UFC 78: Michael Bisping Vs. Rashad Evans / TUF: Team Hughes Vs. Team Serra
mookie blaylock 10
Posts: 4,042
a bit of a weak main event, but a very solid card otherwise, with a couple of former pride fighters making their debuts. hoping to see any one of the pre-lims, especially alves vs. lytle.
UFC 78, November 17, 2007 - Prudential Arena, Newark, New Jersey - PPV
Main Card:
Michael Bisping Vs. Rashad Evans
Houston Alexander Vs. Thiago Silva
Joe Doerksen Vs. Ed Herman (David Terrell out due to injury)
Karo Parisyan Vs. Ryo Chonan* (Hector Lombard, originally scheduled to face Parisyan, holds a Cuban passport and was denied a visa to fight in the US. Chonan, originally scheduled to face Thiago Alves will now replace Lombard as Parisyan's opponent.)
Spencer Fisher Vs. Frank Edgar
Pre-lims:
Thiago Alves Vs. Chris Lytle* (Chris Lytle replaces Ryo Chonan, originally scheduled to face Alves, who will now face Karo Parisyan instead.)
Joe Lauzon Vs. Jason Reinhardt
Luke Caudillo Vs. Marcus Aurelio
Tamdan McCrory Vs. Akihiro Gono
UFC 78, November 17, 2007 - Prudential Arena, Newark, New Jersey - PPV
Main Card:
Michael Bisping Vs. Rashad Evans
Houston Alexander Vs. Thiago Silva
Joe Doerksen Vs. Ed Herman (David Terrell out due to injury)
Karo Parisyan Vs. Ryo Chonan* (Hector Lombard, originally scheduled to face Parisyan, holds a Cuban passport and was denied a visa to fight in the US. Chonan, originally scheduled to face Thiago Alves will now replace Lombard as Parisyan's opponent.)
Spencer Fisher Vs. Frank Edgar
Pre-lims:
Thiago Alves Vs. Chris Lytle* (Chris Lytle replaces Ryo Chonan, originally scheduled to face Alves, who will now face Karo Parisyan instead.)
Joe Lauzon Vs. Jason Reinhardt
Luke Caudillo Vs. Marcus Aurelio
Tamdan McCrory Vs. Akihiro Gono
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Team Hughes:
Billy Miles (out)
Blake Bowman (out)
Dan Barrera (out)
Dorian Price (out)
Jared Rollins (out)
Mac Danzig (advances to quarter-finals)
Paul Georgieff (out)
Tom Speer (advances to quarter-finals)
Team Serra:
Ben Saunders (advances to quarter-finals)
George Sotiropoulos (advances to quarter-finals)
Joe Scarola (out)
John Kolosci (advances to quarter-finals)
Jon Koppenhaver (out)
Matt Arroyo (advances to quarter-finals)
Richie Hightower (advances to quarter-finals)
Roman Mitichyan (out due to injury)
Troy Mandaloniz (advances to quarter-finals)
Episode 1: Mac Danzig Vs. Joe Scarola - Mac Danzig wins by submission (triangle choke), 1st Round.
Episode 2: Matt Arroyo Vs. Dorian Price - Matt Arroyo wins by submission (rear naked choke), 1st Round.
Episode 3: John Kolosci Vs. Billy Miles - John Kolosci wins by submission (standing guillotine choke), 1st Round.
Episode 4: Richie Hightower Vs. Blake Bowman - Richie Hightower wins by TKO, 1st Round.
Episode 5: Paul Georgieff Vs. Troy Mandaloniz - Troy Mandaloniz wins by KO, 1st Round.
Episode 6: Ben Saunders Vs. Dan Barrera - Ben Saunders wins by unanimous decision.
Episode 7: Jared Rollins Vs. George Sotiropoulos - George Sotiropoulos wins by KO, 1st Round.
Episode 8: Jon Koppenhaver Vs. Tom Speer - Tom Speer wins by unanimous decision.
Quarter-Finals:
Team Hughes:
Mac Danzig (advances to semi-finals)
Tom Speer
Team Serra:
Ben Saunders
George Sotiropoulos
John Kolosci (out)
Matt Arroyo
Richie Hightower
Troy Mandaloniz
Quarter-Final Matches:
John Kolosci Vs. Mac Danzig
Matt Arroyo Vs. Troy Mandaloniz
Richie Hightower Vs. George Sotiropoulos
Ben Saunders Vs. Tom Speer
Episode 9: John Kolosci Vs. Mac Danzig - Mac Danzig wins by submission (rear naked choke), 1st Round.
Episode 10: Matt Arroyo Vs. Troy Mandaloniz / Richie Hightower Vs. George Sotiropoulos
Episode 11: Ben Saunders Vs. Tom Speer
The Ultimate Fighter 6 Finale, December 8, 2007 - The Palms, Las Vegas, Nevada - Spike TV
Roger Huerta Vs. Clay Guida
Luke Cummo Vs. TBA
Jared Rollins Vs. TBA
Welterweight Tournament Finals
WEC, December 12, 2007 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Versus / TSN
Main Card:
Urijah Faber Vs. Jeff Curran - WEC FW Championship
Jens Pulver Vs. Cub Swanson
Paulo Fihlo Vs. Chael Sonnen - WEC MW Championship
Doug Marshall Vs. Ariel Gondella - WEC LHW Championship
Micah Miller Vs. Chance Farrar
Pre-lims:
Brian Bowles Vs. Marcus Galvao
Dominic Cruz Vs. Charlie Valencia
Luis Sapo Vs. Todd Moore
Bryan Baker Vs. Eric Schambari
UFC 79, December 29, 2007 - Mandalay Bay Events Center, Las Vegas, Nevada - PPV
Main Card:
Matt Serra Vs. Matt Hughes - WW Championship
Wanderlei Silva Vs. Chuck Liddell
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou Vs. Lyoto Machida
Rich Clementi Vs. Melvin Guillard
Nate Mohr Vs. Manny Gamburyan
Pre-lims:
Tony DeSouza Vs. Roan Carneiro
Dean Lister Vs. Jordan Radev
Doug Evans Vs. Mark Bocek
Eddie Sanchez Vs. Soa Palalei
UFC 80, January 19, 2008 - Metro Radio Arena, Newcastle, England - Spike TV
Main Card:
BJ Penn Vs. Joe Stevenson - Interim LW Championship
Gabriel Gonzaga Vs. Fabricio Werdum
Marcus Davis Vs. Jess Liaudin
Kendall Grove Vs. Jorge Rivera
Pre-lims:
Alessio Sakara Vs. James Lee
Sam Stout Vs. Per Eklund
Paul Taylor Vs. Paul Kelly
Antoni Hardonk Vs. Colin Robinson
UFC Fight Night 12, January 23, 2008 - Las Vegas, Nevada - Spike TV
Mike Swick Vs. TBA
Nate Diaz Vs. TBA
Thiago Tavares Vs. Michihiro Omigawa
Justin McCully Vs. Ramon Pisciotta
UFC 81, February 2, 2008 - MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada - PPV
Quinton Jackson Vs. TBA - LHW Championship
Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira Vs. TBA (Randy Couture, pending resolution of dispute with UFC. Tim Sylvia will be Nogueira's opponent if Couture declines.) - HW Championship
Brock Lesnar Vs. Frank Mir
Nate Marquardt Vs. Thales Leites
Tyson Griffin Vs. Gleison Tibau
Evan Tanner Vs. TBA
Patrick Cote Vs. TBA
UFC 82, March 1, 2008 - Nationwide Arena, Cloumbus, Ohio - PPV
Dan Henderson Vs. Anderson Silva - MW Championship
UFC 83, March 29, 2008 - Bell Centre, Montréal, Québec - PPV
Georges St-Pierre Vs. Matt Serra or Matt Hughes - WW Championship
The Ultimate Fighter 7 - Premieres April, 2008 on Spike TV.
Tournament of 16 Middleweight competitors. Coaches TBA.
I agree not the strongest main card we've seen lately. I think Bisping is going to have a very tough test in Rashad Evans ... he didn't have a great showing against Hamill in his last fight.
Looks like Houston Alexander Thiago Silva will be a good fight (but I'm guessing a short one!
Also looking forward to Thiago Alves v. Chris Lytle. I'd like to see Lytle have a good fight.
Where did u get your info from??
Last I heard there is no longer going to be a Montreal show due to the UFC deal with HBO falling through.
BUT OMG Luke Cummo fighting in Dec!! I'm gonig to be at that ppv and he was my fave from Season 2!! That boy is a freaking animal!!! I LOVE to watch him fight cause its always a war.
I REALLY hope your info is correct.
read my replies accbootlegoddess!
just kidding of course. i think it was the last thread where i explained that it's all just a compilation of rumours and information i gather from rumour sites, forums and the fighters blogs and myspace pages and what not...so it shouldn't all be taken as fact. it just gives us a good idea of what's coming up in the future. mmaweekly and mmajunkie are pretty good sources. i'd say mmaweekly is more concrete, whereas mmajunkie gets a lot of rumours from interviews with fighters and managers.
as far as the montreal show goes, the show last spring was moved to houston, the fall show was cancelled due to conflict with a hockey game. and it sounds like the rumoured january show won't happen because they are waiting to have the title match in march (possibly april) so they can feature GSP as the main event. this one sounds very likely.
...and the cummo rumour is just that. i was reading posts on a forum from a source that is usually very reliable and he said that cummo is supposed to face an as yet TBA opponent in december, most likely at the TUF finale. i hope it's right! i really enjoy luke's style and he's been one of my faves since season two so i'm hoping he gets on the main card. if you're going to be there then you'll get to see it either way. what a main event you have for that one though. it could be fight of the year! enjoy!
i just meant the main event itself, releash.
the other matches, though, whoa!
the pre-lims look awesome too. i was hoping for alves vs. chonan, but alves vs. anybody at this point is good for me. lytle will be a tough fight for him, but one he "should" win. chris looked awesome in his last fight. i hope they show this one!
anyway, i think i am in the minority in that i'm actually excited for this one, except bisping vs. evans. from what i've read in some of the forums people are not very 'appy about this one.
"I got hit with an elbow early in the first round. In the second round the ref stopped the action so the doctor could look at the cut. The doctor said "How is your vision?" I said "There's blood in my eye" Yves Lavigne said "If you say you can't see he'll stop the fight" I said "I can see, there's no problem, I want to fight" The doctor spread the cut open with his thumbs and said "I can see his skull, I'm stopping it" I said "I want to continue" and looked at my cornerman. My cornerman was staring at my cut and yelling "Why are you stopping the fight?", "What are you doing?". His comments were directed at the referee, but because he was staring at me, I was confused. That is why I became so angry, because I did not quit, and I thought that he was accusing me of quitting. We sorted things out afterwords. That's something that bothers me a lot after Ken Shamrock said that I was not injured on that show when I had a serious injury. I still take a lot of heat for that son-of-a-bitch's ignorant comments.
After the fight Yves Lavigne came up to me and said "I don't know why he stopped it, you did everything right, you told him you wanted to continue. The fight was close you were right there I would not have stopped it". "Stitch" and "House" the official UFC cutmen said the same thing. I haven't heard the color commentary yet but it seems to have confused some people. I'm extremely disappointed with what happened, I had a lot more fight in me, I have never been cut like that in a fight. That's what happened, if you want to corroborate the story just ask the referee. Congratulations Alan Belcher, I hope you'll give me a rematch."
Kalib Starnes
FINALLY, TWO LEGENDS MEET - ULTIMATE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP ANNOUNCES
10/23/2007
UFC 79: NEMESIS
SATURDAY, DEC. 29
LIVE FROM MANDALAY BAY EVENTS CENTER
Las Vegas, NV (USA) – For years, UFC fight fans have speculated about the outcome of a historic dream matchup between two legendary figures in the sport of mixed martial arts, Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva. Tonight, on Spike TV’s 2007 Scream Awards, UFC President Dana White announced that this dream will finally become a reality when UFC and PRIDE former champions Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell and “The Axe Murderer” Wanderlei Silva face each other at UFC 79: NEMESIS live from the Mandalay Bay Events Center Saturday, December 29, 2007.
“Chuck and Wanderlei – two legends in the sport – will face off in the most important match of their careers at UFC 79,” said Dana White, UFC President. “Chuck and Wanderlei have both wanted this fight for as long as they can remember, and this is definitely the fight that fans have waited for years to see. Finally, PRIDE’s most dangerous striker will face the UFC’s most dangerous striker, and the world will know after years of speculation who will win and who will lose this fight.”
Liddell (20-5), considered by many to be the greatest light heavyweight fighter of all time, reigned as the 205-pound UFC champion for over three years. He knocked out seven opponents in seven consecutive fights, including Randy Couture (twice), Vernon White, Jeremy Horn, Renato “Babalu” Sobral and Tito Ortiz (twice), before he was defeated by Quinton “Rampage” Jackson at UFC 71 in May. Chuck now returns to the Octagon to face the fighter he has wanted to fight for years – Wanderlei Silva.
“I’m excited this fight with Wanderlei is finally happening,” said Liddell. “I’ve been saying for a long time that, given the chance, I would knock Wanderlei Silva out. I think this will be a great fight for the fans, and one that lives up to their expectations, because I’m going to hit him until he falls down and stays down.”
The 31-year old Silva (31-7-1), known by fight fans as “The Axe Murderer” for his ultra-aggressive style and finishing ability, began his career almost 11 years ago in his native Brazil, fighting in Vale Tudo bouts that pushed him to the limit as he honed the skills that would soon make him one of the most feared fighters on the planet. He met great success by winning the PRIDE organization’s middleweight championship and defeating the likes of current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Quinton Jackson (twice), Dan Henderson, Kazushi Sakuraba (three times), Ricardo Arona, Hidehiko Yoshida, and Kazuyuki Fujita, while engaging in some of the most memorable fights in MMA history. Well-rested after his February PRIDE fight against Dan Henderson, Silva is ready to take on Liddell and secure the most important victory of his mixed martial arts career.
“I’ve wanted to fight Chuck for a long time,” said Silva. “I think about this fight a lot, our styles are very similar – we are both great strikers. I’m training very hard, because I want to give my next victory to my fans. After I beat Chuck, then I want to fight the champion.”
In addition to Liddell vs. Silva, UFC 79 features the main event welterweight championship matchup between UFC champion Matt Serra (16-4) and former UFC champion Matt Hughes (43-5).
Current UFC welterweight champion Matt Serra, fresh off his knockout victory over Georges St-Pierre in April, looks to defend his title for the first time against the legendary Hughes and secure his own legacy in the UFC 170-pound division. Hughes, a two-time UFC champion with seven combined title defenses to his name, has a deadly ground game that has earned him wins over St-Pierre, BJ Penn, Chris Lytle, Royce Gracie, and Frank Trigg (twice).
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=news.detail&gid=8385
I actually meant the main event too, mookie.
anyone catch the top 25 TUF moments tonight? I had forgotten about a few of the things they showed like bisping's flying knee to ross pointon in the quarterfinals and that bloody mess of a fight of edwin dewees'.
I feel for Kalib about not wanting the fight stopped, but watching the replay again, the doctor was right in stopping the fight. Even though the cut wasn't bleeding that bad through the vaseline, it was REALLY deep to be able to see skull. you can get crazy bad infections that can spread to your brain from head lacs like that. Kalib probably would have been able to finish the fight but it was a legitimately fight ending cut for his own health.
we cannot 'andle the riddum, my friend.
...and the damn show...i forgot about it and woke up at number 4, i think it was...sell vs. smith at the TUF 4 finale. good to see the recap of the top ten, as cummo's KO of sam morgan made it. the number one was certainly no surprise!
they'll probably do a replay, at least that's what i'm hoping. seemed like a decent show and it's good to see stephan and forrest hosting together again. good for a laugh.
yeah, it's never a good sign when the doctor says "i can see your skull".
it's easier for us to see than the fighter, i'm sure. in kalib's case there's always added pressure because of the fans who call him a quitter because of his injury on the show.
as you said, good stoppage by the doctor for kalib's sake. who knows how bad that could have become.
in any case, go team serra!
TUF ads deceptive?!! Really, you think?
I still have to decide if I'm going to do work while watching the world series or the ultimate fighter. I'll probably end up flipping back and forth until the actual fight.
same here, but the fight announcement came right away at the beginning of the show, so maybe the fight actually does go the distance...hmm....
edit: well, same here...except for the work part...;)
dan is not pulling the trigger on anything. leaping in for superman punches and knees, but not throwing once he gets in there. very strange.
second round was all ben, as dan looked like he'd rather be out jogging than fighting.
no controversy there. i don't get what all the fuss was about, and hughes going to the judges and ridiculing them. unprofessional. that fight wasn't even close in terms of scoring. he wanted 10-8 for a knockdown and little else!?! give me a break. it's not boxing. i guarantee if it had been the other way around, hughes would have been up in arms about his fighter losing a round 10-8 for one knockdown.
10-9 for ben, both rounds.
as serra has said many times, "what a dick".
team serra up 5-1 and will choose the quarter finals.
http://www.youtube.com/v/D3K-mrlYG7Y&rel=1
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
thanks for the laugh this morning, roland.
"everyone underestimates the kick in the groin..." bas is too funny!
that knee / forearm to the head, head into wall or other object is one i've used a couple of times. quite effective
"Well you see...he tried to kill me...so now I have to return the favor...so I turn like this and....stab to the liver!...stab to the liver!... "
"ok... I'm sorry....bang...bang...bang...no I'm not..." hehe
this one is good too
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNXRInrSSVU
5th Degree Black Belt in Kyokushin karate, 2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do.
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
http://i36.tinypic.com/66j31x.jpg
(\__/)
( o.O)
(")_(")
anyway, sounds like randy had some petty issues, some other legitimate problems, and a misunderstanding about what the ufc was trying to do to get the fedor match he wanted. he wanted to fight fedor and remain loyal to the ufc, but how does the ufc get fedor without offering him a large sum of money? even with a large sum of money offered, fedor has always had a bit of a rep as a prick when it comes to contract negotiations so talking to him and his people is useless.
personally, i couldn't care less about fedor. he used to be a great fighter. now, he jumps around from one criminally operated organization to another and has only fought one top ten HW (mark hunt) since his decision win over mirko cro cop over two years ago. i've always been a randy fan and it's tough to say it, but he's doing some whining here. both guys need a kick in their respective asses, as does dana white. all sides have some good points and all sides are being childish at the same time.
sorry...just had to vent a little...it gets so annoying when egos, contracts, and politics get involved in the sport. this one is definitely getting annoying. :mad:
WHY RANDY COUTURE LEFT THE UFC
Thursday, October 25, 2007
by Jeff Cain - MMAWeekly.com
Randy Couture held a press conference from his Xtreme Couture gym in Las Vegas on Thursday where he addressed his decision to resign from the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
"I'm saying I simply left the UFC," the current heavyweight champion said. "It would be silly for me to say I'm going to retire again. Nobody's going to buy that anyway."
Addressing whether or not he would fight again, Couture responded, "I don't have a crystal ball. I certainly have fights left in me. There's only really one fight that makes a lot of sense and would have hoped that could have happened in the UFC with Fedor (Emelianenko). I don't think that's going to happen.
"I believe I'm the best fighter I've ever been right now. I also don't operate under the impression that that's going to last forever. Whether or not I fight again is certainly up in the air at this point."
With the recent emergence of M-1 Global there has been speculation as to whether he would end up fighting Emelianenko under the new promotion's banner.
Couture answered that saying, "I'm under UFC contract for a minimum of nine more months. I signed an 18-month contract with the UFC, so unless that fight happens in the UFC, it's not going to happen anywhere else for at least nine more months."
Which leads to one of the hottest topics since his resignation: the parameters of his contract. Couture and his camp have argued the duration of nine months. UFC president Dana White has argued that Couture owes the UFC two fights. Therein lies the issue. Is the contract for the nine-month term or for two more fights?
"It's whatever the number of bouts are that you signed for and a term,” said Couture. “Those bouts have to occur in that term. That's my understanding and my lawyer's understanding of the contract. If it's an 18-month contract with four fights, then those four fights need to occur in that 18-month period. That's my understanding of the contract."
But his intent didn’t seem to be getting out of his contract so he can go and fight Emelianenko elsewhere as many believe.
"It's not really about leaving and going and fighting somewhere else. My loyalty has always been with the UFC. I was offered to fight Fedor over a year ago when I wanted to come out of retirement for thee million dollars in Bodog,” he stated. “It's more than I've ever been paid for a fight.
“What did I do? I went to Dana and Lorenzo and said, ‘hey this is what these guys are offering for me to fight Fedor in their show. I would be interested in fighting again.’ They said, ‘if you're fighting again, we need someone to Tim Sylvia. Fight for the heavyweight championship with us,’ and that's what I did."
Not pointing directly at one issue or another as the specific cause of his resignation, Couture did discuss a number of various factors. One of those factors was fighter bonuses handed out by Zuffa (the UFC’s parent company) to marquee fighters following pay-per-view bouts.
"The UFC has stated time and again that I'm the number two athlete on their books as far as my contract, what my base pay says on that bout agreement, but what happens is they pay you a visit in your locker room after your fight and give you a bonus check. It's not on the books anywhere," he revealed.
“I think it's an organizational decision to distribute money that way because it is at their discretion, because then there is monetary value that's put out there that other people don't know about and other organizations don't know about. If somebody wants to go buy Matt Hughes out of his contract, they don't really know what he's being compensated to make that happen. They look at what the public record says, so they make an offer there, but he's being paid a lot more than that."
Couture provided a laundry list of reasons why he resigned from the UFC, but the final straw for him was the offer made to Emelianenko.
"They offered him more in a signing bonus than I had ever been paid in a fight. That was like the final slap in the face.
"I handed in my resignation after having a meeting with Dana White and Lorenzo Fertitta where I laid all this out in person two-and-a-half weeks before I left for South Africa.
"They were given every opportunity. I expressed fact-to-face how I felt with them. And it's not about bashing. I'm not going to get into a war of words with Dana. He said some other things, 'he controls me' and everything else. It doesn't really matter. It's not about that.
"I have no hard feelings towards Lorenzo and Frank (Fertitta), certainly not. They've done a masterful job of using their connections and their influence to build this sport back up. Dana, although he's misunderstood and I don't agree with some of the things that he does, I don't think he's a bad guy. I think he wields a lot of power and a big stick, and he doesn't do that with objective conscience all the time. But it's not about bashing Dana.
“It's just about how I feel as an athlete that's represented this organization for eleven years and done my very best to represent this sport and feeling unappreciated for that."
http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=4948&zoneid=13
Dana White Claims He Has Proof Of Couture's Paid Bonus
By Jason Perkins
October 25, 2007
Both men say that they don't want a war of words. Both men say that they don't want to debate in the media. But both men are flatly accusing one another of lying and, through the media, have begun a war of words which may likely land the two in court and could possibly change the landscape of mixed martial arts forever.
Their latest points of contention in the aftermath of their respective press conferences, appear to be the terms and length of Couture's contract, and a bonus that Couture says he never received from White.
According to Kevin Iole of Yahoo! Sports Dana White contends that Randy Couture must fight twice more, and not simply sit out the remaining nine-month term, for his contract to be fulfilled and Couture to win his freedom from the UFC.
White apparently initially attempted to take the high road and reportedly declined comment when contacted by Yahoo! Sports after Couture's news conference. But later, White changed his mind and said Couture had not told the truth.
"Randy Couture said he didn't receive a signing bonus, but not only did he receive a signing bonus, he cashed the check on Jan. 30," White said by telephone from his office. "I'm holding it in my hand right now. The check was dated Jan. 15 and he cashed it on Jan. 30.
"I'm not going to debate Randy in the media," White continued. "I understand he's not retired. So, fine. He's in the best fighting shape he's ever been in and so I'll put a fight together for him in February, because Randy is under contract with the UFC."
Looks like the the public "war of words" that both gentlemen claim they wish to avoid is just getting started.
http://www.mmafightline.com/news/2007/1025/dana_white_306579.shtml
http://www.rawvegas.tv/watch.php?vID=f8cdb7efd450c833d54fb4f07b0c52
http://www.rawvegas.tv/watch.php?vID=a5a617be5b8a239de7e9c6d0cf53e9
actaully, it looked to me, like team hughes won the second round
hmmm.... i guess i'd better go check the blogs on ufc.com!
hey ceg!
i was hoping someone would come back...there were tumbleweeds in here for a bit.
i've watched it quite a few times now and i'm still convinced ben won the first. it was a lot closer for me the more i watched it, but with dan missing so much and both guys having a knockdown i thought the first should have gone to ben. there wasn't much to debate about the second.
he likened ben to luke cummo which i found so funny because i was thinking the same thing. luke is more of your "nerdy" type, while ben seems a little more goofy. i'm a cummo fan, and i think after watching ben's excitement about the fight, i'm going to be a fan of his as well. he was downright giddy about getting in there to fight and smiled through vistually the whole thing. he couldn't wipe it off.
if ben can tighten up his striking and gain some more speed and accuracy he will be a difficult test for a lot of guys at welterweight. he is just so tall and that will be difficult to deal with for most guys at WW who will be a half foot shorter a lot of the time.
once again, welcome back!
after watching this version of the press conference, i feel like i was a little quick to jump to conclusions about randy's intentions. i'm still not quite sure what they are, but he seemed sincere in most of the Q & A portion with the reporters.
the main point for me that doesn't make sense is that in order for the ufc to get the match that randy wanted with fedor they had to offer him a lot of money. most of us knew he would turn it down because he and his management team are impossible to deal with. randy says he felt slighted by the fact that fedor was offered a signing bonus larger than any amount he'd been paid for a fight. what does he expect them to do, though, to try their best to get this match signed? it's a bit of a contradiction that he wants the fight and in order to make that happen a large sum had to be offered. it was offered, and not surprisingly, it was turned down. i also get the feeling that randy is not telling the truth about his own signing bonus, and that's unfortunate. :(
money kept coming up and randy expressed again that it was not about the money, but the respect that the money represents. he also said that he's not looking for anyone's sympathy for a guy (himself) who is making 3/4 of a million dollars a fight. right now, as the organization's top guy, he should be getting the highest pay and he is not, so this part i can understand.
points were also brought up about a fighter's union and fighters still making under 10,000 for their fights, sometimes still making as low as 3,000. i get the impression from the way randy responded to these questions that he may be trying to get a ball rolling for more change in fighter's pay as well as medical coverage for injuries that occur outside of the octagon that hinder a fighter's ability to compete. he said that his resignation was not a way to achieve the goal of getting more money and better treatment for other fighters. i have to say that i get the impression that he is making a sacrifice to do just that and i commend him for it.
it seems as though reasonable conversations are taking place between randy and the ufc, despite the dispute, and i wouldn't be surprised to see this getting resolved. if dana white can keep his mouth fairly clean publicly, then i hope randy will come back and fulfill his contract.
if privately, he felt underappreciated, well that certainly is not the case publicly. he was inducted into the HOF immediately, given the opportunity to come out of retirement to fight for a title immediately (unheard of!), and the amount of exposure for his extreme couture franchise and other business ventures were at the forefront of a lot of ufc promotion. he also gets PPV percentage, which most fighters don't get, so i feel there are some things he is being petty about.
he said that in some ways he felt slighted by dana and other members of the ufc organization for doubting him against rizzo, tito, sylvia, chuck, etc. but this has always been part of randy's appeal. on one hand he says he enjoys the underdog role and thrives in it, but on the other hand he says he feels slighted by it. doesn't make much sense to me, nor does him saying that he didn't think his resignation would be a big deal. come on, randy....
all in all, i still find this situation annoying, but i felt like another little rant about it because when it comes right down to it i'd just like to see randy compete and do well until he does decide it's truly time for him to let it go. if something comes from all this that gets better compensation for the fighters and better treatment overall, then kudos to randy for taking a stand. i just can't quite figure out if that's what he's doing.
feckin' damn egos, money, and politics!
<waves 'ello> Hi mookie and ceg! Even though I can't really post much while working, I am able to check the thread from my phone so you aren't completely alone in here (see mookie ... cell phones are not the devil!
I actually caught part of the fight night when they aired it last night. I saw the Jon Fitch v. Roan Carneiro fight ... the one where Fitch looks like a crazed mountain man after he gets the submission.