You mother ****er!

Because Bendo already lost to Pettis twice. Melendez only win since being robbed vs Bendo was against #14. And Grant was injured.

Don't think one fight is going to get Bendo a title shot. He just needs to stay active vs top 10 fighters and get some clear victories. Khabib has been trying to get a fight, maybe that could be next. Only other option I see is Cerrone, but there are so many better fights out there for him.

Benson didn't look all that good to me last night. Thompson was clearly a better grappler, and while Henderson out-struck him, it wasn't by much. My first impression was it could go 48-47 either way, probably to Henderson though (i'd probably have to watch it again). But if Thompson hadn't broken his hand, I think he definitely takes the fight. Just a very bleh performance by Henderson - got into bad positions over and over, did some decent striking but never any real/lasting damage. Never came close to a finish at any time. Didn't dominate standing against a guy with a broken hand. Never really looked like the kind of guy other fighters should fear, seemed like he was point fighting.

anyone know the details of what started this?

Also, Caceres/Pettis was a really fun fight. If you haven't seen that you should look it up.

Rankings don't directly relate to title shots. Ben Henderson, Junior Dos Santos, and Joseph Benavidez, for example, are most likely the #1 ranked fighters in their weight class, but all have lost to the current champ twice. So even though they're the best guys, it's really difficult to justify putting them in the title picture.

Probably the most famous example of this would be Rich Franklin, although it's possible Urijah Faber is headed for that same status in two weight classes.

yeah sucks about how common it is in the UFC

Hendo was more of a place keeper for the strap in my mind. His wins were marginal and mostly tied to the whims of the judges, while his loss to Pettis was certainly decisive and with no controversy.

I hope Faber wins even though I kind of like Barao better... Faber's just had such a ridiculous run I'd hate the thought of him never being a UFC champ. Never lost a non-title fight, ever. Always brings it, even when he breaks both hands in a title fight. Plus the division will be more interesting if he wins (because if he loses he's just going to spend the rest of his career blowing up prospects before they get title shots).

Faber gots game for sure. And then there is the Duane Bang factor which Team Alpha Male had been riding high on lately. But can't help but think Faber may bust a hand early versus Barao's melon. That being said, Faber certainly deserves the shot and if he wins, I'd be fine with that, although I like Barao's history and mentality. Should be a wild entertaining fight.

Pinny has it:

Urijah Faber +239
Renan Barao -270

Think the line's close?

Wineland was able to take a round early vs Barao, which leads me to think that Faber without a broken rib should stand a pretty good chance. Looking forward to that one.

http://www.mmafighting.com/2014/1/28...best-and-worst



Just came across this. I'm a Luke Thomas fan and normally think his views are spot on, but I disagree with him here. I actually agree on the scoring of the Henderson/Thompson fight(I had Thompson winning 1, 2, and 4), but I disagree on the bigger issue of how positional advantages should be scored in MMA.

His argument is that the back mount position is tremendously advantageous position, and therefore it deserves "points" regardless of whether physical damage is done. He comes from a wrestling background, and in wrestling they do indeed give points for positions(including added points for holding a position for a certain amount of time).

Most other sports do not give points for position. For example, consider the following baseball game: One team gets the bases loaded with no outs every single inning but they never score, while the other team only gets one hit all game- a solo home run. The position of "bases loaded with no outs" will allow for a tremendous amounts of points to be scored on average. However, we never think it worthwhile to award points for the mere position, and we can all agree that the team that scored 1 run is the winner. Similarly, consider a football team that has a bunch of 1st and goals but never scores. In both cases we recognize that the position will usually lead to points, but never do we think it necessary to award points merely for having the position.

So why does wrestling reward position whereas other sports don't? Well the sport of wrestling is essentially about controlling position. After all the end goal is to achieve a certain position(a pin). In other sports, position is useful but is not the end goal. I think MMA is more like these other sports- the end goal in MMA is to inflict damage, and position is a means to that end.

An extreme example: Suppose theres a genetically mutated fighter who has a super bendy arm that simply doesn't get hurt by arm bars. Getting that fighter in an arm bar should not be worth anything, as its doing no damage. The position only has value in so far as it leads to damage.

Luke seems to think that this disagreement comes from a misunderstanding of wrestling. Luke certainly knows way more about wrestling(and most martial arts) than me, but I don't think the disagreement here stems from a misunderstanding. I think the disagreement stems from him having a bias towards the wrestling scoring system, and that bias leading him to thinking MMA should ideally be scored with similar regards towards positional control.

I think a more appropriate analogy would not be to football or baseball, but to the actual combat sports that combine to form MMA. Both wrestling and BJJ give points for positions. And even striking partially does (in a roundabout way) - if two guys are boxing and neither really hurts the other, but one guy has a much high volume thrown and is moving forward, he almost always gets the round. It's a form of 'position wins'. In general, combat sports tend to value position.

More explicitly, the rules actually tell us you have to give points for pure positional control. Effective striking, effective grappling, effective aggression, effective octagon control are the four criteria for scoring fights under the unified rules of MMA. They're generally (although not explicitly) considered to be judged in that order. And while he didn't do much damage (effective striking) from the back it absolutely fell into all three other categories. He was effectively grappling, was the agressor and made his opponent do nothing but defend during that time, and controlled the octagon by virtue of controlling his opponent. You have to score that as a positive. Position explicitly has (and should have) value more than just for damage inflicted.

Rhasaan Orange jokes around pretending to be a world beating BJJ master, Renato Laranja. Like here with Weidman, he trolls people in good fun, and did so with Nate (not sure if it was that specific time) and Nate supposedly didn't respond well. It was either at that Expo, or he's still holding a grudge.

Man it looks like a stacked card tonight.

IIRC they had a similar kind of card last year as well.

Obviously trying to max out for superbowl weekend.

Faber $3.20 !
Mir $3.65 !!
Lamas $5.80 !!!

Value! If you are silly enough to believe any of those guys have a chance...

Faber & Mir are like AA vs random hands I guess.

Lamas though is like 2 river outs.

Will wait for better spots

Magomedov is tough!!!! Martin too...

I like Hester next but his few losses have been subs and Enz has good subs. Bad match up for Hester but if his bjj has improved and can get through this fight he might be worth some $$$ in future.

Missed most of that first fight but caught the KO and wow that was a bomb.

that was why i watch this stuff. So awesome

That was crazy. Varner looked like he'd punched himself out and then it came out of nowhere lol.

Has Lamas really got no shot? I can get 6-1 on him. :/

that fight is now in my top 3 of fav ufc fights...dont ask me the others...dat fight was sick

Poor varner man :'-(

Mir to win with a snap.

Mir was my first favourite MMA fighter. If he loses, this might be the end so im hoping he pulls this out.

Mir ****ed.