out.

Love him or hate him (the latter in my case) you cant deny between 2000 and 2005 Hughes was a dominant champion, and clearly the best in the sport, but he's winding down now and I don't see him retiring with the title.

have hatton, mayweather fought before?

no

TUF 6 semis and final tonight. Starts in 10 mins

Watched it - disappointing final.  Expected Tommy to put up a very decent performance.

I disagree. thoroughly enjoyed the card.

J-Rock v War machine (what's with the nicknames these days) was a thrilling war
George (insert long greek name I haven't learned yet) was very impressive
Matt Arroya looks like a good prospect
Mac Danzig was a totally different class to Tommy Speer. Mac has fought at a high level for a while and is only a couple of fights away from a title shot at lightweight already. Huerta, Penn, Stevenson, Florian & Sherk should be worried
Huerta v Guida was a cracker too. Huerta looked to be heading for a three round beating and a unanamous decision but pulled a stunning submission victory out in the 3rd.

Lightweight (155lb) and welterweight (170lb) divisions are packed with talent, as is the light-heavyweight division. The heavyweight isn't too bad, with some big fights still to come. Just need to get the middleweights up to strength. Henderson is dropping down for a super fight with Silva next year, and Franklin is still a great fighter but that's about it.

UFC is looking stronger than ever.

...and as if by magic, I come across the announcement that TUF7 will be Middleweight contenders.

Coaches will be Light heavyweight champ Quentin Jackson and TUF1 winner Forrest Griffin, who gets a title shot at the end of the season. Griffin beat Mauricio Rua recently, who was being talked about as the best Light heavyweight in the world and who was the last guy to beat Jackson. REALLY looking forward to that.

I also read that after 13 years and 535 bouts, Big John McCarthy has retired as an active referee. He's still involved in coaching other refs and is still working as an ambassador for UFC but the Hueta v Guida fight was his last.

Sorry Adam, I didn't say I didn't enjoy it.  I said the final (as in Danzig v. Speer) was a disappointment as I expected Tommy to put up a better performance.

About time Mazzagatti quit!

The final we were all hoping for was Mac v George.

Mazzagati is, by FAR the worst ref in the game. I Like Herb Dean, Yves Lavigne looks ok, Mario Yamazaki (best mixed race name EVER) is ok, but can sometime jump in too soom on the ground and pound.

McCarthy was a different class though

George looked impressive in his other fights but extremely poor in the semi.  Looked scared.

how come top boxers get paid so much more than top UFC fighters? I heard UFC are getting higher PPV numbers.

also I read that Lorenzo Fertitta was on the Nevada State Athletic Commission and voted no to letting the UFC put shows on in Vegas, until he bought the company and then the commission changed it's mind!

I think it's probably only the VERY top boxers that's the case for.
I would think the average money earned by a UFC fighter is higher than the average money earned by a boxer. The title holders in UFC can sometimes get 3 fights in a year too, plus the sponsorships / endorsements are pretty lucrative too.

They don't make a bad living but I think compared to boxing there's a flatter payout structure.

Before the Fertita brothers took hold of UFC it was in a mess. It needed seriously cleaning up. I sometimes watch my early UFC DVDs and it's a completely different game

from wiki


I read that when Keith Jardine fought Chuck Liddell, Chuck got $1 mill and Keith got $24K + another $24K for winning. I know someone who's cousin is an over the hill ex british boxing champ and he gets £3K a fight. They said on the telly that Ricky H got £7mill in his last fight.

I know that fighting is fun and you must get a huge buzz from fighting in the UFC but unless you're a top fighter that don't seem a lot for the amount of training you have to do and the risks that you take stepping into the cage.

UFC PPV revenue was over $200 mill in 2006

Not sure 'Fun' is the right word.

I don't know about the money. I'd be guessing. The organisation's overheads must be huge though. it's not like $200m - fighter fees = profit

Because Dana White doesn't discuss the money, this sort of speculation is rife. There are plenty of bonuses, endorsements and opportunities for the fighters. You wouldn't expect undercard fighters to be making millions but the top guys are multi millionaires.

Also, is stepping in the cage that big a risk? there's been 1 death in cage fighting, and that was in an eastern european fight that was little more than a bare knuckle street fight. There's been no serious injury in the UFC. Obviously I'm not saying the training isn't intense. These guys train as hard, or harder than the very top boxers now.

great news for Mike Bisping fans. He's finally decided to move down to Middleweight. He walks around at 211lbs, only 6lbs over fight weight. Most Light heavyweights walk around 230lbs+

As I mentioned in my earlier post, with the exception of Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson and arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the world (including Mayweather), Anderson Silva, the division is pretty weak and Bisping could do very well.

Well, I'm not a doctor but I imagine that there's some risk to lying on the ground while someone repeatedly elbows you in the head.

Bisping/Silva would be like Hatton/Mayweather, we'd talk him up and convince ourselves he has a chance, but really...

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JnpUkneMSWE

I don't think I'd put any money on Bisping against Silva. I think the gap between them is far greater than Hatton Mayweather

that clip wasn't 'repeatedly' anything. Cracking knockout. Obviously you get hurt short term, but it's martial arts. you expect it to hurt.

Boxing is far more dangerous than MMA. KOs in the cage are flash knockouts. Fighters are full conscious in a few minutes. Knockouts in boxing are usually concusion and can take soften take days to recover from.

Listen to retired MMA fighters talk. Randy couture for example is clear as a bell and has fought MMA 20+ years into his 40s. Boxers with a comparable record are often a slurring confused mess.

err I didn't say it was. ???

ah, sorry I see. the two sentences were unrelated. Second line relates to the Silva clip. First one doesn't.  ;djinn;

Yes you're right, repeatedly elbowing a downed opponent is pretty dangerous, which is why it's no longer allowed. a big part of Zuffa taking over was a thorough overhaul of the rules (such that there were). kicks and knees to the head of a downed opponent and elbow points to the head of down points have not been allowed for a while now.

best pound for pound fighter in the world.

YouTube: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gmPFvUxQ3ec

All through TUF 6 you could hear the coaches shouting "elbow" when they went to ground.

Tons of elbows on the ground in this fight. The commentator actually says "he's doing a good job of landing those elbows."

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=23637112 (http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=23637112)

sorry, it's elbowing the fighter on his back thats against the rules. there was some very early fights in the sport where the guy on top would be dropping elbows on the guy on his back and doing pretty heavy damage.

From the top fighters may not use the point on their elbows. forearms are fine.

J-Rocks elbows from the bottom were fantastic in this fight and would have really hurt War Machine but other than splitting the skin, no serious damage would have been done.

Fighting shouldn't be a 'sweet science.' It's brutal and ugly. UFC is safe in respect of serious injury but it's a real fight and some blood and bruising is to be expected.

ah, I see now thanks. there seems to be a pretty fine line between a forearm and an elbow tho :)

someone said Couture will fight Fedor as soon as he is out of his UFC contract. Fedor has never been beaten I think? Couture seems quite a boring although obv very effective fighter to me. Watched a few clips of Fedor on youtube and he looks pretty good for a fat guy!

I agree the forearm / elbow thing is a bit of a grey area.

Couture v Fedor. I'd have loved to have seen that in the UFC cage.
There's this odd thing where some people want to be seen as truer MMA fans by hating UFC and it's fighters and instead hero worshipping fighters from other association, especially Pride. These people have had mixed success with their non UFC fighters when they've stepped into the Octagon, since UFC bought Pride.
Rampage has yet to lose and is reigning Light heavyweight champ and set to be a TUF7 coach.
Anderson Silva is probably the best P4P fighter in the world and will have the Middleweight belt as long as he wants it.
Mauricio Rua was supposed to be the best Light Heavyweight in the world but Forrest Griffin beat him up in the cage.
Cro Cop has been very disappointing.
Henderson will have to move to Middleweight to have an impact.

Fedor v Couture would have been another of these UFC v the world fights. Fedor has certainl;y beat the best Pride had to offer, like Herring, Noguera, and Cro cop which means the Pride hero worshippers have a LOT invested in the guy. He's beat all their hero's and they hate UFC so Fedor MUST walk through Couture. In the UFC cage, no one walks through Randy Couture and I'd have been backing him to cause an upset. In a ring, or in another association, who knows. Shame UFC couldn't make it happen.

Dana White has previously said "You don't resign from a contract. You retire." He insists that Randy is under contract to UFC and that if he fights again, it'll be in the UFC. That looks unlikely now but if Couture fights elsewhere, I expect UFC to sue. I've been a big fan of Randy Couture martial artist in repsect of his technique AND his character, but I have to say, IMO he's not behaved well through this whole thing.

they showed this clip from UFC 8 on TV tonight, totally brutal, the first blow seems to knock him out, but that's only the first of 8 elbows to the head. The fighters are obv a lot better and the rules have been tightened up a lot but wasn't this type of stuff better for the purists? It used to be people from different martial arts coming together to see who was the best right? Like the film Bloodsport. Now everybody does the same stuff, Muay, BJJ and wrestling. It would be great if some 80 year old monk came down from a mountain and pwned everyone in UFC.

http://myvideofight.com/video/ufc/ufc-8-gary-goodridge-vs-paul-herrera/index.html (http://myvideofight.com/video/ufc/ufc-8-gary-goodridge-vs-paul-herrera/index.html)

lol they've got UFC 1 on that site, those guys wouldn't last a minute these days.

Jesus, Big John could have been in a bit quicker there!!!

The early UFC taught us what we needed to know. Pure traditional matrial arts systems and pure boxing DON'T work in a real fight. Brazilian Ju-Jitsu dominated, but as strikers began working on their grappling the BJJ guys started getting a pounding too.

Bruce Lee was trying to get people to embrase cross training in the late 60's / early 70's but it took UFC to give people the kick up the arse they needed. Anyone training in traditional arts, thinking they are preparing themselves for real fighting were, and still are deluding themselves.

The Goodridge fight was the one I was thinking of with the repeat elbows to the downed opponent. That would have killed someone eventually, which is why it needed changing.

Probably the new best pound for pound fighter in the world (watch out AdamM):

Also, in the build up to the big fight..........

(the credit has to go to ChipRich here im afraid)

http://www.grapheine.com/bombaytv/index.php?module=see&lang=uk&code=98f121d1975c5cd4c3aa3c98a15aee50

what big fight is that?

 :dontask:

Didn't think so.

Any hoo

UFC 79
Chuck Liddell is even money on betfair against Wanderlai Silva at the minute.
My head says Silva will win but my heart is pulling for Chuck so a little flutter is in order.
I'd back GSP to beat Hughes too, but he's odds-on and I'm reludtant to back odds- on favourites in a two horse race.

Another bet that might be worth tracking on betfair is Frank Mir v Brock Lesnar UFC 81.

I've watched some of Lesnars college wrestling 'highlights' and as much of the WWE ballet as I could stand, as well as his first MMA fight (which was ok). Over all, not particularly impressed. Frank Mir has never been a favourite fighter of mine, but in his prime, he was pretty useful. His submissions are world class. After his motorbike crash a few years ago he's struggled to break back into the big time, but in his last undercard fight at UFC 74 he looked very slick.

As he's not up against a skilled striker in Lesnar, I think an early submission is quite likely and if the hype machine kicks in, I think Lesnar might go favourite on the book. I've laid Lesnar at 1.6 to see if I can get the ball rolling but I'll be tracking it between now and fight time February 2nd.

I think Lesnar will win this.

what odds will you take?

Will see nearer the time.

Didn't realise there was a drugs problem in MMA. The penalties seem really light.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=AtGF7z6NKy.5tUsHqlU1q4s5nYcB?slug=dm-mmaroids121707&prov=yhoo&type=lgns (http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=AtGF7z6NKy.5tUsHqlU1q4s5nYcB?slug=dm-mmaroids121707&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)

yes there is, and I totally agree.

I think I heard that Cage rage has said it's zero tolerance on steroids, but UFC hands out short suspensions. Not good enough IMO.

UFC hype/marketing whatever you wanna call it is so fecking good. Better than the actual fights a lot of the time IMO.

http://79.ufc.com/ (http://79.ufc.com/)

really looking forward to both of the top two fights from this card.

Anywhere we can watch UFC online tonight?

Read the results - looking forward to watching it tonight on Bravo.  I won't fire out any spoilers.

WOW!

Liddell Fight was amazing.

GSP in class of his own.

Says it all.

Hughes offered nothing.

GSP beats Serra, Hughes has final UFC match against Serra?

I enjoyed the fights tonight. UFC 80 to an uneducated MMA noob like me looks kinda zzzzzzzzz.

Fedor fighting some 7 foot tall dude tomorrow, is it on UK TV?

That wasn't the Chuck Liddell that was dominating the division a few years ago, knocking Jeremy Horn out for the first time in his career, Owning great fighters like Couture, Babalu and Ortiz. He REALLY needed the win and Silva is a great notch on his record. Nice to see a bit of versitility. He got so used to knocking people out, he maybe got a bit lazy with his ground fighting and his kicking. Looking forward to seeing who they give him next. Great to see him on the right track again.

GSP was fantastic again. If he beats Serra, I agree Hughes v Serra then Hughes retires. If Serra beats GSP first then Hughes is finished.

Fedor defeated Choi via submission in the first round.

yeah it's on youtube, boring.

I didn't think so.

Shame we UFC can't persuade him to sign.

Choi? :)

No, Fedor

People say he's the top heavyweight in the world and his record in MMA in the ring his excellent. If we could get him into the UFC cage we could find out for sure. Silva and Rampage excepted, many great pride fighters have stuttered or even outright failed in the cage. Shame Couture v Fedor in the cage is a non-starter.

some people say that may be cos the testing is far more stringent in the UFC.

As well as keeping my eye on UFC 81 betting to try and get an even money or better bet on Frank Mir to beat Brock Lesnar, I'll also be watching the odds on 'Minatauro' Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira v Tim Silvia in the Interim Heavyweight title.

I expect Minatauro to be a big favourite in the betting because MMA fans LOVE him and HATE Tim.
Nog's the technically better fighter he's only had one fight in the octagon against fellow Pride fighter Heath Herring who himself has only managed 1 win in 3 against TUF1 fighter Brad Imes.

Timmy, however has won 9 from 12 in the octagon, has held the title twice and is well more than capable of an upset here. It's over 5 rounds as it's a title fight and 6'8" of lumbering Timmy might just show Nogueira up. Hoping to get on between 3.5 and 4.

Keep us posted Adam - that would be a great price for Sylvia.  Still rooting for Lesnar!

I'll personally be rooting AGAINST Lesnar, simply because he has the worst tattoo I have ever seen (the sword up and down his body) and he talks like a girl. Wouldn't say that to his face though!

Calzaghe vs Hopkins 11/12 April in Vegas.

Should be fun.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/7172156.stm

Go Joe ;cheerleader;

A little tip for UFC80

Jess Liaudin to beat Marcus Davis, currently at 2.1. Liaudin is a Frenchman who's lived and trained in London for a long time. He was on the last two UK cards and won in the first round both times. Davis might be a tougher test than his last two opponents, but I fancy him to win it.

I like BJ Penn in the main event, but at 3.65 Stevenson is getting mighty tempting.

There's no other decent bets on this card.

I said I'd be watching UFC 81 betting. Someone's traded £500 on an even money bet on Sylvia v Nogeuira but that's left both fighters with only short prices. I'll want better than evens before I'll back Sylvia.

Mir v Lesnar, both are still sat at 1.7

UFC 82 I can't see Anderson Silva getting anywhere near evens against Dan Henderson, although I think it's a good even money bet for supporters of either fighter. Long time to go on that one though.

Another cracking UFC card on saturday (although a betting disaster for me) I originally thought Penn would beat Stevenson in the main event but I got tempted by slightly bettethan 7/2. Turned out to be a fair price because Penn was dominant. After handing Stevenson a thorough beating in round 1 including a split forehead from an elbow, Penn finished off with a choke. I don't see Sean Sherk offering much resistance in their fight in early summer. I expect Roger Huerta to test him later in the year though.

Werdum's KO of Gonzaga was a belter, as was Gouveia's of Lambert. Heavyweight division has some bangers at the minute.

I didn't expect Jorge Rivera to walk through Kendall Grove like he did.

I also lost a bet on Davis v Llaudin. I still think Llaudin is the better fighter, but you get punched on the caroted artery and you're going to sleep. Highlight reel KO but it wasn't aimed.

All English Paul Taylor v Paul Kelly was a war. Again a badly gashed forehead made is a bloody fight but both fighters were impressive.

Watched the Skelton fight straight after.  ;sleep;
I like the guy but he should have stuck to Martial arts.

www.ufcpreview.com have most of the fight videos if anyone missed it

have to agree Adam..........thought it was top class

http://fight.proelite.com/kimbo-slice-vs-tank-abbott.html (http://fight.proelite.com/kimbo-slice-vs-tank-abbott.html)

I think Lesnar will beat Mir and if he fights for the title on NYE it will be the biggest PPV money spinner ever.

they actually have the whole PPV in two parts on their main page. Enjoy.  The card was blasted by some beforehand but some great fights.

I too am in the Lesnar camp - first round victory for me.

Kimbo is going to destroy Tank.  Also first round.

My money is going on Mir.
There's good logical reasons why Mir can win, but mostly, I'm betting on the Martial artist to beat the entertainment wrestler.
The cage has frozen much better fighters than Lesnar and Mir looked close to his old standard agains Hardonk last year.

I agree, Kimbo will destroy Tank.
When's that happening? Can't find confirmation that's back on.

Adam, Byron linked this small preview thing about the Kimbo fight.

Cheers

I just watched UFC 6 today. Tank Abbot beat his first opponent in 21 secs and his second in about 2 minutes. He lost in the final to Oleg Taktarov after a long fight. The event was in Colorado, 5000 miles above sea level. Not ideal for a man like Tank Abbot even at 30.
I guess he's 42/43 now. I can't see him keeping up with Kimbo. ofcourse, if he lands flush inside the first minute, he could still knock him out.

where can i watch UFC 6 Adam?

I've started my collection

www.fightdvd.co.uk


I have 1-8 now. only another 60 DVDs or so to buy (yes some of us still pay  ;) ) It's an on going project and with easy christmas / birthday presents I expect it to take a year or two to put together.

I watched 3-6 in the last week with UFC 80 in between. It's a VERY different game now.

I have the early UFC's as well, I love Gracie V Kimo from UFC 3 just for the fact everyone was so confident Gracie would roll over him and Gracie only survived that fight by clinging to Kimo's hair for dear life and popping an armbar.

I fully expect Mir to beat lesnar, lesnar is a world class wrestler and athlete but he will have to prove he has a stand up game and will need to add submission and submission defence to his wrestling abilities.  He wont be able to F-5 Mir!  I expect mir to nail him with a few kicks on their feet, lesnar will take him down and get the better of Mir on the mat but Mir will catch an armbar to submit him from his back

yep.

triangle choke I think

Mir is currently 2.0 on Betfair.  Tim Sylvia is 2.4, I'll be having a piece of that.

I've managed to lay Lesnar between 1.6 and 1.8.

I do thnk Sylvia has a good chance against Nogieura but can't quite get my self to bet on it.

I might see if I can get a silly bet matched. 2.8 - 3.0

Fight Science: MMA

not brilliant but probably worth watching just cos Bas is in it.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8G4DUXK0 (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8G4DUXK0)

watching this now - quite interesting thus far

It certainly is a different game. In many respects I perferred it in the early days when it was so much rawer with no weight divisions and vastly different styles.

I think it's a bit harsh to quantify Brock as merely an "entertainment wrestler". He had a considerable amauter wrestling career and many people have stated how strong Brock is. Granted MMA is very different and he needs to adapt but he has the tools and application to do something in MMA. The only negative thing that see is this generation of MMA is so advanced technically that it's difficult to see any rookie come straight against a former world champion and expect him to win let alone dominate. If a legend like Royce Gracie struggles against Matt Hughes, a fighter representative of the modern style, then what hope is there for a gifted fighter against a former world champion?.

However, having heard a Batista interview on youtube saying how strong Brock is and that if they arm wrestled Brock would breck his arm I've got a funny feeling Brocks strenght may shock Mir and see the "entertainment wrestler" win. £20 on it Adam???

I've watched a few of Lesnars college wrestling fights and saw nothing that will do him any good in the cage.
I saw his MMA debut and he looked ok. pretty efficient win.
Lesnar may develop into a decent UFC fighter in time, but in the UFC cage for the first time with a technician like Mir is a big ask. As I've said before, Mir has been off his game since his motorbike crash and only against Hardonk in his last fight, did he look anywhere near his best.
Mir at 80%+ will be too good for Lesnar I think.

I'd take the bet, but I've already laid Lesnar at 1.6 and 1.8. another £20 at evens is not very likely.

Really looking forward to this card

hoping Sylvia can upset Nog too.

I've just checked and both Mir and Sylvia can be backed at 2.4 now.

Crazy, that's another £10 on each. for my level of sports betting, I'm pretty much lumped on both now

Not sure how all this laid betting stuff works, guess I should check it out sometime. I just made the £20 bet for a bit of interest and for the potential bragging rights. Let's make it a beer at the next blonde bash and for bragging rights just so I can say I know more about MMA than blondes resident MMA expert  ;cupcake;

I'll happily talk MMA with you at the next blonde bash (assuming I go) and if Lesnar wins I'll get them in.

just been to UFC.com and watched all the press conferences and one to one interviews. I don't think Lesnar thinks he can win this fight. He basically says he's hoping to get lucky. This could be a walk over for Mir. I am warming to Lesnar as a person, but he's not ready to take on Frank Mir.

He did seem a bit apprehensive but I don't think he thinks this.  He'd be an idiot to take the fight if he doesn't think he can win.

Lesnar FTW!

wouldn't have to be an idiot, just a proud, brave man, in over his head.

Mirs striking is miles better and Lesnar doesn't have the technical knowledge to defend the submissions.
Mir traingle or armbar early

I hope Mir wins this fight, Lesnar might be a good guy (although maybe not with a tattoo like that) but he's been brought in as a pure marketing tool which I think disrespects all other fighter's who have been grinding and training for years in this sport just to get a chance in the UFC. The guy has one fight and gets signed up, a bit of a joke really.

Mir's 6/5 on Bet365 but don't know if that's a good price compared to other sites but it's good enough for my money. Lesnar is 6/4 favourite, which is surprising. All the other fights don't look worth betting (mega-favourites vs underdogs) unless anyone has tips on a shock victory on the undercard?

you could maybe look at the price on Jeremy Horn to beat Nate Marquart. Horn's picked up a couple of undercard wins since Chuck made a mess of him but he's a tough guy to beat and he's 2.34 on Betfair. not a bad price, but if you can get a bit more he's maybe worth a shot.

Other than that, Sylvia and Mir are the only good prices.

Lesnar has been training for a year, Mir 4 weeks. Who's showing the disrespect? Mir gasses in round 2 Brock wins by ground and pound? I think it' a very tough fight to call.

Adam how do you know Mir's striking is miles better? The big question is that nobody knows how good Lesnar is do they?

fwiw I have £20 on Lesnar and Sylvia. just got rid of sky tv, regretting it already :(

Can you do doubles on the UFC on Betfair?  Fancy a Lesnar/Sylvia double.

sadly not. I've asked before, but there's not enough action for the multiples team to lay the action off apparently.

the bet wouldnt come in anyway.

I'm telling you, Mir has too many ways to win

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-ufcweighin020108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns (http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=dm-ufcweighin020108&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)

all the more reason for Mir to beat lesnar, to secure better money in the future

I told you Mir would beat Lesnar. Opening with a leg kick was a big mistake from Mir and it led to an early takedown. Steve Mazzagatti made an arse of himself as usual. I actually thought he was jumping in to award a TKO to Lesnar, but he was deducting a point for one strike to the back of the head. SACK THAT MAN. after soaking up 1 minute of punishment, Mir isolated a leg and cranked it and it was Tap or Snap (can I copyright that?). Nice to see Kurt Angle, Undertaker, Steve Austin, etc there to see their mate get owned.

Thought I was on for the double because Timmy was destroying Nogueira. The guy showed his class though. one mistake and Sylvia finds himself in a guillotine. Nogueira v Mir late summer will be a fascinating match, but I can't pick a winner.

Other highlights were David Heath getting annihilated by newcomer Tim Boetch and Almeida's cracking submission of Rob Yundt.

Fans were booing the Tyson Griffin v Glieson Tibau fight. no idea why. It was a great fight. You can't be booing just because a fight goes the full 3 x 5 mins.

Adam, you just think it was inexperience on Lesnar's part that he left his leg there for the taking?

Mazzagatti is ridiculous, one punch to the back of the head and he deducts a point - I've seen many more go unpunished.

Has Lesnar got a set number of fights in his contract with the UFC? I'd like to see him back.

My guess is Lesnar will be signed for 3 main event fights, then re-negotiate (b bye).
I'd like to see a decent striker take him apart next.
Arlovski, Kongo, Cro Cop, Alexander, Sylvia. Easy win for any of them.
Hopefuly they don't just give him some journeyman.

Lesnar FTW

Why shouldn't Brock given some journeyman for a few fights, the guys a rookie in MMA and it's natural for guys to work their way up the ladder. Should a rookie really be thrown in the deep end. Mirs experience and Brocks inexperience were the real telling factors in that fight. Mir was also quite possibly one of the most difficult fights out there for Brock as Mirs technical ability is somewhat better than most other heavyweights. Brocks got a lot to learn and maybe he will never have the technical abilty to succeed in the sport but just enjoyed watching him ground and pound like a mad man just like I use to watch Tank Abbott do. I'm sure Brock could have some success against many other heavyweights.

Re: Mazzagatti, once I saw he was the ref I was worried. The guy is awful and is always jumping early and stopping fights or making other questionable decisions.

What with the choice of opponent and ref I wonder if Dana has a plan to bury Brock showing that wrestling is unable to compete with MMA's. Cash in on the hype, bury the opposition (entertainment wrestling) plus giving creditibilty to MMA as the real deal isn't such a bad plan. Just an idea.   

nail struck firmly on the head.

Lesnar wanted to get into MMA and saw himself as an automatic contender for the title. The guy has no business being in the cage with fighters like Mir. If he'd started from the bottom and worked his way up, fair enough, good luck to him. He's in at the deep end because that's where he thinks he belongs.

I think if a top boxer showed an interest in stepping in the cage, Dana White would go about it the same way. Same result too.

up coming betting opportunities

UFC 82
Henderson v Silva are both at 1.6. I'm hoping to wave 1.8 under a Henderson fan's nose. Silva is going to kill him
Kongo v Herring. Kongo is odds on at the minute but if I can get anywhere near even money, I'm on it.
I'm hoping to get some action on Tanner v Okami. Okami is a young strong Japanese fighter who's only loss so far is to Rich Franklin. Tanner however, is an old dog, coming back from serious long term injury. The difference though, is that 3 of Okami's 5 wins are by judges decision and the other two finished late. 9 of Tanners 11 UFC wins are well inside the distance. Tanner finishes fights and I think he's a good bet to finish this one.

UFC 83
Serra has opened up at 3.5 against St Pierre. I think St Pierre is favourite but 3.5 is inflated. I might be tempted to dip my toes in that.

Ultimate fight night.
don't know how the betting will go, but I think this will be an easy win for Stephan Bonnar against Matt Hamill.

Cage Rage 25
these events get hardly any betting on betfair but if I can generate some,
Ken Shamrock surely walks through Buzz Berry. Happy to be proved wrong, but if I can get evens on Ken I will.

Looks like another former WWE superstar might be trying his luck at MMA.

"California based company Zinkin Entertainment & Sports Management has taken on Bobby Lashley as a client. This is the same company who handles clients such as Chuck Liddell, Forrest Griffin, Josh Koscheck, and Mike Swick.

Although nothing is confirmed, the fact that the company took Lashley on could hint on where Lashley would go now that his WWE release is official. Lashley did express interest in jumping to MMA on his web site."

who's bobby lashley?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Lashley

Basically another big son of a bitch like Brock.  ;scarymoment;

Bob Sapp v. Kimo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4bhx3uiEFM&feature=related

Brilliant entertainment

well I hope for his sake he's allowed to start nearer to the bottom of the ladder than Lesnar, otherwise it's more cannon fodder.

Not sure why we need these WWE guys coming in. I'd think MMA would gain more credibility by getting in big name boxers and destroying them, rather than entertainment wrestlers.

Ah well, I'm sure Dana knows what he's doing.

I can think of a few reasons why WWE guys are considering moving to MMA. Firstly they are sick and tried of being treated like crap by Vince McMahon, secondly top WWE wrestlers don't make as much as they did a few years ago, thirdly they have to sell their complete marketing rights to Vince's already blugging pockets. Also and propably the main reason is that the WWE travelling schedule is ridiculous. With the freedom of being to make money from advertising and the growing money in MMA these guys can have a better lifestyle.

Also many of these "entertainment wrestlers" actually have very impressive wrestling backgrounds and with training I believe they can compete given time. I personally think considering their backgrounds they actually have a better chance than big name boxers who are so limited in their style that they would struggle against the numerous MMA styles. Most boxers I've seen try MMA just get taken to the ground and submitted normally in the first minute.

As for Bob Sapp I hear the WWE are interested in him. The guy is so funny and gets tried just carrying his own body weight. His interviews are also some of the most bizarre I've seen. Sapp's probably more suited to entertainment world rather than really acheiving anything in MMA. I would however much prefer to see Lesnar and Sapp have a crude slugfest rather than watch a Stevenson vs Sanchaz hugging competition.

I'd say that most boxers are sensible enough to realise there are fights that they can't win, whereas wrestlers generally only know about the fame, money, and entertainment. Most of em are used to losing..lol

While lashley is bigger and stronger than Lesnar, he doesn't have any of his wrestling skills or mobility. Will get put into submissions anytime he comes up against someone half decent imho.

something I posted on the facebook UFC group. I'd be interested in a response from UFC and Boxing fans about this:

Something Joe Rogan said in UFC 81 commentry was very true. Western fight fans are focused on the record and the titles. In the east, it's about the fight. doesn't matter how many wins and loses, if the fighter puts it all out on the line, they should be admired and we should want to see them again.

Franklin may NEVER beat Silva, but he's an awesome fighter and can produce thrilling fights. Cro cop is doing badly in UFC, but I still get excited about him fighting. Matt Serra might not be as technically gifted and GSP but that doesn't make him undeserving of his title and I love to see him fight. Chuck may never regain his dominance of LHW division, but I'll never miss a fight until he retires. Tim silvia may be big and clumsy looking, but why hate him? He comes across as a really nice guy and gives it everything so he should still receive our respect.

I think people are missing the point with these bouts.
take each match as a stand alone evet, rather than a path to a title and trust me, you'll enjoy fighting much more.

most of all, ANYONE who steps in the cage, through the ropes, or on the mat deserves respect and I think armchair warriors should remember how much heart it takes just to step up and fight, let alone all the hard work and training that goes into it.

I remember Joe Rogan making that point and my immediate thought was I how different the two marketing machines are. The western market works on a much larger "macro environment" as it promotes heavily to sell it's product to a much larger audience over a large geographical area. The best way to do this is to create as much hype as they can for the main events. The eastern market tends to be far more insular, a micro market, and doesn't tend to market overseas. So the first key difference is largely their differing attitudes to money. The western fans often get caught up in the hype rather than being interested in the end product.

Everybody remembers Brock fighting Mir and BJ Penn beating Stevenson but what was the name of the to fighters who had a great fight in the event prior to these???

Did not Joe Rogan also talk about the differing attitudes of the fighter,s with the western ones more interested in their win/loss record where as eastern fighters tend to be more interested in putting on a good fight. I again think the key differences are cultural and financial. The western purses are so much larger if you fight in the main event and there are vast amounts that can be earned from advertising for being a winner/champion. Eastern society has a far greater cultural identity and history of honour. I also believe there fighters put less empathises on money in relation to their honour.

As I've said before, give me a good old tear up rather then a championship hugfest any day. Then again I'm not really a fight fan who appreciates/understands the fine art of technical abilty whereas I do love watching a crude brawl.   

I don't really blame the fighters for striving for the titles. To step up and fight, they have to have the belief that they are, or can be the best.

As a fight fan, I view each fight as a stand alone event and, swing for the fences OR technical submission fight, will enjoy it or not on it's own merits.

It gets under my skin when fighters get hated for no real reason. Tim Sylvia, Matt Serra, Mike Bisping for example are despised by some sections of the MMA fans. The courage these guys show in stepping through the cage doors is phenomenal.

i read a few interviews sylvia did straight after he got caught on the juice and he came across as a complete wanker imo. "i want to keep my belt whaaaaaaaaa"

hughes is meant to slag him off in his book.

books out or soon to be out by hughes, liddell and tank abbot, anyone gonna read them?

Most certainly, should be interesting.

Adam, why is Bisping disliked?

hatred for Bisping started with the controvesial points win over matt hamill. Hamill easily won the first round, then bisping won a close 2nd and 3rd round. American fans still say Hamill should have won. They're wrong.

I'd like to read about chuck and tank.
I won't buy matt hughs' book. he makes his students sit and read the bible in practice sessions  ;pokergods; as a born again pastafarian, I can't agree with that.

Hughes - good old farmer boy, quiet man, religious becomes fighting hero -------------- NOT FOR ME

Liddell - would need to know a bit more about his early life ----------------------------------- MAYBE but unlikely to read

Tank - drunk, fights in bars, bound to have references about dirty biker woman ------- MORE THAN LIKELY TO READ  :)up

I've read Ken Shamrocks book which was pretty good. I do however find many of this books about fighters all to often a predictable, look at me I'm a hard SoB, boasting session.

 

I've read Ian Freeman's book and it is shite. Hardly touches his MMA experiences at all apart from his win over Mir, it's more about his dodgy doorman days.

No Holds Barred by Clyde Gentry is a quality read about the kick start of MMA and the notoriety of the early UFCs.

The more times I watch the Mir / Lesnar fight, the more stunning Mir's technique looks.
Hooks the left foot around Lesnsars right leg, reached with the left hand, pivots to get his leg through, hooks it over the outside of theleg, holding the ankle, he extends his body which just flips a standing 265 Lesnar and cranks it. Fabulous finish.
Lots of the talk is if Mazagatti hadn't pulled him off for the point deduction, Lesnar would have won, but submission fighters often have to endure a bit of punishment while they set stuff like this up. I think if they fought 10 times, Lesnar might get lucky and win 1.

Lesnar would win more than one i think.  Mazzagatti shouldn't have pulled Lesnar for the point deduction, a simple verbal warning would have been suffice.

This isn't to say Lesnar would have won the fight if Mazzagatti left it.  Simply, Lesnar wasn't good enough or experienced enough and this, of course, cost him.

But I agree Adam, impressive finish.

The fact the more times you watch the Mir / Lensar fight, the more impressed you are by Mir's technique is reason why I don't think you should write of Brock's future in MMA and label him merely as an "entertainment wrestler". Brock's ground and pound would of been enough to finish of many other heavyweights and the main consideration is that many other heavyweight's would not have been able to employ such an impressive technical game as Mir did.

The Mazagatti point will always be a matter of debate as Brock was dominating at that point and you will never know if Mir would have been able to use his technical superiority at that given point. Chances are he would have stucked up the punishment and got a submission because he is so much more experienced but the question mark will remain.

Wrong ref and wrong type of opponent for such a major debut fight. I give Brock to win at least 2 out of 10, with him not having to get lucky.  ;whistle;

ok, 2/10 max

mazagatti is ALWAYS the wrong ref when ever I have money on the fight and I see him it's "oh shit, it's mazagatti." When he was pulling Lesnar off, I was sure it was to prematurely award the fight to Lesnar.

this is probably very old but i only saw it today and it's very funny

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEDaCIDvj6I (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gEDaCIDvj6I)

crazy isn't it. There's a whole martial system based around pressure point and no contact knock outs called Kyusho (or bullshido to the rest of us). The strangest thing is it sort of works, because students buy into it and, in an almost hypnotic response, actually DO get KO'd. Obviously, if you're not one of the highly suggestable students, it's no use whats so ever.

looks like the only market error for UFC 82 in my opinion is Evan Tanner v Yushin Okami. I think Evan Tanner will win this emphatically and  I think 2.7 is very good value.

If I could get anywhere near evens on Anderson Silva, I would. 1.6 is too short.

Kimbo Slice destroys Tank Abbott in 43 seconds.

so I hear.

looking forward to seeing it.

Kimbo is certainly putting the work in and while Tank is a long way past being able to take on the better modern MMA heavyweights, you do have to be the real deal to get through him. You're not seeing the same Kimbo Slice that was fighting mugs in car parks. I'd like to see him against a decent current fighter.

I keep reading people begging for UFC to sign him and put on Kimbo v Lesnar. Now THAT I'd like to see.

Can watch it here:

http://kimbo-fights.com/kimbo-vs-tank-abbott/

Shame Lesnar wasn't fed an over the hill, gased just walking to the ring Tank Abbott. I like Tank but he's just cashing in on his name these days. I even watched him job to average Brit fighter in Cage Rage, Gary "smiler" something.

to be fair to tank, he got on a plane to fight Gary Turner with 6 hours notice. Jet lagged and half cut he stepped in the cage and swung for the fences. Got to respect that.

Tank's a long way past challenging any decent fighter, but you don't get past him if you're a mug.

He'll keep taking the paydays as long as the offers come in I guess.

Matt Serra is 3.95 to beat GSP in April at UFC83 and there's been business done at 4.6. I've got some on but I'm really tempted to go a bit deeper.

I just don't get it. I know GSP is a great fighter. But Serra has heavy hands and has knocked him out once. Add to that his Gracie BJJ blackbelt. 2.2 - 2.6 might be the right price. anything 3.5+ is an cracking bet.

I'm hoping my Evan Tanner bets come off March 1st so I can lump my winnings on Serra

See Liddell fights Shogun @ UFC 85 - should be an interesting one.

In the UK too.

Forrest Griffin destroyed Shogun when they fought. There was talk of carrying an injury, but Chuck is a tough dude and is on the come back trail. Chuck to beat Shogun then face Forrest Griffin, after Griffin takes the title off Quentin Jackson.

Nice one, do you know if there's any plans to have UFC event in Scotland? They're getting closer with the Newcastle one last month. I think both fights will be close. If Shogun's cardio is better he's got a good chance. Fancy Griffin to decision Jackson.

Griffin v Jackson won't be til later in the year though. TUF7 has to run first.

Yo Adam, any tips for UFC event this weekend? The only odds against risky bet I can see is a Halverson/Sakara double, I think Gurgel & Leben are always beatable when they fight? The rest of the odds are rubbish to be honest.

The only market error I can see is Evan Tanner v Yushi Okami.

Okami is a decent skillful fighter but he's not a great finisher of fights.
Evan Tanner is a legend and fights like an animal. He's very prone to cutting but because he's such a legend, Refs tend to let him bleed rather than stop it too soon. It's only 2.5 rather than the 3.5 - 4 stuff that I've been picking, but I definitely have Tanner as Favourite. This is his last chance and at 185 he must still be top 10 after a long break and still potentially top 5 with match practice.

I think you're right about Gurgel and Leben being beatable. I'd be more likely to bet on Sakara than Halverson though). coming down from 205 to 185 his power could be a factor. trouble is he fades in fights.

Predictions are (with current betfair price)
Sanchez by submission (1.2)
Cummo by submission (1.6)
Gurgel by decision (1.5)
Koscheck TKO (ground and pound) (1.24)
Kongo by TKO / KO (1.5)
Arlovski KO of the night (1.29)
Tanner by TKO / KO (2.5)
Sakara by KO early or Leben by decision (2.84 / 1.65)
Fitch by decision (1.17)
Silva by late TKO or decision (1.8 )

My big tip is still to monitor the Serra GSP price for UFC 83. I think he's a 3/2 underdog at worse.

if you can get 3.5+ on a guy that's already baeten his opponent I'd get on. I've got quite a bit between 3.5 and 4 and if I get my Evan Tanner bets back I'm seriously tempted to put more on nearer fight time.

GSP is a cracking fighter but Serra is being treated like some mug reality TV show winner. He's no joke and has the tools to beat GSP again.

I'm glad to see that Cummo's fighting. He certaintly provides a great deal of entertainment.

doesn't usually make the TV cut though.

very impressed with him in TUF

Where can i get a bet on Henderson to beat Silva.   I have a feeling Henderson is going to knock him out.

Betfair have suspended this markets

totesport usually do markets for ufc.
May be suspended if about to start/started. I can't tell as i'm at work at the mo

Hope you didn't get your bet on!

Tonight was the first time I watched UFC and Silva owned him so hard.

Silva would own Godzilla. BJ and GSP got skillz imo but Silva is just on a completely different level to everyone else.

Pretty mixed bag with my predictions this time.

Main event went the way I expected, though it was earlier than I thought. Henderson certainly had a good first round but although he probably took the points, Silva never really looked in trouble. Second round Silva found his timing and totally out classed him on their feet. He then went on to submit one of the best wrestlers in MMA. Absolutely brilliant fighter. His title as long as he wants it.
 
My main bet didn't come good, Yushi "isn't a finisher" Okami destroying Evan Ta inside the distance. Okami is really maturing as a fighter. My guess for the division for the rest of the year is
Franklin beats Lutter UFC 83
Bisping beats McCarthy UFC 83
Late summer
Okami gets a well deserved shot at Silva, but comes up short.
Henderson gets a go at Franklin (great fight< I'd back Franklin but it'll be a war)
Bisping gets Leben and submits him
Franklin (or Henderson) v Silva end of the year
Bisping (or Leben) v Nate Quarry winner gets title shot this time next year
TUF7 is all middle weights so the division will be bursting at the seems this time next year with new fighters.

rest of last nights card.

Sanchez by submission (1.2) yes, but tap out due to strikes
Cummo by submission (1.6) no, got wrestled out of it. Still a decent prospect for the future I think.
Gurgel by decision (1.5) yes, exactly.
Koscheck TKO (ground and pound) (1.24) yes, exactly
Kongo by TKO / KO (1.5) no, I thought it was 1 round each going into the third. Kongo had just about done enough when Herring reverse postions on the ground and dominated for the last two minutes. split decision to Herring is fair.
Arlovski KO of the night (1.29) yes, Exactly. hope he negotiates his new contract and gets back to his rightful position on the main card.
Tanner by TKO / KO (2.5) No. has two more fights to prove he's still relevant. Good luck fella.
Sakara by KO early or Leben by decision (2.84 / 1.65) No, Leben too strong for him, although Sakara did land some bombs that could have finished it
Fitch by decision (1.17) Yes
Silva by late TKO or decision (1.8 ) Yes, but earlier and more decisive than I thought

6/10 not bad but not great.

Big announcement that Mark Coleman was inducted into the hall of fame, but said he wasn't done fighting and was begging Dana White for a shot at Brock Lesnar. I don't think Coleman could have an impact on the top of the heavy weight division, but I reckon he could beat some respect into Lesnar. Get that fight ON.

Another top card. Can't remember the last bad one though.

Start thinking about UFC 83 predictions next.

Is the Coleman/Lesnar fight not confirmed for UFC 86?

dont know. Only heard about it last night

4 cards away seems too far for any confirmed fight, but I'm sure it's pencilled in.

Coleman stated that he was being given 5 months to train for the fight with Lesnar which would be the time of UFC 86.

Looks like a no win situation for Lesnar at yet gives more support to the idea that Dana is looking to humilate Lesnar and anybody associated with "entertainment wrestling. If Lesnar wins it will be a case of, well Coleman hasn't thought in the UFC since 1999 and is over the hill. Yet Coleman is a dangerous enough opponent and if he can reproduce his past form then he could well defeat Lesnar.

Re: UFC 82 respect to Leben who is one kid who just doesn't know the word quit and knows how to put on a show.

I thought I heard him say more like "I've begged Dana to let me back in the cage. I've told him to give me 5 months to prepare and an opponent and I'll be ready. I want Lesnar...blah blah" sounds more like trying to convince Dana or gauge reaction than an announcement.

Lesnar is in a no win situation because he hasn't got the skills to win in the octagon. full stop. he might develop them over time but he should be fighting guys in the bottom 10% of the organisation, not the top 10%. Coleman has been away from UFC a while and is definitely winding his career down, but he's been fighting all the big boys in Pride and has continued to be competitive. I still think this is out of Lesnars depth. remember Coleman invented ground and pound and wrestled at a far higher level than Lesnar.

no arguments from me about Lebens heart. I think he'll fall short of the top 5 in the division but his fights are always watchable.

Just had to check the web as I was sure the fight was announced for 5 months time.

"Apparently Coleman has been in discussions with the UFC for a while and he has confirmation for a fight in the organization in approximately 5 months.  Coleman announced that his opponent for that match will be Brock Lesnar and that the event will be in Minnesota , which happens to be home turf for Lesnar.

This should be an interesting match, with Lesnar really stepping to the plate in taking solid competition as he steps to the centre stage in MMA that is the UFC.  While Coleman has been without a fight for almost 18months, he is a real competitor.  Having faced off against Fedor Emilianenko (twice) , Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, Mirko Cro-Cop, etc…. Coleman’s experience level is second to none, even though he may be on the twilight of his career. 

A very interesting match and again a testament to the courage and commitment of Brock Lesnar as he makes the transition from pro (entertainment) Wrestling to MMA and the UFC. Where I had little interest or respect for the Lesnar arrival in the beginning, with decisions like this and the Mir fight… he is slowly winning me over."

Lesnar is rumoured to fight Justin McCully "the insane 1" at UFC 85 at the O2 areana, London but this may all changed after the Coleman announcement.

Chuck and Brock in London, anybody fancy a road trip?

I get together with the same half dozen lads from my martial arts club to watch UFC with a few beers. We discussed it but to get a decent seat it's a fortune. we'd rather watch it with a few beers and some sky+ replay action.

Prices are a tad OTT.

Just watched cage rage and was surprised Ken Shamrock was in the main event fighting some British jobbie with an iffy win/loss record. So it was a bit of a shock to see Shamrock get knocked out first round. Guess age catches up with us all.

It's Liddell v. Evans now, should be a decent scrap

I watched the Cage Rage show on sky too.

Opening Middle weight bout was ok. Having only recently watched Anderson Silva v Dan Henderson I was perhaps making some unfair comparisons in my head, but a decent entertaining fight.

The Heavyweight fight after it was terrible. Don't get me wrong, I admire anyone with the nerve to step into the cage, but three rounds of Niel Grove v Rob Broughton was not a good advert for the sport. The UFC fighters train like maniacs and are in as good condition as ANY other sport. What ever technical ability Grove and Broughton had went out the window after one round because they were huffing and puffing, both carrying around 19st+.

Featherweight bout between a Japanese and Brasilian fighter was a decent fight and the leg lock finish was top class.

The girls.  ;carlocitrone; I'm torn. at my core I'm a strong believer in equal opportunities and if these girls put the time and effort into training, why shouldn't they step in the cage and compete. Found it very uncomfortable viewing. the girl who lost was in her first MMA fight and got her pretty face well pounded. Nearly half my Martial arts class are female and I enjoy training them. Not sure why I disliked watching the female MMA fight. have to give it some thought.

Main event. On paper I could see no other result than Ken Shamrock walking right through Buzz Berry. He might be finished at the top level in UFC but the gulf in class should be obvious. Hats off to Berry. Bigger, stronger, good game plan, knocked out Shamrock for the first time in his career. In his defence, Shamrock has been fighting at Light Heavy for a while, but fair play to Berry. certainly no fluke.

Elite XC own Kimbo Slice's contract. There was talk by the promoters of Berry, v Kimbo. could be interesting.

I suspect it was because the girl who got her face smashed in was very easy on the eye and a definate "yes please".  ;kev; Well that's before she got beaten up and had a bloody face.

The most entainting part of cage rage was that finish by Tom Watson who kicked the army guy i the face whilst on the ground when the army guy jumped in with a superman fist. The slow-mo of that guys head jerking backwards was painful to watch, so god knows what it felt like to him.  ;gobsmacked;

I didnt like the women fighting at all. I think the sort of instinct the pink haired woman showed to be able to inflict that sort of attack isnt something I like to see in women.

Having soad that I was talking with my flatmate and I'm pretty sure that if I was ever stupid enough to get into one of those cages I dont think I'd have it in me to start lashing at someone I had just knocked to the floor. Unless he had just called my Mum.

The Japanese v Brazil fight was good, even though half the time I wasnt sure who was the one putting the move on. Dont think I'd go out of my way to watch another one of these - even though that commentator guy who is coming out of retirement does need to stick one on the guy he's going to be fighting - might try and catch that one.

The commentator you're talking about is Ian Freeman. Great fighter.
He fought in the UFC half a dozen times at heavyweight, including a 1st round devistation of Frank Mir in UFC 38. He then came up against Andrei Arlovski in his accendancy and got battered. His overall MMA record is a respectable 18-7-1 but that many of those fights were at heavyweight and he's much more suited to lightheavy. Could do some damage in cage rage, but I doubt he'll ever take on the UFC boys again.

Not a bad record for a mackem

Kimbo v. Shamrock was meant to be on had Shamrock won as he was expected to.  Good chance it'll be Berry instead now.  I didn't realise 'til last night that it was Elite XC Cage Rage.

Anyone know of a site where I can watch last night's fights?

The cage rage aquuisition is fairly recent.

Kimbo in London in the summer maybe.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=ys-mmaweekpishna031208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns (http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news?slug=ys-mmaweekpishna031208&prov=yhoo&type=lgns)

Very interesting. Obviously in the octagon, Silva would destroy any boxer in the world. He thinks he could fight him in pure boxing too and who am I to disagree. The guy is an incredible fighter.

Asking Anderson Silva to fight only using his hands is like asking Cristiano Ronaldo to play football against an average footballer only using his feet. No knees, thighs, head, chest. He may well still be better than most, but you're not showing the difference between him and another player with that experiment.

I'd pay good money to see it, I know that.

Matt Serra now 4.1 against GSP. Odds are definitely too long.

Also, Ultimate Fight Night on 5th April, Tim Boetch is 2.86 to beat Matt Hamill and I think he's favourite in the fight.
I also think Joe Lauzon is capable of beating Kenny Florian, but the odds are about right at 2.6

Entertaining UFC fight Night last week shown on Bravo Staurday.

Kenny Florian showed his class against Joe Lauzon, who I think is a dangerous fighter. Florian will fight the winner of Penn v Sherk in the summer (Penn I hope, and Florian will lose it)

Other good fights shown were
Tim Boetch v Matt Hamill. Boetch was doing a good job, winning the first round and it looked like he was about to pull a finish out of the bag when Hamill got a take down and TKO stoppage in the second. Boetch has taken two fights at very short notice now. If he gets a decent advance booking, I think he could take a few scalps.

Thiago Alves knocked Karo Parisian flat out. Karo claims it was an early stoppage but for once, I think Steve Mazzagatti got it right.

Mazzagatti did manage a cock up though, when Houston Alexander got stunned by a huge superman punch, followed by a big shot on the ground from James Irvine. He was stunned but the stoppage was early. Alexander would have covered up or grabbed Irvine if Mazzagatti hadn't dived in.

Nate Diaz got beaten up in the first round of his fight but pulled out a really classy triangle choke in the second round. That boy is a future lightweight champion.

Maynard v Edgar was a war and I think the 30-27 judges score don't do Edgar justice. very competetive fight.

Anthony Johnsons destruction of Tommy Speer was embarressing. how that guy made the final of the last TUF I have no idea. Ox strong farm boy isn't enough.

On a slightly different subject, I saw Barry Hearn on Soccer AM on saturday. He's putting on a boxing tournament on froday. 8 unknown heavyweights fighting quater final, semi final and final in one night. all 3 round fights. He's trying to emulate what UFC was doing 15 years ago and eventually figured out doesn't work because fighters either conserve their energy in early fights because they know they have to fight twice more, or they get so banged up they can't perform properly in the final. There are many reasons why MMA is taking over from boxing as the top combat sport and the top PPV draw. This isn't one of them. stinks of desperation for me.

Oh, and Matt Serra at 4.4 now

Anyone with Rooky's mum's number on their phone deletes it ;)

UFC 83 predictions

George St Pierre v Matt Serra
I love watching GSP fight and he's a decent favourite to beat Serra. However, Serra knocked GSP out last year and what ever people say, there's no such thing as a lucky punch in the cage. Serra is capable of knocking him out, but as with the first fight, his plan will probably to strike on his way in, to try and get it to the mat where he has superior BJJ. Money is on Serra at 3.5 - 4.5 but it really could go either way.

Rich Franklin v Travis Lutter
Franklin might be struggling to make an impression on Anderson Silva but that's making people forget how good Franklin is compared to the rest of the middleweight world. Dominant Franklin win.

Kalib Starnes v Nate Quarry
Quarry should have to much for Starnes, who's best chance is to make it a scrap and stiffle Quarry's technical advantages. Nate Quarry TKO

Mike Bisping v Charles McCarthy
I think Bisping will be a force at middleweight and McCarthy is going to take a beating.

Mac Danzig v Mark Bokec
Danzig is a huge lightweight prospect. Early submission win

McDonald to beat Doerkson

don't know a few of the undercard fighters, so who knows about the rest.

Shows Sunday night on Bravo.

Seems a decent card, I think GSP will beat Serra but wouldn't put a bet on it. 4/1 for Serra's a great price in a 2 horse race, he's not that big an underdog.

Other results should be standard although I hope Danzig gets the shit kicked out him. Absolute joke that he was on the Ultimate Fighter, thought it was mean for relatively unexperienced upcoming talents, he was already a well established fighter and a huge favourite to win before the show even began. As for the undercard, Alan Belcher is a great striker and a great prospect for the future but don't know shit about his opponent. Clementi/Stout should be a decent fight.

Anyone see Gamburyan's last fight I think it was at Fight Night. At the start of round 1 they came out and went to touch gloves, the wee bastard then took advantage of that and skelped his opponent with a cheeky kick instead. Another case of wee man syndrome perhaps, hope he gets his comeuppance soon like his asshole of a cousin did at Fight Night.

Pretty much all the TUF contestants are experienced fighters who work with the big name gyms, although granted, Danzig was more experienced than most.
He's a cracking fighter though. Going to be in the top 10 lightweights pretty soon and a serious contender in a year or two.

Didn't see the Gamburian fight but it sounds like you're as big a fan of him and Parisian as I am. Remember that bust up between him and Nate Diaz in the TUF dressing room? I'd love to see Nate matched up with Gamburian and if he hadn't left to fight in IFL I'd love to see Nick Diaz beat some humility into Parisian.

I'd love to see that too although Gumburyan was winning the TUF finale until his forfeit. Although they get a lot of stick I quite like the Diaz brothers, there's no shit about them at all, not in it for the chicks or the money just there to try and be the best and have a good scrap.

There was no competition in the TUF 6 show for Danzig, maybe George the Greek, but nobody else. This year's TUF has started of quality, devastating knockout and some sick fights already and that's just to get onto the show. Rampage is a funny dude as well so should be a good series. I managed to get a ticket for the Rampage Griffin fight in Vegas, looking forward to it.

Rampage and Forrest are hilarious. They're both great ambassadors for the game. Ego's well in check and both excellent fighters. I'm tipping Forrest to win that by the way and hope for some decent odds.

The Diaz Bros are nutters, pure and simple. fight for the sake of fighting. Very technical Ju Jitsu but happy to stand and bang with anyone. Always an entertaining fight. Nate is another one that'll be troubling the top of the lightweight division very soon. That's a hell of a weight class. Penn, Sherk, Florian, Huerta, Diaz, Danzig, Edgar, Gamburyan, Griffin, Guida, Lauzon, Stevenson just at a glance at the list.

Bisping is ripped, good victory.

George St Pierre v Matt Serra
GSP fought a perfect game plan. I don't regret the bet because the odds were daft, but Serra was totally dominated. Seeing him stood next to Kenny Florian in the post fight interview makes me think he'll move down to Lightweight for one last push at glory. I don't see him fighting GSP again.

Rich Franklin v Travis Lutter
Excellent defense 1st round by Franklin. How he rolled out of the armbar is a mystery. Lutter's tank was totally empty and Franklin picked him apart. Still the bench mark for what a Middleweight contender needs to be. I see him fighting Dan Henderson later in the year as an eliminator for a title shot.

Kalib Starnes v Nate Quarry
Starnes didn't want to fight. I was only commenting to a friend before the fight, you don't get many 10-8 rounds. One judge scored the 3 rounder 30-24 and rightly so.

Mike Bisping v Charles McCarthy
As Scott said, Bisping looked awesome at 185. McCarthy is nothing special, but Bisping gave him a pasting. I think he'll get fed another similar level fighter follwed by a couple of name middleweights like Leben, Quarry, then hopefully a top 5 opponent late next year.

Mac Danzig v Mark Bokec
Danzig couldn't finish Bokec but I enjoyed his performance. Still think he looks like a great prospect.

Good show. I'll take any of those fights over a 12 round grind for excitement

McDonald to beat Doerkson
Haven't seen the fight yet but Looks like I got this right.

I see Ed Herman lost again. He was supposed to be something special but hasn't made an impact since his TUF.

another terrific UFC bill. i also thought Bisping looked awesome, and i think Danzig, with the right training could be a great fighter.nothing seems to faze the guy and he is one of the most relaxed fighters inside the ring.

The Spider
Height 6 ft 2 in (1.88 m)
Weight 185 lb (84 kg)

GSP
Height 5 ft 10.5 in (1.79 m)
Weight 170 lb (77 kg/12 st)

one off best fighter in da world special at say 80kg?

Yeah, entertaining card but disappointed at some of the competition on the live show, Lutter, McCarthy and Starnes were terrible and shouldn't be on a live show again any time soon. If Lutter can get his weight-cutting in order he could be a decent contender, he's had both Silva and Franklin in trouble on the ground.

McCarthy showed he's just a fat jiu-jitsu guy and Starnes deserves to be ridiculed. He actually gave Quarry the finger and challenged one of his corner men to a fight after running away for 3 rounds. Quarry vs Bisping is a good shout and Danzig's looking like another top contender in an already stacked division.

GSP outclassed Serra and it would be good to see him and Silva have a scrap. There's talk of Fitch being the next challenger but GSP will take care of him easily.

I can GSP dominating the division for a long time, as long as he remains focused and ultimately surpassing Matt Hughes as the best ever welterweight.

the GSP v Silva super fight is often talked about but I believe won't happen. both are fighting at their natural weights and have the potential to dominate for a considerable stretch. There's a decent talent pool for both weights, with last seasons TUF being at welterweight and this seasons at middleweight.

Just can't see it.

oh, and Danzig trains at Extreme Couture, so there's no doubt he'll get the right coaching. He'll be menacing the top 10 very soon.

I see Chuck Liddell has pulled out of his fight with Evans due to an injury. I can't see Evans fighting on this card now, there's no headline opponents left I can think of - Silva, Jackson and Griffin are all fighting soon and Rua is injured. I can see them pulling a fight forward like Florian vs Huerta to headline instead.

arse, that's not great news.

I agree, they'll probably pull Evans, or find him an opponent but put a new headline on. Maybe Jardine?

Florian v Huerta as a eliminator to fight the winner of Penn v Sherk at UFC 84 would be good.

forgot, Jardine is fighting Wanderlai Silva.

don't know then. have to see what they come up with.

program about kids doing muay thai tonight 9pm channel 4. if it's anything like the article about it in the NOTW last sunday it will most likely be a semi hysterical rant.

thanks,I'll watch that

Not very pleasant viewing.

I'm all for kids learning martial arts but I don't think stepping in a ring or cage is appropriate for really young children. I was struck particularly by the high skill level shown in training, particularly from the kids from London and Melton. However 9 is too young to be fighting so seriously. The 5 year olds was just sickening.

It's an undeveloped opinion at the minute, but I think Combat sports and self protection martial arts aren't really appropriate for pre-secondary school kids, although I'm not against training them younger.

My club plans to introduce juniors classes but it'll definitely be age 11+ and even then.

Spoke to Mike Bisping and Seni08 today. He told me his next fight will be Chris Leben but didn't say exactly when. UFC 87 or 88 at a guess. That'll be a war.

Other fighters spotted / spoke to were Dan Henderson (not as big as I thought) Minatauro Nogeuira (big mean looking dude) Jeff Monson (widest neck EVER) Ian Freeman (amazes me he fought at heavyweight, coming out of retirement as lightheavy but could easily make middle) Royce Gracie (legend, looks the same as he did 15 years ago at UFC1)

Bisping's fighting Leben at 85 in London, Hughes vs Alves is now the main event after Chuck's injury. Evans is fighting James Irvin. Looks a decent card even though Chuck won't be there.

crikey, that's sooner than I thought.

Leben should take relatively little time for. Not because he's no good, but because he's a brawler. No specifics to work on, just plenty of stand up work.

The card looked pretty poor last time I looked. better have another look, seems to have changed from what you say.

Hmm, not exactly star studded but there could be a few decent fights

I see Thiago Alves retiring Matt Hughes. Might see if I can get a bet on that.
Think Bisping will be able to handle Leben, but he's a banger with a decent chin so it'll be a test
I think Marcus Davis v Mike Swick could go either way. Swick looks good at welter, but Davis is a really heavy hitter.
Not a Rashad Evans fan, but his wrestling should be too strong for Irvine, unless he lands a big shot on the way in. Ask Housten Alexander about the power of Irvine.
I hope Werdum beat the over hyped Brandon Vera.

nothing else really jumps out at me
 

read somewhere that he has an agreement that win or lose he fights serra next

try www.uk.ufc.com but as I said, I got it from the horse. didn't bother to ask when because I assumed it'd be later in the year.

Leben hasn't fought since January, but Bisping only fought a week ago. seem's sooner than expected, but I suppose with Chuck off the bill it's a great opportunity for some ticket sales. He didn't take any damage against McCarthy either so I imagine he'll be ready in time.

Seems very likely actually. Serra can retire him then. before dropping to lightweight

Think this is going to be a tough fight for Bisping.  Bisping will no doubt be favourite but Leben is a dangerous opponent.

minor trivia. I noticed Bisping signing his autographs with his left hand but he fights orthodox. stiffer than usual jabs / left hooks?

He's a bit bigger than Leben so with the added reach and that stiff jab, I think he'll do ok. I think he'll continue to work on his clinch and I think that'll be Leben's game plan. should be a good fight to watch.

Anyone been watching TUF series?  Rampage and Griffin are cracking me up, very funny.

Cage Rage 26 this Saturday with Freeman making his comeback in the main event.  It's on Sky Sports and Ross Pointon is making an appearance at welterweight, and looks much better at the weight than when he was seen at middleweight and light-heavy on TUF3.  He lost his last fight after suffering this cut:

(http://img357.imageshack.us/img357/1116/rosspointoncutec7.jpg)

looking forward to Ian Freeman fighting on Saturday. Had a brief chat with him at Seni. Comes across as a really nice bloke. Hope he gets the win.

Pointon's a slugger. good luck to the fella.

Not been very impressed with the standard of cage rage but it'll keep me going until UFC 84 on the 25th. I've also got UFC 17,18,19,20 to watch for the first time on DVD. They include Chucks first fight (a loss I think) and the arrival of Bas Rutten, Dan Henderson and Wanderlai Silva.

bet365 do a juicy 4/7 about cotto beating margarito in august where all the other firms are 2/5

I'm thinking about having a wedge on, cotto will kill him wont he?

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6b_J1zuwq7c

tito moans about only earning 8 mill in 11 years. some swearing

Hmmmm, i don't know what to think of that tbh.  He is a decent price to beat Machida, decent bet?

Cage Rage yesterday was ok, Freeman owned in the main event and I was happy to see Pointon win too.

got it sky+ and will be datching up tonight.

I think Machida will beat Tito, but if you can get odds, it's probably not  mistake to back Tito.

Started looking at my picks for UFC 84. It's not exactly star studded, but the top end of the card should produce an upset I think.

Not with the main event though. I think Penn is a justified favourite over Sherk. I made the mistake of forgetting how good Penn was when he dispatched Stevenson with ease in UFC 80. Sherk is tough, but Penn by tapout

I think Jardine v Silva will be a war. Silva is on a losing streak and Jardine is chalking up scalps. If he can stay out of the clinch I think he can cause an upset and take down another legend.

I think (and hope) Machida sends Tito packing with a loss. I've been re-watching early DVDs and I'd forgotten about that fresh faced alternate who fought for no money so as not to compromise his college wrestling scholorship in UFC 13. He seems to think the majority of the money should be going to fighters. I don't know who he thinks is going to pay for the refs, ring girls, doctors, cages, venues, transportation, luxury house (for TUF contestants to smash up) state of the art training facility, corperate entertainment, etc. Mahbe when he's out of contract he'll start putting on his own promotions and show everyone how easy it is.

rest of the card could well produce decent fights, but there's no other stand outs. some good fighters hovering on the fringes of their weight classes facing debutants.

UFC 85  looks brilliant though.
Thiago Alves will beat Matt Hughes convincingly I think. Hughes v Serra before the end of the year then retirement and bible study  ;pokergods;

Bisping should do ok with late replacement for Leben, Jason Day. Day looks pretty good on the ground but after Hamill, Evans and McCarthy, Bisping's takedown defense is getting pretty sharp. Highlight reel KO I hope.

Marcus Davis v Mike Swick. Swick looks like a decent prospect at Welterweight but Davis is an animal on a win streak. My guess, Swick will get KTFO.

I hope James Irvine knocks Rashad Evans' funny little head off his shoulders. Irvine's KO of Housten Alexander was stunning and I'm hoping for another.

Werdum v Vera could be s decent technical fight on the ground. I think Vera is over hyped so I hope Werdum does a job on him. One for the purists this one I think.

Right at the bottom card is a fight I expect to not only make the TV but will produce either fight of the knight or KO of the night. Paul Taylor from Walsall against Jess Liaudin, originally from France, but the top man at Pancrase London. Liaudin is technically brilliant standing and on the ground. He got sparked out by Marcus Davies at UFC 80 by a hook that landed on the carotid artery. On another day I think he'd of won that fight and would be climbing up the card. Taylor produced a war against Paul Kelly also on UFC 80. I'm hoping Liaudin gets the W but I expect both fighters impress.

Shame Chuck Liddell isn't topping that bill. That'd make it even more impressive.

From the UFC website:

"In other action on the UFC 87 card, heavyweight sensation Brock Lesnar returns home for a pivotal bout in his rise up the UFC ranks. Lesnar was originally scheduled to face UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman on August ad 9th, but a knee injury has forced "The Hammer" to withdraw from the show. Lesnar's opponent will be announced shortly."

Dana probably thought Coleman isn't upto the job and is getting someone else in as part of his plan to bury Brock and make wrestlers look like wimps.

Wanderlai Silva was devastating, and was very impressed there by the bjj of that Palhares chap.

Awesome finish from BJ

BJ Penn was top draw. He talked about moving to Welter to fight GSP. Wish he wouldn't Florian and Huerta are fighting as an eliminator for a title shot. I'd like to see Penn defend his title against either of them.

Feel bad for Jardine. Any accusation that beating Forrest and Chuck was any kind of fluke is wrong, But Wanderlai Silva destroyed him. THAT'S what Dana White was signing. Looking forward to seeing who they give him next. A striker I bet.

Gouveia v Reljic was a good fight. will look forward to seeing Reljic's next fight too.

Machida made Tito look very ordinary too. Tito was frustrated because machida wouldn't stand in front of him and let him shoot in on him. Machida is a class fighter. Tito has lost the killer instinct he used to have.

Thiago Silva is an animal. Mendes had him in trouble though. another cracking short fight.

I agree about Palhares Jitsu. very impressive. I thought Joe Rogan might actually have a trouser accident.

The Carwin KO was a beauty. Doesn't tell you anything about either fighter, but highlight reel punch.

only two weeks until UFC 85. that'll be a good card.

Top event this weekend. BJ made the defeat of Sean Sherk look effortless. I am not looking forward to BJ vs Huerta as I wouldnt want either to lose, would be a class fight though.

Reljic looked good but quite one dimensional, killer finish though.

I have never liked Jardine and was happy to see him crushed.

The Tito Machida fight was a bit dull but Machida knew he was winning every round and knew how dangerous Tito is to risk too much.


For UFC 85 I think Thiago Alves will retire Matt Hughes, Mike Swick to destroy Marcus (is Ireland in England?) Davies, Thiago Tavares to murder Matt Wiman, would also like to see Paul Taylor and Bisbing win.

I said that about Hughes, but I believe he has a contract to fight Serra next, win or lose against Alves (I agree, lose)

can't see the swick thing. He looks good as a welterweight, but Davies is very dangerous. He powered through Jess Liaudin last time and I rate him. He's also on the bill isn't he? In fact, is that the taylor fight. that'll be a show stopper.

Bisping should do ok, shame it's not Leben.

What happened to Leben?

prison. He had a Drink driving conviction and had to attend a series of related classes. He moved to Hawai to train with BJ Penn and didn't complete the coarse. He's then returned to main land US thinking it'd be a bollocking and maybe a fine. 30 days in prison instead. He's be out by now, but there'd have been no time to train.

Its mainly wishful thinking for me as I can't stand Davies. I do think Swick is underrated though.

not sure, can't make my mind up about him.

I wouldn't put my money on, that's all I'll say. I think it'll be a war, but Davies is heavy handed and could well win KO of the night AGAIN.

I've just subscribed to the UFC online site so I see all the previous fights, the problem is I don't know what to watch first. Anyone thats seen alot of fights, can you give me a list of the best fights that I should watch first please.

Ta

kimbo slice SO lucky to pop the guys ear open, if he hadnt there was NO way he was surviving that final round, he looked completely out of it, a bit like when he got battered by gannon.

He wouldve got taken down, put up no defense and it would've got stopped before the end, you could see he was out on his feet, lucky win imo.

rumours that Kimbo tapped in 2nd - trying to locate a video

RD1:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0jn8X0rDsQ

RD2:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mBs9hU-pDQ

RD3:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2EaMr5F_o0

by the end of the second round kimbo was pretty much beat.

thanks bolt, found it elsewhere - didn't even think to check youtube!!!

lol at the early stoppage, ref couldn't wait to jump in.  i think kimbo was away to finish him though, one more punch would have done.

did u score both the first and second for Thompson? I think I did so Kimbo needed the KO.

poor performance against an opponent he should have blown out looking at his recent record.

I'm undecided about the first one, 50/50 really, if pushed i'd say kimbo, but he def lost the second one and i think he's flurry in the first 30 secs of the last round was sort of a last stand, i think he's conditioning let him down again, i just cannot see that he would've lasted another 4+ mins, especially after expending whatever little energy he had left on a last attack.

lol at the commentator in the second saying: "he's best chance is to pop he's cauliflower ear open" and he comes out the next round and does it.

he looked exactly the same at the end of the second round as he did in the gannon fight which would suggest his conditioning hasn't really improved at all, he couldn't defend himself and i think if he got taken down in the third it would've been all over.

Not so sure I agree that his conditioning hasn't improved, I think it has, just that he exerted a hell of a lot in the opening two rounds.  It sure has to improve, along with most aspects of his fighting.  He'd struggle against anyone half decent on that showing.

Brett Rogers called him out at the press conference and made reference to the supposed tapout in 2nd round.  Rogers KO'd Thompson in the 1st round earlier this year.

great first round for thompson. shame he couldn't cinch that key lock in the last minute. Thompson clear round winner

clumsy looking takedown attempts by thompson round 2. Only Kimbo's inexperience gave thompson top position. both gased 2 mins into round 2, which is pretty poor. if Steve Mazagatti was ref it'd have been stopped when the repeated unsanswered elbows were being dropped by thompson. If he was in better condition he could of droped them so much heavier and got the stoppage. Thompson nicjked it at the end.

urgh. never seen a cauliflower ear go before. got to stop it. shame because thompson was winning, but over the next 5 mins it could of come right off.

WOODSEY, haven't got time now, but leave it with me. I've just watched UFC 1 - 19 back to back. I'll let you know the best ones when I get chance, probably tomorrow lunch time.

did he def tap out in the second, i didnt see it, was it during the ground and pound?

I think kimbos getting a bit carried away with trying to prove to everyone that he's a complete MMA competitor and that he has a strong ground game, he should really be looking to stand up as much as possible but he seems all too happy to go to the ground which makes me think he's trying to prove something to people, probably cost him eventually.

He should be looking to knock he's opponents out and get the job done as quickly as possible and if it goes to the ground then it's good to have as a back up but i think that because a lot of people are doubting him as a pure MMA fighter he's getting sidetracked with the technical side of it, really if you can punch like kimbo why would you give a shit what anyone said if you had 10 first round knockouts? he says he just fights for the money but i think he's got a bit of a chip on he's shoulder and he's probably not as good a complete fighter as he thinks he is.

no, I certainly didn't see it but it was allegedly during the g+p.

he was taken down far too easily imo, and as you said he seemed too willing to go to ground.

brawl FTW

James Thompson is as good a fighter as Kimbo will ever beat. I think he's working very hard at being a true MMA fighter, but can you imagine him against any of the top names in the sport?

The hype will be good for a few reasonable paydays, and good luck to him, but he'll never break into the top 10 heavyweights in MMA.

or even top 25

Yeah, I think he'd struggle against any heavyweight in the top 25 in the world

Cheers mate been watching plenty of random ones, but there are plenty of lessr known names I probably won't download unless I'm told otherwise.

Woodsey, fights worth watching from the early UFC

Anything with Royce gracie UFC 1,2 & 4 dont watch the super fight with ken shamrock
UFC 3 Kieth Hackney v Emmanuel Yarborough (400 lb weight difference)
UFC 4 Keith Hackney v Joe Son (will make your eyes water)
any Dan Severn except against Taktarov and Shamrock
any Tank Abbott except Severn and Taktarov
UFC 7 Paul Varlans v Marco Ruas. slow in the middle of the fight but a great end.
UFC 8 Paul Herrara v Gary Goodridge
Any Don Frye except v Coleman and
UFC 9 Mark Hall (189 lb) v Koji Kitau (390 lb)
ALL Vitor Belfort starting with
UFC 12 Vitor Belfort v Tre Telligman
UFC 12 Vitor Belfot v Scott Ferrozzo
UFC 13 Vitor Belfot v Tank Abbott
UFC 13 Tito Ortiz v Guy Mezger
UFC 19 Tito Ottiz v Guy Mezger rematch
UFC 13 Randy Couture v Tony Halme
UFC 13 Randy Couture v Steve Graham
In fact, watch all Randy's fights
UFC 17 Carlos Newton v Dan Henderson (tell me what you think of the decision)
Any other Carlos Newton
UFC 18 Evan Tanner v Darrell Gholar (Evan Tanner fights are usually worth watching)
Any Bas Rutten
Any Chuck Liddell

that should get you started

UFC 85 picks
Alves to beat Hughes TKO round 2
Bisping to beat Day TKO round 2
Davies to beat Swick Late TKO or decision, but I expect a war
Marquart to beat Leites decision
Werdum to beat Vera TKO round 3
Rivera to beat Kampmann by decision
Tavares to beat Wiman by decision or late submission
Lambert to beat Cane TKO round 3
Liaudin to beat Taylor submission round 3 after a stand up war.
Sanchez to beat Hordonk by decision

I fancied Vera there - early stoppage imo.

all ufc's on setanta from now on?

I think so - which is sweet for me.  Also means we get them live.

Nasty hole in Davis' face. Pretty good fight - deserved win for Swick.

gogogogogogogogo Bisping

Abs destroyed him - incred performance imo.  Totally owned him.

General summary from watching that:

* The stoppage in the Werdum-Vera fight was kind of suspect but I can't blame the referee in erring on the side of caution.
* Nate Marquardt is a fool. He had that fight won but two mistakes let him down. How did one judge score a win in his favour with TWO points deducted because Nate hit Thales in the back on the head?
* Jason Day didn't even try. He beat Alan Belcher comfortably and he gives away free hits to Michael Bisping? Absolutely suspect.
* Catchweight helped Alves. Hughes seemingly couldn't cope.

what do you mean by suspect? You're not suggesting Jason Day took a dive?

The weight wasn't why Hughes couldn't cope. He's way past his best. Serra then retire.


Don't think I got many picks right.



got the headline bang on the money. Alves v GSP will be a fantastic fight and Alves has a chance.
Bisping TKO, just earlier than I thought. Leben next hopefuly or Nate Quarry, then Franklin/Henderson, then Title shot.
Got the war but swick deserved the win.
Marquart did enough to get the decision if it weren't for the points deductions. I gave Leites round 1 but Marquart might of deserved 9-8 rounds for the other two so it could of been 27-26 Marquart.
I have some sympathy for Vera on the stoppage, but he was in a bad spot. a better ref would of let it go, but Mazagatti would of stopped it sooner. I'll take TKO Werdum though.
Kampmann looked good on the ground. impressive win.
Underestimated Wiman. Nice KO by him
Cane is one to watch. made light work of Lambert, who's a tough opponent.
Taylor got a split decision over Liaudin. I'll be looking for that on the net because I bet it was a blinder.
Hardonk's KO of Sanchez was a beauty.

3/10 not very good but a couople of them were close.
watched UFC 38 straight after on DVD. Hughs v Newton when Hughes was at his most dominant. totally different fighter. Mark Weirs 12 second KO of Eugine Jackson, and Ian Freeman beating the living shit out of unbeaten UFC poster boy Frank Mere. vintage stuff.

Jason did a damn good impression of someone who didn't want to win. I'm not impressed by Bisping at all. Day didn't even try and defend himself properly. The real Day showed up against Belcher. Day didn't turn up on Saturday night. Day isn't a world-beater but he's much better than that.

Alves was physically bigger and stronger than Hughes on the night and in a catchweight fight the bigger guy usually wins. Hughes past his best? Can't disagree really and I suppose his age has a lot to do with it. I wouldn't say he'd be back to his best though if he beats Serra but hey, at least Hughes could finish his career on a high note. 

OT: I don't know what to make of a proposed George St Pierre-Thiago Alves match-up if GSP beats Jon Fitch.

Why?

Well I've already said that Day gave Bisping free hits and that Day wasn't too bothered about defending himself properly against Bisping.

I'm not a Bisping basher by any means who'd say that the fight against Rashad Evans showed Bisping up (it did but it was a mismatch of strength for one thing) but generally he has been fed opponents that have been beatable (Eric Schafer, Elvis Sinosic, Charles McCarthy and now Jason Day) since emerging from a mediocre crop of light heavyweights in 'The Ultimate Fighter 3'. Bisping was lucky to get that questionable decision against Matt Hamill.

On the whole surely no one can be impressed by Bisping or his performance on Saturday night? He got the job done against a fighter who didn't want to fight back.

I haven't seen anything to suggest why anyone should be impressed by Michael Bisping. Why should anyone be impressed by Michael Bisping? I'm not saying he's a fraud but he hasn't shown anything to impress me.

Where is he in UFC's middleweight pecking order? I think he's probably at least four fights away in getting a title shot.

UFC have got a British fighter that a British crowd can get behind and it wouldn't surprise that the 10,000+ crowd there on Saturday night were mostly because of Bisping but that's a bit EliteXC/Kimbo Slice. Good for UFC. Good that Britain has a guy they can root for (well it's either him or Paul Taylor who doesn't get airtime). Is it deserved though?

sorry mate, but with respect, I totally diagree with almost everything you're saying.

Bisping was head and shoulders above the rest of TUF3, and beat Josh Haynes easily in the final. Hamill was the only exception, but that was down to ox strength, rather than technical ability. He suprised Bisping (and everyone else) beating Bisping to the punch in round 1 of their fight and did a lot of damage. Bisping got his timing in rounds 2 & 3 and the correct score could either of been 28 - 28 or 29 -28 Bisping. There is no argument for Hamill IMO.

Before that he beat the shit out of Schafer and Sinosic who, while not top level fighters, are no mugs and would be a stiff test for any new fighter.
Against Evans he gave a decent account of himself but got out wrestled by a stronger, world class wrestler. No shame there.
At middle weight he's fought twice in 8 weeks. First he breaks Charles McCarthy's arm, throwing 20 knees in 10 seconds and retires him from the sport, then he mauls Jason Day who had no way of stopping him. He may have made a better account of himself against Belcher, but I think Bisping's showing himself to be a higher class than that. It's not that Day didn't want to fight back, it's that Bisping hit him bloody hard and he knew he was in trouble from the first meaningful exchange.

I agree he's about 3 / 4 fights away from a shot. I talked to him at Seni08 and he thinks the same. As I've said, expect Leben to be rescheduled, then probably another similar level guy like Quarry. then he'll have to get through Franklin and/or Henderson before he gets Silva. He knows he's no where near ready for Silva and why shouldn't he be fed fighters of gradually increasing ability. That's how the fight game's always worked.

Apart from great ability in all aspects of the game (increasingly including his wrestling) he's also a really nice bloke and deserves the respect and support of MMA fans. I don't know if he (or anyone else) will ever take the belt from Silva (he may relinquish it and move on after a few more defences) but I'll certainly enjoy watching him try. To answer your ranking question, ability, top 10, marketability, top 5

As for Hughes, Alves. You can't seriously say that, even in the modern UFC, 4lb is a factor. I've just watched UFC 1 - 20 back to back and I've watched people win fights giving away up to 400lb. The skill level is so much higher now, so I do accept that a stone or two is a major factor, but if Alves had made the cut he'd still have beaten Hughes.

I've been watching Alves closely since he knocked the snot out of Tony De Souza, and Karo Parisian is a top welterweight and Alves destroyed him. GSP is a phenominon, but Alves could give him a lot of problems standing. I think GSP will be looking to wrestle him, but Alves will be the stronger man and has a decent ground game of his own. Intriguing match up.

Bisping was head and shoulders above the rest of TUF3? I did say he emerged from a mediocre crop of light heavyweights so surely we don't disagree here? LOL! Was that the bit where you agreed with me!?

Charles McCarthy's emergence as a winner from 'The Ultimate Fighter 4' was even worse and to have UFC put Bisping up against him was an odd match-up what with Charles being smaller in height and weight. A more discerning MMA watcher would wonder why Bisping was fed something like McCarthy (Captain Miserable indeed!) as it proved to be a complete mismatch whilst the more casual fan just wanted to see Bisping beat someone up.

Bisping got the decision against Hamill and Michael has the last laugh whatever detractors might say. The Evans vs Bisping aftermath though was an oddity as I'm pretty sure the hype was that they were supposed to be amongst the 'top ten light heavyweights' at the time. Bisping moving down a weight division is fortuitous as Bisping is likely never going to face someone with as much 'power' again. To Michael's credit Rashad never really seemed to trouble him though but Evans did enough to get the win on points.

You have to be having a laugh to say that Eric Schafer or Elvis Sinosic are not mugs even for a 'new' fighter. If you're touted as being any good you better be able to beat guys like them.

Don't get me wrong #1: I'm not saying that he should be fighting the likes of Anderson Silva right now. That's just a stupid thing to say. Bisping is good (certainly better than five of the seven fighters he's faced. I haven't said that he isn't good as all I've said is he hasn't impressed me.) but he isn't ready yet for a title shot.

Don't get me wrong #2:  I would love as a British viewer to see someone British do well in MMA. I don't know if that guy's Michael Bisping but the UFC are giving him a helluva promotional push. Feeding Bisping fighters of increasing ability is one thing to build up a fighter's reputation (of course, that's a given! Look at Amir Khan over in boxing! I'm not expecting Bisping to be having a shot against the likes of Silva, Henderson or even Franklin or Marquardt right now but given the hype he should be fighting someone just slightly below their level) but I still maintain that Jason Day didn't even try on Saturday night. Bisping in a different class to Alan Belcher? Moot as we'll probably never know. I think that'd be a helluva fight as a contrast in styles though.

The fight against Chris Leben if it's still on will be interesting. I'd love to see Bisping prove me wrong and win with absolute conviction.

Where do I see Bisping in UFC's middleweight divison? Top 15 and outside the top 10. Who are the people I'd put ahead of Bisping right now? Anderson, Henderson, Franklin, Okami, Kampmann, Maia, Marquardt, Leites (by default), Leben, Quarry and even Jason MacDonald. A few of the MMA power lists online updated after UFC 85 put Bisping just outside the top 5. I can't see Bisping beating Kampmann, Maia, Marquadt or Leites right now and I'd put him borderline top 10 at best.

The marketability of the guy is odd but British fans have taken to Michael Bisping as their go-to guy when it comes to UFC. The prominent promotion of him by the UFC has helped a lot.. I'm sure there's a few Cage Rage guys looking on with absolute envy.

The MMA game's moved on since the early days of UFC 1-20 (thank God!) as they were bloody freak shows in comparison to the techniques and skills employed by MMA combatants of now.

Don't try to keep pinning me on this point of four pounds in regards Alves because after the weigh-in you can put as much weight on afterwards as you want!

I'm not saying Hughes would have had more of a chance if Alves did make weight (I didn't say that!). Alves being closer to his natural weight helped Thiago even more though as Hughes clearly couldn't cope and I would argue that Hughes who was already at a disadvantage was further disadvantaged. Hughes was the huge favourite coming in but that's by bookies who didn't know any better (look over at 2+2 forums and some of the pre-fight analysis over there! Hell of a mix!). I'm just saying that the guy who's heavier in a catchweight fight usually wins (the best example of this is over in boxing where Diego Corrales lost the second fight against Jose Luis Castillo when not too long ago Corrales beat Castillo quite controversially in the first fight).

now that was a much bigger mix of agree and disagree. Some interesting observations. we're certainly both interested to see how he copes as he moves up the division. I doubt he'll get anymore easy fights. It'll be top 10 opponents from now on.

I hope you'll join me in doing some UFC 86 predictions, in fact I'm going to have a look at the card as it stands now.

my mistake, it's TUF Finale first

Tanner v Grove. I'd LOVE to see Tanner win this. the man is an absolute legend and win or loose, his fights are usually thrillers. depends which Kendall Grove shows up on the night. Tanner by TKO (with my heart, rather than my brain)

Sanchez to beat Fioravanti submission

Irvine v Horne could be brilliant or boring. likely to be fought almost exclusively on the groud. I'm going to go for Irvine late submission.

nothing else from the card jumps out at me.

UFC 86
this looks like a better card already

Jackson v Griffin. I actually give Forrest the edge in this. I think he'll have the advantage on the feet and will have been working heavily on his take down defence for this fight. Randy Couture is not a bad sparing partner to prepare for this fight.

Cote to beat  Almeida by TKO
Stephenson to submit Tibau
Would love to see Lytle knock Koschecks head off, but my guess is Koscheck decision (lay and pray win)
Tyson Griffin decision (as usual) over Aurelio
Miller TKO over Gurgel
Guillard to KO Siver
Hill TKO Buchholz
Saunders submit Rollins

Not to further prolong the discussion on the pros and cons of Michael Bisping but I think we've had a far more healthy discussion on the matter than say over at Sherdog (http://www.sherdog.net/forums/f2/bisping-overrated-794581/)'s forums. The folks from the UK are doing us no favours by generally hurling childish insults but the hate is absolutely inane. There are a few gems of worthwhile negative and positive points in there if you can bear to read the 25 pages or so but I think we've generally both covered it (today was the first time I've read that thread and it's s'funny to go over there and find there are similar viewpoints to both you and me!).

For the record I don't think Michael Bisping is overrated and I certainly don't hate him even if I haven't particularly demonstrated that.

Handicapping MMA is a helluva task because of the occasional variance.

A lot of fights for The Ultimate Fighter 7 finale: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Fighter_7

I'm not going to lie as I haven't bothered to watch much of this series so I haven't got too much relevant opinion or perspective on the outcomes of those fights.

UFC 86 has a generally good card: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UFC_86

Just to go quickly with some picks and at this point in time I'd go with: Jackson (but not without some surprising difficulty), Cote, Stevenson, Koscheck (like you I'd like to see Lytle win instead though) and Griffin. On the preliminary bouts: Gurgel, Guillard, Hill, Wilson and Gonzaga.

I think the only surprise of the night will be Forrest Griffin giving Rampage a helluva fight but not win.

OT: Paul Daley will be back against Bojan Kosednar on July 12th.

http://www.mmafrenzy.com/2008/06/09/paul-daley-to-headline-cwfc-enter-the-rough-house-7-on-july-12th/

I've tried MMA forums but the testosterone is out of control. I do most of my MMA chat with my training partners. I put my picks up here out of habit now.

The latest TUF doesn't look to have any Silva worriers amongst them.

Just managed to watch this, congrats to Bisping I think he is much better at 185. Happy to see Hughes get his face smashed and also Swick quite easily beat Davies.

Thoughts on Kimbo? Big puncher that's about it I think, also I lol at people who think he could be a contender in the heavyweight division of boxing.

Bruce Lee in UFC? I think he'd be unstoppable. He would need to adapt his style but he was a pioneer of his own mix martial art so he could def have adapted.

lol @ kimbo

what makes me laugh is that before he's last fight he was on the news and main piece on the msn homepage, like he's this really great fighter thats worked he's way up from the street to conquer the world of ufc!

firstly out of about 15 of he's street fights ive seen he's fought hardly anyone, no one with any professional fighting experience, except gannon and that was the fight in which he pretty much got battered,

secondly anyone who knows anything can pretty much see he is not up to world class ufc standard, the media are pushing the story to try and make it into this big fairytale rags to riches story, truth is he just hasn't got it.

totally agree with u

He didn't get battered by Gannon - watch the video again please.

lol, he got battered.

i threw in a few "he's" just for you in that last post scotty :)up

wot about bruce then?

Kimbo: in the greater scheme or things, a relatively tough dude who'll win most street fights he's in. He'll never trouble the top of the sport, but Bas Rutten is a legend and if anyone can turn him into at least a passable heavyweight MMA fight, Bas can. If he faced anyone in the top 25 in the world he'd get a battering. He's as much right to be seen as an MMA fighter as Brock Lesnar though, if not more so.

Bruce Lee: don't get me wrong, I'm a huge fan of Bruce Lee. He was a pioneer and had a massive impact on global martial arts. If Bruce had not have died when he did, I dare say MMA would of been along a LOT sooner than it was. I also imagine there'd be a lot less Tae Kwon Do and karate classes around and a lot more Jun Fan Gung Fu classes. However, even if you could zip Bruce 35 years from 1973 to now and drop him in the cage against the current fighters, he'd lose. Even in modern self protection terms, a lot of Bruces thinking would be outdated. If he were alive today I think he'd agree and he'd be training and teaching very differently to how he did before he died. Bruce wasn't a big fan of martial arts for combat sports sake, but if you had Bruce in his prime and could persuade him to specifically train for the cage, maybe he'd do ok. All that said, you take Bruce in his prime to 1993 and drop him in UFC 1 and Royce Gracie gets a beating.

I agree he'd need to change his style but I think he'd be the first to recognise that and would develop his skills accordingly, if he was pioneering then then he'd be pioneering now. I think he was the perfect match of skill, physicality and brains and that's a dangerous combo.

If JKD was transferable to the cage, Dan Inosanto would be the greatest MMA trainer in the world.

he was a former student of bruce right? think iv seen him on some vids.

As a side note, I'm assuming you train for MMA. How did you start off in the sport ie martial arts background or just like fighting?

I've always thought i'd like to try it as much for the training as the fighting but I'm not a trained fighter would it be a waste of time?

Dan Inosanto was more than just a student really. He's the only person certified directly by Bruce Lee in both Jun Fan Gung Fu and JKD. He took over the training of Brandon after his death. He's 71 and is an absolute legend of a man. He's obviously far supassed where Bruce was in '73.

No, I don't train MMA specifically. I train in Reality Based Self Defence (RBSD) but I've been kickboxing 14 years and MMA was being born about the time I started training. We do include some sport training method to work our core skills, but there's a big difference between training for the street and the cage (not least the level of commitment to your physical condition required to be a decent cage fighter)

I would never discourage someone from training in martial arts, for self protection or sport/fitness. where are you based? I'll see if I can recommend someone. Also how old are you? not that it matters, we've had people come to us in their 40's and start training.

cambridge, 24

I'll as around if you like

I think you're a little off here.

Rewatch Mir vs Lesnar again, I think if they rematch Lesnar is the favourite. He's got a pretty good future in the sport and is pretty legit.

He's an olympic wrestler - wrestlers work ethic is utterly insane, the reason why wrestling and wrestlers did well in the UFC for a long period was their physical strength and conditioning - it made them tough for pure submission grapplers to submit them and it made it tough for strikers to avoid takedowns.

As takedown defence has improved, and as sub guys have realised they need to train wrestling and stand up the game has changed. Pure wrestlers are doing much worse vs top tier guys these days simply because their advantage vs both strikers and sub guys has decreased a ton and the strikers/sub guys cardio has increased a lot.

Lesnar is NOT an olympic wrestler. He has a decent College wrestling pedigree but that's not enough to be an MMA fighter. Kimbo is a banger. That's also not enough to be an MMA fighter. Kimbo is trainining under one of the greatest Mixed Martial Artists of all time in Bas Rutten. I have no idea who Lesnar is training with, but if it was one of the major camps, I guess I'd of heard.

The age of the wrestler is past in MMA (I hope). As you rightly say, against old style one dimensional fighters, the ox strong wrestlers would just maul them. However, long fight conditioning was not always the wrestlers strength. For example watch Mark Coleman when he was the top heavyweight in early UFC. He was destroying legends like Dan Severn and Gary Goodridge. Once people realised that past the 6th or 7th minute he was totally gased and ready to get picked off, they just learned to ride the storm. Maurice Smith v Mark Coleman was an excellent fight. for 10 mins, Coleman lay on top of Smith and dropped elbows and headbutts. Smith tied him up and (suprisingly for someone known as a top kickboxer) went for a few subs. during the OT Smith battered him while Coleman wobbled about like a drunk, hands by his sides, mouth wide open, glowing red. Pete Williams did the same in the next right and landed a KO that's still being shown now. Those big muscles need a lot of oxygenated blood pumping to them. hard to do for long periods of time.

I've watched Lesnar v Mir LOADS and I'm still of the opinion that, this was typical Frank Mir. He always had a habit of taking a bit of a pounding before usually landing a stunning submission. Sometimes it went wrong, for example when Ian Freeman beat the shit out of him at the Albert Hall. The BJJ guys love the victorys where they have to take some punishment and fight through it. If Mir and Lesnar fight 10 times, Mir wins 7 for me.

Good luck to Lesnar, if he puts a lot of work in, he might do ok, but he'll never be top 10 I don't think. We'll see.

You're right he never went to the olympics, my bad :)

his college pedigree is definately better than decent though.

He did win the NCAA divison 1 twice in back to back years which is a pretty tough thing to do.
He's training at the Minnesota MMA Academy which has a pretty decent amount of fighters although arguably not many elite guys. ( Sean Sherk is probably the most noteworthy ).

I think the traditional "lol WWE" thing definately hurts his reputation a bit but if he works on his submission defence he'll be a pretty big force simply due to strength and conditioning thats so much tougher to have in that division.

At least Brock put on a fairly interesting (if short) heavyweight bout, don't see many of those these days.

He needs to learn how to punch and drop elbows, the shots against Mir were wild and ineffective IMO.

Watching TUF Finale at the moment - no spoilers if you know anything. Anyway, just been announced that Anderson Silva is moving up to 205 to take on James Irvin! Should be awesome.

that's a huge announcement. Not sure if he'll have to vacate the middleweight title. A few middleweight contenders breathing a little sign of relif maybe, and Rich Franklin might get his career back.

Congrats to Amir, just hope he can bring it in the real world.

Why's Joe split with Warren 2-3 fights before the end of his career?

I noticed in the Mir fight that he had Eric Paulson in his corner. Now there's a guy that knows about fighting.

With help like that he should improve.

Anyone know if he's got another fight announced?

he was supposed to be fighting Mark Coleman. He used to be out of breath after 6 minutes in his prime. now he'd be an easy fight for Lesnar.

unfortunately for Lesnar, Coleman has pulled out with a knee injury. His replacement is Heath Herring. A serious fighter and I think Lesnar is in a world of trouble. Roll on August 9th

also on the card, GSP v Fitch and Huerta v Florian. two cracking sounding fights

Can only be money orientated.

Cut out the middle man so to speak.

Can't blame Joe really he has payed his dues and deserves a few retirement fights.

Forrest Griffin is 3.25 to beat Quinton Jackson. Bit of value there I think.

I did say I expected a decision win for Josh Koscheck but at 3.6 Chris Lytle might be worth a dabble too. Got a punchers chance.

Did you see Mir's face about two hours later.....?  ALOT of damage and big time swelling

I gve Lesner two years and he'll be world champ....

won't happen. Mir is the best possible style match up for him. a smaller BJJ with a habit of taking punishment before sinking his submission. against a top class striker or a more efficient fighter I don't see it.

can you imagine Lesnar v Nogueria? I saw Nog at Seni this year. very impressive looking dude up close. Head like a canon ball.

Don't get me wrong, I'm sure Lesnar will grow into a decent heavyweight fighter, but I don't see him ever being top of the food chain, even in a relatively weak division like the UFC heavyweights.

call it 18 months and I'm sure we can come up with a sig bet

 ;iagree;

Well worth a few quid. When's the fight? I've not been following UFC too much recently but this one will be worth watching.

Also agree about Lesnar. Stick him in against Nog and he's got a whole world of hurt.

Saturday. A friend of mine has tickets. Lucky *****.

early hours on Setanta, repeated on bravo I think.

Forrest, what a star. I gave him all but the 4th round. Great fight. Rampage really didn't like those nasty leg kicks.
Cote looked pretty ordinary in round 1 but deserved the decision.
Stephenson was losing that fight but got the sub I thought he would
Koscheck was very aggressive. Hardly the lay and pray I expected. really bloody fight. I thought it should of been stopped between rounds 2 & 3 but to be fair to Lytle he was still swinging at the end.
Tyson Griffin decision as usual. good fight though.
Miller won as I thought, but by submission. I'll look for that bout online later.
Guillard to KO Siver. tick.
Hill got submitted, spoiling my perfect pick (don't know what happened to Saunders v Rollins)
7/8 not bad though. would of been 8/9 if I'd remembered to add the Gonzaga bout.

Sorry, not posted for a while, been travelling for 2 months. This might be a brag post but you may be interested:

I was at UFC 86 last Sat and it was a quality card and atmosphere. The yanks can be annoying (like when they boo fights) but man they can create an atmosphere.
Most of the fights were pretty decent - Miller & Gurgel had a great fight, I was impressed by Miller, he submitted a black belt in BJJ and Rich Franklin's BJJ coach/training partner so good win for him. Guillard got a sick KO on Siver, ditto Gonzaga with a submission on McCully, catch that if you can. With Tyson Griffin I really wanted him to get beat, he can never finish a fight and to be honest I don't think he tries to when he knows he's ahead in rounds. Koscheck did fight well but I don't like watching this guy fight. Big Dog let me down for a nice payday when he lost to Cote, worst fight of the night, and it was no split - Cote had rounds 2 & 3 IMO. Really disappointed with Almeida cos he is normally a real good fighter, maybe still a bit cage rusty.

Main event was sick, the roof went off the place, most were cheering for Griffin. I had him win 2,3 & 5 don't know if I would have given him a 10-8 though for round 2. Cracking fight to watch live, maybe not as good when I catch it on DVD.

Saw a few fighters as I was going in, got pic taken with Gray Maynard and also shouted at Cheick Kongo (massive chest!) and CB Dolloway from TUF7, also heard Diego Sanchez & Bisping were kicking about the slot machines.

Training out at Xtreme Couture for a month as well in kickboxing so hopefully I'll bump into Forrest, Kampmann, etc...

Yip defo brag post!

raptor trains there and has written a bit about it on his blog on cardrunners.

i don't think i could even do the warmup :(

excellent post benny. get some inside scoops from the couture camp.

Saturday 20th
UFC has Silva fighting at 205. I think he'll beat James Irvine fairly easily.
I think Frankie Edgar V Hermes Franca could be a decent fight, with franca getting a late submission of decision.
I hope Jesse Taylor gets his ass thoroughly handed to him. Although I find CB Dolloway pretty irritating, I find Taylor infuriating.

Same Night Tim Silvia is fighting Fedor in Affliction. Not sure how soon I'll get to see that, but although I'd love to see Silvia silence a few haters and see the Fedor hero worshippers brought down a few pegs, I can't see it. Fedor should beat big Tim. The card also has Babalu who's one of my all time favourite fighters and Andre Arlovski, perdo Rizzo, Josh Barnett and Matt lindland. could be a hell of a card. Not sure if its in the ring or the cage.

Looking forward to this although all UFC now seems like its going to be Setanta rather than Bravo, which sucks. Two day delay whilst I download it I presume.

had no choice but to get Santa Sports now all UFC is there.
Worth the money though

usually quicker than that on ninja

http://www.ninjavideo.net/cat/193 (http://www.ninjavideo.net/cat/193)

wow, just watched Baroni v Jansen from the recent Cage Rage event - stunning KO win for Baroni. Fight tainted by Jansen's brother headbutting Baroni after the fight when Baroni goes to check on Jansen.

Silva ownnnnnnnnnns!

unbelievably talented fighter. Irvine is a serious dude but Silva went through him like he was nothing. Caught the kick, straight right and a few finishers on the ground.

Silva says it's his responsibility to defend the middleweight title but that he'll go where the big fights are. There aren't any more big fights for him at middleweight. He's make Rich Franklin look very ordinary twice (and Franklin is anything but ordinary) he's dominated and submitted Dan Henderson on the ground (one of MMAs best wrestlers) there was definitely noone in the latest batch of TUF middleweights that will ever beat Silva. Okami, deserves a crack, Bisping won't be ready to even challenge for 18-24 months.

get him another light heavyweight name lined up I say. In fact, after that dull performance, punish Brandon Vera by matching him up With Anderson Silva. Let's see him counter punch and lean on in the clinch in that fight

Vera sucked ass last night - blamed his performance on the cut, i suppose he did look a little drawn.

not a huge Vera fan. He beat Frank Mir who was having a terrible time post accident but was still a UFC hero. Because Vera beat Mir he surely HAD to be a champion of the future.

Sylvia made him look silly and Werdum destroyed him. He could improve at 205, but I'm not expecting much

Fedor submitted Sylvia after 36 seconds.

emphatic

The Contender.......Muay Thai (sp)     started last night....looks like it could be good viewing   ITV4 i think.

Argh, why didn't u tell us last night?

they showed the first 2 episodes back to back(im sure you will be able to find it online), i was offline when i noticed it was on,sorry

was just joking, going to watch it on itv catch-up

lol, David from the United Kingdom and Sean from Scotland, cos Scotland isn't in the UK.

Not sure why they saw the need for this program but i'll watch anyway.

ITV catch up is torrid, they still show the ads.

For those with Sultana the Cotto fight rerun from last night is just starting.
Is a great fight.

Cotto lost :(

Kelly Pavlik vs B-hop in October.

Hopkins gonna get pwned by a "whte boy" again.

Yeah, Pavlik gonna beat him up!

Hatton splits with Trainer.

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12183_3881821,00.html

UFC 87 predictions

GSP v Fitch.
I Like John Fitch, tough guy. Can't see GSP struggling though. GSP win

Lesnar v Herring
Lesnar might have beat Mark Coleman (the scheduled fight for this card) but he's not redy for heath herring who's a serious dude in serious shape.
Herring win. Herring is 3.4 BTW if you fancy a flutter. this is the only decent bet I can see on the card

Huerta v Florian
fight of the night for sure. Big fan of both fighters but I'm going to go with Huerta. maybe by late sub but it could go all the way.

Kongo to beat Everson
Wilson to beat Bruno
Saunders to beat Rollins
MacDonald to beat Maia
Gamburyan to beat Emerson (really hope I'm wrong, can't stand the fella)
Cummo to beat McCrory (Really needs to start winning, looked great on TUF but is not getting it going)

Adam or anyone

After last night performance is Lesner just a pretender?  I don't watch too much MMA but for me that was a awesome performance.  His speed and control were devastating, he seems to be the real deal.  Has he been hit yet? are their any question marks over his chin?  How far up the heavyweight chain was Herring?  Who is heavyweight champ?

The Huerta v Florian was brilliant also, Florian just does not look like a fighter but when that buzzer sounds he becomes a scary individual, he seemed to be technically spot on, was it just a victory of style over style or does Florian have the chance to go all the way?

Does anybody exist who may test GSP?

A brilliant card I thought.

might be an all time worse performance, predictions wise
UFC 87 predictions

GSP v Fitch.
I Like John Fitch, tough guy. Can't see GSP struggling though. GSP win
Total domination. 10-8, 10-9, 10-8, 10-9, 10-8 for me. GSP can be every bit as dominant at welterweight as Anderson Silva is at Middleweight.
I think BJ Penn is insane to move from the lightweight division where, as good as Florian was last night, I think he can hold the belt as long as he wants it. GSP will overpower him

Lesnar v Herring
Lesnar might have beat Mark Coleman (the scheduled fight for this card) but he's not ready for heath herring who's a serious dude in serious shape.
Herring win. Herring is 3.4 BTW if you fancy a flutter. this is the only decent bet I can see on the card
Boo, boring. No question Lesnar totally dominated Herring, but it was dull as hell. The Heavyweight division is UFCs downfall. with stars like Fedor, Sylvia, Arlovski, Couture (kind of) all plying their trade elsewhere, Nogueira is top of a comparatively weak food chain. I still think the big strikers will eat Lesnar alive (Kongo, Gonzaga) and the top couple of submission guys also (Werdum and Mir if there was ever a rematch) but even though it pains me to say it, Lesnar is already just outside UFC top 5.

Huerta v Florian
fight of the night for sure. Big fan of both fighters but I'm going to go with Huerta. maybe by late sub but it could go all the way.
Huerta's submission defence and ability to get back to his feet was impressive. Despite that, Florian looked very impressive. He thoroughly deserves a title shot, but with BJ Penn mucking about moving weight, how long will he have to wait for the opportunity?

Kongo to beat Everson - dude's an animal. Surely gets a shot at the winner of Nogueira v Mir
Wilson to beat Bruno - yep, judges decision
Saunders to beat Rollins - Rollins replaced by Ryan Thomas but Saunders still gets his win
MacDonald to beat Maia - Gutsy performance by MacDonald, but Maia looked amazing.
Gamburyan to beat Emerson (really hope I'm wrong, can't stand the fella) sweet right hand and a short left on the ground and Gamuryan's asleep. cool. happy to be wrong
Cummo to beat McCrory (Really needs to start winning, looked great on TUF but is not getting it going) got his win.


5/9 not as bad as I thought

enjoyed the card though. great advert for the game.

I think more people should play batrick

First proper look at UFC 88. looks like a belter.

Chuck Liddell v Rashad Evans.
was Supposed to be Chuck v Rua a couple of months ago, Rua got injured so Evans stepped in late, but then Chuck got injured in training. Hope and expect to see Chuck destroy Evans before getting a shot at the title in the new year.

Rich Franklin v Matt Hamill.
Bisping comes down from Light heavy and gets McCarthy and Day. Hamill comes down and gets Franklin. He must have REALLY pissed someone off. Having seen Silva make light work of Franklin twice, it's easy to forget how good Franklin is compared top the rest of the middleweights. Franklin Should win easily.

Karo Parisyan v Yoshiyuki Yoshida
As always I'll be hoping Parisyan gets his arrogant ass handed to him, but I don't know enough about Yoshida to back it. He submitted Jon Koppenhaver in his UFC debut but Parisyan is a different league. Hope I'm wrong ut Parisyan win

Dan Henderson v Rousimar Palhares
On paper Palhares is 5" shorter than Henderson. Saying that, I've stood next to Dan Henderson and there's no way in the world he's 6'1". doubt he's more than 5'10". even so, I'd expect a dominant performance from Henderson and a win.

Kampmann v Marquart
what a great sounding fight. going to go for Kampmann, purely because he's on the better run at the minute but this should be a war.

Thiago Tavares to beat Kurt Pellegrino
Tim Boetsch to beat James (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=585) Lee (http://www.blondepoker.com/blondepedia/blondepedia_view_player.php?player_id=585) (look out for the huge front kicks)
Dong Hyun Kim to beat Matt Brown (over rated in TUF I thought)
Ryo Chonan to beat Roan Carniero
Jason Day to beat Jason Lambert

I'm sure Franklin v Hamill is at Light-Heavy

you might be right. both fighters are listed as 185lb on the site, which is what made me assume the fight was at middle weight, however, now you say it, I have a vague recollection of hearing franklin was moving to light heavyweight (probably his natural weight)

looking at it now, site has been corrected and both figthers are listed at 205lb.
still expecting a Franklin walk over. the guy is a different class to Hamill entirely.

also, Yoshida is listed on Sherdog as one of 5 fighters you've never heard of to watch out for. He comes from a grappling / Judo background like Parisyan and has some pedigree in MMA so I might get my wish to be wrong about that fight and see Parisyan get beat.

contender was very good tonight i thought

Adam's gone, ffs, cant you let the thread die with some dignity?

adam's gone from the forum?

I thought so?

banned it seems

why? he hasn't been controversial for ages

and boooo I like this thread

threatened Tighty with a karate chop

He said 'please ban me for life', so they did.

pretty much

Damn!!!!! :'(

I would love Adam's thoughts on Randy  vs Brock

(http://i122.photobucket.com/albums/o256/deepthroat666/dko.gif)

genuine?

i think so yeah it's on youtube

Kimbo Slice lost his first fight this weekend. Defeated by Seth Petruzelli after 14 seconds bt TKO.

Petruzelli took the fight at about one hour's notice after original opponent Ken Shamrock pulled out with a cut above the eye sustained in the warm up.

terrible

http://mma.fanhouse.com/2008/10/05/video-seth-petruzelli-kos-kimbo-slice/

when is Bisping fighting and what time of the night will it be on at?

It's a week on Saturday (18th). Event time is Britain-friendly, so starts at 8 with Bisping being the main event.

Cheers, hopefully there is a pub near me that will show it

any blondes gonna apply?

http://uk.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=14908 (http://uk.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=14908)

i would, except that:

a) can't fight

b) can't make 185

anyone watching TUF 8? i realise there must be a lot of selected editing going on otherwise he would surely be in prison by now but that Junie seems like a complete psycho. must be so frustrating for the others knowing that if they bite back at his bullying and constant attempts to start fights they probably get kicked off the show and yet he gets away with it, I guess cos it makes good TV ???

not watched any yet, gonna watch what i've missed in a oner soon.

http://www.spike.com/video/leak-anderson-silva/3045037 (http://www.spike.com/video/leak-anderson-silva/3045037)

thats about kimbos level,

fck knows where all the hypw has come from,

shamrock would have ruined him anyway.

Mate that guy is a complete tool!

Shane too, i was glad when shane got stopped with 40 seconds to go, only to see Junie lose it right under Dana's nose!!! lol

What a total clown!

Junie is surely out now, but you just know Dana will bring him back to fight Efrain in the undercard for the Finale....which Junie will easily win!

TUF ratings are through the roof, hundreds of threads about junie everywhere on teh internetz. i know the decision has already been made but if he had to make it today i think he'd let him stay.

they are not allowed TV, radio, internet or to talk to their families but they are allowed unlimited alchohol. they clearly want this shit to happen.

can't wait til next ep tbh :)

Jardine to beat Vera on Saturday - 6/4

not sure it will be that easy tho

Jardine, blows hot and cold at times (Houston Alexander / Chuck Liddell)

Vera just stepped down a weight class, and looks much leaner, faster and sharper

I think its a 50/50 fight, so ill be backing the value at 6/4

Vera was very unimpressive in his first fight at LHW, so definate value in Jardine here.

Apparently Vera is walking around at fighting weight and wont need to cut so he will be stronger going into the fight.  I hear he has been preparing slightly better than Jardine too, has been in the UK for over a eek, Jardine flew in last minute.

went with the value as i said, and lumped on Jardine, @ 2.58, with betfair

I was really struggling to call it, even as the fighter stood awaiting the duges score card, i wouldn't have complained with Vera won it TBH

.....But the Dean of Mean did me a turn in the end and i scooped the Money!

was a tough call..i thought Vera had nicked it but it was certainly close.

thought Bisping approached his fight with a predetermined game plan and executed it well....a very very good win.

Spot on Booder....

I was at UFC 85 in London with my cousin, and witnessed first hand the way he usually fights in England with the crowd etc. He was just a total manaic, with little game plan except destroy as quick and possble!

However this time, he stayed away from Leben as much as possible, and picked his spots, i wondered how Leben would react to this as all the hype suggested he's changed, he's a lot calmer and suggests this wouldn't frustrate him....however i think by the end of the 2nd round it was plain to see Leben was losing his nerve and patience. Kust looking at the two fighters at the end it was plain to see who the victor was.


.......Still think Bisping is in the UFC at the right time tho, he clearly had his ass kicked my Matt Hammell, and the judges threw the decision in favour of the Token British Golden Boy. The UFC is already massive in the States, needing little further promotion other than what is already in place, however, its plain to see that Dana and the Fertitta Brothers are desperate to push the UFC oversea's. This is even more evident in the up coming Ultimate Fighter series, where they are deviding the teams into 'Team USA v Team UK'

The wheels would defo have come flying of the UK Promotional Wagon, if the Golden Boy Bisping had lost before he had even started his rise up the rankings, Hence the Matt hamell Decision!




........I do like the guy tho, Very Likeable and Funny dude (Watch the Bravo documentary on Bisping, from when he won T.U.F.)

As for UFC90:
Cant really find value in any of the bouts (Not looked at the pre bouts, as i like to watch my bets)

1/ Silva v Cote: Silva should easy destroy Cote, and priced @ 1.16 is a fair refection, although not good enough for my level of stakes

2/ Alves v Koscheck: Alves should just edge this on with Koscheck, but will be a tough test for him, odds of 1.78 are slightly too short for me, id be looking for 1.9-2.0 for him, might bet him, if he creeps up to around 1.85

3/ Clementi v Maynard: We haven't seen much of Maynard, but what we did see is he was one of the strongest in the house to win the contract, and is still as yet, undefeated. Clementi has a tonne of experience, however has lost 12 fights in his career and is older than Maynard.......ill take Maynard with Age on his side, however @ 1.37, is not good enough!

4/ Fabricio Werdum Vs. Junior Dos Santos: Don't know anything about os Santos, but do know Werdum, is a good solid Heavywieght with good experience, and some good victories over top fighters...... fancy Werdum in this one but @ 1.15, is shocking price, considering i know nothing about Dos Santos

5/ Sean Sherk Vs. Tyson Griffin: Just as the Main event, this is a no context for me. Sean Sherk will rip Griffin apart! Priced at 1.5, this is probably the best valued fight on the card, won't be putting my Money on it tho



Wont be backing anything in this card TBH, i think you need to be willing to place £100+ to see a half decent return for your money

totally agree but that decision compensates for the loss he suffered against Evans when he clearly won

ship

True mate, could be that was Bisping tasting the other edge of the UFC Promotional sword, with regards Evens rise to title shot????

As Dana always says, 'Never leave it to the judges Dana and the Fretitta Bothers'

You Decide ??

Does anyone know where I can watch all of this season's TUF online?

Not sure, but you can down load all the episodes Torrent Files, if you know how, ill PM you incase it gets deleted

http://www.ninjavideo.net/cat/1115

lol, thanks mate - searched ninja and couldn't see it!

I can't believe people were booing silva, he could probably go in there and knock cote out in 3 minutes, but he decides to give them a show and make it last a while and they moan about it ???

 

Totally mate, I paid £175 per ticket for UFC85 in London, and if the main event was over in 3 minute when i was there for that money, id have Cage invaded!

Silva is the most naturally gifted fighter in the entire organization, the guy is just pure raw talent

Try This:


http://mma-core.com/videos/Videos.aspx?tid=0

Cyborg v. Manhoef

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Om3sZo9KIxI&feature=rec-HM-fresh#

2nd round is ridic good!

Have you heard the commentator in this one! lol

To set the scene.....

Kimbo Slice is meant to be this indestructable street fighter that made it famous street fighting on 'You tube', he finally makes it onto mainstream TV MMA Fights, and is scheduled to fight legendary fighter Ken Shamrock in this clip, Shamrock injures himself in the warm up, so one of shamrocks entourage (Seth Petruzelli) steps in and takes the fight on 1 hours notice, to face the invinsible Kimbo......

http://www.mmalinker.com/xfighters.php?name=Kimbo+Slice&vidid=9115&vidt=i (http://www.mmalinker.com/xfighters.php?name=Kimbo+Slice&vidid=9115&vidt=i)

Check out Fatty trying to stand:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xXvtpMPYBYw&feature=related (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xXvtpMPYBYw&feature=related)

Whoever said 'A good defence is a strong offense' was talking shite!!

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1UlRG5VDP6I&feature=related (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=1UlRG5VDP6I&feature=related)

Not the best way wind up your opponent:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=X5jnA3L_OKs&feature=related (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=X5jnA3L_OKs&feature=related)

lol! "Rocky, Rocky is here!"

It was a terrible defeat for Kimbo losing like that - not sure how he'll come back.

Petruzelli was also a TUF reject   lol

can anyone give me the uk fight time for calzaghe v jones

According to Betfair:

Event Start Time
2008-11-08 22:00 US/Eastern (GMT-5.00)
2008-11-09 03:00 Europe/London (GMT+0.00)


According to William Hill:

Event Start Time
2008-11-09 04:00 Europe/London (GMT+0.00)


According to Coral:

Light-Heavyweight Title Fight, Madison Square Garden, New York, Sunday 3.30am, Live On Setanta


LOL Take your pick!

Well,not quite two years   ;gobsmacked;

I hope you ain't surprised by this result, it was always going to be Lesnar all the way, he is just far to big a Lump to over come, it is going to take a lucky/good shot to finish Lesnar for a good few years.

And he's going to get better!

had the matchsticks in the eyes for this - on far too late, gonna have a word with Dana.

What you think about Florian calling out BJ?

Florian feels he has been due his shot since three fights ago, and for BJ to move up a weight to fight GSP instead, has obviously pissed Ken-Flo right off!

Oh and BJ will kick Florians ass!
Oh but not before GSP Kicks BJ's ass!
Oh and then Thiago Alves will knock out GSP to take the Welterweight Title!

[/color]

GSP Silva superfight of the century is gogogo apparently if GSP beats BJ

weight?

dunno

http://www.mma-extreme.com/?p=850

Still think the Lesnar stuff has been a little over-hyped. Okay he fought the legend that is Randy Couture but Randy was not only 45 and way way way past his glory days but was carrying a 60 pound weight disadvantage. I think Brock fighting at his best would have got beaten by Randy at fighting in his hey day, Randy was just too clever and too good to get beaten by that lump.

the trouble with Lesner imo, is that a lot of UFC guys take steroids, but not really to get huge, more discretely for recovery cos they train so hard. But Lesner has shown just what an advantage it is to get huge and it's very close to impossible to get that big without juicing, so isn't that gonna encourage people who fight him and new people coming into the game to take shit loads of the stuff?

Lesnar has been hyped up, but not hyped up as a great MMA fighter - most understand he is currently quite limited. The weight argument has no substance cos the HW division is 206-265 so to be the champ u must expect larger opponents will surface.

I also assume u mean Randy at his peak would beat Brock at current. That might possibly be true but Lesnar is going to improve a lot imo so peak v. peak comparisons will be a while off. His standup was surprisingly much better than Couture on Saturday night.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/news;_ylt=Aplr3qx6dhuSpPB91AODGf49Eo14?slug=ki-ufcakafeud111908&prov=yhoo&type=lgns

Not with the strict rules and test in place these days

The Fertitta Bro's and Dana hace worked far to hard to turn it from a 4 million investment into a $1.4BILLION! company it is today....

They will not allow it, just look at Sean Sherk being stripped of his Belt for it.

If anyone is interested, this is a good read:

oh to have some spare cash at the right time eh:

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0505/080.html (http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0505/080.html)

14 part history of pride on utube. i knew nothing about it and thought this was really interesting. did the ufc just kill it off when they bought them out? seems criminal

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9N-nf2wChs&feature=related

Thanks for this, watching just now. James Thompson in Part 5 cracks me up - goes on about how he gives his all and is really determined etc and then it promptly shows a clip of him tapping to one strike!!!

ultimate fighter episode 11....was the screening of this  delayed? havnt been able to find it yet

Yes mate, I got the beers in last thursday, ready to watch it on Setanta, and they showed The Ultimate Talk instead, when the TV Guide on Sky Digital clearly said i was viewing The Ultimate Fighter!

Wasn't happy

postponed for thanksgiving 2 eps this week,

very excited about next ufc, almost enough to pay for setanta...

enlighten me please Justin

UFC 92

Main card
Light Heavyweight Championship bout: Forrest Griffin vs. Rashad Evans
Interim Heavyweight Championship bout: Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Frank Mir
Light Heavyweight bout: Quinton Jackson vs. Wanderlei Silva
Middleweight bout: C.B. Dollaway vs. Mike Massenzio
Heavyweight bout: Cheick Kongo vs. Mustafa Al Turk

thats some line up

i know mate, its an awesome fight card, three potential sell out Main Events in one night, to end 2008 on a high

You Da man Dana! Joe Silva!

that is a sick sick card! definitely gonna be watching that one

Anyone know whats happened to the Fight Channel (427) on Sky? It seems to have disappeared

watching TUF ep 11 and 12, lol at Dana not throwing Junie out this time, wtf?!

Bader v. Marshall zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Episode 12 not been aired yet, but thanks for ruining the fact Juniw doesn't get thrown out now.....been looking forward to Ep 12 too!

my apologies, wasn't aware - watch it online anyways

lol no worries mate, i knew Junie wouldn't have walked anyway, if Dana didn't the first time, he never will! Big Pussy

Im going for Mir for the upset.  Really looking forward to that fight

Can't agree with this Boba. I fancy Nog, but not much of a price.

(http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/articlefiles/7762-CoryHill.jpg)

so sick, the fight's on ufc.com if you wanna see it. the ref doesn't notice and the commentator is screaming at him to stop the fight.