the UFC thread

[riversmonkey]

Do you think Arlovski's work with Freddie Roach will be a factor in the fight?

 

[liberty]

Do you think Arlovski's work with Freddie Roach will be a factor in the fight?

I personally don't think it will be.

 

[AngerManagement]

I hope it's over pretty quick as I'm a Fedor fan and it will be rather humiliating for Arlovski given how much his team have been promoting the fight and talking about the confidence of everyone around him.

What's Fedor's reach? One of the reasons from what I've seen why he rarely gets caught is because he punches from a long way off and pretty furiously.

I don't actually know his reach, but he was certainly at a reach disadvantage against Silvia (more then he will be against Arvloski)

Fedor is not known as a striker, he uses his punches more to set up take downs as he is in essence a Judo fighter (well Sambo) but none the less he clearly packs awesome power in his fists and he has good accuracy.

Arvloski may have more formal boxing training, especially working with Freddy roach, but boxing techinque for a MMA fight is not the same as could be employed in a ring.

Ok against pure strikers or less skilled grapplers a boxer could use his boxing footwork to take the inside and land sharp punches (most boxers will knock anyone out if landing clean with those gloves on) or using range, but someone shooting in can elimante range quicker then you can land a punch generally.

Against someone like Fedor though I don't see how boxing technique can be effective, he has too much in his arsenal to take a boxer out of their element, you can't bob and weave and shoulder roll against a grappler because you will simply find yourself being taken to the matt and having to defend against ground and pound and submission attempts from a disadvantaged postion.

The boxing stance is all wrong for defending a take down in my opinion, so I don't really see what differnce Arlovski's boxing training will make to this fight. I expect him to get rocked early and go into a survival mode looking not to look bad more then trying to look good.

I think fighting Fedor will mentally break him, he seems fragile in that respect.

 

[AngerManagement]

Latest news from the UFC is that Shogun is likely to finally fight Chuck Lidell after this lack luster performance against Coleman (something of a win win fight for the UFC)

and Hounslow born Dutch fighter Alistair Overeem will be coming to the UFC to shake up the H/W division. Overeem vs Kongo I am told.

 

[liberty]

Latest news from the UFC is that Shogun is likely to finally fight Chuck Lidell after this lack luster performance against Coleman (something of a win win fight for the UFC)

and Hounslow born Dutch fighter Alistair Overeem will be coming to the UFC to shake up the H/W division. Overeem vs Kongo I am told.

Overeem has beefed up ridiculously! It will be interesting to see how he fairs. I'm a Cheick Kongo fan (mainly because of Wolfslair and his affiliation with Bisping) so I hope Kongo wins. Overeem's ego is massive and another reason to dislike him.

Does Overeem talk with a Dutch or London accent?

 

[AngerManagement]

Overeem has beefed up ridiculously! It will be interesting to see how he fairs. I'm a Cheick Kongo fan (mainly because of Wolfslair and his affiliation with Bisping) so I hope Kongo wins. Overeem's ego is massive and another reason to dislike him.

Does Overeem talk with a Dutch or London accent?

Overeem is pure Dutch, he been there since infancy.

I think the talk of him fighting Kongo are largely specutaltion thus far, but there is supposedly talk from Dana that Overeem will be coming to the UFC.

Overeem used to cut weight alot, but you could always see the size of his frame, he has been labelled a steriod user by many online supporter in various forums. How true that is I don't know, (nor do I care as long as he abids by UFC rules regarding this as and when he signs).

I am very suprised Dana has never brought Semi Schilt back to the UFC, especially after he won his 3rd straight K1 GP (would be a good marketing tool for UFC)

Although Schilt's career in mma was no where near as impressive as he has been since switching to the mixed stand up world of K1.

He certainly is a big guy though and his striking is second to none really, I would like to see how he would fair in the UFC second time around.

Liberty, I noticed this is the second time you have mentioned Wolfslair in a postive light....do you have some affinity with them?

 

[riversmonkey]

And Rampage vs. Keith Jardine has been announced.

I think the UFC are sending Shogun to the wolves after last night's performance. If he survives Liddell he'll likely meet the winner of the above fight, if he loses then I think the UFC will let him go. Liddell is still a massive draw for the UFC and though he looks finished as a fighter the UFC are booking him like a Pro Wrestling organization might with an old legend, pimping him out to sell PPV's. Having said that the Shogun fight suits him down to the ground and will perhaps give him the chance for maybe one last run for the gold.

 

[AngerManagement]

And Rampage vs. Keith Jardine has been announced.

I think the UFC are sending Shogun to the wolves after last night's performance. If he survives Liddell he'll likely meet the winner of the above fight, if he loses then I think the UFC will let him go. Liddell is still a massive draw for the UFC and though he looks finished as a fighter the UFC are booking him like a Pro Wrestling organization might with an old legend, pimping him out to sell PPV's. Having said that the Shogun fight suits him down to the ground and will perhaps give him the chance for maybe one last run for the gold.

Rampage vs Jardine is a strange option, I felt sure Rampage would get a shot at Evans. Still I don't really give Jardine much chance against Jardine, I doubt his kickboxing will have much effect (Jardines I mean) after all look at the 2 kickboxing matches Jackson had against K1 fighter Cyrille Abidi. (someone who is a kickboxer by trade, once French muay thai champ to boot)

Well the Rua/Liddell fight has been in the making for some time. I have been very dissapointed with Rua since coming to the UFC (he looks a shadow of his form self)

Also Liddell, what went wrong with him? It seems he got caught up in his own hype....the Ice man who walks through everyone with his over hand right (he became somewhat one dimentional as a result)

Liddell used to use low kicks and mix up his game alot more in his previous fights, he would work his opponent and create openings for his strikes (as he did against Wanderli to be fair)

The bottom line is Liddell seems to have become a boxer and his boxing skills are not good enough (the way he hung out his jaw against Jackson in their second fight was a basic boxing mistake)

Liddell = big money to the UFC though, they no doubt want him to recapture his form and find a way to get him back to the top (it is hard to see a way back now though)

I hate not having Setanta as I can see way less UFC then I used to (obviously the fights are accessable online but it is not the same) maybe I will have to go back to the old days of buying Ultimate knock out DVD's from when it all began lol.

 

[liberty]

No, I don’t have any connections to Wolfslair, all I know is that it’s a UK based training camp and it must be good if the likes of Rampage and Kongo train over there to prepare for fights. I know Rampage said his win over Wanderlai was largely due to his training in the UK – well at least that KO punch was.

Anything remotely coming out of the UK with an affiliation with the UFC and it’s top fighters will always be well supported by me in a patriotic sense!

I am really, really looking forward to the upcoming TUF series with Team USA Vs Team UK! It looks like Dan Henderson will be taking Team USA with his recent win over Rich Franklin – a Dan Henderson vs Michael Bisping fight in the finale of the next TUF series should also be a good match up!

 

[AngerManagement]

Fair enough, your patrotism is admirable.

I think Jackson etc training there was more to do with the fact that they are training partners of Bisping as he trains with them in the states and they simply came over for a change of scenery for mental focus (Ramage especially needed to get away and refocus)

I'm mean they went there because of Bisping and not because of the effectiveness of Wolfslair per say.

I used to see alot of Wolfslair fighters when I was living in the Midlands after after and during uni as they would fight on the Cage Warriors events, my thai boxing club used to get us tickets to see these events (although at the time it had no connection to mixed martial arts competitivly) they are a decent unit I am sure but certainly not on the level with some of the worlds best training camps.

People of Jackson's experience have their own coahes and training teams so all the need from Wolfslair is a venue/equipment and sparring partners (Bisping whom he is already familar)

The best thing I think he got from his time with them is metal space and time to refocus away from his usual routine.

 

[liberty]

Fair enough, your patrotism is admirable.

I think Jackson etc training there was more to do with the fact that they are training partners of Bisping as he trains with them in the states and they simply came over for a change of scenery for mental focus (Ramage especially needed to get away and refocus)

I'm mean they went there because of Bisping and not because of the effectiveness of Wolfslair per say.

I used to see alot of Wolfslair fighters when I was living in the Midlands after after and during uni as they would fight on the Cage Warriors events, my thai boxing club used to get us tickets to see these events (although at the time it had no connection to mixed martial arts competitivly) they are a decent unit I am sure but certainly not on the level with some of the worlds best training camps.

People of Jackson's experience have their own coahes and training teams so all the need from Wolfslair is a venue/equipment and sparring partners (Bisping whom he is already familar)

The best thing I think he got from his time with them is metal space and time to refocus away from his usual routine.

Of course, moving away is good to refocus, but you could literally move a couple of states in the USA to do that. Wolfslair have apparently a very competant coaching line-up. In fact, I'm sure Rampage even made reference to Tony Quigley, the Wolfslair boxing coach. Go check re-runs of his interview with Joe Rogan. He has said that the coaching at Wolfslair is up there with some of the best in the world.

You wouldn't go live in another random country for a period of time for no reason other than being someone's friend when you consider how much of a big fight he was facing against Wanderlei. There had to be ulterior motives for Rampage to want to train in England with the Wolfslair. And it obviously worked which is good for British recognition in the UFC, the top MMA organisation in the world.

 

[riversmonkey]

Looking forward to UFC 94 this weekend.

My Predictions for the Main Card:
Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida - I'm going for Diaz by decision

Karo Parisyan vs. Dong Hyun Kim - I think Kim might sneak the decision

Stephan Bonnar vs. Jim Jones - It's going to be a massacre, with Bonnar the American Pyscho getting the TKO.

Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva - Machida is very unorthodox but I think he's going to get caught by Silva. Silva via TKO.

GSP vs. BJ Penn - I've enjoyed the Primetime behind the scenes buildup shows for this fight. GSP will dominate and I think will take the win, this one may go all 5 rounds.

 

[AngerManagement]

Looking forward to UFC 94 this weekend.

My Predictions for the Main Card:
Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida - I'm going for Diaz by decision

Karo Parisyan vs. Dong Hyun Kim - I think Kim might sneak the decision

Stephan Bonnar vs. Jim Jones - It's going to be a massacre, with Bonnar the American Pyscho getting the TKO.

Lyoto Machida vs. Thiago Silva - Machida is very unorthodox but I think he's going to get caught by Silva. Silva via TKO.

GSP vs. BJ Penn - I've enjoyed the Primetime behind the scenes buildup shows for this fight. GSP will dominate and I think will take the win, this one may go all 5 rounds.

The greatest thing about MMA is that it is not as easy to predict as most sports, upsets happen very frequently. Fighters are very rarely ducked, there is less politics then boxing for example and with such small gloves one punch really can change a fight.

There are also so many variables involved with which a fight can turn, an elbow easily opens a cut...one wrong move and a fighter who is dominating a fight can get caught in submission and so on and so forth..

That being said I will add some of my own predictions regardless

I pick Nate by TKO
Parisyan by decision
Bonnar by decision
Machida by decision
BJ by submission (now this fight I can't really pick a winner as both are equally skilled and are two of my favoured fighters...but I go with mygut)

 

[riversmonkey]

It was a decent PPV, Joe Silva's matchmaking was spot on for all the fights on the main card leading up to the main event. I was perplexed a little by the judging in the Parisyan vs. Kim fight which I thought was almost certainly a victory for Kim, perhaps his conservative style went against him. The Guida vs. Diaz fight was another close one, the scoring system needs to be explained because for me Diaz landed solid shots throughout the fight, especially in the third, went looking for numerous submission attempts and all Guida did was nullify the threat, and keep busy.

Jon Jones looked impressive, loved the suplex and the spinning elbow. And Machida, wow, what a fighter! I thought his time was up last night and Silva would hunt him down but he's just too good.

BJ Penn lost the fight in the build up, the Prime Time build up gave away clues that he was unfocussed, paranoid and not prepared for a better, badder GSP. Thiago Alves should be a good test for the Canadian next up. There seems to be a lot of rumours suggesting that should GSP move past the pitbull then he will take on Anderson Silva, though this sounds like fantasy matchmaking to me.

 

[AngerManagement]

It was a decent PPV, Joe Silva's matchmaking was spot on for all the fights on the main card leading up to the main event. I was perplexed a little by the judging in the Parisyan vs. Kim fight which I thought was almost certainly a victory for Kim, perhaps his conservative style went against him. The Guida vs. Diaz fight was another close one, the scoring system needs to be explained because for me Diaz landed solid shots throughout the fight, especially in the third, went looking for numerous submission attempts and all Guida did was nullify the threat, and keep busy.

Jon Jones looked impressive, loved the suplex and the spinning elbow. And Machida, wow, what a fighter! I thought his time was up last night and Silva would hunt him down but he's just too good.

BJ Penn lost the fight in the build up, the Prime Time build up gave away clues that he was unfocussed, paranoid and not prepared for a better, badder GSP. Thiago Alves should be a good test for the Canadian next up. There seems to be a lot of rumours suggesting that should GSP move past the pitbull then he will take on Anderson Silva, though this sounds like fantasy matchmaking to me.

I think BJ lost the fight purely because he was up against a better and bigger man, they are very evenly balanced in terms of skill but ultimately a good big guy beats a good little guy (and GSP is certainly the naturally bigger and stronger)

Will be very interesting to see if the GSP/Anderson Silva fight ever comes off. Again two very evenly matched fighters in terms of talent but this time Anderson is the natrually bigger/stronger man. Still a super fight in the waiting no doubt.

Machida is the top boy in the LHW in opinion, I think he deserves his title shot now he would beat Rashid comfortably in my opinion...I was shocked to hear so many people backing Thiago in the first place .

As for the scoring of the two fights, well they were touch and go I wouldn't really complain about either decision the fights were close.

Bonner got pretty much dominated, although he has been trading off losing a good fight for too long now anyway.

I agree, a pretty good UFC card all in all. Glad to see GSP and Machida doing well as they are two of my favoured fighters in the UFC.

 

[riversmonkey]

UFC 95 tonight, the cards lacks a 'big fight' but I'm sure it will be good. Here are my quick predictions.
Lightweight bout: Diego Sanchez vs. Joe Stevenson
I'm going for Sanchez, Stevenson has looked out of sorts in his recent fights.
Welterweight bout: Dan Hardy vs. Rory Markham
I'd like to back the British fighter but I think Markham will knock him out early
Middleweight bout: Nate Marquardt vs. Wilson Gouveia
Should be a cracker. I think Marquardt will win on points
Middleweight bout: Demian Maia vs. Chael Sonnen
Maia is a submission machine, expect him to notch up another tap
Welterweight bout: Josh Koscheck vs. Paulo Thiago
Koscheck is on another run at the moment, I think he will get the KO

 

[punky]

Anyone seen UFC 96 yet?

Spoiler

What a knock out by Matt Hamill!

 

[riversmonkey]

Yeah, though he overdid the celebrating a bit.

Really enjoyed Tamdan McGrory's f-word laden post fight interview, having a go at Dana White for picking his entrance music. And also the Rampage / Rashad staredown.

 

[AngerManagement]

Great News UFC fans (well for me), I got my tickets for UFC 98 in Las Vegas.. should be fun, hopefully will see Machida crowned champ
(although I wish Rampage was still on the bill as he vs Rashad is looking a great grudge match *you don't get in somebodies face like that, especially when your breath smell like that)

 

[mil1lion]

The Ultimate Fighter season starts up again on Sunday. Its team America vs Team UK. Bisping is coach for Team UK. It Premieres on Virgin 1 this Sunday (11pm) and is also shown on Setanta Sports next wednesday (10pm). Cant wait.