NoCalMike

So do we have a confirmed start time for the Impact 2 show yet? I am sure Veetle.com among other sites will have streams, I just wanna make sure I am on at the right time.

I am sure Veetle will have it...they always have these smaller MMA promotions on there.

So it is listed as July 18th(sunday night) in Australia but what time does that make it for us? Would it be a Saturday night show for us? I am definitely interested in tuning in if I have nothing else going on.

Aoiki vs. Melendez rematch. Melendez will probably prove too much for Aoiki again. December card shaping up nicely

Who else is hyped for DREAM tonight? I love watching Japanese MMA promotions, just because it feels different. Completely different style in every aspect, especially the crowds. Not saying it is better or worse, just different. Makes me wish the days of PRIDE!

Well a lot of Karate strikes are based on one-strike put outs. So unless you are thinking you are going to KO someone with a single shot every time, you better learn to fuse it with other disciplines. I am interested to see a 'Shad vs. Machida rematch since it seems Rashad has remembered that he is a wrestler again. Would like to see if the fight goes different with Rashad trying to shoot in for a takedown, rather then dance around like apollo creed and look for a big KO.

Well since I live on the west coast I get the DREAM card @ Midnight! Sounds like a good card, even with Overeem vs. Rodriguez falling through.

I think the only threat right now to Anderson Silva at 185 is Vitor Belfort, and that is if and only if Vitor Belfort has his head on straight and is motivated. If that fight finally happens, and Silva wins, he needs to just vacate the belt and move up to 205 permanently. Let someone else take over at 185 and then maybe in a couple of years when someone else at 185 is built up, he can go back down and challenge the champ.

Well Shogun also blew out his knee in that fight, which some thought was the end of his career, or if he came back he would never be the same. Also, Rampage had way too long of a layoff and his motivation in taking the fight was heavily questioned. I think 'Shad forgot for awhile about his wrestling skills ever since giving Forrest a beat down, but against Rampage he realized that is his best bet moving forward, use the skills that got him here in the first place.

Ok, I know boxing stances don't translate 100% smoothly to MMA. My overall point though is that a lot of MMA fighters come from a wrestling and/or BJJ base. That is the meat & potatoes of their skill set, but you find them increasingly abandoning that and just deciding to get into the cage and throwdown, and when that happens, with guys who don't have the technique or chin it makes them a very ordinary fighter. It seems like the UFC is pushing the sport of MMA more towards a K1 style of fighting. Things like, chin down, hands up, circling, head movement. Those are techniques anyone should know if they are going go into the Octagon looking to standup and bang, yet you constantly see fighters making tactical errors which you'd think they would have picked up a long time before ever sniffing the UFC. Now, yes in MMA there is more to it, because you also need to know transitional bases. Basically how to maintain striking technique as someone is diving at your legs for a takedown. This is something obvious that seperates an MMA fighter from a boxer, but there are also coaches who specialize in transitioning.

Something a lot of casual fans of MMA don't seem to realize and I guess it has become a big secret in the last five years is that most MMA fighters don't have very good chins, which is why it is MMA in the first place and not K1. Therein lies the dilema because UFC seems to make it pretty known their feelings on the sport and what direction they want it to go in order to yield the biggest profit. Most of their highlights and marketing is geared towards the flash knockouts and ground & pound finishes, which then yields arenas full of drunk fans looking for a :30 second KO, or they start booing the fight. Also, like I have said in previous posts, "heavy hands/power" gets mistaken for "technical striking" a lot of the time. You can usually tell the difference between someone who merely has a lot of power when they connect(Carwin, Wanderlai Silva, Dan Henderson), and someone who actually knows the standup game and comes from a boxing base(throwing jabs, combinations, using head movement, circling away from opponents power hand etc etc etc), guys like BJ Penn, Anderson Silva, Rashad Evans. A lot of MMA fighters do bring in boxing coaches, but you are expecting a boxing coach to teach them the fundamentals in six months, when these are the same fundamentals they have been repeating over and over again for World Class boxers for their entire careers. We can say what a great Dirty boxer Randy Couture is but James Toney is the real deal when it comes to boxing. He was one of the best in the world in his day, and now you are putting the MMA gloves on a boxer. Now of course, it remains to be seen if Toney is in this for the right reasons and even cares, or if he is just trying to stay relevent when he is obviously past his prime. However Couture is no spring chicken either, I am sure his reaction time is slower with every fight. Couture better just play it safe and go for the take down as soon as it presents itself. We don't need another Sylvia vs. Ray Mercer debacle(yes I know circumstances were different).

Not going to argue with anything you said there really. I could see Cain working on leg kicks and stuffing takedowns. He might come out in the first round and try to soften up Brock's legs which will take away the explosiveness and ability to shoot in for takedowns. What people need to realize is that watching the Heavyweight division is one hell of a spectacle, but overall the SKILLS are lacking compared to every other weight division. The margin of error is a lot smaller because of how big these guys are. This allows someone like Brock to come in with no experience, but having a ton of athletic ability and a legit wrestling background, to come in and dominate a lot of the competition. We don't ever see this kind of thing in other weight divisions because the skill level is way high among the "elite fighters" in those weight divisions.

I don't think anyone is questioning Brock's chin. That point being made is that Carwin's "heavy hands" are being mistaken for "great technical striking" which is far from what he is. Just because you can hit with a lot of power, it does not make you a technical striker. Dos Santos and Velasquez are both better technical strikers than Carwin, although their power alone is not off the charts like Carwin's, but again, to me technical striking > raw power because we saw how raw power can fail you when it is absent the technical wherewithal. When Carwin got Brock on the ground, a better technical striker would have ended that fight within the next 30 seconds. Instead Carwin was just throwing bombs that were landing anywhere they might fall, which in his case was mostly, forearms, shoulders, gloves.

I'm not a Brock hater. All I have ever said regarding him is that because he has so few fights we just don't know what we have on our hands. He is getting better with every fight. I have never said otherwise. Pointing out flaws in a fighter's game is observation, not hating. I never said Brock sucks. And as far as the UFC Heavyweight division overall goes. There is a lot of raw talent in there, but most guys have only had a handful of fights. So you have a fighter with a handful of fights fighting another guy with a handful of fights, and calling one of them the best heavyweight fighter in the world. Just because a fighter is fighting under the UFC banner doesn't automatically change his resume or credentials. It definately does seem to change the hype though, surrounding the fighter and any of their fights. Also, another point on the fight, Carwin looked just as uncomfortable on the ground underneath Brock, as Brock did when he tasted a punch. Carwin was straight up garbage on the ground. Once Brock got on top, Carwin basically laid there. Part of this was the fact that he was gassed, but when Brock first synced in the arm triangle, it was loose and Carwin had a good chance to put up some type of defense against it, but dude laid there. He was done. His cardio was not good. As soon as round two was about to begin, you could see it in Carwin's eyes that he was done. Brock had superior cardio, he was smiling and winking. Any neutral observer know right then, if Brock got a takedown away from the cage, it was over. ....and this is my entire point of guys being super-inflated because they fight in UFC. Dana White would have you believe this fight was between two guys who are these indestructible machines who have been fighting for years, when anyone who has a keen eye for the sport and studies it a little bit could see that both these guys came off looking like who they are, two guys who have been in MMA for a couple of years. They both have raw talent & skill, and athletic ability(moreso Brock) but they are still new to this sport. Just take the UFC hype machine blinders off.

Well I would say once Brock was dropped, Carwin got sloppy and was just throwing bombs that were hitting Brock's arms, shoulders and gloves. With the exception of the elbow he dropped. And Brock's "intelligent defense" consisted of wiggling around and throwing an arm up every once in awhile, it wasn't like Brock was doing anything to improve his position. We have seen fights stopped a lot sooner. I am sure a stoppage could have been justified, but I am glad it wasn't. The ref did a good job, he saw Brock wasn't on the verge of being KO'd, but a lot of that was due to Carwin's inexperience and the fact that his cardio was bad and the man gassed out while in a dominant position. If a guy like Cain gets Brock in the same position somehow, the fight will be over. This is the difference between "heavy hands"(Carwin) and "Technical striker(Velasquez) People often confuse the two terms and think just because you have heavy hands, it means you are a good striker. I didn't say Brock was outside the Top 3. I just said I don't think either is the #1. (YET). Also, look before Brock even goes down. The minute he tastes a little glove, the dude abandons any notion of a game plan and retreats and looks lost, which leads to another barrage of punches and the initial knockdown. There are plenty of fighters that get tagged with a good shot and don't immediately go into retreat mode. It was a criticism/unknown about Brock going into the fight. I am not questioning Brock's chin. He showed he can take a punch(a lot of punches) but he also showed that if you tag him with a good shot the dude panics.

Well since Dos Santos is fighting Roy, you could add Roy and either Mir or Rogers and make it a 10 man tourny. Do some coinflips to set up brackets. Is the tourny to face Brock for the belt, or does Brock have to go through the tourny as well?

The fight was very entertaining and both fighters came out of the fight, looking improved and with their stock rising, however both of them showed flaws in their game/technique. I would definately say both are among the best in the world. Putting the entertainment value of the fight aside, both fighters showed this fight was not to determine the "best heavyweight in the world" rather it was merely to crown the UFC HW champ, and move each guy up the ranks. For starters, Brock does not know what to do when he gets hit. As soon as Carwin laid a glove on him, Brock retreated and looked like a deer in headlights. He let himself get taken down and put into a position so dangerous that the fight was within a half second of being stopped several times. Props to the ref for recognizing this was a title fight and not stopping it. Had it not been a title fight, I say it would have been stopped. Carwin, the dude spent his load and gassed out. Once he had Brock on the bottom and it was apparent Brock wouldn't be going anywhere for awhile, Carwin should have backed off the wild haymakers into Brock's forearms and went for more precise strikes. Maybe some shots to the body in order to make Brock drop his hands. Instead he spent all his energy on shots that weren't connecting on their intended target. Even with that said though, Carwin could have arguably been given a 10-8 round, because besides Brock's initial takedown attempt, which I am not sure if it is considered a takedown, because both guys got their arms hooked and fell side-by-side and both immediately got up. With that said, the fight was very fun and entertaining, it should please everyone, no matter which guy you were rooting for. I have new respect for both fighters coming out of the fight. I just don't want to lose sight and perspective. Brock vs. Cain should be interesting. Cain is a better technical fighter than either one, but I am not sure if there is anyone in the division besides Carwin that can match Brock's strength. And I know strength isn't the most important thing ever, but when one has that big of an advantage it tends to mean more. Cain is the complete package. He can wrestle, strike, submit, GnP etc etc....dude uses leg kicks to set up his strikes. So far Brock has shown that once he gets on top of you the fight is going to be over soon, whether it is by TKO or now even by submission. That right there is a distinct advantage for Brock no matter who he fights. As far as Carwin goes, I see him landing the winner of Nelson/Dos Santos for a #1 contenders match. After the Brock/Carwin match, I am sure fans are pining for a rematch, and I don't see anyone besides Carwin right now that is a "one-win away from" type of guy.

Is anyone else kind of worried that the overall card is not strong enough to support a Main Event that has the potential to be over in 30 seconds? I mean the countdown show itself only talked about the top two fights, one in which Leben is subbing in for Wandy. I mean Leben in a co-main event? Under the circumstances, fine. Oh and because the WORLD WANTS TO KNOW.... Arianny Celeste is picking Lesnar by KO.....lol. Poll on UFC right now has it 51-49 Carwin right now, and each potential scenario has a UFC 2010 highlight made for it, lol. One of the things fans of combat-sports have to accept is that you can end up spending a lot of money to see a very short fight, which is fine, but usually UFC will try to make the card strong enough so that just in case that does happen, we still feel we got our money's worth. I look up and down this card and I am like....Please Main Event, go to the 2nd Rnd at least!

So Rampage is basically the Lennox Lewis of MMA, except since there is actual top level competition in MMA, you can't get by purely on your physical gifts. Lennox Lewis was known as hating training, and having a hard time getting "up" for fights, and basically won a lot of fights simply because he was taller and had such a large reach on every opponent. Well that and the fact he reigned over one of the weakest HW divisions of all time.

It could just be because it was just soundbytes and not the entire conference, but listen to the pre-fight press conference on youtube. Almost sounds like Brock is lining up a reason/excuse for losing a fight that hasn't taken place yet. And of course Dana has to get in his shot about this being for the "Best heavyweight in the world" nonsense. "I don't care who is overhyping who" riiiight, Dana cause you neeeever been known to overhype fighters.

Oops.....yep.

Rampage moving to heavyweight. Hmm....one time special attraction?

The question is, can Carwin catch Brock, as Brock explodes in for the takedown. I doubt Brock is going to try and stand & trade. We've seen Couture's dirty boxing back Brock off, so imagine if Carwin connects. With that said, if Brock is able to get Carwin down, and get a dominant position, I see little chance of Carwin being able to recover. I am still having a hard time picking this fight, but I think part of it is because I think it is one of those instances where if these guys fought 10 times I could easily see it going five a piece. When you have guys this massive, it almost seems like it will come down to who connects first, or who gases out first. I don't think we are going to see a lot of "skill" on display.

Well my original reply got erased somehow. To summarize, I was mainly saying don't buy Dana White's "If you don't fight for UFC anymore you aren't a top fighter......until we re-sign you of course and are back main eventing one of our PPVs. " No one is arguing that UFC's HW division is bad. However what I personally do believe, is that the two "top" guys in the division that we are being told are fighting this saturday in order to be called the "best heavyweight fighter in the world" are in their mid-30's and are relatively new to the sport. This isn't to say they aren't good. They are. But it should give some perspective into how million dollar advertising can make things look much better. Hell a UFC countdown show would have you believe Rich Franklin vs. Liddell was a compelling fight worth $50 to watch on PPV. To me if the countdown show, shows us anything it should be that the Heavyweight division's weight limit should be a lot lower, and they should make a super heavyweight division. When you are trying to be taken seriously as an organization and every other division has strict weight limits, yet the heavyweight division is more of a freakshow then it doesn't look good. Fedor would probably look more like a LHW in UFC.

I wonder how 118's buyrate will be. BJ Penn is usually a good sell for casual and hardcore fans, and then you have Couture vs. Toney which should bring a long a lot of first time UFC PPV buyers. Who do you think has more to lose Couture or Toney? I say Couture because it is an MMA fight and Couture better know better than to get suckered into a standup fight. I am sure there are going to be tons of boxing fans tuning in and praying that Toney catches Couture. Also, it tends to seem that most MMA fans are also boxing fans, while most boxing fans shun MMA.