Predictions for tonight's 1-2-3? I've got Rampage Jackson over Lyoto Machida - TKO BJ Penn over Matt Hughes - Decision Gerald Harris over Maiquel Falcão - TKO Phil Davis over Tim Boetsch - Submission Joe Lauzon over George Sotiropoulos - Decision Thoughts? Solid fight card. Should be good.
Man I seriously hope old Rampage shows up and closes the distance on Lyoto BJ has more to prove than Matt Hughes. So I give that one to him hands down. Looking forward to it.
I feel like a twat for getting up at 4am yesterday for work, so that by the time 10pm rolled around, I was too tired to even keep my eyes open. I went home halfway through the second fight. And, uh... Spoiler 21 seconds. Jay-sus. BJ is fucking mean. Now I really wish I had stayed.
I wouldn't consider this a spoiler, but did any of you catch what happened with the Harris vs Falcão fight in the last 10 seconds of the 1st round? The fact that the last 10 seconds only lasted 3 seconds? From the time of the clap til the bell, my guess is Cecil Peoples is the new horn sounder. Spoiler Regardless, Harris was done. Although he did gain 2 rounds out of the deal... way to fail, Harris.
Soooo, who else watched Strikeforce last night? Spoiler Ridiculous amount of knockouts, I almost threw my beer at the TV because I was so pumped Hendo knocked out Babalu. I still agree with Dana on Hendo though, as much as I love him, he's past his prime and will probably never be a real force again, but I hope I'm wrong on this.
Spoiler And they weren't just knockouts, they were out COLD. Lindland was definitely out cold. Scott Smith landed on his face! Was definitely an entertaining card.
Anyone watch the Ultimate Fighter finale? Spoiler Phan was robbed, you can't argue that he wasn't. That being said, the crowd shouldn't have booed Garcia. I really hate when the crowd boos. Everything Rogan said about Brookins was spot on. He can't box for shit, his technique is completely amateur, but damn can this kid take a punch and he's slick as hell. I'm really interested to see if they treat him like Amir Sadollah, that is, protect him by having him fight on the undercard of PPV events or on the main card of Spike events until...what? Until Dana thinks he's ready to take the training wheels off? No other TuF winners were ever babied the way Sadollah has been. /end drunken rant Will somebody please teach me Cody McKenzie's guillotine?
Spoiler Still in complete shock on the Phan robbery. Not to mention the fact I hate Garcia's fighting style, so of course I was even more livid when they gave him the decision. Completely agree on all accounts. I thoroughly enjoyed the shit out of this Finale though. -With a smaller venue/cage/etc., the sound of the punches, kicks & slams you could almost feel.. which in-turn made for an even more badass watching experience. -Rogans commentating was spot on AND hilarious (especially after the first fight), regarding the judges giving fighters' winning rounds to the lady that's serving beer in the stands or the mouse in the corner of the octagon. And a few other notable comments... I was dying. -Michael Johnson losing, was grand. -Even more stoked about our local boy Cody McKenzie coming out with another spectacular guillotine submission. I'll definitely watch this one again.
I posted this on instrength as well but: Spoiler I think I'm going to send this diagram as a training tool to Henderson's next opponent.
Absolutely, why not? They're very similar fighters in terms of relative strengths and weaknesses, and fight using the same style. It's going to be a very close match.
Except GSP has some of the best--if not the best--transitions in all of MMA. I don't mean to sound like a fanboy, but GSP's fluid motion gives him a big edge. No doubt Koscheck is a great wrestler with ever improving boxing, but he doesn't have GSP's instincts. Short of Koscheck landing a clean crack to GSP's jaw or temple, I don't see him winning this fight.
I don't understand what you mean. In what area of fighting does GSP have more than, at best, a small advantage over Kos? GSP's movement and reaction time is a little bit better (probably what you mean by "transitions", a silly term the UFC keeps mentioning exclusively for St. Pierre fights), but it's not enough to win the fight by itself. I also don't see how you can assign GSP a "big edge" considering their first fight; GSP caught Kos completely off-guard with his takedown attempt strategy, won the first two rounds, but then lost the third one when Kos adjusted. Since then, Kos has improved a lot more than GSP has; his stand-up now versus then is like night and day. Honestly, it's either man's fight to win or lose, and I expect it to be very close. Don't get caught up in the champion's marketing hype; weren't you the same one who expected Lesnar to destroy Cain, barring Velasquez "wearing him out in the later rounds"?
The one thing I never get caught up in is hype. Re: Cain v. Brock, I said that I expected Cain to win in the third because Brock would get tired, and that Brock only had a puncher's chance of winning. True, I never expected Cain to dominate the way he did. Re: GSP, I didn't mean reaction time when I said transitions. I meant literally the way he transitions from one style to another. His combinations that smoothly lead to takedowns as opposed to other guys who look static when they go from striking to grappling. I also meant the way he transitions on the ground. The way he goes from half-guard to side-control like it's nothing. I agree that the first fight was close, but not as close as some (maybe most) people think it was. And maybe Kos has grown more than GSP--and again, I don't mean to come off like a fanboy--but that's only because GSP is a nearly complete fighter. What more does he have to improve on? Of course I could be way off. I don't pretend to be an oracle. I'm not saying Kos can't win, I'm just saying that on the paper I'm working from, GSP has all the edges coming into this fight.