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UFC 144: Lightweight Title - Edgar vs. Bendo - 2.25 - Dancing On The Corpse's Ashes

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N

Novid

Banned
Pride was like... the BIG dog when UFC was trying to get legalized. To see UFC come back after the last time (it was a tourny with some UFC fighters) as kingmakers? ... still miss Pride as something the UFC should somewhat emulate if not style...but production vaules (which are improving)

Oh, and if yall want a refesher course on why MMA got upended in Japan read these from Zack Arnold (yall puroheads should know him)

http://www.fightopinion.com/2012/02/03/alarm-panic-ufc-japan/
 
Y

yacobod

Banned
MjFrancis said:
Host Samurai knows what's up. Similarly, I like Edgar it's just going to be laborious for him to come out on top. He's not going to be gifted the fight ala Edgar v. Penn I and he's not going to keep it standing the whole time. Given those assumptions he's got his work cut out for him.
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Fixed. Edgar kicked Penn's ass in the second fight.
 
M

MjFrancis

Member
yacobod said:
Fixed. Edgar kicked Penn's ass in the second fight.
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Definitely agreed on the ass kicking. Penn had no answer for Edgar whatsoever. I just watched this fight again and it was like he completely gave up at some point during round three and just let it happen. He didn't even look like a championship fighter, which is why I say Edgar was gifted the fight. They may as well had set him up against a can at that point.
 
P

polyh3dron

Banned
Sinatar said:
They did.
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l4aPI.jpg
 
H

Heel

Member
You know all those times I said the champion would lose? This time I really mean it, guys. For real this time. I'm serious.

Also, anyone picking against Top Tenner and 2013 ADCC Champion Mark Hunt is dead to me.
 
M

MjFrancis

Member
Are there any other examples of a fighter become better post-PRIDE?

Mark Hunt is the only example I can think of at the moment. Not everyone fell as hard as Wanderlei or especially Fedor, but I can't think of another fighter becoming better.
 
P

parrotbeak

Member
MjFrancis said:
Are there any other examples of a fighter become better post-PRIDE?

Mark Hunt is the only example I can think of at the moment. Not everyone fell as hard as Wanderlei or especially Fedor, but I can't think of another fighter becoming better.
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Anderson would the most obvious answer.
 
P

polyh3dron

Banned
MjFrancis said:
Are there any other examples of a fighter become better post-PRIDE?

Mark Hunt is the only example I can think of at the moment. Not everyone fell as hard as Wanderlei or especially Fedor, but I can't think of another fighter becoming better.
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Wand fell hard while he was still in PRIDE. Prime Wand was gone when Cro Cop KO'd him.
 
Y

yacobod

Banned
MjFrancis said:
Are there any other examples of a fighter become better post-PRIDE?

Mark Hunt is the only example I can think of at the moment. Not everyone fell as hard as Wanderlei or especially Fedor, but I can't think of another fighter becoming better.
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Wand was already on the way down during Pride. He got violently knocked out in consecutive fights by Mirko CroCop at the OWGP in 2006 and then in his next fight by Dan Henderson. I think that fight with CroCop ruined him. Removed his aura, cracked his chin, and he's never been the same guy since.

And it's kind of a narrow minded way of looking at it that a guy got worse after Pride. It's been 6 years since the OWGP and the fall of Pride, it's not really realistic to expect all these fighters to perform at the same level.

Fedor only recently lost some fights, post Pride he won 4 or 5 fights in a row before his recent losing skid.
 
H

Heel

Member
MjFrancis said:
Are there any other examples of a fighter become better post-PRIDE?

Mark Hunt is the only example I can think of at the moment. Not everyone fell as hard as Wanderlei or especially Fedor, but I can't think of another fighter becoming better.
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Still thinking, but Melendez and Aoki for starters.

Mousasi.

Overeem.
 
M

MjFrancis

Member
yacobod said:
And it's kind of a narrow minded way of looking at it that a guy got worse after Pride. It's been 6 years since the OWGP and the fall of Pride, it's not really realistic to expect all these fighters to perform at the same level.
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Narrow minded how? It's simply a moment in time defined by one organization falling apart. It's easy to take a snapshot of what happened before that moment and what happened after that moment. And with names like Anderson Silva, Melendez, Aoki, Mousasi, Overeem, and Hunt there's plenty of fighters who've improved even though guys like Cro Cop, Shogun, and Big Nog previously dominanted the PRIDE legacy in my eyes.

As a footnote Dan Henderson has enjoyed well over a decade plus of fighting awesome. He's a freak and an aberration, though.

But mentioning Wanderlei's last few defeats in PRIDE is an important point I hadn't garnered, though really after PRIDE I didn't see Fedor fighting anyone incredibly worthwhile until Strikeforce. Unless Choi Hong-man and Matt Lindland were supposed to be top contenders at that time or something.
 
H

Heel

Member
The difference is that most of the guys who have improved since PRIDE were young, not yet stars and have since entered their prime years. Okami is another example. The guys that made PRIDE great were their stars and already in their prime years.

And yeah, when Wanderlei was starched by Cro Cop and Hendo to close his PRIDE career it's easy to see why he's never been the same in the UFC. That shit was brutal.
 
H

Host Samurai

Member
Hendo - Improved
Shogun - hard to tell. He was on point for his Machida fights
Rampage - He only really looked bad in the Evans fight IMO
 
Y

yacobod

Banned
Heel said:
The difference is that most of the guys who have improved since PRIDE were young, not yet stars and have since entered their prime years. Okami is another example. The guys that made PRIDE great were their stars and already in their prime years.
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exactly.

and some of the guys we are talking about that are much improved or better have been the benefactors of dubious match making or haven't fought in the big show yet. If they had been fighting in the UFC, the way we are looking at them now may be different.

and for Host:

Rampage hasn't looked good since the Dan Henderson fight. Although I suspect we saw the best version of Rampage against JBJ, he was just outclassed.
 
G

Guru-Guru

Banned
So I was at Narita airport waiting for my parents to arrive, and I ended up arriving at the airport about an 1 hour before their flight. I was taking a nap on one of the chairs near the arrival gate, and I opened my eyes to see Rampage emerge from the arrival gate. Squinted his eyes in my direction (I got a little scared), but was looking towards a group of Japanese girls to my right. They shouted his name, and he eventually recognized them as he originally thought they were just "a bunch of groupies." Looked like they were old friends from back in the day, and 1 was his translator. None of them were hot, btw.

Anyway, I told him good luck, I am a big fan, blah, blah blah, and all that stuff. Quite a few people at the airport started to recognize him and were taking a lot of photos.

Also, two of his coaches were apparently stuck in customs, being questioned or some shit.

Anyway, it was pretty awesome to meet a UFC fighter finally, and I am looking forward to going to the event.
 
P

polyh3dron

Banned
Maklershed said:
MMA Gaf: anyone attending any upcoming mma events? (UFC or local)
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I'm all set for UFC 145: Jones vs Evans in ATL. First time with a floor seat since ticket prices were really cheap relatively.

I also just found out that Alvarez/Aoki 2 is happening on the same night as 145 which means I'll be on Internet silence until I get back to the hotel and download the Bellator card. Of course some asshole at the event will probably spoil the result though.
 
P

polyh3dron

Banned
FYI if you open up the UFC XBL app right now, you can watch Frankie Edgar's fight with Sean Sherk for free and get a look at the amazing quality of the streaming video.
 
J

Jake.

Member
i've been to saitama super arena before, but not for mma. how many people can it hold (not that it will be sold out)?
 
J

Jamie OD

Member
Jake. said:
i've been to saitama super arena before, but not for mma. how many people can it hold (not that it will be sold out)?
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Pride drew audiences of between 25,000 to just under 50,000 in that building during its lifetime. Dream has had around 9,000 to 25,000.
 
R

Roland Deschain

Member
Anyone got an idea how successful this show is locally? I can't imagine them using the whole capacity of the arena. Did they reconfigure it for 15000 or something?
 
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