What’s all the hubbub? I thought you were retiring. After your last whine-fest, I was hoping we wouldn’t see your name in the news again.
So here’s what I think, as if anyone cares
This pic is by Little Green Hippie Jul on Deviantart.com. FYI https://littlegreenhippiejul.deviantart.com/
I took a week off, reading the stuff people wrote about Edgar-Henderson, and came to accept the result. Before the judges’ scores were announced I told Clint I thought Henderson had won, but I also didn’t think that a decision for Edgar would have been out of order given the sheer number of whiffs Henderson threw out. That kid missed shitloads of strikes. But whatever. I rewatched the fight, and then watched some more. Then FX had Henderson-Guida and Maynard-Edgar 3 on tonight, and I sat peering like a dope at that. And here’s what I think:
Rematch Edgar and Henderson as soon as you can.
Frankie Edgar has shown that he has the ability to fight through every adversity and come out on top. He was put in a position that would have killed a lesser fighter against Henderson last weekend, and fought through to the end. He was annihilated by Gray Maynard in their second fight, and battled back yet again. He was annihilated against Maynard the third time around, and didn’t just survive, he came back to knock Maynard out. Why Maynard isn’t at 170 is a mystery to me, by the way, as a counter to the “Edgar should be at 145″ crowd. Gray tires in later rounds, that is without question.
So because he defended, or drew, for his belt three times, he deserves an immediate rematch. The fight he lost his belt on, no matter what you say, was no fucking way a dominant win for “Smooth”. Edgar deserves a shot to get his strap back. Any result that’s not a dismissive 10 second KO will just improve his value at 145. He can go down with a story. He deserves this. Henderson deserves it too! He deserves to have a shot at finishing the fight and legitimizing his belt.
Edgar fought two rematches for his belt. One for Henderson will not only be a great fight for the UFC marketing titan, but a great fight, as both guys go 100% til the world ends.
The nun is for Henderson, since he loves whaling on that fucking bible all the time. If it wasn’t for that he’d easily be my favorite fighter. But the whole religious thing leaves a gross slimy taste. Ah well, no one’s perfect. Edgar’s from New Jersey of all things.
UFC 144: You can hear the grunts
Japan has hosted some amazing events over the years. Last night’s UFC 144 was pretty badass, following tradition. As everyone and their brother noted, the silence between action was pretty wild. Being able to hear the corners yelling, and the fighters grunts and growls, was bizarre.
Anthony Pettis is a scary man. That “over the shoulder” kick seems to be gaining a lot of momentum. Joe Lauzon, on the other hand, reminded me of when Dustin Hazelett decided to eschew his grappling and stand with Josh Koscheck. Splattered.
Rampage, Akiyama, Gomi, Kid Yamamoto, Kongo. A selection of dudes who need to go. Maybe not all, but man, poor gamplans, out of shape, old, whatever. Kongo of course is still relatively young, but the rest of these dudes need to either radically reshape their games or move on. Rampage just generally looked fat and terrible, like a little Bob Sapp. He had a couple moments, but overall just disappointed. Akiyama clearly has the skill and strength at 170, but he stood there like he was in a bodybuilding competition half the time instead of wading in and blasting Shields. He was trying to load up for the big KO, but time ran out while he was being tapped repeatedly on the face and calf. Kid Y is a bummer to watch now…the game seems to have just passed him by. Kongo, I don’t get. He could have easily (I know, I know, I’m not a fighter and I can’t say, but whatever) taken Hunt down and G’n'P’d him for 15 minutes. He’s actually freaking good at that. But instead he stood and got knocked out. Gameplan, gameplan, gameplan.
Tim Boetsch looked terrible in his fight with Yushin Okami. I know he won. But the majority of the fight he looked god-awful, getting owned by Thunder. I give The Barbarian mad credit though in one regard: he knew he had to go for broke and he actually did it, desperately flinging leather and connecting. As Jim Genia said over at MMA Convert: “Tim Boetsch getting dominated and coming back to utterly crush his foe is the reason I watch mixed martial arts.” As usual, Jim knows what he’s talking about. You should read his stuff all the time.
Is it me, or is Joe Rogan just getting more and more obnoxious to listen to? His voice was just grating the hell out of my ears all night.
To the Underdogs go the spoils
Nobody likes you Cup Cheick, please go back to France.
Nothing like a hillbilly beat down.
Sherdog’s Fight Finder new look
So I wanted to look over Machida’s record, and where else do you go? Sherdog of course. Well the venerable Fight Finder has a shiny new look…a bit over the top but overall I like it. It’ll take some getting used to, but I can see some things I enjoy already. It’s clearer and easier to understand, for one.
They still don’t list the weight class of a fight, or if it was for some kind of championship, which I think would be a valid addition. Another thought would be a fight page, say a page that aggregates any articles that reference both fighters and the event. Currently they show articles mentioning each fighter on their page.
Hell maybe I should try and make that.
Good card last night
I enjoyed what I was able to catch of UFC on Fuel last night, seemed like a good card, and the main event evoked this comment to Clint last night:
Jiminy cricket. That was a donnybrook.
Good fights make the regress speech patterns into older eras. I can’t help it. During Edgar-Maynard 3 I was actually speaking Aramaic.
Fightlinker has a good point about making some main events five-rounders and some not. I agree. Also, I don’t think anyone should ever get a title shot (barring some kind of injury swaperoo) without having fought in a five rounder. It should be a qualification. They don’t have to go all five of course, but they have to prove they can come in healthy, on weight, and ready for 25 minutes.
Diaz pissed dirty
Unremarkable at best. And a really clear example of why I say Nick Diaz is no good as a professional athlete (his personal insanity is another matter, and one that doesn’t factor in on this…lots of athletes are insane and do their jobs). The internet reactions are standard: Many loudmouths rabble-rabbling about how “it’s no big deal anyway” and “Diaz always comes to fight so we don’t care!!one!!!” Blah blah. Lots of stern finger-wagging and sad head-shaking about such a talent wasted. Blah blah. One particular pundit, who I think is a steaming pile of shit so won’t link to, blames testing for marijuana, at least in part, for the whole mess. Fucking idiot. There’s only one thing to look at here:
- Diaz (and everyone else) knew the rules to make his $200,000 purse
- Diaz failed to abide by the rules (or at least convincingly lie about his failure through whatever potheads use to defeat drug testing)
So he (and anyone who worked for a percentage, or bonus) is going to lose a fat chunk of money and be out of action for a year or more. Once more, Diaz fails everyone. He actually failed in his fight too, which is new, but he did his standard fail at everything else as well. And, like other shitheads before him (Sonnen springs to mind, a PED cheater and all-around scumfucker) who can budge PPV buys upwards, Diaz will most likely be welcomed back after his suspension, to mumble incoherent stupidity at the cameras and scowl like a petulant 12 year old.
Oh. Fucking. Goody.
Condit-Diaz [update]
I took a pass on this card, had other things to do. Honestly, the thought of paying good money to watch Diaz fight has turned me off for quite some time. I know he’s skilled, got a gas tank, whatever. His clear mental issues make it uncomfortable to watch the guy. His actions after pummeling BJ Penn didn’t change that opinion. (more…)
UFC Fight Night on FX
Well, the fights were good. They had an announcer who apparently trained at the Tinny 1920′s Boxing Radio Announcer School. I dunno if it’s accredited. Nashville seemed into the whole thing.
What the fucking hell, Rumble? [UPDATE]
The MMA news-o-sphere is all verklempt over Rumble Johnson missing weight by TWELVE FUCKING POUNDS. As well they should be! It looks like Vitor and the commissioners decided to let it go forward, with the penalty being 20% of his show money and having to weigh in on fight day a second time, coming in under 205 lbs. For his fuckin’ middleweight fight.
I know Rumble’s talented, and he seemed like a nice guy when I met him way back at WEC 38, but can someone who so completely fails at his job be considered a professional anymore? It’s part of the freaking game, dude. I know, I’m a fat fucking slob myself, but my job doesn’t require me to come in under a weight limit. If it did, and I didn’t, I would expect to be god damned fired.
I’m pissed because I like the guy. I can’t imagine what his excuse will be, it seems like he had already told Dana White about it, as the Baldfather was talking about it before the weigh-in, which may be what saved his job, at least so far. So Vitor, for his part, agrees to fight a light heavyweight. Good luck, dude. Le fuckin’ sigh.
[UPDATE]
So now the news is that Rumble’s weight cut made him sick. OK. Makes sense…but why would Dana White be excoriating the guy if he came and told him he was sick?
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