UFC 118 incl vegan Ben Saunders - spoilers after the show!

[JP]

hey, one of the best/most interesting cards for a while!

Thiago alves missed the weight again... Should really move up a weight class, he must be doing some extreme 20+ pound cut already for this weight class and missing the weight is not on IMO. He is a solid fighter, i like his straight forward steamtrain style, but losing respect because of these weigh in issues. Dont care if it is by just a touch, there is a limit for a reason.

silva vs sonnen - love the sonnen trash talk, quality, but silva will tame him, hopefully with the old awe inspiring style.

i like BIG COUNTRY, but santos is too much for him, KO/TKO.

Fitch for the win over alves - just a hope because alves missed the weight and i dont like that

AND!!!

recently turned vegan BEN SAUNDERS is fighting too - fucking rooting my ass off for him!

GO BEN!!!

[:x:]

umm, i think you're mixing something up there
UFC 117 was EPIC! EPIC! EPIC!

[SpugFab]

Gutted for Sonnen. The win was there for him, he just over-extended in the last round.

Taking Silva down first round looked like a mistake, seemed like he was just a couple of shots away from victory at that point.

[daisy]

recently turned vegan BEN SAUNDERS is fighting too - fucking rooting my ass off for him!

GO BEN!!!

is there any new evidence or sources on this one...
in all the forums you just read that rogan said this.. - but is this reliable.. - who knows if rogan didnt mix it up with raw or whatsoever..

i really would be interested in more infos..
thanks
pls send me a PM as i am not here that often..
thanks daisy

[SpugFab]

Figured this is the place to chat about UFC 118.

FARCE!

Dana took the UFC back to 1993 with this one. Completely pointless.

The UFC has never felt closer to WWE in my eyes. I've already given up on TUF a long time ago, time to bin the main events too.

[JP]

I've already given up on TUF a long time ago, time to bin the main events too.

HAHA! Just spoke to heinrich about this at the VF week, how you dumped TUF after one season and how it has improved since. Coincidence? I think not. Which is why i support you binning the main events too...

but aye, it was a bad show. Mayas fight was a bit boring, main fight was a bit boring and uneventful, not all that many exciting undercard fights...

Oh well, they all cant be fantastic! Looking forward to the Mir fight now on the next UFC!

[SpugFab]

Saw Dana in the post event press conference claiming that the Toney fight went longer than he thought it would.

FARCE!

I wonder if Dana is interested in having David Arquette have a shot at the heavyweight title, that would make for an interesting storyline too.

[KC Masterpiece]

I wonder if Dana is interested in having David Arquette have a shot at the heavyweight title

Not nearly ridiculous enough for him.

[JP]

c'moon - you guys are just taking easy and predictable pot shots here i think. How many freak show fights has UFC put on in the past 5 years out of how many hundreds of fights? How many opportunities to make a quick buck have they passed for not putting on more freak show fights?

I think this exception shows that as a rule UFC is still very much about developing the sport.

[KC Masterpiece]

c'moon - you guys are just taking easy and predictable pot shots here i think. How many freak show fights has UFC put on in the past 5 years out of how many hundreds of fights? How many opportunities to make a quick buck have they passed for not putting on more freak show fights?

I think this exception shows that as a rule UFC is still very much about developing the sport.

Sure, Japan has far more freak show fights (i.e. the Shaq v. Hong Man Choi possibility ), but they are never, ever deceptive about the fights. It's always marketed as a freak show.

One of the many reasons I don't like what Dana does is the fact that he will try and tell us that the UFC's freak shows are legitimate fights that PIT BOXING VERSUS UFC FOR THE ULTIMATE COMBAT SHOWDOWN!!!! or something to that effect. Or that Brock Lesnar's second fight was one of the biggest HW bouts of all time, etc. etc. It's just the constant barrage of marketing that tests the limits of hyperbole that wears on me.

But pot shots, yes .

As for developing the sport, only as an extension of developing the UFC. There are a litany of things one could list to show how the UFC is concerned about the UFC before MMA as a whole. I think MMA owes a shit-ton to the UFC, but the latters priorities are only its own pockets.

[SpugFab]

I notice Gabe Reudiger just signed a four fight deal with the UFC.

Case closed.

UFC's anti-competition policies do nothing for fighters or for the sport as a whole. If they relaxed their insistence on exclusive deals with fighters I'd have less of a problem with them.

We shouldn't forget Dana is an aerobics instructor who had a friend with money. Given the break he got it's not surprising his allegiance is to the company and not to the sport.

[SpugFab]

Double post.

But just on the development point - checking out the UFC heavyweight roster. You have three Dutch guys, a couple of Brazilians, one aging Croat and one aging Frenchman. Everyone else is from the US, the vast majority via TUF.

Seems strange to me that the only country churning out top level heavyweights is the US.

[JP]

sure, i am not saying there arent tons of tings to criticise, or that the company isnt like any other capitalist big corporation looking out for itself first.

but making a big deal out of one "freak show" type fight (which could have gone different way too, and many expected Toney to have worked his ground defence at least A BIT!) is just a bit cheap.

[SpugFab]

many expected Toney to have worked his ground defence at least A BIT!

As discussed, I never expected that. Dana admitted he didn't expect it either.

Old dudes can sometimes still perform in the sport they've always done thanks to experience and memory. Couture is an amazing wrestler/dirty boxer. Toney still retains some old-school boxing feints and skills. But to ask these guys to pick up a completely new skill set at this stage of their career is fantasy land. No-one who had seen Toney fight in the last ten years could have expected him to defend a takedown.

This fight sickens me. Dana's place as the custodian of mma is misplaced. He needs to go back to teaching boxercise and let people with a bit more vision and sense run the sport.

[JP]

lol this is what i mean, one freak show fight and all drama comes out

i would have more faith in the comments if any of the other promotions were better...