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By Anthony De Franco  March 14, 2010, at 5:25 am
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!

By Anthony De Franco  March 2, 2010, at 10:55 am
Did not see this one coming, did ya?
We’ve been waiting for quite some time to hear about Fedor’s next fight and many assumed that it was going to be against Fabricio Werdum. However, it appears that Fedor’s people (Read: The Russian Government) are more interested in Josh Barnett. For those who don’t remember, Barnett was supposed to be Fedor’s opponent on the ill-fated Affliction Trilogy card.
From Sports.ru:
“I personally think that Alistair Overeem did not reach the desired level to challenge Fedor. He beat a lot of no-name opponents in Mixed Martial Arts. Overeem defeated Paul Buentello and then disappeared from the United States for more than two year, which is simply ridiculous. Also, pay attention that Werdum beat Overeem when they were fighting in Pride, four years ago.”
“We do not fight for the Strikeforce Heavyweight Title. Strikeforce are our partner, and any titles whether it is UFC, Strikeforce, WAMMA, Dream… they are just medals. Fedor is above these things. We are interested in the level of our opponent and his popularity among the audience.”
“Exactly. We are more interested in fighting Josh Barnett, who is currently disqualified until September. When he returns from his suspension and if he tests clean, we might consider fighting him
Fedor is above titles? Really? We’re going as far as to say that the belt doesn’t really matter? I’m sure Scott Coker and Strikeforce just love that.
So, here we have one of the biggest stars in the world allowing these people to essentially renegade his career. They are making tons of bad decisions that really make me wonder about who’s best interest they have in mind. However, the Barnett-Fedor fight does intrigue me. There are just a lot of problems with making it happen. First off, Barnett has to get re-licensed. He tested positive for Steroids, and didn’t choose to show up for many different hearings. Second, Barnett is not currently under contract with Strikeforce. He could hold them for ransom knowing that Fedor wants him as an opponent.
Third, at some point Fedor is going to have to fight for the belt. Otherwise, the champion is going to end up like Tommy Gunn in Rocky V, or Mason Dixon in Rocky Balboa. People will start calling him a paper champion and that doesn’t end well.
Let’s just be honest, Fedor is screwing up Strikeforce.
By Anthony De Franco  February 28, 2010, at 5:57 am
One of Brock Lesnar’s training partners, Cole Konrad, has been dubbed a hot prospect by just about everyone in the MMA world. Last night, he fought at Matrix Fights 1 in Philadelphia, defeating Joel Wyatt by TKO. Shortly after, both Cole and Bellator proudly announced his signing with the up and coming MMA promotion.
Konrad was proud to moving up the ranks so quickly:
“I’m excited to sign with Bellator. It’s a great opportunity to fight for a great company and I’m just really excited for what the future holds with this company.”
While Bellator CEO Bjorn Rebney was excited to sign the huge heavyweight for his upcoming season:
“Cole Konrad brings some great characteristics to the table that could make him a force at heavyweight. Brock Lesner’s dominance in the UFC has shown the impact that an elite, world-class wrestler can have in the heavyweight division. As a two-time NCAA heavyweight champion who is aggressively rounding out his MMA arsenal, Cole’s potential is unlimited. We are happy to be teaming up with him and, as a company, we are excited with what the future may hold.”
“We are happy not only to announce our long-term deal with him but to reveal that fans will be able to see his next fight on one of our nationally televised May events on FOX Sports Net, NBC and Telemundo.”
We here at the 3SS have been watching Bellator put together the best young talent in the country and wondering what the hell Strikeforce is doing. As a matter of fact, there hasn’t been a day that’s gone by in the last few months that Jason and I haven’t discussed Bellator quickly coming up in Strikeforce’s mirror. Now, they steal another amazing prospect from them in the form of Konrad.
The scary part about Konrad is that he could be everything that people think that Brock Lesnar is. While Lesnar is the UFC champ, there are still those, including us, that have been unimpressed with his wrestling game. What will happen when he goes up against a guy who is his size? We aren’t so sure that it’s going to be as easy as his last three fights have been.
Konrad possesses the wrestling skills, but has not really shown that he can adapt them to MMA. While training with Lesnar, Sean Sherk, and all the other pro fighters at Minnesota Martial Arts, I’m sure that he’ll develop quickly. It’s yet another steal for the Bellator organization.

By Jason Comack  February 27, 2010, at 2:01 pm
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.
Obligatory Youtube Video:
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.
Obligatory Youtube Video:
Keep a close eye on Hawn and Konrad both have the skill sets to one day be champion.

By Jason Comack  February 21, 2010, at 7:03 pm
After each major Mixed Martial Arts event, our very own matchmaker, Jason Comack, does his best Joe Silva and breaks down all the possibilities for the fighters who waged war last night in a little feature we like to call: What’s Next?
Igor Pokrajac: Let’s call it like it is. Pokrajac is in the UFC because of his association to one Mirko Cro-Cop. He got his chance and didn’t succeed in two fights. Maybe the UFC keeps Pokrajac around if they get desperate to get someone a win, cough Bonnar cough, otherwise he’s bound for the unemployment line.
James Te-Huna: The local product had an impressive debut at UFC 110. Considered one of the best prospects in Australia there are a few opponents that make sense for Te-Huna.
- James McSweeney doesn’t have a fight booked. The former Ultimate Fighter contestant carries some name value and Te-Huna would be a nice test for him. McSweeney struggles against wrestlers and this fight could get Te-Huna on a winning streak.
- Fighting either the winner of Eric Schafer and Jason Brilz (who meet at UFC Live: Jones/Vera) or Rodney Wallace and Jared Hamman (who meet at UFC 111) would also help separate the fringe prospects.
Goran Reljic: Maybe everyone’s, mine included, expectations were a littttttle high for the Croatian fighter. Reljic dropped a weight class, and after a long layoff he did look somewhat rusty. So maybe he’s not the world beater right now some thought he’d be but he’s still a solid prospect.
Reljic fighting a lower tier middleweight on a loss is his most likely next booking. Reljic needs training time at a real training camp to work on his wrestling.
The loser of Gerald Harris and Mario Miranda would make sense. James Irvin would also make sense if he loses and is not cut by the UFC.
By Jason Comack  February 21, 2010, at 1:21 pm
After each major Mixed Martial Arts event, our very own matchmaker, Jason Comack, does his best Joe Silva and breaks down all the possibilities for the fighters who waged war last night in a little feature we like to call: What’s Next?
Brian Foster: Showed solid wrestling and was looking good against Lytle before getting caught in a knee-bar. There’s no one in the world who thought Lytle would even attempt a knee bar so it’s not shocking that Foster was caught as off guard as the rest of us. Hopefully he isn’t injured significantly as the lock looked gruesome at first.
As for who he should fight next it depends on his injury status but the loser of Rob Kimmons and Mike Pierce or the loser of Nate Diaz and Rory Markham both would make sense.
Stephan Bonnar and Krzysztof Soszynski: In his own words Bonnar would “like to finish the fight” and it’s hard to disagree with him. The Bonnar/Soszynski decsion is a giant red flag for unregulated MMA. For those that didn’t see the fight it was a very even, exciting brawl that was very close after two-rounds. Most scoring the fight at home saw the fight at one round each. In the 3rd round Bonnar and Soszynski accidentally butted heads. The headbutt opened a giant leaking faucet right in the middle of Bonnar’s head that forced the fight to be stopped. Now this fight should have been ruled a “technical draw.” Much like the Varner/Cerrone fight if there’s an accidental foul that causes the fight to be stopped, the fight is scored from where it was. In this case if it was 19-19 on the judge score cards it would have been a draw. In short, Bonnar got screwed, but it might be the best thing to happen to him.
Bonnar desperately needed a win in this fight and while he didn’t get it he got something that’s almost better. An angle. No one really wanted to see Bonnar fight again, win or lose, but now you have the angle of “well these guys need a rematch because it was a good fight that we never got to see end properly.”
Seems perfect for a PPV under card or Spike TV Prelim fight. A fight that no one really cared about now comes with built in drama. I wouldn’t even consider other options for these fighters.
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