You kidding me!? When they start doing the ground game shit gets hot. Kimuras and armbars out of nowhere...half guard, full guard, full mount. It's never dull...even the prelim cards have awesome ground game...submissions like craaazy. Especially when you understand jiujitsu. MMA hasn't been a "competitve hugging event" since what? 5-7 years ago?

See, I've been a huge fan of the submission grappling game since the beginning. Been studying BJJ for well over a decade now, and have even added Sambo, catchwrestling and other Vale Tudo stuff to that as well. It's one of the reasons I love Bas Rutten at commentary so much, because he's like the anti-Rogan and often calls moves/reversals before they happen. I HATE premature stand-up calls, too. It's one thing if both guys are obviously resting in guard, but it's another if somebody isn't getting out of side control to save his life, catches the occasional elbow, and all of a sudden the ref puts it back up to favor a striker!

Nick Diaz even mentioned in an interview that he favors a Dream ring over a cage because there's more technical skill involved in getting out of a position since you can't use a wall for leverage, meaning you have to go back to your BJJ for reversals, sweeps or other opportunities to get out, which takes energy and sometimes desperation.

So much for my thoughts on Sanchez. Slam was cool but what about that handspring head kick from Thiago?

Side note: Looks like Brock may be heading back to WWE. Find the Ariel Hawani post fight interview with the Undertaker.

it isnt much

Yeah, but that plus White says he and Brock have been "butting heads" Vince saying he would "love to see that match up at Wrestlemania" plus Brock using a different game plan (old school bull rush) vs. Cain which is something he said he wanted to get away from leads me to believe that Brock may be on the way out. Plus everybody knows Brock does not like getting punched. We'll see though.

Ahh well there isn't anyone left to fight at Heavyweight, except for newbies and a Junior dos Santos. He could lay low a bit. Try for the title again. He'll be back sometime next year for sure. On a related note I'm excited to see the outcome of GSP vs. Koschek 2. The winner will most likely defend the Welterweight title vs. Jake Shields.

UFC WEC merger bitches. Bring on the bantam and featherweights.

Brittney Palmer is along for the ride too....sweet...

So Fedor falls (twice), Frankie Edgar wins (draws) and UFC buys Strikeforce. Jesus.

I still say Brittany Palmer FTW.

agreed

Did you guys see what happened to Minotauro!? damn his shoulder POPPED!

I forgot all about this thread.



That was hard to watch but it was one of the best submissions I've ever seen with Mir holding one after the roll and reversing it.

I was bummed to hear about GSP's ACL injury. I was looking forward to seeing him shut down Nick Diaz. On the bright side at least Condit finally comes across some good luck here and I think he's got a good shot at winning the interim title.

X-rays showed it wasn't his shoulder popping; Frank fractured his goddamn arm. I don't like to see people get hurt, but he knew Frank had him. If he didn't wanna tap, then that's on him.

Brilliant finish in the title fight by Jones. Either the guy has it all or he's exposing a weak LHW division. I'm going with the former since I consider guys like Machida, Shogun, and Evans amazing. But Jones is gonna have a war with Hendo.

I was really glad to see Hendricks get that KO tonight. Going into the fight he was my pick even though he was the underdog. I never really considered Fitch the #2 guy in the welterweight devision though. I'm not against guys who stick to their wrestling to win fights, but he never attempts to finish anyone. I was expecting it to go the 3 round with Hendricks schooling him standing and working his way off the ground if Fitch took him down, but that KO in 12 seconds was even better. Honestly I think he deserves the winner of Pierce and Koscheck and winner should get a shot at the belt.

Alistair was another one of my picks tonight that won; but I'm bummed to see Brock retire like this. Going into this one I didn't think this was a good fight for Brock; he had a long layoff last year and surgery only to have to fight Cain in January and then his disease came back and he had to go under the knife again, this time putting him on the shelf for at least 8 months with maybe two months of training. Overeem is a beast with deadly knees and kicks and I just didn't think Brock's body would be able to take that kind of beating, and that's exactly what happened. Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed Brock's fights and this was the first time I picked against him, but for this to be the way he goes out is a shame. I think he could still put on some good fights, but I would hate to see him get seriously hurt, especially if he'd probably never get another shot at the belt.

Overall a pretty good card tonight. I went 7-3 with my picks tonight which were: Overeem (w), Cerrone (l), Hendricks (w), Gustafsson (w), Phan (l), Ross Pearson (w), Castillo (w), Kim (w), Escudero (l), Nunes (w).

overeem though..

Fuck Brock, glad he's gone.

I know there are fighters out there people can't stand. for me its Anderson Silva and the Diaz brothers. Brock was probably one of those guys but I enjoyed watching his fights. He destroyed Randy Couture back when Randy was still considered one of the best fighters in both light heavyweight and heavyweight. He had fans questioning if Mir should drop weight because of how badly he beat him in their second fight, and he proved that Carwin doesn't have the cardio to go past the first round. I'm not trying to change your mind, but for that short time when the UFC didn't have guys like JDS, Cain, Overeem and now Cormier and Barnett coming over and guys like Nelson and Mitione coming up, Brock was the man. If he had never had his intestinal problems who knows how things would have turned out.

But again, to each his own.

I disagree with some of the Brock fights you mentioned. First of all I really don't think Brock dominated Couture. I actually thought it was the other way around for most of the fight, just Randy got caught by a punch and got beaten down. The Muir fight to me proved Brock doesn't like to be punched...at all. It was a matter of time before someone just as big as Brock but with more experience came in and kicked his ass... and what do you know, it happened twice.

I understand people enjoy watching his fights, I do too (just to cheer against his arrogance) but I just think brining him into the UFC was purely for publicity and it worked rather well while it lasted but he's nowhere close to being a good all around fighter.

You could say the same about Cain Velasquez. He was rocked two or three times by Kongo but was lucky enough that his wrestling skills were so much better than Kongo's. Then in his fight with JDS all it took was one solid shot to drop him. But I wouldn't call Cain a bad fighter in the least. I honestly don't think that having a solid chin means much when you're getting hit by someone over 250 lbs.

I agree with uncle blackie. Brock coming into the UFC is definitely publicity, just like Kimbo Slice. Dude has a following > sign dude with 100k fans atleast > get more fans.

Seriously he got a title fight right away while them boys like Cain and JDS had to wait it out. Mad respect for Brock as he is an excellent athlete though, but an athlete is different from a fighter.

I don't think it has so much with having a solid chin but more to do with being able to take a punch, if that makes sense. Brock really didn't like to get punched, especially by guys as big as he is. I have no idea why he tried to stand toe-to-toe with Overeem as it just played right into his hand. Brock should have at least tried to use his wrestling as Overeem, from what I understand, isn't that great on the ground (I haven't watched much MMA this past year due to my friends who usually get the fights don''t really buy them anymore).

Oh well, what can you do I guess.