The Ultimate Fighter / UFC thread

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I never really thought Franklin was all that good. His career was catapulted by a weak ass match against Ken Shamrock.

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Um, what? That Shamrock fight introduced him to the layman MMA fan, but it didn't suddenly make people say, "Hey, this guy beat a past-his-prime Shamrock, he's the real deal!"

I'm pretty sure he was already widely regarded as a very strong fighter with an impressive record.


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Also on a interesting note Brock Lesnar is debuting in the UFC at UFC 81 against Frank Mir.

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I might be totally wrong here, but it seems like if Lesnar has a decent game plan against Mir, he should be able to own him on endurance alone. Mir has looked terrible in his last few fights, chubby and winded in the first rounds, etc. I think Lesnar will wreck him unless he stands up and gets out boxed. I predict Lesnar by take down and G&P.

[KDawg]

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Other guys that could challenge Anderson Silva: Matt Lindland, Paulo Filho, Denis Kang, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Frank Shamrock, Robbie Lawler, Jason Miller.

Lindland and Filho are guys they could bring in RIGHT NOW if they wanted to. Lindland doesn't have an exclusive deal with anyone and Filho is the champ in the WEC.


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Kang signed with K-1 almost immeaditely after the PRIDE purchase, so I don't know if it was as much as UFC not wanting him, or him not wanting to be in the UFC at this time. That being said, he got completely picked apart at the recent K-1 show in Korea, so he'd be down the pecking order right now. Akiyama is also with K-1, so I don't think he'd be coming in anytime soon. With the japanese fighters, or the guys who fight a lot in japan, they need to stay there to keep making good money there under the current climate(which is why Okami went back, well, that and he got a pretty sweet deal from what meltzer was saying)

I just don't see Lindland coming in. He was dropped because of boring fights, and he hasn't really done much to dispel that stigma.

Shamrock definetly isn't happening due to the fact that him and Dana White utterly hate each other, and that UFC won't give him the money he wants.

with Lawler, I'm not sure that he'd fare much better then Franklin did against Silva

[ohead]

ive said this several times before, Filho will never fight silva since they are training partners and those just dont fight in brazil. It would be like shogun fighting wanderlei.

[El Diablo]

All,

Back to some TUF discussion.

Wow, how wrong was I about Serra's coaching? Definitely seemed like he at least got his guys to stick w/ the plan and stay motivated better than Hughes did.

I was pretty impressed by the farmer guy being able to keep fighting through the choke attempts at the start. Especially impressive was when he got out, it seemed like he had tons of energy left, no real recovery time needed at all.

[mephisto]

U guys ever watch 'inside MMA' on Cuba's HDnet? It's on weekly, pretty good show. Anyways, in the latest show they were talking about Couture possibly working out his kinks with Dana so a Fedor fight would happen with M1. While listenning to it I was like wtf, because it really seemed to me that Couture was serious about not coming back to UFC. What are the chances of him doing a 180 and changing his tune almost overnight if Dana offers him the money he wants? How common is it in the MMA world of guys announcing they are quitting only to come back and fight?

[KDawg]

El D, serra is a pretty proven coach in the past, and it's his main job. I'm not suprised by how well he's coach, and in ways, I'm not surprised by how Hughes has coached. Hughes' mindset is one that doesn't really lend itself to being able to coach a lot of different guys. He'd be the type of guy that one would have to seek out because I just don't think he can see things in ways that aren't his

[MikeyPatriot]

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ive said this several times before, Filho will never fight silva since they are training partners and those just dont fight in brazil. It would be like shogun fighting wanderlei.

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This isn't true. Filho now trains with Team Link (where Gabriel Gonzaga trains) and Silva trains with the Black House in Brazil.

[MikeyPatriot]

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Okami is absolutely a solid guy (and yes the "meh" is mainly directed at his conservative fighting style) but IMO the talent gap is so large Anderson Sylva would absolutely decimate him. I think Rich is still the #2 185 guy but I doubt anyone (Franklin included) wants to see him get his ass kicked a third time. Agreed with the names you mentioned; of the list I think Filho right now makes for the most compelling matchup. I think we agree that if Dana is serious about maintaining interest in 185, he desperately needs talent infusion of at least some of the guys you listed.

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I agree that Anderson would probably bowl right through him, but they have fought before and Okami looked OK.

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To clarify: I meant Lesnar would fight Sylvia with that winner getting a shot at the HW title (interim or not). At most Lesnar would need one more impressive win on top of Mir to fight in a #1 contender's match. UFC is obviously hoping they can bring Randy Couture back; they still consider him to be the champion. It certainly would be unfair to some of the journeymen guys you've mentioned that have paid their dues in the UFC, however I think Dana puts PPV buys way ahead of a strict title shot meritocracy. Lesnar's got the name power to warp right past the "dues paying" fights that most fighters need to endure.

That said, if Mir takes him to school this January, I bet Brock is relegated to "developmental" status and given a series of fights against UFC jobbers so he can further develop his skills and build his confidence some.

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OK, that makes more sense. I still think that leaves the HW belt up in limbo for too long, though I suppose a lot of that depends on how long Dana is willing to wait for Randy.

[MikeyPatriot]

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Kang signed with K-1 almost immeaditely after the PRIDE purchase, so I don't know if it was as much as UFC not wanting him, or him not wanting to be in the UFC at this time. That being said, he got completely picked apart at the recent K-1 show in Korea, so he'd be down the pecking order right now. Akiyama is also with K-1, so I don't think he'd be coming in anytime soon. With the japanese fighters, or the guys who fight a lot in japan, they need to stay there to keep making good money there under the current climate(which is why Okami went back, well, that and he got a pretty sweet deal from what meltzer was saying)

I just don't see Lindland coming in. He was dropped because of boring fights, and he hasn't really done much to dispel that stigma.

Shamrock definetly isn't happening due to the fact that him and Dana White utterly hate each other, and that UFC won't give him the money he wants.

with Lawler, I'm not sure that he'd fare much better then Franklin did against Silva

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I just did a quick google search, and it looks like Kang didn't officially sign with K-1 until mid-September (which is when I remember it). That was long after the Pride purchase. I listed Akiyama and Kang, but I didn't think they would be viable options given the UFC's insistence on having guys under contract. If they were more willing to bring in guys from other orgs or cross-promote, it could happen, but the UFC hasn't done that in a long time.

Lindland was dropped because of a sponsorship dispute. Again, I don't think he'll be brought back, but what upsets me about that is Dana's insistence that the UFC is gonna "get all the best fighters in the word," while he continues to not live up to that claim. And in most cases, turns around and talks [censored] about guys (Fedor, etc.).

Again, it doesn't matter how someone will fare against Silva. You have to throw the top guys in the division to face him. There's only a few guys right now that are at his level (Hendo, Lindland) that pose competitive matchups. Yeah, Lawler probably gets smashed just like Franklin, but you have to give him someone. He has to fight, and if Hendo doesn't drop down and you don't want to sign Lindland, someone has to be put in there.

[KDawg]

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U guys ever watch 'inside MMA' on Cuba's HDnet? It's on weekly, pretty good show. Anyways, in the latest show they were talking about Couture possibly working out his kinks with Dana so a Fedor fight would happen with M1. While listenning to it I was like wtf, because it really seemed to me that Couture was serious about not coming back to UFC. What are the chances of him doing a 180 and changing his tune almost overnight if Dana offers him the money he wants? How common is it in the MMA world of guys announcing they are quitting only to come back and fight?

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do you actually think that the Fertittas and Dana White would even risk having their champ possibly lose to someone that isn't under contract to them?

Randy will most likely come back to teh UFC. It's a spat between him and the top brass and he's still under contract to them.

Some of the stuff he cited as reasons for being mad have been refuted by Dave Meltzer who was able to show that Couture had a very handsome PPV bonus along with other promotional stuff that he got paid for by the UFC.

Some of the per fight garuntees are higher for other fighters, but Couture's PPV bonus is pretty huge(it's on a tiered system and I can dig out this past week's WON and break it down) and he's made as much money as any other fighter since UFC got massive.