Lei Tong

The problem is that UFC, with so many divisions yet only 6 shows a year, has backed themselves in a corner where they more or less HAVE to give title shots to undeserving guys. I mean, while you try and wait for a guy to gather a 3 fight UFC winning streak, you have a champion sitting on his ass, getting rusty and making no money unless he faces someone else who's undserving, thus taking you back to square one. On Randy/Vitor, I first PRAY that Randy's okay. I mean, it'd suck enough if this were a career threatning injury, but to go out like he did after the heights he had risen to qould be a shame. However, in principle, I think I'd have to agree with ruling the fight a win for Vitor. Flukish? Indeed, but in the end, the damage was caused by a legal punch thrown by Belfort. If you were to rule it a no-contest, you open the flood gates for all kinds of interpretations of fight endings, and pretty soon you could have every fighter who feels he was jipped challenging a loss. Besides, I highly doubt anyone is going to make this out to be some monumental victory for Vitor/loss for Randy. Through the first 3 matches, this was a very good card, yet was cursed with a lackluster performance by Newton (big props for Verissimo for domianting, regardless) and one fo the worst possible endings for a fight, much less a main event title match.

Some odd things happen in training, not all of which should be taken too seriously. Perfect example: Before their fight, Matt Lindland & Ivan Salaverry had trained together, with Ivan tapping Matt out at will. Fast foward to thier fight, where Matt avoids Ivan's sub attempts and wins a JD.

Dunno, if anyone else has said this yet, but Wanderlei Silva vs. Ikuhisa Minowa and Akihiro Gono vs. Mauricio 'Shogun" Rua have been anounced for PRIDE Bushido card (they look to be going for a Chute Boxe Academia vs. Japan theme). Quick thoughts: - They're really misuing Minowa. He's already one of the most entertaining fighters in the world, and training with the BTT can only help him improve, but why match this 185lbs. fighter against two of the top 205lbs. fighters in the world off the bat? - Gono is so underrated it's criminal. I personally think he won the fight against Mauricio's brother Murilo (although it was ruled a draw). From what I've seen of Shogun, he may actually be a better fighter overall then Ninja, but I'll still take Gono via JD.

Assuming they don't scrap the fight altogether, I imagine they can easily find another quality opponent for Serra, esp. considering the depth of the 155 division.

Ugly, UGLY card, but you can't expect any promotion to knock one out of the park every time.

RRR- Mir gave himself the nickname "Conan" during an interview with some muscle mag sometime back. Not sure how serious he was about keeping it, but it's the closest he's got. Coincidentally, the last "Conan" Sims fought was also a large Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu fighter (the American Top Team's now incarcerated Marcus Silviera) who had a tough time submitting a seemingly finished Sims.

This one. The UFC might end up offering more excitement per fight (there's some possible snooze-fests here), but for sheer name value, I'd say PRIDE. however, it's important to note that PRIDE absoultely SUCKS at finalizing cards, so I expect at least half these match-ups not happen.

Shungo Oyama (the fighter) is of no relation to Colin Oyama (the trainer), although I heard once he was the bastard grandchild of Mas Oyama ( no idea if there's any truth to that).

Matt Hughes: Welterweight fighting out Miletich Fighting Systems. Ground & pound fighter who's also adding submission and striking skills to his arsenal, he's also one of the strongest fighters around P4P. Has tons of MMA experience, but really came into his own upon winning the UFC WW title from Carlos Newton (albeit in an extremely odd way). One of the most dominant champions in the world at the moment, having not only defeated some of the top WW's in the world, but thoroughly dominated a few of them of them (Carlos Newton, Hayato Sakurai, Gil Castillo, Sean Sherk & Frank Trigg since winning the belt). BJ Penn: Former lightweight fighting out of the Lewis/Pederneiras Vale Tudo Team. BJJ blackbelt (his numerous BJJ titles and young age at the time earned him the nickname "The Prodigy"). Aside from his excellent ground skills, he's showed KO power standing and good ground & pound skills. He defeated top contenders Din Thomas & Caol Uno in his 2nd & 3rd UFC matches, and was a heavy favorite against then LW champ Jens Pulver, yet lost a close decision. Since then, he made it to the finals of the UFC LW tournament to crown a new champion after Pulver left, winning a snoozer of Matt Serra and getting highly debated daw against Caol Uno in the finals (most thought he won). Since then, he defeated former Shooto LW kingpin Takanori Gomi in amazing fashion. Now moves up in weight to challenge Hughes. Will have more in a bit.

I'd also like to recommend the documentary "Rites of Passage." Althoug I usually show it to people who are totally new to MMA, dman near anyone with some interest can enjoy it. Not only does it have some great fight footage, but it also gives some decent background info on sport and soem of it's fighters.

The KOTC box set is well worth the 20 bucks. Sure, there are guys that had no business in the ocatgon in some of the fights, but it has some great fights and highlight reel worthy finishes (IE- Chris Brennan's high kick vs. Antonio McKee, Jerry Bohlander's armbar on Brian Foster).

Bah... I still don't think he lost to Malenko. The judges gave the decision to Malenko by virture of being on top on the ground, despite doing next to nothing whilst Egan was busy working his guard.

Actually, I don't think Egan ever fought for Shooto. He's actually the cornerstone of Hawaii's Superbrawl promotion.

Don't invest in Fightsport too much. They've closed up shop. A very important org that's yet to be mentioned is Shooto. It runs monthly shows, and features mainly fighters in the lower weight classes. Because of this, you can find the highest concentration of 130-169lbs. talent in the world there. The "Big 4" names that have established and come from the event are Enson Inoue, Rumina Sato, Caol Uno & Hayato Sakurai.

Soccer kicks were allowed, and I don't think there were 10 counts either (although some orgs have them for MMA fights).

I'll hold my comments on the Iggy/Nakamura "controversy" until I can actually see the fight.

Prediction: Fedor is critically injured on his way to the arena via lightning strike, leaving him almost totally paralyzed and brain dead. However, he still defeats Nagata via TKO, Rd.1

A repost on my thoughts of Arlovski/ Sylvia: Well, I'll defintely be pulling for Andrei every second, but Tim is easily one of the worst possible match-ups for him around. Standing, Andrei still has holes in his defense, which has allowed guys to land blows that they shouldn't, and against someone 6'8 with punching power to spare, that's a HUGE problem. Yeah, Tim CAN be stunned by good punches (although the Cabbage flurry is the only one that immediately springs to mind), but for the most part, Tim has shown he can take a decent shot and fire right back. (On a side not, has anyone noticed that in spite of Sylvia's "cover the head" defense, he still seems to get tagged a bit? I only mention it because I thought it was weird that with a high guard like his, he was still getting popped by McGee's left thrown from hanging position). On the ground, I'd give the advantage to Andrei, but there are a few points that make it closer than one would suspect: - Andrei's takedowns vs. Sylvia's defense: Sylvia has shown he can defend a takedown rather well, if on mainly strength, while Andrei has very rarely if ever tried to move the figh tto the ground, and in fact gave up Vladimir's back to continue fighting on the feet. - Andrei's ground defense. While he does trian in Sambo and can apply submissions from his back (which he may have to if he can't bring Sylvia to his), he's gonig to have to work for a while to get them. And when you consider the fact that he was G&P'ed rather thoroughly by Ricco the last time he was in that position, it's not far-fetched to asume Sylvia could put some hurt on him should he get top postion. - Andrei's propensity for banging. Although already mentioned, the way Andrei gave up Vladdy's back would be a HUGE no-no agaisnt Tim. Hell, giving up ANY kind of dominant ground postion would be a mistake. BUt in the end, I fear Andrei's aggression and ego could get to him. So, yes, I'll be rooting for Andrei all the way, but if I had to throw money down, I'd say Tim via KO, Rd.2 As for Tito/Chuck, my interest in this match has gone down quite a bit, mostly due to Tito's shadiness. But I'll go with Tito via TKO, Rd.3

Sak fears WOOGIE~!

1) He was until not that long ago, but is now in direct competition with them. Check out Zach's site to see how "friendly" they are now. 2) Yes, most of them. Me included.

Come on, that single headbutt was brutal. Anybody but a world class boxer like Jimmerson would've been out like a light.

Well, Rudimar took these guys in from a young age and trained them for free, so you can imagine that an intense loyalty was/is there, and for what's he done for them, a higher than 10% cut can be expected (although 50 is rediculous).

That's what video link was for... As seen in the picture below, Yamamoto absolutely obliterated Tetsuo Katsuta during the fight (fracturing bones in his face in the process), prompting a ref stoppage as he pounded away from the mount. However, even as the bell rang and the referee tried to intervene, Yamamoto continued to pound away (and this a guy who's Ground & Pound rivals Fedor's P4P), laughing and making faces as Katsuta tried to slip out under the ropes. Then, the subsequent brawl & other postfight fallout.

Renzo stepped on the head of judoka Ben Spijkers after their WCC match. However, Spijkers had been calling and harassing Renzo in the days leading up to the fight, and Renzo later apologized for his actions. And for pure dickery... http://www.yamatodamashiiichizoku.com/stre...d=norivskatsuta Those actions caused Yamamoto to be suspended for 6 months, caused a near team vs. team brawl between Purebred and Kz' Factory, and got him in deepshit with his brother-in-law/trainer, Enson Inoue.

Rudimar Fedrigo, manager/leader/trainer of the Chute Boxe Academy.