Lei Tong

Via A>B>C logic, Marcos Galvao is the best featherweight in the world, despite being a bantamweight.

His stand-up could improve, but seeing as how his natural instinct to getting punched in the face was to walk forward and get punched in the face more... that's troubling.

Man, Rosholt simultaneously showed tons of potential skill wise while utterly exposing himself as a highlight reel KO victim waiting to happen.

Considering who some of the technical advisors on the show are, it's not too suprising to see the way they've portrayed the Mayans, though the way their club president handled their business was a bit much even with suspension of disbelief.

Everybody has. Though some of us were also hoping he could pull an Okami and fill out his frame a bit should he stay at MW.

The irony is that Sonnen is probably the second best guy he's betaen outside of Misaki. It could be argued that had something to do with the way he looked, along with Sonnen being the first above average (nevermind good) wrestler he had to fight.

Weems is still the only dude in TUF history that I'm fairly certain I could have beaten. Jules is, if nothing else, way bigger than myself.

Kitaoka's going to end his career with an extremely awkward resume, as he has already and will continue to beat some pretty good fighters, but will also end up dropping his fair share of losses to otherwise middling competition. The fact that he'll probably never beat Inoue is fucking hysterical. Also, it's nice to see someone finally agreeing to the fact that Minotoro ain't that good, as I was calling it since Matyushenko roughed him up years ago. There was a slight scare when he actually managed to beat Henderson & Overeem twice, but I think time has put both wins in perspective a bit more.

It basically comes down to whether you think that a KO is a KO, regardless of what point in a fight happens, IMO. Under just about any other circumstances, the fight would've been waved off as Bute fell towards the ropes again after he came back to his feet. I'm reminded of Merchant's comment on the Chavez/Taylor 1 ending: "Taylor earned those 2 seconds." To my mind, if a fighter is KO'ed in a bout, there's no way he can "earn" an exemption from the rules of boxing. EHME, I know you're doing your thing, but come on now: at least Taylor managed to stand up straight, coherent or not, as Steele counted. Bute likely would've collapsed again was he not near the ropes.

Bute was up by 8 on what would've been a pretty fair count, but was still wobbly and leaning into the ropes. By just about any reffing standards, that's not considered a good enough condition to stop the count.

SCOOPED! Also, humorous AND prophetic: "Funnily enough, I think Andrade actually has Bute right where he wants him."- Steve Farhood, as Andrade eats combo number 92 from Bute in the 11th.

Despite losing almost every round to Lucian Bute, Librado Andrade still managed to get screwed in his IBF Super Middleweight title shot. Andrade managed to blast a completely gassed and hurt Bute with seconds to go in the fight, only to be screwed out of a win as the referee hounded him over the fact that he was not deep enough into a neutral corner, and resumed his count on Bute... 14 seconds after the knockdown. Aside from liking Andrade, it would've been awesome to see the Romanian mob in the crown go absolute apeshit. SO fucking dissapointed and angry right now.

Why should they? He's a better fighter than most of the HW's the UFC currently has.

It was about as one sided of an ass-kicking as Lytle has ever recieved in his career, if nothing else.

Jose Napolean Hitler was active, but that doesn't necessarily equal "good," especially when his entire strategy was essentially to emulate "Ox" Wheeler in eating leather while fumbling around for a limb. Nover would've definitely eaten Junie alive on their feet, Escudero would've head & arm'ed him in some fashion, and Polakowski might've beaten him based solely on not being a giant beanpole like Delgado. I'll agree that a good deal of it was probably due to his cutting weight, but the fact of the matter is is that he arguably lost to an alternate who fought almost entirely out of his comfort zone. Overall, I'll stick with my earlier assessment that Nog made stronger LW picks despite going second (and catering to his hugging fetish).

Eh, I don't really blame Bisping for fighting like he did. Only Silva & Cote have been able to survive extended exchanges with Leben. More often than not, it ends with the other guy catching a blind shot and going down. Had Bisping gone out there and done the same, people would've derided him for trying to KO someone a puncher like Benji Radach couldn't KO himself.

I find Playboy pics to be touched up to an overly distracting degree.

One more thought: Unless it's somehow impossible to do so, they should really consider matching up fighters in the preliminaries better. There's no reason why Marshall & Grigoryan should've been fighting each other when a pair of no-hopers like Lawlor & Lopez were fighting for a shot in the house. Granted, they'll have to beat better fighters after getting into the house anyway, but I think it'd give otherwise talented fighters a chance to prove themselves even if they were unlucky enough to be badly matched in the prelims, and it keeps guys like Lawlor, Kaplan, Bruchez, and the rest out.

I'd give Grigroyan better odds against more of the fighters than Marshall, and I'd also view him as having more of a chance to improve during his time in the house than Marshall, who's already getting up there in age with a reputation for underperforming. As for Delgado: There's a video of him getting his black belt from what looks like a Gracie affiliate. Granted, the actual testing looks a bit iffy, but Roli won his division at Arnold's this year, so he's not all talk.

Also, Junie talking shit on Nover only to get amped for a fight with Delgado is a punk move. And, for the hell of it, the order I would've drafted the fighters given the chance (after the preliminaries, including fighters forced to leave from injury): LW: Nover, Escudero, Browning, McLaughlin, Nelson, Polakowski, Roop, Delgado, Kaplan HW: Bader, Soszynski, Britt, Grigoryan, Kingsbury, Marshall, Primm, Magalhaes, Lawlor, Bruchez

If you can't pop one off in 2 minutes, you're doing something wrong. So sayeth Bernie Mac. Also, I don't think anyone would argue that: a) Mir doesn't deserve a shot at Minotauro, and b) Mir's team is largely acting like immature assholes. However, I don't find really see how Mir was being disrespectful last night. While it's obvious Nog was more serious about the situation, it never actually showed me Mir saying anything contrary about talking to his guys. With the editing on these shows, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in that he did talk to his guys about, even if in passing.

Jardine has a good shot of winning if he can intimidate Vera standing, as Jardine has deceptive power in his hands, and vera doesn't handle punches well. However, Vera will enjoy advantages in most other areas, including striking at range, the clinch, wrestling, and his chin is made of sturdier stuff than Keith's. The ground game is a bit tougher to call, as Vera's ground game hasn't been as hot as it should be given his background, while Jardine's ground game is no joke (submitting Gamburyan was more impressive than just about anything else he's done outside of the Liddell win). However, I'd give the advantage on the mat to Vera, simply due to his wrestling skill and experience grappling with HW's like Werdum, Scherner, Whitehead, etc.

There was a really good chance that Alves was going to embarass Sanchez in Spratt/Lawler fashion. If nothing else, this fight will likely be more competitive.

I'll admit, I should have seen that one coming.

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