MMA News and Discussion Thread

[ACCBiggz]

Didn't see this posted, but apprently Dancing with the Stars has contact Matt Hughes to be part of the cast next season. He'll talk it over with his wife and make a decision as dancing traning won't take place till after his fight anyway.

[Thrilla]

Cyborg weighed in seven pounds over weight, if she can't get down to 149.5 the fight will be pulled from the Strikeforce show. She's been fined 20% of her purse already and could possibly lose more as she'll probably have to cut some sort of deal with Akano, who did make weight.

Diaz/Shamrock is now a 180 pounds catchweight match as that is what both guys weighed in at. Diaz called Shamrock a faggot at the press conference, clever boy.

- Rehashed from the Observer.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Although to be fair, Cyborg did work out a deal and that match is going on.

[Thrilla]

I was just going to come in and edit that(!)

Also, UFC 100 has set the record for the quickest sellout in Las Vegas history.

Edited April 11, 2009 by NBT

[Gabriel]

I'd like to see Strikeforce set two weight classes for the Women... that way, when they come in over weight, they have no excuses.

I'd also like to see more womens fights. They're always pretty damn good.

I love the Diaz Brothers. They're classy fellows.

[Fitzy]

Cyborg weighed in seven pounds over weight, if she can't get down to 149.5 the fight will be pulled from the Strikeforce show. She's been fined 20% of her purse already and could possibly lose more as she'll probably have to cut some sort of deal with Akano, who did make weight.

Diaz/Shamrock is now a 180 pounds catchweight match as that is what both guys weighed in at. Diaz called Shamrock a faggot at the press conference, clever boy.

- Rehashed from the Observer.

The Shamrock/Diaz fight has always been set for that catchweight (actually 179 ).

Is that Diaz/Shamrock press conference on youtube? I'd like to see it. Diaz is wonderful.

[Thrilla]

Yeah. its gone up from 179 to 180 as they both weighed in heavy.

Can't find the press conference up anywhere at the moment.

[I Love Pokemon]

I lost all respect for Akano, when she reversed her decision and decided to fight Cyborg. She should have stuck with the proving a point by not fighting because of her opponents retardedness.

Also, i have no urge to see either Frank Shamrock or Nick Diaz win a fight so i'm definitely not watching tonight.

And, you can wiegh-in a pound over, so if the fight is for 179 and you wiegh in at 180 thats perfectly fine. So the fight is actually a 170lbs catch-wieght fight, but it's really just semantics.

Also i can't wait for Hughes vs Serra, i'm looking forward to someone smashing in the face of that prick. I can't wait to see what Serra says after he gets domlished and abused by Hughes. It will be beautiful to see.

[Gabriel]

Hughes Vs Serra is weird for me. On the one hand, you a guy who acted like a complete douchebag through his stints on the Ultimate Fighter in Matt Serra. On the other hand, you have the Jesus pushing Hillbilly, Matt Hughes.

For me, it's the same as you not liking either Diaz or Shamrock. I'm excited about tonight's fight, but in terms of Hughes/Serra...all I can ask for, is that it's a good fight, because I really don't like either man.

[Thrilla]

Strikeforce stuff

Spoiler: Click here to view

Anyone watching the Strikeforce show? Should be on in ten minutes or so, prelims already finished.

Strikeforce: Shamrock Vs. Diaz

- Shingo Kohara def. Jeremy Tavares by knockout (0:04, second round)

- James Terry def. Zac Bucia by unanimous decision

- Raul Castillo def. Brandon Michaels by submission [Rear Naked Choke] (1:45, first round)

- Eric Lawson def. Waylon Kennell by technical knockout (4:54, first round)

- Luke Rockhold def. Buck Meredith by submission [Rear Naked Choke] (4:07, first round)

- Brett Rogers def. Abongo Humphrey by technical knockout

- Cris Cyborg def. Hitomi Akano by technical knockout

- Scott Smith def. Benji Radach by knockout

- Gilbert Melendez def. Rodrigo Damm by knockout

- Nick Diaz def. Frank Shamrock by technical knockout

Rogers has a point deducted for hair pulling, but won the round, so 9-9 to start things off. Rogers has been dominate and I'd be surprised if it goes the distance.

Its over. Second round TKO. Height advantage really worked in Rogers favour, pulverized him with knees and dirty boxing.

Cyborg is up next. This could get ugly in a hurry, Cyborg is huge.

Cyborg looks a good 20 pounds heavier than Akano and is throwing her around like a ragdoll but Akano manages to avoid the majority of the damage. 10-9 round to Cyborg. Pretty much a mismatch here, Cyborg takes the round 10-9 again never really looking in danger despite the flying armbar attempt. Cyborg wins via TKO, not surprising. Commentary said it best, it is a very hollow victory. Maybe she'll actually try to make weight next time.

Benji/Smith is up now. This one will be ending by knockout, I imagine.

Both men threw some heavy bombs in that first round with both having decent chances to finish the fight. Benji squeaks out the 10-9 for me with his takedown at the end of the round. Benji takes the second round and is really looking like the more likely winner of this fight, he rocked Smith a couple of times in that round. Smith needs to finish the fight in this round. BOOM! Scott Smith scores the knockout with a heavy right hand to the jaw. That was a great stand up battle, Smith really caught Benji on the point of the jaw. I originally thought the stoppage was early but after seeing the replay it seems just. Good fight, it delivered everything you'd imagine it would.

Melendez/Damm for the title is up next. I've gone for Melendez in the predictions as I've never seen Damm fight, so I have no idea what to expect here. They've just shown a really weird computer graphic thing showing a double leg takedown in which the humans had no skin, just muscle and bones, weird.

Melendez takes the first round, nothing spectacular happened. Melendez took Damm down and then kept him there for the round. BOOM! El Nino drops Damm with a right hand and this one is over. Damm never really got going in that match. Melendez is the new interim Lightweight Champion.

Main event time, baby! This better be worth staying up until 5am for >_>

Diaz takes the win in the second round. Shamrock just didn't look ready for this fight, he was slow and Diaz seemed to have his number on the feet and on the ground.

Edited April 12, 2009 by NBT

[Fitzy]

I think you might get told to put that in spoiler tags. Since this is in a general thread and not even marked with spoilers, you might want to do that, just to be safe.

Spoiler: Click here to view

Anyways, good night of fights.

Rogers looked good out there. Much improved. I don't think he is ready for Overeem, though, like the announcers kept mentioning about a possible fight.

Cyborg dominated Akano, but she probably had a good 20+ pounds on her. Also, they really need to go 5 minute rounds. It's ridiculous to keep these women limited to 3 minutes.

Smith vs. Radach was a great fight. Smith getting Radach rocked and then Radach coming back and rocking Smith was exciting stuff. Almost reminiscent of Smith/Sell but without the knockout straight after. Great knockout by Smith to finish the fight.

Rosenthal was really slow to stop the punches from Melendez on Damm. He was out cold after the first punch that knocked him down. The three or four that followed were completely unnecessary. But still an excellent finish.

Awesome to see Diaz beat Shamrock. I didn't pick Diaz to win but he is favorite of mine so it is always great to see him win.

[Thrilla]

Good idea Fitzy.

[Fitzy]

UFC 99 looks really good: Franklin/Wanderlei Silva, Herring/Velasquez, Saunders/Swick, Davis/Hardy, and Fisher/Uno. With that being in Germany, I wonder if it will be on Spike. If so that would be great.

Carano vs. Cyborg is set for August and it'll be for a title. No word on what weight it will be at but I assume 150 would make the most sense since they both have trouble getting to 140 or 145.

Kevin Randleman joins Strikeforce and Overeem looks to defend his Strikeforce heavyweight title most likely against Fabricio Werdum.

[Gabriel]

Strikeforce was an absolutely awesome show.

I know everyone's on Cyborg for not making weight... but to be fair, there are no set weights for the females... which makes it hard, because you stay at your normal weight until you take a fight, and then you have to cut to whatever was set. If there were set weights for the womens fights, it would be much easier, as they would be able to hover more closely to said weight. For instance, a 135 lb, and maybe a 160 lb belt in the Womens division? Lightweight and Heavyweight womens' divisions.

I didn't think Overeem would be around in Strikeforce still, but I'm glad he is. A fight with Werdum could be really good.

[Guest Mr. Potato Head]

Stephan Bonnar vs. Mark Coleman has been added to the already-stacked UFC 100. Winner gets a few more matches as a stepping stone, I guess.

[Fitzy]

Bonnar pretty much has a job for life as Dana White said him and Forrest are like sons to him and will always look after him, but the guy really needs to step up his game and start winning.

[Jayzon]

About Dana White's controversial video blog:

Sure, he has the right to disagree with any journalist, and he had some good points, but sheesh. He's the president of the company. You won't hear any president of a major company act like a 14-year-old and go on a curse-laden tirade on YouTube. The fact that he did this completely erases the good points he might have had. So immature and so unprofessional. I mean, there's the right way of disagreeing with people, and the wrong way, and Dana definitely went the wrong way.

[Gabriel]

About Dana White's controversial video blog:

Sure, he has the right to disagree with any journalist, and he had some good points, but sheesh. He's the president of the company. You won't hear any president of a major company act like a 14-year-old and go on a curse-laden tirade on YouTube. The fact that he did this completely erases the good points he might have had. So immature and so unprofessional. I mean, there's the right way of disagreeing with people, and the wrong way, and Dana definitely went the wrong way.

Which would be the correct viewpoint if: Dana White wasn't considered the coolest President of a major company because of this very fact. The fact that he doesn't act like a suit, talk like a suit, or look like a suit, is exactly what endears him to so many people.

The way I see it, any press is good press. If he ruffles some feathers, who gives a fuck, as long as he's not hurting business. As far as I'm aware, the only potential audience he may have lost was the homosexual audience, and he made a very public and legitimate apology for that.

MMA is never going to function like a normal business, because the truth is, you see a guy like say, Donald Trump being touted as the man behind a promotion, and there's no substance to it. There's a guy, in a suit, with bad hair and a lot of money. Big fucking deal. Dana White is a real guy. He's personable and marketable to the general public. What he's done for the UFC far outweights any hinderance he could have on their growth... because if they went in the direction of handing the company over to suits, the personality would be gone, and the fans would soon follow.

[Jayzon]

Which would be the correct viewpoint if: Dana White wasn't considered the coolest President of a major company because of this very fact. The fact that he doesn't act like a suit, talk like a suit, or look like a suit, is exactly what endears him to so many people.

Wow. "Coolest"? Well, that's different. Because, as we all know, being "cool" and cursing like a 14-year-old brat is THE MOST IMPORTANT THING EVAH.

[ACCBiggz]

You won't hear any president of a major company act like a 14-year-old and go on a curse-laden tirade on YouTube. The fact that he did this completely erases the good points he might have had. So immature and so unprofessional. I mean, there's the right way of disagreeing with people, and the wrong way, and Dana definitely went the wrong way.

Let me quote Dana White himself to this point:

I'm not defending myself to people who don't know me and are all of a sudden all over me. I'm not homophobic and I'm not anti-gay. I used a word that I shouldn't have used and I hurt people.

It's extremely laughable that you'd come in here and jump over Dana for cussing. That's nearly as ignorant as what actually got Dana in "trouble". Quotations because it was blown out of proportion by people who don't watch or know Dana. And his apology was accepted by GLAAD as he had a conversation with them about it and is plainly stated in his interview with ESPN that I posted in here. Go read it.