No, I'm not Dead

Rather then come up with a big post explaining why I haven't updated in months or what's going on let's just say I didn't see any need or point in doing a MMA video show for the web once "Inside MMA" went live on Mondays and UFC got it's own post fight show. I kept watching MMA even though I lost interest in EA MMA (who can blame me with Battlefield 3, SWTOR, GOW3, and Skyrim).Now there's a new game on the horizon and I figure my best strength is Videogames, so I might as well do a review of UFC3 like I always wanted to.

First off it looks like THQ did get "the screaming lady" for pride in UFC3 so I don't have to boycott it like I originally planned. I've also been playing the demo on Ultimate AI/sim energy settings and I'm liking it. I have little to no doubt that the single player will be nice but the big question still remains as to how good the multiplayer will be (if it's laggy, ranking sucks, ect...). I have to wait till I get my hands on the full game to judge. I'm planing on splitting my review into 2 parts, 1 for singleplayer and the other for multiplayer but those won't be out for at least 2 weeks after the game comes out (giving me enough to time to play it rather then a half ass review).

The league I'm in is incorporating UFC3 into itself and we'll still working out how it's going to be done but check out OMMA's site for more details. I'll be signing up for more events as well (on both EA MMA and UFC3) so if you hate me and wanted to kick my ass in the game, now's the chance.

I'll try to write some articles here and there (MMA/action movie/videogame related stuff) while also doing videos of whatever comes to mind really. I'll try to look for stuff that combines all 3 of my interest like this silly commercial for Tera and if you want more straight forward MMA news then I recommend MiddleEasy since that's the site I frequent.

Get More: GameTrailers.com, TERA - MMO-FO Trailer , PC Games, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Side Note: looks like MiddleEasy does check their mailbox cause they ran a story on the Tera commercial and gave me cred, thanks Zeus.
Link to middleeasy article

Wow! Lots of Drama Going On in MMA

I didn't catch the fight last weekend mainly cause I'm poor and have no interest in watching Rashad beat Tito. Kinda glad too cause I missed the whole "Wardrobe Malfunction" that occurred. More people are talking about the Golden Glory fighters being let go by Zuffa then the card itself, now there's definitely some juicy politics involved in that one. I could put on my conspiracy theory hat but then you would have to read 3 whole pages of crap to what would amount to "I have no fucking clue why this is happening".

Fedor being let go from Strikeforce is a big hit (for Fedor mainly). I know Fedor has ties to M-1 but unless M-1 actually promotes some big fights with big star fighters, it's basically "the Fedor League" and honestly the perception of American fans, is we don't even consider it a league, just Fedor's management. Maybe business wise it's smart for Fedor to stay with M-1 but for his fight career, it hurts it. It's one thing being beaten in a top league but what if Fedor fights a nobody and gets defeated? I personally don't want to see that, Fedor shouldn't be a stepping stone for up and comers, he earned the right to fight names just like Chuck Liddell earned the right to go out fighting top guys and not scrubs. It's a shame too cause everything was looking so promising after the Zuffa merger for Strikeforce but now they've lost 2 of their big name heavyweights and the female division (which according to Dana White doesn't have enough fighters) looses a top contender.... and what did Strikeforce gain from this? Keith Jardine..... well someone got shafted in this deal.

Obligatory source links
Fedor gets cut from Strikeforcce
Bas Rutten's thoughts on Golden Glory Vs Zuffa

Now for some OMMA stuff that happened over the weekend. Well I'm back at editing videos again, did a little promo for them


The cards I was involved in
Ultimate Combat 11 "To Hell and Back"
Bushido 32 "Silva vs Burns II"
Strikers' Challenge 9 "One Ring to Rule Them All"

My CAF Arnold did a little interview for "The voice vs." before he defended his belt, check it out here

Fedor Vs Hendo Tonight

Well in case it somehow slipped your mind, two MMA legends are duking it out tonight in a terrific card. If you have showtime it's definitely a must watch, there were rumors this matchup was going to be PPV but thanks the powers that be it isn't.

Strikeforce Fedor Vs Hendo



FEDOR EMELIANENKO vs DAN HENDERSON - I believe this is going to be a catchweight fight since Dan Henderson doesn't have the Light Heavyweight belt on the line. The advantage to this fight goes to Fedor, for the first time in a long time he's actually the bigger man in the cage and he's younger. I would also argue that Fedor fought tougher guys in Strikeforce then Dan. That doesn't mean Dan should be counted out either, Dan has his super right hand and his greco-roman clinch game to fall back on. There are rumors that who ever loses this fight is going to be cut but I believe this fight is more do or die for Fedor then it is for Dan. If Fedor looses to Dan, then I can see Strikeforce cutting him or Fedor takes a big pay cut. I don't however see Dan getting cut even if he looses simply cause Dan is a bigger star in American MMA and can still bring in the crowds.

MARLOES COENEN vs MIESHA TATE - This will be Coenen's 2nd title defense and 3rd title fight overall but many feel that she was run over by Liz in her last fight and pulled a hail Mary submission so she's coming in as the underdog. Tate is a power wrestler and she's looking to do exactly what Liz did to Coenen but people forget, Coenen has now fought 2 power grapplers and submitted them, it's possible that Coenen is a submission machine off her back and the bane of every wrestler. If Coenen Submits Tate in this fight then there can be no doubt that she deserves the belt and no one should attempt to ground and pound her again for fear of the subs. If the fight is to remain standing, I think Coenen will be the better technical striker but Tate does have the ability to land one solid punch to end the fight. I know one thing though, if Tate get's full mount it's over, unlike Liz, I'm sure Tate can deliver some devastation from that position.

ROBBIE LAWLER vs TIM KENNEDY - Lawler is going to have to knock out Kennedy in the first minute of the round or else he's going to end up on his back for the rest of the fight. Kennedy has terrific takedowns and cardio, there's no quit in the man. Lawler on the other hand has shown that if you take him down and stay on top, he eventually gets frustrated and gives up. Souza showed this in his title fight with Lawler and Kennedy has better takedowns then Souza so unless Lawler shows a CroCop like takedown defense I don't see him winning this.

PAUL DALEY vs TYRON WOODLEY - Daley was once the number one contender in the UFC till Koscheck beat him and insulted every fiber of his being. Woodley is a Strikeforce:challengers superstar and if he wins this fight, a big name in the organization (he sorta is now but like Jon Jones, I'll believe the hype when fights a name). I think if Woodley takes down Daley, he's got this fight in the bag, in fact, I'm sure Woodley can easily take down Daley and dominate him on the ground. If Woodley wants to make a statement however, he could keep it standing and show off his striking game but I wouldn't risk it against Daley, the guy has power but it all goes away on the ground.

SCOTT SMITH vs TAREC SAFFIEDINE - This will be a huge test for Saffiedine cause to stop Smith, you need to knock him out cold, not rock him or daze him but make sure he falls limp to the canvas or else Smith's Critical hit factor along with his high luck stats will win the day. Granted Saffiedine could try to decision Smith but as history has shown, Smith is a wildcard fighter if there ever was one and you don't want to go the distance with someone like that. I see this as do or die for Smith, less he falls down to Strikeforce Challengers and this is Saffiedine's way out of Strikeforce Challengers. Both guys are fighting for the future of their careers, one wants to remain a named fighter and other is looking to establish his name.

OnlineMMA
I didn't post these last week cause I wanted to have a more substantial article for the blog then just another OMMA post but here's the fights I was in the last 2 weeks.

Bushido:
Bushido 29 "Invincible"
Bushido 30 "No Fear"

My Bushido CAFs
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Sylvester Stallone
Ray Burns

Ultimate Combat:
Ultimate Combat 9"Capital Carnage"
Ultimate Combat 10"Supremacy"

My Ultimate Combat CAFs
Ultimate Warrior
Kevin Smith
Jason Mewes

Strikers Challenge:
Strikers Challenge 6 "Only the Strong Survive"
Strikers Challenge 7 "MegaFight"

My Striker's Challenge CAFs
Charlie Sheen
Bert Castro

For those who were keeping track of my guys and are wondering why they got shuffled around the leagues. Here's a press release explaining it

OMMA post

Righto, you know the drill, here's the fights I had last weekend in OMMA

Bushido:

Sylvester Stallone vs Roland Pavlinsky (LHW)
Rick Bowman vs Arnold Schwarzenegger (HW championship)

Strikers Challenge (Kickboxing):
Hugh Garrett vs Charlie Sheen (LHW, sheen got fat)

Some guys have "let's plays" I guess I have "Let's fights".


For those that enjoy humor here's some fun stuff involving MMA.






Seanbaby wrote a MMA article a while back, seems he thought the Thiago vs Vera fight was lol worthy as well.

SB's MMA article page 1
SB's MMA article page 2

Another OMMA post

Yeah I know, this site is starting to be more about videogame MMA then about real MMA. I'll get back to work on articles and videos about MMA when I'm not so busy with other things. I really want to do something for the Fedor vs Hendo fight later this month whether it's just an article or I do a video of just the main event but with Summer comes more distractions, maybe during the winter months I'll be more active.

Either way here's the OMMA fights I was in last weekend.

Fight Force
Eli Leo vs Kevin Smith (LHW Championship)

Bushido
Greg Crawford vs Charlie Sheen (WW Championship)

Ultimate Combat
Ultimate Warrior vs Eli Kang(HW)
Ricco Fernandez vs Bert Castro (MW)

EA had their live broadcast yesterday and it was a pretty good one since it was all CAFs and there was only 1 no show.

Stikforce 3.1 Scars and Stripes
Stikforce 3.2 Scars and Stripes


The stand out fights for me were

Doctor Knockout vs Smoke Em- DK showed patience and resilience in the first round when he was mounted. Most people who play this game knows that mount is a death sentence but DK kept in there and waited for Smoke Em to make a mistake which he eventually did. Smoke unlike NRG was trying to finish while in mount and when he had DK's back, he just couldn't do enough damage through DK's block and didn't have a sub to put the nail in the coffin. Don't know if Smoke rage quit at the end of round 2 but it looked like momentum was in DK's favor at the end of the 2nd round anyways, sucks cause I really wanted to see what would happen in round 3. Fight of the Night.

Doctor Agee vs q TaKe NOtEz p- This was a back and fourth slug fest ala Pat Barry vs Cheick Kongo, good title fight, in fact I give this KO of the night.

Afrokiwi91 VS MMA Bless- This gets sub of the night. I've noticed more people using the boxer specialty and doing the kneebar sub and getting it. Bless seems to have built his guy as a boxer with subs since 89 subs means he's maxed out all his subs as a boxer. It'll be interesting to see if this isn't overpowered when it comes to leg subs cause if guys are getting the kneebar with 89 sub rating against guys with 95+ grapple defense, then it's overpowered and needs to be patched pronto cause why play as a Sambo fighter when a boxer seems to be better on the ground and can get leg subs with their 89 stat vs the sambo's 100 leg stat. I'm hoping it isn't overpowered and that Bless is just really good at the sub mini-game.


bladeflyer94 VS chinowales- This fight really confuses me cause I have no idea why it didn't' end in round 1. Many mistakes were made on the ground, for instance Chinowales could have uses a major transition in round 1 when he had Blade's stamina drained to achieve full mount but he didn't, he just stayed in half guard and pounded away doing minimal damage since Blade could just block and didn't have to worry about being KOed. In round 3 when Chino gets the slam and ends up in side control he could have majored to full mount postured up since having no stamina gives the other fighter a free pass. This means that either the 2 fighters made some kinda agreement not to go to the mount or they lack the knowledge of how the ground game works. I sure hope it's the latter cause I'm not very interested in watching scripted fights or special rules fight on the live broadcast, this is EA MMA not EA Pro Wrestling. I'll give the 2 the benefit of the doubt and just chalk it up to nerves or lag for the reason why the ground game wasn't used for a finish by Chinowales (screwed him in the end since he looses the decision).

Post Weekend update

I didn't update last Monday cause there was nothing to update with, I didn't fight last weekend(no show) and I didn't have anything new out.

Well at least I have some OMMA fights to post this Monday.

Fight Force:
Kevin Smith vs Pedro Palmer (LHW)
Ray Burns vs Mac Tucker (MW Championship)

Bushido
Arnold Schwarzenegger vs Jamie Ranallo (HW)
Sylvester Stallone vs Roland Pavlinsky (LHW)
Charlie Sheen vs Regis Newton (WW)

Ultimate Combat
Solomon Noone vs Ultimate Warrior (HW)
Bert Castro vs Lucky Luciano (MW)

EA MMA also had their middle easy live broadcast a couple of weeks ago. I finally got some time to check it out and it was much better then the last one they did and it has an interview with Josh Barnett at the end of each video where Barnett talks about his favorite games (Fallout and Battlefield) as well as what's it like being in games like "No More Heroes" and "katamari damashi"

EA MMA's Live Broadcast part 1
EA MMA's Live Broadcast part 2


Now if you'll excuse me I have to fight my 2 worst enemies, scheduling and deadlines.

Strikeforce GP and Status of Videos

Strikeforce is continuing it's grand prix on Saturday and I'm looking forward to watching Overeem and Barnett in action (they are my picks). It looks like a spectacular card with Noons vs Masvidal for the number one lightweight contender and Cormier vs Monson should be an interesting matchup (watch out for the subs Cormier). The prelims are being broadcasted on HDnet for those who want to see the full card(odds are it'll be on the TV channel of HDNET but who knows they might show some on the web).

I took a break from the internet this week which is why I've been absent in the forums I frequent and why I didn't update on Monday. I heard some terrible news on Monday which pretty much made me not think of MMA or videos and just appreciate my own life. One of my Dad's friends took his own life last weekend and it's a shocker cause he seemed to be doing well for himself but it is what it is. I didn't know him too well but it's still strange when someone you met does something like that. So I've been spending most of my free time with family and friends appreciating what's really important in life. I've requested time off next week so I'll have time to edit what I have and film what I need.

As for OMMA this weekend, I'm only participating on the Friday card since I'm spending the rest of the weekend with family(gonna watch the Strikeforce card with my Dad on Saturday and Sunny and I are having dinner with her mom on Sunday). Here are the fights I participated in last weekend.

Fight Force (Friday):
Lucius Graves vs Kevin Smith (LHW)
Michael Ortiz vs Ray Burns (MW Championship)

Bushido (Saturday):
Rick Bowman vs Arnold Schwarzenegger (HW)
Gonzo Miller vs Charlie Sheen (WW)

Ultimate Combat (Sunday):
Lavar Knight vs Ultimate Warrior (HW)
Desmond West vs Bert Castro (MW)

Dos Santos Vs. Carwin this weekend

UFC 131 is happening this Saturday and my pick is Dos Santos but this new slimmer Carwin might have the cardio and speed to threaten Santos and score a devastating blow. I'll be checking it out on Saturday for a future review.

I'm editing the footage I have but I probably won't be done till Monday. Just had some work I keep forgetting to do and practicing for my fights this weekend in OMMA.

My OMMA Fights Last Weekend & Totally Forgot About "Fight for Japan"

Here are my fights in OMMA that I had over the weekend. I had a lot of fights so I'll just link to the videos in the forums rather then crowding up the blog with Justin.TV embeds.

Fight Force 22 "Cage Rage" (Friday)
Ray Burns vs Vic Stone (Middle Weight)
Harris Ahmadzai vs Jason Mewes (Lightweight)

Bushido 23 "Lethal Intent" (Saturday)
Jeremy Frost vs Charlie Sheen (Welterweight)

Ultimate Combat 4 "Extreme Conflict" (Sunday)
Ultimate Warrior vs Zhane Hamilton (Heavyweight)
Bert Castro vs Leaver Bates (Middleweight)

I also wrote a fake press release for some of my fighters
"CONCERNING THE WHEREABOUTS OF MR. SHEEN"


Dream had their "Fight for Japan" event aired last Friday I believe (can't read Japanese so excuse me if the information is wrong). Luckily the DVR at my parent's place(can't afford it in my place) is more reliable then me at remembering these events then I am and recorded it. I won't do a video review of it since I'm currently putting together my video Review of the TUF finale that happened on Saturday, expect the video around Wednesday *fingers crossed*. I might do a written review but one thing is for sure, if you didn't see the "Yoshiro Maeda vs. Hideo Tokoro" fight last weekend, then you missed out on one of the best fights I've seen and it outshines any of the fights in the TUF finale.

Here's the DREAM Bantamweight tourney promo.


Hopefully HDNET will show reruns of Dream's "Fight for Japan" event for those who missed it.

TUF Finale This Weekend and Brutal OnlineMMA Action

I received one of the microphones I ordered and will be testing it out on my next video about the TUF finale. I'll try to watch the marathon that's going to be playing this weekend and see if I can spot the stand out fights or goofball behavior that happened on the show. From the majority of episodes I've seen it's been pretty dull but I heard the last couple of episodes had some good fights so I'll be sure to catch those.

OnlineMMA has some pretty big fight cards this weekend and considering the EA live broadcast this wed. was a little on the dull side due to no shows/disconnects and players basically playing with their opponents rather then finish them *cough*Mr NRG*cough*. I'm hoping it can all be made up with all the MMA action happening this weekend (real and fantasy). Check out the live fights on OMMATV or wait till after the weekend and I'll post the fights I was in but it's worth watching the full card especially if you are new to the game.

If anyone's curious about the EA MMA live broadcast that happened on WED, here's some links for the 360 version. I do think it's really cool that EA has now allowed the community to set up fights and be part of the live broadcast.

Stickforce 2.1

Stickforce 2.2

To be honest, stickforce 1 was a much more action packed event but some things are just out of the control of the promoters.

OnlineMMA and Titan Fighting Championships

Here's my fight that happened this weekend in onlinemma

Watch live video from OnlineMMA on Justin.tv

The other 2 fights were no shows.

I also watched Titan Fighting championship this weekend and it was entertaining due to having a good deal of first round finishes. I did have a problem with the "John Ott vs.Jake Rosholt" DQ knee cause I believe it wasn't intentional and it should be a No contest or tie instead of a gimme win to John Ott, I mean who can ever say "I won a fight by getting kneed in the head", especially when John was loosing the entire fight little by little in every round. The main event was suppose to be this return to form Jens Pulver vs. workhorse Brian Davidson. Jens looked in better shape and he is trying to get back into a bigger promotion but now he's backed into fighting dangerous guys with less of a name. These are fights Pulver really can't afford to loose cause it knocks him down the ladder faster then he can climb it. Pulver even said he's usually the other guy's biggest fight and he's expected to win. The risk of loosing vs the reward of winning doesn't seem to be worth taking fights with lesser known fighters but it's Pulver's choice, maybe he's past his prime? maybe when he fought the competition wasn't as stacked? The answer doesn't really matter cause Pulver's still ready to fight and as for the man who beat him. I don't know if Brian Davidson is still going to pursue fighting but this defiantly helps his gym in terms of promotional material.

As for the big UFC card this weekend, I heard some buzz about the Struve KO and it seems the winners of the 2 fights I was interested in are the ones I expected to win, Rampage and Mir. I guess I'll catch them on UFC unleashed a couple of months from now.... still waiting for Zuffa to show more Pride FC and Strikeforce reruns on spike or VS or whatever.

My Schedule for next week

Well first off, I have to say that I'm not buying the UFC PPV this Saturday so I can't review it. I don't have my audio equipment yet anyways and besides I'm not rolling in cash so it's not a good idea to drop $45 on something when I just spent a little more then that on the audio stuff. This was a tough decision cause there are 2 fights on the card that I'm interested in, mainly Rampage vs Hamill and Mir vs Nelson. I'll definitely be checking forums for how these fights went.

I will be doing the TUF finale next weekend with Guida vs Petis and that should be a great card just for the main event. It's free too so that kinda helps in the decision making.


Speaking of free fights, I'm going to be fighting in Onlinemma this weekend. I'll be in all 3 cards starting this Friday so check it out. The fights will be live on their website using OMMA TV, they start at 7pm EST (-5 GMT). It's something to check out if you couldn't afford the UFC PPV or just can't get enough MMA even if it is simulated. I'll post the results of my fights after the weekend but if you check them out live or the website you can see the whole card.

Ok guys I gotta go and get ready for Fight Force, and with any luck I'll be back on track after the TUF finale.

OnlineMMA: Fight Force 19

This is the Fight Force 19: Armed and Dangerous card I attended for the OnlineMMA organization.



Watch live video from OnlineMMA on Justin.tv

I won't spoil the ending on who wins and who looses.

Now that I've had a fight in OnlineMMA I can safely say it's a pretty fun group of guys. People mainly roleplay managers and each gamertag can have up to 3 fighters signed to it. It's a good mixture of fantasy and real MMA since most of the top players are big fans of the sport. I also want to stress out that OnlineMMA isn't a clan/camp or anything like that, you don't go online with "tags" or challenge other clans/camps. It's a fantasy league designed to give the player a more structured Multiplayer experience then what comes out of the box. The skill level is varied so don't worry if you aren't very good or think you're too good, there's always someone for you to fight. There's also pre and post fight interviews and breakdown analysis articles on the forums.

Post Fight Article

The Bushido league is fighting tonight which is the more advanced league which I'll be watching. I'll try to work on something this weekend with a little more substance and I'm really questioning on whether I should do the previous 2 fights I wanted to review or wait until the next major Strikeforce/UFC event to happen. I'll make up my mind about this pretty soon.

Back and Feeling Great

I took it easy this weekend and tried not to think about the videos and it apparently worked. I feel rejuvenated and ready to start working on more videos in my free time. I just needed to play some games which is what I spent the weekend doing.

I'm playing EA MMA again which I kinda stopped playing since I was waiting for a patch and was getting the hang of making videos. The game is a little different thanks to the patch and the gameplay has improved making it closer to the actual sport, the only complaint I have about the patch is that it took away certain fighter stances and tattoos so people can't make custom Brock Lesnars or BJ Penns but since I like to use my own create a fighter rather then making a famous fighter, this doesn't bother me too much (but I was using BJ Penn's boxing stance which was awesome).

I've even joined a MMA CAF(create of fighter) fantasy/roleplay league called onlinemma. I've known one of the top fighters in it for a while and they seem like cool guys who are into MMA. They have fights every week in 2 different leagues (one for high level and one for medium level competition) and they broadcast the fights through justin.tv on Fridays. I signed up for Fight Force which is the entry level league and I'm hoping to get a broadcast fight this Friday (if I do I'll post the fight on the blog, even if I loose). A good deal of the fighters in onlinemma have made it to EA's Live Broadcast so if anyone wanted to fight some of the guys like "2good2betru3" and "you mom taps" then this is the league for you.

So in short if you own EA MMA and you want to join a league that will give you good CAF(create a fighter) fantasy fights with pre-fights and post-fight interviews/analysis along with simulated pay and rankings then onlinemma is something you should look into.

Link to site = Online MMA


View the rules for signing up here
http://www.onlinemma.org/f14-rules-and-guidelines

You can view past fights either in their forums
http://www.onlinemma.org/c5-video-vault

or go directly to the justin.tv account
http://www.justin.tv/onlinemma/videos

If you're still on the fence on whether to buy EA MMA on either the Xbox360 or PS3, well I recommend the game if you are an MMA fan and like multiplayer competition. The single player is rather dull after beating it once and UFC2010 is better as a SP game but EA MMA shines as a MP game with live broadcast, leaderboards, fight replays, fight cards, and belt matches. EA MMA's online modes are a ripoff of Street Fighter 4 but in a very good way cause there's hardly any lag and the fight cards feel like the old days when people would crowd around an arcade machine to watch 2 other people fight. I just wish there was a tourney mode online but you can't have everything. The game is only $20 now and it's worth getting new since you need an online code that comes with a new copy of the game to play online. So unless you want to play the SP, there's no reason to get it used cause you would end up paying $10 extra for the online code at the psn store or live store anyways. Apparently amazon has both versions on sale for around $12-$16, which is practically a steal

Amazon


Well that's all for today's update, see you guys around on the xbox360 version of EA MMA.