Lei Tong

Pretty on point, especially considering the events of last night: "Fedor's two normal modes of operation are totally unconcerned, and amusingly totally unconcerned."

More proof that outside of Nog/Fedor, PRIDE's HW division isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Anyone who desires to see Sherk hump Diaz against the cage for 15 minutes is a homofag.

Meh. This card may as well be name "The Shot Ones," as it's likely going to mainly consist of depressingly one sided bouts featuring has-been's and never-will-be's, and meaningless, openweight squash matches hold no appeal to me. In the end, they're going to end up with a HW GP, which will be interesting only in that Fedor isn't the garaunteed winner. As for the BUSHIDO series, the Kawajiri & Hansen fiasco has likely taken them out of the running for a rematch with Gomi anytime soon, and thus Gomi vs. random featherweight will likely be your next lightweight superfight 9after Gomi/Thomson). As foir the MW scene, they're hoping to have a Japanese MW GP to find a contender for Henderson, which is stupid on so many levels. They also seem to have no idea what to do with their try-out winners, and yet feel the need to bring someone like Jason Black in.

PRIDE seems determined to suck this year. That is all.

Well, that and Gurgel is an average LW/mediocre WW.

Looks like Shooto is planning to bounce back VERY strongly from their relatively lackluster 2005 Year End Show. Info taken mostly from MSIA and BloodyKnux (NOW UPDATED): Shooto World Welterweight Title Match: Tatsuya "Crusher" Kawajiri vs. Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen Rumina "Moon Wolf" Sato vs. Antonio Carvalho "Lion" Takeshi Inoue vs. Makoto Ishikawa Kenji Osawa vs. Naoya Uemtasu Tenkei Fujimiya vs. Hiroyuki Abe Mizuto Hirota vs. Danilo Cherman Pacific Rim Welterweight Title Match: Kenichiro Togashi vs. Mitsuhiro Ishida Shooto World Middleweight Title Match Akira Kikuchi vs. Shinya Aoki Megumi Fuji vs. Misaki Takimoto

Looks like the issue has been resolved. The official reasoning is that the ISC didn't get the doctor's side of the story, who said that while KID did verbally lay into him, the only physical interaction between them was a light shove. KID also apologized for his actions.

No worries there. Cummo would smash Von Flue something fierce. Anyways, the trash talking should be fun. "You look like a dork!" "No, YOU look like a dork!"

So you took 2 matches that happened *this year* and compared them to matches that have happened in the past 3 years (while calling Tanner/Sinosic an "older" match)? One, Tanner/Baroni ended with the fans booing, two Kos/Sanford ended with a punch from the guard, three Loiseau/Tanner is a perfect example of what I was talking about with a guy dominating yet the opponent winning due to a technicality and the fans didn't seem to enjoy that finish either, St. Pierres vs. Sherk was entertaining so you have one, Trigg/Charuto wasn't entertaining because of the elbows and neither was Riggs/Doerkson. Florian/Leben is a good example of the cheapness of elbows. - Tanner/Sinosic: 4 years, 20+ UFC events since. Yes, "older." - Tanner/Baorni ended with fans booing because they thought Tanner caught a lucky break and early stoppage. - Loiseau/Tanner is an example of a guy not having the BJJ game to punish Loiseau for his weak bottom game, and then getting completely smashed by a barrage of elbows and punches. had the fight conitnued, Evan would've likely gotten the rest of his face torn off followed by a KO. Tanner was fucking DONE by the end of that match. You're REALLY reaching here. - Trigg/ Charuto & Riggs/Doerkson, even if not entertaining to you, were matches in which one fighter used elbows a good deal to help defeat their opponent, which hardly seemed to "buzzkill the fans." -I used those two matches because I went back through Zuffa-era UFC history and those seemed to be amongst the only matches (along with Sinosic/Tanner) that people seemed to have a problem with. - What was cheap about Florian elbowing Leben's face open? It's not like Leben had Florian on queer street when it happened (or even hurt enough to keep him from trying a leaping uppercut on him), and seemed at a loss as to how to KO a guy who wasn't actively swinging and leaving himself open to a blind southpaw bomb. How do you train to avoid lucky elbow strikes? This is completely unreasonable. And yes, it does suck. Matches would be more enjoyable without the elbows, as PRIDE has shown. So it's basically a PRIDE vs. UFC issue, huh? And what was lucky about these elbows strikes? Because they actually caused cuts? So is a punch or a knee or a kick or a whatever that incidentally causes a cut lucky? Intended high kicks landing as knees (Gomi/Ralph, Fickett/Koscheck) are a hell of a lot "luckier" than Florian landing elbows like usual. It's hard to say it was fair because there hasn't been many fights that have gone on when there was a cut. Who is to say what would happen? It's all speculation. Fighters who've been allowed to go on with vision impairing or massively huge cuts have a win percentage roughly similar to those who've continued to fight after having limbs broken or ligament damage incurred on them during the course of a fight. Those are pretty big "could ofs" especially when there isn't a lot of proof of blindness and shock in MMA due to cuts, yet the broken arm was still a broken arm. Off the top of my head: "I can't see." -Frank Mir Kazuyuki Fujita also happened to pass out from blood loss after his first match with Mirko Filipovic.

That's why he mentioned other matches that have ended flukishly, that weren't because of elbows.

Sucks for the guy who agreed to fight under rules which utilized a technique he didn't avoid. It does suck, but does it truly establish who is the better fighter? Hard to say. As you note, it can determine which fighter is better able to make use of the rules, but that doesn't necessarily make them the better fighter. Hughes-Newton, Fickett-Koschek and Irwin-Martin come to mind... Well, what of these two examples? Despite being on their way to losing their respective bouts, Irvin and Fickett were able to land moves even more "lucky" than an elbow from Riggs/Florian. Do they somehow have more basis to claim that they were better fighters than their opponents?

Apparently, KID is back to his dumbass ways, and with some post-event yelling and violence, has now gotten the every KILLER BEE member suspended from SHOOTO, and himself barred from even being the same building as any event run by the ISC.

Riggs/Lytle, Florian/Karalexis...and what else? Two competitive matches that ended due to legit strikes aren't a strong enough case to discount Loiseau or St. Pierre/anybody, Riggs/Doerksen, Trigg/Charuto, Tanner/Baroni I, Koscheck/Sanford, etc. No more frequently than Nakamura, but I don't see his thread. Sucks for the guy who agreed to fight under rules which utilized a technique he didn't avoid. The vast majority of cut stoppages from elbows have been rather fair, though of course older exceptions like Sinosic/Tanner still exist. And Leben wanting to continue when his continued, untreated bleeding could've left him blinded, and possibly even lead to shock from blood loss is less dangerous than letting him fight with a broken arm? It'll come to you.

Okay, let's cut this "Florian is lucky/a cheat/sucks nonsense" off at the knees: http://www.upstandingfuckingcitizens.org/i...id=97&Itemid=28 Also, consider that in the second instance of Florian winning via a cut caused by an elbow (vs. Alex Karalxis), he was hardly getting his ass kicked. Hurt? Sure, but it seems easy for people to forget that Florian had dominated the first round, during which time he nailed Karalexis with a liver kick that made Alex look like he was shitting himself. Now have there been shitty cut stoppages caused by elbows? Yes. Shitty cut stoppages caused by punches, knees or numerous other types of strikes? Hell yes. Shitty stoppages due not to cuts, but rather inept reffing? You bet your ass. To suggest that elbows are somehow the soul cause of questionable or otherwise improbable wins is recockulous. However, might I suggest that from now on no fight shall be decided by any technique without it's user first yelling out the move's name and intended effect, anime-style? "FLASH KNOCKDOWN ARM PUNCH OF 10-8 L337NESS!!!" Now, I would LOVE to have some UFC sponsored soccer kicks, head stomps, and three/four point knee attacks, but I'd also love spiking elbows and Johil D'Olivei... er, I mean headbutts, to be brought back as well. I'm for MMA fighters having as many weapons available to them, outside of no-no's like groin attacks, biting, gouging, etc. And what's with the constant "elbows vs. knees/stomps/soccer kicks" debate, as though having one automatically means prohibiting the other?

It's funny because it's true, and it's true because it's funny!

Kikuchi has wins over Shields, Inoue, Kunioku, Morgan & Brudvik (the last three complete stompings) over the past few years. Triggs biggest win to date was Charuto, who just got obliterated in 20 seconds by Carlos Condit. What else has he done lately except struggle with Jhun? Meanwhile, Aoki himself has dominated Ikemoto, Wisniewski & Hironaka, was robbed of a win agaisnt Mach, and has now defeated Kikuchi. Hence... 1) Hughes 2) St. Pierre 3) Aoki 4) Kikuchi 5) Karo 6) Trigg ... could easily be argued.

Dan Severn is still fighting in MMA nowadays because he's pissing away his legacy with worked fight after worked fight.

To celebrate Aoki's amazing upset, here's an older fight of his: Shinya Aoki pwnzers Keith Wisniewski

It's a pretty vague plan considering how ambitious the entire project seems to be. Also, good luck getting medical clearance for a fighter that was KO'ed 6 weeks earlier.

It's Urijah "He kicked my face, I swear!" Faber.

I actually picked Sato to beat Carvalho before he had a chance to fuck-up, but instead ended up finishing last in the Pick 'Em. Carvalho probably moves near the Top 5 with the win, while Sato will continue to get nuthugged by those who know no better.

8 seconds in. Kawajiri wanted to continue, but apparently the ring doctor wouldn't let him. A rematch was anounced at the end of the night, possibly on the May card.

Results: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Joachim Hansen declared a NC (low blow by Hansen); rematch anounced Shinya Aoki def. Akira Kikuchi via Unanimous JD; wins SHOOTO World Middleweight Title Mitsuhiro Ishida def. Kenichio Togashi via Majority JD; wins SHOOTO Pacific Rim Welterweight Title Antonio Carvalho def. Rumina Sato via TKo, Rd.2 Kenji Osawa def. Naoya Uemtasu via Majority JD Lion Takeshi def. Makoto Ishikawa via Unanimous JD Tenkei Fujimiya def. Hiroyuki Abe via Unanimous JD Kazuo Hirota def. Danil Cherman via Unanimous JD Maegumi Fuji def. Misaki Takimoto via submission, Rd.2

Battleship Redux. Don't remember Battleship? Exactly.