bigg jay

The UFC is 21 years old... not my definition of a long long time by any stretch of the imagination. The reason why it seemed to peak a few years ago was because prior to Dana White & the Fertita brothers spending years and about 40 million to start changing perceptions about the sport, it was banned by most states and most ppv providers. They called it the "dark ages" of mma for a reason. It was next to impossible for most fans to watch the sport back then. Lumping Kimbo (UFC debut in late 2009) in with the Shamrock/Gracie era (both debuted at UFC 1 in 1993) is laughable.

It's not a shot at Lesnar, just a fact that his striking game was not at the level needed to compete with guys like that. Considering the age he started at and how long he trained for, he did very well. He's a legit freak of nature, athletically speaking, he just got into the game too late.

This! Apparently, when he was training MMA, he'd never let his sparring partners use strikes to the head (he would tee off on them though) and it showed in his fights. A lot of pro wrestlers would have gone the MMA route (at least initially) if that had been an option when they started out. The Undertaker has said he would definitely tried his hand at it.

I dont think Brock will go back. But you can't under-estimate his desire. He's driven by two things: money and pride. And he will sacrifice one for the other. He hates how his UFC career ended and was very sick and unable to train the way he wanted. He's much better now and I think thats what drives him a bit. But theres little upside. He makes a lot of money now to work very limited dates with virtually no injury risk. I don't think Brock will come back either. As much as he didn't like the way his last UFC run finished, I don't see him doing much better if there is a next time. A rubber match with Frank Mir would be his best fight. You can only protect a guy so long in that sport, even they gave him a couple easier fights, eventually he'd get put in with a top guy like Cain Velasquez and it wouldn't be pretty. Rousey has already started to go Hollywood but she loves to fight so who knows how long she'll stick around. Jones isn't going anywhere, he makes a ton of coin in the UFC (last year he made more than both his NFL playing brothers combined). He might get some Randy Couture type films (The Expendables) as a part time guy but he'll never be a main attraction.

There were rumors that the WWE was a possible buyer for the UFC when Zuffa was looking at selling. The rumors also said that Zuffa wasn't keen on that because they wanted to avoid the Bellator/TNA situation with the cross-over stuff. The last thing they wanted after dumping 40 million into legitimizing MMA, is to have them doing worked fights. Their definitely have been more MMA-orientated submissions that you did not see prior to the UFC (triangle chokes, gogoplatas, etc). Part of the reason they don't translate well is because they can't be properly applied in the WWE without potentially doing real damage or actually choking someone out.

The WWE promoting the UFC certainly helped but I don`t see it being a major factor in their success either. It was mutually beneficial for both sides to be friendly with each other (and it still is). Like BVD said, free fights on TV was huge for them. They took a gamble with The Ultimate Fighter (they paid Spike to air their show the 1st season rather than the network paying them like Fox does now) and it paid off big time.

If it was on Spike, then it was Bellator (they're owned by Spike's parent company Viacom). They are the biggest MMA company after the UFC but aren't really competition for them. They have some decent fighters but haven't been able to really create any big stars. Their most well-known fighters are washed-up UFC guys (Tito Ortiz & Rampage Jackson). If Viacom ever wanted to pull a page out of Ted Turner's playbook & poach some top UFC guys, they might be able to really give the UFC a run for their money.

There are so many problems with the UFC right now that it would take for ever to go through them. I agree that they are getting to the point of over-saturation. As an example, between May 10th and June 28th, there are 8 events, with them having 2 events on the same day twice. How they expect people to watch/follow that is beyond me. With roughly 500 fighters under contract, you can barely keep up with who's who. When they did 5-6 events a year they had time to properly build up the event and the fighters. It was "must watch tv" for a lot of fans & you could plan around ppv's. Now, there's no way you could do that, unless your life involves only your couch & tv.

Buff is apparently doing well as a male escort these days. A little easier on the body I guess (depending on the size of the client!).

There have been a number of legitimate broadcasters/media people involved in the business. Some examples off the top of my head would be: Ed Whalen - He was just the voice of Stampede Wrestling to me when I was growing up, I had no idea until much later on that he also worked for the Flames for years. Joe Aiello - his radio career took off here in Winnipeg after doing TV for Tony Condello. Jeff Marek, formerly of Hockey Night in Canada, started out by creating an Live Audio Wrestling (an internet radio program).

Given the recent loss Matt Stajan suffered with his newborn, I can't see how anyone could blame Ladd for wanting to be there.

Tacklewasher & KBF were the ones talking about Carl's Jr so I'm guessing they were referring to Kelowna not Winnipeg... but if I'm wrong, somebody please correct me so I can go check it out!

That was Papa George's on Osborne. It just closed down recently. My favourite pizza is from Dal's in Transcona.

Oh ok. I guess that's supposed to be funny. You must be fun at parties. Jay Detain is funny because that's what the close captioning on IGF interprets his name as. Same with Rory Dough Alert. And Demons Washing Ham. I can't wait to see what the captioning comes up with for Lirim Hajrallahu next season!

Bombers have signed Quentin Sims per Darren Cameron. He's 6'2, 202lbs & spent the pre-season with the Patriots last year ( 4 passes for 86 yds & 2 TD's).

2 less potential FA's - Ryan Lucas & Chris Kowalczuk have been resigned per Darren Cameron.

was your freakin' sody too cold too? It made my teef hurt.

Probably because the Bomber offices are closed until January 6th.

The article on TSN's website says that Stubler met with O'Shea last week. www.tsn.ca/cfl/story/?id=439391

He was barely capable of that!

And it's official... http://www.bluebombers.com/article/kyle-walters-named-gm-of-the-bombers

Lawless is now saying we'll be asking for permission to talk to Jeremy O'Day. Even though they're looking at them for different jobs (O'day for GM), I'd rather have Argo/Ti-Cat trash than Rider trash!

Ed Tait is tweeting that the Bombers have confirmed Burke will not be back next year.

http://www.bluebombers.com/article/wade-miller-named-president-ceo-of-winnipeg-football-club

This. I'm waiting to see what changes they make with the GM & coach before I decide if I'll be renewing or not.