Anything MMA, except thumb wrestling

[NoCalMike]

Machida is the marketable fight I think too.

In the first fight I felt Machida won the 1st round pretty decisively and was doing fine in round 2 until he got wrecked by the Bones elbow which led to the standing choke.

Shogun on the other hand, was wrecked by Bones, and ever since then he still looks like the same fighter, one who is still technically dangerous, but is very battle worn and gasses out way to fast for a 5 round fight.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

You can tell his body is breaking down. He is nowhere near as fast and his technique fading faster each fight

His athleticism is breaking down 100x faster than his technique is. Shogun still throws some beautiful punches, but he's just too weak to keep up any kind of rhythm. It's like after 1 round, you start to see a shell of the real Shogun. It's been that way for a while now. His uppercuts were ridiculous tonight, his right hand was incredible to watch. The dude is just out of breath. What a great, great fighter. I feel for him, man. The dude needs to go train with the Diaz crew for a year. I think if he focused on cardio in an over-the-top manner, he'd become fearsome again.

[Chachie]

What a fantastic card, eh? Lots of back-and-forth, competitve fights tonight. The free ones always deliver and the PPVs are risky.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

What a fantastic card, eh? Lots of back-and-forth, competitve fights tonight. The free ones always deliver and the PPVs are risky.

Hopefully a lot of people were watching. Very good card, felt like the UFC and FOX gelled for once.

[Chachie]

Hopefully a lot of people were watching. Very good card, felt like the UFC and FOX gelled for once.

The prelims on Fuel were also good. I had my brother-in-law over and we were constantly yelling "WHOOOAAA" and "HE'S COMING BACK" throughout the evening.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

Thank you Shogun for being a guaranteed barn burner type of fighter, and Vera for having the heart of a lion tonight. And Machida, for KO'ing people in awesome fashion. Looks like the UFC's approach is to put KO artists on FOX to attract the kids. Sport is on an upswing after tonight. Needed it, the move to FOX has been rocky.

[NoCalMike]

Shogun is another example of a fighter that was so good in his early and mid 20's that it's frustrating so many of today's UFC fans didn't get to watch him in his prime.

It seems MMA fighters are starting to peak a lot early and then wane not to soon after. It's not like Shogun is "old" but you can tell he isn't the same fighter.

[Chachie]

Shogun is another example of a fighter that was so good in his early and mid 20's that it's frustrating so many of today's UFC fans didn't get to watch him in his prime.

Well said. Mauricio was the Jon Jones of Pride. Came in young and wiped the slate clean of great fighters.

[d0ublestr0ker0ll]

Best thread title on Sherdog tonight: "Shogun is the best gassed fighter." It's true...he's gassed most of the time, and somehow stays in it.

[StillUnknown]

http://www.mmafighting.com/ufc/2012/...s-to-fight-b-j

A cut suffered in training has forced Rory MacDonald to pull out of his UFC 152 fight against B.J. Penn. UFC president Dana White announced the news following UFC on FOX 4 on Saturday night.

White said he found out the news during the Shogun Rua vs. Brandon Vera fight and had yet to talk to Penn about what he wanted to do next.

BJ just received a stay of execution.

[#98QBKiller]

Just saw the UFC on FOX card last night card of the year so far IMO.

[method man]

Thank you Shogun for being a guaranteed barn burner type of fighter, and Vera for having the heart of a lion tonight. And Machida, for KO'ing people in awesome fashion. Looks like the UFC's approach is to put KO artists on FOX to attract the kids. Sport is on an upswing after tonight. Needed it, the move to FOX has been rocky.

That's why Pat Barry still has a job. Notice how most of his fights are on the free cards.

---------- Post added August-6th-2012 at 11:11 AM ----------

The UFC also needs to do what it can to buy out the Strikeforce light heavyweight division from Showtime control. The Strikeforce LHW division is only 2 deep anyway with Mousasi and Feijao (assuming Kyle drops to MW). Furthermore, the UFC could use an infusion of new LHW prospects like OSP and Villante, given the current pool of top prospects in the UFC at LHW consists of just Gustafsson, Davis and a few others.

Perhaps, they can agree to send a few of their mid-tier lightweights, welterweights and middleweights to challenge Melendez, Marquardt, and Rockhold.

[method man]

You can tell his body is breaking down. He is nowhere near as fast and his technique fading faster each fight.

Bones literally beat him into submission, he was then pounded on by Henderson and his H-Bomb for 25min. His body is done.

My guess is that he can't go hard in training. Otherwise, the potential is definitely there for another setback to his knees.

[lovetoaster]

So I assume we will see Shogun-Gustafsson now? Should be an interesting fight if it were to happen.

[StillUnknown]

So I assume we will see Shogun-Gustafsson now? Should be an interesting fight if it were to happen.

Some talk on different sites has Shogun & Lil Nog coaching the next installment of TUF: Brazil.

Shogun/Gustaffson makes more sense though.