Anyone else watching this on Spike TV? It’s the Heavyweights (205-265 pounds) and Welterweights (155-170 pounds) this year. I love Mixed Martial Arts and this show is really illustrating how hard and intense the sport is. Hopefully, the UFC gets a few Heavyweight stars out of this season.
I’ve been watching it, hope it’s as good as the first season. Seems like they just lost 2 of their top welterweights though.
Yep. Season 1 got me hooked. I met Forrest at an MMA event here in Atlanta a few months back (right after the series finale)–he was ref’ing one of the fights as an “honorary” official. I talked to him for a second, and he was pretty nice, if not sort of uncomfortable being so recognized.
Only seen the first episode so far, haven’t watched last night’s episode yet.
Last night’s ep was better than the first.
The big talkers always lose their matches. Melvin didn’t do anything even before he broke his hand.
Glad to see Matt Hughes, my favorite fighter, on the show. Rich Franklin seems to be a pretty cool dude too.
I don’t know about these guys. I’m getting behind the crazy guy, Luke, because Diego won last year. I think Rich Franklin even called him “this year’s Diego.” When that Melvin guy said he’d beat Matt Hughes for his belt, I was really hoping he’d lose his fight and he did! I like Franklin better than Hughes but Hughes’ team just looks better to me.
Yeah, I kind of figured Melvin wouldn’t last long. I think he got called out purely because of his mouth and how much trash he was talking. And he even admitted that he choked when he hit the “big stage”.
That new heavyweight is a freakin’ monster. I’m interested to see how he fights.
And when they did the first competition, the first words out of my wife’s mouth were, “They need to organize. Someone needs to volunteer to pull guys off, and let the rest take the dummy to the end zone.” And that’s exactly what Luke did. I think he’s going to surprise some guys when they have to fight him. Some of the other fighters made fun of him, but he seems to me that he could be a mad man when he gets in the ring.
I like Luke’s icy serial killer stare. He also reminds me of Leland Orser for some reason.
I was reading some quote from Josh Koshchelk (sp?) that said Cummo was the toughest SOB he’s fought. Tough as in Josh beat the hell out of him and Luke didn’t tap.
So Melvin lost? Fricking WWE ran long on Monday and DVR didn’t tape the last round. I was pissed! I’m glad to see hime go though, he was a prick.
Gotta equal the love for Luke. I know that the rest of them think he is nuts (and he probably is), but his “zone” he went into in the wall stand was sweet!
It was pretty funny when Melvin went into Dana’s office and pretended to want to quit.
Hello all. Just sittin’ here getting ready for tonight’s episode, stumbled onto this thread and decided to post. So far so good on the episodes. I am especially interested to see how welterweight “Marcus Davis” will do. Like myself, he is also from Maine. I sparred with him back when he was pretty much 100% pro boxer and he was very impressive. As a south paw he is akward to fight and has explosive power. I don’t know how well he’ll do on the show, however, even though I haven’t personally seen the complete package of ufc skills he brings to the octagon, I have heard quite a few first hand accounts that he is as proficient in that area as he was a straight-up boxer.
The only thing that troubles me about him is his drastic weight variations. I sparred with him at about 180 lbs. About a year earlier he’d been fighting much lighter, and soon after he bulked up to 210! I’d heard “rumors” that he might be using some “helpers”, but not enough to make any firm accusations. I’ve heard that the show screens them for helpers, which makes me wonder if that is why he is on as a welterweight as opposed to a heavyweight (he appears as a heavy weight on his personal website photos) Anyway, at what ever the weight, he always seems to come in pretty strong.
I think he’s definitely someone to watch is all, even though he’s received little coverage thus far. Maybe he’ll lose tonight and prove me wrong…lol. However, it would really surprise me if he was eliminated 'till very near the end. Just my 2 cents worth
Anyone else have any favorites in either weight division?
Well, it doesn’t look like Marcus made it to the end for you boxer_1.
It was a huge mistake for him to pick Joe. The fighters should listen to Dana.
I love how Matt is getting into Jorge’s head. It’s so easy.
Pretty much the worst decision ever. He didn’t even let his hands go.
Well, I guess I posted a little too soon…lol. I couldn’t believe Marcus #1, chose to fight Joe and $2, fought the fight the way he did.
As you said Del, Dana’s advice sounded good and it sounded like he was advising Marcus against choosing Joe…and for good reason. Although Joe seems pretty annoying with his playing around on the show, he is excellent on the ground and appears quite strong.
As far as the fight, after the poor decision to was made by marcus, just as sweaterbydarwin said, Marcus didn’t even let his hands go. With boxing as his strongest point, I would have thought he would want to make the most out of his only advantage. Instead he appeared over reluctant to throw and played right into Joe’s hands. I couldn’t believe it, especially after all of his pre-fight hype about both of them going to the hospital. Even a quick, probing jab would have been a nice, relatively safe range finder to set-up other punches. Or some nice fiens might have made Joe commit too soon where Marcus might have been able to do some damage. Oh well, he made his decisions inside and outside the octagon and now he’s outa there. For anyone interested his personal website is http://www.irishhandgrenade.com
Matt is really getting into Jorge’s head and it might become a major distraction for Jorge. He needs to remember that he’s not there to defeat Matt and focus on strategies that are smart for him and not make decisions based on whichever way Matt taunts him. Should be interesting to see how it all plays out.
Apparently, Jorge is Rich Franklin’s jiu jitsu coach. He’s got to be one of the strongest ground fighters on the show. He’s world class and could be a potential threat to Hughes. Unfortunately, I doubt he’ll be getting very far with his ACL messed up the way it is.
Jorge arguably has the best all around fight skills of anyone on the show but he’s no threat to Hughes at this stage ACL or not. Jorge just isn’t a smart enough fighter yet to take out a world class guy. The same could be said about almost all of these guys. About the only real threat to Hughes in the UFC right now is George St. Pierre. Hughes made him tap out in the 1st round, albeit luckily. And GSP is 5xs the fighter that any of these guys are, currently. OR did you mean he’s a threat to Hughes’ team? My bad if so.
As far as who wins out, I just don’t see Jorge making it out because of the injury. Whoever he fights is going to go to work on that knee. Little Joe is going to be hard to beat. Everyone else is an unknown quantity really. Cummo is supposedly tough as nails and the new guy gives me a deceptively good vibe. FWIW, I think in the next MW fight, Jorge will fight him.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by sweaterbydarwin Jorge arguably has the best all around fight skills of anyone on the show but he’s no threat to Hughes at this stage ACL or not. Jorge just isn’t a smart enough fighter yet to take out a world class guy. The same could be said about almost all of these guys. About the only real threat to Hughes in the UFC right now is George St. Pierre. Hughes made him tap out in the 1st round, albeit luckily. And GSP is 5xs the fighter that any of these guys are, currently. OR did you mean he’s a threat to Hughes’ team? My bad if so. As far as who wins out, I just don’t see Jorge making it out because of the injury. Whoever he fights is going to go to work on that knee. Little Joe is going to be hard to beat. Everyone else is an unknown quantity really. Cummo is supposedly tough as nails and the new guy gives me a deceptively good vibe. FWIW, I think in the next MW fight, Jorge will fight him. |
I meant that he could be threat down the road. Right now, with his ACL and lack of experience on a big stage (Most of his fights have been on small shows), you are right that there is no way he could do much to hurt Hughes. But, off all the welterweights on this show, I think only Jorge or Josh Burkman (who is off due to injury) could develop into a threat to Hughes’ belt.
The WW division is pretty stacked in the UFC right now. Nick Diaz, GSP, Karo Parysian, and Diego Sanchez (who moved down from middleweight) are all pretty legit contenders. I think GSP is the best of the bunch and the only real threat to Hughes in the UFC. The UFC is also reportedly bringing back Sean Sherk, whose only loss in 30 fights is to Hughes by decision 2 1/2 years ago. With the UFC dropping 185 pounders left and right, the WW division is the only division to give LHW competition for the most exciting the in the UFC.
OK, I hear you. I love watching this sport and it’s good to have some knowledgeable discussion here.
Do you guys ever watch any PRIDE stuff? I’m hoping UFC keeps evolving in the sense that I hope it doesn’t become only a haven for ex-wrestlers and you still get some people with a traditional martial arts background. I like watching good standup.
The only PRIDE stuff I watched was when Chuck “The Iceman” Lidell got beat by a black guy who wore a log chain around his leg (sorry, I forgot his name). Chuck just looked tired from the get go.
Quote:
| Originally Posted by Del Griffith The only PRIDE stuff I watched was when Chuck “The Iceman” Lidell got beat by a black guy who wore a log chain around his leg (sorry, I forgot his name). Chuck just looked tired from the get go. |
That loss was to Quinton “Rampage” Jackson. He was one of the most intense, exciting fighters to watch until last year when he found religion and went into a title fight having fasted for almost 48 hours. Needless to say, he got knocked out in brutal fashion by Wanderlei Silva, the current Pride champ in the 205 weight class. Since then, he has fought two lackluster fights against “Ninja” Rua (won by controversial split decision) and Ninja’s brother “Shogun” Rua (Shogun knocked him out in the first round). The guy has a huge personality and hopefully a lot more good fights left in him. The UFC is hoping to sign him when his contract with Pride expires next month, but they may not have the money to do it. It would be great to see Chuck get a chance to avenge the last of his three losses.
The skinny from Chuck’s camp on that fight with Rampage (although you will never hear excuses from Chuck himself) is that Chuck fought with an injured quad. Even completely healthy, he would have had his hands full with Rampage, who was in his prime when he fought Chuck.
Pride shows are great to watch. They have the three or four of the best heavyweights in the world in Fedor Emelianenko, Minotauro Nogueira, CroCop Filopovic, and Sergei Kharitonov. They also have three light heavyweights (what they call middleweights) who could be better than Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture: Wanderlei Silva (MW Champ), Shogun Rua (MW Grand Prix Champ), and Ricardo Arona (the only LHW/MW to beat Silva in 5 years).
Fox Sports Net is airing some more Pride fights this Sunday night, but it might just be the same ones they showed last month. Still worth checking out if you haven’t seen many Pride fights.
Remind me which one of the Rua brothers is better?
I saw one of them fight in some IFC Iron Man type event not too long ago. Babalu ended up winning the whole thing. Speaking of, he’s someone who I could see still being a threat too. He’s got good hands and great submission skills. He doesn’t necesarrily look the part but he’s always in shape apparently.