The Official MMA Discussion Thread

[ampulator]

The real question is, will Dana White fire Anderson Silva now? I mean, Silva won all his previous fights, but Dana is pretty pissed with him. It makes me wonder if Dana is still considering it.

[Daffanka]

The real question is, will Dana White fire Anderson Silva now? I mean, Silva won all his previous fights, but Dana is pretty pissed with him. It makes me wonder if Dana is still considering it.

 

He told him "Great f'n fight" right there and then after the submission and he said he's really pleased with the main event and the entire card in the post fight presser.

[ampulator]

That's good. But Silva better than act like jack-ass again in his next fight. As much a jerk Chael Sonnen can be, I'm glad that he gave it to Anderson Silva. Silva better take it seriously from now on.

[RingofHonorGuard]

Chael wants the rematch. Anderson claims rib injury as excuse for the total spanking he took for the majority of the fight. Chael's done a million more times offensively to Anderson than all of his opponents combined... So yeah, I mean... I guess count me on board for the rematch.

[The Bus]

USA! USA! USA! Why not cheer Let's go rednecks *clap clap clapclapclap*? Chant for the fighter, not for the country, especially as this is no team sport. I was so happy Silva finally locked it to win it, as he was really put to a test and still came through to prove his superiority.

[The Shape]

About two months ago all I'd seen of UFC was TUF series one and UFC 100, after these last two events I'd probably swear myself a fan for life, simply amazing stuff. Gutted for Chael, looking forward to the rematch even if I think Silva may be more convincing that time...feels like this is what he needed to light a fire you know.

[Self]

Gutted beyond belief. I assumed Chael was going to get killed in that fight, but he beat Anderson's ass. I had a bunch of guys over to watch the show, and everyone was 100% behind Chael, and then... Gutting.

 

If MMA was scripted, Chael Sonnen would be my Middleweight champion. Without a doubt.

[Trashbear]

I wanted Chael to win, but I knew that Anderson Silva would dominate him. I couldn't have predicted that Silva would need a fortuitous fifth round submission to steal a victory and keep his win streak intact...it seemed so unlikely. If anyone can ever feel victorious despite a defeat, its Chael Sonnen.

 

And yeah, the last two PPVs have really raised the bar as far as excitement goes. Even my fiancee, who doesn't care for much in the way of sports, is a UFC fan now. She eagerly asked me when the next "big fight" will be.

[ampulator]

I think Chael Sonnen might be spot on about one thing... maybe Silva hasn't been training seriously for a while.

 

Chael Sonnen has become a good, though, not great, fighter. Buth he's been working hard, and Silva hasn't. Silva's great, but he better be more serious now, because Chael could have taken the decision win easily.

[Daffanka]

Okay so now I'm actually going to talk about something else than the main event.

 

Fitch - Alves was fun to watch. I think it's pretty exhilarating to see a guy completely dismantle the #3 WW in the world over three rounds, so sue me.

 

I think most people don't quite grasp what a big fight this was for the WW division as it was for the coveted "#2 really really good but not quite GSP" spot. I hope Fitch gets a final shot at the belt and then moves up once GSP beats him again.

 

dos Anjos - Guida was strange but not bad. I didn't think dos Anjos would stay in the pocket taking punches like he did and he paid for it.

 

Hughes - Almeida was hilarious. I instinctively pick against Hughes all the time ever because I don't like him but he's not a bad offensive grappler and Almeida really hasn't developed anything resembling a wrestling game. Giving up his neck like that isn't something a third degree black belt should do either, clocks cleaned or no.

 

Also as much as I dislike Hughes his comment about how he's glad to beat a good Brazilian with a wrestling move was pretty funny.

 

dos Santos - Nelson, well. Expected Nelson to go down much sooner, didn't expect dos Santos to defend the body trips quite so well and it makes me a bit more excited to see him fight Velasquez or Lesnar since it's clear he can defend against a conceited effort by a good wrestler to take him down.

 

I'm not saying he's going to defend Lesnar or Velasquez' takedowns, not at all. I'm just saying that his wrestling game isn't necessarily as awful as I dreaded. He'll be going up against one of the two best heavyweight wrestlers and his bottom game is still a huge mystery.

 

I think at this point I'd probably pick him for the upset over Lesnar, just because of what Carwin was able to do while Velasquez has already shown he's got a pretty crazy chin. Lesnar isn't a slow starter though and if he hits one double it could be over. This really isn't a subject I'm going to tackle until after 121.

 

Card ruled, if the current trend is any indication then 118 is going to be awesome.

[scorpion]

USA! USA! USA! Why not cheer Let's go rednecks *clap clap clapclapclap*? Chant for the fighter, not for the country, especially as this is no team sport.

 

People can cheer for whoever they want for any reason they want. No reason to be rude about it. Its a good thing I don't judge people from Finland based on the bigots on here.

[Dustin]

USA! USA! USA! Why not cheer Let's go rednecks *clap clap clapclapclap*? Chant for the fighter, not for the country, especially as this is no team sport. I was so happy Silva finally locked it to win it, as he was really put to a test and still came through to prove his superiority.

 

Come on now. EVERY country does their equivalent of this.

 

Canada: GSP! GSP! GSP! (even when he's not fighting)

England has a song that they sing

Australia: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

[MattitudeV2]

Come on now. EVERY country does their equivalent of this.

 

Canada: GSP! GSP! GSP! (even when he's not fighting)

England has a song that they sing

Australia: Aussie! Aussie! Aussie!

 

Ole Ole Ole

[rodzillahotrod]

can someone explain the finish to the silvia fight to me? from what i seen before the previews it looked like the ref stopped it and both fighters was a lil loss and sonnen looked like he was still going at silva. then they showed the previews and to me it looked like he waved his hand trying to find silvas leg in some of the video while some of them looked like he tapped his leg 2x's and then started to fight to get the legs off. then i watched the pfc and the first clip doesnt look like a tap (it showed right above sonnens head) it looked like he was reaching for the leg and couldnt grasp it. im not sticking up for sonnen but he said he didnt tap and to me it doesnt look like it and he seemed upset about it.

[brashleyholland]

can someone explain the finish to the silvia fight to me? from what i seen before the previews it looked like the ref stopped it and both fighters was a lil loss and sonnen looked like he was still going at silva. then they showed the previews and to me it looked like he waved his hand trying to find silvas leg in some of the video while some of them looked like he tapped his leg 2x's and then started to fight to get the legs off. then i watched the pfc and the first clip doesnt look like a tap (it showed right above sonnens head) it looked like he was reaching for the leg and couldnt grasp it. im not sticking up for sonnen but he said he didnt tap and to me it doesnt look like it and he seemed upset about it.

 

All the confusion was down to the referee...he moved in to break the fighters then seemingly got confused. Chael tapped the leg once, thats all that matters...thankfull the ref went through with his stoppage, because if he'd let that go (it's happened before) it would have ruined one off the all-time classic UFC title fights.

[rodzillahotrod]

i kinda thought it was the ref's fault for the confusion, i thought he broke it up to early especially after chael said he didnt tap. but i didnt know the ref could of started the match back up though after he stopped it. so chael did actually tap the leg once?

[brashleyholland]

i kinda thought it was the ref's fault for the confusion, i thought he broke it up to early especially after chael said he didnt tap. but i didnt know the ref could of started the match back up though after he stopped it. so chael did actually tap the leg once?

 

That was my first thought in the moment too, that the ref had moved and stopped it early, then hesitated, then stopped the fight without a tap. There was a room full of very annoyed, very upset (but mostly very drunk) people screaming "NOOOOOO!" at the TV. But yeah, on the replays, you can see him slap the leg once.

 

There isn't a provision for refs to restart a fight once they've stopped it...I was meaning that I've see a few instances of refs moving in and disturbing/halting proceedings, only to order the fighters to continue when he realises that he's made a mistake.

[ampulator]

Is it just me, or do I think Silva lost his "fire" to fight? It doesn't seem like he's any worse than he was before, but he doesn't seem to care much anymore.

 

As for Santos/Nelson, I thought Santos definitely won, but a LOT of weaknesses were exposed. His only chance is outboxing Lesnar - I think he can do that, but it's not exactly an easy order, since Lesnar survived Carwin's slaughter. Santos needs deepen his game.

[d_w_w]

Is it just me, or do I think Silva lost his "fire" to fight? It doesn't seem like he's any worse than he was before, but he doesn't seem to care much anymore.

 

As for Santos/Nelson, I thought Santos definitely won, but a LOT of weaknesses were exposed. His only chance is outboxing Lesnar - I think he can do that, but it's not exactly an easy order, since Lesnar survived Carwin's slaughter. Santos needs deepen his game.

 

I kind of thought Silva seemed a little uninterested in his most recent fights, but I'm not sure if he's lost his fire or not.

 

His camp is claiming that a rib injury was responsible for his somewhat underwhelming performance in rounds 1-4. At the post fight press conference, Chael seemed to believe him and Lindland didn't doubt him during an interview on the next day. Who knows though?

 

Kind of think he's just not been exposed to a strong wrestler before. Henderson, by credentials, is obviously good, but he's clearly more interested in trying to land big bombs on folks. In R1 against Silva though, he did manage a good takedown and some control. Aside from Hendo and Chael, I can't think of any top quality wrestlers he's fought.

[Self]

As for Santos/Nelson, I thought Santos definitely won, but a LOT of weaknesses were exposed. His only chance is outboxing Lesnar - I think he can do that, but it's not exactly an easy order, since Lesnar survived Carwin's slaughter. Santos needs deepen his game.

 

Lesnar/Santos would come down to whether Brock can take him down. I'm not sure whether Santos can knock Brock out, but I reckon he could win a stand-up battle on points. If Brock can use his speed and explosiveness to break through Dos Santos' impressive takedown defense, Brock will have him.

 

If Cain can beat Brock, however, I think Junior Dos Santos would eat Cain's lunch. After watching Cain/Kongo a while back, I was totally unimpressed by Cain. He took numerous hard shots to the face and crumpled into Kongo, taking him down. Santos won't go down so easily.

 

I heard rumours of Roy Nelson vs Shane Carwin. That's a fight I want to see.

 

P.S. I have almost no idea what I'm talking about. This is like me discussing football. Very casual fan.

[Daffanka]

Early estimates are putting 117 at around 1 million buys (!!!)

 

To put that into context, Anderson's previously most selling card was 101 with 900k against Forrest where he co-mained to BJ - Florian. His best selling main event was 500k at 112 with a ridiculously strong undercard.

 

So about a million people just saw not just one of the best fights I've ever seen but saw Anderson get pushed to the brink of defeat just to make a comeback in the fifth. I'm not sure if this is going to establish Anderson as an actual PPV draw but there's no way his appeal hasn't increased.

 

It also validates every single thing Chael had done to hype the card up. It's a shame that there's so few guys that are good at trash talking because clearly it works.

 

Also I imagine that it made the UFC much more interested in a rematch.

[The Shape]

It also kind of makes a point about what Chael said anderson and sponsors and stuff. Like, I know it was probably mostly rubbish, especially the walking into a room part, but if you look at Silva's latest defences and think this is a guy who's 35 now, it kinda feels like they haven't made the most of him. I mean this is a guy who at his best you can show to people and be like "this is why you should watch UFC." But if you did that on the Maia fight (and from what I hear his two before that as well) you'd be putting people off it.

[ampulator]

It also kind of makes a point about what Chael said anderson and sponsors and stuff. Like, I know it was probably mostly rubbish, especially the walking into a room part, but if you look at Silva's latest defences and think this is a guy who's 35 now, it kinda feels like they haven't made the most of him. I mean this is a guy who at his best you can show to people and be like "this is why you should watch UFC." But if you did that on the Maia fight (and from what I hear his two before that as well) you'd be putting people off it.

Like I said, I think Silva might have his will to fight. It didn't look like he was trying all that hard in the Sonnen fight - and it's not because he was trying to coast by, because he certainly didn't. I think Silva has lost his fire. He's the best Middleweight in the UFC right now, and he knows it. But it seems like he's stuck in an emotional rut.

[The Shape]

At the start with his hands down etc, it looked like he was out there to humiliate him, but then that backfired, and every round from then on he came out firing, but it got increasingly desperate.

 

Maybe just maybe this fight is what is needed to relight the fire. I have a feeling on this basis that whoever he faces next is getting destroyed, hence leaning towards preferring him to face Belfort than a Sonnen rematch right away. If he won both of those then Okami's the other guy who looks right now like he'll be a contender, but if he really was coming to the end of his career, then a showdown with GSP would surely have to be done...right? =D

[ampulator]

It's not that Anderson Silva can't fight, I'm not sure he still wants to. I know he WANTS to be a winner, but he doesn't seem like he wants to work for it. I think Sonnen is exactly the wrong kind of fighter to coast against. Sonnen will always attempt to push the pace, always attempt to go forward. Another problem was Silva didn't take Sonnen seriously, at least in the beginning, and at least at standup. Sonnen rocked him twice, and it seriously slowed Silva down.