MMA News and Discussion Thread

[ACCBiggz]

Winner of Tito/Rashad to fight Page at the Superbowl card could be a good solution while giving Machida/Forrest/Jardine/Wandy time to win.

If I am Joe Silva I sort it out by this:

Quinton Jackson vs. Tito Ortiz or Rashad Evans

Wanderlei Silva vs. Jason Lambert

Forrest Griffin vs. Ryoto Machida

Keith Jardine vs. Houston Alexander

Then I give Chuck time off and discuss if he wanted to try and move to heavyweight as he has thought about because he wanted to fight Cro Cop. Obviously off the bat the disadvantage is size and the risk of head kick KO that ends his career because 0-3 would be terrible for him. However the pro's are that this is Cro Cop's last contracted fight, some people have wanted to see this for awhile, and it could propel Chuck for a fight with Vera or someone if he won. The decision would be with Chuck to stay at LHW or move up, if he stays I'd put him against someone lower level, or the winner of Hammil/Bisping. If he moves up... Cro Cop.

And of course the 205 division would become more log jammed if Vera decided to move down or if they signed Soku. I think they should sign Soku personally but it sounds like it is Soku keeping it from happening from what he said in the chat. They are wanting to give him an easy fight first off to build his name up but instead he wants them to put him right in against poeple they have put money on to build up which they won't do right away.

Edited September 23, 2007 by ACCBiggz

[Enter Blue Guy]

Credit, MMANews.com

The following is a brief quote from an article by Kevin Iole over at Yahoo! Sports:

When Liddell lost Saturday for the second time in a row, he said he's going to contemplate whether to fight again, which doesn't leave much hope for the dream bout.

Edited September 23, 2007 by Enter Blue Guy

[Maxx]

Now when you all say Super Bowl card, is that a card they're running the day before or the day of or at halftime of the super bowl?

[Fitzy]

The Saturday before Superbowl Sunday.

[Guest The Moxicity]

I want Rampage/Griffin =[

[TheSqauredCircleMessiah]

The fact that any judge thought Chuck Lidell won that fight makes to wonder about if Bob Arum has infiltrated UFC. Even Lidell knew he lost.

[ACCBiggz]

From Ferrall before 76, Dana White interview

# Says if Chuck Liddell wins tonight without injury he will be fighting Wanderlei Silva in the December UFC show.

# Says he has been working for seven years to get this kind of talent altogether under his promotion.

# Says the difference between UFC and the NFL is that his company is global. Predicts UFC will be bigger internationally than NFL in the future.

# Says he is tired of people asking about Fedor Emelianenko. He says Fedor has a sambo match in November/December and he hopes to have him signed to a deal by December.

# A caller asks about the possibility of Wanderlei Silva vs. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua in the UFC. Dana says it's a possibility now as the two are not on the same fight team anymore.

# When asked about Mirko CroCop, he says he always wanted to put up UFC guys against PRIDE guys. He says he doesn't know what's up with CroCop and thinks he might retire soon.

# Says Shogun is widely considered the number one fighter today at 205 pounds.

# Caller asks about Karo Parisyan getting a Welterweight title shot since he had one scheduled with Matt Hughes before suffering an injury. Says he got injured and couldn't take the fight, and has since had a few setbacks, be he will be back.

# When asked about Ultimate Fighter runner-up from last season, Manny Gamburyan, that he's tough but has serious shoulder problems right now. He is going to have major surgery soon and said Manny is pretty scared about it.

# Caller asks about Mark Hunt. He says Hunt is under contract from the PRIDE deal and they are working some things out still.

# Caller asks about Nick Diaz. He says Diaz is a bit difficult to work with, but there are more difficult guys to work with out there than Diaz.

# Caller asks about doing tournaments like the old UFC and how PRIDE did them across a few shows. He says the state athletic commissions will never let that happen as guys can not fight more than once in a single night.

# Asked about the Matt Hamill-Michael Bisping decision. He says he felt Hamill won and he got a ton of e-mail about the decision. Says he thinks fans believe he's the Don King of MMA, fixing fights and such, which is obviously not true. He says UFC matchmaker Joe Silva felt Bisping won the fight. He has yet to re-watch the fight on tape but felt being there live that Hamill had won. He says he's seen much worse decisions in the past.

# When talking about the upcoming UFC show in Montreal, he says Georges St. Pierre probably won't be fighting on the card as he is waiting out the winner of the Matt Serra vs. Matt Hughes title fight.

# Caller asks about match combinations with guys like Silva/Chuck Liddell/Quinton Jackson/Dan Henderson. He says Wanderlei Silva vs. Chuck Liddell will happen first if it can, and the winner will go on to fight Jackson for the title.

Basically post-76 what I've taken from this is...

Edited September 24, 2007 by ACCBiggz

[Fitzy]

Another one out with Staph Infection:

Nick Diaz has been hospitalized with a severe staph infection that he contacted a few days prior to his EliteXC fight. He was admitted to the hospital when he arrived in Las Vegas to watch his brother's fight. He has been on an antibiotic IV since Tuesday and will probably remain so through the weekend.

"I felt pretty crappy in my match in Hawaii but I figured it was jet lag or maybe something I had eaten the night before. When I left Hawaii the next day I was getting chills and had to be covered with several blankets on the plane but I just kept having cold sweats. By the time I got to Vegas the infection had ballooned up and so I went to the hospital to have it checked out. They admitted me and I've been here ever since".

[Fitzy]

“He’s already said he’ll be back in the gym next Monday,” said Hackleman, who has coached Liddell for 16 years. “He’s going to fight again, hopefully as soon as possible, maybe in December. We’re looking at ‘Shogun.’”

Edited September 25, 2007 by Fitzy

[Gabriel]

With Liddell/Silva on the backburner, a fight against Shogun would be the next best thing for Chuck right now. Both men are coming off pretty big losses. Two in a row now for Chuck, and really need a win to re-establish themselves. Chuck should have won his fight with Jardine, but was out-fought by a guy who was just plain hungrier than he was. Rua, didn't take Forrest as seriously as he should have, and paid the price.

Neither man looked bad in their fights at Knockout, but a losing effort in a good fight won't get you a title shot.

Silva should face either Jardine, Griffin or Machida... with the other two men fighting and the winner of Tito/Rashad getting the shot against Rampage.

The Light Heavyweight Division is a lot of fun right now.

[ACCBiggz]

We can all start to welcome Akihiro Gono on board with the UFC.

Clay Guida vs. Roger Huerta Targeted for December’s “TUF” Finale

Edited September 26, 2007 by ACCBiggz

[Fitzy]

Guida vs. Huerta as the main event is great. Guida is one of my favorites to watch as he has put on some excellent fights this year. I am hoping for Guida to beat Huerta in this one.

Also, for those that are interested in Strikeforce's show this Saturday at the Playboy Mansion, you can watch it for free on Yahoo Sports.

[ACCBiggz]

“Shogun” Entered UFC 76 Fight With Knee Damage; Out Until Early 2008

He'll undergo surgery today and he doesn't expect to even train until Jan/Feb.

Also, since Florian won't fight again until 08 this gives Din time to recover from his surgery although it's unlikely we get an immediate rematch as I assumed they were giving Florian time to rest before he challenges for the title.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Are you ready for... VALIDATION!?!?

MMANews.com

The UFC website added under the "events" section a spot for their November show, being dubbed "Validation".

The show will take place at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey on November 17th.

Tickets officially go on sale to the general public tomorrow (September 29th) at noon Eastern Time.

Rumored bouts for the card include Tito Ortiz vs. Rashad Evans II, Karo Parisyan vs. Hector Lombard, Spencer Fisher vs. Frankie Edgar, Ed Herman vs. David Terrell, Akihiro Gono vs. Tamdan McCrory and Joe Lauzon vs. Jason Reinhardt. The UFC has yet to confirm any of those matches.

[ACCBiggz]

Rumor that Jacare has signed with the UFC.

[Enter Blue Guy]

I was reading about that on Sherdog, apparently it has been confirmed by Jacare himself on some Brazilian forum and on Brazilian TV. The UFC is really pressing to fill-in 185, with Chonan, Gono, and now Jacare. Jacare, Lister, Terrell, and Maia, those are some grappling studs at Middleweight, not including Filho in WEC.

Jacare is amazing, though. IMO, probably one of the top 5 pound for pound grapplers in mixed martial arts competition right now, and that's including the names I mentioned before (Lister, Terrell, etc). He hasn't beaten any big names yet, but he looks pretty good coming from grappling to MMA. He looks like he's transitioned remarkably. Then again, the UFC is a HUGE step up in competition for him. Everybody starts there career somewhere, though.

Edited September 29, 2007 by Enter Blue Guy

[ACCBiggz]

He hasn't beaten any big names yet, but he looks pretty good coming from grappling to MMA.

[Enter Blue Guy]

Which proved a lot on the behalf of both men. Couture was able to stand his ground and survive against a world class grappler and Jacare was able to be as active as was against a much bigger, stronger, world class wrestler.

Edited September 29, 2007 by Enter Blue Guy

[ACCBiggz]

For those that don't know, sports.yahoo.com is streaming the Strikeforce card right now.

[Enter Blue Guy]

The poll at Sherdog today asks "where do you rank Gilbert Melendez at 155?"

So far 15% have said #1, 10% say #2, 16% say #3, 9% say #4, 13% say #5... but the majority vote, 17%, say he isn't even ranked inside the top 10. Explain that one to me. Not that Sherdog polls mean anything, nor do what the majority of their forum members think have much substance to it. 90% of them think Bisping/Hamill was the worst judges decision of all time.