The MMA/UFC Thread

[King Pietersen]

On paper it looked pretty poor, but I enjoyed the event. The only remotely dull match on the card was Maia vs Miller, and that was still a decent fight. The big story of the night had to be Chael Sonnen's performance against Nate Marquardt, I don't think anyone was really expecting that. For Sonnen to comprehensively dominate Marquardt for 14 minutes was mega impressive. He was taking Marquardt down with ease and just beating him down on the ground. He has the perfect style to take on Anderson Silva too. Silva's lost rounds in the UFC to wrestlers before (Henderson and Lutter), and Sonnen's a better wrestler than both of them. What will also help Sonnen is the fact he won't try and stand with Silva like Henderson did, he knows he'd get tooled on the feet, and would spend the fight taking Silva down. Silva's only hope would be catching Sonnen on the way in, or doing something off his back, or hoping Sonnen runs out of gas, like Lutter did. Be a real good fight.

Nice to see Matt Serra pick up the victory too. I thought he had Hughes beat in their fight, so it was nice to see him put Tramp-stamp Trigg away via KO. Be interesting to see who the UFC puts him in against next, maybe Paulo Thiago? Thiago looked OK against Swick, was probably losing the fight until the knockdown and the d'arce choke, but he picked up the win, and now has is building an impressive record in the UFC. He's had a serious ride in the UFC so far. In 4 fights he's taken on Koscheck, Fitch, Volkmann and Swick, that's one heck of a baptism of fire right there. Makes it all the more impressive that he's 3-1 in the UFC.

Randy looked really good against Coleman. Coleman looked to be on another planet though, he looked slow, couldn't pull the trigger, was moving straight back and leaving his chin exposed, wasn't pretty. He looked so good against Bonnar too, so it's really disappointing for him. Would like to see him get 1 more fight in the UFC though, hopefully a double retirement fight against Tito Ortiz (given the bad blood now between them) once Tito's been KTFO by Chuck again. As for Randy, he's legitimately got himself into title contention now. 2 good wins against Brandon Vera and Mark Coleman have certainly put him in the mix. Another win, maybe against someone like Rich Franklin could earn him a shot.

Enjoyed the fact that Rogan sounded baked all night, especially during the Prelim between Guillard and Torres (who looked good on UFC debut). His reactions to the ice incident were hilarious. Talking of the prelims, Phil Davis did exactly what I expected of him. Had read a little about him before he joined the UFC, and was excited to see how he'd get on. He's got a lot of potential, he's a serious wrestler and looks like a natural athlete. If he can develop his stand-up in the same way Rashad Evans has, then he could be a real handful at 205. Looking forward to seeing how he goes.

at Rolles Gracie too. What an abysmal performance. Zero stand-up, terrible takedown attempts, no conditioning and no heart. Terrible, hopefully we won't have to endure another Rolles Gracie fight in the UFC. Roger Gracie would have been a FAR better signing if they wanted a Gracie HW. Roger's a legit BJJ competitor and isn't just relying on his name. 2-0 in his MMA career too, with wins over Yuki Kondo and Ron Waterman, have heard he's joined Strikeforce. Good luck to him, has legit BJJ credentials, and given the records I've seen, the only guy to beat him in a grappling competition since 2003 has been Xande Ribeiro (brother of Diego Sanchez's BJJ coach Saulo Ribeiro and another guy to watch out for in MMA.) Looking forward to seeing how he goes in Strikeforce.

UFC 110 looks good too I think. Velasquez vs Nogueira will be a great fight and one that will show the world whether the Velasquez hype train is justified or not. I expect the winner of this fight to go on to fight Junior Dos Santos, with the winner of that getting a shot at the winner of Lesnar vs Mir/Carwin. Some real solid contenders in the HW division!

Bisping vs Wanderlei's going to be a war as well. I'm hoping Bisping goes in with a good gameplan, uses good footwork and looks to outpoint Wanderlei. If he tries to brawl with him he's going to get KTFO. Be interesting to see whether Wandy loses any power or conditioning at 185 too.

Then we've got 2 legit LW's in Stevenson and Sotiropoulos going at it. Sotiropoulos has looked really good on the ground in his last couple of fights, but he's going to have a real fight on his hands with Joe Daddy, I'm backing Stevenson to pick up the win. Before that it's going to be a war between Jardine and Bader, sure to be an entertaining fight and one that I hope Bader wins. The night's kicked off with Cro Cop too, which is always an event in itself. He may be over the hill, but I couldn't care less, Cro Cop's still mega exciting to watch, as you just never know what's going to happen. He could be back to his best now that he's restructured his training, started working with Muay Thai expert Ivan Hippolyte in Holland and then made a few other changes to his team. Be interesting to see if it works or not. I hope it does, I'd love to see the Mirko left head kick make a triumphant return and knock Rothwell out cold. I'm excited for the event.

Good few months ahead for the UFC too. Looking forward to 110 alot, and then we've got the Vera vs Jones UFN event, which is a fight I cannot wait to see and with JDS, Kongo and Rumble also featured on that card it's sure to be entertaining. There's going to be at least 1 KO finish that night. After that it's UFC 111 with the double title fights with GSP taking on Hardy and then Mir vs Carwin. Cannot wait for that event, to see how Dan Hardy'll cope with GSP. Alves vs Fitch is on that card too, going to be a cracker. Then we get UFN: Florian vs Gomi, which is another fight I'm really looking forward to and main events a card featuring Ross Pearson vs Dennis Siver and Roy Nelson vs Stefan Struve too, which are both fights I'm excited to see. Doesn't end there either, as after that UFN card the UFC go to Dubai for Silva vs Belfort, Penn vs Edgar and Hughes vs Gracie. Another sick card with 2 title fights. After that it's rumoured to be Machida vs Shogun II, with Daley vs Koscheck also on the card. Should be a good few months to be a UFC fan coming up, so many great fights planned, just hope we don't get unlucky with injuries like we did in 2009.

 

[Goughy]

I disagree on the quality of the cards. The UFC cards exist primarily for the US PPV market. The overseas audience is a bonus but the UFC needs lots of PPV buys at $50 a time.

These cards are not good enough. You need stacked cards and the UFC isnt doing this. Wheeling out Big Nog and Randy evey couple of months doesnt cut it. Neither are elite level fighters anymore.

 

[King Pietersen]

Disagree with the comment about Randy and Nogueira. Randy's coming off 2 straight wins after going down to 205, had a hard fought battle with Nog and has put up the best actual fight against Lesnar that we've seen from anyone. Then Nog lost a fight against Mir when he was just coming off a Staph infection, he looked a hell of alot better in his fight with Randy. Have a go at the UFC for wheeling out Coleman and Ortiz to headline PPV's, but not Randy and Nog, still top 10 fighters in their weightclasses, maybe Top 5, Nog's definitely top 5.

The UFC didn't choose to headline the event with Couture vs Coleman either, it was supposed to be headlined by Anderson Silva vs Vitor Belfort, but got cancelled due to Anderson's elbow injury. Their hands have been pretty tied in the last few months, they've had alot of injuries and that's massively impacted the quality of the cards. I've not seen a dull UFC PPV event for a long time though. The 2 cards that looked like they were going to suck bad, 105 and 109 have been probably the 2 most entertaining cards for a while for me, bar maybe 107. I understand the frustration if you have to pay PPV prices for the cards though, I'd have been pretty disappointed by the quality of the cards of late if I had to pay $40 for them or whatever.

UFC's injury troubles have continued. Luckily it's not a huge loss, as Martin Kampmann's had to pull out of his UFC 111 fight with Ben Saunders due to a cut sustained in training. Kampmann's been replaced by a fighter that makes the fight more exciting, in Jake Ellenberger. I've been massively impressed by Ellenberger. I thought he looked brilliant in his last fight with Mike Pyle, and I'm expecting to see another good performance from him against Saunders. Not going to be an easy fight though, Saunders has been looking good, he's got excellent Muay Thai with some devestating knees.

As for Kampmann, the injury looks nasty. Probably the only cut I've ever seen that tops the Marvin Eastman cut. Here's a piccy for ya, I warn ya now, it's not pretty:

 

[duffer]

Forget Martin Kampmann, Vitor Belfort is out of his 112 bout with Silva. Looks like Chael Sonnen is going to get a chance to run his redneck mouth off at Silva after all. Hope he gets his ass lit up by the Spider.

 

[King Pietersen]

Man, that sucks. The UFC really aren't getting much luck are they. I thought Belfort was going to be one of the genuine challengers to Silva's crown at 185. Silva's yet to fight an elite striker on the level of a Vitor Belfort, so this would have been a seriously challenging fight for Anderson. Hopefully the UFC'll get Sonnen to step up, as I feel he has an excellent chance of taking out Silva too. If Sonnen's got the cardio to go the full 5 then he has the perfect style match-up for Anderson Silva. Doesn't sound like that fight will be at UFC 112 in Abu Dhabi though, as Sonnen's still recovering from the Marquardt fight, but hopefully it'll happen soon. Looks like Abu Dhabi will be headlined by Penn vs Edgar now, not quite as exciting a prospect for an event now, Edgar's going to get his arse handed to him.

 

[King Pietersen]

Some bad news today regarding Belfort, but some cracking news regarding Gegard Mousasi. He's decided to leave M-1 Global and find management elsewhere. It's brilliant news as far as a potential deal with the UFC goes, as there was no chance he was going to sign with them whilst associated with M-1. Just depends how long his contract with Strikeforce has left. The Strikeforce LHW division is hilariously thin, and after Lawal and Henderson there's no-one else left, so hopefully Gegard will be able to sign with the UFC after those 2 fights. I would love to see Mousasi vs Shogun.

 

[Majin]

So gutted that Vitor is crocked, was really looking forward to that fight. Apparently Maia has stepped in as a replacement, can anyone see it being anything other than Maia/Marquardt all over again? Not me.

 

[King Pietersen]

See it going more like Silva vs Leites tbh. Maia is not going to try and stand with Anderson Silva, but if he's more successful in his takedowns than Leites was, then we may have an interesting fight. Maia did actually out-wrestle Chael Sonnen in their fight before finishing him via sub. If Maia can get Silva down, he could have him in a lot of trouble, 2 of Silva's 4 losses have come via submission, and Maia is one of the most skilled grapplers in MMA, so he has a chance. I'm anticipating a Silva T/KO victory though, I'd be very surprised if Maia took the title.

 

[duffer]

Mousasi still has a couple of fights left on his Strikeforce deal iirc but a huge pickup if Dana does get it done. Man has so much potential it's not even funny.

 

[King Pietersen]

Yeah, think he still has a couple of Strikeforce fights left, so hopefully he'll beat Lawal and Henderson (the only noteworthy contenders in the division) and then move over to the UFC. Imagine seeing Shogun vs Mousasi, that'd be a fantastic fight.

Guess what guys........yep, more injuries. Anthony Johnson is out of his Versus card fight against 'that coward' John Howard. Supposedly injured his knee in training, pretty ironic given all the smack talk he'd been giving to Howard about being a coward and ducking him earlier. Shame though, was looking a good card that one.

 

[King Pietersen]

UFC 110 this weekend, really looking forward to the event. Loving the card, can't wait for Bisping vs Wanderlei! My predictions for the card are:

Antonio Rodrigo 'Minotauro' Nogueira vs. Cain Velasquez - Taking Cain for this one. I've been nothing but impressed by his performances in the UFC, and am expecting him to G+P his way to a UD victory. Nogueira's a very dangerous fighter with excellent Jiu Jitsu, and with his new found conditioning he could beat Cain, but I'm going to jump on the Velasquez bandwagon and predict that he'll come out victorious.
Michael Bisping vs. Wanderlei Silva - This is main candidate for FOTN as far as I'm concerned. It's going to be a war, and I expect Bisping to come in with a good gameplan, use his footwork and speed advantage to outpoint Wanderlei in the 1st Round, in the 2nd I'm backing Mike to TKO his way to victory.
Joe Stevenson vs. George Sotiropoulos - Sotiropoulos is a stud on the ground, probably one of the top 3 or 4 BJJ guys in the UFC. He's in good form, and should this fight go to the ground Sotiropoulos should be able to finish the fight via Submission. Joe Daddy's a tough fighter and is training at a good camp, but he doesn't have a good record against top level BJJ guys, so I'm expecting Sotiropoulos to win via 2nd round Submission.
Keith Jardine vs. Ryan Bader - This is going to be a real close fight. Jardine will look to utilise his unorthodox striking and try and catch Bader with a big shot. Bader's got some solid stand-up of his own though, and I see Bader catching Jardine with a big shot, dropping him and finishing him on the ground.
Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipović vs Ben Rothwell - I'm predicting this one with my heart. Cro Cop's not looked good in the UFC, but he's restructured his training camp, has gone to Holland to work with Ivan Hippolyte and also made changes to his camp in Croatia, so I'm hoping to see a re-energized and focused Mirko Cro Cop return with a bang, knocking Big Ben out with another LHK finish to add to the highlight reel.

 

[Majin]

This card is going to be god damn awesome don't care what anyone tries to tell me otherwise.

For mine:

Big Nog vs Velasquez: I will never bet against Big Nog. Probably biased because he's by far my favourite fighter, but I don't think Cain is going to lay on enough of a beating to put the man away, his head is made of granite. Don't know what round it'll be in but at some point Velasquez is taking Nog down, going for G'n'P and leaving himself open,so I'm taking Big Nog via armbar from the bottom.

Wanderlei vs Bisping: This definitely has the potential to be FotN as you say, although it'll depend highly on how Bisping goes for it imho. If Wandy catches him early with a flush shot I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him retreat into his shell and start jogging around the cage like he did against Hendo until he gets sparked. On the other hand Wandy is older now and in dire form, and has a layoff from surgery. God knows how he's going to perform, especially coming down to 185. That said I'd probably like nothing more than to see him come storming back to form and godzilla walk all over Bispings face, love Wanderlei so much, probably second favourite guy after Big Nog. Hard one to call though, could go either way for mine. I think the longer this fight lasts the better it plays out for Bisping, his pace and style will eventually overwhelm Wandy if the fight drags out. If Wandy is going to win it is going to be fast and it's going to be brutal imho. Heart is telling me that Bisping will be too much for Wandy and get the TKO victory late in the second but, it's a coin toss.

Joe asshat Stevenson vs George Sotiropoulos: Half looking forward to this fight and half not. Love Sotiropoulos watching his ground work is always amazing, but he's going up against probably the stiffest test of his Career right now. His BJJ is great but I don't think he has the power in his boxing (though it is crisp and technically sound by MMA standards) or takedowns to put Stevenson on his back. Can't stand Stevenson either he is a complete turd, would love to see him get wasted by George but can't see it happening personally. Joe Stevenson to top control his way to a UD. Prove me wrong George.

Keith Jardine vs Ryan Bader: Should be a decent fight, good test for Ryan Bader against one of the LHW's foremost gatekeepers. I honesly don't see Bader ****ing about much in this one, so far in his career he's pretty much stuck with what brought him to the dance and I don't see that changing much. Don't think much of Jardine either personally. Darth Bader to stick with his wrestling base, take him down, wear him out and then pound him down late in the first.

Cro Cop vs Ben Rothwell: Looking forward to this one actually. Every man and his dog has been banging on about CC being done, old, washed up etc and laying out the game plan to beat him, circle away from the head kick and out box him. Personally, can't see Rothwell being the type to implement a gameplan, especially after his last fight with Velasquez, I'm expecting him to underrate CC and come out aggressively. Cro Cop wins this via crater to the skull and the MMA community will collectively jizz their pants.

WAR BIG NOG! WAR WANDERLEI!

 

[Goughy]

Only 2 fights Im interested in. Id like to see Bader take a step up and dismantle Jardine and Big Nog vs Velasquez looks interesting as it is a legit test for Velasquez as we dont know yet if he is for real or a manufactured product.

This card could be part of a Pride retirement tour which in itself could be pretty exciting but it isnt exactly a particularly relevant card. Certainly some good names and high profile fighters. Id be interested in what Wanderlei (and UFC) does if he loses. That would be 6 losses out of last 7 fights. Im not convinced this card is worth $50 to many people on PPV.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

Well Cro Cop should be a monty now that Rothwell has withdrawn. Perosh is his opponent.

 

[Goughy]

Well Cro Cop should be a monty now that Rothwell has withdrawn. Perosh is his opponent.

I dont mind that at all. I dont think anyone thinks Cro Cop is a contender anymore. I think we (well at least I do) want to see him take someone apart like the old days. Pure entertainment, or at least I hope it will be.

 

[King Pietersen]

Only 2 fights Im interested in. Id like to see Bader take a step up and dismantle Jardine and Big Nog vs Velasquez looks interesting as it is a legit test for Velasquez as we dont know yet if he is for real or a manufactured product.

This card could be part of a Pride retirement tour which in itself could be pretty exciting but it isnt exactly a particularly relevant card. Certainly some good names and high profile fighters. Id be interested in what Wanderlei (and UFC) does if he loses. That would be 6 losses out of last 7 fights. Im not convinced this card is worth $50 to many people on PPV.

Wanderlei won't be going anywhere if he loses I wouldn't imagine. He's still putting on entertaining fights and is still a big PPV draw. I'd be amazed if the UFC let him move to Strikeforce to make them some money.

Probably good for Cro Cop that he's facing Perosh, should get an easy victory and hopefully a highlight reel finish. I was looking forward to seeing if working with Ivan Hippolyte and making changes to his camp would actually help him against a decent level of opponent. A LHK KO would still make the event for me though, Mirko's not been able to add anything to the highlight reel since Wanderlei Silva in PRIDE.

 

[duffer]

Flying out to Sydney in a couple of hours. So ridiculously excited excited about this it's not funny.

On Nog-Velasquez, Nogueira has taken so many brutal beatings and still come out on top, Velasquez will be facing a guy with the willpower he's never seen before and he's never faced a guy with the ability to attack from the bottom that Nog has. It's a matter of being mistake free for Cain as he is susceptible to being hit by good strikers and his gnp is very raw and loose at times. If he can tighten his all round game and still keep the fury and cardio he has then he'll win.

Still hoping Nog gets up though, goign to be an honour to see this guy live. Hope Wandy ktfo of Bisping though, and also hoping Sotiropolous can pull off the upset and Bader destroys Jardine.

As for Mirko, I recently saw Perosh get his ass handed to him by a guy on the undercard of this ppv in James Tehuna, he was never that good and he's now a shattered 37 year old. Honestly, if CroCop doesn't detroy this guy in a couple of minutes then he should hang it all up(probably should anyway). Perosh is the definition of a stiff.

 

[King Pietersen]

Awesome, awesome event. Most entertaining card for a long time. The Aussie crowd were fantastic, especially in the Sotiropolous-Stevenson fight cheering every transition. They seemed to be more educated on the sport than most the American fans who annoyingly seem to boo as soon as the fight hits the ground.

Cro Cop looked good against Perosh, as expected. Striking looked decent, defended the takedowns nicely and the elbow to cut Perosh open was vicious. Dana's said that we'll get to see Mirko vs Rothwell next, which is good, was looking forward to that fight. Hopefully Mirko'll put in a quick turn around and we'll get to see it soon.

Sotiropolous was seriously impressive against Stevenson. He was out-boxing Joe Daddy on the feet and looked technically very good, especially in defence showcasing some nice head movement. Then on the ground he dominated, ended up in a couple of tough situations but got out of them with ease and was all over Stevenson on the ground. He really is a top level Jiu Jitsu practitioner, a real stud on the ground.

Bader and Jardine was an OK fight, probably the least entertaining of the night. Jardine can't seem to find any momentum at the minute, and should he lose his next bout he could be on the way out. Bader's still undefeated, and the big combo to finish the fight was impressive. He'd be outclassed by anyone with technical striking and good TDD though, not convinced he'll be a top contender anytime soon. I expect Jones and Davis to be the 2 best young prospects in the division.

Bisping-Wanderlei was a close fight, but a disappointing performance from Mike. He'd changed his stance to more of a boxing stance, but it did not affect his power what-so-ever. He wasn't putting anything behind his shots, just pushing at Silva like he was sparring. I did have him out-pointing Silva in the fight up until that Wandy flurry though, and as soon as that happened Silva secured the round and had the fight 2 rounds to 1. Bisping seems to be the Monty Panesar of MMA, he's effectively fought the same fight 11 times in the UFC, doesn't appear to have advanced his game much at all.

The Main Event was awesome for Cain. His striking looked magnificent. He was technically very good, powerful and crisp, proving that the "pillow hands" tag was falsely attributed to him. He looks a serious prospect now, and just seems to be getting better and better everytime we see him. I would love to see Velasquez vs Dos Santos, but Cain has surely secured a title shot once Lesnar's done with Mir again (yep, I think Mir will beat Carwin, and in a convincing manner too). HW division is looking really good now. Lesnar, Mir, Carwin, Velasquez and Dos Santos all looking really good, just need to get Fedor in there.

Gotta wait a while until the next event unfortunately. March 21st we've got the Vera vs Jones Versus card with UFC 111: St-Pierre vs Hardy 6 days after that. A fairly long wait, but 2 cracking cards to look forward to. Can't wait for Vera vs Jones, JDS vs Gonzaga, GSP vs Hardy, Mir vs Carwin and Fitch vs Alves.

 

[duffer]

Wow, just got back from Sydney and I don't know how it played on TV but live it was absolutely incredible. Crowd was more or less jam packed and hot right from the first prelim fight where Tehuna came through in a great fight with Pokrajac. Lytle and Bonner/Soszynski were also very well received too.

On the Main Card, Mirko got a huge huge pop and we were all waiting for a head kick to land but it wasn't to be. Peetered out to a lame finish but decent enough start.

Bader-Jardine was actually pretty good live, thought Jardine was goign to trouble Ryan as he wasn't looking like a takedown after the initial round but the last go to sleep knockout was sick and the crowd went off.

Then we came to the Sotiropoulos fight. The roof was close to blowing off during the entrance and anouncements and Stevenson's **** eating grin coming out to that Black Eyed Peas ****ery did him no favours either. The roar after the first round well and truly blew the place apart. We all wanted him to go in and compete but no-one truly expected it and to see him school Joe in the first round made us all go crazy. It's like the whole place believed afterwards and the "Georgie" chants were deafening from then on in. Great ground battle though, I thought Stevenson was going to steal it with when he locked onto that leg but Sotiropoulos' bjj was nothing short of top tier and the ease in which he turned defence into attack was incredible.

I know Stevenson didn't think it was a 30-27 decision but I thought it was right, Sotiropoulos even after being taken down looked the far more damaging and likely to end the fight. Great decision.

Wanderlei-Bisping was awesome live, I thought Michael fought a decent if ***** fight. For all the talk of him dominating he kept so much distance apart from when he tried to takedown that it looked like he was scared. Towards the ends of the rounds when Wandy pushed forwards he scored big each time. Just wished he'd done it more often, his hands still look lighting and hasn't lost too much power from the weight cut. He looks back to being competitive again and a possible Akiyama-Wanderlei fight is mouth watering to me. They both want it, please make it happen Dana.

I'm still in shock over the ME though. Everyone in the building was rooting for Big Nog tonight and were hot for the guy but once the fight started Velasquez just looked incredible. Purely incredible. That has to send shockwaves through the heavyweight division as we've never seen him strike like that(or try to tbh, he was always so ridiculously aggressive on the takedown) but now we all know.

Crisp, quick and with heat were how his strikes looked. Technique wise it was the Mintauro of old but he just doesn't have the speed to deliver against a guy at this level anymore. He was just miles behind whenever a punch came through to him and couldn't react. The way Velasquez came in and finished with that insane flurry of shots to the head was mind numbing though. We were all so shocked that it was near pindrop silence when the fight was stopped. A wave of sadness just came over us seeing Nogueira looking like that. Just really heartbreaking.

Cain can officially be called a badman now though. Purely mind blowing performance from him and echo Kp's call for a JDS (a Nogueira prodigy) number contenders match with him. Heavyweight division is all of a sudden looking a bit exciting.

All in all an incredible card, thought evreryone there did Australia proud and the UFC would be complete spackers not to give us more cards in the future(hopefully with a title fight on it). Melbourne next please so I won't have to make this trip again. All in all incredible, hope it looked that way on TV too.

 

[SirBloody Idiot]

I'll post some thoughts later, but Victoria have actually got to sanction fights in a cage for that to happen. They'd be mad not to IMO.