everybody made weight for tomorrow, so we're all set!
Main Card:
Georges St-Pierre (170) Vs. Matt Hughes (170)
Chuck Liddell (204) Vs. Wanderlei Silva (205)
Eddie Sanchez (230) Vs. Soa Palalei (262)
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (205) Vs. Lyoto Machida (204)
Rich Clementi (155) Vs. Melvin Guillard (156)
Pre-lims:
James Irvin (205) Vs. Luis Cane (205)
Nate Mohr (155) Vs. Manny Gamburyan (155)
Dean Lister (186) Vs. Jordan Radev (185)
Tony DeSouza (170) Vs. Roan Carneiro (170)
Doug Evans (154) Vs. Mark Bocek (155)
they switched the bout order around a bit, so clementi and guillard will start off the PPV. quite a staredown between chuck and wanderlei, with wanderlei taking his shirt off, then motioning a head butt at chuck, and ending with chuck giving the finger to wanderlei as they were being seperated. huge reactions for wanderlei and georges, especially. sokoudjou got a nice welcome, and there were spatterings of boos for chuck and it's always hard to tell the boos from the "hughes", but it seemed a little more on the boos side of things today, which is a little unusual.
hey everybody, i set up a league on the UFC fantasy site to make picks for each event. it's called "The Evolution Fight Club" and it keeps track of all your points for each event and in total. seems like it could be fun, so if anyone is interested, send me a PM with an email address to send the invite and password to.
Georges St-Pierre (170) Vs. Matt Hughes (170)-Hughes by sub
Chuck Liddell (204) Vs. Wanderlei Silva (205)-Wandy by Ko Rd1
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (205) Vs. Lyoto Machida -Soko by Ko Rd2
I would love to see the Lister fight to see him pull off some subs, but well see.
it's gonna get exciting in here on Saturday!! only 3 more days!
VAS-Y GSP!
funny thing is I like St Pierre, and don't really like Hughes, but from a strickly fighting standpoint, I think as long as Matt doesn't let his ego get in the way and try and stand and fight, he has the advantage, but then we can also see just how much St Pierre's game has grown mentally, strategically, and technically. It's not much difference from where he's been, and possibly being the best of all time. Right now, I still think Matt is the man in the octagon at the moment though. I'm looking forward to this fight more than any other in 2007. Serra a scrub and either won of these two will destroy him when they fight again.
As for Chuck, Jardine and Jackson opened up some holes in his game that I always thought were there, he says his popularity got to him, but I think Silva has a better chance at recovering from two straight losses than Chuck. Silva is a freakin badass, agressive and comes at you, though both have amazing striking, Chuck is always backing up, countering, don't think that'll work with Silva.
In all, I want the welterweight issues to get worked out, there are a lot of great fighters waiting for their title shot, not sure any of them are on the level of St Pierre/Hughes, but I want to find out.
Welterweights and lightweights will have the best fights of 2008. Let's get is started...
"Music, for me, was fucking heroin." eV (nothing Ed has said is more true for me personally than this quote)
Georges St-Pierre (170) Vs. Matt Hughes (170)-Hughes by sub
Chuck Liddell (204) Vs. Wanderlei Silva (205)-Wandy by Ko Rd1
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (205) Vs. Lyoto Machida -Soko by Ko Rd2
I would love to see the Lister fight to see him pull off some subs, but well see.
i was imprssed with the reception sokoudjou got at the weigh ins. he already looks a fair size bigger than machida and will probabaly look huge next to him by fight time. i'm with you on that one, lbc. as for the others...like i said to beachdweller...we shall be at odds on those ones, my friend.
at least we can be fairly certain that liddell silva is not going the distance, so i'm hoping to see some pre-lim action too. good luck on getting the lister fight, lbc.
more excitement for me....evan tanner is fighting yushin okami at UFC 82 in march! a great comeback fight for my favourite fighter. a win and he's got himself right in the mix of top contenders right away!
team tanner!
...so i couldn't resist posting a little highlight video someone posted on sherdog before...a little old school footage of evan - the first guy to throw elbows properly on the ground (in my opinion ) and one of the few who can actually do it effectively from the guard...
Sheesh...Tito did everything but start dry humping the air and spank his own ass.....rofl..
nice fight though....Bam!
Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
Sorry Mook, I couldn't resist being a wiseass with the Tanner video.
no worries. i was sitting here stunned...totally forgetting you were a tito fan for a second...then the screen came up and i just started laughing. you got me on that one!
Hey Mook, I just signed up for the Fantasy Fight but it didn't ask me for a league name. Did I screw it up??
i don't know. i thought there was supposed to a password too, but it hasn't asked me for that yet either...hmmm...let me see if i did something wrong setting it up...
it's weird...it's showing the invitations as waiting to be accepted, but when i click on invites waiting to be accepted, it says there are none. my screen name is "battery" and that's the only one showing up under the list online. i must have screwed up when i set the thing up.
how did it work when you play in the other league you mentioned? i assume there was a password and all that...
Good luck to you my friend, this will be fun. I'm out for now, enjoy the fights.
i hope one of us wins the tires! (or the equal value...)
cannot wait for tomorrow night. it seemed surreal to see wanderlei and chuck face off...i can't believe it's finally going to happen. it's just hitting me now, and something tells me they'll be hitting each other a few times too.
Battle of the ages
Friday, December 28, 2007
THE CANADIAN PRESS
LAS VEGAS -- The old guard looks to put on a show Saturday night at UFC 79.
At 38, former UFC light-heavyweight champion Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell finally gets to step into the cage against former Pride title-holder Wanderlei (The Axe Murderer) Silva in the co-main event at the Mandalay Bay. While seven years younger, the hard-hitting Brazilian is a grizzled veteran himself having thrown punches and kicks professionally for 11 years.
Matt Hughes, meanwhile, looks to regain at least part of the welterweight belt at 34 when he takes on Canadian Georges St. Pierre for the interim title in a battle of former champions. Hughes is a proud, savvy veteran who will be getting more respect from St. Pierre in the cage than he has from bookies who have made the 26-year-old from Montreal a 2-1 favourite.
The Hughes-St. Pierre winner will decide the 170-pound title for real against Matt Serra in 2008 when the current champion recovers from a back injury. Either way, the UFC hopes to showcase St. Pierre in Montreal on April 19 in its debut show north of the border.
The Liddell-Silva matchup has had mixed martial arts fans drooling for years to see the marquee fighters from the UFC and Pride face off. But the waterworks have dried up a little with both KO artists having lost their last two fights -- Liddell to Quinton (Rampage) Jackson and Keith Jardine and Silva to Dan Henderson and Mirko (Cro Cop) Filipovic.
Hughes, for one, dismisses naysayers who point to Liddell's age and recent form.
"I just don't think people understand," he said. "If you haven't had two losses, then you haven't fought the right people, to be honest. It's just unfortunate for Chuck right now that they were two losses right in a row."
Nobody has wanted to see this fight more than UFC president Dana White, who spent six years trying to make it happen only to see both men go through a lean spell once all the obstacles to the bout were finally removed.
"Finally here we are," said White.
"I can't tell you how much this fight means to me," he told the pre-fight news conference. "Seriously, I'm shaking right now. I'm never like this."
The weigh-in was uneventful other than for Liddell and Silva, who did not make nice on the podium. Liddell didn't like Silva's jaunty attitude towards him during the traditional post-weigh-in pose and flashed a gesture at the Brazilian as he walked away. Silva objected to that and moved towards Liddell but was kept away while Liddell beckoned to bring it on.
Once the poster boy for the rival Pride organization, Silva (31-7-1) trains in Las Vegas at the UFC's gym. The Brazilian has spent the last six months there preparing for The Iceman.
"I will knock you out Saturday," he said in English. "You will see."
Responded Liddell: "I promise you. I'm going to knock you out."
Asked later if there was animosity towards Silva, Liddell said: "I don't know if I dislike him. I've just been wanting to knock out him out for a long time."
Someone is going down, that's for sure. Style make fights and Liddell-Silva could be a doozy, no matter the timing.
"He likes to come after people and I like people to come after me," said Liddell, a master counter-puncher with knockout power in both hands and feet. "And we're strikers."
Pride fighters have taken their lumps coming over to the UFC. But at his best the compact Silva can do considerable damage -- a buzzsaw with fists and knees.
Many will watch the fight to see if the two men still have it. Liddell has looked sluggish in his recent losses while Silva has absorbed a lot of punishment in his recent outings.
Liddell (20-5) doesn't need the money these days. There's only so much space for Hummers and luxury sports cars at his comfortable home in San Luis Obispo, Calif. He says he loves fighting and isn't ready to call it quits yet.
"I think I'm still performing at a level that I can win at. And so that's why I'm still fighting. When I feel I've slowed down to the point I can't compete anymore, I'm going to retire."
A poor showing against Silva and Liddell will likely hear lots of voices urging him to do just that.
The Iceman paid for a lazy punch against Jackson and got tagged. More worrying was the loss to Jardine when he seemed unable to make his trademark power pay.
Like Liddell, Hughes has already carved out his legacy and is headed to the UFC Hall of Fame. He has three kids at home and wants to spend time with them. Plus he has looked after his winnings. But he still has the urge to test himself against superior fighters.
"I'm not fighting for money anymore. I'm passed that. I'm fighting for battles... . I'm not the guy out there chasing paycheques. I'm the guy out there wanting to scrap."
With a record of 43-5, Hughes is a two-time champion who has made nine successful defences of the 170-pound crown. He's hinted that he -- mistakenly -- thought he could come up with a strategy to beat St. Pierre on the fly when they met at UFC 65 in November 2006. He couldn't and the Canadian, submitted by Hughes at UFC 50 in October 2004 for the vacant title in their first meeting, comprehensively beat him.
Hughes, whose UFC career dates back to UFC 22 in September 1999, is unlikely to make the same mistake twice. Expect him to show up Saturday night motivated and in shape.
St. Pierre, who is nigh unbeatable if on top of his game, says he has planned for every contingency.
"I do have a Plan A, a Plan B and a Plan C," he said.
St. Pierre (14-2) stumbled after winning the title, failing to prepare properly for Serra and losing the belt in his first title defence. But he seems on his game here, looking like a stone-cold assassin at the pre-fight news conference. He hardly broke a smile and was all business. "The calm before the storm," he explained.
Also Saturday on a strong undercard, light-heavyweight Lyoto Machida puts his unbeaten 11-0 record on the line on the undercard against highly touted newcomer Rameau (The African Assassin) Sokoudjou (4-1).
Did anyone catch the Wandy training session?? Sick workout regime, and jumping in that icebath was nuts. LOL!!
pretty crazy stuff...bordering on risking a heart attack, i would think! i was happy they showed it last night. i'd heard only mtv2 was showing it for some reason, but it was a nice surprise to be flipping around the channels and see it come on.
I'm "All Manador".... in case you couldn't guess....
i'm off to make picks! 3 hours til show time!!
hilarious! i just checked the league. knew it was you right away. nice sign in name, ceg. i'm "battery" (was listening to some metallica at the time )
good luck! the great thing about this sport is that you never know what's going to happen really, so any of us stands a chance of getting the most right, especially with the way they score the minutes and rounds, etc. you can pick the winner wrong, but still pick up points if you luck out on the method or time and round. lbc says he was in a league and it was fun, so i think this will add a bit more fun to watching the shows for us. not that i don't enjoy the shows already...i'm rambling...giddy for the show!
Progress is not made by everyone joining some new fad,
and reveling in it's loyalty. It's made by forming coalitions
over specific principles, goals, and policies.
Comments
Main Card:
Georges St-Pierre (170) Vs. Matt Hughes (170)
Chuck Liddell (204) Vs. Wanderlei Silva (205)
Eddie Sanchez (230) Vs. Soa Palalei (262)
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (205) Vs. Lyoto Machida (204)
Rich Clementi (155) Vs. Melvin Guillard (156)
Pre-lims:
James Irvin (205) Vs. Luis Cane (205)
Nate Mohr (155) Vs. Manny Gamburyan (155)
Dean Lister (186) Vs. Jordan Radev (185)
Tony DeSouza (170) Vs. Roan Carneiro (170)
Doug Evans (154) Vs. Mark Bocek (155)
they switched the bout order around a bit, so clementi and guillard will start off the PPV. quite a staredown between chuck and wanderlei, with wanderlei taking his shirt off, then motioning a head butt at chuck, and ending with chuck giving the finger to wanderlei as they were being seperated. huge reactions for wanderlei and georges, especially. sokoudjou got a nice welcome, and there were spatterings of boos for chuck and it's always hard to tell the boos from the "hughes", but it seemed a little more on the boos side of things today, which is a little unusual.
Georges St-Pierre (170) Vs. Matt Hughes (170)-Hughes by sub
Chuck Liddell (204) Vs. Wanderlei Silva (205)-Wandy by Ko Rd1
Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (205) Vs. Lyoto Machida -Soko by Ko Rd2
I would love to see the Lister fight to see him pull off some subs, but well see.
funny thing is I like St Pierre, and don't really like Hughes, but from a strickly fighting standpoint, I think as long as Matt doesn't let his ego get in the way and try and stand and fight, he has the advantage, but then we can also see just how much St Pierre's game has grown mentally, strategically, and technically. It's not much difference from where he's been, and possibly being the best of all time. Right now, I still think Matt is the man in the octagon at the moment though. I'm looking forward to this fight more than any other in 2007. Serra a scrub and either won of these two will destroy him when they fight again.
As for Chuck, Jardine and Jackson opened up some holes in his game that I always thought were there, he says his popularity got to him, but I think Silva has a better chance at recovering from two straight losses than Chuck. Silva is a freakin badass, agressive and comes at you, though both have amazing striking, Chuck is always backing up, countering, don't think that'll work with Silva.
In all, I want the welterweight issues to get worked out, there are a lot of great fighters waiting for their title shot, not sure any of them are on the level of St Pierre/Hughes, but I want to find out.
Welterweights and lightweights will have the best fights of 2008. Let's get is started...
Stop by:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=14678777351&ref=mf
i was imprssed with the reception sokoudjou got at the weigh ins. he already looks a fair size bigger than machida and will probabaly look huge next to him by fight time. i'm with you on that one, lbc. as for the others...like i said to beachdweller...we shall be at odds on those ones, my friend.
at least we can be fairly certain that liddell silva is not going the distance, so i'm hoping to see some pre-lim action too. good luck on getting the lister fight, lbc.
Here is my favorite Evan Tanner fight of all time!!!
http://www.gamespot.com/users/hydrolite/video_player?id=J3BnkmH95bsJuTHa
lbc, you son of a b! i'll get you for this one...haha
not my favourite tanner fight, that's for sure.
Sheesh...Tito did everything but start dry humping the air and spank his own ass.....rofl..
nice fight though....Bam!
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)
(")_(")
no worries.
Just kidding. I give great respect to all the fighters that get in there. I wish I could be that dedicated.
i don't know. i thought there was supposed to a password too, but it hasn't asked me for that yet either...hmmm...let me see if i did something wrong setting it up...
how did it work when you play in the other league you mentioned? i assume there was a password and all that...
awesome! i'm excited to play now! i invited one friend of mine in south korea, but otherwise i just posted it here for us in the thread.
we'll see who else steps up for the challenge, eh?
good luck on your picks.
i hope one of us wins the tires! (or the equal value...)
cannot wait for tomorrow night. it seemed surreal to see wanderlei and chuck face off...i can't believe it's finally going to happen. it's just hitting me now, and something tells me they'll be hitting each other a few times too.
Battle of the ages
Friday, December 28, 2007
THE CANADIAN PRESS
LAS VEGAS -- The old guard looks to put on a show Saturday night at UFC 79.
At 38, former UFC light-heavyweight champion Chuck (The Iceman) Liddell finally gets to step into the cage against former Pride title-holder Wanderlei (The Axe Murderer) Silva in the co-main event at the Mandalay Bay. While seven years younger, the hard-hitting Brazilian is a grizzled veteran himself having thrown punches and kicks professionally for 11 years.
Matt Hughes, meanwhile, looks to regain at least part of the welterweight belt at 34 when he takes on Canadian Georges St. Pierre for the interim title in a battle of former champions. Hughes is a proud, savvy veteran who will be getting more respect from St. Pierre in the cage than he has from bookies who have made the 26-year-old from Montreal a 2-1 favourite.
The Hughes-St. Pierre winner will decide the 170-pound title for real against Matt Serra in 2008 when the current champion recovers from a back injury. Either way, the UFC hopes to showcase St. Pierre in Montreal on April 19 in its debut show north of the border.
The Liddell-Silva matchup has had mixed martial arts fans drooling for years to see the marquee fighters from the UFC and Pride face off. But the waterworks have dried up a little with both KO artists having lost their last two fights -- Liddell to Quinton (Rampage) Jackson and Keith Jardine and Silva to Dan Henderson and Mirko (Cro Cop) Filipovic.
Hughes, for one, dismisses naysayers who point to Liddell's age and recent form.
"I just don't think people understand," he said. "If you haven't had two losses, then you haven't fought the right people, to be honest. It's just unfortunate for Chuck right now that they were two losses right in a row."
Nobody has wanted to see this fight more than UFC president Dana White, who spent six years trying to make it happen only to see both men go through a lean spell once all the obstacles to the bout were finally removed.
"Finally here we are," said White.
"I can't tell you how much this fight means to me," he told the pre-fight news conference. "Seriously, I'm shaking right now. I'm never like this."
The weigh-in was uneventful other than for Liddell and Silva, who did not make nice on the podium. Liddell didn't like Silva's jaunty attitude towards him during the traditional post-weigh-in pose and flashed a gesture at the Brazilian as he walked away. Silva objected to that and moved towards Liddell but was kept away while Liddell beckoned to bring it on.
Once the poster boy for the rival Pride organization, Silva (31-7-1) trains in Las Vegas at the UFC's gym. The Brazilian has spent the last six months there preparing for The Iceman.
"I will knock you out Saturday," he said in English. "You will see."
Responded Liddell: "I promise you. I'm going to knock you out."
Asked later if there was animosity towards Silva, Liddell said: "I don't know if I dislike him. I've just been wanting to knock out him out for a long time."
Someone is going down, that's for sure. Style make fights and Liddell-Silva could be a doozy, no matter the timing.
"He likes to come after people and I like people to come after me," said Liddell, a master counter-puncher with knockout power in both hands and feet. "And we're strikers."
Pride fighters have taken their lumps coming over to the UFC. But at his best the compact Silva can do considerable damage -- a buzzsaw with fists and knees.
Many will watch the fight to see if the two men still have it. Liddell has looked sluggish in his recent losses while Silva has absorbed a lot of punishment in his recent outings.
Liddell (20-5) doesn't need the money these days. There's only so much space for Hummers and luxury sports cars at his comfortable home in San Luis Obispo, Calif. He says he loves fighting and isn't ready to call it quits yet.
"I think I'm still performing at a level that I can win at. And so that's why I'm still fighting. When I feel I've slowed down to the point I can't compete anymore, I'm going to retire."
A poor showing against Silva and Liddell will likely hear lots of voices urging him to do just that.
The Iceman paid for a lazy punch against Jackson and got tagged. More worrying was the loss to Jardine when he seemed unable to make his trademark power pay.
Like Liddell, Hughes has already carved out his legacy and is headed to the UFC Hall of Fame. He has three kids at home and wants to spend time with them. Plus he has looked after his winnings. But he still has the urge to test himself against superior fighters.
"I'm not fighting for money anymore. I'm passed that. I'm fighting for battles... . I'm not the guy out there chasing paycheques. I'm the guy out there wanting to scrap."
With a record of 43-5, Hughes is a two-time champion who has made nine successful defences of the 170-pound crown. He's hinted that he -- mistakenly -- thought he could come up with a strategy to beat St. Pierre on the fly when they met at UFC 65 in November 2006. He couldn't and the Canadian, submitted by Hughes at UFC 50 in October 2004 for the vacant title in their first meeting, comprehensively beat him.
Hughes, whose UFC career dates back to UFC 22 in September 1999, is unlikely to make the same mistake twice. Expect him to show up Saturday night motivated and in shape.
St. Pierre, who is nigh unbeatable if on top of his game, says he has planned for every contingency.
"I do have a Plan A, a Plan B and a Plan C," he said.
St. Pierre (14-2) stumbled after winning the title, failing to prepare properly for Serra and losing the belt in his first title defence. But he seems on his game here, looking like a stone-cold assassin at the pre-fight news conference. He hardly broke a smile and was all business. "The calm before the storm," he explained.
Also Saturday on a strong undercard, light-heavyweight Lyoto Machida puts his unbeaten 11-0 record on the line on the undercard against highly touted newcomer Rameau (The African Assassin) Sokoudjou (4-1).
http://www.sportsnet.ca/mma/2007/12/28/liddell_ufc79/
pretty crazy stuff...bordering on risking a heart attack, i would think! i was happy they showed it last night. i'd heard only mtv2 was showing it for some reason, but it was a nice surprise to be flipping around the channels and see it come on.
I'm "All Manador".... in case you couldn't guess....
i'm off to make picks! 3 hours til show time!!
this should be funny... i don't know what i'm doing!
hilarious! i just checked the league. knew it was you right away. nice sign in name, ceg.
good luck! the great thing about this sport is that you never know what's going to happen really, so any of us stands a chance of getting the most right, especially with the way they score the minutes and rounds, etc. you can pick the winner wrong, but still pick up points if you luck out on the method or time and round. lbc says he was in a league and it was fun, so i think this will add a bit more fun to watching the shows for us. not that i don't enjoy the shows already...i'm rambling...giddy for the show!
Canada
http://www.canadastarboxing.com/cstar-barnetwork.htm
US
http://www.ufc.com/index.cfm?fa=EventDetail.SportsBars&eid=979
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)
(")_(")
I'll be avoiding the thread so as not to see spoilers. Enjoy the fights y'all!!!
sorry you are missing this one, releash. :(
not much longer to wait now!
(sorry again, releash...) :( sucky.