Next big UFC event is UFC 77 which is on Bravo on Sunday 21st Oct at 9pm.

Paddy

Randy Couture's quitting the UFC raises some interesting questions about what happens next. Especially since Couture has said that he has only quit the UFC and not fighting.

An video interview with Couture dicvussing his reasons for leaving can be found in ESPN's MMA section.

http://sports.espn.go.com/extra/mma/index

An interesting article on the situation and what is means can be found at...

http://sports.yahoo.com/box/news;_yl...yhoo&type=lgns

So hostile terretory was a bit on the pants side. Poorest card for a long time I feel.

Stephan Bonner put in a credible performance, and Anderson Silva was excellent - but both needed better opponents.

Vera, Sylvia & Franklin were all disapointing

Just about to watch UFC 77 now, hope it's decent enough.

76 was full of shocks I remember, Griffin was awesome and it's amazing to see yet again the Pride fighters being owned by UFC (can Cro Cop get any worse? I've never been as dissapointed with anyone as much as this guy)

I was stunned but pleased for Jardine aswell, he totally deserved that win over Chuck, surely Chuck must be close to finished now.

Hello to all btw, just found this thread and I'm a big UFC fan, although I haven't read the whole thread yet.

what's the couture stuff about I thought he was riding high in UFC I wonder what this means for others like matt huges chuck lidell JSP tim silvia etc

It wouldn't mean much to them as it was a personal decision of his and not the UFC's.

Well, i suppose it would mean a difference to Sylvia. He wouldn't get his ass kicked again

I thought UFC77 card was ok. Brandon Vera is a really good fighter and it was a shame he broke his hand in round one. He would have beaten Sylvia if he hadn't.

Anderson Sylva is world class. Everytime i watch him fight he impresses more an more. Rich Franklin is good but just not good enough for Silva. Both great guys though and a credit to the sport.

I was dissapointed with Jorge Gurgel. Does anybody know if he had a problem? For a BJJ black belt he looked lost when he had side/north-south control. He did nothing when on top .

Bonnar's improving. Give him another few fights and let's have another Griffin Bonnar fight! I think Griffin's still got too much for him at the moment though.

Alan Belcher impressed. He looked really dominant with great skills. I look forward to seeing more of him in the future.

UFC 78 on 17 November. Come on Bisping!! Unfortunately i think Rashad is awesome and my money is on him to win.

The funniest thing about UFC 77 was the announcers hyping up "winner of Sylvia/Vera meets Noguiera for the vacant title", then after Sylvia wins, he called out Cheick Kongo. So now it's Kongo/Nog, winner faces Sylvia.

I have mixed feelings about UFC 77, to be honest it was a bit of drop backwards overall, but not awful or anything.

Starnes vs Belcher was unbelievable, just for that gash on Starnes, christ that was sick! Belcher looked an arse to me though with all his smiling etc. Confidence is one thing but that's just being a cocky arse.

In other fights, Gurgel looked weak again on the whole, he owned the first round but then got completely hammered for the remaining 2 and was probably lucky just to hang on til the end.

Sylvia bored me to sleep yet again. I've seen something like 1 interesting fight that the guys had and the rest have put me to sleep, it's no wonder he's not popular. Please don't give him another title shot for crying out loud.

Bonnar looked good, Silva looked amazing yet again, Franklin is a great athlete but he's just outclassed by Silva, just as everyone else has been. I honestly can't see who will even come close to beating the guy.

As for UFC 78, it should be interesting but I'm not a fan of Bisping. Again I find him too arrogant and cocky and to be honest he should have lost that fight at UFC 75 to Hamill. That was just a complete fix.

I think Bisping should have lost at UFC75, but I want him to win at UFC78 as I quite like Bisping, and I'm not a fan of Evans.

The card just after Christmas is absolutely stacked with starpower which is why the shows haven't been that strong.

I have a feeling that whatever the outcome of this fight Bisping will drop down to 185lbs after the fight anyway.

Yeah the thing is Evans is cocky aswell so to be honest I really have no preference on that fight. It will be an interesting watch though.

I just can't wait to see Brock Lesnar in UFC, I can see him doing really well if he trains hard, which I think he will. I'm not really counting his K1 fight against anything seeing as they obviously fed him some nobody to dominate, plus it will take some getting used to the octagon rather than a ring. But I think Lesnar will do it, he's a huge dominating figure who wont be easy to beat at all.

Is there any other news on upcoming fights or possibles?

What are peoples opinions on where Chuck goes from here and people like Cro Cop? Surely they're both on very shaky ground right now, Chuck looks way past his best and Cro Cop has been possibly the biggest flop ever since everyone raved about him in Pride.

How does Dana White and the others decide on who gets title shots and PPV matches exactly? I've always been intrigued by that. There's people that I feel should have had title shots or at the least more TV time than they have...people like Karo Parisyan for example amongst others.

The thing with Lesnar is that for his first few fights they are going to have to try and protect him with the opponents he gets put up against as they are paying him a lot of money and they think that he can be a big star for him. He's only had 1 MMA fight so far and that only went 2 minutes.

He looked very impressive in that fight but the quality of his opponent wasn't strong (I think the opponent failed a drugs test after the fight as well).

I can see Lesnar being put against the likes of Brad Imes etc early on.

Yeah probably, I mean White must already be fuming about the fact that so many "dream" matches with Pride guys have on the most part flopped majorly. If they haven't flopped totally then the Pride big guys have been embarrassed or the build-up for the big matches has fallen flat on it's face beforehand due to previous results (Chuck vs Wanderlei being a fine example)

So with that in mind they're going to have to be very careful with Brock and also hope that he's totally up for it when he gets in there.

I think, and hope that it will come off this time.

The Pride guys haven't done that well, but that may be due to the different rules and styles that they have encountered since becoming part of the UFC, plus don't forget that they are up against a higher level of opponent.

I do have to admit however that Cro Cop in particular has been really disappointing in his UFC fights, mind you that kick that he took against Gonzaga was a beauty.

Bisping should have been scored the winner or the fight a draw no way rashad did enough to win.....

Yeah, the judges probably had the Hamill fight in mind.

I can't believe how quickly Evans tired.

He's scheduled to fight Frank Mir on the 02/02/08 as the main event

at the end of the first round he was gasping for air, not a great fight but Bisping did edge it for me

Its a shame Serra cant fight in a couple weeks, but hughes v gsp III will be awesome!

For those of you who have missed Ultimate fighter 4: The comeback, it is being repeated on Bravo2 at 4am everyday. I have set it on my sky+.

Dammit I missed that. I have Seasons 1-3 on DVD but avoided 4 as it's meant to be weak, and with it being pro's from the past instead of people fighting for a contract I can see why it's thought of that way. I'm not sure if I'll get that or just skip straight to the excellent Season 5 which is out in March.

Is UFC 80 not on Bravo at all? I noticed it's not listed which is annoying. UFC 79 was awesome by the end, Liddell vs Silva was absolutely brutal.

If it's a UK show, then it'll likely be Setanta Sports only.

There's also new interviews with UFC guys on The Fight Network (Sky 427) with Liddell, Stevenson, St Pierre, etc. I think there's some pre-fight interviews from UFC 80 too.

Yeah, UFC 80's in Newcastle on Saturday night, and will be shown live on Setanta, oddly enough after the Newcastle/Bolton game on the same channel. Maybe Keegan will show up?

Looks like UFC will be Setanta Sports only very soon, which was always thought to be. Probably why they moved TNA Wrestling from Bravo 2 to bolster the Bravo channel if so.

I thought Bravo signed a long term deal with the UFC to show it or was the just for "the ultimate fighter" then.

I'm glad if it's on Setanta rather than nothing, but please don't tell me they still broadcast it with those ridiculous borders on both sides of the screen like they do certain football progs. I'm convinced the last UFC PPV I saw on Setanta had them and they really ruin it for me.