Hawkius Maximus

I don't see how the judging was whacked at all. Round one was Rampage Round two was Forrest, regardless of of 10-8 or not. 10-8 is a bit off, but Rampage did nothing and had his knee ripped apart. Round three was either man's. Had to say. Round four was Rampage Round five could have went either way, but I think Forrest landed more. A draw would have been the best result, but draw's don't happen in UFC.

I really like Brain Age. I've got the first one. It actually made me feel like I was getting smarter for playing it. More "on the ball" so to speak mentally. So that when I stopped playing it, I started feeling really stupid.

I strongly disagree with the "If you've played one Phoenix Wright game, you've played them all" assessment. I own the first three, and they all play differently. Sure, the basic idea is the same, but we don't say "If you've played one Mario game, you've played them all" or Final Fantasy (I HAVE people say that about Zelda though). In PW, you solve a case through investigating and dialogue. The actual act of gathering clues, and by what means, shifts with each game now to mention the progression of presentation. The storylines of all the games are tight and not repetitive, and I'd say they've gotten harder with each game. I blew through the first one within a day, and yet months later, I'm still stuck on the third one (I hate FAQs). Anyway, I'll be buying this when it comes out. Trigger is one of the few RPG's I've actually beaten due to it's great storyline. A revamped port will be welcome to my collection.

The only major webcomic that I know of that seemed to escape that fireball was 8-Bit Theater, and I guess that could be included in the sprite rants. He seems to despise ctrl-alt-delete though. All that was aimed at them in some way.

You have been paying attention to Bisping's 185 fight's right? Bisping is twice as fast as he was at LHW, and his striking is as crisp as anyone in that division beyond Silva. He doesn't throw huge shots because he doesn't have to. All of his hits are compact and controlled. Bisping's striking is textbook, just chained together at high speeds. There isn't anyone else, at the very least in UFC, that is as good as Bisping as at doing that aside from Silva. I've seen K-1 fighters who can't chain together like Bisping can. And further, we really don't know how Bisping would do in a full on stand up fight. He should have lost to Hamill, but that was more or less Hamill dirty boxing and over powering him. Leben, if he's smart will aim to take Bisping down (Leben is not smart), while Silva would strike with him. *I'D* be interested in seeing how that goes.

Bisping doesn't have power, but he creates power through the speed in which he strikes. There's very few people in UFC, or the world, that strike as fast as he does with the mix he does. He goes from hooks, to uppercuts, to flying knees with little difficulty. The sheer number of shots overwhelms people until they collapse. That's happened in both his recent fights. He has just enough power to stun, and when their stunned, he kills. Bisping's gameplan will be simple against Leben. He'll stay out of the pocket, and nail Leben when a chance opens. Logically speaking, for every one shot Leben will land, Bisping will land three or four. Even Leben's willpower to stay up should eventually crack, if only because he'll mentally go "I'M BEING PUNCHED. ALOT. THIS SUCKS". Bisping's striking may be near Silva's quality in terms of fluidity, form, and quickness. He just doesn't have Silva's power. and I think Leben/Bisping will do good in the US as the main. Rashad/Bisping did surprising. Leben's as known, if not more so, and far more charismatic. And with those two, I could see it turning into legitimate dislike. Dislike = Money.

Michael Bisping can sell out a UK show pretty much on his own now. Chris Leben will provide soundbites of him talking shit about Bisping, and possibly the UK. People will want to see Leben die, and stylistically, it's an interesting fight. Bisping's never really fought someone so tough. Leben and his "Zombie-fu" has upped his ability to take damage and come back from it significantly. Leben I would assume has more power, but he has to connect first, and on the ground who knows. This fight won't mean a goddamn thing in the US, but in the UK? I can see them eating it up. Bisping alone is the attraction. Who he faces is just icing now.

I watched Wipeout on mute...but I lost interest when I saw you could fall off the obstacles, land in the water, and continue. Some of the contestants were flat out bailing in the water to avoid some of those things. Sasuke has ruined me, in that water = INSTA FAIL.

They have to keep Showtime happy as well. Showtime will get one big fight, CBS will get two. Makes sense. Showtime's given them a lot of leeway. They could still get nuked with a bad rating or two on CBS.

To be honest I almost think that it has to be either the Chuck/Rashad loser (should the winner get the next shot at the title) or the Rampage/Forrest winner for the belt (if I'm wrong about the Chuck/Rashad winner). Logically speaking, Lyoto really shouldn't have to fight again to earn a title shot...but then again, UFC made Jon Fitch fight for a looong ass time before he got his. Lyoto's going to have difficulty getting opponents from what I've read. People do *NOT* want to fight him. It's a two pronged attack with Machida. The odds of a boring fight are high, and the odds of losing to Machida are high. You could lose AND have a boring fight. Double whammy. Out of those four names, I think Rampage or Rashad would have the best shot of beating Lyoto, if only because their wrestling is so strong. It's possible they'd be able to slam him and neutralize him. I think Liddell and Forrest would both lose, and likely quite handily by decision. Both are still somewhat wild punchers, which plays right into Lyoto's countering style. All it takes is one missed punch, and WHAM.

I attribute a lot of my personality, and views from being exposed to George Carlin...I randomly found one of his specials nine, ten years ago when I was around 11 or 12. I became a huge fan immediately. I have a personality completely alien to anyone I've ever known or met. And really, most of my views came from his routines. Good or bad, he made a huge impact on how I view the world. Institutions, people, thoughts, I wouldn't say I adopted them, but he put me on the path. I can't say I'm sad about him passing...He lived until he was 71. He had a good life, and he died quickly. I think in the end, what will be missed is his wit, intelligence, and his ability to be one of the few people who truly saw through the veil of bullshit in the world. I will say, it's odd to see all these memorials of his life when he was highly critical of the practice, and thought the idolizing those that passed as idiotic and artificial. Now it's happening to him. It's just...odd.

The worst MMA commentator I've ever heard is Daman "The Dawg" Perry, where it sounded like Bas wanted to strangle him on the few shows they did in between the Quadros-Ranallo switch. Kenny Rice is REALLY FUCKING CLOSE though, if only because he's a moron and is covering DREAM when he obviously has no idea about DREAM's scoring system, the rules, or the fighters. It's horrible. If it wasn't 5 AM when the show ends, I'd expect Bas to bitch slap him. Then again, Bas doesn't seem to know the rules sometimes. I personally do not like Ranallo. I like that he is like Rogan and has a free mind...but his use of big words for the sake of using them, and his horrible prepared jokes or comments makes me hate him. For my money, the best MMA team was Quadros & Bas, without question. Quadros to me is the best lead commentator, and is at the least acceptable as support, knowing when to get in with comments and get out. Quadros has a good voice, is highly knowledgeable and isn't afraid to let other people have a word in. Not to mention he had great chemistry with Bas on those shows. Ranallo/Quadros/Goldberg is acceptable as a team, with Ranallo bringing the over excited commentary, Goldberg with the obvious comments, and Quadros with insider~! views. I like Joe Rogan as a commentator, I've been one of the few that has since he started. I think he plays favorites a bit, but he's generally fair. He's also not afraid to say whatever he feels like saying, which adds some variety and humor to UFC broadcasts when Goldberg just meekly goes along with Rogan's tirades. Rogan actually acts like the lead commentator during fights since he knows so much more then Goldberg, which is an interesting development of the pairing. As for Mike Goldberg...Not a fan. Then again, I hate Goldberg for things UFC makes him do. Like hyping the main event of a PPV...on the undercard of the PPV I ordered WITH that main event. I *BOUGHT THE FUCKING SHOW* WHY ARE YOU HYPING WHAT I KNOW I'M GOING TO BE SEEING?!?! I also hate "IT'S ALL OVER~!", just for an irrational reason. I think the man is more shill then commentary, but with Rogan calling everything in his stead it makes an acceptable team. Goldberg shines when there's a third person in the booth where he can fade in the background and let Rogan and whoever it is (Couture was probably best...) do most of the legwork.

It's pretty easy to say a high level wrestler is his weakness. Why? Because both his losses are to high level wrestlers. He was completely unable to beat Koscheck because he couldn't get him down. There were mitigated circumstances there with Diego's health, but the easy point is Koscheck used his wrestling to negate Diego's ground work, and beat him on points standing. Regardless if he could do it NOW with what Diego showed doesn't matter. He did it. And Jon Fitch is even easier. He pretty much completely shut Diego down with his wrestling. Diego had some moments, but he lost because Fitch has superior wrestling. It's a conclusion to come to given the evidence if only because Diego's only losses are to high level wrestlers as stated.

TUF Finale was good...hurt by the poor time management and the usual ho-hum production, but I always bitch about that when it comes to UFC so there's no real reason to go back to that. I think Amir is going to have a great career in UFC...He was easily the cream of the crop, and I think he actually hid that to some degree. Twice against CB, he showed off very good submission skills yet we never really saw that until well into the show. To me, he comes off as highly charismatic, and a very intelligent fighter. In every single of his fights he "should" have lost, but he "found" a way to win as the saying goes. I'd be willing to bet that in every single one of those fights, he had a plan on how to win the fight, and he won that way. I really think within a year or two, he's going to be someone to really watch, if he's not already. We don't even fully know what his credentials are, and how good he can be. He's an X factor, because there's no real reference material as it pertains to his skill set. Diego looked like a goddamn monster again. Luigi was tough, and held his own, but damn. Diego's main weakness will always be against a high level wrestler who can control him, but against someone his own style, or a striker? Diego eats their lunches. Kendall Grove looked great against Tanner...but that's not really a new thing. Kendall's shown flashes of serious potential every so often. If he can pull everything together, Kendall should be a force in the UFC Middleweight division, but it's hard to say if he will.

The Middleweight GP final four is good...but it won't draw in Japan. None of them have any real star power. If beating Sakuraba gave someone star power, Manhoef would be fine...but it doesn't anymore. Out of the final four, I'd say Jacare has the drawing potential. He's obviously becoming liked, what with the fans doing his goddamn Alligator dance with him. DREAM will probably stack the rest of the show with fights that can draw. On the opposite side, the Lightweight GP is going to draw like gangbusters. Eddie Alvarez is liked, Aoki & Uno are really known and liked, and Kawajiri has interest. Those four should do pretty damn good drawing. It has to be said though...HDNet's production of this is abysmal. Bas sounded like he was asleep, Kenny Rice is by FAR the worst announcer I have *EVER HEARD*, with more biases then I've ever heard. He was actually claiming that Mayhem Miller might win the fight against Jacare, which was absolutely mind blowing. I think he was so biased to Mayhem that he was somehow warping reality around himself and seeing a DIFFERENT FIGHT. And their translator sounded like he wanted to be anywhere else in the world then doing translations. They filled intermission with an interview with Monty Cox about Adrenaline, which says everything. Cox apparently claimed that FREAK SHOW FIGHTS ARE THE THING OF THE PAST IN JAPAN~!. Hilarious.

DREAM tonight should be quite great. The lineup has some intriguing fights. I predict the final four of the Middleweight tournament will end up being Sakuraba, DONGER~!, Jacare & Kin Tai Ei I've also went out on a limb and say that Nagata beats Aoki by decision.

Luck or Skill...Amir's got determination and toughness. Considering he was 0-0, that says alot about him. I'd give him a fair shot against anyone left, really. CB will probably murderize him if they fight, but I don't think it'll be easy for CB.

The MMA/Wrestling thing has been mentioned countless times by both sides, but inherently, regardless of people on either side agreeing to it or not, MMA and Pro-Wrestling both spawned in their current forms from the same stock. They are inter-related, and they always will be. In Japan, it's not even worth mentioning because there's no way anyone can say it isn't, but even in America...the biggest MMA draw of all time (Possibly #2 or #3 depending on your outlook), Ken Shamrock was a trained Pro-Wrestler who was quite well known for his wrestling abilities. Dan Severn also did much Pro-Wrestling and even restored some dignity to the NWA World title. Both of them wrestled in WWE. Don Frye has wrestled all over the world. Mark Coleman as well. Pretty much ANY major MMA fighter before the Zuffa purchase has participated in Pro-Wrestling to some degree. Someone like Josh Barnett completely blurs the line between the two. MMA, even the UFC, steal aspects of Pro-Wrestling such as angles, manufactured feuds, "gimmicks", and advertisement to promote themselves. Look no further then Brock Lesnar in UFC. That wasn't in an isolated world. They readily used WWE, WWE's help, and his credentials to sell that PPV, and they will every time he fights. They are different beasts from the same breed. That's why both Bryan and Dave cover them. And if you're not listening to the Bryan & Vinny show on F4, then you miss out. Best thing on the entire site for me still.

This thread begins and ends with Segata Sanshiro. He once made a goal in a soccer game by grabbing an opposing player and throwing *HIM* into the *BALL* in *MIDAIR*. It is also worth noting that if he hip throws you, there is a strong possibility you could then explode. Lest us not forget that if he caught people *NOT* playing the Saturn, he would proceed to beat the hell out of them. The motto? "Play Sega Saturn or Segata Sanshiro will kill you".

If New York sanctioning was the big event, then there's two things that spring to my mind. 1 - Dana White is a fucking moron for going through all this hype without it being confirmed. If the bill isn't passed then what's he going to do at this highly touted conference? Come out and play on a kazoo? Maybe he could do the TUF theme on it. 2- The other...is I live in Washington. What the *fuck* does NYC sanctioning have to do with me? Why make this such a big deal? It's another territory. I don't think anyone is going to go "OH MY GOD UFC IS PROMOTING IN NEW YORK!" unless you are from New York. If that's the announcement, then it just reeks of a desperate attention grab in the wake of the events lately. That their blowing something way out of proportion just to make people talk about them again. Very Vince McMahon-like. And every time Vince does that without delivering, it backfires on him.

There's two positives to Matt Sydal on ECW. 1) We get to see Sydal every week 2) Their letting him go out there and hit fancy moves to get over. Another positive, is everything Sydal has used is very safe, just "tweaked" due to his personal style. Not a single thing has been risky thus far, with the worst being the lift into rana spot, but that's a common spot. He could have a bright future.

Sengoku 3 was last night. Since it's not gonna be airing in the US, I shall hit on small details as I remember them. Have no memory of the opening fight. That's not good. OH, wait. It was Fabio Silva versus Yoshiki Takahashi. Good fight, actually, with them just winging punches. Silva *KILLED HIM* and then proceeded to try and LEGITIMATELY KILL HIM with a fucking Bloodsport-like stomp, and a face kick. Fabio's not that good, but he's got the intensity of his brother. Next fight was Damm (I only know that name because it's AWESOME) and Jordav...something. Pretty boring fight until Damm just fucking KILLED the guy with a cross counter, and then proceeded to have the greatest celebration in MMA history. He leaped in the air, flung about, then ran and dove onto his knees like a soccer player, and at the every end before he got to the back, he threw his hands up and screamed out "YEAH~!". Money. I think the third fight was Marcio "De Pe Pano" Cruz vs. Choi Mu Bai. Not much to this one, just two big guys grappling. Predictably, if you get caught with Cruz, he's going to own you. Choi was eventually caught in this fucking WHACKY sideways triangle into an armbar. Awesome submission. I am going to results to help me with this... Fourth fight was Chris Rice vs. Sanae Kikuta. Two things. Rice gets MASSIVE props for being one of the few English speaking MMA fighters with creative balls. He came out in a black robe, a fucking scythe and a blank white mask. It was actually really effective, and vaguely creepy. Sadly, he could not fight in the mask. The other, is Kikuta got him with an armbar, and IMMEDIATELY freaked out because he thought he had hurt Rice and checked on him. Incredibly classy. You don't see that often. He was legitimately scared that he had actually hurt his opponent. Most fighters don't care. So credit to Kikuta. Final fight before intermission was Michael Costa who gets UNGODLY praise because he came out in suspenders, a fedora, and proceeded to DANCE TO THE RING, against Nick Thomson who just looked angsty and like he had come from the woods. This was a good scrap, back and forth, until Thomson got him with a keylock turned into Kimura which was really nice. I really wanted Costa to win just so he'd dance some more though, sadly. The only fight to go to a decision also had a questionable decision. Kazuo Misaki and Logan Clark had a good fight, where Misaki won the JD when he probably should have lost. In the end, it doesn't really matter, because both came out looking much better then they went in. Clark is a complete unknown, but he had good striking, and really high aggression. He pressed the fight the entire fifteen minutes and looked really good. Misaki, while he didn't get the big shots, showed alot of maturity as he dealt with the MUCH larger Logan Clark by trying to chop Clark down with low kicks (That started paying off when Clark slowed down later), and became a great out boxer, as he hit and got out, or countered when Clark would charge. In the end, I think Logan should have won the JD, but it was one of those fights that only helps both regardless. Clark should see steady booking in Japan after this fight. The biggest WTF moment of the year happened in the semi main event as Travis "Mr. No Buys" Wiuff KO'd Kazuyuki Fujita. Out cold. I don't know how this happened. I still can't grasp this. He just nailed Fujita as he charged, and then beat him with methodical hammer blows. I believe this is the first time Fujita has EVER been KO'd, and the man has taken around fifty full force facekicks from Silva, and Fedor's hooks. Yet TRAVIS WIUFF KO'D HIM. At least when Hunt went down, it was due to a body blow. I have no explanation for this one. As my friend said, I somehow blame Kendo Ka Shin for this. The main event went about as expected. I really doubt Maurice Smith came to Japan with a thought in his head that he was winning this fight. In this case, it doesn't really matter if they worked this or not. Yoshida was/did going to submit him no matter WHAT they did. As it was, Smith landed some low kicks, got backed in the corner, Yoshida yanked him down with a headlock, and then proceeded to try and rip his head off with a neck crank. Smith had absolutely no hope on the ground with Yoshida. I tuned out during the post show...4:30, I was done. Decent/good show overall though.

Shitty is a good way to describe him. Machida doesn't take risks, but if there's an opening he will take that shit, and try to finish people. He just won't strike unless it's there. That's being smart. Swick just...I dunno what happened to the guy. He HAD shots to win the fight, but he didn't try. At one time, he was really fun and while he's never been elite, I at the very least wanted to watch him fight. This is his second boring fight in a row that I can remember right now. I don't want to see him fight. He's like a WW Travis Wiuff. Just NO BUYS. And he WINS which makes it *worse*. We need to be able to strip him of that "Quick" nickname. He sure isn't "quick" in his fights anymore.

My problem with Swick is simple. He's boring now. And he had no intention of trying to win beyond doing what the absolute minimum was to win. Nor was he intending to fight in round three until he *HAD TO*. He was clinching and running away, not engaging because he knew he had already won rounds one and two, so why try in round three? And then he lost the point, and suddenly he was fighting. Night and day. It was his STRATEGY to give up the third round. I'm never down with that.