The Official MMA Thread

[Corey420]

Care to site your source? When did Strikeforce ever have a title challenger who was coming off a loss?

[Bucho]

The parallels between BJ and Rua are striking. Both former double champions who don't like to leave their hometowns to train with any of the top coaches at the supergyms, both regularly accused of not training hard enough over the last couple of years and just getting by on pure skill and toughness. I guess Rua has the "excuse" of his three knee surgeries, but that only goes so far, and BJ certainly seems more fired up than Rua does.

And they both face these hungry up-and-coming young beasts who've had early UFC stumbles (losses to Condit and Davis) but are currently on strong and impressive runs up the ranks in their divisions.

I'm hoping for wins for the old dogs but expecting wins for the young bucks.

[Corey420]

I see it basically the same, both fights are very difficult to pick and there are a lot of factors that can come into play. I cant see pikcing against Rory Mcdonald as I think he is currently the second best Welterweight in the class and if he keeps improving in a year or two he could easily rival GSP.

Gustafsson I expect to win with his reach timing and athleticism, but if Rua wants to take it to the ground or is able to consitently get inside on Alexander than he can win by KO. If it goes the distance the swede should have it.

[Bucho]

Couldn't have summed it up better. For a guy who looks like a hipster geek outside the octagon Rory is a scary, scary dude inside it. Seeing him with Ricci in that video made me think of American Psycho just a little bit.

Although, to be all NERD ALERT about it, for a tall guy A-Gus doesn't actually have an especially long reach, he just has such great footwork that he controls range really well, and that combines with his height to make his reach seem longer than it really it. He's 6'5" but I think he only has 77in reach vs Rua's 6'1" and 76. Condit, GSP and Nick Diaz also have 76in, so A-Gus is nothing special in that department.

Meanwhile Bones is 6'4" and up around a freakish 84" with reach. Almost as if he was MADE IN A LABORATORY!!!

[Astigos]

Originally Posted by Corey420

Care to site your source? When did Strikeforce ever have a title challenger who was coming off a loss?

Brett Rogers lost to Fedor. Rogers' next fight was against Overeem for Overeem's belt.

[Corey420]

Originally Posted by Astigos

Brett Rogers lost to Fedor. Rogers' next fight was against Overeem for Overeem's belt.

You are correct forgot about that one. But to the greater point of saying that this trend is due to purchasing Strikeforce is relating two unrelated instances. The reason they have been moving towards this trend is because of main event fights being dropped out, 8 of 12 main events were cancelled due to injury and over 100 fights in total for 2012 have been cancelled. When your money bringers arn't showing up you need to push what is trendy and popular at the moment. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

[Astigos]

Originally Posted by Corey420

You are correct forgot about that one. But to the greater point of saying that this trend is due to purchasing Strikeforce is relating two unrelated instances. The reason they have been moving towards this trend is because of main event fights being dropped out, 8 of 12 main events were cancelled due to injury and over 100 fights in total for 2012 have been cancelled. When your money bringers arn't showing up you need to push what is trendy and popular at the moment. Doesn't mean I have to like it.

I was joking mostly. I didn't actually mean the strikeforce acquisition is somehow poisoning the UFC.

As much as I may dislike the money matchups being done instead of the true ranking match ups, I can't really complain. I've never bought a PPV ever in my life.

[Astigos]

dai bahng mai thai

I mean, Henderson ftw!!!

[Bucho]

Yeah, strong performance by Benson Hendecision ... uh ... I mean Henderson. So did he have that toothpick or not?

Meanwhile Penn and Rua need to retire. Or at the very least hire Mike Dolce and drop a weight division to where they can fight guys their own size. And hire proper championship level coaches. Or just retire.

Meanwhile, meanwhile one minute Scotty Jorgenson is relegated to the FB card, the next minute he's taking home double bonuses. $130,000 on top of his contract payments for 5 minutes of action ain't too shabby.

[Astigos]

Originally Posted by Bucho

Yeah, strong performance by Benson Hendecision ... uh ... I mean Henderson. So did he have that toothpick or not?

Meanwhile Penn and Rua need to retire. Or at the very least hire Mike Dolce and drop a weight division to where they can fight guys their own size. And hire proper championship level coaches. Or just retire.

Meanwhile, meanwhile one minute Scotty Jorgenson is relegated to the FB card, the next minute he's taking home double bonuses. $130,000 on top of his contract payments for 5 minutes of action ain't too shabby.

I think he had that toothpick the whole time. I think someone would have seen the point where a toothpick was passed to him by now. The better question is did he have it in for his previous fights?

Penn certainly will. After that embarrassing performance he just needs to stay at home and be a father like he wants.

Rua is a different scenario. He's still really good, but he got clearly out sized by Jones and A-Gus which would be solved by dropping to middleweight. He looked soft at 205 last night anyway.

Both Penn and Rua have a case of the silk sheets if you know what I mean.

Jorgenson lost to Barao and Wineland. That's like getting beat by Anderson Silva and then losing to Chris Weidman. You get knocked to the back of the line but not out of the elite. Don't sleep on Scotty J!