UFC Ongoing Thread - Page 44

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

I'm not sure what will get my vote for fight of the year.

I am sure that Paulo Filho Vs. Chael Sonnen at WEC 36 will get my vote for worst fight of the year.

Filho committed career suicide on this night.

1. He missed weight for a title fight in which he was the champion.
2. He did absolutely nothing in the third round of an absolutely desasterous fight.
3. It is bad to have points 1 and 2 against you when the UFC is deciding which Middleweights to bring to the promotion and which to let go.

Worst fight I've ever seen in the WEC by leaps and bounds. Even Kalib Starnes wasn't as bad as Filho in the third round. Unfortunately, Sonnen didn't go Nate Quarry on him.

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

UFC 91 is tonight and I would've figured on more discussion going in to the show.

So who does everyone have in the main event?

Here is how I break it down:

Brock's advantages: Bigger, Stronger, Faster, Younger, athleticism
Randy's Advantages: Experience, best gameplanner in MMA, known comodity, conditioning, Submissions and punching technique.
Brock's questions: does he have a chin? can he go five rounds? Does he have the ability to finish?
Randy's questions: Can he carry Brock's weight for an extended period of time if need be? How will a year away from the Octagon affect him? When does his age finally catch up to him?

Brock weighed in at 265 and Randy at 220 for the fight. So figure Brock comes in at around 280 he'll have some 60 pounds on Randy. Randy's submissions aren't great but they're better than any that Brock has been able to show in his career thus far.


Randy's best strategy is to avoid being taken down by Lesnar which means keep his distance, use his good boxing technique to score points and get Brock to chace him hoping that will lead to a mistake he can capitalize on. If he wears Brock down then he should be able to impose his will in the 4th and 5th rounds if Brock has gassed out.

Brock should look to take Randy down and ground and pound him. Even if he can't finish him with GNP he can make Randy carry his weight around for awhile and carrying 280 around will tire you out no matter how good of shape you are in. Randy isn't a big submission threat (even Randy says his submissions aren't that great) but it isn't out of the realm of possibility especially if Brock makes a mistake. I don't see Brock submitting Randy.

As for who I will predict to win, my head says Brock and my heart says Randy. I've got a good hunch we're going all 5 rounds but a Randy submission of Brock or a Brock TKO of Randy via GNP is not out of the question.

I picked Sylvia to beat Randy and then I picked Gonzaga to beat Randy. It seems that the best way for me to support Randy tonight then is to pick Lesnar which is what I will do.

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

Really, I can't add to what you've said. My take on the fight (which I'd predict as biggest fight of the year) is that I hope Randy wins, so I'm picking Randy. Do I see Brock having a legitimate shot? Youbetcha. I couldn't help noticing that when talking of Brock, it was said that he was able to make it _down_ to the 265lb limit for the heavyweight class. Down to. Jesus. And I still remember him hitting that guy in his last fight and the guy flipping over. If Brock wins, I'll just say "oh well" and move on. But I want Randy. Everyone knows Randy has to lose, and lose soon. Is this it? Nobody knows. But at 45, his days are numbered.

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

I haven't watched the show yet. I'm saving them up. I have to be in the right mood for the antics. I tried skipping (fast forwarding past) that stuff one season, but then I also missed a lot of information about the personalities and backgrounds of the fighters -- and that's a big part of TUF. I'll just have to catch myself when I'm ready for the silliness. A guy ramming his head into a wall just isn't why I'm interested in MMA.

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Well, I'm expecting an apartment full of people, can't remember the last time I was expecting this many for a UFC show.

Anyway, if for some reason you want to follow along with my recap or read it when the show is over, you'll find it here and you can also vote in our poll to predict the main event winner.

Usually, I'm interested in at least 1 preliminary bout that I wished had made it to air, but not tonight. If something ends up being good, I'll want to see it but there is nothing going in that intrigues me. Of course, that's partly because the Hazelett Vs. McCrory fight got moved to the main PPV card when Amir Sadollah got hurt.

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

As for TUF the Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

I will dispose of the "might" and say that in my mind, Brock is unquestionably a better fighter than he was when he fought Mir. He was truly mixing things up. He had standup (he'll never be mistaken for Sugar Ray Leonard in his prime, but it was there), he was working the clinch, he had knee game (I don't care who you are, you're going to feel a knee from a 280lb guy -- and they were lifting Randy off the mat), and what I consider good presence and patience. I don't feel bad that Brock won.

Watching the fight, I didn't think the punch that felled Randy was all that hard of a punch, but apparently I need to learn a few things because I seem to have that impression a lot lately. Then again, in this case, I could easily see it as Randy was already wobbly from things that occurred earlier. To me, it was only a matter of time once I saw Randy wobbling. They said he recovered, but I didn't buy it. Perhaps "somewhat recovered."

I watched it a few times, so I'd guess that means I really enjoyed it. Randy looked really beat up after the fight. There were a lot of punches followed up by a lot of forearms/elbows to Randy's face/head.

I'm still looking forward to what Randy will do next. If he retires, so be it. It's time. It's been a great career. But I'm also looking forward to what Brock will do next. For some reason, one of the fights I'd really like to see is Brock against the babyfaced assassin. Maybe it's because the size would be a bit of a better match. Basically, Randy went in there and fought a guy 50lbs heavier. That's the equivalent of a 155lb'er taking on a 205lb'er (though the impact of weight difference isn't a linear scale). Randy's really a LHW anyway, but he was run out of that division by Chuck Liddell.

If I understand the contract situation now, he owes UFC one fight. UFC can drop him, give him a fight soon, or drag him out for that last fight. After that, he may be able to go to Affliction. Of course he may be too old, and have lost too much luster for the Fedor superfight by then.

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

Fedor's managers stated that "in their proffesional opinion Lesner wouldn't have made it one round with Fedor". They were trying to get a fight with Randy before the Lesner fight. The Randy fight wil never happen now.

I want to see Fedor in the UFC. I think it can happen because there have already been negotiations for Fedor to fight in the UFC.

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

I can't believe it

Seriously, I'm dumbstruck right now by what I have just written and now linked here. These people have gone mad and by these people I mean Dana White.

As for the fight on Saturday, no surprise because nothing would have surprised me other than maybe a Brock win by submission.

It isn't really so much that the punch that put Randy down did all that much damage but the fact that Brock followed in and landed a whole bunch more shots and Randy wasn't really defending anymore.

The PPV was good, maybe the best of the year and it was a good thing the prelims were entertaining because we got to see all of them.

Randy has 2 fights on his UFC contract. He is in no danger of being cut (well, given what's linked above I guess never say never) but he's realistically in no danger of being cut. A rumor has him fighting Chuck Liddell in germany in June, Randy speaks German from his time over there in his military days.

On a side note, how good was Kenny Florian? He owned Joe Stevenson and that's lucky because nobody wanted to see Stevenson fight Penn a second time considering how decisive the first fight was in Penn's favor.

Fedor in the UFC will happen when Fedor's management team stops making what UFC considers rediculous demands such as entry in to the company for some of his red devil teammates and his desire to fight outside of the promotion. Otherwise, it isn't gonna happen.

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I don't much care if Fedor joins UFC. UFC has some nice talent, but I've long since stopped looking at the organization through rose colored glasses. I appreciate what they've done for MMA, but I think they basically want to run a slave organization controlling every aspect of a fighter's life (and earnings potential). It's exactly why I have no good feelings about the demise of EliteXC and the IFL. From what I hear, Fedor is making a living just fine, so good for him. If you think he needs to go to UFC to cement his legacy, well, legacy is sometimes a bit overrated. I do think Fedor's unreasonable when he requests teammate entry into UFC. Fighting in other promotions I can go either way on as it makes sense to me, though I see UFC's point that they put a lot of money and energy into marketing product, and that product becomes diluted if he's fighting in other organizations (especially if he loses).

Randy fighting in June? Isn't that a long time from now for a 45-year-old fighter? If I were Randy, I'd want to go again in the spring. He didn't have any serious damage (more just skin lacerations), and he needs to stay fresh. Any idea what his medical suspension length is?

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

Randy's suspension is until Jan. 15 with no contact until Dec. 31.

Penn will fight GSP on Jan. 31. When he fight's Florian depends entirely on what happens in the GSP fight. Figure he comes through just fine with no injuries he could fight Florian in May. That's the same turn-around he had with Stevenson and Sherk this year.

Saying that the UFC is a wannabe slave organization is really unfair. I mean, why don't people blast the NBA for not allowing Kobe Bryant to join a European team over the summer if he desired to do so? In fact, in the typical NFL contract there are certainly activities that players aren't allowed to engage in during the offseason due to the risk of injury. Nobody says it is unfair that the WWE doesn't let its talent go wrestle in Japan or Mexico whenever they've got an offer.

The fact is that all those other groups that have come and gone, EliteXC, the IFL, Affliction (this one is marching to the gas chamber now) are UFC wannabe's. The only reason they don't/didn't have fighters locked up in exclusive deals like the UFC does is because they couldn't give the guys enough dates to allow them to make a good living. If Affliction were running PPV's every month like the UFC with free specials on some TV channel as well, all those non-exclusive contracts would be history.

Everyone says, oh, the UFC should work with Affliction to put on the fight that everyone wants to see.

Really? The UFC should work with a company that is trying to take money out of the UFC bank account and put it in its own. The UFC should help legitimize a company that competes directly with it on PPV for your buying dollar. Affliction is in the business to sell tickets, PPV's and merchandise and in these economic ties people are going to start picking and choosing which groups and even which specific shows from a group will get there money. Affliction is hoping you'll choose them over UFC in that regard and the UFC is just supposed to go along and help them accomplish this goal? Make no mistake the UFC working with Affliction does a lot more good for Affliction long-term than it does for UFC. Isn't it funny how all of the struggling promotions are the ones that complain about UFC not wanting to work together? If you also notice, Dana White never says anything bad about Strikeforce and he pointed out in a recent interview that the reason is because Strikeforce runs a good business.

Anybody who thinks the UFC should work with these other companies for the good of the business or for the good of fans isn't someone I'd let within 50 miles of running a business for me.

I have no great sorrow for all of these promotions that have died. If you want to survive in business well then maybe signing Fedor to a fight contract that calls for him to earn $3 million a fight isn't something you should do right away. If you want to survive in MMA then maybe you shouldn't expend much of you're financial resources on the purchase of smaller MMA companies that you don't really need, EliteXC I'd look in your direction if you still existed. If you want to survive in MMA then maybe you shouldn't try and reinvent the wheel with new concepts like a stupid fight surface or a team concept where the coaches are the stars, Yamma and IFL respectively.

If it all shakes out and the UFC is the only major company left in MMA with smaller organizations on a local level being where guys start out and gain experience but only have the UFC as a viable place to go on a national level, then so be it. Doesn't seem to hurt baseball, basketball or football all that much.

I guess it is the nature of humanity to find fault with those that have been the most successful and the criticism that is leveled at the UFC online is partly because of how successful it has become. Still, saying that the company wants slave-like control over all of its fighters isn't fair. But maybe asking Matt Grice about the UFC is a better way to make that point.

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

That's one POV. But please clarify... are you saying they aren't, or are you justifying it by using the examples you provided?


The NBA is far and away different from the UFC. There is no NBA-caliber competition in Europe, that NBA players are forbidden from competing against. Kobe knows if he beats the Celtics in the finals, he has reached the pinnacle. There isn't someone looming over him saying "The best -- except for Madrid of Spain." And US players DO get to play outside the NBA in the Olympics and World Games, so they can match up against the best players outside the NBA. Also, the NBA season is so long, the players barely have anything left after a full NBA season.


I have no problem with that in the NFL, NBA, or UFC. But make no mistake about it... what they're really saying is that we won't continue to pay you if you get injured (and threaten our income) doing those things. The equivalent would be the UFC saying, "If you fight Fedor and get injured, we don't have to give you the final 2 fights we owe you." But wait. Never mind. The UFC doesn't have to give him those fights anyway. It's only the fighter who is held to that. The UFC can do whatever it wants. There's no collective bargaining agreement and no arbitration procedure. The NBA and NFL have those things.


I can't debate the WWE as I don't watch it and know nothing about it.


Agreed.


We don't know that, but let's assume it's true. That does nothing to address what I'm saying. Let's say I have Company A and Company B. I could go work for Company A, but they have a non-compete clause that says I can't work in my field for 18 months after quitting. Company B, knowing that I have a right to earn a living (It's a complex legal thing, but the law does sometimes side with employees on this issue), doesn't have any such non-compete. Now, if I were to say the only reason Company B doesn't have a non-compete is because they don't think they can enforce it and Company A thinks they can, would that change the fact that a blanket non-compete is too restrictive of an employee's rights (I have a list of scenarios where I think non competes are legitimate)? Company B's reasons would be irrelevant to the discussion if I were to say Company A is too restrictive.


Everyone doesn't say that. It just feels that way because you disagree so strongly. We've discussed it before. I don't say the UFC should do anything. They can run their business better than I. What I will say is what I've already said (and given that it's inflammatory, I won't say it again now). The fighters have a choice to sign or not sign.


I know you won't see it as I do, but you're making my point. The UFC controls just about everything for UFC fighters. Perhaps boxing would be a better comparison.

In boxing, there's a broadcaster, there are sanctioning bodies, there are promoters, there is management, and there are fighters. There are times when Fighter A is managed by Promoter A, and Fighter B is managed by Promoter B. Those promoters have to get together and make a fight. If it's an aired fight, the broadcaster pays for the fight, and the promoters have to fight over how it is split. They often have to do this even if Promoter A hates Promoter B. Occasionally, the promoters disagree so much that they can't agree, and a fight doesn't happen. But then someone loses a belt, or their ranking, or whatever. Then it's up to the fighter to leave Promoter A if Promoter A is getting in his way.

Obviously, boxing isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but I'm simply pointing out how much control UFC demands over a fighter. You're comfortable with the UFC controlling just about every aspect (including rankings). I'm not. I'd rather promotions (affliction, ufc, elitexc, whatever) bid on fighters to put together an event.

BTW, one thing UFC fighters do get to control is how they train. Just putting that out there. At least the UFC doesn't have a UFC Gym and you have to agree to be trained there (except for TUF).


Noted. But my allegiance is to the fighters, not the businesses. UFC can cry me a river. They don't care what I want. They only care about their (my) money. I realize that and treat the UFC accordingly. Their fighters may be beholden to them, but I am not. And since I don't need any UFC-sanctioned access, I'm completely free to call a spade a spade.

BTW, saying that I believe fighters should have more rights doesn't mean I think it was smart of Affliction to give Fedor $3MM in their initial event. There's reasonable, and giving the fans what they want, and then there's stupid. But of course there are those in business who believe "fair" is defined as, "Whatever you can get away with."

I would say that any manager who thinks his dealings with employees, competitors, and suppliers is always a zero sum game in which the only way to win is if everyone else loses is likewise a person I wouldn't let within 50 miles of running a business for me. Perhaps it's simply an approach to life. I think I can win while also trying to find ways for the people I come into contact with to win as well.


Again, I don't buy the comparison at all. Those are leagues that operate with collective bargaining, give their players all kinds of rights, and operate under special anti-trust provisions. David Stern does not control every aspect of a player's career.


Perhaps, but I can't speak for the masses, only myself. I'd like to think I'm a party of one, not a blob of humanity practicing group think.


Why not? I believe it's true. Do you think the statement is untrue, or just unfair?


Personally, I don't think so, as nobody said the UFC doesn't do anything good for their fighters. I can think of a long list of things they've done good. Even slave masters did good things for their slaves. Being a slave master was about owning and control, eliminating the rights of others for your own benefit, not about being an evil monster.

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

more on the licensing agreement UFC wanted those guys to sign

If what Dan Lambert of ATT says is true, and I have no reason to think that it isn't, I really don't see the UFC's request as all that unreasonable.

1. It would only be for the video game and wouldn't prevent guys from getting other merchandising opportunities.
2. It isn't like there's going to be another MMA company close to getting a video game license anytime soon, so really the choice is be in the UFC game or don't be in one at all, regardless of whether or not they sign the deal.

Cutting top talent may be a questionable move, but I do see Dana's side. Nobody has worked as hard to make the UFC what it is as Dana White, Joe Silva (matchmaker) and some of the other office staff. Really when I think about it, I completely understand why someone asking Dana about working with Affliction would make his head explode.

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It's subjective, but due to the point raised (nobody else knocking down the door to make such video games), not worth fighting over. When you belong to something, there are certain expectations about how you carry yourself and support that organization. In theory, it's a free country, but I shouldn't show up for work at McDonald's wearing a Burger King is #1 T-Shirt. When the NFL has an endorsement contract, players are not allowed to wear a competitor's product while playing an NFL game. I find that understandable, though some players have balked at it. I've seen the same thing with the NBA where, for instance, Nike might sponsor the NBA, but (say) Kobe has a contract with Adidas.

I think my take would probably have been, "If you don't want to be in our product because you don't like what we're offering, we'll respect that, but we can't allow you to endorse a competing product." It's a shame to drop a fighter from fighting over a video game. Anyway, the latest news is that JON FITCH BACK WITH UFC.

Anyway, enough about the business of the UFC. Generally, I try to just enjoy the events and leave the business to the folks involved. What I came to post about is Cung Le. I've mentioned before he has the looks to be a success in movies, and I was kind of hoping he'd move into that direction. What I wasn't clear about (since the cosmos was obviously listening), is that I wanted him to do that when he's finished with his fighting career. Instead, he's putting his fighting career on the back burner to do movies. At least now I know why we haven't seen him for awhile...

With budding movie career, Cung Le only available for "something huge". Apparently he feels he's done the fight thing and only wants to fight more if something big comes along.

I think this is a case of bittersweet, and a reminder that you should be careful what you wish for -- or at least be clear about it.


Be still my heart.

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Wow, this thread has been quiet for quite some time. I've personally been very busy and am only going to get busier as the UFC decides to run a show about once every 20 minutes or so.

My latest project is an audio show called MMA Sunday done every sunday at 9:00 PM ET. Our first show was aired last week with former WWE Superstar Bobby Lashley who is now one and zero as a pro MMA fighter. Talk about someone who understands the business and why things are done the way they are done, Lashley is that man. Everything from explaining how being on the card with Brock Lesnar benefits everyone even if they're only making $3,000 to what wrestling has done to help him in his MMA career.

Tonight, I'm doing the show solo, looking at MMA News, taking a bit of a look at UFC 93 next weekend, discussing my recent MMA Awards for 2008 and hopefully taking some calls (347-324-5735).

I trust everyone had a good holiday season and is ready for what I hope is a banner year for fighting and maybe not so many promotions going out of business (Affliction is already doomed).

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

No comment on Fedor vs Arlovski this week? I think Fedor will win, but not going to predict how quickly.

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Of course Fedor is the smart money, but I'm an Arlovski fan, so I want to see it. In fact, if I had the opportunity to pick 6 heavyweights today, I'd like to see all 6 of them fight the other 5, and I predict I'd enjoy all of them. Of course that's too many permutations, but I'd still enjoy it. I'm not into the predicting, I'm into the watching it unfold. I haven't seen enough of Fedor fighting top competition, and fighting all these ex-UFC guys is as close as it looks like we're going to get.

Re: UFC Ongoing Thread

I'm nearly crawling out of my skin with excitement for UFC 94 tonight. I think Penn-St. Pierre could end up going down as one of those all-time great fights. Let the record show that the first UFC Pay Per View I ever ordered was UFC 58 where their first match was the co-feature. I've gone back and forth over whom I thought would win this fight. I originally favored B.J. because I reasoned that a fat, lazy unmotivated B.J. nearly beat GSP at UFC 58 (some people think he won, including one of the 3 judges that night) and now he's not fat lazy and unmotivated anymore. But, then I remember, the same GSP isn't showing up tonight that showed up in March of 06 either. He's a better wrestler now and he's just seemed to come in to his own all-around, though I think B.J. is the better striker of the two.

So, I'm taking GSP.

I also may be the only person who is actually excited to see Lyoto Machida Vs. Thiago Silva. It isn't every day that 2 guys with undefeated records go at it in a meaningful fight.

Clay Guida Vs. Nate Diaz may steal fight of the night. Dong Hyun Kim Vs. Karo Parisyan may be a sleeper entertaining fight but it also could be boring, depends on which Karo shows up.

Tonight will also be a bit bitter sweet because it will go down as the last live event to be covered by Combat-Hooligans.com. We're not exactly going away but everything is going to be changing soon including the name. Official announcement on that So I'm all around pretty excited for tonight, more than I was for UFC 91 or UFC 92.

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I'm excited about UFC 94 tonight, but I was also excited about Affliction 2. It's not everyday you see someone winning a fight, go into an attempted flying knee to the head, and get KTFO in mid-air. Talk about going from Elation to Devastation in the blink of an eye. It'll be interesting to see how long Affliction sticks around.

I've said before I can't really predict MMA fights based on anything other than guesses and gut feel as it's such an unpredictable sport to me (unless we're talking Spider Silva). I'm just happy to see this even tonight, not just for the main event, but for all the fights.

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The final live event coverage post in combat-hooligans.com history will be right here I'm not personally doing the honors tonight but I will be popping in on the comments section to give my thoughts on the post.

I'd like to personally thank a lot of you guys for visiting the site through the links I've provided here. I've been way too busy to pop in here as much as I used to but I still enjoy seeing what's going on with everyone. Now that I'm going to have some free time until the new site is ready to go, I may pop in here more often to discuss the news, because hey, I'm going to want to discuss it some place.

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First fight... Guida vs. Nate Diaz

Warning: Spoiler! (Click to show)
wins a split decision. I'd have to agree with the decision, though I found myself wishing it were a 5-round fight. I wanted someone to win decisively, and it became obvious to me somewhere around the 2nd round that wasn't likely to happen.

I'll just say that I always enjoy seeing the Diaz brothers fight. They're so skilled and cool in the ring. Reminds me of the Gracies to some degree. Everyone loves a knockout (and thus a knockout artist), but I've little fascination with that particular skill. I'm fascinated by submission artists, and thus skilled jui jitsu practitioners.

Speaking of Gracies, RIP Helio gracie.

Guida is an always-on motor, and is also enjoyable to watch.

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GSP's performance last night was nothing short of amazing. I've always thought that Anderson Silva would be able to beat GSP if they fought, last night made me waver in that to the degree that now I wouldn't call it a certainty, GSP is just so good that I think if anyone could give up as much size as he would to Anderson and still overcome it then he's that guy.

I had a rough night between being on hold with the cable company and missing the first fight to being on hold with pizza hut and listening to even worse hold music than I got from the cable company and having to do the coverage myself at the last minute, definitely not something I want to repeat.

Who would've ever thought that Lyoto Machida would be the man to end a string of 8 consecutive decisions? All 5 prelims went the distance and so did the first 3 fights on the PPV...and when Machida came out I was expecting 9 for 9 but he knocked Silva senseless and became the hero to everyone in Vegas and everyone watching with me.

I thought Karo lost, doesn't ask me about Guida-Diaz because even though I did see the fight when the show replayed, I was in no condition to judge. I picked Jones over Bonnar (I did such a bad job last night 4-6 that I have to claim one when it goes my way) and I think Jones is going to be a force in the division he's only 21.

Still, the night belonged to GSP. I think pound-for-pound rankings are pretty much a waste of time but if I had to do them, top 5 would be some combination of Fedor, Silva, GSP, Miguel Torres and Machida (never thought I'd include Machida).

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Good news for fans of MMA. Strikeforce has purchased select assets of EliteXC and as a result, MMA is returning to both Showtime and CBS with the first show on Showtime coming on April 11.

This is good news, because unlike say, Affliction, Strikeforce is actually run by people who know how to make money. Thus, you can assume that again, unlike say Affliction, Strikeforce will still be in business at the end of the year. This also makes Strikeforce the clear cut #2 promotion in the U.S. behind only you know who.

In a bit of interesting trivia, the highest attendance for an MMA show in the U.S. is not a UFC show but is a Strikeforce event with over 18,000. In North America, only UFC 83 in Montreal can top that number.

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Anything can happen in a fight, so even though Arlovsky lost to Fedor, I still think he could beat Fedor. Would I put money on it? No. But, I'd give him better than a 0% chance. In fact, I'd give him better than a 25% chance. Maybe as high as 33%. Based on what I saw, if they fought 10 times, it wouldn't surprise me if Arlovsky won 5 of them.

The GSP domination of BJ almost made me feel bad for BJ. Almost. But that's why they fight the fights. Most people called it about even, and some predicted BJ winning.

As for GSP vs Spider, there's certainly a lot of talk about that in MMA circles, and they covered it a bit on Inside MMA recently. The drawback from the UFC POV is it ties up two titles, and also has the possibility to diminish the star quality of the loser champion. For instance, while some in MMA will certainly say that BJ moved up, lost, but is still great in his real division, many more casual MMA fans will just remember that he lost, and not by decision, but by being smashed. Not so tough after all, right?

As for tying up belts, let's say BJ normally fights 1-2 fights per year. If that one fight is not a defense of his title, a year could go by with no title defense. As it is, BJ won the title in January '08, Defended it in May of '08, and probably won't defend it before May of '09, which would be a year.

That's not to say it can't/won't happen, but that's some of the thinking against doing it. On the other hand, Spider wants to fight as much as possible, and it's not like he's taking much punishment in his fights. We'll see!