| Issei Tamura | 6-2-0 | Signed by UFC - 145 | Feb. 11 |
| Jesse Taylor | 20-8-0 | Signed by Superior Cage Combat - 185 | Feb. 11 |
| Robert Emerson | 11-10-0 | Signed by Tachi Palace Fights - 150 | Feb. 14 |
| Antonio Duarte | 15-3-0 | Signed by Tachi Palace Fights - 145 | Feb. 14 |
| Robert Drysdale | 3-0-0 | Signed by Legacy FC - 205 | Feb. 16 |
Sorry for the late post, I've been laid up with a horrible head cold.
Any advice, additions, or changes are always greatly appreciated.
Hey chaps, just a little piece in the last few days before the big return to the Land of the Rising Sun! Once again, hope you don't mind clicking the link to HKL, it is a sister site and it's full of great content.
Cheers,
Jack
At UFC 144 two big men with KO power will meet in the heavyweight tilt between New Zealand's own, Mark Hunt, and the French Muay Thai practitioner, Cheik Kongo. While Mark Hunt has won the K-1 Grand Prix, the highest title in the world of competitive striking, his technical skill is often overshadowed by the fact that it was largely his physical attributes which won him this title. Hunt only succeeded in getting to the tournament final by injuring Ray Sefo's eye in a losing effort against Sefo in the semi finals, drawing his fellow Kiwi into a brawl because he could not deal with Sefo's superior technical kickboxing. Cheik Kongo, on the other hand, receives enormous credit for his string of kickboxing titles despite a complete absence of any verifiable kickboxing record. Kongo was once, though it is hard to believe now, in serious title contention in the UFC, after picking up 3 solid TKO wins through 2008 - 2009 before meeting Cain Velasquez and being taken down seemingly at will en route to a unanimous decision loss.
It is hoped that this fight will remain standing, in which case it is important to consider the strengths of each man in that domain. Hunt's abilities are well known - he has one of the most solid chins in the history of combat sports. In his career he has taken Cro Cop's high kick flush on the jaw, and the strongest blows from Ray Sefo, Mike Bernardo and Jerome Le Banner. Hunt has mixed it up with the best kickboxers in the world and come out with mixed results, but has been knocked out cold only once, in an MMA match against Melvin Manhoef, perhaps the biggest puncher, pound for pound in the world. Hunt also holds a thunderous punch - being able to knock out the iron jawed Jerome Le Banner, and break the orbital bone of Ray Sefo.
Once Hunt entered MMA, his career was perhaps the worst nurtured of any prospect, meeting Hidehiko Yoshida, Dan Bobish, Wanderlei Silva and Mirko Cro Cop in his first four fights. Somehow managing, with a complete absence of MMA experience, to get the better of the latter three. Clearly Hunt fights best against strikers, Cro Cop and Silva being the two highest profile strikers in MMA at the time. But his matches against Josh Barnett, Fedor Emelianenko, Alistair Overeem and Sean McCorkle exposed his woefully inadequate takedown and submission defense. Since his loss to McCorkle in his UFC debut, however, Hunt has experienced a career renaissance - developing the takedown defense to repeatedly stuff Brock Lesnar's training partner, Chris Tuchscherer en route to a walk-away uppercut knockout during a sprawl. Hunt continued his improvement, out grappling veteran Ben Rothwell, and brutalizing him on both the feet and the floor. While Rothwell is no master of the ground game or of takedowns, he is certainly a better wrestler than Kongo, and will make Kongo's night long if he is forced to revert to his wrestling strategy.
Hunt has, however, been prone to eating too many shots due to his great chin's allowing him to. In a way reminiscent of Chuck Liddell, who could not learn to keep his hands up even when working with Howard Davis Jr., Hunt may be too stuck in his ways to learn to keep his hands up. It was this fault which got him knocked out by Manhoef and stunned by Gegard Mousasi, who is not known as a hard puncher.
Hey folks,
I had fantastic feedback on my book ideas so I will forge ahead with writing and photography and should have them out some time in the Easter break, (a nice treat for yourselves while the kids or younger siblings are preoccupied with chocolate perhaps?) but your job isn't over yet!
I have amalgamated all the names that came up in discussion here and at the UG and there are a LOT. So I would love it if the kind people of Bloody Elbow would decide for me which strikers are going to have their game and tricks broken down in unprecedented detail, with instructional photographs!
These are, however, only the more interesting options - suggested by you guys. Already certain to have a full game breakdown are:
- Joe Louis
- Roy Jones Jr.
and a few others of my own choosing whom I haven't decided yet. What I need to know is who you guys find the most interesting out of the following fighters! I will take the 8 with the most votes for the book - and if it is met well I might publish another - but I won't get ahead of myself!
Frankie Edgar took the belt and held onto it with four great performances against one of the best
at lightweight, Gray Maynard, and one of the best of all-time, BJ Penn. The verdict has come
back on Edgar's size, at 5'6, and it is seen to give him a big advantage in cardio and movement.
People are worried about size and strength but there are so many other things to consider. Look at
Anthony "rumble" Johnson for the other side of the coin. He cuts an extreme amount of weight which
has cost him his job in the UFC, first because of poor performances and now because of failure to make
weight. Edgar doesn't have those problems. Look for the champ to be in good form on Feb. 25th.
The challenger is Ben Henderson who has defeated an impressive list of fighters to get a shot at the title
including his last three wins against Mark Bocek, Jim Miller, and Clay Guida. Henderson will enjoy
a three inch height advantage over the champ. Henderson uses his long frame mainly for his slick
submissions game and over half of his 15 wins have come that way. As we have seen from MMA Fighters
Donald Cerrone and now Henderson these guys that were fighting at lightweight over in the WEC were
not second-class fighters. A lot of WEC guys are making their mark in the UFC and Ben "Smooth"
Henderson has a chance to shoot to the top of the impact list if he is successful against Edgar.
On the feet the advantage goes to Frankie Edgar who has some of the best footwork in the game
and is constantly mixing things up to confuse his opponent. Neither man is a huge puncher but
they both have KO's on their records so that's not out of the question. On the ground I would give a
slight advantage to Ben Henderson because of his submissions but getting the fight to the ground and
controlling positions to set up submissions won't be easy against the champ and his wrestling. Overall
I think Edgar has the tools to win as well as the tools to avoid losing, he has the offense and defense
necessary to beat Henderson and hang on to the UFC lightweight belt. Frankie Edgar by decision.
Americans have a rivalry with Brazilians, that is obvious. And why is that? It’s because the UFC has three hundred fighters under contract, and from those three hundred fighters we are fifty, the Brazilians are fifty, and we have more belts than they do. So from three hundred we are fifty, and with those fifty we get there and take care of business. They win (more) because they have more (people), they have a bigger infrastructure inside their gyms, they have support for the sport since they’re kids. But the sport is growing in Brazil and I believe that... they look at us with (malicious) eyes, let’s say it like that. If you’re going to fight an American in the US you have to win the fight with emphasis because otherwise… You can’t win it by a thin margin.
If I remember correctly Middleeasy was started up almost 3 years ago, so in prep for a 3 year anniversary I made a shirt. AND ITS IN 3D!
In 3D and wearing a party hat to celebrate 3 years. This shirt has been to outer space.
Also, just for practice a BJ Penn shirt in the rvca style they like:
What's a slogan, logo, image or saying you guys would want as a base for a BE shirt?
The only thing I can think of related to BE is the Let's Motherfuckers line that Ben Saunders adopted. Would that be alright as the theme for a shirt? Or would you rather a really subtle design?
I know about the bloodyelbow copyright thing but we'll worry about that later. Let me know what you guys think, what kinda shirts do you like? Let's see if we can get a BE shirt going.
--------------
Blog here with a couple other shirts and shit
After his fight against the no good, dick piercing nicknamed John Albert, Ivan Menjivar was asked about how he survived the onslaught of "Prince" and responded with what really should be an age old question asked of mankind. He said he asked himself "What Would Sakuraba Do?
What Sakuraba would have done apparently was strangled John Albert and picked up the comeback submission victory because that is exactly what happened. I made a comment about the need of a WWSD? bracelet and a few people were into it so I want to see how much real interest there is in these bracelets. If you would like one and can pay for it (I'll set it all up and announce the final cost per person after this fanpost runs its course.
So drop a note in the comments if you want one. I'll set up a Paypal or something later when we get further into this.
Most Diabolical Earl of Montclair
Just a few short months ago, the UFC signed a broadcast deal with Fox. Along with fights on Fox, FX, and Fuel TV came a pretty cool perk: when the UFC left Spike, they revamped TUF and the next season of The Ultimate Fighter would air live fights every Friday. A lot has changed for MMA fans, and now here's one change that is sure to disappoint a select few of you. As the UFC leaves Spike, so does Blue Mountain State and thus, post TUF BMS hate threads. BMS has been cancelled after three seasons. Blue Mountain State was to BE as Jon Jones or Tito Ortiz is to MMA: you either loved it or hated it, but you better damn be participating in the Hate Thread. Now raise your glasses to that weird, ridiculous TV show. The Ultimate Fighter won't be the same without it.
http://blog.zap2it.com/frominsidethebox/2012/02/blue-mountain-state-canceled-season-4-drops-out-of-spike-lineup.html
Novelty is a huge selling point in Japan. This is a lesson we learned all too well from Bob Sapp. Print ads, television commercials and whatever else the Japanese can think to stick your face on can net much more profit than the fight itself ever can. So the question I know we’re all asking ourselves, is Amanda Lucas Japans next big obsession? Obviously she was initially brought over due to the fact they could use the family name as a gimmick to sell the event. We saw it with DEEP 55, the entire ad campaign was given an Indiana Jones theme along with prominently featuring “Powerhouse” although there were three championship fights on the card and her fight was the opening bout to the evening.
Gimmicks are a huge part of JMMA and the gimmick of being George Lucas’ daughter seemed to be a good enough gimmick to get her invited into JMMA’s house. But the fact of the matter is she doesn’t like using the family name as the highlight of her career. A decorated grappler with a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and now add a championship in MMA to the mix and you can see that she isn’t riding the waves of her father’s career but blazing her own path to the top of WMMA. If that was the case she would have quit after losing her first fight in 2008 but that wasn’t the case, she worked harder and improved and has returned to the ring on a four fight win streak that netted her the DEEP open weight women’s belt.
I don’t know if she will ever be able to shake the monkey off her back that is STAR WARS but with every fight she gains more support and respect in the ring which has seen her fan base in Japan grow from the fanboys of CELEBRATION JAPAN to the entire JMMA fanbase and beyond. George Lucas’ name got her in the building but Amanda Lucas has made the building her own and with that I think the ability to have a Bob Sapp sized career outside of MMA in Japan is within her grasps. One thing is for sure if she decides to follow the marketing blueprint of Bob Sapp she definitely will not be following the work ethic he showed in the ring after making a couple of bucks plastering his face around Japan.
Jason Burum
There are many great writers on this site with many different styles opinions and personas. The goal of this post it to link which personal from each staff member to a WWE superstar, or professional "rassler".
I have been a member of this great site for about 3 years, seen folks come and go and got accustom to how each of the staff members write, and more importantly how the commentators or "fans" react to them. Here is the list of the BE staff paired with what WWE entity which best relates to them.
(Disclaimer – this post is strictly for fun and I hope I do not offend any of the staff which would lead to my demise via ban hammer)
Showing 1 - 10 of 10,592 Older
