Lei Tong

I think that's a pretty debatable argument. You could argue the versatility of either fighter being greater all day, but it's not a hands down win for either guy. I don't think anyone would argue that BJ's jiu-jitsu will likely always be better than GSP, they're striking is comparable, and Georges' wrestling is superior. However, on the idea of "natural" talent, I don't see how you could not give BJ credit for being a Top 5 caliber fighter in TWO divisions. Whereas St. Pierre is among the biggest and strongest welterweights around, BJ has essentially been a chubby lightweight who fights at welterweight (or even middleweight and light heavyweight) on a whim. I'm doubtful GSP could be competitive with a Top 5 MW, personally. Weight jumping isn't NECESSARY for a fighter to be considered great, but to downplay the few who can do it with some success (Penn, Yamamoto, etc.) is doing them a disservice.

They hardly throw you out of basic training if it just so happens that you can't take a punch.

SD wasn't so bad back in my day. Then again, we all thought Sakurai was invincible and that Old Vitor would return any day.

I'm having a hard time gauging how serious some of these unfamiliar guys are with their posts.

Your point makes no sense whatsoever. Every single fighter in every single division (aside from maybe LW since some of them may be Featherweight sized people) cut down from higher weights to fight in that weight class. Not quite. With the huge weight range for the HW division, most of the fighters in it don't cut weight (Brock is one of the few who does). Nothing wrong with it, but just saying.

I felt he gave Lauzon far too much respect in their fight and surrendered much of the initiative when he didn't need to. It din't much matter in the end, but he looked extremely gun-shy early and arguably gave the first round away.

Depends on what one means by "prime." You could say Hopkins was young or physically prime when Roy Jones beat him yet he was hardly the crafty mastermind that would go on to take apart fighters like Glen Johnson, Trinidad, Tarver, or even Pavlik in his greatest wins. Hopkins is in his 40s and should be past his "prime" yet since he peaked years after the Jones loss he has been a top p4p mainstay with only true elite fighters in an inspired Taylor and Calzaghe edging out very close wins against him. The word "prime" can be misleading. Hopkins has enjoyed one of the better "late careers" in boxing history, and beating him now is certainly nothing to sneeze at (it's arguable if it means more than Jones beating him "pre-prime," so to speak), but I wouldn't dare say that the Hopkins of today is better than he was 6 years ago. This can be said of many of Calzaghe's biggest name opponents: Calzaghe rarely beat them at the peak of their fighting ability. That really does count for a lot when considering someone's career. The predictions in the lead-up to that fight was a great example of mass retardation within the North American boxing community at large. Most fans and pundits wanted desperately for Lacy to be something special, despite absolutely average showings in many of his fights leading up to the Calzaghe match. While Joe was a heavy underdog going in, there were a handful of non-British boxing fans who saw the upcoming fight as an exposing of Lacy.

Entertaining night, but I didn't dig it quite as much as some other people. Too many easy fights to call with little competitiveness throughought. However, it was an obvious slam-dunk for winning over casual fans, with almost no lulls in the action (mid-fight, at least) lots of finishes, and of course, a main event they could get excited for. In that sense, it reminds me a bit of UFC 40. Individual thoughts: - Brown/Thomas was entertaining, though I can't bring myself to root for Brown after his postfight whining against Kim. - Glad to see Bocek finally show something other than positional grappling skills, though Robinson's worth as an opponent has quickly dropped. - Stephens looked as good as he ever has, but his seeming refusal to defend submissions before they're nigh locked is still troubling. - Didn't watch Gurgel/Riley too closely. Too drunk by then. Von Flue > Gurgel. 'Nuff said. - Maia shows us more of what we already know about him, though questions still exist about his chances against a higher class of opponent. - Gonzaga looked good, as expected, though Hendricks wasn't much of a test. Napao still needs to show he can win in the face of adversity. - Hazelett continues to be one of the most entertaining fighters to watch, especially in regards to the grappling game. As far as McCrory goes, dude's gonna' lose an arm permanently if he keeps trying to Gumby his way out of submission attempts. - It's amazing how many people are still barely coming around to how good Florian actually is. It was also a nice return to form after dissapointing showings against Lauzon & Huerta. Granted, Stevenson has never been great off of his back, but Kenny has shown himself to have one of the most well-rounded top games in MMA. - Props to Lesnar for beating Couture in a slightly different fashion than I predicted, but it still goes down as a good style match-up for him. Randy simply doesn't punch as hard as most other UFC HW's, he doesn't work off his back and even if he could outwrestle Brock, who else was expecting to? Luckily, Brock still has room to grow, but that's assuming he doesn't become too full of himself and assume he simply needs to become more of what he already is. Oh, and 8/8. Wish I had put some money down on this card.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7WSySqIOSs

If you're an optimist, Chris not being at any of the local clubs recently means that he'll be in somewhat decent shape. If you're a pessimist, he's simply been hanging out at different clubs.

I was attending UFC's back when they would simply cycle between 4 or so stock songs for every fighter outside of the main event. Also, my entrance music was the best ever.

Brock via TKO or Randy via TKO. There's pretty much no way either guy is going to have the energy to last through the 5 rounds of punishment either guy will throw the other's way from the top, and I don't see Randy or Brock giving up position to go for a submission.

Only 2.

I disagree that Calzaghe's career will go down as "great" at this point. While he'll rank on a lot of people's all-time lists, it'll be based more on his abilities than who he actually fought at beat. Even with a good late-career run, he's still more likely to be remembered for a decade of questionable matchmaking and reluctance to fight outside of the UK, with the only highly touted fighters he beat in or around their primes being Kessler & Lacy (and alot of people are of the opinion that Lacy may have never been as good as suspected in the first place).

As usual with any grappler making the jump to MMA/a guy that huge, the biggest question will be "Can he take a punch?"

Gordeau will forever be a piece of shit for illegally eye gouging, and prematurely ending the career of, Yuki Nakai.

Best exceprts so far:

Lesnar via TKO, 3rd. round. With wrestling comparable to Couture's, he'll manage to get on top of Couture enough to wear him down & vulnerable for a slow but steady stream of G&P for the stoppage, a la Barnett/Rico. I just don't think Randy has the punching power to deter Lesnar standing (I'm giving Brock the benefit of the doubt in regards to being able to get hit without shitting himself, compared to 75% of big HW's), and the idea of Randy dirty boxing Lesnar into exhaustion assumes that it's not tiring to clinch with a guy that massive for so long.

Well, if we get to play favorites... Velasquez > Carwin > Lesnar

McCrory ain't outgrappling Hazellet, and I've yet to see a fight he's dominated with striking.

While he's not my favorite guy to watch, he'll always have a space in my heart for exposing Aleksander Emelianenko.

Efrain's stand-up is definitely weaksauce, but Junie's isn't that great either. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt when it comes to how much the weight cutting effected him in the Delgado fight, but he also showed a succeptability to knees in the fight, which Efrain showed some apttitude for. Junie's saving grace in the fight is that Efrain's wrestling ability didn't live up to the hype, so Junie isn't likely to find himself being smothered by Efrain on the mat.

You're right about the probable match-ups, but I'm not so sure that Junie would beat Escudero with what he's shown so far. Shane was a better striker than Junie who couldn't punish Efrain enough on his feet, and they've mentioned Junie's succeptability to submission counters to his shots (they mentioned Efrain tapping him repeatedly before the prelims, and last mentioned Kaplan catching him in a guillotine). Of course, Junie doesn't really have any other road into the finals, as he's not beating Nover, and it's highly doubtful Nog would let Dana & Mir match-up Nover & Escudero.

It seemed to be based mostly on his eating a dozen punches in his prelim fight against "Machete Man" before dragging the fight to the mat. Yet another guy who really shouldn't have made it into the house.

Once all the bodily fluid stuff started really eating into this week's air time, it was obvious Nover was going to end Kaplan quickly... no, actually, it was obvious from the second they announced the match-up. Nover's defense still needs some work, but he's easily the most offensively talented LW of the season.