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MMA

UFC 2010: Undisputed Q&A Breakdown: Round Two

Each week, THQ has decided to answer some questions that the public has about UFC 2010: Undisputed. Since most game sites aren’t exactly versed in Mixed Martial Arts, We’re here to breakdown what the answers mean to us fans.

A quick note before we get started this week. If you are amongst the people leaving questions (which you should do), then please think about what you are writing. Far, Far too many people are focusing on the wrong things. I’ve seen some pretty rediculous questions on the thread, including beating on already unconscious opponents, and having UFC 1 style matches with no rules. Let’s think people.

Now, on to the questions!

XPlicit asks, “When you notice your opponent is rocked can you rush them as hard as you can and throw with all your might wasting every last bit of energy just to finish that person.”

You will get a bonus after you rock an opponent. We implemented the new “Adrenaline Rush” system into fights which should make things pretty interesting. You will not be conferred a movement speed bonus, but your fighter will have his energy replenished. This means you can execute the full array of moves without worrying about getting gassed yourself. We wanted to give the player that feeling of mastery and dominance that comes with rocking an opponent and following through on it in the real Octagon — from playing with it and testing it, it brings a ton of excitement to Undisputed 2010.

Interesting development. One of the complaints that was common last year is that every rocked situation ended the same the way. The winner would just stand over the helpless loser throwing bombs until the fight was stopped. The “Adrenaline Rush” would seem to indicate that the stamina boost will be necessary to try and finish fights, which means there will be someway to recover from being rocked.

Fornez1 Asks “How will escaping submissions work with the new system? will you always wind up in an advantages position or will sometimes you escape to standing and sometimes escape to side mount(for example)”

Last year, when you failed a submission, you’d almost always end up in a tough situation — usually on your back or with a player in control. We wanted to move away from this system and towards more of an organic, and realistic submission escape system. There are a number of positions that you can escape into that are beneficial, neutral, and even disadvantageous depending upon what has been happening during the fight. In keeping it real as it gets, escapes will never result in only side control or a full guard.

Another complaint from last year addressed. Fighters never really escape submissions and wind up in dominant positions. Last year, so many subs would be reversed into side mount that it often was worth it try for the submissions. This should also take away some of the predictably from a game that was stiff last year.

SleepyWeasel asks “In the new Career mode, does your fighter age at all? Or does he stay the same age throughout the entire career?”

Your fighter, and all other fighters will age. Aging occurs in two ways. As your fighter becomes more experienced at certain skills and moves after training, it’ll become easier and easier to better maintain your proficiency in that field. For example, once you get so good at wrestling, you don’t have to train as extensively to keep up your skill as a wrestler. On the other hand, we’ve implemented a decay system that’s a function of your age. Once your fighter gets up there in the years, you’ll find that you need to focus on maintaining your core stats through your weekly training routine a bit more to stay fresh in the Octagon. Along your career mode playthrough, you’ll even see the greats of the UFC retiring.

Yes. Thank goodness. Last year’s career mode was underutilized in many different ways. One of the main ones was that once you became champion, you fought the same people over and over again. As fun as it is beating down B.J. Penn, I wanted some new blood for my fighter to face. This year, it seems that the divisions will be thinned out by retiring fighters and re-stocked with new talent. One big step for a better career mode.

Kurowski God asks “Are there different “rocked” stages, like you hit with a head kick, maybe he gets more rocked then a good right hook.”

In this year’s game, we shared that you can be rocked from any position and by almost every move. While these moves, and by extension the rocked states that they’ll be causing, will look different depending upon what you do (head kick, uppercut), being rocked will not have varying degrees of ‘rockiness’ or grogginess. What’s important is how the player who rocked the other executes his next few moves. If you have your combos down and have excellent timing, you’ll be able to quickly level some devastating moves on your groggy opponent — you might even knock him out. These ‘follow up’ combos are going to be tough to execute, as any other button inputs after the rocked animation will derail the combo. But the skilled player who uses caution and foresight when he knows his opponent is struggling will get an awesome payoff.

This seems to relate to the first question of the day. It seems that some skill will be needed this year to finish a rocked opponent. It’s no longer enough to just land the big punch and pound out every opponent. This should lead to longer fights and more decisions.

Check back Tomorrow afternoon for the full B.J. Penn Trailer!

MMA

East Coast MMA Prospect Watch: Rick Hawn And Cole Konrad

Last night in Wilmington Massachusetts Judo standout Rick Hawn notched his 4th MMA victory.  At 33 years old Hawn might be too old to be considered a prospect but despite his age he has serious skills that make you believe he can make it to the next level.

Hawn is one of, if not the, most decorated judo practitioners on the MMA circuit.   Check out Hawn’s judo resume.

Olympic Teams: 2004 (Ninth)

World Championship Teams: 2007

Pan American Games Teams: 2007 (Bronze)
Pan American Championship Teams: 2004 (Fifth), 2002 (Bronze), 1999

Hawn confirmed, according to a Sherdog.com report, that his next fight will be March 15th in North Carolina on the Shine Fights PPV, against Braulio Estima. Estima is a renowned submission grappler who will be making his MMA debut. While it’d be better for Hawn to take on more well rounded and experienced opponents it’s good to see him staying very active.

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Cole Konrad has his second career MMA fight tonight as he looks to improve his 1-0 record agaisnt Joel Wyatt and Matrix Fights 1 in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Konrad, 25, is a decorated wrestler out of the University Of Minnesota. Konrad, while at the University Of Minnesota won two NCAA titles. The first came during an undefeated junior season of 2006 and he followed that up with another undefeated, title winning performance in 2007.

A decorated wrestler is always a very dangerous MMA fighter no matter how green they are. We’ve seen it with Brock Lesnar, Phil Davis, Muhammad Lawal and Josh Koscheck (in the beginning of his career.) Obviously there’s a whole lot to be intrigued about when talking about Konrad. He’s got the size of a modern day heavyweight, 6′5 265, and trains with a great camp at Minnesota Mixed Martial Arts. For a guy who aspires to be Baby Brock who better to train with.

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Keep a close eye on Hawn and Konrad both have the skill sets to one day be champion.

MMA

Gettin’ Paid: UFC 109 Salaries

It’s good to be Randy Couture. Not only is he still more of a man than I will ever be at age 46, but he is the top earner on the card for UFC 109. The Natural continues a trend of guaranteed money for the top guys in the UFC, as he made 250,000 with no win bonus.

Seeing Matt Serra at the top of this list is a lot more surprising to me. His 150,000 payday seems like a lot of money for a guy who would have been in danger of being cut had he lost that fight.

Here is the complete list from MMA Junkie:

Randy Couture: $250,000 (no win bonus)
def. Mark Coleman: $60,000

Chael Sonnen: $64,000 (includes $32,000 win bonus)
def. Nate Marquardt: $45,000

Paulo Thiago: $30,000 ($15,000 win bonus)
def. Mike Swick: $43,000

Demian Maia: $62,000 ($31,000 win bonus)
def. Dan Miller: $15,000

Matt Serra: $150,000 ($75,000 win bonus)
def. Frank Trigg: $30,000

Mac Danzig: $40,000 ($20,000 win bonus)
def. Justin Buchholz: $8,000

Melvin Guillard: $28,000 ($14,000 win bonus)
def. Ronys Torres: $4,000

Rob Emerson: $24,000 ($12,000 win bonus)
def. Phillipe Nover: $10,000

Phil Davis: $10,000 ($5,000 win bonus)
def. Brian Stann: $17,000

Chris Tuchscherer: $20,000 ($10,000 win bonus)
def. Tim Hague: $7000

Joey Beltran: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus)
def. Rolles Gracie: $15,000

Attendance: 10,687
Gate: $2.27 Million

NFL

Life Is Too Short

Today is a sad day. Chris Henry didn’t always make the right choices in life but he was trying to change. That’s why today is a sad day.

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Henry’s career was littered with problems off the field. He argued with everyone from teammates to parking attendants and had many brushes with law enforcement. Maybe he didn’t deserve the third and fourth chances he got in Cincinati but at age 26 he was finally putting it all together. He spoke to area youth groups warning children not to make the same mistakes he did. Its a shame that it took him so long to take his own advice.

What we can learn from the life and death of Chris Henry is that when given a natural ability – wether it be athletic, artistic or intellectual- you can’t waste it. Life is far too short.

NFL

Roethlisberger Out For Sunday?

Wow. How horrible could this be for the Steelers if it’s true? Paging Dennis Dixon anyone? From PFT:

Despite several days of optimism regarding the availability of Steelers quarterback Ben Roethlisberger for Sunday night’s game against the Ravens, Roethlisberger will not play, according to Jay Glazer of FOX, via Twitter.

Glazer reports that Roethlisberger has been suffering from exercise-induced headaches. Thus, the team has decided to shut him down.

For those who don’t know, Charlie Batch is also out for the game, so the defending champs will be going with Dennis Dixon at quarterback.

Pittsburgh is 6-4, and in second place in an extremely tough AFC North. Baltimore is just a game behind them, and the Bengals are in the driver’s seat at 7-3.

There is a bigger issue here than just this game though. Roethlisberger is starting to profile like Steve Young or Troy Aikman. He’s had so many concussions over the last few years that people have to start being concerned for the health of his brain. As good as Ben is, he is going to have to shut it down at a very young age if this continues.

As much as this may hurt the Steelers this week, it’s the right call.

NFL

When Did It Become Cool To Hate On Antonio Pierce?

Giants MLB Antonio Pierce is a lot like the David Eckstein of professional football. If this was purely a physical game, he wouldn’t be playing it. He’s not fast enough, or athletic enough to playing middle linebacker in the NFL. However, he’s always has gotten by being the smartest guy on the field. He made all the defensive calls for the Redskins, and since coming over to the Giants, has been one of the vocal leaders of this team.

Now, at age 31, he is beginning to get even slower in the middle of the Giants defense. We’ve all known that Pierce isn’t going to be a guy who plays until he’s 39, because his physical skills won’t allow him to.

In the middle of a season where the Giants defense has left something to be desired, people are pointing the finger at Pierce. They are calling him fat, old, and for whatever reason people like to keep bringing up the whole Burress thing now that the team is struggling.

Here is the reality of the situation, folks: Pierce is the least of the teams problems. What we have right now is a tale of two defenses. The first rushes the passer as well as anyone in the league, shows sticks with plays, and even makes some plays in the secondary. The other lacks enough cover guys to keep receivers in check, can’t seem to get the quarterback and fails in pursuit at times. One played the first half against the Falcons, and the other played in the second half.

Why are people blaming Pierce? They want to talk about how he can’t cover. News Flash: He couldn’t cover when he was at his physical peak. They say that he is slow, he was always slow for his position. He should have three roles in the defense: Call the audibles, play downhill against the run and come on the occasional overload blitz. When he’s used like that, he’s still a really good player. When you ask him to play cover-2, which defensive coordinator Bill Sheridan has at times this year, he looks lost.

One last thing: Yes, he was there when Plaxico did his best Cheddar Bob impression, but can we really punish him for that? He tried to hide the gun, which was idiotic, but how many people would do the same if their friend was in trouble at the end of the day?

So, stop blaming AP for the Giants defensive struggles. Yes, his career with the team is winding down, but he’s got at least another year. The Giants should be looking into bringing another middle linebacker in and having him take an apprenticeship year under AP. Then, Pierce should stick around and start what’s going to be a hell of a coaching career.

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