When the hype is over and the yuppies at Jeff’s Sports Bar find another trend to one up each other on the learning curve with, the UFC will not be much of anything and will have lost interest in it’s original fan base.
Haha. That was great.
[/quote]
Texas guy is right, IMO.
I was big UFC fan back in the early days, Shamrock, Gracie, Oleg Taktarov, Kimo, Dan Severgn…I still watched it, for a bit, when those guys were gone, with coleman and that whole generation, then started to lose interest but really enjoyed the very 1st season of TUF, but since then, I along with alot of the guys I know that used to follow it, have pretty much lost total interest, save for david loiseau & GSP fights (i’m cdn)…I stated following pride and K-1, and was pumped when CroCop was coming. Now I have no idea who the big names are in UFC…
[quote]Outrage247 wrote:
The picture at 170 is horrible in the UFC. There are so many guys that are basically #1 contenders and not enough fights. GSP, fitch, Karo. Anyone of them fighting and losing drops them all the way down the ladder. These guys should be fighting almost back to back for title shots. No more Hughs/GSP/Serra Merry-go-round for title fights.
Also Rampage isn’t out waiting to film TUF. He has had a bad/broken hand for a long time. He fought Henderson with it busted up. He is taking time off to heal his hand. Also the rumor is he will film TUF while he takes this time off. I would guess that if Wand wins his fight with lidell that they will be the coaches of TUF 7. Rampage isn’t rumored to be back till around June/July I believe. [/quote]
Huge Wand fan here but he can’t even speak english. how the hell can he coach the TUF guys?? I hope it happens though.
[quote]Avocado wrote:
Outrage247 wrote:
The picture at 170 is horrible in the UFC. There are so many guys that are basically #1 contenders and not enough fights. GSP, fitch, Karo. Anyone of them fighting and losing drops them all the way down the ladder. These guys should be fighting almost back to back for title shots. No more Hughs/GSP/Serra Merry-go-round for title fights.
Also Rampage isn’t out waiting to film TUF. He has had a bad/broken hand for a long time. He fought Henderson with it busted up. He is taking time off to heal his hand. Also the rumor is he will film TUF while he takes this time off. I would guess that if Wand wins his fight with lidell that they will be the coaches of TUF 7. Rampage isn’t rumored to be back till around June/July I believe.
Huge Wand fan here but he can’t even speak english. how the hell can he coach the TUF guys?? I hope it happens though.
-chris[/quote]
He’s been working with an English teacher, and I heard him interviewed about a week ago and he can speak passable English. Some subtitles will probably in order, of course. He talks in Portugese a lot because he’s embarassed to screw up words, i.e. the infamous “I want to fuck Chuck.” I’m sure they can give him the help he needs.
They’ve needed to do this for years. The insane growth in popularity was trendy at best. Real fans: participants of the sports involved, fans of the old UFC competitions, most of asia etc want to see fights, not hype.
[/quote]
Yeah, when I think of good mma my mind always comes back to those classic fights, like Yarborough vs Takase or Hackney vs Joe San.
This has BETTER be for an “interim” belt, just like the Penn/Stevenson bout. Serra has done so much for the UFC, by participating in TUF 4, being an excellent coach on TUF 6, and absolutely crushing GSP. Taking away his belt because of an injury would take a lot away from the UFC’s legitimacy as a sports organization.
However, as much as a Serra/Hughes match appeals to me, I would love to see GSP beat Hughes and have a rematch with Serra, so Serra can beat him again and prove that he is no fluke.
[quote]kligor wrote:
Not to thread hijack, but is anyone else excited about Machida vs. Sokoudjou?
I don’t know too much about either one, but:
Machida is undefeated, has a style that makes him very hard to hit, and has victories of BJ Penn and Rich Franklin (TKO).
Sokoudjou only has 2 bouts in MMA, and they’re both knockouts of very good veterans: lil nog and Ricardo Arona.
I’m intrigued.[/quote]
Agreed, I’m definitely excited about that one.
I believe Sokoudjou already has more bouts, though, 4 wins against 1 loss:
[quote]
Win Ricardo Arona KO (Punch) PRIDE 34 - Kamikaze 4/8/2007 1 1:59
Win Antonio Rogerio Nogueira KO (Punch) PRIDE 33 - Second Coming 2/24/2007 1 0:23
Loss Glover Teixeira TKO (Strikes) WEC 24 - Full Force 10/12/2006 1 1:41
Win Paul Weremecki TKO SF 17 - Hot Zone 8/5/2006 1 2:11
Win Gary Padilla Decision (Split) TC 15 - Total Combat 15 7/15/2006 3
[quote]kligor wrote:
Not to thread hijack, but is anyone else excited about Machida vs. Sokoudjou?
I don’t know too much about either one, but:
Machida is undefeated, has a style that makes him very hard to hit, and has victories of BJ Penn and Rich Franklin (TKO).
Sokoudjou only has 2 bouts in MMA, and they’re both knockouts of very good veterans: lil nog and Ricardo Arona.
I’m intrigued.[/quote]
I think Sokoudjou is going to get schooled. He has big power but we’ve seen how difficult Machida is to hit and with Sokoudjou having only 4 fights and a background in Judo, not striking, I doubt he has the skills to take him out. Machida by TKO or UD. Sokoudjou has a punchers chance.
I was big UFC fan back in the early days, Shamrock, Gracie, Oleg Taktarov, Kimo, Dan Severgn…I still watched it, for a bit, when those guys were gone, with coleman and that whole generation, then started to lose interest but really enjoyed the very 1st season of TUF, but since then, I along with alot of the guys I know that used to follow it, have pretty much lost total interest, save for david loiseau & GSP fights (i’m cdn)…I stated following pride and K-1, and was pumped when CroCop was coming. Now I have no idea who the big names are in UFC…[/quote]
I was the same way. We couldn’t get the first pay-per-views when they came out but my friend worked at a local video rental store. He got free rentals and the store got the first three UFC’s in at once under “special interest” section…the same section you would find aerobics videos, non-penetration Playboy porn, and Kirk Cameron trying to explain creationism.
Anyone remember the first UFC’s and how they were billed as “style-fights”, like Ju-jitsu vs. Kempo. Then there would be a little intro video of the fighter punching a bag or something and looking menacingly into the camera…followed by the fighters usually flailing about wildly into a two-man train wreck.
I remember watching the first Gracie fight and thinking how bad he was going to get his ass handed to him, seeing him end up on his back (he’s about to get killed!) then figuring out that the other guy gave up and having no idea what happened and how Gracie won.