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[Folby]

It depends. Calling out a guy in a rival organization is safer than calling out a guy in the same company as you. Nogueira called out Randy Couture but Couture has sworn to never fight in the UFC again so it isn't going to happen. BJ calling out GSP is somewhat unique because BJ has fought in GSP's weightclass before. (He has fought GSP, in fact. GSP won a split decision.) So calling out a guy in the same company as you means it's more likely to result in a fight. The weightclass thing is tricky though, and Dana White & company might not want their lightweight champ fighting their welterweight champ.

So in order of most likely to least likely:

- Calling out a guy in the same company and weightclass as you.
- Calling out a guy in the same company but different weightclass.
- Calling out a guy in a different company.
- The James Gang calling out DX, right here in the Impact Zone Don!
- I KNOW!

It's worth mentioning that it's BJ's goal to be the champ in every weight class, so if they tell him he can't fight GSP he's unlikely to accept that as an answer.

god after GSP he'll have to fight silva who is 5 inches and like 25 pounds heavier than him (and he'll crush him all hail bj penn)

[White Panther]

Things I was happy about from UFC 84:

BJ Penn hanging out to time the flying knee just right.
and then Penn calling out GSP (this fight will be effking awesome)
Jardine getting choked and punched in the face at the same time.
Tito losing.

Things I was unhappy about from UFC 84:
Tito on the mic after his fight. shuddup.

[Rusty Cooledge v2]

Blah.

Sherks cousin, one of my best friends, held a huge party to watch the fights and we were all cheering our ass off for Sean. Course he went about his strategy all wrong and got the shit kicked out of him, so it was a pretty big downer.

And I just think Penn is a douchebag that needs to get beat up.

Everything else though was awesome, especially Tito getting beat.

[Alicia]

Sorry, Rusty, but I think BJ Penn is awesome. Anyone who enters a ring with an IZ medley involving Hawaii '78 is alright with me. Last time he kicked the shit out of Joe Stevenson who's from my hometown too.

That knee to the face was insane. I totally didn't expect that with 10 seconds left in that round. I knew he was trying to get him tired but I didn't think he was going to do anything in that amount of time.

[Folby]

And I just think Penn is a douchebag that needs to get beat up.

elaborate on this plz because I tend to hate everything and I think BJ Penn is awesome

Sherk was going to get his ass kicked no matter what, he's a wrestler who prefers dominant position over all else, and BJ's jujitsu is good enough to fuck with anyone who tries to hold him down for 25 minutes. Joe Stevenson is no slouch on the ground and BJ completely steamrolled him. I mean, BJ Penn could hang with Matt Hughes when Hughes was at the top of his game and that was before BJ fully dedicated himself to training. Sherk's chances on the ground weren't good. His decision to stand with BJ was rather questionable given BJ's 2" reach advantage and his superior striking game, but Sherk's options were pretty limited. His strategy was to get to the later rounds and take advantage of a tired BJ on the ground. That's sound strategy, because historically BJ has always had trouble with stamina. He says he's training for 5 rounds now and can go that long, but nobody has tested it yet. So the question becomes how does Sherk get BJ to the later rounds. Traditional strategy would say that he should shoot for the takedown over and over again, make BJ defend and tire him out that way. The problem with that is that if he got the takedown there was a good chance BJ would just start going to school on him. You can't really shoot effectively for something you don't actually want. So Sherk decided to tire him out on his feet which could be done, in theory, but you've got to find a better way to do it than blocking punches with your face for 3 straight rounds.

edited to elaborate on why this was BJ's fight

[Hanstock]

Sean Sherk is a P.A.B.* of a fighter who deserves every loss that is dealt to him.






*pretty average bro

[Folby]

I don't think Sherk is an average fighter. I think he's a boring fighter who prefers position to finishing a fight when he's challenged, but he's 32-3-1. If he fights his fight, he can beat any man in the UFC who isn't BJ Penn. He's beaten Karo Parysian twice, Nick Diaz, and Kenny Florian.

I don't like Sherk, mainly because while he takes steroids (lots of people do this) he denies it up and down and not just in a "gotta put on a public face and tell the CSAC 'nuh-uh.' I could get over him eating babby food because he used to finish dudes with neck cranks and stuff, (neck cranks are so awesome) but I cannot get over a 5'6" roided out dude who would tell god himself that he just got a bad batch of Muscle Milk.

[White Panther]

I thought it was hilarious after the fight when Sherk said he felt he was doing well on his feet and just wanted to keep the standing game. I can respect sticking to the game-plan, which he was obviously doing, and he just got outclassed.

Smearing the blood off Sherk's face was kind of a dick move, but I guess if you're a fan of Penn it doesn't really bother you. What I'm saying is, I can see why people don't like Penn eventhough he is awesome.

[Rusty Cooledge v2]

re folby: im racist

No, I obviously have a bias towards Sherk due to my being 2 degrees of seperation from him. But something about Penn bothers me, he just comes across as a bag of douche to me.

But yeah, you'd have to be blind or related to think Sherk had just as good a chance at winning as Penn. Penn had it in the bag. Blah.

[Alicia]

BJ Penn has respect for the people he fights. What a douchebag.

[White Panther]

I just watched Episode 8 of TUF. I thought Dolloway's wrestling looked really good, and Klein just looked like a sucker. I mean, he went for a lot of subs, but it all looked like garbage (except for maybe the knee bar he went for.)

My eye isn't good enough to tell if it was Dolloway's sub defense that made Klein look like crap, or if they really were piss poor attempts. Also, wtf striking from both guys.

I hope Amir smashes Matt Brown and if Folby is gonna hang tight with Dolloway, then I'm picking Credeur cause I want them to square off in the finals.

[Folby]

lolololololololol Gina Carano failed to make weight again, which makes her 5 out of 5 when it comes to showing up for fights overweight. Travis Lutter failed to make weight once and was ridiculed. Gabe "Cake" Rudiger failed to make weight and is now fighting for such stalwart organizations as MMAX. Carano never makes weight and is still treated like a huge star in EXC. I get it, she's hot, blah blah blah, but this is fighting and I do not care.

Just so we're all clear: Gina Carano fights in a weight class that was SPECIFICALLY DESIGNED FOR HER and she missed it by nearly 4 pounds. The NJSAC fined her 12% of her purse and her opponent (who knew ahead of time Carano wasn't going to make weight) agreed to fight anyway.

also i hope kimbo gets knocked out in the 1st because it entertains me whenever a promotion's chosen winner loses

[White Panther]

I wanna hear thoughts on MMA's prime time network debut.

I missed the TV broadcast cause our TV doesn't get TV channels (!) but Hanstock downloaded it fer me. I thought everything outside the ring was boring and/or stupid. If I were a fighter, I'd be pretty bummed about having to walk down that flaming ramp without my corner.

The Gina Carano fight looked terrrrrrible. Hanstock thinks it was rigged, and while that other lady took a beating, I can't say I'd be shocked to find out it was.

Kimbo/Thompson was actually really entertaining, I thought. I don't generally like stand-ups, so I wasn't happy with the one in the first round. I was afraid he would stand them up again at the end of the second before Thompson started dropping elbows. Thompson took a lot of hard shots through the whole fight, but he wasn't backing off. The end was a complete disappointment.

his ear was lookin v yucky though

[Rusty Cooledge v2]

The crowd chanting bullshit at network tv live was pretty funny.

Such a bush league fucking organization though. Tonight event was much better with 2 insanely awesome fights.

gina carano is hot as fuck she can "pin" me anyday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Folby]

I thought Kimbo was exposed as something of a paper tiger in the fight, so I really enjoyed watching that. I was disappointed by the ending, but given the fact that Kimbo was held down for much of the fight by a pretty shitty wrestler and couldn't knock out a guy who was brought in specifically because he is prone to getting knocked out I don't have too much to complain about. I think the stoppage was horseshit, and a cynical man might suggest that the ref saw his best opportunity for preserving the company's desired result and took action.

I don't think Carano's fights are fixed in the sense that her opponent is taking a dive, she's just regularly given undersized, outmatched opponents. There are a good number of fighters who would beat her pretty handily, it's just that she doesn't fight them.

Make Bill download last night's WEC show for you, becaus the two top fights were both fantastic. Torres vs. Maeda was SO FUCKING AMAZING, early fight of the year contender. I went in expecting a lot because I'm a big big Torres fan and I was still blown away. It was the kind of stand-up brawl that Dana White loves, only both guys actually had talent and stamina! Pulver vs. Faber was also really, really good.

[A Link to the Matt]

I'm not a Kimbo mark here Folb, and I think the stoppage probably shouldn't have happened, but he was also taking a lot of shots and I'm pretty sure had the fight gone another 20-30 seconds, he probably would have been knocked out. So if anything, I think the stoppage actually hurt Kimbo's rep since her did not in fact get the chance to finish what he was doing at the end of the fight there.


Also, Carano mentioned American Gladiators (on a CBS show mentioning another network's hot show? Way to go Carano, I'm sure the execs at CBS loved that) does anyone know if she is one of the gladiators, or was she a contender at some point this season?

[Ragingape]

She is a Gladiator by the name of Crush. I think she is awesome on AG.

I told my friends that the event probably wasn't worth watching since it was two "franchise" fighters being put in the spotlight and I knew there was no way they would let them get exposed. Kimbo never will because they will never book that. Carano down the line will run into someone who will catch her.

I had never heard about Carano's weight class being created specifically for her. I knew she was fighting smaller opponents but not making weight is ridiculous.

But something about Penn bothers me, he just comes across as a bag of douche to me.

I missed this the first time but if someone said during this fight that "that one guy is a douche bag" I don't know anyone who would've thought the statement was about Penn.