The Official MMA Discussion Thread

[brashleyholland]

That's nice to know. Thanks.

 

So it makes me wonder, a person with a good wrestling and BJJ skills should do very well, but if they have little to no striking, would they still do well?

 

I mean, there is Fitch and Shields, but Fitch is more of a wrestler, and Shields of BJJ. What happens if there is a person that's clearly good in both, but not good at strking?

 

It's very much down to the individual. There are guys who are so good at one or two aspects of the game, that they can afford to be lacking in another. This is getting rarer and rarer as the sport evolves...and honestly, it's more down to the individual than the styles themselves.

 

Like Daff said, some guys are just great fighters who can make things (and a lack of other things) work for them.

[brashleyholland]

Some good, very good and (potentially very) bad news from HKL today.

 

First the good; providing he gets his legal problems sorted, there is apparently a chance that Badr Hari will compete on the K-1 WGP Finals card in December. As the field is set, I'd expect this to be a reserve fight rather than a superfight, as you know K-1 would love to get him back in the WGP somehow.

 

What's also interesting is that Hesdy Gerges is being talked about as another potential reserve fighter. This was the guy who Badr kicked when he was down, losing his 'It's Showtime' HW title and nearly starting a riot in the process earlier this year, which in turn led to him pulling out of the WGP to get his you-know-what together. Could be interesting, if 'It's Showtime' will let it happen.

 

Now on to the very good and (potentially very) bad - which are one and the same thing. It looks like It's Showtime are making a move on K-1 in the HW tournament stakes, butting on their own multi-round GP next year.

 

Good: We get to see (so far): Hesdy Gerges, Melvin Manhoef, Tyron Spong, Dan Ghita, Gokhan Saki and potentially Badr Hari fighting in a GP.

 

Also Good: The Final 16 will be in March, with the Final 8 in May. This will leave the top fighters open for the K-1 WGP, which as we know wraps up towards the end of the year.

 

Potentially Bad: There have been rumours of various rifts between It's Showtime and K-1 for some time now. Mostly financial, but they have recently been exacerbated by what the Dutch group feels has been discrimination towards their fighters from K-1, both in and out of the ring. I have heard from a number of people in Holland that It's Showtime are very confident that they can 'go it alone', and this GP could very much be a litmus test. A huge rift is not what the kickboxing world (especially) needs right now.

[brashleyholland]

Ooh, one last thing....FREE MMA!!!!

 

M-1 Global will be presenting the latest edition of M-1 Challenge LIVE and FREE on their website, M-1Global.com, starting at 11:30am EST/8:30am PST...16:30 in the UK and 17:30 in Europe, I think?

 

Reasons to watch:

 

- Magomed Shikshabekov vs Che Mills - Shikshabekov (12-0) is a mini-Fedor, the real deal.

 

- Guram Gugenishvili - heavyweight submission machine, 9-0, all but one of his wins via 1st round stoppage (7 subs, one sub to strikes), the longest it's taken him to finish is 2:16.

 

- Alexander Sarnavsky - Undefeated (10-0) lightweight prospect, 21 years old, 7 out of 10 wins in the first round.

 

- IT'S FREE!!!!!!

[Daffanka]

You forgot several reasons!

 

• Hilarious grappling. Have you ever seen a guy get his back taken from the guard? Well you're in for a treat.
  
• Hilarious striking.
  
• Hilarious wrestling.
  
• Bad commentators trying to pronounce the Russian names correctly
  

 

Aside from the actually promising fighters (though who knows what happens when they start fighting real competition and wrestlers) there's usually enough entertaining things happening in European events that it's worth watching.

[brashleyholland]

there's usually enough entertaining things happening in European events that it's worth watching.

 

...I was gutted that he didn't get the chance to let rip with one of those on McSweeney at 120

[TheKenwyne]

Ooh, one last thing....FREE MMA!!!!

 

M-1 Global will be presenting the latest edition of M-1 Challenge LIVE and FREE on their website, M-1Global.com, starting at 11:30am EST/8:30am PST...16:30 in the UK and 17:30 in Europe, I think?

 

Reasons to watch:

 

- Magomed Shikshabekov vs Che Mills - Shikshabekov (12-0) is a mini-Fedor, the real deal.

 

- Guram Gugenishvili - heavyweight submission machine, 9-0, all but one of his wins via 1st round stoppage (7 subs, one sub to strikes), the longest it's taken him to finish is 2:16.

 

- Alexander Sarnavsky - Undefeated (10-0) lightweight prospect, 21 years old, 7 out of 10 wins in the first round.

 

- IT'S FREE!!!!!!

 

When's this event? You gave us all the info cept when it actually takes place :L

[brashleyholland]

When's this event? You gave us all the info cept when it actually takes place :L

 

D'Oh!!!! Tomorrow, so Thursday, 28th of October. Well spotted

[TheKenwyne]

D'Oh!!!! Tomorrow, so Thursday, 28th of October. Well spotted

 

Ta! That's my afternoon planned

[jesterx7769]

Oh Snap a UFC tv network? Man, talk about lots of possibilities. The biggest thing in my mind is what package they would be a part of. If it was the standard package like the Big 10 network finally got that would be awesome, if it was stuck into some upgraded packaged I dont know.

 

The first thing I thought was, do they really have enough footage/shows to make a real network out of it. I guess they do actually have a lot when you figure each of these that are usually 30 minutes could be an hour long

 

- Best of Pride

- Ultimate KO's

- Ultimate Submissions

- Best of a certain year

- Best of a certain fighter

- All Access for a certain fighter

- Every single actual PPV, different one each week?

- Each of those same categories for the WEC

- Interview type show like MMA Live

- You would be able to see all prelims

- weigh ins

- event documentaries i.e. footage of travel to the UK

- they want to do TUF in many countries so throw those on here

- give a fighter his own weekly show that would want it

- Ring Girl specials

- new TUF could be 3 hours long, one hour preshow recap and interview, new show, then post show interviews/analyzing

- Sponsor shows, i.e. the tapout one, or any other program your sponsor wants to come up with

more and more

 

Plus new PPV's could be all day live coverage talking to people through out the day and showing people hitting the pads and working out all sorts of bull to make it a whole day event

 

then from like 2-7 all infomercials like most other networks do

 

 

 

Then I thought, well sure they have all that footage but it would be all gone in a year. WRONG! They can just customize those shows for the current card and fighters giving them basically all sorts of hype for the upcoming PPV, screw all Access of just Brock, follow Shields and Kampmann around.

 

While I don't think this will be MINDBLOWING, I can actually see it working and have people tune into stuff that aren't watching the things on Spike right now, after all aren't those some of Spike's highest rated shows?

[brashleyholland]

They also have all the Pride/Bushido and WFA shows too.

[TheKenwyne]

They also have all the Pride/Bushido and WFA shows too.

 

Oi Brashers, know if us Europeans will be getting something similar?

[Daffanka]

http://www.mmafighting.com/2010/10/28/dana-white-wec-ufc-to-merge-in-2011/

 

Dana confirms that UFC and WEC are going to merge starting 2011.

 

This is very, very good. Feather and bantamweights can shore up some of the worse cards (hello UFC 120) to give some guaranteed action and it finally means some of the best fighters in the world are gonna get paid properly.

 

Faber - Mizugaki and Henderson - Pettis are still going down as planned but this probably means Aldo's going to defend against, I dunno, Hominick on a UFC card. Maybe 125 or FIGHT FOR THE TROOPS.

 

Also it might mean we get to see Omigawa in the UFC. That would rule so, so hard.

[TheKenwyne]

Two big announcements for the price of one... well done Mr White, you have excelled yourself

[The Shape]

He said aldo is defending the belt on jan 1st. That show just got a whole lot more interesting.

[jesterx7769]

Two big announcements for the price of one... well done Mr White, you have excelled yourself

 

The network was just rumored thats what the press conference, that isn't happening (as of now) just the UFC/WEC merger was part of the announcement.

 

Here is a problem I have though, unless I am just reading the articles and media wrong, I haven't read any quotes but White actually say Aldo IS the first FW UFC champion now? Because it seems to me the winner of the Jan. 1st bout would be the first UFC FW champ, not the WEC guy. Just a little peved if they bill him as that instead of the winner will be the first champ.

 

However LOVE the decision like most, ratings and buy rates have showed the sport is not over saturated and it means more good guys to plug onto the cards, I am surprised they didn't do this before when Urijah was huge or try to get him up to 155 (i know he was small anyways hence the now 145)

 

BTW love Ben Henderson, lots of energy, gotta love that.

[Daffanka]

Aldo's WEC featherweight title immediately becomes the UFC featherweight title while the winner of Cruz vs. Jorgensen becomes the new UFC bantamweight champion.

 

Winner of Hendo - Pettis gets an immediate title shot at the winner of Edgar - Maynard which gives the UFC time to sort out 155 and getting someone like Miller or Sotiropolasdasdubng;s a big win.

 

Urijah was huge or try to get him up to 155 (i know he was small anyways hence the now 145)

 

Faber's making a 135 run, starting with Mizugaki, since he got pasted by Aldo.

[brashleyholland]

 

Now on to the very good and (potentially very) bad - which are one and the same thing. It looks like It's Showtime are making a move on K-1 in the HW tournament stakes, butting on their own multi-round GP next year.

 

Good: We get to see (so far): Hesdy Gerges, Melvin Manhoef, Tyron Spong, Dan Ghita, Gokhan Saki and potentially Badr Hari fighting in a GP.

 

 

Add Zimmerman, Ignashov and Rico Verhoeven to that list! Woo!

[ampulator]

A couple of years ago, the lighter weight clases-below 170- didn't mean didly squat. Hell, I even recall there was a time that BJ Penn tried to get out of his contract because the lightweight division wasn't big enough for him.

 

Look at the Lightweight Division now. And look at the Featherweight division. Wow. Just... wow.

 

By the way, how many men can make Bantamweight and/or Flyweight? Just curious.

[Daffanka]

By the way, how many men can make Bantamweight and/or Flyweight? Just curious.

 

I imagine Benavidez would be the highest profile guy to drop down to 125. Also there's a whole lot of Brazilian and Japanese flyweight talent just waiting to be unearthed and put on display.

 

Also if you haven't been paying attention: Megumi Fujii got beat by Zoila Frausto last night at Bellator by a controversial unanimous decision. She lost the fight by fighting stupid, really, and I thought the decision could've easily gone either way.

 

2010 really is the year of the underdogs. Shogun, Edgar, Werdum, Velasquez and Frausto.

[The Shape]

I imagine Benavidez would be the highest profile guy to drop down to 125. Also there's a whole lot of Brazilian and Japanese flyweight talent just waiting to be unearthed and put on display.

 

Also if you haven't been paying attention: Megumi Fujii got beat by Zoila Frausto last night at Bellator by a controversial unanimous decision. She lost the fight by fighting stupid, really, and I thought the decision could've easily gone either way.

 

2010 really is the year of the underdogs. Shogun, Edgar, Werdum, Velasquez and Frausto.

 

And Sonnen...almost

[TheKenwyne]

I imagine Benavidez would be the highest profile guy to drop down to 125. Also there's a whole lot of Brazilian and Japanese flyweight talent just waiting to be unearthed and put on display.

 

Also if you haven't been paying attention: Megumi Fujii got beat by Zoila Frausto last night at Bellator by a controversial unanimous decision. She lost the fight by fighting stupid, really, and I thought the decision could've easily gone either way.

 

2010 really is the year of the underdogs. Shogun, Edgar, Werdum, Velasquez and Frausto.

 

Shogun wasn't really an underdog going into the second fight. And Velasquez was pretty much evens going in. I refute your claim!

[Zoloftjunkie]

Zoila Frausto won back to back bs descions. She must of bought off the judges or something.

[ampulator]

I imagine Benavidez would be the highest profile guy to drop down to 125. Also there's a whole lot of Brazilian and Japanese flyweight talent just waiting to be unearthed and put on display.

 

Also if you haven't been paying attention: Megumi Fujii got beat by Zoila Frausto last night at Bellator by a controversial unanimous decision. She lost the fight by fighting stupid, really, and I thought the decision could've easily gone either way.

 

2010 really is the year of the underdogs. Shogun, Edgar, Werdum, Velasquez and Frausto.

Why did Megumi Fujii fight like that? I heard it's not because it's stupid... it's because, according to one person, that she has good takedowns from the cilnch because of her Judo and Sambo background, but not necessarily outside of the clinch.

 

It might have been her opponent fought smarter.

 

then again I didn't see the fight... so...

[Daffanka]

Why did Megumi Fujii fight like that? I heard it's not because it's stupid... it's because, according to one person, that she has good takedowns from the cilnch because of her Judo and Sambo background, but not necessarily outside of the clinch.

 

It might have been her opponent fought smarter.

 

then again I didn't see the fight... so...

 

Fujii isn't a particularly good wrestler but Frausto is even worse. If she'd closed the distance off one of her left crosses that cracked Frausto all night, she could've gone into the clinch and got her down with relatively simple techniques.

 

Other than things like penetration steps, good chain wrestling is the hallmark of a really good wrestler. It's how Cain got Brock to the ground (single leg>run the pipe) and how guys like GSP and Askren manage to style on guys so thoroughly. It doesn't matter if your opponent is stronger than you if you can pull off some of the stuff Askren does (knee tap to double to single to inside trip.)

[brashleyholland]

So this one is a bit of a stretch to believe...but there is a rumour in Holland that Schilt could be disqualified from the GP with Hesdy Gerges taking his place.

 

I'm not sure that I'm buying it...It's Showtime have released a statement saying that Gerges has been offered a fight at the event, so it's possible that Chinese whispers from that are the basis for the rumour. Still, would be very interesting if it was indeed true...

 

Also, check out the ring for Satoru Sayama's (Tiger Mask) awesome new MMA/Sumo hybrid.

 

http://ca.c.yimg.jp/sports/1288405106/img.sports.yahoo.co.jp/spnavi/photo/fight/201010/30/20101030001.jpg

 

You can win by KO, Submission, decision or knocking your opponent out of the main area twice. Ha!