UFC 83 thoughts

Great post.

You know the franklin vs lutter I wonder if it's more that Lutter looked good and Franklin had issues with Lutter's skill. I mean hughes looked like a child against gsp but that doesn't mean hughes sucks. Naz does agree with you though that Franklin looked weak, maybe he is.

I think if GSP shows up with fedor level gameplanning you might as well just shut down the 170 division. Cuz beyond an upgraded Shields/Condit/Alves/Fitch (who would need to fight the perfect fight to have a chance) no one is even close.

Maia has a way to go, but like you said he already has the basis for his style. If he can improve his standup and cardio he could be a force. ufc84 website is up now i suggest you watch the preview for the sherk/bj fight it hypes me up so much i'm almost exploding from excitement.

i agree about serra 155 is way better and he's a big 155er. I'd love to see him get a fight against like a franky edgar to open with then move on quickly to someone like franca/huerta/etc. Hell even florian vs him would be acceptable. that would be AWESOME to see.

how did u guys get into MMA?

On April 22 2008 11:46 ggplz wrote: how did u guys get into MMA?

I just love to compete and to me there is nothing more awesome then competing with someone in a fight. I've always competed in sports in high levels growing up. But to me there is nothing more challenging and awesome then mma. I used to be a HUGE HUGE HUGE nfl/nba/mlb fan but i don't even follow it at all anymore because every extra second that i have when i'm not spending time with my kids/wife or poker i'm doing mma.

i always expect florian to get dominated cause he looks like such a pussy but the he always suprises me.. him vs serra who has the better bjj? i dunno but serra obviously has a huge power advantage. Interesting matchup, but you've gotta give serra the edge there no?
seems like serra needs to improve his wrestling if he wants to contend at lightweight, cause he'd probably have to go through "the real sean sherk".

Aside from the early fuckup, I thought franklin looked decent. but letting lutter take his back that RIGHT AWAY when his WHOLE gameplan was to take advantage of poor conditioning is a huge error. But he was able to get out and dominate the rest of the fight, so kudos to him. How can Lutter not take these fights seriously and actually train. Hes a legitimate contender skillwise but hes wasting his skill level by eating too many potato chips and watching americas next top model when he should be at the gym.

Fitch is the only welterweight contender you mentioned that I've seen (and he looks good, but not good enough to beat gsp). Who are shields condit and alves, and where have they been fighting?

How would u rank GSP's skills from strongest to weakest?
I'm thinking,
1) Wrestling
2) Striking
3) BJJ
4) Conditioning (he looks like hes in great shape but I've never seen him in a 3rd round besides that fight vs Penn)
5) Clinch (dont see him in the clinch much?)

I think wrestling is a clearcut #1 for gsp, but the other 2-4 are all very strong and almost interchangeable. Thoughts? Am I missing anything? Would GSP stand a chance vs Silva at middleweight? What would be his best gameplan in that fight? Similar to his plan vs Serra?

"Who are shields condit and alves, and where have they been fighting?"

Alves is Thiago Alves in mma. He's got some serious serious MT and i've always said that a good striker with good tkd defense could give gsp some problems.

Carlos Condit is the wec 170 champ. He's a freaking beat and shits one people daily. He's 6'1" a long 170er and has some serious submissions and pace. GSP probably could beat him but it would be fun to watch.

Jake shields is probably the only guy at 170 who actually can match muscle with GSP. He might actually come in larger against him. To give you an idea of how good shields is he won a close decision over Okami (who's a 185er) back in the day and he's an enormous 170er. He also has the best top position bjj probably at 170 and can easily submit gsp if he took top position.

Good writeup. I personally thought Herman wasn't trying to keep it standing at all. He had many opportunities to get up and always used his wrestling to end up on top and never on the bottom. That combined with GNP with being his bread and butter and the fact he gnp'ed Maia pretty hard I think it was just his gameplan to stay on top and avoid subs. Was doing really good with it too. I hope Maia develops standup and conditioning, it will be many years but eventually 5 years from now he could prove to be a threat to the belt.

Lutter looked pretty good in his loss and Franklin looked pretty bad. How's that possible? Either way I was also impressed with Lutters takedowns. If he develops some standup so that he doesn't get punished hard every time he shoots he's a force to be reckoned with. Franklin looked worse than he has in a long time versus non-Anderson competitors. His conditioning wasn't what we are used to seeing. In terms of where he is in the fight game Franklin is in a similar position to Hughes. The two of them are absolutely sure they can never beat GSP/Anderson (I do think Liddell has an upsetting chance vs Rampage, but these two guys have 0 chance). Now this is not a problem for most fighters, the Chris Lebens of this world are content fighting whoever without ever being in the belt picture, but it is something different for Hughes and Franklin. They're champs. They're champs in heart and champs in mind, used to at least knowing they can win a fight whoever they are in the cage with. The realization this is not the case and will never be the case either is a tough one, and Hughes is in a good stage in his career to hang up the gloves so that is a logical move. But how can Franklin keep motivating himself, how does he motivate himself to beating Lutter when he knows what's ahead of him. What is his goal? Lebens goal is just to bang a bit and have fun doing so but Franklin who has seen it all from the top won't settle for such a limiting cause. I think Franklin needs to look to another org to regain a goal, a new belt. Sure he knows he could only ever be the #2 in the weightclass (which he will never be again either btw) but I think that going for a belt in for example the WEC, competiting with Filho who is by many regarded as the #2 at 185 (won't be for long) and becoming their poster boy would be the only right move for Rich.

I watched Starnes vs Quarry in disbelief. This wasn't normal, wasn't healthy. I think that Starnes had some issues, possibly a serious injury or otherwise he wanted to make a statement about the UFC. Him dropping the fight for betting seems unlikely unless the bettors were putting money on every single site out there. Also the lines opened with him as a gigantic underdog, instead of switching towards it. I feel sorry for Starnes and hope he will find his place in another org.

Such a mediocre card though, it was really disappointing and the fights hardly delivered either. Add to that the fact that the #3-4 fights with Maia vs Herman and Doersken vs McDonald were on the undercard it was all in all one of the worst UFC's I've seen.

agreed that it was a shitty ufc for sure.

good post


nothing to add except that GSP FUCKING ROCKS

french canadians aren't all floofys yo

MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACHIDAAAAAAA, am i the only one excited about this fight ?

Machida by Dim Mak.

i can't wait to give my 84 rundown it's gonna be so sick