Lei Tong

Florian's most likely going to to sub Stout, and get boliterated in turn by Double 'Er.

As decreed by FATSEXY, Fedor's new nickname is "Hate Crime."

3? Fedor, Noguiera & Hunt have already bested him, and then there's the theoretical match-ups vs. Arlovski & Kharitonov.

Meh. I would've rather had them stick their old NYE tradition and play nothing but undercard matches that hadn't aired on the PPV's or UFN cards. Oh, well... at least I got to see a bit of Double 'Er.

Car accident as a child, IIRC.

More on Genki/Kid (from SpacePotato at SD): And on Nakao/Herring:

K-1 Hero's LW GP Finals weigh-in results: Genki Sudo: 70kg (154lbs) Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto: 64.5kg (142lbs)

Considering they felt it necessary for Rogan to give a history lesson on Penn/Hughes when he was brought out at the last PPV, they're probably not expecting many of the newer, post-TUF fans to know who he is, and thus doubt his ability to draw PPV buys immediately.

Two words: Antonio McKee. Okay, broken record time: - Miletich submitted Alessio, not vice versa. - Miletich only ever lost one decision, to Kiyoshi Tamura in RINGS. - Miletich was TKO'ed 3 times (by Matt Hume, Jose "Pele" Landi-Jons & Matt Lindland), submitted once (by Carlos Newton) and choked out by Jutaro Nakao. - While a good fighter, Pat was actually more feared by fans than opponents due to his economical style, which hardly won him admiration when he was still fighting. And at best, Miletich may have been one of the Top 5 WW's in the world, but no higher.

Meh. Yanagisawa sucks, and watching Fedor spin around on top of him for 15 minutes was hardly entertaining to me. By the time Fedor slowed down in the second, I was praying Evan Tanner would materialize and side choke Yanagisawa and end it. I could say the same thing about the Arona fight (who Fedor was a bit reticent to throw against for fear of the takedown), with Fedor basically headlocking Arona for 10 minutes while he gets mounted like an old whore, afterwhich Arona gasses a bit in OT and Fedor finally gets some offense in. On Marquardt, in spite of whatever the reasons for the underwhelming fight, I think it's a bit harsh to demand that almost any fighter, much less a world class, often-entertaining one, be completely shut out from the big leagues based on one performance.

Diaz will tag Riggs, after which Riggs will shoot in and miss most of his G&P en route to a JD win. Afterwards, he'll bitch and moan that no one wants to stand with him.

On a completely different note: "Hokazpwnmachine" may be my new favorite unoffical nickname for a fighter, replacing Tom "SHITCOCKMOTHERFUCKER" Sauer.

The UFC MW division fluctuates a good deal. Every half year or so it goes from being utterly stacked to desperate for new talent.

- Personally, I found Fedor's fights with Yanagisawa (sans the close armbar), Babalu (sans the toe hold) and Arona pretty boring, but I also know people who liked each fight, so to each their own. Granted, I didn't particularly enjoy Marqardt/Salaverry outside of the final round, either. - On the issue of the TV audience, I think it actually had an adverse effect on the guys rather than motivate them. Florian had mentioned after his fight with Diego that the tension got to him and basically shut him down against Diego, and I think it happened to Nate and Ivan as well. Neither guy wanted to blow such a big opprotunity by letting a dangerous opponent take them out quickly and become nothing more than fodder for the other guy's highlights. I'll address the other points in a bit.

Somehow, I doubt a guy who had already put on his fair share of safe and/or boring fights in RINGS would've thought to himself, "Geez, lots of people are watching. I guess I better throw caution to the wind and risk blowing my big league debut." Ask Aaron Riley, Gerald Strebendt, Dave Strasser, Jeff Monson, etc. if the UFC would rather have guys who thrill and show a lot of heart in defeat, or guys who would rather follow the MFS attitude of "Just win, baby!" Marquardt guessed (correctly, as it turns out) that it would be better to be a boring winner than an exciting loser given the UFC's history.

I don't necessarily see how Mayhem showed more than how to keep a smile on while getting throughly wrecked. Comparatively, I think a clear win over a top flight fighter in a lackluster bout is a much better way to get another chance to prove yourself.

Nothing much accept try to defend himself in front of the NSAC. Beforehand, he had beaten the ever loving piss out of Kazuo Misaki and decisively defeated Izuru Takeuchi once again, and with Almeida's retirement became the top dog of Pancrase's 181lbs. division. I've always blasted Marquardt for his inconsistency, but the kid is skilled and at least tried to turn it up late against Salaverry. Besides, if even a single boring non-performance was enough for a guy to be blackballed from the UFC, Dana wouldn't be so fond of Pat's boys

Because he's a damn good (if inconsistent) fighter who at least put forth a bit of effort against Salaverry, and the UFC desperately needs contenders now that Lindland is gone.

- Fedor's going to go 3-0 this year, but with only 1 win really meaning something (Filipovic). Uh-uh. - Andrei's resume looks slightly more balanced (though Mirko is more proven than anyone on his resume), but he's dominating good fighters in a rather mediocre division. I mean, Buentello and Eilers are good for what they are, but the fact that either has ever approached the Top 10 speaks volumes of the state of the division. - Franklin's resume looks similar to Andrei's, with a dominant win over a mid-Top 10 level guy (Tanner), a KO over a borderline guy (Quarry) and Shamrock thrown in for hilarity. Decent ledger, but nothing mind blowing. - Hughes only has two wins this year: one over Trigg (who St. Pierre utterly bitched months later), and one over Riggs, who is still highly unproven at WW. As for MY candidates: Mauricio "Shogun" Rua - Managed to defeat 2 Top 10 caliber LHW's , one former and one current Top 5 LHW's (Jackson & Arona, respectively), and Kanehara to boot, stopping all but one of them. Georges St. Pierre - Easily defeated the also-ran Strasser, then completely dominated the Top 5 Trigg in one of the most one sided fights you'll ever see between guys of their caliber, and then took out former #2 guy Sean Sherk in similar fashion as well. Takanori Gomi - Started off shaky, looking vulnerable against Azaredo and lackluster against Silva, but then managed to defeat PFP fighter and #1 LW Tatsuya Kawjairi in decisive fashion, and added another win over Azaredo. Though only the Kawajiri win really sticks out, a win over the rejuvinated Sakurai (now currently viewed as Top 5) would add a bit of luster to his ledger. Hayato Sakurai - Started off by a little shaky with a JD over the game Viera, then moved back up to WW temporarily to defeat the underrated Aoki, and then managed to defeat the criminally undersized Pulver & proven Hansen. Like Gomi, only one win really sticks out (Hansen), but if he manages to defeat Gomi, now widely recognized as the best LW in the world, his claim to the FOTY title grows immensely.

Dude... common. When was the last time Holanda offered up advice as awesome as "KNEES TO THE BUTT!?"

Finally caught up on my Hero's watching, and here are some of my thoughts: - Mork fared much better agaisnt top flight competition than I thought he would (undoubtedly aided by Takaya's willingness to stand with him), but his ground game is still shit. - Genki is a Che-loving hypocrite who's going to get smashed good by Kid. He looked pretty mediocre even in victory, especially the complete unwillingness to engage with Takaya. - Kazuyuki Miyata may be the most improved fighter of the year, but with the way K-1 is bringing him along, I don't think he'll ever manage to put together a winning record. - I still need to see Kikuchi/Kunioku to see what all the fuss was about. - "Even 10 years past his physical prime and with minimal cross training, Sam Greco is still by far the best prospect of the K-1 fighters who've tried MMA." - Koreans love their size disparities. - I love Min Soo Kim, and I don't care who knows it. - Even though the finishes came at the expense of two horribly oversized Kill Bees, Un Sik Song & Jong Man Kim ended their fights in style. - While this shows helps prove that pretty much anyone of any nationality can compete in MMA, it won't really matter what country you hail from if you rely mainly on TKD. - Kanehara got hosed on the JD. - Sapp can actually throw something resembling a straight punch. Suprising. - Akiyama needs to ditch the gi, though even without it, Nakao is still a much better prospect.

Bah, Randleman shit himself en route to victory over much better competition.

Bite your fucking tongue.

Forrest Griffin - Probably the best fighter going into and coming out of TUF, though with how he's fighting, not many people are going to get to see that. A slick grappler and ground fighter masquerading as a passable brawler. Could possibly be a Top Ten level LHW if he fights to his strengths. Stephan Bonnar - Good offensively both from the ground and on his feet (where he's tightened up his game a bit), but his defense, both striking and submission wise, leaves a good deal to be desired. However, he can hide both deficiencies with the ability to gut out punishment or submission attempts. Will probably never crack the Top 25. Mike Swick - Quick striker with legit KO power, he's still begging to get Leben'ed again with the way he sticks his chin out there. He's also got some skills on the ground, and could someday be a Top 10 MW if he could find a way to protect his chin. Chris Leben - Despite talk of his dynamite hands (more a matter of Leben being a southpaw throwing punches from odd angles), Leben's biggest strengths are his iron jaw (shown vs. Cote) and tenacity(shown vs. Doerkson). However, in losing to two smaller MMA newcomers in Koscheck and Florian, he showed a bit of one-dimensionality that the armbar vs. Dewees doesn't change. Might crack the Top 10 at some point, but his stay there will probably be brief. Nate Quarry - Finally had his 2nd shot at the big boys, and showed he still doesn't have what it takes. A good striker and ground fighter when on the offensive, he doesn't fare nearly as well when on the defensive and isn't great enough in any range to obliterate top level competition before they show him up in some area. Will probably float around the Top 25. Josh Koscheck - Easily the best prospect of the series, Koscheck already has wrestling skills to rival many of the elite wrestlers litering the division, but still needs time to up the rest of his game. He showed great improvement vs. Spratt, but even though he was definitely beating a Top 10 caliber fighter in Fickett, he showed that he still needs a bit of work, as he wasn't able to deal much damage and lost mount twice. However, he already has a great base for MMA, a good team to work with, some good natural instincts, etc., and could someday be a P4P fighter. Ken-Flo - Bad nickname aside, he's obviously pretty good grappler (if nothing too special) and can throw a bit on his feet as well. However, he's totally out of his depth at 169lbs, and I wonder how would fare against the best at 155-160lbs. Will probably never break the Top 25 in either division. Joe Stevenson - Another nigh-finished product going into the show, what you see is what you get: a good wrestler and ground fighter when he's on top, but nothing special when on the bottom or standing. His lack of stature will hurt him further as well, unless he makes the move back to LW, where he could arguably break the Top 20. Luke Cummo - Something of a mystery to me. While he proved a lot to me in his showing against Stevenson, he still has some glaring holes in his game that are going to be easily exposed the division's elite. However, like Leben, his sheer tenacity will probably carry him a ways, and if he could develop a solid ground game under Serra, he could possibly be a Top 25 guy in the future. Reshad Evans - Good wrestler with very good takedown defense who got a bit exposed by Jardine & Imes. Both shoed that he was very hittable (and Jardine showed that his chin could be cracked), and reinforced the fact that he's not a great finisher in the least. His wrestling skills alone could give many LHW's big problems, but will probably never climb into the Top 20 without other skills to round them out. Brad Imes - The definition of "raw talent," Brad obviously has a size and athleticism to spare. However, he'll need to be brought along gradually by Miletich and the boys, as he's shown that he can be hurt, and he'll need a good deal of training before he adequately negatre that fact. Almost too early to tell, but I think he has the potential to be a Top 10 fighter someday. Keith Jardine - Living proof that all the intimidating shadow boxing in the wrld doesn't actually make you an elite striker, Keith is the nonetheless a reasonably well-rounded fighter, though like Quarry, isn't necessarily good enough in any single area to compete with big boys. Could possibly be a Top 25 guy, though. Melvin Guillard - Seems to get buy on a lot of natural athleticism, and he's still fairly unpolished even with 25+ career fights. The talent to be something more is there, but my gut instinct is that he'l never realize that potential and will be content to do damage on smaller shows.