Empathy

There's a free MMA event on tonight. Streaming on /www.proelite.com/home\ and, while it's not a great card, it's free and Phil "The NY Badass" Baroni is fighting in the main event.

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Crazy Canuck

Aoki went for a takedown after JZ missed with a body kick and proceeded to eat 3-4 elbows one of which hit Aoki in the back of the neck. Considering that elbows to the back of the head have been known to cause concussions, the elbow to the back of the neck probably did some considerable damage. I would have liked to see Aoki take the fight to the ground to gauge his shot at beating JZ. In this brief encounter, JZ was never in trouble of getting taken down and was clearly the superior striker. To be fair though, Aoki really only shot once and that's when the elbow occurred.

Cro Cop looked much bigger than usual; upwards of fifteen pounds heavier than normal. I suspect he wanted to become stronger to avoid being pushed around ala the Kongo fight. He also fought differently: normally he uses head movement to avoid punches but in this fight he just covered up. I think it works better for him because he can counter with kicks shortly after covering up to not get hit. That being said, he was so nastalgic in the UFC so I'm not going to get too excited over him before he beats someone worthwhile.

Lastly, Eddie fought a fairly solid opponent in Dida and came out on top - so kudos to him. However, he definitely got the worse of the striking and looked fairly sloppy on his feet at times. His ground and pound looked good and his grappling was fairly sharp though, and that's what got him the win. It remains to be seen whether or not he can handle the top echelon of fighters at 155.

And finally, just google MMA blogs and they usually have fights posted a few hours after the given event. It may take till the next day sometimes. I use the over streams most of the time just because they're so easy to use.

Empathy

Yeah, I found a blog with all the fights that I'll be watching tomorrow.

Did you watch the ICON event? Phil Baroni got worked by Kala Kolohe Hose; it was cool.

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Mystic_Gohan

Yeah, I was rooting for Hose, and I knew he'd get that TKO eventually. I wanted him to knock that roided clown's ass out, and I'm glad he did.

Empathy

Yeah, but I don't see Hose getting past Robbie Lawler. He struggled for three rounds to finish an unmoving target.

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Crazy Canuck

Phil Baroni is perpetually overrated. With a record of 10-9, some still consider him a threat to the upper echelon of 185 fighters and this is just BS.

And Lawler will TKO Hose in the 1st, maybe the 2nd - I don't mean to bash Hose but Lawler is a much better fighter than Baroni

Mystic_Gohan

That's true. I'm still rooting for Hose though.

The underdog shall prevail. Afterall, Lawler has been KOed by Nick Diaz before.

Empathy

Nick Diaz is good though. He outboxed Gomi, despite being high. Diaz has been disappointing lately but hopefully he gets back on a streak. But yeah, Hose won't be much of a challenge to any top 15 middleweights, because anyone can beat Baroni, as long as you survive the first round with him.

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Crazy Canuck

When Gomi wasn't absolutely exhausted he was working Diaz on the feet. No taking away from Diaz's win (there was no precedent to make the fight a no contest and as such I still call it a Diaz win), but he's not a better striker than Gomi.

And I agree Gohan, Hose as a shot but I think Lawler will eventually get the TKO. I think he's a much more dynamic striker than Hose.

Empathy

In both rounds, Gomi did more damage striking, but Diaz hung with him and tagged him quite a few times. In the second round, at least, Diaz outboxed him. But I agree; that win should not have been taken away from him for using a drug that didn't affect his performance.

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Crazy Canuck

Oh he hung in there, but for the majority of the first round a fresh, hard-working Gomi was the first to the punch and threw the crisper combinations

Mystic_Gohan

Nick Diaz has heavy hands, there's no denying that.

But I consider Gomi the better striker. Gomi just had a little too much fun in Vegas the day before...

Empathy

Yeah, that's true. Who do you have for UFC 83, besides the main event, because that's pretty self-explanatory. I think Franklin will beat Lutter but the rest of the card is kind of boring; just a bunch of crowd-pleasing Canadians.

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Crazy Canuck

hahaha I am Canadian and I may still be able to get tickets through a friend of my Dads

Mystic_Gohan

GSP over Serra.

Franklin over Lutter.

Quarry over Starnes.

Bisping over McCarthy.

Danzig over Bocek.