Mixed Martial Arts

[Lionheart]

I think it gets easy to forget exactly who GSP is as a fighter. He's gotten this rep lately that he's just a guy who will wrestle you to the ground and just ride the fight out. But, to me, GSP has always been a master of identifying his opponents strengths and neutralizing them.

GSP can be a deadly striker when the situation presents itself and fits within his plan of attack. If we go back a few years ago to the Matt Hughes fight, we saw a completely different fighter. I don't think it's because GSP striking has regressed or anything. Matt Hughes was one of the most dominant wrestlers in MMA history. If GSP employs the same strategies against Hughes that he did vs Diaz(and others lately), he would have likely gotten his ass handed to him. But, in that fight, he was able to keep Hughes at distance and landed some absolutely devastating strikes. The same startegy was employed vs Jon Fitch, another renouned wrestler(although his striking eventually did lead to him pretty much outwrestling Fitch the whole fight, as well). The Koschcheck fight was brilliant. GSP almost just toying with the wrestler all night, basically just picking him apart with pinpoint punches and kicks landing like Josh was simply GSP's sparring partner or something.

True, in a sense GSP does what a martial artist should do. Win the fight, deal damage, but take as little damage back as possible. I admire him for that, Its just that he has shown us the capacity to absolutely destroy another man (Matt Serra was destroyed in their 2nd fight). I guess I would like to see that a little bit more.

Another minor thing I noticed was that he looked a little gassed a bit too early in the fight.

BTW GSP VS Hendricks is scheduled in Vegas.

I'm not saying I think GSP would beat Spider, but I certainly don't think it would be just some absolute beatdown by Spider, either. I'd probably be more excited for that fight than any fight since the glory days of Mike Tyson absolutely clowning people. It would be beyond epic.

It's a toss up really, I just can't overlook the obvious physical advantage Silva has. I honestly don't know man.

Exactly. The last 2 rounds were a joke. Diaz is sticking his chin out telling GSP to hit him. Like, really, Nick, you douche. The post fight shit was more douchebaggery, too. I've really liked the Diaz bros as fighters for a while now, but Nick has been making it tough. That fight could have been so much more, but Diaz could have been replaced by any number of other fighters for the effort he gave last night. It was a joke. He already doesn't do gimself any favors with his mouth, but if he keeps pulling no shows like that, nobody's going think twice about not renewing him or his big mouth's next contract.

Joe, Nick asked for a rematch with GSP, or a fight with Anderson Silva at the post fight presser. :chuckles: Read the transcript, you'd get lots of laughs.

Lastly, anyone else wanted the Condit - Hendricks fight go 5 rounds? What an absolute war. I feel for Condit, I am a big big fan since he ass-blasted Dong Hyun Kim with a flying knee, but dude gets taken down rather easily. Hendricks is a tremendous wrestler but his takedowns weren't even full-power IMO. Condit got up 10 times out of 11 but you have to know that takedowns are a big part of scoring - which BTW should definitely be changed or defined more.

This truly is a great time to be an MMA fan.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Yeah that Hendricks-Condit fight was awesome.

By the way, I'd love to see the UFC force GSP to fight somewhere that he doesn't have the crowd cheering for him raucously the entire time for once. He hasn't fought in front of anything other than a hometown crowd in three years. Bullshit if you ask me. No one else gets that kind of special treatment.

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

Joe, Nick asked for a rematch with GSP, or a fight with Anderson Silva at the post fight presser. :chuckles: Read the transcript, you'd get lots of laughs.

Lastly, anyone else wanted the Condit - Hendricks fight go 5 rounds? What an absolute war. I feel for Condit, I am a big big fan since he ass-blasted Dong Hyun Kim with a flying knee, but dude gets taken down rather easily. Hendricks is a tremendous wrestler but his takedowns weren't even full-power IMO. Condit got up 10 times out of 11 but you have to know that takedowns are a big part of scoring - which BTW should definitely be changed or defined more.

This truly is a great time to be an MMA fan.

Ya, I saw that post fight shit. Diaz is such a douche. Did you hear his dumbass talking about not ever paying taxes his entire life? Gee, me thinks your newest paycheck may just lose some zeroes here shortly, Nicky boy. Dumbass.

Ya, Condit disappointed me a bit in that one, but it was a good fight. I like Hendricks, and on paper, this should be the fight that most people are craving to see from GSP. I think he looks to do more striking vs Hendricks.

If the UFC wants to incorporate a more defined scoring system, I'm all for it. It really wouldn't be too big of a stretch for them to incorporate the rules for wrestling for takedowns, escapes, reversals, etc. Takedowns are 2 points, escapes are 1 point, and reversals are 3. I think there would also, obviously, have to be some sort of defineable scoring for the damage done while on top, too, though. I'm all for the loss of some points if a guy is just riding things out on top. There has to be obvious action or you get penalized. But, for now, I really can't blame a guy like GSP for this last fight. Diaz was piss poor.

Jack, I'm pretty sure GSP was supposed to fight Diaz in Vegas, but the injury f'd it up. I think his last 2 fights have been in Canada, but I know for a fact his fight against Dan Hardy was in Jersey....cuz I was there Hardy had a real big mouth before that fight, kinda like Diaz. But, after he got absolutely picked apart, at least he stfu afterwards, unlike Nick.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Jack, I'm pretty sure GSP was supposed to fight Diaz in Vegas, but the injury f'd it up. I think his last 2 fights have been in Canada, but I know for a fact his fight against Dan Hardy was in Jersey....cuz I was there Hardy had a real big mouth before that fight, kinda like Diaz. But, after he got absolutely picked apart, at least he stfu afterwards, unlike Nick.

According to his fight record, his last fight in the US was in March of 2010, which is a long time ago. He's had four straight fights in Canada, which is a little ridiculous.

 

[Lionheart]

Its gotta be the dollars, Canadian fans are absolutely rabid about GSP and any chance they can cash in on the Canadian market they will. Gotta feel a little sorry to, say, UK fans, they don't get the prettiest (on paper) line-ups.

 

[Jack Brickman]

Its gotta be the dollars, Canadian fans are absolutely rabid about GSP and any chance they can cash in on the Canadian market they will. Gotta feel a little sorry to, say, UK fans, they don't get the prettiest (on paper) line-ups.

Oh it's no doubt the dollars. I just think it's a bit cheap and unfair to other fighters that basically all GSP's fights are in front of a home crowd.

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

According to his fight record, his last fight in the US was in March of 2010, which is a long time ago. He's had four straight fights in Canada, which is a little ridiculous.

Ya, you're right. Crazy. Like I said, he was supposed to fight Diaz, I believe, in Vegas originally. But, ya, $$$$$$$$

 

[MattyFos.]

Lionheart- my buddies name is Jeremy Severn. Looks a little like a broke John Cena, the face not the build.

 

[Witz]

True, but he got major flak from that I remember him monkeying around in the Damian Maia fight (God I remember that day so much because its when BJ Penn lost his title). He promptly cleaned up and finished Forrest (well, the post champion version) and Bonnar (even on steroids).

EDIT: Oh yeah and speaking of Damian Maia, talk about someone finding himself again at Welterweight. First he squeezed blood out of Rick Story and submitted him, then he Fitch'ed Jon Fitch. I think he's gonna be a force at WW. I think he finally woke up and realized that he's a Jiu Jitsu master and not a striker. Easy guy to root for too.

Refresh the memory for those who dont remember that :chuckles:

BTW how do you guys feel about this whole Rousey/Tate-Zingano winner coaching both guys and girls in the next ultimate fighter season.

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

BTW how do you guys feel about this whole Rousey/Tate-Zingano winner coaching both guys and girls in the next ultimate fighter season.

Honestly, I've got mixed feelings. I mean, I think Rousey has definitely set the bar high for women's MMA, and she should be proud. But, I don't know about her coaching dude's. I mean, this season has been a good one, and I think a lot of that is due to the coaches finally not acting like complete douchebags all the time. A men's team coached by Rousey just seems like it's begging for more soap opera style theatrics. I know it's TV, which equates to ratings=dollars, but it sounds a bit too contrived/unnatural for me.

OTOH, Rousey is a bad bitch, who is close to as hot as Gina Carrano, but 10x as tough. I mean, is she gonna like roll around in training with these guys?:chuckles:

/sidebar...I had to wrestle a chick in HS one time. For those of you familiar, it was the famous BK tournament at Lake Catholic. It was 1990, I was like 15 or 16 years old. We had heard for the week leading up to the tourney that there was gonna be a girl in my weight class(140), and that she was actually pretty decent....ya know....for a girl. Well, fucked if I didn't draw her in the very first round:chuckles: I'm about shitting myself looking all over the place for her in the gym. I didn't see her until right before the match. Thank God she didn't look like Rousey or Carrano, cuz all's I was worried about was being on top of this bitch and poppin wood in my fuggin spandex ass singlet. It was actually weird as could be cuz it was obvious she relied mostly on speed and technique, so I almost felt bad muscling her around, but she got a pretty deep shot in on my legs going for a double and after that I kinda forgot she was a girl and gave her a wicked ass cross face. I was in a complete no win situation, though. I ended up getting ragged on mercilously by the rest of my team cuz I beat a girl. I could only imagine how bad it would have been had I lost Probably woulda transferred.

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

Ok Witz....just watched tonight's TUF on the DVR and the preview for next week shows Rousey in there rolling around with a few of the guys:chuckles:

Guess that answers that. I think I'll get over the whole just doing it for tv ratings thing pretty quick.

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

Holy shit. There's no boxing thread, so Im just gonna post this in here. As I said before, I used to be a huge boxing fan, but have slowly lost interest aside from the huge fights over the last couple of decades of absolute corruption. Well, I kept hearing how good this past weekends Timothy Bradley fight was. Again...holy shit.

If this doesn't make fight of the year then I cannot wait to see the one that does! Do yourselves a favor and watch this shit. It's being replayed on HBO all week. What a freegin rumble.

Timothy Bradley vs Ruslan Provodnikov. Absolute war. Provo, for those that don't know, was chosen by Freddy Roach to spar with PacMan in training for Tim Bradley.

For those who love to watch two good fighters with a ton of heart, chins like granite, and absolute sledgehammers for fists just absolutely beat the crap out of each other, then this is the fight for you.

 

[MattyFos.]

Smkn, what kind of corruption goes on in boxing... I don't really follow boxing. I tune in to ESPN if I notice its a Wednesday or Friday night. But I can't get into boxing unless its heavyweights and that class died out like 15 years ago.

 

[Giambiwannabe7]

Smkn, what kind of corruption goes on in boxing... I don't really follow boxing. I tune in to ESPN if I notice its a Wednesday or Friday night. But I can't get into boxing unless its heavyweights and that class died out like 15 years ago.

Oh man, that shit goes way back. I'm actually not even sure it's as bad as it was the last couple decades because I stopped following as closely, but it was blatant, straight up throwing matches. Guys taking falls for paydays to beef up another guy's record. Judges with absolutely inexplicable score cards, where they would have had to have been blind to what they were watching to score a round the way they did. Pretty much anything associated with Don King wreaked. Other promoters like Bob Arum have been accused of tampering.

If you watch ESPN boxing enough you'll eventually come across Teddy Atlas. He's one of the best trainers and minds the sport has ever seen, and even he has become disgusted by it enough to constantly call people out. One of my other favorites is Max Kellerman. He also calls a lot of fights for HBO, and was a pretty good fighter in his day. These guys love the sport and you can just tell it kills them when you see these fights with a clear cut winner end up going the complete opposite way.

Anyways, here's a few links. There's hundreds upon hundreds of real examples. But, if you watch enough big fights, you'll see one soon enough. There will be a fight when after the decision, the whole room full of people just look at each other like wtf just happened?

http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7ieCt0tRAGIA3WJXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1Z3AyaWNlBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNgRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA1NNRTE4OV8yMzc-/SIG=12kq8hugj/EXP=1363945474/**http%3a//www.eatthemushroom.com/mag/article.asp%3fid=459%26catID=6

http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7ieCt0tRAGIA02JXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1Mjh2aDY2BHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDMgRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA1NNRTE4OV8yMzc-/SIG=14va0muje/EXP=1363945474/**http%3a//www.badlefthook.com/2012/6/10/3076101/pacquiao-vs-bradley-video-teddy-atlas-espn-interview-corruption-boxing-robbery-hbo-boxing-news

http://search.yahoo.com/r/_ylt=A0oG7ieCt0tRAGIA32JXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTE1cTZzOWtpBHNlYwNzcgRwb3MDNwRjb2xvA2FjMgR2dGlkA1NNRTE4OV8yMzc-/SIG=12kgks4k1/EXP=1363945474/**http%3a//www.askmen.com/sports/business_60/93_sports_business.html

 

[Lionheart]

Hey guys, time for another bump of our thread here.

UFC on Fuel: Mousasi VS Latifi

Man, I really wanted to see Gustafsson fight but it is what it is and we got what we got. Good win for Gegard. Connor McGregor (vs Brimage) was entertaining as hell and Diego Brandao (TUF winner) is getting better and better. Good card IMO.

TUF 17

Glad that Kelvin won against Josh, the kid can only get better as time goes by but I don't think he'll beat Uriah. I mean Uriah man, what more can you ask for? The only guy who can come close to striking at Anderson Silva level. Calculated, technical, and strong enough to put people away with diverse strikes. He finished the last guy with strikes FROM THE BOTTOM!

Highlights:

Looking forward to the finals. I like Cat Zingano. :chuckles:


And here's a replay of the Mark Hunt - Stefan Struve fight:

And, for the road:

Got damn Brittney Palmer.