Lei Tong

I'm of the opinion that Diego would be a tougher match for Leben (though this is disputed) due to a few reasons: - though Josh is a better wrestler, Leben's takedown defense is such that Diego shouldn't have much trouble taking him down. - Diego has taken hard shots before, unlike the MMA neophyte Koshceck - Diego can both G&P & apply submissions much better than Koscheck

Some more intelligent guys at UFC have sided with Koscheck & Southworth to the extent of saying Leben had bad karma coming to him for the BS he pulled towards Thacker, Swick & other guys on the show, as well as his overall selfish attitude ("I feel like I could be going home because I was cursed with a shitty team."). Oh, quick profiles for: Josh Koscheck As far as wrestling credentials go, few have the collegiate achievements of Koscheck. A 4 time Division I All-American (4th in 1999, 2nd in 2000, 3rd in 2002 after sustaining a back injury, and a national title in 2001) at 174lbs. Relatively new to MMA with a 2-0 record, with a 3rd round submission win over Cruz Cachon and a unanimous decision over undefeated (yet equally untested) Luke Cummo. As has been hinted at on the show, Koscheck is uncomfortable with strikes both standing and on the ground, often coming across as a pure grappler. Also due to this, he's shown something of a problem finishing opponents, though his wrestling skills have translated to MMA well. Chris Leben Part of Team Quest, Leben doesn't have the wrestling pedigree of many of their members, which is especially evident with a pretty weak takedown defense. However, his heart & punching power alone often make up for those deficiencies. Was successful before againstjourneyman fighters, yet his biggest wins were his last 3: KO's over AKA's Mike Swick (also on TUF) & Victory Atheltic's Justin Davis, and then a TKO stoppage over former training partner Benji Radach (both Swick & Radach fancying themselves strikers). In between was a thorough decision loss to recent UFC vet Joe Doerkson. However, in both the Doerkson loss & Radach win, he showed tons of heart, fighting out of Doerkson's submissions & Radach's notoriously heavy hands.

Forrest Griffin is the Zen Master. The Grin couldn't be miracled away. YPoV, this has remotivated me to post some impressions of the guys I know about.

Looks like Dana wasn't blowing smoke when he said these next few shows were going to blow us away. I was wondering how this episode would deliver without a fight, but goddamn, I can't wait for next week. Actually, I knew this fight was coming eventually, but to have it come like this is still a suprise. I'm stoked.

Haven't seen the show yet, but my thoughts on what I'm hearing from the recent DEEP show: - Imanari is a dangerous grappler, but Maeda really should be on a different level if he expects to compete with the elite 143lbs. fighters in the world. - Japanese heavyweights (for the most part) suck. What else is new? - Mishima's still entertaining, but damn him for beating Kato. - If what they're saying is true, Chonan is DEEP's most protected fighter along with Ueyama. Got stood up at every chance, only to be continually taken down over the first two rounds.

- There are examples of guys like Misaki, Gono, Kondo, Terrell, & Almeida who, though they fought in the UFC & PRIDE, were still contracted fighters and that's why I consider them Pancrase fighters first & foremost. - Actually, Rage in the Cage is Arizona's fighting org., with guys like Joseph Riggs, Edwin Dewees, Homer Moore, Drew Fickett, etc. You're probably thinking about Cage Rage. - black-jack-shalack (who knows more about MMA than most guys I know) had a great point that if you're going to be fighting it what's supposed to be the premiere fighting event in the United States and arguably the world, you need to face tough guys. I mean, I don't expect people to go up against nothing but Top 10 guys unless they're a champ, but at the same time it's a bit tiring seeing guys spoon-fed weaker competition for the sake of building their name up (which often times leads to hyped guys getting embarassed). I think this could be offset by UFC readjusting their "you lose, you're gone" approach to any fighter they're not hard for. - Whenever a fighter the UFC likes has some trouble in a fight, they're usually advised to cut weight (if they can). Whereas Yves Edwards losing to Tatsuya Kawajiri wasn't big news in the US (and now falsely rumoured to have been a poor decision), most everyone who follows MMA knows Franklin got KO'ed by "some Japanese Karate guy" (Machida). Besides, unless the weight cutting adversly affects him, he should have some success at 185lbs.

Best at... 143lbs: SHOOTO 155lbs: SHOOTO 169lbs: UFC 185lbs: Toss-up due to PRIDE's not yet finalized division, UFC's "cut & run" strategy with many fighters & Pancrase's solid line-up (even while lacking Almeida). LHW: PRIDE HW: PRIDE The thing to remember is that the weight classes in Japanese orgs like Pancrase & SHOOTO are different than those in the states, usually with a difference of 2-5lbs. in the limits. This leads to guys who could fight at 185 in US events fighting at 195lbs. because they can't reach the Japanese weight limits. Then there of course are stubborn guys like Yuki Kondo, who simply refuse to cut weight. As for some good fighters who have yet to fight in the "Big Two" at WW or above: Akira Kikuchi (WW/SHOOTO) Masanori Suda (MW/SHOOTO) Jake Shields (WW/SHOOTO) Jason Miller (WW/SuperBrawl) Nathan Marquardt (MW/ Pancrase) Gustavo Machado (MW/ Various)

The fact that Buscape is considered PRIDE's 2nd best LW speaks volumes about the division thus far.

Well... hello to you, too.

Judah is faster & far more skilled than Mayorga, and fought one of the most disciplined fight of his career. To say Ricarardo should've beaten Cory is a beat ridiculous. Zab could have some more success at 147, but he should stay far away from guys like DLH & Mosley, against either of whom a replay of the "Baby Giraffe Dance" would be the likely outcome.

Heavyweight, Middleweight, ? What's the 3rd? Ortiz vs. Belfort is for the "Hey-At-Least-I'm-Not-As-Mentally-Weak-As-THAT-Guy" title.

I cheated and watch the season premiere's opening in slow-mo, so unfortunately I knew how Bobby would win. Serves me right. Also, the lack of Forrest love (even if only fighting-accomplishment-related) makes Baby Jesus cry.

The most feared Guillotine in all the land.

I think Cro Cop will KO Coleman. MC Hammer may not be the smartest fighter in the world, but I think he has enough brains to not utterly embarass himself Randleman style.

- Regardless of Vitali having more energy, there didn't seem to be any indication that he was going to suddenly figure out how to get Lennox off of him. Lennox had already had started turning the fight around, and was the one hurting Vitali as the fight went on. - Okay, I was being kind, but let's face it: The things Vitali has going for him are his size, decent legs for a big man, a decent beard, and good straight right. And outside of that right hand, his boxing skills can go anywhere from basic to downright sloppy. Vitali isn't even 1/10th the boxer his brother is Rahman may not be the most skilled boxer ever, but he's closer to the definition of a "good boxer" than Vitali is. Not only that, Vitali doesn't have the one-punch power of Hasim. No doubt Vitali can hit hard, but you'll never see him throw out a KO shot like Lewis, Tua, or Rahman. - How exactly is cutting a guy with paper skin open and worsening the cut WITH PUNCHES any more fortunate than landing a wild haymaker on a much better fighter? - Same injury, different fighters. That's all there is to it. There was virtually no difference between what happened to Holyfield's shoulder & Vitali's. Evander later said that he wasn't sure if he could even lift move his arm, yet went out there and tried to regardless. The only difference between these two situations is that Evander continued to fight on in a fight he had no chance of winning (as is his style, while Vitali chose to accept defeat. - Lewis' prime was circa '97, when he still had all his physical tools to compliment his boxing skills. And a prime Lewis would STILL defeat a prime Tyson. Put perfectly: "The late 80's version of Tyson would never have beaten the best Lewis. Douglas was a very poor mans Lewis and it was shown pretty well, how you handle the myth of Mike Tyson... ...At least Douglas and Lewis had very similar styles. They both lived off their jab, used their legs, used the uppercuts, right hands, knew how to clinch and were both much bigger and stronger then Tyson." -Tam-Tam - Well, I guess a good amount of boxers in the IBHOF aren't actually "greats," as many of them were perceived to have ducked fighters at one point or another. Did Lennox talk too much shit after the fact? Yes. Did he have anything to gain by beating Vitali again? No. Was it smart of him to retire than stay on too long and possibly lose to a guy like Vitali? Probably.

- Yes, it is Lennox's fault he didn't come into the fight in the best shape. But guess what? He hung on and won regardless. - If Lewis was so dead tired, why was he outlanding Vitali the last two rounds? If Vitali was on his way to winning the fight, why did Lewis unanimously win the last two rounds on everybody's cards? Something tells me Vitali felt those uppercuts. Also, I didn't see any ghosts floating around the ring making Vitali's cut worse; must've been Lewis. - I also never said Lewis would definitely beat Klitshcko in a rematch. For all I know, that last performance could've been indictive of how Lennox would've performed from then on had he not retired. What I AM saying is that at each fighter's peak, I know Lennox is a better fighter than Vitali. - Hasim Rahman has a good jab and easily as much one-punch power as Vitali. What's your point? - What about a fighter throughly outboxing another for 10+ rounds only to get caught with an errant haymaker and get knocked out? Outside of cheating (like Oquendo-level rabbit punching), a win's a win. - (THanks to Rubio for this point)Evander Holyfield got the same exact injury against Chris Byrd that Vitali did, yet continued on in a fight he had NO HOPE of winning. All Vitali had to was stay upright for three rounds. Hell, he could've ran from the freatherfisted Byrd, taken some point deductions for his actions and STILL won. But as it is, Byrd's elusiveness caused Vitali to injure himself, and Vitali quit on his stoll with an injury that others have fought through.

Rumour is that "Old Vitor" consisted of Vitor, roids, & coke. I'll leave you to guess which one is missing nowadays.

Vitali was not "way ahead" on points. He was up 2 points on every judge's scorecard, with Lennox having won the last two rounds on everyone's card. And as it was, had the fight continued, Lewis was just as likely (if not more) to take out Vitali, who was losing steam already and getting rocked by a Lewis coming back. Lennox was rocking him with uppercuts and peppring his face with jabs during the 5th & 6th rounds. Let's not forget that the last time Vitali faced adversity, he quit on his stool while massively up on points vs. Chris Byrd. The fact is, Vitali got his chance against the most out-of-shape version of Lennox Lewis (even moreso than when he was KO'ed by McCall & Rahman), and couldn't pull out a win. And in a sport where world champs have been known to let themselves get beat down and embarassed rather than retire, Lennox surely went out a lot better than the likes of Ali, Holmes, Leonard, etc.

The biggest problem with Kerr is that he didn't have the mentality of a fighter. He could dish it out, but once the other guy started firing back, he would go into panic mode or simply shut down. That's why he shot so much junk into his system: he simply couldn't deal with the pain and stress of being a fighter (also why he was better suited for ADCC). In the end, he never defeated any noteworthy fighters, and it's uncertain if he would've had he faced any.

The problem with Brawl is that it's written by a guy who trained in Lion's Den, so there's quite a few boring & eye-roll-inducing sections of Shamrock nuthuggery. I haven't heard much about Mark being upset with the documentary overall, and doesn't seem much like the type anwyays. Also, him & Dawn divorced about 8 months after their marriage, IIRC.

While you're at it, avoid the book Brawl and go with NHB: Evolution instead (so as to avoid the Shammy love).

Actually, Lewis will probably be looked on rather favorably by future generations, whereas at this rate, Vitali will probably be known as the guy who took out some out-of-shape fighters (Johnson, Sanders, etc.) except the one that truly mattered (Lewis).

I'm sure Lennox would gladly fight Bernard Hopkins. I'm not talking about pound for pound bullshit. I'm talking about the guy who could beat the shit out of more people than any other motherfucker alive. Someone mentioned me? PS- Klitschko still hasn't proven himself to be the best HW in boxing just yet, so let's hold off the coronation for now.

Speaking of Overeem, Alistair won his weight division in the European ADCC Trials, winning all 4 matches via guilliotine choke. And yes, that is as sad as it sounds.

I'm sure Lennox would gladly fight Bernard Hopkins.