Sebowski

Hardy's got nothing for Johnson. Johnson will make it look easy and Hardy will be out of the UFC by this time next year.

Impossible for me to actually pick Lil' Nog, but I'll be rooting for him.

That's the spirit, Bowsk! Diaz fans unite!

(I'm scared though.)

Don't be scared, homie.

Can't believe you guys are turning your backs on our boy Nick Diaz. He is going to school Paul "One Trick Pony" Daley.

Taking nothing away from Bones Jones, that was an amazing performance, one for the books, at 23 to dominate a title fight like that, however is it me or did Shogun not look right from the very beginning?

I think Bones' flying knee in the first five seconds landed enough to throw Shogun completely off his gameplan.

He ****ed Shalorus up big time. Looks like he's got at least a no. 1 contender match coming up (depending on the outcome of the Edgar/Maynard fight)

Don't forget about Pettis. Pettis beats Guida, the title shot is his.

If Bones Jones upsets Shogun, and Anderson Silva beats GSP, I wouldn't mind seeing Silva movie up to take on Bones Jones. Hell, even Anderson Silva vs. Shogun is an attractive matchup to me.

Bones is the favorite. at -190

that faceplant was hilarious

That's what knocked him out. I think the punch stumbled him backwards, Hendo gave him a little shove, and then the mat knocked him out.

Congrats to Hendo. Gotta be scary fighting that guy and just seeing that right hand ready to go the whole time.

---------- Post added March-6th-2011 at 12:34 PM ----------

I was thinking about the BJ-Fitch fight and the scoring system and had an idea to add in the criteria:

Reward attempts to finish the fight, and punish missed opportunities to finish the fight. For example, BJ should get credit for throwing a flying knee that would have ended the fight if it landed, and credit for the multiple choke attempts. All those ending up hurting him in the long run because Fitch escaped and ended up in dominate positions, but BJ should get "points" for attempting to finish the fight. Conversely, while Fitch should absolutely get credit for gaining top position in the third and maintaining it for a couple minutes, he should then start getting docked for not even attempting to pass guard or do anything that would result in finishing an opponent. With that scoring in place Fitch easily gets a 10-9 round in the third, not a 10-8. 10-8 should be when a fighter really should have been finished but miraculously stays alive.

What do you guys think?

I thought it was rumored Roger vs mousasi for April 9? March is a good month for mma. Also, is takaya gonna go up a weight class and fight aoki? I think I might go to this card since it's suppose to be in LA.

Actually it is right outside San Diego. I'm going to do my best, but that is a terrible day for me to get out of work on.

Bisping said he didn't spit on anyone.

-1yz6yt-tTc

Where is captain Hendo when you need him?

Jeez, I didn't think that last round was a 10-8. To me, 10-8 means somebody got dropped, or received a lesson on the ground that involves more than a conveyor belt of finesse-strikes from the closed guard. Obviously, I can see the argument FOR a 10-8 round, so I'm not really looking for a retort. Fitch stayed on top of him the entire time, doing his aerobics exercise, not even looking to pass the guard one time, and never attempting one submission. What he did, however, is evolve the sport an inch more closer to watching golf. That kind of attack should not be awarded a 10-8 round unless he actually gets a shot in there that rattles the heck out of his opponent. All my opinion, of course.

Great points and I agree completely. Fitch never did anything to finish the fight. BJ took risks to finish the fight and paid for them when they didn't succeed. Fitch was as conservative as ever and always will be.

Did you see Penn's face and his attitude post fight? Those shots did damage. Perhaps not knock out damage but they mess a fighter up bad and more importantly completely erode their will and confidence. I think you're getting carried away with labeling that beating "finesse-strikes". That wasn't "muscle shark" Sherk show of movement from the top. Also holding down a BJJ fighter as good as Penn for that long isn't easy, as Penn showed earlier in the fight when he easily stood up after finding himself in a bad spot.

I don't think fight sports should go the route the NBA went and the NFL is going in which they sold out their sports defenses in order to generate excitement. It's about the disciplines and penalizing something as effective as the styles of Fitch and GSP because Siver's style might be more entertaining would be a horrible move.

First, it is a lot like Sherk

Second, it is easy when there is a cage involved. Fitch and many others have become experts at using the cage to their advantage. Good for them, but reminds me why I like a ring so much better.

Lastly, the problem is thinking of this as a sport instead of a fight. This is a fight! That is the principle behind MMA. They aren't "selling out the sport to generate excitement" by discouraging the Fitch game plan. They are selling out the fight for the sport by encouraging a Fitch style game plan!

Anyway....

BJ impressed me tonight. First time I have ever seen him with a game plan. I really Hope the Nick Diaz was watching. If those two brought strategy to their games....

The other thing BJ proved is that he is a lightweight fighter. He is only 32 years old. He has a lot to offer teh world of MMA. He can run through the lightweight division if he comes to fight like he did tonight. Edgar was a bad matchup for him because he played right into Edgar's hands. If he took the fight to Edgar it could be a different story. Fitch looked much bigger than Penn tonight and Fitch was smaller than he has ever been!

Gotta be Siver 29-28

Let's see if there is some hometown cooking, or how the crowd reacts to their boy losing.

What happened to Fisher? He used to take a lot more risks and come to fight. Has been too cautious lately. Maybe he'll bring back that recklessness in the little leagues now that the UFC is going to cut him.

George Sotiropoulos vs. Dennis Siver: Sot is on a good run that I don't predict will last much longer, but will get extended tonight. Siver is too one dimensional for Sot. Sot starts slow though. I think Siver wins the first round before Sot really digs in and gets this fight where he wants it.

Sot by RNC Round 2

Michael Bisping vs. Jorge Rivera:Bisping is going to do his walk up all fired up, do the face off all fired up, then when the bell rings he will run around the ring landing enough arm punches and score enough takedowns to win all three rounds. Reall hoping Rivera Hendo's him though.

Bisping by UD

BJ Penn vs. Jon Fitch:This is just the worst matchup for BJ. He hasn't shown me anything to believe he can stp what Fitch brings to the cage. Fitch has all the tools to make this look like BJ's GSP fights. But **** it, Gotta go with my boy

BJ by flying knee in less than 10 seconds

I'm really bummed Condit had to pull out of his fight with Lytle. I was REALLY looking forward to that one.

I shouldn't question a man like Couture about what he thinks is a good fight for him.

This sums up my thoughts on it. Randy is one of the smartest fighters of all time. He must see something in Machida he thinks he can easily take advantage of. The problem is that he is getting older and older, and it is hard to see when you've lost a step. He might see a hole in Machida's game, but that doesn't mean he'll be able to take advantage of it. Should be an interesting fight.

Shields and who? looks familiar.

Wasn't Shields going out with a hottie recently? Out of context hilarity?

Another good one. Keastman may not want to watch this one.

UFC 130: Thiago Alves vs Rick Story official for May 28 in Las Vegas

Bear_down_tiny by Geno Mrosko on Feb 19, 2011 5:22 PM EST

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Thiago-alves_medium_medium_mediumRick-story-300x200_medium

Sometimes in life, you get exactly what you ask for.

Rick Story called out Thiago Alves and the UFC has obliged him, as the two are all set to square off at the annual Memorial Day weekend event on May 28 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The promotion made the bout official earlier today.

Alves is working his way back up the ranks after dropping back-to-back fights to Welterweight Champion Georges St. Pierre and perennial contender Jon Fitch.

On top of those losses, the bulky brawler has also been plagued with weight issues, to the point of company President Dana White nearly forcing a move up to middleweight before ultimately deciding to give him one more chance to prove that he could cut the necessary weight to make 170-pounds.

One "Dolce Diet" later and "The Pitbull" had the bite to go along with the bark.

Star-divide

Alves destroyed John Howard at UFC 124, showing his vaunted Muay Thai skills to go along with his new (and much deeper) gas tank. After the fight, he asked for a match-up with Jake Shields but the Strikeforce castaway is next up to challenge for the title so the Brazilian wrecking machine was left to search elsewhere.

Meanwhile, Rick Story has quietly amassed a five-fight winning streak after dropping his Octagon debut at UFC 99 to John Hathaway. The wrestling standout feels he deserves a big jump up in competition and Alves certainly represents just that.

Will it turn out to be a "Horror-ible" mistake?

UFC 130 is all set to go down at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will be headlined by the third and final fight between Lightweight Champion Frankie Edgar and the only man to ever defeat him, Gray Maynard.

Stay tuned to MMAMania.com for any updates as they become available.

---------- Post added February-19th-2011 at 03:36 PM ----------

Oh and Fedor, he also beat Arlovsky & Sylvia when they weren't very far removed from being UFC HW champions. Now you can argue, "sure but they were not up to par with the current crop" but that doesn't really matter since they were the best there was to offer Fedor at the time.

If you look at Fedor in his prime, he was head and shoulder above the competition. The sports of MMA is still in the evolution faze. In the next 5-10 years we are going to start seeing MMA fighters that were training to be MMA fighters since being teenagers, (or perhaps in some cases even before then) Right now most fighters come from a specific background and then try and pick up the rest once they decide to go pro. Fedor is from that era. Judging Fedor based on a couple of losses that are coming at the end of his career would be the same as saying Couture is an average fighter because he pretty much trades a win for a loss nowadays. Lots of fighters keep fighting too long an it does damage to their legacy because a lot of fans have a short-sighted view of things.

A fighter should be judged for what he did in the prime of his career against the best competition out there. When Fedor was in his prime, there wasn't a Cain or a Lesnar, or Bigfoot, or Carwin, Dos Santos etc etc....There was a Nog, a CroCop, a Sylvia, a Arlovsky, Coleman, Choi, Eastman etc etc tec....and those were the best opponents at the time, Fedor didn't duck any of them, he obliterated them. If that first set of fighters would have been around and in their primes in 2005 and Fedor managed to not fight any of them, then you could make an argument that he was being protected, but there is no way you can tell me that in Fedor's prime he was being held back from fighting anybody.

.

Yeah. That is what I was trying to say with this

Dana is being a douche with his twitter, but it is pretty funny. He has gotten so much shot from the Fedor fans that he has the right to rub it in a little. It isn't the right thing to do, but I don't blame him too much. He can trash Fedor's recent fights all he wants. It will never take away from the fact that during his awesome run the UFC's heavyweight champs were Tim Sylvia and Arlovski.

I'll add that I am not in the camp that thinks Fedor is done. He made a mistkae against Werdum and got beat be a beast of a Super Heavyweight. I'll still bet on him over 90% of the heavyweights out there, and all of 205ers if he dropped his body fat.

Edit: Doh! 98 beats me by mere seconds!!!!

Go Fancy Pants!!!!

That's not my point, I'm saying he went Tazmanian Devil in every one of his fights. He never stood there and gave a 25 minute snoozer.

Gotcha. Good point then.

As far as Dana's tweets after Fedor's loss, he's just stirring the pot. Look at how he uses a touch of Sherdog forum terminology. It's all to get people thinking about him and his product. The best salespeople I've come to know have all been snakes. They'd talk crap about any competition, any product that wasn't going to make them money. It's business. We all know Fedor was a destroyer of worlds. He had no Thales Leites or Demian Maia fights. He didn't hump to decisions, he is the greatest thing to hit the mat so far. Ahead of his time, Dana knows this to be true. He just won't tell you.

:bsflag:

After Fedor fought Cro Cop these were his fights for the nest THREE YEARS:

Win Hong Man Choi Submission (Armbar) Yarennoka - New Years Eve 2007 12/31/2007

Win Matt Lindland Submission (Armbar) Bodog Fight - Clash of the Nations 4/14/2007

Win Mark Hunt Submission (Kimura) PRIDE - Shockwave 2006 12/31/2006

Win Mark Coleman Submission (Armbar) PRIDE 32 - The Real Deal 10/21/2006

Win Wagner da Conceicao Martins Submission (Punches) PRIDE - Shockwave 2005 12/31/2005

Hit me up a little closer to when you'll be in town Sebow, I'd be down for meeting you guys for a beer tasting. I'll be busy that Saturday during the day, but I'm good later in the evening and the rest of the weekend.

Also, I posted earlier that I was going to review the Abita Turbodog, and it was a good beer, but last night I tried Lagunitas Lil' Sumpin' Sumpin' Ale:

and this stuff was amazing. If you're a Hophead this is a must-try IMO. It's got that strong floral smell that's become a trademark of great IPAs, it pours a light-to-medium orange, and has the citrusy/piney West Coast hop taste that you crave so much. It's 7.5% ABV which is a little lower than most popular IPAs but it also helps give it a very smooth drinkability.

I give this one an A+ and rank it up there with Sierra Nevada, Green Flash and Dogfish Head in terms of great IPA production.

You go it, 98. It would have been cool if it was a UFC weekend. Just didn't shake out that way.

Sumpin is a great beer. It is so drinkable in part because it is really a wheat beer. Pale wheat, hoppy wheat, whatever you want to cal it. Not many beers like it. I've only had one other, Coronado Hoppy Wheat. Another great super drinkable hoopy beer. They don't bottle that one though. I hear Gumball head by Three Floyds is similar. Haven't had that one yet though.

Since I last checked in here I haev kind of gone off the deep end in my beer collecting and have started trading as well. I have over 250 beers in my tiny apartment right now.

I'm doing an IPA tasting tonight and contributing all these IPAs that aren't available in California:

Founders Double Trouble

Troegs Nugget Nectar

Bells Hopslam

Three Floyds Dreadnaught

Town Hall Masala Mama

Surly Furious

Surly Abrasive

Evolution Lot No. 3 IPA

Then the rest of the crew is bringing some locals. We're going to try to do a blind tasting, but we won't have anyone there that won't be doing the tasting, so I'm not sure how we can pull that off.

I wish more craft brewers would can their beer, it's superior packaging to bottling, (no light damage or a chance of air being introduced when filled), and it's cheaper to boot.

I finally just got try a couple IPAs from Surly in Minnesota. Fantastic stuff. Love teh 16oz cans too.

I'm finally making it back to the area in a few weeks. Anywone want to meet up at the best beer bar for happy hour? Is there one worth seeking out? Pretty sure I'll want to check out Dogfishhead too, but won;t be in town for very long. Will probably also do a beer tasting at my brother's place. Too bad it isn't a UFC weekend 3/11-3/13ish), double and 98.

yeah i got your picks, sent to me on jan 9th:

Doh!

0-2 so far this round and already 0-1 next round.

Wow his eye looks bad but if an athletic commission let Koscheck and Marcus Davis finish with their busted eyes, I'm not sure why this one didn't continue. Kind of questionable that the commentators mentioned it being called by the doctors, then the doctors called it and the fighters didn't find out for another few minutes and there was confusion, then they finally called it.

Wow, Fedor is my all-time favorite fighter and I hate to see him go, but his legacy is still pretty strong at this point, better to go out on top.

Good points on the Koschek and Davis fights. Makes me wonder exactly how it went down last night. Especially with the worst ref in the business over seeing it.

The production value in Strikeforce is not only not in the same ballpark as the UFC, they aren't even in the same league. When everything was going down the cameras weren't on the right guys, the announcers didn't know what was going, the fighters didn't know, the crowd didn't know... If the ref is waving his arms, you show it. If the doctor is looking at a fighter, you show it. Then there was all those times when no one was talking then the same anouncer would start and stop and start again. Then the graphic would pop up and someone would scramble to explain it. Really shotty. I want to compare it to the WWF vs. ECW back in the 90s, but that would be an insult to ECW.

Great night of fights though. Fedor really impressed me actually. Unfortunately I had the fight spoiled for me by someone telling me "Fedor sucks, just got owned" and then a pic of his face. So I watched the fight a little differently then I would have. Giving up that much weight to a very good fighter can get you in trouble. Fedor withstood everything Silva threw at him and was ready for the 3rd before the fight was stopped. Too bad about his eye getting shut. Would have loved to see another round. Also, I've always said Fedor is a natural 205er if he wanted to be. He easily has 10lbs to lose and the rest is an easy cut. Thats just not his style though and that's one of the reasons he is so great.

I hope he fights some more. I bet his contract says he is the first alternate if someone gets hurt. Vladim is probably putting in a call to Tanya Harding's peeps as we speak.

Dana is being a douche with his twitter, but it is pretty funny. He has gotten so much shot from the Fedor fans that he has the right to rub it in a little. It isn't the right thing to do, but I don't blame him too much. He can trash Fedor's recent fights all he wants. It will never take away from the fact that during his awesome run the UFC's heavyweight champs were Tim Sylvia and Arlovski.

And this makes me much more confident in my pick of Josh Barnett to win this thing. Wait, actually don't remember if I pulled the trigger on that one. SU, do you have my picks?

Still a couple hrs until the West Coast feed. Really excited about this tourny. I hope it actually has a finish and no one gets hurt(Fedor's hand) or suspended (Barnett)

Here are the picks I got from everyone. I believe SU has mine. I'll clean this post up a bit when I have time.

Fedor/Silva: Fedor by (T)KO round 2

Overeem/Werdum: Overeem by (T)KO round 1

Arlovski/Kharitonov: Kharitonov by (T)KO round 2

Barnett/Rogers: Barnett by submission round 2

Semifinals:

Fedor/Overeem: Fedor by submission round 1

Barnett/Kharitonov: Barnett by submission round 3

Finals:

Fedor/Barnett: Fedor by (T)KO round 1

Dr. Do Itch

Fedor beats Bigfoot tko round 1

werdum upsets overeem armbar round 4, really doubt this one but it's my way out there upset pick.

sergei ko aa round 1

barnett rnc round 2

semifinals

fedor ko werdum round 2

barnett armbar round 2

final

fedor tko round 3

PatraReem

Quarterfinals

Fedor vs Silva - Fedor, TKO Round 2

Overeem vs Werdum - Overeem, TKO Round 1

Arlovski vs Kharitonov - Arlovski, DEC Round 3

Barnett vs Rogers - Barnett, SUB Round 1

Semifinals

Fedor vs Overeem - Overeem, TKO Round 2

Arlovski vs Barnett - Barnett, DEC Round 3

Finals

Overeem vs Barnett - Overeem, TKO Round 1

ceviker

Fedor over Silva, rd 2. submission

Overeem over Werdeum, rd. 1 KTFO

Kharitonov over Glasschin, rd. 3 KTFO

Barnett over Rogers, rd. 2 KO

Overeem over Fedor (can't believe I'm writing this), rd 3, KO

Barnett over Kharitonov, decision

Overeem over Barnett, unanomious decision

Zoed

Fedor/Silva: Fedor by KO

Overeem/Werdum: Overeem by KO

Rogers/Barnett: Barnett by TKO, ground and pound

Arlovski/Kharitonov: Call me crazy but I'm going with Arlovski by KO

Fedor/Overeem: Tough one, real tough but I'm going with a more fired up and determined Fedor by arm bar

Arlovski/Barnett: I think Barnett again gets the takedown and pounds Arlovski out

Fedor/Barnett: Fedor by KO

Not too late to get your Strikeforce tourny picks in!

These are the picks I have:

StillUnknown

Chachie

#98QBKiller

Dr. Do Itch Big

Patrick86L

ceviker

ZoEd

And someone has mine. Can't remember who. I'll post them a couple hrs before the event.

lovetoaster? NoCal? Herrmag? Keastman? Get your picks in!