Tag Archive for ‘pride’ at johng Blog

Tag Archive for 'pride'

UFC 80 Live Report

Published

on January 20, 2008

. 0 Comments

The dedicated few made the difficult trip up to Newcastle to check out UFC 80 this weekend. The Metro Radio Arena is a tiny shed of a venue compared to the O2 and the M.E.N. making our cheap ‘nose bleed’ seats seem considerably closer than previous shows. This was a great show to see live as only one fight went the distance (the opposite of UFC 75) and even that was pretty exciting. The roof blew off whenever BJ Penn did anything and we were all pleased to see him finally get the lightweight belt, he deserved it. I don’t think the noise in the arena came across on TV, although I didn’t realise quite how bloody the fight was till I watched it back at home.

Oh and due to a hilarious lapse in security when the show ended we got octagon side, met Mike Goldberg and got involved in the numerous chants aimed at Joe Rogan, Dana White and of course Micheal Bisping. At one point there were about 20 guys chanting like crazy at Goldberg right behind the camera while he was doing a fill for a prelim, if you watch it back you can just make out the noise but Goldberg never cracks - what a pro.

Great show, fun weekend, shame about the location, come on Dana bring UFC to Birmingham!

MMA Year in Review 2007

Published

John Griffin

on January 1, 2008

in MMA

. 1 Comment

Go read my round up from last year first. Wow. What a difference a year makes.

Most turbulent year in the history of MMA: 2007

Best Division: UFC Lightweight
A ton of high quality fighters having a ton of high quality fights. Fast paced, entertaining and highly competitive. It will be interesting to see who gets the winner of BJ/Stevenson vs Sherk next year.

Favourite Fighter: Quinton Rampage Jackson
Inside and outside the octagon always a character and with a new training team behind him this year was able to take out Liddell and defend against a very game Dan Henderson.

Favourite Match: Phil Baroni vs Frank Shamrock
This one is too hard. I picked this match because of the story, the characters and the fight all built up perfectly. Both guys were physically and mentally destroyed afterwards. Also worthy are Tyson Griffin vs. Frankie Edgar, Chuck Liddell vs Wanderei Silva, Clay Guida vs Roger Huerta, Roger Huerta vs. Leonard Garcia, Tyson Griffin vs Clay Guida, Forrest Griffin vs Shogun, Randy Couture vs Tim Sylvia. The list goes on.

Favourite Moment: Randy Couture comes out of retirement to defeat Tim Sylvia
This was such a special fight, it was Rocky but real. Everyone disliked (hate is a strong word) Tim Sylvia and everybody loved (past tense) Randy. No one expected that first punch and no one expected it to be such a great performance. I was standing for all 25 minutes.

Worst Moment: Randy Couture parts ways with the UFC
After the high of winning the belt and then crushing Gonzaga, Randy decided to hang up the gloves due to some really dumb reasons. I think he is hiding something now. UFC should just call his bluff and co-promote a Fedor vs Couture fight with M1 Global. With the cool $2 million that will get him there will be no excuses.

Worst Trend: It’s all about the money
Randy, Tito, Fedor, etc. Stop bitching and start fighting.

Best Match That Never Happened: Fedor Emelyanenko vs Randy Couture
See above. Fedor ran away and Couture left his contract.

Show Of The Year: Pride 33
An absolute classic filled with upsets. The last great Pride event.

Pride 33 - A Night of Upsets

Published

John Griffin

on February 26, 2007

in MMA and TV

. 3 Comments

This was one crazy but great show. Major upsets across the board and pro-wrestling style booking during the show made this one to remember. The constant jabs at the UFC came off as cheap and considerable damage has been done to the potential Liddell vs Silva fight now. From the pre match footage it was clear they were trying to prove that Silva is better than Rampage, Rampage is better than Liddell and therefore Silva would beat Chuck. Scratch that then.

Gomi was once again calling out GSP, Hughes and BJ Penn. Then he stepped into the ring, gassed in the first round and got choked out in the second. An amazing match (fight of the year so far) but Gomi needs to start actually training for fights before he even thinks of going 5 rounds with GSP.

Pride might be dying but this was a highly entertaining show that I recommend checking out for the main events at least.

UFC 67: A New Look For a New Year

Published

John Griffin

on February 5, 2007

in General

. 1 Comment

Finally with the move to HD and at the first PPV of 2007 the UFC updated their presentation of the show. At UFC 67 were treated to new snazzy graphics all round with sound effects thrown in for the fun of it. This is a good move and the investment was sorely needed after years and years of the same stuff on PPV and TV.

Although I didn’t watch the show in HD initially I did manage to catch a couple of the fights in High Def the following day. Just check out the crispyness of these caps:

Tito vs Ken 3…on Spike…in Florida

Published

John Griffin

on August 8, 2006

in TV

. 5 Comments

Wow, check it out (from Meltzer)

Dana White just confirmed to us this morning that he’s gotten verbal agreements to terms from both Tito Ortiz and Ken Shamrock for a 10/10 fight on a Spike TV special. The show will likely be held at the Hard Rock Cafe in Hollywood, FL.

Fair play to Dana and those two for sorting this out. It’s a big thank you to all those paying fans who felt they got screwed last time. Do we need the rematch? Definately not on PPV but free TV seems perfect.

UFC 61 Roundup

Published

John Griffin

on July 10, 2006

in TV

. 4 Comments

Well that was a crappy show. What more can be said. Tito vs Ken needed to be stopped as Shamrock wasn’t doing a damn thing to defend himself. Sylvia vs Arlovski was two guys who probablly respect each other too much now and really Arlovski didn’t do enough to win the title.

The one promising thing that did come out of the show was the potential of Liddell vs Silva if Chuck can get through Babalu next. Amazing dream match stuff it is but it brings up more questions than answers about Silva’s status with the UFC. FightOpinion has the best article on it I have seen.

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