The Fighting Thread

[Jack]

Booo boxing

[Celena]

I can understand why you don't appreciate a real man's sport.

[Pinky]

I think of boxing as more of a clown's hobby: giant red gloves, limited hit zones, restricted to punching, limited form of punching, and when you manage to knock down the opponent they get a ten second time out. Twice. Per round.

Boxing is definitely a sport but so is golf. It's been regulated into an absurd position from which there is no escape. And what's worst of all is that the system is designed to drag out the fight for as long as possible which is why boxers die every year from prolonged head trauma.

[Kaden]

Boxing is definitely a sport but so is golf. It's been regulated into an absurd position from which there is no escape.

Could not agree more. Last time I watched a boxing match, I actually got bored.

That's just not right.

[Saz]

I can only watch a boxing match when it's between two 'big name' fighters.

Still, all the regulations are there to protect fighters. I mean what's worse in the long run, stretched out fights, or fights where when somebody gets knocked down their opponent can jump on them and continue to pound on them? I've seen plenty of UFC bouts where a fighter has got in about 2 or 3 good shots on a guy who's clearly out of it before the ref has managed to stop him.

[Pinky]

More people die boxing each year than in MMA. As far as I've heard there's only been one death as the result of a sanctioned MMA event a few years back, and it happened in one of the smaller promotions, and another death that happened in an unsanctioned event in Russia back in 1998. In contrast, there have been over 70 boxing deaths since 1998. This shows the different effect the two sports have on their athletes.

Also, repeated head trauma over a span of years is known to cause mental disorders (Mohammad Ali being the most famous example). The worst of it happens after you get a concussion, and since boxers who survive the ten count will continue fighting the results are unsurprising. On the other hand, taking (at most) only a few strikes once you're down isn't so bad.

In other news, George St. Pierre is vying to compete as an olympic wrestler as part of the Canadian Olympics team in 2012. I know he's been training his wrestling game with the olympic team for years, which is one of the reasons why he's become so good at it. He's been wanting to do this for a while, too. Looking forward to that.

[Saz]

How many boxers have there been in comparision to MMA's in recent years though? I imagine there are more professional boxers than there are mix martial artists, so it's differcult to put that 70 deaths to 1 into perspective.

Also since MMA is a relatively new sport, the long term effects haven't really been seen yet. Seeing people like Chuck Liddel in interviews, it doesn't look very good.

I'd just like to state I'm not some huge boxing fan who hates UFC, if anything I prefer UFC to boxing.

[Tyr]

So, despite all the boxing hate, anyone watching the Super Middleweight's championship fight between Kessler and Haussler?

[Pinky]

http://www.azsportz.net/1.html

currently streaming phil baroni, veteran MMA athlete, hasn't fought in the UFC since the mid-60's (this is now ufc106)

vs.

amir sadolla, won over a favored name in one of the more recent TUF houses.

[Pinky]

Fight ended in a decision, Amir beat Baroni 29 to 28.

The start definitely had Baroni showing Amir the different that experience can make, but halfway through the first round Amir found his range and used textbook Muyi Thai (elbows and knees in the clinch) and tore Baroni to pieces for the rest of the match. I don't know why, but Baroni totally gassed at the end of the first round and never recovered.

Now it's Luiz Cane, Brazilian striker. I don't know much about him.

vs

Minotouro Nogueira, also Brazilian but more of a submission fighter, the twin brother of former heavyweight champ Rodrigo Nogueira. He's in the light-heavyweight division.

edit: Wow, Nogueira punched a hole right through him. That was quite a performance for a debut.

[Jesper]

Man. Luiz Cane got his ass kicked.

[Pinky]

Since that fight ended so fast, they're showing a fight on the undercard.

Marcus Davis. Welterweight striker, former boxer who transitioned to MMA, a good fighter.

vs

Ben Saunders. Dunno about him, they say he's good in the clench.

edit: Ben KO's Marcus in the first round. First time Davis was knocked out. I'm going to have to keep a tab on this guy.

[Pinky]

Paulo Thiago.

vs

Jacob Volkman.

I don't know much about either, except that Jacob is undefeated at this point. However, the streaming video junked out on me at the beginning so I missed the first half of the first round, and when I got it working again Paulo is pushing Jacob around.

edit: Next is the co-main event and then the main event.

[Pinky]

fucking livestreaming websites. i downloaded sopcast because it went down again and i'm not going to miss the next two fights. Jacob vs Pualo is still ongoing, though.

edit: Jacob's undefeated record has been stopped. He was able to shake just about every advantage that Pualo had and gain dominance himself on occasion, but Pualo always made better use of his opportunities.

[Pinky]

Co-main event. Welterweight.

Josh Koscheck. Finalist from the first season of TUF, one of the last few original TUF fighters still competing in the UFC. He's a good fighter, but not top five material.

vs.

Anthony Johnson. A great fighter, fast and strong. It's difficult to go to decision against him, he's 8-2 with his previous five non-consecutive wins by TKO or KO. Only two wins by decision, nobody has really been able to stand with his striking. He's a pretty giant guy for a welterweight, I've been excited about him for a while.

[Pinky]

OH MY GOD! Koscheck won! Rear choke! Did not see that coming!

Hum, I guess Johnson's ground game needs a lot of work. Koscheck is a very experienced wrestler, and the difference was huge.

That was a long fight. Most eye pokes in a match evar.

Now it's the main event. Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz, second match. Forest is coming off a loss, but Tito is returning to the UFC after having been cut off when he lost to Lyoto Machida (current LHW champ) last year.

Tito won the last fight, and Tito says he was dealing with back issues so he's stronger this time. Forest is a much better fighter himself. This is a good match up, because so many questions need answering.

[Jack]

Where is this? I'm watching some black guy and some short (?) guy.

[Pinky]

it's over, too late. download SopCast's software, though. it'll play streaming video of just about everything, if you can find the address for a specific event (go to popular mma forums for those when events happen).

Forrest and Tito went to a decision. They're both former champions, they could go five rounds. Split decision for Forrest. This makes it 1 to 1, now they can have a third "rubber" match.

Forrest really came out swinging and kept it up all fight. Tito really did get him down on the ground for a while in the second round, but Griffin's ground defense was really polished. I think he also picked up a fresh cut on his face, he is the most prolific bleeder in the UFC. When they were developing UFC 2009 videogame, Forrest said "can you guys make it so that every time I get hit blood runs down my face?"

But anyway, that was great. Both fighters put on a good show. It was nostalgic seeing Tito in the octagon again.

[Cain]

Awesome. I wanted to see the Forrest - Tito fight.

[Jesper]

I really can't see Forrest the same way again after seeing him get demolished by Anderson Silva in UFC 101.

So while it's great that he beat Tito, it's like "Yeah, but..." for me.