brashleyholland

So fans start booing Sting, and a guy called BULLY does a face promo about not liking guys who bully people. Makes sense.

I don't know if anyone has ever seen Brett's wife, but she is no big woman. The "She hit me first" excuse doesn't wash here. You're a 270lb professional martial artist, are you telling me you can't restrain a woman half your size without punching and throttling her? Bullshido. I guess it's back to just about beating the Warpaths of this world on nothing shows in the middle of nowhere...which is frankly still more than he deserves after this.

Way off the current topic but I'm currently watching some old WCW event and just heard two of the most fantastic lines of commentary within seconds of each other. Terry Funk vs Normal Smiley in a hardcore match. "That's not just any cookie sheet, that's one of those INDUSTRIAL-SIZED cookie sheets, and that has a LOT more torque to it!" "Those shin guards Norman is wearing are giving his kicks a little extra punch" Amazing.

I did actually present evidence of him being a merchandising phenom (something you said he wasn't)...which you chose to ignore.

Yep, I know what you mean, and same here...in which case your pick would be Kim by decision. How could you possibly guess that one judge would go for Condit before it happens? Why not a close fight with all three judges going for Kim? It's impossible to make that judgement without actually seeing what happens on the night. Your prediction is 'a close fight with Kim winning'. You can't 'pick' certain judges to score a fight in certain ways without knowing what is going to happen in the fight and how the judges will perceive it. Let me give you another example...lets say I pick Kim by 'unanimous decision' because I think that Kim will win this fight so decisively that there will be no doubt in anyone's mind. Now lets say that this is the most one-sided fight in history. Now lets say that one of the judges is Cecil Peoples, who gives the fight to Condit 29-28. So I got my prediction (a one-sided beatdown by Kim) right - but if I say "Kim by unanimous decision", then technically I was wrong. I was right about the fight, but obviously I had no idea that one judge would be playing with his IPhone so I cannot predict the actions of individual judges. Like I said earlier, you're supposed to be telling us who you think will win and how, based on guys skills/performances, not how you think judges will score a fight, which is something you can't account for.

And if memory serves, didn't HBK on a couple of occasions explicitly prove that he couldn't walk into a bar and beat everybody up? :-p

I did love the irony of the fact that Spike essentially did a Nate Marquardt evening on Sunday to counter UFC on Versus :-p I think there's still a lot of posturing going on, and there will be until either a deal is done, or they reach the point of no return. Spike get great ratings with UFC programming, even the re-run stuff and especially the live stuff. They'd love to keep them, and if they don't, they'll find out how much the UFC brand has to do with people watching MMA when they end up stuck with Bellator. I think to some extent the UFC would love to stay on Spike too. They've done incredibly well out of the relationship and it helped make them a household name. There is a good level of understanding between the two and that's always better than testing the waters with a new network. Should be an interesting few months fo' sho'

Well a quick Google tells me that Cena's holds third place in single year gross merchandising sales in WWF/WWE history behind Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin....so unless you have numbers that prove otherwise, I'd say that he is.

Argh...right....sorry, I have to do this. I'm not having a go at you here mate, but this is one of my massive pet hates. You cant pick someone to win by 'Split Decision'. It makes no sense. Essentially what you're doing there is saying you think that one ref will see it one way, and two will see it the other. That's not telling us who YOU think will win the fight. You're telling us who YOU think will win and why, not how you think certain refs will score it. Like I said, I don't mean you as in YOU Damonster, it's just something that MMA fans (but never boxing fans) in general seem to do and it gets right on my you-know-whats :-p God I'm irritable :-p

Picks then, while we're at it. Cruz to outbox Faber for a decision or possibly a late medical stoppage if it gets bad enough. Faber is faster (and might even hit harder) but Cruz has perfected using his reach and his jab since their first fight. Cruz will do to Faber's face with his punches what Aldo did to his leg with kicks. A real 'legitimize me' fight for 'The Irritator' Crazy pick of the night: Wand over Leben by late KO. Leben has got far too used to leading with his chin and as Stann showed, that doesn't always work when you come up against someone who hits hard enough. Wand hits hard enough. I actually think that he's still faster than Leben too. Either of these guys could end it at any time with either hand. But I'm going with the Axe Murderer by patience, then violence. Bader by slowly but surely Hulk smashing Tito for three rounds. People can't seem to finish Tito, and I don't think that Bader will buck that trend. He will however, pummel the Huntington Beach Ba...no, I can't even say it...Tank Abbott is the HBBB. Bader will pummel Tito into retirement. Condit/Kim is a tough one to pick and very well matched fight. Kim will no doubt go for the grind early, but Condit, like many leading brands of toilet deodoriser, stays fresher for longer. Kim grinds out the first two, Condit rallies and smacks him around in the third, but it's not enough. Stun Gun by decision, and having the best nickname in the sport. Wiman over Siver by decision. The only thing Siver has here is his kickboxing. Wiman is no slouch on the feet though, and has the ability to make it messy and mix in takedowns as and when he needs to. Guillard by (T)KO Sotiropoulos by decision Bowles by decision Winner by (T)KO Walker by decision

Gerald Harris and King Mo are currently engaging in some epic, epic twitter beef. Siyar Bahadurzada and Rampage have chimed in as well. Check out their twitters... @KingMoFH @GHurricane @SiyarTheKiller @Rampage4Real While you're at it, follow me on twitter @MMABayBrad. It could change your life. Speaking of twitter, my tweeting idol Chael Sonnen has put in a particularly good week's work... http://i19.photobucket.com/albums/b174/brashleyholland/Sonnentweets.png

Lentz/Oliveira is officially a NC.

Here are my quick notes from the 1st 45 mins of the interview. The end of it contained nothing new/relevant. Apologies for my shorthand...If anyone wants me to clarify anything I'll do my best :-p - Got therapeutic use exemption from NJ for the Miller fight. - Was asked to go off treatment then do three blood tests after that fight to prove that he needed treatment. - Endochinologist said that he had low testosterone and recommended him to go back on treatment. This was 3 weeks out from Story fight. - Doc said he needed to go on a more aggressive treatment due to proximity to the fight. - "It wouldn't help me...erm...I wouldn't feel better"...oops. - Did a test a week out which came back high - Was recommended to come off treatment and did so. Manager says he has not resumed treatment to this day. -‎"I should have requested testing earlier" - Took a test on weigh in day and was still above the range that the AC would let him fight. Was told that he would be put on suspension. -Took a test on fight day and was well within allowed levels. Took a test yesterday, was further down. - Manager says he pro-actively communicated through the possess. He's making a big deal of saying that Nate did not withhold anything or hide anything. - Nate is still suspended, but has been told by head of PA AC that he appears to have satisfied all requirements to have licence reinstated. - Has had MRI's and blood tests to ascertain the reason for low testosterone. Could be a Mono-like virus. - ‎"Nate isn't a doctor - it's not his responsibility to know why" - Nate is in tears now. - Manager says that Nate was communicating everything as he should be. - Manager admits that Nate could have gone to his doctor for immidiate testing sooner. - Nate says that accepable levels for testosterone testing vary from state to state, lab to lab. - Nate says he has been advised not to share the numbers until after the PA AC meets tomorrow. Managers says that they need to respect what the commission has asked them to do as they hold Nate's future in their hands. - Had they tested Nate Sunday morning, Nate could have fought. - New Jersey allowed Nate to fight with elevated testosterone. Treatment was not ADA approved, application was incomplete - his medication was being used off-label. - Correction - He was in range for the Miller fight. - "I didn't want my testicles to shut off" - Never a truer word spoken - Nate will no longer be using the doctor that was in charge of his situation prior to this. - Believes the weight cut screwed up his test numbers. Test he took after rehydrating was much lower. - NJ told Nate that there were issues with the doctor. He still used him. - They were incredibly transparent with the AC and the UFC. Nate was not decieving anybody. Nate is not making excuses. There is a standard and he didn't make it. - Nate's manager found out that he'd been fired via twitter. Ouch.

TL/DR = Nate has pulled a Chael Sonnen.

Ah, there's your problem...never take anything Sean McCorkle says in public seriously, he a known professional troll :-p Also 'using them' is a very vague term...there are many different ways you can ingest testosterone, with varying effects. You can take pills, use gels and creams, you can inject, or you can even get implants which slowly secrete it into your body. It's possible that McCorkle could have been prescribed it prior to his UFC stint to help rehab an injury, rather than using increased amounts for performance enhancing purposes.

You've heard wrong :-p Increasing the amount of testosterone in your body allows your muscle fibres to repair faster (muscle growth happens as millions of tiny 'tears' repair themselves) and grow larger than they otherwise would be able to. It's a process called protein synthesis and putting more testosterone in your body increases the rate and scale at which it takes place. That's why anabolic steroids are banned in pretty much every sport in the world.

Just to keep the rumour mill turning, the latest on Marquardt is that he disclosed some kind of testosterone replacement therapy on his pre-fight clearance form. This apparently came out of the blue to the UFC, but Nate had assured both them and the commission that he had medical certificates to prove that he was on this therapy for legitimate medical reasons. Obviously he could not provide these, hence the commission denying him medical clearance. If (and I stress if) this is true - then it looks like Nate has tried to 'pull a Sonnen'. As far as I'm aware, you don't develop the need for TRT in the space of a few months. Also if this is the case, then we'll probably see Nate blaming logistics when he goes on The MMA Hour. He couldn't get the paperwork in time, it's all legit etc, etc. If the UFC has genuinely blacklisted him, he has no reason to admit to anything more incriminating than that. He can blame it on paperwork. With all that said, Dr Benjamin did say that he saw the paperwork - He would have had no reason to speculate that Nate refused to take any kind of test if the above were true.

There are two that always stick out for me. Matt Brown vs Pete Sell - This was horrible. I believe the ref was Yves Lavigne. He stepped in to stop the fight at one point, Brown walked away, then Yves changed his mind and ordered them to continue with Sell barely able to get to his feet. No prizes for guessing what happened next... Jan Finney vs Cris Cyborg: Just a relentless, one sided beatdown in which Finney offered little in the way of intelligent defence. Note to refs - Covering up while getting brutally pummelled for 8 mins does not equal 'intelligent defence'. Cyborg landed 144 significant strikes, Finney only threw 23, and was knocked down SIX times in 8 mins.

Yeah, the more that comes out about this the more I feel that my gut instinct was right. Facts: - He did not fail a drug test - He did not fail to make weight safely (a commission can refuse to give medical clearance if they feel it is unsafe for a fighter to continue their cut, or if they feel a fighter has cut too much) - He was denied medical clearance - He does not have something that will prevent him from competing on a permanent basis, so it's not HIV, Hep C etc. I honestly can't thing of it being anything but some kind of illness/injury/infection that he covered up or attempted to blag. The UFC have criminals, drug cheats (of which Nate is one) and substance abusers on their roster. Nate must have done something behind their back, or lied to them or potentially brought about a situation where he could have put his opponent or the UFC at risk. Roll on Tuesday...

Oliveira absolutely merked him with an illegal knee right infront of the ref, who did nothing. It was kinda the begining of the end for the fight, as Lentz was choked out shortly after, with the knee clearly doing some damage. Now what should have happened is one of two things. The fight gets stopped and if Lentz says he can't continue he wins by DQ, or if he can continue the ref can dock one point if he felt it was unintentional, or two if he though it was a flagrant foul (it was the former). Obviously there is no way to go back and assess that fairly, so the commission has the power to overturn the result to a NC, which it looks like they're doing.

Looks like the Lentz-Oliveira fight has been re-assessed as a no contest, according to Lentz' manager.

Agreed - the fact that Cheick recovered enough to continue fighting and land a couple of fight ending blows just moments later says to me that he was ok to continue. At the same time, I don't think it would have been the most criminal of fight stoppages had it happened. I've reffed a couple of fights before and I was more nervous than any time I've competed myself. I think it was a bold call by the ref to let the fight continue, and ultimately, it was the right one.

???

It's Jonny Benjamin, he is a real doc and is noted for his work in combat sports. He can be pretty sensationalist at times, but I see no reason to doubt it coming from him. If it's true then Nate is an idiot.

Ahh, for a minute there I though they were going to show the hype video they use at live events on the FB stream. If you've never been to a live UFC you probably won't have seen it, but it's one of the most epic highlight vids ever committed to film, and its set to 'Baba O'Riley' by The Who. Almost worth the price of admission in itself.