Floex said:

As someone who is newish to forum, this stuff between MMA-Gaf and Wrestle-GAf, um, how do I put it..... complete and utter fucking nonsense?

Yeah, I'll go with that statement

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Unidentified said:

I agree with this completely. This thread has only gotten worse and most event topics are almost equally bad now. It baffles me when I see the occasional criticism of Sherdog when the thread sometimes resembles some of its worst.

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Unidentified said:

I agree with this completely. This thread has only gotten worse and most event topics are almost equally bad now. It baffles me when I see the occasional criticism of Sherdog when the thread sometimes resembles some of its worst.

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Gr1mLock said:

Who the hell are you?

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Chamber said:

Just noticed Mike Brown is on this card. Has any UFC champion fallen faster than him? 3 years ago he was 145 champ and now he's curtain jerking on facebook prelims.

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parrotbeak said:

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Unidentified said:

I agree with this completely. This thread has only gotten worse and most event topics are almost equally bad now. It baffles me when I see the occasional criticism of Sherdog when the thread sometimes resembles some of its worst.

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Heel said:

UFC-GAF is getting too comfortable, brahs. You think you can just serpentine in here and complain when you contribute absolutely nothing to our insular thread?

Go ahead, dazzle us by waxing poetic about the fine intricacies of the mixed martials. We're waiting.

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DKehoe said:

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CaptYamato said:

From Poly

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Gr1mLock said:

Who the hell are you?

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yacobod said:

brah we need to win on some bets so we can upgrade your computer situation so you can play some diablo with dream, young pitbull, and i.


and some commentary on the JBJ as SCSA gif:

JBJ doesn't have 0.1% of the charisma of a SCSA. Make a gif of the most wooden and un-charesmatic member of pro wrassling and you would be closer to the target.

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TheNatural said:

Also guys, my keyboard died so I'll probably be in lurker/news feed status for a while. Its taken me 10 minutes to type this with the onscreen keyboard.

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Gr1mLock said:

cut n paste brah! make it an adventure every time

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TheNatural said:

Invasion angles never Struve has only gotten worse and most event topics are almost tap Mir

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Unidentified said:

I agree with this completely. This thread has only gotten worse and most event topics are almost equally bad now. It baffles me when I see the occasional criticism of Sherdog when the thread sometimes resembles some of its worst.

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sazabirules said:

Mayhem said he will retire if he loses this weekend. Maybe that will convince some of you to root for CB. I don't think Mayhem can do worse than this last ppfight and believe he could be a good gatekeeper.

I had no idea Swick was still with the UFC. Has there been a fighter with the UFC who hasn't fought since before Swick?

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yacobod said:

what did you expect bro, Ultimate MMA-GAF hit its zenith with OT2, and now we're entering a dark age.

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Chamber said:

So profound.

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Gr1mLock said:

I think all his posts should be like this now

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yacobod said:

Is the decline and stagnation of the ultimate due to the fact there is no legitimate competition?

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CaptYamato said:

The Champs are all too good.

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yacobod said:

and they all lack the personality needed to propel the sport to the next level.

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tass0 said:

Ya.

I never really watched pro wrestling, and am a long time MMA fan. The only time I've ever seen people say MMA and WWE are "related" was when I started browing MMA-GAF.

Damn you MMA-GAF, stop trying to ruin the purity of mah sport.

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yacobod said:

and they all lack the personality needed to propel the sport to the next level.

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Heel said:

Friends, let's not drag down the thread with constant doom and gloom like our Sports Entertainment comrades at Wrassle-GAF. We're better than that.

Can we get back to tearing up in awe watching two mammoths shake the ground this weekend?

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yacobod said:

If Frank Mir beats JDS on Saturday, I'm going to proclaim him the new HW GOAT.

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The story of the night is Ultimate Fighter, which was down 13% from last week, no doubt due to the NBA playoffs, and the first time in history the show has dropped below 900,000 viewers. Worse, this was the show where they were going to reveal Urijah Faber’s new opponent for the interim bantamweight title after the Dominick Cruz knee injury.

However, the Mir vs. Dos Santos Prime Time, even with the weaker lead-in, did 544,000 viewers, almost identical to the prior week.

Bellator, on the other hand, picked up its highest rating since moving to Friday night. The only explanation is that the main event on this show, Maiquel Falcao vs. Andreas Spang, in the finals of this year’s middleweight tournament, stemmed from a pull-apart brawl a few weeks ago and all the ads showed that clip.

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The business numbers were a mixed bag. The show did a 1.38 rating and 463,000 viewers. The number surprised me given the competition. Even though it was the Grand Prix finals with a very strong No. 2 bout. It was the highest rated Strikeforce show since Fedor vs. Dan Henderson last July. The last show with Ronda Rousey vs. Miesha Tate did a 1.15 rating, but 472,000 viewers. However, live paid attendance was bad. We still don’t have a figure on ticket sales. It appeared there were about 6,000 fans in the HP Pavilion, but a live gate of $226,005 means it sold significantly less tickets than any Strikeforce show in its former home city. Unlike in the past when Strikeforce is the hot thing to do in town, there was no such thing this time. The crowd was largely fight fans. The super dressed up guys and women out on dates because it was the cool ticket in town were gone. The casual fan was pretty much gone, as noted by Rousey getting more of a reaction when being introduced than Herschel Walker, who is a genuine sports legend to the mainstream.

It was also notable that those who were there came to see Melendez vs. Thomson and not the heavyweight final, based on, the huge difference in reaction. They stayed for the main event and it was good enough that everyone appreciated it. Overall, it was one of the best MMA shows of the year.

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Urijah Faber vs. Renan Barao for the interim bantamweight title was announced for the 7/7 show, with Barao replacing Dominick Cruz. Dana White introduced Barao on set as the big surprise at the end of the show, telling Faber for the first time whoh is opponent will be. Barao, real name Renan Mota de Nascimento, to me goes into the fight as favorite, although it may not work out that way in Vegas odds because more people know Faber and casual bettors may favor him. Barao is 25, prime age, and has a 28-1 record with 1 no contest. He’s had six knockouts and 13 submission wins. His only loss was in his debut fight, losing a split decision in 2005, when he was only 18. He’s been totally dominant in every fight he’s had since coming to the U.S. two years ago and he’s from Nova Uniao, the same team as Jose Aldo Jr., and stylistically he has the same great ability to keep the fight standing when he wants it and use a complete stand-up game. Faber is a good stand-up fighter, not a great one, and struggles with top-level stand-up fighters that he can’t take down. Plus, Faber’s strong submission game may be nullified because of Barao’s Jiu Jitsu game. The point being if anyone thinks they’re trying to hand Faber a belt he hasn’t been able to win in the last few years because of his popularity, well, the guy getting the shot is the guy who matches up the best against him of anyone possible. It does have the makings of an awesome fight because Faber is one of those guys who draws fans into his matches when he’s losing and never giving up. Faber noted right away that this is a polar opposite to Cruz, the guy he’s been training for. Cruz is a guy with super cardio, always moving, looking at using his speed to decision you. Barao is an aggressive guy looking to finish, but Faber has to hope that in a five-round fight he may not be used to it and tire in the championship rounds. At this stage of the game, this would be a great win for Faber if he gets it, and if he doesn’t, he’d move into that B.J. Penn/Matt Hughes/Rich Franklin category of being a former big star no longer in the title picture. I actually thought Barao was going to be Cruz’s toughest opponent of anyone on the roster. The flip side if he is all that is you’d get another champion who doesn’t speak English and is another Aldo. It came down to Barao, Ivan Menjivar, Brad Pickett and Michael McDonald as those under consideration. McDonald was the guy picked, for all the reasons mentioned last week here. The deal was actually done, and being kept a secret. On McDonald’s first day of training, he suffered a serious hand injury. When UFC found out, they flew him to Las Vegas to meet with one of their specialists. We don’t know the extent of the injury. One source told us it was a break, but Dana White told us he didn’t know the actual injury (it was not a break, but McDonald will be out of action several months) , only that his hand was messed up bad. After his exam in Las Vegas, both he and UFC were told there was absolutely no way he would be ready to fight on 7/7, so it was back to square one. Barao was then the pick, but there were complications. He was already scheduled for the 7/7 show against Menjivar, so it would seem to be easy. We’re not familiar with what the problems were, but at various times in the last week, both Menjivar and Pickett were in the running until they were able to get Barao to agree to come to Las Vegas on 5/18 and do the surprise on the live Ultimate Fighter. Faber was told on 5/16 by White that it would be Menjivar, even though White had told everyone Faber would not get any info on who he was facing until the show. The impression is that White may have been misleading Faber, although the story he got on why Barao was not going to be the guy was the same story we had, and we did get told the day of the show that Barao was probably in but had no confirmation until the video of him aired during the show. Whether that was true or an attempt to swerve people for a surprise reaction for live TV, we don’t know for sure.

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There is actually a list of fighters, and I don’t know the names on the list other than Gilbert Melendez and Luke Rockhold, but I’d think every major name in Strikeforce is on it, who contractually can’t fight anywhere but Showtime as long as they are under contract to Zuffa, and as long as Zuffa and Showtime are doing business. It’s to prevent what happened with Dan Henderson, Alistair Overeem and Nick Diaz. In fact, when King Mo was fired, he was contacted and told about the list and how his name was on it and that if he came back to Zuffa, it would have to be with Strikeforce. I think it would be better for all concerned if Melendez and Ronda Rousey, as well as others, are allowed to be on major UFC shows and then come back to Strikeforce as either bigger stars, or at least tested. That goes the other way, as there are so many good UFC lightweights who would be able to have awesome high profile matches with Melendez who are log jammed from title contention because it’s so hard to get a strong winning streak going in UFC in that division. I believe UFC can send guys to Strikeforce for one fight, but the top UFC fighters for the most part don’t want to fight in Strikeforce, and it doesn’t seem like it’s anything UFC is pushing for.

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The key fighters in Strikeforce, Gilbert Melendez, Luke Rockhold, Tyron Woodley, Gegard Mousasi, Ronda Rousey and others are on a list that Stephen Espinosa gave UFC and basically by terms of their contract, none of them can do a UFC event as long as Strikeforce is still on Showtime. One would think UFC would want Rousey on FOX because she’s perfect for that vehicle, a novelty act who can also fight. And if they put her against Sarah Kaufman on FOX instead of Showtime, for Showtime, it would be a wise investment because they should work on a deal where the winner faces Cyborg on Showtime and it’s a tons bigger fight coming off the exposure to so many more people, particularly when you are talking about a subscription-based model. I always thought she’d be a stronger ratings draw (and at this point she is unproven but she was nobody until the week before the Miesha Tate fight) than a PPV draw, but could be one of the signature stars of the sport. Being in Strikeforce right now limits the upside just like in the old days, the upside of Urijah Faber was limited by being in WEC. There’s definitely the talk of, if not those on the Showtime and Strikeforce side, salivating about the potential of Rousey vs. Cyborg when Cyborg’s suspension ends.

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Fedor Emelianenko, 35, has said this week that his 6/21 fight with Pedro Rizzo in St. Petersburg, Russia will be his final fight. He seemed last February after losing to Bigfoot Silva that he was wanting to retire. But since the entire M-1 Global organization was built around him, a few days later he changed his mind. He’s hinted a few times in the past two weeks that this would be his final fight, and when directly asked the question, said, “Yes, I think it’s time to end my career.” It’s amazing how quickly things change in this industry because in February, Emelianenko vs. Bigfoot Silva set Showtime’s ratings record and he still headlined in a wild one round fight with Dan Henderson last July. The loss to Henderson, in a great brawl that really could have gone either way since both big punchers hurt the other and Henderson was in serious trouble before coming back, was devastating became it came after a first round submission loss to Fabricio Werdum in one of the most amazing moments in MMA history, and the loss to Silva. Worse, when Silva was knocked out by Daniel Cormier in his next fight after he largely had dominated Emelianenko, it destroyed most of the leverage M-1 Global had as far as holding people over the barrel to use him. While some will dismiss the Dana White stories of crazy Russians and Vadummy (manager Vadim Finkelchstein, whose demands were so high UFC never made a deal with Fedor even though they badly wanted to put Fedor vs. Brock Lesnar at Cowboys Stadium), everyone who did business with M-1 Global ended up telling horror stories after it was over. He left in his wake a series of dead promotions, banking on the idea that having the “best heavyweight in the world” was a valuable building block, that they paid $1.5 million to $2 million per fight to M-1 and gave them co-partnership in the shows. Henderson was the last fight of his contract, and it couldn’t have turned out worse for his crew, because he lost to a guy who was a small light heavyweight who had fought extensively at middleweight. The lack of response to the Emelianenko retirement is really an indication of how MMA has really become Zuffa or nothing. There will be extensive pressure on him for this not to be the case, because the entire M-1 promotion is likely to collapse without him to carry them. They have no other star where they could run major shows.

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The story of the night is Ultimate Fighter, which was down 13% from last week, no doubt due to the NBA playoffs, and the first time in history the show has dropped below 900,000 viewers. Worse, this was the show where they were going to reveal Urijah Faber’s new opponent for the interim bantamweight title after the Dominick Cruz knee injury.

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Heel said:

Hahaha Meltzer trollin' it up.

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yacobod said:

http://deadspin.com/5912849/five-and-a-half-minutes-of-pro-wrestlers-beating-up-inanimate-objects

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