UFC 76 "The TUFers get thrown to the wolves."

Liddell v. Jardine		44%	(34)
Shogun v. Griffin		52%	(40)
Fitch v. Sanchez		4%	(3)

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Posted by Blacklist26

Liddell has beaten the best in the world, I don't see how Jardine is a threat.

The reason I didn't pick Rua/Griffin is because all of the recent UFC debuts from Pride veterans as of late have been pretty unspectacular, so I don't even think Griffin winning would be considered that much of an upset.

I would have much rather seen Rua/Machina... which was rumored before Griffin had confirmed.

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It would be a huge upset.

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Posted by x_soa_x

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Posted by Blacklist26

You also have to take into account that Griffin has fought many times in a cage setting and with elbows being legal... how much of a factor will that play on Rua, who (as good as he is) may suffer from a case of "UFC jitters".

Thoughts?

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Shogun's fought in a cage before.

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I'm picking Shogun definitely, but his loss to Babalu was in a cage, and I think the UFC jitters are a legitimate phenomenon. That being said ,it will probably take a while to finish him.

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Posted by x_soa_x

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Posted by Blacklist26

You also have to take into account that Griffin has fought many times in a cage setting and with elbows being legal... how much of a factor will that play on Rua, who (as good as he is) may suffer from a case of "UFC jitters".

Thoughts?

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Shogun's fought in a cage before.

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True, but I believe that Griffin has had more cage fights than Rua and has also been fighting more regularly... Rua's last fight was all the way back on 2/24/07.

I truely don't see the chance of Griffin winning as an upset, The UFC hasn't even been hyping the debut all that much. In my mind, this debut deserves to be hyped even more than Cro Cop's based on the fact that he has beaten their LHW Champ along with so many other top guys. But the fact that this fight is a little under-the-radar for the casual fan who doesn't know Rua shows me that the UFC isn't entirely confident in his debut. Maybe they know something that we don't...

I don't wanna come off sounding like a conspiracy nut, I'm just saying it's a little weird that Rua doesn't seem to be coming in with any major hype.

Griffin having more cage fights is a non-factor. Especially considering Griffin's style is not the type to smash you into the cage and GnP an opponent out. Griffin is going to try to strike, and probably start backpedaling while he gets stalked.

Most of the PRIDE fighters aren't coming in with major hype, most UFC fans from the States who don't discuss MMA like we do will have zero clue who Shogun Rua is. Look at the Rampage Jackson/Liddell fight. Before the fight, they had every single freaking fan in the arena on camera saying Liddell was going to manhandle Jackson in the 1st round.. then... wait for it... Couture spoke.

"This is a bad fight for Chuck."

And it was. Chuck got beat, and Couture was about the only non-moron on the camera saying Rampage was going to win. Even if you thought Liddell was going to win, and were an MMA fan, at least you knew who Jackson was, and what he was capable of. They had David Spade saying he didn't even know who Jackson was so he bet on Liddell.

I think for the fans, and for the overall profitability of the fighter, they want to see an impressive KO victory from a PRIDE guy coming over. Giving him a warmup fight seems to be the standard.

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Posted by LR

Griffin having more cage fights is a non-factor. Especially considering Griffin's style is not the type to smash you into the cage and GnP an opponent out. Griffin is going to try to strike, and probably start backpedaling while he gets stalked.

Most of the PRIDE fighters aren't coming in with major hype, most UFC fans from the States who don't discuss MMA like we do will have zero clue who Shogun Rua is. Look at the Rampage Jackson/Liddell fight. Before the fight, they had every single freaking fan in the arena on camera saying Liddell was going to manhandle Jackson in the 1st round.. then... wait for it... Couture spoke.

"This is a bad fight for Chuck."

And it was. Chuck got beat, and Couture was about the only non-moron on the camera saying Rampage was going to win. Even if you thought Liddell was going to win, and were an MMA fan, at least you knew who Jackson was, and what he was capable of. They had David Spade saying he didn't even know who Jackson was so he bet on Liddell.

I think for the fans, and for the overall profitability of the fighter, they want to see an impressive KO victory from a PRIDE guy coming over. Giving him a warmup fight seems to be the standard.

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I like your point, but we've also seen Dan Henderson walk into a title fight without a warm up bout... given, he's a champ himself. But still...

I do agree that the Pride guys need to get an impressive KO to get the American fans to like them, but is Griffin really gonna go down from a single blow? I think the only way to beat Griffin is to beat him down like Jardine did. I don't think someone, even as good as Rua, can drop Griffin in a Gonzaga/Cro Cop fashion.

I think Rua should have been fed somebody before he locks up with Griffin. Cro Cop got Eddie Sanchez and Jackson got Eastman... why not give Elvis Sinosic to Rua first? Is it because they only use "The King Of Rock N' Rumble" to put over TUF winners? lol

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Posted by Blacklist26

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Posted by x_soa_x

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Posted by Blacklist26

You also have to take into account that Griffin has fought many times in a cage setting and with elbows being legal... how much of a factor will that play on Rua, who (as good as he is) may suffer from a case of "UFC jitters".

Thoughts?

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Shogun's fought in a cage before.

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True, but I believe that Griffin has had more cage fights than Rua and has also been fighting more regularly... Rua's last fight was all the way back on 2/24/07.

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rua has been fighting more often than forrest recently, unless you meant just had a fight more recently, so i dont think thats going to be much of a factor. forrest is a tough guy though, but shoguns just on another level so i dont think its that big of a chance.

griffin: 4/06, 8/06, 12/06, 6/07
rua: 2/06, 9,/06, 10/06, 12/06, 2/07

Rua is straight nuts, so I don't see this lasting long. Anybody who says "Screw it, snap my arm" and then literally gets his arm snapped is nuts for not tapping. And that's Shogun, granted it was dumb as hell to do because he lost a good amount of time he could have been fighting. And with only 2 losses, one to Sobral and another to Coleman, in which he didn't tap anyways, so he must have been nuts enough to think he could keep going.

Also, Rua has been training in BJJ since he was 6, Muay Thai since he was 7. Ugh, I'm telling you, he will stalk Griffin like freaking Jason at Crystal Lake camp during a girl scout meeting. And he's never been KO'd, so this should be interesting to see what Griffin tries to do.

The only way I see him winning is by holding on in round 1 and slightly winning in 2 and 3 with a decision win at the end. But I do think it is possible and not just because of these freak upsets all year. I think it's possible because I think Griffin is underestimated. He's resourceful, decent striking, decent sprawl, decent chin.

I think it is slightly possible for Griffen to survive the first round
I cant say the same for Jardine..
I think this is the end of Jardine he just got smoked by Houston Alexander
and probably thought he got hit hard
after the shot he takes from a angry and dissapointed Liddell he will be too tentative to continue fighting in the UFC

That being said I will not miss this card for anything
Griffen and Rua will trade punches

And Jardine will just recieve punches lol

Fitch and Sanchez will be a very competitive fight, probably fight of the night, (and this is coming from someone that hates diego).

Jardine has a slim chance if he fights smart. He needs to try and GnP Chuck instead of banging with him just because everyone wants to see that.

Forrest has an alright chance maybe 20% because Shogun is still new to the UFC rules and the cage and Forrest may exploit that ala Gonzaga-Crocop.

I think if Jardine will push the fight and use his low kicks to set Chuck up he has a chance but, after gettting ktfo'd he'll prolly be too scared to stay in the pocket and with Chuck.

bump for hindsight being 20/20

You could've just not brought it back up, and hoped no one will have seen it. Now everyone has. Sucks being you right now.

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Posted by Scott_Revels

You could've just not brought it back up, and hoped no one will have seen it. Now everyone has. Sucks being you right now.

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Not really. I was wrong. The wolves got thrown to the tufers. I am not ashamed of being wrong sometimes.

Good call, and theres no shame in being wrong on a speculation. Props for bringing it back up.

:) damn it feels good.