So we don't have to take over The Happy Thread again, here's a thread for all things pro-fighting. To get the ball rolling, who are some of your favorite fighters? Mine are Mir, Don Frye, the Shamrocks (Ken and Frank), GSP and Gina Carano.
By no means everyone I like, but my favourites by weight class are: Fedor, Rampage, Anderson Silva, GSP and Spencer Fisher.
Assuming you mean Anderson Silva, I would like to chime in with a huge amen! GSP and Silva are my favorites. I also really like Forrest Griffin.
^Oh yeah, definitely Anderson Silva. I wish I could fight like he does. Since this is a fighting thread - does anyone fight themselves, or do any sort of martial arts? ~Christian Edit: As for Forrest Griffin - I really like how he approaches life with such a laid-back attitude, but I don't really like how he fights. He always struck me as more of a brute-power guy instead of a technique driven guy (like Silva). And personally, I really appreciate the technicians.
I don't fight, but my assistant manager does MMA. He's tried to teach me a few moves, but I don't think I could use them effectively against anyone except maybe one of my little siblings. Yeah, in all honesty, I'm more a fan of Griffin because of his attitude than his fighting. I just really admire him as a person. I also appreciate the technique fighters use more than just the brute-force approach. Which is one of the reasons Brock Lesnar irritates me so much...
I've trained grappling, but not striking. I learned enough to be completely in awe with Damian Maia, but not enough to come close to knowing how to do what he does. As for Forrest, I didn't care either way, but now I'm bitter because of the decision in the Rampage fight. Also, more thoughts on last night- Akiyama/Belcher was a fantastic fight, I like it about as much as the Wiman/Stout fight a few months ago which at the time was my favourite UFC fight of the year. I thought Belcher would take the decision, but it was such a close fight it could have gone either way. The Henderson ko of Bisping was excellent, I've found a gif of it online and it's almost as hypnotic as Franklin's ko of Quarry. The followup punch makes it.
Haha the followup punch makes it even more because he admitted in the interview after that he knew Bisping was already out. Made me laugh.
Also, in the .gif that's going around when Henderson pulls back his fist after the first punch, he almost looks like he kisses his glove before diving in for the last shot.
Lesnar made a fan of me last night. Something about all the time I spent watching WWF as a kid makes me fall in love with a good heel. Plus how often do you see KO power from that angle? My all-time faves are Aoki, Imanari, and of course Randy. Jon Jones is looking pretty awesome, too.
I agree with the Lesnar comment. A good villian is great for the sport. People will put down hard earned money for the chance to see Lesnar get beat. Hey did any of you see Baroni vs Frank Shamrock, back in EliteXC? That was one of the entertainimg fights I've ever seen. Baronia talked so much smack going into the fight, saying he could knock out Frank with one punch.... only to get destroyed.
No, at least as I view MMA, a villain is good for professional wrestling and has no place in actual sport. The last thing MMA needs is that garbage ruining its culture. I'm going to avoid the events with Lesnar- I'd rather save my money for fighters who display at least some modicum of professionalism. I did like Baroni-Shamrock, but only because my brother is a Baroni fan and he stormed out of the room before the fight was even over. I'm not a fan of either Shamrock- I've always felt Ken is ridiculously overrated and I've never really liked Frank, but I have a lot of respect for Frank as a fighter. His win over Tito Ortiz is still one of my favourite fights.
Faves by weight class: Lesnar - Dude's got talent. From his first fight I've been on board. The HW division is so boring without him. Machida - I love that he's had 7 fights in the UFC and STILL no one knows what to do with him. He won me over in the ortiz fight. Henderson - I didn't really have a favorite in middleweight, Hendo scored points with me as the coach on TUF and especially with the Bisping KO. Also Ryo Chonan is on the list because he had the balls to throw a flying scissor heel hook against the now unbeatable Silva. GSP - The all around athlete/fighter. Guy's a freaking ninja. Kenny Florian - Heart, skill, KICKS! I love this guy.
I'm going to bite my tongue and not say what I think about Lesnar...because it would probably get me banned. Amen. Just...amen. I couldn't have said it better myself.
Once again, biting my tongue... Joel just tricked me into watching that fight because he knows how much I love Silva. It hurts me to see him lose when he was doing so well...but I've got to give it up to Chonan for taking the risk and attempting that move. If someone made a statue of GSP, I would buy it. Dude's amazing.
UFC 101 is tomorrow night. Not quite so much hype this time as there was for the last event, but it looks like a pretty solid card. Is anyone planning on watching it? This is actually going to be the first I miss in a while, I'm going to be away tomorrow night, but I'll be checking the results. I'm hoping Florian somehow finds a way to beat Penn, not because I'm a fan but because I hate Penn. Also, I'm hoping Anderson blows through Forrest with a Franklin-style KO, I'm still bitter about the Rampage decision. As for the rest of the card, the only fight I'm really interested in is Neer vs. Batman. Neer always puts on a good fight, and Batman is one of the most entertaining fighters in the UFC. This is the fight I'm most disappointed about missing, especially because if the Anderson fight goes the way I hope it does I'll have no trouble finding a gif of it.
Matt Hughes is my personal favorite, and Tito Ortiz is second for a couple reasons, mainly his job coaching on The Ultimate Fighter.
I'll be watching tomorrow. I was watching a rerun of Kenflo's fight with Din Thomas the other night, and I'd forgotten how badly Florian manhandled him. He picked the dude up repeatedly and slammed him. How often do you see Penn do that? I think Florian's wrestling may be good enough to keep the fight standing, where he'll stand a much better chance. If he can do that it'll be his Muay Thai vs. BJ's boxing, and they're both damn solid strikers who can stand with pretty much anyone else in the division. I think Florian may be able to drag BJ kicking and screaming into the later rounds in this way, where as we all know he is much less formidable an opponent. While I don't see Kenflo finishing Penn, he stands a pretty good chance at taking rounds 3, 4, and 5 IMO.
I work tomorrow night, and I'm so upset that I'll be missing it. I'm with you on Florian vs Penn. I don't care much one way or the other about Florian, but I can't stand Penn, so I want him to get his butt kicked. Anderson Silva and Forrest Griffin are two of my favorite fighters, so I don't really know who I want to win, but I'm leaning toward Silva. I just love watching Silva fight. The other fights, I don't really care about. They would be fun to watch, but there's not anyone I really want to win over someone else.
My picks: Ken-flo over BJ. The guy is hungry! He's got the talent to do it, it's his time to shine. Forest over Silva. I know... I know, not likely. HOWEVER, I think forest is the guy to do it.
I agree, if Florian wins it's going to be by avoiding the mat and making Penn work on the feet. It's a really interesting matchup because both have solid striking technique- I think Florian might be quicker and more elusive but especially for his weight class Penn hits hard and he is certainly not sloppy. The more he makes Penn work in the first two rounds and the better he does avoiding Penn's punches, the more chance Florian will have late. And yeah, considering what it took GSP to finish him I don't see Penn being stopped at lightweight unless it's something like his second fight with Hughes. And it certainly looks like Florain's wrestling and overall ground game has improved quite a bit since the Sherk fight. It's been a long time since Penn went for a takedown- his td defense is great but I wonder what his shot's like. Either way it should be an exciting fight- I'm not a fan of Penn but there's no denying he's a great fighter. Hope you have fun watching the fights. Plus, an impressive win from Silva and we're that much closer to Anderson/Machida, which if it happened could be a really interesting fight.
Haven't they both said that fight will never happen, though? I mean, Dana's said it might, but Dana says a lot of things.
Silva and Machida will likely have to fight at some point, simply due to running out of other people to fight. Though after Forest, Silva's next oppenent could be Henderson. Who of course is comming off of beating Bisbing (I probably misspelled his name).
I don't think Henderson could beat Silva. His beating Bisping is still a priceless memory for me, though.
