Minor News & Random Shit

[jimufctna24]

8 years since the infamous Nashville Brawl. I haven't seen this picture before. It's worth posting just for Mauro staring daggers into Mayhem, who in contrast looks like the cat who got the cream, despite being roughed up just moments earlier.

 

[Egg Shen]

great picture, that was a barmy night.

[Egg Shen]

Former Bellator fighter Alexis Vila has been charged second degree murder...

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2018/4/23/17271976/bellator-wsof-veteran-alexis-vila-perdomo-charged-with-murder-miami-olympian-cuba-mma-crime-news

Vila is one of them crazy Cuban wrestlers who came in claiming to be much younger than he was, other than that he knocked Joe Warren out cold though in Bellator, an absolute brutal KO.

The growing list of MMA fighters being imprisoned for awful crimes is pretty alarming. 

 

[jimufctna24]

On 19/04/2018 at 8:06 AM, Egg Shen said:

great picture, that was a barmy night.

Indeed. 

It made me remember that Stikeforce still had a "don't fuck this up for us" mentality towards its fighters in 2010. The Nashville Brawl happened at the worst possible time, and for the worst possible company. Had that incident happened between Rashad, Jardine and Rampage on a UFC PPV in 2010, no one would have batted an eyelid. Dana might have publicly condemned the offenders, but it would have all been hot-air. The UFC were not about to be kicked off PPV or lose their TV deal over such an incident. 

In contrast, Strikeforce were on a tight leash with CBS. Their fighters needed to be on their best behaviour and not create a poor image for the sport. Despite some headaches from Fedor's camp and M1, Strikeforce was doing well before the Nashville show. Their debut on CBS, headlined by Fedor and Rogers, pulled a decent number, especially with younger viewers. They had also poached Hendo from the UFC, who was fresh off smashing Bisping to smithereens. 

Sadly, the Nashville card was Strikeforce's answer to the infamous UFC 33 show. All three Championship bouts went the distance and the action was tepid at best. This wasn't the MMA that younger fans were interested in. They wanted more bang for their buck; fast-paced action and brutal stoppages. To make matters worse, Hendo entered his fight with Shields with a back injury, and despite dropping Shields early in the first round, lost via lopsided decision. It wasn't the result the company wanted at all. Their hot new signing had lost to a relatively dull fighter, who was likely to be leaving them in the near-future. It looked like things couldn't get any worse for the company, until of course they signed off for the night with the in-cage brawl. The ratings for the show were dreadful as well. 

CBS didn't show MMA again. That night was the first nail in Strikeforce's coffin. It really was a crying shame. 

Edited April 26, 2018 by jimufctna24

[Supremo]

Colby Covington is tweeting Avengers spoilers.

He’s the worst. Proper X-Pac heat.

[bigfoote]

I don't venture into these parts often, but this popped up and sweet Mother of Jehovah. I won't post the pic, instead have a link. From LadBible, and reported elsewhere, CageWarriors last night in Sweden.

Jack Mason, 1st round defeat by doc stoppage.

 - http://www.ladbible.com/news/sport-mma-fighters-gaping-wound-described-as-worst-in-sports-history-20180429

 

FAIR WARNING - Extremely graphic - cut above eye from knee strike...well, more than a cut

Edited April 29, 2018 by bigfoote

[Egg Shen]

Fucking hell, that's the worst by some distance, horrible.

Bigfoot you wanna stick a spoilers warning on that post too, some posters watch Cage Warriors.

[bigfoote]

My bad, sorted now.

[wandshogun09]

File this under the 'random shit' bit of the thread title. 

Nate Diaz runs into Robbie Lawler (with hair) back in 2011;

Nothing of note to it really but I got a kick out of Nate greeting Matt Hughes like a well mannered choirboy and Nate having to remind Robbie Lawler who Rory MacDonald is. Of course, Robbie knew only too well who Rory was a few years later. 

[jimufctna24]

Both went on to have more success than anyone could have possibly imagined after that video. You could have made the argument that both - despite their relatively young ages - were yesterday's news by 2011. Diaz was about to be fed to Rory and Lawler was losing as many as he won in Strikeforce. 

Diaz went on to be involved in the most commercially successful double header in UFC history, and Lawler become one of the most entertaining championship fighters in MMA history at welterweight. 

Edited May 3, 2018 by jimufctna24

[Egg Shen]

The BBC Sport website now has an MMA section, pretty cool. This Darren Till thing is really taking off.

[Keith Houchen]

They've had it for months, haven't they?  It's been listed in the A-Z I'm sure of it.

[Egg Shen]

Hmmm, maybe they have, I'm going off something I read on sherdog. Regardless, can't help but feel a buzz of anticipation about Sundays show. Feels like the biggest show in UK MMA in some time. Think the media are really grabbing onto Till as some potential superstar in the making.

[Keith Houchen]

From what I remember, their section was 90% McGregor and 10% Bisping!

[jimufctna24]

I have just watched bits of Rogan's latest podcast with GSP. I was going to make this post this in the podcast thread, but it turned into a bit of a ramble, so it probably fits better in here. I suspect that time is not going to be kind to Johny Hendricks. The story that GSP told about Hendricks on Rogan's podcast, and how it told it, will confirm the suspicions a lot of people had about Hendricks's supposed PED use.

In retrospect, what strikes me about GSP's fight with Hendricks is that he was sharing a cage with a fighter who should have been in a higher weightclass. If MMA's weightclasses were structured like boxing's weightclasses are, it's possible that GSP and Hendricks would have never crossed paths. GSP was a big welterweight in the mid-2000's, but as the 2000's came to a close, he started being dwarfed by the likes of Alves and Hendricks. Whether those two were juiced to the gills or not, we will probably never know for sure. But given the size discrepancy that GSP faced, it's a minor miracle that he wasn't beaten by one of those two. It makes me appreciate GSP that little bit more. Had there been an option to move down to a division with a weight limit of 162lbs, I am fairly certain GSP would have taken it. He was flirting with moving down to the lightweight division (155lbs) around that period. I don't blame him at all for vacating the middleweight belt. It took every bit of his skill, and a favourable style match-up, to beat Bisping last year. The likes of Rockhold and Romero would have mauled him, despite not being in his league skill-wise (that's not a knock on them, GSP is probably the best MMA fighter ever)

This is why I can't compare Shogun circa 2005 to say Jon Jones circa 2017. While both technically fought in the same weightclass during their respective primes, had they fought in the same era with sensible weight-limits were in place, they would have been separated by at least two weightclasses. Asking the 2005 version of Shogun to fight the 2017 version of Jones would be like asking Mayweather to fight GGG or Hagler. Of course, Jones and Shogun did actually fight in 2011 when neither fighter was at their absolute peak. On that night, it was clear that Shogun should have been fighting in a division lower than Jones, and his time at the top of the division had drawn to a close. Not necessarily because Shogun lacked skill, but because the division had evolved and become the land of the small heavyweights. That's why it is so hard to pin down a best "Light-Heavyweight" or "Middleweight" or whatever. The game can change quite rapidly, and with how the weightclasses are structured, some fighters can be left in no man's land.