Lei Tong

Curry, there's no way in a million years that Elvis beats Bisping. No chance whatsoever.

Baret's always been a personal favorite of mine, though his limited MMA success and um... eloquence *cough*... have landed me on the BUTT of many jokes from my peers. In MMA, he's very chinny, underpowered and can;t wrestle too well. Hence the mediocre record. In pure grappling he's fared better, especially in no-gi competitions. He made it to the finals in 2001 and 2003, winning all but one of his matches by submission, IIRC. He was eliminated early in 2005 by Gilbert Melendez. though he recently won a ZST grappling tournament, which included a win over Reuben Charles (who then proceeded to completely own at Mundials).

Like most of K-Taro's Shooto opponents, Niioka was in over his head against a guy with too much experience. K-Taro has handled the jump up in class well thus far, though, having beaten Jhun easily (like everyone else, lately) and dropped a reportedly close one to Larson. He's scheduled to face Fickett at the next UFN, IIRC. Lion is SHOOTO's top dog at Lightweight (American featherweight), though outside of the Carvalho rematch he hasn't been as impressive as one would hope out of a SHOOTO champion, and a possible match with Hioki would arguably favor the Iron Broomstick.

Since it's been brought up... 'told you so.

Hermes/Sherk? I have no clue who not to root for more.

Once upon a time, Ricco Rodriguez was pretty good.

Okami could possibly cut to 170, though it'd probably be pretty hard. He's said he's more comfortable as a MW, and could probably add some bulk to his frame and still make weight easily. That being said, if he could handle the cut to 170, he'd pretty much instantly be a top contender IMO.

Dude, did you see the Starnes/Okami fight? The rib injury against Grove is one thing, but he broke pretty much the moment Okami took control, and offered absolutely nothing back as Okami easily finished him. For a a talented fighter who's used to taking out his opponents easily in the first round, it's not far off to assume that Startnes simply doesn't know how to adapt to adversity, and so simply quits to some extent when things aren't going his way. I like Kalib and hope he does well, but his quititude is somewhat proven at this point. Though, at least he hasn't turned into a raging faggot like Cote.

If Starnes can find some heart to compliment his skill, I have no doubt he could be a force at MW. Also, Swick will definitely be a tough fight for Okami, as he has better stand-up and can move on the ground. Okami's biggest advantage will probably be in the wrestling department, as he can likely take Swick down repeatedly and control the fight with G&P, as off his back Swick has shown a knack for reversing mount but not much else.

And that's why it's frustrating that the UFC has chosen not to air any of his fights. Granted, all have seen the third round and none have been barn burners, but he's largely dominated a pair of legit fighters in Belcher (who in turn is going to hurt Grove very badly) and Starnes (who already has a one round win over MacDonald), and thus is consequentally going into a very important fight against Swick with the average fan having absolutely no reason to care.

So people still define Okami based on an indecisive Silva fight, as opposed to being 3-0 in the UFC and a very legit title contender?

But he's never finished that triangle in his career. Even so, his knee surgey played a big factor in him not being able to finish it off, but it's still a submission victory either way, so it's irrelevent. You need to really stop hating on Anderson, or else next time we have an AV bet, you'll be rocking the Richard Simmions AV for much longer. Hey, Anderson is still there to be taken on the ground, but as long as the only person at MW with the intelligence to realize this is a dehydrated Travis Lutter, then I'm not making another bet on it.

But he's never finished that triangle in his career.

Edgar completely caught me off guard. I knew he was a great wrestler coming in, but I had no clue his positioning skills and punching were as well developed as they are, and figured Tyson would find a way to submit him by the second rough. Also, definitely the early leader for FOTY.

I thought it was because Anderson Silva had subpar takedown defense. It's pretty funny seeing all these rubes on other boards freaking out because Silva got taken down and mounted like it was some huge surprise or something. Thankfully, people here are a little more sensible. Anderson basically showed everything we already knew about him on the ground: a tight body triangle, a nigh-unfinishable triangle choke, and not much else.

Also, O'Brien/Herring is proof positive that people don't actually watch non-UFC fights, because what we saw was vintage Heath Herring. The same Herring who(se)... - got put on his ass by Enson Inoue - has been utterly schooled by every top flight HW he's ever faced - was largely dominated for 2 rounds by Yoshihisa Yamamoto - shit himself in an epic struggle with Giant Silva - last win was a semi-lucky, come from behind KO over Gary Goodridge - blew out his own knee throwing a high kick Herring has always been an overrated fighter (FACT: at no point in his career would Herring had ever been a Top 5 UFC HW), and in a day and age where being a big, semi-agile, jack-of-all-trades style HW is no longer enough to fool the ignorant masses of MMA fans that you're worth half a shit.

Considering O'Brien showed more overall skill than a 40 fight veteran, I think it's safe to say he's already shown interest in more than wrestling, and will likely continue to do so.

Does anyone honestly care about Overeem/Shogun II after Arona put his nuts in Alistair's ass?

Gomi is on steroids and/or didn't actually make weight, either one of which might actually be true.

Though, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the dissapointing revelation that Spencer has the biggest disparity between skill and intelligence in an MMA fighter. Boku/Franca couldn't be THAT hard for Miletich to get a hold of.

I love everyone hating on O'Brien, despite the fact that he's still a young guy with 20 months experience and little jiu jitsu training and just completely dominated Herring and mounted him like an old whore. Sure he couldn't submit him, but who has this millenium outside of Noguiera?

Evans/Salmon: Wrestler vs. wrestler match-up, which has a chance to be VERY boring, unless both get on some Couture/Van Arsdale shit, or Rashad simply dominates. Herring/O'Brien: Despite being terribly painful to watch from a technical standpoint, Herring is almost garaunteed to get the audience pumped as long as he doesn't mail it in, and the opprotunity for O'Brien to get a win over a well established name is reason enough to get excited. Fisher/Franca: Considering Franca's shit defense standing and Fisher's non-chalantness when it comes to being taken down, both of these guys are going to make the other look good. Of course I'm hoping Spencer pulls it out, because he really has no reason not to. Lister/Marquardt: Considering both guys are probably in line for a title shot (along with the winner of Swick/Okami), you'd have to hope they put on a fight that makes air (ie- is not drizzling shit). Of course, with how badly Nate outclasses Dean in most aspects of the game, he has no excuse not to end this early. Then again, this is Narco Nate we're talking about. Herman/Price: Price is pure feeder material here. Herman might put himself into trouble at one point or another as he is prone to do, but in the end should submit Price handily. Reiner/Burkman: Reiner is playing a similar role to Price, with a pretty looking record and some skills, but with no real hope of taking out someone like Burkman. Guida/Din: One of the more interesting fights on the card, as Guida is a wreckless psycho while Din is an oft-dissapointing technician. Guida is going to give it his all regardless of whether Din wants to fight back or not; the only question is if Din catches him like he should or if he lets himself get mauled for 15 minutes. Pointon/Clementi: Ross sucks and will likely never amount to anything, but I still hope he beats the piss out of Clementi. Clementi via sub, Rd.1

Wow... they sure went out of their way to make sure as little skill is televised as possible.

Hioki & Holanda are gonna' make that one depressing afterparty.

http://www.bloodyknux.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24007