***spoilers*** UFC News and Discussion Thread

[Thrilla]

I just realised I never made any predicitions for the PRIDE show. Whoops!

Edited April 8, 2007 by Natural Born Thrilla

[ACCBiggz]

SOKOUDJOU Vs. Ricardo Arona

Shinya Aoki Vs. Brian Lo-A-Njoe

Makoto Takimoto d. Zelg "Benkei" Galesic by Submission (Kimura) in the First Round

Eric "Butterbean" Esch d. Zuluzinho by Submission (Keylock) in the First Round

Gilbert "The Hurricane" Yvel Vs. Akira Shoji

Kazuyuki Fujita Vs. Jeff Monson

Don Frye Vs. James Thompson

Yoshihiro Nakao d. Edson Drago by Submission (Neck Crank) in the First Round

Edited April 8, 2007 by ACCBiggz

[Thrilla]

Butterbean won by submission!?!

[ACCBiggz]

Gilbert "The Hurricane" Yvel d. Akira Shoji by TKO in the First Round

[crazedfan]

The two were slugging it out early on, went to the mat, and Butterbean got a keylock on Zulu.

[ACCBiggz]

James Thompson d. Don Frye by TKO in the First Round

[ACCBiggz]

Lengthy intermission followed by PRIDE GM thanking the fans and introducing the PRIDE President. He thanks the fans and talks about PRIDE's history then out of nowhere SAKURABA comes down followed by TAMURA!!!! PRIDE President announces that he negotiated with both men and they will fight in the PRIDE ring soon and Sakuraba is BACK!

HOLY MOTHER THAT WAS WORTH 80 BUCKS RIGHT THERE!!!

Shinya Aoki d. Brian Lo-A-Njoe by Submission (Armbar) in the First Round

Edited April 8, 2007 by ACCBiggz

[ACCBiggz]

HOLY MOTHER OF GOD

SOKOUDJOU D. ARONA BY KO IN THE FIRST ROUND!!!

SOKOUDJOU IS THE F'N MAN!!

[Gabriel]

I didn't see that coming... I mean, sorta...but Arona's one of my favorite PRIDE fighters... so it's a shock to me.

[ACCBiggz]

Jeff Monson d. Fujita by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) in the First Round

What is this...

UFC - 2 (Monson, Liddel)

PRIDE - 1 (Rampage)

???

[Guest mrbigstuff]

UFC was solid yet boring for the most part garcia vs huertta(sp?) was the show stealer for me as it was brutal. Serra upset GSP by just taking him by suprise and throwing some bombs thank you Ultimate Fighter for that one. JK and DS sucked to me boring fight period DS is now 19-1 but i do see a rematch down the line next big UFC Feud just on interaction and hatered between each one. UFC took more pride talent seems like wanna kill pride instead build it so far.

Pride- Butterbean has won many fights and many by submisson just look at sherdog he isnt that bad a fighter but is a noveltty act still becuase he is butterbean and huge guy. Frye back is a good thing and Sakuraba back is even better find him so more gracies!

[Enter Blue Guy]

I just got finished watching UFC and Pride back to back, with a few break in between of course.

What a weekend of MMA. UFC 69 was good, but very meh at points.

Diego vs. Kos was a huge letdown, IMO. Cote vs. Smith at 67 was more satisfying then that. Kos is a punk, he's shit talking Diego losing on Myspace already. Fuck him. I say let Hughes whoop his ass ASAP.

Okami vs. Swick wasn't that great either, Okami deserved the win, but one can't help but think he was saved by the horn at the end of the 2nd. And fuck the crowd for booing Okami. I love the UFC, but it's things like booing the foreigner or the guy against the hometown fighter that piss me off. It's not a fucking football game. Booing Diego and Kos for doing fuckall for 15 minutes, yeah, I can handle that, because I was pretty close to doing it myself at home. Booing Okami, who clearly came to fight and won, booing and chant "USA". Fuck that. Classless.

Serra's upset saved the event from mediocrity, IMO. I love GSP, but I can't help but feel good for Matt. It was surreal to see Serra wearing the title, because it's an underdog story taken right out of a movie or something, but you'd never expect it actually happen. Good for him. Even if he loses it in his next fight, it makes me happy that Matt Serra won tonight. If he had never been on TUF he would never got a chance to fight for a title, maybe not even been able to fight in the UFC again, then he comes out and KO's the champ people were calling more dominant than Matt Hughes.

Huerta/Garcia, I really enjoyed. Great fight. Groves looked really good too. I think I'm just a little bitter because Koscheck/Sanchez was the fight I was looking most forward and it sucked fucking balls. And apparently Heath Herring looked really good last night in the prelims too. I wish I saw that, as I'm a big Herring mark.

Pride, I watched it with low expectations because it sorely lacking star power and intriguing bouts. Honestly, it was 10 times better than what I was expecting.

I wanted Don Frye to win so badly, poor guy. To his credit, he looked good before Thompson pounded his face in for like 3 straight minutes. Frye is a tough son of a bitch, he took every shot and stayed standing. When they did a short version of the Takayama/Frye exchange, that was awesome. Don always comes to fight, he never quits, he tough as nails, the crowd loves him. He was the most popular foreign fighter in Pride for a time and they still love him. Actually, it would have been cool to see Frye vs. Fujita close out the show, rather Monson and Fujita.

The Tamura/Sakuraba thing was cool, it played out like a wrestling angle or something. But I don't really care about the potential fight anymore. This fight has been in the making forever and maybe it's a Japanese thing, seeing the two native rivals FINALLY fight, but to me, it's just a fight, you either do it or you don't. It's not like a Rampage/Silva or a Cro Cop/Fedor thing, when two guys are on a path head on for each other and anticipation mounts with each passing fight. This is two guys that hate each other, but for some reason don't fight. Well, besides the whole K-1 thing. But before that. Clearly somebody doesn't want it to happen, since this is about the millionth time they've teased the fight. Even after all this time, there never has been a real reason given for countless times the fight has fallen through. Don't get me wrong, I have nothing against this fight, clearly people want to see it, but it's gone on waaay too long and the time for building it up like a wrestling match was more interest when the fight would have been hot. If Sakuraba is coming back to Pride for real, I really hope these two just fight ASAP and get the damn thing over with, instead of building it for another decade.

Whew.

I was really looking forward to see Galesic KO Takimoto in spectacular fashion, however, that was the most exciting Takimoto fight ever. He actually looked really good. I was surprised, though it probably has more to do with Galesic pushing the pace, rather Takimoto all of a sudden becoming a slick and exciting fighter. And man does he look small without the gi on. Still, best Takimoto fight in the history of the world.

Butterbean by submission? That's... wait... what the fuck? The less said about it, the better, because my head might explode. I thought I saw it all when Giant Silva won by kimura, apparently not. They only thing that would possibly top that would be Butterbean winning by flying side kick to the head.

Aoki is awesome. Every time he fights I get giddy waiting to see what he'll pull out of his invisible bag of magic submissions. Marking for the full legged tights too 24/7 as well.

Sokoujou is on fire. He looked amazing against Arona. That's the hardest I've ever seen Arona struggle to take a fighter down. He can usually take guys down at will, so this Sokoujou may very well be more of a beast than Shhhicardo A-hon-uh. If there was any doubt that the fight may have been stopped too early, look where that kick by SKJ(that's what I'm calling him from now on) was going for the ref stepped in. That would have been a clean soccer kick straight the side of the head of an already silly Arona.

Edited April 8, 2007 by Enter Blue Guy

[Guest Takayamanofear]

Well the thing is most of his submissions were either people getting pounded and submitting or really basic chokes. The fact that he won a fight by a Key Lock is very surprising. Just shows how untalented Zulu is by submission. Also ButterBean is not a good fighter, he has one possibly 2 good wins, he is learning but if he can get beat the Punk Minowa then there are not many submission fighters/wrestlers at heavyweight that couldn't beat him. Or for that matter kick boxers that could just give him leg kicks till he falls.

On a side note, There were no fights in the "Last" PRIDE show that went past the 1st round.

Edited April 8, 2007 by Takayamanofear

[ACCBiggz]

I was very impressed with Soukoudjou for his takedown defense, STIFF leg kicks, and then just exploding with that uppercut for the win. That was impressive and the guy is only 22, I can see him doing well for a long long time.

[ACCBiggz]

Lightweight Grand Prix Poster.

Dunno how valid it is... but OH MY!

Edited April 9, 2007 by ACCBiggz

[Enter Blue Guy]

Holy shit!

From left to right that's Luiz Azerado, Joachim Hanson, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Shinya Aoki, Matt Hughes, Takanori Gomi, Hayato Sakurai, Diego Sanchez, Gilbert Melendez, Mitsuhiro Ishida, Marcus Aurelio, and Luiz Firmino.

That would be the most ridiculous tournament ever... If it actually happens as it appears on the poster. I mean, if you look at the initial posters for Pride events, especially Japanese ones, they feature photos of fighters who sometimes don't actually end up being on the card.

I'd wait for an English poster at least before I get my hopes up.

[ACCBiggz]

Hughes, Penn, Pulver, Sherk, GSP, Diego, Serra, Franca would all be no's imo. Hughes would have fought GSP next and now will fight Serra due to it being a easily booked fight. Plus cutting to 161 compared to cutting to 160... yeah.

Penn/Pulver fight in the finale, Sherk/Franca in early summer. GSP just fought. Diego the same.

So that leaves the question, who represents the UFC?

If that poster is right, meaning 12 participants, 4 people get byes to the next round, so maybe then it'd be possible for someone like Diego to get in it. However if it is 16, then no.

Edited April 9, 2007 by ACCBiggz

[JoeMimic]

Florian/Joe Stevenson would be two that come to mind. They just had fights and came out pretty clean for the most part. Nick Diaz could also be used as a rep if they really wanted to.

[Enter Blue Guy]

The thing with Diaz is that Brandon Melendez will most likely be the GP, and a favorite at that, and both come out of the Cesar Gracie camp. Plus, I think the event falls just short of his 3 month suspension.

I'm pretty sure the GP is going to be at 155, since the plan is to change the weight classes to conform with the weight classes of the UFC.

In that case, I can see Florian and Stevenson fighting. There's also Tyson Griffin, Frank Edgar, and even Spencer Fisher as well. Urijah Faber is under WEC contract, there could even be an outside chance of seeing him in there, though he's hasn't fought in the UFC yet. Barring any medical suspensions, it would be possible to even see Huerta fight. It's well over a month until the event, so it is possible, even if he did just fight. Which in the same case you could count Pellegrino and Guillard too. And Stevenson, as I mentioned before.

Edited April 9, 2007 by Enter Blue Guy

[Asuka's Gonna Kill You]

I'm gutted about Koscheck winning. Hatted him in the Ultimate Fighter and just cant stand the guy. Diego just didn't go for it, very let down by that match. Pretty desperate to see someone knock Koscheck out now, hopefully it comes very soon.

Serra winning shocked me, because I thought GSP was going to take it quite easily in all honestly. Really enjoyed that fight. Like a few others said, Garcia/Huerta was probably the best of the night, very enjoyable. Overall, not a great show, some good moments but nothing too special.