Anything MMA, except thumb wrestling

[Sebowski]

I've got BJ Penn homer glasses too, Bowsk. They fell off last night for a minute when he turned to walk back across the ring (a lot more than 2 feet), swipe the bloodied face of a man on his back, and lick the blood off his gloves to deliver a message already rendered redundant by the beating he'd just gave.

If 9 of 10 people decide they've seen something unsportsmanlike, it's not up to the 10th person to "teach" the rest of them "how it is."

9 out of 10 Redskins fans maybe.

There is a poll on sherdog with the majority voting that what he did wasn't bad.

Only 43% think it was classless.

I'm not suggesting that the sherdog forums are gospel, in fact, I'd say most posters there are idiots, but there poll does suggest that your 9 out of 10 comment is at least a little off.

We may have a lot of members here, but I don't think we have as great a scope of views on here as the raw numbers would suggest.

I remember being the only one defending Nick Diaz in the Cheech vs. the CSAC ordeal. I felt like I was taking crazy pills. So I surfed around (more than just sherdog) and a great majority was on my side.

I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it is because whether we live in California or Virginia, we all have some sort of North East background and North East Values? Or maybe it has something to with us being huge NFL people and we are used to the NoFunLeague way of doing things and the scrutiny every act a player makes gets. I don't know, but I do know that I'm not in as big a minority here as it seems.

I think the blood swipe is being completely overblown.

[Chachie]

9 out of 10 Redskins fans maybe.

There is a poll on sherdog with the majority voting that what he did wasn't bad.

Only 43% think it was classless.

I'm not suggesting that the sherdog forums are gospel, in fact, I'd say most posters there are idiots, but there poll does suggest that your 9 out of 10 comment is at least a little off.

We may have a lot of members here, but I don't think we have as great a scope of views on here as the raw numbers would suggest.

I remember being the only one defending Nick Diaz in the Cheech vs. the CSAC ordeal. I felt like I was taking crazy pills. So I surfed around (more than just sherdog) and a great majority was on my side.

I'm not sure what it is. Maybe it is because whether we live in California or Virginia, we all have some sort of North East background and North East Values? Or maybe it has something to with us being huge NFL people and we are used to the NoFunLeague way of doing things and the scrutiny every act a player makes gets. I don't know, but I do know that I'm not in as big a minority here as it seems.

I think the blood swipe is being completely overblown.

Very good rebuttal on my 9/10 remark. Seriously.

My post did not, however, make an attempt to change your mind about it. Your posts were about trying to change our minds about it. That's the only point I was ultimately making. Sportsmanship is subject to opinions and most of us here thought BJ took it too far. Even me- a BIG fan of BJ Penn.

The blood swipe is being overblown. It was 3 seconds of an otherwise huge night for the UFC. It's just a shame that Penn can't grow up like he says he has. As a fan I hope he decides to act like a professional after seeing himself pull that garbage. He got the message about training harder, he got the message about living clean. The next message should be to carry himself like a champ.

[#98QBKiller]

I'm looking forward to Faber/Pulver next weekend! :applause:

Hell yeah!

(Don't forget about that Elite XC card too, we've got a card Saturday and Sunday nights!)

[Special K]

All that nitpicking is easy to do from the comfort of your chair.

Like Penn said, he is a fighter, not an athlete. When in a fight he does things he normally wouldn't because he crosses over. If Sherk doesn't take offense to it no one else should (I don't believe he has reacted to it whatsoever). Lets leave what happens in the ring, in the ring.

Quarry said similar thing about his track meet with Starnes. all the flipping off and in-fight trash-talking gets forgotten once the fight is over.

Okay, where I take issue with your post is that this did not occur "in" the fight. Penn did this after the fight, he had time to think about it and do it.

I think Penn's excuses for his behavior like "I'm a fighter, not an athlete" are quite idiotic...especially since MMA is trying to become a more mainstream sport. The crap he pulled the other night just reinforces many peoples' notion that these fighters are a bunch of animalistic neandrathals and not legitimate athletes. Furthermore, I think a lot MMA fighters would take issue with the notion that they are just fighters and not finely-tuned athletes...at least all the fighters I personally know.

Also, I think there's a difference between confidence and arrogance. Watching BJ over the years of his career and listening to many of his comments has definitely led me to perceive him as an arrogant individual.

Regardless of my feelings toward Penn (I obviously don't like the guy personally but I respect his talent), I look forward to watching his next matchups.

[StillUnknown]

i got a chance to download some of Rousimar Palhares (the guy who subbed Salaverry) fights. He is damn near identical to Paulo Fihlo. Both have that short, stocky build, with some high level bjj. he has pretty good takedown defense as well. i look forward to seeing him fight @ 185 in the UFC

[Sebowski]

I just watched the post fight presser on maaweekly.com last night.

Very good presser. I recommend watching it. Tito was there.

Some highlights I can remember :

Tito vs. Dana :laugh: 1/3 of the questions were about them and it got pretty funny at times. Tito came off as a jackass if you ask me. He is really in to himself and really believes he is coming off smart.

They asked Sherk exactly how the fight ended (if he was unable to continue or if the ref stopped it). He said he couldn;t remember anything about the finish. He couldn't even remember what he got hit with. BJ told Sherk it was a spinning kick :laugh:

They asked BJ if he thought he broke Sherk during the fight and when he knew he had the fight won. BJ said Sherk never broke. He just got caught. Everyone can get caught.

They asked Sherk about his gameplan. He said he wanted to show off his boxing. He said BJ is just as dangerous on the ground as on the feet so he did think staying on the feet was a bad idea. He also said he knew he was in the main event and wanted to give the fans what they paid for; a fight. He said he hoped he redeemed himself with the fans.

It also sounded like BJ-GSP is closer than I thought it would be. Dana said he probably wants to see BJ fight the winner of Huerta-Florian, but it sounded like that might not need to happen.

Wandy said it is up to the UFC whether he fights at 205 or 185. Dana said he only sees one interesting fight for Wany at 185, but a lot of them at 205. Mentioned a rematch with Chuck in the future.

Dana was asked about Elite XC and all the other competitors and his response was hilarious and I won't do it justice. Really just saying how everyone has a show these days and kept referring the Affliction as the t-shirt guy.

Thats all I can remeber right now. Hope someone gets some info out of there.

Oh yeah, Shrk aslo said he would obvious like to fight in Minneapolis, but it is up to the UFC and we have 11 weeks to think about it.

[Sebowski]

Okay, where I take issue with your post is that this did not occur "in" the fight. Penn did this after the fight, he had time to think about it and do it.

I think Penn's excuses for his behavior like "I'm a fighter, not an athlete" are quite idiotic...especially since MMA is trying to become a more mainstream sport. The crap he pulled the other night just reinforces many peoples' notion that these fighters are a bunch of animalistic neandrathals and not legitimate athletes. Furthermore, I think a lot MMA fighters would take issue with the notion that they are just fighters and not finely-tuned athletes...at least all the fighters I personally know.

Also, I think there's a difference between confidence and arrogance. Watching BJ over the years of his career and listening to many of his comments has definitely led me to perceive him as an arrogant individual.

Regardless of my feelings toward Penn (I obviously don't like the guy personally but I respect his talent), I look forward to watching his next matchups.

I'll listen to Chachie and stop trying to change people's mind on Penn. If you don't like someone, then you just don't like them.

About the fighter vs. athlete:

Obviously these guys are athletes. Maybe the best in the world. I know fighters too and have trained a little myself. I isn't about being one vs. the other. What BJ is trying to say it is about being one before the other. BJ, Wandy, Chuck, Rampage, Forrest, most of these guys will tell you they are fighters first, and athletes second. Those are the guys I tend to root for. That doesn't mean they aren't tremendous athletes. (there are also guys who are fighters first and fighters second, like War Machine, those guys are just jackasses)

[#98QBKiller]

They asked Sherk about his gameplan. He said he wanted to show off his boxing.

That was the stupidest ****ing gameplan other than Kalib Starnes' gameplan at UFC 83

[StillUnknown]

That was the stupidest ****ing gameplan other than Kalib Starnes' gameplan at UFC 83

Sherk actually has good technical boxing, but against BJ it was a ridiculous gameplan. BJ had a pretty good reach advantage on Sherk, already had better strikes than Sherk, and BJ had the power advantage in terms of striking.

I could understand Sherk doing that for 1 round maybe, but after he saw how he did nothing to BJ in the first he should've abandoned that "strategy"

[StillUnknown]

[BigMike619]

HAHHAHAHAHAH!!! those Jedis are everywhere!!

[Special K]

I'll listen to Chachie and stop trying to change people's mind on Penn. If you don't like someone, then you just don't like them.

About the fighter vs. athlete:

Obviously these guys are athletes. Maybe the best in the world. I know fighters too and have trained a little myself. I isn't about being one vs. the other. What BJ is trying to say it is about being one before the other. BJ, Wandy, Chuck, Rampage, Forrest, most of these guys will tell you they are fighters first, and athletes second. Those are the guys I tend to root for. That doesn't mean they aren't tremendous athletes. (there are also guys who are fighters first and fighters second, like War Machine, those guys are just jackasses)

Fair enough...point well taken! And I agree with you about War Machine...total head case jackass.

P.S. Your recap of the presser did it justice, it was quite funny to watch and read your recap of it.

[#98QBKiller]

Sherk actually has good technical boxing, but against BJ it was a ridiculous gameplan. BJ had a pretty good reach advantage on Sherk, already had better strikes than Sherk, and BJ had the power advantage in terms of striking.

I could understand Sherk doing that for 1 round maybe, but after he saw how he did nothing to BJ in the first he should've abandoned that "strategy"

I know he's a proficient boxer but that was a bad gameplan against Penn....especially after getting jabbed to death in rounds 1 &2.

[Chachie]

The referee was sporting a classic sheepish grin when he got up.

[Special K]

I know he's a proficient boxer but that was a bad gameplan against Penn....especially after getting jabbed to death in rounds 1 &2.

What do you think his gameplan should have been?

[StillUnknown]

What do you think his gameplan should have been?

i actually thought his gameplan would be the exact opposite to be honest. i thought he would come in and shoot for the takedown relentlessly. it takes energy to shoot, but it would've force BJ to expend some energy as well. Sherk obviously has better cardio so i thought that would've been his approach.

i think his boxing could've been better served going that route as well, a tired BJ would've been more likely to drop his hands some, allowing Sherk to get in some cleaner shots.

[Chachie]

it takes energy to shoot, but it would've force BJ to expend some energy as well. Sherk obviously has better cardio so i thought that would've been his approach.

Totally. I think that's why this fight became interesting to MMA fans. Sherk's cardio was the ace and BJ's cardio was the wild card. Sherk never played his ace and he never forced Penn to play his wild card.

[Special K]

i actually thought his gameplan would be the exact opposite to be honest. i thought he would come in and shoot for the takedown relentlessly. it takes energy to shoot, but it would've force BJ to expend some energy as well. Sherk obviously has better cardio so i thought that would've been his approach.

i think his boxing could've been better served going that route as well, a tired BJ would've been more likely to drop his hands some, allowing Sherk to get in some cleaner shots.

Yeah, that's pretty much how I figured it was going to go. I was expecting Sherk to shoot a lot more and look for the ground and pound instead of standing up with Penn.

[StillUnknown]

from the "When Celebrations go Wrong" files, i bring you Dokonjonosuke Mishima after his victory of Masakazu Imanari:

[#98QBKiller]

What do you think his gameplan should have been?

Standing up in round 1 was fine, Sherk's boxing is good and he was testing Penn's standup but after the first round he should've went aggressively for the takedown and wrestled/tried to pass Penn's guard to make him run out of gas and possibly try to drop some elbows on him.

If Penn survived round 2, Sherk should've persisted with shooting on him and going for the elbows/fists. Even if Sherk couldn't totally pass his guard or connect any elbows Penn would be exhausted after 2 rounds of resisting Sherk's ground and pound.

I don't care if people think Penn's cardio is better than it used to be, it's still not on Sherk's level and taking him down and trying to pound him for 2 or 3 rounds is going to wear him down badly. By round 4 or 5 Sherk should be able to land some shots and open him up or keep on persisting and grind out the decision.

Instead he stood with Penn and got out-boxed and beat up for 3 rounds when he should've gone with his strengths all along....basically his strength is BJ's weakness and it wasn't smart to not exploit that.

I expect to see a rematch sometime in the near future though and Sherk should've learned his lesson this time.

[Chachie]

from the "When Celebrations go Wrong" files, i bring you Dokonjonosuke Mishima after his victory of Masakazu Imanari:

DOH!! I swear I don't know why that doesn't happen more often. These guys are exhausted when they are finished with a fight and yet most of them pull these displays off.

[StillUnknown]

I expect to see a rematch sometime in the near future though and Sherk should've learned his lesson this time.

i wouldn't be shocked if they didn't rematch. Sherk is in his mid 30's i believe, and i'm sure Dana remembers him being boo'd in his last couple of fights for laying on people for 5rds. as deep as the lw division is, i see Sherk having to win six or seven fights in a row before he gets another shot at the title.

[SkinsOrlando]

i wouldn't be shocked if they didn't rematch. Sherk is in his mid 30's i believe, and i'm sure Dana remembers him being boo'd in his last couple of fights for laying on people for 5rds. as deep as the lw division is, i see Sherk having to win six or seven fights in a row before he gets another shot at the title.

Sherk will need two wins and BJ two title defenses, than it will happen would be my guess.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

UFC 84 was a great event, I hope to see more like that in the future. The Silva and Gouviea fights were surprising. Thiago got cracked with two kicks, and looked to be almost out until he ended up looking great with the G&P. Gouviea got owned with about 10-15 big legkicks, Cro Cop's boy looks good (even on the ground, which is a surprise).

Tito was quick to blame Machida for "running", but I think he started to realize during the post-fight interview that he wasn't exactly giving Lyoto a steady diet of attacks. Nice respect from Tito, didn't see the presser though, where I hear he acted like an ass. Great knee to the LLLLLLiver by Machida, but not a super performance by any means. Would like to see him fight Chuck next.

Wanderlei looked absolutely mean before the fight even started. Keith might be the "Dean of Mean", but Wanderlei built that University, my friends. I knew that fight was over before it began. He wasn't going to let some prospect use him as a rung of a ladder. Wandie is back. Give him Rampage!!!! (Just playing), I'd like to see him take on Rashad Evans.

BJ and Sean Sherk made me roll my eyes a little. Lightweight is probably the most stacked division next to LHW in the UFC, and it's missing perhaps up to the top 5 or 6 fighters in the world. Not only that, but I wanted to see a ground war. I know it's always 'entertaining' to see a standup battle. But Sherk is a freaking wrestler and BJ makes gumby look as flexible as an iceberg. If I want to see jabs vs. haymakers, I'll watch these poor ****s trying to knock out Floyd Mayweather. I was really looking forward to seeing if BJ could own the **** out of Sherk while he laid and prayed. Oh well, I want to see BJ fight Aoki and all those Dream bastages before he mixes any freaking belts. That's the last thing this sport needs, more belts held hostage.

[StillUnknown]

UFC 84 was a great event, I hope to see more like that in the future. The Silva and Gouviea fights were surprising. Thiago got cracked with two kicks, and looked to be almost out until he ended up looking great with the G&P. Gouviea got owned with about 10-15 big legkicks, Cro Cop's boy looks good (even on the ground, which is a surprise).

no surprise about his ground skills, he trains under Roger Gracie who's easily one of the top 3 BJJ in the world right now