Thread: The Official MMA Thread

I'm going out on a limb and saying with Cuban starting his own fed, Fedor never steps in a UFC ring.

Cuban will throw the money that Fedor's ridiculous management wants, let him do Sambo, basically give him a check and say "fill something in"

Plus he can make light work out of the also-rans Cuban will give him

Originally Posted by Crapgame13

I'm going out on a limb and saying with Cuban starting his own fed, Fedor never steps in a UFC ring.

Cuban will throw the money that Fedor's ridiculous management wants, let him do Sambo, basically give him a check and say "fill something in"

Plus he can make light work out of the also-rans Cuban will give him

Definitely a possibility. I'm sure Cuban will also sign the Red Devil Sport Club guys that Fedor wants contracts for.

If Cuban signs Barnett too, I'll be happy because I've wanted to see that fight for a long time. Unfortunately other than Barnett there aren't any other legit HW free agents out there.

Usually I post up my recap/where do they go from here after the event but since I was at the ASU game and watched the fight a few days later I never did get that review out. Anyways you guys did a solid job of recapping the PPV so I'll just go straight to the what's next to fire up some conversation. We'll start from the top.

Rampage Jackson

Really solid performance from Rampage. I was very impressed with how he was able to control Henderson when he was on top. I thought he would finish the fight but Hendo is a pretty tough guy. I never thought Rampage was in danger though and he fought a smart fight. Clealry Juanito(who was undefeated on the night) has done wonders with 'Page.

As for what's next, I think a fight with Shogun(provided he beats Forrest) is in order. Hopefully the fight could be made for the December card, if not the Superbowl January card would do just fine.

Dan Henderson

Henderson didn't do anything bad in this fight, I just think Rampage was too good. I didn't think Hendo wrestled enough because his top game is nasty, but I guess Rampage is a pretty tough guy to take down and control.

My hope is that Henderson drops down to 185 for another unification fight against the winner of Silva-Franklin. That division is definitely in need of an injection of talent, especially if Franklin loses again. I would love to see either fight and would have to favor Hendo in either matchup.

Michael Bisping

My initial thoughts were that Bisping lost. After viewing the fight a few more times, I still think he lost but it was a very close fight. Word is that Bisping asked for a rematch with Hamil. I think that's the way to go since it was such a controversial fight.

But I think the best option for Bisping is to move down to 185. It has been speculated in the past and he's definitely a smaller LHW, I think he could make the weight. Clearly he is a bit too small for 205 pounds. Hamil was the much stronger man as well as the bigger man. I can't really picture Bisping succeeding at the highest level with guys like Rampage, Shogun, and even Tito who's a big LHW.

Matt Hamil

Really good performance by Hamil. Myself and a couple other posters commented that we didn't think he had much of a chance because he was too one-dimensional. But he looked great on the feet. Didn't throw too many combos but he definitely threw the more powerful punches. I think he should get a rematch with Bisping. If he wins that, I think the UFC will slowly build him up. Similar to how they built up Rashad.

Cheick Kongo

Kongo fought a good fight but I'll be honest, I think it was more of a lackluster Cro Cop performance than an outstanding Cheick Kongo performance. Cro Cop is still a name though and this performance warrants a big fight for Kongo. I think he would get killed by Big Nog. Maybe the winner of Tim Sylvia Vs. Brandon Vera? Or even a fight with Andre Arlovski would be good.

However, on the Beatdown they mentioned that Kongo was hurt going into the fight and aggravated the injury so he might be out for awhile.

Mirko Cro-Cop

Ah I don't know what it is about this guy. He clearly doesn't seem to give a **** anymore. I don't know what the UFC should do. Maybe throw him in against the loser of Sylvia-Vera...

Houston Alexander

Wow this guy looked impressive. Really explosive, I think the UFC will build him up fairly slowly, no need to rush him in a stacked division. Anxious to see his development.

Originally Posted by ASUcruz

I don't really think it's a concern. There's two sides to every story. Cro Cop has struggled and Nog has a bit, although he was dominating Herring(a Pride guy) until Herring landed that out of nowhere shot.

But, other Pride imports have done well. Rampage destroyed the UFC's poster boy, Anderson Silva, who didn't really dominate in PRIDE destroyed another poster boy for the UFC.

I don't think its a huge deal. Everyone knows how good Fedor is. There are different circumstances for each fighter. Mirko is arrogant and doesn't really care. Bad combo. I don't believe that Big Nog struggled by any means. He was killing Herring until that lucky kick and even still once he regained his senses he destroyed Herring on the feet.

I'm just thinking that it will give Dana a little bit of pause in the negotiations. CroCop was his big prize a year ago and everyone thought he'd be rolling through the heavyweights. That hasn't happened and Dana is paying him a grip of money to lose 2 of his first 3 fights and the one win was lackluster. He's gotta be worrying about paying a guy a million dollars a fight who COULD have the same thing happen to him. This is a business for him and he knows the UFC doesn't NEED Fedor. Would it be good for them? Sure. It just isn't something that would make a difference to the casual UFC fan.

Ortiz-Evans signed for the November card

http://ufcmania.com/2007/09/13/ufc-7...shad-evans-ii/

Glad it's happening this year. The November card needed some star power. Right now there's no set main event. It was supposed to be Sherk-Penn but obviously that is in limbo.

UFC mania is saying that Karo could be on this card as well as the Spencer Fisher-Frank Edgar fight.

Originally Posted by SmytheKing

I'm just thinking that it will give Dana a little bit of pause in the negotiations. CroCop was his big prize a year ago and everyone thought he'd be rolling through the heavyweights. That hasn't happened and Dana is paying him a grip of money to lose 2 of his first 3 fights and the one win was lackluster. He's gotta be worrying about paying a guy a million dollars a fight who COULD have the same thing happen to him. This is a business for him and he knows the UFC doesn't NEED Fedor. Would it be good for them? Sure. It just isn't something that would make a difference to the casual UFC fan.

I don't think Dana cares too much. 2 out of CroCop's three fights were on free TV anyways. And he's making a ton of money as far as sponsorship goes. Yea, it's not ideal that CroCop has looked like crap, but I think a small part of Dana White is smiling when he sees an average UFC HW beat CroCop up. To him it justifies all the stuff he was talking about before, saying how UFC's HWs were just as good as Pride's HWs, etc.

I like Houston...mainly because after winning the biggest fight of his career in front of a worldwide audience he dons a Nebraska cap. Huskers have a lot of pride.

Originally Posted by Hipcheck

I like Houston...mainly because after winning the biggest fight of his career in front of a worldwide audience he dons a Nebraska cap. Huskers have a lot of pride.

In the middle of London as well. I'm sure a ton of people in the audience had no idea what he was talking about.

If you have Showtime, try and catch the EliteXC show tonight. Not a bad card, main event of Robbie Lawler and Ninja Hua(Shogun's brother). Nick Diaz is fighting as well. Not a bad card to check out.