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

[naiwf]

I have to say that I enjoyed watching Buentello KO that cocky fucker Eilers.

Tanner completely owned Terrell who looked like he was going to cry at the end of the fight because he basically had his ass handed to him.

Arlovski submitted Sylvia in 47 SECONDS! After one big bomb that dropped Tim, he went for a few more shots then decided, fuck it, I'll just twist his leg up, and got him with a heel hook. I don't see any way for Mir to beat him if he's at less than 100% when they fight, which I hear may not be possible due to his injury being more serious than he lets on.

Pete Sell got Baroni with under a minute to go in the fight, I'd say somewhere between 45-55 seconds left. Baroni's pretty much done at this point, but Sell has the skills to be a star as he has a good chin, and forced a tap out from the guard.

Tito should have won by unanimous decision as he definitely won the 2nd and 3rd rounds. In fact, he dominated the last half of the fight by a pretty wide margin since Vitor gassed out after trying to ground and pound Tito.

All in all, a solid show with a couple of great KO's, some excellent submissions and an absolute war in the Main. Definitely worth a look if you get a chance. They didn't show the first 3 fights EBG listed, but they did air the Mike Kyle fight after the early KO in the first fight. I can't say I enjoyed it except to say that Kyle could pass for a black Kurt Angle.

[Enter Blue Guy]

I'm just happy Tanner has a belt. I mean, this was his 12th or 13th in the UFC. He's a real UFC vet who usually gets over looked. Everybody was saying how Terrell was the next big thing and this would be like a changing of the guard from old to new, but I had a feeling that Tanner would come out champ. Good for Evan, he's been on a roll with 4 straight wins. He is the man to beat in the middleweight division. I wonder who his first defense will be against... Hopefully a rematch against Rich Franklin. I also hope he eventually crosses pathes with former team mate Matt Lindland... now that would be interesting.

And Arlovski is THE MAN to beat in the UFC heavyweight division. End of discussion. Then again, that's not saying much given the UFC's HW talent pool's depth right now. Fuck it, I say bring back Pedro Rizzo to go with Arlovski. If Andrei can trade with Pedro and get the better, then and only then will I start to compare him with the best HW's in the world (I would love for Pedro to come back to UFC, but I don't see it happening). Because face it, Tim Sylvia and Frank Mir (if he beats him) are great fighters, but are have hardly proven they are on the world class scale with the guys across the pond in Japan. So he beats Mir to soldify him as THE champ. Who's next? Mike Kyle? No disrespect to Mike Kyle, but let's get serious here....

Edited February 6, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[Enter Blue Guy]

Card for UFC 52 is up at MMA Weekly. It was announced at the post event press conference after UFC 51.

-Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell

-Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg

-Matt Lindland vs. Travis Lutter

-Georges St. Pierre vs. Jason Miller

-Lee Murray vs. Patrick Cote

-Trevor Prangley vs. Ivan Salaverry

-Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs. Travis Wiuff

-Mike Van Arsdale vs. John Marsh

[Karizma]

Dissappointed in Belfort.

That is all.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Bringing this topic back from the dead, baby!

PRIDE 29: Fists of Fury went down early this morning... well, this morning in my local time.

*****f you plan on watching the PPV spoiler free on the delayed showing (which is in like 5 or 6 days or something) don't read ahead.*****

**************PRIDE 29: Fists of Fury results**************

from Saitama Super Arena

Mario Sperry over Hiro Yokoi by TKO (knees) at 9:08 of the 1st round

Fabricio Werdum over Tom Erikson by submission (choke) at :11 of the 1st round

Mauricio Rua over Hiromitsu Kanehara by TKO (stomp) at 1:40 of the 1st round

Igor Vovchanchyn over Yoshiki Takahashi by KO (punch) at 1:10 of the 1st round (apparently it was a highlight reel KO)

Kazuhiro Nakamura over Stefan Leko by TKO (strikes) at :54 of the 1st round

Sergey Kharitonov over Choi Mu Bae by KO (punches) at 3:24 of the 1st round

Kiyoshi Tamura over Aliyev Makhmud by TKO (strikes) at 7:09 of the 1st round

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira over Alistair Overeem by judges decision (3-0) after 3 rounds

Quinton Jackson over Murilo Rua by judges decision (2-1) after 3 rounds

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic over Mark Coleman by KO (punches) at 3:40 of the 1st round

the crowd size was said to be decent, not exactly sure what that means though. Anyhoooo, this show played out exactly like it was meant to be, not one single upset in the bunch (save for maybe Werdum over Erikson, but not really). Werdum makes himself known by taking out a beast in Erikson, Igor KO's Takahashi early and in impressive fashion showing he is ready for the MW Grand Prix, Kharitonov continues to makes waves in the heavyweight division, home grown favorite Tamura gets a win, Lil' Nog continues to establish himself as one of the up and coming middleweights, Quinton Jackson gets the nod by the majority of judges over a tough Chute Boxe competitor in Ninja Rua, and Mirko's road to the Heavyweight Championship goes on as he knocks out Coleman with ease.

All in all, everyone who needed to win did win. Most importantly Igor, Quinton, and the man who needed it the most, Cro Cop. Now I'm not a Cro Cop fan, but given the times right now, DSE/PRIDE need a big name to rely on in the heavyweight division. A loss to Coleman would have been terrible, not only for Mirko, but for PRIDE as they need to keep his star power going so there is somebody in the heavyweights that can draw and be a convincing headliner. Who knows how long these contract disputes could last....

*****************************************************

End of spoilers...

[kaya]

I dont know if this means anything, but Mark Hunt doesnt have a profile on the PRIDE site, and he didnt appear on this show, he does have a profile on the K1 site, am i paranoid? Anyone know what's going on?

[Enter Blue Guy]

Naw, PRIDE just hasn't added new profiles in a while, at least on the english side of things. It's just a lack of maintaining the profiles sections on both the K-1 and PRIDE sites. PRIDE has fighters on profile that haven't fought there for years.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Meh, I was bored so I thought I'd update this thread a little bit, since it's the only thing I have going for me in The Ring.

According the Ken Shamrock's official website, kenshamrock.com (duh), Ken vs. Rich "Ace" Franklin on the April 9th Ultimate Fighter finale show on Spike TV has been signed. The fight will be at Light Heavyweight limit, making this Ken's second fight in that weight class (his first was against Tito Ortiz at UFC 40).

The casual fan or observer has more than likely never heard of Rich Franklin, so here is a bit of info on him. He fights primarily at the 185 lb weight class, but if my memory serves me correctly, he has fought at 205 before (not 100% sure about that). Ace is an extremely well rounded fighter who is versed in both submissions and striking, both stand up and ground. He has three UFC fights under his belt, along with three wins to go with them. His last UFC appearance was at UFC 50 when he made Jorge Rivera tap to an armbar. Franklin has an overall MMA record of 16 wins, 1 loss, no draws, with 2 wins by knockout, 6 wins by technical knockout, and 9 wins by submission.

A convincing win could launch Rich into the top ranks of the UFC in either the Middleweight or Light Heavyweight classes. A loss for Ken and I doubt we'd see him much of at anymore in the UFC, not like we've seen much of him the past few years anyways. If all goes as planned, Rich should get the win here and possibly make huge waves in UFC. Advantage goes clearly to the younger, more well rounded, better conditioned Rich "Ace" Franklin. Bottom line, as much as I respect Ken, Franklin is a much better fighter then he is, at the 205 mark for sure, and hopefully the MMA Gods will let Rich win in the same manner Tito did and send Shammy on the road to his much needed retirement and Ace on the road to title contention.

Also, a little more on the April 9th finale of TUF... I was glancing over the rumors and unofficial news page on MMA Weekly and saw this...

It appears that this entire card will be filled with previous contestants who were on the Spike TV show, Ultimate Fighter.....meaning guys who have already been kicked off the show will be back for one time only to face off against each other in one time only grudge matches. Not sure if every single guy on the show will get a fight, but the majority will.

Edited February 27, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[naiwf]

I have to say that the last PRIDE show was incredibly weak. Granted I only saw the last four fights, but they were really lame.

Kiyoshi Tamura over Aliyev Makhmud by TKO (strikes) was the most misleading spoiler ever. Makhmud got kneed in "the pills" according to El Guapo, and they initially thought the fight was stopped when the referee came in. However, Makhmud was given three minutes to recover (it felt like a lot more). He fought for a little bit more then motioned he wanted to quit, the ref wouldn't stop it. He repeated the motion, was denied again as the commentators had no clue what the fuck he was doing. Eventually he dropped his hands and asked Tamura to hit him in the face, I guess figuring he could just drop to the mat and sell a KO. This didn't happen either, but his corner eventually threw in the towel.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira over Alistair Overeem by judges decision (3-0) was just a dreadfully boring fight that never gave me the impression 'The Demolition Man' had a chance to win.

Quinton Jackson over Murilo Rua by judges decision (2-1) after 3 rounds. Ninja got jobbed and was crying after the decision was announced, which I thought was funny. Rampage looked totally lost at times. I believe they were saying he found Jesus, but it looks like he lost his edge.

Mirko "Cro Cop" Filipovic over Mark Coleman by KO (punches) wasn't much of a fight as Coleman was unable to take Mirko down, and we all knew he had no shot of winning on his feet. Cro Cop did land a devastating three punch combo for the 'W' though, which was the only interesting thing I was able to see all night.

All in all, unless the first half was great I'd advise you to skip the show.

[Enter Blue Guy]

I didn't see FoF, but I kind of want to see Igor's KO on Takahashi because it was supposedly a highlight reel knockout. However, I will tune into the opening round of the Grand Prix, because that is going to be pure gold... that is if it comes off as good as its shaping up to be.

Edited February 28, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[Godfatha]

What the...jeez I totally forgot about the FoF event.

Guess I didn't miss that much.

Question about the PRIDE website: I wanted to see if they had Fedor's song on there. But it's only on the Japense section of their website. Anyone have the URL on the Japenese section for Multimedia?

Finally, when's the first bracket of the GP set to take place? I haven't been keeping up with this as school's been stupid. But what about the Heavyweight tourney?

[Enter Blue Guy]

April 23rd is the first round of the GP... the schedule for the next 4 events is as follows...

4/3 Yokohama Arena (Bushido 6)

4/23 Osaka Dome (Middleweight GP: Opening Round)

6/26 Saitama Super Arena (Middleweight GP: Quarter Finals)

8/28 Saitama Super Arena (Middleweight GP: Semi Finals and Finals)

And I would love to somehow get to the multimedia section on the Japanese site, but I can't navigate it for shit. I wasn't sure if the actual music is there, but I do know they list the names of the songs and composers. I've been wanting to find Sakuraba's entrance music like forever, but can't. The only way I can listen to it is by playing PRIDE FC for PS2 and going through the music in create a fighter.

Also, to the best of my knowledge, there are no plans to when the next Heavyweight GP will take place. Right now the Middleweight GP is in it's final stages of preparation and after that DSE/PRIDE will focus on the Lightweight GP, which is rumored to be co-promoted along with the SHOOTO MMA organization.

[Fitzy]

Has anyone seen the Don Frye vs. Yoshihiro Takayama fight? I just saw a six minute clip of it and it looked brutal. They kept punching each other and after a few punches, Takayama's face looked bad. But he kept going and punching some more until Frye got him down and just pounded on his face until it stopped. I'd love to see the full fight as thsoe six minutes were awesome.

Edit: I also just saw Chris Leben vs. Mike Swick.

The fight started out kind of slow. A couple of foot stomps by each of them and Swick took Leben down with a very quick take down. They kept it on the ground for a minute or so and Swick got up first followed by Leben.

Then came the left punch by Leben to Swick that looked like it was the end. He followed it up by three more strikes to the head and then locked in the rear naked choke. I am not sure how Swick was able to continue after that knock down and punches/choke, but he managed to turn out of it and actually land a couple punches of his own. But the bell rang and it showed he was still out of it as he didn't know where his corner even was.

The second round came with Swick coming out swinging and landing some good punches of his own, but that left punch again took Swick out to end the fight.

I thought it was a good fight. I think a rematch would be awesome and I do hope it comes at the UFC show if Swick doesn't earn himself the contract (or Leben if he is actually back for good).

Edited March 1, 2005 by Fitzy

[Enter Blue Guy]

Takayama vs. Frye is an amazing brawl.

They go right into it at the start, filling each other in, then Takayama actually takes Frye down and follows up by throwing a nice knee. The knee, as awkward as Takayama throws them, surprises and excites everyone, but Don recovers. The end came when both men where in the corner, Takayama tried to take Frye down again, but Don had none of that and landed on top of him and the TKO via strikes came soon after. Good brawl though.

It ranks up there with Nog vs. Bob Sapp in terms of fights that were surprisingly amazing.

Edited March 2, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[Enter Blue Guy]

Meh, nothing special that many will care about, but news is news and it appeals to puro fans aswell. The battle of MMA vs. Puroresu

the announcement was made that there will be a big MMA show on 3/26 at Saitama Super Arena called "HEROS." Riki Choshu vs. Katsuyori Shibata was announced for the revival of the WRESTLE-1 gimmick on 4/23 at Yokohama Arena. As you can guess, K-1 is involved. Two months ago, there were strong rumors (that we talked about on the radio show) about K-1 reviving the WRESTLE-1 gimmick and sure enough, it's happening. Names such as Bob Sapp, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Genki Sudo, and Kaoru Uno are being floated around. Maeda will be in charge of booking talent from the Netherlands, Lithuania, Russia, Georgia, and South Korea. Essentially put, it will become a RINGS revival with shows every 2-3 months. For the 3/26 Saitama show, it appears all tickets will be 10,000 yen (versus a fluctuating ticket pricing structure).

credit: Puroresu Power

[Thrilla]

Alright, I'm thinking of getting another UFC DVD and it has come down to one of these three but I'm not sure which one to go for, I'm leaning towards 49 as it is the most recent release over here plus it has Randy/Belfort, Lindland, Yves and Nick Diaz on the card. Although I just want to make sure one of the others isn't a stunning show or something, so help a brother out.

UFC 49 - Unfinished Business

• Vitor Belfort Vs. Randy Couture - UFC Heavyweight Championship

• Joe Doerksen Vs. Joe Riggs

• Chuck Liddell Vs. Vernon White

• Mike Kyle Vs. Justin Eilers

• Matt Lindland Vs. David Terrell

• Ronald Jhun Vs. Chris Lytle

• Yves Edwards Vs. Josh Thomson

• Nick Diaz Vs. Karo Parisyan

DVD Special Features:

Behind the scenes action

Ultimate Music and more

UFC 46 - Super Natural

• Randy Couture vs. Vitor Belfort - UFC Light-Heavyweight Championship

• Matt Hughes vs. B.J. Penn - UFC Welterweight Championship

• Frank Mir vs. Wes Sims

• Jorge Rivera vs. Lee Murray

• Carlos Newton vs. Renato Verissimo

• Karo Parisyan vs. Georges St. Pierre

• Hermes Franca vs. Josh Thomson

• Matt Serra vs. Gerald Strebendt

UFC 45 - Revolution

• Matt Hughes vs Frank Trigg - UFC Welterweight Championship

• Falaniko Vitale vs Matt Lindland

• Tank Abbott vs Wesley "Cabbage" Correira

• Phil Baroni vs Evan Tanner

• Robbie Lawler vs Chris Lytle

• Ricco Rodriguez vs Pedro Rizzo

• Keith Rockel vs Chris Liguori

• Yves Edwards vs Nick Agallar

Extra Features:

10 Years of the UFC

UFC Legends Autograph Session

Viewers Choice Awards

Behind The Scenes

[Enter Blue Guy]

49... Thomson vs. Edwards is a nice little contest has a killer ending, the first half of Karo vs. Diaz is really good, Liddell vs. Tiger is a great slugfest for what it's worth, Riggs vs. Doerksen is ok, Belfort vs. Couture is actually a fight, unlike their UFC 46 fiasco.

The undercard of UFC 46 is good, but Sims vs. Mir wasn't anything special, Couture vs. Belfort was a ripoff, Hughes vs. BJ is good if you enjoy groundwork, same with Newton vs. Charuto. In this case, the prelim fights are where it's at.

45 is ok. Lytle vs. Lawler is pretty good, Tanner vs. Baroni is interesting, Tank vs. Cabbage is a decent brawl, Lindland vs. Niko is fun to watch because of the self KO, Hughes vs. Trigg is good for it's length.

My verdict is 49.

[Enter Blue Guy]

PRIDE Update...

Bushido 6 goes down April 3rd

Here's the card.

1. Dennis Kang (Spirit MC) vs. Takahiro Oba

2. One-night tournament: Amar Zuloev vs. Paulo Filho

3. One-night tournament: Akira Shoji vs. Dean Lister

4. Daisuke Nakamura (U-FILE CAMP) vs. Marcus Aurelio (ATT)

5. Luiz Buscape vs. Luiz Azeredo

6. Daiju Takase vs. Daniel Acacio (Chute Boxe Academy)

7. Emelianenko Alexander vs. Ricardo Morais

8. Ryuta Sakurai vs. Murillo Bustamante (BTT)

9. Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Gilbert Yvel

10. One-night tournament finals: Zuloev/Filho winner vs. Shoji/Lister winner

11. Emelianenko Fedor vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka

credit: puroresu power

Edited March 23, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy

[Enter Blue Guy]

Sorry for the 3 posts in a row, but I just read this on MMA Weekly.

Nobuhiko Takada and DSE boss Nobuyuki Sakakibara held a press

conference on March 22nd at DSE headquarters in Tokyo to announce three more participants in the GP. The ones they announced are Kevin Randleman, Alistair Overeem, and Vitor Belfort from the UFC.

At the press conference, they played up the things "the Phenom" has done in the past, like having beaten Wanderlei Silva by TKO in 44 seconds in the UFC, his having been the light heavyweight champ in the UFC, and beating heavyweights like Heath Herring and Gilbert Yvel in PRIDE.

A statement was read from Dana White that said (in translation), "The UFC has confidence in each and every one of our fighters. . . UFC fighters don't back down from fighters anywhere in the world. . . This year we are sending Vitor Belfort to participate in the PRIDE Middleweight Grand Prix. . . We are confident that he will prove that UFC fighters are the best in the world."

They also discussed Alistair Overeem's recent loss to Rogerio

Nogueira, saying that even though he lost that match, he did plenty

in the fight to actually raise his name value, by not giving an inch to

the submission artist on the ground. Finally, there touched on Kevin

Randleman, who participated in the HW Grand Prix last year, of

course.

Given what he accomplished there - KO'ing Mirko "CroCop" Filopovic and performing one of the most vicious and dangerous slams in MMA history on HW champ Fedor Emelianenko before losing the match - he has the potential to go a long way in the middleweight tournament.

The field of competitors is really shaping up nicely. At this point,

the 13 participants who have been announced are Kazushi Sakuraba,

Yuki Kondo, Kazuhiro Nakamura, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira, Igor Vovchanchyn, Mauricio Shogun, Quinton "Rampage" Jackson, Dan Henderson, Kevin Randleman, Alistair Overeem, Vitor Belfort, Hidehiko Yoshida, and Wanderlei Silva.

One first round match - Wanderlei vs Yoshida - has already been

decided. As to who the other three participants will be, one will be

decided in the "mini tournament" to be held at 4/3's Bushido 6 show

in Yokohama. The participants there are Amar Suloev, Dean Lister, Akira Shoji, and Paulo Filho.

Sakakibara commented that they are in final negotiations with other potential competitors, and that two more should be announced by 4/3, which would frame the Bushido mini tournament in a "last one [in the tournament]" context.

Possibilities mentioned for one of the final two spots were -

surprise, surprise - Kiyoshi Tamura (who is doubtful at this point

due to an injured hand), as well as amateur wrestling (FILA?) and judo practitioners. Sakakibara said, "We want to fill the tournament with an array of different types of fighters. We will take into account this and other elements when deciding the final two fighters, so that the lineup doesn't lean too heavily in any certain direction." Statements made at the press conference by Sakakibara and Takada, as well as the statement read from Dana White all but ruled out multiple UFC fighter berths in this year's tournament.

The two also mentioned that now that Yoshida's matchup has been decided, several fighters are shooting for a matchup with Sakuraba. Not the least of these being Vitor Belfort and Kevin Randleman, who have both lost to Saku in PRIDE in the past.

The first round of the Middleweight Grand Prix will be held on Saturday, April 23, in the Osaka Dome. With only one month left to go and a Bushido show to be held before then, there is still much up in the air (decisions concerning the final participants, pairings for the first round, etc.). But with the star-studded cast that's being assembled, there's little doubt that this will be one of the year's best MMA shows.

Tournament Participants:

Wanderlei Silva

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

Quinton “Rampage” Jackson

Igor Vovchanchyn

Kazushi Sakuraba

Dan Henderson

Mauricio “Shogun” Rua

Yuki Kondo

Hidehiko Yoshida

Kazuhiro Nakamura

Alistair Overeem

Kevin Randleman

Vitor Belfort

Winner of BUSHIDO 4-man tournament (Lister/Suloev/Shoji/Filho)

[Enter Blue Guy]

Might as well get the hype going now.

It's just a bit (ok really) early, but sherdog.com just posted Friday's weigh-in video. These are always fun to watch, so check it out. Weigh-In Video

MMAWeekly.com also has a the weigh-in video plus a bunch of interesting interviews with Chuck, Randy, and Frank Trigg, plus training videos of Chuck and Randy getting ready for their big rematch. Worth a look.

The event goes down tomorrow night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Here is the entire card..

PRELIMS

Mike Van Arsdale vs. John Marsh

Joe "Diesel" Riggs vs. Ivan Salaverry

Joe Doerksen vs. Patrick Cote

PAY-PER-VIEW CARD

Matt Lindland vs. Travis Lutter

Georges St. Pierre vs. Jason Miller

Renato "Babalu" Sobral vs. Travis Wiuff

UFC WELTERWEIGHT TITLE: Matt Hughes vs. Frank Trigg

UFC LIGHT HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE: Randy Couture vs. Chuck Liddell

I'll do predictions and what-have-you later in the morning.

Right now I just thought I'd give everyone a head's up reminder.

So discuss, predict, whatever, go nuts...

Edited April 16, 2005 by Enter Blue Guy