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By Matt Soldano  September 19, 2009, at 5:07 pm  Let me give you the back story, as a member of 3rd String, I am always exposed to various MMA blogs, predictions, and funny videos of Comack yelling his head off. I will be perfectly honest, I was never a big MMA fan, never saw the allure of it all, and basically never understood why it became so damn popular so damn quickly. My best friend is a MMA nut and has tried to explain it all but most of the time I would tune him out.
So along came Anthony De Franco, who told me about the show, The Ultimate Fighter, and how Kimbo Slice, who he knew was a bromance of mine, was going to be on the show. Immediately I got excited and was finally ready to give this UFC thing a chance. On Wednesday, the show premiered, and everything that could happen that would prove my previous thoughts about the UFC true, happened. I had to sit through a ten minute fight (if that’s what you want to call it) of a man by the name of Abe Wagner get completely obliterated by his opponent.
Although it was nothing near exciting obliteration, it was more of, I will let my opponent do the same move time after time and I will spend the entire fight on my back with another guy laying on top of me just waiting for the time to expire. And oh yeah, there was the great Rampage Jackson coaching of, “Get Up, Stand Up” repeat. Maybe there was strategy to just laying on your back for the entire fight but I found it to be plain boredom.
However, I will continue to watch the show because Kimbo remains in the competition and I am the perfect example of why the Ultimate Fighter will see its ratings boost more than ever.
Then, I came across this video. Chalk up, Anderson Silva (who I hear is pretty good) to the list of MMA fighters who I suddenly covet. Any man that is going to come out for their fight to the sounds of Michael Jackson and then proceed to do a 2 minute dance is enough for me to watch a fight, no matter how boring or how quick the fight lasts.
And on that note, I never thought I would ever post anything on this site that would have the tag of MMA. Next, Jordan will have me writing Golf. The title? “Tiger Woods Is Real Good.”
By Jason Comack September 19, 2009, at 3:56 pm So now that BetUS.com is an advertiser on 3rd String Safety I figured I would check out their odds. I found some very interesting bets for UFC 103 tonight.
1) U.F.C. Props – Franklin/Belfort – Belfort wins by Submission +900 for Fight Outcome
Why would I bet on Belfort beating Franklin by Submission? Belfort has underrated Ju-jitsu. Yes, he has ridiculously fast hands and will look to keep this fight standing but what if he stuns Franklin with a punch. Is it that improbable that he could finish him by submission? Remember that Belfort is a BJJ Black Belt under Carlson Gracie and Franklin did almost get Kimuraed by Yushin Okami.
I’ll admit a Belfort submission is an unlikely way for this fight to end but 9-1 odds seem kinda crazy.
2) U.F.C. UFC 103 - Cole Miller +105 for Fight Lines
Miller is a dog, albeit slight. I love Millers long lanky frame for this weight class. His ju-jitsu is outstanding as he submitted Jorge Gurgel by triangle choke. I was on the fence about this fight but two things swayed me. 1) Escudero hasn’t beaten anyone. Woohoo, he beat Nover, the most over hyped fighter in recent memory. 2) He didn’t make weight and looked totally dead at the weigh in. Escudero isn’t a particularly big 155 pounder so he just must be out of shape.
Miller Submission Round 3
3) U.F.C. UFC 103 - Tomasz Drwal -120 for Fight Lines
McFedries is 8-5 and 4-4 in the UFC why is this line so close? He’s a one dimensional stand up fighter with a suspect chin. He’s not technical by any means he just has naturally heavy hands. Drawl, 16-2, is younger, more athletic, more technically sound and has fought better competition at a higher weight class.
Someones getting KO’d in this one and it’s going to be McFedries.
4) U.F.C. UFC 103 – Rafael dos Anjos -130 for Fight Lines
Why is Rob Emerson still around? I get that he’s 2-1 in the UFC but he’s 9-7 overall and is pretty one dimensional. He has OK stand up and OK take down defense but that’s about it. Dos Anjos has faced better competition and despite being 0-2 in the UFC has serious skills. He was beating Jeremy Stephens until he was caught with an uppercut and went the distance with Tyson Griffin.
I like dos Anjos by submission.
5) U.F.C. Props – Griffin/Franca – Griffin wins by KO, TKO or DQ +500 for Fight Outcome
A silly bet? Yes and no. Griffin is going to win this fight lets start there. He’s much better then Franca and Franca is out of shape (159 catch-weight.) Now betting on a Griffin KO might be foolish because his last seven fights have gone the distance but lets think this through. Griffin is a young fighter, 25, who is constantly improving (every fight his hands get better and better.) Franca isn’t much of a boxer and only relies on his BJJ. There’s a solid chance Griffin looks to keep this fight standing to stay away from Francas ground game. There’s also a solid chance if/when Griffin takes Franca down he can finish the fight via TKO Ground and Pound.
I like this bet a whole lot.
By Zach Schiff September 19, 2009, at 3:15 pm I’m back from Las Vegas (mid-September and still 100 degrees!) and I received a 2-for-1 in the week I was gone. Not only was Dany Heatley traded, but Phil Kessel was as well, leaving September only for training camp, and no drama.
I’m just brainstorming, but let’s say for argument’s sake, the 6 defensemen who make the Rangers roster for opening night are: Michal Rozsival, Wade Redden, Dan Girardi, Marc Staal, Mike del Zotto, and Matt Gilroy. Not a huge stretch, right? Sure, you could possibly sub Bobby Sanguinetti in for del Zotto, but that has no effect on my point today.
The newspaper today said that Rozsival and Redden would be top pairing, like they were together for most of last season. My question is: Why?
Now, it’s well-documented that I am against having Redden and Rozsival on the team simply because this is a Salary Cap Era. If there was no Cap, then having a waste of space like Wade Redden on the team would simply be par for the course. They’d demote him to 3rd-line pairing or send him to Hartford, and spend big money on someone better than him.
Of course, since his $6.5M/year is looming large for the next 5 years, he has no choice but to play. And of course, it ultimately cost Tom Renney his job, as Renney’s over-reliance on him led to his downfall.
Same for Rozsival. While I may personally like Rozsival and think he is a decent defenseman, he in no way warrants $5M/year, Salary Cap Era or not.
So why pair them together? They were horrendous separately and together last year. Plus, by doing that, you are putting 2 pairs of “kids” on the blueline.
Girardi and Staal should be a tandem. They were last year often, they play well together, one is a lefty, one is a righty. Both broke into the league near the same time and both a re equally as good as the other.
So that leaves Del Zotto and Gilroy, two rookies together, no?
I say John Tortorella should put Gilroy with either Redden or Rozsival, and Del Zotto with the other one. That way the future top-pairing could learn from the veterans, who could (hopefully) cover the mistakes the rookies make.
Couldn’t hurt, right?
My ideal pairings…
Redden – Gilroy (Redden is a left-handed shot, Gilroy a right-handed shot)
Staal – Girardi (Staal, lefty; Girardi, righty)
Del Zotto – Rozsival (Del Zotto, lefty; Rozsival, righty)
I mean, it’s not like Redden and Rozsival were so dominant last season that breaking them up would be disastrous. They aren’t MacInnis-Suter, Leetch-Beukeboom, or Stevens-Neidermayer. Hell, they aren’t even Staal-Girardi. They’re one step better than the pre-lockout pairing of Vladimir Malakhov and Boris Mironov.
It worked 2 years ago when Staal paired with Paul Mara. Why not let the rookies learn from the veterans? At the very least, they could learn what not to do.
By Anthony De Franco September 19, 2009, at 2:34 pm Let’s understand something about tonight. The Floyd Mayweather/Juan Marquel Marquez is boxing’s last stand. They need this card to at least perform adequately against UFC 103 or we could really see the end of boxing as a major pay-per-view player.
A lot of Boxing’s problem is image as people see the sport as corrupt and incapable of policing itself. The fighters are seen as bigger than the sport and arrogant playboys. Mayweather did nothing to appease that thought last night when he missed weight.
Floyd Mayweather Jr. made the contracted weight of 147 pounds for his HBO Pay-Per-View fight on Saturday with Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
But when Mayweather weighed 146 pounds at Friday’s weigh-in, he was forced to pay a six-figure penalty to Marquez for coming in at more than 144 pounds, Golden Boy Promotions CEO Richard Schaefer said.
Schaefer said the contract the fighters signed in May was for the bout to be at a limit of 147 pounds. But in that contract, each man agreed to a substantial penalty clause for every pound, or fraction thereof, more than 144.
So, here is what your telling me: Mayweather is so rich that he doesn’t care about having to pay a huge penalty so he didn’t have to cut weight like every other fighter? Do you know what Dana White would do to someone who had that attitude? He would have him deported. He might even have him killed. I’m still waiting to see what happens to Efrain Escudero who missed weight despite the fact that Spike TV is showing his prelim fight as the centerpiece of a special broadcast.
The truth is that Dana White is what boxing needs. They need promoters that are willing to go after the fighters despite the fact that they are huge stars. Tonight, we will likely see the end of boxing as we know it, and the continued rise of the UFC will lead to even more boxing fans coming over to our side of the fence.
By Anthony De Franco September 19, 2009, at 1:05 pm Ah Crap. I had Phillips pegged for a huge breakout and year and anything that can hinder that annoys the crap out of me. Here’s the news from Rotoworld.com.
Giants SS Kenny Phillips’ knee problem is expected to linger all season.
Expect Phillips to have swelling and pain in the knee for the forseeable future. He hasn’t ruled himself out for this week’s game against the Cowboys, but he said his status is very much up the air.
If their is one problem with the Giants defense, it’s that the they lack a big playmaker in the secondary. Corey Webster shows some flashes of that, and Mike Johnson is very consistent, but it sucks that Phillips, who has huge potential, will be playing hindered throughout this season.
Plus, anything that puts C.C. Brown on the field more makes me want to kill myself.
By Anthony De Franco September 19, 2009, at 8:00 am Kimbo Slice has become one of the hottest names in the MMA universe over the last few weeks. With his appearance on this season of The Ultimate Fighter, Spike TV set all kinds of records for viewership and all signs point to Kimbo being the reason. Now, TapouT is releasing an entire line of clothing that centers around the Bahamian street fighter. Here’s the first of many to come.
Let’s be honest, people are going to buy this shirt because it has Kimbo’s name on it. It doesn’t have a ton of flashy graphics or anything like that. It’s a gritty looking shirt, and I kinda like it alot. MMA Warehouse has your hookup. The shirt will only run you 23.99.
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