Hawkius Maximus

I was wrong about Muto winning the title. Fully admit that one. Most likely, it'll be Tanahashi that takes the title off Muto. But it has to be stated. Keiji Muto may be the smartest man in Pro-Wrestling. Not only has he managed to somehow keep AJPW alive and create a growing product, but he ALWAYS gets his way with NJPW. This is the second time an AJPW worker has won the IWGP title. Muto's a genius.

Granted, I haven't seen that fight in ages but I don't exactly remember Fedor having "troubles" with Cro Cop. Yes, Fedor didn't submit Cro Cop but he didn't exactly TRY either. He stayed on top of him and beat on him for awhile. There's also the fact that those two fights with Mirko against Nog and Fedor happened nearly TWO YEARS in between where Cro Cop was training takedown defense and ground defense constantly. When Fedor wanted Cro Cop on the ground, he took him down. Standing, it was all Fedor. In fact he's the guy who exposed Mirko's weaknesses to being pressured in a MMA setting. Ever since then it's been tactic 101 for opponents who beat Mirko. On the last top ten guy Fedor beat, it depends on who you listen to regarding the rankings at a particular time. When Fedor beat Mark Hunt, Hunt was 5-2 with losses to Yoshida in his MMA debut, and Josh Barnet with wins over Silva, Cro Cop and TK. Some people put him at or near the top ten then. If you disregard Hunt, then the last time he fought a "top ten" was in 2005 when he beat Mirko. I don't exactly hold this against Fedor. In PRIDE, he had no one left to beat outside of Barnett, and since PRIDE's closure he fought twice against Lindland and Choi. Not exactly sterling competition, but really...who all is there beyond Barnett who they can't seem to come to any kind of agreement with? He's already beaten Schilt and I can't really think of any great FA heavyweights until recently. I can't tell if you're saying Sylvia can win, or agreeing with me. Your point is very poorly made. You also say Sylvia's MMA game "isn't" better then Schilt, Zulu & Choi's. I'm not sure if you mean his IS or if you are agreeing with me. However, if you really think Sylvia will beat Fedor...then you must have some serious love for his jab, because that's all he'll be doing. It's all he's done since 7/8/06 in the third fight with Arlovski. That will not work with Fedor, just like how it did not with Couture.

I had an original post that I was going to post until I noticed the question wasn't "Best fighter" but "Best overall". The best overall fighter of Silva, Penn & GSP is GSP without a doubt. There's nothing that man cannot do when he puts his mind to it. Penn's right after GSP when he's motivated, but Silva's not too far behind. ...Because I wrote it up, I'll do the original post too! Anderson Silva's the best fighter in the world right now...Atleast until Fedor starts fighting regularly this year and we can gauge his skills once again. He's decimated every person put against him. There's really no one left in his division that he hasn't mauled outside of Okami. Both BJ Penn and GSP still have some people in their divisions. There's almost no one left in the wasteland that is the MW division. I don't think Silva has anything right now he has to "prove". He's killed strikers, he's killed wrestlers, and he's killed submission fighters. He's destroyed every style he's faced. Guy is a god right now. I'd put GSP right below him...I still have a question mark in my head that GSP won't be complacent again having reached the mountain top. If he fights at the level he has for Koscheck, Hughes & Serra, then he could beat Silva for the #1 title. Penn's hard to gauge. Because he's only been fully "motivated" for a couple fights now. He has natural talents above almost anyone else, and he looked like a goddamn murderer against Pulver and Stevenson, so Sherk will be a deciding fight for him.

Anyone have any advice on the sensor bar? It's kind of giving me issues. Right now, my TV (which is an old 30-something inch TV that is heavy as FUCK) sits in the corner of my room on a stand. My bed is against the wall on the other side of the room...The sensor bar seems REALLY touchy to me. The only time I get really good reception with it, is when I angle it in my PC chair directly at it. Too close, it messes up, too far away and it's jittery. I have the sensor bar above my TV with said Sensor bar setting...I tried below and got no reception on the bar at all, even when I put the Wiimote right next to it. I'm thinking I need to pull my stand out from the corner...but given that I have a bum knee, and this TV weighs a ton I dunno if I CAN really. Should I possibly look into a third party bar? Should I try different batteries for the Wiimote? I dunno exactly what to do to better the reception.

The funniest part of this thread was the first post, and then people coming to defend the south~! Like a call to arms to protect it's honor.

MMA's a business. Vera's coming off a boring fight with Tim Sylvia where he lost. Mir's coming off an exciting fight with Brock where he won. Mir's also a former world champion. It's pretty easy to see that Mir would make more money then Vera or Werdum right now.

I gamed on a PC for years, much longer then I did any single system. I don't have the financial situation where I can upgrade to a monster gaming rig right now. Although that was my plan originally. I only got a 360 because my friends did. Peer pressure. I was tired of being left out, and when I got money I splurged on a 360. Had I bought a PC, I wouldn't have been able to game with them. I don't exactly REGRET it, but I don't think it's a coincidence I use it to watch shit on much more then I actually game on it. A better PC and a Wii were always my targets much more then a 360. Shit just happens. Anyway about the games...i dunno. I'm not INTO the gaming culture right now. I've done all this FPS shit before, for years. Their all deviations of the same basic system. You have gun. You shoot things in the face. I played Unreal Tournament for years, and upgraded to UT 2k4 years ago. I've kind of *done* all this shit, not to mention stuff like Halflife years ago. Stuff like Wiisports is new to me, so I'm interested in it, even if it seriously lacks depth. We play Halo 3 so much because it's really the only game we have have on the 360 that we enjoy and can play together. We also play on modified rules to make it interesting for us. One life, no shields, one weapon. None of this "I'll run around and shoot at anything because I'll just respawn!" stuff you see all the time.

Mir/Nog makes the most sense right now. Werdum's a good fighter, but him against Nog wouldn't have drawn flies. Mir's a name, just had a high profile fight, and can be slotted in their easily. He has no shot in heavenly earth of winning, but it still makes the most sense. If they do Nog/Mir, then do Vera/Werdum and bammo you got your next contender.

I get his complaints for Smash Brothers. I have a friend who hates the series, so it didn't really surprise me. He's 100% right about having to unlock Snake and Sonic though. Given how hard Nintendo's pushed them, they should have been defaults. Snake's easy to unlock but Sonic's a BITCH.

As now a owner of a 360 and a Wii... I fucking hate the 360's library. Hate. Hate. Hate. Somewhere around 90% of the library are FPS's or their ilk and I've said in the 360 thread, the controller will NEVER feel natural to me. I've logged hours into Halo 3, beat the Campaign, I play nearly nightly with my two closest friends. It never stops being unnatural. I've actually thought about buying the Mouse/Keyboard third party adapter thing just so I can go back to having something that feels *right*...too bad they want 100 dollars for it. Nothing on the 360 appeals to me. While everyone is up in arms for GTA IV, I shrug because despite buying Vice City and San Andreas, it's never done anything for me. The only game on the horizon I've read about that I want for the 360 is Fallout 3...and that has a probability of possibly sucking. Now, the Wii...I've only had it for a few days but I've looked at the library for months...It's around the same of the 360 for me. Exchange FPS for like Licensed crap and you've got the same issue. The key difference here is, the system has Smash Brothers, which was the entire reason I got it. Mario Kart will add variety, and really between that? I dunno. Maybe Galaxy. Who knows? I mean, there's nothing on the Wii so far that makes me passionately feel one way or the other, but that could just be from not having it too long. Wii's kind of fitting how I game right now though. I pick it up, play a little Wii Sports, move on. Or I log a few games in Smash Brothers and move on.

Brawl with three other friends is awesome. Two were from Cali, one from St. Louis, I'm from Washington State and it ran decently...Lagged, usually worst at the beginning of a match, but coming from the Emulation world like I did, playing Brawl in half speed when it'd dip meant nothing to me. Most fun game we had for me, personally, was one in which I randomly ended up as Snake...Having almost never played as him before, I was at a loss on how to fight...so I ran around planting land mines and bombs. Got to the point where another player started actively hunting me since I kept doing it. Funny as hell.

Wii Sport's is a fantastic package in game. Because none of the games are complex or demanding, but at the same time, you get five of them and their almost all FUN so you feel like you somehow cheated the system by getting the thing for free. The Wii gave me the "moment" I was looking for...When I get a system, If I get a moment that I won't forget from it, I consider it a successful purchase. I got my 8 year old little cousin to play it. She likes video games, but she's never liked playing them because she doesn't have the patience and games today are too complex...When she saw how the Wii worked, her face lit up, she had fun just POINTING at things, and when we tried baseball, so got so into it that it was comical. That's something I'll probably never forget. I couldn't even get the girl to play the first SMB very well, and here she is trying her damnedest to beat me at Wii Sports.

Lawler/Smith soundsl ike a good fight given how Smith's looked recently, as well for Lawler. Kimbo/Thompson is no buys unless they find a way to sell the HELL out of Kimbo. It's also somewhat of a dangerous fight because Thompson just lost, and he does have power. He's not good, but if he catches Kimbo he could dim his lights. I should add. I saw an ad for this during BIG BROTHER last night. They've already begun the advertising with over a month to go before the show. If Elite would have put something with more impact then Kimbo/Thompson, this could have made a KILLING. As it is, it's a crapshoot.

Ippo gets the controls fairly well... but I feel like the underlying game mechanics might as well be darts on a board. Hard to well why I get knocked down, for whatever reason. And again, the story upsets me greatly. I also just read your posts... you can throw hooks? I've tried, but I can only throw a body hook when I jerk my arm back at the elbow suddenly. Hook's are pretty easy. Just do a circle punching movement. Basically like you'd throw a hook. Since a jab is straight, the game picks up on it well. Hooking foos in the gut then nailing them in the face when they guard is awesome. The Best KO I've had in Wii Sports boxing was when I was getting my ass beat. Both me and the AI were really hurt, and at the last second before I went down I threw a desperation hook to the head while leaned back. Thing caught him in the side of the head and he did a flip bump for the KO. Uppercut's are a BITCH though. I can occasionally do them, but the movement is either imprecise, or hard to hit. When you do hit those, their head violently snaps back and does good damage. Feels like you accomplished something.

If you have Forrest in your top ten (and you likely do) then by proxy of that Jardine needs to be included. I strongly disagree with this statement. This is why MMath fails. Yes, Keith Jardine beat Forrest. Doesn't matter, and I'll tell you why. For one, the fight happened sixteen months ago, and Forrest has DRASTICALLY changed since that fight. He's changed his entire style from what he once was to what he is now. He then proceeded to cautiously beat Hector Rameriz in a fight that he just didn't want to lose, but his breakout was the Shogun fight. He DOMINATED the #1 LHW in the world, and finished him. The first time Shogun had ever been finished since 2003. The Forrest that lost to Jardine quite frankly doesn't exist anymore. Forrest has admitted this himself. Jardine beat a Forrest who used a style to get in there and strike and whatever happened, happened. The Forrest that beat Shogun had a gameplan, he used strikes and an insane pace to wear Shogun down, and then he proceeded to methodically beat him before clamping on the choke. He's evolved *because* of that loss to Jardine. Lets not ignore that Forrest trains with Couture now. That *alone* puts him significantly past his old self. On the flipside, Jardine's last major loss to Alexander caused no discernible change in Jardine's style in his fight with Liddell. He still fought like Jardine against Liddell, possibly a little sharper on strikes and a little more tentative. Granted, I can't say that Jardine didn't learn anything, but he hasn't shown it yet. And until he gets another fight against someone other then a zonked out lethargic Chuck Liddell, then I don't consider him good enough to rank. When he beat Forrest, I probably wouldn't have ranked *either* at that point. Forrest has just done more to earn a ranking let alone going 2-0 in that span to Jardine's 1-1.

I feel bad for Shogun, because that knee could end up being a problem for the rest of his career. He was training for his comeback fight and retore it. It's not a good sign. Anyway...Rashad Evans versus James Irvin sounds like a poor fight, but really, has Rashad faced anyone with Irvin's kind of power? He would have with Liddell, but Irvin has INSANE power on his punches. He's also on a two fight win streak, and has that highlight reel KO over Houston Alexander they can play on loop. He's only 4-3 in UFC, but you can obscure (hide) that fact and just play that KO on Alexander, and the one on Terry Martin over and over endlessly. That should hide whatever faults there is atleast to the extent of Bisping/Evans.

That's a shame...Ippo would lend itself well to a great boxing game on the Wii. If I have one complaint with the Boxing Wii Sports game, is the controls at times feel unresponsive. I think I've seen that said elsewhere...It's not BAD, but as long as you're not flinging around your arms wildly it seems to respond okay. Dodging out of the way from an opponent's attack only to land a 1-2-3 Jab-hook-uppercut combination NEVER gets old though. I think I've marked out more for the KO's in this game then I have for Fight Night...It's a weird feeling knowing that you, yourself, through your own motions just caused that fucking guy to fall face first on the mat after a barrage of jabs and Sapp-like hooks. I'm gonna have to look into the other "compilations" games for the Wii...I'm having a blast with Wii Sports, even if I can never hit the fucking ball in Golf for some reason.

I got the game today...Been playing it for several hours off and on. I can't find my wavebird, so I've been using the Wiimote as my primary...It works okay. The major hurdle at first was getting used to it...it feels like a different pace then SSBM. I dunno what exactly it is, but it feels different to me. I've beaten Classic mode twice, and am 8% into Subspace. I've unlocked Marth, Ness, and Snake...I nearly had Luigi, but I fucking lost to him. Out of all the new characters, I like Metaknight and Pit so far the most. Metaknight has INSANE combo abilities. It's possible to rack up high damage REALLY quick with him, and he has seemingly great juggling abilities. Pit's just overal fun, but I haven't really experimented with any of the other new ones yet.

I got my Wii...The guy's shipping took FOREVER. On the flipside, the Wii was brand new...or at the very least, it appears to be. All I have is an extra wiimote, and SSBB aside from what comes with the Wii... So far, I've loved Wii Sports. I think my favorite right now is Boxing, which is odd, because I've heard people say it's the worst of the lot. I dunno if it's because I'm into combat sports, or because I read Hajime no Ippo, or what, but I enjoy the hell out of it. I even try to incorporate some kind of strategy, such as working the body, or mixing up the strikes. Fun as hell. Gold BAFFLED me, as no matter what I did I could not hit the golf ball. The rest of the games are fine...Tennis was fun, but I couldn't win at it. Don't have the LAN adapter I ordered yet. When I get that, maybe we'll see about playing online.

I don't consider Keith Jardine in the top five. I don't even know if I'd put him in my personal ten. Yes, he beat Chuck Liddell, but Liddell was either completely zonked out from too much partying, or didn't train enough. He was more one-dimensional then he normally is, and all he looked for that entire fight was that one big punch which he never got. Liddell looked MUCH better against Silva. Totally different person almost. The guy's gone 4-2 in UFC, and outside of his Liddell and Forrest wins, the other two were nothing special. Lets not forget he got nearly killed by Houston Alexander, who has been completely exposed as not even that good of a striker.

If Ortiz were to beat Machida, he'd re-enter the top five for me. I've been on record for some time here that I think Machida either is, or has the potential to be the strongest fighter in the LHW ranks. If Tito were to beat him, or stop him, he'd not only be the first person to do so, but he'd earn vast amounts of my respect. Tito's going to be famous not for his fighting (Because if he leaves UFC, UFC will act as if Tito never existed like they do *EVERYONE* that leaves), but with inside fans on how he conducted business. The guy is ruthless, and knows how much he's worth. He's constantly fighting with Dana because Dana likes to try to low-ball people, and Tito doesn't fuck around in that department. This latest move is the biggest grandstand yet, as he's pretty much said he's leaving UFC after this fight...but UFC knows Tito on the prelims makes no sense, so their putting him in a semi-main...against a guy no one has ever looked *good* against. If Tito wins, his worth skyrockets and if UFC doesn't cave (They'd be insane not to at that point) then Elite XC or god forbid Affliction will come calling with Elite's CBS deal and Afflictions'...whatever they got. Tito could make a big difference there. However, if Tito loses to a guy who UFC has never really put any focus on, it will damage Tito's star power and credibility significantly. This fight is all or nothing for Tito. Unfortunately for Tito, I don't see how he can beat Machida. Machida has one of the strongest counter-striking styles in MMA, and his ground game is really, really strong as well. Tito's thing is to take the opponent down and grind them hoping they'll mentally break, but I don't see it working with Machida. Machida's ground game is good enough that it'll give Tito problems, and standing, he should be able to pick Tito apart. Another factor working against Tito, is he hasn't faced anyone of Machida's caliber outside of Liddell in ages. Even when he beat Forrest, it was before Forrest began to peak. Outside of those Liddell fights, this will be the toughest test Tito's had in years. I kind of blame Tito for the whole "Lay in the guard throwing shots primarily elbows" thing though. He made that tactic popular, and now that's what wrestlers will do. They won't try to get to "stronger" positions because it puts them at higher risks. They'll just sit in the guard and throw shots with no intention of passing. Bores me sometimes.

Anyone got thoughts on K-1 trying to set up Semmy Schilt against either Mirko Cro Cop or Fedor recently? Cro Cop was supposedly supposed to be an MMA fight, while I've heard K-1 wanted/wants to do Schilt/Fedor in K-1 rules for the Super Heavyweight Championship. My theory? K-1's trying to take Schilt out before the GP, or at the very least weaken the man. Mirko's agent turned down the Schilt fight...Smart move, because while it'd be MMA rules, Mirko wouldn't fare very well I don't think. I haven't heard if Fedor turned down the K-1 offer, but he'd be smart to.

It's not impossible, but it's HIGHLY improbable. The only way I can see Sylvia winning is his jabbing strategy or a medical stoppage. Fedor's better in every department, and the fact that Nog schooled Sylvia on the ground only further proves the difference in their ground games. Nog could never do anything to Fedor on the ground, yet he beat Sylvia easily there. If the fight hits the ground, Fedor will get his giant-sized armbar like he did to Choi not too long ago. It's possible that Sylvia can cause a cut, but while Fedor has dainty skin, I don't see it happening. It'll either be a decision like Fedor/Schilt, or Fedor Choi/Zulu's him in the first round with huge shots or with an armbar. I know in a previous thread I defended a promotion making this fight...but I was using a hypothetical for Elite XC with CBS. Not Affliction. From everything I've heard, this fight will fucking BANKRUPT Affliction. There's no way on HDnets, they'll get enough of an audience for this, and they don't have the market power to advertise this. Fedor will cost around two million HIMSELF, and Sylvia is getting near a million. That's *nuts*. I don't care how much money whoever is backing Affliction is willing to lose. There's no way you can keep that up for long without making serious money back and as of yet, no promotion in America has made any money off MMA beside's UFC.

I thought the show was good, but being there was probably enough to push it to a much higher level for those that attended it if only for atmosphere alone. I missed the end of Danzig/Bocek, but it had turned into a massive ass beating by the end of the second round. Danzig looked really good here, and could be a sleeper in the LW division. The division is kind of wide open after BJ/Sherk/Florian, so he could slip in there. Bisping vs. McCarthy was interesting. McCarthy had an interesting idea, to turtle up everytime Bisping threw shots probably in hope that Bisping would run out of steam. Problem is, those blows broke his fucking arm. A fun little fight, but it kind of proved that turtling up when the opponent is throwing a constant barrage of death shots is not a great idea. Starnes vs. Quarry suuuuucked...Until the last minute. Nate made me a fan for life with how he mocked Starnes. The running man was awesome, and then covering up his face, throwing out one arm and throwing back and forth slap like motions that made Starnes *RETREAT* was one of the greatest moments in UFC history. Quarry only made himself a bigger face with how they handled it post-fight...and the "YAY!" "BOO!" on camera stuff was fucking fantastic. This is the second fight in a row since his return that Quarry's looked REALLY good. Maybe if he keeps improving, he'll get a shot to inject some life in the MW division. Franklin vs. Lutter was the fight of two men who had nothing to prove, but even still, good match. Franklin's armbar reversal was EPIC. Lutter is...I dunno. Dude needs to stop fucking fighting at MW, because he's gonna die from that weight cutting. The concept that he walks around at like 200-something, and cuts down to 185 is insane. I HATE that. The fight probably should have been stopped when Franklin was teeing off with those jabs, because Lutter had nothing. It just got worse from there. It was quite evident that Lutter was done from that point on. Franklin needs to think about moving up to LHW again. He will probably never get another shot at Silva, and it wouldn't draw...so why not move up and try that out? He could probably be a top contender in that division. Main event...I predicted Serra, but I, along with most people, thought GSP would most likely win. People can say Serra got "bitched" or "didn't come to fight", but Serra impressed me, personally. He fared better then Hughes did with GSP, and while everything he tried didn't work, he still TRIED. It wasn't a complete stream rolling, because Serra did everything in his power to restrain GSP. Serra was rolling around, fighting to get guard, everything he could using his jiu jitsu, it just didn't STOP GSP no matter what he did. Serra looked like he got tired, and I'd say that's a combination of coming off his injury, and GSP smothering him. I wouldn't mind seeing a rematch a year down the line, provided Serra drops Hughes or something. There's more money to be made here. The problem is, is the WW division has now hit the MW's level for having almost...TOO STRONG of a champion. The only other time I've seen this was in PRIDE with Fedor, but there was always the thought that maybe Nog, Mirko, or Josh could beat Fedor due to how PRIDE would separate them for months at a time...but in UFC where they handle things differently...Silva's got no one left to face, outside of Okami which won't draw. GSP just ran through three top of the line guys without a problem. Koscheck, Hughes & Serra all fell to GSP rather easily...Outside of Fitch who CANNOT be looking forward to that fight now, there's no clear contenders. He's decimated everyone else either by direct association or by proxy.

We're talking sheer numbers alone, for one. PRIDE ran the Tokyo Dome for that GP show, which saw at least 40,000+ people in it, at the very peak of PRIDE's popularity, and Sakuraba's. This UFC show will have 20,000-something, so they'd have to cheer twice as hard to be in the ballpark of the sheer excitement and enthusiasm of that show, and that fight in particular. It might happen, I just doubt it. I don't think the crowd noise for the end of Sakuraba/Royce can be topped.