Anything MMA, except thumb wrestling

[rocazares]

... I don't want to disrespect Cain, but he beat Big Nog after he was on the decline and Lesnar....who has no striking ability or defense. Apart from that he hasn't done much but win a decision over Cheick Kongo. He never had to face anyone with striking ability or take down defense like JDS.

This +100

[Destino]

The strikers are getting better at defending the takedowns and submissions but the wrestlers are lagging in matching that defensive prowess. I think they are going to need to focus on judo for the hip throws to make the clinch more effective. That and they need to be better at striking defense. I doubt many will ever be super strikers and top tier wrestlers.

[StillUnknown]

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2011/11/12/2557267/ufc-on-fox-post-fight-press-conference-video-and-coverage#storyjump

^^^^post fight presser

[NoCalMike]

Cain finally ran into someone who is too good to recover from once rocked and barely hanging on.

For all those thinking Cain was unbeatable, go back and watch the Kongo fight. Cain was rocked multiple times but Kongo being the mid-level fighter he is, could never finish him off. Cain was able to get takedowns when he was visiting dizzy island which allowed him to recover.

Dos Santos is too good if he has you rocked. Also, a 13 month layoff doesn't help. Kind of makes me think they should have made an interim champ while Cain was out, cause this was a lot of pressure to come back after this long of a layoff, on UFC's biggest show, and fight against perhaps the most dangerous heavyweight.

So if Brock loses to Overeem then he an Cain can have a rematch.

[StillUnknown]

JDS' english improved pretty quick.

[NoCalMike]

The strikers are getting better at defending the takedowns and submissions but the wrestlers are lagging in matching that defensive prowess. I think they are going to need to focus on judo for the hip throws to make the clinch more effective. That and they need to be better at striking defense. I doubt many will ever be super strikers and top tier wrestlers.

It's possible we are seeing another evolutionary step in the sport. I remember about 5 years ago, everyone was amazed at how wrestlers were starting to just thrash BJJ guys because they were stronger, and able to go into the gym and train on submission defense, and then use wrestling to control the fight.

Now it looks like Strikers beginning to do enough to defend takedowns in order to give them a chance to knock their opponents head off. Most guys with a wrestling background/base that can't routinely score takedowns throughout their fight are like an unarmed man in the zombie apocalypse. They have no weapon to control the situation.

[Dr. Do Itch Big]

So what are y'all Hw rankling now? JDS #1 obviously. Has the best resume at heavyweight Cain I felt was overrated because he beat Brock who I feel was vastly overrated. How Brock got the number 1 Hw in the world is will a mystery to me.

[Samuels]

It's possible we are seeing another evolutionary step in the sport. I remember about 5 years ago, everyone was amazed at how wrestlers were starting to just thrash BJJ guys because they were stronger, and able to go into the gym and train on submission defense, and then use wrestling to control the fight.

Now it looks like Strikers beginning to do enough to defend takedowns in order to give them a chance to knock their opponents head off. Most guys with a wrestling background/base that can't routinely score takedowns throughout their fight are like an unarmed man in the zombie apocalypse. They have no weapon to control the situation.

I still think wrestlers control where these fights take place.

Cain never shot on JDS he stood right in front of him. GSP controls every fight. Sonnen will control Anderson. Brock will take down Allistair because he will shoot quickly.

I'd rather be a elite wrestler then a other discipline they dictate where the fight takes place.

[Unforgiven]

So what are y'all Hw rankling now? JDS #1 obviously. Has the best resume at heavyweight Cain I felt was overrated because he beat Brock who I feel was vastly overrated. How Brock got the number 1 Hw in the world is will a mystery to me.

1 - JDS

2 - Overeem

3 - Cain (He's still quite good, been off for 13 months)

4 - Lesnar

5 - Fabricio Werdum

[NoCalMike]

Sonnen controlled a rib-cartilage injured Anderson Silva, and still got his face pretty busted up from the top position. There is more to being a dominating wrestler than simply scoring takedowns.

[StillUnknown]

@arielhelwani

Ariel Helwani

JDS and his dr. just confirmed that he tore his meniscus 11 days ago, was on crutches for 2 days after. Couldn't walk.

[Dr. Do Itch Big]

@arielhelwani

Ariel Helwani

JDS and his dr. just confirmed that he tore his meniscus 11 days ago, was on crutches for 2 days after. Couldn't walk.

Damn that's pretty crazy.

[#98QBKiller]

The Brazilian MMA factory produces another champion.

Heavyweight

Middleweight

Featherweight

BTW - worth mentioning again... they should have aired the Henderson fight. The championship fight was like 30 seconds long.

It's all about the Americans and Brazilians (like it has been for most of MMA's history)

In addition to the above. America owns:

Light Heavyweight

Lightweight

Bantamweight

Cain finally ran into someone who is too good to recover from once rocked and barely hanging on.

For all those thinking Cain was unbeatable, go back and watch the Kongo fight. Cain was rocked multiple times but Kongo being the mid-level fighter he is, could never finish him off. Cain was able to get takedowns when he was visiting dizzy island which allowed him to recover.

Dos Santos is too good if he has you rocked. Also, a 13 month layoff doesn't help. Kind of makes me think they should have made an interim champ while Cain was out, cause this was a lot of pressure to come back after this long of a layoff, on UFC's biggest show, and fight against perhaps the most dangerous heavyweight.

So if Brock loses to Overeem then he an Cain can have a rematch.

I didn't post my picks for this card but I thought JDS would end up winning via (T)KO, obviously not that quickly, but Cain did show some standup weakness in that Kongo fight. I think the way he handled Nog and Lesnar made people forget about the Kongo bout. I'm hoping Overeem puts a beatdown on Lesnar so we can see JDS take on someone w/ K1 prowess.

@arielhelwani

Ariel Helwani

JDS and his dr. just confirmed that he tore his meniscus 11 days ago, was on crutches for 2 days after. Couldn't walk.

:yikes: Dizamn

[StillUnknown]

@KevinI

Kevin Iole

Seeing reports that UFC did 4.6 million viewers on FOX. If true, that's far far less than I was thinking. Kimbo did over 6 million

How Kimbo became a ratings monster, I will never quite understand.

[Patrick86L]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbDsiTk6aW0

[Unforgiven]

@KevinI

Kevin Iole

Seeing reports that UFC did 4.6 million viewers on FOX. If true, that's far far less than I was thinking. Kimbo did over 6 million

How Kimbo became a ratings monster, I will never quite understand.

They revised it to 5.7 million in the US. I'm sure the international ratings for this was far bigger than Kimbo though.

It does have to be a bit disappointing...I'm sure Dana was hoping to see 6.5+.

[artmonkforHOF]

They revised it to 5.7 million in the US. I'm sure the international ratings for this was far bigger than Kimbo though.

It does have to be a bit disappointing...I'm sure Dana was hoping to see 6.5+.

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.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

Lost in all the focus surrounding UFC on FOX 1, is the fact that there is a beastly card this Saturday.

Main card

Maurício Rua vs. Dan Henderson

Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le

Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles (I'll pick this for FOTN)

Martin Kampmann vs. Rick Story

Stephan Bonnar vs. Kyle Kingsbury

Spike TV:

Ryan Bader vs. Jason Brilz

Tom Lawlor vs. Chris Weidman

Go Hendo!

[lovetoaster]

Lost in all the focus surrounding UFC on FOX 1, is the fact that there is a beastly card this Saturday.

Main card

Maurício Rua vs. Dan Henderson

Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le

Urijah Faber vs. Brian Bowles (I'll pick this for FOTN)

Martin Kampmann vs. Rick Story

Stephan Bonnar vs. Kyle Kingsbury

Spike TV:

Ryan Bader vs. Jason Brilz

Tom Lawlor vs. Chris Weidman

Go Hendo!

Yeah, I can't wait for this card. I have my two favorite fighters ever on one card, Wandy and Hendo. I just hope Wandy can pull it out and not get KTFO again. I don't really want to see him go out that way. He should beat Le, but as we have all seen, his chin ain't exactly what it used to be.

[StillUnknown]

[#98QBKiller]

Yeah, I can't wait for this card. I have my two favorite fighters ever on one card, Wandy and Hendo. I just hope Wandy can pull it out and not get KTFO again. I don't really want to see him go out that way. He should beat Le, but as we have all seen, his chin ain't exactly what it used to be.

Sadly, I think Wand is in Chuck Liddell territory with his chin. I think Le is going to get the (T)KO

I'm so looking forward to this card too though. This will be the first one I've ordered in a while.

[StillUnknown]

I'm still not sure what to make of Cung Le. He obviously has a unique style all his own, but he hasn't fought in 18months, he's a small MW, and his best win & worst loss were against Scott Smith.

Wandy needs to blitzkrieg him early, don't give him the room he needs to start kicking.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

I'm still not sure what to make of Cung Le. He obviously has a unique style all his own, but he hasn't fought in 18months, he's a small MW, and his best win & worst loss were against Scott Smith.

Wandy needs to blitzkrieg him early, don't give him the room he needs to start kicking.

Everyone is talking about Wand's chin but I think he can take most of Le's strikes without getting in trouble. Le has always liked to break people down with an accumulative number of kicks. I think while he's doing that, Wand will go crazy and land a flurry of punches. I think it's a round 1 TKO.

[method man]

I hope Le wins...his exciting style was one of the reasons I got into MMA. I also love the Strikeforce guys. Going to go watch this live and can't wait.

[lovetoaster]

Everyone is talking about Wand's chin but I think he can take most of Le's strikes without getting in trouble. Le has always liked to break people down with an accumulative number of kicks. I think while he's doing that, Wand will go crazy and land a flurry of punches. I think it's a round 1 TKO.

Wandy needs to blitzkrieg him early, don't give him the room he needs to start kicking.

For the most part, I agree with you both. Le needs room to land a lot of his strikes, and hopefully Wandy will rush him and won't give him that. I think Le got a break when Vitor went down, I don't think he would have stood a chance in that fight. I like Le, but he has never fought anything like he would have seen against Belfort or what he will see from Wandy. The only difference is that a good shot to the chin will drop Wandy and that would not be the case with Vitor.

I think Wandy should win. The gameplan is fairly straightforward, Cung does not like to go backwards. He gets a little uncomfortable when he is backpedaling, but he is pretty quick when he does. Force the action, land some shots and get him against the cage where he does not have space and rough him up. Wandy just has avoid getting popped in the jaw, which really is not Cung's strong suit. Wandy does have to be really careful though, which is not his strong suit. He has never faced a guy like Le before, and someone like that has to be very difficult to train for. Those kicks can come out of nowhere and end the fight quickly, so Silva needs to keep moving forward and take away the space he needs to land them.

I am doing my best to pick this fight with my head and not my heart, but I really think Wandy should come out on top. We all know what he is going to do though, he is going to fly at him like he is on fire and swing for the fences. He throws big shots and if they land it will be over, but he also leaves openings to get hit and if he catches one on the button, he will be done. I would be pretty surprised if we see a second round.