FGB Radio – Kanyon, HBK, UFC 112 Preview, ROH, & Fallout From Last Weekend
Big D and I are back to talk about the passing of Kanyon, who passed away this weekend. D remembers a few tidbits about his career, including a WWE house show he was at that Kanyon showed up to unannounced.
We talk fallout of WrestleMania, including the retirement of Shawn Michaels and three other men who we probably won’t see on WWE TV again. We discuss the aftermath of UFC 111 and what you do with Frank Mir. We talk about the Super Six tournament and the debacle of a fight between Roy Jones and Bernard Hopkins.
We also preview UFC 112, which is this weekend. And lastly, Big D quickly talks about the ROH Big Bang PPV from the weekend as well. Lots of stuff, but we get through it with a quickness.
Check it out.
Renzo was tooling Shamrock in that fight up until the DQ.
If St.Piere fights Anderson he will be murdered. You can take that one to the bank.
I don’t think Anderson murders him, but I do think he beats him. Anderson’s take down defense isn’t fantastic.
St.Pierre is strong at his weight. He gets killed by Silva easily. First round.
He’s not heading up there at his current weight. He’s going to gain 5-10 pounds more before going up there. But also, I don’t think we’ll ever see that fight. By the time GSP heads up there, Silva will be fighting at light heavy.
I would prefer to see them both stick at their respective weights. Its not their problem no one can challenge them. Penn, GSP and Silva all moving up would hurt the legitimacy of the belts they leave behind.
You can’t expect them to keep fighting nobodies. They want big money fights.
The only other build from the ROH show was Colt Cabana and El Generico challenging Steve Corino and Kevin Steen to a Chicago street fight at their Chicago show later this month
I relevant point by JP. I have always found the division jumping in boxing bothersome. Sometimes it’s a necessary ill (more so in boxing due to the dense amount of divisions)because you want to see the best fights, but it annoys me when champions are fighting without there belts on the line.
But again, in boxing it’s called prize fighting. The fighters care less about the prestige of championships than they do the money they can make. Did Anderson Silva become a bigger star fighting Patrick Cote and Thales Leites or by tooling Forrest Griffin? Guess which one wasn’t a title fight?
Thanks Headcase. We should’ve had you on the show.
GG, If you follow your logic exclusively then championships are meaningless, and that is simply not true (despite what Mr. Russo would try have you believe).
You constantly hear people say things like why don’t they just ignore titles in boxing, and it’s completely moronic. One of Boxing’s current weaknesses is that titles have become too watered down. If there was a clearly defined champion in each division we would be far better off. Titles have a very definite worth.
I guarantee you that if UFC did a bunch of inter division matches they would do great short term business, but you are killing the goose to get the golden egg. People recognize the title holder as the standard bearer. Once the belts lose identity there’s no true benchmark anymore.
A strong champion can draw for years defending his belt. It may be interesting to see how Anderson Silva would fare against Brock Lesnar. In fact I myself think that would be the ultimate in throwback fights. But is it worth damaging a champions prestige for one big pay day?
It’s a different story when you have challengers. The heavyweight title is obviously the biggest deal because it’s a competitive division.
If Anderson Silva abandoned the middleweight crown and wanted to win the light heavyweight crown, he’s still going for a championship. I didn’t say that they shouldn’t bother with the belts. I’m saying they should chase money fights. I honestly don’t care that BJ Penn vs. Frankie Edgar is for a title. It’s the match-up that’s not sexy. Now if it was BJ Penn and Jose Aldo, that’s a great fight. It enhances the belt. BJ vs. Frankie does nothing for the belt.
GSP has already said he’s not going back and forth. Thus, if he decides to go to middleweight, he’s going to middleweight to stay and will challenge for that title.
Then who is champion????
The answer is someone who wasn’t good enough to win the belt when the real champion was around. How does that reflect on the division?
So you blame the guy who doesn’t want to fight jabronis anymore? This isn’t a team sport.
I didn’t say I blame anyone. I said it hurts the division, and I think that is undeniable. I believe the lineal championship is of huge significance.
Ok, now I know what you’re saying. It obviously hurts the division. But I’ve always been pro-fighters versus being pro-company. I think they should go for theirs whenever possible. But you’re right. Would hurt the divisions big time.
Yeah, as I said I was relating it back to Boxing because belts are constantly vacated and I find it frustrating. It’s hard for casual fans to follow when guys are constantly dropping belts. “Floyd is the best right, which is his title?” Well….emmm. Do you see what I am getting at?
That’s partly why I like the SuperSix so much. Joe retired and left a vacancy, but now we will have a worthy successor at the end of this tournament. Someone who is without question the best super middleweight in the world. Theres no ambiguity about it. You can say “boxer A” is the man.
But you also have the fighters. You couldn’t do a Super Four in either the welterweight or middleweight division without the current champs now.
I think if left up for the fighters to decide, GSP would not move up to middleweight.
Anderson maybe, but he won’t do it permanently as long as Machida is a contender. He will sooner retire or simply vacate the belt and only fight super fights.
BJ moving up permanently only ends with another beating from GSP. Once that happens, he is kind of stuck in no man’s land, or going back to 155 as the crop of talent regrows.
I prefer to just bide time. There was a time when no one thought Huges or Franklin could lose.
On another thought…why not let Penn move back up to 170 for a fight against Jon Fitch, without vacating his 155 belt. In the meantime, let the 155 division breath, maybe sign or develop some new talent.
Fighting Fitch, the 2nd best WW around, will give Penn a glimpse into how he would fair again at WW without vacating his belt. If he is successful, make the move permanent. If not, go back and fight whoever happens to be on a run.
These guys move up and down divisions on their own. Some of that road may already be paved for them based on what fights are there for them, but these guys aren’t being forced to cut weight or gain weight.
GSP has constantly said that if he gets up to 200 pounds walk around weight, he’ll move up to middleweight. He’s around 193-195 now.
I wouldn’t have BJ move up unless GSP moves up. You’d create new fights for both guys who are in the top 5 of company draws. It’s very important that those guys be put in interesting fights because they are needle movers. It’s less important for say a Machida or a Silva because they aren’t big time needle movers.
GSP isn’t moving up on his own. He cares a lot about his legacy and will stay at welterweight forever if left to his own devices. He’ll just stop adding bulk and stay around 195.
GSP at middleweight would be incredibly boring too. He doesn’t exactly have knockout power now and at 185 that will diminish.
JP, you believe what you think his legacy means to him. I’ll believe what’s been reported as coming from his mouth.
It’s not like I’m making this stuff up. Here:
“It’s hard to become champion. And it’s even harder to stay champion. Right now, I’m the target. Everybody want to take my place. I know what it take to be champion and I don’t plan to let go of my title anytime soon. I’m not fighting to be champion anymore. I’m fighting for a legacy.”
That is straight from the horses mouth. GSP wants to stay champ a long time and be remembered as the most dominant welterweight ever.
Substitute fighter for welterweight and I’d agree. Weight doesn’t matter as long as it’s progressive for him.
Interesting thought just popped into my lil ol’ head…
When Matt Hughes was tearing through the welterweight division, were people wondering if he was going to move up to middleweight?
That’s what Season 2 was all about until Hughes and Franklin told Dana they weren’t fighting each other.
Hughes has talked about fighting 185ers before, but if you think about who he’s lost to of late, they were all bigger welters. I think he smartened up.
The key for GSP is natural (if you believe he’s drug free) weight gain. He doesn’t want to have to cut 30 pounds if he keeps filling out.
Anderson Silva is interest in cutting down to welterweight for two fights. One against a warm up opponent, and another against GSP.
: )
He’s always full of shit.
Had to kill my buzz…
Hahahaha. Imagine him cutting 50 pounds to fight GSP. He’d look like ET!
and he would still kick his ass 🙂
I wonder if he could make his neck grow and his finger light up at 170.
G.G. that is a money comparison. He really would look like E.T. Hahaha
I can only the imagine some of the things people would start suggesting if he did try and make the cut. “Brock should cut to fight Machida…”
I’m want to get your predictions for UFC 112 JP. I’ll send you an e-mail in a bit.
Sounds good.
Dana said he would be willing to set up a 170 match between GSP and Silva. I’m going to continue to get my hopes up!
The insanity of MMA