P1Fanatic

UFC 57

Liddell verses Couture. Brave man to bet against Liddell IMHO.

Looking forward to Frank Mirs comeback after so long out after his bike accident.

Simon.

mad555

iTrader: (1)

Chuck V Randy should be good,hope Liddell knocks him out!!!

P1Fanatic

Comprehensive win for Chuck - never really doubted it and I think Randy knew he only had a slight chance to win. Think thats it for Randy.

Frank Mir was very disappointing. Looked like hes lost it mentally and just didnt have the heart to fight. Shame he had the accident as was a great talent at the time.

Brandon Vera looking promising. Wont be long before they match him up with Arlovski.

Simon.

richiewong

Thought it was a slip that let Chuck in, but the Iceman would have won anyway.

rik1471

i don't think so!!

SideShowBob

Never too much doubt it'd be Liddell, He keeps progressing in all areas, where Couture seems to remain the old school style fighter.

Andrei Arlovski is the finest UFC fighter ive ever seen!! 15 second to knock out Buentello, not much longer to submit Tim Sylvia, the guys unstoppable!!

Anyone who thought Mir might come back and challenge for the title again is dreaming, Arlovski simply has no peers currently, he's the top of the game, and can take on both heavy hitters and ground experts, I thought he may have met his match from a stand up perspective with Buentello, as he is a monster boxer, but 15 seconds later Buentello was lying unconcious.

Havent seen Matt Hughes in the ring for ages, he taking a break?

P1Fanatic

I think Couture knew it as well. He never showed any confidence that he thought he could beat Chuck.

I never thought that Mir would come back in and take Arlovskis title straight away but I did expect him to win last nights fight. He just didnt have that killer instict and looked like he didnt want to be in there. Like him or loathe him he had some impressive performances against some heavy hitters.

Arlovkski has been my favourite fighter for some time. Id just like to see him in a longer fight so we get to see a bit more of his skills. That Buentello fight I was like why has the ref stopped it. Not until after the 3rd or 4th reply did I (and the presenters) realise that andrei had knocked him out cold! His only loss is Pedro Hizzo (sp?) isnt it?

Matt Hughes defended his title on one of the Ultimate Fighter Fight Nights against Joe Riggs. He won by tapout due to a choke I believe. He is another legend. Only person I saw him lose to was BJ penn by submission. Rich Franklin is very impressive as well - he destroyed Nate Quarry with minimal effort.

Its been a couple of events since Arlovski fought - only person I can see challenging him is Brandon Vera who is looking well rounded.

George "Rush" St. Pierre is looking impressive also.

Cheers,
Simon

SideShowBob

It is a fanstastic format, and with the overall demise of boxing, its good that something like this has been given some room to become more mainstream/accessible.
The skills of these fighters is as good as any discipline, and takes a lot more guts to enter the octagon than a boxing ring (unless you're about to meet Tyson at 21 possibly).

Arlovski has been my favorite fighter for the past few months, at first I thought he might be a bit showboaty, with the whole vampire fang thing, but he can seriosuly back it up.
He would probably benefit from a longer fight, but im not so sure his opponent would relish the "opportunity"

Hughes is really good, he came accross as a bit of a hard nut on ultimate fighter, but at the end of it, most (all?) finalists were from his camp, so proved his training works.

There's a real depth of skill in all weight divisions, must be daunting to be a new guy now, Mir proved that all the training in the world cant replace real fight environment, thou to be fair, he did get an unlucky cut which bled a hell of a lot, thou I still think he wouldve lost regardless.

wakeboardar

does look a bit gay at times
sitting on your opponants face

P1Fanatic

Yeah am Im sure youd have enough bottle to enter the octagon and say that.

Simon.

P1Fanatic

Ive watched on and off over the years since the days of Royce Gracie winning many a fight/championship. Its great that Bravo are showing so much of it these days. Still very unknown though in this country which is a shame. Shown my dad a few fights and hes not impressed but hes a die hard boxing fan.

Ive been to a few MMA fights here in Reading but nothing like UFC. The ring is tiny and if the fighters are on the floor near the ropes the ref gets them up and moves them away to restart. So lame it spoils it. The octagon makes the difference but no one can use it as Zuffa own the rights to it.

Gone are the days you can be good at one thing and win. The fighters are so well rounded now you have to be at the top of your game to stand a chance in winning. The big fights happen regularly - none of this career making fight lists you see in boxing.

The fact that the best kick boxer of all time - Rob Cayman - can go into the octagon and get beaten by not even one of the top fighters shows you how skilled and fearless you have to be to fight in the UFC.

Hughes is a great fighter and training even though he is only good at wrestling and ground & pound. Never seen him stand up. Still a bit arrogant compared to some of the other champs tho which put me off him a bit.

Mirs cut was bad but nothing that should stop him. He looked overwhelmed once on his back and was trying to roll into kamoras etc - reminded me of his Ian Freeman fight where he kept trying the submissions but took a battering and lost. At least he was humble enough to admit his weaknesses. A good advert on why not to ride a bike as a youngster.

Ultimate Fighter 3 is a weird choice of coaches - past two shows have had fighters at the top of their games. Tito Ortez and Ken Shamrock are well past their best although the fact they hate each other should liven it up a bit.

Anyway nice to see another fan.

Cheers,
Simon.

P.S. Id like to know how much they get for a fight win in a championship bout?

wakeboardar

hi simon, never been in the octagon but I have been in a ring in thailand,chile,russia and japan and been national champion thai rules 72kg
without sitting on anybodies face

P1Fanatic

Fair does mate but Thai boxing / kick boxing is a world away from UFC (dont get me wrong I dont mean in terms of whose better but merely the range of skills needed to compete at top level). And to be honest Ive never seen anyone sit on an opponents face deliberately. Do Thai rules even allow the fighting to go to the floor????

Simon.

wakeboardar

no fighting on the floor in thai although you can hip through to the floor
my trainer had a ufc fight when he was world thai champion he lost he was ****e on the ground so thats were they took him all the time,his name is Eugene Valerio he plans to try again but at 40 hes a bit late

burbs

Frank Mir never really did anything before the accident anyway to be fair, he submitted Tim Sylvia but that was all he can really shout about. As he said after the fight he thought he was unbeatable and he isnt. He shoudl either walk away or really get himsefl together before stepping back in.

As for the choice of the 2 coaches for Ultimate Fighter 3, Tito Ortiz was given the role to get him back on side with the UFC. Dana White wanted him back on board and fighting in the UFC after their fall out and so he gets him for the Ultimate Fighter Season 3, the lo and behold he also pops up to fight Forrest Griffin at UFC 58.

I cant wait to see BJ Penn back and fighting St Pierre, going to be a good fight but i cannot see anybody beating BJ Penn. He really is a machine.

Apparently the UFC are thinking about kicking Nick Diaz out after his fight at the hospital. He was taken there after his Joe Riggs fight to be checked out. Joe was already there, words were exchanged and Nick Diaz knocked him out there and then. It has already been confirmed as true but they are deciding on what action to take at a later date. Joe refused to press charges when the police arrived.

P1Fanatic

Your right about Mir. His status was far above his experience.

As for BJ Penn - what has he done other than beat Matt Hughes oh and Matt Serra whom to be honest Ive never rated in the UFC. I think it will be a good fight but I think St. Pierre will be too strong for BJ.

Franklin vs Loiseau looks a good proposition. Loiseau has a great defense and some lethal elbows.

Do you know the rest of the fightcard for UFC 58 as its not listed at UFC.tv

Cheers,
Simon.

chris singleton

Does anyone know when Series 3 of the Ultimate Fighter starts?

No. 2 only finished on Bravo a month or two ago so assume it will be a while?

Just bought series 1 on DVD to watch again, absolute class

Chris

P1Fanatic

No idea. Bravo website still talking about series 2. As its still on in the US I would imagine it will be a good couple of months yet.

Simon.

burbs

Yes mate, as far as im aware this is the UFC 58 line up

Rick Franklin vs David Loiseau

BJ Penn vs Georges St.Piere

Kristof Midoux vs Tom Murphy

Mike Swick vs Steve Vigneault

Sam Stout vs Kenny Florian

Seth Petruzelli vs. Rob MacDonald

Diego Sanchez vs John Alessio

Nathan Marquardt vs Joe Doerksen

Yves Edwards vs Mark Hominic

This is just what i have heard on the various forums, only the first 2 have been officially confirmed buy Dana White. Doubt that some of these fights will actually be on but they are mentioned quite a lot so who knows.

As for BJ Penn, I just rate him as a fighter personally, i think he is just not going to be beaten. He has already called out Matt Hughes and a win against Pierre will set it right up. He has only signed up for 3 UFC fights so he will be out to make the most of them. I agree with Matt Serra not being the best, 5 wins 4 losses speaks for itself, especially when his wins havent been any to remember.

David Loiseau as you say has the lethal elbows and can damage fighters very quickly. He is also coming into the Franklin fight on the back of 4 or 5 straight wins so his confidence will be sky high but again i havent seen him fight anybody that i rate highly. He fought Jeremy Horn who seems to be able to beat numerous well rounded fighters, including Chuck, and he got submitted. I just cant see him beating Rich who again is on the back of a whole load of wins.

Rich Franklin will win by KO in the second.

burbs

The only dates released so far for the series beginning in America are Spring 2006. That is the official line so its not too long away. I would guess it would be starting up pretty soon over there.

They have the 18 fighters who are going to compete ready to go. They held auditions in London in December as they are going to have 2 British fighters in the 18 this year. Its going to be interesting this year as Tito and Ken hate each other.

P1Fanatic

Cheers for the fightcard info. Normally only 8 fights isnt it?

Mike "Quick" Swick looked pretty impressive last time I saw him - 22sec 1st rd knockout.

Simon.

burbs

There were 9 fights at UFC 57 and i think that is going to be the case at UFC 58 also. As you say though it is normally 8.

Swick is a quick finisher, i saw a couple of his fights and both were finished around the 20 second mark.

burbs

Mike Swick vs Steve Vigneault
Nathan Marquardt vs Joe Doerksen

Are both now confirmed as well so i can guess that the fight card that i listed a few days back will probably be the final card.

scoobylav

It is good to see a few other UFC fans. I kinda thought it was a lonely existence. I have been an avid fan for the last few years.

Favourite fighter is Matt Hughes by a long way followed by Arlovski and Randy. I was devastated that he lost to Chuck but as has been said it was on the cards.

I think Matt is delaying his next title fight (incidentally his last one against Joe Riggs wasn't for the belt as Joe couldn't make weight, but Matt fought him anyway) as he I think he is concerned because the up and coming fighters are very good. Don't know how much longer he will retain the belt.

Ultimate Fighter 3 should be great especially when Ken and Tito end up punching each other - because they will

P1Fanatic

They wanted to beat each other up when Dana announced the coaches lol. Probably partly staged but amusing none the less.

The worrying thing for matt hughes is his lack of stand up. I dont recall seeing him win a fight on his feet. There are so many good punchers in the UFC now that he could quite easily get knocked out. Still Ive thought hed lose in the past and he hasnt (apart from bj's submission).

Isnt it about time for an arlovski fight - at least two UFC's since he fought?

Simon.

burbs

Arlovski has been promoting UFC 59 hard over in the USA, no mention of him fighting at it but i wonder? As you say it has been a while since he fought, UFC 55 (i think??) against Buentello, which i didnt think he would win as easily as he did to be honest. I was surprised.

I have seen Matt win a few fights on his feet, the one that comes to mind was when he stopped Carlos Newton, but i havent seen him stop anybody too special in this way. I dont actually like Matt Hughes as much as i used to after seeing him on Ultimate Fighter, he came across somewhat too big headed. I know this is how they need to be but there was just something about him that i didnt like.

burbs

I dont think Matt Hughes will be putting off the fight to be honest with you, i doubt he has the choice really. Dana probably tells him who he is fighting and when and thats that. Its a bit strange to try and figure out who he will be up against next really. There are many different scenarios avaliable. I think the winner of BJ Penn vs Pierre will fight the winner of Tito vs Forrest. The winner of that will fight Hughes in my opinion. I cant see how else they can do it.

Was Joe Riggs a late replacement fighter when he faced Matt? I seem to remember the Matt Hughes fight being advertised against someone else who got injured and Riggs stepped in. I cant remember who but im sure that happened.

talizman

iTrader: (1)

Hughes, Benn and St Pierre are welterweights..... no way that Ortiz and Griffin will drop down from light heavyweight IMHO



Correct. Hughes was scheduled to fight Karo Parisyan who dropped out due to injury. Diesel was selected as replacement however couldn't contend the title due to being unable to make weight. HTH