KOREAN ZOMBIE Chan Sung Jung vs. Rani Yahya added to the card too. Good fight there.Originally Posted by dubya
Will Campuzano vs. Nick Pace added to TUF 12 finale .. JOE Silva is already playing with his new toys (tornquote)
KOREAN ZOMBIE Chan Sung Jung vs. Rani Yahya added to the card too. Good fight there.
Will Campuzano vs. Nick Pace added to TUF 12 finale .. JOE Silva is already playing with his new toys (tornquote)
Last edited by Dubya; November 5th, 2010 at 5:48 PM.
As someone who enjoyed every WEC event he ever saw but regularly missed them, I'm really looking forward to the lighter guys being on UFC events. I'm really pleased they finally pulled the trigger on the merge.
Yeah, I know what you mean. I love it. Sure, Versus will have less shows.. but I'd have to think that this means they will have more free events on either Spike or even on another network.. ESPN has been pretty friendly lately ..
Mark Hominick vs. George Roop being set up for Fight Night 23: Fight for the Troops II
.. this is stacking up to be a great Fight Night
Great fight, next contender for the title should come out of that. Well, definitely if its Hominick.
Evan Dunham vs. Kenny Florian
Melvin Guillard vs. Yves Edwards
Matt Mitrione vs. Tim Hague
Mike Swick vs. David Mitchell
Mark Hominick vs. George Roop
Pat Barry vs. Joey Beltran
Rani Yahya vs. Chan Sung Jung
Demarques Johnson vs. Mike Guymon
Charlie Brenneman vs. Amilcar Alves
Waylon Lowe vs. Willam Freire
I hope they're able to show like .. the first 7 fights .. somehow. Lol. They should do a prelim show on WEC. That's a swell Fight Night.
Other than Dunham/Florian & Guillard/Edwards .. I don't know what is really on the broadcast .. I'd think Mitrione/Hague cuz Mitrione has been on every single time .. and either or both of Swick/Mitchell and Hominick/Roop .. Hopefully they do all 5.
I'd still really like to see Barry/Beltran and Yahya/Sung Jung
Yeah... now that they can bring in WEC fighters, the cards are TOO good. We'll miss quality fights no matter what.
That's for sure. That's why I hope this merger really results in more Fight Night cards cuz we're losing the WEC cards. They could probably do a decent Fight Night every month now, be it on Versus or Spike, if they wanted to.
I wonder how many UFC guys are worried about moving down to the prelims now that there are so many new stars worthy of main card placement.
I bet they're all worried about getting that Fight of the Night bonus, thats for sure. Lol.
So seriously .. the UFC Lightweight Division is now unquestionably the deepest division in MMA.. and that's leaving out around 10 or so that I never heard of..
Mark Bocek
Danny Castillo
Donald Cerrone
Mac Danzig
Nate Diaz
Rafael Dos Anjos
Evan Dunham
Frank Edgar
Yves Edwards
Terry Etim
Spencer Fisher
Kenny Florian
Takanori Gomi
Tyson Griffin
Clay Guida
Melvin Guillard
John Gunderson
Ben Henderson
Chris Horodecki
Paul Kelly
Ricardo Lamas
Joe Lauzon
Nik Lentz
Duane Ludwig
Gray Maynard
Zack Micklewright
Cole Miller
Jim Miller
Anthony Njokuani
Charles Oliveira
Bart Palaszewski
Ross Pearson
Kurt Pellegrino
BJ Penn
Anthony Pettis
Ed Ratcliff
Aaron Riley
Shane Roller
George Roop
Gabe Ruediger
Kamal Shalorus
Sean Sherk
Dennis Siver
George Sotiropoulos
Jeremy Stephens
Joe Stevenson
Sam Stout
Thiago Tavares
Paul Taylor
Gelison Tibau
Jamie Varner
Matt Wiman
Andre Winner
Tiequan Zhang
Makes ya really wonder how many will drop to 145 or try to go to 170 .. cuz that's a pretty tall ladder to climb.
Last edited by Dubya; November 9th, 2010 at 9:49 AM.
Later today, I'm gonna try to rank the Top 25 of those bastards in the ridiculously deep lightweight division. I'd like to see where you guys think the WEC guys match up.
I think the top guys like Henderson, Pettis, Varner, Cerrone, Roller.. you could probably sprinkle throughout the top 20.
My top 25 lightweights
1. Frankie Edgar
2. BJ Penn *
3. George Sotiropoulos *
4. Gray Maynard
5. Ben Henderson
6. Kenny Florian
7. Jim Miller
8. Sean Sherk
9. Charles Oliviera
10. Evan Dunham
11. Donald Cerrone
12. Joe Lauzon
13. Kurt Pellegrino
14. Melvin Guillard
15. Cole Miller
16. Takanori Gomi
17. Diego Sanchez
18. Clay Guida
19. Tyson Griffin
20. Anthony Pettis
21. Joe Stevenson *
22. Gleison Tibau
23. Shane Roller
24. Rafael dos Anjos
25. Jamie Varner *
* - BJ has only lost three times at LW in his career, and he avenged one of those later. The other two came from the only man sitting above him.
* - Sotiropoulos has defeated top level talent in impressive ways. I don't feel that Gray has been impressive enough in his victories to deserve higher placement
* - Joe Daddy is 3-4 in his last 7 fights. It's hard to toss him out of the rankings entirely, because talentwise he is definitely a top 25 lightweight in the UFC
* - Varner hasn't had a win in his last 3 fights. He needs to get some momentum going and fight to his potential if he wants to keep his new UFC job.
Daniel Roberts vs. Greg Soto added to UFC 125.. another SICK card coming up..
---MAIN CARD
Lightweight Championship
Frankie Edgar vs. Gray Maynard
Featherweight Championship
Jose Aldo vs. Josh Grispi
Takanori Gomi vs. Clay Guida
Nate Diaz vs. Dong Hyun Kim
Chris Leben vs. Brian Stann
---PRELIMINARY CARD
Thiago Silva vs. Brandon Vera
Antonio McKee vs. Jacob Volkmann
Cole Miller vs. Matt Wiman
Daniel Roberts vs. Greg Soto
Phil Baroni vs. Brad Tavares
I really hate that Thiago Silva vs Brandon Vera is on the prelims. In each of their last respective fights, they were in the main events. Hopefully Silva/Vera and Miller/Wiman end up on Spike TV.
Silva vs Vera should be on the main card. I love Leben but Silva/Vera is more of a ppv-calibre fight than Leben/Stann.
Except Leben is coming off co-main eventing the biggest card of the year and a victory and riding a 3-fight win streak .. Stann is also coming off of a win.
Vera may be coming of a headline bout .. but it was in march, 10 months before this card .. and he's coming off 2 losses as well. Thiago also last headlined in his last fight .. a year ago before this card .. and he lost.
Makes sense to me why Leben/Stann is on there. There's a good chance Silva/Vera could end up on the broadcast anyway. They know its a fight people wanna see.
MMA Spot - On The Spot ~ Dennis Siver
When Germany's Dennis Siver steps into the Octagon this Saturday he will have nearly everyone in the König Pilsener Arena on his side. He will be facing "The Ultimate Fighter" finalist Andre Winner as part of the televised portion of at "UFC 122: Marquardt vs. Okami." And while Siver has accomplished quite a bit in his nine previous UFC fights, his tenth fight could be the one that changes how fans all over the world view him.
Siver may not be the household name that other tough-as-nails fighters his ilk have become, but with an impressive win over Winner the Russian-born scrapper could quickly become known as one of the toughest guys in one of the toughest divisions in all of the sport. Already with wins over Nate Mohr, Paul Kelly, and Spencer Fisher on his resume Siver has made quite an impression on the UFC brass, earning him an opportunity to fight in front of his home crowd as the UFC continues its growth across Europe.
MMA Spot's Andrew Yount caught up with Dennis prior to his bout to discuss the slugger's upcoming bout, his award winning fighting style, and being an ambassador for the sport in Germany.
--------------------
MMA Spot: How do you feel coming in to next week's fight with Andre Winner?
Dennis Siver: I feel really good. My preparation is going quite well and I'm really looking forward to fighting in Germany. Andre is a really strong fighter, but in the end, the best man wins. Hopefully, it's me.
MMA Spot: Does Winner bring anything special to the fight that you have had to adjust your training for?
Siver: Well, of course, he has great boxing skills and his reach advantage is enormous. So I'm working on a game plan.
MMA Spot: Where do you see your biggest advantage in this fight?
Siver: I'm a well rounded fighter. I can punch and kick out of any angle. I have powerful kicks and knock out power.
MMA Spot: How do you see the fight playing out?
Siver: Of course, I can beat Andre. But as I have mentioned, he is a really good fighter. And you will never know how a fight will end. We will see who the better fighter is on this evening. But it would make me really happy, to beat him in front of the German crowd.
MMA Spot: After nine UFC fights it seems that most fans have finally started to take notice of your ability. Have you purposely sought to put on the best show, or is winning still the most important thing?
Siver: Winning is the number one priority. I'm not a big show man. I'm a fighter, not an entertainer. I want to entertain people with my fights and with knock outs. I still think some people underrate me, but I want to show everybody that I'm improving myself on every fight. Hopefully, I will get the title one day.
MMA Spot: How does it feel to know you will be fighting on the main card in your home country?
Siver: It makes me really proud that the UFC believes in me. Being on the main card is an honor for every fighter. And fighting in my home country motivates me even more to get the "Knockout Of The Night" bonus.
MMA Spot: Will you have many people in the arena supporting you?
Siver: I really hope so. All of my friends and training partners will be there to support me and the sport. Unfortunately, the sport is not accepted in Germany, there is a lot of bad press. But we are planning to promote and support the sport even more, to clarify. And hopefully, the UFC takes place in Germany soon again.
MMA Spot: We have seen the growth of the sport in Ireland and England. Why has Germany not seen the same type of growth recently?
Siver: Unfortunately, there are still bad rumors within the press that the sport is so violent and brutal. But there are MMA gyms that have opened in 2010. The sport is so great, even for managers or teachers. It is such a great workout for your body and mind. You don't have to fight in the cage, if you don't want to.
MMA Spot: Do you look at yourself as an ambassador for MMA in Germany?
Siver: Surveys have shown that I'm the most famous and successful German MMA fighter internationally. In some way, I see myself as an ambassador. That's the reason we are planning a promotional campaign in 2011, to support the sport in Germany.
check out the rest of the interview HERE
how about you actually post your opinion instead of posting articles you want us to read
Nonsense, we should have a seperate forum dedicated to articles about MMA greats such as Rodney DONT PLAY Wallace.
Are you doubting the noteworthiness of Rodney (0-3) Wallace
No I am suggesting that more threads should be made in admiration of my boy Don't Play.
Excuse me Sho Nuff the Master. I got them mixed up. Who's Don't Play?
Marcus Davis vs. Jeremy Stephens on tap for UFC 125 .. nice fight right there.
I'm really curious to see how Davis fares at 155.
Especially against Stephens, holy shit that's going to be a fire bomb of blood.
Tito Ortiz v. Lil Nog in March is being rumored.....Surprising, but both guys are definitely at a crossroads in their career. Kinda shitty to say that about Lil Nog, but his last 2 fights were not like his first fight that's fo sho.
Tito, I didn't think he'd get another fight in the UFC but they probably figure one last shot against solid opponent. I mean shit if Tito beat Lil Nog that'd be a great victory to end your career on.
Dana White saying that a Flyweight division will be created sooner than people think ..
http://mmajunkie.com/news/21380/dana...t-division.mma
Interesting, I thought Dana heavily insenuated Tito was done.
Okay seriously, if you weigh 125 pounds maybe fighting shouldn't be your occupation.
Seriously. I don't think I highly trained MMA fighter at 125 could even beat me up. Unless he was some jiu-jitsu ace, otherwise I'd just grab him and check mate.
Demetrious Johnson and Joseph Benavidez would both be natural flyweights .. I bet they'd both kick your ass. Lol.
Probably so, I wasn't being completely serious though I'd be pretty embarassed getting my ass kicked by someone that small, pro fighter or not. 125 is tiny, honestly I could live without that division. With 135 and 145 added and 155 beefed up, I think we're good on weight classes. If you're a natural 125 then I'd suggest hit the weights and beef up a bit then move up, 135 couldn't be that overwhelming.
Last edited by Mark Hammer; November 12th, 2010 at 10:17 PM.
I'm more interested in a 90 pound anorexic division.
Or a 50 pound midget division.
YUS!! You know what though, I think midgets are deceptively heavy, many might have trouble cutting to the 50 lbs limit.
Can you imagine all the bloody warfare with their 10 inch reach?
Anyone remember those old Midget fights on youtube?
It's not that funny after a while.
Watching disproportionately small people cartwheel kicking each other...
Midget MMA would be interesting .. I wonder how they'd do submissions??? I mean, they have really little limbs .. I feel like a dick cuz I'm giggling just thinking about it. Lol.
Alessio Sakara just pulled out due to illness. This dreadful card just lost its co main event and the most interesting fight of the day.
Question.....when was Rumble Johnson released? I just saw that he fought tonight at an indie show.
You sure it's the same Anthony Johnson?
I cannot find a page about this at all which leads me to believe he's still with the UFC even if he did an indie...which itself looks unlikely.
Sherdog and Wiki are religiously updated and this isn't on it...
http://mmajunkie.com/news/21399/whit...s-resolved.mma
Apparently Roy Nelson signed a bad contract with Roy Jones Jr's Square Ring Promotions a while back and is obligated to fight for them. Dana said its like an old boxing contract that gives the promotions options with options with options and he said that it could seriously be a while before we see him in the UFC again .. that's really unfortunate. Like .. REALLY unfortunate.
Hopefully he fights once and the rest is dealt with in an out of court settlement. Although he should be a favourite againt whoever he fights, Roy needs to make sure he wins. A loss could open the door for Dana and them to be more apathetic towards Nelson re-joining the UFC.
This is true, but these kinda contracts are set up to basically own the fighter. If he wins, they probably have an option for 3 more fights.. they probably have an option for 2 more fights if he loses. They don't care about him at all. Sucks that I can just tell my employer to fuck off and go work somewhere else and these guys can't.
Michael Bisping vs. Jorge Rivera 95% likely for UFC 127 .. for the love of god, Bisping .. fight a top 10 fighter. I don't care who the fuck it is.
I'd still rather see Rivera / Sakara set up again.
Ya, Bisping's really not moving up the ladder beating guys like Akiyama and Rivera. God forbid he actually lose to one.
Kind of like a Zuffa contract then.
Only with a Zuffa one.. if the guy really, really wanted to leave the UFC.. they'd more than likely let him leave. More his loss than theirs.
Why are you having a go at Bisping for Joe Silva's matchmaking? It's not his fault these are the fights he's being offered and that's who is available.
Roy signed it. Probably should have paid more attention before he signed his career away.
Not really, considering a Zuffa contract is for a set number of fights.
Sorry, I mean BOOO DANA IS EVIL
...
Yeah, but he's a person .. with a mind of his own and he can easily say, "No Joe .. I'd like a bigger name opponent because I really wanna make a run at a title shot" .. not to mention that he openly campaigned for a top 10 opponent at the 120 press conference after beating Akiyama. Rivera is a step back from Akiyama/Miller. You don't get title shots by taking steps back.
.. plus, I still wanted to see Rivera / Sakara !
Last edited by Dubya; November 14th, 2010 at 10:28 PM.
And at a guess he'd probably get a response saying that's the best fighter not coming off a loss (which was something he felt strongly about too) that we have for you right now. Considering the lack of alternatives, if Bisping wanted to fight someone ranked higher fight and get paid, then he'd have to wait a while and probably just wants fight to than sitting out.
This is true too.. there really isn't anyone else available right now thats ranked or even not coming off a loss. If he wants to get more fights, this will have to do I guess.
http://www.sherdog.com/events/KOTC-Infusion-15069
King of the Cage, unless they have it linked wrong Anthony Johnson fought last night.
It should be Tony Johnson, not Anthony Johnson.
Jorge Rivera should be ranked higher than Akiyama. Rivera is coming off of 3 straight wins, is 5-2 since coming back to the UFC and 2 of them are highlight reel KO's over Nate Quarry and Kendall Grove. Akiyama, on the other hand, was coming off of a submission loss to an unranked striker.
Bisping vs Rivera won't have the same fireworks as Rivera vs Sakara, but Jorge deserves a step up after what he did to The Rock.
So rumor has it Tito's fighting Lil Nog next. Interesting pairing.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/21370/tito...ly-ufc-128.mma
DW said it's Tito's last chance with the UFC as well. Tito's honestly not THAT BAD these days, he's just had the unfortunate luck of not winning the key fights. He beat Rashad, but due to the point it was a draw. For whatever reason, their rematch didn't happen (I think that's why we got Evans/Bisping wasn't it?) and then Tito lost to Machida, lost a close split to Forrest, and then looked terrible against the Hammer.
Who knows, Lil Nog, aside from his first fight, hasn't looked like the same Nog I remember seeing in Pride. Close fight with Bader, but still a loss. One of them are going bye bye if not both depending on the fight.
Tito did not look terrible against Hamill. Are you blind or just biased? He actually won Round 1.
Good fighters who put on entertaining fights deserve to keep their job. Tito falls into that category.
Tito needs to win, this isn't Pride where a guy can go 1-32 jsut because he takes a good beating.
And no, Tito looked terrible in his fight with Matt. His standup, his lack of takedowns, his takedown defense, didn't look anywhere near the Tito I saw against Griffin the 2nd time.
His standup was crisper than it has been in a long time. Don't fault his lack of takedowns or takedown defense considering he was against a guy who he himself called an Olympic level wrestler.
Yeah, but it's not hard to have crisp standup against Matt Hamill .. he's not exactly the most technical striker. Just sayin ..
Naw, Hamill was catching him left and right and Tito barely did anything significant. That's what was so surprising was that Tito didn't handle dude on the feet and instead, like with Bisping, Matt kicked his ass on the feet. Pretty much everywhere the fight went Matt won. Tito in that fight looked, I don't want to say out of shape, but he looked gassed out by the end of the first round. I know he had a long break between his last fight and Hamill, and being 35 with twins and all that bullshit drama with Jenna and TUF had to have fucked with him.
In the Griffin fight he was a punching bag for an entire round.
And Griffin's stand up is a lot better than Matt's buddy. I'm just saying Tito's stand up looked better in that fight than it did against Matt, idc if Griffin beat his ass the entire fight (which he didn't), I'm talking about the fact Tito looked better on the feet in his fight with Griffin the 2nd time than he did against Matt..... Keep in mind Tito lost that fight by split decision as well, he looked pretty solid for having been out of the game for over a year.
http://mmajunkie.com/news/21510/new-...om-ufc-125.mma
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Oh, FUCK MONKEYS!!!
5 weeks to find a new co-main... they should postpone Cruz vs Jorgensen or Henderson/Pettis.
Otherwise they could promote Silva/Vera to the main card (please fucking Christ!!!) but Guida/Gomi doesn't scream CO-MAIN EVENT to me. Neither does Leben/Stann or Diaz/Hyun-Kim.
They could just set up Penn / Fitch REALLY fast. .. I mean, its not like Penn took any damage and he was prepared for an experienced wrestler with good sub skills/defense .. thats not exactly a whole new strategy for Fitch ..
I predict that Penn will bash the shit out of Fitch but will be unable to finish and then Fitch will lay on him for two rounds working him over to win the fight.
We will see Penn get more and more angry. We will all lol or get angry at Fitch.
Lol that's a good prediction.
Spencer Fisher vs. Ross Pearson at UFC 127 in Australia.
More angry than against Hughes?!
it will be like the second GSP fight with him just getting more and more glum
MMA Keeps throwing up surprises, I find it hard to pick winners now...
Yes! GSP got an ESPN commercial!
[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3SFygdPVFHo&feature=player_embedded"]YouTube - Georges St-Pierre in the Octagon - UFC 124 Preview? This is SportsCenter[/ame]
Oh come on; who wouldn't trust that face!
I saw that on TSN here in Canada earlier this week and laughed my ass off.
Haha that's hilarious.
100% agree. This is something I explain to my pro wrestling friends about why I order more MMA ppvs than wrestling ppvs, it really started back when Shamrock fought Tito Ortiz the first time. Slowly as my lack of pleasure grew due to the lack of national variety, the world of MMA hooked me in.
I have no prob admitting I'm a fan of both sports and I feel both sports do appeal to both audiences. Do both purposely aim their product at the other's fanbase? No, it'd be like if someone did a study and found that wrestling fans also liked martial arts movies, there are just certain elements like the action or the comic book like personas that draw people in.
MMA is a perfect sport for someone like me. I like the fact that Keith Jardine can come in and beat the Iceman but then go on a 5 fight losing streak. As much as it pisses me off, I like that BJ Penn can destroy all the top guys at 155 then lose to the guy people questioned from day one about getting a title shot over Gray Maynard. I feel blessed almost that pro wrestling took a nose dive right as MMA was making a comeback, right place right time.
The irony is, I'm not a huge fan of the fake drama MMA fighters try to create because they saw how well Shamrock/Ortiz did, or fights along those lines that sold because there was legit heat and it added to the action that was about to go down. That's nothing new in sports at all. I just hate the fake shit talking and then hugging at the end like it was just to hype the fight.....
Surprise factor between the top of the ladder is what makes the UFC even better.
That's one of many things that makes MMA leagues better than pro wrestling. I just got sooooo sick of the same old boring shit. I love that MMA fights actually mean something and there is consequence, meaning a reason for me to give a shit.
I hate bashing wrestling because I was hooked on it for many years, but I could only take so much and the piss-poor product WWE is putting out finally forced me to call it quits on pro wrestling. Thankfully UFC was there to take it's place.
I still DVR monday night raw and watch about 70% of it.. I don't watch any of the other shows anymore though.
Honestly in my most recent ventures I've found Smackdown to be much more tolerable than Raw.
You should just watch ROH on HDnet; best wrestling show every week.
But yeah, became an MMA fan for a lot of the same reasons; unpredictable, titles that mean something, and legit stars rather than telling your audience, 'hey, this guy is a big deal! See what a big deal he is?!"
Actually, they tell you what a big deal some guys are a lot more in MMA than in wrestling. lol.
Agreed! They've tried so hard to make Brandon Vera look like an unstoppable king that will capture 2 belts. Granted, he beat Mir and then Couture (and got ROBBED of it) but he's got losses to Jardine, Sylvia and got TKO'd BY FABRICIO WERDUM.
Let's have fun today thinking about the "stars" that the UFC have tried to push down our throats - granted on many different levels!!!
Kimbo Slice
Frank Mir - HES NOT THAT FUCKING GOOD!
Mark Coleman
Joe Stevenson
Junie Browning
Who can you think of?
Did the UFC try to tell us that Kimbo Slice was a great fighter?
On TUF, they tried OVER and OVER to get us believing that SOMEHOW he was going to get back in the tournament and win the whole thing!
.....Kimbo Slice.
Yeah... anybody who actually bought the Kimbo hype on TUF was ridiculous. Pre-Petruzzelli, I could maybe understand his hype...but come on!
he was the biggest name when it came to people fighting on the show. of course they would.
I think you guys need to re-watch that season .. I remember Dana White (and most everyone else) talking about how green Kimbo was the time he was on TUF and how he was trying to learn .. I don't think Dana White ever once said that Kimbo Slice was the next big thing or anything similiar to it .. they shoved his name down our throat.. sure, cuz he already had a name to shove.. but I don't think that anyone from the UFC ever really said he was very good. They may have said he looked good or something here or there, but it was probably in comparison to how he looked when he first got there .. which, they say about nearly everyone on the show. I mean, the whole show was pretty much built around the idea of him trying to BECOME a mixed martial artist .. they only shoved him down our throats because it was and is a proven fact that the man delivers ratings.. for that reason, I'm sure they really wanted him to do good, but I remember them kinda covering their bases during the show and trying NOT to hype his actual skills all that much cuz they saw what happened in EliteXC and knew that he wasn't really that good. They may have pushed HIM, but certainly not his skills .. if that makes sense.
Last edited by Dubya; November 27th, 2010 at 1:24 PM.
Paul Kelly vs. Sam Stout added to UFC 126 .. that should be a pretty nice little slugfest there.
Yes, and they talked shit about the 2nd biggest name on the show... knowing he was a finalist before the first episode aired. Maybe some long-term thinking would have been more beneficial than hyping the comeback (which they knew never happened) of Kimbo re-entering the tournament.
Now that I think about that season, it makes me wonder... how many seasons have there been where the TUF coaches didn't fight each other/had their fights postponed?
Season 2 - coaches in different weight classes
Season 4 - no coaches
Season 6 - Serra got injured, fight postponed
Season 10 - Rampage filmed movie, fight postponed
Season 11 - Tito got injured, fight never happened
I dont think so. They just used him for name recognition. Besides, TUF is for people wanting to make it, not big cheeses who have already made it.
Neither of those two have been pushed down anybody's throat...Frank Mir just gets a lot of attention because of the fairly amazing start he made in his UFC career then his even more amazing comeback from a potentially career ending injury.
Mark Coleman is just riding out the last part of his career, I'd hardly say he has been heavily promoted at any time recently.
I'd say Brock Lesnar has been pushed down peoples throats, great start but looks like he got found out against Carwin and big Cain made him pay for it like Carwin should have.
I still think the way Randy handled him in the first round of their fight should have given most people a clue that he wasn't ready yet.
I feel like I gave him way too much credit too soon.
*coughAkiyamacough*
Sucks that Franklin really is so much bigger cuz that would've made a good catchweight fight I think.
It's called promoting, Dana White=promoter. You also have to factor in Spike TV and the say they have in editing and what is shown. It's not like DW and Zuffa have free reign to do whatever, Spike has say in what goes on as well, they'd be the dumbest channel on t.v. if they let that happen.
Kimbo is a draw, no different than Tito and Shamrock. Or guys like Chuck Liddell and Randy Couture, or even a guy like Stephan Bonnar who can lose 3-4 fights in a row (including a 30-27 loss to Mark Coleman) & can still headline a Fight Night with no question. It's part of the game, they put together fights that have fighters people want to see and will take the time out of their life to see them throw down.
Plain and simple promoting. Just like in Elite XC and how they put Kimbo on the main event, he was the biggest draw they had and honestly people just took it wayyy too serious. He sold the promotion enough to CBS along with Gina Carano so I mean, you can't say this dude was a nobody getting undeserving credit for bringing fans. Even the haters tuned in.
What's wrong with Akiyama? In Japan he beat a lot of credible ass. In the UFC he hasn't done too bad, it's just that the Japanese have like 2 fighters who actually cut weight and train like most fighters in the UFC. Akiyama's size is more for 170 but again, very few Japanese fighters approach MMA like say Okami does being 6'2" and dropping down to 185 where in Pride or Dream a Japanese fighter at 6'2" is probably fighting HW and getting killed.
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