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Open thread – next Fight Opinion Radio show
By Zach Arnold | March 5, 2006
By Zach Arnold
I have a feeling we are going to be seeing a lot of positive and negative reaction in regards to what happened on the UFC 58 card re: judges’ decisions. That would be easy material for us to cover on our radio show, but I suspect that every other show is going to cover these aspects. One thing is for certain – Georges St. Pierre is very popular in Quebec now.
Therefore, I’m creating this thread to try to get some responses from all of you in regards to what you would like to hear on this week’s show in regards to the UFC 58 event. We like to cover angles or storylines that most people wouldn’t think of. Give us some of your ideas and we’ll do our best to implement them on the show. Either post your comments here or e-mail us.
Some post-UFC 58 notes…
The San Luis Obispo Tribune reports that Chuck Liddell’s next fight in UFC is tentatively scheduled for August.
UFC claims that the attendance for the UFC 58 show at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas was 10,362.
Medical suspensions stemming from the UFC 58 show should be announced in the next couple of days.
Topics: All Topics, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 9 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
GSP should be popular everywhere right now. He won the fight fair-and-square and was at a disadvantage the whole night after getting poked in the eye.
I’m more interested in talk about GSP vs Hughes and how GSP should be able to take the belt.
It would be interesting to have you address the issue of weight cutting, considering how Rich Franklin came in cage weighing around 205lbs. Is this something you think is good for the future of the sport? Also, considering the recent lawsuit Joey Gamache filed in federal court last week against Arturo Gatti alleging breach of contract over Gatti’s post-weigh-in weight gain for their February 26, 2000 fight: do you think there either will be or should be additional regulations regarding weight cutting?
What should the UFC do to crown a real champion at 155lbs? With Yves loss, this prospect become quite a bit more difficult…
If I was BJ Penn, I would be calling Pride FC and heading to Japan.
Why stay in the UFC when their is nothing for him. I think the least he should of got out of the fight was a draw. He owned GSP Standing up and although GSP got BJ down, on the mat GSP didnt look like winning the fight. BJ when taken down was always comfortable and got himself off the ground. He didnt lose that fight!!
Luke,
Weight cutting is something we’ve considered as a topic. And, you’re right, now is as good a time as any with Rich Franklin fighting in the 185lbs class, when his fighting weight is 205lbs.
Weight cutting needs to be abolished sent back to the Dark Ages. Virtually no one fights at their walking around weight and they all shrink to make weight, then rehydrate. So, whats the point? You could simply take every weight class and simply move the names up one class and it would be more realistic. Maybe you add a superheavyweight class (240 lbs & up) or simply allow heavies to have no top end weight limit. Rich would be fighting at 205, Chxck at 220, etc…. When so many of the TUF 2 heavyweight contestants, including the winner Rashad, said they would cut weight to fight at light heavyweight it made me shake my head. The point of the show was to find heavyweight to deplete the anemic division and all of them want to cut weight instead. Cutting weight like Joe Riggs, Rich Franklin and so many others do is unhealthy and simply wrong. Why should mma practice bad habits handed down from boxing? Time to make a clean break and fight naturally, clean and at normal weights.
Other topics for the show…..
Did BJ have a multiple fight contract and will he and Danas egos allow more fights to take place?
Will Rich fight Horn or not? I think the division is lacking depth. Rich should have approx 4 more fights under his old contract so he needs to stay a winner to have any negotiating power at all on contract renewal time.
Will the UFC ever hire a ppv consultant to tell them not to waste so much time on crap early in the show causing them to cut fights? Simply save the filler for 3/4 through the show to make sure you get more fights in. Yeah, I know they need something extra on dvds to help sell them, but this is annoying.
Will the UFC ever hire Arn Anderson to teach Chxck Liddell how to talk and cut a tough guy promo? Having a mute poster boy is funny when you think about it.
Will Dana have a stroke if Royce defeats Hughes, throwing his plans into chaos?
I would not be surprised if Penn fights elewhere.
Dana must of been pissed when BJ came down with the belt.
As for Penn, you wonder what fights are left for him in the UFC. Hughes? However that would not be until after Hughes v Gracie and then a Hughes v GSP. What does Penn do till then?
GSP-Penn should have been 5 rounds.
As long as Matt Hughes is champion BJ Penn will get his shot. Matt wants to fight him, he wants to fight Matt, it seems inevitable the two will meet again. The only thing that would queer the deal would be GSP beating Hughes, but then you could just do Hughes/Penn winner gets the next title shot. Penn lost to GSP but not definitively, so there’s plenty of room for a rematch there.
Weight cutting happens in every sport with weight classes (MMA, Boxing, Wrestling, etc.) because of the nature of the weight class game: trying to be a big man in a pond of little guys, using your own natural strength and size at a higher weight class against lesser guys and being the top dog of that pool. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much created the situation where a fighter essentially feels they need to cut weight, or risk facing a guy who has cut 20-30 pounds at least and bulked up that weight (or most of it) overnight. This, in turn, has created the situation where most fighters have starved themselves down at least one weight class to try and ‘get even’ with everyone else.
A decent idea would be to reinstate the same day weigh-ins, but that could create serious health risks to anyone stupid enough to try serious cutting entering the weigh-in (as being dehydrated could cause damage to potentially multiple in its effect if the fighter hasn’t rehydrated), which is probably a major reason (amongst other reasons) why athletic commissions moved away from same day weigh-ins (a number of Boxers died in part because of this practice of entering a fight badly weight drained).
To be honest, I don’t ever see weight cutting vanishing, so long as there are weight classes in the sport (which, rightfully, there should be; Who really wants to see a 140 lb guy take on a 350 lb monster with OK to decent skills? Who thinks he’d survive or get out relatively unscathed?)