Posted: 8/23/2007 7:38:09 PM EDT
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Make your predictions now. I think Gonzaga will beat Couture and St. Pierre will beat Koscheck. I don't know enough about the other fighters on the card to make any predictions. I won't see it live because I have to work saturday night. Fight card: Randy Couture vs. Gabriel Gonzaga Roger Huerta vs. Alberto Crane Josh Koscheck vs. Georges St. Pierre Kurt Pellegrino vs. Joe Stevenson Patrick Cote vs. Kendall Grove Ryan Jensen vs. Travis Lutter Renato Sobral vs. David Heath Frank Mir vs. Antoni Hardonk Clay Guida vs. Marcus Aurelio |
My picks: Couture Huerta GSP Daddy Grove Lutter Sobral Mir Guida |
That's interesting, here's my picks: Gonzaga aka an Ape by Armbar, 2nd round Huerta in a snooze-fest by Judge's Decision GSP by TKO first round (lay and pray biatch KOS learns what fighting is) Grove via boring TUF noob judge's decision Thales Lietes via arm triangle second round Babalu by sick BJJ (kimura maybe or leg lock) third round Mir via judges decision (I hope, good to see him back) Aurelio wins by automatically showing up by being a former PRIDE fighter ETA: I REALLY hope Babalu comes back, I'm a huge fan, but I tihnk his gameplan is his weakness. He comes in with sick grappling skills and then tries to strike with the guys (see Jason Lambert vs. Babalu or Chuck vs. Babalu I or II). Seriously, the only thing I can compare this to is having a chick with a great ass and no tits try to give you a tity fuck, it just doesn't work out! |
I WANT Randy to win! I love Randy, but here he's totally out classed on the ground. Gonzaga is a BJJ monster and his HK of CC was a huge shock. If Gonzaga wins, as I expect he will be easily within the top 5 HW out there. The only thing that would keep him from higher rankings is not facing better competition (his only real fights are this one and Cro Cop). |
Eh, I don't think he'll get KOed per se, but style wise, Gonzaga poses a huge threat for Randy. Look into Randy's earlier fights @ HW... problems with great grapplers. In other news, if Randy loses and retires, I think Big Tim will and should kill himself. An old dude came out of retirement to come out, beat your ass and then lose just so fans would not have to deal with your boring ass jab fests... I need to stop hovering over these threads, seriously... |
Negative. Gonzaga is pretty much the anti-Randy. Strategically he's the biggest challenge Randy has faced in a few years. His size and amazing BJJ skills make Gonzaga the man to put the cash on. Honestly, I hope I'm wrong as I love Captain America, but this Ape is gonna beat two of my favorite fighters in a row it seems. ETA: Then again.... ANYTHING can happen in MMA... see Serra vs. GSP or Gonzaga vs. CC or Silva vs. Hendo |
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In case you guys were wondering, here are the odds... Vegas is never wrong |
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Its a toss up to me. I think in his prime Couture would probably win. Now, I am not so sure. Couture has the experience and the smarts but he may not have the tools anymore to take on Gonzaga. I hope he wins but I wouldn't be surprized if he didn't. On the other hand, if Couture wins, will Chuck Liddell go after the HW title knowing that he can beat Couture at will? |
Hell Yeah!!! I hope he gets his punk ass knocked out! |
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So where are all you guys at that said Randy Couture would lose? Randy beat the hell out of him. 44 years old and still the champ. Gotta have a ton of respect for that guy. Every fight was great tonight. No boring drama queens tonight. I won $40 buck off TRG betting him $5 and $10 bets off each fight. I called them tonight! 
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Well put. It was also a thing of beauty to watch GSP take Koshcheck to school. Poor Josh learned that he really is a couple of levels (at least) away from being an elite fighter. Watched the trailers for Ultimate Fighter 6. I'm really disappointed to see Champion Matt Serra acting like such a tool. Gonna be really satisfying to see Matt Hughes kick his ass. Great, great fights tonight. Second excellent PPV in a row. |
I'm sure you've already read the re-cap
I've lost all respect for Sobral. 
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sobral has to forfeit half his winnings from the fight for his choking heath out after the tap. he claimed it was to show him 'respect' for disrespecting sobral in the weigh-in  ETA: the fight was in the prelims and not aired with the ppv, you can download it via the internet or pay for it on ufc.com for 1.99. it was a really bloody mess towards the end. |
So, post-fight news releases tell us that Gonzaga broke Couture's left forearm (ulna) with a high kick in the third round. Couture shuggs it off, takes Gonzaga to the ground and strikes him into an early TKO (with both arms). You still think a broken nose determined the direction of the fight?!? We're watching something very special here folks. Couture is a very rare individual. I get the feeling we're watching history being made... ufcmania.com/2007/08/27/report-couture-breaks-arm-in-ufc-74-win-over-gonzaga/ |
Yeah, but Randy still had one good bone in that forearm, so...OK, I stand corrected. Couture is a bad ass, Gonzaga could have had three extra arms and a chainsaw and still would have gotten stomped. |
Gonzaga turned me off with his "I can't see" plea to the ref. There have been other fighters that have done the same thing and the fight was called at that point. The first that comes to mind is Liddell vs Horn. |
I'm not saying Gonzaga doesn't have the skills - he clearly does. I think it boils down to a question of heart. I'm not sure I saw much of it from Gonzaga Saturday night. Joe Stevenson had his nose broken in the first round of his fight, fought through the injury and won. What happend to Gonzaga? He sure appeared to lose motivation... True enough, Gonzaga threw some mighty blows at the beginning of the third round. As soon as Randy closed the gap, however, Gonzaga became nothing but a punching bag. Isn't that kind of odd for a BJJ specialist? I think Gonzaga will bounce back and learn from this fight. Wouldn't surprise me at all to see him as future heavyweight champion. For the moment though, I'd have to say that he got a bit of schooling. I'd be surprised if there's ever a rematch... |
I forgot all about that BC. Thanks for brining that back up. That was total bullshit. There was no blood in his eyes at all... |