An MMA Thread

[deepdoop]

I did a quick search and couldn't find anything MMA or UFC related, so I just thought it'd be cool to get a general MMA thread going for anybody who may be interested in talking about one of the gayest looking sports there is.

If you aren't familiar, MMA stands for Mixed Martial Arts and it's that sport that's usually associated with a cage (because of the UFC), where people use a variety of different combat sports to beat each other up, such as boxing, wrestling, BJJ, kickboxing, etc.

I don't really watch many sports anymore. In my teens I used to watch, or at least pay attention to, a lot of different sports but now not so much. I mostly just pay attention to a little bit of hockey and combat sports, though even my attention to combat sports has dwindled over the past year or so.

There was a time I used to watch as much boxing, MMA, kickboxing, grappling, etc as I could but I think I burnt myself out on it a bit. I would watch smaller MMA shows, foreign MMA and of course the UFC... but now I mostly just watch the UFC. So while I don't watch as much as I used to, I still really like it.

So... anybody like MMA/UFC?

[Freya]

I have a friend who works as a Cage girl? that's about as far as my UFC/MMAness goes. Cept there was that whole war machine debacle

[deepdoop]

The War Machine debacle was a bit of an event, wasn't it? War Machine is messed up. Everything with him is an event. It's kind of sad though because he's a C-level MMArtist but he's got this alpha male attitude. The worst part of that is that he could still beat up a variety of the population.

What organization does your friend work for?

[Freya]

Ah it's just a place in Oklahoma City, Rage in the Cage I believe. Don't quote me on that though.

Dude was seriously messed up and he gave a bad name to other MMAers. Not all over them are the bravado male bull. Some are just really good at punching other people. They don't have that jerky attitude.

[deepdoop]

Yeah, a lot of mixed martial artists are pretty respectful dudes because they don't have to be alpha male pricks. They know they can beat people up so they obviously have that kind of confidence, but they handle themselves like pretty alright guys and girls.

I've seen a Rage in the Cage or two! Don't remember anything about them though.


So this weekend we got UFC 177, and this is the main card right now, for anybody who watches:
T.J. Dillashaw (c) vs. Renan Barão
Tony Ferguson vs. Danny Castillo
Bethe Correia vs. Shayna Baszler
Ramsey Nijem vs. Carlos Diego Ferreira
Yancy Medeiros vs Justin Edwards

I really couldn't care less about it. It has a championship bout but it's one of the most unnecessary rematches of all-time, so I just can't get interested. It's one of the care PPVs where I don't care about a single fight on the main card.

[Ayen]

Some times I'll watch it on the weekends when it airs on Fox, but I don't go out of my way to watch many of the matches. I know there's a big rivalry going on between MMA and Pro Wrestling fans that none of the athletes share, of course.

[deepdoop]

I like that you bring up pro wrestling actually, and I liked how you said how the athletes don't share the rivalry. I think it's funny because you're right, a lot of these athletes don't hate pro wrestling and there are a bunch who actively support it. But yet the fans of both are so insecure with their preferred form of entertainment that they bitch at one another.

I've been a big fan of pro wrestling for years, though I took a break for a while some years back. In that time I got really into MMA, and it's come full circle because while I still adore MMA, I've rediscovered my love for pro wrestling. At this point I prefer it to MMA.

I get why there's a rivalry. MMA still isn't at the point where it has escaped the pro wrestling "stigma" that it had attached. If I say I'm watching UFC this weekend some people will still act like its wrestling as opposed to fighting. It doesn't bother me at all, since I love both.

Though it's silly when fans criticize the other because MMA has roots in pro wrestling. Pride was important and Pride definitely took from pro wrestling. And now you see pro wrestlers borrowing things from MMA, such as Daniel Bryan or CM Punk when he was still around. Hell, Stephanie McMahon did the Ice Bucket Challenge and Ronda Rousey was the one to dump the water on her.

[Freya]

I've kinda been interested in watching some games but a lot of them are PPV and i'm totally not paying for that. PUNCH PUNCH KICK BAM down. How's that not cool?

[deepdoop]

UFC has been doing a good job of a lot of free cards lately though. This weekend is a PPV but then after that I believe it's 3 free ones, providing you have the right channels. Which I don't. So I stream free events. How cool am I?

I remember when UFC first got on Fox and they had an hour slot, with only one fight, and they picked two heavyweight monsters to showcase the UFC to people who may not have watched it before. They had like half an hour build up and then Junior dos Santos knocked out Cain Velasquez in a minute and a half. So then they killed another 15 minutes or so afterward. lol

[Freya]

I think the boyfriend would really enjoy these fights too so maybe i'll stream it as well. Are they on certain days or do they just happen whenever?

[deepdoop]

When there's an event they are usually one Saturday, but occasionally they are on other days. Sometimes they have two events in one day, like this past Saturday, since they had one in China and then one in Tulsa later that day. Sometimes I feel like there are too many fights, which is something I never thought I'd say.

The next free event is on a Friday; September 5. The main event is incredible. I took a little look and from that point on, for a couple months, they're all on Saturday.

[Freya]

Maybe I'll tune in next friday then! Who's fighting who? Might as well try it when it's free.

[deepdoop]

According to Wikipedia, which I used because I'd rather go there than the UFC site:



Middleweight
Ronaldo Souza (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ronaldo_Souza)
vs.
Gegard Mousasi (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gegard_Mousasi)







Heavyweight
Alistair Overeem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alistair_Overeem)
vs.
Ben Rothwell (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Rothwell)






Heavyweight
Matt Mitrione (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matt_Mitrione)
vs.
Derrick Lewis (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Derrick_Lewis_%28fighter%29)






Lightweight
Joe Lauzon (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Lauzon)
vs.
Michael Chiesa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Chiesa)






Featherweight
Nik Lentz (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nik_Lentz)
vs.
Charles Oliveira (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Oliveira)






Flyweight
John Moraga (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Moraga)
vs.
Justin Scoggins




That's the main card.

Since I know you aren't a huge fan... you're pretty much guaranteed a fun fight when Joe Lauzon is fighting. He is tied with Anderson Silva for the most bonuses (for like, fight of the night, submission of the night, etc) at 12. Dude comes to scrap, win or lose. Love that guy.

Someone is going to sleep in the Overeem/Rothwell fight. Overeem hits really really hard (when he isn't tired) and Rothwell also hits hard but can also take a shot.

Charles Oliveira and Nik Lentz could be a good fight. I hope it goes to the ground though because Oliveira is a lot more fun on the ground than standing.

John Moraga is an exciting flyweight. I don't know a thing about Scoggins. Name sounds familiar.

But Souza and Mousasi is what I'm looking forward to. Mousasi is one of my favourite fighters. He's excellent all-around, with elite striking and a great ground game... only weakness really has been wrestling, but he was fighting a weight class above for years and he was smaller than most people in that division. Now he's back to Middleweight, his natural weight class.

Souza has an elite ground game, great wrestling and his striking is getting a lot better. They've actually already fought years ago and Mousasi did an upkick while he was on the ground and knocked him out, lol. I don't think that will happen again but I'm still pulling for Mous.

It's actually not a bad card at all. Much better than the PPV this coming weekend.

[Freya]

OH I know of Silva! That name I recognize!

What are the difference of weight. I mean I get Heavy, middle, and light but what is feather and flyweight?

[deepdoop]

Flyweight is 125lbs, Bantam is 135, Feather is 145, Lightweight is 155, Welterweight is 170, Middleweight is 185, Light Heavy is 205 and Heavy is up to 265.

[Freya]

Oh wow so flyweight must be some tiny guys!

[Aulayna]

I totally read the title as an AMA thread...

I was like, don't we already do As Me Anything's...

[Crop]

There did used to be a pretty large MMA thread here, I think most of the fans have left the forum, although I know Raist used to be a big fan.

UFC isn't that big over here in the UK, and obviously we get them at pretty unreasonable times (3am live usually, midnight replay the next day), but at least they're all free.

I used to be a big fan, but I feel like in the last couple of years UFC has started to get mega bloated full of mediocre fighters that I don't care about. It's interesting that you mentioned a card and then said you didn't really care about it, because I actually feel the same about most cards these days.
UFC used to have a card a month at most, but now it's not rare to pump out two or three, and most of these have fighters that you know are never going to make it, or are just there so some potential title contender can beat on some other guy on his way to the final.

Not only that, but Joe Rogan is probably the most irritating commentator in the history of sport, who has such an overrated knowledge that it's unbelievable that people rate his opinion so highly.

[deepdoop]

I definitely feel what you're saying.

I think I said it already, but I never thought I'd say that we have too many fights but I've been saying it more and more often. I mean, most people would just tell me not to watch the cards I don't care about, but that creates a circular problem. If a person doesn't watch these cards, you miss out on some up-and-comers so when they get bigger you're not really sure who they are.

I still get excited for some cards. Yeah, that PPV I posted coming up this weekend is garbage. I'll still watch it but I'm not excited. However, that other card I posted a week later is quite good.

I think only having UFC as a big organization is lessening my excitement a little too. I'm a fairly new fan in the sense that while I knew of the UFC since UFC 1, I never actually watched it until about 5 years ago. I did a lot of watching of older events, older UFCs, Pride events, other organizations, etc, to try to get a good knowledge of the sport. I spent a lot of time just watching fights.

But when I really got into the sport we had UFC putting on good shows, we had Strikeforce as a serious alternative to UFC because they were putting on great fights and had some of my favourite fighters (Nick Diaz... still my favourite), and not only that, but we had great Japanese MMA in things like Sengoku and Dream. Not only was different talent really showcased, but they had their own thing going on. UFC and Strikeforce took place in a cage, but then I could turn on some Japanese MMA and see action in a ring.

Despite its downfalls, I prefer a ring because it makes it feel more like a sport to me. It's also changes up the strategy of fighters since it's easier to cut off fighters and it's harder to hold people against the ropes than it is against a cage, thus making the wrestling more exciting. It did have its drawbacks like "restarting" fights though when people fell out, so I can see why people would prefer a cage.

Anyway, I'm soon done. I just loved having that variety. I'm not saying all the best fighters being under one roof isn't a good thing, because it's true that now we do get to see a lot of fights that may not have been possible, but I don't know. I just liked having JMMA I guess. It felt different than the UFC. Sure there were some great fighters, but it was a true event. The audience was different, the atmosphere was different. Now we just get the same UFC culture, with the same UFC music. Fighters are actually discouraged to have big elaborate entrances because Dana White generally hates them, whereas in Dream/Pride, you'd have these massive entrances sometimes like Sakuraba or Genki Sudo who are legendary for their fighting skills (moreso Saku) but also their entrances.

I don't know if you were much into JMMA or not, but I absolutely loved that they had that huge New Years Eve event every year, where it went on for like 10 hours and often had a mixture of MMA, kickboxing, some weird rules fights and even some pro wrestling. I had to download it the next day to watch it, but it added excitement to MMA for me. We don't get that anymore.

I think I'm done now.

[chionos]

I watch it sometimes, but I don't really keep up with it.

I watched the Erick Silva vs. what's his name, Mike Brown? recently...that was pretty good fight, if rather one-sided.

One thing I do know is that I would love to watch Cyborg beat the crap out of Ronda Rousey. I'd pay to see that.

[deepdoop]

I'm not sure Cyborg would, but that's definitely the woman fight to make and she's the only one who could. Love her or hate her, but Rousey is excellent. It feels weird saying I'm a fan of hers now because there's so much attached to that, but I remember seeing her first fights before anybody outside of Judo really knew her and I was really impressed with her. I didn't know that she'd become what she is today because so often in MMA you get people who demolish others in a round but don't amount to much. But Cyborg is excellent too. She's a scary, scary girl.

That Erick Silva fight was disappointing for me because I quite like Silva. I was on his bandwagon thinking he might go far. I still really like him because dude comes to fight always, but I've lessened my expectations of him considerably. He might still do well but he's not going to be champ. Too many killers in Welterweight.

[botnslave]

As long as it doesn't turn into Sherdog.Com we're good. Those forums are ridiculous lol.
I was a huge crocop fan back around 08 ish. Usually fleet in and out of paying attention to mma. It's a testament to what a personality can do to your interest in something because I don't even know who most of these fighters are anymore. There aren't as many big names fighting that can sell ppvs.
That's one of the differences between dubya dubya E and mma.

[deepdoop]

The only good thing about Sherdog is the shoop threads on the forum. There are some talented people there, and some of them are hilarious.

Yeah, they're going through a bit of a time nowadays. A bunch of people have gone, but Nick Diaz is coming back and he's always interesting. Ronda's still around. If Jon Jones would just go full heel he'd be more interesting, though I still wouldn't like him. Connor McGregor is probably the guy most making waves now due to his personality. He's a fun fighter, and it'll be interesting to see where he goes and how he does.

[Freya]

OKAY so the free thing is tomorrow right? Where can I watch it?

[deepdoop]

Yay my thread lives! Thanks.

I thought it was free, but it turns out it's on Fight Pass. I guess a lot of their events are these days. Lame.

Since the last post, the previous UFC happened. It was actually pretty entertaining, a good night of fights, but UFC are still a bunch of shitheads for trying to milk people with a PPV that, on paper, was terrible.

[Marky Tee]

i bloody love MMA( and boxing) but haven't been able to train in months which also stops me watching it or keeping up with news because i just get annoyed and frustrated that i can't train :(

kinda weird aha

[Quindiana Jones]

I miss fighting quite a lot, but I've never been one for watching it. Same with most sports, to be honest. xD