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

[ACCBiggz]

You could get to see them, depending on how CroCop preforms. Pride has no quams with sending talent into UFC because they are superior, but CroCop hasn't been preforming all that well as of late, so it could be conseivable that he may come in to add another Heavyweight, although I give that 5% chance of happening.

As for Loiseau, I like his chances, but this isn't another fighter. Tanner is overrated, and both guys dominated him in different ways. That is one way that this match gets complicated to decide. Going to be a great match-up, and a lot of fun.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Pride were supposed to send Kazushi Sakuraba and/or Kazuyuki Fujita over to the UFC a few years ago. Of course, they never did. UFC, on the other hand, sent Chuck Liddell to PRIDE to fight Guy Mezger, then he fought in the Middleweight Grand Prix. I think both DSE and Zuffa understands that sending a top fighter over to the other organization is a very risky deal. But at least UFC made true on in on their offer and sent Chucky over, while Dana and co waited for the fighters in return, but they were never even sent. DSE/Pride, played UFC big time.

As for Pride being superior. Heavyweights, yes. Pride has an army of top heavyweights, while UFC has Arlovski, Mir, and.... Uh... Tim Sylvia? I dunno. While Pride boasts Fedor, Cro Cop, Minotauro Nogueira, Segei Kharitonov, Mark Hunt, amongst others.

Middleweight, or UFC Light Heavyweights, Pride boast a much larger line up, but the LHW UFC does have, Chuck Liddell, Randy Couture, Tito Ortiz, and Babalu, are easily on the same level as Pride's fighters, the list is just not as large.

However, 185/180 divisions are HIGHLY debatable in terms of who has the better list of fighter, once again, Pride has more, but the talent in the UFC matches Pride's, in guys like David Loiseau, Rich Franklin, Jeremy Horn, Joe Doerksen, Nathan Marquardt, even Evan Tanner (who you may find overrated, but I personally think a lot of his recent troubles have been due to leaving a strong team in Team Quest) plus rumors of maybe Ivan Salaverry coming back and lingering possibility of signing a guy like Anderson Silva. Not to mention potential future stars like Mike Swick and Chris Leben. Finally, anything 170 and below, I personally believe UFC is superior. Welterweight is stacked to the heavens. Matt Hughes, GSP, Karo Parisyan, BJ Penn, Nick Diaz, Joe Riggs, Matt Serra, plus a host of others on the rise or coming recently like Diego Sanchez, Drew Fickett, and Jonathan Goulet to name a few. That is stacked. The new Lightweight division is going to badass too. Yves Edwards, Josh Thomson, the possibilty of guys like Genki Sudo and Hermes Franca coming back as well, not to mention the possible dropping of weight levels of Joe Stevenson, Jorge Gurgel (a natural 155, only went 170 for TUF), Sean Sherk. Middleweight and Welterweight already make the UFC, but the Lightweight, if they run with it and the possibilities come through... Man, those three division are/will be money divisions.

Edited January 16, 2006 by Enter Blue Guy 27

[Enter Blue Guy]

Just a reminder that Ultimate Fight Night 3 is live tonight at 10pm eastern on Spike TV.

Official fight card and stats are right here.

http://www.ufc.tv/index.cfm?fa=eventdetail.fightCard&eid=118

EDIT: Also, promised for the show is huge announcement, which may be one or several announcements which may or may not include UFC in California, Royce Gracie, an official announcement for the new Lightweight division, or something completely different all together.

Edited January 16, 2006 by Enter Blue Guy 27

[ACCBiggz]

I was going to think about a LW announcement or perhaps an annoucement on Spike about TUF3.

[Enter Blue Guy]

I dunno, the announcement is supposedly set to change the face of MMA forever. Of course it actually won't CHANGE THE FACE OF MMA FOREVER but it will something pretty damn big. Right now some of the biggest possibilities are Royce Gracie returning to the UFC (Matt Hughes is the rumored opponent), a near future UFC being held at the Staples Center (rumored UFC 59), an official LW division announcement, or 22 live shows through-out 2006 (one UFN on Spike and one PPV per month). It could be all of that, or it could be something totally different. Remember, a few news sources were fooled by the "leaked" news that Carlos Newton and Pat Miletich would be the coaches for TUF 3, when days later they announced Tito and Ken would coach AND announced the return of BJ Penn.

This is what it says on the main page of UFC.tv.

Historic Announcement Coming Monday

Throughout UFC history, there have been many groundbreaking announcements, moments that have both stunned and thrilled fight fans. But there's never been anything like this.

Edited January 17, 2006 by Enter Blue Guy 27

[ACCBiggz]

Fight #1 down...

Good victory for Leban, and my predictions which aren't posted:

MAIN CARD

- Tim Sylvia

- Stephan Bonnar (Submissions over Striking)

- Chris Leben

- Drew Fickett (Out of fandem for his defeat of Lay&Prey)

PRELIM CARD

- Jason Von Flue

- Spencer Fisher

- Duane Ludwig

- Melvin Guillard

[ACCBiggz]

The Big Announcement:

Royce Gracie v. Matt Hughes

[SeanDMan]

UFC really needs a new offical. Mario Yamawhatshisname is just not working out. He's way too conservative and while you can kind of appreciate if he stops one fight early that he's just doing his job and protecting the fighters, enough is fucking enough already.

[Enter Blue Guy]

If you are talking about Goulet being KO'd by Duane Ludwig... I think Mario made the right call. Being on all fours on the ground, balancing on your face with your eyes closed is usually a sign that you're done. Mario waited for a few moments, saw that Goulet wasn't going anywhere and stopped it. Goulet even said right after fight that he was out and the stoppage was the right call.

He's doing his job. When some people are complaining a ref stops the fight early you have to realize it's the ref who has a close up view of the fight, knows what's going on better than anybody else, and is required to stop the fight as soon as one competitor appears unable to intelligently defend himself. There is a lot of pressure on the refs, they have the safety of both fighters in their hands, and if a fighter was to become seriously injured because an official did not stop the bout when one fighter could no longer defend themselves, the Nevada State Athletic Commission would hang the entire UFC asses out to dry. It's much, MUCH better too stop a fight to early then it is to stop it too late. There have been some criminal early stoppages for sure, none that weren't somewhat justified from Mario Yamasaki IMO, but shit happens. The refs are told to use their judgement and once a while that means a unjustified early stoppage. But yeah, if the ref sees fit to stop the fight, he has all the right to, because his perspective of the fight is far better than anybody elses.

Edited January 17, 2006 by Enter Blue Guy 27

[Toe]

Remember, Goulet may have been able to get up, but if that fight hadn't been stopped right away, Goulet was in a position where we would have eaten 4 or 5 big bombs before he could even turn.

Oh, and Royce Gracie vs. Matt Hughes sounds good. I don't think it's amazing and ground-breaking. I haven't seem Gracie fight since I rented UFC 2, so I am not sure if his style even translates into the way they fight now. Still, it's Royce Gracie.

Edited January 17, 2006 by desiredtoe

[Fitzy]

Thursday, January 19, 2006

UFC's Ultimate Fight Night Live' Scores More than Two Million Viewers on Spike TV

Released by Spike TV

'UFC's Ultimate Fight Night Live' Scores More than Two Million Viewers on Spike TV

More Men 18-34 Watched Live Ultimate Fighting Championship Bouts than the Marquee Kobe vs. Shaq - Heat vs. Lakers Game on TNT; Delivered More Men 18-24 than NBC's Golden Globes, ABC's Primetime Lineup and CBS's Comedy Block

NEW YORK, Jan. 19 -- Spike TV's live, two-hour telecast of "UFC's Ultimate Fight Night Live," drew more than two million viewers (2+). The special, which was telecast on Monday, January 16 (10:00 PM - 12:00 Midnight/ET), garnered a 2.7/683,000 in Men 18-34 (10:00 PM - 12:00 Midnight), surpassing TNT's Heat vs. Lakers matchup (10:45 PM - 1:30 AM), which drew a 2.6 /672,000.

In addition "UFC's Ultimate Fight Night Live" ranked #1 with M 18-24 (2.3/249,000) compared to Monday night's primetime programming on ABC and NBC, as well as CBS's Comedy Block.

The Spike TV telecast featured an impressive first round victory for light heavyweight and "The Ultimate Fighter" Season 1 finalist Stephan Bonnar over James Irvin. Heavyweight contender Tim Sylvia won a 3-round decision over Assuerio Silva in the main event.

Overall, Spike TV's presentation of "UFC's Ultimate Fight Night Live," delivered a 1.7 HH/1.6 million and in Men 18-49 2.0/ 1 million. Its next Fight Night Live special will telecast Thursday, April 6.

Spike TV is available in more than 89 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks. A unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), MTV Networks is one of the world's leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms.

SOURCE Spike TV

Web Site: http://www.spiketv.com

[Blehschmidt]

Is it just me, or did UFC screw Duane Ludwig out of the quickest KO record?

I know the old one was Don Frye with an 8 second KO, but I swear that clock read 4:56 when Goulet dropped. Which means 4 seconds, but they called it 11....

Maybe they just didn't want a Lightweight with the record, but I have NO clue how they got 11 seconds out of that.

[ACCBiggz]

Goes from bell to stoppage. Just because he got hit/fell at four doesn't mean that is the official stopping time.

[Guest Afroduck]

So when is the Tito Forrest fight going to happen?

[Enter Blue Guy]

Forrest vs. Tito takes place at UFC 59 in April and it will be live at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, the first UFC event to take place in the state of California. Also rumored on the card is Arlovski vs. Mir (if he beats Cruz) and Matt Hughes vs. Karo Parisyan (meaning Matt would work double duty in April then in May against Royce, which with Matt doesn't surprise me). Also, TUF 2 competitors Joe Stevenson, Jorge Gurgel, and Brad Imes are rumored to make their UFC pay-per-view debuts that night.

Also, I'm trying to work the quickest KO's in UFC quicker than Bang's on Monday.

So far I got Frye KO'ing Ramirez at 8 seconds, then I know Mark Weir KO'd Eugene Jackson in 10 seconds at UFC 38, then tied are Duane Ludwig's KO on Monday and BJ Penn KO'ing Caol Uno at UFC 34 in 11 seconds... Goldberg said Ludwig's KO was tied for 4th, so that means there is a 9 second KO in there in second.

Edited January 20, 2006 by Enter Blue Guy 27

[Fitzy]

Hughes is fighting twice in April? Or are you saying he is working in April and then again in May? The way you say "double duty in April and then in May" makes it look like three fights in two months which is a lot for a fighter.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Naw, I just meant he was fighting in back to back shows, 59 and 60. My bad. I dunno, "double duty" sounded right in my head. Bleh.

[Blehschmidt]

The 9 second fight your missing is:

Oleg Taktarov v.s. Anthony Macias from UFC 8, but that ended in a submission.

Here...maybe this will help....

Sherdog List

[Enter Blue Guy]

Well, this weekend, tomorrow to be exact, the most profitable UFC event to date will go down. The Mandalay Bay Events Center has been sold out completely for months, with tickets selling at ridiculous prices. Cheapest tickets went for $100 US, while the best seats in the house went for a whopping $700 a piece. Tickets are being sold for over $1000 on ebay and by scalpers. For a UFC event, that's unheard of. It's truly a testament to how big of a match up the main event is. The anticipation for the final bout in the biggest trilogy in mixed martial arts competition is through the roof and in just over 24 hours the event known simply as "Liddell vs. Couture III" will comence. I would've killed for a chance to get my ass over there, even if only for a few hours, but unfortunately my name is Johnny "LL" Cubano... Lucky bastard. Anywho, the following was stolen without an ounce of shame from Sherdog.com...

Ah the “rubber match,” taken from the game of bridge or, some say, from the English game of “bowls” or lawn bowling (you roll wooden balls across a green and … forget it).

All you need to know is it means “you won one, I won one, let’s finish it.” And so here we are. The Liddell-Couture trilogy finishes as it began: with the UFC light heavyweight championship title on the line.

I just hope Vitor Belfort doesn’t jump into the ring and yell “I got next” or some such foolishness. That would be embarrassing wouldn’t it? Well that bout is just the “piece de resistance” or as the French prefer to say "le morceau de résistance.” (Georges St. Pierre would love that line.)

Um … anyway, let’s put all the fancy talk away and focus on the fights. The entire card breaks down as follows:

Elite Performance fighter Mike Whitehead throws down with former TUF cast-mate Keith Jardine (Pictures) of Jackson’s Submission Fighting.

Hammer House athlete Branden Lee Hinkle meets American Top Team/Olympia fighter Jeff Monson.

Brawler Gilbert Aldana from BraUsa Academy takes on American Kickboxing Academy striker Paul Buentello.

Brazil Dojo “vale tudo” fighter Alessio Sakara, from Italy, faces Australian grappler Elvis Sinosic from Machado Jiu-Jitsu.

Nick Diaz of Cesar Gracie’s camp and Joe Riggs of Arizona Combat Sports take to the cage.

Gracie Barra’s Renato Sobral goes toe-to-toe with Mike Van Arsdale of the American Kickboxing Academy.

Former UFC heavyweight champion Frank Mir from the Las Vegas Combat Club squares off against jiu-jitsu fighter Marcio Cruz from Gracie Barra.

City Boxing fighter Brandon Vera confronts Elite Performance fighter Justin Eilers.

And in the main event, reigning UFC light heavyweight champion Chuck Liddell from The Pit Fight Team battles Team Quest’s Randy Couture for the third time.

Edited February 4, 2006 by Enter Blue Guy 27

[Guest Xtian]

I'm pretty new to UFC so the only match I'm looking forward to is Lidell/Couture. Does anyone know if this will be airing in the UK? A few of these came on BRAVO a day later so can anyone confirm if this will be shown on Bravo tomorrow?