UFC 103 - Franklin vs. Belfort

Training
21

[quote]m1sf1t wrote:
tmoney1 wrote:
Dos Santos is legit. CroCop looked timid for some reason. Dos Santos would get close, and CroCop would kinda strike and them push him away. Guess he was trying to set up for a leg kick. CroCop did land some good shots in round 1 though. JDS is for real. Should move up the HW ranks pretty quickly.

Belfort still has it. Dana talked about Vitor-Silva for MW title, that would be awesome. Didn’t know about Belfort’s sister being kidnapped. Sad.

What did you guys think about Yves Lavigne stopping the Daley/Kampmann fight? Just right? Premature? Lavigne has made some questionable calls the past few cards.

Seriously, Crocop always had an “elusive-counter striking” style, but ever since he started in the ufc, he seems incredibly gun-shy and pretty much just defending himself. Maybe he’s been eating too much soy or something… I like Dos Santos, he’s there to fight, showed some nice muay thai and quite young.

Vitor-Silva is going to be a GREAT fight, we’ll get to see a full-powered Anderson again because otherwise he might get his ass kicked. It would be interesting to see if he would change his approach in this fight and maybe grapple a bit more.

And yes, unless Yves Lavigne saw that Kampmann’s eyes were orbiting in opposite directions, I think it was a premature stoppage, maybe he drinks a lot of soy shakes too.

Lastly, the ufc “fans” that go to all the events are the worst ever! What is up with all the fucking booing?!! In reality, they go to witness a car-crash, the ironic part is that probably ONLY .02% of those motherfuckers would EVER engaged or challenged themselves in a fight!! So fucking annoying![/quote]

Good points made. Yeah that’s how fans are. It’s pretty much the same for any sport. You have people who talk the talk, and few people who walk the walk.

Oh, and CroCop wearing a Pride t-shirt to weigh-ins and walkout was full of the win.

22

Cro Cop - pussy.

23

[quote]m1sf1t wrote:
tmoney1 wrote:
Dos Santos is legit. CroCop looked timid for some reason. Dos Santos would get close, and CroCop would kinda strike and them push him away. Guess he was trying to set up for a leg kick. CroCop did land some good shots in round 1 though. JDS is for real. Should move up the HW ranks pretty quickly.

Belfort still has it. Dana talked about Vitor-Silva for MW title, that would be awesome. Didn’t know about Belfort’s sister being kidnapped. Sad.

What did you guys think about Yves Lavigne stopping the Daley/Kampmann fight? Just right? Premature? Lavigne has made some questionable calls the past few cards.

Seriously, Crocop always had an “elusive-counter striking” style, but ever since he started in the ufc, he seems incredibly gun-shy and pretty much just defending himself. Maybe he’s been eating too much soy or something… I like Dos Santos, he’s there to fight, showed some nice muay thai and quite young.

Vitor-Silva is going to be a GREAT fight, we’ll get to see a full-powered Anderson again because otherwise he might get his ass kicked. It would be interesting to see if he would change his approach in this fight and maybe grapple a bit more.

And yes, unless Yves Lavigne saw that Kampmann’s eyes were orbiting in opposite directions, I think it was a premature stoppage, maybe he drinks a lot of soy shakes too.

Lastly, the ufc “fans” that go to all the events are the worst ever! What is up with all the fucking booing?!! In reality, they go to witness a car-crash, the ironic part is that probably ONLY .02% of those motherfuckers would EVER engaged or challenged themselves in a fight!! So fucking annoying![/quote]

Man, that fight looked thrown. I’m half kidding, but how many punches did CroCop throw? 6? 8? He ran away for most of the fight, and when he did throw a straight left he’d pull it like he didn’t want it to land. Even so he wobbled DS with every half shot he landed and in 2 shots busted both of his eyes. We recorded the fights so I’ve watched it a couple of times, that looked shady. And I know some people will say hat’s what he did with Kongo, but he was winning the first round and broke his rib[s] towards the end of the round. This time he just didn’t fight.

24

There is some rumor Cro Cop is retiring, he had an interview with a croatian newspaper.

25

[quote]matko5 wrote:
There is some rumor Cro Cop is retiring, he had an interview with a croatian newspaper.[/quote]

I think that would be for the best.

26

[quote]BIGBOSSTRON wrote:
matko5 wrote:
There is some rumor Cro Cop is retiring, he had an interview with a croatian newspaper.

I think that would be for the best.[/quote]

He said in the interview that all he thought about when entering the cage was fishing. He says that is his sign to retire.

27

[quote]matko5 wrote:
BIGBOSSTRON wrote:
matko5 wrote:
There is some rumor Cro Cop is retiring, he had an interview with a croatian newspaper.

I think that would be for the best.

He said in the interview that all he thought about when entering the cage was fishing. He says that is his sign to retire.[/quote]

Well it was pretty obvious he wasn’t thinking about fighting. It sucks 'cause all of the fans who never saw him fight in PRIDE don’t understand that how amazing a fighter he was. Dos Santos would get murdered by that CroCop.

28

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
matko5 wrote:
BIGBOSSTRON wrote:
matko5 wrote:
There is some rumor Cro Cop is retiring, he had an interview with a croatian newspaper.

I think that would be for the best.

He said in the interview that all he thought about when entering the cage was fishing. He says that is his sign to retire.

Well it was pretty obvious he wasn’t thinking about fighting. It sucks 'cause all of the fans who never saw him fight in PRIDE don’t understand that how amazing a fighter he was. Dos Santos would get murdered by that CroCop.[/quote]

CroCop has always been an on and off fighter, and I think Dos Santos is a lot better than some guys who’ve actually beaten/KO’ed Cro Cop in kickboxing and in MMA. (Randleman? Michael Mcdonald?)

29

I did enjoy seeing that guy dislocate his own shoulder. It looked painful, but he was like ‘Meh’.

30

[quote]Nikiforos wrote:
WhiteFlash wrote:
matko5 wrote:
BIGBOSSTRON wrote:
matko5 wrote:
There is some rumor Cro Cop is retiring, he had an interview with a croatian newspaper.

I think that would be for the best.

He said in the interview that all he thought about when entering the cage was fishing. He says that is his sign to retire.

Well it was pretty obvious he wasn’t thinking about fighting. It sucks 'cause all of the fans who never saw him fight in PRIDE don’t understand that how amazing a fighter he was. Dos Santos would get murdered by that CroCop.

CroCop has always been an on and off fighter, and I think Dos Santos is a lot better than some guys who’ve actually beaten/KO’ed Cro Cop in kickboxing and in MMA. (Randleman? Michael Mcdonald?)[/quote]

Agreed, but he’s been way more off than on. Gonna disagree there. I like Dos Santos, but aside from Werdum [and a lazy disinterested CroCop] who’s he beaten? I don’t think I need to name CroCop’s hit list. CroCop buckled his knees and fucked up his eyes with a pulled straight left two seperate times. If he’d have put anything into those it’ve been lights out. Instead, he worked on his backwards man act and then quit. Really disappointing.

31

Love Cro Cop but the man should walk away. He hasn’t looked comfortable in a fight since the Pride Grand Prix in 2006.

Belfort-Franklin went the way I figured it would. Vitor is just too explosive for Rich. I think Vitor vs. Marquardt or Henderson would be a great fight, with the winner taking on Anderson Silva.

What was up with McFedries, btw? I like that guy but man, he didn’t look like he wanted to be in the cage last night.

32

[quote]Steve-O-68 wrote:
I did enjoy seeing that guy dislocate his own shoulder. It looked painful, but he was like ‘Meh’. [/quote]

See, this is what I mean about shit “fans” that only go see a “carcrash”- so you didn’t “enjoy” the fights, the striking, grappling, technique or anything else but one dude dislocating his own arm??

…Piece of shit people I swear!

33

[quote]Djwlfpack wrote:

What was up with McFedries, btw? I like that guy but man, he didn’t look like he wanted to be in the cage last night.[/quote]

Yeah I agree, he looked out of it. After smashing Xavier in less than a minute in his last fight, I thought he would do the same thing to Drwal. Guess not.

Back to CroCop, yeah I think he should hang it up. Miss watching him fight in Pride. Just isn’t the same fighter. In fact, he didn’t look like he wanted to be in the cage either. The couple of shots he connected on Dos Santos cut him above both eyes, but he looked really timid. Maybe time for him to move on…

34

[quote]m1sf1t wrote:
Steve-O-68 wrote:
I did enjoy seeing that guy dislocate his own shoulder. It looked painful, but he was like ‘Meh’.

See, this is what I mean about shit “fans” that only go see a “carcrash”- so you didn’t “enjoy” the fights, the striking, grappling, technique or anything else but one dude dislocating his own arm??

…Piece of shit people I swear!
[/quote]

I think he just meant he found amusing the fact that the guy was so nonchalant about the injury, calm down.

35

[quote]m1sf1t wrote:
Steve-O-68 wrote:
I did enjoy seeing that guy dislocate his own shoulder. It looked painful, but he was like ‘Meh’.

See, this is what I mean about shit “fans” that only go see a “carcrash”- so you didn’t “enjoy” the fights, the striking, grappling, technique or anything else but one dude dislocating his own arm??

…Piece of shit people I swear!
[/quote]

Calm down chief. I enjoy the fights, striking, grappling and all that. Just out of the entire show, the dislocation was the most memorable part for me. And not so much that the dude was seriously injured, but how non-chalantly he handled it. I bet that’s happened to him on more than one occasion.

36

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
Nikiforos wrote:
WhiteFlash wrote:
matko5 wrote:
BIGBOSSTRON wrote:
matko5 wrote:
There is some rumor Cro Cop is retiring, he had an interview with a croatian newspaper.

I think that would be for the best.

He said in the interview that all he thought about when entering the cage was fishing. He says that is his sign to retire.

Well it was pretty obvious he wasn’t thinking about fighting. It sucks 'cause all of the fans who never saw him fight in PRIDE don’t understand that how amazing a fighter he was. Dos Santos would get murdered by that CroCop.

CroCop has always been an on and off fighter, and I think Dos Santos is a lot better than some guys who’ve actually beaten/KO’ed Cro Cop in kickboxing and in MMA. (Randleman? Michael Mcdonald?)

Agreed, but he’s been way more off than on. Gonna disagree there. I like Dos Santos, but aside from Werdum [and a lazy disinterested CroCop] who’s he beaten? I don’t think I need to name CroCop’s hit list. CroCop buckled his knees and fucked up his eyes with a pulled straight left two seperate times. If he’d have put anything into those it’ve been lights out. Instead, he worked on his backwards man act and then quit. Really disappointing.[/quote]

Unless you think Cro Cop is a complete puching bag and didn’t fight at all, it’s a solid win for a young up and comer. Dos Santos looked good and Cro Cop is still a dangerous striker at 75%. I doubt many could fight him and not take any damage at all. Do you really think anyone could have avoided taking any shots from a guy like Cro Cop?

How do you know Cro Cop wasn’t putting anything on his punches? His straight left looked just as good as it always has to me. He had a couple decent kicks to the body as well. What I saw was a Cro Cop that showed spurts of aggressiveness instead of constistantly pushing forward or putting together combinations. Pretty similar to his fight with Fedor. Does anyone want to discount that win?

While his skills may have diminished some since his hayday, I think most of what we are seeing is his size and skill set not being competitve in the HW div any longer. Like many, he just hasn’t evolved as the competition has gotten better.

He walks around at 226 and is really just a power striker. He would have trouble with the top LHW guys with his current skill set. I just don’t see him being competitive in the HW div, even at the top of his game. He is still dangerous and not to be taken lightly, but so are all the current crop of fighters.

37

[quote]dhickey wrote:
WhiteFlash wrote:
Nikiforos wrote:
WhiteFlash wrote:
matko5 wrote:
BIGBOSSTRON wrote:
matko5 wrote:
There is some rumor Cro Cop is retiring, he had an interview with a croatian newspaper.

I think that would be for the best.

He said in the interview that all he thought about when entering the cage was fishing. He says that is his sign to retire.

Well it was pretty obvious he wasn’t thinking about fighting. It sucks 'cause all of the fans who never saw him fight in PRIDE don’t understand that how amazing a fighter he was. Dos Santos would get murdered by that CroCop.

CroCop has always been an on and off fighter, and I think Dos Santos is a lot better than some guys who’ve actually beaten/KO’ed Cro Cop in kickboxing and in MMA. (Randleman? Michael Mcdonald?)

Agreed, but he’s been way more off than on. Gonna disagree there. I like Dos Santos, but aside from Werdum [and a lazy disinterested CroCop] who’s he beaten? I don’t think I need to name CroCop’s hit list. CroCop buckled his knees and fucked up his eyes with a pulled straight left two seperate times. If he’d have put anything into those it’ve been lights out. Instead, he worked on his backwards man act and then quit. Really disappointing.

Unless you think Cro Cop is a complete puching bag and didn’t fight at all, it’s a solid win for a young up and comer. Dos Santos looked good and Cro Cop is still a dangerous striker at 75%. I doubt many could fight him and not take any damage at all. Do you really think anyone could have avoided taking any shots from a guy like Cro Cop?

How do you know Cro Cop wasn’t putting anything on his punches? His straight left looked just as good as it always has to me. He had a couple decent kicks to the body as well. What I saw was a Cro Cop that showed spurts of aggressiveness instead of constistantly pushing forward or putting together combinations. Pretty similar to his fight with Fedor. Does anyone want to discount that win?

While his skills may have diminished some since his hayday, I think most of what we are seeing is his size and skill set not being competitve in the HW div any longer. Like many, he just hasn’t evolved as the competition has gotten better.

He walks around at 226 and is really just a power striker. He would have trouble with the top LHW guys with his current skill set. I just don’t see him being competitive in the HW div, even at the top of his game. He is still dangerous and not to be taken lightly, but so are all the current crop of fighters. [/quote]

You are out of your mind if you think CroCop gave it his all and just can’t compete with the current crop of fighters. I know he didn’t put his all in those punches 'cause he never fully extended. Not once. He pulled every punch he threw. His size and skillset at his peak would not only be competitive, it would be at or near the top at HW.

This has nothing to do with the comp getting better. Dos Santos hasn’t really beaten anybody aside from Werdum [who should be at 205] and now a disinterested CroCop, who threw maybe 8 half punches and still busted his face and wobbled him. You are seriously discrediting CroCop with what you’re saying, and it sounds like you either don’t know what you’re talking about or have only been watching MMA for the last 2-3 years.

38

http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2009/09/21/mirko-cro-cop-filipovic-i-dont-feel-the-hunger-anymore-i-want-a-normal-life/

Yeah you’re dumb if you think he came out with the same intensity he used to. Watch a thing called PRIDE it’s good shit, Wikipedia does not tell the whole story nor does Sherdog.

39

[quote]drewh wrote:
http://fiveouncesofpain.com/2009/09/21/mirko-cro-cop-filipovic-i-dont-feel-the-hunger-anymore-i-want-a-normal-life/

Yeah you’re dumb if you think he came out with the same intensity he used to. Watch a thing called PRIDE it’s good shit, Wikipedia does not tell the whole story nor does Sherdog.[/quote]

I have every single one of his Pride fights on DVD. I have watched them all at least twice. I didn’t say he was 100%. My point is that he was still in a fight and still dangerous even at 75%. He wasn’t out there immitating a punching bag. You can’t completely discredit Dos Santos’ performance. It was a good test for a young up and comer.

40

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:

You are out of your mind if you think CroCop gave it his all and just can’t compete with the current crop of fighters.
[/quote]
Can you read?

How about his kicks? Even if he was out there at sparing speed, he is still not a punching bag. You act like he was standing out there not knowing he was in a fight.

Doubt it. Not top 5 at least.

What the fuck. Was Werdum not a tough fight for someone with 8 total fights and 1 in the UFC? Did Werdum not beat Gonzaga, Alex, and Overeem?

How many fighters at that stage (9 fights, 2 in the UFC)in their career would have faired better against Cro Cop?

[quote]
You are seriously discrediting CroCop with what you’re saying, and it sounds like you either don’t know what you’re talking about or have only been watching MMA for the last 2-3 years.[/quote]
We’ve been through this before several times. I’ve seen more MMA that you have. I have most of the non-busido PRIDE events on DVD and have seen them more than once.