AboveAverage484

That was a 50-50 shot given that the SWC was the conference involved. IIRC, Baylor and Arkansas were about the only teams in the conference NOT on probation at some point in the 80s. Wasn't SMU on some harsh, almost "death sentence" probation around this time? Their program has never really recovered either.

He looked awesome against Alexander Otsuka, though! Oh, wait...

So I was surfing around DVDR and somebody had the balls to mention Jeff Monson as possibly the number 3 HW in the world behind Fedor and Sylvia (which is debatable itself). It bears mentioning that this was a mod as well.

Fedor's too good for nicknames.

You know, I don't know if he's underrated, but Bruce Springsteen doesn't get enough respect for his writing abilities. Every single one of his songs his proper albums was penned by him, and he has nine albums that are widely respected in many circles. Not a small feat.

Leena has nice abs.

I think Nogueira is the only fighter I've never seen a bad match from. I even liked his match with Ricco Rodriguez, even though it's been three years.

That's the difference between Randleman and guys like Dan Henderson. Even though Bas is no ground wizard, Randleman is content to just take people down to prove he can take them down at will. Henderson, on the other hand, won't go to the ground with jiu-jitsu guys and won't stand with standup guys. It's all about using your strengths to exploit the other fighter's weaknesses. Randleman was just content to lay there when he should have been busier trying to improve position. It doesn't matter if Bas gets up or escapes when Kevin tries, because he had already proven that he could take Bas down pretty much whenever he wanted. Then again, I wasn't in the cage with Bas like he was, so I don't know what to think.

Sakuraba vs Anthony Macias from Pride 7 is probably one of the most fun fights you'll ever watch.

Iggy is usually more methodical but he really pressed the action in that fight. I guess a better example of how Schilt does against aggressive fighters would be to watch his fight against Bonjaky in the Finals last year where he KO'd him with a knee. Semmy isn't the most exciting K-1 fighter to watch; he throws his jabs and front kicks until he can find an opening to fire in a right straight or one of his long knees. I don't expect as much success for him this year as last because K-1 is REALLY cracking down on clinching and inactivity in fights.

Nein. Don't confuse Schilt's later successes in K-1 with his MMA striking abilities. Someone as relentless and reasonably big like Yvel could've given him hell at any point of his MMA career, though would would easily be KO'ed by the lanky fuck in his current K-1 campaign. Well if you're judging that by their mma fight, Schilt wasn't allowed to punch to the head. Yes, they were allowed to punch to the head in that fight. You might be thinking of Pancrase, in which Schilt had many fights. I don't think you can base Schilt's standup on just his fight against Yvel. After all, that's the only fight that Schilt has ever lost the standup in. Yvel is one of those fighters that can be a bad matchup for guys like Schilt because of his aggression and wildness; see: Rampage vs. Cyril Abidi. No, I said Schilt couldn't punch to the head. He wasn't wearing gloves. Gilbert was. I'll go edit my post. Oh, ok, sorry, I was still a "mark" MMA-wise when I saw that match. Still, when you add that to the equation, it just adds credence to Schilt's standup performance in MMA.

Nein. Don't confuse Schilt's later successes in K-1 with his MMA striking abilities. Someone as relentless and reasonably big like Yvel could've given him hell at any point of his MMA career, though would would easily be KO'ed by the lanky fuck in his current K-1 campaign. Well if you're judging that by their mma fight, Schilt wasn't allowed to punch to the head. Yes, they were allowed to punch to the head in that fight. You might be thinking of Pancrase, in which Schilt had many fights. I don't think you can base Schilt's standup on just his fight against Yvel. After all, that's the only fight that Schilt has ever lost the standup in. Yvel is one of those fighters that can be a bad matchup for guys like Schilt because of his aggression and wildness; see: Rampage vs. Cyril Abidi.

His striking is A+ for MMA, his wrestling was ass, and his BJJ, while fairly pedestrian in the start of his career, but it gradually progressed to where he was able to avoid the higher skilled ground fighters' subs and sub some of the weaker ground fighters himself. He'll be the first to admit his takedown defense was his weak point, just watch his fight against Randleman and hell, even against TK where was awarded a couple of fortuitous standups even though TK was improving position and staying busy with elbows and ground and pound. I think he could hold his own against the Silvas and the Shoguns since his Muay Thai was waaay better than their's could ever hope to be. It's guys like Arona that would give Rutten a hard time. In fact, Arona would probably be the worst possible matchup Rutten could ever (not) hope for. I would say top 15 or 20 all-time (he only fought two "true" MMA fights his whole career), but in a sport where the eras are so diversified it's hard to tell where he would truly be ranked.

Exactly. Sylvia's reach IS his takedown defense. Sylvia being thick as hell helps too, that way he's not in Semmy Schilt territory; probably the best strikes out of anyone who's ever come out of the HW division, but his takedown defense was shit. I didn't explain that very well, but I'm sure you get the picture.

I hope everybody realizes now how bad Monson would wasted by Arlovski OR Sylvia.

Liddell's never been known for his knees or his clinch game. The only two strikers Quinton had trouble with, Wanderlei and Shogun, were primarily clinch and knee strikers. Quinton has beaten better kickboxers than Shogun and Silva before (Vovchanchyn and Liddell) and as far as I can recall Quinton has never shown weakness to any strikes but knees. I've always thought Quinton's standup has been underrated. Also, I think what Paragon said abaout Chuck and the cage is true, but it's true that anybody fighting in the cage has that advantage. Strikers feel more comfortable outside of the confines of the cage and in a ring, while wrestlers enjoy the cage more than the ring. BJJ stylists are neutral, I guess it depends on whether their standup is stronger than their takedowns or vice versa.

Quinton's standup is way better than people give him credit for. I think a rematch between the two would be really close. If anything, the cage helps Quinton's style and the ring helps Liddell's... puzzling

Other confirmed fighters: Nogueira, Silva, Hunt, Kohsaka, and Fujita!, WHOA, didn't see that coming.

Here it is. No big complaints, really. The stuff that was good was at or near the top, the stuff that sucked wasn't. Good job DVDR posters.

Baroni is more than likely in the Bushido WW (185) GP. I assume Silva will be fighting Coleman in the first round if they both are in it.

Yoshida vs. Nishijima... ON! for the Grand Prix Cro Cop vs. Minowa... ON! for the Grand Prix Aleksander Emelianenko vs. Barnett... ON! for the Grand Prix Overeem vs. Werdum... ON! for the Grand Prix I like the last two matches, the first two can burn in hell. If they wanted to give Yoshida and Cro Cop buys, they should have just said so, like I think they will with Fedor.

I'm glad I don't watch wrestling. Anymore.

Arlovski knocked Sylvia down standing and then subbed him. I can't really see a different outcome this time around. I was watching Tim's match against Gan McGee the other day from UFC 43 or 44 and Tim and Joe Rogan were all like "Bring on Fedor!" Ahem.

I doubt Rashad will go back to heavyweight, it looks like lightheavyweight will be his weight. Rashad isn't that bad, mind you it was hard to get past Hoger's guard. Hoger is a tough fighter, I hate the guy, but he is one tough son of a bitch. He would give alot of fighters problems. He would have easily won that fight if his takedown defense didn't reek of ass.

I don't hate him but he does kind of suck. He just seems so one dimensional. Not like Arona or Filho, fellow lay and prayers who at least posses competent stand-up and grade A ground games. As soon as he faces someone with some semblance of takedown defense and who can rough him up standing, he's finished.