artmonkforHOF

thank god they finally stuck a fork in Strikeforce, I think they where in serious trouble of losing a few top fighters after their contracts expired, like Gilbert. I am excited to see him fight in the UFC, as well as Cromier, but beyond that I can't name many Strikeforce fighters, Showtime used to have a deal with a network in Canada to air their fights, but they stopped that sometime in 2010, so I havent seen a strikeforce card since then, only highlights of good fights people tell me I missed. Hopefully this means the 31 fight cards in 2013 won't be as watered down as some of the 31 cards they put on in 2012. I think things are lining up to have either Rousey or Tate fight on Fox.

And he's fought noted TRT users Nate Marquardt, Dan Henderson & Chael Sonnen twice, plus guys who have been popped other times like Vitor & Leben. I guess Team Quest is the best at cheating, since Hendo & Chael are the only guys listed who have made it out of the first with Anderson.

Yeah this is a sick joke. TUF is already dead, but I guess when this version flops with 2 huge stars, maybe Dana will finally kill it. Chael should have fought Forrest, then one of Rua, Machida, Rashad or Glover before a title shot (at least) and now word is the Forrest fight is off and he jumps right into another title fight. This doesnt even make business sense, Chael could sell PPV cards on his own, and they give up 2 of those to prop up TUF? I won't buy or watch out of principal, this is a badly planned money grab and publicity stunt by the UFC. I accepted Silva Bonnar because it was a short notice replacement ( & I'm a Silva fan), just like I would have accepted this fight on short notice, but planning it for a late April card of all things, with nothing past December announced, this is just pathetic.

Here's a gif of the finish, love how Anderson pushes Bonnar into the fence and lets him rebound before landing the knee. I don't think we know Silva's next opponent until February, hopefully he fights sometime in the spring. I don't see the Jones fight happening at all, but if it does, I bet it won't happen before Jones breaks the record for LHW title defenses, which I think is 2 wins away. I really only want to see Anderson destroy Weidman, and maybe fight one more contender before riding off into the sunset, it's been a great run and I have enjoyed watching it.

Does anyone besides Daniel Cromier and Scott Coker care about the Strikeforce heavywieght championship? The promotion has one heavyweight guy on their roster in Cromier, what is the point of having him defend a title that will not be around after the fight is over? Just put him in the UFC already and end this farce.

My bad, it was a triangle. I agree with all of the above. Bonnard best shot, and it's not even that great of a shot is to use his BJJ, but it's a moot point because he will be lucky to take Silva down and be able to do something once he gets him down. He might get one takedown, but I dont see much beyond that for Bonnar. Silva rolls with big Nog & little Nog, I think he can handle a bigger guy in a BJJ fight, which again, would be a near miracle if it even gets there. Plus side this is turning into a killer PPV card with 6 main card fights. Almost like they wanted to stack it after the last Brazil card was weak, even though it did well on tv in Brazil. 2 nice PPV cards in a row, haven't been able to say that for a while.

In theory maybe, but too bad for Bonnar this is not a BJJ competition. Unless you count submitting to a flying scissors heel hook as having weak submission defense, Anderson was last submitted in 2003 by rear naked choke after some good ground&pound. That was over 20 professional fights ago for Anderson, he's worked on his game a bit since then. He has showed in the first Chael fight that a guy can get top position on him and not get off a submission attempt or any type of G&P that does significant damage, he controlled Chael from his back about as good as anyone could expect. Then in Chael 2 & Hendo, he showed he can even be taken down and not have top position for a round, come back and adjust in the second round. Anderson's defense on his back is underrated IMO, I think he defends better in his back than most if not all guys in the UFC, so I don't see Bonnar being able to pull of a straight submission attempt. Maybe he can get one from some G&P but I think that is less likely then a submission attempt. But the chances of either of those happening depend on the fight going to the ground, something I think it has hardly any chance of happening. I see it as at least a 2 round fight. 1st round both will be cautious about making a mistake the other can capitalize on, and Bonnar takes a shot in the second round and Andy makes him look silly.

I'm still stunned. I think I will remained stunned even after the post fight press conference is over. This is mind-blowing stuff, Silva v Bonnar, wtf?!?! Wow, just wow. Wonder what the line will be, maybe bigger than jones Vitor.

What about the Korean Zombie? he just won the title eliminator back in May.....crap, my bad, using logic and believeing what Dana says is totally my fault. Really, I guess I should only be surprised that they didnt stick Chad Mendes, Cody Mackinzie or Ian McCall in for that fight, you know since how Dana likes to give replacment title fights to guys in a weight calss below. $10 bucks says Chael called when he first heard about it and told Dana he could cut the weight with the help of Dolce, and another $10 bucks says Dana actually considered it.

Yeah saw that, some sites opened even higher. I also saw Belfort was as high as +800. Belfort being able to stay healthy and actually make the fight is +785,000,000.

Chael is a freaking master, hats off to him. Dana helped by throwing jones & Jackson under the bus, but the guy has talked himself into a fight with another title holder. I phrase it like that since I think the will fight after lyoto &maybe hendo fight him, but I think it will be a non-title fight. Does Chael deserve it? Hell no! Even with 2 wins at 205, not even 3 since the first one would be Forrest, but he will fight jones. He comes out talking and sets the narrative, jones is spoiled, undercard fighters & team will go hungry, I offered my purse, he's scared to fight me, he only has 8 days but had a camp while i have 8 days and no camp, our troops don't get 8 days and the circumstances here dictate you take the fight are all different concepts a whole bunch of people can grab onto and agree with. He is getting public support from a whole bunch of people agreeing with anything he said, even if they dont think he deserves a shot, just by agreeing with him makes his case for a shot stronger in Dana's eyes. Dana should not even be dealing with Sonnen on a moral and fighter safety basis, for his TRT use & suspension and his conviction in a fraud case, but he plays to him because he sells. It is dana's fault the card was cancelled because the PPV cards have been crap since Fox, a card 2 years ago could lose a title fight & still go on, but not this piece of garbage. I was not going to buy, maybe watch at a bar but the card was not worth the $ even with Jones. Dana didn't even have to call it a cancelation, he could have called said he postponed the card like he did for the one in Montreal or even try to slide a fight from 152 over, like the other title fight it Stann Bisping. I guarantee they will return to Mandalay Bay quicker than the postponed show in Montreal (march to November) but it is easier to blame jones and has more potential to sell a fight with Chael when bones was quickly running out if opponents at 205. I don't know if Dana is that smart of a promoter to think of it, or he just got lucky on this one, now jones Sonnen is a much bigger draw than any other fight jones could have in the next 6 months to a year, even the hendo fight. Jones is only making it worse by not saying something sooner, now he's in a hole only a very charismatic and skilled PR person could dig out of, and we all know he is not that type of person. With so many points to refute, you know he will stumble on at least one of them and say something really dumb. Or he gets a PR firm to craft a statement that he reads and comes off as prepared, insincere and self serving. Either way, Chael keeps the upper hand in public support, people are rooting for him now like they did for Silva 1, as the man who will step up and fight the self entitled champ who doesn't want to fight, and he's doing it for all the fans jones screwed over by being selfish & disrespectful. Genius move by Chael, but at the same time that move and Dana's comments kind of make me sick that they can get away with this kind of crap. Since i already got tickets to 152, I won't buy that PPV even though I think it's good, but now with this and the overall weak quality of the PPV cards recently, I don't see myself ever buying another one unless it is an Anderson Silva fight.

Dana is a freakin idiot who should always be taken with hevy doses of salt. I would never tell a pro fighter, especially a title holder, to take a fight on 8 days notice, that is jsut plain stupid. To show how much of a lying sack of self serving crap Dana is, he starts off by saying "...for the first time in 11 years, we're gonna cancel an event." even though they already canceled a card in Montreal earlier this year. Dana will tell you he did not cancel that event, he "postponed it" with the new date being about 8 months removed from the first date. Notice how no one cares where the undercard fights end up? even more proof that the UFC has been watering down PPV cards ever since the Fox deal. The only good thing to come out fo this is that 152 in Toronto (I already have tickets!) looks like we will be returning to the old style packed PPV cards before Fox came into the picture. On a side note, anyone read the 2 of 3 part series on bloody elbow where some dork tried to claim that the PPV cards have not been watered down, but the first two articles where written so poorly and made little to no sense that BE pulled the first 2 parts down and did not post the 3rd part? This jsut makes those dumb arguments look even more stupid.

Yeah, maybe Barbosa is a bit of a stretch, but I still stand by my "anyone but Frankie" for a 155 title fight. Does anyone outside of New Jersey want to see this guy fight for the belt again?

I don't think I have ever enjoyed a Frankie Edgar fight and last night was no different. I just want to see him get knocked out twice now so the UFC will cut him and rid us of his self entitled Jersey meathead crew. Edgar believes he is the champion because he thinks he has never lost a fight and everyone around him (the meatheads) agrees with him. A real Champion knows how to lose with class, not throw a little hissy fit after his arm doesn't get raised. You can outpoint a guy in a regular fight or if you have the belt, but if you don't then you have to beat the champ to take his belt, close fights get you nothing, either finish the champ or beat him up enough so that the judges don't "screw" you. I want to see Aldo Edgar, just to see Jose beat the ever loving crap out of Frankie. Just get out of 155 so the rest of us can watch some good title fights at that weight. Any combination of Bendo, Diaz, Pettis, Gray or even Cerrone or Edson Barboza (1 or 2 fights away IMO) would give a better title fight than Edgar and anyone would be able to pull off.

WTF!?!?! does anyone really want to see Bones Vera II? how do you even show Vera highlights from that fight? he got destroyed from the opening bell. Do you put this on to see if Bones can finish him in less than 1/2 of a round? I think pulling Matt Hammil out of retirement for a rematch would be more compelling, at least you could sell the idea of Bones getting redemption for his one "loss". Maybe Jones Rua II could sell easier, but this seems like a Silva Franklin II fight for me, it might last longer, but Rua will just get the crap kicked out of him worse than he did the first time. Maybe it would sell, you could say Rua only had 1 month to prepare for Jones, but Jones only had a month as well (what will he do to him with a full camp and knowledge from the first fight?). Jones is doing to the LH division what Anderson has done to MW, make a bunch of great fighters look like crap, and people think the division is "thin" or "weak". No it's not, but by comparision the rest of the top 10 look weak compared to a dominate Jones, especailly since he beat half of them quite handily.

Nice read on Jackson, seems like a very logical & analytical thinker, and the style some of his fighters employ in some fights make a little more sense now. It's plotting a smart fight plan by using quantitative analysis as oppose tu gut feel, like how more educated fans could guess Guida was not going to stand & bang close to Gray since that fan knows Gray has the advantage in that situation. On another front, Nick Diaz's press secretary Cesar Gracie said Nick wants to fight Anderson Silva, at 185 if Silva doesn't want to do a catchweight. I won't post a link since it's purely fantasy right now, he is out until February 4, & super bowl Sunday is the 3rd so he won't make the SB Saturday night event, the one place rumored to host Anderson's next fight if he doesn't take something by the end of the year. Good to hear he wants to again, even if it cant happen for a year (barring an appeal Nick thinks he can win but won't).

Palhares is fighting Yushin Okami at 150,I think winner of Stann Bisping should fight wiedman for # 1 contender, Chris needs a big PPV fight before a title shot, all others I like which leaves Munoz free to fight. Maybe pair him with cung le/belfort in Macau in November,or let Lombard fight Belfort or drop down to 155 or less (easy, cut off one pectoral and one lat) and let Chael fight Wandy Silva. I think now you have a top 3 (2 really) in Chris, Bisping/Stann, then the next tier is Belcher & boestch, Chael, Yushin & Belfort are there too, but no one wants to see those guys fight Anderson, maybe Vitor if he gets 2 big wins. Rounding out the list are Palhares, Munoz and Lombard for now IMO I think all is on hold until the New Year as I'm pretty sure Dana is going to push hard for Anderson/Jon Jones at Jerrah's wonderpalace in God Forsaken Dallas. Lombards horrible showing really threw a wrench into the mix, and Silva Sonnen 2 only doing 1 million PPV buys really hurt the next 3 guys inline unless they can string together 2 impressive wins.

Completely agree with your thoughts on Lombard & Weidman, only thing I would change is replace Bisping with Boetsch as possible opponents for Chris, and let Bisping fight whoever Wiedman doesnt fight when he gets back from injury & if Bisping wins then he is in the next contender fight. Tim is not as good of striker as the count, I just dont like the idea of giving Bisping 2 contender fights in a row, especially since he lost the last one and is coming off an injury.

Nothing against Belcher, i think he is a great fighter, but why I put Wiedman and Lombard ahead of him is because Wiedman is undefeated and Lombard is a champion from other organizations with only 2 loses in closee to 40 fights. Even though Belcher's loss was a close one, it's still a loss, go ask Martin Kampmann if you keep your contender spot after a questionable decision lost, it's happened to him twice. Not saying Belcher is not deserving, he is, but based on how the UFC picks contenders, he is at best 3rd in the current pecking order. Belcher has 4 wins since his last loss, and guys like Bisping had 4 wins after their last loss and still needed to fight Chael to see who gets a shot at the belt. And I didn't place Bisping or Boetsch ahead of Belcher, I grouped them all together as the group of next best after what I think are the top 2 current contenders. If Lombard loses to Boetsch I don't even put Tim in the top two with Wiedman, unless he destroys Hector, but even then I still think you need to have a few of those second tier guys fight it out to see who is the best between them.

This is why someone should throw Dana's smartphone away. Belcher is not a bad fighter, a pretty good one, but the only 2 guys who should even be considered to fight for the belt next are Wiedman & Lombard, if they both win their next fights. next 3 in line are Munoz, Boetsch, Bisping & Belcher. Have those four fight each other and the winners go on to a title eliminator fight. It pisses me off that Dana is such a marketing dork that he uses things that trend on twitter to decide who fights next. What ever happened to trusting Joe Silva's matchmaking abilities? Instead, some moron (usually a "MMA" writer/blogger, since no one actaully reads another non-celbrity/reporters tweets), tweets something and before someone else can even weigh the pluses & minuses about the idea in their head, the second idiot retweets it and that starts a trend. I have seen people who tried to start something trending, and only have a few poeple retweet it and then the original person retweets their own retweet to boost the numbers, and it's these types of people Dana is letting decide who gets a shot at a title? This is quickly become a sad joke, I think the only way it will stop is if a bad fighter who has a huge fan following gets destroyed in a big fight the twitterverse was calling for, casue you know Dana will blame it on the twitterverse once it goes wrong.

Holy christ, crazy night, story for another time. I watched that gif a lot and Chael made reference to the shot on the ground, insinuating he was hit in the head, because he was. Watch closely, it's, not a knee to the chest, or a missed knee to the head,...... IT WAS A THIGH STRIKE TO THE HEAD. Go ahead, watch again, and let that sink in. Greatest F****ing Fighter of all time, Anderson Silva.

Well Chad mendes is fighting, and the Menjivar Easton fight on the undercard looks pretty intriguing, but you do have a point. But consider your 2 other recent posts, who f*cking cares when you have a pissed off, free to strike Anderson Silva who is trying to prove a point vs Chael Sonnen in the rematch? I would pay $100 to see silva Sonnen 2 alone, even without an undercard. The UFC should take all the crap main events off surrounding fights & stick them on this card, no one will care if the rematch even comes close to matching the first fight in terms of excitement. BTW, we need someone who speaks Portuguese to listen to the 148 conference call and tell us what Anderson silva really said, not the watered down, PR friendly Ed Soares version. Doubt it is all his fault, Andy said a lot, very quickly & emotionally, probably hard to keep up. Makes me want to hear what he really said even more now. Reports are that the Brazilian media are saying Soares barely scratched the surface of what Andy said.

The undercard for 147 had the better fights. I saw the replay today of the main card, besides a predictable GnP finish by werdum on russow and a great middle 2 rounds (2&3) from rich & silva, the main card kinda sucked. Wandy almost finished rich late in the 2nd who got saved by the bell, & rich said after the fight he doesn't remember the punch tha dropped him in the 2nd or the beating he took that followed. He said he remembers the corner saying this is the 5th round coming up & he was relieved it was only 5 more minutes of fighting. Both TUF fights looked like they might go to sudden death, but both winners got unanimous decisions somehow, one fighter winning all 3 rounds on 2 scorecards which seemed odd. Now the hype train for Silva Sonnen 2 gets kicked into high gear, can't wait for that fight, only 2 weeks away! I'm not religious at all, but I pray for Silva to stay healthy and Sonnen to piss clean, those are the only 2 things I see that can stop this fight from happening now. Chael won't be able to piss clean, but hopefully he has learned how to cycle his TRT properly and doesnt have a pree fight test come back above 4:1. After the fight I fully expect him to have an insane ratio, like 15:1 like he had last time. Good rule of thumb, every 2 pimples you see on his back = 1 point higher Testosterone ratio ( e.g. 22 pimples = 11:1 ratio). I doubt Dirty Uncle Chael will have 8 or less pimples.

Yeah it would be nice, but it is what it is. Like I said he has the stigma, justified or not. not that I fully agree with it, but I do think he gets his guys to play it too safe against superior strikers which is frustrating to watch if your a casual fan. The only people who appreciate the strategy Jackson guys employ in some fights are people who train in some form of MMA & who can respect the techniques, Jackson's other fighters& trainers and the family of the fighter because he avoids taking big damage. It's a smart way to fight, but the finer points are lost on the all but experienced fan base, which is the majority. If you ain't knocking someone out or trying for a submission you are not fighting in the eyes of most UFC fans.

Well you can't argue jackson teaches guys to fight "smart" and that means if his guy is going up against a superior striker, the strategy is to engage & quickly get out, don't let the other guy score points, get your shots & make him miss by moving out of of the pocket. For some reason, clay decided to stop attacking in the later rounds, probably cause he was hurt, he was attacking air the last 3 rounds & the stats show it. The both landed around the same total shots, but guida threw a lot more late that missed And some high profile Jackson fighters have been involved in some fights recently that have drawn criticism from fans for what is perceived to be "not fighting" or some would even go so far as to say "dancing" which definitely applies to guida based on comments here and elsewhere on the web. Justified or not, Jackson now has the stigma of training guys who don't put on entertaining all out brawl type of fights. I don't blame him for teaching a smart way to fight, it's his job, but this strange performance by clay is only going to make the people who don't like jackson only more reason to hate him, exhibit X in their case that Greg trains wussy fighters who would rather dance than fight. And how the heck did they let guida get next to gray outside the cage right after the fight? That was just stupid, nothing happened but that sure didn't help in preventing something from happening.