MMA IV 2009 - Fall into New Years.

[Dodgesta]

Wow Daley over Kampmann was a big upset. How many times have we seen this...a superior ground guy wanting to prove that he can stand with a striker, and then promptly gets knocked out. I really have no idea who's gonna be the next welterweight challenger cuz this really mucks things up.

Belfort looked pretty damn impressive. I know this is the up-down Belfort enigma but if he's finally got his shit together, he could have an amazing run.

[Myshkin]

Yay Vitor! I like Franklin, but Belfort has been one of my favorite fighters since back in the days when UFC was about fighting rather than star making. Good to see the Phenom back in action.

[Commodore]

I'm no MMA expert, but even I could tell what was going to happen as the fight wore on. Vitor wasn't doing much of anything and Franklin was getting more and more wreckless with his swings, maybe he was getting frustrated, it was only a matter of time before he left himself open.

[GSP]

Belfort looked bad assed. He's got to be getting a shot soon.

A lot of really good fights tonight. Glad to see Griffin finish somebody. If he keeps it up, he'll make a fan out of me.

Damn, the newcomers gave it good tonight. I was glad to catch some of the undercard live on Spike. I hope they do more of that.

[Horus Ex Machina]

Completely missed this. Apparently Cung Le no longer wants to fight. Or at least any time soon. He vacated his title.

As for Belfort, He's shown a bit more tactical awareness which is serving him well. The question now is if he's truly a MW or a LHW. With his style he can go deep at either weight but I think he is more needed to test Silva at MW. Machida has enough tests for now.

[Young Wolf]

Completely missed this. Apparently Cung Le no longer wants to fight. Or at least any time soon. He vacated his title.

Shields and Mayhem to fight on that Fedor/Rogers card for the vacant title. How many more fights does Shields have left on his Strikeforce contract?

[Horus Ex Machina]

Shields and Mayhem to fight on that Fedor/Rogers card for the vacant title. How many more fights does Shields have left on his Strikeforce contract?

I believe that he has 2 left.

I'll be rooting for Mayhem in this one though. It would be the shit to see that cat win some gold. I know they're kinda tight, so it will be interesting to see how hard they'll go at it. Apparently it's on CBS now too.

[Analu]

My problem with Rampage in the TUF episode had nothing to do with his comments. A lot of what he said was uncalled for but I'm long past caring about what he says. No, my problem was that he was simply an incompetent coach.

Yeah, I like Rampage, but have to agree. It's pretty obvious he's just using the show as a vehicle to showcase himself and doesn't give two shits about the fighters.

The "titties" comment was kinda funny at first, but ceased to be when it was obvious how much it annoyed the guy (forget his name). Rampage should've cut it out right then, but he never seems to realize when his shtick crosses the line and become unfunny and just keeps it going.

UFC 103 was okay. Not great, especially for a card directly taking on boxing for title of PPV king, but decent. Was glad to see Belfort win, not so much cuz I like him a lot, but I just don't care much for Franklin, who's a good guy and fighter, but just is nothing special to watch. Koscheck did good, but IMO is always susceptible now to the knockout. Cro Cop is pau. He should retire or move to LHW.

[Ser Barry]

I have to retract my statement about McSweeney. From the little evidence on offer in the first episode he may well do very nicely in this season. The clips of training, yes I know it offers little evidence, and the fight showed a fairly appauling level of fighter in the house. Rampage's team seemed physically incapable of sidestepping around a mat. That is a worry! It looks more and more like this roster has been hand selected to give Kimbo a chance of winning a couple so they can maintain face when they retain him and equally obvious is that they are setting up Roy Nelson to be the big surprise when he wins it. No, I don't know that he wins it but I am pretty damn sure he does.

Belfort looked very nice given it was a totally shapeless fight. He was able to move out, in and then out of range again in the time it took Rich to throw two punches. I am as excited as anyone about the prospect of an in form Vitor back on the scene. Looks like UFC are pushing him towards MW.

Cro Cop looked awful. It was hard to watch. The sight of him backing away waving his hands in front of his face with his eyes closed was horrible. The odd time he came forward and lead with punches he actually gave Cigano some trouble but that was few and far between. Did he throw any strike other than a 'catch my breath' nut shot in the final four minutes of the second round? Well done Do Santos but I hated watching that fight.

Kampmann is one dumb fucker. Danish Kickboxing Champion < World Muay Thai Champion. I feel shite for not backing Semtex. I still think Swick will be the favourite as long as he is sensible enough to wrestle Daley.

[Ken Stone]

I was also surprised by how little respect Nelson got in the episode. He was picked pretty far down. Rampage didn't seem to know who he was, but with Greg Jackson on Rashad's team, you've got to expect they knew about his experience. They also gave him a chance to say that he's a former IFL champion, but it was given no weight at all.

Well, since I went 4-0 on my fight night picks, I guess I should have written them down in the fantasy mma thread. Oh well. I'll just play fantasy fantasy mma and imagine that I'm winning.

I just read a quote from Nelson where he talks about how he has trained with Rampage in the past. He then said that he offered to spar with Rampage so everyone could see him get his ass kicked by a fat guy, but he didn't take him up on the offer.

Was Nelson picked 3rd on Rashaad's team? If so then that is a pretty good indicator of how good they realize he is. Rashaad's first two picks were both guys from Jackson's camp, so no surprise there. If he picked Nelson 3rd that means he was Rashaad's first no obligatory pick.

[Liffguard]

From a recent interview with Crocop

(how do I translate the whole thing?)

I fucked up and that's all there is to it.

Maybe the ones who say that I'm done are right. Obviously i can't break my mental block in the octogon. Besides, I've been training like a spartan for 20 years, my body is worn out. Years cought up to me, I've been eaten out.

WHAT EXACTLY HAPPENED IN THE THIRD ROUND BEFORE THE STOPPAGE?

Dos Santos punched me in the eye and tore my eye-lid. Blood and sweat completely blurred my vision. I was standing there like a blind man. At one moment i confused my oponennt and the judge.

DID YOU STOP THE FIGHT?

No, I didn't stop it and I didn't ask the judge to stop it. But it wasn't an early stoppage, he won that fight and would have won it by decision.

Simply - he is younger, more hungry, more agressive. He wanted to win a lot more.

HIS FACE SHOWS YOU DID SOME DAMAGE?

Yeah, I lended a few good shots and made a cut abouve his eye but all together I failed bigtime.

WHAT HAPPEND TO LEGENDARY LHK?

The mat was slippery like glass. I almost fell down trynig to do the LHK. But I'm not looking for an aliby. This was not the performance somebody would by a ticket for,

SO, WHAT HAPPEND IN DALLAS, WHAT HELD YOU BACK?

I don't feel the hunger for the win anymore. I started playing it safe, I'm not ready to take any risks. I would like to thank everybody that supported me and stood by me and everbody who helped me to prepare for this fight.

THIS SOUNDS LIKE A GOODBYE?

I've been living a military life for 20 years now. Getting up at 6 am and having sport related activities till 8 pm. I have a desire for normal life. I'm enteing a cage and thinking about fishing in Privlaka. You can't win that way.

WAS THIS YOUR LAST FIGHT?

Maybe I shold've quit after i won OWGP...

All I can say is "fair enough." He doesn't make excuses. If he recognises that the hunger isn't there any more then it's time to move on. If he retires now, he won't have gone out with a bang, but at least he has the insight to realise the game is up.

[Ser Barry]

I just read a quote from Nelson where he talks about how he has trained with Rampage in the past. He then said that he offered to spar with Rampage so everyone could see him get his ass kicked by a fat guy, but he didn't take him up on the offer.

Was Nelson picked 3rd on Rashaad's team? If so then that is a pretty good indicator of how good they realize he is. Rashaad's first two picks were both guys from Jackson's camp, so no surprise there. If he picked Nelson 3rd that means he was Rashaad's first no obligatory pick.

If I remember correctly he was Rashad's 6th choice. That smells of a set up by Zuffa to make him look like an underdog. Then again presenting him as the former IFL Champion is strange. This whole series seems weird.

[lessthanluke]

Wow Daley over Kampmann was a big upset. How many times have we seen this...a superior ground guy wanting to prove that he can stand with a striker, and then promptly gets knocked out. I really have no idea who's gonna be the next welterweight challenger cuz this really mucks things up.

I called Semtex by Stoppage :D

[Oorag]

If I remember correctly he was Rashad's 6th choice. That smells of a set up by Zuffa to make him look like an underdog. Then again presenting him as the former IFL Champion is strange. This whole series seems weird.

Yeah, I was very surprised that they acknowledged his credentials and yet the show and the coaches seemed to give him very little respect. The only two fights of his I've seen are his post-IFL losses. Looking at his IFL record, the only name I recognize in his win column is Brad Imes. Maybe the dude really isn't very good.

[Ken Stone]

Yeah, I was very surprised that they acknowledged his credentials and yet the show and the coaches seemed to give him very little respect. The only two fights of his I've seen are his post-IFL losses. Looking at his IFL record, the only name I recognize in his win column is Brad Imes. Maybe the dude really isn't very good.

But didn't Brad Imes make it to the Finals in Season 1 of TUF? I know he won a couple of fights at least. And look, I don't think Roy Nelson will be able to beat the upper echelon of the HW division, however look at the scrubs that are in this season. You've got guys with no professional fights at all.

[Oorag]

But didn't Brad Imes make it to the Finals in Season 1 of TUF? I know he won a couple of fights at least.

Imes made it to the finals of TUF 2 by defeating fellow newbies Rob MacDonald and Seth Petruzelli, two LHWs who went on to unaccomplished careers, uncless you count Petruzelli beating Kimbo. By the time Nelson beat him, Imes had long been cut from the UFC and had no notable wins.

[Ser Barry]

Yeah, I was very surprised that they acknowledged his credentials and yet the show and the coaches seemed to give him very little respect. The only two fights of his I've seen are his post-IFL losses. Looking at his IFL record, the only name I recognize in his win column is Brad Imes. Maybe the dude really isn't very good.

In terms of the UFC he really isn't very good. In terms of this cast of TUF he really is very good. In his last two fights he took Jeff Monson the distance and, while well beaten, he wasn't outclassed by Arlovski. I wouldn't tuppence on anyone else in the house gettign those two results. He is in the Top 40 HW in the world, which means he beats a lot of HW in UFC.

As I write this I am becoming more and more certain that Nelson gets pwnd in his first fight :)

The Brad Imes thing is interesting actually seeing as he was in the only other HW TUF. I think Nelson is a clear favourite this time around but in the Season 2 roster he would have been a contender but nowhere near favourite. To play a bit of MMA math (always a good idea right?) Seth Petruzelli was an also ran in Season 2 and he took 14 seconds to KO Kimbo.

[Ken Stone]

Imes made it to the finals of TUF 2 by defeating fellow newbies Rob MacDonald and Seth Petruzelli, two LHWs who went on to unaccomplished careers, uncless you count Petruzelli beating Kimbo. By the time Nelson beat him, Imes had long been cut from the UFC and had no notable wins.

I'm not saying Nelson is a top HW. However compared to what we've seen in the house so far, he is far and beyond the other guys (except maybe Sims). They've got fighters in the house with no pro fights at all.

[Horus Ex Machina]

I'm not saying Nelson is a top HW. However compared to what we've seen in the house so far, he is far and beyond the other guys (except maybe Sims). They've got fighters in the house with no pro fights at all.

From the sound of things, and granted I don't watch TUF or any reality shows for that matter, it sounds as though they're doing what I thought they'd do. Kimbo will have fights that he can win in this series, probably enough so that he might go deep into the show and make enough noise that DW can reasonably excuse himself for signing him on long-term.

[GSP]

Rampage is walking away from fighting:

http://mmajunkie.com/news/16277/quinton-ra...ne-fighting.mma

DW's strong arm tactics 'win' again!

Guess I'll never get to give Stego that title.