MMA Catch All Thread.

I like Bas. A lot.

Is it just me or does he kind of come across as a know-it-all w/his "you need to do this" breakdowns of MMA? Maybe it's just a tone thing? He's a coach, so I'm probably being to harsh, but I rarely hear Collinsworth, Van Gundy, or Joe Morgan talk like that.

Top_Shelf wrote:

I like Bas. A lot.

Is it just me or does he kind of come across as a know-it-all w/his "you need to do this" breakdowns of MMA? Maybe it's just a tone thing? He's a coach, so I'm probably being to harsh, but I rarely hear Collinsworth, Van Gundy, or Joe Morgan talk like that.

Take a listen (watch) of the Gracie Breakdown on Youtube. They also stray into the "you need to do this." In this case, I think Bas is right, based on how the shin-bone is shaped.

I usually enjoy hearing Bas talk about MMA. It's one thing to hear someone who has an fairly extensive knowledge of fights from watching, but a whole different animal when a grizzled vet like Rutten, with the scars, wins, and hours in the training room he has behind his words. Even in that shin kick explanation video, he didn't come across so much as a know-it-all to me as much as he seemed to be just matter-of-factly explaining why he has trained the way he has, and why he teaches the way he does from experience.

So I fired up the DVR last night and caught the UFC Fight Night from Saturday.

If you ever have a chance to see Erick Silva, tune in. He absolutely destroyed Takenori Sato. Sato tried to take Silva down with a single. Silva, with his back to Sato (and standing on one leg), hit Sato in a head a few times with a back heel. (Try this at home. It can't be easy.) Then with Sato clinging to one of his legs, Silva beat him into unconsciousness.

Then I made the mistake of watching the main event, where Lyoto Machida backpedaled his way to a unanimous decision over Gegard Mousasi. There were a handful of punches thrown. I counted eight about midway through the second round, then put the fight on fastforward.

Somehow this was Fight of the Night. The most interesting thing about it was that Machida's now at middleweight and is angling for a title shot.

The next time someone says MMA is sooooooo much better than boxing lol, I'm going to make them watch the whole card from start to finish.

Did anyone catch the Matt Brown-Erick Silva fight over the weekend?

If not, that first round is a leading candidate for Round of the Year. It was that good.

The whole fight reminded me of the famous Korean Zombie-Leonard Garcia war from a few years back, but at a much, much higher technical level.

I watched it and was really impressed with Brown's comeback from the brutal kick to the stomach.

After the first round, it was mostly Brown on the offensive and Silva taking punishment, but sneaking in a few counters that nearly changed the tide.

A great, great fight.

My wife and I have a theory about how fights with guys who have lots of hair that flops around tends to make for more entertaining fights, as it generally appears that they're getting hit harder due to the hair. This fight seemed to reinforce our theory.

The Brown v Silva fight was epic in every sense, thought he was done for with that liver kick, then he survives gets up & rains down elbows, knee's & punches to a volume only few fighters can output. Silva took some punishment, unbelievable how he survived as long as he did. I was on my feet in the early hours of the morning (UK time) quietly cheering Brown on. Love the guy, hands down the most aggressive & exciting fighter in the UFC, would love him to win the title.

Did anyone see UFC 173 this past Saturday, the main events are hitting the ball out of the park consistently lately.

Spoiler:

TJ Dillishaw, the man is a master of movement, definitely one of the all time great performances against a total machine in Barao. The strikes TJ was throwing were from insane angles, he feinted perfectly, lept in & out with head kicks, body shots, jabs, superman punches. Talented is an understatement. Who is gonna beat him? Fair play to Barao he got schooled & kept on coming the whole fight.

Has anyone gotten the EA UFC game? And how is it? The reviews have been less than stellar, but a lot of them are also tinged by being by people who aren't MMA fans, so it's hard to tell where that ends and the gameplay reviews begin.

Tach wrote:

Has anyone gotten the EA UFC game? And how is it? The reviews have been less than stellar, but a lot of them are also tinged by being by people who aren't MMA fans, so it's hard to tell where that ends and the gameplay reviews begin.

I will write something when I get home. Short of it is I expected more but I don't regret buying it. For all it's short comings I'm enjoying it. I do feel it is horrible how much time you spend looking at load screens and videos.

There is a demo out that you can try. Does a pretty good job of showing you the finished game. Every fight is presented like you're watching either the ppv or the ultimate fighter show. The career mode is pretty lack luster. Create a fighter go on tuf fight and move on to the ppv. In between every fight you'll see a video that usually starts out with "Hey Man" and then you'll train in 3 different exercises that earn you points. The Rory MacDonald videos are especially funny cause he just seems like he was made to do them at gun point and is really uninspired. You'll spend more time watching the load screen then actually fighting. Just not a whole lot that you do that feels like its worth it. You can place sponsors on your banner, choose game plans, and increase ability scores. See your next fight offer and choose "Accept." Cause there isn't a decline option that I noticed. You can fight as a woman but you can't create a female or do a career as one.

The fighting stand up wise seems pretty good and I actually enjoy that part. The clinches and ground game seem to work pretty good in training but in actual fight time I'm just boggled. Its probably me though cause I button mash. The thing that bothers me is that the game lags during a fight. It is real bad I'm talking like 5 seconds or more it just stops like it is paused and then bam it just goes on like nothing happened. Its done it during training the few times I didn't skip them and it messed up my combo timing. I'm hoping there is something you can change in settings to fix it cause I suspect its due to it recording highlights or something.

Also the ai seems to play the same regardless of the skill set of the fighter. Boxer, judo, ect doesn't matter. They stand up and punch/kick with you and then at some point they grab you and lift you up over their head and slam you. I'm talking Zangief/Severn type of slam. You see it at the 16sec mark of this review. I agree with this review.

That said I still surprisingly enjoy the game. Punching the face of bisbing till I see blood makes me smile. Also I have yet to play against another person so it might really shine there.

That's a great breakdown. Thank you!

I mean, I know the competition sucks, but I have absolutely no interest in ever fighting Ms. Rousey. She can have my lunch money, and I will wedgie myself in deference.

It's always a bad sign when you're trying to tie up the Ref after they've stopped the fight.

Rousey is in a class all her own when it comes to women fighters. She's got 3 highly developed skillsets (Judo, striking, grappling) where most of her competition is doing good to have 2. It may be a while before they can find someone to challenge her.

Prederick wrote:

I mean, I know the competition sucks, but I have absolutely no interest in ever fighting Ms. Rousey. She can have my lunch money, and I will wedgie myself in deference.

That's a harsh attack on her and every one of her opponents. Her competition doesn't suck, she's just at a different level (similar to how Tyson, Silva, and others were for a period).

CannibalCrowley wrote:
Prederick wrote:

I mean, I know the competition sucks, but I have absolutely no interest in ever fighting Ms. Rousey. She can have my lunch money, and I will wedgie myself in deference.

That's a harsh attack on her and every one of her opponents. Her competition doesn't suck, she's just at a different level (similar to how Tyson, Silva, and others were for a period).

I'd like Rousey a lot more if she didn't have a mouth bigger than her head. She comes off like a total jerk, and with her recent statements, like a blow hard. I get that she has to sell herself, specially important in women's MMA. But she's really pushing it.

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2014/6/26...

A bunch of people have taken her up on it, including Gabi Garcia. But so far, Ronda has not really taken up the challenge.

http://www.graciemag.com/2014/06/fem...

If and when she gets beat I can't wait to see how she handles it. Not a fan of her attitude but I do enjoy watching her fight. Curious to see who will really test her. The Gina fight just seems like a cash grab to me since she has been out of the fight game since cyborg crushed her.

Cyborg is a fight I'd like to see but she got busted using steroids, which surprised prob no one.

Top_Shelf wrote:

That's a great breakdown. Thank you!

Also I finally got a chance a while back to play EA UFC against a friend and it was super fun. Even though I knew a bit more how to play the fights were really back and forth. The ground game was even a fun tug a war for control. I am really surprised there isn't a PPV mode where you pick all the fighters on a card and the winner is whoever wins the most of the matches.

Meh, her statements aren't out of line when compared against other fighters past and present. I also find it interesting that only she and Jones Jones get serious flak for their remarks.

I would like to see her in a straight up BJJ match though. Preferably in a ruleset that is serious about preventing stalling (unless she can get Rickson in her corner to make chicken noises). Rener is constantly praising her ground game so I wouldn't count her out.

I think her comments were a little beyond what's usually being said. To flat out say that I can be any woman in any ruleset is pretty bold. There are some very high level BJJ women out the these days.

The difference here is that sh*t talking another fighter with whom you probably already have a match setup is one thing. sh*t talking an entire sector of the martial arts population is a different thing, particularly when you will not be fighting any of them in the near future.

The more annoying part is she's had offers, none of which she's willing to take because they don't pay as well as the UFC, which is a convenient out for her. If there's one thing I know about this world, it's that there's always someone better.

I'd love to see her in a grappling match though as well. Whether it's IBJJF or some other ruleset I don't really care. My hope is she'll get a match in a Metamoris in the near future, they're getting more hype and money these days.

CannibalCrowley wrote:

Meh, her statements aren't out of line when compared against other fighters past and present. I also find it interesting that only she and Jones Jones get serious flak for their remarks.

I would like to see her in a straight up BJJ match though. Preferably in a ruleset that is serious about preventing stalling (unless she can get Rickson in her corner to make chicken noises). Rener is constantly praising her ground game so I wouldn't count her out.

There are plenty of other fighters besides her that come off as an ass. The sh*t talking is my least favorite part of the sport. With the Jones and Cormier brawl it starts to look more and more like the pro-wrestling I watched as a kid.

Bellator Bonnar vs Tito

Did Ali talk too much trash? Because frankly, most fighters today are well under the amount he spouted and not many people claim that he went overboard.

CannibalCrowley wrote:

Did Ali talk too much trash? Because frankly, most fighters today are well under the amount he spouted and not many people claim that he went overboard.

Yeah, he did. Again, the lameness of Rousey's comments are not in the trash talking itself. The lameness comes from the non-committal nature of them. Because she is not going to go and do this thing she boasts she can do, because it will not pay her as well as UFC.

If you even dream of beating me, you'd better wake up and apologize.

Ali's trash talk seems on a different level. If it is all as witty and humorous like that then I would fine it refreshing. Never really followed much boxing to be honest.

Then you've missed "gems" such as:

Ninety-eight percent of my people are for me. They identify with my struggle. ... If I win, they win. I lose, they lose. Anybody black who thinks Frazier can whup me is an Uncle Tom
It's hard to be humble when you're as great as I am!
I am the greatest. I said that even before I knew I was.
Joe Frazier is an Uncle Tom. He works for the enemy.

The tone doesn't seem as harsh, for one he isn't talking about ending someone's career, crippling, spanking someone's wife on the butt and spitting. I can do without all the talk of murder, rape, being gay, pre-fight brawl, post-fight brawl, calling each other p*ssy or Female Doggo. Arrogance is annoying but doesn't bother me as much as the other stuff. If anything it makes me interested in watching to see if a fighter can back up what they say. The other stuff? I don't want to see or hear it. Especially when it is just fight hype and they hug it out like best friends afterwards.

I'm on my phone at work but I will try and provide links when I get home.

Oh he did plenty of that as well. As for his above statements not being harsh, start calling black guys Uncle Tom and I believe they'll inform you that it's a harsh slur.

CannibalCrowley wrote:

Oh he did plenty of that as well. As for his above statements not being harsh, start calling black guys Uncle Tom and I believe they'll inform you that it's a harsh slur.

Yeah if I said it. Ali being a black celebrity would get quite a few passes from more than a few. Black people call each other worse in my opinion all the time.

At that time and considering Frazier's upbringing there wasn't much worse that Ali could have said (the Uncle Tom comments and the other antics). This is evidenced by the hatred that Joe had for Ali after their three fights. Even worse, Ali knew it because they had a lot of contact before the series began. In fact, Frazier had been giving Ali money and helping him out during the time he was banned from boxing.

On an MMA note, has anyone else given up on TUF?

On trash talk.

I'm cool with it as long as the 2 don't like ea other. Fake, WWE-style stuff will keep this sport a joke in mainstream folks' eyes.

CannibalCrowley wrote:

At that time and considering Frazier's upbringing there wasn't much worse that Ali could have said (the Uncle Tom comments and the other antics). This is evidenced by the hatred that Joe had for Ali after their three fights. Even worse, Ali knew it because they had a lot of contact before the series began. In fact, Frazier had been giving Ali money and helping him out during the time he was banned from boxing.

On an MMA note, has anyone else given up on TUF?

Many seasons ago. That show got downright embarrassing. Though I may have to watch the new one. Carlson Jr is supposed to be on it, and he gave me my purple so I think I'm obligated.

Nate Diaz. Or, Diaz The Younger.

CannibalCrowley wrote:

On an MMA note, has anyone else given up on TUF?

I got hooked way back in Season 5 (when Nate Diaz won) and watched the next several. The Amir Sadollah season was a lot of fun, and I watched it up through the Roy Nelson/Brendan Schaub season (the one where Rampage and Rashad Evans were the coaches). There are quite a few fighters from those shows who are still active, and I try to catch their bouts when they're on.

I gave up on TUF for three main reasons: the fights are generally pretty bad, the fighters are a series of interchangeable meatheads for the most part and each season seems pretty much like the one right before it, right down to how the shows are scripted, set, cast and filmed. There's a ton of live MMA on TV these days, and there's better TV out there. Can't watch everything, and TUF doesn't make my cut any longer.

Edited because I can't keep my Diaz brothers straight.