MMA News and Discussion Thread

[Typical Phenom]

Anyone just watch that great fight between Frank Shamrock and Cung Le? Fight of the year thus far.

I shall put the results in spoiler tag since it just ended (not sure if it on tape delay or not on the west coast).

Spoiler: Click here to view

Cung Le took Shamrock apart with punches and kicks and did an awesome job at it. Shamrock called it quits after the third round to give Le the Strikeforce Middleweight title. Shamrock broke his right arm due to kicks from Le. Cung Le was the better fighter tonight.

Go out of your way to watch it. Great fight.

I enjoyed the fight too, until Biggz started talking about how one of the guys Cung Le trains with said the first fight would end with injury, the second with some controversy, all to set up the third big money fight. Obviously, I've no idea as to the truth of it all, but the speculation did lessen the fight for me somewhat. Was hoping maybe you or EBG could shed more light on the situation?

[Enter Blue Guy]

Some poster on Sherdog said the fight would end with Cung Le winning via controversial stoppage due to injury. IIRC, he may have even called it ending in the 3rd, but I'm too lazy to dig the thread up to check. 50 million threads get made every day at Sherdog, lately a good number them have been about Cung Le/Shamrock, so fuck that. Anyways, the guy claimed to be a training partner of Le's, but later he apparently denied being as closely associated with Cung Le as he first said, if he even knew him at all.

Frank's arm got pretty fucked up in that fight, enough to question why he'd want to work a finish that would require him to break his arm in order for it to be pulled off. Frank doesn't seem like the kind of guy who would willingly lose. He's pretty full of himself. It was an intense fight, neither guy looked like they were pulling any of their strikes, if there was no "training partner", there would be no questioning the legitimacy of the fight.

Who really cares if the fight was worked, though. I mean, so much good came out of it. A great fight, more hype for Cung Le (good fro Strikeforce at least), and Frank's mouth getting shut. For the time being.

Edited April 6, 2008 by Enter Blue Guy

[Fitzy]

Finally, it looks like Fedor Emelianenko will step into the ring/cage to take on a top ten ranked fighter. It will be Emelianenko facing Tim Sylvia on July 19 for the Affliction/HD Net Fights co-promotion event.

[Maxx]

Hooray! I couldn't think of anyone else I'd like to see Fedor decimate.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Interesting, I guess. Fedor fighting legit competition. I don't care about Sylvia that much, not even enough that prospect of him exploding just by standing in the same ring as Fedor doesn't excite me. If Tim wins I'll care about him. Right now, Tim is a guy I could live without seeing fight again. Actually, even if wins, I'm not sure I'll give a hoot about Tim. That's probably because I'm so sick of hearing about potential Fedor fights and his greatness, him being the be all, end of all top quality MMA, I'm suddenly sick of Tim by default. Maybe I'm just bitter, but I'm sick of anything to do with Fedor Emelianenko until he starts fighting the best again. And not just once a year either.

I mean, I'll watch this of course, but still.

Edited April 9, 2008 by Enter Blue Guy

[Enter Blue Guy]

UFC 83 Results, C+P'd from MMA Junkie.com with no shame.

Jonathan Goulet def. Kuniyoshi Hironaka via TKO (punches) -- Round 2, 2:07

Cain Valesquez def. Brad Morris via TKO (strikes) -- Round 1, 2:10

Rich Clementi def. Sam Stout via split decision

Demian Maia def. Ed Herman via submission (triangle choke)

Jason Day def. Alan Belcher via TKO (strikes) -- Round 1, 3:58

Jason MacDonald def. Joe Doerksen via TKO (strikes) -- Round 2, 0:56

Mac Danzig def. Mark Bocek via submission (rear-naked choke) -- Round 3, 3:48

Michael Bisping def. Charles McCarthy via TKO -- Round 1, 5:00

Nate Quarry def. Kalib Starnes via unanimous decision

Rich Franklin def. Travis Lutter via TKO (strikes), Round 2, -- 3:01

Georges St. Pierre def. Matt Serra via TKO (strikes) -- Round 2, 4:45

Good stuff last night. I love Nate Quarry now. Kalib Starnes will probably never fight in the UFC again. He was so inactive that one judge actually scored the fight 30-24. That's THREE rounds of 10-8. And it's justified. Kalib Starnes did nothing at all. Even when Quarry was making fun of Kalib at the end of the fight, Kalib just stood there and flipped the bird. It was so bad, Nate's taunting wasn't even out of bad taste, it was exactly how everybody watching felt.

Edited April 20, 2008 by Enter Blue Guy

[Fitzy]

Yeah the stuff with Quarry was awesome. Too bad the other two judges didn't give him the 30-24 as he did nothing but run. Starnes after the fight being all "You fight, you fucking fight you faggot" to someone was retarded. The refereeing was a little odd last night. Several cases of hitting on the back of the head and no warnings issued at all (unless it was one of those cases like Lesnar/Mir where it was so loud that he couldn't be heard saying it...).

Overall I enjoyed the show. Goulet/Hironaka was a good, solid fight. McCarthy probably shouldn't be welcome back either. He just stood there with his hands up to his face most of the fight. He did manage to take Bisping down once but outside of that, he did nothing either.

So I assume we get to see Serra/Hughes now but I was surprised that neither the commentators or Serra himself brought up Hughes.

[Krone]

I am so glad Quarry won. Ever since I saw on him TUF 1, I liked him. Then him actually sending a response message to me on myspace about a year ago was even better. Awesome fighter and I hope that maybe a fight with Bisping is in his future. String together a few more wins and he could be back in contention for the UFC Middleweight championship.

[VerbalPuke]

UFC 83 Results, C+P'd from MMA Junkie.com with no shame.

Jonathan Goulet def. Kuniyoshi Hironaka via TKO (punches) -- Round 2, 2:07

Cain Valesquez def. Brad Morris via TKO (strikes) -- Round 1, 2:10

Rich Clementi def. Sam Stout via split decision

Demian Maia def. Ed Herman via submission (triangle choke)

Jason Day def. Alan Belcher via TKO (strikes) -- Round 1, 3:58

Jason MacDonald def. Joe Doerksen via TKO (strikes) -- Round 2, 0:56

Mac Danzig def. Mark Bocek via submission (rear-naked choke) -- Round 3, 3:48

Michael Bisping def. Charles McCarthy via TKO -- Round 1, 5:00

Nate Quarry def. Kalib Starnes via unanimous decision

Rich Franklin def. Travis Lutter via TKO (strikes), Round 2, -- 3:01

Georges St. Pierre def. Matt Serra via TKO (strikes) -- Round 2, 4:45

Good stuff last night. I love Nate Quarry now. Kalib Starnes will probably never fight in the UFC again. He was so inactive that one judge actually scored the fight 30-24. That's THREE rounds of 10-8. And it's justified. Kalib Starnes did nothing at all. Even when Quarry was making fun of Kalib at the end of the fight, Kalib just stood there and flipped the bird. It was so bad, Nate's taunting wasn't even out of bad taste, it was exactly how everybody watching felt.

Yeah, it was a nice show. That fight with Kalib and Quarry was a downer, but I never liked Kalib to begin with so I'm glad that he got beat.

I was ecstatic to see GSP win the belt back, it's always rad seeing you're favorite fighter dominate.

[Gene Kiniski]

Called the results last night during the show, getting each one nearly perfect (winner and round). McCarthy is a bitch. He started off taunting so much and then didn't do anything.

[IAceI]

Jeez. I came in here so as not to spoil any results, from you lot you'd imagine GSP never fought

All this talk about the most boring fight on the card, when GSP just decimated Serra. He looked absolutely amazing, so in control, Serra didn't know whether he was coming or whether he was going it seemed. Towards the end of the fight he looked gassed, his hands were low - and if that's the second round it shows just how hard he was working to keep GSP off him.

Was great to watch GSP and great to see him so well. He threw some devastating knees Serra there, and to be fair, Serra did very, very little in that fight. It was perfectly scripted for him to win like that and I think it was a case of all those little things adding up for GSP. All those little knees, and shots to the side of the head that seem to do nothing at the time just building up and collecting and adding up to a great amount of damage. Loved Serra at the end, picking up GSP was awesome. Gives me a little faith in humanity I have to say.

As an Englishman, I have to comment on Bisping and with as little bias as possible. He looks like he could do some major damage at 185 and I loved his comment beforehand of "Charles says that my opponents are just handpicked for me, maybe he's just handpicked as well?" or something to that effect. It seemed that way and all I really remember is a brief McCarthy take down sandwiched between some vicious knees from Bisping. The way he ended it was fantastic and that must have been like 20 knees in a row just dropping McCarthy like a sack of potatoes.

And major props to Mac Danzig. He fucked up Mark Bocek something nasty. At the end when they were announcing the winner Bocek just looked like he'd been hit by a train. It was an entertaining match and a good way to kick off the event for me, and the main card for you Americans.

Quarry/Starnes doesn't need any comment about. Starnes shouldn't be back, that's not a way to justify the money you get for fights like that, the crowd can be quick to get on the 'boring' bandwagon but that was a disgrace of a fight. Franklin/Luther was largely forgettable for me, seemed okay but Luther was gassed at the end and Franklin just took his time and ended it when he was ready.

Good card. I'd have loved to see GSP on for a bit longer because I haven't seen many of his fights, and being a Hughes fan I had a little contempt as it were for him. But seeing him from Montreal, and seeing a big time fight of him makes him one of my favourites I have to say. He was tactically spot on and just a revelation to watch and just goes to show how mental UFC is as well as physical.

[Toe]

Rich Franklin's escape from the armbar when it looked locked in was pretty amazing.

[Enter Blue Guy]

That was just heads up sub defense. That's the work of years repetitious grappling, when you can roll with the armbar in the manner Franklin did. Pure instinct.

Edited April 21, 2008 by Enter Blue Guy

[Gene Kiniski]

I still see a lot of potential in Lutter, even after that loss. For one, he lost to Rich Franklin which is nothing to be ashamed off, secondly he was able to lock in an armbar on Rich Franklin.

[Fitzy]

And it's official, Starnes is out of UFC because of that horrible performance.

"He just doesn’t belong in the UFC and after his performance the other night, he should consider a new line of work," White said Monday.

[The Punisher]

Former UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell has been taken off of the card for UFC 85 scheduled to take place in London on June 7, MMARated.com is reporting.

The UFC has yet to issue an official statement.

Liddell had been scheduled to fight Rashad Evans. Evans is also expected to be removed from the card with the bout against Liddell likely to be re-scheduled for later in the summer.

Liddell had originally been scheduled to fight Mauricio “Shogun” Rua on the card, but Evans was tapped as a replacement after Rua was forced to bow out after aggravating a knee injury.

There is no word if a replacement main event will be added to the UFC 85 lineup. A heavyweight title between Brandon Vera and Fabricio Werdum is currently the highest profile match that’s still scheduled.

According to the Wrestling Observer, the event, scheduled for the O2 Arena, has sold over 10,000 tickets, making it very unlikely that the event will be re-scheduled entirely.

It will be interesting to see if the show remains scheduled for pay-per-view, as drawing a strong buyrate could be difficult without a legitimate main event. UFC 85 will also be taking place just two weeks after UFC 84, which already an obstacle in regards to drawing a strong buyrate.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Kalib's heart has been questioned since he was on TUF, so it's not like this is his first shit show. There have been several examples of Kalib dogging it, so yeah... Good riddance.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Sorry for the double post, but some really cool post event pics from UFC 83 at sherdog.

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=771456

GSP eating his post fight meal at McDicks!

Edited April 22, 2008 by Enter Blue Guy

[Gazz]

Sorry for the double post, but some really cool post event pics from UFC 83 at sherdog.

http://www.sherdog.net/forums/showthread.php?t=771456

GSP eating his post fight meal at McDicks!

Fuck that.

Bisping and a midget!

[Fitzy]

MMAJunkie posted the following:

"We're going to make the WEC the smaller weights and the UFC will be the heavier weights," White said. "We'll probably take some of the guys in the higher weights, the champions over there and bring them into UFC. We're still trying to figure that out."

I wouldn't mind this as both the middleweight and light heavyweight divisions in WEC are kinda small anyways that they might as well just move whatever fighters they have up to UFC.