Does anybody watch MMA (UFC) ???

If I do watch via the net, its through downloading the whole event through torrents eg. Pirate Bay. UFC pretty tightly control their fights so you won't find them on youtube, other MMA fights (like strikeforce and Dream) are out there though. Love K1, and Muay Thai in general, but find it to hard to follow now. Friend of mine (my wife's bridesmaid)was the NZ Bantamweight woman's Muay Thai belt holder for a while. Get along to all the local stuff I can (When I was in Palmy I went to most of VUWs fight nights), but now that i'm in Te Awamutu there doesn't seem to be much up this way.aitkenmike2010-03-22 17:39:02

Somewhere in Porirua is pumping out Muay Thai fighters so seems to be heaps of live fights on lately. Muay Thai is my fave and I once hoped to fight in Bangkok but broke two knuckles the week before getting there & ACC wdn't cover me if they got worse. I managed to box on them for year and now I've had 3yrs off they shd be 100% healed but I'm way too out of shape these days

I think there are two gyms in Porirua, Rex Reddon runs one (Alpha?) and perhaps another one. VUW in Wellington, 2 in Palmy, one in Kapiti, one in Dannevirke, one in Masterton. It's quite strong in the lower North Island.aitkenmike2010-03-22 18:20:24

Yeah I prefer stand up too, I love striking.

Got into UFC through enjoying striking (Muay Thai and K1), but have grown to love the grappling. Not so much the wrestling, but the amazing technicality of JiuJitsu. The adaptibility of it, and the work towards a submission is poetry at times when you see someone excel at it (like Maia or Aoki for example).

I've met quite a few guys who do Aiikido or BJJ in Welly. And I used to watch the Gracie Brothers Academy move demos on youtube but again they are quite hard to try out without a good mate also keen into it

UFC 111 on Sunday our time. Who's watching?

I'm guessing its Sky pay per view at $25?? Too rich for me. On a side note Sky's website is not user friendly as far as finding up coming fights. You'd think they advertise it a bit better

If you are in Wellington, The Four Kings play it live on Sunday.

I'll take:
Almeida
Diaz (If not stoned) in the spike card,
Miller,
Hope for Alves but probably Fitch in yet another Lay and Pray snoozefest,
Saunders,
Mir over Carwin (although this one should be very close - Carwin is the superior wrestler, so it comes down to how much has Mir's standup improved, and if the answer is enough, then how well Mir can do off his back, as that is where its going if he wins the standup),
and GSP over Hardy, unless Hardy pulls off a 'hail mary' miracle flash KO.

Looking forward to seeing the two main event fights. Slightly underwhelmed by the rest of the card.aitkenmike2010-03-25 16:30:08

My local is the montheiths out at Paremata and they kindly played the mexico/all whites game for me but I think Sunday is their band and bar-b-cue day. might pop into the 4kings

Yeah you might be lucky as they have to shell out quite a lot for playing pay per views events in pubs too I think. You could try the Sandbar haha but I think Four Kings is your best bet!

I'll take Saunders over Fitch. Hopefully he can do something with his lanky legs.

I would like that or I would like to see a brand new Fitch who actually wins fights in a semi-exciting fashion... Sick of the grinding 3 round decisions. Saying that if Fitch does win this (and he more than likely will) he must be due a title shot... Even if it's fight no-one wants to see again.

Saunders over Fitch was more hope than reality. Carwin showed Mir doesn't like being hit. Ref had a really late stoppage, forced Carwin to pound on Mir 3 or 4 times after he was out flat on his face.
GSP did to Hardy what everyone knew GSP would do to Hardy, the only amazing thing was how hard Hardy was not tapping to the armbar or the kimura.
Palhares should banned for a year for holding onto that heel hook. Its bad enough holding on to chokes or armlocks, but to hold a kneelock while the referee is trying to tear you off and your opponent is screaming in pain because you ignored the tap is a disgrace. Haven't seen reports, but I would think that his ACL and medial ligament are blown
edit: He has a 90 day suspension. Not enough for me, but at least it is something.
Miller v. Boeck was fight of the night for me. An awesome display of technical grappling, and same quality striking. The one armed defense of the rear naked choke from Miller, with the other pinned in the body triangle was phenomenal. Much better than the exciting slopfest that won it at the end.
Fitch did to Saunders what Fitch does
Pellegrino v. Camoes was an enjoyable fight.
Pretty enjoyable night of fights.aitkenmike2010-03-30 21:28:41

Yeah good on Saunders for taking that fight at short notice but that was always going to happen. Dwyer2010-03-31 09:00:08

I know MMA math doesn't always work, but my response to Sanchez is to first look at what GSP did to Penn, then look at what Penn did to Sanchez. Do you really want to see that fight?

I though Miller won the first, Bocek won the second, and the third was so ridiculously close that the only thing that I could see to separate them was the last 5 seconds where Miller got the back mount. GSP is clearly heading to middle at some point - on the broadcast they said he is now walking around at 195 rather than 185 like normal, by the time he puts on another 5 pounds he might even struggle to get down to 175. (The amount they cut is ridiculous by the way).

Edit: At the end of the Miller Bocek fight I said that if the judges had any balls they would call it a 29-29 draw and give the final round a 10-10, but for some reason Americans have a huge aversion to calling anything a draw (not just in MMA)aitkenmike2010-03-31 20:05:20

That's a good point about Sanchez, I just like his intensity and balls.

Wow... A new UFC Lightweight Champion.

I was surprised at the 50-45, I thought Penn stole the first at the end, I thought the second was probably a 10-10 and had rounds 3 to 5 for Edgar. Like you though, I didn't actually think the judges would give it to Edgar. I expect an immediate rematch for Penn, he deserves it.
I thought Silva was making a statement that he was not interested in another grappler that could not take him down that offered him nothing standing (ala Thales Leites) but now i'm not sure. Was very ridiculous, especially for a guy so talented he could hit him at will while clowning around for the first two rounds. Maia won rounds 4 and 5 on my card. It was a real let down after such an incredible technical standup battle just before it.

It's going to be very interesting to see what Penn does next.

Other than it being a complete mental blowout like Silva said it was, the only other thing I can think of was that it was a 'f**k you' to the UFC for giving him another guy who offered him absolutely no challenge - its pointless giving him a BJJ guy that has no takedowns.

Yeah I think it was something like that, it was clear he could have finished him when-ever he flet like it really. I think he's sick of being given BJJ guys who don't stand up, or who aren't primarily stand up fighters. Maybe he should go up to light heavy, plenty of good fights for him there.

He could make 170 - he walks around slightly lighter than Thiago Alves and Anthony Johnson so its a possibility. Its a fight I would like to see. I don't see any reason why it shouldn't happen if he can make the weight - even though Dana is pissed, that is no reason to not make that fight, and White is a good enough business person to realise that once he has calmed down (I think). The only way to 'punish' him that I can see that doesn't hurt the UFC financially is to throw him in against a huge wrestling heavyweight that he will have to try and stand with or get taken down and pounded the f**k out.
Even though I don't like Penn, he is a phenomenal fighter, and in my opinion his record at lightweight entitles him to a rubber match. Florian is a couple of fights away IMO. I would give Maynard a top 10 tune up fight, then assuming he wins that give him the winner of Penn Edgar. I would love to see Sotoropolous get a contender soon, he has made it past the gatekeeper (Stevenson) so deserves it - maybe through him in against Maynard?

That's true, I guess you just look at say Anthony Johnson or Thiago Alves frames in comparison to Anderson Silva who is not overly muscly nor has he got much fat to him either. So him dropping to 170 would be interesting, I would love to see it though.

.Dwyer2010-04-19 15:42:09

If you could have a fight team, comprised of 3 fighters from each weight class, (excluding all current champions) including all organisations e.g. Dream, Strikefore etc. Who would you have?

GSP would definitely look to take it to the ground, but remember, Silva choked out Dan Henderson defending the middle weight bout - he is a BJJ blackbelt, so if GSP gets past Silva's length and gets it to the ground, he is only half way there. It is a fight I would love to see between two of my favourite fighters.

As much as I like Kenny, I would actually take Maynard to LnP his way to a decision, and Sots v. Batman would be just full of awesome.

Without to much thought put into it:
heavy
Fedor (obviously)
Lesnar
Mir (Because I like him, and in all honesty, I think the third spot is open, but obviously Carwin has a leg up here)
lightheavy
Shogun
Machida
Little Nog (This one's a bit tougher, don't rate Rampage highly, forest is a banger, so Nog just edges out Rashad)
Middle
Silva
Silva
Silva
(Sonnen and Marquadt I guess)
Welter
GSP
Fitch (by yawnfest)
Shields (he is a natural 170 blown up to 185 by Strikeforce as they have no 185 division really, and he won't fight Diaz)
Light
BJ
Melendez
Sotoropolous (again, because I like him, and you could throw any number of about 4 fighters in after BJ and they wuold be relatively even.
Feather
Edgar (He might be the champ but he doesn't even cut to make weight at 155 - he's a featherweight)
Aldo
Brown.

yours?aitkenmike2010-04-19 20:06:40

Man UFC 116 is looking awesome!
MAIN CARD
Brock Lesnar vs. Shane Carwin
Wanderlei Silva vs. Yoshihiro Akiyama
Nate Marquardt vs. Alessio Sakara
George Sotiropoulos vs. Kurt Pellegrino
Cheick Kongo vs. Roy Nelson

PRELIMINARY CARD
Chris Lytle vs. Matt Brown
Stephan Bonnar vs. Krzysztof Soszynski
Brendan Schaub vs. Chris Tuchscherer
Thiago Silva vs. TBA
Kendall Grove vs. TBA
Goran Reljic vs. TBA

July 3 in Vegas.

I'd be tempted to believe the big headed doofus over the drugged up porn star, but will wait to hear the full story before I judge.