UFC 123 thread

Main card:

Quinton "Rampage" Jackson (30 - 8 ) +260 vs. Lyoto Machida (16-1) -340


Matt Hughes (45-7) +115 vs. B.J. Penn (15-7-1) -135


Gerald Harris (17-2) vs. Maiquel Falcao (25-3)


Phil Davis (7-0) vs. Tim Boetsch (12-3)


George Sotiropoulos (13-2) vs. Joe Lauzon (18-5)


On Spike:

Aaron Simpson (7-1) vs. Mark Munoz (8-2)


Matt Brown (11-9) vs. Brtian foster (14-5)


Preliminary card:

Karo Parisyan (19-5) vs. Dennis Hallman (45-13-2)


Mike Lullo (8-1) vs. Edson Barboza (6-0)


Paul Kelly (10-3) vs. T J O'Brien (16-3)


Tyson Griffin (14-4) vs. Nik Lentz (21-3-2)

Stacked card, very rarely to you get such a strong prelim lineup. Hope it lives up to my expectations, as i have been very dissapointed with 118 and 119.

Forgot to say, War Phil Davis

so UFC sign Charles Oliveira and now Edson Falcao??

maybe they have been scouting our prospect thread afterall!!

I pasted on the Info Chesty

redmeanie77 wrote:Forgot to say, War Phil Davis

Other prospect from Sun's list who are on the card.....

Phil Davis
Rory Macdonald

Im thinking about putting money on Hughes if he has odds like that. Im expecting him to win anyway and I think I could make some decent money there.

darren elkins looks stoned, also i dont understand the + and - odds.

the_king wrote:darren elkins looks stoned, also i dont understand the + and - odds.

Negative US odds show how big a stake is needed for a winning of 100 units.
Lyoto Machida -340 (roughly 2/7)
that means you need to bet $3.40 to win $1($34 to win $10)


Positive odds show how big your winnings are if you bet 100 units.
Quinton "Rampage" Jackson +260 (roughly 5/2)
that means for every $1 you bet,you get $2.60 back ($10 bet gets you $26)

my wife works at a bookies at thiers i got 8/2 on rampage so i put a tonne on him. hope he pulls through.

Did you mean 8/3?

If anyone is looking at 5 way bet on this card, then i recommend


Machida
Sotoropolous
Harris
Davis
Macdonald


You'll have a jolly old Christmas this year

Do you know the odds on the other fighters at 123 Meanie,or are they just who you would pick?

I can't find any odds on the other fights.

At UFC 120,Bisping's quite a favorite over Akiyama,Hathaway is a huge favorite.

Bisping -230 (roughly 5/12)
Akiyama +180 (9/5)

Hardy -175 (4/7)
Condit +145 (3/2)

Hathaway -500 (1/5)
Pyle +350 (7/2)

no mate i got 8/2 best price i also got bisping evens on best price.

There's no such thing as 8/2 is there,8/2 = 4-1 or am I missing something???

you are correct, 8/2 is not something a bookie will offer, they'll give 4/1. Its rare you'll even get those odds on a fight this high profile. Normally you'll get odds on or evens on the favourite and 2/1 or 3/1 on the underdog. Something odds on vs evens. 4/1 is very generous.

I'm going for a Hathaway/Hardy/Akiyama triple for 120.

No Payne i dont know the odds to the rest of the fights here, but there are someguys that like to go for a 5 way bet, and there the 5 i would chose.

I'll try to find odds now...

yeah your right 8/2 is not a bet got that typed wrong lol ill check it out.

George Sotiropoulos Prepared to Dominate "Wild" Lauzon

http://blog.tapology.com/2010/11/exclusive-george-sotiropoulos-prepared-to-dominate-wild-lauzon/

Rising UFC lightweight contender George Sotiropoulos recently spoke with Tapology’s Steven Kelliher about his upcoming fight against Joe Lauzon and his road to the title.
Undefeated in the UFC since his 2007 debut and currently riding a four-fight winning streak in the lightweight division, Australian Jiu-Jitsu expert George Sotiropoulos is rapidly rising up the lightweight rankings en route to a title shot in 2011. Just nine months ago, however, he was heading into a battle with longtime UFC veteran Joe Stevenson as a moderate underdog on home soil.

“I knew I could beat Stevenson,” Sotiropoulos said. “He was the biggest name that I had fought in the UFC at that time, and at that point I was the underdog because he had already had 10 plus fights in the UFC and had fought for the title. I was a guy from Australia who had been on the Ultimate Fighter and hadn’t fought anybody, but I actually fought some really tough guys in Australia, fought some of the best guys in Japan, fought in Korea and Guam, and none of those guys were tomato cans.”

While some fighters would take the official betting lines as something of an insult, Sotiropoulos is easily able to reconcile the dichotomous relationship between fan perspective and reality when discussing his most recent UFC successes.

“I believed in myself and so did my coaches, but in the public’s eyes it’s really a popularity contest,” Sotiropoulos said. “They only see what’s on TV and what’s in the interviews; they don’t see what’s below the surface and I don’t expect them to. I know where I’ve been and what I’ve done, what level I’ve competed at, but most people don’t. I wanted to come over to the UFC earlier in my career, but I couldn’t for various reasons, whether they were financial or training-related. Now I am finally getting to showcase what I’m capable of.”

Sotiropoulos has shown that he is capable of competing with some of the top dogs in the UFC lightweight division. After trouncing Stevenson by Unanimous Decision at UFC 110 in February, he repeated the effort against another surging contender in Kurt Pellegrino this past July at UFC 116.

This weekend, Sotiropoulos will take on yet another well-rounded UFC vet, as he faces Joe Lauzon on the main card of UFC 123: Rampage vs. Machida. Although Lauzon is a fan favorite fighter known for his aggressive and exciting style, some have questioned whether or not the bout makes sense for Sotiropoulos, as Lauzon only recently bounced back from a January loss to Sam Stout.

“The arguments for and against Lauzon: he’s had about six wins in the Octagon and I think he’s had two losses. His last fight was a solid victory and he really got to showcase in that fight, but he lost the fight before that, so he hasn’t had an unbroken winning streak. On that basis, it’s not a progression,” Sotiropoulos said. “However, this guy is dangerous and I’m taking this fight very seriously. This isn’t a walkover job. I feel he is as dangerous as any other guy in there. I’m training like a madman and I’m doing everything within my power to be the best on November 20.”

When handicapping the fight, most fans and analysts believe Sotiropoulos holds most of the technical advantages, but Lauzon’s aggression and finishing ability makes it difficult to pick against him with any degree of certainty.

“I’m preparing for that and I’m addressing it in the training,” Sotiropoulos said. “Am I going to meet him fire against fire? I don’t know. I know what he brings to the table and the reality is you can’t change the fighter you are from one fight to the next; it doesn’t work like that.

“He does have wild striking, wild wrestling, and wild grappling, but he’s very proficient. He’s got excellent takedowns and transitions. He’s wild but calculated in that he knows what he’s going for. I would say I’m more calculating than him, though, because his approach is more erratic.”

Asked what will ultimately make the difference come fight night, Sotiropoulos was blunt.

“I just believe I will dominate every aspect of that fight,” Sotiropoulos said.

With a win, Sotiropoulos will be 5-0 in the division and many would clamor to see him fight for the belt. With the winner of the WEC 53 title fight between Ben Henderson and Anthony Pettis set to challenge for the UFC belt after Gray Maynard, it would appear that the Australian will still have some work ahead of him before he gets a crack at UFC gold, which is fine by him.

“I really don’t care because it’s something that is beyond my power,” Sotiropoulos said about the prospect of fighting for the belt after defeating Lauzon. “There are several variables that determine who is fighting who in any given fight. It depends on who is fighting on your schedule, who is uninjured, and who is roughly on your level or your caliber in the rankings. If all of those things are in line, and if your winning streak is alive, all roads lead to the title. I’ll continue to make my case and eventually those fights will take place.”

As the final days countdown to the UFC 123 main event between Quinton “Rampage” Jackson and Lyoto Machida, there’s one person who may have a better insight about how the fight will go than anybody else.

“Sugar” Rashad Evans has fought both of them in the past, and he recently spoke to MMAWeekly.com giving his prediction on the fight.

Regardless of his past misgivings with Jackson, Evans is quick to give his former “Ultimate Fighter” coaching mate some compliments heading into his fight with Machida.

“Honestly, I think Rampage has a lot better chance than what appears before your eyes,” Evans said. “It all depends if Rampage is going to come for this camp. If Rampage is really taking it serious, and he starts training how he needs to train, I think he has a really good chance of beating Machida.”

There’s one particular aspect of how the fight breaks down that Evans believes gives Rampage a distinct advantage over Machida. He says if the Brazilian falls into this tendency, he may suffer his second knockout loss in a row.

“One of his strengths is one of Machida’s weaknesses, which is he always pulls back in combinations, he goes in and he pulls back,” Evans commented about Machida’s style. “Rampage has always been good at reaction punches, so if he moves forward, he’s going to charge him and catch him like how he caught Chuck Liddell and how he caught Wanderlei Silva. That’s one of his strengths, if you pull back on Rampage, you’ll get caught all day.

“If Rampage is in shape and can push the pace and make Machida make mistakes when he’s pulling back, he has a very good chance of catching Machida and knocking him out.”

On the flipside, Evans is also quick to point out a fatal flaw that Jackson can make that could seal his fate come fight night.

“At the same time, if Rampage is in the center of the cage not moving forward, Machida will pick him apart and pretty much do what he wants to, and probably finish him off within the first two rounds,” Evans said.

Both Rampage and Machida come into UFC 123 off of losses. Rampage was defeated by Evans back in May, while Machida was knocked out by current UFC light heavyweight champion Mauricio “Shogun” Rua the same month.

When looking at the mental make-up of each fighter, Evans again has to give the edge to Rampage simply because he’s been there before and he knows how to recover. The only downside according to Evans is just how seriously Rampage is taking MMA these days.

“I think probably Rampage because he’s been there before. He’s lost eight times, so he has the better ability to bounce back from it. The thing about it is I don’t think it’s about the winning and losing, I think it’s about, my question is has Rampage been jaded by the sport enough that he stopped caring about it to train hard? Or has he got his hunger back and remembered why he liked the sport in the beginning?” Evans assessed.

As for Machida, Evans says there is a certain unknown quality about the former light heavyweight champion that can’t be answered until fight night. Machida had never been finished or tasted defeat prior to his last fight. As Evans knows from his own experience being knocked out by Machida, it puts a lot of doubt in a fighter’s head and something that’s not just so easy to get past.

“With Machida, is it going to be the Machida that’s a little bit more afraid? Really not looking to engage anymore? Is it going to be a too cautious Machida? When you get knocked out, I kid you not, the first thing you think is like ‘damn, can I take a punch?” Evans explained. “Then you start thinking about it. It rents a space in your head, and until you get that first good shot, and you think ‘oh, I can take a punch again,’ but when you get knocked out cold that’s what runs through your mind.”

If Evans is giving Rampage the mental edge heading into the fight, who is he picking to win at UFC 123?

“I had a dream that Rampage knocked out Machida,” said Evans. “I had a dream about four nights ago that Rampage knocked him out. I don’t know why I was dreaming about Rampage’s ugly ass in the beginning, but I woke up and it felt like he knocked out Machida, it felt like it was real.”

Evans will not be in attendance in Detroit for UFC 123, but will likely be watching at home to see if his prediction comes to life on Saturday night.

im promesing my wife an early night as its her birthday on the 21st but i will be sneaking up at 3am to hopefully see rampage ko machida.

and then afterwords i can at 6am wake her up with a cup of tea with darling iv just woke up with this lol.

Scheduling Quinton Jackson and Lyoto Machida as the main event for Saturday’s UFC 123 is almost certainly a nod to Jackson’s ratings winner of a program against Rashad Evans last summer; why else top a show with two fighters coming off losses? It’s more of a I’m-still-here declaration than a lot of forward progress. It also has the potential to be a bit of a bore, with counter-striking (Machida) moving laterally around a self-conscious offensive fighter (Jackson).
It might also be good. But it’s all just billing, and the real headliner for many will be a third bout between B.J. Penn and Matt Hughes. Hughes has experienced a late-career resurgence, while Penn is looking for a new path after Frankie Edgar more or less temporarily ran him out of the 155-pound division.

If Hughes wins, it might be time to consider his place as one of the few former champions who keep a steady pace instead of fading out. If Penn wins, he might be motivated to test his chances against bigger men who don’t have the speed to buzz around him like an insect infestation. Either way, it’s a fight with more at stake than anything else on the card. And isn’t that why we watch?

What: UFC 123: Rampage vs. Machida, an 11-bout card from the Palace at Auburn Hills in Detroit, Mich.

When: Saturday, Nov. 20, at 10 p.m. ET on pay-per-view, with a live preliminary special at 9 p.m. ET on Spike

Why You Should Care: Because Machida’s reaction to his first career KO loss (vs. Mauricio Rua last spring) will either embolden or deflate his karate gi; because Jackson appears serious about conditioning in a way he was not for the Evans fight; because Phil Davis remains a viable wrestling prospect at 205 pounds and may one day enter the rare air of Jon Jones or Ryan Bader; and because Hughes hasn’t been sitting on his reputation. He continues to get better.

Fight of the Night: George Sotiropoulos vs. Joe Lauzon, two terrific submission fighters who have the ring energy to emulate Diego Sanchez vs. Karo Parisyan.

Hype Quote of the Show: "I just hope Machida comes to fight and considers the fans and puts on an exciting fight." -- Jackson on Machida’s duties to the audience. Worth mentioning: Jackson’s fight with Evans was not exactly a stash of fireworks.

Questions: UFC 123
Is it impossible for Jackson to win a decision?

Want to catch the eye of a judge? Hustle. At best, a blizzard offense seems to earn points on the scorecard; at worst, it can muddy the issue enough to keep your chances high.

Lyoto Machida is a volume striker -- he comes in, throws, and backs out. On the way, you might catch him and you might not. But his first instinct is preservation: he’s not going to settle in and “exchange” in the way we’ve come to think of it. Not without something rabid in front of him.

That makes Jackson’s job very difficult on Saturday. If he slows down in the face of that frustration, Machida is going to burn a hole in the Octagon mat with his shuffling. And if it goes the distance, Jackson is in real danger of having his power shots devalued in the comparison. It goes against common sense, but Jackson’s best chance may be to chase, confront and test chins rather than play for points. MMA’s cards have worse odds than in Bingo.


File Photo

Karo "The Heat" Parisyan
Which Karo shows up?

The go-to media story for Saturday’s undercard is Karo Parisyan’s return to the promotion after being ousted due to what Parisyan deemed “panic attacks,” and his employers call “unreliability.” An 11th hour dropout in 2009 sealed it; Parisyan was left to fend for himself in smaller shows.

He did, but only once, and now insists his problems are behind him. It’s telling the UFC would regulate Parisyan to a prelim slot when he’s been as good a guarantee of excitement as anyone in the sport. While he may feel pressure to distance himself from his reputation, Parisyan should know that fans enjoy a good comeback story much more than a tragedy. If he believes he’ll be fine, he probably will be.

Who really holds the advantage in Hughes/Penn III?

Look at the results of their first two fights and you’ll find lots of asterisk-exposition: Penn won the first meeting in 2004, but Hughes didn’t expect a lightweight to be such a threat; Penn was winning the rematch in 2006, but allegedly injured his ribs and allowed Hughes to deliver the only in-cage stoppage of Penn’s career.

Penn was left to the lightweights, where he won and defended a world title; Hughes showed signs of age and effectively passed the baton to Georges St. Pierre. Both men have taken steps forward and backward to varying degrees. (Fighters run hot and cold -- what a revelation.) Hughes may have early difficulty taking Penn down, as ever, but a new variable is Hughes’s increased confidence standing. Maybe he won’t be in such a rush to ground the fight. And if not, the pressure is off. But Penn, down two fights in 2010, and facing a substantially bigger opponent, is not going to have a relaxed locker room. In this fight, he who has fun wins.

Red Ink: Jackson vs. Machida
Machida finds himself in a substantially different role Saturday. Prior to the Mauricio Rua loss, Machida was undefeated and trading heavily in a broadly-drawn story that cast him as an enigmatic traditional martial artist. There was lots of footage of kata forms on a beach -- in silhouette -- and reverential talk about budo. Techniques of karate, which had previously been good to get a fighter into traction, were enough to win a world championship.

That got wiped off the table as soon as Rua knocked him out, fast and early. Instead of Machida, Invincible Karate Man, he’s been demoted to Karate Contender. Instead of defending a reputation, he’s trying to reestablish one.

That’s pressure. And while it seems like Jackson is in the same boat -- he dropped one to Evans and has to continually answer questions over whether he even wants to fight -- we know that he’s a proven commodity under duress. How else can you explain his textbook KO of Wanderlei Silva in 2008, after Silva had annihilated him twice and after he careened his truck off the road in a widely-publicized meltdown? If Silva couldn’t get into Jackson’s head at that point, no one else has much of a chance.

Either way, both men should feel a little reckless: there’s very little shame in losing to another top-shelf athlete. Jackson and Machida are on the title bubble; Jones or Bader could pop it. A decisive win can mean more than just a bonus -- if you want to stand out in this division, it helps to finish.

What It Means For Machida, a chance to prove his constitution will hold up following a KO loss; for Jackson, an opportunity to prove his MMA IQ hasn’t suffered from being on film sets.

Wild Card: Steven Seagal. That’s right -- Steven Seagal; Machida trained with him in all ranges -- including the ways of DVD residuals.

Who Wins: Jackson is a calculating brawler; Machida is calculating, period. Unless Jackson can put him on his heels the way Rua did, it’s going to be a long night of air punching. Machida by decision.

Phil Davis: “I’m Kind of Like a Ninja”

Undefeated UFC light heavyweight Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis recently spoke with Tapology’s Steven Kelliher about his improving skills and his upcoming fight against Tim Boetsch at UFC 123 this Saturday night.
When Davis steps into the Octagon on Saturday night, it will be his fourth bout of 2010, but if he keeps improving the way he has been in recent training camps, the charismatic light heavyweight says fans can expect about as much of Mr. Wonderful as they can handle in the future.

“I’m a little bit green,” Davis said, adding, “when I get to the point where I’m really confident in my skills, I’ll be fighting six times a year.”

Currently riding a three-fight winning streak in the UFC, and unbeaten in his professional career, Davis’s most recent victory came via Unanimous Decision against powerful striker Rodney Wallace at August’s UFC 117 event. While he was undoubtedly pleased to come out of that bout with the victory, Davis was not enamored with his performance.

“To me it felt like a sparring session, it really didn’t feel like a whole fight,” Davis said. “I tried to follow my gameplan, which was to strike with him and eventually take him down, but he didn’t engage me as much as I thought he would. To me it was a boring fight, so I bet it looked boring because I thought it was boring and I was in it.”

Davis went on to elaborate on what he considers boring in MMA and how that might differ from the perspective of many fans of the sport.

“Some people think wrestlers are boring, and sometimes they are, but they need to understand that there are plenty of boring strikers out there,” Davis reasoned. “It’s actually pretty easy to make a striking match boring. From a fan’s perspective, I should go out of my box and do something crazy to get the finish, but you know what? No. The more settled I get in the sport, the more dangerous I’ll be. Then I’ll be able to take more risks in more positions.”


Davis would make no promises about future performances, but one thing he was sure of was that Saturday night’s fight with Boetsch would be anything but boring.

“This fight won’t look anything like the Rodney Wallace fight,” Davis said. “I guarantee you he’s thinking in his mind right now that he’s going to knock me out. He’s not going to wait until the third to try to finish me; he’s going to come directly at me, which I like.”

Boetsch was cut from the UFC in 2009 after alternating wins and losses, but a recent three-fight winning streak on the smaller circuit has given him another shot in the world’s top promotion. In “The Barbarian’s” most impressive performance, he tossed David Heath onto his head to earn a first-round TKO victory. Asked what he planned on doing in the event that Boetsch attempted the same type of toss on him, Davis seemed unconcerned.

“I’m sort of like a ninja,” Davis said. “When somebody tries to throw me on my head I just cartwheel.

“If that happens,” he added, “I expect a follow-up.”

Well, Mr. Wonderful, if that happens, you can expect one.