MMA Thread

[Marshmallo]

Bellator 93

Quite a weird show, lots of little showcase fights then a fantastic main event. Jansen probably just about did enough to take it. Held will be great one day, he's still very young and if he keeps working on his striking he could be one of the best LWs in the world. I give Jansen no chance against Chandler though. That's because Chandler is incredible though.

I was hoping to see Page get sparked out, he's a cocky fucker. I saw him on some UK MMA show in his second fight and before it he said "I'm a mix between Anderson Silva and Jon Jones", I shit you not. His 3rd fight over in the SFL was just him ripping the pish. Thursday was the best he's looked by far but if someone of quality gets in there with him he's going to get brutally KO'd. I'd guess they'll put him and that other WW who win in the next tournament.

[The Gudderman]

I have no idea what a botten is, but if you're trying to say he is an absolute dick then i agree.

I work in Fife and they cannae talk properly so they call their baton a botten. So, you are correct. He is a dick.

[DarkBlue62]

I thought that Pacheco was about to take Pierres arm home with him!

[Christophe]

WSOF2 Prelims on Sherdog tonight. Probably watch these live and download the NBC card tomorrow.

[Christophe]

lol scrap that. prelims started at 2! Main show on now at 6.30. will just catch up tomorrow

Edited March 23, 2013 by Christophe

[Marshmallo]

WSOF started at 6.30pm UK time?

[Christophe]

Made a complete c**t of that lads. Went the wrong way with the time difference for some bizarre reason even though it made no sense whatsoever time wise and i use the difference every week for various sports..... Had a stressful day lol. prelims on sherdog from 10. NBC card 2.30am GMT.

Edited March 23, 2013 by Christophe

[YER SISTERS YER MAW]

It might be old news but....

http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/blogs/mma-cagewriter/michigan-mma-fighter-fakes-own-death-ruse-discovered-233653332--mma.html

We're not experts on faking our own death, but it would seem you might want to avoid getting arrested and charged with armed robbery and assault with intent to murder less than a month after pulling off your ruse.

That challenge, however, was apparently too much for Charles Rowan. The 25-year-old MMA fighter from Michigan was recently hauled in by police after they alleged he robbed a store named "Guns and Stuff" with his girlfriend Rosalinda Martinez and friend Michael Bowman.

Seeing Rowan's mug shot on the news came as a surprise to his promoters Christo Piliafas and Scott DiPonio. Both say they had been told by Martinez and Bowman in late February that the amateur heavyweight had died in a car accident and that they had helped raise over $1,000 for his funeral costs.

From the Associated Press:

Rowan's fifth career fight was scheduled for February in Traverse City. That night, DiPonio said, Martinez called from Rowan's phone number to tell him that her boyfriend had been involved in a fatal car wreck on the way to the event.

A distraught DiPonio and his girlfriend hopped in their car the next day and made the lengthy trek to Gladwin, where they were met by ''young kids and grandparents crying.''

''I thought for sure Charlie was dead. I mean, these people were hysterically crying,'' said DiPonio, who gave the family $150 for expenses on the spot.

Two weeks ago, Piliafas and DiPonio helped raise $1,350 in proceeds and donations through their benefit event, ''Fight for Charlie.''

Rowan had a career record of 1-3 and his rap sheet is equally as poor. He has past convictions for failing to register as a sex offender and delivery and manufacture of marijuana.

[ICTChris]

Dan Hardy has had to pull out of his fight on UFC on Fox 7 as he has a Wolff heart beat and wouldn't get passed by the California Athletic Commission.

[Marshmallo]

WSOF 2

That was a cracking show.

Loved the main event, just two big guys throwing hard and looking to each other out. Rumble looked good at HW, Arlovski obviously isn't what he used to be but that was still a very high calibre opponent for his HW debut and he could easily have stopped him. I definitely had him winning 29-28.

Big win for Moraes over Nam as well. Very impressive performance, and that's him now won two tough bouts in a row. He was very, very quick and the kick to finish it was class. I've no idea what else they've got to give him but I hope he's fighting on either the third or fourth show.

The big downside of the night was Branch-Filho. Simply put, Filho should never have been in there. I read that he'd missed his flight due to a panic attack and had been flown in on a later one for this. He looked as bad as anyone I've seen in a major promotion for a long time. He just offered nothing at all. It should've been stopped in the second round when Branch had him in the crucifix. It's tough to tell if Branch impressed or not here, he was essentially fighting the ghost of Filho. I hope Filho retires, it's shame given what he achieved early but all he'll be remembered for is being a punching bag here and the two strange Sonnen fights.

Burkman-Simpson was good sensible matchmaking, decent fight for a midcard match on a show like this. Burkman looked absolutely fantastic, brutal finish and a big win. It's clear he wants no part of Fitch, IMO it'd be a mismatch anyway but his interview afterwards was pretty awkward for big Bas.

Gaethje impressed in the opener, he may lack a bit of power but his striking looks class and he can obviously wrestle as well. Beating Cavalcante in his 8th fight is no mean feat. Bas got a bit confused in the interview but I'm guessing it's Volkmann they've got lined up for him next if these two don't rematch, another step up and it'd be interesting to see how he'd do in that one.

Very professional set up there. I really like Bas despite him getting a couple of names wrong, he knows the technical stuff inside out and he's a funny guy. Harris is slick as the play by play guy too. I'll certainly be looking out for these events in future.

[DomDom]

My own thoughts on World Series of Fighting 2...

JC Cavalcante vs. Justin Gaethje

Gaethje comes into the fight with a 7-0-0 record which is interesting, but Cavalcante should be a stern test for the guy. If he gets through this, it's a good victory I'd say. Felt sorry for Calvacante. He was ready to keep going, but the and the cut wasn't in too bad a place. Gaethje did all he could do though, so you can't take away from his performance in his win. He was pretty much beating the shit out of Calvacante in this one, and it was the impressive showing against a decent fighter that he was looking for.

Josh Burkman vs. Aaron Simpson

Simpson took a hellacious beating in this one. It started ominously for Simpson when he took the centre of the cage right away and got clocked. Coming out of the clinch Burkman was landing some big shots and Simpson just didn't have an answer of this at all. This guy fighting Fitch should be fun.

Paulo Filho vs. David Branch

This showing from Filho was an absolute embarrassment. There had to be at LEAST one 10-8 round in there. In the second round especially, Branch just seemed to have free reign to do whatever the f**k he wanted in there. He was changing position and just moving from one thing to another and doing so with complete ease, which was probably the most concerning thing. The commentators seemed to insinuate that Filho wasn't really interested in this one, and you can see why they thought this. In the third round there seemed to be a wee bit more fight in him, but he was completely fucked. Surprised that all three judges didn't have it at least 30-26.

Tyson Nam vs. Marlon Moraes

Good showing from Moraes in this one. He was landing a good range of striking. Everything you could ask for. I thought it looked like the head kick missed on first viewing and then watching it again, it was actually brilliantly connected. The way it looks like it missed makes it clear just how brutal it was. What a shot.

Anthony "Rumble" Johnson vs. Andrei Arlovski



This was a good bit of fun here. Rumble did edge it for me. I thought Arlovski was doing a much better job in round two with his counter striking. Rumble's power can be big though. I thought that Rumble should have went for the kill more when he was going for takedowns. I remember that Arlovski's takedown defending was always something which did well for him. It didn't hurt him in the end though.

[Christophe]

WSOF2

Prelims were great, not a bad fight on there.

Presentation/Look etc: The cage looked a bit bigger than in other organisations, dunno if it just looked like that or not. Good to hear from Big Bas, even if he fluffed a few lines and his post-fight interviews were pretty painful. I'm not even sure he asked questions to most of those guys, just gives a cliched comment about how he saw the fight then thrust the mic in their face! They'll be fine if they keep him out of the cage and just doing pre-fight analysis and commentary. Not sure what Sefo will have made of his matchmaking during the post fight interviews as well. The ring announcer had a few odd nuances, announcing guys as having ''heavy hands'', ''a jiu jitsu fighter, but also has good boxing skills'', ''CAN YOU FEEL IT'' etc. weird. The HD stream i downloaded looked really slick, great cam work too, just looked really professional all round. great job. Crowd weren't really into it much though which was a shame.

JZ Cavalcante vs Justin Gaethje: Great first minute, both guys just really wanting to hurt the other. Gaethje was bringing it more though and started dominating the round. Gaethje looked really good here, first i've heard of the kid but really excited to see him again. Got to love guys that just launch into knees and flop around all over the place afterwards. Deep cut can see why they stopped it despite JZ's protestations that is was nowhere near his eye.

I like the Fitch announcement prior to the Burkman-Simpson fight, added to it. The main commentator joins in the bollock-dropping here by telling us the winner will face Aaron Fitch at WSOF3.

Burkman vs Simpson: Never been a fan of Simpson, a pretty boring fighter for me. Time to hang them up maybe as he's approaching 40. Burkman looked good here, nice punches landing. Dropping the hands a la King Mo all over the place. Perfectly placed knee finishes it. He looked to be gassing after a couple of minutes though, will need to work on that for the Fitch fight. Either way Fitch grapples his way to that fight for me. WTF was Burkman going on about a title fight for, there are no WSOF champions?! And Harris and Simpson are the two best welters outside the UFC? please!

At this stage this is an event of the year contender.

Branch vs Filho: What happened to Filho's ground game? He just lay there, didn't work at all for three rounds! 10-9 Branch first round. Second round was some brutal pounding, Branch was just destroying Filho. Definite 10-8 round there. Should have been stopped when Branch had him in the crucifix and then again when he started counting his unanswered punches, he got to 18 FFS! Third round, Filho comes back out and just falls down again. I'd go 10-8 on the last round too. I wouldn't expect anyone to put Filho back in a cage after this showing, just embarrassing. Branch doesn't come out with any glory either for not being able to put the fight away. Garbage fight. Two judges don't give a single 10-8 round, WHAT THE f**k?! There's two for me in there, you could argue a 10-7 in that second round. If you don't score even ONE, you need to go home and have a read of the rules.

Nam vs Moraes: This is an excellent fight on paper, two guys who could be top 10 fighters at 135 in UFC for me. Moraes movement is very good early on, and BAM nice head kick, it's over. Excellent showing from Moraes. I'll take that top 10 comment back for Moraes and say top 5. WSOF have a gem on their hands here if they can keep him. Watching the replay, one of the punches that follows is a clear back of the head shot. No mention of it from the commentary team.

Great fight to get the event back on track after the Filho stinker.

Arlovski vs Johnson: Johnson comes out looking BIG, lord knows how he used to make WW. Arlovski probably with the better hands in the first round, but Johnsons clinch and takedown edge it for me. 10-9 Johnson. johnson looks to be gassing but the last 30 seconds probably seal it if there was any doubt. Second round is a good round, Arlovski not getting as much off and not doing any damage when he does. Johnson happy to wrestle, the first ref break up is far to early, still some good clinching for position going in there. Johnson is out of juice and Arlovski's punching is sloppy. Johnson took some hard shots towards the end of the round, and Arlovski's take down defence is good. Johnson comes out possessed after the nut shot but then goes for the takedown again and just holds onto Arlovski! 10-9 Arlovski for me in that one, great back and forth round. Both guys look exhausted in the third, don't know what Johnson is doing just shooting in and holding him again, his corner is going nuts. Fight just kind of peters out. Third round ruins the fight for me, just nothing happening. Johnson saves the fight from being completely boring. Arlovski was very disappointing. 29-28 from all three judge is correct (Bas calling for the first round to be a 10-8!)

Want to see Johnson back at LHW now though, he's not got the cardio to carry the extra weight at HW.

[DomDom]

Thought there was a good case for the first round being a 10-8 as well in the Filho fight.

I quite liked the commentary, from a comedy standpoint. There was a good point in the Simpson/Burkman fight where Rutten was talking about Simpson using his reach and standing with him. Which worked well evidently.

[DarkBlue62]

[Marshmallo]

Was hoping for decent enough odds on either Awad or Zayats in Bellator tomorrow night to make a bet on either man worthwhile, but unfortunately I think they've priced them up about right.

[Christophe]

Bellator 94...

Enjoyed Newton v Zayats, back and forth match. Scored it the same as the judges.

Awad-Rickels, how the hell can you decide a guy isn't going to carry on because he didn't pop back up when he knew the round was over? It was a pretty even fight and i would have been very interested to see who was going to bring it more in the third, we were robbed of a potentially good final 5 minutes of this one. Chandler eats him up in the title fight anyway for me

[Marshmallo]

Gustaffson's out, not good news for that card at all.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

Gustaffson's out, not good news for that card at all.

Has it actually been confirmed? Can't see anything saying that he is actually out yet.

[DomDom]

Seen a UFC News thing on my Twitter saying it.

[Shuggie_Murray7]

Pearson vs Couture bumped to main event now?

At least Conor McGregor might make the main card now!