How has Rampage been looking? I'm not sure how long ago it was taken but Rampage looked like a fatty in that picture posted in EDF. He hasn't fought in over a year either.

yeah, when I said "off filming movies" I was talking about this too

Rampage is a big dude, I think he's naturally bigger than somebody like Kimbo who fought at HW. I wouldn't be surprised if he cuts 30 pounds for his fights. He also has a huge head which will make him look even bigger, I'm sure the way he looked in Australia is the way he always looks between fights. He looked good on primetime, and the weight doesn't seem to be an issue at all at this point.

You and I see a huge head, Rashard probably sees a huge target.

It'll be interesting to see if Rampage has a touch of ring-rust. After all Rashad looked good in his last fight. Rashad to control Rampage on the ground for three rounds, anyone?

Nobody at 205 cuts 30 pounds. He may have gotten fat and weighed 235, but absolutely nobody is cutting 30 pounds of water and weighing 235 in the ring.

Yes.

Skip to the 6 min mark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1nqkAV2cAg

And a lot of the times Wandy gets the clinch it's because he just wobbled his opponent badly with a punch.

You don't need to cut 30 pounds of water to cut 30 pounds of weight. You think if Rampage isn't training he's following a strict diet? He probably eats like a normal person and puts on some extra fat and then when his fight is coming up he sheds the extra fat and the water weight. Gleison Tibau walks around at over 180 and fights at 155, so if a 155lber can cut 25+ pounds why is it hard to believe that a 205lber could cut 30? Also on UFC primetime for GSP/Hardy, Hardy's camp said he was cutting down from over 200 pounds. So there's 30+ pounds at a much smaller weight class. It's also pretty well known that Forrest Griffin's walk around weight is 230+, and how much do you think Jon Jones walks around at? If Jon Jones walks around at less than 230 I'd be stunned.

You guys are arguing different things. Danny Ocean is just saying that no one "cuts" 30 pounds as in 30 pounds of water the day before the fight and rehydrates to 235. You are just saying he might weigh 235 when he's not training for a fight which is obv possible and probably pretty likely.

LOL, I love the way his opponent falls in this clip.

I think Rashad is going to win. Just based of nothing else than I think he'll train harder, with a better camp, and takes his career more seriously. Basically he has a higher WIM.

There is a difference between dieting down and cutting weight. Hardy for the GSP fight cut 8 pounds of water weight after dieting down from 200 to 178.

I guess it's just a misuse of the word cutting. But my point still stands that Rampge is a huge LHW. The one thing that people forget, or maybe don't realize is that Rashad is a small LHW. He could probably make MW rather easily. When he was on TUF he was a 220lb HW and was chubby.

court mcgee is awesome

yeah, cut properly used just means the water weight you are cutting. The rest is diet/conditioning.

A while back I had to explain this to people over and over because it came out that Forrest Griffin was at like 240-45 (after a fight, with no fight scheduled), and people were freaking out about him outweighing guys by 30 pounds. No, he just started drinking beer, eating donuts, and stopped working out twice a day.

All that matters for the fight is size in the ring. I would say Rampage is pretty big but not huge for LHW. He's simply got monstrous strength as shown by the Arona slam and the attempted Griffin slam (Forrest smartly bailed on his triangle). Rashad is definitely small for the division. Rampage should have a decent strength advantage.

LOL

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMiJZhIxKDM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoUMy...eature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E2iqJPiggyc

According to Pinnacle Rashad is the favorite in this fight, he's going off at -110 to Rampage's +101. Really don't see how Rashad can be the fave in this fight.

One thing that may have influenced it, that's actually influenced me just a tiny, tiny amount is watching the quality of the camps.



This is Rashad's camp. Mike van Arsdale for wrestling/grappling, Phil Nurse for striking, Shane Carwin, Nate Marquardt, Ron Waterman, Trevor Whitman, King Mo, Brendan Schaub, etc. That's a hell of a camp.

Now, Rampage has never really trained with elite fighters so it probably doesn't influence him. But Rashad seems to have a very, very on-point camp going on right now.

Rampage should still be the favorite though, I would expect that line to get beaten back.

I don't think that anyone disputes that a prime Rampage would handle Evans. However, the difference in their training and apparent attitudes has been huge, and I have to think that matters quite a bit in this sport.

+1

but as I noted, Rampage has never really had an elite camp of any kind, and by his own admission has never worked particularly hard in camp. And he's still gotten results.

He'll be 32 in a month. I know thats not necessarily old by MMA/Boxing standards, but everyone's body definitely starts to decline in their late 20s/early 30s. If he has always coasted as you say, then eventually thats going to start catching up to him and he may "age" quicker than most fighters. Plus hes taken quite a bit of time off, so maybe he needed to train hard in camp moreso than most times. Vegas lines that are on such a big event aren't going to be that far off the true line, so there has to be some reason for that.

for the ring rust believers, he hasn't fought in 13 months, the longest layoff he had before was the loss to Forrest (10 months)

I think you give Vegas too much credit, they aren't right about everything. Machida was still a pretty sizeable favorite over Shogun despite the majority of people thinking Shogun outpointed Machida the 1st time, and we know what happened there. Brock is a sizeable favorite over Carwin which just can't be accurate. MMA is a relatively new sport they are going to be long on the ML, and people aren't as educated about MMA as other sports so they will be wrong too. However the whole training camp thing doesn't matter much, Kimbo trained with American Top Team, how'd that work out for him? Once you get in that cage it's only you who is fighting.

Rampage admits he didn't work as hard as he should've early in his career but he also says he's training harder for this fight than he's trained for any fight in his career. He's the same guy who beat a prime Dan Henderson, destroyed a prime Chuck Liddell and then destroyed him again 4 years later to take the belt away from him. Rampage could easily be the best fighter Rashad has ever fought, at the very worst the 2nd best, while Rashad is at best the 5th best fighter Rampage has fought. On top of that everybody Rashad has fought that has a similar style to Rampage pales in comparison. On the other hand Rampge has fought similar guys like Chuck and Hendo (wrestler/boxers)who were better than Rashad at the time and Rampage went 3-0 against the 2. Also the best wrestler Rampage is ever faced was Kevin Randleman who in his prime was one of the 5 best HWs in the world and Randleman couldn't even take Rampage down.

As far as the age thing, Rampage is 31, turns 32 a week after the fight, he's not exactly old, he's also a guy that hasn't taken a ton of punishment. The only fights he's really taken punishment are the 2 against Wandy and against Shogun. He's not like Big Nog who's strategy consisted of letting you punch him in the face while he had you in guard until you either made a mistake or got tired.

I think Rashad can win this fight. Rampage hits like a truck, but he throws these big looping shots, and Rashad can make himself hard to hit. Rashad has fast hands, good head movement, and good footwork. I think if Rashad can work in some leg kicks and some takedowns he's got a definite shot.

But then again, Bisping eluded Henderson's right hand about 40 times until he didn't and suddenly got very sleepy, so who knows.

I really think this is just about a coin flip.