LobsterMobster posted:

Horse steak, right?

Lid posted:

UFC 156 SPECIAL EDITION RUN DOWN

Just one week after UFC on FOX: Johnson v Dodson, which will be awesome, comes the first pay per view of the year and it includes what is (technically) the first superfight since GSP v BJ Penn II in: Frankie Edgar (former lightweight champion, a large majority of the forum here will argue current lightweight champion, one of two fighters alongside Anderson Silva who has pound for pound chops given that he probably has been fighting one weight class higher than he should have been his entire career and was #1 in that weight class anyway and that weightclass is deep as gently caress... seriously just read this page.) versus Jose Aldo (current featherweight champion, hasn't lost in seven years, undisputed featherweight king, questions remain though given feathweights relative lack of depth for most of its period) for the UFC Featherweight Championship in a fight fans have called on for years now.

But I digress, this is about the midcard.

Demian Maia - Welterweight


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wk2t_ZpV3L4

This is a bit of an interesting situation, given he did challenge Anderson Silva for the middleweight title, but Maia never really has caught the world on fire as much as most and his opponent is Jon Fitch and calling Jon Fitch a midcarder is likely to draw blood. Maia is arguably the best grappler in MMA (amendments: Jacare Souza, Roger Gracie, Vinny Magalhaes), and has been for several years, unfortunately Maia had two problems: 1. he was fighting at middleweight for most of his career when he was obviously on the small side and had never lifted a weight, 2. after Nate Marquardt knocked him out in 20 seconds with the first punch thrown he got an addiction to kickboxing. The second was much more annoying as prior to the Marquardt fight Maia was 5-0 in the UFC all by submission including four submission of the night bonuses and a highlight reel lateral drop into triangle choke on Chael Sonnen. Maia's one of the true practitioners of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and watching him grapple illustrates just what a high level grappler can do, but even more so as Maia has, unlike some other BJJ fighters, made a steady and organic transition to MMA grappling where his BJJ is just as effective (though was unused for awhile). Maia ended his middleweight run at 9-4 (arguably 10-3, the Munoz fight was razor close) and after having no answer for rising star Chris Weidman decided to move down to welterweight.

Since moving down to welterweight Maia is 2-0 against good opponents in Dong Hyun "Stun Gun" Kim (who will get a write up eventually), though that win was by the rather odd situation of by causing Kim to have a muscle spasm on a takedown attempt, and Rick Story. Most encouragingly is that in both fights Maia showed he is grappling again, going back to what won him fights in the first place, rather than trying to strike (which is, admittedly, not terrible anymore but has no chance to catch up to his grappling). Next up Maia is facing Jon Fitch who until running face first into Johny Hendricks bulldozer of a left hand was perennially the number two welterweight in the world behind GSP. This is a huge step up for Maia in competition and also an interesting challenge for Fitch. Fitch is the namesake of Fitching, he takes you down and punches you endlessly for three rounds. You can try and get back up but he will put you back down through his sheer control of you. You can't stop the Fitching, it is inevitable. Fitch is gonna Fitch. However Demian Maia is not a fighter in which your first instinct is to want to grapple with given his mastery of grappling, and he could hypothetically be someone you would not want underneath you in any case. So what will happen? Previous fights dictate that wrestler + grappler = sloppy kickboxing fight, but this still has potential as both men are extremely talented, Jon Fitch's last fight was a barn burner against Erick Silva and (at least here) both men are quite popular. Pray for grappling, either Fitching or Maiaing.


Ian McCall - Flyweight


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7mesU-vKLDQ - Ian McCall v Darrell Montague, Tachi Palace Fights for the TPF Flyweight Championship (at the time the only flyweight title that mattered in North America)

Ian McCall, or Uncle Creepy as everyone calls him instead because it's one of the best nicknames ever, is one of the faces of the relatively new flyweight division in the UFC. McCall himself was in the flyweight tournament to crown the first ever flyweight champion being at the time considered the #1 flyweight in the world where we was robbed by a combination of terrible judging and the lack of mathematical ability of the New South Wales Athletic Commission. Because of a draw between BJ Penn and Caol Uno ruining the lightweight title tournament of the UFC (resulting in lightweight not existing in UFC for a year out of misplaced angst) there was a rule included that any draw in this tournament would result in a fourth round sudden death. In the first round McCall took on Demetrious Johnson and after three rounds the fight was announced as a majority decision (one judge ruled a draw) for Demetrious Johnson. Problems: 1. one of the other judges had scored the fight a draw also thus it was a majority draw and there should've been a sudden death extra round. 2. One judge no matter what scored the fight for Johnson which was the wrongest decision possible. The acceptable outcomes were a draw, 29-28 McCall or 29-27 McCall. Johnson did not win that fight. The fight itself by the way was a fight of the year contender, and rightly so given McCall's awesome quickness and being someone who who was able to takedown the speed demon of Johnson nearly at will. The decision just happened to ruin it with the crowd booing endlessly the horribleness of it.

This resulted in a rematch where an unenthusiastic and demotivated McCall and Johnson had a rather forgettable fight which Johnson won the decision, this time correctly, and went on to win the flyweight championship. McCall however is still around and is still as exciting as ever, he has good fast stand up and arguably the best wrestling at flyweight. He's also come back from his share of problems, being a recovering junkie, but he has one of the best personalities around (THE MAN FIGHTS WITH A HANDLEBAR MOUSTACHE) and is easily one of the best fighters at flyweight who arguably should get a title shot rematch. The UFC seems to think so too as his next opponent is Joseph Benavidez who is in no way a pushover. Benavidez himself was #2 at bantamweight for years despite obviously being small for the division (the same applies to Demetrious Johnson, who was tiny at bantamweight) and the odds on favourite to win the flyweight tournament, however he fell decisively to Mighty Mouse in the finals. This is a match up between two of the top four flyweights in the world and McCall, if he wins this, will get another title shot but even if he loses shall be entertaining as hell.


Yves Edwards - Lightweight


http://minus.com/lTMM1EmpV0q0A.gif
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=564hJJRC1SY

The master and sole practitioner of Thugjitsu Yves Edwards is a veteran of MMA having been competing since 1997. In fact between 2003 and 2005 (when the UFC had no lightweight championship) it is arguable that Yves Edwards was the best lightweight in the world. Since then his career has been up and down, a lot of losses and a few wins, but since rejoining the UFC in 2010 (having previously competed between 2001 and 2006) he is 4-2 most recently coming off a knockout over noted scumbag and power puncher Jeremy Stephens (as fatherdog has mentioned Stephens hits possibly harder than anyone else at lightweight, not much technique and he isn't really a good fighter but he seriously hits so loving hard it sometimes works). Yves is an entertaining fighter, because how can you not be when you self-style yourself as using thugjitsu, whose next fight is against Strikeforce newcomer Isaac Vallie-Flagg. I know nothing about Isaac Vallie-Flagg. At all. Yves is good though, you should watch Yves fight. If nothing else consider how amazing it is that he's still fighting and still winning as a sixteen year veteran in the deepest weight class in MMA.

TheTrend posted:

159 is JBJ vs Chael.

DON RAPER posted:

Frankie Owns

-Atom- posted:

At Losing Decisions

Lid posted:

Re-posting from midcard thread:

DON RAPER posted:

Frankie Owns

Lid posted:

Re-posting from midcard thread:

Steve Glutenberg posted:

Volkmann owns. He has such a complete and total lack of charisma that in the pursuit of keeping him away from microphones and large crowds society has reached the point where it literally locks him in a cage and forces him to fight, and it's still not enough. If you can't appreciate his fights on an unironic level then you can appreciate him on an ironic level. And if you can't do either then go back to GBS.

DON RAPER posted:

Frankie Owns

Kanthulhu posted:

THIS CARD WILL OWN.

I'm excited for every fight on the main card! And the prelimns are going to be pretty good too!

Just want to say that as of right now there are 20 people voting for Frankie and 10 for Aldo. Look how wrong 2/3rds of the votes are!

Lid posted:

Heads will roll if points aren't taken.

Lid posted:

Heads will roll if points aren't taken.

DumbWhiteGuy posted:

Bubba Smith posted:

Wow that is way worse than I remember.

2 fat 4 my lambo posted:

god drat that head

nature6pk posted:

Am I the only one that thinks that Bigfoot is going to eat about a million leg kicks?

Doresain posted:

UFC 156: Jose Aldo Injured Above Left Eye, Still Plans to Fight Frankie Edgar

Small cut over left eye, fight didn't count.