Anyone have any comments on both Horodecki and Radach both getting waxed?

All I can say is WOW...WOWWWW.....

First off I got a good last minute bet on Machida for $600 after I saw at mandalay that he was +110. I didn't bet the distance, but w/e I still think thats a bad bet .

The Knee to Irvin's face was disgusting, dude had a concussion for sure...tough dude too, he tried to get up and fell down twice, then he gets up but literally hid his hand behind his back so and grabbed the fence to keep his balance, they asked him to walk up to them and he could barely make it. That fight was going to be sick if it went 2 or 3 rounds.

The Clementi fight had SERIOUS bad blood, it was insane...dude taps out and then gets up to try and fight him again, talking shit during the post fight interview and everything, I want a rematch for sure.

I went to take a piss during the Eddie Sanchez fight, that shit was more boring than the breaks.

The liddell fight was out of this world, the pace was ridiculous, and being so close was unbelievable I was jumping up and down like a retard. It was siiiiiick.

I bet the Hughes fight pretty much by accident and knew he'd get crushed, GSP is just too good..it wasn't even a good fight because it was like a grown man fighting a kid, hughes got man handled...is there any shot at him and Anderson ever fighting? Just curious if they could gain/cut weight and fight, I'd fly anywhere to see that.

Anyway, I bet 4 fights won 3, and paid for my super expensive tickets and won 1,200 on top of that...very very good night

I'll post some pictures later ...

GSP vs Silva was our immediate thought as well. I could be wrong, but I think GSP fights at 185-190 and Silva doesn't cut much to get to 185. Fight could easily happen at 185. Silva has a tough test vs Hendo coming up. I haven't found a line on that one yet.

Oh, and Machida at +110 was sick value. I was going to bet him at -130, but was -115 when I got on Bodog.

Someone laid some heavy greenbacks on Guillard because I got Clementi at +170 and 15 minutes later he was at +190.
Same with Hughes. I got GSP at -205 and about 30 minutes later he as at -190. Go me.

Dana supposedly doesn't like fighters holding two belts. I wouldn't hold my breath for a unification fight between GSP and Silva.

Silva vs. Henderson should be good...too bad Team Quest sucks...****ing Sokoudjou.

Anyone give Serra a shot to submit GSP?

Soko has never fought someone as smart at Machida. Plain and simple. Machida was not going to donk it up like Arona and Rua did.

Serra stands as much a chance against GSP as Matt Hughes. I said the same thing last time, but it sounds like GSP had some serious issues going into that fight. I just don't see that happening again, but who knows. I see Serra by KO long before Serra by sub.

well done!

*************************

I'm not a sports bettor but I had Silva (easily), GSP (even more easily), and Machida (Soku new to Ocatagon, not much experince overall, Pride guy curse, etc)

Silva looked small in that big Octagon.
I can't help but think he was disadvantaged by the bigger setting and would fair much better in a ring

Man, sick fights. Machida is the next LHW champ in my eyes definitely. Shame Wandy lost to Chuck tho.

Oh and I can't believe some people thought Guillard would beat Clementi. Guillard has no groundgame and never had.

damn if the liddell/silva fight didn't live up to every bit of the hype surrounding it. I honestly thought it was gonna end up being boring and slow. nooooooot quite. I haven't had a fight make me stand up and yell at the screen in a long time, and this one certainly did. man was it exciting. I almost felt bad for GSP having his nice win come after that fight. it was almost like we didn't even care after that.

really good card (minus the heavyweight snoozefest) that really lived up to its hype.


oh, and does anybody in this thread other than me actually watch these fights just for the enjoyment? all you guys talk about is betting.

i do Shake, i spent the 40$ to get the fight with absolutly 0$ invested in bets. I love the fighting!

The GSP fight was one of my favorite all time fights, just pure dominance in making one of the best fighters of that weightclass look like a NOOB.

There's plenty of discussion about the fights - styles, strengths of fighters, weaknesses, Liddell's game plan, fantasy booking, "who would win in a fight?" talk, JC's trip report, video links to previous fights, etc.

Do people enjoy playing poker? Sure - but we also bet on it at the same time.

After saying that - bringing the thread back to betting, anyone see value in the underdogs on either of these two fights?

Gilbert Melendez (-290) vs. Mitushiro Ishida (+230)

Yoshihiro Akiyama (-240) vs. Kazuo Misaki (+190)

I was thinking about putting some money on Choi over Fedor, but Choi's only offering +600...not sure that's quite the bet I'm looking for.

First fight is not likely to be decided before the last bell and I just don't see Ishida winning a decision in this one. Melendez has a brick wall for a head and Ishida hasn't fought in a year.

I can see Misaki winning this one if they keep it standing, but I don't think Akiyama letting this happen. Unless Akiyama gets KFTO he will eventually take it to the ground and has a significant advantage there. Interesting both of these guys have wins over Kang.

I don't know that I take Choi for +1000. As soon as Fedor gets this one to the ground, which will be in the first 30 seconds, it is over.

The Choi pick is more of a lottery ticket than anything...not any sort of anticipation that Fedor will lose

Thanks for the thoughts on the other two fights - I really wanted to bet against Melendez because I think all Cesar Gracie students are insanely overrated, but I think you're right.

Edit: Still waiting to hear Steve's "trip report" on the show.

Ok, this is not a level and I have my flame retardant suit on so fire away.

Although I'll give ya the Liddell/Silva fight was entertaining I wouldn't be disappointed one bit if I watched 10 events without a fight like this one. Yes, boxing is one of the disciplines in MMA and yes, you are always going to have fights that don't go to the ground. Let's face it though, they could fight another 100 times and it would be nothing more than a drunken boxing match with token take downs to secure round wins. The sad thing is neither of these guys are even close to being good boxers.

The fight itself was hyped beyond anything the UFC has ever seen and it basically boiled down to a sloppy one sided back yard brawl. Silva showed me absolutely nothing other than he is going to have brain damage before he turns 35 if he doesn't change his fighting style. The guy is 31 and looks like he is 61. Even Chuck has absolutely zero defense.

If I wanted to see those types of fights I can watch them all day long on youtube. I feel like I basically saw a boxing match between two guys who wouldn't be able to beat a top 30 boxer.

I actually agree - but the UFC did a great job of making it feel special so it was.

Go back to just about any Randy Couture fight - he's boring as hell with his ground and pound, but they all are amazing to watch because he's been marketed better than just about anyone in MMA history without the surname Gracie. Watching the fights in a vacuum are boring, but watching them live is an incredibly experience.

Separate post for some interesting info from the Observer site:

--Nate Mohr suffered a torn ACL in last night's match with Manny Gamburyan when Gamburyan used an ankle lock on him. We haven't gotten any updates on Wanderlei Silva or James Irvin, who were both hospitalized and given MRIs

K-1's New Year's lineup includes a couple interesting freak show sort of fights:

Masakatsu Funaki vs. Kazushi Sakuraba

Bob Sapp vs. Bobby Ologun

Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Zulu Jr.

If anyone knows where to stumble on some video of these fights in the next couple days, let me know.

I posted something similar on another site when people were comparing conventional Boxing to MMA Boxin, the thing is that MMA fighters aren't able to look like a "skilled" boxer because of the stance an MMA fighter needs is way different than a boxer's stance...it takes away a lot of the speed and accuracy of the bunches because MMA fighters have to worry about a ton of factors other than just the punches... If you try to box "correctly" in MMA and use fancy footwork and all that you'll end up like this guy .

The reason they never went down is because they're stand up guys, the reason Silva didn't thai clinch Lidell like he did rampage is because he can't, these two styles will make for a backyard slugfest every time and I think it's exciting as hell. Of course, if all of the UFC fights were like this, I would hate it, but I'll take one fight like this or Forrest vs Bonner once in a while because they're exciting to watch imo.

PS I'm not saying sick grappling matches aren't exciting, they are, I'll watch any fight with BJ and another ground guy... the thing is thata bad stand up fight most of the time will be more exciting than a bad ground fight imo. In this case, I think it was a sick stand up fight.

That's always a pet peeve of mine when boxers talk shit about MMArtists. Boxing is not MMA, and anyone who tries to use a boxer's stance in MMA is in serious trouble. Even the size of the gloves dictates different defensive postures than regular boxing...bah. Boxers irritate me

But off that tangent - there are two kinds of fights in the UFC - those that are incredibly exciting to watch at the time (Bonnar vs. Griffin is at the top of that list BY FAR) and those that are great to watch over and over again.

As a disclaimer, I'm mostly a jiu jitsu guy. The fights I can watch repeatedly are ones like Karo Paryisian's judo clinic vs. Dave Strasser, Couture vs. van Arsdale, and anything else where they show incredible ground technique. The brawls are great to watch live, but aren't worth watching again usually because they lack the emotion the second time.

(Rutten vs. Jason DeLucia II or III is the exception to that rule)

What a SICKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK TIME!!!

Most of the fight recap has been covered here. I went 3 for 4 in my fight picks, only losing on Wandy...meh. That was easily the sickest fight of the night. The energy in that place was CRAZZZZZZZZZZZZZY the entire time for that fight.

Had a great time w/ JC and Steve. It was my 1st time meeting JC and he is really chill kid. Probably the best moment of the night was when the waitress came to our section (Clutch move #1) and brought us our drinks...JC goes "How much I owe ya..." she goes "There FREE!!" I smiled like a little school girl!!!!

Double Vodka Drinks FTW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gif's of GSP dominance...

I ended up betting $20 on the underdogs in each of these fights and made some good scratch. I rule~! (Not on Fedor...)

Got this from another board I visit:

---------------------------
LEGAL rebroadcast:

http://www.tvunetworks.com/downloads/download.html?id=rdb_us

Download the player and go to MMA-TV channel 61886. Prefight show is on now. Card starts at the top of the hour.
----------------------------

It's amazing at how little these guys get paid...


The full results as reported to MMAjunkie.com

* Georges St. Pierre ($160,000) def. Matt Hughes ($100,000)
* Chuck Liddell ($500,000) def. Wanderlei Silva ($150,000)
* Eddie Sanchez ($46,000) def. Soa Palelei ($5,000)
* Lyoto Machida ($60,000) def. Rameau Sokoudjou ($40,0O0)
* Rich Clementi ($28,000) def. Melvin Guillard ($10,000)
* James Irvin ($16,000) def. Luis Cane ($5,000)
* Manny Gamburyan ($20,000) def. Nate Mohr ($6,000)
* Dean Lister ($22,000) def. Jordan Radev ($5,000)
* Roan Carneiro ($10,000) def. Tony DeSouza ($7,000)
* Mark Bocek ($6,000) def. Doug Evans ($3,000)

All the winning fighters except Liddell received pay that awarded 50 percent “to show” and 50 percent as a “win bonus.” For example, Machida earned $30,000 to show and an additional $30,000 for his victory for $60,000 total. Each of the night’s losing fighters (except Silva) could have doubled his salary with a victory.

Now, the usual disclaimer: the figures do not include deductions for items such as insurance, licenses and taxes. Additionally, the figures do not include money paid by sponsors, which can oftentimes be a substantial portion of a fighter’s income. They also do not include any bonuses paid to some of the main-card fighters who sometimes earn a small cut of pay-per-view revenue. They also do not include other non-disclosed/“locker-room” bonuses the UFC sometimes pays.

In other words, these are simply base salaries reported to the CSAC and do not represent the total amounts earned by each fighter.

The figures also do not include the $50,000 Knockout of the Night, Submission of the Night, and Fight of the Night bonuses. Sanchez (knockout), St. Pierre (submission), Liddell (fight) and Silva (fight) each earned an additional $50,000 for the awards.

In contrast to that - the show sells for $40 on PPV, Zuffa gets about half that. So at $20 a buy * a conservative estimate of 500,000 buys, that's $10,000,000 income for Zuffa on the night, NOT including the live gate which was probably another million or so.

Guys like Liddell probably get a penny or two out of each PPV buy though, so add another $100,000 to his pay...maybe the same for Vanderlei?

Couture had a point - these guys don't get paid enough. Anyone think Mayweather, de La Hoya, or any of those guys even get their hands wrapped for under a million dollars?

A million, more like 15-20 million or more for some of their fights. I just don't see how with MMA crushing boxing in PPV buys can they be getting paid so much less than boxers. I mean if one of those low level guys gets paid 6k, how long does that really last him? That's two months for me on a shoestring budget. With the gym fees, insurance, etc etc they have to pay out of pocket its amazing those guys can make a living.

The Tito/Liddell fight had a 4 million dollar live gate so I imagine this one was in that ball park. With the replays on Spike and UFC OD, DVD sales ring adds and worldwide tv money Zuffa clears 20 mill easy for this event. The salarys will probally eventually catch up to the explosion in revenues with competition. Even in boxing if you arent a main eventer the salaries are shitty. I do like the win bonus as part of the purse though.

The sponsorships are disgustingly good. I read at some point that Josh Koscheck was getting somewhere in the ballpark of $150,000 a year from one sponsor.

But the point remains the same - they're drastically underpaid.

What's he up to?

Will he bounce back or was getting completely dominated in his world too much to handle?

hello

Hopefully gone for good. I can't stand that boring sonofabitch. If I never have to watch him dry hump one of his opponents for 15 minutes again I'll die a happy man. The good news is that he's established himself as no match for GSP, and Serra and Hughes will be gone as gatekeepers by the end of the year so I don't know how he'll get himself back in the title picture.

The welterweight division is in a really weird position right now. Right now the GSP/Serra match will be a huge one, and the Serra/Hughes match will be huge. If Serra wins against Hughes he gets a money rematch against GSP, if he loses against Hughes everyone writes him off as a fluke and they put him in a Randy Couture position where he does commentary and guest spots on TUF.

That holds them over for most of the year, but then where do you go? Anyone interested in GSP/Hughes IV? Anyone else look like a contender against GSP? Maybe Diego Sanchez could submit him? Jon Fitch could...I'unno?

Booking the UFC over the next year is going to be tough, which is shocking considering that PRIDE is gone and all their top guys are looking for work.

If Nogueira beats Tim Sylvia (he will, right?), then that sets up a potentially interesting match with Nog against the winner of Gonzaga vs. Werdum and a handful of other interesting fights. It'll also be interesting to see how long Nog can keep the belt if he's going to fight off of his back in America. I think Dana has to be pulling for Brock Lesnar to win against Frank Mir in a convincing fashion, because Brock is incredibly marketable. Big guy who looks like he should be an ultimate fighter, and was a decent promo in the WWE. Plus he's the one guy in the UFC heavyweight division who isn't completely tainted at this point. Maybe feed Heath Herring to Brock, then Werdum to make sure that his BJJ is up to par before the title match with Nog.

Light heavyweight is on hold until we resolve the next season of the Ultimate Fighter with Griffin and Rampage. Where does Chuck go from here? Anyone comfortable feeding him Rua? Wanderlei showed that he's marketable last night, and that he still has some fight left in him. They'll need to rehabilitate him somehow - maybe send Rashad Evans his way for a beating? Machida looking strong against Sokoudjou has to scare Dana - Machida's potentially the most boring fighter in the UFC right now, and I don't think he speaks English. Not exactly a marketable champion. Hopefully Chuck, Wandy, Forrest, or Rampage can figure out the answer to him. This has historically been the UFC's strongest division in terms of marketability, and it looks like it'll stay that way.

Silva looks incredibly strong at 185. Not sure how many times we want to see him manhandle Rich Franklin. Rumor is Michael Bisping's going to drop to 185, he might be good to receive an ass-kicking from Silva, but not much more. I can never remember who's in this division, someone should help me out. A bunch of people say that Paulo Filho (WEC Champion) is actually the baddest 185 pound man on the planet, but he and Silva are friends/on the same team or something like that and will never fight each other.

I already talked about Welterweights, so on to the lightweights (aka the crappy nickname division). Roger Huerta is an exciting SOB, but I really don't think he's in the same league as BJ, Joe Stevenson, Sean "The Muscle Shark" Sherk, or maybe even Kenny "KenFlo" Florian. Huerta needs to be protected as much as possible, and his fighting style makes me nervous against any sort of strong technical striker. They should try to keep him out of the title picture as long as possible. Meanwhile we have Penn vs. Stevenson for the interim title, which is a stipulation that has always done well for the UFC. That creates an immediate war against Sherk and all sorts of rematches while we figure out who the other top lightweights in the world are.

WEC's 145 pound division (what's it called) has a compelling fight coming up with Urijah Faber vs. Jens Pulver. If that fight goes well then we get a rematch and maybe a trilogy. That should be a good division, especially if a guy like Joe Stevenson or Kenny Florian can drop down there and fight. Unfortunately Faber's torn through the division so badly that it'll need some new blood.

I dunno - late night thoughts of an insomniac. The business end of UFC fascinates me. Any thoughts on this? What fights did I miss? What fighters?

Just trying to add some non-betting enjoyment to the thread.

I HATE defending boxers, but Mayweather - de La Hoya did somewhere in the neighborhood of 2 million buys. I think maybe one or two UFC shows have done 1 million, and those are generally on cards with 2 or 3 legitimate drawing fights. So certainly they don't deserve de La Hoya money. But St. Pierre and Hughes deserve FAR more than they got for this fight. Especially Matt Hughes for agreeing to fight St. Pierre, which probably cost him a big payday against Serra in a couple months.

What do boxers on the undercard of a big shows like Mayweather - Hatton make? Is it comparable? I have no clue.

Sorry for triple posting - I can't sleep so ya'll can just deal

Sounds like ya'll had an awesome time. I'm insanely jealous.

If you and JC would have listened to me and picked Liddell over Wandy you would have made tons of mobnies...although JC should have ignored my Hughes pick, that wasn't a good one

BigLebowski and I will wait for our 10% finder's fee on the Clementi/Guilliard bet (j/k)

Still waiting for Steve's trip report.

Steve's report is in. I just got back from Vegas, and have been meaning to do this. When I'm away, I never post online.

Anyway, here is what happened.........

Mandalay only had 5 fights available to bet on.

So, I took:

Lidell, St. Pierre, Machida, Clementi, and Peleleieineverwantedtobeinthathatfightanyway.

Obviously I won 4 out of 5. The bet on Palelelie or whatever his name was meant nothing to me. It was a throw away fight. Meaning I had close to no action on it. In retrospect, it was a horrible bet given the odds. And JC actually made fun of how much I stood to win, it was pretty comical.

All in all, I did very well. I loved my picks, and I really liked the price I was getting on each fight.

I managed to get Chuck and Machida at +#'s which was great. If I waited a bit longer I could have gotten St. Pierre at -190 vs. -230, but such is life.

4 out of 5 is huge. And all of my big bets were on on the 4 that I won with.

The fights themselves were great. Our seats were amazing, especially for stand up.

Sok looked huge when he came in the ring. I was kind of nervous about that fight. But Machida is such a smart fighter. The guy is always cool, calm and collected. At one point I yelled out, "How do you say..............in Brazillian". The crowd was pretty quiet, so I'm sure a lot of people heard it based on where we were sitting. I honestly can't remember what I said. But Machida had Sok on the ropes and I was getting nervous about Sok recovering.

No need for me to break down each fight, you guys saw it on PPV. But being there as close as we were was about as big of a high as you can ever hope for. One of the best adrenaline rushes of my life. I'm totally addicted now, and so is JC.

One thing that I realized after the fights was Dan Henderson. I thought that he was the definitive answer to Anderson Silva. I now have my doubts. Not to say that he can't win. But I wasn't impressed with his coaching, or his teammates performance.

As promised there will be one on one coaching for the person who helped the most in regard to the UFC picks. JC and I decided to coach each other because we managed to pick the winners on our own. Kidding.

All of the info certainly helped. So SpiderGuard and Big Lebowski get a one hour session from me, JC, and Adam. Congrats guys.

We'll figure out the details..........

Steve

Great report. I'm even more jealous

That's the one thing that really hit me - I was amazed at how HUGE Sok looked on TV, especially compared to Machida.

I have no idea what happened to Team Quest's guys. Henderson has made a career at beating guys who are more talented than he is with good game plans - not sure why neither of his guys could put it together and do the same.

What do you guys think is next for Chuck? At this point in his career he is probally a 2 fight a year fighter so probally wont fight again till juneish. With Forrest and Rampage tied up with TUF those arent gonna be options. I was thinking maybe someone like Houston Alezander. Two stand up strikers would make for an intresting fight but probally wont get past the 1 minute mark either way. i deffinatly dont want to see him fight Jardine again, that one was kind of a snoozer.

the bonus is more then that. chuck most likely got close to 1m on the pay off and wanderlei also had to get a sizeable chunk too. Same goes for hughes and GSP. Money trickles down to the other fighters too from bonii, so base salaries are misleading. are they still under paid, yes, but you've made an incorrect assumption on what they get paid. Meltzer basically outlined the PPV bonus scale for couture recently and that same scale generally goes for the other big fighters

I wouldn't mind seeing Rashad Evans be next in line. Win/win for Dana - if Chuck wins, then he's back in the title picture. If Evans wins you have a new superstar. Alexander's not a bad fight either, although he's a bit old to be building up as a future star.

As soon as Chuck gets his next loss, he becomes a gatekeeper rather than a title contender. He has a potentially good match against Machida, Sokoudjou down the line if they can rehab him...who else? Maybe Thiago Silva?

After that fight, and the fact there was no knockout, what's the chances we'll see Chuck/Wandy II?

I'd rather see Evans/Thiago fight as a set up for the a title shot. I think just for pure entertainment you can make a style fight of Alexander/Lidell, Alexander being recklessly aggressive and Chuck being a great counter guy would be entertaining.

alright, i never post here, well, cause i know nothing really about the UFC except i like to watch. I was jsut watchign a special about it and it was saying something about a recent champion testing positive for steriod use. It never mentioned the fighter's name. Does anybody know? Thanks guys.

Definitely someday - but Wandy needs a couple wins first. They did a great job of building the storyline of basically "Loser Leaves Town" but they both looked so good that Wandy still has a career in the UFC. They need to give him a couple rehab fights and redo the fight in 2009.



Evans needs a win over a top guy before he should even be thinking about a #1 contender's match. Plenty of guys ahead of him in line. Even his draw against Tito was tainted by a penalty point for Ortiz if I remember correctly.

I think you have Machida in line for the loser of Griffin/Rampage as a #1 contender's match, and maybe the winner of Evans/Thiago gets the loser of that fight.

I don't think the griffon/rampage loser should be in line for an immediate jump back to #1 contender, exp if Griffon is the loser. Obviously it depends on how the fight is won, but that division is deep enough some other guys should get shots.

Now that I think about it, I'd like to see a Machida/Thiago fight and the winner takes on whoever is the champ.

Sean Sherk

I'll give you every bit of this, and the video twice on Sunday. That was some funny stuff.

Let me add to JC's point - quite often a fight between two good ground guys can be insanely boring, especially at the higher weight classes. Werdum vs. Gonzaga has the potential to be a great match, or a real snoozefest.

I didn't know Werdum beat Gonzaga in 2003 by TKO (strikes). Interesting...I wouldn't mind seeing Werdum become a contender.

lol I dunno why this made me laugh so much, its super stupid but I thought it was hilarious...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3e7_8-d_YQ

Very nice Spider!! I don't get HDNET, but my bro in law taped it and I went to his house this morning to watch them. After both of the matches I was praying you didn't listen to me.

I honestly think the Akiyama fight would have been stopped in the UFC when he dropped Masaki and unloaded two or three undefended bombs from top. I think the bad blood between them is the only reason they let this one go. I'm glad they did because what a turn of events. One day fighters will learn if they have the other guy in THAT MUCH TROUBLE and they get tied up on the ground just stand it up!!!!! D!!!! I take it EliteXC doesn't allow gi's...suprised to see Akiyama not wearing one.

Melendez must have forgot to work on his takedown defense. He looked really good other than getting taken down 10 brazillion times. I thought he was fighting "the blanket" Koscheck for a bit there.

When is the last time Bustamante has lived up to the hype? Every time I see that guy fight it just keeps getting more disappointing.

Fedor went as expected. His faced looked like he fought someone with sandpaper gloves though. What a freakshow that fight was.

Sorry for the long rant, but here's my rundown of the divisions starting with the small guys

WEC Featherweight 145lb'ers
Obv Urijah vs Pulver should be a very very good fight. This division is a lot deeper than people realize. Chance Farrar, Jeff Curran, Mark Hominick, Micah Miller, and Cub Swanson are all very solid. There are about 5 others that are as good or a step below these guys. Unfortunately, I think Urijah and maybe even Pulver have them outclassed a bit. I think with how stacked the lightweight div in the UFC is you will see more of them drop the weight and move over.

The rest of these are UFC

Lightweight (155lb)
Such a deep deep division.
Obv-BJ/JoeDaddy vs Sherk for the title. I think Kenny Florian is at least #4 if not #3 in this division. I simply can not believe the UFC threw Joe Lauzon to him. When he beats down Lauzon I think he gets the next title shot, even if it is against Sherk again. I mean, the guy took Sherk 5 rounds and held his own.
Top Contenders
Roger Huerta (undef-needs to fight one of the following), Frankie Edgar (undef), Tyson Griffin (loss to Edgar), Thiago Tavares (loss to Griffin and fighting 1/23), and Din Thomas (loss to Florian b/c freak injury) are all right up there. I think Diego Sanchez has to prove he can cut the weight OK and have at least 1 convincing win vs a quality opponent to get into this group. Too many 2nd tier guys to list.
Matchups
I think Huerta needs to fight one of these guys, preferably Tyson Griffin or Din Thomas. If Huerta wins he gets the next title shot. If either of the other guys win they keep moving up the ladder. I think Edgar should get the loser of BJ/JoeDaddy and if he wins he moves to the top rung.

Welterweight (170lb)
Another very deep division.
Obv: Serra vs GSP for the title..hopefully sometime around mid-April. Swick vs Burkman 1/23 to get one of them back into the top tier. Marcus Davis vs Jess Laudin 1/19. Davis should take this one and it will move him into the top tier for sure if he isn’t already considered part of it.
Top Contenders
Jon Fitch(#1 contender), Mac Danzig, Matt Hughes, Josh Koscheck (I HATE putting in here-loss to GSP), Karo (loss to Sanchez-win Burkman), and Thiago Alves (loss to Fitch). Too many 2nd tier guys to list.
Matchups
GSP vs Hughes IV? NOOOOOOO. It has been established who is the better fighter..no doubt.
I think you have to give Fitch a 2nd tier guy to avoid the inactivity before you give him the next title shot. He has already earned it. In order from earliest, he has wins against Brock Larsen (of WEC fame), Burkman, Alves, Hironaka, Fioravanti, Carneiro, and Sanchez. NO ONE in the UFC has as impressive a streak going.
Hughes vs Koscheck
Karo vs Thiago
Davis vs Swick/Burkman winner
Mac vs Swick/Burkman loser

Middleweight (185lb)
Obv- Silva vs Henderson 3/1, Patrick Cote Vs. Drew McFedries 1/23 (should be an absolute war), Jorge Rivera Vs. Kendall Grove 1/29 (can Kendall get back on track?)
Top Contenders
Franklin, Okami (loss to Franklin, overall meh), Nate Marquadt (loss to Silva), Martin Kampmann (wins over Leites & McFedries), Thales Leites, and Bisping (does not impress me one bit, but most would put him here).
2nd Tier
Because this division is meh I will add who I think are top 2nd tier guys. Kendall, Chris Leben, Terry Martin, Jason McDonald, Patrick Cote, McFedries, and Ivan Salaverry.
Matchups
If Henderson beats Silva it opens up a lot of opportunities. If Franklin beats someone like Marquadt I think I might give him a shot at Hendo.
If Silva beats Henderson: Kampmann gets a win over someone like Bisping and he gets the next shot. I might even match up Kampmann and Franklin at this point. If Franklin loses though his stock will drop a good bit.
Franklin vs Leben (get Franklin back on track)
Kampmann vs Bisping
If the UFC wants Okami out give him loser of Hendo/Silva
Thales Leites vs winner of Cote/McFedries
I think Marquadt might beat anyone in the div besides Silva and Hendo…give him anyone.

Light Heavyweight (205lb)
Obv-Rampage vs Griffin hopefully sometime before Halloween. Griffin obv doesn’t get this shot based on his recent fighting exploits. I was actually a bit pissed when they announced this and still am. This is the only fight worth noting that has been scheduled.
Top Contenders
Machida, Rashad, Jardine, Chuck, Thiago Silva, a healthy Shogun, Wandy, Ortiz (can you put him here?), Brandon Vera (rumor is he is dropping down)
2nd Tier
Houston Alexander, Bonnar, Wilson Gouveia, and Soko
Matchups
I hate to leave Machida that inactive until he can get a title shot. If Dana White doesn’t give him a title shot after another win it would be a travesty. Yes, probably better for the UFC, but horrible for the sport. Isn’t this one of the reasons people now hate boxing? I think Machida definitely opened some eyes even to the casual MMA fan with his destruction of Soko. Nice to see him finally get a finish. The guys he has been fighting have wanted nothing to do with him after round 1. He is no more boring that Chuck is. If people didn't bring the fight to Chuck there would be no fight. Maybe throw him James Irvin or Alessio Sakara.
I like Rashad’s record, but Bisping is his biggest win…not very impressive.
Rashad vs Jardine for #1 contender
LOVE a Wandy vs Alexander matchup for all you drunken boxing fans.
Chuck vs Shogun/Soko (let him run through the Pride studs b4 it’s too late)
I want to see if Thiago Silva is the real deal. Sacrifice Ortiz in case he is.
Shogun/Soko (whoever Chuck doesn’t fight) vs Bonnar
Vera vs Gouveia/Lambert winner

Heavyweight (205+lb)
Obv-Big Nog vs Big Nut for title. Gabriel Gonzaga Vs. Fabricio Werdum (uninspiring loss to Arlovski) 1/19. Frank Mir Vs. Brock Lesnar 2/2. Something tells me this fight is not on the up and up. Either Dana has it out for Lesnar or the fix is in. NO way you give Lesnar someone as dangerous on the ground as Mir if you have big plans for him.
Top Contenders
Gonzaga, Arlovski, Cheick Kongo, Werdum??, Cro Cop??, Herring??
2nd Tier
Haha, barely could fill out first tier. As sad as it sounds, that’s what we got to work with
Matchups
I think Big Nut has a chance. His short punches could find a home. Have no idea if he is still training with Miletich. Hughes reminded yet again of what a dick he is by bad mouthing Big Tim in his new book.
I think if Gonzaga makes Werdum look bad you have to give him another title shot. If Werdum somehow wins there is no way he should get the title shot. It would be his first UFC win.
Arlovski vs Cro Cop
Kongo vs Herring (#1 contender if Kongo wins)
If Big Nog gets past Big Tim I see Gonzaga taking him down. If Gonzaga doesn’t I honestly don’t see who else has a chance (even though Herring really should have beat him)

God, what a joke of a division. Who are some free agents we could sign? Overeem, Buentello, Antonio Silva, Ben Rothwell, even Kimbo would be a step in the right direction.



Do you wish you could have that 15 minutes of your life back?

Interesting read.

One thing we both forgot about in our breakdowns of the future is that Mac Danzig is going to drop to 155. Could be potentially interesting.

Doing Griffin vs. Rampage after the next season of TUF is potentially a horrible mistake on the UFC's part. Rampage is their most marketable champion and he's not going to be in action for many many moons.

Re: Lesnar vs. Mir, I have a few thoughts.

- Rumor is that Lesnar tried to negotiate for a title fight as his UFC debut. Dana said no to that obviously. Lesnar would only settle for a top opponent. They came up with Mir.
- If you're Brock Lesnar and you want to hand pick a heavyweight opponent, who better than Frank Mir? If I'm a top level amateur wrestler with little/no boxing experience, I'd much rather face a jiu jitsu guy than Mirko Cro Cop or Andre Arlovski.
- This is a win/win situation for Dana. If Lesnar wins, they have an instant star on their hands to lead the heavyweight division for the next 5 years. If Lesnar loses, Dana gets the satisfaction of pointing out how phony pro rasslers can't come in to the octagon and hang with a former champion well past his prime.

I think this fight is actually about as good of a matchup as Brock could get (from a legitimate heavyweight), and I have no doubt that he'll win.

Rampages personally transfers perfectly to TUF, and those shows are filmed in a matter of two weeks and just aired over a couple months. It seems longer than it is.

The fight between Griffin and Rampage won't take place until the entire show airs, and that's the problem. Rampage is out of action for a while now.