[quote]FrozenNinja wrote:
True, you wouldn’t see Gary Bettman, Rodger Godell or any other sport’s comissioners say such vehemenent commentary, but isn’t the fight game a bit different? [/quote]
In terms of the actual skill set involved and the fact that it’s a 1 on 1 sport yes, they’re different. That doesn’t mean it requires an absence of respect for your organization’s athletes or coaches though IMO.
[quote]Aussie Davo wrote:
Yo, say what you will about Dana White, but it’s nice to have a dude as the head of a sport who speaks what he thinks and doesn’t apologize for shit.[/quote]
I’ve never met Dana White, but he seems like a cool dude.
That said, I don’t think he’s “speaking his mind” so much as “talking spin in a candid manner”. Take this case for example. Sure he might not think highly of Greg Jackson, but if he was to be totally honest, he’d take the blame for building a card that was centered on a main event between a young champ who has fought 6 times in a year and a half, and an aging contender on the wrong side of 40.
Him putting the blame on the champ and GJ is spin. “Jones knew we were cancelling it, Jones is selfish. Greg Jackson is in his ear. Jackson is the devil.”
He does this routinely, talking ill on fighters not in the organization, or competing orgs. It’s business, he has to do it as the face of the company.
So, anyone giving Belfort a chance? Don’t remember ever seeing Jones chin tested, and we all know Belfort’s gonna try, just not sure how he’s gonna handle Jones huge size, reach and wrestling advantage.
I have a problem always rooting for the underdog,
but belforts reflexes just aren’t there anymore (like we saw against anderson silva)
and Jones is the king of throwing groofy surprising shit
Jones by KO round 2
[quote]FrozenNinja wrote:
True, you wouldn’t see Gary Bettman, Rodger Godell or any other sport’s comissioners say such vehemenent commentary, but isn’t the fight game a bit different? [/quote]
Not really.
But the UFC is.
[quote]MrMuzik wrote:
If the UFC wanted these cards to continue, they need to have a contract clause like this (in capitals):
“IF YOUR OPPONENT IS INJURED AT OR LESS THAN 3 WEEKS BEFORE THE FIGHT TIME, YOU AGREE TO FIGHT A REPLACEMENT OPPONENT EITHER SELECTED BY THE UFC, OR AN OPPONENT WHO IS WITHIN ONE WEIGHT CLASS UP OR DOWN AND VOLUNTEERS TO TAKE THE FIGHT ON SHORT NOTICE. IF A REPLACEMENT OPPONENT IS NECESSARY, FIGHTER SHALL RECEIVE 25% ABOVE GUARANTEED CONTRACT PAYMENT…”
Remember, the UFC is a NEW sport. They have not yet had time to anticipate and contract against this type of situation. No one, and everyone, is to blame. Neither the UFC or JBJ really knows what to do, other than what they both did. Chalk this up as a learning experience for the business and the employees.[/quote]
The UFC is not a sport. The ufc is a company. The sport is MMA. People need to stop confusing the 2.
I have 0 problems rooting for this underdog.
Year ago, Belfort could afford to juice up a little but ultimately, middleweight made the most sense.
Vitor either got serious cash or a hell of a gameplan, going against the most physically and mentally gifted athlete, who’s also the champion.
Hell yeah I’ll root for such an underdog but I wouldn’t bet a dime.
If he DOES win, how hard will Brasil party? That would amount to five out of seven belts…
I was a long time Jones and Jackson fan but not for a few fights now. Fantastic fighter but I don’t care for the way he conducts himself and they’re too obsessed with risk aversion for my liking, considering the sport their in.
The way I see it most of the blame falls on Jones. Even if the event went on without him he should receive some criticism. He had a full camp and he could’ve fought whoever they had stand in for Hendo (Sonnen or whoever). He’s the champ and, imo, the champ should be held to the same standard or a higher standard, not a lower one. If a fighter loses (not that I think Jones would) to a guy coming up a weight class who didn’t get a camp when he had one and they had the same amount of time to plan strategy, does he really deserve to keep the belt?
Many other fighters have stayed in when faced with last minute opponent changes with no problem. A truly effective martial artist should be able to deal with that provided the opponent didn’t have significant prior knowledge of the match. Tito defended the title against Matyushenko on about a weeks notice. Hughes did the same against Riggs. Arlovski did against Eilers. Even in boxing Klitschko vs Lewis was about the same. That’s not even counting the many other times that non-champions have done it (Maia, Bisping, Sonnen, Ellenberger, etc).
But Jones shouldn be the exception? I don’t agree with that. Champions should defend the belt against whoever is put in front of them that can qualify for the division. I think Jones camp is trying to do damage control now and deflect blame.
The UFC does deserve some blame for putting on a weak card, making it more susceptible to being cancelled, but the comain already took a hit when Koscheck backed out with the bulging disk. At some point it can become a bigger financial loss to keep teh card going. By Nevada state law if they bill an event as a title fight and it turns to a non-title fight they are required to refund any ticket holder who reqeuests it.
That could seriously hurt the pcoketbook and we know the PPV wouldn’t have done well without the original main and co-main. Still, they could stack cards more. Assuming all fighters fought an average of 2.5 times a year the UFC could put on an event every 2 weeks and have a title defense on 20 of those 26 cards to go along with 3 matches between top 10 opponents on every card.
Hendo might deserve a little blame for not pulling out sooner but so many fighters come into fights hurt, just like many other pro athletes do, he might not have known how bad it was or maybe it wasn’t as bad and started getting worse. I don’t know so I have trouble giving him much heat.
I’m pulling for Vitor to beat Jones. Vitor’s right up there with guys like Fedor, Genki, Igor, GSP, Aldo and Sakuraba for me. But I doubt he will pull off the upset, especially with only half a training camp.
[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
So, anyone giving Belfort a chance? Don’t remember ever seeing Jones chin tested, and we all know Belfort’s gonna try, just not sure how he’s gonna handle Jones huge size, reach and wrestling advantage. [/quote]
I give Vitor a chance. I dont’ think, with 4 weeks of camp, he’ll have a good gas tank. His wrestling seems to have improved since training at Xtreme Couture but we haven’t seen much of it other than the Johnson fight. If it hits the ground Vitor is in trouble. Mentally, I don’t know. If Vitor is on, with those hands, he always has a chance standing and you’re right that we haven’t seen Jones chin tested. The key is Vitor can’t let Jones dictate the fight like everyone else does. He has to set the pace and get inside Jones reach for punches but keep from getting taken down and watch out for kicks. Easier said than done.
Chances are he’ll lose. I give Vitor about a 1 in 10 chance.
[quote]Sentoguy wrote:
[quote]Airtruth wrote:
I understand it’s a business, and Jones like to do the right thing, but his comments are starting to look too capitalistic. He could’ve just said I beat Machida in 10 sec, but by saying Machida was his lowest pay per view draw he’s making the public view him like a dishonorable spoiled brat. He needs to clean up his PR campaign a little the NBA knows about this very well. We all know it’s a money game but the public doesn’t want to face that reality. Sportsmanship[/quote]
I get what you’re saying, but it’s his ass he’s putting on the line and unlike the NBA serious injury is a very real possibility in this sport. Plus he’s the champ and has thus earned the right to make such calls IMO. I do agree that his PR agent should be a little more careful about letting him speak the unedited truth about the business aspect of the sport. [/quote]
lol thanks for rewording what I said.
Either way i’ll be the first to say I agree
[quote]Bangerangg18 wrote:
lmao Chael Sonnen is the man, i think he should be a comedian that fights champs part time
Hilarious this just proves why Jones was right. First he claims to not have trained at all - anyone with half a brain could call bullshit. Your training Hendo for the biggest fight of his life and you were training him for all Jones weak points.
Back to my point though if Jones destroys Sonnen everyone will say he beat up some guy who just got off a loss from Silva, and wasn’t even in shape.
However, with the real tactic looking like they wanted Chael to fight him all along, but chose to have him train Hendo so they can catch Jones off guard makes Jones come in far worse than just unprepared, but a team that has planned a sneak attack for over a month.
White talking shit about Jackson is also weird in another way. My personal opinion is that Jackson is the best coach in nowadays MMA cause he has one additional ability the other coaches don’t seem to have: exploiting the unified rules the best way. I’m not one of those “PRIDE was much better”-dudes, but can you imagine a greg Jackson style fighter (probably not JBJ or GSP) being as successful with Pride rules as with unified rules?
The way I see it, as long as inactivity, lack of aggression and that ridiculous three-point=>no knee rule aren’t abolished, White has no right to mock Jackson. This guy is the master of the gameplan , and that also includes the rule frame and it’s exploitations.
I also don’t blame Jackson for this strategy, fighters train with him, cause they wanna win, cause winning means a lot of money (what an insight!), and if my chances in earning that money are better by playing it safe but obeying the rules at all time, guys will do it. And after all legacies are also built by a logn winning streak, why risking it on short notice. Those guys are no longer just fighters but also businessman and under the current situation nobody can blame them for that.
[quote]Schwarzfahrer wrote:
I have 0 problems rooting for this underdog.
Year ago, Belfort could afford to juice up a little but ultimately, middleweight made the most sense.
Vitor either got serious cash or a hell of a gameplan, going against the most physically and mentally gifted athlete, who’s also the champion.
Hell yeah I’ll root for such an underdog but I wouldn’t bet a dime.
If he DOES win, how hard will Brasil party? That would amount to five out of seven belts…[/quote]
We won’t, Belfort isn’t any hero over here, he is overhyped, thinks himself as a legend(LOL) and acts like an annoying priest.
^He’s not liked in Brazil? I was always under the impression he and Anderson Silva were the most popular fighters there.
When did people start to get sick of him?
Cliff notes:
[quote]DN90 wrote:
^He’s not liked in Brazil? I was always under the impression he and Anderson Silva were the most popular fighters there.
When did people start to get sick of him?[/quote]
since he appeared on Casa dos Artistas, a reality show in which he licked Joana Prado’s feet.
Ando is number 1 no doubt, Minotauro is the second most loved one, funny enough people remember him a lot because of being a twin of Minotouro and ugly as fuck, and on third Wandy =D
[quote]kaisermetal wrote:
since he appeared on Casa dos Artistas, a reality show in which he licked Joana Prado’s feet.
Ando is number 1 no doubt, Minotauro is the second most loved one, funny enough people remember him a lot because of being a twin of Minotouro and ugly as fuck, and on third Wandy =D[/quote]
I checked out Joana Prado. Well, she did look fine to me. Licking her, IDK if that was such a bad thing. I was also surprised to see Vitor in the pics with Joana (where she is topless). I just thought he was more of a religious gyu, who wouldn’t do such a thing. I’m not saying that was bad thing, only that I was little surprised.
^^^ Never heard of her so googled her, and she’s hot as fuck. It’s also his wife. Why would any of what they do rub the Brazilian public the wrong way? Again, she’s hot as fuck.
Been kind of out of the loop with MMA for awhile(honestly, it’s getting boring to me)but I think Jones is a pussy for not taking that fight with Sonnen. If you claim to be the best, then you fight all comers. None of this: “Oh, I didn’t have time to prepare and I didn’t want a blemish on my record.” That’s a cop out any way you slice it. Sonnen would be in the exact same boat, in addition to going UP a weight class. I think that decision will haunt Jones his whole career if he never fights Sonnen.
Also, to the guy who said GSP is a boring fighter, I challenge you to go at 100% for 25 minutes in the gym. You can’t do that, it’s a losing strategy. There are lots of fighters that I feel fight to not lose rather than win, GSP isn’t one of them. He wins every fight on his terms, he hardly even gets hurt anymore. The last fight I remember him getting banged up was the last time he fought BJ, and that was years ago.
Not a big fan of Jones either!