So UFC 137 is coming in next month. GSP the WW champ set to take on former-Strikeforce WW champ Nick Diaz. Oops, then again, he’s not, because Diaz in the stupidest move since Josh Barnett juiced and sank Affliction did not show for the press conference in Vegas and was removed from the card. HFS! Diaz lives in Stockton CA and couldn’t make the flight…twice! GSP came down from Montreal. Diaz blew it off.
I cannot fathom why he would do this and despite the chorus of stoner jokes rounding the web, I doubt that was it.
This upsets me greatly as I thought Diaz had a real shot at choking GSP out and I am sick to death of GSP’s 5 round snoozers. So now what? Well, there was another great fight scheduled for that night. Carlos Condit vs BJ Penn, and since BJ just drew with John Fitch last year and Condit has been beating the f*ck out of people, Condit gets the shot.
Now this also makes me very happy as I’m quite the Condit mark, but jaysus, Diaz will never “get paid” like he would have gotten if he had made this fight. :loco:
BJ will fight but who is now a mystery…
Main card
Welterweight Championship bout: Canada Georges St-Pierre (c) vs. United States Carlos Condit[1]
Heavyweight bout: France Cheick Kongo vs. United States Matt Mitrione[1]
Heavyweight bout: Croatia Mirko Filipović vs. United States Roy Nelson[1]
Featherweight bout: Japan Hatsu Hioki vs. United States George Roop[1]
[edit] Preliminary card
Lightweight bout: Germany Dennis Siver vs. United States Donald Cerrone[1]
Featherweight bout: United States Tyson Griffin vs. Poland Bart Palaszewski[1]
Middleweight bout: United States Brad Tavares vs. United States Tim Credeur[1]
Bantamweight bout: United States Scott Jorgensen vs. United States Jeff Curran[1]
Light Heavyweight bout: United States Brandon Vera vs. United States Eliot Marshall[1]
Lightweight bout: United States Ramsey Nijem vs. United States Danny Downes[1]
I’ll go with Condit, Mitrione, Nelson (UD), and Roop and BJ (doesn’t matter who he fights.)
Yeah, AS is the man. Was he fighting Okami on the Rio card? That was a letdown in that Okami did the stupidest thing imaginable with Silva: stand up with him. I was glad when he pushed AS to the cage, but then he did nothing and it’s just a matter of time before Silva finds his range.
I think the only guy with matching punching power is BJ Penn. Either one of those guys touches you and boop, down you go.
btw, there are 5 UFC events in Sept/Oct. Looking at the WWs on those cards, the only to pull that would be near BJ’s level is Jake Sheilds. That would be fun, not as much fun as BJ/Condit but fun enough. That would leave Ellenberger in the lurch and his fight with Shields is in two weeks.
It was those two, but it was a rematch, I think you might have seen the first one. Ended early in second round, out of nowhere Silva just started standing there, face forward, basically saying “hit me.” couple of seconds later it was over.
[quote=“Tempo Gain”][quote=“jdsmith”]
Yeah, AS is the man. Was he fighting Okami on the Rio card? That was a letdown in that Okami did the stupidest thing imaginable with Silva: stand up with him. I was glad when he pushed AS to the cage, but then he did nothing and it’s just a matter of time before Silva finds his range.
[/quote]
It was those two, but it was a rematch, I think you might have seen the first one. Ended early in second round, out of nowhere Silva just started standing there, face forward, basically saying “hit me.” couple of seconds later it was over.[/quote]
well, the first one ended with a sick heel kick to the face FROM THE GUARD of Silva which was a DQ.
Yeah, the new defense is when Anderson Silva drops his hands, back far away and circle to the right. I want to see him fight Sonnen again. IF Sonnen kicks the shit out of Stann, as I expect he will, G&P, he’s next in line. I like Stann, but he don’t stan a chance against Silva. Sonnen is a seriously tough SOB, his shot is fast and his right hook worked very well last time around.
So, who do you pick for the CC vs GSP fight? GSP is not used to guys who attack all the time. That would be Condit, or Diaz, the schmuck…but GSP is so strong if he gets through the first 2 without getting hurt, the ring is his to snatch.
GSP by submission in round two or three. I like Condit, but GSP has always been able to take great strikers down at will, and I don’t think Condit has the ground game to survive. Diaz would have been a much more interesting fight.
I’m picking Stann over Sonnen, but that might just be because I really want it to happen.
GSP by submission in round two or three. I like Condit, but GSP has always been able to take great strikers down at will, and I don’t think Condit has the ground game to survive. Diaz would have been a much more interesting fight.
I’m picking Stann over Sonnen, but that might just be because I really want it to happen.[/quote]
GSP couldn’t sub Dan Hardy and he tried really hard to do it. He hasn’t subbed anyone since 2007. You really think he’s going to be able to choke out or armbar Condit? Pummel him into a ref stoppage a la Matt Serra, maybe. But a tapout?
oh. and this just in:[quote]
Nick Diaz was recently booted from a title fight with UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre, but today UFC president Dana White tweeted that Diaz has been re-booked to fight B.J. Penn in the co-main event of UFC 137, which will take place on October 29 at Las Vegas’ Mandalay Bay Events Center.
Diaz was set to fight St-Pierre, but he no-showed two press conferences in support of the fall event, and White announced his decision to give the fight to Carlos Condit, B.J. Penn’s original opponent.[/quote]
I think this bad for BJ. Diaz is very tall and long armed and his hooks are incredibly effective (ask Paul Daley). How is BJ going to close the gap? Everyone will want to see this go to the ground to match up BJ’s bjj with Cesar Gracie’s other golden boy, but I don’t see it staying down for long. And on top of that, Diaz’s cardio is off the charts. bad + bad for BJ. Nick Diaz via UD.
He sure came close, though. I think most fighters would have tapped to that armbar or that kimura, and it was only Hardy’s sheer stubbornness and GSP’s apparent unwillingness to actually break the arm that kept the fight going.
Then again my GSP fight predictions are generally pretty awful – I certainly didn’t think the Koscheck or Shields fights were going to be five rounds of uneventful standup.
And yeah, I think BJ is in trouble too. But I have to wonder what the point of the fight is, now that Diaz has counted himself out of title contention. What was he thinking?
Well, he was getting 250K per championship fight in SF. That’s good money. It’ll be interesting to see what Dana pays him to fight BJ. Diaz has stated for a long time he fights for the $$$. I don’t think he wants the UFC belt and the scmhoozing it entails, the pressers, and the enormous pressure behind it could be too much for him mentally and he knows it. He’s no John Jones for sure. Imagine Diaz on the Tonight Show.
There are a LOT of good top ten matchups for Diaz at 170 in the UFC though. BJ, Condit or GSP (whomever loses) Kos, Matt Hughes, little gsp whatshisname, Sanchez…he’s a hell of a fighter, but a trainwreck as a spokesman for the sport (and I think Dana gets that which is why he wasn’t fired outright).
Strikeforce had their HW Elination Tourney semifinals this weekend: an update:
(King) Mo Lawal KOed Roger Gracie and that surprised me. Gracie looked slow and reluctant to take Mo down. He got hit with an overhand right to the ear, went down and got another one that stiffened his toes. Ouch.
Jaycare Souza fought Luke Rockhold for the MW belt. 5 round fight, good action. Jaycare looked whipped after the kick to the nuts, tired, sluggish, and Rockhold kept on his horse and toughed it out. New Champ. :bravo:
Elimination fight: Daniel Cormier vs Bigfoot Silva. My money is on Cormier now to win it all. Impossible to take down and has serious hands. Bigfoot needs to learn better boxing, because he’s leaving his giant head exposed.
Josh Barnett vs Kharitonov. K has no ground game. End of story. Barnett does very little and wins with a side choke.
JB vs DC should be good. Barnett imo can beat anyone on any given night, but DC looked really sharp. I think the new blood has got this.
Sweet. I’ve been digging JE’s style for a while. I said long ago, on a different forum, that JS best watch his chin as JE’s hands are legit. And his knees ain’t too shab either. :bravo:
[quote]
Dan Henderson has signed with the UFC. Sources close to the event have confirmed that Henderson will face Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in his first match back to the promotion in over two years. It’s not currently clear whether Henderson will vacate the Strikeforce light heavyweight title.[/quote]
Most excellent!
And UFC 135 is this Sunday in Taiwan. Anyplace to see this in TPE?
Main Card
Light Heavyweight Championship: United States Jon Jones (c) vs. United States Quinton Jackson[1]
Welterweight bout: United States Matt Hughes vs. United States Josh Koscheck[1]
Heavyweight bout: United States Travis Browne vs. England Rob Broughton[1]
Lightweight bout: United States Nate Diaz vs. Japan Takanori Gomi[1]
Heavyweight bout: United States Ben Rothwell vs. New Zealand Mark Hunt[1]
I’ll take Rampage by KO Rd1, Kos by UD, Gomi by TKO, and would love to see Hunt take another head.
It’s great to see hardcore MMA fans out here; do you guys meet regularly to watch the PPVs or would you like to? I just got here recently and would love to be able to meet up with some people who love the sport. Are there any reputable MMA trainers in Taipei?
Well, I usually go to Feebies in Taoyuan, but I hear he’s heading back home soon. I’d like to know if there are places in TPE or TPE County that show the fights. I mean, I dl them the next day so it’s possible to get together and watch them, but you might not like me going “SUCK IT TITO!” right before he gets KTFO.
As for trainers, IDK. There used to be a BJJ school somewhere…
Interesting! Jones has barely broken a sweat in any fight I’ve seen, including Shogun. What makes Rampage the man to take him down?
Perhaps it’s the mind games – their interview argument on Fight Night was hilarious, and Jones doesn’t seem to realize that this is what Rampage does.
And there’s no-one who doesn’t like watching Tito get beat up.[/quote]
Nah, it’s not the mind games thing. It’s the He hasn’t faced top level competition thing. I grant you that he was devastating against Shogun, but I don’t think many people thought Shogun would come back after such a long layoff in any kind of shape. Jones was too fast and after rd 1, much too strong.
If you go back to the last time Jones got hit in the face, which was the Bonner fight (and lots of credit to Jones for this) you’ll see that he doesn’t have much of a chin. Bonner staggered him. I think he’s following the GSP rules of engagement…ie don’t git hit. (Not surprising as Greg Jackson trains both of them).
All that said, Rampage is a big mean man, very strong, possibly the strongest guy Jones has faced. He also has one punch KO power. And he has no problem getting inside to use it. I am curious to see how much Jones slows down after Rampage connects once or twice. Then KaBOOM. Honestly I saw the Jones/Evans fight going the same way.
Not a big fan of Jones at this point as he has been miles ahead of his competition. We’ll see how he does against a true top 5 guy who isn’t coming off a long layoff and surgery. Then the winner gets Rashad. Ouch.
That shouldn’t take long though 
He’s no John Jones for sure. Imagine Diaz on the Tonight Show. 
