cahones01

It really does suck that he had that accident. The entire HW division would be completely different now if that didn't happen. Would Couture have come out of retirement to fight Mir? Who would have won? Would they have given Cro Cop an automatic title fight if it was Mir instead of Randy? and on and on. What a shame.

"because of his impressive showing as a UFC champ" What impressive showing? He never defended his title. But... "He's also a good ambassador for the sport. I'm not saying he deserves a title shot for his post-accident record, I'm saying I can see where Dana is making an exception for an ex-champ who has had tragedy, come back from the rubble heap and performed bravely and professionally" I completely agree with that opinion and think that with Arlovski leaving it's the best choice the UFC could have made.

"BJ is in top form, and I doubt his conditioning will be a problem." He sure looks like he's in the best shape of his life. Have you seen the recent pics of him training? He's definately ready for this fight.

Probably the same way Hughes is incredibly strong but has never KO'd anyone. All of their strength is in their wrestling ability, not their punching power.

Great comparison. Look at the fighters from season one: Forrest Griffin, Stephan Bonnar, Diego Sanchez, Kenny Florian, Josh Koscheck, Chris Leben, Mike Swick...that season was loaded with talent. None of them since then have had that many good fighters. They started looking for crazy personalities instead of quality fighters. Last year a guy I used to train with that was undefeated and a member of Team Quest was turned away in the final cuts because he wasn't interesting enough. On top of his record and skills, the guy is a marine and was wounded in Iraq. Not sure how he would have been bad for TV.

I thought Matt Brown looked terrible. I've seen him fight before in person and he was MUCH more impressive than he showed. That being said the fights have been better this season, but the quality of the fighters is much lower than other seasons.

Actually we'll never really know if he took steroids considering the CSAC refused to take a look at the supposedly overwhelming evidence Sherk had. There were several people from a global testing agency saying there was no way you could determine if Sherk was juicing based on his slightly raised levels without seeing more evidence. I'll try and find the info they posted on this. But I do agree with you. If he did juice then that's true. I've trained with guys that used to take roids and they are still much much stronger than the rest of us.

Forgot to add that there is no way Rich could make 170. He cuts from 225 down to 185 right now. He'd have to chop off a leg to make 170.

"First of all, you said he could beat Houston and Jardine. And hello, Jardine isn't too shabby. I'd take that bet. That equals out to exactly 1 fighter you're confident Rich would beat." Nice to see you can count. I listed Houston, Jardine, etc. in my first post. That means more than just those two fighters. This does help explain why you think Rich won the stand up. "Sakuraba fought and got KTFO by Wanderlei Silva 3 times, why can't Rich, a pioneer and former champion get 3 shots" You really can't compare the Japanese sending out there hero to get destroyed over and over again in the hopes that he'll regain some national pride to the UFC title fights. And how exactly is Rich Franklin a pioneer of our sport? Your man crush on this guy is insane. "Did you count all the strikes? Watch the punching exchanges, like I said. Rich landed some nice inside leg kicks, but when they mixed it up with the hands, toe to toe, Rich was connecting harder. This isn't boxing where you graze the peach fuzz and get a landed punch. Rich was bouncing his Anderson's head back" That's counting every strike that landing, even the ineffective ones. I'm not sure what you're seeing when you watch this fight, and apparently no one else on here does either. "This can go unsaid. Obviously, if he doesn't earn it, he won't get it." If this can go unsaid then why are saying he deserves another shot? He hasn't earned one yet, so why even bring it up? And in case you missed it, here's the quote from the article about him going to 205: "He's fought almost everybody in the 185-pound division," said Cox. "There are some guys that he could fight, but if he beats them it knocks them out of title contention. And nobody is looking to see Rich and Anderson Silva 3 right now, including me." That's from his own manager.

"I'd rather pay the UFC to see Franklin get another nose than see Leben get pummled in 45 seconds or Lutter fall asleep on Anderson's stomach. After Okami and (hopefully Davis), why pay to see anyone fight Anderson? Lindland won't come back, and even if he did, he's gonna need his walking cane to fight Anderson. Do you really want to see Marquardt get put through the meat grinder again? I'd rather see Rich come back one more time and give it a shot. Of course it's going to have to be on a really strong card for people to order it. Hell, it can be on Spike. Dana knows it will have to be. I swear, it sounds like Anderson came out with a brand of viagra the way you all are talkin. (Not to sound like a Sherdogger)." Why would you pay to see Franklin get a new nose job for the third time, but ridicule Leben, Lutter, and Marquardt for their losses? That makes no sense. All of them got schooled by Anderson. Rich got schooled twice. Why should he get a third shot if you don't want any of them to get a second? I'm not even an Anderson nuthugger. He's a good fighter and fun to watch, but I'm far from his biggest fan. You must be a Franklin fan though. If not then I have no idea how you can just skip over the facts people have posted about the first two fights and make statements like the ones you're making.

"Sure he will get a shot at the title. They won't let Rich just sit there and watch people he's beat leapfrog him. Not that it should have anything to do with it, but Dana loves Rich, he WILL get another shot. I'd love to see how Rich approaches the next fight. He won the boxing battle, Anderson had to throw a back kick, backfist and flying "knee to take the chess match out of Rich. Seriously, all you talked about was how badly Rich would get destroyed if he moved up in weight class, but you say it's his best move? "Let me go get my ass kicked by more people than just one. I'll even make less money!"" There are so many things wrong with this statement it's not even funny. First of all, who has he beaten that has leap frogged him? Nobody. But he will only get a shot at the title if he EARNS it. A lackluster win over a gassed Travis Lutter is not a good start. His arm bar escape was nice, but his stand up looked terrible, his footwork was way off, and he never looked comfortable during that fight. He even said that himself in his post fight interview. He will have to beat some top 10 fighters in order to get another shot. Even if he does, nobody wants to see that fight again. That's the same reason you don't see Tito fighting Chuck, Nog fighting Fedor, Baroni fighting Tanner, etc. All of those guys had two shots at the same opponent and lost both times. It doesn't matter if Dana likes him or not. He's been beaten badly twice by the champ at his division. And saying Anderson HAD to throw a spinning back kick/back fist/flying knee is ridiculous. You make it sound like he was out of options and pulled something out of his ass to win. He beat Rich for a second time very easily, end of story. Of course Rich looked better in this fight than he did the first time. Hell he couldn't have done much worse. I also never said how badly he'd get destroyed if he moved to 205. There are plenty of people he could beat at that weight class and I named a few. I said I didn't see him beating anybody at the top of the division. There's a big difference between those two statements. "Franklin was getting the better of the punching exchanges." I just went back and scored the fight again. Rich landed 20 strikes in the first round, Anderson landed 31 and scored the knockdown. How is that winning the exchanges? "I forgot about the flying knee and it may have won the round for Anderson, otherwise, 10-9 Franklin without that and the end of the round. I don't think the back kick hurt Rich that much. It was cool to see, and it connected, but not very effectively." See my above statement. Not sure how you even come close to scoring that round for Rich. And if that kick didn't hurt and wasn't effective than why was Rich staring up at the clock with a look of death on his face when they clinched after that kick? "but Rich Franklin ABSOLUTELY deserves another shot" No he doesn't. He hasn't even come close to earning a third fight yet. If he cleans out the rest of the division like #99QBKiller said then he would deserve it. Until that happens he doesn't deserve it at all.

"If all those people would woop Rich, why is it definitely his best move?" Because if he doesn't then he's stuck in a division where he'll never get another shot at the title. He had his ass handed to him twice by the current champ, and nobody wants to see a third match up between them. it would be like Tito fighting Chuck again except much less competitive than both of those fights. "He was winning the standup battle until Anderson got the thai on him. I mean Rich was peppering the heck out of Anderson, it was a freakin lesson on how to perform a technical standup." What match were you watching? The fight was dead even with VERY little stand up from either fighter, a takedown by Franklin, a sweep and escape from Anderson, than he landed the spinning back kick and the rest of the round he handled Rich easily along with a knockdown. "I'm thinking Anderson will try to sub Franklin next go-around. He knows Rich can strike with him, and Rich will have his clinch-radar on full alert." Rich hasn't even come close to striking with him. Not getting killed in every single exchange doesn't mean he can hang with Anderson. And what clinch radar? If he had any if was kneed off of his face long ago. "I would have given him round 1 if it wasn't for the final 20 seconds." The spinning back kick landed at 2:02 of the first round and Anderson dominated from there on out. The fight was even before that, then Anderson took over and had the round won anyway. When you throw in the knockdown that's a 10-8 round when scoring a fight with the 10 point must system. "Like I said, if the first round was 4 minutes and 40 seconds long, I would have easily scored it 10-9 Franklin." Here's the video. You really need to rewatch this fight if you believe that statement. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAGt9ZUEpfc&feature=related "He holds his hands down sometimes and gets hit in the face every fight. He loves the pocket and eventually finds the stunning shot while he eats punches to the face" He holds his hands down b/c he has an insane chin. Have you ever seen the video of him sparring with Nog? They have on no head gear and he's standing there letting Nog punch him full on in the face with flurries. His head doesn't even move, then he lets his own hands go. I'll try and find that for you too. Even if you don't agree with anything I've said, you still need to see that. It's awesome to watch.

205 is definitely the best move for Franklin, but he'll still be nothing but a gate keeper at that weight class. I could see him beating the likes of Houston Alexander, Keith Jardine, etc but thats about it as far as the top of the division goes. Rampage is way too strong and his boxing skills are much more technical than Franklins. Forrest is a huge 205er at 6'3 who walks around in the 240's, has a great ground game that he hardly uses, and loves to stand in the pocket and trade. Machida has already handed Franklin his ass, and strong wrestlers like Tito Ortiz would give him all kinds of problems.

Sean Sherk pass a random drug test for steroids. http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=6196&zoneid=2

"If his cardio sucked before it's because he thought that he would submit or KO the guy before he got tired...This was true most of the time. He knows that his only losses are because he had no cardio and he hired a strength and conditioning coach so that it would never happen again." Will it happen again is the question. Did you see his post fight interview after his fight with Jens Pulver at the TUF finale? He was completely gassed and that fight was a joke. You can't really draw anything as far as cardio is concerned from the Joe Stevenson fight. BJ looked great in that fight and dominated start to finish, but the huge cut and all the blood ended that fight long before we got to see what BJ's cardio was like. Sherk without the juice will be interesting. A lot of people still believe he didn't juice in which case we know what he'll fight like. If he did and is off now will he still be the same muscled up cardio freak we're used to seeing? I doubt it. My picks are: BJ over Sherk Silva over Jardine- Silva will be way too aggressive for Jardine who prefers to fight counter punchers like Liddell. When you in his face he has a hard time (see Houston Alexander) Machida over Tito- Tito hasn't looked good in 6 years. 3 blow out wins over a 500 year old Ken Shamrock, 2 losses to Chuck, 1 to Randy, a draw with Rashad Evans, split decisions over Forrest Griffin and Vitor Belfort, and a much smaller Patrick Cote took him to a decision

I'll do a sig bet with you just b/c I really think this fight could go either way, so why not some friendly competition. Breaking down the fight I have it dead even: Striking-BJ Power-Even: BJ hits harder but Sherk is much stronger in the clinch/control/takedowns Wrestling- Sherk BJJ- BJ Cardio-Sherk I think it really comes down to two things. How crisp will Sherk look after the layoff due to suspension, and will BJ have any cardio?

I'll take Florian over Huerta by JD, and then Sherk over Florian in a repeat of their last match. Of course all of that depends on Sherk beating BJ Penn first.

According to Matt Hughes' website he is fighting Serra next no matter what. An Alves/Davis fight would be insane to watch. Davis has better hands and chin, Alves has better kicks and Muay Thai, both have plenty of cardio....that would be a great fight.