Welcome to the Mixed Martial Arts Discussion Thread.

I know I'm not the only person at the JCC who loves Mixed Martial Arts.

For those who don?t know:

If you enjoy watching or participating in Mixed Martial Arts, or simply wish to learn more about the exciting and expanding young sport you?ve come to the right place. In this thread we?ll discuss recent and upcoming events from the UFC, PrideFC, Shooto, and any other Mixed Martial Arts organizations around the world. In addition, we can simply discuss the sport of Mixed Martial Arts itself.

Now in the immortal words of ?Big? John McCarthy,

?Let's get it on!?

 

I'm mainly a UFC fan, having gotten hooked on it during the first Ultimate Fighter finale. Griffen/Bonnar is still the best MMA match I've seen thus far.

 

I definitely follow the UFC more closely then Pride FC, mostly because due to the Ultimate Fighter and Ultimate Fight Nights it?s much easier to follow. I tend to purchase whichever Pay-Per-View I feel is going to be the strongest during any given month. Last month I bought UFC 64: Unstoppable over Pride 32: The Real Deal, but in September I bought Pride Final Conflict Absolute over UFC 63: Hughes vs. Penn. If I had $80 a month in my Pay-Per-View budget I would get both events, but unfortunately I don?t.

The first Ultimate Fighter Finale is what got me hooked as well, Griffen vs. Bonnar in particular. While it?s not my favourite fight of all-time, it?s defiantly in my top ten.

Anyone looking forward to UFC 65: Bad Intentions on Saturday night? I really want to see St. Pierre take the Welterweight belt from Hughes. It?s unfortunate that I?m going away this weekend and won?t be able to see it.

 

I can't afford the PPV so I won't be able to see it either.

 

A part of me wants to see St. Pierre win, but I don't think he'll do it. If Serra ends up having to fight Hughes when he cashes in his UF title shot, Hughes will destroy him though. I'm still not really convinced he beat Lytle.

 

Great fight tonight!!!!

GSP is the NEW champ!

Headkick followed up with ground and pound ended it early in the second rd.

Other notable fights from the ppv:

Sylvia (H.Champ) beat Monson by decision
Vera beat Mir by 1st rd KO
Joe Daddy Stevenson won too by tap out in the first rd.

 

I heard George St. Pierre gave an absolutely dominating performance. I am definitely going to find a way to see that fight.

How was the Pay-Per-View as a whole? From the sound play-by-play over at [link=http://www.sherdog.com]Sherdog[/link] it was pretty good, with the glaring exception of Tim ?Fight not to lose? Sylvia?s title defense. Sylvia?s had some pretty exciting fights in the past, but his last defense against Arlovski and (apparently this one against Monson) have been absolute snoozefests.

I haven?t actually seen the Serra vs. Lytle fight, but I?m about to watch it on tape. As far as Matt Serra taking the belt away from George St. Pierre, his best chance is probably a flying armbar or a sliding heel hook. In other words there is no way a natural Lightweight fighter, no matter how good he is, will take the belt from the undisputed greatest Welterweight in the sport. Travis Lutter on the other hand has a (miniscule) fighting chance against Anderson Silva, as the Brazilian has shown a weakness against submissions in the past. Nonetheless, I see the UFC Middleweight Championship staying with its current owner.

 

The PPV was really good with the exception of the Sylvia/Monson fight.
It looked like it was going to pick up after the 3rd rd, where Monson finally took him down but then the 4th and 5th resorted back to being fairly uneventful.

GSP was absolutely awesome. He took it to Matt throughout the 1st and carried it over to the 2nd. GSP almost knocked Hughes out with like 10 sec to go in the first. GSP was also able to defend (and made it look easy) against Matt's 2 or 3 takedown tries as well.

Vera was pretty convincing over Mir. Vera landed a solid jab and followed up with a good clinch and knee that sent Mir down and Vera pounced on him and finished it.

I'll definitely be rooting for Vera over Sylvia but most of all I just hope it is a good fight.

The other fights were pretty good as well. Lots of 1st and 2nd round finishes.

 

Glad to hear GSP won. I didn't know if he had it in him. He's always so soft-spoken, it's hard to figure out how focused he really is. I thought Hughes was really sort of an @ss towards GSP during the couple of weeks he was on TUF4.

 

I finally saw the Matt Hughes vs. George St. Pierre fight, it was awesome! St. Pierre?s performance was absolutely spectacular, I almost feel bad for Matt Serra now. If that fight goes past the first round without St. Pierre stopping him with strikes I will be absolutely stunned.

I also watched Brandon Vera demolish Frank Mir. It?s pretty clear that Brandon Vera is the number one contender for the Heavyweight Title; he should be fighting Tim Sylvia at UFC 68 in March. I?m not quite sure how that fight will turn out. Vera is defiantly more skilled then Sylvia, both on the ground and standing, but Sylvia has a six inch height advantage. At the least the fight should be more exciting then the previous two title bouts because Sylvia won?t really have to worry about Vera taking the fight to the ground.

For the sake of the UFC?s Heavyweight Division, I hope that Brandon Vera can find a way to beat Sylvia. It not only opens up a number of new title fights, specifically against Andrei Arlovski, but allows some good fights for Tim Sylvia with fighters who haven?t earned title shots, namely Cheick ?Kongo? and a grudge match with Frank Mir.

In Pride FC news the line-up for Shockwave 2006 was announced. It will be headlined by a Heavyweight Title Fight between Fedor Emelianenko and Mark Hunt. I would have preferred that Mirko ?Crocop? or Josh Barnett would have challenged Fedor, but apparently neither is 100% and in the end everyone should want to see Fedor?s challenger at their best.

Other fighters rumored on the card include:

[li]Takanori Gomi[/li]
[li]Mauricio "Shogun" Rua[/li]
[li]Wanderlei Silva[/li]
[li]Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira[/li]
[li]Ricardo Arona[/li]
[li]Dan Henderson[/li]
[li]Hidehiko Yoshida[/li]
[li]Kazuyuki Fujita[/li]
(There will be a total of twenty fighters on the card.)

I can already tell that my December Pay-Per-View will be a really tough choice. UFC 66 is starting to shape up as well. The rumored main card is as follows:

[li]Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz (Confirmed for the Light Heavyweight Title)[/li]
[li]Andrei Arlovski vs. Marcio "Pe de Pano" Cruz[/li]
[li]Forrest Griffin vs. Keith Jardine[/li]
[li]Michael Bisping vs. Eric Schafer[/li]
[li]Chris Leben vs. Jason MacDonald[/li]
(There will be a total of eighteen fighters on the card.)

 

Why did I think Wanderlei Silva was going to fight Chuck Liddell soon? Didn't Silva come into the octagon with Liddell a few PPV's ago and discuss a possible fight by the end of this year?

 

Yeah, Silva challenged Liddell at UFC 61, they were supposed to fight at UFC 65.

Apparently a deal had not been reached between Dream Stage Entertainment (Pride FC) and Zuffa (UFC) when the fight was announced and talks between the two companies fell through shortly after that. Make no mistake though, the fight was called off because of the two organizations couldn?t reach a deal. Chuck Liddell badly wants to fight Wanderlei Silva and visa versa.

Hopefully someone can make it happen before Liddell retires because I think I would be an absolutely awesome fight.

 

Just saw the replay of John Polakowski and Olaf Alfonso from WEC's Halloween Fury. Great match, very close. I would've hated to be a judge in that one.

 

I saw Tito on Quite Frankly last night talking about his fight with Chuck. Nothing new, just the standard he wants his title back etc.

Also Diego fights Riggs in about a week in a Fight Night on Spike. I can't remember the date, it is either the 12th or 13th.
Diego is fighting, Koscheck (sp), and Karo so it should be a pretty night for watching the 170 lbs class.

 

Well Tito got his @ss handed to him. He couldn't get inside Chuck's range to get the takedown, and the one time he got close, Chuck got out easily with a sweet elbow. Tito did show some heart because the fight could've easily been stopped in the first round, but I think all the refs have been given a slight bit of leeway after the Tito/Shamrock fight.

The big surprise was Forrest getting knocked out. I think he got a bit complacent and Jardine made him pay. Jardine must have a heckuva punch because Forrest got pummelled by Bonner and Tito and didn't seem too badly off, but Jardine just put him down.

 

Anybody hear that Randy Couture is coming out of retirement?

 

Yeah! I just heard that.

Coming back to fight Tim Sylvia for the belt in March.

 

Randy is also going to be on the premiere episode of Pros vs. Joes. That'll be great to see him stretch a couple of wannabes.

 

UFC Fight Night tonight on Spike!

Rashad Evans Vs. Sean Salmon
Jake O'Brien Vs. Heath Herring
Hermes Franca Vs. Spencer Fisher
Dean Lister Vs. Nate Marquardt (May not be broadcast.)
Chad Reiner Vs. Josh Burkman (May not be broadcast.)
Ed Herman Vs. Chris Price (May not be broadcast.)
Clay Guida Vs. Din Thomas (May not be broadcast.)
Ross Pointon Vs. Rich Clementi (May not be broadcast.)

 

That was a heck of a head kick by Rashad last night.

 

That poor dude was out before he ever hit the ground and then Rashad caught him face-flush with a punch while he was unconscious. That was so nasty!

Heath Herring ended up being a big flop. The crowd may have been booing O'Brien for all the takedowns, but Herring should've been defending them.

 

I was hoping to see that guy eventually get up, but according to what I read this morning he was talking but they took him out on a stretcher and then he was released from the hospital.

Yeah, that Herring guy should have done something to stop O'Brien. He did what he had to to win, Herring was just laying there waiting to be stood back up.

I guess you can fault O'Brien for owning the ground and not finishing him but the guy is only like 22 and was a wrestler.

I'm dying to see Cro Cop on Feb 3. I've seen clips of him here and there but would love to see him make a run in the UFC.

 

Everytime Joe Rogan talks about Cro Cop, I think he wets himself a little. He is convinced Cro Cop is going to dominate the heavyweights.

 

Sean Salmon apparently didn't even move for seven full minutes until he was stretchered out of the arena, according to the wrestlingobserver.com

 

It was really pretty gross-looking initially. It almost looked like rigor mortis had set in aside from his diaphragm spasming. He was stiff as a board when the trainers got to him and both Couture and Rogan commented on it. I noticed they were pouring a lot of water on his throat; I wonder what that does.