WOW GSP

God damn he proved me wrong...GSP beat everything BJ Penn tried to do tonight, beat him to the punch, out-muscled, out-struck, and out-worked him in every aspect of the match. BJ had zero answers, and looked like the smaller man. GSP's odd kinesthesiology discussion in the post-fight interview was interesting, and if that's what he was trying for I give him the props for a perfectly executed gameplan. Overall, GSP proved he's the stud at 170, and lightweights need not apply to fight. I'll go get a fleur-de-lis tattooed on my taint. Should it point at my balls or my asshole? Decisions...
The other fight that made my mouth drop open was Machida-Silva. Silva was absolutely chumped, clowned, destroyed. Pre-fight I thought Silva had no chance. I felt like Machida was going to tear him up. I didn't think it would be that bad...this was a squash match on par with the goofiest PRIDE FC matchup. Silva has a year or so to turn himself into a fighter who can beat the elite. Machida should have a shot NOW, before Rampage, before anyone. The UFC fucked up in not matching up 'Page and Rashad. Now they have to justify NOT putting Machida, who's clearly established himself as the best contender, into the #1 contender spot. Please UFC, if you're giving Page the shot, do it now. Cancel Jackson-Jardine. That is a useless abortion of a fight.
I was disappointed I didn't get to see more undercards. Only two stoppages on ten fights. Manvel the Anvil has some rethinking to do. Karo won, but I don't know why. Kim should have taken that fight. Jon Jones, get on the god damn exercycle. Stephan Bonnar is suddenly irrelevant. A better fight may have been Thiago Silva vs. Jon Jones. Fitch-Gono judges' cards: 30-27, 30-26, 29-28. What the fuck?
What's with the resurgence of booing at UFC events? Who the fuck boos Thiago Alves? Who else is going to fight GSP? Jesus? I think Jesus is a 185er.
Oh, real video replays of the main event on ESPN. I wish they'd show some of that stuff on "Top Plays". Machida deserves a bit.
Decent card. I wish I'd seen some more undercard action.

WEC 38 Weigh-ins

Seconds later I energetically jumped into MTB's fist. Its catching!

I wasn't able to get a fix on when they were happening, so I took a guess and jammed down to the Sports Arena with my brother around 130pm. We were working on his house, so I was lucky I remembered to bring a camera. We lucked out, and the Q&A that was supposedly for paying UFC Fight Club members featured some of the lax-est security ever, and we just strolled in. I tried sitting in the media section but got scooted out. Damn WEC not responding to my credentials request. Pfft.
I don't want to do the whole rundown but it was pretty cool. Condit, Brown and Mir did about a half hour, 45 minute or so Q&A with the fans, they had mics set up in the aisles. I couldn't think of anything to add. Apparently, Mir likes to get laid before fights. The guys were chill, and afterwards went and mingled with the crowd.
Fighters I shook hands with: Mike Brown, Carlos Condit, Frank Mir.
Fighters I waved at who noticed and waved back/and or talked from afar: Ryan Bader, Leonard Garcia, Jens Pulver (he gave me the KISS devil-tongue thing when I gave him the satan fingers), Jaime Varner.

Frank Mir looks sad because I smell really bad. Like, sewer bad.

Blas Avena had a huge contingent there, then came in overweight by .5, dropped trou in front of his mom, then flashed 75% of the audience with his junk. I left before I found out if he made weight. I'm hungry and want to see Affliction.
The beautiful 'n' ubiquitous Tracy Lee was there. Apparently she jumped in her ride and headed for Affliction after the weigh-ins.

My brother is taller than Carlos Condit, but I'm not

All in all, awesome to be out there. There was a dad with his little girl there who was getting autographs in her Little Mermaid book. That girl ruled. Mike Brown is as normal a dude as you can run into. Condit had to shake with his left because something happened to his right. Vera and Mir chatted off stage after Vera's fighter weighed in (forgot his name, honestly). More funny stuff happened, but I'll do a longer post later.

Article on Evan

I read this CNNSI article.
It brought back some of the grief and confusion following the news. I miss Evan still.

2008 Irrelevant Awards

Cross-posted at MMARatings.net
There's a lot of awards being given out, and a lot of well-planned and -executed awards being given out, at the end of 2008 and into 2009. Fightlinker's site is giving out the Worsties (which I named! I'm famous!), Bloody Elbow has some, Cage Tater has some, etc etc. I thought I'd throw mine in...the 2008 Irrelevant Awards!


This award is vital to the proper alignment of the MMA world, as well as peace in Palestine, so it is very important you vote, and likely that your vote will not count. Keep that in mind.

Please put your choices in the comments. I'll count them up, flip coins, peer intently at test tubes with jaunty science music humming along behind me, and consult chicken intestines to determine the winner, then just make it up. If I missed something, just comment, or email me, or send a carrier pigeon.

All categories were made by me on the spur of the moment, as well as the nominees. Some don't fit too well, but hey, who's to stop me? You? That's right. Didn't think so.

Cutest fighter (male)
Roger Huerta
Jake Shields
Urijah Faber
Rani Yayha
Kelly Kobold
I know that's a cheap shot on Kelly. She's not a cute guy at all.

Best FUB
Paul Buentello
Ricco Rodriguez
Josh Haynes
Josh Hendricks
Roy Effing Nelson
If you stood all of these guys next to each other, you could punch one, and the fat would ripple all the way to one end and back, like an executive office toy made out of fat fighters.
Note: Added the possible king of all bellies as per Nick's comment. Horrible oversight on my part. I'm going to go get spanked as punishment. Yes...punishment.

Extra Best Facial Hair
Evan Tanner (RIP)
Dustin Hazelett
Kimbo Slice
Joe Rogan
I miss Evan! Grow a tribute beard today! Ladies, lower beards!

Most outstanding pants
Shinya "These Legs" Aoki
Mirko "Purina Pants" Filipovic
Alan "The Fringe" Belcher
Melvin "Flappy Skirt" Manhoef
please don't tell Melvin I made fun of his pants. i want to live

Bitterest Blogger
Luke Thomas
Sam Caplan
Jake and Ryan
Ben and Ben
I was going to add Nicholas in here, but I didn't want to drive him over the edge

If you have any good images to add give me links in the comments! Comment! COMMENT!

Awesome Mir Interview

Damn this is a good radio interview by Frank. Validates everything I thought about the guy. He talks about everything, and it's pretty long, but well worth listening to. The end motivational speech he gives is pretty hardcore.

Armbar, I guess that's what you call it

Thanks to Andrei Arlovski's boxing coach, Freddie Roach, many BJJ fans are all up in boxing's grill in the last few days. Here's a few submission vids that bring it. If you have a special BJJ/Submission Grappling video you like (or one of you submitting someone!) post it in the comments, I want to see.

Turn off the sound...nothing but Metallica. But the last two literally made me gasp, and I've already seen them many times.


Old School...Here's Helio Gracie being introduced to a guy named Kimura.

Technique 19: Gogoplata inversé
by bobossikusa

This is Shinya Aoki teaching Nagata that you can indeed gogoplata from the top. Bonus: Bas Rutten calls it an omoplata. Bas is way more well known for his liver kicks.


Here's a sweet HL video of Masakazu "Ashikan Judan" Imanari, the leg lock master. There's some other funny stuff in there too. The guy is seriously insane and awesome. He was featured on the armbar HL video above.

Don't in any way take this as disrespect for Freddie Roach, the guy's boxing track record speaks for itself. But as far as MMA? He's a newb. I'm sure he knows that and was pretty much engaged in turd-stirring, which is valid. Frank Mir just successfully deployed some seriously little-remarked-upon misdirection leading up to his fight with Big Nog (anybody got a link for that? I know I didn't dream it. I think I didn't).
Speaking of Mir, I really hope he tears some part of Brock Lesnar off. I know Dana White would cry, cry, cry for like seven weeks if that happened, watching the PPV dollars go sliding away with Brock Lesnar's roid-powered teeny hammerfists, but fuck those guys. I want BJJ to win, not roid-rasslin.

Kickass 2008 HL

"The Year of the Jackal" baby

2008 part 2
by allenpork