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By Anthony De Franco  January 3, 2010, at 4:20 pm  I’ve been really critical of Rashad Evans. I think that he is remarkably talented, but has never really put his game together. At times, he’s shown the dominant wrestling that made him a star at Michigan State. At times, he’s shown the kind of striking that knocked Chuck Liddell into the fourth dimension. However, when were we going to see a complete Rashad Evans?
The answer: 01/02/10.
What we saw last night was the classic Greg Jackson gameplan. Strike to set up the takedown, and control the fight. Throughout the first two rounds, Evans dominated Thiago Silva by using crisp combination and following them up with strong takedowns. This gameplan reminded me of another Greg Jackson disciple, welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre. He just didn’t execute that plan nearly as well.
With a little review of the FightMetric stats, Evans was 8-for-16 on takedown attempts. That’s not exactly a St. Pierre-like number. Further review shows how dominant he was in round one. He was 4-for-4 on his takedown attempts. In round two, he was 3-for-7, and in the final frame, he was just 1-for-5, but he was scrambling for a takedown after being tagged by Silva. What does this all mean? It could mean that he gassed, but that doesn’t really sound like Rashad. More than anything, I think he got less aggressive as the fight went on and that wound up hurting his overall performance.
The other thing that Evans still needs to improve is his ability to keep his opponent neutralized once they are down. Many of Evans attempts at passing guard were neutralized by Silva’s black belt level BJJ. One could make an argument that what makes St. Pierre so good is not just the dominant takedowns, but his remarkable ability to keep his opponent from sweeping him. Let’s just put it this way: St. Pierre hasn’t had his guard passed since fighting Jason “Mayhem” Miller in 2005. Being on top more means more opportunity for offense.
If you look at the striking data on the report, it would suggest that Silva won the stand-up game with some authority, which I think he did. However, there was one area where you can definitely say that Evans won the battle, and that was in the clinch. Once Rashad was able to close the distance, he hit a very high number of his strikes, and those strikes set up the take downs.
Don’t get me wrong, Evans didn’t fight the perfect fight. However, he finally was able to execute a gameplan that display both his phenomenal wrestling as well as decent power striking. While he attempts to find the perfect balance, it’s good to see that we aren’t going to see the Machida game plan where he looks like a training dummy. This gameplan is the best bet for Evans to become a dominant champ, which I think he can.
Just like his buddy GSP.
By Anthony De Franco November 11, 2009, at 9:54 am Wow, this is officially making me feel old. LaDanian Tomlinson was once the best player in the league. He was untouchable. He was scoring touchdowns left and right, and people talked about him in the same breath as Emmitt Smith and Walter Payton. Now, like most running backs who have a ton of miles on their tires, Tomlinson has fallen off and is likely playing his last season as a San Diego Charger. From Rotoworld:
According to the San Diego Union-Tribune, LaDainian Tomlinson is “likely” playing his last season for the Chargers.
Tomlinson can no longer create on his own, lacks burst to the outside, and isn’t a passing-game asset. The Chargers almost certainly won’t exercise his $2M roster bonus next March, despite his “hero” status in San Diego. They’re a good bet to use a first-day pick on a running back in the 2010 NFL Draft
I agree with everything Rotoworld says in the article, but are we really willing to say that an LDT who can no longer create on his own is not better than a lot of runners that actually have jobs right now?
I get the fact that runners are a dime a dozen at this point, and that on day two of the draft, they could find a guy like Steve Slaton. Just don’t think that Tomlinson is going to ride into the sunset. He’ll be back with another team.
By Anthony De Franco September 4, 2009, at 11:41 am Wonderful! Let’s bring back my least favorite fighter in the entire world for more of his bible-toting, crazy farm boy act! Ugh, I was hoping we were done with Hughes, but I knew that if Dana didn’t snap him up, Strikeforce would have come lurking and capitalized on all the attention he had gotten as the UFC welterweight champ for all of those years. Here’s the story from MMA Weekly:
First it was Randy Couture, now it’s Matt Hughes. The UFC seems to be locking down former champions left and right.
Hughes, a former UFC welterweight champion, on Thursday affirmed his desire to remain active, stating that he has signed a new multi-fight contract with the Ultimate Fighting Championship.
“Last week I went out to Vegas and I signed a multi-fight deal with the UFC, which is much like my last contract,” said Hughes via a post on his official website.
Who he will fight next is not yet clear, although his most recent opponent, Matt Serra, whom he defeated by unanimous decision at UFC 98 in May, would like another shot at him.
As much as I would love to see Matt Serra smash Hughes, it probably won’t happen. Although there is an argument to made that you could scored that fight a draw, even our Long Island-based crowd that was watching UFC 98 had Hughes winning the fight. Serra’s best bet continues to be at 155.
To make the re-signing of Hughes even worse, look at this:
In an interesting aside, Hughes also mentioned that he’d like to branch out into Ted Nugent territory, which seemed to have the UFC brass’ approval.
“I also brought up the fact that I wanted to do a hunting show,” he said on his website, “and they thought that would be a good thing.”
Oh, Jesus.
By Anthony De Franco July 10, 2009, at 11:45 pm This does not bode well for Brock Lesnar. Mir has habitually showed up out of shape for his fights, and now that he is in shape, I’m even more confident in my prediction that he’ll submit Lesnar.
Wow. We can see his abs. I’m shocked. I truly think that Lesnar has almost no chance.
By Anthony De Franco July 1, 2009, at 12:00 pm I’m a little bit late on this, but I can’t help but think that it’s absolute bullshit. Here’s the actual news piece from FiveOuncesofPain.com that ran on June 24th:
A UFC fighter’s ability to obtain sponsorship from clothing apparel sponsors could take on a new degree of difficulty for upcoming fight cards, FiveOuncesOfPain.com has learned.
FiveOuncesOfPain.com was contacted by a manager on Wednesday night who spoke on the condition of anonymity and stated that he recently received an e-mail indicating that additional clothing sponsors have been added to the UFC’s list of banned companies.
Five Ounces of Pain was able to obtain an e-mail distributed by the UFC’s legal department that now lists Dethrone, One More Round, and Rolling Stone as a list of sponsors that will not be approved for UFC 100 on July 11. Unacceptable sponsors for UFC 100 also online Poker sponsors Full Tilt Poker, Ultimate Bet, and Party Poker.
I’ve defended Dana White quite a bit in the past as far as wanting his fighters to get paid in the past, but this is a little absurd. The thing people probably won’t get when they read this is that fighters are really the ones that are losing in this scenario. They are often paid by these companies just to wear these shirts to the ring, or to put their logo on their fight banner. Now, there will be fewer dollars to go around because fewer companies are allowed to advertise.
Going one step further, it seems that the UFC wants $100,000 dollars per company that wants to sponsor fighters. This is crap. A lot of these companies are internet companies(Screw Rolling Stone, they aren’t the problem here) that found a way to beat the system and gets some cheap advertising. Want to show just how screwed up this is? Dethrone has a relationship with the American Kickboxing Academy, which is a camp that houses such top fighters as Josh Koscheck and Jon Fitch. This deal is going to rob that camp of income that they could have used to better prepare their fighters by reinvesting in their business.
Here’s another guy that gets royally screwed in all of this: Jacob “Stitch” Duran. That’s right; the UFC’s iconic cut man was sponsored by One More Round. That’s money that is now gone from his pocket. I hope that Dana and the Fertitta’s are planning on making that one up to him.
If you are an MMA Fan, or just like cool T-Shirts, go buy one from these companies. I’m gonna post some links below to all their websites. Help keep both their entrepreneurial spirit and their love for the sport of MMA alive.
Dethrone (A personal favorite) : http://www.dethroneroyalty.com
One More Round: http://www.onemoreroundclothing.com/
By Zach Schiff June 12, 2009, at 12:59 am An update on the playoff bet: If the Penguins win tomorrow, I will have ended with 12 points, ahead of Bryan’s 10. If Detroit wins, I will end with 10, and he with 8. (We both thought Pittsburgh would do it in 6 games.)
Regardless, I am crowned Playoff Prediction Champion. A glamorous title, indeed. However, unlike Miss California, I will not be fired and I will not tell you my views on gay marriage. I will tell you, however, that I thought a movie on gay marriage, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, was awful and predictable, and I wish it wasn’t made.
Anyway, as per terms of the bet, Bryan owes $100. Originally, I wanted the money to be given to the Garden of Dreams, since this is a hockey site, after all.
I have since changed my mind. Let James Dolan donate to the Garden of Dreams.
Bryan, please make your echeck payable to Best Friends Animal Sanctuary, a group out in Utah that houses 2,000 homeless dogs, cats, horses, pigs, burrows, rabbits, etc. They also work with animal shelters all across the country and they helped rescue stray dogs on the streets of New Orleans after Hurricanes Katrina and Gustav.
In the spirit of gamesmanship, I will be matching your gift with a donation to the Freeport Animal Shelter (in particular, my favorite dog there, Cinderella), in Freeport, Long Island, which just received 17 dogs from Hurricane Gustav that were going to be euthanised in shelters down south to make room for new lost dogs this hurricane season.
Ah, now only if Wade Redden could give away 90% of the $6.5M my season tickets go towards. I wouldn’t feel so angry about him eating up that much Cap room if he gave the animals all of his money.
Enjoy your Game 7 tomorrow. For a while there, we had a string of Game 7’s. There were 4 of 5 since 2001 until the past 2 years. Always exciting knowing the Stanley Cup will be awarded but not knowing to whom. (Am I grammatically correct there?)
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