The MMA thread

[Ameraves Loyalheart]

Originally Posted by jayrebb

Nobody is ever at 100%. Like Chuck and Forrest said, its not IF you are injured coming into a fight. Its about HOW injured you are.

You must not have seen the Dennis Miller interview.

Ill take the big league pros word instead of some board jockey "plain and simple" saying who shouldn't be fighting.

Okay then let me clarify. If you are so injured that it is an excuse for every loss, you shouldn't be fighting.

[Araxen]

Originally Posted by Grimmlokk

Also, Antonio Silva is fighting Ricco Rodriguez on the Feb 16th Showtime event. Be interesting to see what Silva does against a big grappler, Silva is making weight at 265 now and I am dying to see more of him.

Ricco is a shell of his former self. Hell, Big Bill Duff almost beat him on Human Weapon. Silva will win easily.

[Grumath]

Looking forward to seeing Swick fight tonite as I really like his style. I think the move down in weight is something he has needed to do for a while. Hopefully he does H-town proud tonite!

[jayrebb]

Originally Posted by Araxen

Ricco is a shell of his former self. Hell, Big Bill Duff almost beat him on Human Weapon. Silva will win easily.

Hes now an incredibly boring fighter because of his new "shell of former self" style. I really don't care to see the "new" ricco compete.

[Ameraves Loyalheart]

I hear he is also in that new show Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. I wasn't aware that he had/has a drinking and/or drug problem.

[homsar]

My friend george is best friends with Ricco and is getting him back on track or trying atleast. They are making a documentary about him and his road back, from what they showed me it was pretty funny. Dont think they want me to post the shit on the internet but i'll see.

[Grimmlokk]

I read Ricco's lost a lot of weight, he musta been around 300 on that episode of Human Weapon. And he definitely took it easy on that Duff guy.

Anyhoo, not saying he's a great fighter or anything, but he's big, and he's a grappler. They've mostly fed Silva guys who will try to stand with him(Cabbage), just to showcase the fact they have a legitimate 300lb striker with speed and some agility. I have *not* seen his latest fight where he RNC'd Jonathan Wiezorek, so I'm still keen to see what he can do in the clinch/on the ground.

Silva is crazy interesting to me. Out of all the "freakshow" fighters he's the one that has the best chance of being legit. He hits like a fucking truck, he apparently trains his ass off(he still train with the Nogs?), and he's absolutely monstrous. Without being fat or looking roided up. I'm not sure about his chin(anyone seen the Pele fight where he got KO'd?), and he hasn't fought any serious top end heavyweights yet. But he should be doing that soon, if EliteXC can find anyone.

Speaking of heavyweights! Gimme news on these guys:
Sergei Kharitonov: I know he fought for K1 in November, but is he under contract there?
Aleksander Emilianenko: Fought 4 times since his last Pride fight, all in different orgs. I'd assumed he'd be in M-1, but his last fight was for Hardcore Fighting Championships.
Josh Barnett: I know he just did that sub or shoot wrestling or whatever match, but still no word on him back in MMA that I've heard.
Ben Rothwell: I remember seeing hints from him that he'd be "in the cage" soon, which would usually mean UFC, but could be any of the other cage orgs I guess. Love watching him fight, he seems to really work on improving himself from one fight to the next, and he's just an entertaining guy in general. Would love to see him against some top-10 competition, and I know he wants to fight it too. Pretty sure hit IFL contract was up Jan 1st, but maybe it was the end of January, I forget now.

[huh]

What about Mark Hunt?. I've heard rumors that the UFC has him under contract but I don't think that has ever been confirmed.

[Haalen]

Silva's fight with Big Pele was a borderline early stoppage. You could really argue either side on it.

Rumor is Aleks may end up fighting Barnett in M-1. Although with a new org like M-1, I won't believe it until its announced or both fighters at least say they are in talks.

For some reason I'm thinking Burkman is going to win tonight. Although when people drop in weight I'm never really sure how they will perform.

[Grimmlokk]

If M-1 gets Barnett and he's not fighting Fedor right off, I'll be really disappointed.

And yeah I missed Hunt on the list, he rules. Just wised up and decided to check Wiki.

UFC President Dana White stated at a press conference in September 2007 that Mark Hunt is under contract to the UFC

Another I forgot was Semmy Schilt. He just fought his first MMA bout in like 18 months in some tiny show held in Belgrade. I believe he's planning to get back into MMA after pretty much dominating K1 for the past 3 years(3 straight World GP Championships). Not that he's been blowing people out of the ring mostly, but he wins. And I'd like to see how he looks back in an MMA ring.

Fight Night was a pretty big letdown after the show on Saturday. Though I guess it's nice they got the good fights on the PPV for once, last few Fight Nights have outshined the PPV's that happened their weeks.

Was it just me, or was Mazagatti seperating Burkman and Swick really quickly? I would have loved to see more action, but he was stepping in sometimes while they were still fighting for position on the feet. Also Herb Dean pulled his usual early stoppage move earlier in the show. Feh.

[Araxen]

It would make no sense whatsoever for Alexs and Barnett to fight in M-1. The money match is Fedor vs Barnett. Alexs isn't even a consideration, imo.

Burkman/Swick was a stalemate on the fence. It was stupid for him to even try after awhile. Burkman lost the fight because of it.

[jayrebb]

Originally Posted by huh

What about Mark Hunt?. I've heard rumors that the UFC has him under contract but I don't think that has ever been confirmed.

Mark Hunt got denied for a visa last time Pride tried to bring him to the U.S.

I assume hes still trying to work out those problems. I doubt we will ever see him in the UFC. Its been too long. Most likely his contract will just expire.

[Grimmlokk]

Originally Posted by jayrebb

I doubt we will ever see him in the UFC. Its been too long. Most likely his contract will just expire.

It's been 5 months, and the UFC tends to lock people in to pretty binding deals.

If he's really signed they should get him on one of the shows in England or the one in Germany or Canada later this year.

[jayrebb]

Originally Posted by Grimmlokk

It's been 5 months, and the UFC tends to lock people in to pretty binding deals.

If he's really signed they should get him on one of the shows in England or the one in Germany or Canada later this year.

Hes been signed for a very long time.

Heres some quotes from Dana White since they bought Pride:

"we got mark hunt from the pride deal" (actual quote)
"we dont know what to do with mark hunt..." (actual quote)
"Mark hunt is under UFC contract" (paraphrased recent quote)

Do you realize how weak the heavyweight division is?? You realize how bad the UFC needs mark hunt? Why haven't we heard or seen anything about him besides Dana White's press conference quotes?

Something is obviously WRONG with the Mark Hunt deal. Mark Hunt hasn't acknowledged it, only Dana White. What I suspect is, Mark Hunt was under PRIDE contract. All those contracts got tore up. Dana realized Hunt's visa problems, bullshitted him a contract anyway but its worthless.

Shit is definitely going on behind the scenes. Ive read recent Mark Hunt interviews where he doesn't acknowledge the UFC at all.

[Grumath]

Fight Night was fairly boring. Swick was tenative and Burkman was just lay n praying or failing at takedowns the whole time. The highlight of the night was the dude getting kicked in the face so hard that his tooth punched a hole right through his lip. Never seen that before, it was pretty awesome. They had a nice shot of it after the fight. Nice tooth sized hole clean through the lip.