What do “we” think of Shamrock including trainer/“nutritionist” Dan Freeman in his corner, instead of some kind of BJJ guy? I understand if that’s how Shamrock wants to train his guys, but, realistically I think it was a poor choice. In the timeframe they’re training in, technical practice is going to be more important than strength & conditioning.[/quote]
You definitely have a point - that a month isn’t going to be enough time to get someone into fighting shape, but Ken’s definitely a hands-on guy. IIRC he built up the Lion’s Den himself and kept everything in-house as it were.
Which may also explain why they fizzled out so early in the UFC - Mezger, Williams, White, Burnett all looked good, but after that, they just sent the b-listers to KotC.
I disagree. Bonnar wasn’t as dominant and controlling as he usually was (and actually seemed scared, throwing out those wild hooks), but Jardine didn’t press the action either. The leg kicks were cool, but he didn’t capitalize, whenever Bonnar went for the clinch, Jardine ran back to the fence (didn’t seem to me like Bonnar pushed him), there were no takedown attempts by Jardine that I remember (though he had excellent defense) and that Thai kick to the head was big, but didn’t phase Bonnar.
OTOH, Bonnar landed some good shots including that spinning hook kick right off the bat (WTF was with Jardine there?) and dropping him in the 3rd.
I thought it was a decent season premier. Tension with the coaches (who have very different styles), fighters from the UK (not just USA and Canada), the madatory binge-drinking on the first night in the UF house (and an eyebrow/eyelid shaved), elimination of the physical challenges, the first preliminary fight (and both fighters made weight!), and no Xyience propaganda shoved down our throats (not during the actual show).
We also got a free PPV-quality show before hand.
Next week (the 13th), SpikeTV completes their Slammin’ Thursday Night (or whatever moniker they’re pushing) when TNA Impact moves to Thursday night primetime.
So you’ll have Unleased, then UF, then Impact. Good luck SpikeTV as you try to go up against Thursday night network programming (i.e. CBS).
[quote]StevenF wrote:
At least no one quit yet, for fucks sake. That blew my f’n mind. [/quote]
Yeah season 2 had a lot of guys that seemed to be lacking testicular fortitude. Although john ghotti junior might as well have quit last night. I don’t even know why they bother bringing boxers on the show. They just end up being fodder for the guys with ground game.
[quote]Minotaur wrote:
Dirty Tiger wrote:
I like the way Dana changed it so a fighter can win after only two rounds.
Wait, what? I may have missed that. How so, are they only fighting for 2 rounds?[/quote]
They went back to season 1 rules.
Each fight is 2 five minute rounds, if it’s tied at that point, go to a third round. Still paying out $5,000 if you win by knockout or submission. I’m guessing ref-stoppage also applies.
Is it just me or is there a new rule where you have to be heavily tatooed to be in MMA now? They got some guys with some serious ink on them this season. The guy with the throat tat looks like an extra from a sci-fi picture.
What do “we” think of Shamrock including trainer/“nutritionist” Dan Freeman in his corner, instead of some kind of BJJ guy? I understand if that’s how Shamrock wants to train his guys, but, realistically I think it was a poor choice. In the timeframe they’re training in, technical practice is going to be more important than strength & conditioning.
[/quote]
I think that a grappling coach would have been better for the show due to the short time frame. Wasn’t the show filmed over 6-8 weeks or something?
But I cannot get over these guys coming into the show out of shape/ overweight. I would think that if I was going on TV and my career was going to be impacted by this I would only come in maybe 5lbs overweight and in great condition. A lot of these guys (all three seasons) seem to take this opportunity too lightly.
I don’t think Hamil is a chump, eventhough he only has 5 months of MMA Experience…here are some of his accomplishments…
The 2004 inductee in the Division III Wrestling Hall of Fame was the first U.S. wrestler to win gold medals in freestyle and Greco Roman competition in the 1997 World Games for the Deaf. The three-time NCAA National Champion attended the National Technical Institute for the Deaf in Rochester. Matt has been featured in Sports Illustrated?s ?Faces in the Crowd? and was featured on the cover of NCAA News as a junior at RIT.
In 1997, he was named USA Deaf Sports Federation Athlete of the Year. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Matt is a graduate of Loveland High School in Cincinnati, Ohio. The Bengals fan trains with The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 coach and UFC Middleweight champion, Rich Franklin.
how about the Stevenson Fight??? Joe was gassed and out of shape, quite disapointing knowing how talented he is…and coming from one of the best JJ camps in the world(Cobra Kai)…on a side note with that straight knee bar its rumored that he tore Josh Neer’s ACL with it in the 1st rd…So eventho neer won, could put him on the shelf for a year or so
Is a really short camp they go thru…I think the guys could learn a bit from the nutritionist, as most athletes don’t have very good knowledge of such a topic. It isn’t like Shamrock hasn’t produced good fighters out of his camp, but he strikes me as the kind of teacher who wants to keep you below him rather than wanting to see you surpass him, which doesn’t really work for me.
Also, I liked when he was talking about striking, because let’s face it, he is not an accomplished striker…even Tito would own him badly on their feet.
[quote]Cluster wrote:
P.S. - From what I saw, Jardine totally should’ve won the decision over Bonnar.
I disagree. Bonnar wasn’t as dominant and controlling as he usually was (and actually seemed scared, throwing out those wild hooks), but Jardine didn’t press the action either. The leg kicks were cool, but he didn’t capitalize, whenever Bonnar went for the clinch, Jardine ran back to the fence (didn’t seem to me like Bonnar pushed him), there were no takedown attempts by Jardine that I remember (though he had excellent defense) and that Thai kick to the head was big, but didn’t phase Bonnar.
OTOH, Bonnar landed some good shots including that spinning hook kick right off the bat (WTF was with Jardine there?) and dropping him in the 3rd. [/quote]
i thought jardine would get the decision also, so much so i reviewed the fight again. after the second look i came out seeing it just as cluster described above. jardine had some wicked leg kicks but didn’t make anything of them.
other than that he never really threatened bonner. to jardines credit he did make bonner seem kinda lackluster. but still bonner twice had jardine in deeper trouble than jardine ever had him -some solid strikes and a near choke. also i thought bonner pressed/controlled the action more in 1 and 3. jardine more in 2.
but by chance I caught the replay of tito vs shamrock(i remembered watching shamrock fight like 10 years ago)so it caught my intersest when flipping through the channels a couple nights ago. I was totally rooting for shamrock…who got smashed…
But after watching the first episode last night of this new show…I think I like TITOs coaching style and attitude much better…
I guess Noah avenged the brutal murder of his basketball, huh? Side note - the tale of the tape said they were both 6’2". The Jesse kid didn’t even look 6 feet. Odd. Nothing spectacular to say about the fight. I love when dudes get caught in the armbar while standing. It just looks cool.
Tait = big asshole, acting like a child when Noah was talking to him about his ball. “It was outside, it’s still outside.”
And I’m sorry asinger, but I think Rory just came off as a (for lack of a better term) drama queen, the way he was talking in his confessional thing about the situation with Noah’s ankle. Just very “Ohmygod, that’s so ridiculous.”
I can’t wait for next week. Shamrock’s team goes golfing. WTF?!?
Oh, and do we have any prediction for Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin tomorrow night? I’m thinking Decision for Ortiz. I’m sure Griffin can withstand the beating Tito can (and likely will) dish out, but I can’t see Griffin finishing it.
Forgot to mention, I thought it was odd how Shamrock didn’t seem to mind Kalib being so disrespectful in the ring. Even while Shamrock was chewing everyone out, Kalib was basically brushing him off. Kinda strange, since Shamrock’s whole shpiel from the beginning was “If you don’t give me respect, I’ll take it from you.”
Nothing sweeter than a brutal armbar, especially from the bottom. It looked like he fucked that kids elbow up real bad, though to Jesse’s credit he didn’t show it. Tait is a real twat, I hope that kid gets owned. I agree about Kalib, he was being very disrespectful to Ken I thought. They really dig up some assholes for this show.
Tait = big asshole, acting like a child when Noah was talking to him about his ball. “It was outside, it’s still outside.”
[/quote]
It annoys me the way he keeps talking about how smart he is and everyone else is so stupid. So not having any respect for other peoples property is what makes you smart now days?
Just like the young kid that got his ass beat thinking it’s ok to smash the vases just because he’s bored. Would he think it was ok if someone got bored and trashed his car?
-It was good to see Jesse lose. he’s a kid who seems to not have much respect for anyone or anything. Not cool breaking the house property on the pool table, and not cool knifing the basketball. He also talked like a first rate punk ass kid…
-Ken Shamrock seems like he is a bit out of touch. Anyone else notice that? Did he run the old Lions Den this way? I doubt it. He might not be quite as sharp as he used to be. Maybe it was the beating that he took from Tito…or Frye…or Franklin or Fujita okay you get the idea. He might have swallowed too many punches. Then again I could be all wrong and he just sucks as a coach, and always has.
-Tito is hungry, so you can’t sell him short against Griffin. He wants badly to be a contender again. If he does lose this fight he will have lost to Lidell, Couture and now Griffin. Not a good position for someone who seemed so untouchable only a few short years ago. I think he’ll open up on Griffin very aggressively. Will it work? Who knows?
-Anyone else pulling for the deaf fighter? When I see him I think “all heart!”
At this point, I’m wondering if they’re just producing/editing it to make tito look more like the “good guy” and shamrock into the “bad guy.”
I mean, come on, cooking a pasta dinner? Jeez, whats the over/under on him leaving mints on their pillows? 3 weeks? ok, I’m taking the under.
That’s without even mentioning the first episode contrast in styles with tito talking about wanting to sweat and bleed with his guys and shamrocks hands off (although for the record I can see advantages to both,) the fact that tito’s face lights up whenever he talks about matt, and the whole mutiny in the ring that shamrock put up with last night.
I dont think shamrock ever shoulda put up with that by the way, kick kalib’s ass out of the ring, lets see how he likes prepping for his semi-final by sitting on his ass at the house.
Not saying that shamrock was right, but if you’re the authority figure, there are times you can brook dissent and there are times you cant. Last night was one of the times you cant.
That being said, like everyone else, I like Tito’s style a lot better. I dont know if the basketball idea was his own original or not, but it was a good one. Even tho he got bashed by seemingly everyone on his team for having noah train right before his fight.
I wanna see that loser bodyguard of rogan “tank” bounced from the show asap. evidence"
he’s ugly as sin. ugly people dont make for good tv
1a) people say tito’s head is disproportionate to his body? Jeez, tank has a pumpkin on top of his shoulders
that stupid-ass conversation he had with noah “well the ball was out there. its still out there”
bitching about getting bitched at by shamrock. ahhh, shut up
saying that matt “didnt know what was going on” yeah, theres a savvy move. knock the deaf kid. who by the way, somebody who knows way more about mma than you has been raving about. this goes for the brit who was complaining about it too. “im being treated differently than everybody” no, you’re being treated the same as everyone except matt. nobody else has been shown bitching about it, so stfu.
Being hard of hearing , approaching deaf myself I am of course partial to Matt. I do have to say though, I think someone above hit it on the head with the sensationalism of his “deafness”. Not because they are talking him up or anything, the guy really is a wrestling stud, but thru editing etc they really are milking it. Point in case, though I may be wrong; Why the hell did he not have an interpreter from moment one.
Just about every state in the nation has an interpreter program set up thru the state you can contact for services as well as multiple other ways to get that done. I am sure he has had an interpreter for most of his life for most anything outside of school (I think he attended deaf school) but even if not, I think after the first meeting with him setting things up for the show, signing contracts etc, they would have had an interpreter there.
I feel and again i could be wrong, is they set the whole thing up, get an episode or two in without an interpreter, make him out to be disadvantaged, have cool clips with the sound off to make hearing people “understand” and then BAM get him one and make it look like, oh wow, Tito / Dana ?UFC are so nice as to help that kid out to understand.
I duno if all I said makes sense, but it really bugged me. There was no reason from moment one for the kid to not have an interpreter there.