The crowd in Philly

"90% of the crowd is watching a fight in the crowds"

-- Joe Rogan during Aaron Riley vs. Shane Nelson

The "Strikefarce" video

UFC 101 weigh-in results

B.J. Penn (155) vs. Kenny Florian (155)
Anderson Silva (205) vs. Forrest Griffin (205)
Amir Sadollah (166.5) vs. Johny Hendricks (171)
Kendall Grove (185.5) vs. Ricardo Almeida (185)
Kurt Pellegrino (154.5) vs. Josh Neer (155.5)
Shane Nelson (156) vs. Aaron Riley (154)
Tamdan McCrory (170) vs. John Howard (169.5)
Thales Leites (185) vs. Alessio Sakara (185.5)
Matt Riddle (170) vs. Dan Cramer (169.5)
George Sotiropoulos (155) vs. George Roop (154)
Jesse Lennox (171) vs. Danillo Villefort (170.25)

UFC 101 Turtle's picks

Overall UFC 101 is not a spectacular card. The 2 main event fights are worth the PPV buy tho.

I'll start with the main event for the welterweight title. Let me first say I think BJ Penn is a douche. Don't get me started on greasegate and now it seems he still has GSP on the brain claiming GSP does steroids (but that is just his opinion) and just days before his title defense with Ken-Flo.
The pressure is on Penn in this fight and I think you may see the end of the Penn era at 101. I'm going with Ken-Flo by sub in the 3rd.

Now the fight that is really making you buy the PPV.

I think we all know this fight boils down to what Anderson Silva shows up. Is it me or has Silva become kinda cocky as of late?
I mean he is now calling himself the best fighter in the world. Well if he beats Griffin I just may agree but thats a big IF.
I know you hear this every Silva fight but if Forrest can keep this fight on the ground and stay out of the guard I see him getting the win.
I can also see Anderson overwhelming forrest very quikly too.

I am cheering for Griffin all night but, my pick is Anderson by TKO in the 2nd.

My other picks are Sadollah,Grove and Pellegrino

All I have to say about Fedor

I guess to make up for all the “Fedor / the UFC is gonna kill Strikeforce” talk, some outlets have been running the interesting idea that upon closer inspection, Strikeforce’s heavyweight division is just as stacked as the UFC’s. Here’s Jake Rossen again:

"Setting aside interdivisional fights with Anderson Silva or Lyoto Machida — which would be lots of fun for spectators — the UFC really has only three upper-tier heavyweights with the skills to potentially give Emelianenko a hard time: Lesnar, Shane Carwin and Cain Velasquez. Three.

Strikeforce can match the ante with Alistair Overeem, Brett Rogers and some kind of wild-card entrant: Bobby Lashley, Blagoi Ivanov, perhaps even Josh Barnett.

The notion that Strikeforce employs air-conditioning repairmen and the UFC enlists only Olympic-caliber athletes is pushing the envelope; I’d almost sooner see Emelianenko go on a free-agent tear for a year or two before settling in with the UFC, considering that the promotion’s asphyxiating contracts invite retirement at their conclusions."

The problem here is that Rossen only lists UFC fighters he thinks has a chance of beating Fedor while his Strikeforce list happily features not only fighters Fedor would starch, but fighters Fedor would starch that aren’t even in the promotion. And you start to realize how thin the free agent situation is when the best Rossen can think of is Blobby Lay’n'Pray, Broken Hands Blagoi, and Juice Barnett.

The idea that Fedor fights against Alistair Overeem or Brett Rogers are equal to Fedor bouts against Brock, Randy, and even Mirko is laughable. Fedor is the best so of course he’s going to be the favorite in most fights. Past that all you can do is find interesting and compelling competition that people give a shit about. I give a shit about Alistair Overeem and Brett Rogers, but I’m an MMA blogger. And even then, these fights excite me about as much as seeing some fat chick’s muffin top oozing over her stretch pants. I’ll take a look because I’m desperate and horny, but it really doesn’t do much for me.

Let’s face it: Right now all the boner inducing Fedor fights are in the UFC. Even if you buy into the idea that the UFC only has as many good fights as Strikeforce does, the UFC’s good fights make Strikeforce’s good fights look like shit fights. That’s not to say Strikeforce can’t turn things around … Cris Cyborg busted outta nowhere to become Gina Carano’s perfect opponent, and one epic performance from Overeem or Rogers or hey even Arlovski (a Strikeforce heavyweight that didn’t make it on anyone’s potential opponent list) could do the same. But it’s gonna take a whole lot of building and some miracles in the cage before anyone really gives a shit about the competition Fedor could face in Strikeforce.I think Fedor is an overated douche who chose to sign with Strikeforce simply cuz there is a better chance of him winning there. And thats all I have to say about Fedor.

GSP: “I Put My Money on [Kenny Florian] Against BJ Penn”

UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre has gone on the record with his prediction for the lightweight title match between champion BJ Penn and challenger Kenny Florian at UFC 101 this weekend inside the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

“I put my money on [Kenny Florian] against BJ Penn,” GSP stated.

It’s no secret that St-Pierre isn’t Penn’s biggest fan as they have squared off against one another twice inside the UFC’s Octagon.

Although GSP beat Penn both times, including a thrashing at UFC 94 earlier this year, the Hawaiian was still calling for a third bout between the pair after controversy ensued after their 5Round affair.

Penn told the media that it was Florian who first put him onto St-Pierre’s usage of Vaseline to gain an advantage over his opponents during fights. And it was that reason, and pretty much that reason alone, that Penn felt he lost the highly publicized match-up.

GSP didn’t believe a word Penn was saying, and felt disrespected that Penn would try to tarnish such a magical moment with false accusations.

So St-Pierre got back at Penn the best way that he knew how, show the light heavyweight top contender the tricks of the trade when it comes to fighting BJ.

“Kenny Florian is a great training partner, and is going to be a great champion, and he’s also a greater person and human being,” St-Pierre went on to say.

Although this will be Florian’s second 155-pound title fight, it will be his first against a fighter the caliber of Penn. The Bostonian will need all the support he can get, so don’t be surprised to see St-Pierre front and center, cheering his new training partner on. I myself will also be cheering on Ken-Flo just cuz I think Penn is an ass clown.

Joachim Hansen vs. Shinya Aoki III Officially Announced for Dream.11

Fresh off his Dream.10 win, Shinya Aoki will get first crack at Dream lightweight champion Joachim Hansen’s title. With each holding an impressive win over the other, Dream.11 just got very interesting.

This should come as no surprise as Aoki pretty much announced the figth following his unexpected stand-up battle against Vitor Ribeiro last month.

“In October, I’ll have a title fight and…I will have my revenge,” stated the crafty grappler.

Hansen captured the lightweight crown when he slapped the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu wizard silly in their most recent tussle at Dream.5 last July. However, Aoki had the upper hand going into that scrap after he caught Hansen in a wicked gogoplata at “Pride: Shockwave 2006.”

Hansen was set to pop the cherry on his belt against Gesias “JZ” Cavalcante last December, however was forced to pull out at the 11th hour after he was hospitalized for concussions.

Word on the street is that he’s good to go now and has been training with his team in Norway.

Turtle is back

I have not posted on this blog for some time now. I have been posting MMA updates on Twitter. With everything that has gone on recently in the world of MMA I figure this blog will go hand in hand with my Twitter posts. I am just one guy who is a huge MMA fan and this is my blog. Enjoy