artmonkforHOF

holy crap. I never would have thought anyone could be that dumb and say that at a presser, I thought the only way it could get out is if it was tweeted, and got out before a sober second thought. on a side note, I guess no one cares about Josh Koscheck, but I'm not really surprised.

Damn Rashad, get some sense. I can see him sitting around with some boys, talking smack about Davis, and someone else came up with that line, Rashad thought it was funny and tweeted it, like a freakin moron. One more thing on GSP out, Diaz Condit interim: what happens to Koscheck, who was suppose to fight Condit, or does anyone even care? They might not want to schedule another fight with him in case Condit has to pull out, since we know Diaz would never pull out, even if he had his spine removed.

That sucks. Why the interim belt and not just a title contender fight? Are they expecting the Condit Diaz winner to take another fight before GSP gets back? I know if I was Condit or Diaz, I would not want to fight another top contender after I have already won an interim belt, a loss, especially a bad one, could really hurt their true title hopes.

I think Bisping draws Maia,Okami or Stann- Munoz is getting Sonnen with the winner getting Andy, the loser, gets one of the 3 Bisping doesn't get, and Bisping is still at least 2 fights from a title fight in my mind. he has to beat 2 of the 3 I have him facing, plus beat one of Sonnen or Munoz. I don't see him getting anywhere close to beating all those guys, maybe 1 win, 2 if he gets lucky.

Your right I was wrong about Miller. I think Chael is a good fighter, but not a great one, I look at his past fights before he took TRT, and he was a middle of the road type of guy, then on TRT, he has improved, but I would like to see him fight clean, or at least not on TRT before I can give him full credit for his recent performances. There is no way he is the #2 MW, part of that is hype, but I will say that he belongs in the top 10 for now, but after Silva II- if it happens, I think you will see him drop quickly out of title contention, and sort of settle where I think he really ranks, slightly above the Wandy's, & Leben's of the world. Ryo Chonan has beaten Anderson and Hayaoto Sakurai, but that doesn't mean he should be ranked the #2 MW, (but I bet he will be if the UFC brings him over after they run out of 185'ers for Andy to fight), like how people rank Sonnen, I honestly think he should be ranked at 6, behind Andy, Lombard, Mounoz, Vitor and Belcher or Souza. I wont go into his medical stuff, Destino did a pretty good job of showing how much of a crock of crap that whole thing was, but missed the story on how Chael's Dr at the hearing was a aging and wellness specialist, and came off as a big fraud who did not know who Dana White was when asked by the commission. As for the first fight, I won't go into that again, I have posted my thoughts on that fight in this thread before. All I will say is that if you watch that fight again, you will not be as impressed with Chael and will be more impressed with Silva compared to when you watched the fight the first time. A lot of people who wanted to see Andy lose, attributed Anderson's weak performance to Chael's attack, but when you watch it again it is clear that something is just not right with Silva, and Chael's attack is not doing as much damage as most people initially thought. He is marketable, and I think the smartest thing to do is sit him for Andy, but I do not think he really deserves it, it will just make the most money, and sped up Chael''s eventual spot on Fox's UFC desk. i want to see him there, or in some similar type of job after he is done fighting, he will be great, I am just sick of his Anderson smack and can't wait for Silva to shut him up, or at least tone him down a little, on that topic, but please, keep the ring girl comment,s twitter exchanges, Nog brothers bus jokes and the rest, that is some good entertainment.

he did look good in his last 2 fights, and he has great takedowns, but he got suspeneded after one of those fights for failing a drug test and fought a guy with a rib injury. I would give the guy more credit if he didn't use testosterone replacement therapy, something I think is BS, a sport with guys in peak physical fitness, that are essentially fueled by excess testosterone, and you claim to have naturally low-and critical- testosterone levels? I don't buy it for a second, not from Chael, not from Nate Marquardt, not even from Dan Henderson, even at Dan's age, it is extremely rare for a man-let alone top notch atheletes- to suffer lower testosterone levels unless they have been abusing steroids in the past, and if that is the case, then I really have no sympathy for them. as for Chael's boxing, I think I have said here before he might be the weakest puncher at 185 in the UFC, no KO's, he gets TKO's with a volume of punches, and he could barely even cut Anderson even though a lot of people will say Chael dominated the fight, Anderson Silva did more damage and which had a greater impact in the fight with 1 punch from his back than the 300 shots Chael speaks so poetically about. His wrestling and takedowns are some of the best, but that is not enough anymore to call him a great fighter, a great wrestler who fights maybe. If he beats Anderson, I will have to eat some crow and tip my hat to the guy, but if he doesn't where does he go? You think he beats Vitor or any other guy near the top ten at 185? (excluding Yushin & Stann obviously) He has lost to Jason Miller, a guy who as some have said even if he beats Bisping-another guy I don't think he beats- Miller doesn't get any closer to a title fight. And even if Chael gets and wins another fight after losing to Anderson a 2nd time, does he ask to get a chance to lose 3 to Silva like he has to Jeremy Horn, the definition of a journeyman gatekeeper of lower level fight organiztions around the world? Chael Sonnen is a great wrestler and an even greater self promoter, but has also been suspended for failing a drug test and a convicted criminal and a rat (part of his plea deal), something that never seems to come up, probably because he does such a good job of distracting everyone with all the crap he says, and I think he plans it and likes it that way. I kind of perversely admire him for his tactics, deceptive as they are, but that does not convince me he is a great fighter, just a great promoter.

Sonnen looked pretty good against Stann, but with the number of pimples on his back compared to the Silva fight (where his testosterone test came back 9x higer than normal), I would have to guess that his testosterone level must have been something like 25:1. I just want to see Silva Sonnen II so Chael can finally take his long walk into the sunset, and also to see if he actually makes it to the octagon alive if it happens in Brazil. The guy is not a very good fighter, has never KO'd an opponent and can't defend against BJJ, yet so many people, even media members buy into his hype. Don't get me wrong thought, I find him entertaining at times, at other times his shameless self promotion makes me kinda sick. If people took out the hype and looked at Chael objectively, they would see a middle of the road to fringe top 10 guy at best, kinda like a Chris Leben-gatekeeper status.

here are my gogplataists for ufc 139. Jason Brilz- 2nd round gogoplata over Ryan Bader Kyle Kingsbury- 1st round gogoplata over Stephan Bonner Martin Kampmann- 3rd round gogoplata over Ricky Story- still hoping one guy gets hurt before the start, I don't want to see either guy lose, FON possibility Brian Bowles- 2nd round gogoplata over Uraih Faber Wandy- 1st round gogoplata over Cung Le- Even if Le wins I still won't be impressed until he wins an MMA fight outside of HP Pavillion arena. I'm not even sure if he exists, he might just be some marketing gimick concocted by Larry Coker, the San Jose Sharks and the San Jose Tourism Board and Chamber of Commerce. This is a sentamental pick for me, hoping Wandy goes out with a bang. Shogun-early 2nd round gogoplata over Hendo- Hendo last beat an over rated and underprepared Fedor, I am not impressed and think he will get his butt handed to him by a very hungry fighter looking for a title shot.

I don't think it was stagged, that guy is such a tool, I could tell stories of him hanging out in college bars in Toronto, trying to pick up 19 year olds (& 18 year olds with fake ID), with his freakin tv makeup still on. He started as a sportscster in like 1984, and they kicked him off the desk and gave him his own show for reasons that make absolutely no sense to me. Funny thing is the show's main sponsor for years has been some men;s hair colouring & skin care product line from a really feminine cosmetic company, can't remember the name but it makes me laugh since I can picture this douche fighting to get the sponser so he can get free samples, he's that kind of vain 50 year old tool. Someone once told me he's Canada's doucher version of Skip Bayless, if that helps, paint the douche picture for you. It's from TSN (don't get me started on them), and for the life of me I have no idea why this guy still has a show. Michael Landsberg, and the show is Off the Record, and he is the worst interviewer ever, thinks he is clever, but is not and comes off as a huge tool, since that is what he is. I wish more people would call ML on his dumb line of questioning and some of the crap he says more often, which Chael did, but I think shortly into that, probably just before he agreed to re-shoot, Chael made up his mind that he was just going to screw with this guy, make it his "crazy" interview. Good job by Chael, hoepfully this gets ML off the air quicker, they have already bumped his show one time slot, then moved it to TSN2 to show Rome is Burning, Around the Horn, and PTI. Thanks for posting Dr, I wouldn't have seen otherwise, since I avoid that network, and his show in particular like the plauge, with herpes, pink eye and a nasty fungal infection.

If the fight went longer than 1 minute, maybe they would have gotten some more. The crazy thing was, in Canada, they showed it on sportsnet, so I got Guida Henderson, not live but at 9pm, Cain JDS at 9:30, and two more fights that came on the international feed. I think that will change in the new year when fox can show more than 1 fight, this was a one time deal, I think they had to get permission from Spike to do this before the end of the year, so hopefully they can do 3 to 4 fight cards at 2-3 hrs long. Both feeds had Rogan & Goldberg, and the fox feed was about 10 seconds behind, from the Boston and Seattle stations my dish gets. Love seeing JDS win, and very classy in defeat was Cain, acknowledging he could not defend him self, and the humility he showed in the interview was nice to see. I hope Reem DESTROYS Brock, and we get Reem JDS in the summer. Title fights are looking good for the first half of 2012 (end of 11) LightHeavy-Jones Machida Dec 10 140 Feather Aldo Mendes Jan 14 142 Welter GSP Diaz Feb 4 143 Light Edgar Henderson Feb 26 144 Middle Silva Sonnen- Early Spring Bantam Cruz vs ???- Spring Heavy JDS Reem/Brock Summer which means if every winner gets through without much damage, they should all be able to fight at least 1 more time in 2012, some guys might even be able to squeeze in 3.

guida henderson- henderson by gogoplata late 2nd round. cain jds- jds by gogoplata early 4th round. I can't pick fights to save my life, so I'm having some fun. I'll pick who I think will win, and always it will be by gogoplata, even in a decision, or TKO, I'm still going to call for it via a gogoplata. Not that I think my pick will be able to pull it off, I just want to see one in the UFC.

that kind sucks, I was hoping for a quick KO by either Cain or JDS, and then a good scrap with Clay & Henderson. I bet they will catch some backlash for this, especially if Clay/Henderson turns out to be as good of a fight as most people are expecting. I bet when they go full force with Fox they will promote the crap out of the next fight being a "full fight card". Sometimes 12 fights is too much, especially if you don't know some of the undercard fighters, but 1 fight is far too few, they need to show at least 4 fights on Fox if they want to be successful going forward IMO, you can't have good fights stuffed away on livestreams just as an insurance policy if one of the main event fighters gets injured or pulls out for some other reason.

If you want to see Hemotoma boy again, his next fight is Dec 10 at 140 in Toronto again. He is a local boy so the crowd will be behind him just like there where in that fight you saw.

3 out of 6 on take down attempts is hardly impressive, and by my count he was 3 for 7. And for a guy who "dominated" Silva for four rounds, he did not do much damage in the 20+ minutes he spent on top of him. And stop me if you have heard this before, but Silva had a busted rib, and that reduced the power in his punches and prevented him from switching while on the mat. If they fight again (has anyone seen Chael's drug test from this fight?) Andy will finish him within 2 rounds and make Chael look foolish. I am prediciting a beating worse than he gave Rich Franklin the first time around. Sonnen does has some serious ground skills, but that did not get him a win vs an injured Silva, and it won't help him much the second time around. Sonnen can't stand with Anderson and we have all seen that even when Chael is going all out with his ground game he still comes up short vs the Spider. Anderson second round TKO, if it lasts that long.

Saw this photo on another site and it was too funny not to post here. Brian Stann by self inflicted triangle choke.

well the Jones Rampage tease sucked, because after Dana said no, I figured Jones next fight would be with Rashad in early 2012, but now that Machida is in, I like it, but I also don't like seeing Rashad have to sit and miss his turn, but such is life in the UFC. This card went from good to great with that announcement. I'll be getting my tickets ASAP.

Even if Manny had a full blood transfusion where every blood cell from his body was tested, Money will still make some excuse not to fight him. I can hear Money now "All Manny has to do is take and pass a mamogram and a pap smear and we can fight!"

yeah Dana did not have much credibility before but now he has none. And if he thinks Nick will show up to any other press event now he is crazy, you just played right into him, telling him you pulled the fight and then gave him the co main event. I actually think Dana's hands where tied, I don't know for a fact but I bet that UFC fighter contracts do not have any clause for showing up to a press conference (or if it is there maybe the language is not clear in that if a fighter misses the press events the contract is terminated) and either Diaz's lawyers or the UFC lawyers pointed this out to Dana and to avoid a breach of contract lawsuit, Dana gave Diaz the Penn fight.

The only other injury that I can think of was the surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow sometime after the Forrest beat down. He was scheduled to fight Vitor @ 108, then it got pushed to 109 due to the surgery and then the 109 fight got pushed to 112 since Anderson's healing was not going well. Then Vitor went Vitor, got injured and missed 18 months so we got Maia as the replacement and another fight with Chael before Belfort got his shot. Dana will throw Chael another shot at Anderson, even though he does not deserve it, since the idiot public actually believes some of what comes out of Sonnen's mouth and think he actually stands a chance of beating Anderson. The hype around the supposed super fights are just that, hype and I doubt any will materialize. The closest thing to a super fight will be a catchweight fight vs Henderson.

Those Judo Chop pieces on Bloddy Elbow are excellent. Anyone who liked the Silva Forrest one, check out the 2 other ones they did on Silva Franklin, great great stuff. And it's not just the article, some of the comments below are also insightful, some are crap, as to be expected with a comments on an internet article.

Don't tease me with that. I don't want to hear about it until after Silva finishes Okami, bad karma all around scheduling a guy's next fight before the one in front of him has been fought.

Yeah that Story Kampmann fight should be great. The only bad thing IMO, is since I genuinely like both fighters, that one of them will have to lose. I kinda want Kampmann to win, only because he is coming off 2 loses and I don't want him to get that deadly 3rd loss in a row that ends so many UFC careers, but I don't want to see Story lose and lose the momentum he has in the division. I think I have found what works best for me: one pulls out with injury, and whoever remains destroys the replacement. As for Brock v Overeem in Toronto, wow that would be sweet. I just did a google search to see if they had a headliner and came over to ES to post the link but was beat to it. I am skeptical of the timing as well, not just for Brock being healthy but also signing Allistar in time. I kinda don't want this in Toronto as there is an outside chance of Anderson Silva defending his title on this card, but I still want Overeem v Brock to happen. There are no other title holders who would be available to fight on the 140 card, as most have fights booked right around that time. If Anderson did make it onto the card, he would either have a rematch with Okami or Belfort as all other MW contenders are tied up at the moment. He could go against the winner of Stann v Sonnen, but that fight is only 8 weeks before 140 and scheduling the winner might be wishful thinking on my part.

yeah that is a really weak main event, even worse than Rampage Hamil we had to sit through. The onyl good news is that since it will be on in the UK, North American audiences will get it for free via tape delay on Spike. Munoz must not have wanted to sit and wait for another MW, I see no reason for him to take this fight after Maia, it doesn't really advance him in the rankings at all even if he wins. As for Leben, I guess he is comfortable in playing the role of gatekeeper. At least he doesn't have delusions of fighting Andy again, that would be a big mistake on Leben's part.

man all the loses to 133 are really starting to suck. Anyone know if Rich Franklin, or a guy in his situation gets coverage from the UFC's insurance policy? he did not get injured, and from what I have heard the insurance works more as a loan to cover the fighters training costs until a fight can be rescheduled and then the money they get from the rescheduled fight goes to pay back the insurance company, so I am wondering if Rich would qualify for the insurance. Speaking of guys dropping from 133, what the heck is Vitor Belfort still doing on the card? He was the one dropping off cards before it was popular and well before the UFC had any insurance. Seriously, when the card was announced, if someone told you that you would lose at least 5 fighters from that card, how many people would not have picked Belfort to be one of the ones who had to drop out? As long as the injury bug stays away from Silva and Okami for 134 I will be a happy man, knock on wood. ---------- Post added July-18th-2011 at 03:51 PM ---------- wow, Zuffa must have plans for Strikeforce after this GP is done. Does anyone know exactly when Strikeforce's TV deal runs out? If the threat to Overeem is real, I think Zuffa is already thinking about folding Strikeforce and cherry picking the best fighters. Not like we haven't seen this before, RIP Pride.

most on here know I am an Anderson Silva, and by extension Nogueria brothers fans, but that photo of Big& Lil Nog with Dirty Uncle Chael is too funny. Everytime I check this thread that is the first thing I look for to get me in a good mood.