|
|
Post by BakFu on Jul 26, 2018 16:12:02 GMT
Dustin Porier/Eddie Alvarez will be good. Their fight last year was awesome, Alvarez was beaten half to death, and in true Alvarez fashion crawled out of hell and turned it into a war. Joanna Jędrzejczyk's fights are always good, hopefully Torres will bring out the best in her, and she can take another pop at Namajunes (GOLEM!) and get her PRECIOUS back! Or get hurled into Mt. Doom in the process. :)
Stevens/Aldo could be good depending on whether or not Aldo wears his paper maché chin or not, and I always like watching Aubin-Mercier fight, too. Decent looking card!
|
|
|
|
Post by Mr. Dogmeat on Jul 26, 2018 17:46:39 GMT
It really is pretty decent, especially for a free card.
I dunno 'bout Aldo, he really has never been the same since McGregor took his soul. It certainly has the potential to be a great fight though. Especially if we get the return of the mythical "Aldo with the leg kicks". Otherwise Jeremy gets in line for a TS.
I guess a few days ago Olivier Aubin-Mercier changed his nickname from "the Quebec Kid" to the "Canadian Gangster". Ew.
I <3 Jedrzejczyk so much, I really honestly believe that Rose is overrated- never finished anyone with strikes before finishing JJ twice; I don't know why but she just has Joanna's number. I even loved her more after her delusional post-fight pressers where she claims she's still the best in the world despite losing twice in definitive fashion to the same person.
Also completely flabbergasted on why they stripped Colby of the interim belt when he just fought RDA like less than a month ago, and give the title shot to a guy who didn't make weight in his last fight by 5 lbs and arguably didn't win that fight against Wonderboy. Yet they let McGoof hold up two divisions for 500 days+. FFS. Dana is such a scumbag.
|
|
fukuro
Steel Johnson
Just a Føroyar lad
Posts: 124
|
Post by fukuro on Jul 27, 2018 0:37:37 GMT
Liverpool hasn't had a bad transfer window. Getting Keita, Fabinho, Shaqiri all was great. Pulling Alisson Becker in for goalkeeper should be a massive upgrade in a position that the team has needed help in for many years. I'm thrilled.
To go with José, Kloppo must win something after Liverpool’s spending. Maybe challenging for the Premiership. Still not sure about the squad depth but the overall quality is highly improved. Maybe Klopp should loan Karius back to Germany. Lad looks kind of broken. Couple of mistakes in pre-season so far and I guess a Milk Cup game now and then would not help the case. Looking forward to the new center mid. Maybe Hendo will be benched a bit more but in theory it should help Liverpool.
|
|
|
|
Post by BakFu on Jul 28, 2018 17:20:03 GMT
I didn't realize until I replied to Mr. Dogmeaat's post that there was a fight night even happening, and as I looked at the card I kept thinking "wow, there are a lot of Canadian fighters in this event.". Funny thing is the event is a two hour drive to the south of me in Calgary, might have something to do with the abundance of Canadians on the card. :)
Jebus, they didn't advertise this event worth a shit here. We had UFC 215 here in Edmonton last September and it was advertised EVERYWHERE! The card tonight is way better than that expensive shit they had here, too.
I don't see Aldo coming out on top tonight, but hopefully he's got his shit together now and will turn it into a fight.
JJ is fun to watch, she's a (lil' pocket) beast, but Namaunes has her number as Dogmeat said. it will take a while before Namaunes starts losing, she just seems to be in that groove right now. Hopefully Jedrzejczyk has focused on her fight tonight and gets her ass back on track!
I honestly don't see the point of titles in the UFC. I think a grand prix style tournament held over a few months would be way more interesting. No one holds the title for very long (with the exception of a few stand outs who dominate every couple of years until their tactics are figured out/injuries and age catch up) , so titles just end up causing problems. The title issues around McGregor, GSP, the current welterweight debacle, it's all such a lot of crap. Just go with the K-1 style elimination tournament culminating in a fight for that year's grand prix champion. The titles are meaningless, and I'm sure the fighters would prefer a giant cardboard cheque, streamers, and an eight foot tall trophy anyway! :D
|
|
|
|
Post by Mr. Dogmeat on Jul 28, 2018 21:42:41 GMT
Also being Canadian, it's a must watch card for me. It is a pretty stacked card for a fox card anyways.
Aldo, Torres, and Porier all looked like shit during the weigh ins, Aldo barely made 146 with a towel, so I predict they all lose. Alvarez via war, jedrzejczyk via decision, and Stephens via tko are my predictions.
Honestly UFC's booking is terrible, I really wish PFL was doing better than they are because they've fixed a lot of the problems with the sport. Between PFL's rankings and playoff/points system, and ONE fc's lack of weight cutting due to hydration testing, and Coker's magic touch, there's no reason UFC should be the de facto promotion but it is what it is.
In my perfect dream world, they shit-can Dana and give Coker his budget and roster. Just imagine what he could do.
But yeah titles... used to mean something before the age of the interim belt. He might have a gimped roster and no budget to speak of but Scott Coker is doing great things with their HW and WW gp's. I mean we're long from the days of one night tournaments.
Sounds to me like you also loved the Pride presentation and production values. UFC is so. Fucking. Dry. Then they pull this Brock Lesnar and DC promo bullshit where everyone is corpsing and my cringe levels are too high to contain. When I say I want some pro wrasslin in my MMA I just mean some fireworks and Lazer lights, maybe more open ended interview style. None of this bullshit. Shades of Giant Silva pulling out an ogre club from ringside after losing a fight in pride. Ugh.
|
|
|
|
Post by El Marsh on Jul 29, 2018 14:11:18 GMT
Funny thing about me and UFC is that I'll watch most of the paid PPVs but I almost always forget about the FOX cards. Despite their success and ridiculous roster of talent, I feel that UFC is absolutely horrible about selling its fighters. I still don't like carnival shenanigans like the junk that McGregor, the Diaz bros (though Nate is a favorite of mine), Covington, Cormier, etc. pull but I've come to realize that doing so is just a (usually successful) ploy to line their own pockets by drawing in buys and ridiculous as it is, I don't fault them for that. Being a good fighter just isn't good enough for business but UFC does nothing to really help themselves or their roster on that front. It's become even more glaring since the big sale of the company over a year ago.
|
|
|
|
Post by BakFu on Jul 29, 2018 23:28:40 GMT
I've never seen PFL, I've heard of it, but never seen any events. I think Ray Sefo is involved with it though, so it that could bode well for fighters being run by a fighter.
The days of the PRIDE/K-1 tournament style events are over, no fighter would subject themselves to that these days. Glory does have one night tournaments and they're awesome, but I can't see mixed fighting doing tournaments with more than one fight per night anymore.
Dana White just took cues from his best buddy Shane McMahon and tore the asses out of the regional, smaller competition. The TV show inundated the masses and let them know that the UFC is the only show in town. Talk to people who never watch fighting, and they will call it "UFC", just like we call tissues Kleenex, or bandages Bandaids. People became fans of fighting through The Ultimate Fighter and the redirection of said fans to Fight Night and UFC PPVs, so some of them don't even care that anything else exists. I like Bellator, ONE FC from time to time, and even M-1 or whatever that Russian one is called, but UFC is constantly poaching their best fighters never letting them gain any real ground. I basically PVR any free shows and fast forward through them. A lot of talking and boring shit between matches, shameless promotion of the next event or their boring reality show consisting of grown, angry men smashing up a nice house and acting like drunk children.
Glory is my main fight fix, I love stand up, and most of the Glory roster are amazingly skilled fighters. Not saying I don't like the ground game, it has just become really formulaic, plus everyone has very similar skillets, and with the mixed specialization, you don't see the crazy subs as much these days, shit, you barely see arm bars anymore (one in fight night excluded.). Glory is top shelf shit, some really awesome fights with fighters from all over the world. Check it out for something fresh, especially if you like stand up.
|
|
|
|
Post by Mr. Dogmeat on Jul 30, 2018 4:02:18 GMT
Funny thing about me and UFC is that I'll watch most of the paid PPVs but I almost always forget about the FOX cards. Despite their success and ridiculous roster of talent, I feel that UFC is absolutely horrible about selling its fighters. I still don't like carnival shenanigans like the junk that McGregor, the Diaz bros (though Nate is a favorite of mine), Covington, Cormier, etc. pull but I've come to realize that doing so is just a (usually successful) ploy to line their own pockets by drawing in buys and ridiculous as it is, I don't fault them for that. Being a good fighter just isn't good enough for business but UFC does nothing to really help themselves or their roster on that front. It's become even more glaring since the big sale of the company over a year ago. Hey I 100% agree. It's not sustainable anyways and UFC is hurting when it comes to ppv buys in the last two years. They're headed for a crash and really, it's what's best for this still fairly new sport. Bellator did better numbers on the same weekend with the Stipe/DC ppv for Christ sake and that card was stacked. One thing is for sure though, you hit the nail on the head and something I gripe to my buddies about often: for being a fight promotion, UFC does a piss poor job of promoting and guys like and especially Colby himself are just a byproduct of that. Realistically Dana can't argue he wants the sport legitimised while still wanting to maintain the "contracted employee" bs so they can have their cake and eat it too when it comes to booking and name value. It's common knowledge that the UFC's p4p rankings are a complete joke. The fighters -desperately- need to unionise. Coker has spoken out in favour of a fighters union. I've never seen PFL, I've heard of it, but never seen any events. I think Ray Sefo is involved with it though, so it that could bode well for fighters being run by a fighter. The days of the PRIDE/K-1 tournament style events are over, no fighter would subject themselves to that these days. Glory does have one night tournaments and they're awesome, but I can't see mixed fighting doing tournaments with more than one fight per night anymore. Dana White just took cues from his best buddy Shane McMahon and tore the asses out of the regional, smaller competition. The TV show inundated the masses and let them know that the UFC is the only show in town. Talk to people who never watch fighting, and they will call it "UFC", just like we call tissues Kleenex, or bandages Bandaids. People became fans of fighting through The Ultimate Fighter and the redirection of said fans to Fight Night and UFC PPVs, so some of them don't even care that anything else exists. I like Bellator, ONE FC from time to time, and even M-1 or whatever that Russian one is called, but UFC is constantly poaching their best fighters never letting them gain any real ground. I basically PVR any free shows and fast forward through them. A lot of talking and boring shit between matches, shameless promotion of the next event or their boring reality show consisting of grown, angry men smashing up a nice house and acting like drunk children. Glory is my main fight fix, I love stand up, and most of the Glory roster are amazingly skilled fighters. Not saying I don't like the ground game, it has just become really formulaic, plus everyone has very similar skillets, and with the mixed specialization, you don't see the crazy subs as much these days, shit, you barely see arm bars anymore (one in fight night excluded.). Glory is top shelf shit, some really awesome fights with fighters from all over the world. Check it out for something fresh, especially if you like stand up. Proud to say I've never watched an episode of TUF despite being an MMA fan since 99. And yeah like I was bitching before, they have the most fucking dry production it's a chore to watch and it really shouldn't be. Stick a mic in these fighters faces backstage and let em cut a promo, ya know? After a win, just hand em a mic and let them sound off. That's where they should be taking inspiration from pro wrestling. Beyond the regional talent, they've done pretty well to monopolize. Any attempt at competition (strike force, wec) is quickly bought up and assimilated. Only now in the last two years is Bellator actually worth watching, scooping up Rory and Moose, Lyoto, probably TRTor Belfort, Yair, Bader, etc. The Reebok deal was really really good... For Bellator. But I think in the last couple of years we've seen UFC fighters contracts ending and them not renewing, I believe this trend is going to continue. Sefo is shady from my understanding, but still PFL has been great. The point/playoff format is excellent as it's a true meritocracy. 1 point for a draw, 3 points for a win, 5 for a finish, but that really creates incentive to go for the finish and not be safe and point fight. $1 million prize for the playoff champion of each weight class. They do it with only two weight classes per card, so the last one I watched was all heavyweight and featherweight. Everyone watching these cards on the FB stream has been having a blast, but they are failing to get thier name out there. They are on NBCSN for the US, internationally the whole cards are aired on and archived on Facebook. Bas Rutten and Randy Couture on commentary is also nice. I also think that the game evolving and everyone becoming a complete fighter was also inevitable, and true for most sports. Still, you're right, you don't see armbars, heel hooks or kimuras that often anymore, but the game will continue to evolve. We've just hit the point in the last 6-8 years where specialization is gone, but new blood will bring new perspective. Just look how much basketball and baseball have changed over the last 50 years. Hell some of these young fighters are wild and exciting to watch and unorthodox (moraes, O'Malley for example) Hespect, love Glory and kickboxing/muay Thai in general. Got into it during the lay n pray/wall n stall era of UFC. UFC has got to go. Like you said, people equate the monopoly with the product but, I swear if you jazz up the production, pay and represent these fighters appropriately, use a legitimate sports season format, trade the gimmicky cage back to a vale tudo/boxing ring, create a fairly priced streaming service or partner with Netflix and Hulu, the casual fans would be all over that shit. Would definitely take a bigger chunk of the strictly pro wrestling crowd anyways. On an off note- So amped JJ won but no way was that a 30-27 performance. 29-28 should've been. And holy shit controversial Alvarez/Porier fight. I think Goddard fucked up by not putting them back into the same position, and I didn't think that 12-6 elbow to the body was illegal but I guess so. Eddie fucked over twice by regulations that shouldn't be there. Oy vey. |
|
|
|
Post by NSL on Jul 30, 2018 5:03:33 GMT
The Washington Valor won ArenaBowl XXXI 69-55 over the Baltimore Brigade Saturday.
The Valor went 2-10 during the regular season.
|
|
|
|
Post by BakFu on Jul 31, 2018 1:40:50 GMT
El Guapo and Coture are commentating? Wow, I am missing out. One of my favourite PRIDE PPVs was commentated by Bas and Renzo, those two were having a blast together, and man they know their shit! Yeah, Bellator's roster is stacking up quickly, I wouldn't mid seeing Gegard Mousasi back in Bellator before he hags up the gloves. Dogmeat, I like your ideas for pro fighting, you're hired! :) I miss PRIDE's production values. I miss seeing Takada's ass hanging out as he plays a giant drum while Mirko Filipovic shuffles uncomfortably just wanting to get in the ring and get down to business while the fanfare and pageantry is going down around him. All of that old PRIDE style shit, Lenne Hardt's epic entrance announcements, all of that stuff would really spice up the vanilla-ass presentation of UFC. And I'm a huge fan of the ring over the cage. The cage was a gimmick when this shit started to make it look more savage and underground (and to ensure the fights would end up on the ground...), but I enjoy fights held in a ring a lot more than the cage. Yeah, Alvarez got robbed, and that one call changed the momentum of that fight totally. Brutal shit there. And the JJ fight was a bit of a joke score wise, too, I agree. But the UFC has always shown you can't take their champs to decision or you will lose. Lots of close ones went GSP's way over the years, and there were likely many more. It doesn't make your champions look like winners, it makes them look protected and further cheapens the titles.  |
|
|
|
Post by Mr. Dogmeat on Jul 31, 2018 12:57:43 GMT
Yeah man, no one seems to give a shit how hard they fucked Eddie AGAIN.
Good for Aldo though he needed that win, he looked like shit at the weigh ins and even walking out to the ring. He found that fire halfway through that fight. Wish he would throw a fucking leg kick again and rejoin MMA's mythical creature list- TRTor, Horsemeat Ubereem, Sea-Level Cain, Motivated Penn, Chuck with that look in his eye, and Aldo with the leg kicks
Moose is still in bellator, pretty sure they booked a title fight between him and Rory in September. Who knows though shit changes quick.
Not only is the cage gimmicky and kept MMA in the dark ages even longer because of the perception of it, but it and the UFC ruleset favour grapplers way too much. No strikes to the back of the head, no knees to a downed opponent, walls to rely on. The ring has better angles for kickboxers and a more even playing field imo.
Don't even get me started on yellow and red cards for stalling. That Ngannou/Black Beast fight would have been completely different if they started taking their money away with yellow cards, I think it was 15% of the fighters purse for the first yellow and 20% additionally for the second. I think though Lewis had trained all camp to counter-attack Ngannou but he never threw a strike so... He just kept throwing hilariously telegraphed switch kicks to try to bait him out.
Buddy gimme a few million dollars in investment to play with and I could build the best promotion in the world. Don't go the affliction route and literally drop everything you have on two Fedor appearances, start small, promote properly, build up a roster. Dangle that union carrot in front of the fighters and offer them a stake in the promotion's success and you'll get the names you need.
Where are my investors? I've got a sport to save!
And yes takadas oiled up ass was regular viewing in my home growing up. Your picture hides the goods, mang!
|
|
|
|
Post by El Marsh on Aug 5, 2018 13:22:29 GMT
UFC was something last night Cejudo knocking off DJ was a surprise result but DJ was trying to coast so it made sense. It took a while but we finally have a 2nd ever UFC Flyweight Champion lol.
Not surprised by the Dillashaw/Garbrandt result in the least. I like Cody but it's just a bad matchup for him and TJ finished him again, this time "easier" than the last.
It will be interesting to see if we get that champion vs champion fight we never saw DJ take. [\spoiler] |
|
|
|
Post by BakFu on Aug 5, 2018 16:46:13 GMT
I didn't see the fights, but what I've seen of Cejudo, he's been looking HOONGRAY lately, and it seems even the best champs start to coast or tempt the defeat gods with stupid shit to get the unbeaten monkey off of their backs after winning a certain number of defences (Anderson Silva, Gomi, St Pierre, Emelianenko...). It will be cool to see how the results change the landscape of the devision, I always enjoy seeing how things change, fighters and teams see shit and suddenly the division standings are turned on their heads.
OT: I know a guy that moved to Seattle for work a few years back, I told him that AMC Pankration is in nearby Kirkland so he tried it out. He told me he got to train with this little guy who lit him up and was ridiculously fast, he said his nickname was Mighty mouse and that everyone was trying to figure out how he didn't know who DJ was. :) He also said DJ was really nice, very patient, and gave him some really good tips. Small world.
|
|
|
|
Post by BakFu on Aug 5, 2018 16:51:17 GMT
And yes takadas oiled up ass was regular viewing in my home growing up. Your picture hides the goods, mang! Yeah, I know, I was trying to find one of a size that wouldn't crash the board but alas. The oiled ass of the goodly chairman will be confined to the intrawebs and our memories. |
|
|
|
Post by Mr. Dogmeat on Aug 6, 2018 3:25:05 GMT
OT: I know a guy that moved to Seattle for work a few years back, I told him that AMC Pankration is in nearby Kirkland so he tried it out. He told me he got to train with this little guy who lit him up and was ridiculously fast, he said his nickname was Mighty mouse and that everyone was trying to figure out how he didn't know who DJ was. :) He also said DJ was really nice, very patient, and gave him some really good tips. Small world. Why the hell does he come off so damn smarmy? UFC was something last night Cejudo knocking off DJ was a surprise result but DJ was trying to coast so it made sense. It took a while but we finally have a 2nd ever UFC Flyweight Champion lol.
Not surprised by the Dillashaw/Garbrandt result in the least. I like Cody but it's just a bad matchup for him and TJ finished him again, this time "easier" than the last.
It will be interesting to see if we get that champion vs champion fight we never saw DJ take.
It was a surprise, I had Mighty Mouse doing more. He did coast though, and he's just terribly unlikeable. Still, I thought he won. Cejudo took him down a few times but never really did anything with it. MM is losing that fire I think, and it's hard to blame him as he's become stagnant after cleaning out his division. He recently talked about going on a belt collecting tour- specifically citing horiguchi in rizin as well as bellator and one. He'll definitely be getting a rematch though. Flyweight really is ridiculous though. Can we at least get a ref that's like 5'5" for those fights so the fighters don't seem so disproportionate?? Cejudo legit looking like Frank Shamrock's mini-me post fight As far as Dillasnake/Garbrant, I suppose I'm not surprised either but it really could have gone either way in both fights. I think in this one they rocked each other twice each in that round. Either way am a fan of Dillasnake, but Cruz will always be bantamweight GOAT to me, his resume is so good. Feel bad for necktats tho. I think didn't Cejudo call out the winner? From Thier first fight but a bonus:   |
|
