wandshogun09

Been watching UFC 34 tonight.Another really strong show from the early Zuffa era.

A weird thing I noticed about this one was that some of the pre-fight video packages feature some old WWF theme songs like Hardcore Holly's and the Hardy's themes.That was odd.

Josh Barnett vs Bobby Hoffman

This was decent enough.Hoffman starts off well taking Barnett down and doing an OK job from the top position.He tires pretty quick though and by round 2 Barnett's the fresher man and takes him down and is all over him with ground and pound until the ref stops it.

BJ Penn vs Caol Uno

I'm sure everyone's familiar with this one

That's pretty much the entire fight.All that's missing from that gif is Uno's Tekken style flying kick attempt just before he got bulldozed.

(UFC Welterweight Title)

Carlos Newton vs Matt Hughes

This was their first fight.Kind of a revenge fight for the Miletich camp after Newton made Pat Miletich tap to a headlock a few months earlier.Good grappling in this one.Apart from a nice sweep to mount from Newton Hughes pretty much dominates this with some hard slams and throws.

Another memorable ending here.Round 2 saw Newton lock up a triangle choke,so Hughes walks over and leans him on the fence.Then he drops Newton with a big powerbomb knocking him out cold.Hughes wins the title.

Bit of controversy after with Newton claiming he'd choked Hughes out with the traingle and they were both out.Guess that's why the rematch was made in the Royal Albert Hall show where Hughes completely schooled him.

Ricco Rodriguez vs Pete Williams

Ricco was really dominating on the ground here.He ended round 1 with a nasty kneebar attempt,I thought Williams was gonna tap but he survived then got German suplexed for his trouble.Round 2 Ricco takes control again.He gets backmount and batters him with punches for the TKO,finished the same way Hughes beat Royce.

Ricco looked great here.One of his better performances.

(UFC Heavyweight Title)

Randy Couture vs Pedro Rizzo

This was the rematch of the 5 round war they had at UFC 31.The decision was controversial so they did it again here.I was a tad surprised to see Randy say before the fight that he thought Pedro didn't deserve a rematch.Seemed a bit out of character.

This fight was OK but not a patch on their 25 minute classic first fight.Randy absolutely dominates this fight.Rizzo,for some reason,completely abandons his leg kicks which was puzzling because he had so much success with them the first time.This fight wasn't even competitive.Classic Randy Couture, totally relentless with the greco clinch,dirty boxing,push against fence,takedowns and ground and pound until Pedro was bloody and didn't want to carry on.3rd round TKO for Randy.

Matt Lindland vs Phil Baroni

This was from the prelims but they stuck it on the end after the main event.This was a great fight,this and their rematch at UFC 41 are forgotten gems IMO.

This was a crazy fight,back and forth.Baroni had a guillotine at the start then Lindland was all over him with takedowns and then a series of nasty knees from a front facelock.Then out of nowhere Baroni drops him with a punch at the end of the round.

Lindland took the second round fairly comfortably.The 3rd saw Lindland get his back,mount,some good G&P.Baroni winds up on top but Lindland pulls off an awesome headlock sweep and gets top position again,never saw that one before.Then Lindland lands an illegal knee to Baroni's head on the ground (it had been made illegal not long before this I think).Baroni lands a late flurry and has Lindland rocked.

Lindland took the decision.He was more dominant but Baroni's moments stick out more.I kinda felt bad for Baroni cause he really fought his ass off.I actually thought this should've been a draw,I felt Baroni edged the first and Lindland won the 2nd.The 3rd I had 9-9 with a point taken for the knee on the ground.Still not a robbery by any means.Great dramatic fight worth tracking down.

I'm gonna watch UFC 41 tomorrow with the Penn/Uno and Lindland/Baroni rematches so I'll check in with my thoughts on them when I get chance.

Man,great find there.I haven't seen any of them.I'll give them a watch in a bit.Cheers.

Yeah I'm really looking forward to that on the 18th.Cracking bunch of fights there.Shame about the Macklin-Barker fight though.

And just incase people have missed the news,Sky Sports is bringing back the boxing magazine show Ringside this Thursday from 9pm on SS1.It will be an hour show every Thursday from this week.

Nice.I used to love the Steve Bunce Boxing Hour on Setanta so I'm happy about this.

Yeah looking forward to this too.I'm rooting for Soto aswell,should be a good one.

Juan Manuel Marquez is fighting Michael Katsidis on November 27th in Vegas

"So now we are going to try to put together the deal for Marquez and Katsidis. Hell of a fight. Toe to toe. Mano a mano," Schaefer said. "This is a great fight. I'm excited for the fighters and the fans as well. This is going to be non-stop action. Pound for pound, these are two of the most exciting fighters in boxing."

There was talk of Marquez vs Amir Khan but Marquez has decided to stay at 135 and defend his title there.And Khan is now rumoured to be fighting Marcos Maidana.

Can't wait for Marquez-Katsidis,that's gonna be nuts.

I haven't seen that one.

I've seen that Pulver KO though,it was a beauty.Wasn't this the fight where Goldberg's now legendary "the little eagle flies again" line originated?

I have not watch any of the recent ultimate fighter seasons i really need to get back into them what was the crack with Dave Kaplan getting punched there, was it a bet or something.

From what I remember Kaplan was claiming he couldn't be knocked out so he challenged Tom Lawlor,a guy 3 weight divisions bigger than him at the time to test his chin with a punch to prove how bad ass he was.

As you can see from the gif he went down quicker than George Michael with a rent boy in a public toilet.The best part was he swore blind he was never out after he woke up.

Wasn't it the Junie stuff which prompted Dana to say something like "You don't vote guys off on the Ultimate Fighter....you have to beat 'em off...wait that didn't sound right did it?"

Loved season 8,I'm gonna have to watch it again because I only saw it when it aired originally on Setanta(?) and that post has made me remember a lot of cool shit I'd forgotten about.

Like Lawlor's KO of Dave Kaplan......

Great stuff.Couldn't believe Kaplan denied he was out Just another reason why Tom Lawlor is awesome.

Agreed on Nogueira too.I was a huge Nog fan going in and that season made me a bigger fan.He's a class act.And Stankie,fucking hell Stankie's the man.

And yeah the spunk sushi episode was vile stuff to watch.Shame Nover flopped when he got to the big show too,he looked like a beast from what I remember on the show but they deffo overhyped him calling him the next Anderson,next GSP whatever.Too much pressure to put on such a young guy.Maybe he'll come back one day and have some success.

Thanks for that.

I think I'll give it a watch,especially if it's mainly Ricky Morton doing the talking.The guy's great to listen to whenever I've seen him speaking.It's funny watching him all pissed off and swearing like a sailor considering how much of a clean cut babyface he was in his career.

Pete Williams was impressive in his submission win over Travis Fulton.Has any MMA fighter had more fights than Fulton? Just looked him up again and it's even more than I thought.His current record is 195-46-11-1 Lost his last fight but was on an 8 fight winning streak before that.Anyway back on the subject yeah Williams looked good here and the fight was pretty good stuff.

 

add in a 14-25 pro boxing record.

 

he's a busy man.

Still only 33 aswell.That's nuts.

Just saw this on Youtube

Ricky Morton hates Kevin Nash

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NAD8ZAOlo6M

"What you gonna do Kevin,hit me? I'll take some of that money you got for free,understand that you cocksucker"

No idea when this shoot is from but it's RF and I'm guessing it's a good few years ago.Anyone seen the whole thing? Is it any good?

He also says Nash said something about him,anyone know what he said to get Morton so pissed off or is he just jealous Nash made so much more money than him?

Watched UFC 20 today.Not the best card but I quite enjoyed it.

This was the card

Bas Rutten vs Kevin Randleman (For vacant UFC Heavyweight Title)

Pedro Rizzo vs Tra Telligman

Pete Williams vs Travis Fulton

Ron Waterman vs Chris Condo

Marcello Mello vs David Roberts

Wanderlei Silva vs Tony Petarra

Laverne Clark vs Fabiano Iha

Rizzo-Telligman was a ton of fun for the 4 or so minutes it lasted.Really nice little war going on with Rizzo coming out on top.I haven't seen it for years but I seem to recall their rematch at UFC 43 being good too.

Pete Williams was impressive in his submission win over Travis Fulton.Has any MMA fighter had more fights than Fulton? Just looked him up again and it's even more than I thought.His current record is 195-46-11-1 Lost his last fight but was on an 8 fight winning streak before that.Anyway back on the subject yeah Williams looked good here and the fight was pretty good stuff.

A very young looking Wanderlei Silva demolished Tony Petarra with brutal knees from the Muay Thai clinch.UFC matchmaker John Peretti said after the fight that he was very impressed and referred to Wanderlei as being like 'an axe murderer'.Was this where he got the nickname? I don't recall hearing it before this show.

And was it this thread where we were on about TUF guys who fought in the UFC before? Because there's one on here that would be easy to miss.I'm sure it was David Roberts who was on season 7,he was a mate of Rampage and I recall him cornering Rampage a few times in Pride.He wasn't much cop from what I remember both on TUF and here.He lost quick.

This is him (Just checked it was him on TUF 7)

And finally the main event.One of the most controversial decisions in UFC history.Randleman absolutely took Rutten down at will,whenever he wanted.Early on Randleman was totally dominating Bas and doing some serious damage,opening up some nasty cuts on Bas.As the fight wore on Randleman seemed to fade and just lay on Bas for the rest of the fight.

I had Randleman winning the fight but to be honest I can kind of see where the judges were coming from.Randleman did next to nothing for the second half of the fight.He was on top but Rutten stayed busy off his back and landed a lot of strikes from there and was trying submissions whenever he got chance.It depends what you score more for but to be honest I don't think it was as bad a robbery as it's made out to be.

I would have gave it to Randleman though because he dominated a lot of the fight and although Bas did land a lot of strikes off his back Randleman still seemed to do the more damage overall in the fight.

This was Bas' last MMA fight until he came back for a one off in 2006 to fight Warpath (it was meant to be Kimo if I remember right) at the WFA show.

Also worth noting,current referee Dan Miragliotta was one of the judges at UFC 20 and he was the deciding judge who gave the main event to Bas Rutten.

Got a copy of Season Eight of The Ultimate Fighter in the post this morning. Although I have watched the Finale before, I have never seen the actual Spike episodes at all (I think the guy who I used to get TUF off previously had lost some interest so stopped recording it). Really looking forward to seeing all the nonsense in the house and what went down with that clown Junie Browning (I remember reading about it in the Observer). Wouldn't be surprised if I get this polished off over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Season 8 was one of the best for sure,along with seasons 1,3 and 5.

The contrast in personalities between Nogueira and Mir makes the show plus you've got some strange/interesting characters in the house (Lawlor,Polakowski and Kingsbury) and from what I recall the fights were very good on the whole.And there's Junie's antics of course and Krzysztof Soszynski's pranks which I quite enjoyed for their originality (especially the frozen underwear one).

Definitely one of the best seasons for me.

yeh, Rollins/War Machine was a good one...it's a shame Koppenhaver went the route he did, he had bundles of heart and natural talent, but the guy just couldn't stay out of trouble.

 

not really sure what happened to J-Roc though? he never fought again after this...anyone know what happened to him?

Yeah he hasn't fought since.Shame cause he seemed like he could've been decent and he had a great look (the Bruce Irvin from Tekken).

As far as I remember he was at least supposed to fight again in the UFC.They were trying to set up a fight between him and Ben Saunders but it fell through 2 or 3 times because Rollins kept getting injured.Maybe he just lost his passion for it with all the injuries and setbacks.

Keith Jardine definately deserved the win. Wanderlei Silva looked fucking disgusted at the decision and the fans definately didn't like it either, but fuck all of them. From the second round knock down onwards, Jardine laid a pretty big beating on Liddell and he really did pick apart Liddell. Liddell's leg was knackered, his body was knackered and he was repeatedly rocked. As for the fight itself, I loved it. I was just completely sucked in by Jardine laying the beating on.

Fuck Wanderlei? How dare you.

Wanderlei is not amused

I must say you are flying through these UFC's.If you can it might be worth tracking down a few unaired prelims off some of these shows.Off the ones you've recently covered alone I'd highly recommend Wiman vs Omigawa and Stephens vs Saraiva (UFC 76),Grice vs Black (UFC 77) and Lytle vs Alves (UFC 78).All really good fights worth checking out.

Shit

Yeah I know.Wladimir's been calling out Haye for a bit now and claiming he's ducking him and his brother.

This is an article from April just after Haye beat John Ruiz.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/boxing/8615884.stm

And here's the source for the Haye-Harrison fight

http://www.metro.co.uk/sport/extra/838918-...-date-is-agreed

David Haye vs Audley Harrison is supposed to be pretty much certain for November 13th in Manchester.

There's been rumblings that it will likely be a joint Sky PPV with the Pacquiao-Margarito fight on the same night.

Yeah I really liked Stevenson vs Pellegrino.

You've got UFC 75 next which was a really good card from what I remember.

Rampage/Hendo is a 5 round war and a great fight that often gets overlooked.Look out for Houston Alexander vs Alessio Sakara and Paul Taylor vs Marcus Davis aswell.Really fun little fights.

Cro Cop vs Kongo was better than I remembered it when I saw it again a few months back.And Bisping-Hamill is a pretty good fight despite the bullshit judging.

UFC 73 has a hell of a card it has to be said, which I suppose is why it's called Stacked.

 

Minotauro Nogueira vs. Heath Herring

 

This would be the UFC debut of Big Nog. I only really know Herring through the beating that he took from Brock Lesnar. Frustrating to watch Herring for a number of reasons. I thought it was too easy for Big Nog to take Herring down and then pass the guard, but to be fair, Herring did a great job of escaping from the submission attempts. Then there was the BIG head kick from Herring which had Big Nog shook, and he didn't do anything even though Nog was wobbling. It was a good dramatic fight though. I thought Big Nog looked brilliant for the most part.

 

Sean Sherk vs. Hermes Franca

 

Sean Sherk made this look easy which is pretty amazing. Franca got a number of the rounds started really well and he has that knee timed particularly well, but it must have been disheartening when it wasn't having the effect that he was looking for it to have. Sherk just took Franca down and passed guard for fun. Franca had Sherk in REAL trouble on a couple of occaisions, but other than that, this was a complete domination.

 

Can anyone explain why the fans were booing Sherk relentlessly when Rogan started interviewing him ?

Haven't seen that fight in ages but they were probably one of them crowds that just boos pretty much any grappling.Saying that I can't remember the fight much...was Sherk making it boring? All I remember really was that he totally dominated the fight and that Franca caught him with some really nasty knees while he shot for takedowns.I was really impressed with Sherk's recovery from them knees.He must have a hell of a chin on him.

Incidentally wasn't this the fight where Sherk was popped for steroids? I think Hermes Franca was also suspended for testing positive for some banned substance aswell.

The Nog/Herring fight was pretty good from what I remember.I recall Nog absolutely handling Herring for like 14 of the 15 minutes but that headkick should have been the end of the fight.I still don't get why Herring never pulled the trigger once he hurt him.All I can think is that having been submitted by Nog before and knowing Nog's legendary recovery powers (up to that point at least) he didn't wanna risk jumping into his guard.I think Nog could have done fuck all though if Heath decided to go for the kill...he was totally fucked for a few minutes after that.

Andy Wang forgot about him.And BJ Penn shouting 'take him down Andy,take him down,take him down....Andy take him down' but the boy just wouldn't listen,seemed to think he was some elite K-1 striker for some reason.

 

That's who was shouting ?! I was considering giving that a mention because it reminded me a little of the guy who kept shouting "PUNCH HIM ! RIGHT HAND ! PUNCH HIM ! RIGHT HAND !" in one of the earlier UFCs with the irritating as hell voice.

Nah BJ was shouting that in one of the fights Wang had on TUF.Think it was Brandon Melendez he was fighting and despite being a BJJ blackbelt he insisted on standing with Melendez who was the better striker.He'd agreed to take the fight to the ground beforehand but once it started he wanted to show BJ what a 'warrior' he was and lost the fight in the process.

You probably did hear someone shouting it at the finale though cause he makes a habit of using the 'Jorge Gurgel' strategy,completely neglecting his ground game to brawl instead.

Here's a little clip of BJ after the Wang-Melendez fight

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ76VkRe-gA

Waaaah,Waaaaaah.Classic

Yeah it was Diaz vs Emerson,cracking little fight that was.

Forgot about Wang's reaction to being offered a spot on Team Pulver.It was either train with a UFC lightweight legend and pioneer or go home and he seriously had to consider it? What a plonker.

Parisyan being a cock on TUF5 also slipped my mind.I thought Nate Diaz would come off as much more of a prick than he did but I liked him on that season.Liked Corey Hill aswell.

While we're on the subject what happened to Karo Parisyan? He was fucking awesome from the time he entered the UFC until about 2007.The Josh Burkman fight was his last really great fight IMO.His fights with Diego Sanchez,Nick Diaz and Drew Fickett were all quality too.Then after the Burkman fight he seemed to lose something.His fight with Chonan was dull as fuck if I remember right then he got twatted by Alves.The Stun Gun fight was alright but had all that controversy around it then there's all the pullouts and the firing.

I haven't saw his last fight with Impact FC but heard he looked good.Hopefully he can get his shit in order cause at one point he was one of the most exciting fighters in MMA.

Cole Miller vs. Andy Wang

 

We go from an unfortunate ending to a plain shit ending as Miller kicks down Wang and lays a beatdown, but not once did Wang not look like he was intelligently defending himself or look even close to being KOed. Just a dumb dumb unexplainable stoppage. Belter of a kick though.

 

BJ Penn vs. Jens Pulver

 

This is a HUGE fight for a TUF Finale is it not ? Then again, the first one had Shamrock vs. Franklin, so what do I know ? BJ Penn is just amazing to watch when he's on this kind of form. He was all over Pulver like a bad rash in the first round and Pulver did brilliantly to get away from Penn when BJ had the arm. Even on the feet, Pulver really didn't look like he had a chance. In the second round, things don't get much better for Pulver as BJ just completely mauls him and that's all she wrote when Penn gets the choke. What a glorious domination to watch.

Andy Wang forgot about him.And BJ Penn shouting 'take him down Andy,take him down,take him down....Andy take him down' but the boy just wouldn't listen,seemed to think he was some elite K-1 striker for some reason.

I loved season 5 of TUF including Gabe 'Fatty' Ruediger trying to cut weight.

I think Serra-Lytle being a let down at the TUF 4 finals may have been one of the reasons they decided to put Penn-Pulver 2 on the finale of season 5.Good job they did cause otherwise Diaz-Manny would've probably main evented and with the way it ended the show would have felt kinda flat.

 

I've asked my questions. I may also send in a video wearing a lucha mask asking how big HHH's dick is.

I'll guess slightly smaller than Chyna's

Watched UFC 31 last night.It may have been the best card top to bottom the UFC had put on at that point.

Main event was the first Randy Couture vs Pedro Rizzo fight.What a fucking fight,I'd seen the Unleashed version a few years back and some of the rounds were reduced to highlights on there so this was the first time I saw it in full.A total 5 round war that could have gone either way,hence the rematch being made.Rizzo fucked him up pretty good with leg kicks but Randy hung in there and battled through to get the nod from the judges.Great back and forth fight.

Other highlights on UFC 31

Pat Miletich vs Carlos Newton

An enjoyable Pat Miletich fight is a pretty rare thing for me but this was a pretty good fight.In round 2 Newton got him in a headlock type move and tapped him out to become the 2nd UFC Welterweight champion.

Chuck Liddell vs Kevin Randleman

Randleman was supposed to win this one,you could tell from the way they were hyping him up.Chuck wasn't having that and knocked him on his arse with a big looping left hook little over a minute into the first round.Randleman argued the stoppage and I dunno maybe it was a little bit early but Big John jumped in and Randleman did look pretty wobbly going down.This was probably the fight that really put Chuck on the map and started his rise to the top.

Shonie Carter vs Matt Serra

This was a classic,everyone's seen the finish,probably one of the most replayed KO's in UFC history.A lot of people forget that the rest of the fight was excellent too.Serra was controlling the fight tying Carter up in knots on the ground and was heading for a comfortable but exciting decision win when suddenly he got whacked with a spinning back fist that put him out with seconds to go in the fight.Similar situation to Silva-Sonnen in a way I guess only ending with a strike instead of a submission.Serra got hit with another backfist earlier in the fight and recovered but there was no getting up from this one.......

Ouch Just checked and Serra was 9 fucking seconds away from a decision win.Talk about pulling victory from the jaws of defeat.

Semmy Schilt vs Pete Williams

Schilt looked really impressive in this fight using his striking and height advantage to bully Pete Williams.Some of the front kicks he gets Williams in the ribs and chest with look nasty.Williams tries but he can't take any more and by the 2nd round he's done.

Wanna get back to watching some Pride soon,I've kind of abandoned Pride lately and I've had the Bushido 10-13 boxset sitting there for months waiting to be watched.

Totally forgot Leben-Starnes.That was a really good fight.Must've subconsciously blocked out anything involving Kalib Starnes after the Nate Quarry debacle.I still don't get what he was thinking there,he had a few good fights before that then decided to go shit in his home country.I know he said he was injured but fuck me...I'd rather get KO'd than put in a performance so pathetic I turn my whole country against me.