Lei Tong

Just thought I'd share: ADCC Women's 60+KG Division Matches to watch: Yabushita/ Buckner Coenen/ Kondo Cartwright/Gjellsten Cartwright/Coenen And completely avoid any and all Juliana Borges matches.

In other news, with Karo Parisyan on the shelf with an injury, Joe Riggs has seemingly been able to dehydrate himself into a title shot. Let this be a lesson: if you can't succeed in your current weight division, cut enough weight until you eventually find a division where you're ridiculously larger than eveyone else. Then, maybe your head-first G&P style will cease getting you traingled.

- I'm one who ranks Arlovski over Mirko, simply because while their wins are mostly over similar comeptition (though Mirko's record is far more bloated), Arlovski has continually impressed against that level of comeptition while Mirko often seems content to mail it in. Sylvia, Buentello & Matyushenko are pretty comparable to comeptition that Mirko has beaten (and in Sylvia's case, above it), and none have made it out of the first round with Andrei (or even the first minute, sans Matyushenko). Add in leaving Justin Eilers with a list of injuries you're likely to see stem from a car crash, and I think it's safe to say Arlovski has looked far more impressive lately. Hell, I'd probably rank Kharitonov over Mirko nowadays. - Outside of 2 wins over Rampage, Wanderlei has been doing little of note over the past few years, aside from beating undersized and/or fringe competition. He also certainly hasn't helped himself any with the lackluster performances he's put on as of late, while a number of other LHW's have stepped up in that same period (Shogun & Liddell being prime examples) and utterly mauled their competition.

Well, considering every season 1 fighter got an TUF finale fight, and the winner of those fights have been brought back since, I'd say Luke will mostly likely be seen in the UFC a bit.

Oh, common. A keylock attempt from bottom side? Apparently, Kikuchi beat the ground skills out of Morgan.

Man... that fight did for sloppy ground fighting what Von Flue/Gurgel did for sloppy striking. Exciting fight nonetheless, and though Stevenson is going to pulverize everyone in his path, hopefully Cummo will work on his ground game enough to cut out a niche for himself at 169lbs.

-Kid would handle Menjivar much like he did Curran, though Ivan would have a much better chance of stopping the takedown and/or gaining top position than Curran, though I highly doubt he's going to Menji-plex an Olympic caliber wrestler. Kid's submission skills are still not well developed, but with his power he's dangerous both on the ground (at least from up top) and on the feet. He also has a proven chin, and I could see him keeping up the agression enough to earn a clear JD over Ivan. - Eh, I'm not sold on Aleksandr at all. Thus far he's been able to overwhelm some overmatched competition, but the two live bodies he's faced so far have predictably shut down him down to verying degrees. I'd highly doubt he'd win a prolonged striking exchange against Sylvia (or arguably even Buentello), and his ground game has looked pretty average. Add in a questionable gas tank, and I think Alkesandr is looking to get taken out by the next true contender he faces. As far as Aleks vs. Scherner, I actually wouldn't be too suprised to see a sumo-style first round before both gas and Aleks whacks Scherner with some sloppy punches.

-Vera's resume is hardly earth shattering, but I like the guy's potential and am infinitely more impressed with his in-ring performances than the likes of Aleksandr or any other number of HW's. - The biggest hinderance to Kid's P4P status is that he never made it to the top of his own division. He thoroughly dominated the likes of Kadowaki, Katsuta & Curran, but hopped ship to K-1 before facing the world's best featherweights (most of whom he'd be favored against). Had he actually stuck around and dominated 143lbs. a while, then moved up as he has, he'd probably have a much stronger P4P claim.

PRIDE results: And UpstandingFuckingCitizens' MMA rankings, which are scientifically proven to be better than any other website's (these were from before the latest PRIDE show, so no spoilers): Heavyweight 1. Fedor Emelianenko 2. Antonio Rodrigo "Minotauro" Nogueira 3. Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipovic 4. Andrei Arlovski 5. Sergei Kharitonov 6. Tim Sylvia 7. Aleksander Emelianenko 8. Fabricio Werdum 9. Paul Buentello 10. Brandon Vera Light Heavyweight 1. Chuck Liddell 2. Mauricio Rua 3. Ricardo Arona 4. Randy Couture 5. Wanderlei Silva 6. Renato "Babalu" Sobral 7. Antonio Rogerio "Minotoro" Nogueira 8. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson 9. Alistair Overeem 10. Tito Ortiz Middleweight 1. Rich Franklin 2. Dan Henderson 3. Matt Lindland 4. Nathan Marquardt 5. David "The Crow" Loiseau 6. Murilo Bustamante 7. Evan Tanner 8. Akihiro Gono 9. Ivan Salaverry 10. David Terrell Welterweight 1. Matt Hughes 2. Georges St. Pierre 3. Frank Trigg 4. Karo Parisyan 5. Akira Kikuchi 6. Sean Sherk 7. Nick Diaz 8. Renato "Charuto" Verissimo 9. Drew Fickett 10. Jake Shields Lightweight 1.Takanori Gomi 2. Tatsuya Kawajiri 3. Vitor "Shaolin" Ribeiro 4. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai 5. Joachim Hansen 6. Yves Edwards 7. Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto 8. Josh Thomson 9. Koutetsu Boku 10. Mitsuhiro Ishida Featherweight 1. Gilbert Melendez 2. Ivan Menjivar 3. Joao Roque 4. Rumina Sato 5. Yoshiro Maeda 6. Antonio Carvalho 7. Hatsu Hioki 8. Jeff Curran 9. Miki Shida 10. Tyson Griffen Pound for Pound 1. B.J. Penn 2. Fedor Emelianenko 3. Matt Hughes 4. Takanori Gomi 5. Georges St. Pierre 6. Dan Henderson 7. Norifumi "Kid" Yamamoto 8. Gilbert Melendez 9. Hayato "Mach" Sakurai 10. Rich Franklin I don't agree with all of the rankings, but they're far better than the likes of MMAWeekly's, for example.

Rashad looked alot better this time around, though he still had problems initiating, instead mostly waiting to play of Whitehead's actions. However, as Hughes himself alluded to, Rashad isn't a good finisher, as he lacks KO power in his hands, and doesn't have the positioning on the ground to really unleash damaging G&P or apply submissions.

Well, last week was the Rich franklin show, so this week is probably Matt Hughes. I assume that means they show both the Trigg fights, knowing them. I think that they should show the Sherk fight and the St. Pierre fight, to build those two up for their fight since they both gave Matt a hard time (and probably the hardest beside the Trigg low kick and the fighter_that_cannot_be_named). Maybe they'll show the Newton fight instead from 34. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That made me laugh much harder than it should have.

I think they're are certainly improvements waiting to be made already, and that an overall much better MMA game is waiting to be made. It's more of a matter of the sport not being popular enough to warrant a high-quality product being made just yet.

My interest has waned a fair bit since late 2000 (though that's also in regards to pro wrestling in general), and I can honestly say I haven't watched more than 15 minutes of a show and/or PPV since 2002, sans a forthcoming exception. A few things here or there have caught my attention, but I never really got back into the swing of things to figure out what was happening in the promotion outside of reading the results at times. I actually remember taking my nephew to some PPV in LA a while back (can't remember the name), and damned if it wasn't kind of hard to keep myself from ruining his enthusiasm in the product with my usual cynicism. What I remember: - Most of the matches being quite tedious and the overall level of action being pretty low. - "Holy shit, Scotty 2 Hotty's still employed?" - "Chavo vs. Jacqueline? Time to get more shitty nachos." - "Oh man, a fireman's carry ended a title match? Paul Herrera, eat your heart out." - "When did Booker T start practicing voodoo? And I wonder if UT's gonna' bust out some shitty MMA subs like I hear he does?" - "I can't believe they're giving Bradshaw a main event push." I don't know what's changed since then, though as I already mentioned, I try and keep my eye out for some of the bigger happenings in hopes of something catching my interest (the Angle/Puder situation was one), but nothing really has. The most exposure I get to the prodcut nowadays is in the form of videogames, as I'm so desperate for a decent MMA game to be produced that I'll settle for a shoot-stylist CAW in the latest WWE game.

Tanner's never been a great stand-up fighter, and quite frankly it's a knock on Baroni's that he was undone by Tanner's "spinarooni" defense. Hell, even Tito probably could've obliterated Tanner standing had he not gone for the bodylock takedown.

I tell you, after while that fist just takes control of your body. You swear to yourself that you're going to pose with it, but damned if your hand doesn't instinctively curl up into a ball and shoot itself into the frame. It's a bit like Bas' finger, minues the awesome power harnessed within which makes it shake for a few seconds (anyone who's ever seen Bas take pictures will get that). Anyways, this is how we do it...[/montelljordan] Let it be known I have the worst picture face ever, and it saddens me that my psuedo-smirk had to ruin a picture with the awesome Baret Yoshida. Of course, there are exceptions to the "Fist" rule, one being when you're taking a pic with a hot female grappler like Stacy Cartwright. The problem seems to be that fewer female competitors seem to make the "Fist," and do you risk putting your arm around a woman who's grappling ability you fear and yet desire to have demonstrated on you? Especially when she's still banged up from the previous day of competition and looks like she still wishes she was in bed? So of course, I pussed out. Then of course, there are times when you're simply too busy getting your drink on to bother putting your beer down, even for the likes of the awesome Roger Gracie.

Cummo looked good when he finally let his hands go standing, but as was pointed out, he has something of a weird guard, and his wide-open half guard is begging to get passed by a better ground fighter like Morgan or Stevenson. Torres, despite being horribly limited, showed that Cummo can be put into trouble on the ground, and let himself down with soem terrible back control that made Penn weep.

You posed with fighters and didn't raise "The Fist?" Sacrilege!

Yes, I was speaking of Gannon/BLH. And dude, Brandon Lee Hinkle sucks as much as any other Hammerhouse fighter, he just happened to be fighting a guy who had no business being in the Octagon.

I'm literally disgusted that the UFC allowed that match to happen. A fucking disgrace.

Quite a few guys can throw some good knees in the Thai clinch (hell, even Ken managed to KO Kimo with one), but Vera's was definitely one of the most beautiful knees since Jermaine Andre faceplanted from a well-placed Lance Gibson knee. If you like spectacular KO's, the last UFC had a pair of very impressive KO's by Tim Sylvia & james Irvin, and of course the UFC has an Ultimate Knockouts series on DVD.

Bah. If Goldberg has to refer to a cheat sheet to remember who Carlson Gracie is, the WWE is welcome to him.

As it is, I think Diego is still a slightly better WW based simply on his submission skills (which are legit) and aggressiveness, whereas Koscheck is still a bit too apprehensive. Koscheck already has comparable positioning skills up top, but as Josh himself said, he should have never let go Fickett so far into the match as to catch him with that knee. Anyways, the rear mount hase been completely nerfed, and is hardly the dominant position it once was. The introduction of gloves has made it very hard to slip a hand under an opponent's chin who's actively defending. This of course wouldn't be as big of a problem if they hadn't removed strieks to the back of the head and spiking elbows. Spiking elbows can be argued as too dangerous, but when all you can throw from the rear mount are little from-the-side punches, it's going to be a lot easier for the guy on the bottom to shake those blows off and focus simply on defending the choke. Loiseau, Gomi & Fedor are all guys who have taken advantage of this and see that giving up one's back is now not even as bad as being mounted. On a side note, Loiseau's average takedown defense & penchant for giving up his back leads me to believe Penn could defeat him very easily.

Looks like Seth was able to launch his crotch into Dan's foot enough times to guilt a non-performance out of him.

God I hate the pussification of the rear mount in MMA. Oh, and Koscheck is already almost as good as Diego, bad break or not.

The fact that I can't think of HW's with the skill sets to give Mirko & Noguiera the problems Fedor did is yet another condemnation of the division, IMO. On a P4P scale, I'd say a HW version of "Kid" Yamamoto would give both hell. A world class wrestler with viscious G&P, natural KO power now fortified with improved kickboxing skills, improving submission skills, a good chin and enough muscle to compete with skilled guys who outweight him by 15+lbs. BTW- on the subject of LHW's who could go up in weight to fight Fedor, I think it's worth mentioning the gift Fedor got against Ricardo Arona. He may have pulled that fight out in the extra round, but he didn't necessarily deserve to get to that point in the first place. But anyways... While Mirko is indeed very skilled on his feet (KO versus Randleman not withstanding), to say the list of fighters better on the ground than Noguiera is slim is a bit off. Most MMA HW's don't have great submission skills, and it's not rare for some obviously very limited big guys to rack up submission victories. In my opinion, a figher like Shaolin who can be so dominant on the ground in a division with a plethora good ground fighters is a much more impressive feat than Noguiera's submission wins. I do believe Fedor to be very skilled, and often rank him amongst my Top 3 P4P fighters. But in the end, I'll take a few fighters' 2004 resumes over wins against TK, Filipovic, & possibly Dirty Bob.