Arena Let's get it on!: The Mixed Martial Arts Discussion Thread

I think both Diego and Kos deserved a loss for that fight. Kos had a great gameplan, but it was such a boring fight. The only way he'll win people over is if he starts finishing people, and of course he actually has to fight better people too. Diego was a nice win for him, but I'm assuming the gloves will come off now, and Kos won't be "protected". Throw him in with some of the tougher 170 lb guys. I'd love to see GSP destroy Kos, but I really don't think Kos has even earned the right to fight him yet.

I'm not a big Diego fan either, although now that he lost I may be able to get behind him more. But his lack of heart and desire to even try to win the fight was sooooo disappointing. Where was the Diego that fought Karo or Riggs? Even when Kos took him down, Diego got his back and then the first rd ended. He had to know he was losing by the end of the 2nd and going into the 3rd, but made no effort to even try and do anything. Dissappointing fight.

I'm also gald Swick lost, he gave another lack luster performance. He danced around too much with the Crow and then in this fight too. I'm not too familar with the guy he was fighting but he looked pretty good.

The Huerta fight was UNBELIEVABLE! This was a fight that I didn't even really care about before it started, but they went toe-to-toe for 3 rds. Fight-o-the night.
I wish Diego and Kos had this kind of heart.

Kendell Grove was also very impressive. He appears to have the killer instinct and legimately wants to end fights.

I was dssapointed that GSP lost, and yeah I'm sure this messup a lot of UFC plans. I was laughing though when they showed Hughes after the fight, he had this HUGE smile on his face.

I'm guessing they'll go:
Hughes vs. Serra

Other possibilities would be:
GSP vs. Karo (rematch for #1 contender??)
or I suppose they could just give him Kos or perhaps even Lutter or Diego.

But I'm guessing they'll want to give Diego a "winnable" fight. So maybe he'll take on Lutter. And Kos could fight another top 170 guy, maybe Kos vs. Karo.

They could still get a Hughes-GSP III by the end of the year, although I can't see Hughes defending in Canada. GSP's next fight, whoever it is will probably be in Canada though.
Maybe they'd put off Hughes-GSP now and set up a Penn-Hughes III instead, if Penn beats Jens and then wants to come up to 170 again. That way you could have either Hughes-GSP III or Penn-GSP II early next year.

About this whole Kos, not finishing fights idea, of his 12 fights only three have gone to a decision. The guy is legit, he hasn't been protected at all in any way, and while I still feel that he is about two fights away from being ready to fight GSP or Hughes, even if you put him in there with them right now he has all the tools to win and it wouldn't surprise me if he did win. His wrestling is the best in all of MMA right now, his cardio is off the charts, he's an incredibly smart fighter, his striking is constantly improving, and his sub game is either at the same level as or a little better than either Hughes or GSP. Anyone that doesn't recognize Kos as the real deal isn't paying attention.

He hasn't really been dominating people or even finishing that many recently. I'm not familiar with his pre-TUF 1 days.

Including the Diego fight, 3 of his last 4 have been decisions. Jeff Joslin, Dave Menne, who are these guys? Beat them! And he couldn't finish Fickett and it cost him a fight he dominated for about 14 and half minutes. Once he faces better competition he's gotta have to learn to finish people or things like the Fickett fight are going to happen again.

I understand Kos is still learning and I think he has lots of potential but I don't see him anywhere near Hughes, GSP, or Penn's class. I think you're right about 2 fights.
Sure he could win now, heck we just saw Serra beat GSP.

I do think he was somewhat protected and for good reason and not in a bad sense (UFC investment in building up some TUF fighters), I mean coming in he was a great wrestler and that is it, but he did just beat Diego and I think that warrants that he stops fighting TUF alums or middle of the road 170'ers. I just want to see him start fighting better people. Not that Diego was a bad fight, it was obviously a great fight for Kos, but it puts him "officially" on the map and that means he's going to start to face some real octagon vets and much better competition.

There is no way the UFC was happy about the Diego-Kos fight, and I'm coming from a fan's perspective as well. If they went out swinging for the fences and one of them gets laid out in rd 1, they can still bill a Diego-Kos III (or 2 if you don't count the TUF fight) but I can't see any reason to put these two back in the octagon again, and that is a shame. It was a complete snooze. That's why Sylvia was a bad champ, he didn't finish people in his title fights.

A three round slug fest or submission match that goes to a decision is one thing but 15 minutes of two very highly touted up and comers standing around pawing at each other is boring and doesn't help either ones case that they are "championship" material.

I'm more just disappointed that the fight was so boring, I didn't really care either way and was just hoping they'd just beat the snot out of each other.

You can't blame sylvia or Koschek for their fighting styles being boring. They're fighters not promoters. Their styles help them win.

Lutter is middleweight/lightheavyweight. he won't be dropping down to 170.

Dana already said it is Hughes/Serra. GSP/Karo would be a good fight.

You need to do some research my friend. Dave Menne is the former UFC champion at 185, and while he's in the twilight of his career he's still a solid veteran fighter that Kos pounded on for three rounds. Jeff Joslin is a top 20 WW, he has amazing stand-up, and a guard that's only rivaled by Penn in the 170 division. In their fight Kos took him down and was contantly improving position but Joslin was able to always get back into the guard position because of his excellent butterfly guard. Joslin is a legit BJJ black belt, one of the best in the world and Kos almost tapped him out with a guillotine in the third. Not every fight is going to be a finish, good fighters make careers out of not being finished, and when you get two very good fighters like Joslin and Kos in the cage the chances of their being a finish are very slim, the same goes for Diego and Kos.

You're also way off base about Kos being protected, look at his opposition,

Drew Fickett - A top 15 WW
Jonathen Goulet - a top 30 MW and WW
Jeff Joslin - A top 20 WW and one of the most complete fighters you'll ever find
Diego Sanchez - The #3 WW in the world going into their fight
Dave Menne - Former top 10 at MW and a solid veteran fighter

Those are all quality wins and he's supplemented those with wins over a green Luke Cummo, a gatekeeper fighter in Pete Spratt, and a solid prsospect in Ansar Chalangov. I'm not really trying to bash you, but if you don't know who Jeff Joslin and Dave Menne are then you really need to do some research into the sport before you're gonna try and say Kos should be finishing those guys or that he was protected by being paired against them.

Well, another episode of TUF where the actual show was better than the fight. I keep waiting to find someone to pull for, but I have yet to find a likable guy in this cast. I can think of at least five I'd like to see crushed. It's still early, so maybe they'll flesh out somebody and make them at least seem tolerable. On the plus side, the mind games that BJ are hilarious. The way he tried to influence the fight pick was classic. The hardest working guy on this show is the guy responsible for bleeping out all the f-bombs so the show can make air.

You're right, I meant Lytle. That's what I get for typing replys at work.
Lutter was too fat to face Silva.

As I said earlier Kos did have a great gameplan but as a fan I was disappointed the fight didn't live up to the hype.

No worries.
Yeah top 20 here, top 30 there, former this, former that, he should be beating those guys. As a fan, I want to see him finish those guys. I just don't like decisions.

His loss to Fickett is telling and why I still have doubts about the transition from wrestling to MMA and becoming the top guy. I think Kos is a legit top 10 fighter (heck probably top 5 now) and have never said anything otherwise.

If you don't think he was protected fine, maybe protected is harsh, but I think it was wise of the UFC to build him up this way, esp since he needed octagon and MMA experience.

Now that he beat Diego, he took over his spot on the radar and he is going to have to deal with consistant top 10 opponents, which is all I want to see. The best vs. the best in good fights. I really don't care if Kos wins 10 in a row, if he finishes people or the fights are exciting. Call it the Chuck Liddell Sydrome, as a fan I want to see the best of the best finish people. That is all.

Lol!
Yeah, same for me. The fighters are making it hard to like them. BJ has been cracking me up too.

I just read that Melvin Guillard tested positive for a banned substance. Looks like he'll be out for a while.

Speaking of suspensions, isn't Bonner due back soon?

Melvin tested positive for Cocaine, he'll be gone for a long time, probably about 9 months. Maybe this will be good because it will help him finally realize after being tooled by everyone on the ground since he enetred the sport that his ground game sucks, and he should work on it, a lot.

Nick Diaz was also just suspended for 6 months and his win over Takanori Gomi was changed to a no-contest as a result of high levels of weed in his system. Personally I think this is garbage since there was a list of 75 fighters published recently, icluding Diego Sanchez after the Riggs fight, that all tested positive for weed and none of them were suspended for that long or had the results of their fighst overturned. This does seriously wreck my 155 rankings since I use a linear system and as a result of beating the #1 in Gomi Diaz was now my #1. Now that spot will remain vacant and Diaz will drop out of the rankings altogether and a new #1 won't be found until Pride's LW GP in May.

Well, finally a competitive fight for a little while, to go with all the childishness of the show. I don't know about the best fight of the series as Dana said, but it was a nice show of takedown defense and then heart by Rob after he finally got grounded. And if Gabe wasn't such a dip****, I'd almost feel embarassed for him getting a colonic from such a hottie.

Good Lord. When the last guy gets done sweeping up the octagon, just stick Cro Cop's head in this bag and we'll reattach it later.

That kick hurt me!

Gonzaga really took it to him that whole fight. Right before that kick I was thinking, great we'll see a second round, but boy was I wrong.

I just thought it ironic that Crocop got knocked out with the shot that the hilight reels showed him doing to his opponents. He was being hyped as a real live Drago and he got clocked with what he dishes out. It looked to me like he thought the kick was going to be mid-height because one of the replays showed him starting to block that kick as if it were going to his mid section.

I am not a huge UFC fan. If you start thowing names at me I might only know the legends, but I have been watching from time to time and this past Saturday was an all evening affair.

So this week we have two guys fight, that really within the narrative of the show do not exist. Neither of these guys have done or said anything noteworthy on this show up to this point, so now I'm suddenly supposed to care that one wants to be a warrior and the other has a kid. By the fourth show I would hope the producers could've at least introduced me to these guys just a smidge instead of focusing on Gabe for the entire run of the show. Given Wang's reaction to losing the fight though, I'm partially thankful I knew nothing about the guy because he really went out like a b****. And if BJ imitating his crying is not about the most hilarious thing that has happened so far, I don't know what is. Though a close second would be Wang saying that hopefully everyone will view him as a warrior and not a punk after the way he lost that fight. Where do they find these guys? Given the @$$clowns on the show this year, Wang probably could've been somebody to pull for because he seemed to have some respect for himself and the sport, but man, he was such an utter hard-headed moron that I was praying for him to get knocked out by the end of that fight.

This weeks show was so weak Gabe has had all this time to get his weight down and then doesn't make it. Good for Emerson though getting a second chance he had a pretty good fight.

"Put me back in . . ."

So who do you think won the Hill/Emerson fight?

Hill, he didn't fight the smart fight, but every time that Emerson tried coming forward he would get tagged in the clinch. If Rob would have stayed on the outside and continued murdering Hill with low leg kicks, then he would not only have won the fight but he would have finished it. In the end Emerson has nothing to complain about, if you let the fight go to a decision and don't try to actively win the fight then losing the decision is your own fault.

I can't believe the UFC let Hill on the show with no MMA fights.

I've heard from a guy who's spoken to both fighters that the 'street fight' at the house next week is awesome.

Given the two duds that happened this week, they owe us a good fight. Though I will say I got all warm and fuzzy watching Marlon go night-night.

What did you expect, you had a terrible fighter in Weems against a well accomplished wrestler out of Team Quest in Gray, and a one dimensional striker against a well rounded fighter, who is the sleeper pick to win on this show, in Wiman?

That's one thing I hate about the show... the team in control is going to pick on uncompetitive fight 90% of the time. "One of our good guys vs. one of their bad ones."

Uncompetitive fights are boring.

So one team goes on a roll wins a bunch of lame fights. Now their scrubs have to lose to the losing team's remaining guys (who are good) and finally... after an entire season, we get good matchups.

Of course the pattern isn't entirely consistent but that's really what keeps happening.



But forget all that- Who's ordering this weekend's UFC card? I am! It is stacked and I think Chuck vs. Rampage can go either way (I'm picking Chuck).

Yeah, that's the problem with this season. But you're right in that in past seasons, there was always a guy or two who wanted to fight "the tough guy" early to prove something. But not this year; they're taking the easy, but smart way through.

I really wish they'd shake it up somehow.

Well the 'street fight' was good. Not as good as I'd been led to believe but it certainly showed the differnece between the gym, dojo, etc. and the street.
While Noah's trying to go for submission after submission, he's getting punched, droped on some kind of garden liner (could have been dangerous, those are made out of steel sometimes), and the back of his head is introduced to concrete.