Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 22, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted October 22, 2012 Just out of interest, I missed the first 3 episodes and have tried to find them online without any luck, where did you find them? I actually picked the season up in a trade from a guy in Australia (7 DVDs total) and unfortunately wouldn't have any idea where to find them online. Hopefully wand or Ebb if they see this will be able to help you out. I've had a look about and it appears the links to the first few episodes are all dead. You can still watch from episode 5 onwards here; http://www.ufc.com/tuf-brasil-episode-1 ...but you can't go back earlier than episode 5 anymore. So yeah, no use for deathrey. Every other link I've tried seems to be from the same place and doesn't work. Sorry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 22, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted October 22, 2012 Underachiever - Chael Sonnen 2005-2006 ..... Chaelmania could have been running wild in 2005/2006 if things were a tiny bit different in my view. Chael certainly would have been better suited to 185 at that time in that there won't so many nightmare match ups for him there. I always assumed he probably fought at 205 out of respect for Matt Lindland as he probably saw 185 as Lindland's division. I think he'd have fared better at that weight as you say. I'm really not sure who I'd have picked in a Franklin vs Sonnen fight. Even now. I think that's a really interesting match up and one I was suggesting when Franklin dropped back down. Of course that's not happening now Chael's gone up to 205. Looking back, 205 in the UFC back then was all wrong for Chael. Babalu and Horn were too slick on the ground for him, Tito was in better nick and being the bigger wrestler wouldn't have been an easy fight for Chael, Randy would be a no-go for him I'd assume and Chuck was eating wrestlers for breakfast and shitting them out unconscious at the time. Prime Chuck would have been a nightmare for Chael in my opinion. At 185 I agree he'd have beaten a lot of the contenders like Loiseau etc and probably have at least made it to title contention. He'd have been in with a shot of beating Franklin. So that was his window for a UFC title. Once Anderson came in and grabbed the division by the bollocks which he is still to let go of, the window got shut permanently it seems. Chael is a very good fighter no doubt. But I just don't think in today's climate he can be the man to hold the title in the UFC. Anderson was his best shot at carving out a massive scalp and title win based on their styles matching up well. But he's 0-2 there now and I don't see him coping at all with Bones. Ever. Chael as UFC champion is a ship that's sailed for me. Doesn't mean it won't be fun to watch him try but I just think he's lacking the true well roundedness it will take to win the title in 2013 and beyond. He's improving in all areas but he's too late in the game for it to work against the elite top level guys, he's still a wrestler at the core whereas Jones is a freak MMA machine. Even Belfort had threats in a couple of areas, Chael has wrestling and that's pretty much it. And historically wrestlers have done the worst against Jones. I'm a Chael fan and I'd love to see him win a title once before he retires. For all his bullshit it's something that he's worked hard for and the story of him promising his Dad before he died that he'd be champion one day makes me want to see him do it. But I don't see it happening. Only slight chance I can think would be if Anderson retired and someone like Bisping or Franklin wound up with the belt at 185. Those are fights he can still win. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathrey Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 I've had a look about and it appears the links to the first few episodes are all dead. You can still watch from episode 5 onwards here; http://www.ufc.com/tuf-brasil-episode-1 ...but you can't go back earlier than episode 5 anymore. So yeah, no use for deathrey. Every other link I've tried seems to be from the same place and doesn't work. Sorry Thanks for looking Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 (edited) Sadly I agree that Chael will never win a world title. I think Chael beats Franklin though, if we look at the Forrest Griffin fight, Franklin can be overcome by wrestlers. Chael may not be as big as Forrest, but he is a better and smoother wrestler and strong enough to keep Franklin at bay. Its a great match-up for Chael. Prime Liddel smokes him I agree, Tito in 2005/2006 I am not so sure. Tito was inconsistent, he gassed against Forrest, but on a recent re-watch I think he did well with Chuck in the rematch and the fight was a lot more competitive than I remembered. He also rallied late with Belfort. Tito is bigger, but Chael has better wrestling, it could go either way depending on Tito's cardio. I may pick Tito by Sub though as he had the most underrated sub game in MMA. I think Weidman may have a lock on 185lbs when Anderson reties, but we will see what happens. Weidman will beat Botesh, but beyond that he needs to be tested more to show Munoz was not just a one-off. Edited October 22, 2012 by jimufctna24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 22, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted October 22, 2012 Good point on Griffin/Franklin. Although in a way I thought Forrest's success with wrestling there was partly down to the surprise element. I'm sure Franklin wasn't expecting Forrest to wrestle that whole first round. Kind of like BJ's early success vs Fitch, the surprise element again. And once Franklin knew to expect that Forrest never really had so much success with it in the 2nd and 3rd. But looking back over Franklin's record there is a noticable shortage of good wrestlers he's faced. He's been fighting almost solely strikers for a while now. It makes a fight with Sonnen even more interesting. The last wrestler he fought was Hendo and although Hendo isn't as effective a wrestler in MMA as Chael, he was able to take Franklin down early and beat him up a bit. I'd still love to see Franklin vs Sonnen. I think it would be a great fight, especially as a 5 rounder. Chael's already had little digs before the Anderson fights with the "Who did Anderson beat? A Maths teacher from Ohio?" Would be fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jimufctna24 Posted October 22, 2012 Share Posted October 22, 2012 (edited) Funnily enough, I scored Franklin vs Hendo for Franklin. The surprise element maybe true though, decent point. Franklin was much sought after in 2005/2006, people thought he had a weak chin due to The Crow and Tanner putting him on his ass. BJ Penn even wanted to fight him when BJ was a fat git. The casual fans loved him, but some never really accepted him as Champion despite having the belt for almost 18 months. He had the TUF stigma for some reason, due to the belief the UFC protected him from the less marketable Matt Lindland by firing Lindland. He gets a bit more respect though these days. Edited October 22, 2012 by jimufctna24 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 23, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 from file marked 'Where are they now?'... (Try guessing who it is before you scroll down - the big guy, not the weird looking little fucker) yes, it's pioneering MMA punching bag Paul Varleans! I just added him on facebook, he's piled on the pounds but i got a lot of time for Varleans. If i saw his name on a card in my early MMA days i was watching, always in exciting, bloody fights and he was usually on the end of the beating, one tough muthafucker though! Apparently he's writing a book about his fighting days, id love to read it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 23, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 Varelans was fun to watch back in the day. I still remember him mostly for getting choked out by Taz in ECW but his fights were usually a good watch. I really like his fight with Kimo from Ultimate Ultimate 96. Bit of a forgotten gem from the early days and an amazing comeback by Kimo. Aside from that the ones that stick out for me would be Marco Ruas methodically battering his legs with kicks and Tank smashing him with a big grin on his face. Varelans lost all them fights. Only win of his I really remember clearly would be the Cal Worsham slugfest where Varelans KO'd him with an elbow. Have you seen Varelans vs Igor Vovchanchyn Ebb? Its from some Russian show in 96. Igor wrecks him but it's fun to watch in a morbid way. Can't link to it right now but its on Youtube. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 23, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 23, 2012 yeh, Igor just tee'd off on him till he dropped, evil shit. Varleans was also destroyed by Mark Kerr in the WVC, a brutal bareknuckle, headbutt, knees to the face destruction...poor fucker took his licks for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 24, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted October 24, 2012 (edited) Coming off probably his biggest win to date in beating Frank Shamrock, Nick Diaz was pretty much the face of Strikeforce. Well, it was him or Gina Carano His next fight would again be at a catchweight, this time 180lbs and would be against the man known as 'Hands of Steel', the comeback king Scott Smith... Smith had made a career off upsetting the odds and was known for his 2 biggest strengths, his heart and his cement right hand. While Diaz was known for his technique, stamina and granite chin. Nick Diaz vs Scott Smith 06.06.2009 - Strikeforce: 'Lawler vs Shields' Smith tries clinching to start but is soon throwing heavy leather. Problem is he's not landing. It takes Diaz about a minute to get into his usual groove and when he does things get bad for Smith and Diaz rocks him with a combo against the cage soon after. Smith as always fired back and landed a couple of hard thudding shots but Diaz kept catching him coming in. There's a great bit where Smith lands a headkick, Diaz throws some punches which all miss and then does this taunt with an angry scowl on his face. Round 2 begins and Diaz throws a shitload of strikes early. Smith lands one decent shot on the fence but then it all goes to shit for him. Diaz throws one flurry and you almost see the fight go out of Smith, the one body shot in particular seemed like it sapped the life out of him. His defence, which was never the best anyway, completely goes out the window and he basically spends the last 4 minutes of the round badly rocked and getting picked apart in brutal fashion. He still offers a couple of fleeting attempts at a trademark comeback but they are few and far between. Diaz lands another body shot at the end of the round and it crumples Smith to the ground. He looks done. This was bordering on a 10-8 round to me. Smith was still landing the odd haymaker but I might still give it a 10-8 it was that one sided. Ranallo actually said in that round "Is it too late to change this to a 5 round fight?" Bloody hell Mauro, do you want Smith killed or something? Smith goes to touch gloves at the start of the 3rd and Diaz slaps his hand away. That's not very nice. Smith stages one last stand and throws a bunch of full power punches but Diaz manages to avoid them. Smith fights his balls off in this round, but although his heart's there his body's gone. He eats one more shot to the body and goes to his knees where Diaz finishes the job with a rear naked choke. Diaz talks "The fight unfolded like I wanted it to. It went to a third round, which is exactly what I saw in my head. I knew it would go at least halfway past the second round. I figured he was going to stand there and try not to use a lot of energy. I figured he was going to try and catch me with something good. He tried to be slow so I put my hands down, to give him opportunities, so he would come at me. I baited him and forced him to put forth some effort. I needed him to tire out, he is tough. I kept punching him and pushing him. Once he burnt out, the fight was mine." I forgot just how bad of a beating Smith took in this fight. I look at Smith now and he's looking shot at 33. Too many beatings and the comebacks can't go on forever. Rewatching this fight though, I really think this was the beginning of the end for him. He got beat up and battered badly. He still pulled off the Cung Le KO his next time out which will probably be remembered as his biggest win, but he swiftly lost his next 4 fights. He hasn't won in nearly 3 years. Good, exciting fight though. Diaz vs Smith... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U3okTjgi3a4 It was announced that Diaz's next fight would be on August 15th 2009 on a card headlined by the aforementioned Gina Carano vs Cris 'Cyborg' Santos in the biggest women's MMA fight at that point. Diaz's opponent was a familiar one... A second fight (or third if you count their hospital ward epic) between the 2 long time rivals. It went to pot though (pun intended) when Riggs pulled out due to some reaction he had to some supplements, or something. Diaz was then scheduled to meet Jay Hieron on the Carano vs Cyborg show... A fight that had been talked about for a while. But this time Diaz no-showed a pre-fight drug test and as a result wasn't licensed to fight. Naughty Nick. Nick wound up not fighting until January 2010. By that time, Strikeforce had a working arrangement with the Japanese DREAM promotion to exchange talent and it was announced that Nick Diaz would fight DREAM welterweight champion and GP winner Marius Zaromskis. A Lithuanian striker known for his impressions of Street Fighter's Akuma in his ring entrances; And his impressions of Mirko Cro Cop in his fights; The fight would crown the first ever Strikeforce welterweight champion. Diaz was his usual talkative self on the pre-fight conference call... Nick Diaz : (When asked for an opening statement to the media) "Am I supposed to have something to say?" "Training is going good. I'm ready to go. I'm happy to fight at 170. I have been waiting for a long time to fight in this weight class. The last two fights were not my idea. This (fighting at welterweight) is not a new thing for me." (On Jay Hieron saying that Diaz is ducking him) "I'm just fighting who they want me to fight. I can say GSP (UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre) is a p***y because he doesn't want to fight me. I'm ready to fight anybody. I didn't know there was a problem. I'll fight anywhere." (On what he is doing to prepare for a five-round fight) "I kick the heavy bag a lot, run extra miles and do extra push-ups." (On why he has not talked trash about Zaromskis, like he has with other opponents) "I've never had a conference call with another opponent before. I just woke up, dude. I don't know." Ha! Nick Diaz vs Marius Zaromskis 30.01.2010 - Strikeforce: 'Miami' - To crown first Strikeforce Welterweight Champion Zaromskis comes out looking good, immediately lands some punches and a low kick. But Diaz wobbles him with a punch right away. Marius continues to fire off strikes though and is getting the better of it so Diaz clinches up. They stay on the fence for a bit and then Zaromskis breaks free. Diaz starts landing with more frequency now though and Zaromskis is having problems with the reach. Right when Diaz looks on track Zaromskis nails him with a shitload of shots and decks him... Diaz looked fucked for a second and you could actually see him go still for a second then kick out and try to get up. They go to war again on the feet with both landing some good solid punches. Towards the end of the round though Diaz starts to land some more powerful shots and it troubles Zaromskis. He really starts to get the better of the Boxing and unleashes a vicious series of punches to the body and head against the cage. Zaromskis got away but he was on jelly legs and Diaz cracked him with a short right hook to the temple that just did him in and the ref stepped in and waved it off. Diaz by TKO, round 1. Wow, I hadn't seen this fight since it first aired. I knew it was good but it was even better than I remembered. Crazy round right up there with Diaz vs Daley. So much going on in that 4 and a bit minutes. Awesome stuff. Diaz vs Akuma... http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xc1xxe_ni...kis-strik_sport Following on from that positive though, came a negative. At Strikeforce: Nashville on April 17th 2010, Jake Shields beat Dan Henderson by decision. After the fight 'Mayhem' Miller got in the cage without permission and started calling out Shields. Pushes were exchanged and then Nick Diaz punched Mayhem which lead to a full-on brawl. Fines and suspensions were handed out and the now infamous line was uttered... "Gentlemen, we're on national television" Here's the video of the Strikeforce brawl http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaS11hiAdBw Ariel Helwani interviews Diaz right after the brawl After all that shit died down, Diaz and Mayhem were both vocal about a possible fight between the 2. The weight issue became a problem though with neither willing to compromise on a move up or down to each other's division. The fight never came to anything sadly. The best thing to come out of the whole mess was this... Diaz's now famous in-car, verbal attack on Mayhem "You got your ass whooped. That's what you get you stupid motherfucker. You dumb motherfucker. You got gold teeth and funny hair. What the fuck is that?" I love that video. Instead of a grudge match with Mayhem, Diaz returned to Japan to fight Hayato Sakurai in DREAM; There was certainly no bad blood here and like with Nick's previous fights in Japan, he was like a choirboy over there in comparison to how he handled himself in the Nashville brawl. Nick Diaz vs Hayato Sakurai 29.05.2010 - DREAM 14 Sakurai comes out swinging right off the bat but they wind up on the ground with Diaz on top quickly. He maintains top position for half the round, with not too much going on just a battle for position. Sakurai finally escapes to his feet and wallops Diaz with a big overhand right. Sakurai then takes Diaz down which wound up being a big mistake because Diaz was able to secure an armbar from the bottom forcing the tap. Diaz, submission, round 1. Impressive finish considering Diaz was hampered by the fence yet still managed to get the submission over a veteran like Sakurai. Good little fight. Diaz vs Sakurai; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q89KTMvakFs Nick again was very respectful to his Japanese opponent. It's weird seeing him not looking angry. Up next for Diaz would be the long awaited, on again-off again rematch with KJ Noons Unlike against Sakurai, there would obviously be no respect here. As you'd expect there was an abundance of talk in the run up to the rematch. Noons on "trash-talking, pot-smoking chump" Diaz; "I'm super excited about the opportunity, and I think it's a great thing for me. To be in the Strikeforce main event on Showtime, to be in line to be a two-time, two-division world champion, and getting to beat Nick again in the process... I couldn't ask for a better fight. I already got one up on Nick. I beat the crap out of the guy. He's had a good run, and there's a lot of build-up for this rematch. We've both improved, this is a different weight class now, he's gotten better, I've gotten better, it's a different situation. But at the end of the day, I'm a true mixed martial artist, I have respect for the sport, and I am a good role model... Nick's good for entertainment, but I come from a family of fighters. I started early, and I have respect for martial arts. It teaches you discipline, how to become a good person, and I feel that I am. On October 9, I'm fighting a guy that, if I had a kid, I wouldn't want him looking up to. He's a trash-talking, pot-smoking chump. It's motivation for sure [to be fighting near Diaz's hometown]. I love being the underdog. Even when I'm not, I still try to picture myself as the underdog so I train harder and push myself. Nick says he's bringing his guys, but so am I. They're going to need to beef up security. This is beyond a grudge match. I'm going to light him up like a Christmas tree. He's going to have to kill me to [to beat me]. It's very personal." Diaz on some outside the cage altercation with "rich kid" Noons; "My car pulled up in front of the hotel and he and his girlfriend and his mom and dad were there. Right away, he put his mug on me. He was staring me down and trying to give the impression that he's hard core. I flipped him off, but he's standing over there like he's flashing. I go, 'What the fuck are you doing? I'm not the one doing shit.' I couldn't understand why this guy is putting his mug on me, but he had to act like he was some kind of a fuckin' tough guy in front of his girlfriend and his dad. This is war, this is life, and I take this very seriously. I'm not the one bringing my family into the ring and showing them off. I'm not the one who showed up (to the pre-fight press conference) in a fuckin' suit trying to act like I'm some kind of tough guy...rich kid. This is war to me and we have a serious situation on our hands now." Diaz pre-fight interview ! I'd never seen these either... Collision Course: Diaz vs Noons 2 - Episode 1 Collision Course: Diaz vs Noons 2 - Episode 2 Collision Course: Diaz vs Noons 2 - Episode 3 3 short mini documentary hype videos for the rematch. Only about 5 minutes each in length but well worth a watch. Nick Diaz vs KJ Noons 2 09.10.2010 - Strikeforce: 'Diaz vs Noons 2' - Strikeforce Welterweight Title Diaz comes out with the old slow motion kicks stuff early and Noons laughs at him. He's not laughing when Diaz stuns him with a right hand and takes his back shortly after though. He controls Noons on the ground for a bit but Noons does manage to get back to his feet. Diaz gets the better of it standing outlands Noons pretty clearly in the Boxing. Diaz's round for sure. Noons didn't do anything other than a few nice body shots here and there. Round 2 was a complete turnaround. Noons comes out looking better and in an eery tribute to how their first fight ended, lands a big left hand which cuts Diaz above the eye. He starts to outbox Diaz and lands a lot of quality body shots and combos and Diaz's eye keeps looking worse. Noons round. Diaz wants to grapple as the 3rd starts but Noons wants none of that and keeps up his Boxing assault with hard head and body punches. Diaz looks a bit more cautious but keeps pumping his jab and busts Noons' nose up. Close round, probably lean slightly to Diaz because he finished stronger and did some damage. RD 4 - Diaz comes out like the fucking Karate Kid throwing spinning back kicks and axe kicks to start the round which missed by a mile. Looked funny though. They both trade for the rest of the round, staying busy with striking and in the clinch. They both land some body punches and Diaz lands some nice knees from the Thai clinch. One which appeared to hurt Noons and Diaz followed with a big left. So at this point I had Diaz ahead 3 rounds to 1. Noons was always in the fight but at this point he needed a finish in my opinion. But Diaz took round 5 as well for me. Diaz took the last 2 rounds just putting out the more quality work. Noons was always in it but Diaz just seemed to have an answer for everything. Diaz broke Noons' jaw at some point in the fight as well. Diaz wins by unanimous decision. Great fight. It sounds one sided saying Diaz took 4 rounds but the rounds were mostly very competitive. I wouldn't mind seeing a rubber match at some point if Noons ever winds up in the UFC. Diaz vs Noons 2 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGFAbS6r21E Diaz post-fight interview http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MV_HuVnxxtM...feature=related You know how Diaz seems to hate every fighter not in the Cesar Gracie camp? Well, here he is ripping into everyone's favourite Maths teacher (except that schoolgirl who ran away with her's recently) Rich Franklin... Edited October 24, 2012 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 24, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 24, 2012 quality post. You're covering the stage of Diaz' career now where i just totally gave up on rooting against him, i always expected certain strikers to walk through his strikes and take him out but when it just never happened i gave up. Has anyone in MMA ever had as many 'good' fights as Diaz? so many exciting fights. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 26, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted October 26, 2012 (edited) "Fighters are afraid of conditioning, they are afraid of getting tired, but I don't want to have anxiety or be afraid of anything. I can go 100 percent out there and never have to worry about getting tired. Everybody says fighting is 90 percent mental, and it's true. Knowing you can go 15 minutes or 25 minutes without any problem can help you sustain that mental advantage over your opponent." "You see me. What you see is what you get. You get real martial arts, you get real fighting, you get a real warrior mentality. Some people aren Edited October 26, 2012 by wandshogun09 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Egg Shen Posted October 26, 2012 Author Paid Members Share Posted October 26, 2012 amazing work Wand. your gonna need your own little subforum before long... loving the video links too, keep them coming. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CurryAngel Posted October 26, 2012 Share Posted October 26, 2012 Sensational work as usual. Who will you be doing next? Shogun or Henderson would both be great but you'd struggle for funny quotes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members wandshogun09 Posted October 27, 2012 Paid Members Share Posted October 27, 2012 Yeah the quotes thing breaks up the fights well. But it got to the point with Diaz in the later posts where there was so much stuff going on outside the cage and quotes I wanted to include that the posts went on longer than I planned. Most people were saying to do a Hendo one next so maybe that. I want to go through the careers of Shogun and Big Nog as well though so I don't know. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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