RavishingRickRudo

Height wise, Tito is 6'2 and Forrest is 6'3. Tito doesn't look that tall, though. Maybe because his head is so huge that it makes his body look smaller. Tito has more experience than Forrest, is a better wrestler, has fought a higher standard of opponent. The problem is, perception-wise, Tito hasn't looked impressive in YEARS.

Mark Coleman - freakishly dominant at one point in MMA history, hugely influencial by establishing Ground and Pound as an effective way to win. I think a problem with him is that he never went outside his comfort zones, never trained beyond his wrestling. And if he did, he never showed it. I love how he makes excuses, even though he'll say "I don't want to make excuses..." Frank Shamrock - before his time in the UFC. He had good-great submissions, slams, striking, and strategy. Along with Mo Smith and TK, imo, they formed what would be the standard for cross-training. His fights against Lober, Horn, Inoue, Ortiz, and Rutten were all quite good. I wish he'd come back and compete at 185 or maybe even Welterweight. If Dana can patch things up with BJ and Tito, why not Frank as well? Dave Menne - I can't say that I've seen much of him outside the drubbings from Busta and Baroni. When I think of him, I think of the quintessential early Zuffa era fighter. Pat Miletich - gah. Don't watch his fights at UFC 16. UFC 16 had some really good fights in TK vs. Kimo, Jackson vs. Bohlander, Burnett/Tadeau to a point, and the sweet ass fuck of Frank/Igor, but jesus christ if Pat doesn't bring it down. Jens Pulver - I kinda feel bad for Jens because you know he'd be hugely over if he were having the fights he had a few years ago in the UFC today. He deserves to be remembered by a larger audience. That dude loved being champion, and brought so much emotion to his fights. When Sylvia won the title from Ricco, Jens was riding the fence and was so happy for Tim. Hopefully if/when the UFC brings back the lightweights, Jens will be there.

LOL, I forgot all about Bill Mahood. Fitting, given the length of the match and the only notable being Forrest spooning with him after the choke.

Both getting offered the contract was the perfect move by Zuffa. Both guys are so damn likable and a great representatives for the sport. They have each fought once since then in the UFC, Bonnar defeated Sam (from TUF) in the Summer by decision and Forrest beat Elvis Sinosic in the fall by KO. Both fights were very entertaining. Bonnar is fighting James Irvin in January on SPIKE TV, and Forrest has a date with Tito Ortiz sometime in 2006. Diego looked great against Nick Diaz (a top 10 WW fighter in the UFC), so Diego has one or two more fights before getting into title contention. He's probably in the upper 10 in the welterweights of the UFC right now (Hughes, BJ, GSP, Trigg, Sherk, Karo, Diego is probably how it would go).

Be a fighter and translate your experiences into a book.

Pussy.

Homer wanted Frank to like him, not because he liked Frank, but because he hated being disliked. There is this disconnect between Homer and the world around him -even with his family- that shows this utter lack of the humanity in the character. There is no heart. It is all ego. Homer didn't have to cry at Frank Grimes' funeral, but to fall asleep? You can't justify that. There is no good in that. There is no heart in that. Homer is a bad person as a result of it. Grimes saw right through what Homer was doing, and his insanity came from the fact that no one else did. Yes, the Simpsons have dabbled in the "real world" before, Homer at Bat was one of their best episodes ever and they used real world baseball players. But it was never in a stylistic way. It wasn't trendy. Now everything the Simpsons does is trendy.

I hate the Frank Grimes episode. Grimes was a good guy. He had a hard life but overcame it with hard work. The episode basically says that Homer is a bad person with no redeeming qualities. So I am supposed to be happy that in the end Grimes dies essentially because of Homer Simpson and that Homer doesn't give enough of a damn to stay awake at his funeral? A very dark episode that took the heart out of the show, in my opinion. Homerpalooza, while not a bad episode in its own right, was very destructive, imo to the overall show. They started existing in the "real world" and there was a focus on trying to be "cool" and "hip" and with the times. Part of the charm of the simpsons was that it was timeless. You could watch an episode from 1992 and not tell that it was from 1992.

Yeah, angles are something that is rarely realized in fighting, but they're so important. Randy Couture talked about how Chuck Liddell changed his game in their second fight, and to the naked eye Liddell didn't seem to do that much different, but Couture said that Chuck changed his angles a lot more, made it more difficult to get a good fix on his position for the takedown. You just don't go in there, stand still, and punch. Things like southpaw/conventional stances and how a fighter moves in relation to that, their lead-in punch from that angle, etc. It's so complex and dynamic that, to me, boxing should be taken by anyone wanting to get into MMA on its own. Muay Thai is also important, and should be taken as well for a more well rounded stand up game, but the intricases of stand up fighting are probably better learned in boxing, since it is -as odd as this may sound- more limited. So you can focus on those x-factors more when you are just concerned about hand movement.

If you're interested in betting your conditioning, then boxing will really help out. It's so much more than just punching. The footwork is a big part and that is great for cardio. In terms of fighting, the only champion right now that doesn't have good punching ability is Matt Hughes. When you look up and down the board, Fedor, Silva, Hendo and Gomi potentially in PRIDE, Arlovski, Liddell, and Franklin in UFC, their primary weapons are punches. One of the best tools a fighter can have is a solid jab. In terms of overall, boxing is just one piece of the puzzle. Muay Thai lends itself well to MMA mainly for the leg kicks. Next to a jab, the leg kick is one of the most effective tools a fighter can have and unlike Karate, thai boxers usually kick with their backleg, which offers more power rather than a front leg or switch kick. The thing with both of these styles is, though, is that in terms of footwork, they open up a fighter to get taken down easily. With boxing, for example, so much is dependant on footwork and leading in and putting weight on your front foot that it essentially leaves a leg out there to get picked and grabbed. Bas Rutten changed his stand-up style to offer a wider base because it allowed him to react better when someone was shooting in for a takedown. Andy Hug, a K-1 fighter, used tons of kyokushinkai techniques in his stand up. Spinning back leg kicks (using the heel of the foot to hit the knee of his opponent, which was able to knock guys down with a single hit), Axe kicks, spinning back fists. More and more those moves are getting adapted for MMA. GSP does axe kicks to his opponents' body/stomach when they're on the ground. It's not really about the style any more, it's how one incorporates it into their game.

Aight, I figure we should start up our own Official TSM Rankings for MMA. We can either have this as an open-poll, or we can have it limited to a panel (or both). Thoughts? (Not on the rankings, just the proposal)

Judo has been successfully adapted in MMA by guys like Karo Parisyan, Hidehiko Yoshida, and even Fedor Emelianenko. Karo has some of the most beautiful throws and submission techniques (his rolling kimura on dave strasser is an all-timer). But no one style makes for a successful fighter. Not any more. But then again, dismissing a style for not being useful is wrong. Once upon a time Karate techniques were looked down upon, now you have Georges St. Pierre using moves from his kyokushin training. You can get something useful from the majority of martial arts out there. Judo probably helps you more with balance standing up and the ability to pivot your hips more than jiu jitsu, for instance. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4...1996320&q=fedor Fedor uses hip throws and leg trips very successfully, watch this HL video.

A website killed my father.

I think this thread is misleading. I think the vast majority of posters don't give a fuck about the main page, it's just a vocal minority that makes it seem like there is a demand for it. The vast majority of people here liking coming here to shoot the shit about their interests and that's about it. Of course, if I were organizing a new site, I'd poll the board for what they are interested in in terms of format, content, etc. But I'm crazy like that.

Has anyone here even considered for a second the possibility that they outgrew a simplistic form of storytelling? No. That has never entered my mind. I usually just stop at gross incompetency because anything else is giving them too much credit. WWE defines simple.

How can the WWE's product be different when everyone behind the scenes is the same as it was years ago? Do you see Vince firing Steph? Or any of his yes men?

Congrats, you completely missed the point. Without WCW, WWE would not have been successful in the late 90's. That "rebound" that they "always" manage to do, would not have happened. WCW and the NWO angle brought in new and old fans alike while the WWE was busy in gimmick-land. The rebound wasn't WWE initiated. So if you think that the WWE can ever kickstart things because they did it before, you're wrong. And NO, for every person that leaves there isn't a new person to fill their spot. I thought that was obvious given that over half the audience has left. In the 80s, Vince could build his empire upon a wrestling industry that had a strong regional base. The industry itself was healthy. Vince didn't have to convince people across America to like wrestling, they already did. The foundation was there for him to go national. In the late 90's, the industry was weaker, but it wasn't totally gone. There were 2 wrestling companies that shared a very large audience. When WCW died, a big chunk of that audience died with them. The Monday Night Wars, with that much television, running that many angles, screwing up that many storylines... it sucked a lot out of the wrestling _industry_. It completely oversaturated it, and almost completely salted the land that is the US market. Vince isn't making his money domestically, he's doing it with International Touring. Their average attendance is still falling domestically, and soon enough there will be ghost towns in regards to cities that were once major wrestling cities. That the WWE can't sell out MSG anymore is a strong indicator that the audience is fading. And internationally, they are going to suck their key touring spots try as well, and expand to other countries they never toured. They will run out of territory. And when International dries up, they're fucked. They can only cut so much costs, and they took a big blow in losing ad revenue. SPIKETV didn't even want them anymore. I'm not saying that the WWE is going to be dead in 5 years, but there's no way the WWE is going to "rebound" and boom again in their current state.

"Always" rebounds? They rebounded ONCE, you dumbfuck. And a lil something called WCW and the NWO sorta helped get things going too.

The point I was making was that you don't know what's going on in a bar fight. It isn't one on one, unless there is just you two there. If there is anyone else, there is the potential for them to jump in. You just don't know. That dude you're choking could have a dozen buddies ready to beat the shit out of you. By putting someone in a choke, you leave yourself defenseless. Someone can take a free shot, if you're lucky, and knife you or break a bottle over your head if they're drunk or insane enough. You just don't know. The best fighting style for a bar fight, and any fighter will tell you this, is the run-away style. Worst comes to worst and you can't get out of it, or your buddy is getting beat up, a good punch will do you pretty well. It's quick, you can go back immediately to your defenses, or you can follow up on it. Chokes and grappling are all good in a one on one situation, but not a bar fight situation. Because, say it with me now, you just don't know. RRR: Bar Fight Expert.

TUF got better for the later-half of the season, but the first half was bad due to bad fights (all the heavyweight fights suck) and the constant injuries.

Let me put it this way. We were asking that same question this time 4 years ago.

That was the same rationale that people had when the main site was going a few years ago "it's to better yourself as a writer", and look how that turned out. The main site is dead. And don't say it's because of the main site being wrestling oriented, the site allowed for things that were out of the wrestling bubble and it still is dead. What I see here from a lot of people is "let's do it the way we did it before". Ok, do that. I can tell you exactly how it will turn out. www.thesmartmarks.com There's something called the Equity theory, it deals with the motivation of employees. It's simple to understand. When someone feels his/her inputs are not equal to, or above, the outputs one gets, they will become less motivated, and unhappy. Writer X puts 4 or 5 hours into writing a column. Writer X feels that this is an excellent column, he put lots of time and effort into researching it and proofing it and formatting it. High inputs. Writer X receives no feedback for the column. Writer X did, however, feel that he improved upon his last column. Writer X is unsure that people actually read his column, however, or appreciated his work. Low outputs. Now, how motivated do you think Writer X would be to write another column, much less one with equal to or more content than his previous one? But whatever, dismiss it, it's silly. Let's ignore the reasons why the main board flopped (because dammit, it's because it was wrestling-oriented and there aren't wrestling fans on this board!) and let's relive and repeat the mistakes that the old/current site had.

No offense to Rudo, but the next person to say "Blogennium" gets stabbed No offense taken. This was, of course, the desired effect "Blogennium" was supposed to have. Oops. Whatever, don't do a blog, don't allow for more direct feedback. I'll give you 2 months, and then you will all get bored of it. I know that I will only send feedback if the writer said something incredibly brilliant and blew my mind, or something incredibly stupid and make me want to blow my brains out. I would be more inclined to reply when I can do so quickly and with as little effort as possible. Those of you who want a more professional site, your goals and expectations are unrealistic and way too high. You are bound to be disappointed.

His website says Caol

My main reasoning behind the blog format is for the reply/response feature. Plus, columns and the like are so formal. I realized that I hate writing columns because they require time and effort and hardwork and I come here to get away from that shit. Blogs are more relaxed. I also realized that if I wanted to write something, why not just write it on the message board? More people will read it, and you will get feedback.