If you were thinking of buying this product, as I did, and as I have all the annual "Best of" DVDs dating back to 2007, I have some advice for you.

Do not buy, or support this bullshit. Why? The main feature and first disc, on both the DVD and BluRay is a 2 hour highlight reel. Only Cain-Dos Santos and Silva-Leben are shown in their entirety. The second disc is full fights, thankfully, but none of them are really "extras," it's just full versions of the highlight-featured fights on the first disc, which should've been full length in the first goddamn place.

Someone did the math on the Amazon reviews page, and the DVD includes 22 full-length fights (when the cover brags 30). Compare previous year "Best of" offerings:

UFC Best of 2008 - 11 full fights
UFC Best of 2009 - 26 full fights
UFC Best of 2010 - 38 full fights
UFC Best of 2011 - 22 full fights

I'm really disappointed. For the complete lowdown and a theory on why the UFC did this, check out a really good review I found on Amazon.

EDIT: It also seems like the UFC is stepping up the editing after the fact. For example, Joe Rogan's complaining about the Cung Le-Wanderlei Silva stoppage is completely edited out.

A super, super huge one, you guys. Seriously. MY CENTRAL THESIS IS IN THE TITLE. I PRESENT NO EVIDENCE BELOW.

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via www.mma-core.com

via www.mmauniverse.com

via cdn1.sbnation.com

At last, something we can all agree on, eh? If you're not sure why, go here to get caught up.

*Fanpost intended in a joking and/or parodic manner, poking fun towards both Mr. Caraway and myself, as a reference to my previous fanpost. Fighter bashing contained therein is meant entirely in a facetious manner. No malice intended, although the stuff Bryan said was just awful and he should be ashamed for having said it. Plzdontbanme.

Hey so, warning. I'm not censoring language here, so be warned. You will encounter vulgar, sexist, and homophobic uncensored language, because I'm angry and I don't feel like looking at this issue through euphemism or censorship. We're gonna let the ugliness shine.

There. That's my central thesis. See it up there? That's the point of this fanpost. Some readers will take issue with this and react defensively, so if that's you, feel free to skip down to the comments and call me a reverse racist or whatever it is immediately. Alternatively, if you're not interested in discussing social or cultural issues on an MMA blog, I can certainly respect that, and no hard feelings. I thought I'd put it up front so we can get it out of the way.

This is not a new thought from me or anyone else, but for fuck's sake, it's time to finally say this out loud. Here's what spurred this fanpost:

@irishrebel311 blocked u for being an ignorant POS! Talkin shit about chandella u fuckin puss. U seem very interested In the new TUF dude

— Dana White (@danawhite) February 27, 2012

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I was RIGHT in the middle of writing a fanpost about how happy I was just after Diaz-Condit finished. I was even gonna use this image:

via images.cheezburger.com

I never thought Condit had a chance in this one. Never ever. After seeing his fights with MacDonald, Kampmann,Ellenberger, even Hiromitsu Miura and Hardy, it seemed to me that like his camp-mate Donald Cerrone, his defensive boxing fundamentals were far too poor to win against Nick. That combined with his "gameness" and eagerness to stand in the pocket and trade while relying on power punches spelled disaster to me.

And then Greg Jackson actually lives up to his reputation as a master gameplanner for once (as opposed to, say, Evans against Machida or Cerrone against Nate) and does the ballsy move of having Carlos turn the tables and get inside Nick's head. Who'da thunk it? Having the mental fortitude not to get drawn into wanting to knock Nick's head off as a result of the constant taunting and being willing to run the first two rounds (Shut up fanboys, yes he did. I'm even a Machida fan that back at UFC 70 was screaming myself hoarse against accusations of "running." Condit was running in rounds 1 and 2, he turned it on during 3-5.), it all got Nick so frustrated that by round 3 the taunts had largely stopped and he was mainly following Condit around, looking unsure of himself and throwing lazy kicks because he couldn't get to boxing range.

It was just brilliant. As much as I said that a Frankie Edgar-styled fighter would be the best suited to take Nick out, I never thought I'd see Condit implement that type of gameplan. I imagined a fighter that would move in and out, use variety in his striking and refuse to get drawn into brawling, but I assumed that good head movement and a willingness to punch at least a little inside would be necessary to back Diaz off. Even in round 1, it seemed that Carlos was swinging wild and too hard when Diaz got into range, and that he couldn't find space to implement his game. But it seems Greg Jackson realized something very important that probably should've occurred to me earlier: the most dangerous part of Nick's game is the mental aspect, but it's also the weakest.

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No original gifs in this one, all are from ironforgesiron.com. Too much work, not enough motivation.

So I'm a huge Machida fan, and maaaan am I a sad panda after last night.

via 3.bp.blogspot.com

It's extremely tough watching a favorite fighter lose, especially in brutal fashion. I thought it appropriate to write a little about Machida's performance, how he lost, and what it means.

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No further ado, here's part 2.</whydidijustrhymethat?>

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I couldn't think of a good title.

With the first UFC on Fox card complete, it is (as always) time to look forward and start preparing for the next big event. So here we are, less than a week away from UFC 139 and Cung Le's triumphant UFC debut. Cung, after completing an undefeated career in San Shou and a moderately successful 7-1 run in Strikeforce, will finally be moving to the largest stage of his career. Most of Cung's career thus far has had a distinct big-fish-in-a-small-pond feel; he dominated in San Shou but mostly competed in the United States against other Americans, some of whom had little grappling background. Cung's best win was over Na Shun Gerile, a supposed undefeated monster and 3-time Chinese Sanda champion. Though I can't find verification for Gerile's record, he was captaining a Chinese competition team, and Cung dominated the fight. After moving to MMA at the tender age of 33, Cung destroyed his mostly overmatched and underskilled opponents in Strikeforce, allowing him to show off his impressive striking. His best win in MMA so far is a toss-up between a Frank Shamrock that was good enough to flatten Phil Baroni and Cesar Gracie (in his only fight), but was dominated by Nick Diaz, and perennial real-life-Rocky-from-Rocky 1 Scott Smith in a do-over after Cung controlled the entire first fight but got careless in the 3rd round. Now Le faces former PRIDE champion and professional skull vaporizer Wanderlei Silva in what will be far and away the biggest test of his career.

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So I was inspired by nottheface sharing his fantasmagorical piece on Nick Diaz and his connection to very old boxing history here, thinking that maybe the good folks at BLH would have a different take on my analysis, being more hardcore boxing fans than many at BE. This is a piece about MMA, so if you don't have an interest, no hard feelings!

Acknowledgement: Non-click gifs from http://ironforgesiron.com/.

Here's what's funny. A few people are going to click on this fanpost, thinking it's going to be gloating about how great Nick Diaz is. Oh, the funny. There will be gloating, but it will be about my own prognosticative abilities. To wit:

Lining up a counter on Nick isn’t easy because of the distance he keeps. Either way, I could certainly see BJ being technical and hurting Nick early. I just don’t see him winning. The pressure Nick puts on opposing fighters standing is essentially the same as Fitch does grappling. I also wouldn’t say that Nick is a smaller WW anymore, he comfortably fought Scott Smith and Frank Shamrock at 180 and looked no smaller than either of them. He’s packed on muscle over the years.

A fighter with cardio problems is Nick Diaz’s dream come true. After a first round that’s all BJ, I see pitter-pat, body punch, pitter-pat, body punch; all day long..

The overwhelming support on Bloody Elbow for B.J. Penn over the weeks leading up to UFC 137 nearly had me convinced that he could pull it off and be the 2nd man to TKO Nick Diaz. In the end? Nick and BJ are exactly who we thought they were before the fight started, and it played out very close to how I imagined back in June.

That’s good on paper, but Nick isn’t your average brawler. Issues of reach, height and stance come into play. BJ’s jab isn’t going to work when Nick’s lead side is right in line with his. He may have trouble finding a home for his straight right when he’ll be at a 4 inch reach disadvantage and a 4 inch height disadvantage, especially since Diaz stands tall. Finally, the sheer volume Diaz throws with, while still maintaining better-than-you’d-think technique, is a big problem. To throw one good counter, you need to slip 3 or 4 Diaz punches. In doing so, you can catch Nick seriously open and hit him satisfyingly hard, but I don’t see BJ having the gas tank to do that continually. And if you’ve seen Diaz fight before, you know that one knockdown is never enough to finish him.

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Acknowledgement: Non-click gifs from http://ironforgesiron.com/.

Here's what's funny. A few people are going to click on this fanpost, thinking it's going to be gloating about how great Nick Diaz is. Oh, the funny. There will be gloating, but it will be about my own prognosticative abilities. To wit:

Lining up a counter on Nick isn’t easy because of the distance he keeps. Either way, I could certainly see BJ being technical and hurting Nick early. I just don’t see him winning. The pressure Nick puts on opposing fighters standing is essentially the same as Fitch does grappling. I also wouldn’t say that Nick is a smaller WW anymore, he comfortably fought Scott Smith and Frank Shamrock at 180 and looked no smaller than either of them. He’s packed on muscle over the years.

A fighter with cardio problems is Nick Diaz’s dream come true. After a first round that’s all BJ, I see pitter-pat, body punch, pitter-pat, body punch; all day long..

The overwhelming support on BE for B.J. Penn over the weeks leading up to UFC 137 nearly had me convinced that he could pull it off and be the 2nd man to TKO Nick Diaz. In the end? Nick and BJ are exactly who we thought they were before the fight started, and it played out very close to how I imagined back in June.

That’s good on paper, but Nick isn’t your average brawler. Issues of reach, height and stance come into play. BJ’s jab isn’t going to work when Nick’s lead side is right in line with his. He may have trouble finding a home for his straight right when he’ll be at a 4 inch reach disadvantage and a 4 inch height disadvantage, especially since Diaz stands tall. Finally, the sheer volume Diaz throws with, while still maintaining better-than-you’d-think technique, is a big problem. To throw one good counter, you need to slip 3 or 4 Diaz punches. In doing so, you can catch Nick seriously open and hit him satisfyingly hard, but I don’t see BJ having the gas tank to do that continually. And if you’ve seen Diaz fight before, you know that one knockdown is never enough to finish him.

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*THAR BE MANY A GIF AHEAD.* It's quite a long piece too.

Technique Central: Nick Diaz Part 1, Part 2.

I thought about waiting to post this until the TUF 13 coverages dies down on Monday or Tuesday, but fuck that, I'm happy with this fanpost so I'm gonna post it now. <shamelesswhoring> Please rec if you like it so it doesn't get lost in the post-event coverage. </shamelesswhoring> Here we go with our last key to out-striking the elder Diaz!

3. Endurance

This one is the lynchpin. I debated over putting this one first because it's so important, but instead I'm going to save the most important for last. Just keep in mind that as endurance deteriorates, it compounds the issues mentioned before in defense and footwork. So yes, it's important for all fighters to have conditioning. But there are particular ways Diaz opponents are enticed to blow through their gas tanks.

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WARNING: LOTS 'O GIFS AHEAD.

Technique Central: Nick Diaz Part 1, Part 3

Welcome to Part 2 of how I hope someone will finally scout Nick Diaz properly and punch him in the head until he falls over instead of vice versa. No, but seriously, this series is partly pointing out the obvious in terms of striking technique so people start to realize how and why Nick always seems to win the striking battle, and maybe someone will finally pull off out-striking Nick (much easier said than done); partly the series is grudging but inescapable and well-earned respect for the serious skill Diaz shows in the cage. Someone in the part 1 post mentioned that such a detailed breakdown was impressive from a non-Diaz fan...it's so detailed because 1. I obsess over technique cause I think it's cool, and 2. I've spent far too much time examining exactly how Nick continues to do the thing I hate to see him doing: win.

So here's our second area of focus: footwork. We focused on defense, breaking down Nick's punching and determining that head movement, without dropping your hands KJ, is the best way to avoid the high-volume punching and open up counter opportunities. However, all the head movement in the world is useless if you can't capitalize on it in hitting on your counters. That's going to be our focus in terms of footwork, and we'll take a look at Nate Diaz's fight with Marcus Davis for how a height (and/or reach) disadvantage makes footwork critical for power generation, and a little more of Paul Daley vs. Nick to see how footwork affects angles, particularly against a rangy southpaw like Nick.

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Technique Central: Nick Diaz Part 2, Part 3

I originally planned to do this thing all in one long post...but as my writings are wont to do, it metastasized beyond my control, so I'll be splitting it into 3 parts. Warning! These will be gif-heavy.

I make no secret of my hatred for Nick Diaz. However, he is a supremely talented fighter, and he owns a unique blend of striking and grappling technique, athleticism, endurance and heart that makes him eminently dangerous no matter the opponent.

Now, this isn't an article on how to beat Diaz. That's fairly obvious-be a takedown artist with good submission defense and a decent top game. Look through the last few losses of each Diaz and it's super obvious that takedown defense is the achilles heel of their particular styles, and that Nick has fervently avoided exactly that type of fighter since his loss to Sean Sherk. No, this article will instead be on successfully striking with Nick which almost every fighter opposite him has tried and failed to do in recent memory. Given recent news on Nick signing to fight Jeff Lacy, this article will also apply to Diaz's boxing career (and the bout with Lacy may tell us whether I'm accurate in my breakdowns!)

Striking with a Diaz tends to follow a remarkably similar pattern, each is something of a slow starter in that it takes a little while before the punches start accumulating damage and the taunts get to their opponents' respective psyches. Therefore, good strikers tend to have early success. The problem is that pretty much every opponent that chooses to strike with a Diaz (or, Nick at least) eventually fades and finds out those little jabs add up in a big way when you're gassed. This series will focus on how the Diaz style tends to cause opponents' fundamentals to deteriorate and less on specific strategies to beat him. Gifs and breakdown after the jump.

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Got my Best of 2010 DVD in the mail yesterday, and I immediately started watching my way though it. I'm pretty impressed with it, 2010 was a great year for the UFC and the quality of the Best Of DVD series keeps getting better. Here's my long, rambling, disorganized, nitpicky review.

First, the production values are awesome. Screen graphics are very reminiscent of the sharp red and white ESPN graphical style (in a good way), and the voice-over guy sounds appropriately self-important without being Goldberg-level pompous. The difference from the first "Best of" offering in 2007 is really noticable.

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So whaddaya think of the title? Here's the second technique feature from Central PA Mixed Martial Arts detailing Georges St. Pierre's superman jab and how he uses it to set up a wide-open leg kick.

It's been awhile since our first feature on Frankie Edgar's use of the cut kick. Both myself and Ryan Gruhn, owner and head instructor at CPAMMA have been extremely busy since that time. Technique Central will continue to be a feature here though, so please let me know through a comment or email if you'd like a particular fight or technique examined. Video and write-up after the jump! 3 gifs, slow computers beware.

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Link to part 1. Here's part 2! Enjoy your New Year's parties, everyone. This part will have my thoughts on career mode, directions for the 2012 edition and overall/general thoughts.

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I'm just as much of a video game nerd as I am a technique nerd. So this will be my 3rd fanpost, a similarly obsessive and nitpicky review of a piece of MMA minutia that's important to me. Narcissism. It is also very, very long, so I've split it up into 2 parts. This one will focus on the gameplay and production values/miscellaneous.

I'm writing the review now as opposed to just after the game came out because 1. Grad school, 2. It took me some time to get used to the game and get a feel for it, 3. Grad school, 4. I wanted to play through the career mode a few times to get a fair picture of the whole game, and 5. Prison time. Wait, no, grad school.

Yes I'm going to make the inevitable comparisons to Undisputed 2010 and a few to FN Round 4, but I'm not going to give numbers of anything. Just kind of a general rambling diatribe on what I liked and disliked about the game, how it compares to what's out there already, and where it should go for 2012 (hooray for that happening!). Short version: I enjoyed it more than Undisputed, think it's currently better than anything else out there, and am pretty satisfied with it. But it wouldn't be me writing this without a lot of nitpicking about what to improve on. This review is done on the PS3 version.

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EDIT: Title has been retroactively changed to fit the series name.

Hello bloodyelbow readers and BElitists! It's been almost a year since my first (and till now, only!) blog post. I'm now training at a seriously high quality local MMA gym again and thinking of doing a semi-regular technique feature with the help of said school's instructors. Anything you want to see examined, past fights or recent, let me know!

For the first in this new series, I thought I'd briefly examine a small moment from round 4 of the BJ Penn/Frankie Edgar that made it on the highlight reel of Edgar making BJ look very human.

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Hooray, my first fanpost! This one will be a doozy and reminiscent of the Judo Chop series. It's also posted at bullshido.net. Here we go.

So we all know now that a rematch is going to happen between Shogun and Machida. Since BROK® pulled out of his UFC 106 fight with Carwin (rescheduled to Jan. 2nd), it's even possible that this fight could replace theirs at UFC 106 (note that this is pure speculation, I haven't heard it reported or even rumored yet). So Lyoto Machida needs a gameplan, and fast. What did he do wrong at UFC 104? What did Mauricio "Shogun" Rua do right? Here's my (long-winded) opinion, for what it's worth.

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