Lei Tong

Shooto Welterweight: 70kg/154 pounds Note: I'm not saying Gomi failing to make weight is certain, but after years of somewhat sporadic activity in a weight class specifically built so he could avoid the weight cuts he had to make before, I think there's a good chance of a weigh-in debacle. And if previous examples like Fiorivanti/Monma are anything to go by, the fight will go through regardless.

Early prediction: Either Gomi tries and fails to make weight, and Nakakura works him over for a lopsided JD, OR Gomi doesn't bother trying to make weight, comes in huge, and ragdolls Nakakura around for a lopsided JD.

What else could he have said? "Most of us would get smoked in MMA fights against trained fighters, as we're more or less stuntmen?" I give him credit for being diplomatic about it, at least. Josh Barnett says much more ridiculous shit on a regular basis. EDIT: Fake quote isn't meant in derogatory terms, JSYK.

3 NCAA titles would put him in Mark Schultz territory.

I think the point I was trying to make with that shit last night was that it shouldn't be surprising if Lashley's wrestling didn't look as dominant as one would expect. The "3 time national champion wrestler" line gets thrown around a lot in regards to Lashley, but often without the qualifying statement that it was in the NAIA, which doesn't hold the same level of prestige as even a NCAA Division II title. Plus, he won his titles while nearly 100 pounds lighter than his current fighting weight, which is obviously going to have a detrimental effect on how well most guys can move.

NAIA =/= NCAA <drunxor

way to not come off as a dick there Who asked you, you little pud? The point I was trying to make is that he said he enjoyed that heavyweight fight. Therefore, he may enjoy many BETTER fights from days of old The Ali/Frazier series, or Foreman/Lyle, just to rattle off two off the top of my head. Those fights are much better aesthetically, but I don't think those fights have the same sort of atmosphere that he liked about Vitali/Gomez.

No way Vitali has better technique than Wladimir. When Wlad actually bothers to throw punches, he's the best offensive HW since Lewis. Vitali has a leg up in that he actually shows aggression in his fights, but you'll never see him throw the same variety of punches and combos as Wlad does at his best.

Penn fighting Kitaoka would prove nothing, since Kitaoka still the same guy who'll never beat Inoue and lost to Ishige. Aoki is the other LW he needs to fight.

Nah, dude. "Fuck" is a good call for your boy.

Cassandra Calogera.

No way Johnson dominates Lytle at this point, IMO. Lytle's technical striking is superior, and he has the chin and balls to wade through the end of Johnson's punches to try and turn the fight into a trench war. Johnson has a wrestling advantage, but Lytle is hardly a novice off of his back, and Johnson's top game is still a bit unproven. I'd favor Johnson, but the fight would be competitive.

The thing is, Bas is a good guy, and easily one of the coolest MMA fighters I've ever met (probably right behind Tito), so it's not like I'm biased against him, but he was damn bad last night. At least Rice has the (weak) defense of knowing fuck-all about MMA. The thing that's amazing to me about MMA announcers & journalists being ignorant about fighters and events is the resources they have at their disposal which seemingly goes unused. Even those without access to the massive libraries of footage that promoters and matchmakers collect could simply go onto almost any MMA forum, say "Hey, guys. Hook me up with some of _____'s fights", and you'll have people falling over themselves to show them fights. EDIT: Also, it's technically their JOB to know what's up.

They basically insinuated that any fighter with a subpar record sucked; they ripped into fighters based on conjecture; Bas dissed fighters' technical acumen while putting over his own ability and accomplishments; etc. I can only remember a few specific examples (mostly relating to guys like Omigawa, the Koreans, & Sandro), but it was a pretty unprofessional tone they took all night, exacerbated by the fact that they obviously knew very little about most of the fighters coming into the tournament. While I've rarely listened to Rice on the stick, I don't know if I can remember Bas ever being so hard to listen to in the past.

The idea of Sylvia being beaten up by a random non-fighter having instant credibility speaks volumes about Timmy's standing in the MMA world. Also, having yet another MMA v. Pro-Wrestling debate hardly serves any purpose.

-Denis looked good in outstriking Kawahara, though he enjoyed a massive size advantage. Once he he shrugged off Kawahara's best shots, the bout was all but over. - Mann looked good as expected, though big props to Yamada for giving a good showing. I think it was a mistake to use such an aggressive ground game against a grappler like Mann, especially when you have such advantages on your feet, but I think he was intimidated by the fact that Mann ate everything he threw at him standing. - Despite being called out as the early favorite for Fight of the Night, Jung/Ishiwatari was even crazier than expected. Ishiwatari is normally a fucking dog in there, but Jung managed to break him mentally with his insane willingness to soak up punishment and get buck in return. Also a surprising aptitude for offensive grappling shown by Jung. - Kim/Kanehara was solid, though my other Korean upset pick took far too long to realize that his only shot at winning was to wade in and throw atom smashers. By the time he tried to turn this into a strategy, he had a bum leg and Kanehara had already built up a lead on the scorecards. - Sandro & Jaggers both looked like crap, with the wrestler getting taken down repeatedly and the BJJ stylist getting swept just as often. However, the ending was nice and is an early Submission of the Year candidate. - Despite being slept on by virtually everybody, Omigawa finally, FINALLY fought to his strengths in upsetting LC Davis. While Davis did look off a step, I don't think people are giving Omigawa enough credit for the fact that even with Davis at 100%, Omigawa has some stylistic advantages over him, especially with his wrestling. Also, can anyone figure out if he was parodying or paying tribute to Enson with his post-fight interview? Either one is awesome in different ways. - Phan/Kadowaki was supposed to be a hot sex grappling match, but instead delivered a decent little boxing match. I think Phan underestimated how easy it would be to roll over a Shooto vet via aggressive striking, though his efforts eventually did pay off. - Hioki looked as good as one cold hope for, and reaffirmed that he is one of the world's best grapplers, scoring another one for Japanese BJJ. The most promising aspect of the fight was that Hatsu wasted absolutely no time taking this fight to the mat where it needed to be. - York's chin is worse, but he strikes better, and that made the difference. Still, sad fight. - An uneventful Mo was to be expected sooner or later. His jitz could really use some work before he steps up against a good grappler. - Rice and Bas were fucking unbearable last night, having next to no frame of reference for half of the fighters outside of their on screen records, and their ridiculous shit talking on fighters reached disgraceful levels. The only positive points aside from Rice's DREAM zinger was that their idiocy was cosmically rewarded by some of their biggest targets (Jung, Omigawa) showing them to be fucking retards. Second round matches that need to happen: - Jung v. Denis: Korean Zombie vs. Zombie Survivalist. Should be another FotN match-up. - Mann v. Kanehara: A similar style match-up for Mann, though Kanehara is a bit more polished. - Omigawa v. Sandro: Another chance for Omigawa to pull an upset against a pre-tournament favorite who needs to prove himself. - Hioki v. Phan: Should provide the hot-sex grappling if Hioki obliges.

"In SOME tournaments, Hioki would've been bye'd right into the next round." Realest hit Kenny Rice has ever said.

This Ring of Honor commercial is fucking terrible.

I know y'all love Bas, but dude needs to stay off the mic.

Man, these networks seem really hard up to back promotions with no hopes for sustained success.

Breen laid down some good arguments on the sporting vs. entertainment aspects of MMA early in his radio show today. Worth a listen, IMO, seeing as how that's been a discussion here before.

"Land 24-hit combo to advance!"

Sounds about right. Input wise, it'll probably be a step back from the PRIDE game, as your moves will either be pre-selected or limited to those within your styles.

Why wouldn't he be in? He has wins over two other fighters featured in the game.

Eh, I overstated it a little, simply because I love that gif. Really, overstating the standing of pretty much any MMA headliner nowadays is pretty much par for the course.