On Karelin:



Swedish wrestler Tomas Johansson had to get help from wrestlers from smaller weightclasses on how to defend against the techniques Karelin used. He was 130 kg or whatever and was tossed around like a rag-doll by Karelin. The super heavies didn't really have to defend against lifts like those. No one was strong enough to pull them off. Until Karelin.

Hard to be as smooth as Silva was against Bonnar in Greco-Roman but I say yes.

lol level of competition? way way way more people wrestle worldwide than fight mma. this isn't even remotely close.
more so

It got so bad for the other heavyweights that they often gave up their backs and submitted to being pinned rather than hurled across the room.

fair enough


thats irrelevant. Its about there being money in the sport. The opportunity to make a lot of money is what will attract more of the elite athletes.




are there videos of him available online?

this is WRASSLIN

only about ten+ pages of google results for "aleksandr karelin wrestling video"

theres a lot on youtube. here's one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AIib...eature=related

the dominance is not as pronounced imo. even if i'm not aware of the subtleties and therefore my opinion isn't as valid, when a noob watches Silva he is 100% sure Silva clowned on his opponent.

It should be noted that Karelins final loss to Gardner was a joke.

The level of competition Karelin faced clowns Andersons at MW to be fair, although Anderson has beat some very good guys mixed in. Although that is not Andersons fault.

also, the sport is pretty damn gay

silva really clowned chael in their first fight imo

Let it also be known that Karelin was battling some form of injury at Atlanta '96 where this match is from.


No wai!

chael did get caught with steroids though. also,

although, upon watching further videos, it is pretty crazy he went 13 years without losing a point. you lose a point if you step out of bounds right?

Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen coaching the next series of The Ultimate Fighter and then fighting in April sometime.

Very diverse. A Russian vs. a Moldovan, competing in in the US, with Japanese commentary.

Sonnen is smarter and a better trash talker but Jones is a better striker, a better wrestler, better at BJJ, has greater reach, is taller, heavier, stronger and quicker. Gonna be an exciting fight.

LOL @ Chael taking on Ariel Helwani about fighting JJ on today's press conference. Made some vaild points along with DW. Not one other fighter who is complaining either turned down the JJ fight, or hasn't called JJ or Sonnen out.

Sonnen said he'd take a prelim fight with any fighter who wants one and the winner gets JJ. Listening live right now, you'll have to catch the recorded version if you can.

Dana White: "All the top LHW contenders who are complaining about Chael getting this fight, I called them ALL to fight Jones and they ALL turned it down."

EDIT: DW: "I don't want to hear any bitching (from the light heavyweights). You all turned down a fight with Jon Jones when I called you and Chael Sonnen was the only one to take it."

The best part of any Sonnen fight is the build up. The guy knows what to say to make things interesting.

The fact that the lead up to this fight will have them as opposing coaches on The Ultimate Fighter there will be some nice back and forths between them.

isn't that just flat untrue, about the other LHWs turning down shot? If you offered Lyoto the chance to coach TUF and then fight Jones, is he really saying no?
Just because you don't accept a fight on short notice you don't get a legit shot?
Dana's schtick is growing really old, really fast.

it's a bit dishonest because it's out of context, but im sure he's frustrated that he called 4-10 people or something to save the card last minute vs jones and they declined. i mean even lyoto declined on like what, one month worth of camp? it makes some sense for him to decline imo given that you def don't get a third shot-- but i'd have to think some other guys out there in the top 10 shoudl have jumped at the shot to fight jones on 10 days notice. even with 1 in 25 chance of victory against a super boss the opportunity to leapfrog a bunch of ppl in the division and get a title shot is huge.

but yea it's annoying he keeps harping on it when there's probably no one who would turn down tuf + a huge fight 6 months from now with him

Lyoto turned down the fight when offered, yes on short notice. The point was, Chael stepped up for UFC 152 and Jones turned it down. Dana contacted other LHW's who all turned it down except for Belfort, who called Dana asking for the fight.

If everyone else looks down to the ground, shuffles their feet, shifts from side to side and says, "No not now tyvm tho" and one steps forward and volunteers, I wouldn't offer them anything either. They all have a right to bitch and tell everyone how they want to fight Jones, but they all turned down an opportunity. Don't forget, JJ is where he's at now BECAUSE he stepped up when Rashad Evans couldn't answer the call due to injury. No one complained then, or at least it wasn't as vocal as the LHW's are with Chael.

Agree with you here. No one would turn down the offer for TUF, and all the visibilty and promotional opportunities it would deliver. They'd be stupid to do so.

But bottom line the UFC is a business, not a tournament administrator trying to be fair to all participants involved. The facts are when the UFC came to the LHW's looking for help at UFC 152, no one answered except for Chael, and I can understand their reluctance. But Chael was taking the fight on short notice, not 6 mos out, as they all had opportunity to do.

So if the UFC wants to overlook those who wouldn't answer the call, far be it from me to judge their decision. Personally, in my business I've rewarded those who were team players and assisted me when I needed help on a weekend or Holiday, not the guy who turned down an opportunity to show their fortitude to the business.

I'm certain other younger fighters are getting the message the UFC is sending.

EDIT: Presser Conference Call Scroll down to bottom of page

new TTTS: