wandshogun09

Ha, @Cousin Jim Bob I’m doing it now. Not much choice for my ‘one to watch’ on that bastard. In other news, never saw this coming. Gus out of retirement, and at Heavyweight? I’m intrigued.

Heinisch vs Meerschaert is back on. The story is that one of Heinisch’s cornermen tested positive for COVID, then further testing showed it was a false positive.

Not Twitter but didn’t know where else to post this. Stipe definitely types better than he mumbles. Love his response to this prick;

Sean O’Malley’s turned up on fight week as a bag of Skittles;

Love RDA. Was so happy to see his unexpected rise to the title a few years ago. Of the fights he mentioned there, Santiago Ponzinibbio is the one I’d like to see most. That’s a cracker. Wonderboy could be good too but I don’t know. I never really get up for Wonderboy’s fights anymore. He’s a quality striker but we’ve been stung a few times now in fights I was mega excited about and they turned out to be pretty shit. The Till and Rory fights immediately spring to mind. Haven’t got a lot of interest in a Pettis rematch but it’d probably be decent. Personally, I’d love to see RDA mix it up with Vicente Luque. Think that’d be a tremendous fight plus it would either prove that RDA can still hang with the young guns or it would give Luque a big name win.

Conor McGregor; Also Conor McGregor;

Someone’s made a Twitter account called ‘What will Mongo do next?’ Like his matches, it’s a mishmash of hit and miss. Cracking up at these though;

So many ways that mix at the top of 170 could go. Jorge Masvidal, Leon Edwards and Gilbert Burns are all more than worthy contenders. Any of those 3 getting the next crack at Usman would be justified. Then you’ve got Covington still bobbing about like the turd he is.

THE BEST EVA!

What’s happening?

I don’t think the Season 2 episodes are on Sky yet, are they? Just had a look and can only find Season 1 on there. This says the 8th as well;

#15 - Mark Hunt vs Yosuke Nishijima - Pride 31 - Feb 26th 2006 Again, this was early into Mark Hunt’s MMA career. He’d obviously made a name for himself in Japan through his Kickboxing career. His classics with Jerome Le Banner and Ray Sefo especially were some of the most memorable in K-1 history. He’d made the switch to MMA in 2004 after Pride made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. But typical of Pride matchmakers, they threw him straight in with just about the worst style for his debut. Here’s a pure striker with very minimal grappling training, and they chucked him in with Olympic gold medal winning Judoka, Hidehiko Yoshida. Aside from Big Nog, I can’t think of another debut opponent they could’ve given him that would’ve been worse for him stylistically. It was no surprise when Hunt got armbarred in the first round. But he didn’t embarrass himself in his performance and showed there was clearly some scope for improvement in his overall MMA game. From there he stopped NCAA wrestler Dan Bobish and scored back-to-back decision wins over Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Cro Cop in just his third and fourth MMA fights. Not bad going, eh? So with Hunt at 3-1 and coming off wins over two of the biggest stars they had, they decided to match him up with a guy with a 0-0 MMA record, in the main event of Pride 31. Yeah. Absolutely zero rhyme or reason when it came to Pride. But it’s part of what I loved about the promotion. The guy Hunt would be facing... Yosuke Nishijima. A 32 year old professional boxer with a record of 24-2-1. He won a few titles at Cruiserweight but never beat anyone of note and was done by 2003. I don’t know how the deal with Pride came about. Who cares? The fuckers tried to get everyone at one point or another, didn’t they? Over the years I’ve heard everything from Mike Tyson to Vader being made offers to grace the Pride ring. I’m guessing Nishijima was a lot cheaper to get than those two. The mad thing was, like with Hunt’s fight with Wanderlei, there was a big weight difference here. Yet not only did Nishijima agree to the fight despite the size difference, he also agreed to allow kicks, stomps and knees on the ground. That’s one fearless/stupid man. When you consider he had no ground game, agreeing to that shit against a much bigger man who was as dangerous as Hunt just seems fucking mental. He’d actually trained at the Takada Dojo a bit with Sakuraba for this fight but how much can you learn in one camp? Mark Hunt vs Yosuke Nishijima Pride 31: Dreamers February 26th 2006 Saitama, Japan Intros first. And we learn that Nishijima weighed in at 211lbs for this fight. Hunt was 292! So 81 bastard lbs difference. What the fuck, Pride?! Round 1: Hunt bullying him around a bit early on. Nishijima trying to rely on his speed and movement but Hunt catches him with a few shots and hits a big takedown. Not really what anyone expected in a Kickboxer vs Boxer matchup but it’s smart from Hunt as, not only is he much bigger, for once he’s the more experienced grappler in there too. Hunt punching from the mount but somehow Nishijima squirms out of it and stands up. Nishijima getting a really nice jab going now. You know a jab is effective when it’s snapping Mark Hunt’s head back. Hunt keeps going to the body with vicious knees. He’s busting him up now. Christ. Now Hunt’s going for submissions! He’s trying everything but it’s become crystal clear that there’s no quit in Nishijima here. Hunt chipping away at him with punches from side control now. What a miserable experience this must be for Nishijima. This didn’t help... A motherfucking double knee drop from a 292lb Samoan! “HOW COOL IS THIS?!” - Bas Rutten Hunt just throwing the kitchen sink at him now. And the worktops. And the washing machine. You can hear the sickening club of his fists bouncing off Nishijima’s dome. But somehow he’s still firing back and narrowly misses on a big left hook. That would’ve been a problem, even for Hunt, if it connected. Slugging it out against the ropes now and Nishijima actually shrugs his shoulders at Hunt. Mad cunt. Nishijima looking good in the last seconds of the round and Hunt appears to be slowing down. Round’s over and despite the one sidedness, that 10 minutes bloody flew by. Nishijima’s toughness is astounding. Round 2: Nishijima jabbing nicely again but Hunt’s whipping in those big tree trunk leg kicks. You can tell Nishijima is feeling it now. He’s putting his punches together and is looking the much fresher man. “Unbelievable. The unheralded Yosuke Nishijima. Pundits, fans alike, not giving him much of a chance to even escape the first round. It’s turning into an epic encounter between the former Cruiserweight champion and the former Kickboxing champion Mark Hunt.” - Mauro Ranallo Nishijima mixing in body attacks and then coming up high. But...Oh fuck. Hunt’s had enough and he’s bringing the pain. And it was all starting to go so well for Nishijima. He weathers it again though and Nishijima is on the ropes firing off combinations. Hunt comes back at him with bombs. Both trading heavy leather but Hunt’s obviously got more power behind his shots and Nishijima is coming off worse. Hunt gets him in the corner and absolutely sets about him with thudding right and left hooks. It’s getting rough to watch. Nishijima is still fighting his heart out but it’s moments like this where Pride’s matchmaking could’ve backfired terribly. Nishijima could’ve been badly hurt here. He’s getting fucked up. Seconds remaining in the round and Hunt drops his hands and lets Nishijima tee off on him a few times. Then springs back into action and clobbers Nishijima down to his knees. The bell saves Nishijima but there’s a closeup of him as he wobbles back to his corner and he’s clearly away with the fairies. Glassy eyed, swaying about and all sorts. Should’ve been stopped right there really. Either by the referee or the corner. Especially given the weight difference and the extra danger that brings. Round 3: Touch of gloves to start the round. If for some reason Nishijima didn’t have Hunt’s respect before, he clearly has it now. Hunt’s trying to close the show immediately now. He’s got Nishijima backed up on the ropes and is going to town on him. Nishijima is STILL trying to win though. He’s landing some nice shots in close here. But Hunt starts connecting again. He corners Nishijima and throws that big right again... And it’s the final straw. Nishijima’s legs give out and the ref finally jumps in. Winner - Mark Hunt by knockout. Round 3 - 1:18. Hell of a scrap. Even though it’s a one sided hammering for the bulk of the fight, it’s bags of fun. Of course, Hunt went on to have quite an eventful MMA career. Not the best in terms of win/loss ratio (13-14-1-1) but fuck me it’s been some ride. From that awful slump and 6 fight losing streak from 2006 to 2010. Then the UFC didn’t even want him initially. And Dana gave him a chance just because he was owed some fights from his Pride contact. But Hunt turned that run into something pretty cool. The fight with Bigfoot in 2013 remains my favourite Heavyweight MMA fight of all time. The number one for me. It’s a shame it all ended on a sour note. Regardless of the crappy record, I think he’d have been a shoe-in for the HOF if he wasn’t calling Dana White a “thieving grubby cunt” and stuff like that. But I like that because, well, it’s not far off the mark is it? I don’t know if Hunt is officially done fighting. Probably not sadly. But he’s always going to be a fighter I have a soft spot for. As for Nishijima, things went from bad to worse. He fought 4 more times in MMA and never won once. 0-5 and got finished all 5 times. You know it’s going badly when Phil Baroni is submitting you. His last MMA fight was on New Year’s Eve in 2007, and Melvin Manhoef blitzed him in under 2 minutes. He fought a few times in Kickboxing later and went 1-2. His last ever fight appears to be a quick TKO over Bob Sapp in 2013. At least he went out on a win, I guess. It’s a shame it never went well for him after Boxing. He clearly wasn’t elite level but there could’ve been some fun to be had with him if he’d got a few wins. Nishijima vs Cro Cop would’ve been exciting. Most likely another Mirko headkick victory but it wasn’t like Mirko wasn’t hittable and at least Nishijima wouldn’t have been so outmatched in size. Oh well. This is a fight you need to see if you haven’t before. Even if you have, it’s always worth a revisit.

I love that his birthday cake appears to be an Iceland‘s own brand strawberry cheesecake. No nonsense. Unlike his shoot interviews.

I figured there must’ve been other factors why Quarry got the shot, so thanks for connecting the dots. Of all the things you’ve listed there, the real pisser is Lindland’s UFC exit for me. Franklin vs Lindland for the title would’ve been great at that time. Just that little detail being different could’ve changed the whole course of the Middleweight division. Like how would things have played out if it was Lindland who was the champion when Anderson Silva burst through the Octagon doors in 2006? Would’ve been a more interesting fight style-wise than Franklin getting mauled by the Spider, I reckon.

#16 - Nate Quarry vs Tim Credeur - UFC Fight Night - Sep 16th 2009 This was a fight that saw both men kind of on the way out of the sport. Quarry was 37 and had been battling a serious back injury in the latter part of his career. And Credeur had already been thinking of packing it in before he got on TUF in 2008. I can’t recall what the expectation was going into this fight at the time. I think everyone probably expected a decent fight but it was kind of just there. Nate Quarry was 37 like I said, with a record of 11-3. He trained at Team Quest and could often be seen cornering Randy Couture in the UFC and Dan Henderson in Pride, long before he got in the big leagues himself. So they must’ve thought highly of him. He was an original TUFer having appeared on the first season and was considered one of the favourites on the Middleweight side before a leg injury in training put him out of the tournament. But the thing I remember most about Quarry on TUF 1 is when he stole Roddy Piper’s “I’m here to kick ass and chew bubble gum” line and didn’t credit Hot Rod with it. Not on, that. If ever you want an example of how much Zuffa bummed that original TUF crew, look no further than Quarry post-TUF. He beat Lodune Sincaid, Shonie Carter and got a dodgy stoppage over Pete Sell and was granted a title shot. Off that. It ended badly though as Rich Franklin absolutely ironed him out, stone cold, inside a round. After that, Quarry was out for a couple of years with the back injury. He returned in 2007 and won a really entertaining brawl with Pete Sell in their rematch. Then he had his infamous ‘non-fight’ with Kalib Starnes in April 2008. A big opportunity for Quarry as it was on the main card underneath the big Serra vs St Pierre 2 fight in Montreal. But they stunk the place out. Quarry taking the piss there was the highlight of the thing. Starnes must’ve been watching The Running Man backstage or something because it’s all he did. He later said he had a broken foot but that’s more baffling as he ran on it for 15 minutes straight. Something was up though because Starnes wasn’t the back-pedalling type in his previous UFC outings. Bizarre fight. Quarry then got submitted by Demian Maia next time out, then got a TKO over Jason MacDonald. ‘Crazy’ Tim Credeur was a BJJ black-belt with a 12-2 MMA record. He was on a nice run too and came into this fight off the back of 6 wins, all finishes. He’d won 11 of his previous 12 fights with the only defeat being to Chael Sonnen in Bodog in 2006. He’d come up short on TUF but even then I recall his loss in the Semis to CB Dollaway being razor close and a really good fight. So he was coming in on better form than Nate here, and was also 5 years younger. Nate Quarry vs Tim Credeur UFC Fight Night: Diaz vs Guillard September 16th 2009 Oklahoma City, Oklahoma From the same card as the Condit vs Ellenberger fight earlier in this thread. Honestly, that’s a show worth watching whole if you get time. May just be the best UFC Fight Night ever. A four fight main card with no fat on it. Round 1: Unsurprisingly, Quarry’s gameplan seems to be to strike it out. But BJJ artist Credeur is happily obliging him early on here and he’s doing alright for himself. Credeur drops him with one of those weird glancing punches around the ear that fuck your balance up. Quarry’s down and now Credeur will use his BJJ. Quarry fights the choke with everything he’s got and survives but it was looking bad for a minute there. Credeur with more punches as the round ends. Credeur 10-9. Round 2: Both trading immediately and Credeur’s not pissing about. He’s really going for the kill. But he gets too aggressive and pays the price... Nate drops him twice with one flurry and now Credeur’s eating ground and pound like it’s a tube of Pringles. Becomes a bit of a slower round once everything calms down but it’s a strong comeback from Quarry and he takes the round clearly. Probably 10-8 for me but most likely wasn’t scored as such. Round 3: Crazy Tim hasn’t been put off by getting decked last time. He’s coming right at Quarry right away again here with an all out assault against the fence. But his chin might as well be on a flagpole and... Fucking hell! He got blasted big time there. It’s amazing he’s still in the fight after that. Back on the feet again and now Quarry seems to be landing that right hand every time he throws it. Credeur is constantly trying to fire back, to his credit. Can’t fault the bollocks on him but his defence goes out the window every time he starts attacking. And he’s down again. But somehow not out. Mike Goldberg says he’s pulling guard. LOL. “I don’t know how Tim Credeur’s awake right now. That is amazing!” - Kenny Florian Credeur comes back from the dead and tries a leglock but Quarry shuts it down and continues to drop punches. Herb Dean stands them up with about 30 seconds left and they continue trying to behead one another until the buzzer goes. Quarry 10-9. Winner - Nate Quarry by unanimous decision. Wild one. One of those fights that surpassed all expectations. Went from ‘this could be decent’ before the fight to ‘Jesus Christ what’s up with these two?’ in the span of 15 minutes. Tremendous. Quarry’s eye looks gross... “The gameplan was simple so I wouldn’t forget it. Go and fight. I actually forgot that and was taking punches. I’ve had three round wars and first round knockouts. Don’t let anybody tell you different, first round knockouts are way better. They’re not as painful. I knew this was going to be a war. Tim is a family man, he’s fighting for his family. Everyone was asking about my next fight but I knew I couldn’t look past Tim. It was a great fight.” - Nate Quarry Both men only fought once more after this. Quarry fought Jorge Rivera in March 2010 and got TKO’d. Credeur didn’t fight again until June 2011 and got done in 48 seconds by Ed Herman.

Conway The Machine’s ‘From King To A God’ album is coming soon. Seriously, Conway never stops. We’re only halfway through the year and he’s already blasted out 3 or 4 projects and done a load of features. My reason for this post though, is he’s put out this verse on social media from a track from the upcoming album. And it’s pretty fucking powerful given the current situation in America following the death of George Floyd.

Woodley is taking the loss well. Maybe too well. Obviously it’s all still fresh but I’ve never heard him sound so comfortable with a loss. Crossed my mind watching the fight that with all the bad shit going on in America this week with the death of George Floyd, maybe that was also playing on Woodley’s mind. But in fairness, he’s not making excuses. I can see him fighting again but the way he’s talking it sounds like he might be thinking about wrapping the career up. Time comes for every fighter and, although I’ve never really warmed to him, he’s had a great run.

Nah wasn’t a brag. I don’t claim to be any kind of stud that’s for sure. We haven’t actively discussed trying for a third baby but we’re not against it either. I think that’s fairly common that couples have a difficult time conceiving the second time, especially if they’re trying and stressing about why it’s not happening. My sister was trying for 7 years after her first son was born and then her second came along when they’d almost completely given up hope and made peace with just having one child. Now they’ve got four!

We’ve done our bit. There’s only so much Netflix you can watch. We’ll find out in a couple of months, I guess. But the thought of throwing a third kid into the mix, it might actually kill me. It’s mayhem now.

Ok got that one completely wrong. Burns shut him down. Way more one sided than I expected. Don’t know if it’s a case of Burns being even better than I thought or Woodley really is on the slide/too focused on other shit. Either way this was a really strong performance from Gilbert Burns. And with Usman vs Masvidal seemingly dead for now, I wouldn’t be surprised if Burns sneaks in the back door and nabs the title shot.

Bloody hell, you lot have been busy! Congrats to mim and Chest as well.

I still can’t believe Madusa was with Greg Valentine around this time. Can only assume she’d heard the talk of his stamina and only getting warmed up after 30 minutes because he looked like a melted waxwork of Barney Rubble at the best of times.

Lovely to hear 😊