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

[TheRaySays]

The Japanese dude was a complete fucking joke. His stance was basically to keep his hands shoulders width apart and try to block punches with his arms. His head stood still as though he was doing reps on a butterfly machine, and I sincerely think ANYONE over 140 pounds on EWB could have knocked him out. How the fuck did he get a chance to fight in the UFC?

[Docpepper]

Forrest Griffin def. Bill Mahood via RNC in R1.:

I was really impressed with Forrest in this matchup. From the getgo I thought Mahood would take it easily but Griffin fought hard.

Rich 'Ace' Franklin def. Evan Tanner © via doctor stoppage in R4 to become the NEW champion:

The big shocker of the night imo. I surely thought Tanner would last but he kept relying on the right hand too much. Franklin gave it his all and fucked Tanner's face all up

Karo Parisyan def. Matt Serra via unanimous decision:

Serra had the match imo but gassed out too soon and Karo made him pay dearly.

Andrei Arlovski © def. Justin Eilers via R1 ref's stoppage to RETAIN the title:

A solid match with some good hits. i think Andrei would have won anyways even if Eilers didn't get injured. That was sick injury though.

Nate 'Rock' Quarry def. 'Mr. International' Shonie Carter via R1 ref stoppage:

Just want to say I cannot stand Shonie Carter. he's a great fighter but his attitude and entrances are too gimmicky for me. good fight I laughed my ass off when nate lit into his ass.

Match of The Night: TIE: Rich 'Ace' Franklin def. Evan Tanner © and Karo Parisyan def. Matt Serra

Best Knockout: David Loiseau def. Charles McCarthy - That spinning back kick was fucking sick. Griffin vs. Mahood comes a close second.

[corygraves]

i'm laughing at how many people bashed on this card, and now are loving it...told ya so aye?

i can't even believe what i saw in the diaz/oishi fight...wow.

serra-parysian was fight of the night for me....i thought serra had karo in the 1st round and was gonna go the distance to win, but he got gassed out quickly it seemed.

buentello and jordan was a good way to start the show i guess...was really hoping jordan would win since i don't like buentello too much. i think this shows that buentello is just as much not deserving of a title fight as eilers wasn't....he couldn't dominate jordan,and didn't.

shonie-quarry was fun, as soon as shonie appeared i was anxious to see him lose,and i got my wish. i love wrestling,but this wasn't wrestlemania, this was UFC.... his character is so fucking stupid. and hes obviously not the same shonie he used to be. I do think he'll be back though for character alone.

mahood and griffin was nothing special, just a onesided victory for griffin furthering his popularity. i thought mahood was gonna throw a better fight up because i heard some good things about him.

loiseau-mccarthy was a very exciting and solid fight...gotta love loiseau,and mccarthy impressed me even though he lost, i feel he has potential to grow and do some solid things in UFC if they give him another shot. Behind Serra-Parysian it was the 2nd best and most exciting fight.

tanner-franklin was fun and solid, glad franklin won...even though it was doctors stoppage, he still deserved it, he would've gotten the decision anyway.

arlovski-eilers was boring...eilers was circling and avoiding too much. sucks his knee went out though, as the fans should have atleast gotten to see somebody get KTFO. I've always enjoyed Arlovski, but this time I was wanting Eilers to pull the upset as i'm a fan of underdogs.

For the announced UFC 54 matches, Horn-Liddell II should be a very exciting fight and its already VERY unpredictable. Liddell is just Liddell, and Horn is great too,and could very easily pull off a win,but its questionable to many and a bit myself, that hes the same Horn he was...out of the 100+ fights, if you look at his RECENT record against SOLID fights, not cans who were debuting against Horn, or 5-19, he has lost to all names (babalu,anderson silva etc.,) And I think Liddell would take both of them so its very unknown what we're gonna see...but I think its definetly gonna be different from most Liddell fights in that it goes to 2 rounds.

Van Arsdale vs. Couture is okay I guess, I'm not sure if Van Arsdale is gonna be able to handle Couture,but this also will show if Couture still has got it and if his loss to Liddel was just a one timer for now. He needs to beat atleast 2-3 more people to garner another shot. I'd also like to see Horn-Couture, and Babalu-Couture....by beating them hes got another shot,if he can take 'em. Babalu is next in line for the belt to me though.

Good to see overall their improving the LHW division, I was worried for a while that it was turning into the HW division. Hopefully they do this same thing with the HW's.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Great card, I knew it had tons of potential despite the lack of name value. Highly entertaining and all the pieces fell perfectly for the future.

Karo gets the next Welterweight title shot for sure now, unless Matt Hughes is seriously considering going up to Middlweight, then it should be definately be Karo vs. St. Pierre, then with Nick Diaz waiting on the doorstep we've got a nice little scenario to keep the Welterweight division interesting for the next while.

As for Middleweight, Franklin will Matt Lindland, even if Matt Hughes does move up a clas,s because apparently Rich and Matt won't fight due to Rich's connections to Matt's team at Miletich Fighting Systems. Both train with and are sometimes cornered by Jeremy Horn as well, so I don't know how that would work. But still, Lindland is the number one contender regardless and should get a chance at Franklin... and Matt basically said in an interview that Rich didn't even deserve to get a shot at the title and said the Tanner would win the fight with ease. So it will be interesting to see if Lindland can back up his mouth. And one more note about the MW division, David Loiseau should be getting serious consideration for a possible title shot somewhere down the road.

UFC 54, Jeremy Horn is a tough match for Liddell since Horn can pull out a submission from his ass and make you tap for mercy. Chuck wants none of Gumby on the ground, I don't care how good of a grappler Chuck is, Horn will make him tap. Jeremy isn't the most exciting fighter in the world, but he has the skill and experience to win that title. As I said before, it is refreshing to see the LHW division get a tad deeper with Horn and Babalu, and now with Griffin making a name for himself. It would have been nice to Babalu vs. Couture instead of Van Arsdale vs. Couture, but Babalu went out with a bicep injury and won't be able to fight in August. It's just nice to the cycle of Tito, Randy, Chuck, and Vitor broken.

And for Heavyweight, I'm not quite sure where you go from here. I haven't heard any serious updates on Frank Mir's health, so I can only assume that he is out of the short term picture for now. But for now all signs point to Buentello vs. Arlovski next. As for the number one contender... Well, I guess Tim Sylvia vs. Mike Kyle could be a serious possibility to for the right to a future title shot. Hopefully Mir will return soon so the UFC can settle this debacle with one undisputed champion.

Edited June 5, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[JoeMimic]

They also announced Trigg Vs St.Pierre at the press conference after the PPv for the PPV in August. I'm looking forward to that one.

[Enter Blue Guy]

They also announced Trigg Vs St.Pierre at the press conference after the PPv for the PPV in August. I'm looking forward to that one.

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Edited June 6, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[JoeMimic]

They also announced Trigg Vs St.Pierre at the press conference after the PPv for the PPV in August. I'm looking forward to that one.

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Confirmed for sure? Beeeeauty... That is the fight I want to see most. St. Pierre and Trigg are two of my favorites and even though it will be hard to root for one, it should no doubt be an exciting affair. I say St. Pierre takes it though. Nobody can stop the RUSH! He was winning the fight with Hughes until the that killer armbar that made Georges tap at the very last second.

What ever Heavy Hitters lacked in name value, Boiling Point more than makes up for it.

Liddell and Couture of course are the big sellers, but it doesn't hurt to have St. Pierre, Trigg, and possibly Diego Sanchez and Tim Sylvia on the card as well.

Let's see if the UFC can continue their streak of impressive events going. It's been like forever since the UFC really let me down interms of entertainment value.

The only thing that pisses me off is the continued negligence of the Lightweight division. When are they going to get off their asses and see that LW is the most entertaining division?!? Why Yves Edwards vs. Josh Thomson wasn't put on the main card with the vacant title on the line at UFC 49 is beyond me. Man, they've really missed the boat with that weight class in the past year or so.

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[corygraves]

Trigg/GSP is gonna be amazing but at the same time so hard for me to pick on, cause both are 2 in my favorites list of MMA fighters...not my 2 favorite overall,but they're in there somewhere! I pick GSP to win, but I never would count out Trigg, hes not bad on the ground,but if he stands with GSP, it could turn into a great slugfest.... GSP has a more clean and professional boxing type standing game,while Trigg has more of a wild haymaker throwing punch game, both could be fatal to another....

Couture/Van Arsdale is good to see someone new getting involved, hopefully Vans doesn't get spanked quickly and can prove himself, so he isn't just another fighter to get beat up on by Liddell and Couture...we need new guys to be able to hang with the current big guys... hopefully Wiuff can get a fight soon too, maybe against Bill Mahood or Forrest Griffin?

[Enter Blue Guy]

I would personally like to see Vernon White get another chance. He really impressed me against Chuck Liddell, he even got the better of him at times. If it wasn't for a few bad slip ups he could possibly had Chuck in bad position. I think he'd be a decent guy to have in the division, in fact Forrest Griffin vs. White could be quite a nice little match up.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Update.

Now that Georges St. Pierre vs. Frank Trigg has been confrimed, as have two others as well.

Joe 'Diesel' Riggs vs. Matt 'The Law' Lindland and Diego 'Nightmare' Sanchez vs. Dave Strasser.

Other fighters rumored on the card are former UFC Heavyweight Champion Tim 'Maine-iac' Silva and David 'Soul Assassin' Terrell (KO'd Matt Lindland, got train wrecked against Evan Tanner in the Middleweight title fight at UFC 51).

Also, a bout was confirmed for the Ultimate Fighter live special on Spike TV for August 6th entitled "Ultimate Fight Night". Ivan Salaverry (coming off impressive wins over Joe Riggs at UFC 52 and Miletich Fighting Systems team member Tony Fyrklund) vs. UFC newcomer and 7 times King of Pancrase, Nathan Marquardt.

Other fighters rumored to be on the card include Mike Swick, Stephan Bonner, Sam Hoger, Josh Koscheck, Chris Leben, Kenny Florian, Alex Karalexis, as well as non-TUF fighter Patrick Cote.

[Karizma]

my interest in UFC has gone down amazingly low, I used to be right into this stuff...but I just fell off around the late 40's especially after Liddell won the title...

Rampage being there could be interesting, but if he said no to Couture and Liddell, it kinda makes you think whats the point.

[Guest Red Devil]

Looks like there's been an injection of "Name power" on this show. With both Chuck and Randy on the show it's got 2 big stars and looks like it has got a few good fights. I'm really interested in Diego Sanchez's first official UFC fight. He looked really good on TUF and hopefully continues in that way.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Well, just incase anybody forgot, Ultimate Fight Night airs live on Spike TV tonight at 9pm (Eastern). It's a three hour event featuring 5 live fights, plus 3 unaired prelim fights. Should be really fun, even though I won't be around to see it live... I'm scrambling for a replay time right now...

Live Card

Main Event:

Nathan Marquardt (7 times King of Pancrase) vs. Ivan Salaverry (Top UFC Middleweight Contender)

Chris Leben vs. Patrick Cote

Stephan Bonnar vs Sam Hoger

Nathan Quarry vs. Pete Sell

Josh Koscheck vs. Pete Spratt

Prelims

Mike Swick vs. Gideon Ray

Kenny Florian vs. Alex Karalexis

Drew Fickett vs. Josh Neer

Then on August 20th, UFC hits pay-per-view again for UFC 54: Boiling Point

UFC Light Heavyweight Title Fight:

Chuck Liddell © vs. Jeremy Horn

Undercard:

Randy Couture vs. Mike Van Arsdale

Frank Trigg vs. Georges St. Pierre

Matt Lindland vs. Joe Doerksen

Tim Sylvia vs. Tra Telligman

Travis Lutter vs. Trevor Prangley

Diego Sanchez vs. Brian Gassaway

James Irvin vs. Terry Martin

THEN two days later, on Monday August 22nd The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 kicks off on Spike TV at it's same old time (11:05, after Raw). Teams will be coached by UFC Middleweight Champion Rich Franklin and UFC Welterweight Champion Matt Hughes.

And if that's not enough, here are the fight listings for the next two Unleashed cards that will follow Raw on August 8th and 15th. The episode on the 8th will hype UFC 54 and the episode on the 15th will hype TUF Season 2.

August 8th

Unleashed #3

Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz (UFC 47)

Chuck Liddell vs. Vernon White (UFC 49)

Randy Couture vs. Pedro Rizzo I (UFC 31)

August 15th

Unleashed #4

Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg I (UFC 45)

Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg II (UFC 52)

Rich Franklin vs. Evan Tanner I (UFC 42)

That's it... right? Nope, one more bit of info.

UFC 55 has been announced to take place on Friday October 7th at the Mohegan Sun hotal and casino. Plus, two fights have been confirmed.

UFC Interim Heavyweight Title Fight:

Andrei Arlovski © vs. Paul Buentello

Forrest Griffin (TUF 1 Lightweight Winner) vs. Ian Freeman

Now we're done. Whew. That's UFC out the wazoo.

Edited August 6, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[ACCBiggz]

Live Card

Main Event:

Nathan Marquardt (7 times King of Pancrase) vs. Ivan Salaverry (Top UFC Middleweight Contender)

Chris Leben vs. Patrick Cote

Stephan Bonnar vs Sam Hoger

Nathan Quarry vs. Pete Sell

Josh Koscheck vs. Pete Spratt - PLEASE GOD, LET HIM WIN... PLEASE

Prelims

Mike Swick vs. Gideon Ray

Kenny Florian vs. Alex Karalexis

Drew Fickett vs. Josh Neer

Then on August 20th, UFC hits pay-per-view again for UFC 54: Boiling Point

UFC Light Heavyweight Title Fight:

Chuck Liddell © vs. Jeremy Horn

Undercard:

Randy Couture vs. Mike Van Arsdale

Frank Trigg vs. Georges St. Pierre

Matt Lindland vs. Joe Doerksen

Tim Sylvia vs. Tra Telligman

Travis Lutter vs. Trevor Prangley

Diego Sanchez vs. Brian Gassaway

James Irvin vs. Terry Martin

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Edited August 6, 2005 by ACCBiggz

[Toe]

Since the schedule on the Spike TV website doesn't go into the next week, the only replay I know of for the Ultimate Fight Night is at midnight, right after it finishes the first showing.

[Cole]

Well, I've been waiting for this for a bit and I didn't really watch Unleashed so I'm going to watch Unleashed at 8pm and Velocity at 7pm too.

It's gonna be a great night!

[Enter Blue Guy]

The next two Unleashed episodes are golden. Chuck vs. Vernon is good, Couture vs. Rizzo is great, Hughes vs. Trigg II is a potential FOTYC for 2005 and it's always fun to watch Tito get his head punched in.

And Biggz, I have the utmost confidence that Cote will knock Leben's teeth into the front row.

Oh, and I see Spratt KOing Kos as well. Kos has no chance but to take him down and dry hump him for 15 minutes. Spratt is lethal when he throws and I'll put my money on him to knock the bleach right outta Kos' ugly ass fro.

Edited August 6, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[ACCBiggz]

And Biggz, I have the utmost confidence that Cote will knock Leben's teeth into the front row.

Oh, and I see Spratt KOing Kos as well. Kos has no chance but to take him down and dry hump him for 15 minutes. Spratt is lethal when he throws and I'll put my money on him to knock the bleach right outta Kos' ugly ass fro.

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[Cole]

There are only two things I want to see tonight.

1. Leben getting his ass kicked, I love my Koshcheck

2. See Hogar get absolutely killed! He is going to get the shit kicked out of him, something I've wanted to see since TUF started.

Edit - Is this gonna be the official topic for tonight or are we gonna start one in like 5 hours?

Edited August 6, 2005 by Cole

[Enter Blue Guy]

Yeah, I also put Spratt to sub Kos... My bad. Either way, I see Spratt beating Kos.

Kos should go train with Team Quest, where they turn wrestlers into fighters. Then we'll talk. Too bad Leben trains there. Whatever, Kos has potential because he is an incredible wrestler and can take anybody down easily, but man, he's gotta learn to do something when he gets there.

As for Cote and Leben, it's gonna be slugfest. I don't expect Cote to KO him easily, in fact, I expect Leben to dish out some punishment as well, but Cote is a truck. The guy leveled Tito Ortiz and nearly brought him down.. Only one other guy has been able to that. I think his name was Chuck something. Leben can brawl and has a hard chin, but Cote has heavy hands and a more technically sound stand up style . He was dominating Doerkson at UFC 52, but Joe came outta nowhere and locked on a rear naked choke. So yeah, it should be close, it should be exciting, but I think Cote will knock Leben's light outs in the end.

Edited August 6, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy