Lei Tong

People who dislike Franklin tend to believe that because he was marketed aggressively by the UFC, he was somehow not a real fighter, disregarding the fact that he's a well-rounded guy who's beaten (and utterly dominated) some good fighters. But fuck 'em, I like the guy. And Rudo's right, he already won the war of words. Also fairly amusing was the inability of the production team to find any noteworthy highlights from Henderson's rematch with Bustamante.

Eh. That's kind of like saying "If you let Gonzaga take you down and mount you, he can beat you." Hardonk still gets too much credit for being a one-dimensional striker who's actually limited in that dimension as well.

He was doing a weird sort of stutter-step as though prepping for a roundhouse, so... kinda.

Add "Sweet Chin Music" as another pro-wrestling move successfully utilized in MMA, as Inside MMA featured a clip of Shannon Ritch taking out John Wood with an awkward high side kick in a rematch a little while back.

McCully actually has some skill on the mat, but is nowadays just an overweight journeyman who gets by on the fact that there's no shortage of guys floating around in the UFC with no ground games whatsoever.

It's not McCully's fault he gets to fight guys with no ground skills.

Actually, I think Cane will work Jardine relatively quickly.

Now that I think about it, Mauro & Bas in mafioso track suits FTW.

That, or Mauro & Bas, a la "Casino:" Narrator: "Tong thought he got away clean, settling away somewhere nice and deep in some Mexican hell-hole where he thought no one would look for him..." *Bas & Mauro, toting guns, chase Tong through a Mexican backstreet, off screen* Narrator: "But then, Kazushi Sakuraba was recognized as "Greatest Japanese Fighter of All Time" by ESPN. Naturally, higher-ups in FEG were worried he'd come out of hiding just to speak out about it, and so..." *Tong tumbles on-screen, wounded, as Rutten approaches* Bas:" I'm sorry, frie...no I'm not! BAM!* *Rutten coup de grâces Tong*

I LOL'ed. I'm envisioning "Black Rain"-style culture clashes, and a "Get Carter"-esque finale, with me catching one in the back of the head. Suggestions for the triggerman? I'm thinking Quadros.

He won the Nakamura fight, too. Just didn't get the JD.

Fuck Liddell. Yuki Kondo Fans for Truth!

The only time Tito was getting the better of the striking exchanges was in the 1st round when Rashad was flat footed. In the 2nd round, yes Tito landed two nice knees in the thai clinch... But Rashad was peppering Tito with his right hand while Tito was doing little to nothing. Granted there wasn't much striking going in the 2nd, and the guillotine was the main reason why it was 9-9 because it was the biggest impact of that round. I have the fight in front of my eyes right now. Strikes landing clean: - 30 seconds in: Tito lands a 1-2 - 10 seconds later, Tito lands another jab, Rashad counters with a 1-2, with the jab landing. - 1:20 in: Rashad throws a 3 punch combination, the last right hand lands. - 1:42 in: Tito lands an inside leg kick - 1:51 in: Admist some exchanges, Tito lands a jab - 2:13 in: Tito lands a knee to the body; 5 seconds later, an elbow - Seconds later, Rashad lands an elbow and right hand - 2:35 in: Tito lands a knee to the body - 3:05 in: extended exchange, Rashad possibly lands a right hand (the camera angle is from behind Tito); Tito lands a knee to the body and a right hand - 3:20 in: Tito lands a knee to the body, Rashad lands a right hand - 4:00 in: Rash throws approximately 5 punches to Tito's ribs after an Ortiz takedown, intermittently throws 4-5 more in the next 30 seconds And that's it until the guillotine. I didn't bother including a PBP of all the thrown strikes that didn't land cleanly (IE- Rashad's numerous punches glancing on Tito's arms, Tito's glancing low & body kicks). Rashad landed a handful of times standing; Tito landed more. It's simply fact. Tito was hit harder and more often by both Belfort and Couture on the ground, and neither fight was stopped. Tito failed to defend about 5 weak hammerfists. There's little reason to believe that Tito's apathy at that point assured he was going to continue to get hit en route to a stoppage. And again, Rashad couldn't even be bothered to land anything of effect until the last 60 seconds of the entire round, and even then missed most of what he threw. "Rashad is just moving away, though. This is the slowest Tito has looked the entire fight. The most weary, and Rashad's just not doing anything about it." -Joe Rogan I'd call you a hypocrite, but that's hardly the worst I could do.

Rashad wasn't getting the better of Tito. He still wasn't winning the striking exchanges: he had had no way past Tito's reach advantage and 1-2's on the outside, and was outworked in the clinch. For every decent strike Rashad landed, Tito landed 2. Add in the near guillotine and mounting, and it was obviously Tito's round. Again, you can complain about Tito grabbing the fence, but Rashad did the same himself twice in the fight. If anything, the cage-grabbing was more detrimental to Tito in the end. The round was nothing close to dominant. Tito gassed, but Rashad still couldn't manage to do much of anything. The first half of the round featured no action outside Tito scoring another takedown and trying to mount Rashad. Rashad managed to regain his feet, threw some shots on a sprawl, and then continued to move away until the last minute of the fight. he finally started to throw some strikes (missing most), and got a nice last minute takedown and followed it up with a few weak hammerfists. Saying he was close to a finish is ridiculous, especially compared to the trouble Tito had him in at the end of the second.

Just rewatched Henderson v. Kondo again, and I forgot just how bad that decision was, IMO. When does a fighter earn a JD when he's mounted for extended stretches of 2 out of 3 rounds, is thoroughly outstruck, and whose offensive output tops out with some takedowns and one right hand? When that fighter is Dan Henderson. Granted, Kondo didn't blow him out, but to hear Bas cheerlead as Mauro made preemptive excuses for Dan just made the JD that much harder to take. Perhaps it should've been expected: Henderson has had unparalleled luck with judges throughout his career, while Kondo had the exact opposite luck in PRIDE (v. Henderson, Nakamura, & Gono).

Comparatively, he looked worse than say, Trigg, Marquardt or Filho in victory over him.

Dude missed a few, and some of the ones he picked had better examples: Air Raid Crash: Melendez v. Uematsu Reverse Cradle Tombstone Piledriver: Minowa v. Filho Belly-to-belly Suplex/Lateral Drop: Erikson v. Goodridge Clothesline: Blackburn v. Heleno Ground Cobra Twist/Banana Split/Twister: Strebendt v. Elliot Back Drop Driver: Menjivar v.Palmer Running Powerslam: Stevenson v. Davis (Not sure about this one) That's all off the top of my head, as I won't bother getting into submissions in pro-wrestling that are obviously MMA moves as well.

From what I can recall, Santiago didn't really look that good, as he was consistently outstruck and outworked between decent grappling attempts. Also, it may have been the quality of the stream, but it looked like Misaki did almost nothing to avoid the choke until Santiago already locked it on, instead simply using his arms to post and leaving his neck completely exposed.

< drunxor

Don't hate me for being so quotable.

3 times, compared to the 2 times Rashad did so was also warned. And Tito saved himself from what? A guillotine victory?

I'm saying that in general, guys in the early-mid 20's don't put on 30 pounds of pure muscle onto already athletic frames.

Redundant drunk post.