Mixed Martial Arts Thread (UFC and others)

[cthomer5000]

I just caught the CBS stuff today on DVR.

I'm a very casual MMA viewer, im thinking i see maybe 2 events a year, and i was fairly entertained (while fast-forwarding through a lot of hype).

I'm glad the fights were mostly stand-up, because i'll say without reservation that grappling/submission is just a lot less entertaining to me.

I thought breaking up the one grapple in the Slice fight was more controversial than the stoppage. He was raining blows in at that point and just destroying that hideous ear. the stoppage was fine by me, casual viewer.

[Eaglesfan27]

This has been a great fight and now I'm more likely to go out of my way to watch MMA matches in the future. Before this weekend, I think I've only watched matches 2 or 3 times.

[Oilers9911]

Now that is what a fight card should look like.

[BYU 14]

Excellent co-main event tonight, totally put that sham of a card last night to shame.

Faber does something new that impresses me every time out and tonight his stand-up was exceptional. Too much speed for Pulver, who is one tough SOB, hats off to him for the effort.

I don't know that there is much more for Faber to do at 145. UFC doesn't have a 145 pound division, so the best Featherweights are in WEC already. I hope we can see Faber add 10 pounds and move to UFC to take on Penn, that would be another great fight.

[Flasch186]

great fights tonight...time for bed.

[RainMaker]

The Kimbo fight was rigged beyond belief. My favorite part is after the fight where the promoter is telling everyone that Thompson is being rushed to the hospital. Then Thompson walks in.

http://mmarated.com/users/video/163/529.html

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by RainMaker

The Kimbo fight was rigged beyond belief. My favorite part is after the fight where the promoter is telling everyone that Thompson is being rushed to the hospital. Then Thompson walks in.

http://mmarated.com/users/video/163/529.html

Hadn't seen that before, classic. Makes WWE look like a shoot.

[Rich1033]

Tonights card was very good. Actually had a few people over to watch it that werent big MMA fans and they all enjoyed it.

Originally Posted by Deattribution

Lawler was losing that fight, he had the first round but the second and what was left of the third could of easily been judged in Smith's favor.

Well I guess I just disagree on that.

[Vince]

I was at Arco Arena tonight, for my first-ever live MMA experience. Turns out some very good friends of mine from High School are pretty close with Urijah Faber - my friend Brian Cobb actually had Urijah as his corner man in a fight a few weeks ago.

I went this weekend more as an excuse to hang out with some friends I don't see very often, but I left thoroughly impressed and entertained. Arco was rocking pretty loud -- I think there were at least 6 of the 11 fights on the evening featuring a fighter from Sacramento. Also got to watch a stupid ass fan get tazered by the cops for trying to fight someone else in the crowd.

[Flasch186]

that post fight interview is very very embarrassing for the promoter. He couldve gotten bad info from someone, I assume the whispering guy, who maybe got bad info from someone but certainly looked bad.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by BYU 14

I don't know that there is much more for Faber to do at 145. UFC doesn't have a 145 pound division, so the best Featherweights are in WEC already. I hope we can see Faber add 10 pounds and move to UFC to take on Penn, that would be another great fight.

I'm assuming you mean the best featherweights in North America, because there are some extremely talented featherweights in Japan. Unfortunately we'll never see Faber fight any of them. The obvious greatest match-up woul be Faber vs. Kid Yamamoto which would be an awesome one to see. I don't think Kid has any intention of fighting anyone worth a damn though, so it won't happen. There's a couple of Shooto guys that are tops as well, like Lion Takeshi and Tamura. Faber definitely moved himself to top of the heap with this fight though. Not anything left for him in WEC, and since Zuffa seems to hellbent against bringing in any other organization's fighters I don't think there's much for him to do. I think a move to lightweight would go poorly for him, at least against the likes of Penn or even Sherk. He seems like he doesn't cut much for 45 so I think 55 would be too much for him. I imagine being the face of the WEC is pretty appealing as well and I doubt Zuffa wants him moved.

The main events were fantastic though and really makes me wish that it wasn't Elite XC that got the national shot. The Faber/Pulver fight was a little too one-sided to be a classic, but still was very exciting. I didn't think Pulver could keep up with him, but I didn't think he'd get out-struck like that, and I was impressed with how he kept in it after taking a lot of punishment.

Couple of good fights coming up this weekend also. Busy few weeks for MMA.

[Deattribution]

More about the EliteXC stuff - Kaitlin Young's (who fought Gina Carano) response about her stoppage -

PostPosted: Mon Jun 02, 2008 2:34 am Post subject:

My left cheek and area surrounding the eye are looking pretty ugly today, but there was no major damage. Though it may have looked like it on tv, I never actually had an open wound.

What you didn't see was that the doctor actually cleared me to fight the third round but the commission said "no". I wanted to continue, my corner wanted to continue. The cut likely would have opened in the third but it was under the eye. If I had to guess, I would say that they didn't want the visual of a woman with a bloody face on CBS.

They also chose not to do a post fight interview with me or to include me in the post fight news conference and after party. I think the reason for that was my beat up appearance after the fight because I was not seriously injured and was completely coherent.

I am very disappointed about that but cant help but wonder how people would have responded to that, as stupid as it is.

I think if people were shocked or upset by the look of it they may have been put at ease a bit by seeing that I was okay. I think some people probably assumed the worst because I basically disappeared from the camera after the fight.

I'm not trying to be one of those people "Well, I would have won if they had let it go into the third round so it wasn't my fault. Yada yada yada...." Gina was obviously getting the better of me at that point in the fight, but I wasn't ready to be done. It really bothers me that I didn't get a chance to thank my sponsors and all that jazz.

So, while she was being beat - she wasn't hurt as bad as some suspected and was cleared to go another round.

[JonInMiddleGA]

http://www.medialifemagazine.com/art...s_31/index.asp

CBS finds Saturday night's alright for MMA fighting
So maybe mixed martial arts programming does have a place on broadcast TV. The premiere of CBS’s “Elite XC Saturday Night Fights” Saturday night averaged a 1.9 overnight rating among viewers 18-49 in its 9-11 p.m. timeslot, a 36 percent increase over what the network averaged in that period during the just-concluded regular TV season. The show did even better with younger viewers, particularly young men, as it averaged a 1.9 overnight rating among 18-34s, more than twice the network’s season average in the slot (0.9), as well as a 2.6 among males 18-34, up some 270 percent from the 0.7 the network averaged during the regular season. The two-hour show averaged 4.3 million total viewers, according to Nielsen fast nationals, about even to NBC’s coverage of the NHL’s Stanley Cup finals and ABC’s movie “The Rookie.” Fox’s “America’s Most Wanted,” which aired at 9 p.m., was the most-watched show of the night with a 5.4 million total viewers.

[SirFozzie]

Considering quite a few of affiliates didn't even show it, that's a REALLY good rating

[dervack]

I think the stoppage of the Kimbo fight in the third was a bit premature, but what I don't get is how the ref let Kimbo take 40 seconds of punches in the 2nd round without Kimbo fighting back or protecting himself and not end the fight there?

[Calis]

Originally Posted by dervack

I think the stoppage of the Kimbo fight in the third was a bit premature, but what I don't get is how the ref let Kimbo take 40 seconds of punches in the 2nd round without Kimbo fighting back or protecting himself and not end the fight there?

I think the issue there was the fact it was one of the weakest ground & pounds I've ever seen. It probably could've still been stopped, but for being in the horrible position he was, Kimbo took very little damage. Thompson should've finished it decisively there.

The more questionable move, was the ref standing it up when Thompson was I believe in side mount. It was a quick stand-up and I'm a believer that you should NEVER stand it up when someone is in a dominate position like that unless they're doing absolutely nothing for an extended period.

Whole thing was odd.

I bet Dana White is enjoying this though, he's started looking pretty good now that everyone has seen enough of Gary Shaw. I still have a pretty deep dislike of Dana White, but one thing I'll say is that he really does have a passion for the sport and wants it to succeed. Shaw spent most of his time bashing MMA a few years back, saw a paycheck and jumped on the bandwagon. He'll run as soon as soon as it starts going downhill for him.

[Maple Leafs]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Considering quite a few of affiliates didn't even show it, that's a REALLY good rating

They beat the Stanley Cup finals on NBC.

Good thing Gary Bettman got all that fighting that Americans hate so much out of the NHL!

[dervack]

Originally Posted by Calis

I think the issue there was the fact it was one of the weakest ground & pounds I've ever seen. It probably could've still been stopped, but for being in the horrible position he was, Kimbo took very little damage. Thompson should've finished it decisively there.

The more questionable move, was the ref standing it up when Thompson was I believe in side mount. It was a quick stand-up and I'm a believer that you should NEVER stand it up when someone is in a dominate position like that unless they're doing absolutely nothing for an extended period.

Whole thing was odd.

I bet Dana White is enjoying this though, he's started looking pretty good now that everyone has seen enough of Gary Shaw. I still have a pretty deep dislike of Dana White, but one thing I'll say is that he really does have a passion for the sport and wants it to succeed. Shaw spent most of his time bashing MMA a few years back, saw a paycheck and jumped on the bandwagon. He'll run as soon as soon as it starts going downhill for him.

Yeah, I mean it wasn't devastating by any means, but most fights, when a fighter is getting hit for 40 straight seconds without answering a punch, or anything like that, I would say 8 times out of 10, it's going to be stopped.

[AlexB]

UFC 85 Bedlam

Spoiler

Controversial finishes to both of the first two UFC 85 fights. Vera's stoppage was particularly poor, and while Marquadt can feel aggrieved about the point off for the back of head elbow, he only got on top properly after he illegally kneed Leitas anyway

[dervack]

Originally Posted by Jari Rantanen's Shorts

UFC 85 Bedlam

Spoiler

Controversial finishes to both of the first two UFC 85 fights. Vera's stoppage was particularly poor, and while Marquadt can feel aggrieved about the point off for the back of head elbow, he only got on top properly after he illegally kneed Leitas anyway

Sorry to bump this thread, but I was nowhere near here the past week. Of course, the ref in the Vera fight is the same ref of the Kimbo fight. Nice job Dan.

[Calis]

Really great main event tonight. I thought it was one of the more epic championship matches we've seen in a while, with some great back and forth action, and I genuinely had no idea who would get the decision. I actually had it as a draw, but I knew that wouldn't happen. I thought Rampage took the 1st, 3rd, and 4th..lost the 2nd 10-8 and lost the 5th. I was surprised it was unaminous and that one judge had Forrest winning by 3,

Extremely disappointed that Rampage lost, but I'm happy it was Forrest he lost to. I would rather see Chuck vs. Forrest than Rampage vs. Chuck III, because I don't think the first two fights left many questions. I do however still want to see Rampage/Wandy III, so line those two up for the next title shot after Rashad/Chuck! (That's assuming they're going to bury Machida because they don't want him as a champ.)

[Flasch186]

good stuff tonight...time for bed

[BYU 14]

Real nice main event, I was surprised at the 3 point margin on the one card. I had Forrest by two points winning the 2nd, 4th and 5th. (2nd was a 10-8 round) and Rampage winning the 1st and 3rd.

It's hard not to root for both Forrest and Rampage, both tough SOB's and good guys.

[SirFozzie]

Forrest is playing in the WSOP Main Event today after winning the UFC LHW Title last night:

With the board Q-10-7-5-Q, UFC fighter Forest Griffin calls all in and flips over pocket sevens for a full house. His opponent mucks and Griffin doubles up to about 30,000 chips. Griffin seemed to hesitate calling on the river, and Johnny Chan said that with full houses you pretty much always have to go with it.

"It's much easier on a computer," Griffin replied. "I don't know what's going on here."

He later added: "So do I have to lose all this before I can go?" Considering Griffin defeated Quinton "Rampage" Jackson last night, one can only imagine what Jackson looks like right now. Griffin has bruises on his forehead and ear, and his right eye is nearly swollen shut.

[Arctic Blast]

Lik everyone else, I was surprised at the judge's scorecard with Forrest winning by 3. GREAT fight, though, when was the last time we had a championship fight that was that good? (I do think GSP-Jon Fitch in September has potential, though).

[TLK]

Great night for MMA tonight:

AFFLICTION: JULY 19, 2008
venue: The Honda Center in Anaheim, California

Bouts Scheduled to Air on Pay-Per-View:
-Fedor Emelianenko (#1 Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Tim Sylvia (#5 Heavyweight in the World)*
-Andre Arlovski (#6 Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Ben Rothwell
-Josh Barnett (#4 Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Pedro Rizzo
-Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs. Mike Whitehead
-Matt Lindland vs. Fabio Negao
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (#8 Light Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Edwin Dewees
-Mike Pyle vs. J.J. Ambrose
-Justin Levens vs. Ray Lazama (Swing Bout)

Bouts Scheduled to Air on Fox Sports Net:
-Trenell "Savant" Young vs. Mark Hominick
-Paul Buentello vs. Gary Goodridge
-Vitor Belfort vs. Terry Martin

Main card airs live on Saturday, July 19 from 8:00 PM to 9:00 PM on Fox Sports Net; and from 9:00 PM to 1:00 AM (ET) on pay-per-view

* Based on MMAWeekly World MMA Rankings

UFC: JULY 19, 2008 IN LAS VEGAS
venue: The Palms in Las Vegas, Nevada

Main Card Bouts:
-Anderson Silva (#1 Middleweight in the World)* vs. James Irvin (at Light Heavyweight)
-Brandon Vera vs. Reese Andy
-Frankie Edgar vs. Hermes Franca
-Jake O'Brien vs. Cain Velasquez
-Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns
-Jesse Taylor vs. C.B. Dollaway

I plan on catching the Affliction show on PPV and then watching the UFC replay. It should be about eight hours worth of fights.

[Calis]

I was very disappointed to hear that the Aleks Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello fight got cancelled at the last minute(yesterday. I was really looking forward to seeing Aleks fight again, but I guess they had some issues with getting him licensed.

I plan on watching Affliction still and I'll record the UFC to watch later.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Calis

I was very disappointed to hear that the Aleks Emelianenko vs. Paul Buentello fight got cancelled at the last minute(yesterday. I was really looking forward to seeing Aleks fight again, but I guess they had some issues with getting him licensed.

I plan on watching Affliction still and I'll record the UFC to watch later.

Ditto, the Affliction card is fantastic and looking at the names really brings to light what a dick Dana White has turned out to be. He run all these guys off either by squeezing the purse strings too tight or treating them like crap.....

That me against the world attitude he has was great when he was fighting to build the sport, but now he just comes off as a cocky jerk who would rather burn the village than share the wealth.

[Flasch186]

Im going to buy affliction tonight i think if I can get some peeps over to share.

EDIT; WOAH, didnt know it was $40 and $50, respectively for SD or HD. I may just have to watch the free UFC instead. Wow too expensive for Affliction IMO. Is anyone buying it?

[DaddyTorgo]

i'd love to order affliction, but at that price I don't know if I can justify it

especially given that at least one of the "eagerly anticipated" fights will likely turn out to be "meh"

[Calis]

I'll be buying it, well going in on it with a couple other people.

I'm one of the suckers that buys just about an MMA event I can get my hands, and tries to find ways to watch the ones I can't(Japanese and Korean shows).

I do think it will be a cluster though. They've shot very high for their first show, and it seems like they're a little lost as to what to do. With Fedor, Little Nog, and Barnett among others fighting I can't pass it up. At least one of the fights is bound to be great.

I still think the Edgar vs. Franca fight on the UFC card will end up being the fight of the night though.

[BYU 14]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

Im going to buy affliction tonight i think if I can get some peeps over to share.

EDIT; WOAH, didnt know it was $40 and $50, respectively for SD or HD. I may just have to watch the free UFC instead. Wow too expensive for Affliction IMO. Is anyone buying it?

My buddy always buys them and everyone just brings beer and food....a fair trade

[MrDNA]

My friend is a nut and always buys the PPV. He's just glad people show up so he doesn't have to watch it alone. I used to just watch it because he's my bud, but now I actually enjoy it. Shhh, don't tell him or he'll try to get me to pay

[Arctic Blast]

My question with the Affliction promotion is...is this just going to be a one off, or are they regularly going to be creating events>? If the latter, who the Hell is going to fight in their next event? They're kind of shooting everyone out there tonight.

[Calis]

Originally Posted by Arctic Blast

My question with the Affliction promotion is...is this just going to be a one off, or are they regularly going to be creating events>? If the latter, who the Hell is going to fight in their next event? They're kind of shooting everyone out there tonight.

Supposedly they already have another one in the works according to some sources, but nothing concrete. The source said it was an even better card than this one, which I'm sure is a lie but I never expected the names in this one.

They can always bring more guys in, I know Trump is pretty heavily involved with it, so they can toss some money around to bring in some guys from other orgs and free agent.

I tend to think it's going to be a financial disaster, and it won't stick around long, but I'll watch it while it's here.

[DaddyTorgo]

can you record something on dvr that you order on ppv?

[SirFozzie]

wow. That is one of the most Bullshit ref decisions I've ever seen in UFC.

[DaddyTorgo]

seriously. Can the ref's not look up at the big screen or whatever to see the eye-poke?

fwiw - idk if I buy that excuse -- and IMO if he can't avoid doing that he doesn't belong in MMA

[Flasch186]

horrible, just horrible.

[SirFozzie]

wow. Why didn't they stop it after that first punch. The guy got EIGHT shots in before being pulled off

[Flasch186]

well that was fast.

[DaddyTorgo]

yikes

[DaddyTorgo]

as naseauted as I was by their "the best fighter pound for pound in the world" hyperbole (clearly designed to put down Fedor), that was smooth

[vex]

Yeah, that was impressive.

[Calis]

Spoilers from both cards below, so if you haven't seen one or the other skip it.






Pretty impressive performances from both main event stars tonight. I love watching Fedor. I love that he made a definitive statement in this fight, because there is a lot of talk about him being overrated and rightly so at this point because of his recent competition. Sylvia is of course a guy on the decline and on a losing streak, but he still completely dismantled him in a fashion that Couture wasn't able to, and Nog as well, but Fedor doesn't have to prove anything against Nog. The guy is just a machine, and I was hoping he'd be able to rough Tim up standing like that to just make it look a little more impressive. I get a kick out of on the replay how upon winning he has absolutely no change in expression. Really comes across as one of the classiest individuals in sports.I'm beginning to lean more towards him having very little trouble with Couture if they do fight, especially if he gets another fight in before then against a guy like Barnett or Arlovski.

The Affliction card overall wasn't bad. It wasn't great, and the Megadeath performance was terrible, but I enjoyed the main event, and Arlovski looked very impressive. I'm a Josh Barnett fan also, and I'd love to see them set a match between Fedor and him next..he'd lose, but I think it's the best available match-up out there, unless they try to set up something like signing Tito and moving him to heavyweight, or bringing in a guy from Dream or something if that's possible.

That ring seemed HUGE, and the refs really didn't seem to have a clue about moving the fights to the center and how to deal with some of those situations.

Decent but not great. I would buy another card by them though, depending on the match-ups.

We recorded the UFC and went through it at a much quicker clip. It was mediocre as well. Silva is always fun to watch, Vera managed to look good and terrible at the same time in big way. I don't think it's just from cutting the weight, guy has not looked right for a while now. You could tell he'd demolish the guy if he ever got going, but didn't really have that drive.

Overall I was a little disappointed with the night for as much potential as it had.

We still have the finals for the Dream Lightweight tournament that will take place I think on Monday in Japan, and that one has some potentially great fights. Very excited to see Mark Hunt fight again, and I always love seeing Aoki fight. The Alvarez/Kawajiri fight should be a very exciting fight as well.

[Flasch186]

WEC fight tonight:

Condit v. Mitsumira

Unbelievable fight but the ref certainly called it earlier than I thought he shouldve in the fourth rd. but it was a great fight nonetheless.

[Deattribution]

Originally Posted by Flasch186

WEC fight tonight:

Condit v. Mitsumira

Unbelievable fight but the ref certainly called it earlier than I thought he shouldve in the fourth rd. but it was a great fight nonetheless.

Miura was completely exhausted, I'd of loved to see another round but the guy could barely even stand earlier in the round so I don't think it was really a bad stoppage. He gave everything he had though.

[Scoobz0202]

Very new to MMA. Anybody know somewhere I can get the who's who and the what's what?

I have tried to figure it out lately but it seems like there are just so many different "leagues."

Is there a good place to go to find out when the fights are and what channel? Most stuff Pay-Per-View?

[Flasch186]

Originally Posted by Deattribution

Miura was completely exhausted, I'd of loved to see another round but the guy could barely even stand earlier in the round so I don't think it was really a bad stoppage. He gave everything he had though.

however, Condit's punches at that point were also exhausted and they were doing barely any damage. If anything the ref couldve stood them up but to stop it when Condit was in essence slapping him with those final punches was a disservice. If that we're the 5th I'd say it shouldve gone to the scorecards. The ref was awfully fast to stand them up for not "advancing position" when miura was on top but with Condit he gave him more time.....Keep in mind I was rooting for Condit but I thought the ref did a poor job.

[Sublime 2]

GSP was obviously very impressive, but I think Lesnar just stole the show with his DOMINATING performance. Herring just couldn't do anything against him. His antics at the very end and afterward were very WWE-ish, but it is nice to see some potential in the heavyweight division.