//the.Collector

If Anyone Can- Carwin Can

UFC 116 is looking to be a very interesting card for the finally deep UFC Heavy Weight Division. When Brock first started wrecking people most fans felt he would own the division the way Wanderlei Silva did in Pride (5 years as champion). Little did we know Lesnar was only the beginning of a new generation of HW’s. They are skilled, athletic, and most of all impossibly big for their abilities. Heavyweight fights are short because the fighters are more skilled and dish out inhuman levels of damage not because they just gas and fall over. Shane Carwin is a perfect example, 12 fights and nobody has gotten to round 2 with him.

Lesnar is a seriously daunting challenge in that he really has no obvious weaknesses. There are many unknowns with him (his conditioning, his chin) but that isn’t the same as a weakness. Nobody really knows how well he can take a punch but I suspect given the size of his neck and his posture fighting it is much better than most people might think. His positioning on the ground rules out most kinds of submissions, so he has clearly learned for his 1st fight with Frank “Muhr”. Even given all of this the division is so deep a long reign as champion isn’t assured for anyone.

Read the full article

Rich Franklin is Human After All

I actually found this video to be a bit of a relief. When he broke his arm during the fight and was completely relaxed about the whole thing I was starting to think maybe Ace has been hitting the painkillers as a pre-fight ritual.

Franklin is the man that’s for sure.

Read the full article

Rampage loses- pregnant pedestrians avoid outdoor activity in the greater O.C. area!

I should have put some money on Rampage vs. Evans! In all seriousness this really wasn’t hard to call Rampage has gone from the #1 GnP/anti-wrestler, wrestler at LHW to the most 1 dimensional mixed martial artist in the LHW division. Jackson is the guy who finished at least 3 fights I can think of with body shots on the ground. Other than Randy he is the only fighter ever able to make GnP work on Chuck Liddell. Now he is a head hunting boxer who will, if forced to, use knee strikes. Pure head hunting isn’t that great of a strategy in boxing and it is only useful in MMA when used to set up your real game.

Rampage will slide into irrelevance faster than Tito Ortiz at this rate. That sucks too because he is still one of my favorite fighters. It’s time for a change Rampage. Start with a new gym ( like AKA) and get back to your roots.

Read the full article

Ok See--This Makes Me Nervous for Rampage

Here is a slightly bias but still fairly accurate reflection of the training we saw on the 3 part Primetime show. This kind of stuff really makes me wonder about Rampage’s trainers and his choice in camps. At one time Jackson was a top notch GnP fighter who happen to have smart, effective stand up. Now he is a stand up fighter who is pretty tough to take down. Most of his fights now go to decision instead of ending early due to stoppage. Personally, I see that training video (linked at the start of the story) as proof one fighter is training to go the distance and one fighter expects a 1 punch KO in the first round. Rashad’s coaches are taking a smart approach here based on Rampage’s recent history (last 5 years). Rampage on the other hand seems to be training to replicate Machida’s victory over Rashad without doing anything that Machida does. I expect this fight to go the way of Evans vs. Silva where Rashad plays the smart game and get’s his win. If he tries to stand and trade Rampage will put him to sleep quickly.

Read the full article

Tito Ortiz, time to hang it up?

Go here and check out the TUF episode from this past week and see why MMA is too small for Tito Ortiz. That’s right I said too small. If Tito wants to be an over-paid, whining, quitter Major League Baseball has plenty of openings. MMA can’t support crap like that at this stage.

Seriously, if you are that injured all the time stop fighting and stop wasting our time with all the talk! Tito made his mark once but that time is long gone and there are just too many guys willing to fight for Tito’s big-ego-I’m-100%-this-is-going-to-be-war-pro-wrestling-crap. The fans expect guys to really fight and not make every fight about their greatness.

Read the full article

Can Rampage Swim?

Is it just me or is Quinton “Rampage” Jackson seem a bit out of line here. Rampage was pretty handily beaten by Forrest who was then beaten at his own game by Rashad. I know styles make fights so comparisons are difficult but this one works. Rashad deserves some respect for out working a guy who out worked Rampage and Rampage has an inconsistent record with guys who are constantly working and being aggressive.

Wanderlei- 2 loses (KO’s) 1 win (Against a past his prime Silva)
Forrest- 1 loss (decision)
Matt Lindland- 1 win (controversial to many)
Shogun- 1 loss (TKO/KO)

Read the full article