PRIDE in USA, October 21st!

[Lord of The Curry 0]

I think he could take him standing, actually. In the brief exchanges he had with Cyborg Nishijima didn't impress all that much, not sure if the Hunt fight was a red herring or not but Phil can win this fight pretty much anywhere.

 

Holy fuck I just made a post supporting Phil Baroni.

[Lei Tong 0]

Punching Hunt in the face is a terrible way of measuring someone's striking ability.

[AboveAverage484 0]

Punching Hunt in the face is a terrible way of measuring someone's striking ability.

 

Being a professional boxer is an excellent way of measuring someone's striking ability. And since Baroni seldom uses kicks or knees I think it would be best for Baroni if he takes it to the ground.

[Lei Tong 0]

Punching Hunt in the face is a terrible way of measuring someone's striking ability.

 

Being a professional boxer is an excellent way of measuring someone's striking ability. And since Baroni seldom uses kicks or knees I think it would be best for Baroni if he takes it to the ground.

 

The differences between striking in MMA & boxing are pretty vast, not to mention the fact that despite holding a WBF belt nearly a decade ago, it's not like Nishijima was anything special whatsoever as a pro.

[AboveAverage484 0]

Punching Hunt in the face is a terrible way of measuring someone's striking ability.

 

Being a professional boxer is an excellent way of measuring someone's striking ability. And since Baroni seldom uses kicks or knees I think it would be best for Baroni if he takes it to the ground.

 

The differences between striking in MMA & boxing are pretty vast, not to mention the fact that despite holding a WBF belt nearly a decade ago, it's not like Nishijima was anything special whatsoever as a pro.

 

But it's not like it's illogical to say that he can beat Baroni standing. Nishijima is a pro boxer, Baroni a banger who throws punches and little else and is overconfidant at times standing; Nishijima has zip as far as the ground as concerned, while Baroni, while far from being a wizard on the ground, has decent ground and pound and relatively tons more experience on the mat than Nishijima.

 

I'm just looking at this logically, doesn't necessarily mean it's going to be accurate, Phil might knock him out.

[Lei Tong 0]

I didn't mean to imply Phil would skullfuck or even beat Nishijima standing. Rather, I was simply pointing out that Nishijima hasn't shown a whole lot standing up just yet in MMA, thus making the idea of Phil taking him out with strikes not too far fetched.

 

But yeah, Phil's best bet would be to shoot the double and just rip Nishijima's head off in some fashion.

[AboveAverage484 0]

I didn't mean to imply Phil would skullfuck or even beat Nishijima standing. Rather, I was simply pointing out that Nishijima hasn't shown a whole lot standing up just yet in MMA, thus making the idea of Phil taking him out with strikes not too far fetched.

 

By yeah, Phil's best bet would be to shoot the double and just rip Nishijima's head off in some fashion.

 

What do you think of Henderson/Belfort, Lei? It's a tough one for me to call, but I guess Henderson by decision in a fight that will probably be less exciting than it should.

[Lei Tong 0]

If he fights smart, there's no reason whatsoever Belfort shouldn't win this. He's bigger, stronger w/straighter punching and arguably even better wrestling. But of course, Belfort is an utter basketcase and Henderson is over the hill, making this fight a nightmare to predict.

 

I'll go out on a limb and say Belfort via JD.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

I'm sorry I can't count Randleman out in the Shogun fight. I think the American rules favor Randleman's style.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Well they're not gonna let elbows be thrown, so really there will probably be a lot of standups in that one due to stalling if Kevin decides to take him down.

 

Also, there seems to not be a lot of hype for this one. I can't imagine PRIDE setting the United States on fire like they expect. Prepare to be disappointed.

[AboveAverage484 0]

Well they're not gonna let elbows be thrown, so really there will probably be a lot of standups in that one due to stalling if Kevin decides to take him down.

 

Also, there seems to not be a lot of hype for this one. I can't imagine PRIDE setting the United States on fire like they expect. Prepare to be disappointed.

 

I thought the Randleman/Ninja fight was pretty good. Don't know if you can use that as a litmus for Randleman/Shogun, because though they have similar styles, Shogun does everything Ninja does, just better. I really want to believe this will be competitive, but I have a gut feeling Shogun will submit Kevin early in the first.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Shogun, clinch knee KO ala Rampage.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

PRIDE in Japan can be more exciting then UFC due to the four-point attack rule which allows for kicks/stomps/knees on the ground, a huge reason why the majority of Brazillian fighters to to PRIDE instead of UFC. PRIDE has more depth in terms of their divisions, especially the HW side of things.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

PRIDE has a deeper HW and LW division. UFC has a deeper MW and WW division(well it actually has one). While PRIDE has a deeper LHW division, they've treated that like a giant clusterfuck so we'll call it a push.

 

I think Shogun will win it early, it will be a nice showcase of his skills for the American fans.

[I like Forums 0]

That being said, this card looks like it's gonna suck.

 

If Pride wanted to make an impact on the US crowd they should've set up GOOD fights.

[AboveAverage484 0]

PRIDE has a deeper HW and LW division. UFC has a deeper MW and WW division(well it actually has one). While PRIDE has a deeper LHW division, they've treated that like a giant clusterfuck so we'll call it a push.

 

I think Shogun will win it early, it will be a nice showcase of his skills for the American fans.

 

I have to disagree on the MW part. They have who, Silva, Franklin, Marquardt, and Loiseau? Pride has Hendo, Okami, Filho, Amar Suloev, Gono, Chonan, Bustamante, Denis Kang, Minowa, Baroni, etc.

[AmericanDragon 0]

PRIDE has a deeper HW and LW division. UFC has a deeper MW and WW division(well it actually has one). While PRIDE has a deeper LHW division, they've treated that like a giant clusterfuck so we'll call it a push.

 

I think Shogun will win it early, it will be a nice showcase of his skills for the American fans.

 

I have to disagree on the MW part. They have who, Silva, Franklin, Marquardt, and Loiseau? Pride has Hendo, Okami, Filho, Amar Suloev, Gono, Chonan, Bustamante, Denis Kang, Minowa, Baroni, etc.

 

Pride had Okami for one fight.

[AboveAverage484 0]

PRIDE has a deeper HW and LW division. UFC has a deeper MW and WW division(well it actually has one). While PRIDE has a deeper LHW division, they've treated that like a giant clusterfuck so we'll call it a push.

 

I think Shogun will win it early, it will be a nice showcase of his skills for the American fans.

 

I have to disagree on the MW part. They have who, Silva, Franklin, Marquardt, and Loiseau? Pride has Hendo, Okami, Filho, Amar Suloev, Gono, Chonan, Bustamante, Denis Kang, Minowa, Baroni, etc.

 

Pride had Okami for one fight.

 

I meant Misaki, sorry.

 

On related notes, Eastman and Hunt are OUT, to be replaced by Travis Galbraith and Sean O'Haire respectively.

 

Ugh.

[Lei Tong 0]

PRIDE has a deeper HW and LW division. UFC has a deeper MW and WW division(well it actually has one). While PRIDE has a deeper LHW division, they've treated that like a giant clusterfuck so we'll call it a push.

 

I think Shogun will win it early, it will be a nice showcase of his skills for the American fans.

 

I have to disagree on the MW part. They have who, Silva, Franklin, Marquardt, and Loiseau? Pride has Hendo, Okami, Filho, Amar Suloev, Gono, Chonan, Bustamante, Denis Kang, Minowa, Baroni, etc.

 

You're selling a number of UFC middleweights short if you think Minowa or an over-the-hill Bustamante are better middleweights than all but a handful of their middleweights. The divisions are pretty close, with PRIDE's division being a bit more muddled at the very top due to their GP format and Henderson's status as top dog being highly questionable.

[AboveAverage484 0]

I just think it shows how shallow the division is when a fighter can come in and after winning won fight be in a title match.

[Lt. Al Giardello 0]

UFC also has Lister, Okami, and Kendall Grove.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

You are not mentioning a bunch of guys that deserve mention. Swick, Leben, Doerksen, etc. UFC has a bunch of solid fighters in addition to the guys they're trying to develop. Other than the top guys PRIDE's MW seem pretty lacklustre.

 

He was put in a title fight because of the way his first fight went, that's not a shallow division, they're just trying to market their guys properly.

 

Dan Henderson, Misaki, Gono, Filho, Kang are the only guys really worth mentioning. Chonan has that very pretty win over Silva, but he's looked bad enough since then while Silva has looked much better to the point where I wouldn't really hold that loss against him. Silva is still susceptible to a freaky submission like that though.

[Lei Tong 0]

In retrospect, I still can't believe Chonan actually hung with Anderson as well as he did, especially considering Chonan has NEVER looked as good against even above-average competition before or since.

 

Also, I don't think Anderson getting a title shot is necessarily a sign of a weak division, as he has been seen as a Top 10 caliber MW fora good while. Plus, Marquardt & Swick were both considered legitimate contenders as well shortly after the Silva/Franklin bout was signed.

 

Also on further thought, the UFC does have a much deeper MW division after the top level.

[AboveAverage484 0]

I still can't buy Swick as a legitimate contender. He needs to get a top 10 fight, pronto.

 

Also, I'm heavily biased towards Pride, so that must be taken into consideration

[v.2 0]

I still can't buy Swick as a legitimate contender. He needs to get a top 10 fight, pronto.

 

Also, I'm heavily biased towards Pride, so that must be taken into consideration

 

He beat Loiseau, though not impressively.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Yeah, I still think a mentally focused Loiseau murders him, but who knows these days.

 

In between the second and third round Georges' yelled and screamed and slammed on the cage (and since we know GSP to be a humble guy this is out of character) and that's what finally woke up David for the final round. Him, BJ and Vitor need to see if they can get a special group rate for a sports psychologist.

[AboveAverage484 0]

At any rate, this card sucks some serious dick even in comparison with some of the recent UFC's. Hopefully it follows in their footsteps by becoming "pleasantly surprising," although I doubt it.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Would saying that Sean O'Haire vs Fujita is a last-minute addition alter your perception at all?

[Lei Tong 0]

That depends:

 

Is Fujita back on steroids, and O'Haire no longer utterly shit?

[Lei Tong 0]

Wait a sec... Fujita can't soccer kick O'Haire, and doesn't even have a cage and elbows as consolation. Fuck that shit.