Lei Tong

How about I continue transporting UFC rankings here? *boos* Oh, come on. You guys wouldn't know a decent featherweight if he rolling kneebarred you! *boos grow*

Fat Boy = BJ Penn Bitch Tits = Josh Barnett

Any K-1 connection would be noteworthy only for making Fat Boy's return to the UFC slightly less improbable.

To be fair, while Gono has a good gas tank, the fight with Acacio obviously took a bit out of him. I mean fighting Hendo at 185 is a tall order anyways, but having to fight a very fresh Dan after having gone 15 minutes with another Top 10 fighter? Not exactly an envious position.

Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto Purebred Tokyo/ Killer Bee 5'4, 145lbs 12-1 Strengths: World class wrestler; powerful; viscious G&P; heavy hands both standing and on the ground; improved striking; solid chin Weaknesses: Smallish FW, even smaller LW; limited submission skills; often reckless Biggest wins: Tetsuo Katsuta (TKO/G&P) Jeff "The Frog" Curran (UnaDec), Caol Uno (TKO/cut) Akira Kikuchi Purebred Tokyo/Killer Bee 5-8, 167lbs. 13-1 Strengths: Good judoka with good takedowns and takedown defense; very good top fighter with good submissions & G&P; strong; improved stand-up Weakness: Somewhat ineffective off his back; often relies too much on overpowering opponents; does not match up well with the division's best Biggest wins: Jake Shields (UnaDec), Katsuya Inoue (TKO), Jutaro Nakao (SplitDec) Akihiro Gono Team Grabaka 5'9, 183lbs. 23-11-7 Strengths: Well rounded striker with good leg and body kicks; good ground fighter; well rounded; very tough to submit Weaknesses: Not a great finisher; often has trouble finding his rythym when pressured heavily; often lackadaisical Biggest Wins: Crosley Gracie (UnaDec), Daniel Acacio (UnaDec), Ivan Salaverry (KO/spinning back kick)

Anounced last night: Tatsuya Kawajiri vs. Joachim "Hellboy" Hansen on Febuary 17th, for Kawajiri's SHOOTO Welterweight Title.

Pretty much all of Killer Bee (Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto, Akira Kikuchi, Koutetsu Boku, Atsushi Yamamoto, etc.), as well as Hatsu Hioki, Ganjo Tentsuku, and AKIHIRO FREAKIN' GONO. I might do some write-ups later.

RRR: grabbing of the trachea is illegal, and Florian tried to tell the ref the second time Cope attempted it.

Sorry guys, ROTR has the lock on orgasmic WW tournaments coming up: Trigg, Verrissimo, Kikuchi, Fukuda, Kunioku, Hallman, Shields, A. Silva, Riggs, Hieron & Okami all being rumoured. Of course, in a perfect world, Penn kills himself via dieting for a bit and enters himself.

Oh, also of note: Cope came THIS close to pulling of MMA's first chokeslam.

Out of curiosity, did any non-MMA fans reading this watch the show? Your thoughts?

Diego really accentuated his strengths tonight, with good submission defense, ground scrabling and explosiveness. However, he also showed an overreliance on his G&P, and against someone with sprawl, his takedowns are going to get stuffed badly. And his stand-up is still his stand-up.

30-27 x 3? BULLSHIT. Props to Diego, though.

STUPID gameplan by Diaz. Rather than even attempt to sprawl, he tried to kimura a very tough guy to submit every time out. Props on boths guys ground skills, though I think Diego's G&P got a little exposed. Close fight overall.

First fight result: Kenny Florian def. Kit Cope via submission (RNC), Rd.2 Cope looked much improved than he did years ago when he first started outin MMA, and used his size advantage to keep the fight standing, and he hurt Kenny standing a couple of times in the first round. However, Florian eventually got a couple of takedowns and mounts, the second time unleashing a G&P flurry into an armbar. However, Cope hung tough for a few seconds and tapped out JUST after the horn sounded to end the round. However, the damage had been done, and he went into the 2nd round with his right arm looking useless. Kenny had a much easier time scoring a takedown, and within seconds took Cope's back and locked in the RNC for the tap out.

The undercard has been put together pretty well, which is makes it a shame that none of them will be seen on the telecast instead of Imes/Rashad snoozer.

And in the HW final no one cares about, Rashad should lightly punch Imes for 15 minutes en route to a JD.

Well, even if I didn't want to see Diego get curb stomped based on his personality alone, my pocho-ness would probably lead me to root for Diaz anyways.

I still stick by my idea that the HW winner should immediately be shot execution style by Arlovski, because quite frankly none of these guys will ever deserve to face him.

Diego is slightly better than Koscheck, but that doesn't mean Diego would do as well as him, because styles make fights. Koscheck's wrestling is exponentially better than Diego's, both in regards to takedowns and ground control. It's very unlikely Diego would control Fickett on the ground like Koscheck did, while not too much a stretch to imagine him getting caught standing the same as Koscheck was. While you bring up a good point about Hughes/Verrisimo (and I wouldn't put it past the UFC to protect their investment), I think Diaz is going to be tagging Diego enough on the feet and working from his guard too well for even the judges to not take notice. Like I said before, I think Diego's tenacity will keep him going, but Diaz is going to give him hell.

Diaz is better than Terrell because: 1) He has actually faced and fought through from adversity within a fight. 2) Though Terrell was able to steamroll most of his opponents standing, Diaz' more calculated approach to striking has served him very well. 3) (Tied to number 1) Diaz is much better defensively, both standing and on the mat. I'd say the only things Terrell really has on Diaz are his strength & explosivness, though the latter didn't exactly help him vs. Tanner.

Guys better than Sanchez? I don't hesitate to say that Karo, Fickett, Lytle, Jackson & Lawler are better fighters than Diego, while guys like Hurley & Lynn are around his level. As far as similar match-ups: -Fickett is a good wrestler with proven submission skills (though not quite on Diego's level), and better striking as well. Diaz dominated the fight both standing and on the ground, and G&P'ed Fickett to a stoppage in Round 1. - Karo has arguably better submission skills (who has been in with some extremely hard guys to submit), much better takedowns (of a different variety) and though not incredible standing, has a bit of pop in his right hand. Him & Diaz went back & forth throughout their bout, though the action slowed cosnderably after neither could quite keep up the torrid pace they set for themselves. Karo won a very close Split JD. The closest thing to Nick Diaz that Diego has fought was Jorge Santiago, a BJJ black belt from ATT. Like Diaz, he's a lanky submission fighter, though his stand-up is nowhere near as good as Diaz, and I've liked Nick's submission work a bit better as well. He's a tough guy who Diego was able to dominate him throughout, though his submission defense seemed to give Diego some problems throughout the match (close armbar not withstanding). Diego won a Unanimous Decision.

Diego's only saving grace in this fight will be that he's a tough guy to put away, with a decent chin and good submission defense. The problem is, pretty much everything he does Nick can do better, and Diaz has been in there with guys who: - are superior wrestlers to Diego - are better strikers than Diego - have better submission skills than Diego I see Diaz more or less having his way with Diego aside from a moment or where he tries to work from the top. Diaz via JD.

No, becuase while Rashad could beat on Whitehead, Murphy, Jardine, etc. for years without actually accomplishing anything, Vera would likely (and has already) taken those kinds of guys out with some ease. And in regards to Diego's hair: Hey, I know how as a Mexican how hard it can be to train one's hair, but I feel like I need a shot just from looknig at Diego's nappy locks.

"He fights like a street fighter..." ... so says he of bullrushing takedowns, caveman-esque standup and vagrant hair.