Promoted to the front page from the FanPosts by Luke Thomas.

A few updates on what's been going on in the MMA Twittersphere.

WAR MACHINE

"WM will always HATE everyone. I DGAF about anything but my VERY FEW friends. NOTHING matters to me. DGAF real talk. Will kill.No regrets... F*CK! I can't wait till' I f*cking DIE! ...But before I die I'm gonna take ALOT of people out first....trust that... I'm gonna make a list and check that shit way more than TWICE!... What makes you think you're safe when I HATE myself? ...When I am ready to die I will kill many and I will then kill myself and I will tape it. It will be rad..."  -War Machine

"I'm pretty sure none of you know me well enough to give me a f*cking lecture so don't.The ones that do know me wouldn't bother cuz the <3 me"  -War Machine, hmm..

"Attention: NO ONE work with me cuz @WarMachineGay says "I'm a violent, misogynist who belongs in a prison or a grave." HAHAHAHA!"  -War Machine, already has twitter accounts dedicated to hating him.

"Those who have no haters have no great qualities or impressive skills."  -Miguel Torres, those that have too much haters, change their name to War Machine.

"Can I beat Machida?? lol..ummm...prolly not! He's 2 weight classes above me and better than me...I'd shoot that fool,,=p "  -War Machine

"Everybody ask @anngaff why there's a purchase order for "Erotic Wrestling" on our tv....go ahead."  -Jason High, Maybe she wants to see a movie starring War Machine.

"Thanks to whatever d*ck head told on my drunken Tweets the other night!! Now I have to go meet 2 FBI agents in 20 minutes!!! HAHAHAAHAH! ...You Haters! Jeeze isn't my life interesting...I'm gonna meet these 2 dudes and then gym it. If I'm not Tweeting in 3 hrs I'm in jail...=( lol... The War Machine is back from FBI meetings, gym workouts and tanning! HAHAHAAHA! My HATERS will stop at no ends to fuck with me...funny... The FBI enjoyed my company and were actually big UFC fans and want to thank whichever hater it was for the opportunity to be able to meet me"  -War Machine, got in to trouble for his Murder-Suicide tweets. (Maybe that's why he now has his tweets protected)

"Fagg*t ass HATERS! Sending the FBI and Secret Service to get the War Machine!!! ...F*ck me. I'm a WAR MACHINE fuck a feeling! I'm dumb as bricks! I love sleeping in parking garages till 4 AM. F*cking pissed! Hope I go to sleep and never wake up! F*cking HATE myself. F*ck you! F*ck everyone! I love being a worthless piece of sh*t! I HATE me....why would I expect anyone else to like me? Stupid. F*ck I'm sick of my life.... I wish someone would come and shoot me in the fucking head! Haven't I pissed enough people off yet? WHy don't any of u pussies come kill me?"  -War Machine

I'm really fucking upset right now...really wish Ryan was back from Afghanistan hes the only person who loves me...dude I'm pissed..havent cried in YEARS and f*cking tears are shedding from my face like a lil' faggot! I know I'm harder than that. WTF!? F*CK YOU! ...I really think I should just smash my own face right now...haven't done that in a while think I'm def. overdue... ALL you mother f*ckers that are fans of mine are idiots. I'm a miserable, lonely piece of sh*t that deserves to die. Don't be fans of ANYONE... No dude my parents don't fucking love me. My Dad is dead as fuck and my mom is a fucking drug addict... If I didn't give my guns away today cuz the gay secret service I would shoot my f*cking self right now... Crying is for faggots. WHy the f*ck would I cry? F*cking weak...I wish Ryan was back. He better get back safe. I'll f*ckin freak out..."  -War Machine

"I don't need f*cking help just need to f*cking die... I should have crashed and went thru the f*cking windshield driving home right now...would have been so much better... I'm done hating other people I realize now it's just ME that I hate. Unlovable, piece of sh*t ME. F*ck me. I wanna doing sumtin horrible to myself. I wanna cut my f*cking face open so everytime I look in the mrror I know what scum I am... F*ck you! I'm going to bed....pray I don't wake up. F*ck myself and my miserable f*cking life. Please let me die tonight God f*ck it."  -War Machine, I usually try to insert lame jokes on this section, but I can't.. Someone please help this guy.

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via Sherdog.com

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Over at Sherdog.com, Jason Probst does some handicapping and takes a look at the UFC lightweight division after an assumed win over Sanchez:

Who’ll turn the trick? If one cross-compared the skill sets of all five UFC champions, Penn rates the best from a pound-for-pound perspective. He has proven a solid striker with subtle stand-up defense and a granite chin, and he gives opponents fits in a tie-up, whether he defends a takedown or attempts one. He has also proven incredibly dominant from top position, and once he obtains it, the fight essentially ends. There are better wrestlers (Brock Lesnar and Georges St. Pierre) and strikers (Anderson Silva, Lyoto Machida and St. Pierre), but Penn has proven more dangerous from more ranges and positions than any of them.

The big challenge for Penn remains himself and staying motivated to defend his crown. Forever in search of greater tests, his lightweight reign could become an amazing one, given the depth of the division and high-energy foes. Aggressive scrappers like Sanchez, Gray Maynard, Frankie Edgar and Tyson Griffin comprise the top tier of deserving challengers. It provides a full cupboard for the Hilo, Hawaii, native and could serve up a memorable reign if he brings his "A" game for the next few years.

If Penn loses his 155-pound crown, it will be to an opponent pitching a perfect game -- likely a great wrestler with good stand-up and the tenaciousness to wear down Penn, a la St. Pierre.

All of these questions are important given that the math portends a change of hands in title holders quicker than we imagine:

Yet for the seeming convergence of dominant champions, a UFC title itself has not proven a long-running job description in the past. With the average UFC championship reign at just 1.38 defenses, being "top dog" in a given division rarely lends itself to a lengthy streak of defenses. A breakdown of the math follows:

Lightweight: 3 reigns, 4 defenses, 1.33 defenses per reign
Welterweight: 8 reigns, 14 defenses, 1.75 defenses per reign
Middleweight: 5 reigns, 8 defenses, 1.6 defenses per reign
Light Heavyweight: 10 reigns, 15 defenses, 1.5 defenses per reign
Heavyweight: 14 reigns, 10 defenses, 0.71 defenses per reign.

For tabulation purposes, a scheduled bout does not count as a successful defense if a challenger misses weight or the match takes place between an interim titleholder and champion.

That’s why the current crop of champions is different. If you lined up all five, it would be a tough call to guess how many defenses each would make during their current reigns. Outside of light heavyweight titleholder Lyoto Machida, none of them have a challenger who registers less than 3-to-1 to dethrone them, and each has a good shot at making a lengthy run. UFC middleweight king Anderson Silva currently holds the promotional record for consecutive title defense with five, along with Tito Ortiz.

There are many who complain that the champions of these divisions cannot be touched by the challengers, so what is the point?

I don't so much mind it, truthfully. Given how often titles change hands, at least statistically speaking, it's nice to see a division cleaned out top to bottom, if a champion can produce such an outcome. Count me in as one who is all in favor of eras, reigns and streaks. It makes the business of ending them far more interesting.

According to Dana White on MMAJunkie radio, he's still working on UFC 108 but here's how the New Year's card is looking so far:

Main Card Bouts:
Rashad Evans (13-1-1) vs. Thiago Silva (14-1)

Tyson Griffin (14-2) vs. Jim Miller (15-2)

Carlos Condit (24-5) vs. Paul Daley (22-8-2)

Gabe Gonzaga (15-4) vs. Junior Dos Santos (10-1)


Preliminary Bouts:
Joe Lauzon (18-4) vs. Sam Stout (20-5-1)

Cole Miller (15-4) VS. Dan Lauzon (12-2)

Martin Kampmann (15-3) vs. Rory Markham (16-5)

Sean Sherk (33-4-1) vs. Rafaello Oliveira (9-2)

Mike Pyle (19-6-1) vs. Jake Ellenberger (21-5)

Mark Munoz (6-1) vs. Ryan Jensen (14-5)

So day one just ended down here in costa Mesa, CA...went pretty well, right when we got to the RVCA facility jumped right in and did four mma rounds with BJ, so I found out right away what I personally wanted to know, which is, 'is BJ really that hard to take-down???', the answer is without a doubt, yes he is...like I said we did 4 rounds, I was doing my best Diego sanchez impression, hehe, but I didn't get killed nearly as bad as I thought I was going to, so that's a big plus, I am a little out of shape and going four was pretty good I thought on my part, especially considering the competition doesn't get much tougher in the whole world...

For the 2nd practice of the day we just did some stand-up sparring situations then ended practice with some bag and mitt work...of course BJ's trainers are world class, he himself is all-world class so it was just really an honor and privledge for me to be able to work with them and kinda see how THE world champ does things...I'm excited for the rest of the 8-9 days I'm down here, hopefully some of his all-world classness rubs off on me and I'll be able to learn a lot from BJ, Shane, Rob (Emerson, who I forgot to mention was down here as well...he's a beast), and all of BJ's trainers...tomorrow morning is grappling, so I'm of course really looking forward to being choked out by BJ a bunch of times...

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The Machida/Shogun main event at UFC 104 is just one of a rash of fights hindered by a vague judging criteria.

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Of all the problems with judging in MMA, the most glaring and easily fixable is the letter of the judging criteria in the Unified Rules.  Try to explain what is written to a new or casual fan.  I dare you. 

"Well, see, there's five criteria.  Striking, grappling, fighting area control, aggression, and defense.  Judges need to look at those criteria in that order.  BUT if a round spends more time on the ground, grappling takes precedence to striking.  What constitutes effective grappling?  Lemme see here...'successful execution of takedowns and reversals.'  Blah blah blah..."

Tweaking and clarifying the judging criteria is an exercise in futility.  So, I went ahead and rewrote the rules.  (They're after the break.)  Here's what I've done:

1.  Removed fighting area control, aggression, and defense from the criteria - I'd like to quote this bit from Bad Left Hook in regards to "ring generalship" in boxing:

This is for the boxer who was able to force the other fighter into fighting their fight.  This is sort of a BS catch-all, like when people talk about 'intangibles' in other sports.  There really isn't a good way of measuring ring generalship, so a lot of folks just ignore it.  Unfortunately, I feel like some judges use this as an excuse to score a round a certain way when there really isn't a defensible way of scoring the round the way they score it.

In my opinion, all three of these points are unnecessary and superfluous.  If a fighter is striking or grappling effectively, there's a good chance they're also controlling the fighting area, fighting aggressively, and/or preventing their opponent from doing the same.

In addition, what does it matter if I'm coming forward or moving backwards, if I'm hitting you with clean and damaging strikes?  It can actually create an interesting contradiction, with Lyoto Machida being a prime example.  A judge may view him lacking aggression, constantly moving away from his opponent.  But you can turn it around and argue that he's controlling the fighting area, making his opponent chase him around the cage.

2.  Consolidated effective striking and grappling into effective offense - Most fans of MMA agree that the ultimate goal of a fighter is to finish the fight.  That necessitates that we should reward fighters only for actions that directly lead to a stoppage.  Grappling advances have been removed as effective offense (but not removed from the criteria, more on that in a bit).  Instead, we only look at two things: clean strikes and threatening submission attempts (defined in the rewritten rules).  Takedowns and guard passing are tools for putting yourself in position to deliver effective offense, but they are only a means to an end.

3.  Introduced positional control - Positional control only comes into play if a fighter exhibited dominant grappling position (defined in the rules as maintaining "side control, back control, or mount") for the majority of the round.  In addition, a fighter may only win the round via positional control if neither fighter separates him or herself from the other with regards to effective offense.  I inserted this clause into the rules as I believe there is some value in being able to hold down an opponent for an extended period of time.

4.  Clarified the ten-point must system - Not too many changes.  I've liberalized the scoring, and provided examples of the qualities associated with each scoring option.

By streamlining the entire criteria to just look at "effective offense," we've made a judge's job that much easier.  They no longer must try to balance five separate criteria, each vague in their own right.  And for the fighters, we've made their job simpler (or at least, clearer): attack your opponent and avoid being attacked.  It's the absolute essence of MMA, and now it is reflected in its bylaws.

I also made a slight change to rules regarding the actual judges as well.

Finally, I want to point out that this is a first draft.  I believe it is superior to the current judging criteria, but there are still points that could be clarified further.  I'm sure there are also potential holes that haven't crossed my mind.

On to the rules...

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