Tag Archives: PRIDE-FC

UFC 107: Penn v. Sanchez

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While the TUF Finale is still fresh in our minds, UFC is hitting audiences with another PPV event with the Lightweight Belt on the line.  BJ Penn defends his strap against former Welterweight contender and original winner of TUF Diego Sanchez.  Also on the card is the return of the Headhunter Paul Buentello, a very intruiging heavyweight fight as well as two lightweight matches to determine contender status for the lightweight title.  Without further adieu…LET’S GET IT ON!!

Paul Buentello vs. Stefan Struve

The classic clash of styles, striker versus grappler.  For any UFC noob, Buentello goes all the way back to the 50′s (UFC that is) where he was knocking people out before being stopped by Andrei Arlovski.  Struve has been on a tear lately since losing his debut to Junior Dos Santos, notching submission wins over his opponents and earning Submission of the Night honors.  My gut and heart goes to the veteran Buentello, who has faced bigger competition and possesses that one punch KO power that every fighter desires.  Struve will try and take this fight to the ground where he will work his submisison game, but as evident from his fight with Dos Santos, Struve’s chin is suspect.  All Buentello needs is to connect once and Struve will crumble from there.

Prediction: Buentello by TKO

John Fitch vs. Mike Pierce

In what was supposed to be a rematch between John Fitch and Thiago Alves, things went bad and Alves pulled out due to an injury during training.  Enter Mike Pierce who’ll be making his sophomore appearance after dismantling Brock Larson.  I haven’t seen Pierce fight and it may be unfair to make a decision without bias, but anyone that’s seen Fitch fight would know to put their money on him.  If you need evidence, watch his fight with GSP and you will know Fitch, despite losing, has a ton of heart and skill and was just not ready for GSP at the time.  Any fighter that can hold his own against the Welterweight Champ deserves recognition.  Easy pick for me.

Prediction: Fitch by Unanimous Decision

Clay Guida vs. Kenny Florian

When you hear the name Clay Guida, you automatically think of hair.  Rightfully so because Guida has made his name out of his precious locks.  But the real standout in my opinion, is Guida’s relentless pace and never-say-die attitude.  Hit the guy all you want and you can expect him to smile and hit you back with everything he’s got.  On the other side is a completely different animal in KenFlo.  Considering himself a student of martial arts, KenFlo is a methodical fighter who picks his shots and attacks when the time is right.  Although I usually go with the more disciplined fighter, I don’t think KenFlo has faced someone as relentless as Guida (although Roger Huerta can argue that point).  This is an important fight for both but moreso for Guida who has lost in the UFC more than Florian and is approaching the gatekeeper moniker.  If Guida can get past Florian in impressive fashion, he can line himself up with the increasing numbers of contenders for Penn’s belt. 

Prediction: Guida by Unanimous Decision

Cheick Kongo vs. Frank Mir

With the reigning Heavyweight Champ hurt and still recovering from a career-threatening illness, the UFC HW division is in limbo as an interim champion needs to be decided.  On one end, the former champ and only man to defeat the current champ, Frank Mir makes his move to claim the belt he once coveted.   Staring at him is the equally dangerous Cheick Kongo who was on his way to a title shot before being schooled by Cain Velasquez.  Striker versus grappler again, when will it ever end?  Although Kongo is way better than Mir in the striking department, Mir does have heavy hands and is crafty in taking the fight to the ground.  Despite showing improvements in his wrestling game, Kongo is still suspect on the ground and hasn’t faced a high level jiu jitsu guy like Mir. 

Prediction: Mir by Submission

BJ Penn vs. Diego Sanchez

If there was any doubt about Diego Sanchez being a UFC Champion one day, we can all rest and be relieved that finally Sanchez is fighting for the belt after four years in the promotion.  Unfortunately for him, he’s facing LW demigod BJ Penn who’s last loss at lightweight was 8 years ago.  That doesn’t mean Sanchez should be overlooked though as he does have the tools to beat Penn.  How?  GSP set the blueprint and that’s too tire Penn out on his feet and beat him up on the ground.  Sounds easy if you have strong wrestling which Sanchez does not.  But even if Sanchez possessed such abilities, it’s taking BJ down that’s the difficult part.  And even if you manage to take BJ down, you have to worry about his jiu jitsu which is second to none in the LW division.  I expect a competitive fight, but BJ retains his strap and pockets a bonus Fight of the Night award. 

Prediction: Penn by Submission

RESULTS:

B.J. Penn def. Diego Sanchez via TKO (cut) – Round 5, 2:37
Frank Mir def. Cheick Kongo via submission (guillotine choke) – Round 1, 1:12
Jon Fitch def. Mike Pierce via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28)
Kenny Florian def. Clay Guida via submission (rear-naked choke) – Round 2, 2:19
Stefan Struve def. Paul Buentello via majority decision (29-28, 29-28, 28-28)

Alan Belcher def. Wilson Gouveia via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 3:03
Matt Wiman def. Shane Nelson via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
Johny Hendricks def. Ricardo Funch via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-25)
Rousimar Palhares def. Lucio Linhares via submission (heel hook) – Round 2, 3:21
DaMarques Johnson def. Edgar Garcia via submission (triangle choke) – Round 1, 4:03
T.J. Grant def. Kevin Burns via TKO (strikes) – Round 1, 4:57

The Ultimate Fighter 9 : Send Pierce HOME!

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Time to send this fool home. He’s a joke and makes the entire USA team look bad. It isn’t about the ipod incident or the fact that he discussed USA fighting strategies (which was f’ed up by the way) with the UK team either. Just from watching the past few shows you can see that the guy doesn’t want to be in the house, doesn’t appreciate the opportunity, doesn’t care for his teammates, and does not want to fight. All the negative energy he’s brings is just pathetic and I don’t see how he helps the American Team at all. Ship his monkey ass home already!

Off Topic: As much as I like the UK fighters, I got Dangerous Dan Henderson beating Mike Bisping via TKO in the 2nd round! I can’t stand Bisping. BOO!

UFC: Undisputed (Xbox 360, PS3)

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MMA fans have been waiting for a game that would capture the excitement and depth of the sport they love.   Although PRIDE FC had released an MMA game a few years back, it didn’t even come close to capturing the details of such an intricate sport as mixed martial arts. UFC: Undisputed is the latest attempt to bring the sport to consoles, taking full advantage of modern gaming technology. So how does it measure up to the real deal?

GRAPHICS 8/10

The character models in this game are awesome. The fighters look nearly identical to their real life counterparts and they take some realistic looking damage throughout the fights. Developer THQ managed to capture most of the details of all the fighters featured, most notably their trademark victory celebrations. Nothing is cooler than winning and seeing Rampage howl up at the sky or GSP do a back flip then start trying to windmill in the middle of the octagon.  The only gripe I have with the graphics are some of the backgrounds. The people in the audience look like heads on sticks for the most part. While Im not expecting to be able to read the beer label in someone’s hand in the audience, a little bit more detail would be nice. There is a huge discrepancy between how great the fighters look and how slopped together the crowd looks, especially in the front row.

PRESENTATION 9/10

There is a ton of polish on this game, other than some of the background graphics mentioned earlier. The menus are all very streamlined, the voice overs from Joe Rogan and Bruce Buffer are spot on. Even Dana makes an appearance or two. There are also a ton of MMA sponsor found on banners, shorts, and the octagon floor itself all adding to the authenticity. My only complaint is that there are a million save confirmation messages that pop up everythime you save something. It gets a bit irritating at times when you just want to get to the next scrap but have to suffer all of these pop up save confirmations that plague the game. this is just minor though, as the game’s presentation is definitely top notch.

GAMEPLAY 8/10

This is what really matters in this game. It would be nearly impossible to truly capture all of the possibilities that could come up in an MMA fight, but THQ does a pretty good job.  There are a total of 6 different fighting styles – 3 striking and 3 ground styles. The striking styles are: muay thai, kickboxing, and boxing. The ground game has: wrestling, judo, and of course jiu jitsu.  Every fighter in the game has a combination featuring one of each type, i.e. muay thai and jiu jitsu for Anderson Silva.

At first, limiting it to these styles may seem pretty bare, as mixed martial arts is just that- mixed. Fighters are never really training in only two disciplines, but it makes sense in terms of the game.  The styles are relatively the same from fighter to fighter. For instance, Thiago Alves plays almost identically to Shogun Rua simply because they both specialize in Muay thai and BJJ. What is cool is that each fighter has enough of their trademark mannerisms to make you feel like they control completely unique to others with similar styles. For instance, when BJ Penn throws a jab he bobs his head to the side immediately after, just like in real life. It’s little details like this that add to the overall experience.

The striking gameplay is surprisingly rewarding, perhaps the best aspect of the entire game.  There are a ton of devastating strikes in each fighters aresenal, all of which look awesome to pull off. Nothing is cooler than blasting someone with a superman punch from a few feet away and seeing your fist just crush the side of their face or blasting a head kick to an opponent’s unguarded temple.  They even managed to capture the clinch game, as dirty boxing and the muay thai clinch are utilized numerous times in a fight.  Shoots and sprawls are well executed, with stuffing takedowns feeling just as rewarding as driving someone into the mat.

Unfortunately, the ground component is pretty bare bones. Jiu jitsu experts only have one submission in their arsenal. While I haven’t tried every single fighter, the only performable submission I have found so far is a kimura, which seems very limited. When you’re on the ground, sometimes your fighter will throw up a random sub attempt like an armbar or triangle, but successfully submitting someone is nearly impossible unless their energy is completely drained.  Also, a lot of the control inputs on the ground don’t always execute as they should. You will be inputting the commands to transition to another position and your character will wind up doing nothing more than a butt scoot. It gets frustrating at times and I found myself wanting to stand it back up, even if I was using a fighter who is normally a beast on the mat.

Its a shame that they couldnt find a way to better incorporate the grappling aspects of a fight into this game. I’m sure in future UFC games they will find a way to upgrade this.  Luckily, the standing and clinching more than make up for any shortfalls of the ground portion.

OTHER 7/10

The game also features a career mode in which you can take a created fighter up through the ranks of the UFC. This feature is a mixed bag for me. while it is cool to put yourself in the game, or whatever character you decide to create, it is also a bit of a pain in the ass. For instance, you have to choose the training regimen for each week. You can focus on strength, cardio, speed, or sparring.  the only part you actually control is the sparring portion. The rest is simulated once you choose what you want to improve. this seems a bit tedious to me, and I would have liked to just skip ahead to the scrap itself. Some people may actually enjoy this mode, and I admit it was cool seeing my name up there victorious over GSP and other top fighters, but overall the mode isnt for me.

The other option is exhibition mode, which allows you to choose a created fighter or a real fighter from the UFC. This mode is awesome, but I would have liked the option to choose a current fighter and bring them up through the ranks of their weight class. Something like this would greatly add to the replay value instead of having to choose a fighter and an opponent after every match.  Another cool aspect is the online mode. This works basically the same as exhibition mode, only you can fight against other opponents via xbox live.  I’ve only tried a couple of online matches, but the lag was narely noticeable and its cool to see how a human opponent reacts.

OVERALL 8.5/10

This is a great game and it is definitely a blast to play. You get the impression that there will be future installments to this game franchise, especially with the growing popularity of MMA. Hopefully the future versions can add more to the ground fighting component of the game. As it is now, this game is still unmatched in terms of gaming MMA action. It is definitely one of the funnest games to come along in a loooong time. If you’re a gamer AND an MMA fan, this is a must have.