Mixed Martial Arts Thread (UFC and others)

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Or not having 4 dudes doing color commentary. Strikeforce is like the Spinal Tap of MMA.

Please don't insult Spinal Tap like that...

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

If you really, really, really want to see just how the fight ended.

Spoiler

I can't believe it didn't break. That's amazing. Still no idea what the extent of the arm damage is, but for it to bend and not break is wild.

In other new, if Roy Nelson can get to 100k likes on Facebook in the next 2 weeks he says he'll drop to 205. He still needs 25k more:

Incompatible Browser | Facebook

I sense his UFC career is being pushed hard by Dana. He's made not secret of admiring his fighting ability, but the weight and appearance has really taxed his patience.

[thesloppy]

Tate said there were no broken bones, for whatever that's worth.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

Tate said there were no broken bones, for whatever that's worth.

Wow, amazing. Did she mention ligaments, or anything else? Hard to believe there is not something really jacked up. She is one tough young lady. We were talking about it last night at Jiu Jitsu and it ws pretty much unanimous that all of us would have tapped about 5 seconds after Rousy had that 2nd one locked in.

[SegRat]

I was amazed that Tate didn't tap out sooner. She hell of a tough woman and lasted a hell of a lot longer than most men would have. But after thinking about this, how dumb of a decision was it for her to not tap. Most arms would have snapped in two, on top of tons of ligament damage. If that would have happened she would have been out, and possibly will be out for a very long time. If she taps sooner, she probably gets a shot at the title within a year. Now she is probably looking at a minimum of 18 months, if it broke probably longer. I understand why she didn't want to tap, but how smart of a decision for her future was it. Either way I would have tapped during the first arm bar.

[DeToxRox]

Dana changes his mind yet again and has said that Henderson/Edgar II will take place this summer. Just not sure why Frankie is given a rematch; the fight was not that close.

[thesloppy]

I think Frankie's just getting paid back for those Maynard fights. His whole title reign was pretty much mandated rematches. On the other hand, that seems like a pretty crappy precedent to set, and I sure don't want to see immediate 'prove it' rematches become the norm.

[DeToxRox]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I think Frankie's just getting paid back for those Maynard fights. His whole title reign was pretty much mandated rematches. On the other hand, that seems like a pretty crappy precedent to set, and I sure don't want to see immediate 'prove it' rematches become the norm.

I agree with this 100%.

[PilotMan]

Dana is really starting down a slippery slope with all of this. Since the Edgar/Maynard rematch, then Diaz, now Edgar again, all a title loser has to do is just say he wants that immediate rematch and the precedent is there. There are legit guys lined up down the street in some divisions and making them wait that much longer, might cause trouble down the line. It's just a very fine line to walk.

[thesloppy]

So, according to my DVR, tomorrow's TUF premiere is 2 1/2 hours long. Awesome or ridiculous? I don't know that new fans are going to be stoked about the idea of committing 2 1/2 hours to MMA. Heck, I love TUF and I'll watch pretty much whatever they put out there, but I have friends who are longtime fans, but burnt out on the show, and that's certainly not going to change their minds.

I assume it's going to be mostly fights, though I still don't that's enough time to do all of the necessary 16(?) fights live. Anybody know any of the details?

[tarcone]

A kid from my town is on this tonight. Justin Lawrence.

Im watching for that.

[bhlloy]

I have to say, that got old really quickly. The only memorable fights were very early and I can probably only remember 3 or 4 of the 16 fighters for the actual show. I can't imagine they picked up any casual fans from that at all and probably turned a whole lot off.

[Flasch186]

I watched one fight than got sidetracked...

[tarcone]

Justin Lawrence was the 1st overall pick and fights tonight. We are friends with his family. So we are excited for him

I mentioned him in this thread many pages ago He is a stud and will make noise in this competition.
He almost didnt make it on the show. He only has 3 pro fights under his belt. But His gym, is it black dog or black something (Silvas gym), told the show that they needed this kid. The show relented and Lawrence got on. He dominated in his 1st fight. Now he is the favorite to win the house.

[tarcone]

LAWRENCE WINS!!!

Big left hook knocks out his opponent midway thru the 2nd.

AWESOME!

[kingfc22]

Not sure if anybody is watching the fights on HBO tonight, but just more boxing hilarity.

Guy dominating the fight gets knocked down as the bell rings in the 10th and as he is getting the 10 count one of his corner men enters the ring to get the stool ready, etc. Rules say it is an automatic DQ.

Best part is once the judges cards are revealed up to that point the dominant fighter who was DQ'd was only ahead on 2 of 3 cards. There is no way in hell anyone watching could score the fight in favor of the eventual "winner".

[k0ruptr]

The TUF house isnt far away from where I'm living, and I ran into a bunch of these guys at the local smashburger, apparently they fucking love smashburger.

[Havok]

Originally Posted by kingfc22

Not sure if anybody is watching the fights on HBO tonight, but just more boxing hilarity.

Guy dominating the fight gets knocked down as the bell rings in the 10th and as he is getting the 10 count one of his corner men enters the ring to get the stool ready, etc. Rules say it is an automatic DQ.

Best part is once the judges cards are revealed up to that point the dominant fighter who was DQ'd was only ahead on 2 of 3 cards. There is no way in hell anyone watching could score the fight in favor of the eventual "winner".

i watched it, and it was a tragic joke.

i grew up on boxing, but its a dead sport now outside of a few popular fighters.

so sad....

[Suicane75]

Fabers coaching is not very impressive. Take a world class ground guy and have him bang with a banger.

[DeToxRox]

Lawrence is a monster. Myles Jury is the one guy I think could beat him. Also, I fucking love Dominick Cruz as a coach. If Jury beats Iaquinta this week all three of Faber's top picks will be gone.

[AlexB]

In today's unsurprising news, Overeem failed the random drug test prior to he UFC 146 promo event last week. 10:1 testerone level, against recommended ratio of 6:1

Edit: B sample not tested yet, but the world has jumped to their conclusions already

[molson]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

In today's unsurprising news, Overeem failed the random drug test prior to he UFC 146 promo event last week. 10:1 testerone level, against recommended ratio of 6:1

Edit: B sample not tested yet, but the world has jumped to their conclusions already

Oops.

I'll be at UFC 146, it will be interesting to see how they shuffle things around.

[AlexB]

There's no other obvious challenger tbh: I don't see either Werdum or Mir as having earned a shot with their wins over Nelson/BigNog, so tend to agree.

[PilotMan]

Dana has to wonder who he pissed off to be saddled with this. Last year and a half hasn't been all that kind.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

There's no other obvious challenger tbh: I don't see either Werdum or Mir as having earned a shot with their wins over Nelson/BigNog, so tend to agree.

He's given rematches out by the dozen lately. I'm sure Cain wouldn't mind one. I don't think a hook behind the ear is nearly indicative of how another fight between these two would go.

[tarcone]

Originally Posted by k0ruptr

The TUF house isnt far away from where I'm living, and I ran into a bunch of these guys at the local smashburger, apparently they fucking love smashburger.

If you run into Justin, tell him Coach O'Neill says "Hi and good luck."

Lawrences agent called Justins Dad (who is his coach) for advice. Told him to stay away. And punch him. The guy he was fighting laid down a couple times to suck Justin in. No go.

[PilotMan]

Spoiler

Take note, I predict that Gustafsson v. Jones for the 205 title will happen within the next 12 months.

[molson]

The Overeem saga has been pretty amusing thus far. He's floated about 3-4 different excuses, all inconsistent with each other, all changed up immediately when someone points how how implausible they are, I guess.

The one he's going with this afternoon at the hearing is that the shady doctor gave him stuff he didn't ask for. He's named the doctor, who appears to be, in fact, very shady - a long discipline record, including for selling prescription pain killers online. He also may have some connection to some pro wrestlers. It makes perfect sense why Overeem would use a shady doctor. It makes less sense why that should be a defense.

Also, when they told him he would be drug tested today, he immediately left. Then he came back. The lawyers made up some excuse. Maybe he had to get his laundry, I don't know.

[PilotMan]

Jones/Evans was a very technical battle. Taking nothing away from Rashad, he's a great fighter, but Jones is just on a whole different level. Gustafsson is the only guy who can match him size wise. He is the only guy whose skills might even come close to matching him. It's gonna happen sooner rather than later. I know Hendo get's Jones next, but that's a fight where Hendo can only land the bomb. Jones is capable of being hurt from the big punch, but his reach advantage is going to be crazy. Jones will take it inside the distance.

In other news, good for the UFC for bringing in Hector Lombard. I was worried that Lombard would be past his prime by the time that they signed him. Now they just need to find a fight for him. No question he would be a top 10 middleweight in the UFC, but he's a little short, and his level of opposition hasn't been anything like he is going to see in the UFC. Middleweight is a tough, deep division once you get outside Silva.

[Travis]

Saw some rumors that if Jones is able to bounce back quickly enough that they may try to make Jones/Hendo the main event for the Calgary card.

As much as it would pain me to go to Calgary, I might have to find my way down there if that match ends up on the card. Be a hell of a first live event to attend.

[Chief Rum]

Jones seems like the type who is willing to take all comers. That sounds like a good thing, but in an organization like the UFC, which will use this to their advantage and much so, not so much. If the UFC approaches Jones and the request is reasonable, chances are Jones will accept. He showed that last year with all of his fights, and I could see that pattern continuing.

The risk is, if the UFC keeps scheduling Jones up to four fights per year, he could get used up and start declining much earlier than normal as his career progresses.

UFC needs to take better care of Jones, IMO, because he could be a cash cow for them for the next decade if they handle him properly. And Jones and his management need to consider taking a more measured approach to accepting fights, like Silva does.

[tarcone]

Justin Lawrence fighting tonight on TUF. FX, 9 pm CST.

GO JUSTIN!!

[tarcone]

[k0ruptr]

[AlexB]

Don't rate Ogle's chances against Iaquinta, looked beaten even at the stare down.

[PilotMan]

Apparently Jon Jones crashed into a pole this morning and was arrested on suspicion of DUI. So much for the pristine reputation.

[PilotMan]

Ok, so 2 questions.

First, was there anyone, I mean anyone that would have had Cormier winning the Grand Prix? I know he wasn't even in it to begin with, so that kind of makes it a loaded question. Still, he won and won convincingly in each fight.

Second, Melendez gets a tight split decision win. I didn't see the fight, did he deserve it? And second, is he the top 155lb'er in MMA?

[thesloppy]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Second, Melendez gets a tight split decision win. I didn't see the fight, did he deserve it? And second, is he the top 155lb'er in MMA?

The crowd was booing, but I didn't think it was that controversial at all. 2 & 3 were clearly Gilbert's and 4 & 5 were clearly Thompson, so it was really all about the first round. I think Miletich called it a draw at the time, and the action was pretty even as far as I could tell, but if I remember correctly Melendez got two takedowns, and while Thompson popped back up immediately, I could see that being enough to give Melendez the round, and therefore the fight, with the weight that judges seem to give to takedowns. When the fight was over, Melendez looked like he'd been through a hell of a 5-round championship fight, while Thompson looked like he had just rolled out of bed, and I think that drove the crowd reaction, and controversy, more than anything.

Thompson proved a pretty classy loser though, and refused to say that he'd won, and gave a ton of respect to Melendez, and pretty much everybody and anybody else within his line of sight.

I spent a lot of time during the Barnett Cormier fight trying to remember all of the stupid circumstances behind that silly tournament. Remember how excited everybody was for the tournament, and how quickly, and how magnificently it all fell apart? On the other hand, Zuffa probably wouldn't have bought Strikeforce if they hadn't finagled it all together, and managed to get everyone so excited in the first place, so I guess in the end it was more successful than they could have ever imagined. I'd imagine the dude most happy with that fight outcome is Dana White, as he can immediately forget about Josh Barnett again.

[BYU 14]

Nick Diaz out a year and fined nearly 80 K for testing positive for Marijuana after the Condit fight.

His lawyers tried to convince the commision it was Medical Marijuana for treatment of ADHD..........Nice try Nick.

UFC's Nick Diaz fined, out one year for Nevada marijuana test - News | FOX Sports on MSN

[Carman Bulldog]

Random thoughts...

This may be the best season of TUF fights that I can ever recall, at least in recent memory. All of the matchups have had solid finishes, or in the cases of decisions, have all been competitive and close decisions. I don't recall any lay and pray two round decision type victories, and I think that may be by design, as the UFC appeared to avoid putting the athletic wrestler type in the house.

Daniel Cormier was quite impressive but am I the only one still not totally sure what to think of him? His striking is excellent for someone who just picked it up in the past few years and he obviously has an outstanding wrestling base. However, I'm still having trouble getting over his size/build, yet at the same time, he obviously has the strength and the power. I think you have to rank him top 5 in the Heavyweight division and it will be very interesting to see what his ceiling is and how he will match up with Dos Santos, Mir, Carwin, Overeem (if he sticks around with Zuffa), Velasquez (although it's highly unlikely with the AKA connection).

Second, Melendez gets a tight split decision win. I didn't see the fight, did he deserve it?

Rounds 4 and 5 were without a doubt Thompson's. Round 2 was easily Melendez. Round 1 was a toss-up but I narrowly gave it to Melendez. My initial reaction after round 3 was that Thompson won it, although again it could have gone either way. This seemed to be the round that Thompson started to take the momentum away and had a late surge. With that said, I was immediately wondering if I may have over credited Thompson for that and really need to watch it closely again.

And second, is he the top 155lb'er in MMA?

This is tough to say. While I don't think the victory did anything to raise his stock (like he said after the fight, it was lose/lose for him) I'm not going to discredit or drop Melendez because he struggled with Thompson. All of the LW's are so tough to gauge because they are almost two separate worlds (UFC vs. Melendez/Thompson/Aoki/Kawajiri/Alvarez/Chandler) with the groups having little to no common opponents over the past 5 years. For my money, at a minimum, Ben Henderson is ahead of Gilbert Melendez. Over the past few years, Bendo has wins over Edgar, Guida, Jim Miller and Donald Cerrone (twice) with the only loss to Anthony Pettis. All five of those guys are arguably top 10 LW's while Melendez does not have a win against anyone considered top 10 (not counting the Guida fight in 2006).

[molson]

At the mgm arena right now for ufc 146. I hope my last second drunken bets work out.

Edit: didn't go anywhere near the main event as far as betting goes though. Dos santos is a gigantic favorite, too much so I think. I have a wacky parlay and a bunch of single bets, the key guys for me are nelson and struve. Drinks on me if they win.

[PilotMan]

Originally Posted by molson

At the mgm arena right now for ufc 146. I hope my last second drunken bets work out.

Edit: didn't go anywhere near the main event as far as betting goes though. Dos santos is a gigantic favorite, too much so I think. I have a wacky parlay and a bunch of single bets, the key guys for me are nelson and struve. Drinks on me if they win.

Drinks on Molson!!! I was at the MGM last month. I can't imagine how busy it is there for a fight night.

[molson]

Originally Posted by PilotMan

Drinks on Molson!!! I was at the MGM last month. I can't imagine how busy it is there for a fight night.

Woohoo! Ya, parlays may be dumb but I felt smart doing Cain/Nelson/Miocic/Struve (especially since Struve came is as a slight underdog, which I thought was crazy). That paid off around 6 to 1. Then I put a bunch extra on Nelson.

It was kind of funny at the end, my parlay came to down Cain, and I was a little nervous, thinking the bottom was going to fall out, and Cain just immediately destroyed Silva's face and that was that.

[thesloppy]

Another ride on the rollercoaster that is Frank Mir's career. He looked a little slow, and a little heavy to me, but I'm not sure whether that was just because Dos Santos is so quick, and/or because he rang Mir's bell pretty quickly.

[PilotMan]

So apparently Brock was there, and there was some pretty heavy smirking form Dana about the possibility of him coming back. I wonder if Rena signed on for that one, considering how he mentioned her as one of the biggest reasons for retiring in the first place.

[k0ruptr]

YES! BJ is back

http://bjpenn.com/mmanews/2012/06/05...ews-28371.html

[muns]

Prelims are on FX tonight. Just saw some new guy (I dont even know the name, Ryan I think??) knock out this other guy in 7 seconds. Tied for fastest knockout in UFC history

[thesloppy]

I'll be interested to see how Lombard fares tonight. If he's not all smoke and mirrors, that's about as interesting as the remaining possible middleweight title matchups get.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by thesloppy

I'll be interested to see how Lombard fares tonight. If he's not all smoke and mirrors, that's about as interesting as the remaining possible middleweight title matchups get.

He fought at nowhere near the level of energy he fought in Bellator with. Don't know what he was waiting for, but this loss definitely sets him back a lot.

[Chief Rum]

Most boring card I have seen in a while.