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Random MMA thoughts (TL;DR) |
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Daut  United States. Dec 29 2008 15:33. Posts 8955 | | |
or many of you this is going to be a tl;dr (too long, didnt read). i dont care, read what you want, just gotta get all the random thoughts in my head out.....
-i liked how wandy looked at points during the fight. he still has that insane focus and drive to murder his opponent. he is a bit slower nowadays and his wildness doesnt work out as much anymore because of his decreased speed. this will hurt him in title contention fights but hes still a very exciting guy who people should love to watch and he could definitely put out good fights still, just not top 5 205 ones. i think a move to 185 could be fun, as well as some good fights vs some other 205s that arent rampage/shogun/rashad/machidaanderson if he moves up and a couple others
-rampage looked soooo nervous coming into the fight. im a huge huge wandy fan but coming into this fight i felt like rampage had every advantage. better technical boxer, better cage suited style, has improved, wandy has gotten slower, etc. but as they were doing their cage entrances, something looked really really off in quinton. he was scared to death of wandy, you could tell. in that walk my confidence in wandy was reborn and i was pretty sure wandy would finish off the threepeat and tko him. it took a minute or two but he calmed down, settled into his own and looked good.
this win will give rampage a huge amount of confidence and to me its clear that right now hes the best 205 on the planet (unless shogun comes back 100% and says otherwise). he says he wants to rematch forrest and i still think hes a huge favorite against forrest. he will KILL rashad. this isnt a "forrest has a better reach than rashad so he should be able to pepper and have an advantage", this is a "god poor rashad is going to die if he fights rampage". the only people who have what i think is a decent shot (>30% of winning) vs rampage are shogun (who at 100% is still a favorite) and machida (who gives anyone fits).
-ill take the first tangent and talk about how good rashad looked. hes so quick, so accurate with his punches and extremely composed. forrest was doing a really really good job round 2 but rashad never faltered, stayed really confident and eventually found a spot. now, as stated above i think rampage will obliterate him. but it appears as if his first title defense will be against machida. that should be a pretty fun to mma fans (but might be kinda boring to casual fans). rashad is real fast but doesnt have the reach machida does, and should have some problems hitting machida cause of lyoto's own speed. i suspect it will go to a decision and either machida will win because he peppered a lot more, or rashad will win because machida didnt pepper that much more and rashad controlled the octagon.
besides machida/rampage i think he matches up really well vs a lot of other guys in the division. extremely well vs jardine (who leaves his face open for rashads quick striking), well vs wandy (same thing as jardine), not THAT well vs chuck: lets face it, chuck is a passive outboxer with good reach, good takedown defense and really pinpoint striking. if chuck could come back 100% i think rashad vs chuck is a tossup. in either case though, rashad has earned his #2 spot in the 205 division and has most certainly earned his belt so congrats to him. of course he will be ranked #1, but we know the true #1 is rampage.
-machida is fighting thiago silva next. i dont have much faith in thiago silva's proclamations that he knows how to beat machida and i see machida winning a UD. then he will fight rashad and we get to see an interesting chess match that people will sadly boo. im really excited to see machida vs top competition. he matchs up really well vs wandy/chuck/all wrestlers/all bjj guys/most of the division. i do think machida can beat rampage because rampage still hasnt shown he is going to deal with leg kicks and machida wont get hit very often, but rampage can cut off angles and control the fight. i think machida can beat forrest, but again thats not an easy fight for him. same with shogun. same with rashad. only the fights happening will really tell us what will happen.
-i talked a lot about a 100% shogun in the previous paragraphs and yes its all speculation and praying, but i think shogun will come back very strong. if he doesnt, well, just delete his name from all those paragraphs and hes not who he used to be. if he does come back well.....he is a nightmare to fight against. really aggressive striker like wandy, but also has better wrestling, faster, is still young, and has better reach and slightly more technical punching. every fight fan should pray he comes back 100% because then it adds another element to the 205 division and will make things a lot of fun to watch. if he doesnt....lets just remember him for what he was and how much potential he had.
-i think forrest looked excellent the first two rounds. his lack of a spectacular area in fighting is really going to hurt him vs a lot of guys. hes kinda good in every area, but lacks the power, athleticism, speed, and doesnt have amazing wrestling or bjj so its going to be hard for him to beat really really tough guys. however, he is a smart guy who has learned to use his size/reach very well, will outwork anyone, and never gives up so he will continue to compete at a high level in this division for a long time.
-i think nog just looked awful. he looked old, slow, depressed, worn, everything that we knew would eventually happen but didnt think would happen when he was only 32. i hope (and dont hope cause its a morbid thought to want him to have depression so he has a brighter future than we think) that he had some depression or something going on mentally that prevented the old nog from coming out and fighting because he looked really really bad. it made me want to immediately drop him from the top 10 hws because it looks like he just cant cut it anymore, sometimes youre only as good as your last fight. it wasnt like wandy who was still ferocious and focused but a little slower, or chuck who got flash ko'ed by an extremely quick handed fighter in september, he just looked really bad. this is what made me the most sad of anything from ufc 92.
people get old, their bodies break down and they arent the same anymore. its a sad thing that happens in heavy contact sports and fighting sports. it was only a matter of time till the massive amounts of abuse took its toll and i hope this isnt the last we have to see of nog. thankfully a guy like fedor hasnt taken much punishment (because hes just that much better than everyone) and will continue to fight at an extremely high level for a long time to come, allowing us as fans to see some of the fights we've always wanted to see without having to wonder how it would have went 5 years back.
-mir looked really good. not "OMG HE WOULD DESTROY AA, BARNETT AND FEDOR", but very good. crisp boxing, decent kicks, obviously improved cardio, very relaxed and composed. i think hes definitely the #4 heavyweight in the world right now and should be a favorite on brock given his size, newfound cardio, good boxing, and his obvious submission advantage over brock. i think mir will give trouble to anyone in the ufc, and hes similar to a gonzaga right now, but a little better mentally and with much better cardio. will be fun to see how the ufc hw division unfolds with gonzaga/kongo hopefully starting to step up to a higher level so we can see some fun fights and matchups.
-i tried to rank the heavyweight division after saturday night and couldnt get past #4. it was so hard for me to rank. my top 4 is fedor, AA, barnett, frank mir. after that it became a blur. lesnar and sylvia have to be in the top 10 in my opinion, and preferably #5 and #6. after that, having to choose 4 fighters out of werdum, gonzaga, kongo, sergei, overeem, crocop, nog, randy, aleksander, and ben rothwell. (imo cain, carwin and junior are not ready). i guess ill just type rankings and not be a copout, but imo theres a top 6 then a pack of guys who are either over the hill, unknown potential, and solid fighters.
my top 20 in order: fedor, AA, barnett, mir, lesnar, sylvia, sergei, overeem, gonzaga, kongo, randy, ben rothwell, crocop, nog, werdum, aleks, junior, carwin, cain. for #20, bleh who even cares, gilbert yvel? i moved nog so low because of my above arguments about how it looked nog was done and not just a fluke fight. if i thought it was just an off fight id have put him #8 and waited to see how he turns out, but i just dont have any faith in his standup/reflexes/speed anymore.
-im really excited for k1 dynamite and you guys should be too. here are some of my breakdowns on fights (who gives a fuck what i think!):
aoki vs alvarez - really cool fight. at first thought eddie would handle aoki because of great striking, good sub defense, good wrestling, but seriously, i thought the same thing about jz vs aoki back in may. what makes this different? really hard to call but im gonna say eddie UD or TKO but would not be surprised if aoki subbed him, or got control of his back or something.
hansen vs JZ - i think JZ wins pretty easily, either by TKO or UD. hes stronger, great wrestling, great bjj, really good sub defense, i just dont see hansen having an edge here. i was surprised to see joachim is 5'10 because he always looked really small to me and i always thought he should fight at 145, but i guess he has a reach advantage? i dunno, i think JZ wins this. lets not forget he was widely considered a top 3 155 before the aoki fights, and his skillset is very diverse and hes great everywhere.
crocop vs hmc - wow, hmc is so indestrucible (only ko or tko was broken rib vs badr), and this is an mma fight. i dont know if crocop can ninja an armbar like fedor did but who knows, he seems pretty confident in his grappling skills; didnt he agree to a sub grappling fight in one of the dreams vs a gracie??? really weird fight, im going out on a limb and say crocop by armbar (hahahaha sick pun amiright)
badr hari vs overeem - k1 rules. sorry alistair, badr is the man. his combos are so incredibly fast and i dont think his chin is THAT bad. does anyone know if there is a weight limit to this? theyre both big guys, badr is about 6'5-6'6 225-230, overeem 6'5 235-240. i just see badr winning by tko or in a decision, hes just too good.
sakuraba vs kiyoshi - i honestly dont know lol. i dont know much about kiyoshi so ill avoid this one! my rant/thoughts, my dodge!
jerome lebanner vs mark hunt - weird fight as well. both have been fairly inactive lately. jerome has had knee problems. who knows how his knees will be this fight and if it needs to be stopped because of it. i assume jerome would win by UD if both were 100%.....but that seems impossible. mark hunt by either ko or ud.
and NOW its time for a small rant about this card. while k1 dynamite does have really great fights and cool matchups to see, it bothers me that the fights dont really mean anything. the only implication to anything on the card is that if alvarez wins he should auto win fighter of the year. besides that....if aoki wins what does it mean? he gets to fight another cool fight in a couple months? ok....if he loses? same shit. i really love that the ufc fights mean something in terms of stepping stones for title shots. everyone's goal is to win the belt and to get there they have to put together a series of wins. when people are fighting over in japan in 2 or 3 different promotions, its just a bunch of fun fights that fans want to see without much meaning besides overall ranking in the division and possible awards for fight of the year, fighter of the year, etc. how to fix this? i dont know. have dream get bigger and have fighters defend belts, have obvious depth charts with who gets next title shot etc.
hmm anything else i can rant about?
-diego at 155.....really excited to see diego vs sherk, diego vs kenny. i think sherk beats diego because of better standup, close ground games. diego vs kenny......kenny might just outfight him on the feet and keep it close enough on the ground to not lose. not easy fights for diego but definitely head asploding ones that icant wait to watch.
-my first thought after the thiago vs kos fight was that thiago matched up perfectly vs gsp and had a good chance to win. well im back to reality and i think gsp will set up his takedowns much better than kos did, and also will come up with a good gameplan to fight him. i still think thiago matches up well....just not as well as i originally thought. i say gsp -160 to win this.
before we get there though, gsp has to get through bj. gsp should win with good legkicks, avoiding boxing, using his wrestling smartly. obviously bj can win if he controls the ground, gains top position, is allowed to box for extended periods of time. really cool fight and should be a really really good one. but i would much rather see gsp win just because of the future matchups in each division (and possible moveups to 185 to fight anderson) are better if bj is at 155 and gsp is champ at 170.
-and finally the 185 division is a wreck. why is leites getting a shot over okami/maia? i understand okami is kinda boring but he beat anderson and has definitely earned his shot. he had a shot and had to pull out because of a hand injury give it to him again . anderson by murder over thales.
and why are rich/hendo fighting to be TUF9 coach for middleweights. rich moves up to 205, fights hendo at 205, then winner comes and coaches tuf and a 185 fight vs....bisping? can we please have maia tuf9 coach, that would be so much better.......
-TITO FIGHT IN AFFLICTION VS BABALU OR LITTLE NOG. TY
-and finally, some awards for the year, mostly stolen from mma live's categories
fight of the year: 1. carlos condit vs miura 2. hansen vs alvarez 3. torres vs maeda
fighter of the year: depends on k1 dynamite..... if alvarez wins hes #1. if alvarez loses, thiago alves is #1.
breakout star: gegard mousasi. nobody knew who he was last year. went 6-0 this year, won dream mw gp, and beat a sick striker and sick bjj guy in same night.
ko of the year: 1. rashad vs chuck 2. kos vs yoshida so many other great ones i cant pick after that
sub of the year: 1. palhares armbar vs salaverry 2. miguel torres vs chase beebe (torres was jockeying for a sub for like 2 or 3 minutes and there was some sick technical shit going on, highly recommend you go back and watch this) 3. asilva vs hendo honorable mention: dustin hazelett reverse armbar, nate diaz triangle, frank mir leglock brock, cb peruvian necktie, the aoki top position gogoplata was cool as well
upset of the year: forrest vs rampage was huge and also had great meaning. mir vs nog i was so sure nog would win but i dont know if it can be considered an upset with how bad nog looked. if i knew how each fighter would look in the fight i dont think this was an upset at all. and huge underdogs winning like junior dos santos, and the guy who beat gomi should also be considered. overall i give it to forrest for 2nd year in a row lol
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| NewbSaibot: 18 TIMES THE SPEED OF LIGHT. Because FUCK YOU, Daut | |
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NeillyJQ United States. Dec 29 2008 15:36. Posts 8947 | | |
man i thought forest had a good chance, was rooting for him
evans just didn't understand how to lose -.-
lost $4 on that fight wtf lol |
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| Just remember you need to be god damn sure about their tendencies. -Artanis11 http://www.pocketfives.com/profiles/neillyaa/ | |
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Fox . Dec 29 2008 15:42. Posts 3110 | | | |
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PplusAD Germany. Dec 29 2008 15:43. Posts 7180 | | |
U are really overrating AA imo.
The guy has a glas chin and will get Koed by any decent striker
If Mir is in shape he can easily beat Arlovski by KO punch
with most of your other stuff i agree though <3 |
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| U see what i did there with A8 ? He 4 bets and there we go insta jam A8 : ---booooom -- . hahahaha ( Krantz) | Last edit: 29/12/2008 15:43 |
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pinbaLL Sweden. Dec 29 2008 16:06. Posts 7243 | | | |
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SfydjkLm Belarus. Dec 29 2008 16:27. Posts 3810 | | |
Oooh disagree with you so much on calling the fights.
And stepping stones who? The Japanese make their fights so freakishly awesome it doesnt matter if they are. If every UFC card was plagued with superfights just like UFC 92 I doubt youd be picking about them either.
Besides, theyre stepping stones of sorts. But its as if it was a round robin instead of double elimination. |
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Lebanner looked like crap in the K1 grand finals. His arm can't take it anymore and I'm pretty sure he's finished. |
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sTrAtO Mexico. Dec 29 2008 17:21. Posts 5882 | | | |
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| -Karla:Mira, tu película! -Yo: cuál? -Karla: Big Fish! jaja | |
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Fox . Dec 29 2008 17:21. Posts 3110 | | |
| | On December 29 2008 14:43 PplusAD wrote:
U are really overrating AA imo.
The guy has a glas chin and will get Koed by any decent striker
If Mir is in shape he can easily beat Arlovski by KO punch
with most of your other stuff i agree though <3 |
arlovski took some major shots in the 3rd tim sylvia fight and he didn't go down at all. He took a few shots on the button and now all of a sudden he has a huge glass jaw.
Sorry but anyone who takes full shots from the likes of rizzo or tim sylvia on the jaw you are going to go down in flames.
He's also koed everyone that he's faced and is a beast against anyone at HW. If arlovski beats anyone save fedor would you consider that a big upset? I wouldn't. So i don't see how he's being overrated... he's one of hte best HWs in he world and he has the skillset to beat fedor. Fedor has admitted crocop was his hardest fight and arlovski presents the same challenges. |
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Fox . Dec 29 2008 17:23. Posts 3110 | | |
Dude freaking brandon vera outstruck mir arlovski is like light years ahead of both of them. Arlovsk is like top 3 in hands and average handed frank mir is not going to pose any problems standing for arlovski. The real threat is the ground  |
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Fox . Dec 29 2008 17:24. Posts 3110 | | |
| | On December 29 2008 15:27 SfydjkLm wrote:
Oooh disagree with you so much on calling the fights.
And stepping stones who? The Japanese make their fights so freakishly awesome it doesnt matter if they are. If every UFC card was plagued with superfights just like UFC 92 I doubt youd be picking about them either.
Besides, theyre stepping stones of sorts. But its as if it was a round robin instead of double elimination. |
by japanese fights i'm assuming you mean K1. Because deep/shooto/sengoku have regularly shitty cards and pride doesn't exist anymore. |
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I agree with pretty much everything you've said,but I got the feeling you underestimate Mir a bit,I think he'll tear apart Lesnar unless Lesnar goes rambo on him sucessfully.
And I think if Mir has the potential to evolve even more which I believe he has he will be to dominate guys like AA,Fedor etc. |
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Gawuss Poland. Dec 29 2008 18:17. Posts 2336 | | |
man, you must have been reeeeeaaaaally bored |
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| When people ask: What nationality is this guy raking in all the pots? The answer invariably comes back Poland, Poland. Again and again - Karma | |
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Fox . Dec 29 2008 18:46. Posts 3110 | | |
| | On December 29 2008 16:44 Cro)Deadman wrote:
I agree with pretty much everything you've said,but I got the feeling you underestimate Mir a bit,I think he'll tear apart Lesnar unless Lesnar goes rambo on him sucessfully.
And I think if Mir has the potential to evolve even more which I believe he has he will be to dominate guys like AA,Fedor etc. |
Mir dominating AA would have to be on the ground. Mir dominating fedor is just not happening, that's like saying anthony johnson can evolve and dominate gsp. hell the fuck no. |
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