The Glade 4.0

B.J. Penn vs. Diego Sanchez
Frank Mir vs. Cheick Kongo
Kenny Florian vs. Clay Guida
Jon Fitch vs. Mike Pierce

Pretty good card. Out of all the UFC titleholders, Penn is the only one to not be suffering through injury right now: Lesnar is out for a good amount of time but his condition has improved, Machida has a hand injury, Silva has an elbow injury and I forget why St. Pierre is out but it's also an injury.

If you've never seen BJ fight, don't be fooled by his relatively soft looking body and weird, fat head. He's got an iron chin, remarkable flexibility and is probably the most talented grappler in MMA right now. He's probably also the most (naturally) gifted fighter in the game and his training has gotten more intense which showed when he RNC'd Florian this summer.

Sanchez has a slight chance due to his good stamina and work ethic, but I think he's going to find that punching BJ in that big head of his won't have much effect and he'll eventually give up a TD and get pounded out or dominated in a unanimous decision. BJ likely won't give up any take downs or if he does, he'll get a sweep and turn the tables.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

Penn is looking really good physically. Very toned, like he has been putting in extra effort. I can't say I've been overly impressed by him in the ring/cage/octagon, except he always seems calm/relaxed (never nervous or jumpy).

Don't get me wrong, I like Sanchez too and think he also has been looking really prepared for his recent fights.

I won't try to make a call either way though, the way these guys train and prepare, especially two really great athletes like these two, that it only takes one mistake to end a fight. A single misread on a pnuch kick or move while grappling and you'll be wking up to a loss or tapping out and hoping nothing's broken.

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Gorse

Penn is a machine, but Sanchez has retard strength.

I say Penn comes out with the win, but I expect it to be good.

have not been that impressed with Penn the last few fights.

Going to go with Riov here, especially after vs GSP in the summer.

GSP should have lost to BJ the first time. I'm not sure why BJ didn't do well against him the second time. Anyway, Penn looked awesome against Matt Hughes, and the second time he sustained a rib injury. His loss to Jens Pulver is really the only really big fluke.

I mean, he went up to fight Machida at 190 lbs (and still had a 30# disadvantage) and took that one to decision. BJ was made to fight at 155.

I'll give you that Sanchez is very strong, conditioned and athletic, but BJ's takedown defense is otherwordly and he has a strong chin. Must have something to do with that weird, fat head. Unless he gasses (which he won't at 155), Sanchez doesn't have much chance. He can push the pace all he wants, but he's going to find himself frustrated by BJ's defense and jab.

Also, how can you not be impressed with his recent performance? The loss the GSP is one thing, but he's finished his last 4 opponents convincingly and hasn't lost at 155 in almost eight years.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

Except for Chieck Kongo getting owned in about 60 seconds, the card went down pretty much like I expected. Jon Fitch ended a bit sloppy against Pierce and Guida really screwed up. BJ dominated Diego, I couldn't believe he didn't even score a single takedown. He just ate right hands, shot for bad single legs (which ended up BJ against the cage), ate short punches in the clinch and threw ineffective head kicks. BJ just fed him savagely effective punches and then out of nowhere, threw a head kick, the first time I've ever seen him do something like that and this was the result:

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

Well, gotta give you that one. BJ dominated that fight, it was almost sad to watch. We loved wacthing the replay on the kick that made that cut on Diego...forehead is ok, leg goes up, leg goes down, hello GIANT GASH IN FOREHEAD.

The 2nd round of the first main card fight was great, those two going all rock em sock em on each other heh.

Yea that guy was like freakishly tall. But I don't think even the hardcore BJ fans expected that. I figured Diego might put him on his back eventually, wind up in a half guard or full guard and at least get some points from on top.

I like Diego, he's a good kid and has tremendous guts. I think his corner and trainers let him down. They changed his gameplan which was to push the pace on BJ and make him fight faster; that first knockdown seemed to beat him mentally.

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"It's real, grew up in trife life, the times of white lines
The hype vice, murderous nighttimes and knife fights invite crimes" - Nasir Jones

My weekend was crazy and I didn't get a chance to even look up results let alone watch anything. Please tell me this was only on Pay-Per-View otherwise I'll be bummed that I missed it.

My Saturday was absolutely crazy. It did manage to slow down a little in the afternoon so I could watch most of the Army Navy game, but a 7:00 I got a "my basement is flooding" call from a friend that kept me busy until after 9:00 and from there I went to dinner and did not get home until almost 10:30).

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Gorse