MMA Comments that Don't Warrant a Thread

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

The UFC should spend extra cash for Cro Cop vs. Arvlovski to headline one of their next shows.  The UFC does not need to be exchanging 205 and below weight talent.  The UFC needs heavyweight they can feed to Andrei if they have any hope for a credible (see: interesting) heavyweight division.

 

Don Frye, Mark Coleman, Tank Abbot, Dan Severn, Oleg Taktarov and Randy Couture wasn't a bad stable of heavyweight's for the UFC back in the mid 90's.  Now, the heavyweight division is all slim pickings with no real intrigue or competition for Arvlovski to face.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm not sure it's a business ambition of Dana White's to see his champ's head get kicked off. If it happened I'd watch it and love it regardless, though I'd rather see them bring in Khanitorov (sp?) or Fedor. Fedor in a cage would be fine.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Fine...LOTC, you did it again.

[Guest Brian]

I count three, sports, movies and WWE (which won't last for long). I don't know of any *good* MMA games to discuss.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

TNA folder. We're taking over.

[AboveAverage484 0]

Would you say the same of Lee Murray? Arlovski? St. Pierre's still pretty foreign, given the heavy frog-cent and the extreme politeness.

 

Anyways, anyone love that we're talking about MMA on four different sections of the board (we need a UFC or PRIDE video game to discuss)?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I'm just saying that UFC knows they will draw more viewers with a large majority of white guys and black guys on their card. Although they have improved by leaps and bounds in the past year, a large part of the people that go to these events are still part of the "U.S.A.! U.S.A.!"/"stupid redneck fan" demograph.

[Sass 0]

Where would you guys all rank Andrei in the current MMA heavyweight 5-ranking totem pole? 5 guys, but where does Arvlovski go?

[Lei Tong 0]

Where would you guys all rank Andrei in the current MMA heavyweight 5-ranking totem pole? 5 guys, but where does Arvlovski go?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

Currently, I have the top 5 of the HW divsion ranked thusly:

 

1) Fedor Emelianenko

2) Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera

3) Andrei Arlovski

4) Mirko Filipovic

5) Sergei Kharitonov

[Lord of The Curry 0]

That looks about right.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

It's the last quarter of the year, so...

 

Fighter of the Year

 

and

 

Fight of the Year

[AboveAverage484 0]

Fighter of the Year: Fedor, with Shogun a close second, followed by Gomi, then Liddell.

 

Fight of the Year: Probably Gomi/Kawajiri. Can't forget about Bonnar/Griffin, though, but the former's intensity in a big arena setting puts it over the top. Fedor/Cro Cop and Shogun/Lil' Nog were great fights too. I really liked Ortiz/Belfort too, though it did have a slow round, IIRC.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Shogun is hands down the fighter of the year. Went from relative noob, to beating four, FOUR top ten LHW in a row, mostly in dominating fashion.

 

Fight of the year I am unsure, lots of good ones, nothing sticks out to me. Well actually, Trigg/Hughes II. Not a "traditional" choice, but for drama there is none better.

 

Has anyone seen those MMA Korean comics? Those things are hilarious, I wish I had a translation. Favourite shots include Chuck KO'ing Silva and Tito, as well him and the masked guy getting a pep talk (or is it a lecture) from the black guy. http://www.mfight.co.kr/comic/ca_15.jpg

[AboveAverage484 0]

Dude, Fedor has to be fighter of the year every year until he loses. Unless he pulls a Frank Shamrock and retires or some shit.

[Lei Tong 0]

Fedor has 2 wins this year in MMA's weakest division, one over an un-ranked fighter who was just defeated by Mike Kyle.

 

Quick list:

 

Fighter of the Year: Muaricio "Shogun" Rua

Fight of the Year: Caol Uno vs. Joachim Hansen

KO of the Year: James Irvin's flying knee vs. Terry Martin

Submission of the Year: Genki Sudo's armbar to triangle choke vs. Hiroyuki Takaya

Upset of the Year: Hideo Tokoro def. Alxandre Franca "Pequneo" Noguiera via TKO

[AboveAverage484 0]

I'm putting Fedor there because he not only defeated Cro Cop, he dominated him in the most anticipated match in MMA history. I think he deserves it for that alone.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Using Meltzers ..of the year, dates, Fedor beat Nog and Cro Cop - widely considered the 2nd and 3rd best fighters in the world. That's a pretty strong statement to make. The guy is the only undisputed champion, IMO, out there. At all the other weights there can be debate made on who is the top fighter, but there is no doubt with Fedor.

 

That said, Shogun beat 4 Top-10 fighters in 8 months. That's unprecidented. Sure, there are questions with him and how he'd fare against a Randy Couture, a Chuck Liddell (not necessarily from me ), a Babalu, and even Wanderlei that you don't really get with Fedor, but in terms of _performance_, no one tops him.

 

Fight of the Year:

 

Cro Cop/Fedor, with an insane amount of honourable mentions. I need to review that match. Fedor... STANDS... with Cro Cop. This goes beyond Fedor staying in Nogs guard when it comes to Fedor's off-the-wall-but-utterly-brilliant strategy.

[Lei Tong 0]

Fedor defeated two top 5 fighters of, once again, a very weak division. Noguiera has long made a habit of making bad fighters look decent, and mediocre fighters look like contenders. Mirko, meanwhile, had feasted on some Top 15-20 fare in between losing to his best opposition and Kevin Randleman. While incredibly skilled, Fedor's domination of the division has as much to do with the utter shittiness of it as his skill level, and wins over TK, Mirko & another hopeless challenger at year's end doesn't say "Fighter of the Year" to me.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

If he manages to beat Dirty Bob, than maybe I'll give it to him

 

Now that Rudo brought him up, Chuck Liddell definitely has a strong case for comeback fighter at the very least. Solved weaknesses in his game and decimated the worst possible matchup for him, at a point when it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that a) He was "solved" and would never be a threat to beat a true champ at the top of the game and b) that Randy would make him look just as bad as the last time.

 

KO of the year is probably Irvin/Martin, I can't think of anything else that tops it. Submission of the year would probably be what I saw from Yves against Mishima, if only because he's an actual contender with a groundgame. Thompson's submission at that one bushido was fairly slick as well.

 

Most disappointing fight is definitely Marquardt/Salaverry, and I don't think anything else will top it either.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Mach is the comeback fighter of the year, no doubt. 2004 had him go 1-2, and so far in 2005 he's 4-0 with a big win over a top 5 LW fighter. He looked fabulous in the tournament and if he throws those leg kicks at NYE, it might be a long night for Mr. Gomi.

 

That the division is weak doesn't mean that Cro Cop and Nog are weak. Name some fighters you think could do what Fedor did to them. I'm having a hard time coming up with names. Heavyweights are naturally less-skilled than the lighter guys, but that shouldn't be a detriment to Fedor for being so skilled. That he is so well rounded at 240lbs, that he throws 6 or 7 punch combinations, that he can move around on his back so quickly, that he is able to come up with superb gameplans should be lauded, not dismissed. The list of guys who are better on their feet than Cro Cop and better on the ground than Noguiera in all of MMA is very slim. If HW won't do it, I bet you could take anyone at 205 -the majority of whom cut down from a larger weight - and put them up against Fedor and he'd smoke em. Liddell? If Fedor could take Cro Cop and get him winded, Chuck hasn't a chance. Couture? Couture got overpowered by Ricco, Fedor would pound the stuffing out of him. Silva? If he had problems with Arona, Fedor would disgrace him.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

Ryan Bennett (?) on the LAW just said that Ken Shamrock has signed with PRIDE and will face Kazushi Sakuraba in October.

[Lei Tong 0]

The fact that I can't think of HW's with the skill sets to give Mirko & Noguiera the problems Fedor did is yet another condemnation of the division, IMO. On a P4P scale, I'd say a HW version of "Kid" Yamamoto would give both hell. A world class wrestler with viscious G&P, natural KO power now fortified with improved kickboxing skills, improving submission skills, a good chin and enough muscle to compete with skilled guys who outweight him by 15+lbs.

 

BTW- on the subject of LHW's who could go up in weight to fight Fedor, I think it's worth mentioning the gift Fedor got against Ricardo Arona. He may have pulled that fight out in the extra round, but he didn't necessarily deserve to get to that point in the first place. But anyways...

 

While Mirko is indeed very skilled on his feet (KO versus Randleman not withstanding), to say the list of fighters better on the ground than Noguiera is slim is a bit off. Most MMA HW's don't have great submission skills, and it's not rare for some obviously very limited big guys to rack up submission victories. In my opinion, a figher like Shaolin who can be so dominant on the ground in a division with a plethora good ground fighters is a much more impressive feat than Noguiera's submission wins.

 

I do believe Fedor to be very skilled, and often rank him amongst my Top 3 P4P fighters. But in the end, I'll take a few fighters' 2004 resumes over wins against TK, Filipovic, & possibly Dirty Bob.

[Lord of The Curry 0]

Fighter of the Year: Shogun.

 

Fight of The Year: Uno/Hansen or Griffin/Bonnar. The former may have been the superior fight but the "We will not die" attitude of Bonnar/Griffing coupled with the "only time an mma fight has made me almost cry" ending puts it up there for me.

 

KO of the Year: Irvin/Martin. But good God I was watching Bushido last night and MAN does Henderson ever smack Chonan somethin' fierce.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

Forgot about Mach, definitely Comeback Fighter of the year.

 

Fighter that's fallen the most is probably Frank Trigg unfortunately. I heard he had a blown ankle for GSP though. Maybe Rampage too, if he loses to Yokoi then he definitely takes this "award".

 

Fighter you predict to break out next, whether the end of this year or next? Paulo Filho. Wins over quality MW but still under the radar in terms of getting fights with top guns. Definitely has the skills to do it. I imagine he will be matched up with Baroni soon enough, whom he'll probably destroy and make a name for himself.

 

Best card is obviously Bushido The Tournament, with UFC 52 in a solid second place.

[AboveAverage484 0]

Pride 30 card is complete, looks like shit except for one or two matches.

 

http://www.prideofficial.com/free/result/e...1127273873.html

 

Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Ken Shamrock (Let the work cries begin!)

Mirko Cro Cop vs. Josh Barnett

Murilo Ninja vs. Murad Chunkaiev

Sentoryu vs. Zuluzinho

Sergey Kharitonov vs. Fabricio Werdum

Makoto Takimoto vs. Yoon Dong Sik

Hiro Yokoi vs. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

So...

 

Mike Goldberg to WWE?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

You know who I would have to replace Goldberg?

 

Jeff Marek. The guy knows his MMA, he has tons of radio experience, and if he can have chemistry with Dan Lovranski, he can have chemistry with anyone (preferably Randy Couture )

[Guest ABOBO]

He ditched wrestling for hockey, not sure that his canadian blood would let him give up hockey for MMA.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

He ditched an Sunday night, 11pm wrestling radio show for a weekly mid-day gig which was one of the stations big shows. Plus, UFC runs 6-8 shows a year, so it's not exactly a time-consuming position that would take him away from radio.

 

... I just miss Marek.

[Styles 0]

What chances Stephan Quadros gets the job? I've read there's bad blood between him and Joe Rogan. Anyone have any details?

[Guest Brian]

Three-man team. The Law.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I hope you mean Matt Lindland and not Live "Randy Couture was our 2004 Fighter of the year despite being 1-1 and only fighting a low-ranked Vitor Belfort" Audio Wrestling

[Guest Brian]

Oh, I mean Lindland. I was thinking Lindland and Mir, but I can't remember Mir's style at the moment.

[Your Paragon of Virtue 0]

 

This shows how Mirko injured Barnett's shoulder. His leg apparently turned his arm into a sort of americana. Also, Josh said the injury happened when his arm got tangled with Mirko's leg on the way down, so this seems to be the most logical explanation.

 

Mirko is like WWF Ken Shamrock, just cranks his submissions till something breaks. Still though, I don't know many people that can pull off an americana with their legs, he's definitely a wizard.