Renato will beat Chuck. That is Herb’s prediction.
how about thoughts on the open weight grand prix? im pulling for wanderlei, hes one of my favorite fighters. its hard to say though. i think wanderlei has the tools to beat anyone remaining, but, again, well see.
Here we go again, The Ultimate Fighter started again last, season four. It’s a different setup this time around with no real team coaches, everyone just works with all the coaches. The teams are on their own. I don’t even remember some of these guys! Shonie Carter won the first fight by decision. Clementi, after all his talk couldn’t really get it going against Carter. He had some good submission attempts but that was it. Shonie slammed him down a couple of times and controlled on the ground for awhile, enough for the win. It was ironic that it was Matt Serra (the guy he ko’d with a spinning backfist) coaching him from the corner. Matt did a good job coaching and says he has a “master plan” to pick apart the other team. Should be interesting.
Ultimate fight night was pretty good on Thursday. The Joe “Diesel” Riggs vs. Jason Von Flue fight was quick, with Joe submitting him in the first round with a choke (triangle?) he really cinched it in tight and hooked Von Flue’s leg at the same time, Von Flue didn’t have a prayer of escaping that. The funny part was he gave Diesel the finger before submitting! Too bad they censored it.
Chris Leben won in dramatic fashion once again, knocking out his oppenent (I can’t remember the name). The guy looked way bigger than Leben to me, like he should have been in a heavier weight class. I had a bad feeling about this fight right from the start and I thought Leben was headed for his second straight loss. It didn’t help when he started walking into right hands in the first round. He got popped a few times. To make matters worse the guy was slippery on the ground and was beating Leben’s ground game. In the next round he tagged Leben again but Leben responded with a left hook of his own that caught his oppenent right on the button, fight over! (Reminds me of Sylvia-Arlovski II).
The best fight by far was Diego Sanchez vs. Karo Parysian. Wow, what a scrap! I really underestimated Sanchez. He is undefeated so I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised. I thought Karo would slam him down and submit him quick, WRONG! Sanchez had other ideas, like laying a beating on Karo! He caught Karo with a vicious uppercut in the first round that cut Karo under the eye, luckily Karo landed in the guard but you could see he had blood in his eye, it looked like he was squinting. Karo didn’t really get back into the fight until the second round. On their feet Sanchez scored with the uppercuts and right hands. In the second round Karo put on the “heat”, landing some good throws and pushing the action on the ground but he never really had Sanchez in trouble, Sanchez has mad-crazy ground skills! Sanchez almost submitted him a couple of times. Round three was all Sanchez as continued to score with uppercuts (Karo’s face was bruised and bleeding) and got the top position on the ground. At the end it was just Karo protecting him self as Sanchez rained down strikes. Impressive win! Look out Matt Hughes.
As annoying as I find Diego, I am impressed with his ground skills, especially his instant reaction to moves his opponent makes. A lot of guys have to wait to see what exactly the opp. is trying before attempting a counter. Diego knows what’s up before the move has really begun and spins out and tries something of his own.
Jason has zero future at 170. He might have a chance at 155.
I was hoping Leben would get beat again but Santiago closed his eyes 
and caught one, fight over.
What is up with these nicknames? Does the UFC require fighters to have one? The UFC names are beyond stupid now. It’s like when Charles Finley owned the Oakland A’s and made up stupid nicks for the players.
Kind of funny how even the TUF show itself referenced the fact of guys not wanting to fight. They might as well say “these guys aren’t weenies like the no-talent chumps we had on last season”.
The UFC fights on Aug 26th were pretty weak.
Stephan Bonner got killed by Forrest Griffin. Stephan looks like one of the most unathletic human beings around. He stumbles around out there like a newborn giraffe and when he wasn’t running from Griffin he looked like he was just happy to stay on his feet. His balance is an embarassment and it’s beyond me how an unathletic waste of skin like him can be in the spotlight like he was. When you get beat-up by a guy who looks like the dork from your high school math class… it’s probably time to hang’em up. What do you think Stephan??
The Liddell fight was just as bad. I can guarantee this fight was set-up by his sponsors and the UFC sponsors Xyience. They throw some feeble inbred in the ring with him that they know is gonna get killed. And then they market the sh*t out of their products after he knocks him out… Bright idea guys. Liddell aint that tough. The guy he fought was a very weak specimen. You can tell how weak this clown was just by the way he moved about the ring and threw punches. The whole thing is a marketing scam. Is the UFC the new WWF?? It could be…
I agree, Griffin’s star is rising and Bonnar’s is fading, what happened? Maybe Bonnar needs a change of scenery.
I wouldn’t call Sobral feeble, he has submitted many oppenents, the problem is that Chuck Liddell is a bad matchup for him. It’s almost impossible to take Chuck down, you have to trade blows with him and that’s what he wants. You have a point about Chuck though, how tough is he really? How would he do against a real tough 205lb kickboxer, like Anderson Silva or Forrest Griffin for example? We’ll see. Next up, Tito Ortiz or Wanderlei?
Good tournament! Good fights. Too bad Fedor wasn’t part of the tournament. Good fights though!
This may seem odd, but Silva’s being taken apart by Crocop makes me even more sure that he would destroy Chuck (not that that fight will ever take place). During the fight I was thinking a little of what Chuck would do against Mirko, and I just see him getting KO’d very quickly. Silva at least made a fight of it (and did so their previous fight). Unscientific I know, but this is the smack taking thread 
For all Matt Hughes’ talk about how BJ is overconfident, he seems to be the one who doesn’t seem to realize he can lose again.
I’m basically hoping for almost all of the TUF guys to lose. At a certain point the hype makes me want to see them get rolled up.
Predictions for UFC 63?
The Canadian David “The Crow” will win.
Okay, my predictions:
Gabe Ruediger Vs. Melvin Guillard
Guillard by TKO, 2nd Round
Joe Lauzon Vs. Jens Pulver
Pulver by KO, 1st Round
Jason Lambert Vs. Rashad Evans
Lambert by TKO or submission, 2nd Round
Mike Swick Vs. David Loiseau
Loiseau by TKO, 2nd Round
Matt Hughes Vs. BJ Penn
Hughes by submission, 4th Round
as far as the undercard, who cares. Danny will get his ass beat, though.
Could BJ Penn have been more out of shape? The guy got worked in the 3rd round. What an embarassment. He looked good in round 1 though.
I think Hughes strength was too much for him. He was way lighter than Hughes, and the last minute or so of the second round for BJ would have sucked the life out of anyone. I think he spent 3 rounds of energy in that round alone trying to finish hughes. Huges was just too strong. I mean c’mon, legs -vs- arms and he couldn’t finish him.
For awhile, I thought BJ had him but he just ran out of gas. BJ Penn is still one of the most talented fighters out there but he needs some more conditioning. Who’s next for Matt Hughes, St. Pierre or Diego Sanchez? I say Sanchez beats him if they fight.
I think BJ said he broke a rib in the second round which is why he was out of it in the 3rd round.
BJ injured his ribs while working a sweep to get huges’ back towards the end of round 2. He didn’t gas so much as he couldn’t moveor breath because his ribs were messed.
BJ:
I felt great going in, Matt started trying to take me down from my right leg, it’s something I expected he might do. He got me down against the fence, but I was thinking about this position alot and I was ready. When he went for a big elbow, he missed and I capitalized and started going for his back. At this moment, when I was making the turn towards his back, I felt my ribs seperate on my right side. Although I didn’t know the severity of the situation. I was thinking I have to finish him now because I knew something was wrong. Matt defended himself well and got through the round. When I got up to walk to my corner, I knew something was wrong, but I didn’t want to talk about it with my corner. I wanted to be the champ. I wanted to keep fighting.
Interviewer:
What about round 3?
BJ:
I remember standing up out of the corner in pain. But I was thinking, “Earn your title this is what you have to do to get your belt back, fight through the pain”. I knew the oppurtunity I had with getting this fight, especially after losing my last fight. I wasn’t going to quit on the corner. I kept going because I honestly believed it was destiny. When me and Matt were boxing I felt like I couldn’t breathe and had no mobility in my core. But I kept thinking something good is going to happen. When Matt started dominating the stand up I tried for a takedown. I had nothing and pulled to guard. I felt like I couldn’t do anything on the ground. But I was still positive. Matt hit me in the ribs from half guard. The pain was so excruciating I had to use my far hand to block it. I would rather Matt pass my guard and punch my face the hit my ribs. When Matt was in his favorite position that he likes. I was still thinking I was going to win somehow. Big John gave me plenty of time. I practiced defending against that position with flexibility, but I had none with my core. Even when Big John stopped the fight, I was still so positive I thought I escaped. Congratulations to Matt, he is a great fighter. It’s not his fault that that happened, he fought like the champion he is. He deserved the victory.
I have done this before i am amazed he went as long as he did.
Ah, that explains it. The kid’s got heart!
When I watched Mirko Filipovic destroying Silva I was very proud that I was part croat/part serbian. I actually trained BJJ for 2 years before 5 years with Mike Bencic – ex Mirko’s BJJ coach. Yes, that Bencic (aka Batman) who lost two fights at pride.
I actually think to continue BJJ and Vale Tudo (I was damn good) at my gym. There is a coach of BJJ at my gym and we talked just before couple of minutes…
I had some problems with my back when doing BJJ, due flexing bending and twisting on the ground, but now I am much stronger at my core so I will think I can manage it…
PRIDE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIPS in the USA for the first time ever was AWESOME!!!