mma The MMA Thread!

[D. S. Veteran]

Well she can't jump to the UFC can she? Strikeforce just doesn't have enough cards for her to keep active and win money. One should also consider that it would probably knock women's MMA back a couple of pegs when they're most dominant champion decides to go off and do "fake" fighting.

In other news, did anyone watch UFC on Versus 3? Ended up being a beast of a card, full of finishes. As for the main event, I'm divided. On one hand, Sanchez was the agressor, dictating the pace. But he was getting totally beaten by Kampmann with better technique. It was a Leonard Garcia style-decision in the end. If Kampmann had been a bit more agressive instead he would have won the decision in the eyes of the judges even tought he clearly won the fight (Sanchez bleeding like a fountain in the end was like Zoila Frausto after "beating" Mega Megu by decision... a clear winner there).

[Lovell]

You shouldn't have to win in the eyes of the judges when you clearly won the fight, the judges need to

[D. S. Veteran]

The judges need to learn more about MMA in order to understand that effective striking isn't the same thing as wiffing 80% of your punches but looking good. Unless some organization with clot starts doing something (coff UFC coff) the judges will keep on thinking they are scoring boxing matches or something.

[D. S. Veteran]

So Dan Henderson beat Rafael Cavalcante for the Strikeforce LHW title. Ouch. I know Strikeforce is giving Henderson a boost to justify the amount of money they had to throw at him, giving his second title shot after just one win at LHW and a loss for the MW title but how does this pan out for the future? Henderson is 40 years old and has very limited competition for him at Strikeforce, probably only Gegard Mousasi can beat him. With the title changing hands 5 times in 5 matches there is no time to build up a fan following of a certain champion and since there aren't many (one) interesting or even competitive matches available, I think it may end up being worse for them than if Feij?o won the title and they gave Henderson or King Mo a rematch.

Also Liz Carmouche put a hurtin' on Marloes Coenen. That was fun to watch. Maybe they'll have go up a weight class and fight for the title as per SF Bizarro Rules of title Contention. That or Gina Carano (if only she would slim down and fight Miesha Tate... one can dream).

[Anibal P]

Watching Carmouche whip Coenen was indeed fun, but her lack of experienced was what did her in getting caught in that choke.

The Kennedy - Manhoef fight was good too, let's see if they give Kennedy a rematch for the belt here soon

[D. S. Veteran]

Watching Carmouche whip Coenen was indeed fun, but her lack of experienced was what did her in getting caught in that choke.

The Kennedy - Manhoef fight was good too, let's see if they give Kennedy a rematch for the belt here soon

She also had mount but didn't know any way to finish the fight besides pitter-pater punches.

[+StevoFC MVC]

She also had mount but didn't know any way to finish the fight besides pitter-pater punches.

I don't think it's that she didn't know how to do anything else... As you can see Coenen has crazy submission skills, she had to be careful not to be caught earlier in the fight like that.

I thought the Strikeforce card was good. I still enjoy those fights a lot more lately than UFC. The Strikeforce card in April looks sweet.

Bellator was on Saturday night also. They have 12 weeks of tournament coverage (for those in the US) on MTV2.

[D. S. Veteran]

I don't think it's that she didn't know how to do anything else... As you can see Coenen has crazy submission skills, she had to be careful not to be caught earlier in the fight like that.

I thought the Strikeforce card was good. I still enjoy those fights a lot more lately than UFC. The Strikeforce card in April looks sweet.

Bellator was on Saturday night also. They have 12 weeks of tournament coverage (for those in the US) on MTV2.

If you get submitted from the bottom while in the mount, you are really really bad and should be anywhere near a ring/cage. Strikeforce doesn't allow elbows to the head on the ground so either you drop bombs or you go for the submission to finish the fight. She seemed content to coast to the end of the round.

Also it seems like her submission defense was lacking. In some replays, it seems like she tapped in the 2nd with the standing guillotine.

Just read what Henderson got paid for the fight (no win bonus). Strikeforce will make him fight Fedor or something soon to milk some of that money out of him.

[D. S. Veteran]

Gina Carano was doing some reshoots for Haywire.

She looks positively fattie, fat, fat. Nowhere near fighting form.

[Rappy Veteran]

Gina Carano was doing some reshoots for Haywire.

She looks positively fattie, fat, fat. Nowhere near fighting form.

still would :D but yeah she needs to lose some weight!

[D. S. Veteran]

Come on, do you think she can make 145lb/65kg? Maybe 155 or even 170 sure... Forget about 135 for a fight with Miesha Tate. Just bring Zoila Gurgel from Bellator to SF or ship Miesha Tate there.

[Rappy Veteran]

here's the rest from that site!

[D. S. Veteran]

I hope she's fat only in these reshoots or else that movie is going to flop badly :shiftyninja:

[D. S. Veteran]

I guess this thread should have a new title now that

UFC BOUGHT STRIKEFORCE

HOLY ****. I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT!

[Rappy Veteran]

I guess this thread should have a new title now that

UFC BOUGHT STRIKEFORCE

HOLY ****. I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE IT!

yeah seems thats over now!

[D. S. Veteran]

Unless we start talking about Bellator. Problem being they have maybe 5 interesting fighters: Hector Lombard, Eddie Alvarez, Dan Hornbuckle, Zoila Frausto and Megumi Fujii.

[Rappy Veteran]

does this mean Gina is contracted to UFC now?

[+StevoFC MVC]

*sigh* they will ruin Strikeforce now...

[D. S. Veteran]

does this mean Gina is contracted to UFC now?

She has a contract with Strikeforce which is owned by Zuffa. The future of women's MMA hangs in the balance because, as Dana White said, there aren't enough good fighters around to create a division, let alone two divisions (135 and 145). Anyone who thinks otherwise should look no further than the last Marloes Coennen title fight. Did you even know who her opponent was? Do you know who Zoila Gurgel fought at 125 in the last Bellator event? Gina needs to get in shape and get her ass back in the cage to draw some attention to her side of the sport. Same thing for Miesha Tate.

If the UFC decides not to pick it up (sad day) then I think Bellator will swoop in and take over the female MMA niche. But they'll probably need to ger realistic and cut the 115lb & 125 weight classes or import a truckload of talent from Japan where those weight classes are more prevalent.

[D. S. Veteran]

*sigh* they will ruin Strikeforce now...

I'm sure they can't do a worse job than what Scott Coker & company were doing: Gran Prix getting delayed, "shady" fight offers to tournament alternates in order to get Fedor back in, the absolute misshandling of almost all prospects, their inability to make one of their top stars actually fight someone... I could go on but why would anyone see the purchase of Strikeforce as ruinous? Dana White has proven to be a savy businessman that has made the UFC thrive and continue to grow. Now more fighters will get the chance to fight on the biggest stage and prove their worth, making a ton of money while at it. Do you not think that almost every fighter on the SF roster or pretty much any other organization wanted to make the jump to the UFC? The only guys that didn't want that were the guys that had some kind of beef with DW or the UFC. It's not like they wanted to keep playing in the AFL if there is a NFL contract waiting.

[Rappy Veteran]

Will be interesting to see how they renegotiate Fedor's deal...Zuffa dealing with M1

[Anibal P]

I'm sure they can't do a worse job than what Scott Coker & company were doing: Gran Prix getting delayed, "shady" fight offers to tournament alternates in order to get Fedor back in, the absolute misshandling of almost all prospects, their inability to make one of their top stars actually fight someone... I could go on but why would anyone see the purchase of Strikeforce as ruinous? Dana White has proven to be a savy businessman that has made the UFC thrive and continue to grow. Now more fighters will get the chance to fight on the biggest stage and prove their worth, making a ton of money while at it. Do you not think that almost every fighter on the SF roster or pretty much any other organization wanted to make the jump to the UFC? The only guys that didn't want that were the guys that had some kind of beef with DW or the UFC. It's not like they wanted to keep playing in the AFL if there is a NFL contract waiting.

Also look at what they did when they bought WEC and how well that went, now whether or not they merge Strikeforce into UFC, or keep em semi separate is the real question

[D. S. Veteran]

Will be interesting to see how they renegotiate Fedor's deal...Zuffa dealing with M1

Like I said in the other thread, either M-1 plays ball or they pack up their stuff. The UFC does not co-promote. Period. And with Fedor on a 2 fight losing streak, their sole leverage is greatly diminished.

Also look at what they did when they bought WEC and how well that went, now whether or not they merge Strikeforce into UFC, or keep em semi separate is the real question

The WEC merger was again a business decision. While the hardcore MMA fans who know fighters and followed the WEC religiously and worshipped Jos? Aldo well might disagree, from the perspective of the casual fan, it wasn't working out. They achieved their best results with the UFC production team on Aldo vs Faber and still didn't even come close to basic UFC numbers. Aldo is an amazing fighter as is Dominick Cruz, Faber and many other and they needed the exposure and paydays that come with fighting in the UFC. The problem that they is having with the WEC merger is that it has a very large roster but relatively few events to put those fighters on. The FW and BW guys are doing OK but there just haven't been enough fights to put them all on. It didn't help that some of the UFC LW roster decided to move down to FW now that the oportunity presented itself. But it's getting there. TUF 14 is about BW and FW and will probably be headlined by Faber vs Cruz. Dana White has plans to put more events in 2011 and will probably also shift some guys that would probably be fired for losing or to thin rosters to the Strikeforce for the moment.

There is no doubt the Strikeforce will be merged as soon as their deal with Showtime ends. The UFC brand is the only brand for the Dana White (as said during the WEC merger same for Strikeforce) and keeping Strikeforce around for more time than necessary would only just dilute that brand. And that's not good for a business that wants to expand globally.

[Anibal P]

Like I said in the other thread, either M-1 plays ball or they pack up their stuff. The UFC does not co-promote. Period. And with Fedor on a 2 fight losing streak, their sole leverage is greatly diminished.

The WEC merger was again a business decision. While the hardcore MMA fans who know fighters and followed the WEC religiously and worshipped Jos? Aldo well might disagree, from the perspective of the casual fan, it wasn't working out. They achieved their best results with the UFC production team on Aldo vs Faber and still didn't even come close to basic UFC numbers. Aldo is an amazing fighter as is Dominick Cruz, Faber and many other and they needed the exposure and paydays that come with fighting in the UFC. The problem that they is having with the WEC merger is that it has a very large roster but relatively few events to put those fighters on. The FW and BW guys are doing OK but there just haven't been enough fights to put them all on. It didn't help that some of the UFC LW roster decided to move down to FW now that the oportunity presented itself. But it's getting there. TUF 14 is about BW and FW and will probably be headlined by Faber vs Cruz. Dana White has plans to put more events in 2011 and will probably also shift some guys that would probably be fired for losing or to thin rosters to the Strikeforce for the moment.

There is no doubt the Strikeforce will be merged as soon as their deal with Showtime ends. The UFC brand is the only brand for the Dana White (as said during the WEC merger same for Strikeforce) and keeping Strikeforce around for more time than necessary would only just dilute that brand. And that's not good for a business that wants to expand globally.

What the UFC could do is either do a tournament, better run than the Strikefoce tournament, or better yet, do more TV shows with lesser names while building up to the monthly PPV events, the one thing everyone liked about WEC and to some extent Strikeforce was that they were NOT a $50 PPV event, you could just turn on your TV and watch the event, and Spike constantly running the same old fights does get old after a while. HDnet has some really good shows from a few of the lesser known MMA leagues that helps, but in all honesty there is just not enough current MMA on TV for the fans

[D. S. Veteran]

The ratings for UFC on Versus say otherwise. Without some king of mainstream deal, putting on free events isn't working out because not everybody has Versus (like not everybody had Showtime). Also the build up to a PPV only works with constant shows like the WWE does where every week there is something new happening. The lead up for UFC 121? UFC 116, not some Fight Night card. It isn't something that you can apply to MMA currently. I know Dana wants to put on maybe 1 event a week with a couple of them being free but there just isn't enough quality talent to make those free shows not suck. Are people stocked for Fight Night 24? Were people stocked for the Challenger's Cards? No. The UFC makes their money by selling PPV and stacking them with good fights. Strikeforce just filled the undercard with local "talent" and put all their eggs in the main event basket which is why their best ratins are bellow the best WEC ratings.

And I doubt the UFC will adopt the tournament model because frankly it sucks for MMA. Injuries, alternates, bracket creation, etc etc. So many things to go wrong. If they made a tournament with Cain Velasquez starting at one end fighting Ubereem, Carwin and JDS and in the other Pat Barry fighting Chad Griggs, Struve and McCorkle and Barry breezed to the final how would they sell that on a PPV? They wouldn't. That's why Strikeforce was doing everything in their power, shady or not, to get Fedor back in the tournament so they could sell the final fight.

Now with pretty much every Top 20 fighter in every weightclass under Zuffa rule, it makes rank based matchmaking an even more sounder solution. Slay the guy above you in the pecking order, take his place.