Vince Russo

I never said anything about Hunt having trouble punching Lesnar, and I even made a point of saying that Hunt's overhand right is his most dangerous weapon and that Brock had to avoid it. I was talking about Hunt's kicks and the problems that throwing them may cause him given his height in relation to Brock and how that could play into Brock taking Hunt down. It's strange how you never once tried to discuss that particular point, and instead resorted to sweeping generalizations and thinly disguised insults. It's almost as if you couldn't argue against a point you didn't agree with and needed to find a way to deal with the cognitive dissonance that created.

Josh Koscheck has once again pulled out of the Paul Daley fight. Daley will now be facing Douglas Lima.

I don't think anyone has said Hunt's striking game isn’t stellar. All that's been pointed out, quite accurately, is that Hunt's kicks, whilst obviously being vicious, are, given his size and reach when compared to Brock's size and reach, not necessarily the fight ending weapon people are assuming they'll be simply because of Hunt’s background. It's not a knock on his skill, but pointing out the simple physics in a 5’10 man trying to get in close enough to use kicks on an opponent who is 6’4 and has the strength and ability to take him down if he’s even slightly off balance.

As a pure striker with no ground skills and no submission defence Mark Hunt is a stylistically safe opponent, as long as Lesnar avoids the overhand right. Yes, Hunt has kicks, but the only MMA fight he’s won with those kicks was almost twelve years ago, to a subpar superheavyweight who was never any good anyway. And if Hunt wants to deliver those kicks to the body and go for the body shot that stopped Lesnar before, Hunt’s size means he’s going to have to get in real close to Lesnar to do that, which leaves him open for a takedown, and I’d give Lesnar good odds of getting a takedown if he goes for it from that position. Overeem and Hunt might both be former K-1 champions, but that does not mean they fight the same way and can beat someone the same way. Overeem was tall enough with enough reach that he could kick Lesnar from far enough away that he could avoid a takedown attempt. That’s an advantage that Hunt does not have.

Brock will be facing Mark Hunt at UFC 200. A dangerous but stylistically fairly safe opponent. As long as Lesnar avoids the big overhand right, he'll be fine. If he can avoid it.

You can almost hear the money being generated. UFC 199: Bad Blood - Cruz vs. Faber

The writers of Arrow have fallen into the trap of getting so into being able to do what they want, that they don’t stop to think whether they should be doing it in the first place. They’re so into being able to take things in what they feel are exciting directions, which they think are exciting because you wouldn’t expect to see them, that they never bothered to wonder why fans don’t expect to see them. Case in point is the killing of the Black Canary/Laurel Lance. There’s a reason fans didn’t expect it. Because they didn’t want to fucking see it. There are characters fans will accept dying. They might not like it, but they’ll accept it. Black Canary/Laurel Lance was not one of them. But these genius writers were so in their own heads, so into the idea of being able to do the unexpected, that they never thought about whether it was something fans would want to see. And no, the Earth 2/Mirror Universe concept is not an acceptable workaround, so let me repeat myself; to the writers of Arrow, I say fuck you.

Not a major football fan, so can someone explain why Jack Wilshere is in the squad when he was out for almost the entire season and is notoriously fragile? On the surface, it doesn't make any sense. Is he really that good or is it just Hodgson sticking with someone familiar?

One of the judges, Rob Hinds, did himself no favours with an interview he did after the fact, and Jimmy Smith took him apart over it. Cageside It's long but worth reading because Smith does a great job in making clear that Rob Hinds should never judge again, not just because of that decision, but because Hinds clearly has no idea what he's doing.

I think Barao’s problem was that he was giving up too much size to Stephens, as Stephens looked way bigger than he did. Barao is a natural featherweight who fought at bantamweight until he couldn’t cut the weight anymore. Stevens, on the other hand, is a lightweight who is cutting weight to make featherweight, and not always successfully, so he’s probably 155lbs at least when he actually gets into the cage, maybe even more, especially on this occasion. I still say Barao is better than Stephens but it was the size and power difference that dictated that fight rather than pure skill, and Barao was someone who got rocked at bantamweight, so a bulked up featherweight is really going to hammer him, and I was actually impressed Barao managed to stay conscious, especially near the end when Stephens was really laying into him. Barao’s at a crossroads right now because he’s too big to cut to bantamweight and he’s too small for featherweight, and until the weight cutting restrictions come into effect across the board, he’s going to have to risk his body, either with a killer weight cut, or by fighting people way too big for him.

Thank fuck this steaming pile of excrement is over and not a moment too soon.

BJ Penn is out of UFC 199 due to a potential Anti-Doping Policy violation. It's not necessarily for actual usage of PED's, rather a violation of the rules as it relates to the use of IV's, however, part of the reason IV use was curtailed is because it can be used to mask the use of PED's or blood doping. Penn has claimed ignorance over the changes in IV rules, despite making commenting on the change of IV rules when they were implemented last year.

Sky Sports News are saying that LVG has been sacked.

Caught some of the top fights from Venator FC 3. Hey, let's see what Bellator are doing *watches Carvalho vs Manhoef* ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

What they’ve apparently got planned for next seasons comes off as an idea born out of either desperation or a ridiculous level infatuation with their own perceived success. It’s the ultimate hotshot idea and it’s what you’d expect from people who lack either the ability or willingness to reign themselves in. The bringing people back to life idea isn’t necessarily a bad one, but like every idea these people have had, they’ve run it into the ground and then some, by going to it over and over and over and over and over again. Raising someone from the dead has lost all meaning because it’s not something special; it’s almost expected at this point. And once you’ve reached that point, when you do kill someone off for good, you get one of two reactions. You get people who were fans of the character angry, and not in a good way, because you’ve killed off their favourite whilst letting so many others come back. Or you get people not giving a shit because it’s painfully obvious the writers are trying to pull their strings and they’re not going to play ball. Yes, we know that’s what they’re meant to be doing because that’s the point of writing any show, but we don’t it rubbed in our faces that you’re trying to get a reaction out of us. They’ve rendered death completely meaningless. It’s lost all power as a story telling tool because they’ve killed off and then brought back so many people that it doesn’t feel special anymore. It doesn’t hit you like a death is supposed to. So, after all that, let’s move on to the latest episode of one of the worst written shows in television today. I’m trying to think of some way these writers could fuck up even more, but I think they’ve done just about everything you could do if you wanted to take a well written show that had characters with depth and turn it into a walking, talking ball of suck.

The co-main event of UFC 201 will be Demetrious Johnson defending the flyweight title against Wilson Reis.

Bisping is the best option in this scenario. He's the biggest name available who is coming off a win, but he's probably not going to beat Rockhold so you can safely give him the title shot and not worry about having to delay Souza's title shot. Bisping is a suitable replacement in that he's coming off a win over a legend, albeit a legend not quite at this prime anymore. He's a big enough name that his replacing Weidman won't feel like much of a step down, if it feels like one at all. And because he's always slipped up in that one last fight that he needed to win to get a title shot, it'll be something of a feel good story that he's finally getting the title shot he's wanted but always just fallen short of earning, which in turn will make him a sentimental favourite, and that'll make it just as a good a story to build up as Weidman getting his rematch.

Chris Weidman is out of UFC 199 due to injury. Most of the major names at middleweight are now vying for the spot against Luke Rockhold, including Bisping, Romero and Brunson. Romero has no chance because he's suspended until July.

It was hard to know how to feel about Miocic winning because he and Werdum both seem like really nice guys and you didn’t want either one to lose. But one of them had to, and whilst Miocic had a chance at winning, the way he won was completely out of the blue. Who would have expected Werdum to go charging in to Miocic with his hands down and his chin high? Unfortunate for Werdum to lose in his home country in front of so many fans, but that’s what can happen when you turn your brain of, and well done to Miocic for landing the right shot. What was expected was Souza steamrolling over Belfort. Belfort has almost nothing to offer but his right hand, and even then, Belfort lacks the stamina to be threatening for more than a few minutes, if that. Credit to Belfort for sticking around after they checked on his cut, as I was half-expecting him to play the ‘i can’t see’ card and try and get out of a fight he didn’t have much chance to win to begin with. Souza wants the shot at the Rockhold/Weidman winner, and he probably deserves it ahead of Bisping, but I’d like to see Bisping get the shot because he’s coming off the highest profile win of his career and it’s the best chance the UFC have of being able to run that long talked about but never realized UK stadium event. It’d also be nice to see Bisping get the title shot he’s been after for so long but has always seen slip through is fingers at the final hurdle.

Arrow has always been plagued by terrible writing. The writers aren’t particularly imaginative, they’re woefully limited, they don’t know how to balance putting steam on the bad guys without killing hope or maintain your incentive in watching the good guys fight back, and they don’t seem to have any grasp of logic, with their ideas often being completely ridiculous. Case in point is that after all this time of Team Arrow trying to find out a way to counter the magic of Damian Darhk, after totally screwing up the plot of having to get the idol and destroy it, which would make sense given the rules they’ve established and the some of the flashbacks they’ve shown, after apparently dropping the idea that something to do with Thea being brought back can help, what do they come up with? What’s their big idea for what the Oliver needs to do in order to beat Darhk? He needs to think good thoughts. That was stupid enough that I considered cutting my losses there and then and not even bother with seeing the episode out, let alone the rest of the season. As it is, I’m with those who are going to see the season out simply because we’ve somehow stuck with it this far, and we may as well stay for the final few episodes to see how this absurdity plays out. After that, I’m done, because, despite some of the strengths it does have, Arrow is just too poorly written and put together to waste any more time on. I’m also in agreement with the sentiment of @GoGo Yubari , over having a functional adult relationship, especially for Oliver and for the main hero in general. Yes, it's not overly dramatic that the hero has a normal relationship with someone else, but that's what bad guys are for, adding drama, and not only that, it's nice to have something consistently positive to hold on to whilst the rest of the drama is going on.

Speaking of Wilshere, he did a Q&A on Twitter, and it rather predictably ended up with him getting trolled mercilessly. How does it feel when you've seen Dele Alli achieve far more in his 1st season than u ever have? #AskJackWilshere — Monty (@RealBristolSpur) May 11, 2016 Have you been injured in an accident at work and it wasn't your fault? #AskJackWilshere — TTTactics (@TTTactics) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere What's your favourite injury? — Funny Tweets (@FunnyThingsUK) May 11, 2016 Have you tried turning your ankles off and on again? #AskJackWilshere — edwin h. (@ehdz__) May 11, 2016 If you have 5 apples in one hand and 8 apples in the other hand how long will you be out injured for?? #AskJackWilshere — Derek Duvall (@D_BOY1982) May 11, 2016 What's it like playing football with legs made of Weetabix ?#AskJackWilshere — THE SPERT (@THESPERT) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere Do you feel your career as a professional NHS patient has been interrupted by football? — Liz (@captainboo) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere has trended longer than you've had time on the pitch — FOREST GIMP (@House_of_gimp) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere which injury was the most memorable? You've been injured quite a lot so take your time pal. — Harriet (@punkafff) May 11, 2016 In which hospital will you be watching Euro2016? #askjackwilshere — Matic (@maticc1) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere Have you let Welbeck borrow this yet. pic.twitter.com/b7MTF4q2oA — John Hearson (@londonboyjohn) May 11, 2016 Would you ever consider coming to the US to "play" soccer for the MLS? Our hospitals are expensive but really nice! #AskJackWilshere — Coco (@SweetFA__) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere Who deserved it the most; the cab driver you spat on, the pensioner you abused, or the 21-year-old girl you punched? — Mike Hunt (@Mike___Hunt) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere @JackWilshere How many fags do you plan on bringing back through customs if you go to the Euros? — Thomas Hember (@ThomasHember) May 11, 2016 On a scale of one to ten, what's your favourite colour of the alphabet? #AskJackWilshere — Steve Campbell (@stevec652) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere If you reply to these questions too fast will it injure your fingers? — Thomas Jones (@tomj191) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere Jack do you think you are directly responsible for the rise in NHS waiting times? — Evil Roy Hodgson (@evilroyhodgson) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere are you confident you'll make the Paralympic team this summer? — Joe Mac (@_JoeMac86) May 11, 2016 #AskJackWilshere Hi Jack, the kit man would like to know, what you want packed in your suitcase for the Euro's pic.twitter.com/ozj7J8u8i6 — Evil Roy Hodgson (@evilroyhodgson) May 11, 2016

What is very relevant is the fact that Conor hadn't signed the bout agreement and is therefore under no obligation to do anything if he doesn't want to in relation to the fight.

Apparently, the big sticking point is that UFC wanted to do a big week-long media tour, similar to what they did for UFC 189, and because of what that tour took out of him and how it affected his training, Conor wanted more money to do it all again. If true, I can certainly see where Conor is coming from. You don't want to do anything to hurt your training at the best of times, but for a fight that is this big and one with a very personal stake, you can understand why Conor would be reluctant to do anything that he feels would take away from his preparations. As I understand it, it was UFC's decision to go for the immediate rematch.

Tony Ferguson’s timetable to return is still up in the air, and with UFC wanting a title fight on Fight Pass on the date they did, they evidently felt they couldn’t wait any longer. As for why Eddie Alvarez got the shot, it’s probably because when the fight was made, he was the #1 ranked lightweight contender. Everyone else was either coming off a loss or had a fight scheduled, and in the case of Donald Cerrone, whilst he was coming off a win, that was at welterweight, and his last fight at lightweight saw him get slaughtered by RDA. Alvarez has been underwhelming since coming to the UFC, but his title shot makes sense both on paper and based on the available options in the timeframe they were operating under. I would have liked to have seen Ferguson get the title shot as he’s more than earned it, but the timing wasn’t in his favour, and it may continue not to be because it looks like Khabib is in line for the winner of RDA vs. Alvarez.