Author Topic: UFC 98  (Read 16607 times)

MindSpin

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Re: Lyoto Machida Wants Brock Lesnar
« Reply #50 on: May 19, 2009, 08:54:55 AM »
Bweahahahaha, Mir was fighting for his life in there...he even said so after in the post fight interview that he barely made it out alive.


It doesn't change the fact that he made the big man call the ref for help...lol.
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burn2live

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Re: Lyoto Machida Wants Brock Lesnar
« Reply #51 on: May 19, 2009, 10:03:32 AM »
after having watched more of his fights, he's actually more dominant that he has gotten credit for.  And his last fight was a vicious KO.  I'm now a fan. 

Vicious indeed. Dude was completely out cold

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Re: Lyoto Machida Wants Brock Lesnar
« Reply #53 on: May 20, 2009, 04:32:10 AM »
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4qrag_lyoto-machida-complete-career-highl_sport


Nice! Thanks for the link. I actually really like this dude. Something a bit different about him. Could make more use of elbows though I think

SinCitysmallGUY

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Business Outlook for UFC 98
« Reply #54 on: May 20, 2009, 07:43:34 PM »
The Memorial Day Weekend pay per view has become a big yearly show for the UFC.  They originally wanted Mir and Lesnar on this show, which would have been huge.  Then Mir's injury delayed things, and they tried to do Rampage and Rashad, but Rampage was injured, so they went with their third choice, Lyoto Machida vs. Rashad Evans.

Internally the feeling at UFC is that Evans vs. Machida is a baseline title fight.  In other words, it's not a draw at all beyond the hardcore fans according to their own research.  However, the light heavyweight title is a strong title, it's been 5 weeks since the last show, it's a holiday weekend, and the semi-main event is very appealing to the 1.2-1.5 million casual fans that have watched The Ultimate Fighter for years.

Last year's May show did 475,000 buys with Penn-Sherk, Ortiz's last fight, and Wanderlei Silva third from the top.  That is a stronger card on paper than this one, but the UFC is on a hot streak of late.  They did 625,000 buys at UFC 97, though I don't think there will be any spillover effect due to Anderson Silva's performance.  Machida and Rashad alone for the title is probably a 350 show, but Serra and Hughes will add buys on top of that. 

A lot depends on the countdown show, but Dana has been all over the press, and I'm guessing the video game will give them an extra push too.  It's hard to say without seeing the countdown show, but I'm guessing they will do between 475,000 and 500,000 buys. 

Update:  One reader below pointed out something I forgot about, the 10 dollar coupon toward a UFC PPV for those that buy the new game from Best Buy.  Will this make a huge difference?  Probably not, but I don't know how many games they sold to people that weren't going to buy anyway.  It could be a factor though.


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By news like this:

“I’ve switched things up a little bit,” he says. “I went to a lot of training camps, went out a lot to different places and didn’t stay home near as much.”

One of those outside camps visited by Hughes (42-7) was Greg Nelson’s Minnesota Martial Arts Academy, home to former and current UFC champions Sean Sherk, Dave Menne and Brock Lesnar.

“We just basically got him into the fold of our training camp, and we all worked together,” Nelson says. “We have Sean training for Frankie Edgar. We have Brock Larson training for his fight the same weekend. [Hughes is] kind of the king of the hill at his own school, so it’s nice to come to another spot where they have a lot of guys who are high-level grapplers and high-level fighters that could put him in jeopardy and push him. And we worked on all the same stuff: punching to takedowns, submissions on the ground, full-on grappling, sparring, the whole ball of wax.”

As an aging fighter heading into a bout where there is both bragging rights and to a lesser extent legacy issues on the line, Hughes is wise to deviate from a potentially stale path he could fall into doing a rinse and repeat camp at H.I.T. Squad. The upside to training at MMAA is significant for any fighter, but for Hughes it provides some clear insurance in terms of establishing good cardiovascular fitness, getting the right kind and enough of the right training partner as well as pre-fight strategy under the eye of masterful tacticians. Greg Jackson appropriately receives accolades for his strategizing, but he does not have a monopoly on how to game plan for fights in professional MMA. Nelson is quite adept as well and by the sound of it, Hughes is going to stick to his strengths while making the slight adjustments necessary to handle the eccentricities of Serra's attacks:

“What you have to watch out for with Matt [Serra], more than anything, is that when he’s up on his feet, he holds nothing back,” Nelson says. “When he throws a punch, he’s going for it. It may not be pretty, but if it lands, you’re going to be in trouble. A lot of times, people always train for the guy who’s throwing the nice, straight punches and the pretty boxing, but what do you usually get hit by? The crazy shot that comes flying out of nowhere. I watched a lot of Matt Serra and kind of imitated the way he throws his punches and kind of threw wild shots at [Hughes], as well as clean shots.”

I certainly do not doubt Serra's camp is rigorous and the strategy meticulous, but I've yet to see evidence he's being immersed in the bubbling cauldron of fight camp similar to what Hughes is receiving at MMAA.


gracie bjj

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as far as that dude nelson saying serra aint getting the high intensity training that hughes is getting at the caveman school is ignorant, trust me guys, ray longo puts his fighters threw hell, maybe they dont drag broads around by the hair and fight off dinasours like hughes but they train very hard
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big L dawg

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Re: UFC 98
« Reply #57 on: May 21, 2009, 07:33:40 AM »
I got Machida and Serra.
DAWG

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Sean Sherk Speaks out About Current Lightweight Rankings
« Reply #58 on: May 21, 2009, 08:23:32 AM »
Steve Cofield caught up with Sean Sherk this past week, and one of the topics of discussion was regarding Sherk's major drop in rankings due to his loss to B.J. Penn. Cofield points out in his article that Sean Sherk is currently ranked #4 in our USAToday/BloodyElbow.com Lightweight Consensus rankings for April.

Interestingly enough, Cofield also mentions the fact that MMAWeekly doesn't even have Sherk in their top 10 and two other sources have him at #8. To be perfectly honest, anything below top 5 for Sherk is a bit of a stretch in my opinion.

Regardless of my opinion, Sherk had this to say:

"There are guys ranked above me, that I've seen, that I know damn well I can beat. Rankings don't mean squat. (Shinya) Aoki is a good example. He's a big 155 pounder but he's got no boxing, no wrestling. Where does that leave you in the UFC? You can't wear pants, so guess what? You're in some trouble. I'd like to see a lot of those guys come here and I think eventually they will."

Sherk hits at the constant debate among fans when it comes to the Lightweight rankings. Should Aoki be that far up the ladder considering the multiple factors into why he's ranked so high? Should pants be an issue? Why is Florian above Sherk?

I think when it comes down to rankings, we have to put these guys where they rank according to their promotion's rule set. If Japan allows pants, cry me a river. It's a ranking after all. But even in that context, I still don't think Aoki is a top 3 guy currently. Sherk has a small case there. Florian ranked at #3 isn't a huge stretch considering he defeated Thomas, Lauzon, Huerta, and Stevenson, but if we look back at where those guys are at right now, was it truly that impressive?

Sherk did, after all, turn around and slug out a decision win over the always tough Tyson Griffin. I feel like Florian's rank correlates to where he stands in the divisional picture, and as we all know, the UFC doesn't care about divisonal rankings. Should Leites have been #2 ranked because he was in line for a title shot? No. Sherk might have a case there.

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UFC 98 Interviews Rashad/Hughes/Sherk/edgar
« Reply #59 on: May 21, 2009, 08:25:56 AM »









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Yoshiyuki Yoshida's Secret Weapon: Greg Jackson
« Reply #60 on: May 21, 2009, 04:39:44 PM »
MMAWeekly has a very interesting piece regarding Yoshiyuki Yoshida's progression as a fighter following his loss to Josh Koscheck at the UFC Fight for the Troops event in which Yoshida was knocked out. The article talks about the mistakes Yoshida feels he made, but it also mentions the fact that Yoshida is now training at Greg Jackson's camp:

"I think I thought about the opponent too much and basically forgot to fight my style of fight," Yoshida told MMAWeekly in an exclusive interview prior to his fight at UFC 98. "So this time, I want to go and just do what I do best and win."

What Yoshida did to get back to his winning ways was completely change his training routine, and that included adding himself into the mix at Greg Jackson's gym in New Mexico.

"I have been training at Greg Jackson's at almost two full months. For this fight I didn't wanted to train in Japan. If I train in Japan then coming to America and fight in the UFC, that itself would put everything into something extraordinarily and rare," Yoshida stated. "I wanted to approach this fight like any other fight I fought in Japan. So train in New Mexico for full two months, then take short flight out to Vegas to fight. It's about changing the environment to prepare for this fight in a different mindset."

I wasn't aware that Yoshida had traveled to New Mexico to train with Greg Jackson, but I must say... Kudos to Yoshiyuki Yoshida. Unlike some of his Japanese counterparts, he's taking his loss and turning it into a motivator to learn from his mistakes. While some of the other Japanese competition has probably done the same, they haven't gone out and found one of the best trainers in the world to help them achieve success in the UFC.

Hopefully, Jackson will get Yoshida back on track with his gameplan. Yoshida's powerful ground and pound and Judo style surely could use some tweaking from a camp that has the experience in the cage, the training partners to help Yoshida succeed, and the brilliant gameplanning that Jackson has implemented in the past.

SinCitysmallGUY

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A Look at Countdown to UFC 98
« Reply #61 on: May 21, 2009, 04:42:10 PM »
I just saw the Countdown to UFC 98 show that will air tonight on Spike TV.  It aired in the United Kingdom last night on Setanta, and it is a great program.

Many will focus on the hype for Hughes and Serra, but I thought the work they did promoting the Rashad Evans vs. Lyoto Machida fight was masterful.  The UFC has struggled to promote foreign fighters in the past, but they decided to go all out in creating a karate persona for Machida, and it worked.

For the first time both of these guys really came across as superstars on television.  UFC 98's buyrate success does now largely depends on how many people watch the countdown, as I suspect the conversion rate of viewers to buys will be extremely high. 

Rashad's team sounds very confident that they've found holes in Machida's game, and Rashad is going to catch him a few rounds into the fight.  He had a star-studded training camp for this fight, with all the resources of Team Jackson dedicated to this fight.  Is that enough to figure out Machida?  I don't think so, but my confidence in Machida has been shaken over the last week.

Make sure to catch the countdown tonight on Spike.


SinCitysmallGUY

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UFC 98 Weigh-In Results
« Reply #62 on: May 22, 2009, 09:39:39 PM »
MAIN CARD:

Rashad Evans (205) Vs. Lyoto Machida (204)

Matt Hughes (170) Vs. Matt Serra (171)

Dan Miller (185) Vs. Chael Sonnen (186)

Sean Sherk (156) Vs. Frank Edgar (155)

Drew McFedries (185) Vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam (186)

PRELIMINARY FIGHTS:

Brock Larson (171) Vs. Mike Pyle (172)*

Pat Barry (237) Vs. Tim Hague (263)

Phillipe Nover (156) Vs. Kyle Bradley (156)

Krzysztof Soszynski (206) Vs. Andre Gusmao (206)

Yoshiyuki Yoshida (171) Vs. Brandon Wolff (170)

Dave Kaplan (156) Vs. George Roop (154)

*Late replacement. Mike Pyle was not penalized for being over. Source: UFC.com.


SinCitysmallGUY

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Chris Wilson out, Mike Pyle Will Take on Brock Larson at UFC 98
« Reply #63 on: May 22, 2009, 09:42:26 PM »
Three days ago, it was reported that Xtreme Couture fighter Mike Pyle had signed on as a replacement fighter for UFC 98. Initial reports stated that Chris Wilson was likely the man to be potentially replaced due to the robbery at gunpoint that took place at his home in Brazil. It looks like Pyle will, in fact, replace Chris Wilson and take on Brock Larson on the UFC 98 undercard:

Mixed martial arts veteran Mike Pyle will make his long-awaited UFC debut Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena as he takes on Brock Larson in a UFC 98 prelim bout. Pyle replaces Chris Wilson, who was a last-minute scratch from the event.

Mike Pyle is currently 17-5-1, riding a 4 fight win-streak since his loss to Jake Shields at EliteXC's Renegade event. He comes in with a load of experience like Larson, but he's also a much more formidable opponent for Larson as he has 15 of his wins coming by way of submission. As we all know, Larson's weakness could be considered the submission game. This fight got a whole lot more interesting.

UPDATE: From Chris Wilson's blog:

After several months of training, tapering for the fight, dieting, traveling and even cutting half of my weight the day before weigh-ins my fight has been canceled.

The Nevada State Athletic Commission did not approve some of my medicals and we couldn’t hussle them all out in time despite last minute physicals, blood tests, international conference calls and even a little prayer. No joke, I really prayed.

I’ve been told that I would likely be put on the earliest possible show in any slot that opens at welterweight. That is little relief since I was ready now and need the money but it will have to do.


SinCitysmallGUY

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Everyone just wants to help (Dana on Chuck at UFC 98 PC)
« Reply #64 on: May 22, 2009, 10:08:05 PM »
A month after Dana White tried to retire Chuck Liddell, the controversy continues. Here’s his latest statements on the subject, given at the UFC 98 press conference:

“Trust me when I tell you, he’s ready to retire,” White said. “He’s ready to retire. It’s the reason we love Chuck Liddell. He has nothing left to prove. He’s got a [expletive] load of money. He’s been a world champion. He’s beaten a who’s who of mixed martial arts fighters. He’s the most famous guy in the sport. There’s no reason to fight. He’s 40 years old, man. He and I had an agreement. We had a deal.

“Am I his father? Can I tell him not to fight? Absolutely not. If he still wants to fight, he can fight. I’m not saying, ‘It will never happen. It will never happen.’ But he made a deal with me. He’s never not listened to me. We’ll see what happens.”

White is Liddell’s former manager and the two are close friends. When asked if he’d stand in the way of Liddell fighting outside the UFC if Liddell opted to fight, White hedged.

“I don’t know, man,” he said, grimacing. “I’m honestly telling you guys I can not see him coming back to me and saying, ‘I want to fight one more.’ We already did that. I can’t see it happening. I think there are a lot of people around him who need his money putting pressure on him. That’s what I think.”

While I think we can all agree that Dana White handled the Chuck retirement issue with all the grace of a quadriplegic falling down several flights of stairs, you can’t say he doesn’t have Chuck’s best interests in mind. The average fight promoter would milk a guy like Liddell for all he’s worth, setting up big money fights until no one is willing to pay for them any more and then feeding Chuck to the next generation.

But instead Dana wants to stop making millions of dollars off his friend because he doesn’t want Chuck to finish his career with an ugly Ken Shamrock style skid to the bottom. It’s debatable as to whether that’s what would happen if Chuck continued to fight, but it’s hard to look at his performances from 2007 onwards and not say Chuck’s on the wrong side of the hill here.

Here’s hoping this entire situation is one where everyone has Chuck Liddell’s best interests in mind … Dana doesn’t want Chuck to become a punchline, and John Hackleman just doesn’t want Dana telling Chuck what to do. Still, when’s the last time you’ve heard of a club hopper like Chuck not having an entourage full of stupid freeloaders and morons? Can MMA really be the complete opposite of boxing to the point where you have people fighting over trying to help a fighter out instead of fucking him over?


gracie bjj

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Re: Everyone just wants to help (Dana on Chuck at UFC 98 PC)
« Reply #65 on: May 23, 2009, 01:10:28 AM »
i do agree with dana
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Rashad Evans Bets Cash on Himself at UFC 98:
« Reply #66 on: May 23, 2009, 09:43:30 AM »
Rashad Evans hopes to pick up a few extra bucks while he's in Las Vegas, on top of the purse he'll collect for fighting Lyoto Machida.

That's because Evans placed a bet on himself as a plus-210 underdog -- pretty good odds for an undefeated champion.

"I'm coming into this fight still the underdog," Evans said, not offering to say how much he bet on himself to win. "Every time I fight, people pick against me."

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Sean Sherk says things
« Reply #67 on: May 23, 2009, 09:44:56 AM »
Don’t get me wrong. I like Sean Sherk. The guy’s caveman training is utterly ridiculous and the way he is able to physically dominate opponents inside the Octagon deserves respect. Despite that, he’s been saying some nutty shit as of late. Here he is talking to MMAWeekly about how “size won’t matter” in his fight tonight with Frank Edgar:

I don’t think my size is going to be a factor. I think it’s going to come down to a skill factor and experience. The size thing, I don’t think it’s going to make that much difference because I’ve seen [Edgar] fight some pretty good guys at 155. He’s never been manhandled. Even Gray Maynard, he gave Gray a hell of a good fight until the third round. Gray was a lot bigger too and they’re both real, strong wrestlers too.

Wrong. Gray Maynard beat Frank Edgar because he was bigger and stronger. When two men of comparable skill levels meet, the one who has a strength and size advantage will usually come out on top. It’s physics — at least that’s what my friend who stayed awake during high school says. Saying size won’t be a factor in a fight is like saying the ability to see won’t be a factor in a stock car race. Just like the smaller guy will obviously be at a disadvantage in a fight, Ray Charles would also be at a disadvantage in the Indy 500. (That metaphor was a quick shout out to both our blind readers and our readers who are NASCAR aficionados. Then again, I would guess we don’t have many blind readers considering it’s tough to read a web site if you can’t see. Similarly, I bet we don’t have many readers who are stock car racing fans as most of them have trouble reading too. ZINGER!)

Sherk also is known for eating baby food as part of his insane diet. He talked to Sherdog about how he thinks baby food company Gerber should sponsor him. For real. He might be half-kidding, but I want to believe he’s entirely serious here.

Maybe I could try to get sponsored by those guys one of these days. To be honest with you, think about it, babies eat baby food for the first year of their lives and then move on to solid food. I’ve been eating baby food for years. I’ve probably eaten more baby food in my lifetime than any baby out there. Ideally, wouldn’t you want to sponsor me if you were a manufacturer of baby food? If you were Gerber wouldn’t you want to sponsor Sean Sherk? You get your name on my ass, and now you start branding yourself as clean healthy food. Now professional athletes start eating that stuff because they want to be healthy, too. It doesn’t taste bad. Once you get past that you’re drinking your food rather than chewing it, it’s really not any different.

Man, I would love to see Sherk show up to a fight with Gerber baby food logos all over his shorts. Fans and fighters alike would be all “Whoa, Sherk eats baby food? I’m most definitely going to make that shit a regular part of my diet just like him!” Then after that GoldenShowersPorn.com can start paying Lyoto Machida to start drinking a gallon of his own piss with their logo on it during his cage entrance. It’s comments like this that make me realize why certain fighters need people to do the business end for them.



Migs

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Re: Sean Sherk says things
« Reply #68 on: May 23, 2009, 10:56:05 AM »
what's worng with baby food.  about once a year i get a craving for the really smmoth baby cereal with banana.

Migs

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Re: Rashad Evans Bets Cash on Himself at UFC 98:
« Reply #69 on: May 23, 2009, 10:57:04 AM »
he should never be accepted into the Hall of Fame.  Pete Rose the son-of-a-bitch!  ;D

Migs

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Re: Everyone just wants to help (Dana on Chuck at UFC 98 PC)
« Reply #70 on: May 23, 2009, 11:02:21 AM »
yup, Dana is right.  Chuck will only get hurt.

SinCitysmallGUY

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Josh Gross has a very informative interview with Lyoto Machida's father and coach Yoshizo Machida.

I found his discussion of the mental side of fighting very interesting:

I like to incorporate everything, because a lot of it is spiritual and mental when you're going in the ring. How do you control yourself? A lot of times the fighter enters the ring nervous, not knowing what his opponent is thinking. With family being around to offer support and love, that can make him feel a lot more relaxed.

...

A lot of people don't prepare the mental state of their body. So many people are focused on the technical aspect and strength aspect, and they don't work on the mental aspects.

He also discusses the source of Lyoto's defensive approach to fighting:

Really, at the end of the day, I come from a background of martial arts. I always taught my children that in the Samurai days, if you were to get touched it would have been with a sword or a blade and you would have died. So the whole thing is to eliminate getting touched and that's what I've always instilled in my sons. Let's not pretend it's a punch. Let's pretend it's a sword. If you would have been hit by the sword, you'd be dead. That's how I trained him.

But he says that going into the Thiago Silva fight, even he thought Lyoto needed to be more aggressive.

Finally he addresses Rashad Evans and how Lyoto plans to take the belt:

From what I can tell, Rashad Evans is a compete fighter, a technical athlete. He's very fast. Very strong. I respect him very much. What I can't see is how strong he is mentally or spiritually. So, with that being said, that is where Lyoto is going to go after Rashad. He will attack his spirit.


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Does Anyone Know if TVU will have the fights tonight?
« Reply #72 on: May 23, 2009, 11:24:55 AM »
I just wasn't sure if they have been blocked yet? Did the last PPV work?

Migs

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i hope his spirit has a glass jaw

chaos

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Re: Does Anyone Know if TVU will have the fights tonight?
« Reply #74 on: May 23, 2009, 01:21:40 PM »
Parts of it did, it's hit and miss, same thing with justintv....
Liar!!!!Filt!!!!