Round 19/ Pick 146

Jake O'Brien



Mikey said above that

Needless to say, I think Jake O'Brien is a legit blue chip prospect. Despite a recent loss to Arlovski, he's 3-1 in the UFC and 10-1 overall. He undeservedly got a rep for being boring after a couple of decision wins, but eight out of 10 wins were dominant TKO victories, with none of those TKOs lasting longer than 6 minutes. He beat Herring so that should be an interesting rematch down the road. He's a great wrestler (Purdue) and has heavy, heavy hands. He's also only 24 and practically just out of college. He's got years and years to grow.

Jake's a legit blue chip HW, and the last one out there imo. I'm happy to pick him up and finish my HW division because in my mind, there isn't a shadow of a doubt that my HW division is the best situated for the future. Mikey's got more immediate talent, but I have the future on lockdown with future world #1 Lesnar and two incredible young talents in Velasquez and O'Brien. Not even mentioning my other two excellent, excellent HWs, Herring and Werdum (neither of whom is really THAT old). 5 years from now, my HW division will be the envy of the sport and will be dominant in terms of talent and drawing power. And isn't the future what really matters?

***Throwdown MMA***
HW – Brock Lesnar, Fabricio Werdum, Heath Herring, Cain Velasquez, Jake O'Brien
LHW – Tito Ortiz, Keith Jardine, Vladimir Matyushenko, Stephan Bonnar, (Michael Bisping)
MW – Michael Bisping, Chris Leben, Frank Trigg, (Mike Swick)
WW – Georges St. Pierre, Mike Swick, Spencer Fisher
LW – Shinya Aoki, Hermes Franca, Marcelo Garcia

Another interesting point is that I have two matchups coming up. cain vs. jake and heath vs. brock.

Overall, I'm not really worried about it because picks are best evaluated at the time they are made. Obv. if we were actually living this out, none of these fights would happen because our fighters would be in different orgs. Forrest would have never beat Quinton bc they'd be in different orgs, etc. I don't hold that pick against TD because clearly quinton was the right play at that spot. You have to judge based on the time of the pick imo. I wouldn't face these two up until later down the road but the UFC is much deeper than Throwdown MMA and can afford to.

i literally had half a post written out re: o'brien before pulling the trigger on palhares instead, thinking he might drop. boo.

woooooooooo had 1/3 a bottle of malibu an d an entire bottle of really good french wine sincer that pick boooooooooooooyakasha imo. I have to stay off of the MMA sites and threads at this point so as not to spoilar myself. Sorry sixfour but at least you are pretty smrat with your o'brien tendency. He's going to be verry good methinks and he will only keep geting better and more domianant.

Talk to yo in a day or two,

danny

you know affliction has been stupidly massively delayed here now?

wat?

p.ls no spoilers just tell me what this supposedly delay is about guys

real mma fans dont drink malibu. wtf.

sixfour said it's delayed a week in the UK.

Yeah, Mickey's Fine Malt Liquor or Bud Light only.

lol its what is here and i am getting my drank on. you guys have no party.

I got plenty drunk without any malibu tonight... in fact... I don't think malibu was involved in any drunkeness I've been involved in since I was a junior in high school. LOLZ!

DannyO... quit talking **** about my picks! And you are a jerk for stealing Velasquez from me!

Not talking **** yo. I like him. but cmon, capeiorooeioieoieoera? It's just funny as hell to me that you would throw that in there. Gusamo is a solid choice though.

Malibu is what was available. FWIW i pretty much just drank from the bottle and nearly finished the thing because it's so sweet there's not much point to mix it with anything.

Round 19 / Pick 147

Mike Pyle



I'm picking him because my list is at work, and I saw him fight last night.

**Drunken Monkey Promotions**
HW - Randy Couture, Kevin Ferguson, Ben Rothwell, Shane Carwin
LHW - Melvin Manhoef, Goran Reljic, Matt Hamill, Luis Cane
MW - Cung Le, Amir Sadollah, Nate Quarry, Kendall Grove
WW - Matt Hughes, Nick Thompson, Jay Hieron, Mike Pyle
LW - BJ Penn, Kenny Florian, KJ Noons

Round 19/Pick 148 - Rory Markham



Pretty successful IFL welterweight who made his UFC debut with a bang last night. He's got a lot of power standing and comes from a proven camp at MFS.


HW - T.Sylvia, A.Emelianenko, S.Khariton
LHW - Q.Spacecadet, R.Evans, D.Marshall, M.Whitehead
MW - R.Franklin, R.Almeida, S.Smith
WW - J.Koscheck, A.Johnson, DK.Kim, R. Markham
LW - JZ Calvan, J.Steven, J.Thomson, M.Aurelio, M.Ishida

markham was pretty scary looking. Don't let his herpes be the face of your org.

Capoeira is f'ing awesome imo. If Patton hadn't mentioned it, I would've read that guy's bio and said "don't care". Now I'm eager to tune in and catch a glimpse of some Eddy Gordo ****. It's just smart marketing to talk up the things that make your fighters different and interesting.

Round 19/Pick 149 - Melvin Guillard



This guy is a tank. He is incredibly athletic and comes across as a monster. He had a bit of a tough stretch with 2 straight losses, but I believe he has put that behind him and will rebound even stronger. He's coming off 2 straight wins and he's only 25. So much potential in this one I see.


HW - Fedor Emelianenko, Frank Mir, cheick kongo
LHW - Lyoto Machida, Renato Sobral, Ricardo Arona, Wilson Gouveia
MW - Dan Henderson, Patrick Cote, Demian Maia, Jorge Santiago
WW - Diego Sanchez, Karo Parisyan, Drew Fickett, Marcus Davis
LW - Roger Huerta, Sean Sherk, Rich Clementi, Melvin Guillard

Was the Yoda style intentional?

Mike Goldberg style imo. So explosive and athletic is Melvin.

Round 19/Pick 150 - Ryan Schultz



Closing out my LW division by snapping up the IFL's champion. He's riding a win streak and may well become more high profile IRL in the coming months, I don't expect massive amounts from him but I'm more confident with the pick after having seen other ex-IFL talent last night not completely sucking

Trainwreck MMA:

HW: Overeem
LHW: Liddell, Griffin, Irvin, Stann
MW: Okami, Lawler, Leites, Mizaki, Palhares
WW: Fitch, Serra, Hazelett, Sakurai
LW: Faber, Griffin, Yamamoto, Pulver, Schultz

Is his precision...precise?

Absolutely!

Round 19 - Pick 151 CB Dollaway




Before we found out that he doesnt like to defend Arm Bars, CB Dollaway was considered one of the top prospects in America..After the show, CB lost a little bit of momentum, but is still a recognizable name because of TUF and is only 24 so has plenty of time to improve his game.. He has a good ground game and is a decent striker and could develop into a good possibly great MW.

HW - Josh Barnett, Antonio Silva, Roy Nelson, Dave Herman
LHW - Mauricio Rua, Thiago Silva, Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou
MW - Paulo Filho, Nate Marquardt, Murilo Rua, CB Dollaway
WW - Jake Shields, Phil Baroni, Akihiro Gono
LW - Tatsuya Kawajiri, Frank Edgar, Caol Uno, Vitor Ribeiro, Chris Horodecki

Round 19/Pick 152 - Jake Rosholt



I have no clue if I'm reaching or if anyone had this guy on their radar, but I've been sitting on him awhile. Rosholt is a highly touted prospect from Team Takedown. At 25, he sports a pro record of 4-0. Jake made his name at Oklahoma State University, winning the the 184-pound NCAA Division I wrestling title in 2003 and the 197-pound title in 2005 and 2006 and is a 4-time All-American.

Roster so far (note Belfort drops to MW):

HW - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Andrei Arlovski, Mirko Filipovic, Gabriel Gonzaga, Pedro Rizzo
LHW - Wanderlei Silva, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
MW - Gegard Mousasi, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Martin Kampmann, Vitor Belfort, Jake Rosholt
WW - Thiago Alves, Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Brock Larson
LW - Eddie Alvarez, Clay Guida, Mac Danzig, Joachim Hansen[

Crap..Was taking him with my next pick..

Round 20/Pick 153 - Rodrigo Damm



One of the better unknown lightweights. Holds victories over a couple of solid 155ers. Should be a guy to come into his own over the next couple years.

Roster so far:

HW - Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Andrei Arlovski, Mirko Filipovic, Gabriel Gonzaga, Pedro Rizzo
LHW - Wanderlei Silva, Antonio Rogerio Nogueira
MW - Gegard Mousasi, Yoshihiro Akiyama, Martin Kampmann, Vitor Belfort, Jake Rosholt
WW - Thiago Alves, Yoshiyuki Yoshida, Brock Larson
LW - Eddie Alvarez, Clay Guida, Mac Danzig, Joachim Hansen, Rodrigo Damm