mma fans?
 

I know some people don't consider it a sport, per se, but I was wondering how big of a fanbase things like UFC and Pride have here on TFP after seeing the Brock Lesnar thread. There are a lot of exciting things happening in MMA right now, like the Pride openweight GP and the on again/off again Chuck/Silva fight, and was curious as to how many folks follow it. Thanks in advance!!

Yeah, I definitely follow that scene. And I do definitely consider it a sport.

I think the chances of Pride and the UFC coming to a final agreement to allow Silva to fight Lidell are slim. Not only do the sides have to get an agreement with each other (which will be near impossible), both fighters have fights close enough to the proposed fight day that it makes it extra complicated. They also need to get doctors clearance to fight and Silva needs to pass a drug test. Not to mention if Lidell loses his fight before the proposed Silva fight, he won't be LW champion and some of the magic is lost.

I follow it pretty close. If you don't consider it a sport, then you have no real idea of what it is (I'm looking at you Jim Lampley)

I think Chuck will beat Sobral so it becomes a question of how badly does he get punished in the effort. As far as the Silva fight, I gotta believe that UFC wouldn't be that stupid to announce a fight if they didn't have a pretty good idea that it will happen.

I'm really intrigued about the PRIDE bosses statement that his fighters will "devour" UFC's and they'll take all their belts. PRIDE has the advantage in some weightclasses (light, heavy, maybe lt heavy) but I'll take Franklin and Hughes any day of the week.

Ultimate Fight night this thursday. I'm betting Sanchez's win streak comes to an end and Leben bounce back from that embarassment at the Ultimate Finale.

See, that's my thought too. It seems weird that they would announce it before everything was in place. I would love to see it, because as much as I like Chuck, Silva's a beast. I see him winning pretty easily.

Thanks, I had forgotten about the one coming up. Yeah, Leben got owned just about as bad as anybody I've ever seen. He must not have paid any attention to Anderson Silva's previous fights. The guy is pretty damn good.

Card for Thursday

Diego Sanchez vs. Karo Parisiyan
Chris Leben vs. Jorge Santiago
Josh Koscheck vs. Johnathan Goulet
Dean Lister vs. Yuki Sasaki (<--swing bout I think)

I think Leben simply overestimated his chin. He's a tough dude but I doubt anyone could just stand there and eat Silva's hands.

I think Leben learned that he shouldn't block punches with his face, lol.

The Liddell \ Silva fight prolly only has a 20% chance of happening. Things working against it: Liddell losing to Babalu, Liddell getting injured in the Babalu fight, Silva getting injured in his fight a month before the scheduled date, and most importantly, Pride and UFC not getting a deal agreement in place. Dana White is talking right now about how this fight prolly isn't going to happen.

If we were to give edges in the weightclasses to the orgs, I would say UFC has MW and LHW and Pride has a slight edge in terms of LW (although Sherk and Penn if he dropped down -which he won't - would give Pride's top men a challenge) and a huge ass one in HW.

As far as this card, I'd say that this is Diego's chance to prove he isn't just a TUFer, but a legitimate fighter. While I think he is a tool, I also think the fight will be closer than all the people who say Karo will win think. Love him or hate him, Diego is pretty good, and he's one of the few legitimate fighters to come out of the reality show.

Koscheck needs to stop appearing on my television until he learns submissions.

KenFlo vs. Sherk for the vacant LW title in October supposedly. I'm looking forward to that. I think Florian is underrated.

I thought I heard Penn was going to drop down because UFC MW is so stacked right now.

Diego has looked like crap in his last two outings. Yeah he won but Karo isn't going to give him an inch. Diego's talented, no question, but I think his ego's getting the best of him and he needs a loss to get him to the next level.

I agree with you on Kos. I've seen nothing from him that makes me believe he's a contender.

UFC wanted him to drop down and have a title shot vs. Sherk, but he doesn't want to drop down. I think it would be his best weight class, but he is certainly still real good at 170.

Kos looked pretty impressive against Goulet. That was a nice right hand. He still needs to be able to finish on the sub side but Goulet is a tough MFer to submit.

You know, when I said that I was kind of assuming his standup was going to be atrocious for a long time. I watched the fight, and I was like oh shit, I guess I need to eat my words on TFP before Lindalove beats me there. We can see how that worked out. :P

His standup is WAY much better than it should be from how long he's had since his last fight. Maybe I need to give him more credit... although he needs to string two or three more fights like that together before I'm convinced.

For the record, I'm disappointed in my boy Dean Lister. That's what happens when you don't cut weight correctly. At least he got the W.

That was world's better than the last Fight night. Three really good fights. Can't beat that on free TV. The TUF fight was pretty good too.

The TUF vets looked real good tonight. Kos impressed. Diego showed he can hang with someone that can go. He didn't get the KO but that wasn't as important as showing his skills and conditioning.

Leben's playing a dangerous game though. He counts on his chin waaaay too much. He can't count on catching a guy with a heavy hand all the time. Dude just swings and prays.

Looking at the card for 62, it's entirely possible this UFN is better than the pay-per-view.

diego is the real deal......
leben is climbing back after one bad loss (overconfident)
koscheck's game is getting tighter, but goulet is a can......I wanna see a leben/koscheck match....
lister was garbage.....

Lister wasn't garbage. He just gassed from improper weight cutting. If you know anything about the ground game, you loved watching the first 11 minutes of that fight. That was a fucking clinic of submissions and escapes.

Georges St. Pierre has pulled out of UFC 63 due to injury. Stepping in to face Matt Hughes for the UFC Welterweight Title is the last man to beat Hughes, B. J. Penn.

That should be a great fight.

I'm a big fan of this sport. I'm actually a big enough fan, I WANT to do this someday.

I really don't like this guy. He's a good fighter but anything past that I just don't like him. Same with Nick Diaz :-X

Don't tell the guys at my old academy. He used to train there.

I'm about to begin training at three time mma world champion Cung Le's school in San Jose, where he actually teaches. I like mma, but hate the whole "drama" part of it that's starting to emerge. I want to see them sparr, not talk about how bad they're going to beat the other guy...

That's awesome. I've seen a few of his fights, and that guy is just overwhelming in every single one of them. Good luck.

I totally agree. All the pre-fight hype needs to go in favor of more actual competition. Rarely do I enjoy listening to them speak, unless it's Barnett, or maybe Baroni. :D

Nick cracks me up. Also, he ain't no bitch. ROFL. (Those of you who listened to Ryan Bennet's radio program know what I'm talking about there)

I'm really bummed about GSP not being able to fight. He's one of my favs and he's been really looking forward to this. I think he's the only person that can beat Hughes right now. BJ Penn is really good, but I think Penn loses to Hughes at the next UFC. Hughes is a fucking monster - the complete package.

I could say that about a lot of them. Personalities aside, does anyone think Melvin Guillard can be beaten? He looked awesome against Davis, and like Joe Rogan said, "I don't see how you can pack any more muscle than that into 155 pounds."

mark homminick can beat guillard.....

penn / hughes is gonna be a cakewalk.....hughes will dominate penn....

get well soon, mr. st. pierre!

I'm not sure about him. I didn't see his fight with Davis at 155 so I'm not sure. He may do well as UFC starts to bring back the lightweight division. I wasn't impressed with him at 170 or on TUF.

The UFC LW division is a real question mark to me. We'll see how Pulver does and I'm real curious who will emerge as the title holder between Sherk and Florian. Personally, I think everybody underestimates Florian but I completely understand favoring Sherk.

I'm a big MMA fan.

I'm sure that now that the UFC bought Pride, we will see the Liddell/Wandy fight at the "MMA Superbowl" event thay plan on throwing. I'm also expecting to see Couture/Fedor as well.

happen to catch Cro Cop get his head kicked off by Gonzaga at UFC 70? Fuckin amazing kick, Gonzaga vs Couture should be a good fight.

yeah, did ya see his freakin knee/shin/foot twisted 180 deg.? Even Herb the ref couldn't believe what he was seeing.

Being an ex-college wrestler and one to always love a good fight, I can't get enough of MMA, particularly the UFC. The Crocop-Gonzaga match was a hell of a match to watch, especially since the underdog won in amazing fashion. "What? You're a great striker? Okay then, I'm gonna knock you out with your own trademark head kick." WHAM! But, probably my favorite recent fight has to be Serra vs. GSP. Both of these guys are class-acts, but I had to root for the undedog and Serra made the most of the opportunity he was given. Any predictions for the Serra-Hughes match up?

Nicholas D.

I reckon Hughes will beat Serra, then GSP will regain the title from Hughes, but being Canadian I'm a wee bit biased.

Penn is a much better fighter than Hughes. Hughes honestly isn't that greater of a fighter, he is jsut extremely strong for his weight class. Penn is probably the best grappler in mma (if not, he's in the top 3) and his striking is very good as well. GSP probably has the most well rounded stand-up game in mma to.

So what happened?

With the Silva V. Lidell fight? or in general?

UFC owns Pride (literally), Wanderlei just signed with UFC, Rampage still victorious over Chuck (and champion to boot) Unified Light Heavyweigt Championship Match FOR FREE, Cro Cop KO'd, Randy champ again...it's sensory overload I tellz ya!

I'm looking forward to some decent fights in tonight's PPV, hopefully not just ZOOM BANG FIRST ROUND UPSET!!

Who watched UFC 74? I thought they were all great matches. Couture just dominated Gonzaga, and the way St.Pierre took it to Koscheck ON THE GROUND was just amazing!

It was pretty decent. I'm glad Randy and GSP won, and very relieved Mir won. I'm actually really looking forward to Dan Henderson vs. Quinton Jackson. :)

every fight on that card was great. Definitely better than UFC 73 Stacked. Aside from the Sherk FRanca fight it was jsut boring as hell. Tito and Rashad were playing footbal, not fighting. Nog did nothing, which was a shock. and Anderson Silva as no real competition (save for Paul Filho, and they say they won't fight eachother).

I knew GSP would pull through, but I didn't think he'd out wrestle J-Kosch the way he did. and Randy... He made me proud.

Now all I need is Randy v. Fedor.