Ufc 81

[rick.MIAskim]

who saw UFC last night? frank mir is one lucky frack

[skimmer-x]

No, just smart.

[Icej]

who saw UFC last night? frank mir is one lucky frack

Lucky? What the frack are you talking about? That ankle lock/knee bar wasn't even in that deep and he got the tap. Lesnar should have trained more on his ground game.

Congrats to Minataro, sick Guillotine.

[DjMattyD]

its hard to hammerfist as effectively when you can't juice up anymore

[jcon217]

who saw UFC last night? frank mir is one lucky frack

try expert in bjj vs. noob in bjj

[rick.MIAskim]

hes lucky he turned his head to force the break from the hammer fists to the back of the head or the fight would have likely ended right there.. i agree though he was smart. when brock was standing, he should have rolled out to the side to continue coming from the half guard as opposed to standing dead center like he dead (which from that vantage point or guard, Mir is beast) grats to mir but i still says hes lucky :P he was getting dominated.

[Icej]

So he is lucky he didn't get knocked out?

[jcon217]

guess big nog then has been lucky in all of his fights then

[Joey M.]

No matter how hard you train, there is no substitute for experience. While Brock may have all the attributes required to grow into a dominant fighter, he had only one fight prior to his encounter with the former UFC heavyweight champion and his loss on Saturday reflected that. Mir deserves a lot of credit for pulling this win off, but he is lucky to have caught Lesnar so early in his mixed martial arts career.

I'll tell you what though; once Brock learns how to defend submissions, watch out...


And even though I don't like him, my hat's off to Nogueira for pulling off yet another miraculous victory. Now if we could just get Randy back...

[skimmer-x]

Randy will not be back. Dana fracked that up.

[Joey M.]

Randy will not be back. Dana fracked that up.

Agreed that Randy won't come back, but I don't think Dana White deserves all the blame for that. If Randy had just been honest about his reasons for coming back, he would of had me at "hello," really. Instead of feeding us this bullshit about coming back for the love of the game, he could have just said:

"Look, the UFC is in the mainstream now, I missed the big payoff, and I feel I've done enough for the sport to a point where I deserve a cut of the action."

Randy's in it for the money at least as much as the guys next to and above him; age and track records don't change that one bit. Dana gets a lot of guff for the negative things that happen in MMA, but I challenge anyone to do a better job than him. I wouldn't want to have to make some of the decisions that he does.

[jcon217]

i'd like to see fedor vs. anyone good

[DjMattyD]

that ain't gunna happen for a while

[Joey M.]

i'd like to see fedor vs. anyone good

One of my points on my "Seven Things I'd Like to See in MMA in 2008"

[DjMattyD]

linx?

[Joey M.]

Seven Things I'd Like to See in MMA in 2008

1.) Gary Shaw's Gotta Go


Glorified street thug (left), Don King's honkey counterpart (right)


Landing Miami-based street brawler, Kimbo Slice, was one of the worst things EliteXC promoter and former boxing card wizard, Gary Shaw, could have done for the sport of mixed martial arts. For years, MMA has struggled to shed the "human cockfighting" shackles that relegated the sport to the underground and now that the sport is finally starting to gain some mainstream momentum and state athletic commissions are beginning to recognize mixed martial artists as legitimate athletes, in comes this relative neophyte to shit all over the progress the sport has made in the last half decade by scrapping the very bottom of the barrell of Western society for talent. While EliteXC doesn't exactly rival the UFC in terms of prestige, Showtime certainly has the networking, financial power and notoriety to reach millions of potential fans and if the thugs that Shaw has recruited regress to their norms and fall out of line, they could very well stymie any futher progress the sport will make.


2.) Fedor Emelianenko Needs to Fight Quality Opposition...

After the fall of PRIDE last April and a fierce bidding war following thereafter, the UFC failed to land the consensus top-ranked heavyweight in the world, further delineating a potential dream matchup with UFC heavyweight champ and longtime fan favorite, Randy Couture. In the meantime, rather than participating in the epic bouts that carved his legend in PRIDE (i.e. Crocop, his three bouts with Nogueira, etc.), Fedor has instead relegated in sideshow acts against a ballsy (albeit horribly undersized) Matt Lindland and acromeagly-striken Korean kickboxers. Fedor hasn't fought a top-ten opponent within his weight class since the mid-2005 and if 2008 is a carbon copy of the last two years of his career, the larger salary he's holding out for may very well have negotiated him into banishment from any major MMA outlet.


3.)...and Matt Hughes Needs to Retire

Granted the Illini is the most decorated welterweight in the sport's history and his track record consists of a who's-who of the welterweight elite, his last three fights have been largely uninspired affairs and, with the welterweight division heating up and the chances of him ever beating GSP being nihl, I think it's time for the former face of the Miletich Fighting Systems to hang up the gloves. He had an excellent run, but now his time is up and it is now time to start another successful career training fighters like Pat Miletich did for him.


4.) The Remaining PRIDE Floaters Need to Show Up Somewhere


Have you seen me?


After enjoying a very active 2006 where he fought seven times against quality and even world-class opposition, Josh Barnett did not compete in 2007. After his sudden and disappointing gogoplata loss to Nick Diaz back in February, Takanori Gomi has been MIA. Ricardo Arona could be floating dead in the Amazon River for all we know, Mark Hunt, etc. All of these individuals are world-class competitors and there's really no reason why they shouldn't be competing right now. Here's hoping they find what they're looking for.


5.) Steroid Testing Needs to be Mandatory for All Bouts

Last year, we had Kimo, Stephen Bonnar, Vitor Belfort, Kevin Randleman, and Pawel Nastula

This year, we have the anabolic ensemble of Kit Cope, Johnnie Morton, Phil Baroni, Sean Sherk, Hermes Franca, Anthony Torres, Bill Mahood, Jorge Ortiz, Dennis Hallman, Ariel Gandulla, and even the orginal gangsta himself: Royce Gracie (Royce in particular had a nandrolone reading so high that it defied conventional measurements). The scary part about all of this is that these numbers are only from the major outlets; I haven't even taken into account the smaller promotions that exist across the country (assuming that they actually test their athletes for this stuff). If either Zuffa or state athletic commissions thought this problem would go away on its own, 2007 has shown that assertion to be as far from the truth as anything can get. If those who can do something about it don't act, mixed martial artists may very well turn into the Robert Downey Jrs. of professional sports.


6.) "The Ultimate Fighter" Needs to Change its Format

Seriously, how many times can the same show be repackaged and re-released?

and finally:


7.) The TAPOUT Crew Needs to Get Lost


Seriously, c'mon

Anyone who bothers to look can spot these guys at almost any event from a mile away. Their ridiculous costumes and hideous facepaint would make even a clown grimmace; their juvenile and borderline antisocial clothing products are outdated and their show portrays MMA in a very negative light (i.e. claiming most fighters to be "from the street," repeatedly screaming a fighter's name at the top of their lungs when the guy is three feet away from them, etc.). The TAPOUT crew is a remnant from the no-holds-barred days of the sport, an era no progressively-minded promoter or fan cares to revisit. They are an annoyance at best and a crippling liability at worst. They need to just get lost a find new jobs.

[DjMattyD]

Great stuff!

[Icej]

Man I hate the Tapout crew they are so fracking gay.

and

They did change the format of TUF. Dana said it is different this season.

[skimmer-x]

Joey, IDK if you heard this rumor. Maybe you can confirm or deny. I heard that the reason Randy quit was that Fedor's camp made an offer to do a cross promotion fight that would pay Randy 2 mil no matter who won and that if Randy lost, the belt went with Fedor out of UFC. Dana says no to that which pisses Randy off since Dana always says he has the best fighters and is willing to proove it. Any truth to this?

[Joey M.]

Joey, IDK if you heard this rumor. Maybe you can confirm or deny. I heard that the reason Randy quit was that Fedor's camp made an offer to do a cross promotion fight that would pay Randy 2 mil no matter who won and that if Randy lost, the belt went with Fedor out of UFC. Dana says no to that which pisses Randy off since Dana always says he has the best fighters and is willing to proove it. Any truth to this?

I haven't heard that particular rumor, but it seems pretty far-fetched, so I would bet that it isn't true.

[jcon217]

amen to number 7 joey.