Miserable attempt #5629 at stirring up an MMA discussion on the board: GSP vs. Penn

The Game Room
1

Nate Diaz Vs. The Carpenter

I like both these guys so it’s really hard to pick one. I’m going to have to say Clay, though, for a couple reasons. His heart, experience, and conditioning are well up there towards the top of the division, and he’s a lot stronger physically than Diaz. Even though Guida’s standup is nothing special AT ALL, Diaz’s standup flat-out sucks, so as long as Clay stays out of Nate’s triangle, he’s got the unanimous decision in this one easily.

Karo Vs. Dong Kim

This fight will prove whether Karo has just had a slump lately or he’s done. I think he’s just had a slump and will pull out the win.

Stephan Bonnar Vs. Jon Jones

Can’t say I’ve ever seen Jon Jones fight and I haven’t seen Bonnar fight in a million years so unfortunately I can’t pick this one.

Machida Vs. Silva

This is the easiest pick on the card. Machida. I’ve never been so sure about a main card fight (except maybe GSP/Serra 1, hehe.) Still, come on . . . Machida.

GSP vs. Penn

Why even bother trying to come up with any intelligent analysis of this fight? NO ONE knows what’s going to go down. It’s 50/50. It’s athlete vs. fighter. The first time around I was more of a GSP fan, and I thought BJ won that fight. I still like both guys, but a few things GSP has done since then, in and out of the ring, have disappointed me. I like Penn so I’m gonna say Penn.

Silver-lining if GSP wins, though: He fights Anderson. I would be almost as excited to see that fight as I am for this one.

Have fun watching. I’ll be back after the fights.

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I have been invited to watch this MMA at a person’s house.

I have never really watched MMA fights or Pay Per Views. I hope it’s not the same thing as what they show on Spike TV- those 5 min fights and all. I think professional wrestling is more entertaining than those quick fights… It’s all over too quick and nothing really happens.

But I’ll give it a shot and see what happens.

3

Ok here we go.

2 huge PPVs in a row and 2 incredibly different outcomes for both. Last PPV was unbelievably entertaining from start to finish and this one was flat out garbage. It’s incomprehensible considering that both cards were equally as potentially exciting, but both shows actually turned out to be polar opposites. Since this thread is about 94, though, let’s focus on that.

In my opinion Diaz won the first fight. I like Clay Guido and all but he doesn’t really do much. Getting Diaz’s back was something but he never did anything. When they were standing Diaz was the dominant striker and during those clinches did much more work. I was pretty surprised that round 2 and 3 weren’t overwhelming for Diaz. Overall a pretty boring fight for two fighters who are generally exciting, and well matched, but in my opinion a bad decision as I thought Diaz displayed much more aggressiveness while Guido just wanted to clinch.

Karo’s Judo skills still impress me. That there are no other fighters with that particular top level ability astounds me, but I love to watch him put it on display. Unfortunately, the few flashes of his skill don’t make this is a good fight. Another one goes to the judges and it was overall quite boring.

I like Stephan Bonnar but Jon Jones is a rising star. I knew Jones would whip Bonnar’s ass I just wondered how long it would take. Bonnar was never in this fight at all, unfortunately, it wasn’t really that impressive of a fight. A few flashes of excellence from Jones with some unorthidox takedowns and incredible strikes, but nothing that will make Jones’ next opponent wary. Just a beating of a fighter that is well past his prime.

Machido is one of my favorites, and this fight seemed a good matchup on paper because Silva is outstanding. But this couldn’t have gone any other way. Machido dominated and it was reassuring to see a knochout.

BJ Penn quit which is something I never thought I’d see happen. He will dominate WW for a while, but he got his ass beaten and he quit. That is disappointing.

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I agree about Guida . . . I like him but the dude needs to learn how to finish fights.

Karo needs to take his conditioning seriously or give up competition and become a coach.

I agree Jon Jones is a rising star but he needs to get those wild strikes under control or he will get knocked out by a top-tier opponent. He also needs to work on his cardio.

The Machida fight was really a given. Yes they were both 13-0 but it was a VERY different 13-0. Machida has faced world-class competition along the way, including BJ Penn, Rich Franklin, and a IMHO still very relevant Tito Ortiz. Thiago has faced mostly no-names and hasn’t even always looked good.

I couldn’t believe the main event. Just couldn’t believe my eyes. It was very, very painful to watch. Hard to see BJ get his guard passed and just be dominated like that. I think it’s going to come out that he was injured in the 1st or 2nd round. Regardless, congratulations to Georges. I hope he beats Thiago Alves and hopefully we’ll get to see him against Anderson one day. I’d like to see them fight at a catch-weight of 178 or so, so no titles would be on the line.

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St. Pierre has come a long way since losing to Serra, and while that may seem like it isn’t saying much in reality it is huge. He learned humility in that fight and he has risen to a completely new level, not just for him but above everyone. I’d stop short of calling him unbeatable but, there is no one I can envision giving him a fight, particularly after the dismantling he put on BJ Penn. Hopefully Penn will be that humbled as well.

Karo has had some personal issues and likely won’t ever fully recover as a fighter. He was a world class fighter for a while but even in the win tonight did not display the type of fighting I expected should he be considering a run at some of the top guys in his class. I love the guy and feel bad for him, but he didn’t show me the return to dominance after tragedy that Frank Mir has shown. I don’t know if you understand what I mean, but I just don’t see it in him like he once had.

Overall I just wasn’t all that entertained tonight. Last UFC was so loaded and so entertaining and this UFC was loaded but not that hot.

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I completely understand what you mean and I agree.

Eh, I thought it was pretty good. A lot of people feel like you, though. The unpredictable nature of the sport is often cited by people (usually boxing fans) who say its popularity won’t last. That and the fact that no one stays a champion for very long (if I’m not mistaken, Matt Hughes and Tito Ortiz share the most consecutive title defenses in the UFC at 5, which I believe is miserably compared to boxing.)

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So my quick and dirty thoughts as this was my first time with the MMA professional PPV sorta things…

The first fight i thought was very entertaining. I liked his nickname was “The Carpenter” and he was about putting on a show (the entire party cracked up at his Homer Simpson-esqe Burp at the end of the first round). I was hooked in by this guy, and wanted him to win. Glad to see he did, and it made me think that perhaps this show had some promise. I did have to say, my fav. parts of this was seeing the little ‘stats’ that they’d give the fighters in the beginning such as “Extremely Elusive!” “Granite Jaw” “The Complete Fighter” -those were primarily the reasons I would get hooked into the fight as I didn’t really know any of these people from any one else (all i knew was what the first post up there told me before I went).
That said- I thought the Carpenter was great, but he didn’t finish strong for someone who had the stats “Great Cardio” and was hyped as a guy who keeps it going as a fast pace all 3 rounds. But he was fun to watch for the first two and i figured he was probably a bit hurt in the 3rd by that punch early, but he made a decent finish. So that was good times.

The Second match was crap for me. The giant Korean dude vs. the Armenian. I really wanted to see something more from Dong as I was expecting this guy to crush the lil’ guy. That didn’t happen, and i started to want the “Stun Gun” to punish Dong because it was just as one person put it “Aggressive Hugging”. I thought this was the most boring fight of the night.

The 3rd fight was good times. Someone else gave this fight “the most boring fight award” because he felt it was too lopsided, and in his words “it was watching an old man get beat up”. I disagree. I mean… yeah, it felt lopsided, but it was FUN to watch at least. Lots of throws and kicks- didn’t know they did those back kicks and all in these sorts of competitions. (Considering the only matches I’d really watched were the previous two). This match sorta showed me the POTENTIAL that MMA matches could have. Imagine if that flashy Bones Jones guy was facing someone his age and just as fast and skilled. It could be awesome. I def. like that wicked elbow shot. Got tons of cheers from the crowd. It’s stuff like that that always impresses the crowds. I think it was Madduex who said “Chicks dig the Long ball”. So yeah, technical skill and finesse is great, but everyone loves watching the home run shots. This match had a lot of that. It def. got me back into the matches after seeing what I expected of MMA (from the previous match where it was def. tedious at times) to this one that had some energy and all. Though, I wish he could have finished the match rather than go to ANOTHER Judges decision to keep his streak alive. So i have to give credit to the old man for at least that much. And also, it felt likes Bones wasn’t really trying his hardest in the 3rd round, he knew he had the guy beat, and was just working on him, but wasn’t really out to put him away. :Shrug: Oh well.

The Machida fight I felt was the Main event. Two 13-0 fighters? That got my attention. The fact that they were the same height, weight, and reach too? That was really a cool thing to see. I was def. a fan of Machida because of the “Unorthodox Style” bonus he had as his stat and the “Extremely Elusive” stat, and I REALLY enjoyed this fight. It had a great finish, and because it was at 4:59 seconds, I felt like I got my money’s worth. To see a 3 second knockout wouldn’t have been as fun, but I felt like Machida gave me my full first round and STILL managed to get the KO. Very cool to see and it looked like it damn well hurt. I wouldn’t mind watching another Machida fight as I enjoyed his style and all.

The main event- I was rooting for the underdog, and kinda disappointed. The match felt too over hyped for what it turned out to be. The whole “I’m gonna come at you harder than the Terminator, I’m gonna be coming at you hard as God” quote from BJ really was amusing and I was hoping he’d come as hard as God. Instead, we got someone who looked… :shrug: not quite out of shape, but someone who looked out of it. He wasn’t really fighting in the last few rounds and it was just watching someone get punished but at least he wasn’t giving up, so I could root for that much. Also this one had blood in it- that got a rise from a bloodthirsty crowd that wasn’t satiated earlier on the matches. I was kinda hoping to see a Submission victory or something. Or to see maybe BJ at least show that he could survive all 5 rounds. But then it ended the way it did was kinda a bummer. A ref. calling the fight in the middle of the match would have been more entertaining. This one was just anticlimactic. “He survived another round all right! Lemme go get a beer” and by the time that guy came back, the match was over. I think they said his brother called the fight? Not sure. But still, it was kinda a downer to end on. Also, then hearing GSP talk… wow, his voice was annoying. I can see why they gave BJ the face time before the match with his outlandish claims of Terminator and all, but GSP had some great dialog too with his explaination of his strategy: " He has a boxers shoulder… and I wanted to focus on driving the blood out of his shoulder… and then heavy french Canadian accent…" Nice to see he had a game plan… even if it sounded really… weird. Drive the blood out of his boxing shoulder? You mean numb it, right? Because … you can’t really drive the blood out of a person’s shoulder… it’ll come back and all. Systemic Circulation and all (Someone has a Cardiac Physiology exam on Weds). But still, a nice touch.

So yeah, the Machida fight was great, then the Bones Jones fight and then the Carpenter match and the GSP fights were okay with the Stun gun falling into last place for me.

But Machida and Bones at least showed me that this sport could be fun to watch, and the potential it has. I certainly wouldn’t order a PPV, but i’d def. go to another one of these parties if they were hosted to watch another MMA style matchup. Also, I think maybe watching bigger guys might be entertaining, as these guys were all tiny, but still it was nice to see the quickness and all in the small bursts that happened. But perhaps watching bigger guys who may focus on striking and take downs that might be cool.

So yeah. It was entertaining. Not the greatest thing in the world, but I don’t regret going.
And there’s my outsiders take on the PPV. Your Mileage probably varies especially if you’re more familiar with the technical things and the strategies behind the various take downs and all.

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Ro0sh, in a way it’s a shame that this was your first MMA Pay-per-view, because hardly anyone was able to finish a fight. I hope you know that’s not the norm. It didn’t exactly make for the most thrilling event . . . although I’m mostly happy with the outcomes.

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Roosh you are awesome. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your viewpoints. It seems like you were entertained. Your perspective was a lot of fun to read. I hope you keep watching.

The bullet points are a big part of my party, we have a huge drinking game that surrounds those “keys to the fight”. They never fail to entertain.

“Looks for an opening”

“Likes to punch”

“Uses his fists”

It never ceases to amaze me.

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I wish I’d have written up my thoughts like that after seeing my first MMA event. Would love to go back and read them now. Do yourself a favor, Ro0sh, and remember this thread if your interest in the sport sustains for any significant amount of time.

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BTW Cisco, I was a boxing fan long before I was an MMA fan and the two really don’t compare in my opinion. I still enjoy boxing and will watch any chance I’m given but I certainly don’t get as enthused as I do about MMA. Boxing is great but MMA is so much more. The unpredictability is what sets it apart. You literally can not blink.

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Jon Jones was impressive. Great wrestler. If Bonnar clinched and lean the wrong way for even a second he got tossed. Also, I’m a HUGE fan of spinning backfists/elbows.

Joe Silva should be fired for pairing two judo guys. What a boring fight.

Machida getting the first KO of the night was the biggest surprise for me (though I expected him to win). He’s a great fighter, but I figured he’d dance and counter his way to another decision. He has to be real annoying to fight, but hopefully his next opponent will be smart enough to not follow him around the octagon all fight.

GSP dominated. Anderson Silva next?

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The Karo/Kim fight looked great on paper. It’s not Joe Silva’s fault that they hugged it out for 3 rounds.

GSP/Anderson is rumored for UFC 100 in December, but it’s probably contingent on them both going undefeated until then. Seems easy enough, but remember how the mighty fell in 2007.

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Really? You expected two judo guys to not grab and hug each other the entire time?

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Yeah, I did. I expected them to throw each other around and rough it up a lot. Karo used to be an amazingly exciting fighter. He had a Fight of the Year back in I believe 2006 with Diego. He got the nickname The Heat for a reason. And Kim said before the fight that it was an MMA fight, not judo.

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The Guida/Diaz fight I didn’t much enjoy. If not for the fact that Diaz winning would have meant Diaz winning (annoying little twit), Guida should have lost, if only to force him to improve his game.

I personally quite enjoyed at least the first round of Kim/Karo, and felt Karo only got the win out of name recognition. I love the technical grappling bits, and although the pace slowed towards the end of the fight, it was still OK in my book.

Bones/Bonnar - brilliant first round for Jones, impressive versatility in both strikes and TDs. I may have been drinking, but I don’t really remember if there were any submission attempts. The fight slowed a bit in the latter rounds, because of Jones’ poor conditioning, but still good. I can’t wait to see what he’ll be when he grows up.

Machida/Silva - I’ve always liked Machida’s style, and he delivered once again, albeit in a more conclusive fashion. Like Rogan said, he takes the least damage and delivers the most. I really do hope he gets the title shot this year, preferably right away. I’ll go out on a limb and predict that if he gets the shot, he takes the title and hangs on for quite a while.

GSP/Penn - I couldn’t see this going any other way. Penn may be brilliant, and have upped his cardio, but GSP is just bigger, meaner, faster and stronger. Rogan and Goldberg hyped Penn’s jab before the fight, and he ended up throwing it, what, twice?

Look out for the aftermath of this fight though. Penn’s team have lodged a complaint about GSP’s corner rubbing his neck/shoulders with Vaseline between rounds one and two. If you noticed, in the second intermission GSP’s corner had two big red suits watching, and one of them toweled him off just before round 3. I doubt it had much impact on the outcome of the fight, but I believe GSP and team need to be punished if this turns out to be a valid complaint.

Ro0sh, I believe GSP said he wanted to drive the blood up to BJ’s shoulder, thus making him slower.

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Here’s the response from GSP’s camp about this, for what it’s worth.

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Heh, that sounds too insane to be made up. Actually, it sounds too insane, period.

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The little three line descriptions are great. I love it when they’re obviously reaching for the third one (“Good with his hands” “Has stamina”) or when one is arguably not very complimentary (“Granite chin” or “Lots of heart.” Translation: gets hit a lot) I really want to see something like:

Claustrophobic
Ticklish
Straight A’s up to seventh grade

Guida reminds me a little of a tiny little Orlovski (not just the hair, either). Diaz landed a lot of shots in the last round; they didn’t have much behind them, but they probably won the round for him. I think the whole fight depended on who won the second round, and it was almost too close to call. Overall I gave it to Guida, but I could see it going the other way.

Kim versus Karo…God help me, but our whole little juvenile crew cannot help but joke about Kim’s name for the whole fight anytime he fights. “He’s slapping that Dong all over the place!” “Did you see that? That Dong knocked his mouthpiece right out of his mouth!” “He tried to beat that Dong down, but that Dong popped right back up!” I deeply apologize to the entire human race for this. Anyway, Dong really took it out of him, it was a good fight, and I kind of agree that Karo may have won it just on name recognition. Unfortutnate, but that’s the way the cookie crumbles sometimes; don’t like it, knock him out and take it out of the judges hands next time (Possible catchphrase: “You just got Donged!” Okay, I’m done).

Jones/Bonnar…okay, I’m not done. A fight between a guy named Bones and Bonnar was too good not to heckle, especially when you’re already primed from Dong. I was really pulling for Bonner, I’ve liked him ever since the classic fight with Forrest and I’ve wanted to see him climb the ranks like Forrest has. I’d never see Jones fight, but his prefight clips looked pretty frenetic. He’s obviously tightened up; he looked awesome. That spinning elbow that knocked Bonnar to the mat was beautiful (You just got Boned!"), and his wrestling was top notch. I hated to see Bonnar go down, but I’m definitely hoping to see more Bones in the future.

Machida/Silva…fight of the night. Machida just stung him with that cross, came in like a freight train. Beautiful fight. Don’t know what else to say about it, just a great, short fight.

GSP/Penn…I honestly didn’t expect it to be that one sided. Don’t get me wrong, I thought GSP would take it, but I thought it would probably go to the judges and be a fairly close fight. Rogan did play BJ’s jab up a lot, but it really was pretty impressive against Sherk, like a heat seeking missle tagging Sherk over and over. I thought it would be a closer match, but GSP just dominated him. Guy’s an incredible athlete. GSP v. Silva would be incredible.

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Well, I’d really like to see it happen, but I don’t know what GSP could do against Silva’s reach, being a full 4 inches shorter. Also, I personally would think more than twice about shooting on a guy with those knees.