i just realized that this 5 days away and there is little traffic here about this card…
Rampage v. Hamill…i can see this being a snoozefest (i suppose that explains the lack of interest). while i get anooyed with pre-fight hype, i realized with Rampage making it clear he’s fighting for the money, at least until he can male more in acting, that i really don’t care about this fight.
i suppose Hamill has more to gain (and lose) from this fight, as it would back in the line as a contender, but Rampage most likely is not fighting for the title again, and might not fight much more in general.
Stann and Alves should all have interesting fights, as well as Struve. i think the most important fight is prolly the Mir-Nelson fight. i don’t see a submission here, but i really don’t see a KO, either. it’ll be interesting to see Mir’s gameplan for this. in his past fights, he’s really managed to improve his footwork, wrestling, and conditioning. Nelson’s got a great chin, but i just don’t see him beating Carwin, Brock or Velasquez down the line…
i’m glad to see Torres and Grove doing the free fights on Spike, as i love wathcing Torres.
Torres vs. Might Mouse will be fight of the night in my opinion. I’m not sure who I think will win. Johnson is so fast. Torres will work his jab, but I’m not sure if it’ll be enough.
I think that the main and co-main could be very good (read entertaining), but probably won’t be… I’ll still watch though. I always hope to PRIDE Rampage return, and I like both Mir and Nelson…
Page - Hamill will all be about how bad Rampage wants to win imo. He has all the tools to beat Hamill in to sorry pile of shit but if we see the Rampage we have seen a couple of times before I’m not holding my breath for it. Probably going to distance with Page doing enough to get 2 rounds and getting the UD nod but I’m not really looking forward to it being an entertaining fight. Hope Hamill makes Page fight…
Mir - Nelson is going to be cool fight, atleast I hope so. Might very well go to distance, I don’t think Mir is going to KO Nelson knowing Nelsons chin, Nelson might KO Mir though if he catches him. They’ve already met in some grappling tournament, I think Nelson won on decision, not looking forward to a finish on the ground in this one either. Nelson is going to use his stomach and smother Mir on the ground, stand up is probably going to be pretty even, unless Mir gets caught good. Rooting for Nelson on this one, so I’m looking for him to take the decision. Don’t think he is going to make it much further than that though, but Nelson - Carwin would be awesome match, just because the sadistic fucker I am, I’d like to see just how many times Carwin can hit that jaw until Nelson drops.
Looking forward to Alves - Story, going to be a war. Alves via late 3rd TKO.
Really kind of an lackluster card with Edgar - Maynard off the card, I was really looking forward to that one…
My picks would be
Frank Mir, Stefan Struve, Thiago Alves, Brian Stann, Demetrious Johnson and Kendall Grove
Honestly i don’t know wich one to pick between Rampage and Matt,
Matt deserves a title shot for sure, but i would love to see Rampage and Jones go at it…
Shit! i think this will be a LotsofKO’s card. Except for the Spike fights.
i caught part of the fight promo, and they showed Rampage training…he moves like a 60 year old man. i could be wrong, but it looks like his back and neck is really jacked. i guess i understand why he watns to transition to acting so bad…
I’m personally SUPER excited to see Rampage back in action. I’ve personally never seen a Rampage fight that was a snooze fest. The Rashad v Rampage fight was fairly boring, but I can’t fault Rampage for getting pressed against the cage for most of three rounds. I think that if Rampage can stay away from the cage, and use his take down defense he’ll put Hamill down. I say tko/ko round 2 (if it stays on the feet).
I’m also excited to see Alves back in the ring. Anyone who has that slick of Muay Thai I love to watch. Alves by TKO/KO round 2.
Mir v Nelson, Holy shit. I’m excited for this. I think it’s an interesting match up. I believe Mir has superior striking, but maybe not power. Grappling? Who knows their last match was a few years ago. I think the big question is which Mir shows up. Will it be the passive, overly relaxed Mir (Crocop,Carwin and Lesnar fights) or the Mir that beat Nog?
I haven’t watched many santiago fights, but Stann is POWERFUL. I’m saying Stann 1st TKO.
Ill start here-
story alves, I like alves, pretty good shot for story to upset.
Mir vs Nelson
I saw a prefight interview with Mir
I think they match up evenly w/grappling
they are 1,1 with prior grappling matches
the will turn it into a striking match
Mir has a glass head But better movement
no call here.
Rampage vs Hamill
Hamill is durable as hell a Bully
and heavier handed then people think
but this is two people who move poorly
but Rampage has the edge in striking
and his defensive wrestling is overlooked.
If rampage is mobile its easly his.
no TKO 3 round desicion
Am I the only one who thinks Story is so incredibly idiotic for calling out Alves? Even worse is his manager(s) for letting it happen.
I’ve seen story in his past few fights, and his is not at the level of technical proficiency that Alves is in striking. Not even close. Not only that, but the little technique he does have crumbles under pressure, which Alves will slather on in spades.
I’m picking Alves by TKO or a brutally dominating performance. 10% chance accounting for story catching him with a lucky shot.
[quote]Aussie Davo wrote:
Am I the only one who thinks Story is so incredibly idiotic for calling out Alves? Even worse is his manager(s) for letting it happen.
I’ve seen story in his past few fights, and his is not at the level of technical proficiency that Alves is in striking. Not even close. Not only that, but the little technique he does have crumbles under pressure, which Alves will slather on in spades.
I’m picking Alves by TKO or a brutally dominating performance. 10% chance accounting for story catching him with a lucky shot.[/quote]
Rampage has everything he needs, if he wants it bad. Which is never clear. Against Machida, he did great, you could see he had fire in him. His cardio was fine, too.
So probably Rampage.
Alves by TKO
Big Country for sure
Struve, probably
Santiago - Stann is hard to call, but let’s say Stann
Disappointed at Alves fight, was looking for Thiago to be able to do a bit more than that…
I’m a sick bastard and all but there is just something about it when Struve got cracked that I had to laugh my ass off, the guy is a very sympathetic character and it’d be great for the sport to see a young guy like him to make his way to the top but every single time he gets floored its just flat out hilarious.
Roy didn’t do shit either, guess this is the last time I’ll fall into that hype about him being more than just a fat guy with BJJ black belt and a solid right hand to go with his chin… Mir didn’t do anything to really impress either (expect for that nice takedown).
Page - Hamill was pretty much what I tought it would be, Page did easily enough to earn him to decision, sucks if he really had his hand broken, with healthy hand he might’ve made this entertaining one but who knows. Would’ve been interesting to see another legend from Pride trying his luck against Bones, guess we are going to have to settle for Evans/Davis winner or Machida now.
E: And I 100% agree with kaiser, would be a slugfest and a very entertaining one indeed.