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By Anthony De Franco  February 10, 2010, at 6:55 pm  Mike Swick might be in a little bit of trouble. While he’s a fan favorite and in no danger of losing his job, he has lost two in a row and might be in danger of no longer being terribly relevant. His loss to Paulo Thiago at UFC 109 was his second in a row, but both have come to (what appear to be) legit contenders.
I still love Mike Swick, and there is no doubt that he will probably receive a reprieve in the form of a tomato can in his next fight.
The Dethrone Archer Tee isn’t a Mike Swick exclusive, but it is a really cool shirt. The 2010 Dethrone shirts are going the way of specific graphics, like this archer, rather than the Family Crest and other things like that.
MMA Warehouse has this one for 39.99.
For more Dethrone Royalty gear, check out The 3rd String Store.
By Anthony De Franco January 19, 2010, at 5:57 am Yesterday, Jason discussed the possibility of Diego Sanchez returning to the welterweight division. Now, that Diego has confirmed it, let’s take a look at another lightweight that has decided that he likes to eat too much to fight at 155.
Nate Diaz is not what you think of when you think of a fighter who can afford to move up in weight. He’s long and lanky, but isn’t exactly made of muscle. He isn’t close to the strongest guy at 155. So, how does this make any sense?
Simple. It doesn’t. It’s just another in a long line of bad decisions made by the Diaz family.
Nate is going to get manhandled at 170. He is a BJJ black belt under Cesar Gracie, so we know that his ground game is top notch. However, he still has not developed any sort of stand-up to back it up. He also struggles with his takedown defense, as shown when he fought a stronger man in Melvin Guillard. In fact, if he wasn’t so good off his back, the gameplan against Diaz would always be to take him down and pound him into oblivion.
So, here is my main question: If Guillard is taking him down with ease, how is going to deal with Jon Fitch? or Josh Koscheck? or, god forbid if he got that far, Georges St. Pierre? Is he going to be able to submit any of those guys from his back? Nope. Not only are they some of the best submission defenders in the division, but they all have extensive jiu-jitsu training. St. Pierre is a black belt, Fitch is a black belt in Guerilla jiu-jitsu, and although Koscheck doesn’t have a rank, he trains with Dave Camarillio at American Kickboxing Academy, so you know he knows what he is doing.
Those are the top guys in the division. Could Diaz beat some other welterweight fighters? Maybe. I’ve gone through the whole UFC welterweight crop. Out of those here are the guys Diaz has a shot against: Matt Serra, Phil Baroni (If he can take him down), and Rory Markham. Conveniently, rumors have Diaz taking on Markham at UFC 111.
This makes no sense whatsoever. Diaz will struggle at 170, and be forced back down in weight. However, we all know that Nate doesn’t live in the same reality that the rest of us do. After all, he thinks that Gray Maynard chokes people out.
White belt.
By Anthony De Franco January 11, 2010, at 3:49 pm I love Twitter. Only in our generation could you stories via the horse’s mouth in less than 140 characters. According to Da Spyder’s twitter account, he’s back in the cage for UFC 112.
Da spyders fighting in abudabi April 10 so pumped
Bad grammar aside, I am one of the few people in the world that remains on the side of Grove. When he won TUF 3, he was clearly an excited kid who wasn’t ready for the big show. He’s only 6-3 since, but is coming off a win against Jake Rosholt in which he showed some nice BJJ. He’s also showed increased maturity over his last few matchups, often talking about his desire to get better because he needs to feed his family. You’d be shocked what a motivator survival is.
Let me also say that his three losses aren’t exactly bad losses eithier. He lost Ricardo Almeida, who is just awesome. He lost to Patrick Cote, who went on to fight Anderson Silva for the middleweight title. He lost to Jorge Rivera…okay, that’s a terrible loss.
Also, here is yet another name fighter for UFC 112. Since we last spoke, we found out that the man behind the Abu Dhabi Combat Club grappling championship Sheik Tahnoon Bin Zayed Al Nahyan has bought a small percentage of the UFC. That may explain part of the reason that the card has been so stacked. However, I still think that if they do choose to go with two title fights, Renzo Gracie v. Matt Hughes, and Kendall Grove, they are going to regret it in the following months.
By Anthony De Franco December 31, 2009, at 3:09 pm So. Tired. Up til 9am watching Dynamite 2009. Fuck Shinya Aoki’s stupid pants.
As i try and form coherent sentences right now, We’d like to take a moment to wish you and yours a Happy and Healthy New Year. Take this time to realize how good you have it, and to plot world domination in the coming year. That’s what we’re doing.
So, from Jason, Alex, Zach, Bryan, Matt, Jordan and of course myself, Have a happy New Year. We may be signing off for 2009, but we’ll be back tomorrow with more Bowl predictions, UFC predictions, and we’ll all get to see if Alex drinks himself retarded tonight.
By Matt Soldano December 29, 2009, at 1:43 pm As a reader of 3rd String Safety you know that all of us are in some way affiliated with WCWPSports, telling you why you should not be surprised if Tampa Bay drops a 40 burger on the Jets or why Spags took the Rams job just to get his coaching experience for when Coughlin leaves, or even the simpler things like how to pronounce Oshmigo Atogwe?
No matter the reason you tune in, two members of the 3rd String Family, Brandon Steinberger and myself, have provided you with another incentive to check us out. I present to you, College Basketball 2Nite: The Late Game Situation. We want you, our loyal readers, to help track a segment that Stein and I have created called The Late Game Situation Fantasy Shots (SHOTS! SHOTS! SHOTS! Ah Damnit, it doesn’t have the same effect when written, just watch the video on YouTube.)
Anyways this is what the segment consists of. Each week, Stein and I pick 5 players (3 guards, 2 forwards). The players can only be chosen once throughout the season and you select one of their games throughout the week (Sat-Thu) to which they will play. We accumulate their stats for the selected game and see at the week’s end which team performed at a higher level. The statistics are your basics: Points, Rebounds, Assists, Steals and Blocks. Finally, we choose two teams to win one game during the week. The team can only be chosen once and each game is considered to be another category. This is our 4th week of fantasy shots and I am off to an ass-kicking 3-0 start.
Without further ado, here are the picks for Week 4:
Stein’s Team:
G – Xavier Henry, Kansas (17.2 ppg 4 asts) 12/29 vs. Belmont
G – Ronald Moore, Siena (8.5 ppg 8.4 asts) 12/31 vs. St. Peter’s
G – Damion James, Texas (17 ppg 10 reb) 12/29 vs. Gardner Webb
F – Kyle Singler, Duke (15.7 ppg 7 reb) 12/29 vs. Long Beach St.
F – Al-Farouq Aminu, Wake Forest 12/28 (23 pts, 17 reb, 6 blks)
Xavier over LSU (12/29)
Mississippi over Jacksonville St. (12/29)
Soldano’s Team:
G – Rotnei Clarke, Arkansas (20 ppg 3 reb) 12/30 vs. Baylor
G – D.J. Kennedy, St. Johns (16.7 ppg 6 reb) 12/31 vs. Georgetown
G – Dominique Jones, South Florida (18.6 ppg, 6 reb) 12/30 vs. Louisville
F – Wesley Johnson, Syracuse (16.8 ppg 8 reb) 12/29 vs. Seton Hall
F – Storm Warren, LSU (14 ppg 10.7 reb) 12/29 vs. Xavier
UCLA over Delaware State (66-49) 12/27
Oklahoma State over Pacific (12/29)
Make sure you listen to College Basketball 2Nite: The Late Game Situation every Friday night at 11 PM (EST) on WCWPSports.
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