UFC 92: The Ultimate 2008

Lesnar would beat easily Kongo.

The commentators were all praising his takedown defence nothing against moustafa, but Brock will take him down at will easily, and will overpower him easily.

 

Not a great night but at least Mir won. Why don't people here like Frank?

Also, I don't think Evans is unbeatable. He won a questionable decision against Bisping and would have lost to Ortiz had Tito not been deducted a point.

I wonder how Rick Franklin will do against Evans or Rampage. He might be the next white fighter to get a shot at 205.

 

Rashad has alot more power than I gave him respect for up until this point, but I believe he's going to have a hard time with fighters that evade rather than pursue, much like Chuck Liddel does. Also, what a f**king cornhole showboat, he's pretty much the epitome of what white people do or should hate in black athletes. Griffin was beating "dat ass" the entire fight, it's unfortunate he wasn't able to finish him when he had him in trouble.

 

Yeah I also noticed that Forest lakes power and I don't watch much MMA. He beat Rampage by having much more finesse and better mobility; I thought. Rampage hit Forest less in the fight than Forest hit him and got him in trouble less...but Rampage's hits do more damage.

 

Forrest does well in Lt.Hwt because he is big for lt. hwt, tireless, and has a great chin. He wore out Shogun and Monson. Every in the game nowadays has some ground skills. I would call his ground game average. I didn't mean to sound earlier like I thought he absolutely stinks on the ground.

 

Forrest should have never backed off there. He had him right where he wanted him - Rashad was wobbled (check out the sloppy left he threw) and up against the cage with no where to run. Just like in boxing, anytime a black fighter gets into trouble he smiles or showboats as if to "didn't hurt" when it really did. Bell rung, hands down, and up against the cage - what more did Forrest want?

 

closest thing to a white hope left in the LHW division is the Brazilians Thiago Silva and Maurico Shogun Rua. Silva is undefeated and will face Lyoto Machida for a shot at Rashad for the title. Looks like Rampage will pursue a rematch with Forest first, so it looks like Thiago is the man for the short-term. He seems like a highly touted prospect and shouuld give Rashad a serious run for his money if he beats Machida.

Let's be honest, it looks like Liddell days as champion are done. He's 1-3 in his last 4 fights and 2 were via brutal KO. And his lone win was a UD over a past his prime Wanderlei Silva. THe Chuck Liddell of old rarely ever went to decisions with stand-up fighters like Silva.

There is always a slim possibility but it seems unlikely Chuck will be able to re-emerge as the Chuck Liddell of 2 years ago at the age of 39, but hell Randy Couture did it.

And as much as I admire Forrest's heart his lack of tools (weak chin, little punching power) made it somewhat evident to me that he was not going to be champion for much longer. He will always be a contender in my book, but I feel like the only he can win actually win a fight against a serious opponent is by taking them to a decision, which is basically what he was trying to dowith Rashad as he did with Rampage. Here is wishing him luck in his rematch with Page.

LHW has IMO been the weakest division for White fighers over the past few yearss. Other than Chuck and Forrest there were no other contenders other than the Brazilians. If Shogun Rua can return to his 2005 form and Thiago Silva can meet his potential and overcome Machida; Rashad should be an easier win for both of them.

 

^^^ Who got banned?

I don't know why people continue to insist Forrest has a weak chin. Rashad hit Forrest with hard shots that didn't even back him off. Jardine KO'd Forrest with a knee to the jaw.

Does Wanderlei Silva have a weak chin cause he was KO'd by Rampage? No. Rampage hit Forrest with some hard shots too, and he didn't go down, either.

Wanderlei Silva is one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time. He may be older and more worn out now than before because this guy has been in some serious wars, but implying he is a nobody is way off the mark. Edited by: White Shogun

 

If Griffin beats Rampage he is right back in the mix. Evans did not dominate.

 

Oh ok, my bad. After more than three years and almost 6,000 posts you'd think I'd know that by now.

 

Brock will/would absolutely destroy caste-favorite Kongo. Muuuuch bigger, stronger, heavier hands, 10x better wrestler & GnP attack.

If Randy drops back down to 205 or Hendo back up...either way could/would take the strap off YOshad (as would Machida & Rua). YOshad's arrogance will come back to haunt his sorry @$$.

 

I saw some clips from the above card and I watched the Mir/Nog fight.

Mir look calm and relaxed and attacked with combinations. Nog followed Mir around like he was trying to be Mir's heavy bag with legs. It was not much of a "contest".

The Forest/Evans fight revealed much about both fighters. Forest is very good in many ways: he is durable, solid chinned, rangy, strikes with a variety of weapons, and has some grappling skills. But he has not found a way to advance his skills in either striking or grappling in a great enough way to clearly distinguish himself from all of the other main challengers. What I mean is, with his skill set he will probably win most of his remaining fights but expect some significant loses. He needs to either decide to become the deadliest striker in his weight class or use what he has and invest most of his time on shoring up his grappling.

Roshad Evans is delusional. He has been beaten in the past but somehow always managed to get the slight edge on the scorecards and he has been badly beaten up in the cage and still been given a favourable decision. Forest should have won but Forest was wound up and tight and expended too much energy early. When Forest loses nobody mocks nor ridicules him because he is a fair sportsman. Roshad on the other hand needs to be fed to the lions to teach him some manners and good sportsmanship. His taunting and childish gestures are going to come back to curse him. Hundreds of first rate light heavyweights saw Evans fight and will remember it when the payback time comes. And it will come. It is almost impossible to stay undefeated in MMA and few remain champions for long. Eventually everyone loses. There are too many styles -and styles make fights- and no one man possesses an unbeatable style. Evans' loss is just around the corner waiting for him.

 

I hope you are right and Evan's loss is just around the corner. If Rampage faces him next, I would root for Rampage. Rampage's trash talking occurs outside the cage and never inside the cage. Rashad's showboating is why Matt Hughes took a instant dislike of him when they were on the UFC reality show TUF. So while his MMA skills have drastically improved, his character hasn't. I look forward to him to be humbled very soon, I think Lyota Machida would submit him and easily so.

 

Rashad's a good fighter, I can see him giving anybody in the LHW division some trouble now. The guy seemed to lack confidence in the past, but his string of KO victories has really made him a better fighter mentally.

I think Rampage can beat him, Forrest as well in a rematch, Lyoto, maybe Thiago Silva.. but Chuck, Wanderlei, all those that bank on landing the first bomb would lose to Rashad, imo.

I would like to see him against Franklin or Dan Henderson as well.

 

When Rashad loses, I hope he loses hard, real hard, and keeps on losing. I can't accept a guy like that is the best fighter in his weight class, but I must admit from his rapidly improving performances, I think I'm going to have to for at least a little longer.

 

Rashad seems to be a very very good fighter. He is very beatable however. I think his wrestling pedigree is gonna give alot of strikers problems. He wrestled for Michigan State unless I am mistaken. (I am just going off mental notes)

Anyway, I see some alluding to Cheiki Kongo. Make no mistake, he is a excellent striker. I believe he would knockout shane carwin at this stage. He also has the strengths to give Lesnar some problems. We have not seen Lesnar in with a kickboxing type yet. Don't get me wrong, I would love to see Lesnar ground and pound Kongo into submission. (which I for one believe odds are he will do just that)However, I do not see this as a automatic foregone conclusion.

Shane Carwin has a excellent future ahead of him and I would love to see him fight the likes of a Kongo in about a year or so.

 

'Chuck' Kongo the Frenchman will win all his remaining fights be pre-emptive or retaliatory ball shot.

 

You know Shogun, the thing I would stress about Rashad is that though he has been awarded victory in his last 5-6 fights he has taken a beating in them. His style is mostly striking and not grappling. The wear and tear he has taken striking is acculative. Look at Griffin, he cannot take the punch he used to. Rashad's face looks beaten long after he has healed from the fights. The wear and tear is there. Grapplers like Hughs went on for a long time because they took less punishment. You know the old saying: "He who lives by the sword dies by the sword". Rashad could compete well with all of those fighters you mentioned but I doubt he could hold up to fight them all.

 

Let's hope Evans fights the winner of Henderson-Franklin (they fight on 1/17 in Ireland). Both have very good shots of beating him as does Machida. We'll get the belt back at 205 before the year is out.

 

Machida might be the darkhorse in this whole thing.

 

Not to nitpick aussieaussie31, but I think Machida has advanced past the dark horse tag. I think he is a very lugit contender and has a great shot at actually being champion by the end of 2009 or sooner.

 

Machida's far too allusive & good at BJJ for YOshad. He'd own YOshad indeed!

 

Machida owned and dominated Tito who Rashad barely beat and some thought he got a gift decision in that one.