Ok, so I set my goal for March to watch all the PRIDE Fighting Championship Events and I did it.. I was quite surprised because I was expecting some boring Japanese shows.. I prefer watching the fights in the cage instead of the ring but meh... PRIDE is the real deal... fckin stupid japanese they couldn't continue and sold the business to the americans... Some impressions:

Fedor Emelianenko - at first I was thinking he is overrated but no.. he is most definitely the best fighter ever, pound per pound... he won all his fights (14) except one when he was head butted by Noguiera and finished No Contest... he had a few problems against Mark Hunt, in his last PRIDE fight when he was almost submitted but he came back and won by submission... he got dropped by Fujita, he was dizzy but still submitted the japanese... he got slammed in the head by Randleman and still submitted the monster.. he won by decision against Schilt, Nogueira twice and Cro Cop but never was a close one... he totally dominated the fights with his amazing ground and pound... he also submitted twice Mark Coleman and revenged his only loss with Kohsaka... not a real loss tho, it came from a cut... he is def a legend!

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - what can I say about him? He is the best submission artist in the business... he was never KO in PRIDE... but his only misfortune was fighting in the same organization with Fedor... for sure he is a legend too... but he will be the runner up... not the best... he fought 21 times in PRIDE and he lost only against Fedor, twice by decision, and a split decision to Barnett... he submitted Cro Cop, Coleman, Schilt, Dan Henderson, Goodridge or Heath Herring and he won by decision with Ricco Rodriguez, Sergei Kharitonov, Fabricio Werdum or Josh Barnett... unfortunately for him Fedor was untouchable...

Wanderlei Silva - he is a legend too... fought 28 times in PRIDE and lost only 4 times, against Hunt, Cro Cop that are Heavyweights and Henderson and Arona at Middleweight. He had some memorable fights with Quinton Jackson and he KO Rampage twice and Sakuraba and KO or TKO him 3 times... he also defeated Dan Henderson and Ricardo Arona, Kazuyuki Fujita and drew with Cro Cop in the beginning... he was the most dominant Middleweight, but he got out of shape in the end... he was so explosive and maybe the most entertaining fighter...

Anderson Silva - what a disappointment... he fought 5 times but he lost twice against two japs... Daiju Takase and Ryo Chonan... cmon man... how can you lose to them... by submission... he got triangled and leg locked... I was thinking he is the best fighter ever before watching those fights... maybe right now he would defeat those guys with one arm... but meh... you can't afford to have those spots in your career mister spider...

Mauricio Rua - his best fights are def in PRIDE... unfortunately you can't soccer kick or stamp in the head in the UFC... but he's young, he might become the best Light Heavyweight in the future in the UFC... he lost only once against Coleman, but he injured himself in that fight... he won 12 fights KOing Rampage, Alistair Overeem twice, Ricardo Arona, submitted Randleman and defeated by decision Rogerio Nogueira... a very entertaining fighter also...

Quinton Jackson - he fought a lot... he improved a lot... but he seems better in the cage... unfortunately for him he was at the same weight class with Wanderlei and Shogun... but he defeated Chuck, Randleman and Arona by KO and Bustamante by split decision... it's always nice to see him fighting

Dan Henderson - he's overrated... he fought a lot... but he became better in the end when KO Wanderlei for the Middleweight Title and won a decision vs Bustamante for the Welterweight Tournament... he lost to the Nogueira brothers, to Arona and Wanderlei but never been stopped...

Mirko Cro Cop - he's overrated too... he fought every single month in PRIDE... like Wanderlei did... he is the last Heavyweight Tournament winner when he defeated Josh Barnett.... he has the most devastating leg kicks... and he KO like this Aleksander Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva or Igor Vovchanchyn but unfortunately for him Fedor's ground game is too good for him... at first I thought he is only a striker but no... he has good jiu jitsu... Cro Cop is a complete fighter but now, he's 34 years old... I can't see him becoming UFC or WAMMA champ no more...

Hmm... I got bored writing... I suck at it... there were many other good fighters in PRIDE that I might forgot like Aleksander Emelianenko, Igor Vovchanchyn, Sergei Kharitonov, Kazushi Sakuraba, Rickson Gracie, Mark Coleman, Heath Herring, Rogerio Nogueira, Ricardo Arona, Kevin Randleman, Alistair Overeem, Paulo Filho, Mark Hunt, Fabricio Werdum, Murilo Bustamante and many many others, all of them very good fighters... If you haven't watched PRIDE and you're a MMA fan, you should!

Well yeah... This is a non poker entry... no whining... no bad beat nor coolers..

UEFA Champions League is coming and in what fashion! Man...

Inter Milano - Manchester Utd
Olympique Lyon - FC Barcelona
AS Roma - Arsenal
Real Madrid - Liverpool
Juventus - Chelsea

They should be putting one match a day! I wanna watch all these matches but I can't. The first 3 matches will take place today, tomorrow the other two... at the same hour... wtf? I can't watch 3 games at the same time! Some thoughts:

Inter Milano - Manchester Utd - I think the homeside will win, even though United is the best team in the world at the moment IMO, let's say 2-1
Olympique Lyon - FC Barcelona - this one is a tough one... finally Lyon is back on form and Barcelona is in a kind of a "downswing"... but meh... they have Messi, Eto'o, Henry... I'd say 0-0
AS Roma - Arsenal - this one is tough also. I like both teams, Roma is doing fine in the last couple of months in Serie A. Arsenal, as usual, has a lot of injuries... I'd say 2-1 for the homeside
Real Madrid - Liverpool - hard to predict aswell, Real is on a heater and Liverpool is without Gerrard... I'd say 1-0 anyways
Juventus - Chelsea - this is tough also... Chelsea is getting back on track, Juventus is doing well, not very well, but okay... I'd go for a 0-1
The other 3 games are not as entertaining but they are interesting games aswell:
Atletico Madrid - FC Porto - Atletico is not running very well in the Liga, Porto is crushing their league as usual... but I'd say Atletico has the edge... 3-1
Sporting Lisbon - Bayern Munchen - Sporting is playing okay in the Portuguese League, Bayern has just lost at home with Koln.. but I'd go for a draw here 1-1
Villareal - Panathinaikos - very interesting aswell, Villareal is not playing their A game, Panathinaikos is second in Greece like always... I'd go with he spanish team, 2-0

UFC 95 took place this weekend. It was a very nice show with a lot of great fights.

The biggest surprise of the evening was Koscheck defeat with the unknown Thiago:
http://www.mmaroot.com/josh-koscheck...5-fight-video/
I think the stoppage came too fast, Koscheck recovered pretty fast, but anyways, he got caught. The main event was a decision for Sanchez who was slightly better than Stevenson. Also, there were some other great fights, Maia submitted Chael Sonnen, as expected, but he was pretty dominated in the stand up battle. Nate Marquard defeated Gouveia in the 3rd round, showing once again he is the top contender for Anderson Silva, maybe Damien Maia is also there, but anyways, the spider is on another level. Terry Etim scored a beautiful leg kick KO over Brian Cobb. Dan Hardy scored a very nice KO with a beautiful left hook counter over Rory Markham. Another surprise was Evan Dunham KO over Per Eklund with a beautiful straight left. Also, Junior dos Santos destroyed the unknown Stefan Struve and Paul Kelly won a decision vs Troy Mandaloniz.

Bottom line it was a very nice performance with a lot of KO/submissions/stoppages, even though the names weren't that important in the MMA world. I am looking forward for the next UFC, Rampage vs Jardine and Carwin vs Gonzaga... very nice fights!

I)

Who's the best Heavyweight ever?

A. Mirko Cro Cop
B. Fedor Emelianenko
C. Randy Couture
D. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
E. Bas Rutten

Who's the best Light Heavyweight ever?

A. Tito Ortiz
B. Chuck Liddell
C. Quinton Jackson
D. Wanderlei Silva
E. Frank Shamrock

Who's the best Middleweight ever?

A. Rich Franklin
B. Cung Le
C. Anderson Silva
D. Dan Henderson
E. Kazushi Sakuraba

Who's the best Welterweight ever?

A. Matt Hughes
B. Georges St. Pierre
C. Carlos Newton
D. Royce Gracie
E. Matt Serra

Who's the best Lightweight ever?

A. Jens Pulver
B. BJ Penn
C. Kenny Florian
D. Sean Serk
E. Shinya Aoki

II)
Who's the best Heavyweight at the momment?

A. Brock Lesnar
B. Fedor Emelianenko
C. Frank Mir
D. Shane Carwin
E. Josh Barnett

Who's the best Light Heavyweight at the momment?

A. Rashad Evans
B. Lyoto Machida
C. Renato Sobral
D. Quinton Jackson
E. Mauricio Rua

Who's the best Middleweight at the momment?

A. Dan Henderson
B. Anderson Silva
C. Cung Le
D. Vitor Belfort
E. Robbie Lawler

Who's the best Welterweight at the momment?

A. Georges St. Pierre
B. Thiago Alves
C. Josh Koscheck
D. Jon Fitch
E. Mike Swick

Who's the best Lightweight at the momment?

A. BJ Penn
B. Kenny Florian
C. Joe Lauzon
D. Shinya Aoki
E. Diego Sanchez

Wow... what a fight! complete domination! BJ.. you tapped! you lil *****... you quit... c'mon... go play with the boys, you can't really fight the big guys... That's what you deserve for talkin smack about GSP

wtf man?

I just finished watching UFC 93 and honestly I am very disappointed by the show. Maybe it's because the last one was awesome with KOs in all the fights aired. Ok, let's talk about it:

Rich Franklin vs. Dan Henderson - wrong pick

The main event of the show. It was a very close one and Henderson got a split decision. I honestly didn't see a better fighter in any of them. Maybe Henderson won the first two rounds and Rich def won the third one. Unfortunately Dan landed two illegal blows, a headbut in the begining of the fight and a poke in the eye near the end. Of course this matter in Rich' performance but meh... It wasn't the main event we all expected, Rich seemed a little bit afraid of Hendo.

Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio Rua - right pick

This was a total fiasco. Rua won by KO near the end of the fight. Anyways, he was ahead on the judges score cards till then mostly because of the poor conditioning of Coleman that gased after 3 minutes in the fight. I really don't know why he was inducted in the UFC Hall of Fame after all. I was really disappointed by Shogun's performance, he was exausted too in the third round, even though he was fighting a boxing bag like Coleman was. Eventually he remembered he once was a king in Pride and he landed a few punches that rocked Coleman... and the referee stopped it pretty fast... It was obvious the hammer is too old for this.

Jeremy Horn vs. Rousimar Palhares - right pick

Another disappointing fight. It was mostly a grappler fight as everyone thought. Palhares was the dominating fighter but he couldn't finish Horn. The american defended pretty well, he took some shots, got out from a couple of leg locks and tried a few submission himself. Palhares gased out in the end but Horn also was very tired and he couldn't score any points. So, it was an unanimous decision for the black belt brasilian jiu jitsu.

Alan Belcher vs. Denis Kang - right pick

Actually I got lucky in picking Alan. I haven't seen Kang fighting before so I thought he isn't a big deal of a fighter. Actually he won the first round with a dominating stand up and grounding pound. He was controlling the second round also to the ground being in Belcher's guard and scoring with some punches. Alan was defending really well and dind't get many damages and got lucky near the end of round two, catching Kang in a guillotine choke, conclusion the better fighter got caught in a submission and lost.

Marcus Davis vs. Chris Lytle - right pick

Another disappointment for me. I was expecting a lot of combos and punches, uppercuts, hooks and jabs... but unfortunatelly they respected themselves too much... In the end Davis got a split decision, I think a correct one... He scored nice with some leg kicks and a kick to the body and he indeed had the better technique and the better gameplan, but it was a close one, Lytle is no joke, but seriously none of them can compare to GSP or The Prodigy.

Martin Kampmann vs. Alexandre Barros - right pick

They didn't air it, but the hitman won by KO in the 2nd round as expected. I don't know how the fight went, haven't seen it till now but I am not surpised by his win.

Eric Schafer vs. Antonio Mendes - right pick

Didn't air it either. I picked Schafer because of his submissions but he won by KO. That's a new one for him, I was pretty sure he would eventually win this because of his experience and his background.

Dennis Siver vs. Nate Mohr - wrong pick

I picked Mohr but he lost by KO in the 3rd round. They didn't air it so I can't say anything about it. I am not really surprised of the result as both of them are two mediocre UFC lightweight fighters.

Tomasz Drwal vs. Ivan Serati - right pick

I was right picking the polish. I knew no italian could win in the UFC. Didn't see this fight either because they didn't show it on PPV.

Tom Egan vs. John Hathaway - wrong pick

I picked the irish. Both of them were unknown so I knew nothing abouth them. I picked the home favorite but he made a foul of himself, losing against a brit in front of his home fans...

Results: I got 7 out of 10 losing 2 out of 3 of the preliminary bouts... So practically I got 6 out of 7 fights. I mean real fights, between fighters I knew something about.

I am looking forward in seeing ultrasPNT in the cage getting his ass whooped.. lol

In other words I am pleased with Arsenal win at Hull City, 3-1, having now 3 in a row, closing the gap at 6 points from Man U, 5 from Liverpool and 4 from Chelsea. I discount Villa cuz they won't keep the run.

Breakthrough!!

This was a nice one... It started with a fight between Matt Brown and Dong Hyun Kim. The South Korean was better and he won a split decision. I saw it as an unanimous one but... who cares? Anyways a close one.. The next fight was Nate Marquardt vs Martin Kampmann... It was a blitz one.. "The Great" shocked the crowd. I thought "The Hitman" was a better striker but Marquardt knocked him out. Everyone thought he will try to get it to the ground, but he landed a v nice head kick and it was the beginning of the end. Then, Dan Henderson vs Rousimar Palhares. Dan fought a coward fight... He, a wrestler, was too scared of the brasilian's ground game, so tried to keep it up. He landed some punches but nothing real clear.. Rousimar was very close to a footlock. It wasn't the best fight of the evening but was a enough for a decision for Henderson. The co-main event, Rich Franklin vs Matt Hamill, had no history. Rich "Ace" Franklin's return at 205 was relentless. He completely dominated "The Hammer" and he landed a body kick that ended the fight. The ppv made air for Tim Boetsch vs Mike Patt, it was a nice KO from "The Barbarian", but his opponent wasn't a tough one...

And then, the main event of the evening Chuck Liddell vs Rashad Evans. It was a shock! Sugar knocked out Chuck... "The Iceman"... I never thought it would be possible to knock out Chuck from one punch... But, Sugar, did it... With Chuck's own weapons... Sincerily I was thinking he could beat Chuck, but not like this man... Chuck was the better fighter before that right landed... But Rashad was too damn fast for the Iceman...

Unfortunatelly Karo Parisyan couldn't compete due to an injury... But the card was nice, not as nice like the Affliction but a nice one...

So what's next? Randy is back and will defend his heavyweight title against Brock Lesnar... I think Brock will whip his ass... And then will be another victory for "The Spider"... In december will be Mir vs Nogueira... I think Minotauro will win this one... And in January will be GSP vs Penn... What a fight... But I think Georges "Rush" St. Pierre will defeat once again BJ...

Cheers to the UFC!

BJ Penn is untouchable, GSP is unbeatable, Anderson Silva destroys every prey they put in the cage with him, Nogueira is a true champ, he seems to be the best Jiu-Jitsu heavyweight (he will fight Mir at the end of the year so we will be sure who's the best JJ heavyweight), he had a name in Pride and he defeated The Maniac,

But Forrest... Oh man... Forrest... yeah.. Forrest Griffin... No! Not Forrest Gump... Griffin... He is the Ultimate Fighter... LOL... after a fight he lost against Stephen Bonnar, but they gave him the decision. His best fight was a loss against Tito Ortiz when he got his face smashed bad the whole first round... He was destroyed by Keith Jardine and he started to cry after that fight, but Dana White loves him real hard... They brought him a boxing bag and after, he fought a Shogun that seem very bored. I don't think he trained a single day for Forrest and he got submitted... Shame for Shogun... And this summer, he fights Rampage for the belt... He gets knocked down but he gets up... He keeps moving forward, Rampage hurts his foot and loses the decision, even though I think he was the better fighter...

Ok. I might be melancholically a little bit. I miss 205 lbs champs like, Tito Ortiz that defended his belt 5 times against Wanderlei Silva or Ken Shamrock or Chuck Liddell who defended it 4 times, beating Randy Couture, Babalu, Tito Ortiz, Kevin Randleman, Bustamante (a fight that I think he should've lose the decision), Monson,Vitor Belfort or latelly Wanderlei Silva... This were the true Light Heavyweights. But can Forrest compare with them?

I look forward to see Chuck vs Sugar. Chuck is really old and out of shape, but he still has his uppercut. Sugar is undefeated but he drew with Tito because of the 1 point they took from Tito. I can't see Forrest defending his belt at least one time... not even against an old Chuck Liddell.. But who knows?!

I started this category because I am a big fan of the MMA and esspecially UFC. This is the real deal. Fighting in the cage is more spectacular than doing it in the ring IMO. UFC started 15 years ago and Royce Gracie proved how a Jiu-Jistu guy can humiliate wrestlers or kickboxers. Nowadays, Zuffa, Dana White and the Fertita brothers made a huge business of the UFC.

A few weeks ago another organisation rised from the dust, Afflicton. This was a clothing company that was thrown away from the UFC and said, wtf, we can make our own show. They did it. At the end of july they gathered 5 of the best heavyweight on the planet and made a heck of a show. The main event was Fedor Emilianenko vs Tim "The Maniac" Sylvia. It took only 36 second for "The Emperor" to mantain his crown.

Their biggest leak is that they didn't do it in the cage. I hope they can think of something and replace that ring with an octagon and if they do what they said they would the UFC has to be scared. There are some rummors that Ortiz will sign with them. Fedor, Sylvia, Arlovski, Barnett, Rogerio Nogueira, Belfort, Lindland, Babalu and many others already did it so it would be a heck of a competition between this two big orgranisations.

Also, the fighters payroll was larger than in UFC and Donald Trump name was associated with this show.

A few days ago UFC 87 took place. Once agains GSP destroyed his opponent, the 8 fight streak undefeated Jon Fitch and kept his belt. He seems to strong for the welterweight right now but he got challenged by BJ Penn, the lightweight champion. Both of them are in shape right now, but I think GSP is too strong for The Prodigy... Another rising star in the Middleweight division seems to be Damien Maia. He had a very nice fight against Jason MacDonald, but will he ever be able to develop himself as to reach Anderson Silva's level?

Cheers