UFC & Mixed Martial Arts

[EnderDeschain]

Apparently you haven't watched the UFC at all. How can you watch that knee land straight on Sherk's chin and say it's scripted? That's honestly pretty stupid. Apparently you've never been hit on the button and never seen what it does. There's no faking that.

[justdecent]

UFC is here to stay, MMA has taken over the sporting world and created its own page in the world of sports.

[EnderDeschain]

Originally Posted by justdecent

UFC is here to stay, MMA has taken over the sporting world and created its own page in the world of sports.

It looks like you and me are the only ones here who care that it exists.

The Ultimate Fighter live finale is this Saturday night on Spike TV, and it's free. I advise anyone reading this to check it out. It's got some good fights on it. For the first time since season one I'm actually excited to see the two finalists fight, and I hope Amir pulls out the upset again. But there's also Evan Tanner / Kendall Grove, which is a very intriguing match-up of youngster vs. past-his-prime veteran. I hope Tanner comes back to make a run at the belt again, and sends that little punk Grove back to the WEC.

It's only after looking over this thread that I realize I made about twenty posts the other weekend when I could've just edited one over and over instead. I like giving drunken play-by-play to a board full of people who don't care in the slightest, it makes me feel like a big ol' winner. Yay me! But next time I'll just edit.

[Dhamon22]

I'm just getting into watching MMA. I'm loving it. I'm looking forward to TUF finale. I'll be rooting for Amir, but I think CB is gonna take it. The only problem I have with the UFC is I can't afford to buy all the pay-per-views, so I have to catch up with UFC Unleashed.

I'll be rooting for Forrest big time against Rampage. Hes probably my favorite fighter. I watched TUF 1 and kinda got out of it until recently. Best fight I've ever seen is Griffin vs. Bonnar 1.

I watched the Elite-XC event on CBS last month and also the WEC event on Versus. Faber and Torres are pretty damn good over there from what I've seen. Kimbo is vastly overrated.

[Dhamon22]

Anybody watch the TUF finale? Amir submits CB Dolloway again. Didn't see that coming.

Diego Sanchez and Kendall Grove were impressive.

[EnderDeschain]

Originally Posted by Dhamon22

Anybody watch the TUF finale? Amir submits CB Dolloway again. Didn't see that coming.

I was doing backflips in my living room after Amir pulled that out-of-nowhere armbar on CB. Again. Well, drunken attempted backflips, but you catch my drip. It was awesome. Somewhat dampened by Evan Tanner's disappointing performance immediately after, but I look forward to seeing more of Amir.

Forrest / Rampage is this weekend. While my betting money (if I had any betting money) would be on Rampage, I'm hoping Forrest will pull his Everyman special and shock the world. Again. But I doubt it.

[Dhamon22]

Yeah, I think I'm going to buy the pay-per-view tomorrow night. Should be good. Go Forrest.

[EnderDeschain]

Originally Posted by Dhamon22

Yeah, I think I'm going to buy the pay-per-view tomorrow night. Should be good. Go Forrest.

When I first watched the fight live, I had Forrest winning three rounds to two, and pretty much concurred with the decision. I was overjoyed. But I've watched it a couple times since, and scored the rounds individually with the sound off and absent of Rogan's rather biased commentary.

The first round is debatable. I had Rampage winning it, but I could see it going the other way, too. Forrest outmoved and outworked Jackson for the first three minutes or so, but then Rampage scored that big hook that knocked Forrest down. I think that won Quinton the first, but like I said I could see that round going either way. The second round was clearly Forrest, pure dominance, Rampage literally threw two strikes during those entire five minutes. The rest of the time he was on the bottom with Forrest in his guard, passing to mount, attempting kimura's, it was the most dominant round I've ever seen Forrest perform.

The third was too close to call a winner, for me. I would give it to Forrest by the slimmest of margins, but I think that's because I'm sort of biased and really wanted Forrest to win. The fourth was clearly Rampage, with the slam and the takedown. The fifth was exactly like the third, too close to call, but this one I gave to Rampage. So by the way I see it, the only rounds with obvious victors were rounds to and four, to Forrest and Quinton, respectively. Rounds one, three, and five are up in the air. At first I had Forrest winning three and five, with Rampage winning the first. But on repeated viewings, I think Rampage won the fifth. It bugs me to say that, because I really wanted Forrest to have a clear-cut victory. But I have it three rounds to two in favor of Rampage.

Of course, all that being said, no one should ***** about the decision like Juanito Ibarra is doing, trying to create controversy. He's Rampage's trainer and it's his job to promote his guy, but discrediting Forrest's win is just disrespectful and completely groundless. It was close enough that neither fighter would have room for real complaint on a loss. Hell, Rampage's comments in the post-fight, "he whooped my ass", tell the tale better than anything else. Ibarra has stirred up this big stink about the decision and I think it's solely his dissension that's gonna get Quinton an immediate rematch, probably in November or December. I don't agree with that. I think there's other 205'ers who deserve the shot at the title first. Lyoto Machida springs to mind, and if Chuck Liddell beats Rashad in September, Forrest / Chuck for the title is a fight I'd love to see. Another intriguing match-up this makes room for is Rampage / Wanderlei 3. Wandy beat Quinton pretty emphatically their first two fights, but if it happened again today I think it's a pick-'em. Rampage seems to have developed a much more powerful and refined striking game since their first two fights, and Wanderlei looked kind of lackluster up until the last six months, with Liddell and Jardine. Jackson / Silva and Griffin / Liddell would be dream matches, and if we're lucky they could both happen before year's end.

Anyway, no matter how correct or incorrect the decision was, Rampage / Forrest was one hell of a fight and an easy early contender for Fight Of The Year. As for the rest of the card, it was pretty disappointing. The Cote / Almeida fight was nowhere near as exciting as I expected it to be. Dana White has already said that Cote is going to be next in line for a shot at the Middleweight title after Yushin Okami has his go in September, and as much as I like Cote he's just a joke of a challenger. The Almeida fight went a long way toward illustrating that. Josh Koscheck / Chris Lytle was a decent fight, bloody as all hell, but Koscheck's reluctance to really engage in anything other than ground-n-pound sort of dampened it. Effective ground-n-pound, but still, watching fifteen minutes of one aspect of such a multifaceted sport is gonna be disappointing no matter what. The Joe Stevenson fight was maybe second best behind the main event, Stevenson looked good again, like he's ready to charge back up to a title shot. In such a loaded division, the possible match-ups for him are exciting.

Next weekend, the 19th, has two events, one that's pretty good and one that's absolutely outstanding. There's another free UFC Fight Night on Spike TV. Jesse Taylor vs CB Dolloway is interesting, the battle of the almost-won's. But it could very likely end up a boring lay-n-pray decision for Jesse, unless CB can outwrestle him. But I don't see that happening. Good as CB's pedigree is, Jesse just looks a little better at the wrestling part of the game, and will probably neutralize CB's other offense with it. Franca / Edgar, Velasquez / O'Brien, the other televised fights should be good, too. Then there's the main events, Anderson Silva moving up a weight class to fight James Irvin. I honestly don't understand the UFC's reasoning behind making this fight, it's very dangerous for Silva and has almost no upside if he wins, but a hell of a downside if he loses. Even being up a weight class, a loss is a loss, and he'll have a lot of his mystique and luster stripped away if he drops it. That being said, I'm fairly confident that Anderson will win in dramatic fashion, but even that really doesn't accomplish much for him.

On the same night, on pay-per-view, is Affliction's first show, and is it one ****ing HELL of a card. I haven't seen a card like this since maybe Pride Final Conflict 2005. The main event is the universally recognized greatest MMA fight to ever live in any weight class, Fedor Emelianenko, against everyone's favorite lumbering dumbass Tim Sylvia. The undefeated Fedor (nevermind that one in his column, it was a fluke) is more than likely to walk right through big Timmy, but this is MMA. Anything can happen.

That's not the only cool thing about that card, though. There's a rematch between Josh Barnett and Pedro Rizzo, and given the directions both of their careers have gone in since their first fight, that should be awesome. Babalu / Whitehead should be a showcase for Sobral, and Lindland / Negao should be the same for Matt, but again anything can happen and just seeing those two guys fight again, particularly Lindland, is reason enough to watch. Then Andrei Arlovski, fighting the fairly unrecognized and underrated Ben Rothwell. I'm calling an upset special on that one, I think Rothwell is gonna touch Arlovski's questionable chin and put him down, pissing off betting organizations worldwide.

Before the pay-per-view there's gonna be two live fights broadcast for free on FSN. That is awesome, especially considering the caliber of said fights. Having a top ten ranked Heavyweight, Aleksander Emelianenko, fight against once-ranked UFC championship contender Paul Buentello, one free TV, that is astounding. That fight could be main event material in a lesser promotion, but it's buried on the undercard and on free TV. That speaks volumes about how monumental this card is. The other free fight is Vitor Belfort / Terry Martin, and for those of us who have been waiting for Belfort's great return it's another chance to cross our fingers and hope that Old Vitor shows up. But Martin has some heavy-ass hands, and if he taps Vitor's chin it could spell trouble for him. But The Phenom is one of the most fluid and technical strikers in MMA, and Martin's gonna have trouble getting inside on him. In any case, it should be entertaining as all hell.

I know most people with any appetite for MMA are probably gonna be tuning in to the free UFC show, but I can not emphasize enough how stellar this Affliction card is. I encourage any and everyone to let go of the $30 it takes to order it, and feast your eyes on one of the best Mixed Martial Arts cards in the history of the sport. It should be historic. I know I just spent like forever writing a bunch of crap that no one's gonna read, but that's okay.

[Dhamon22]

I read it, and I enjoyed it.

I'll be watching the free UFC event because I am seriously broke. I shouldn't have bought UFC 86, but it was worth it with that fight.

[EnderDeschain]

Originally Posted by Dhamon22

I read it, and I enjoyed it.

I'll be watching the free UFC event because I am seriously broke. I shouldn't have bought UFC 86, but it was worth it with that fight.

Well thanks for your support. But at this point all I've watched was Affliction and holy crap.

Honestly, seriously, I don't see how anyone is ever going to be able to even offer Fedor a fight. He made Sylvia look like a total ****in tool. I knew he was the best but jesus, where can he go from here? Really? There was that whole Couture thing after the fight, but does anybody really think Couture can even last a round with him after that? Fedor has fallen victim to his own dominance.

Other than that, Arloski looked great, like the Andrei of old. Barnett, **** that guy, I hate that guy, but I was glad to see him win as he's the only top-5-ranked heavyweight that Fedor hasn't fought. That being said, Fedor's gonna tear right through him. I've never been one for legacies, but seriously, Fedor has earned his. Wow. Phenomenal night, and an absolutely stunning fight and victory for him.

[EnderDeschain]

I almost forgot to comment on one of my most favoritest moments of the entire night. I don't know how that happens, but somehow it did. VITOR BELFORT, round two, knockout mother****ers. I've been saying this to people for an absurdly long time, Vitor is so phenomenally gifted (ha pun!) that it's really just stupid. If he gets his head right, I really don't think there's anyone at 185 or even 205 that can take him. I love Chuck as much as the next guy, but that Vitor / Chuck fight was a gift decision for Liddell if I ever seen one. I gotta wonder how much different the landscape would be right now if Vitor had just won that one more point.

As for that UFC event, I hope everyone now realizes that Vera was never as good as he thought he was. Anderson Silva, however, is better than any of us gave hiim credit for. I wanna see him fight a 205 contender next, or rematch Henderson. If he fought Henderson again, I'd really put money on Hendo.

[Ewok Droppings]

Did you happen to notice that Rampage Jackson got arrested and was undergoing a mental evaluation? Not good - he's a helluva fighter.

[EnderDeschain]

Originally Posted by Ewok Droppings

Did you happen to notice that Rampage Jackson got arrested and was undergoing a mental evaluation? Not good - he's a helluva fighter.

Well yeah. My first reaction was that I bet the UFC is glad Forrest won that fight. But you gotta wonder, if he hadn't, would that same **** with Rampage have happened? How much was his mental distress or whatever due his losing his title? In any case, that immediate rematch I mentioned before is obviously right on out the mother****ing door, which is a good thing as far as I'm concerned. Lyoto is set to fight Thiago Silva in October, if Lyoto wins (which there's not a doubt in my mind he will), he should get the next crack at the title. Which equals Forrest. Rampage is obviously on the short end of the crazy stick, he's out of the picture for a while, which is sorta sucky since I wanted to see Wandy / Quinton 3, but otherwise it opens the door for plenty of other 205'ers. That a good thing.

[EnderDeschain]

That's, I said.

[Tardumb]

Sooooooo..........Since I'm hanging around here a little more lately, and the UFC is putting on their 94th (kinda) event tomorrow night in Montreal, I thought it a good time to bump this thread up. If you're a fan gimme some predictions! If not, give it a chance! It's the most intense sport around, period. It's on PPV, or you can probably check with your local sports bar or Hooters'-esque restaurant. They will likely be showing it for free if you've got nothing better to do tomorrow night.

The main event this event will be Middleweight champion Anderson 'The Spider' Silva defending his title against Thales 'Braveheart' Leites. In one corner you've got pound for pound one of the top 2 or 3 guys in the world at kicking peoples' asses. He's got absolutely impeccable accuracy in all of his strikes and he's no slouch on the ground either. Silva is also a blackbelt in brazilian jiu-jitsu under 'Minotauro' Nogueira. In the other corner you have the young buck Leites, on a 5 fight win streak, also a blackbelt in BJJ, and also taking a huge step up in competition.

As much of an underdog Leites is on paper, and although Silva might just be the best fighter in the world, I have an eerie feeling we may have a very surprising fight on our hands tomorrow night. I'm not calling upset, I'm jsut saying I ain't countin' no chickens just yet. Of course, if I had to pick, I'll take the Champ to successfully defend by knockout in the 2nd round.

We also have one helluva Co-Main Event in Chuck 'the Iceman' Liddell vs. Mauricio 'Shogun' Rua! This is one of those fights hardcore MMA fans have been having wet dreams about since about 3 years ago when both of these guys were wiping out competition on opposite sides of the globe. Today, however, the fight holds a totally different kind of suspense. Chuck Liddell is nearing the big 40 and has lost 3 of his last 4 fights, the most recent being a BRUTAL knockout at the hands of current champ Rashad Evans. He hasn't looked "good" in a couple of years really, and rumour has it that if he fails to win this one, he's retiring. 'Shogun' has also been very lackluster over his past couple of fights, more notably since he came to the U.S. and the UFC. His lungs haven't been able to carry him but about halfway through his 15 minute bouts and he's lucky to have come away with only one loss in those 2 bouts. At the end of his 3 fight contract now, if he can't put on a better performance, will it be the last of Shogun we see in the UFC?

We've also got former WEC Light Heavyweight champ Brian Stann taking on Kryzysztof Soszynski (yeeeeeah, say that 5 times fast, or just once); Heavyweights Cheick Kongo and Antoni Hardonk set to collide in a battle of kickboxers; 7-1 Steve Cantwell taking on 10-1 Luiz Cane in the 205 lb. division (look for fireworks here); and also about 5 or 6 more undercard bouts that will only be shown if some of these other main card fight end quickly.

Hope some of you catch this weekends nice slew of bouts, and maybe better yet I've interested some of you to check the sport out for the first time. I think you'll like it.

[EnderDeschain]

Damn, I wish I'd have seen your bump sooner. After a while I just stopped checking the Sports forum so I didn't know you'd bumped this, Tardumb, or I would've given my predictions and such. I have a white board in my kitchen that I always do my predictions on and would be more than happy to discuss them from now on. Sorry I didn't see this.

I picked the same as you on the main event for 97, the exact same. Second round KO by Anderson. Boy, were we wrong. That fight turned out pretty dull, but I don't think it deserves the amount of bashing it's getting from Dana and fandom in general. Still, it's pretty hard to defend. As for Chuck / Shogun, that was kind of heartbreaking to watch. ****in Liddell, man, remember how people used to talk about what a good chin he had? Then Rampage TKO'ing him in '07 just changed that completely. He got knocked down by Jardine, nearly murdered by Rashad, and now this with Shogun. It's just sad to see an era come to such a downer ending. I think maybe Chuck should've stopped after the Wanderlei fight, but then again at the time I was thinking he was ready to make another run at the title. Everyone was, really. That Wandy fight was a slobberknocker, and when he got Rashad after that I thought it was gonna be more or less a tune-up. Hindsight is et cetera.

98 the weekend before last was friggin awesome. I was a little disappointed in Hughes / Serra, even though I was glad Hughes pulled out the win. I was just expecting it to be a better fight, but I should have known that Hughes would go back to basics and smother Serra. Can't blame the guy, a W's a W. The main event, though, man that was killer. After watching Rashad do the Michael Jackson crotch-grab against Forrest I really wanted to see him get his **** ****ed up, and wasn't disappointed in the least. I think Rogan and the folks at Sherdog and all might be being a little premature with all this "Machida era" talk, how he's gonna hold the belt for a long time and such. I mean, they're probably right because I don't see anyone at LHW beating him right now, but I didn't see Matt Serra beating GSP either. We shouldn't start acting like Machida's the GOAT just yet. Let him defend a couple times first. If the Machida / Shogun rumors pan out, that'll be a really good test for Lyoto to see if he's gonna live up to everyone's expectations. I would call that fight to Lyoto, by third-round TKO.

Tomorrow night is Strikeforce on Showtime. Should be cool. I see Nick Diaz using his typical gillion-jab style to keep Scott Smith at bay, possibly taking it to the ground a couple times but mostly keeping it on the feet, and winning a decision. The Arlovski / Rogers fight scares me. I like Arlovski and want to see him stay in the top five of the division, but that chin of his just worries me, especially against a dude who has so many KO's. Granted, the closest to a "name" that Rogers has beaten was James Thompson, and that ain't anything to write epic poems about, but he could still put AA down. That being said, I call that one to Arlovski by first-round KO thanks to superior boxing in just about every aspect. I wouldn't be surprised if Rogers tags that chin and we get an upset special, though. As for the main event, I see that as pretty much a pick-em. If Lawler can stay up, I think he'll knock Shields out within the first two rounds. But if Shields can get it to the ground, he may well submit Lawler within the first two rounds. I lean towards Lawler, just being a heavier and stronger athlete, and predict him to win by second-round TKO.

Then on the 13th is UFC 99, which turned out to be a pretty damn good card. God, I hope CroCop wins this ****in fight. If he drops another match-up against someone he should completely outclass, it may be time for him to rethink his place in the sport. Maybe move down to LHW or something, which people have been saying he should do for some time but he refuses to. I don't see him being a real force in the HW division again any time soon, the damage done by Gonzaga and Kongo is too great, but I just wanna see him get some wins in. That Overeem match in Dream that everyone claims CroCop was getting manhandled before the DQ, I just don't get that. He actually wasn't doing too bad. Sure he got taken down and was losing the fight, but he was taking very little damage on the ground and was far from getting pummeled like everyone makes it out to be. Anyway, I call CroCop, KO, round one.

Also, I pick Spencer Fisher against Uno because Fisher's just one of those fighters that I can't pick against. Ever. The guy's got heart for miles and always puts on a great fight, and while there's every chance in the world that the technically superior Uno (at least on the ground) might submit him, I don't think he will. Fisher by decision. Next, Dan Hardy by second-round TKO. Marcus is just a little too confident in himself these days, and his boxing ability gets oversold somewhat. I think he's gonna try to stand there in the pocket with Hardy and get tagged somewhere in the second, get hurt, and get stopped. Mike Swick over Ben Saunders by decision. I see Swick coming out looking to prove a point, but Saunders being too sound for him to finish. That fight will probably be close, and will almost surely be exciting. Kongo / Velasquez, I absolutely hate to but I think I'm gonna pick Kongo. Velasquez has looked great so far, and clearly has the ability to **** Kongo up on the ground and maybe even standing, but I dunno. Something about the momentum going into this and the expectations heaped on Velasquez, I sense his hype train getting derailed. But I hope I'm wrong. Now, as for Wandy / Franklin, up until about a week ago I was picking Franklin. I changed my mind. Franklin is a far more technical striker, but I don't think Wandy's gonna stand there in front of him and wing those crazy-monkey punches from his hips like he usually does. He will almost certainly be the one moving forward, but he'll probably stay out of Rich's range until managing to get inside at some point or another. Once he gets the plum, he'll do like he did against Rampage, and like Anderson did against Rich, and knee Franklin's nose over to his ear. I hope. This is another one where I'm going with my heart, and predicting Wandy by first-round KO.

For the sake of time and space, I won't even get into UFC 100 yet. We've still got a good five weeks left before it, but damn I'm psyched. That's gonna be killer. I just can't believe they're putting Akiyama / Belcher on the main card instead of Coleman / Bonnar. Yeah, Coleman / Bonnar ain't exactly relevant to the LHW division, but it being 100 I would think they would try to get at least one of the old-school pioneers on the televised portion. It'd be a great fight to open up with, too. The fact that he's fighting, but not guaranteed to be shown, is mind-boggling. I hope they change that by event time. Okay, I suppose that's all I have to say. I would love to hear your predictions, Tardumb, and what you think about all this. I don't post over at Sherdog, I mainly just use it to keep up on the news. That place is just too full of retardation and way too damn crowded, so I rarely really get to talk about this stuff.

[Dhamon22]

I think Franklin and Velasquez will win, but I'm not really feeling this card too much. Definitely not a purchase.

UFC 100 on the other hand, I can't wait for. Thats a must buy.

[Justin]

This is late, but I'm so glad Evans had his ass handed to him on a platter.

[Tardumb]

Hmmm...well, since Strikeforce is first, I'll start there. I could over-analyze and type a novel but no one wants to read a novel, so I'll keep it short.

Shields over Lawler by submission in a war. Although, I don't really like Shields, and wouldn't mind seeing Lawler pummel him.

Diaz over Smith by complete ownage in all areas. Diaz will go on to beat the winner of Shields/Lawler, whoever that may be.

Hmmm...as much as I want to say Arlovski because he's just better, I have a feeling Rogers is gonna hit paydirt with a big KO.

Randleman over Whitehead by KO. Excited to see "the Monster" back in a big show. I hope he takes advantage of his long-awaited opportunity.

Baroni over Riggs by KO.

UFC 99 predictions next week. I'm still undecided on about 4 of the 6 main fights so...

[Dhamon22]

Good call on the last 3 fights from last night.

I hate Diaz, but hes really good.

Riggs was impressive. Did that with 2 broken hands and fighting the flu?

Arlovski could be done... can he take a big hit anymore?

[Tardumb]

Riggs was very impressive. yeah, I think I read he broke his hands at the end of the 1st. Tough bastard.

Hell, Randleman about had that KO too! If he knew how to finish. Not to mention he was gassed 90 seconds into the fight. The guy has been out for awhile with some nasty injuries, and he's 37. If he keeps training he could still be a force for anyone to reckon with.

[Dhamon22]

Anybody watch the WEC event last night?

The Jose Aldo flying knee was devastating. He should get a shot at Mike Brown next.

Speaking of which, I don't know if Brown wins that fight if Faber doesn't break his hand but he proved he wasn't a fluke.

Jens Pulver got put down pretty quickly. Grisli is pretty good.

I like Cerrone, I hope he gets a shot against Varner.

[EnderDeschain]

Originally Posted by Tardumb

I could over-analyze and type a novel but no one wants to read a novel, so I'll keep it short.

Surely that wasn't directed at anyone in particular, was it? Nah, couldn't be. For the record, my posts are more like pages than novels, that last one in here was 1 1/2 pages, 2 at most. And besides, are people using all those books on the best-seller list as doorstops? But I'm just ****in around, I actually catch your drip and will try to truncate my verbiage from now. For me typing is sort of like snorting coke, I just keep going and going and can't seem to stop long after the point where it's become tiresome. One of these days I'm gonna stop doing it, I'm gonna kick, I SWEAR! Starting tomorrow.

Anyway, good job on the Strikeforce picks. I was pretty disappointed in Lawler. Shields really doesn't do much for me as a fighter or a personality. Riggs looked pretty damn good, and I was actually impressed with Baroni's scrambles too in the first round until he gassed completely. For a guy who used to be so one-dimensional (well, still is, but you know what I mean) he's obviously put some effort into his groundwork. Too bad he gets winded faster than Ralphie May. I figured Randleman to win too but, in retrospect, I can't ****ing figure out why. That guy always underperforms, always, except for against CroCop, which is why that was so shocking. And although I picked wrong, I did include caveats that made my analysis just as valid as yours, so there. Smiley face. I'm just being defensive 'cuz I feel very inferior right now 'cuz I was outperformed on one of the few subjects I actually know a good deal about.

Originally Posted by Dhamon22

Anybody watch the WEC event last night?
The Jose Aldo flying knee was devastating. He should get a shot at Mike Brown next.
Speaking of which, I don't know if Brown wins that fight if Faber doesn't break his hand but he proved he wasn't a fluke.
Jens Pulver got put down pretty quickly. Grisli is pretty good.
I like Cerrone, I hope he gets a shot against Varner.

Word to all. Aldo's knee was awesome, but I think I'd pick Brown over him. As for whether Brown would've still won with a two-fisted Faber, I don't know. There were a few times where it looked like Faber might have finished him were it not for that, but on the other hand Brown looked pretty damn solid himself. He's got one hell of a chin, which I think is what might save him against Aldo. Could Urijah have KO'd Brown with the right? I doubt it. But one point where it did seem his hand cost him the fight was that choke in the fourth or fifth. Varner should be next for Cerrone, for sure, and I think Varner's gonna win again by virtue of not wearing a goofy hat. Plus his victory celebrations are awesome. Pulver should retire, and I really hate to say that. He's one of the first fighters I started rooting for on more of a personal level than a fighting level, and he's the first one whose book I ever read. Hell of a guy and I'd hate to see him go, but I hate to see him keep getting beat too.

Speaking of books, I picked up Forrest's but haven't read it yet. I bet it's gonna be awesome. Chuck, Randy, Tito, Matt, Jens, the best thing about all of those is the behind-the-scenes type **** which is absolutely killer. I'd love to see Dana White write a book, even though anti-Zuffa folks would have a conniption. I think I might have changed my mind about my pick on the Franklin / Silva fight this weekend. I'll probably change it again a few times before then. The main event, I mean. Especially now that I had my worst picks ever for Strikeforce, I went 4 - 7. It's the first time I've ever been sub-.500 for an event, and Tardumb picking them right just rubs salt in the wound. Now I'm doubting myself. But I'll take being stupid-ass wrong again as long as I'm right on the CroCop fight, goddamnit. That'll make my night if he wins.

[Tardumb]

hahaha...I actually wasn't pointing the finger at you Ender, but it sure looked that way! I don't mind your long posts, I was merely convincing myself that the less I break down fights, and the simpler I keep my analysis, the better I usually pick. That's all....

lol, winded faster than Ralphie May, that's good.

Thanks for the props, but every dog has it's day, you know? What sold me on Rogers, was a pic of the weigh-ins I saw where AA is cheesin' at the camera in his designer shorts and bling, and Rogers is just giving him this COLD ASS look. Like, "you're my meal-ticket mother****er." With AA's suspect chin and Rogers' brawling style I just knew this was a tailor-made fight for "The Grim". And I can't stand Shields either, but Lawler just looked way too hesitant to let his hands go. And god forbid he should defend when someone pulls freaking guard on him?!?! Ridiculous...but I called it!
The UFC should go get Diaz to fight their golden boy A.Silva. I think he may be the only guy in the world not scared to get in there and actually FIGHT the Spider. I'm not saying he'd win, but it'd be damn exciting to watch.

On the Jose Aldo knee...devastating! But, I don't think this all the sudden places him as a threat to Brown. I agree with you, I think Brown thrashes Aldo. Then again, I haven't watched much of either guy so...maybe I should reserve judgement. I'm just sayin'...sticking a flying knee to Cub Swanson's dome doesn't exactly make you great in my book....just fun to watch. Hell, old man Pulver even whooped up on Swanson....

Again, I'll reserve my picks for UFC 99 until later this week. Even though there's no title on the line, I think this could be a pretty surprisingly good card.

[EnderDeschain]

You know, I think you're right about the overanalyzation thing. When I used to just pick fights without overthinking it too much, that's when I'd good results on predictions. But this year I've changed my method of scorekeeping, and I think my picks have suffered because I nuke it out too much.

Nick Diaz and Anderson Silva is a great idea. I would love to see that fight. It would be very hard to pick against either guy, 'cuz I don't think I've seen either of them fight anyone like the other. It's too bad they're in different orgs. Maybe Zuffa will scoop up Diaz soon, that would be killer, but with Strikeforce's growing profile and all I think their fighters will be hard to bribe away. Then again, nobody pays as much as the UFC right now, and money talks, so maybe it'll happen sometime.

I'm glad I got here to do this before you posted your picks. I've changed my mind some. I don't know what I was thinking calling stuff as early as I did, I've always waited until the day before to do my white board because I change my mind a lot. But over the last week I've been rewatching some fights (at least the last three of every fighter on the card's), doing some comparisons, reading some analysis and watching videos and such. I've changed my mind on a couple. Here is my prediction board, I just filled it out today:



As you can see, I switched a couple since my previous post. You know those annoying peckers on YouTube who do prediction videos? Yeah, I'm gonna be one of those, I've decided. I'm gonna do it tomorrow, but mine's gonna be a bit different. So I'll explain all of my rationale and such on my picks then, for anyone who might give a crud. It's more of an experiment than anything else, just something I think should be fun for me to do.

Anyway, just 'cuz I love junking up threads, here's the way my Strikeforce / WEC board looked when they were over:



I used to have a smaller board that I did them on, this one (this is from UFC 69):



But at the beginning of this year I upgraded to that bigger board and started doing them on it. Sometime in February a friend of mine asked me how my prediction record for the year looked, and I had never before thought about keeping track of that. So I made that little column on the right. Since then I've become far more cautious and analytical in my picks because I don't want to damage my record, and to be honest I think it's working against me. UFC 93, the first one of the year, is the best I've ever done at 9 - 1. But I've been doing this for years and I've never been sub-.500 until Strikeforce. That sucked.

So now that I've wasted all this space cluttering up this thread, I guess I'll stop. I should be posting that video tomorrow, but I wanted to make sure and get this in before Tardumb does his picks so it doesn't look like I was influenced by anything he might say. Yeah, I'm stupid neurotic about this crap.