I think you have to take wear and tear on the body into consideration.

Couture was a wrestler in college, then a boxing champion in the Army, then got into MMA later on in his life.

I know it isn't comparable to boxing where you get punched in the head over and over again without getting knocked out, but I don't think there's a great sample size of MMA fighters starting young and peaking late.

Bones could easily be dominant 10 years from now, but growth in the sport, fresh competition, and time are all against him imo.

Athletes that succeed later in their careers (middle of their lives) are few and far between, there's a huge sample size of competitive athletes that peak mid-20s/early-30s.

I really want a Jones vs. Silva fight. mostly because I think I'm getting ****ing rich. people where I live (brazil) are so blindly patriotic that they bet on silva/every other brazilian fighter at even odds every single fight. I watched silva's last fight at a bar with friends and I had to lol. a friend of mine said when belfort faced jones he was at the same bar and he was the only one betting AGAINST belfort and won a huge amount of money. Can't wait to see these same idiots betting on silva vs. jones.. (even though it's a lot closer than vs. belfort)

Henderson and Couture have been successful is the previous era of MMA, imo. Proper training and strength and conditioning is shifting away from their style, imo, and those guys aren't able to compete.

The current trend in MMA seems to be away from max strength athletes and strength endurance types and more towards weaker, but more explosive/speed strength athletes. The optimal MMA athlete's size and strength profile is more similar to basketball and soccer players than olympics wrestlers, but wrestlers have had success due to their skills clearly being much more optimal.

And HGH/TRT.

Yeah Sonnen really deserves a shot at the LHW title.

He's mediocre at best. Besides the first Silva fight where Anderson was clearly injured he's done nothing in the sport, and he still managed to lose that AND got caugth for doping afterwards.


He lost to Bisping (imo) before the second Silva fight and he's lost to the likes of Trevor Prangley.

The ONLY reason he's getting a shot is because of the potential PPV receipts.
It's the one aspect of the UFC that I absolutely loath.

Remember Kenny Florian getting a shot at Aldo after one fight at fW?
Rampage getting a shot at Bones after beating Matt Hamill?
Lesnar getting a HW shot after beating Heath Herring? really?

All because of RECEIPTS.


That said, it'll nearly be worth it for the beatdown Sonnen is going to receive.

Keep in mind the UFC is a business first and foremost. Fighters fight. From a business perspective I absolutely agree with DW, Lorenzo and Silva. They contacted numerous LHW's which all turned down a shot at Jones for a myriad of reasons. JJ took Shogun on short notice and took the belt. JJ turned down Sonnen with a full, healthy camp behind him. Sonnen requested the fight and has continually stated he'd fight anyone, anywhere at any time and has proven it.

PPV receipts aside for the moment, I would reward Sonnen as well. The other guys complaints would fall on deaf ears, and I would most likely move Vitor up to a favored status as well for his pro-activeness in seeking the fight.

Matchmaking is about putting together fights the people want to see and clamor for. Without PPV, gate sales, sponsors, etc. the fighters do not get paid. Which is why ALL fighters seek to reach the UFC as a primary goal - for $$$.

Good point, training methods will improve over the next several years.

I want to be clear that I'm not saying Bones will not be able to keep up with the fresh crop of fighters and advanced training methods

I just think it's a pretty big stretch to assume he will be able to dominate like he has when there are a bunch of new guys that are top notch athletes, training hard every day with the most advanced technology, when these guys are going to be hungry to beat him.

Reward him for what? Thrash talking? This isn't the WWE.

For offering to take the JJ fight when every other LHW tucked tail declined for personal/professional reasons. As I referenced, every business rewards it's "team players" over an employee who declines. May not be "right" and you may not agree with it, but it is what it is.

Why would I make an offer to an employee worth tens of thousands of dollars, plus a PPV which will pay out the nose to both fighters and other intrinsic values (sponsorships, exposure, etc) who turned me down when I made a request of them for help, over an employee who jumped in to help without even being asked?

I have no professional issue with what ocurred. If other LHW's feel betrayed, then they can request a move to Bellator. Or Strikeforce LOL. If they want to play in the UFC, then play ball, they don't make the rules. If the fighters unionize, see what transpires.

He offered to take the fight cause he's an attention seeking moron who loves being in the spotlight.

He knew he had ZERO chance of beating Bones and was going to be on the receiving end of a serious beatdown but he didn't care cause he's a circus act. Once he's at the centre of attention he doesn't care.

Machida and Shogun quite rightly turned the fight down as they weren't prepared to fight the most dangerous man in the sport, while as you say Bones was fresh out of camp.
They're consummate pros and fight for the right reasons unlike Sonnen. He should join the Circus or the WWE he'd be a lot more suited there.

Take a fighter(Machida) who has just won a fight that was supposed to determine the #1 contender. Offer him his title fight on one week's notice. He turns it down.

Take fighters(Sonnen, Belfort) who were top MWs but had recently lost to the champ so they didn't have a clear pathway back to a title shot. Offer them an unexpected title fight on one week's notice. They jump at it.


This has nothing to do with "stepping up for the company"; It has everything to do with Machida having already been promised a LHW title shot and not needing to risk anything compared to Sonnen/Belfort getting a surprise shot and another big payday in a big fight.

Sonnen is a cartoon character out of the octagon, but he's a similar quality opponent as Machida or Shogun for Jones. Machida opened at +275 vs Jones in December of 2011, given Jones dominance since then, I'd image he'd be a bigger favorite now. Sonnen opened at +400 vs for his upcoming fight vs Jones, so he's not that much of worse opponent, if at all.

Machida would EMBARRASS Sonnen.

Machida's only been beaten twice (forget the Rampage decision) and in the first Bones fight he was winning the fight till he got caught by an elbow that opened him and that hampered his vision.

What's Sonnen's only weapon? The takedown.
How many times you seen Lyoto getting taken down? The only time I can think of is against Bones when he got elbowed and he got straight back up after.
Remember his fight against Rashad? Rashad couldn't even ATTEMPT a takedown against him he's so elusive. And AFAIK he's the only guy to stop Rashad in the Octagon. Bones couldn't do it over 5 rounds.

Opening lines don't mean much anyways, it's the closing line that's worth citing

+1 to the closing lines.

Machida closed at around +420 and +445 vs Jones' 2nd title defense in Dec. 2011.

Sonnen is currently between +475 and +675 now for his upcoming fight vs Jones.

Does anyone think that the odds for Lyoto in a Machida vs Jones II wouldn't go down to around what the odds are currently at for Sonnen vs Jones?

What about Anderson Silva now? Does he take on another middleweight (Chris Weidman, Bisping)? Or will we see him fight St. Pierre at a catchweight in 2013?

I think deserves a title fight. Hes been really good lately and his fight vs Sonnen could have gone either way.

Given that after the Sonnen-Bisping fight, Sonnen's next 2 fights were a MW Title fight and a LHW title fight i think Bisping should get a shot at Silva.

Bisping definitely deserves a shot.

He's the most underrated fighter in the division. He's only really lost to Hendo who's a legend.

I thought he won the fights against Rashad and Sonnen.

I'd be willing to bet very large sums of money that if they fight the line will be closer than -300. Willing to escrow if you are interested.


I thought the Rampage decision was fine, but if you want to count that as a win then you definitely need to count the first Shogun fight as a loss since the great majority of people believe he was lucky to be awarded that fight. Either way, he has 3 losses(in his last 6 fights).


the judges' scorecards for that fight were released, and Jones won the first round

And the UFC judges are always right

Love to know how he won the round when he didn't even touch Lyoto. Ok he pressed the action but Machida's style is elusiveness and counter striking. Same bull**** decisions gave Rampage the first two rounds in their fight.

I'm not much of a Joe Rogan fan but he knows his **** and he reckons Lyoto won the round. I'd imagine most people who actually know the sport would as well, Lord knows where they pull those judges out of.

Anyway it looks like a Hendo/Machida showdown for the title shot which has the looks of a great match.

He's lost to Hendo-Evans-Sonnen-W Silva (really). He's on a one fight win streak. Before that was a four fight can streak. (Mayhem-Rivera-Akiyama-D Miller) His best win is probably Stann, who is top 20. Weidmann-Botsch winner is probably next in line barring Silva vs Jones/GSP.

The Evans fight was 5 years ago, the Hendo one was 3. He has noticably improved since then and alot of people think he won the Sonnen fight.

The guy is almost criminally underrated in the MW division. I dont think he will beat Silva but i dont see anyone that deserves a MW title shot more than him.

eh, that's a little misleading, he looked very good against evans at LHW and if anything the fight vs sonnen was like a draw or something. hendo he got admittedly punked, but if you get caught by hendo you get caught by hendo. he's never looked outmatched, and completely looks like he belongs at the top of the MW division. he does everything well (except maybe strike with power or something), has good cardio, and lost a split decision to a guy who won 5/7 rounds against anderson. mayhem was thought to maybe be good at that time, and im not sure that mayhem looked embarrassingly bad as much as bisping looked really good.

They hit each other the same amount. It was a 10-10 round probably. Rogan is always high.

They "hit" each other the same amount in round one but I think that these 2 strikes in this image can be weighed differently.