After weeks and weeks of hype, the fight is finally here. We’ve done a lot of build up on our own to this fight over the last few days.

We previewed UFC 94 with MMA writers and hardcore fans.

We recapped all three of the UFC Primetime specials which documented the last few weeks of preparation for the fight.

Last night, we took a look back at their first fight which happened at UFC 58.

We’ll be back when the show starts with full play by play.

1. Clay Guida vs. Nate Diaz

Diaz was using his tremendous reach advantage to pepper Guida constantly. Guida looked out of sorts for the first two and a half minutes. Diaz was relentless. He wasn’t really hurting him badly, but it was obviously frustrating Guida. He couldn’t get inside. Diaz went for the shot and immediately dropped to his back. Guida did a great job with the wrestling staying on top of Diaz. Guida hit a big slam too and scored with elbows on the ground. It will be interesting to see how that round is scored. It was literally half Diaz’s round and half Guida’s round.

Heavy wrestling round for Guida, though Diaz had a great sweep near the end. Diaz was trying for the submission, though he wasn’t all that close.

Pretty good round. Diaz owned him again for the first half and I thought Guida was in a bit of trouble. Then, Guida was able to get a hold of him and kept him at bay for the rest of the round. This fight is all about how the judges are going to score the boxing versus the wrestling. Whatever they count more, will decide who won the first and third rounds.

Winner: Clay Guida by way of split decision

2. Dong Hyun Kim vs. Karo Parisyan

Continue Reading »

The first Georges St. Pierre vs. B.J. Penn fight was a number one contender’s match in the welterweight division. Matt Hughes was the top dog and each guy wanted another shot. Penn beat Hughes to win the welterweight title at UFC 46, but would sign a contract with K-1, forfeiting his title. In a match to claim the vacant welterweight title that Penn forfeited, the UFC pitted Hughes and St. Pierre. Hughes beat St. Pierre by catching him an arm bar just seconds before the first round was over.

At UFC 58, St. Pierre faced a returning Penn for a shot at Hughes. The card had a USA vs. Canada theme with Rich Franklin vs. David Loiseau as the main event. The match is mostly famous because it was a true battle, but also because of the scoring. It was only a three round fight. Penn clearly won the first round while St. Pierre clearly won the third round. It’s the second round that’s debatable and two judges gave St. Pierre the round while one gave Penn the round, thus giving the fight to St. Pierre by split decision. Many people actually think Penn won the fight, including Cactus Jim who said so during our preview for UFC 94. I thought St. Pierre won the closest of decisions when I originally watched it. I’m going to watch it again and see if I come to the same conclusion.

Round One

Continue Reading »

Here are the weights courtesy of Figure Four/Wrestling Observer:

Matt Arroyo (3-2, 171) vs. Dan Cramer (0-0, 171)

Jake O’Brien (10-2, 205) vs. Christian Wellisch (9-3, 206)

Chris Wilson (13-4, 170) vs. John Howard (10-4, 171)

Thiago Tavares (17-3, 155) vs. Manvel Gamburyan (10-4, 155)

Jon Fitch (21-3, 171) vs. Akihiro Gono (28-13-7, 171) weighing in with large Afro wig

Stephan Bonnar (14-4, 206) vs. Jon Jones (7-0, 206)

Nate Diaz (10-2, 156) vs. Clay Guida (24-6, 156)

Karo Parisyan (26-5, 170) vs. Dong Hyun Kim (11-0-1, 171)

Lyoto Machida (13-0, 206) vs. Thiago Silva (13-0, 206)

Georges St. Pierre (17-2, 170) vs. B.J. Penn (13-4-1, 168) for the UFC welterweight title

The key for St. Pierre and Penn is how much larger St. Pierre looks in the actual cage. Penn says he doesn’t have to cut weight and St. Pierre is probably naturally a middleweight. Dave Meltzer noted on his post about the weigh-ins that GSP looks smaller as he gets older, sacrificing size in order to make 170.

Dana White has been saying that he believes this will be the UFC’s biggest show in their history. That’s pretty ballsy to say considering they did enormous business in November and December. But they have done everything to try to make it so. With the UFC Primetime hype machine behind it, UFC 94 is definitely a must see show. Georges St. Pierre and B.J. Penn are two fighters at the top of their weight classes at at the apex of their careers. It’s a one of a kind superstar fight.

I have asked MMA writers and hardcore fans for their predictions for the three top fights on Saturday night.

Here is the panel:

Bryan Alvarez – Bryan runs the Figure Four Online/Wrestling Observer website and writes and edits the Figure Four Weekly Newsletter.
Mike Coughlin – Mike writes columns for Figure Four Online/Wrestling Observer, hosts Five Star Radio MMA Show, and is raising money to fight cancer. Donate, if you want to help him.
Oliver Copp – Oliver co-hosts Tough Talk with Mike Sawyer at Figure Four Online/Wrestling Observer.
Vince Verhei – Vince co-hosts the Bryan & Vinny Show at Figure Four Online/Wrestling Observer and writes The Vinny V Sports Report.
Ed In San Antonio & Peachmachine – They host Drunkcast. ROH superstar Bryan Danielson is scheduled to be on the show tonight.
DakkonMC – Dan is a longtime wrestling and MMA fan and all around good guy.
Mike Strangis – Mike is a BJJ instructor at Heroes Martial Arts.
Josh Bennett – Josh is an all around great guy (helped me get tickets to UFC 84) who also takes BJJ at Counter Strike MMA Academy.
Stevie J – Stevie runs Angry Marks and is also a frequent contributor to Fight Game Blog.
Big D – D is the host of Big D and the Superfriends and also writes for Angry Marks and Fight Game Blog. In the latest episode of his podcast, Big D, Panic, and I (near the end of the show) talk UFC 94.
Duan Greally – Duan is a writer for Fight Game Blog.
Alan Counihan – Alan is a writer for Fight Game Blog.
Cactus Jim – Jim is a writer for Fight Game Blog.
Garrett Gonzales – That would be me, editor of Fight Game Blog.

Some have added just their picks, but others have added a little bit of commentary as well.

Clay Guida vs. Nate Diaz

Continue Reading »

This week on The Contender we have our first Quarter Final match up as Felix takes on Troy.

Ryan is pretty beat up after his fight last week. He is taken to the hospital to get his cut attended to. He has to get stitches, and they tease that he may not be healed in time for his next fight.
Continue Reading »

This is the last episode for this landmark UFC Primetime series. It has truly made this fight feel as special as it should. Though you can’t burn out doing these types of specials, they should definitely do it again for Lesnar/Mir in May.

GSP welcomes Rashad Evans into camp to help him finish his training. Rashad says he looks up to Georges in a lot of different ways. Evans barely looks bigger than GSP. GSP says he wants to make his training so hard so that it’s impossible that the fight will be harder than the training. Evans says Georges will beat BJ because he’s a better fighter and says he wants to see Georges knock him out. GSP says he’s either going to win the fight, or end up in the hospital. He says he may end up in the hospital anyways even if he does win.

Penn is running the rock which is a test of strength and endurance. Penn goes underneath the water completely and picks up a rock and runs with the rock on the sandy bottom. It’s crazy. Justin McCully, who is with the Penn camp, says it’s the most amazing cardio workout you can do.

Continue Reading »

WWE’s Royal Rumble is the first step in the road towards Wrestlemania. You can usually see where the plans are going when it pertains to Wrestlemania after the rumble. It’s also one of the more special shows of the year simply because you only see one Royal Rumble a year.

At the bottom of this post, Duan, Alan and I will both give our thoughts about the Mosley and Margarito fight as well.

Here’s what the FGB crew thought about the shows.

Royal Rumble

Big D

Show overall rating: Thumbs Up

Best Match: Royal Rumble
Worst Match: None

Awesome Royal Rumble. I always forget just how fun these matches can be every year and they rarely dissapoint. Every single match on the card delivered. I loved the back and forth Hardy vs. Swagger match. Swagger is really getting better and better with each match and I’m VERY impressed with his selling. The women’s match was fun and very similar to the Hardy/Swagger except with women. I loved Melina’s lucha like roll-up finish. I popped. Cena vs. JBL was a decent brawl. The ending was a bit predictable, but it was cool. Cena got his win back and HBK got to boot JBL. Good times. Edge vs. Jeff Hardy NO DQ was an awesome main event caliber match. I loved how they used tables, ladders, and chairs, but didn’t overuse them. The finish made absolutely no sense. I don’t care what stupid excuses and reasons people have for Matt to turn on Jeff – none of them make sense. If he was behind all of this, why did he attack Edge not only on Smackdown this past week, but throughout the past few months. I hated how the supposed reason was for Matt to be “jealous” of Jeff winning the belt… yet he attacks him a MONTH BEFORE JEFF WINS IT at Survivor Series in the hotel? Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

I do want to say that I feel bad for Matt. A bunch of disrespectful, uneducated, mouth breathing marks left very crude and rude comments on his myspace page. I actually read one guy say “I know its fake, but fuck you”. I cannot fathom there being HUMAN BEINGS that are like this. At least we can hope they’ll pay to see Matt vs. Jeff and give Matt money for that crap.

The Rumble match is ALWAYS fun and this year was no exception. I was a little dissapointed with the surprise of Regal and Hacksaw, but the RVD return was AWESOME. I broke this on AngryMarks.com before it happened and thought it was still cool that RVD got a shot. I loved how they did the Priceless vs. HHH fight at the end, and I was actually legitimately expecting Ted Dibiase to turn on Orton (payback for the kick in Tampa) and win the Rumble, setting up a new star against Cena. The Marine 1 vs. The Marine 2. It sounds lame, but I love it. Still, Orton’s win was… predictable. I liked how he pointed AT THE SIGN… AGAIN! Just like last year. But I loved the fireworks.

Overall, awesome Royal Rumble show. If you missed it, check it out.

Alan

Show overall rating: Thumbs Up

Best Match: Royal Rumble
Worst Match: Melina vs. Beth Phoenix

Loved this PPV. So good, that not even the closing angle of Raw could wash away the good will I had for WWE after this show. I think I enjoyed the Rumble match more than anyone, so much action and so much stuff I marked for. Swagger/Matt was great too. Didn’t like the Matt heel turn though. That was some bullshit. I wanted a Christian return bad.

Continue Reading »

There were two MMA shows last weekend. Both shows featured men who could lay claims for being the best pound for pound fighter in the world. One show was on PPV while the other was on cable television. One had a huge main event, that if it was marketed by the UFC, would’ve done big business. The other had two guys fighting at 155 pounds in the top position on the card with nicknames like “The Cowboy” and “C-4″ (well, Varner has a few nicknames). The FGB brothers have their thoughts on both cards.

Affliction: Day Of Reckoning

Big D

Show overall rating: Thumbs In The Middle

Best Fight: Josh Barnett vs. Gilbert Yvel
Worst Fight: None

I’m not sure if anybody really bought this any more than any big TNA show, but entertainment-wise, Affliction: Day of Reckoning really wasn’t a bad show. The big story coming out of the show was the near-fatal knockout of one Matt Lindland by Vitor Belfort. A lot of people are saying “the old Vitor is back” and I disagree. The supposed “old Vitor” comes back every couple of months, then he ends up reverting to the hit or miss status that we’re accustomed to.

Barnett vs. Yvel, while it wasn’t the most technical of the two fights, really was entertaining. Barnett had some troubles finishing Yvel. I completely underestimated the toughness of Yvel. Barnett kept at it and actually looked *gulp* in shape.

The main event was quite the spectacle. Arlovski entered the ring like he was about to yell “SPARTAAAAA” and Fedor, as usual, was cold and lifeless. Arlovski’s new boxing techniques and handspeed were working quite well for him to start. I could clearly see he wasn’t really afraid of Fedor and was actually winning the fight on points. Then he gets Fedor to a corner and goes for a flying knee (which according to big Dave Meltzer, his corner told him not to do, but he didn’t listen) and gets caught with the shortest right hand in the history of God’s green Earth. The shortest right hand may have also been the most powerful, as it dropped Andrei out cold. This was the most unbelievable thing I had seen in quite some time. Fedor waited for Andrei to make a mistake, he made it, and capitalized. It may be damn-near impossible to find a fighter THIS good at Heavyweight perhaps ever.

Overall, if you ordered the show, you got something good, if you didn’t… eh… you didn’t miss enough to make you go “dammit… I wish I’d seen that”.

Alan

Continue Reading »

I’m going to try and write up my Raw thoughts after the shows, at least up until Wrestlemania.

Remember when Stone Cold Steve Austin was beating up Vince McMahon at least once or twice a month? And remember when he came up with a doctor’s note to explain why he was beating up Vince McMahon? Remember, he told Steph that it wasn’t his fault, but he just had an aggressive disorder? No, you don’t? That’s because it never happened! And remember when he threatened to sue the WWF when they tried to take him out of the Wrestlemania XV title match? No? Because it never happened! I understand that they’re trying to keep Randy Orton heel, but this was a terrible way to do it. I actually thought it’d be a much better idea to make Orton re-win his Mania title shot in the Elimination Chamber, but it looks like the belt is going to be defended in the chamber, which doesn’t make all that much sense to me. I thought the appeal of last year’s No Way Out PPV was that the Elimination Chamber matches directly influenced Wrestlemania. Unless something changes, it doesn’t seem to be that way except if the belt changes hands, which would seem odd to do six weeks before Wrestlemania.

Maybe the only good part about Raw last night was Chris Jericho’s promo about Mickey Rourke. By the looks of it, Ric Flair may be apart of the angle which is awesome. Though I’m not sure we’ll get the Flair/Jericho payoff that having Flair in the angle might necessitate, but we’ll get there when we get there. I think having Flair will definitely help the match get over live with the crowd because let’s face it, there’s no way Rourke is going to be able have a good match. Jericho is probably the right guy to carry him, but still, he’s not a magician. Rourke is 56 years old and he walks like he can barely move. I can’t imagine him moving in the ring. But I still think the angle is money.

Continue Reading »

Last night at the SAG Awards, Mickey Rourke said that the wrestling community has embraced him and he had talked to Vince McMahon, Ric Flair, and Roddy Piper and then mentioned that he thought he would do Wrestlemania in Houston.

Finally, he called out Chris Jericho and said he was coming for his ass.

Is Mickey actually thinking of getting into the ring? Are we going to see “The Ram” vs. “The Ayatollah Of Rock-N-Rolla”?

Watch below. You’ll have to wait about 1:30 and sit through him talking about how beautiful Brad Pitt is.