MMA: Fedor Emelianenko
By Daniel Miessler on May 27th, 2007: Tagged as Fedor | MMA | Pride | Sports | UFC
If you haven’t heard of MMA, you should fix that. And if you’ve heard of MMA but are UFC-biased, you should fix that too. There are tons of amazing fighters out there that aren’t yet in the UFC.
But most importantly, if you know of MMA and of UFC but don’t know of Fedor Emelianenko, you are missing out.
Fedor is widely considered to be the best MMA fighter ever. He’s a God when striking or grappling, and can take massive punishment and come back to destroy you. Check out this fight with Randleman where he gets dropped on his neck, rolls over, and submits him like it never even happened.
Then at the end he tries to help him up as if to say sorry. The guy is inhuman. Oh, and he never stares people down in the ring. He looks down and is always respectful. Then he comes out and hurts you. When this beast was asked if he had any pets he responded:
Yes, I have a pet turtle.
Fear any man who ignores being dropped on his neck and has a pet turtle. And here’s a highlight reel:
MMA: Jackson Knocks Out Liddell In First Round
By Daniel Miessler on May 27th, 2007: Tagged as Jackson | Liddell | MMA | Pride | UFC
So yeah, I thought Jackson had a great chance to win (I put it at 45% – 55%), and I knew for sure it was going to be a first round knockout one way or the other. All these people at the sports bar were talking about third round decision, second round TKO, etc.. I told them, “First round KO. It’s just a question of who.” And indeed that was the case.

So now a few thoughts:
Pride has more talent than UFC does. They have better fighters and they fight more often. I think we’ll continue to see the Pride fighters dominate the UFC fighters — not always, but in general.
Secondly, Chuck has a sick offense but I agree that he’s never been pitted against a striker near his caliber. Some people call that overrated, which I guess I agree with now that the Pride fighters are part of the mix. I truly believe that people like Henderson, Silva (Wanderlei), and Jackson have offense as good or better than Chuck’s.
Basically, Chuck had so much success because he can knock people out consistently while defending the take-down really well. The issue is that he’s not faced many serious strikers, and now we see what happens when he does. Don’t get me wrong, I think Chuck has a good chance of knocking out Jackson too; it’s a coin-toss really. But it shouldn’t be if one fighter is that much better than another.
What I’m looking for right now is for more Pride fighters to come to UFC, and a more active fight schedule. I don’t want a boxing schedule for these guys; I want them tuned, like in Pride. And for the love of God — bring Fedor to the UFC. I can’t wait to see him destroy the heavyweight division. I know that he can lose, but he’s 100% real-deal. Tested. Certified. Guaranteed.
UFC: What Was Rich’s Plan?
By Daniel Miessler on October 15th, 2006: Tagged as MMA | UFC
So I guess Rich Franklin’s plan was to try and beat Anderson Silva at Muay Thai? Completely insane; he got dominated. It’s like he’s never even been in a clinch with that class of Muay Thai fighter before. He didn’t seem to even know what to do.
I’m glad to have Silva as a champion. He’s the type of fighter who brings excitement to the sport. Nothing’s better than a good pummeling via knees and high kicks.
UFC: Some Upcoming Fights
By Daniel Miessler on January 20th, 2006: Tagged as MMA | Martial Arts | Sport | UFC
Just watched the Tim Silvia fight on Spike and saw that there are some cool matches coming up here soon. The two that are getting all the attention are Coture vs. Liddell 3 and Matt Hughes vs. Royce Gracie.
The Hughes/Gracie fight, in my opinion, is going to be a non-event. Gracie is a God, don’t get me wrong, but so is Sugar Ray Leonard — that doesn’t mean I want to see him fighting the current champion.
The fact is, the game was much different when Royce was on top, i.e. there was no one on his level. Now, everyone is where he used to be (or close, anyway) — it’s nothing against him; it’s just the evolution of the sport.
I’m not a big follower of Coture/Liddell either. I think Liddell is going to win — probably in convincing fashion — but that’s neither going to suprise or impress me.
My favorite fighters to watch right now are people like Matt Hughes, Nick Diaz, Forrest Griffin, David Loiseau, and Rich Franklin. Those last two are actually fighting in UFC 58, and that’s something I’m going to be all over.
Of course my favorite fighter is still Jeremy Horn; he’s the man.
UFC: Bruce Buffer Has To Go
By Daniel Miessler on December 13th, 2005: Tagged as MMA | Rants | Sport | UFC
I swear — if I have to hear Bruce Buffer attempt to be his brother one more time I’m going to get violent. I am sure he’s a nice guy and everything, but he is without a doubt the worst announcer I’ve ever heard in my life.
His voice is painful to listen to; it causes hatred and anger to boil within me. At first it’s funny (he looks like Bill Murray’s character in Caddy Shack), but then after hearing it a few times it becomes the smell of burned popcorn.
For the love of God, will these people please get a new announcer? Just because his brother has a voice doesn’t earn him the right to torture millions of people. All the training and voice excercises have done nothing to help the guy; he needs to find something else to do.
It was fine when the UFC was just starting out — cool, he’s Michael Buffer’s brother — but now that it’s legit and becoming mainstream, they need to get someone in there that doesn’t cause physical discomfort in his listeners.
