I’ve been laid up this weekend with either mild pneumonia or H1N1 (medical science seems to be unsure at this point) so I figured that since I was on the couch all day anyway, I might as well brave the entire uncut Sengoku show from HDNet. And it was really good! Randleman looks damn good for a 38 year old (not, like, Randy Couture good, but good) and there was some entertaining featherweight matches with Japanese guys, and a couple of upsets, but mainly Michael Schiavello was awesome on commentary and totally made the whole thing enjoyable for the whole time. He was coming up with crazy, off-the-cuff lines (“Those punches have less weight than Kate Moss!”) on a live TV show and it’s tremendous to hear someone who’s obviously such a fan of the sport. I love Mauro Renallo, but “The Voice” is the guy that Strikeforce needs to lend more cred to their product. Anyway, I think the edited three-hour version of Sengoku is repeating on HDNet Fights, and it’s well worth checking out, questionable judging aside.
Also tonight, Strikeforce on CBS, and that went about as well as the network could have hoped for, I think. All the fights went pretty much the time they needed to go, all the fights were mostly good (aside from the Shields-Miller match, which started hot and then dragged once both guys realized that it was a 5 round fight), and Fedor now looks like a guy who can carry a PPV. Seriously, what a great fight, and did you SEE that punch? This was no Kimbo situation where the great hype was exposed as nothing, he backed that shit up, man. With a BROKEN NOSE, no less.
So to sum up, coughing + fever + chills = bad, MMA = good.
Fedor has it all – speed, power, submissions, heart. In the mythical Lesnar matchup, I’d worry a bit about Lesnar’s size, but if Couture could work the clinch on Lesnar, Fedor shouldn’t have a problem. And the standup game…Lesnar would be overwhelmed by those bombs.
That right hand tonight (same one that KO’ed Arlovski) was a thing of beauty, with a loud “CRACK” when it landed. I kind of wish McCarthy would have let it go longer, though, because I was sure a rear-naked choke was coming.
Fedor is a beast;b ut I think it’s a toss up right now as to who would win between Fedor and Brock.
One thing though, the commentating was AWFUL last night. CBS seriously needs some real MMA commentators.
While Schiavello may be a fan of the sport, he gets quite repetitive if you watch enough fights on HD-NET. Always yelling “It’s good night Irene” for every KO or submission is puke worthy. Scott you really need to watch more MMA because Randleman is a total joke. He had a couple of big wins YEARS ago but he cannot beat anyone that has any skill. Plus he tapped to Cro Cop of all people.
Fedor is a total monster. His punch on Rogers sounded like an explosion. No doubt Brock’s size and SPEED and strength would give him many problems. Still it’d be tough to bet against him. Gus Johnson should stick to NFL and college basketball because his MMA knowledge is obviously lacking. Almost embarrassing
Well, luckily I only have HDNet for the free preview month, so I’ll be tuning out before I get sick of The Voice.
And I said Randleman LOOKED good, not that he WAS good. He was obviously gassed at the end and didn’t really have any finish, but if UFC needs someone who still looks like a star for a Lesnar to beat, they could do worse.
Randleman would never be hired back. Way too small for Lesnar. Plus when he was UFC champion he slipped and fell backstage and knocked himself out and was rushed to the hospital. Killed their main event while their PPV was on the air.
HDNet is one of the best channels out their. LOADS of MMA content with other great shows like Art Mann Presents and good movies and good musical programming. They shouldn’t have made Schiavello the voice of their MMA and hired Bas Rutten for the job. Not sure if him and Metzger get along with their past
Plus I thing Randleman signed with Strikeforce
[...] Also tonight , Strikeforce on CBS, and that went about as well as the network could have hoped for, I think. All the fights went pretty much the time they needed to go, all the fights were mostly good (aside from the Shields-Miller match, which started hot and then dragged once both guys realized that it was a 5 round fight ), and Fedor now looks like a guy who can carry a PPV. Seriously, what a great fight , and did you SEE that punch? This was no Kimbo situation where the …Continued [...]