Slow Day in MMA News, Lets Talk about US!

Since it's a slow day in the world of MMA, I thought it would be cool to talk about Tapology and ourselves.. anything at all regarding the same.  I'll get a brief start going..

I live in PA, am 30 and have been a fan of MMA since I was a teenager.  Work for the railroad and rarely ever miss an event regardless of promotion/stature.  I like Tapology b/c of the environment it fosters.  I wish we could edit/delete our posts... maybe have categories of threads for the forums, but all in all, I appreciate the type of place this is thus far. 

I'm from Austria, 24 years old, studying socio-economics at the university. Although, or perhaps because?, I'm a non-violent, ghandi-esque type of person ;) , mma has intrigued me since a friend of mine first introduced me to it. that friend is ENE1NS (credit where credit is due), whom by the way ive managed to drag along to tapology. prior to that, i despised boxing and i had never seen a kickboxing match, let alone mma. soccer and skiing (yaaawwn) are far too predominant over here. anyway, the first fight i was shown was bonnar-griffin, the first full UFC i watched was UFC 93 which was towards the end of 2008 if im not mistaken. now, a couple of years later, i have seen every single ufc, pride and most strikeforce and dream events. parallel to that, K-1 has really grown on me, K-1 MAX was such a great addition to the promotion and i sincerely hope they manage to sort their financial issues. how sad would it be if they went bankrupt?

.. apart from tapology, I'm only registered on sherdog, but over there i lurk more than anything else. Apart from a couple of exceptions over there, it must be one of the worst, most impolite, elitist, biased, intolerant communities out there. Nonetheless, sherdog is imo the best mma related site, and in midst of all the bullsh*t on the forums there are also wise words and interesting rumors to be found, which is what keeps me returning there. Also, i got the pointer to tapology on sherdog.

Tapology has really grown on me. I use it as a basis for comparison before finalizing my picks as well as an "archive" for my betting history (in addition to the excel sheet i created to keep track of my predicts). For every UFC card i put a little money on parlays mostly, primarily to make them even more exciting. Sometimes i win some, sometimes i lose some but after apprx. two years of moderate gambling i'm definitely in the plus. However, i just place too many hail-mary parlays to make a substantial amount of money, i believe that in the long run, single bets are more lucrative... anyway, Huge thanks to Jeremy and Gregory who not only have created this site, but are also constantly improving it and are obviously having fun on here themselves. I hope you guys stick around and keep the site running for as long as possible.

@geezhound, I think my post count since 2007 on sherdog is like 316 or something like that.
I think one of the things here that really gets me is theres a lot more than just the forums.  You arent a high "belt" level because you post a lot.  I hated the "blackbelts" on sherdog talking down to everyone because they had a high post count in a couple months.  Meanwhile most of their posts where lame drivel or short one word "lol"s or "troll"s
Anyways i just really like this site because it is friendly and the comment about self-policing is a really big part of that. We all have a natural tendency towards elitism lets just be conscious of that and try to keep it to a minimum :D

I'm 18 and I'm from Southern Ohio.  I really got into MMA about a year and a half ago, when I watched a UFC Unleashed marathon with a couple of friends.  I started watching the UFC PPV's around 118, and one of my friends recently got Showtime so I can watch Strikeforce.  I actually live in a pretty MMA heavy environment, as probably 85% of guys in this area watch MMA. 

I'm a student at a local community college, but I'm transferring to Ohio University this fall as a pre-med student.  Whenever I'm not involved in school work I'm on here, or I'm out with my friends (who are mostly aspiring mixed martial artists).  I also don't train any martial arts, but would love to start!

If it probably wasn't for one particular thread on sherdog i'd be posting over here 100% of the time.  So much more of a positive vibe.
To keep it going what made you a fan of your favorite fighters? Penn- first Pulver fight Shogun- Rampage fight Belfort- Eastman fight Cote- Ortiz fight Rory MacDonald- saw him in 06 at at KOTC event..he's from my neck of the woods

Rich Franklin:  I saw his first fight in the UFC against Evan Tanner and just loved his attitude...Did some research and loved his story.

Donald Cerrone:  I saw the TapOut episode where he was unknown and they decided to sponsor him (before Mask passed).  He was a nice, young guy back then and I've been a fan ever since.

to piercedan. i'm relatively new and all i really care about is my fight predictions. i want to have one of the highest %'s on here. it's also nice to interact with people and the people here are friendly and know their mma. it's all about the highest % and picking some of the moderate upsets that are out there. cna't wait for UFC 129. i've already taken shields in this one. we will see.

@wolfmanhowl.. Sounds like you're more of a gambler than an MMA fan.  Did you pick all the GFL 10 fights? 

P.S. - My % is higher!  LOL..j/k.  Glad you brought your talents over to MMA!

Hamill:  One of the first events I watched live was TUF 11 Finale, and I was taking bets against my friend.  I had never heard of Hamill, but he was from Cincinnati, about an hour and a half from my house, so I picked him.  He won that fight and I was a fan ever since.  P.S.  He beat Jon Jones that night.

Guillard:  I remember seeing his fights with Diaz and Neer, and even though he lost, he was so dominant on the feet I was amazed.

GSP: My favorite fighter, probably the first fight with Penn is what really got me to like him. Even though his style has changed much since then I still love watching him fight.
JDS: The Werdum KO was beautiful. Everything since then has been gold. 

To kalibo. You have to have MMA knowledge and watch alot of fights to pick the correct winner. I know nothing about gfl (or it's fighters )  so i won't be picking anything from that event. I do UFC, Strikeforce and Bellator events. Your about 1% higher. I think i'll hit 6 out 8 for this upcoming Bellator event on Saturday.

Heck.. I'll be picking them all.  I'll try to use that knowledge to correctly "guess"!  I really don't care about my %, I just want to have fun doing it. 

A fighter I haven't seen mentioned yet that was one of my fav's was Evan Tanner.  A wonderful person.

I can't really say I was a fan of Tanner but can't deny what kind of person he was.  I'll be watching that documentary on him for sure it looks amazingly emotional

I guess I was more a fan of the person than the figher.  The doc sure does. 

 

@wolfman keep making good picks and youll get that high % you want ;) @kalibo, im with you on wanting to have fun.  I love seeing my % go up but its not really that important either.  Its about the fights.

+1 for Piercedan.  Agreed..... %100 LOL.

What fighters do you guys like the most, that do not compete anymore?  What age range do we have here on Tapology.  I've seen as young as 13 and as old as 38 (you're still young!).  Again, I appreciate all the great responces/posts to this thread.  I think its awesome!

@Kalibo- Bas Rutten shame his career ended when it did, wish he could of fought in Pride like he said he was goin to Hidehiko Yoshida loved watching alot of his fights especially his first against Wanderlei, Ryan Gracie his angry amused me RIP, Cro Cop (if he does retire) such a violent guy in competition but one of the class acts of mma...never seen him fight live but Rickson Gracie

It's too bad Aleksander Emelianenko isn't really competing anymore.  He used to be almost guaranteed fireworks in the ring.

@Kalibo - Danville.  It's Southwest Virginia, and is a pretty depressed region.  Keeps me busy with my job though, which is great for developing my experiences to teach defensive tactics.  I'm actually a defensive tactics instructor for my department, and will be helping teach my first academy class next month.  May is a busy month for my dreams!

@Gregory... I was wondering what happened to Alex. 

@RWLawman.. grew up in northern VA and went to College at Mary Washington in Fredericksburg.

The venue I'm fighting in is heading up that direction.  Fishersville, VA, which is near Waynesboro, VA.  Kind of a strange neighborhood, and I think it's a little more central.