yeah. Ryan Hall is a beast. I'm bummed out Robert Drysdale fukked up so badly. I was interested in seeing what he could do. Not surprised he failed for TRT/PED's considering the guys he hangs with. Braulio Estima was another interesting guy who was already to go in 100% with MMA and then stopped after getting a fight.
Kron Gracie is the guy i'm interested now. I had very high hopes but after hearing some of his comments about stand up and seeing his first fight i'm not so high on him anymore. Buchecha has been training MMA with a lot of type guys lately and i think he's going to make a full transition soon. That will be crazy if he's good.
As far as Joe Silva he has 99% say on who is signed. He often has first and final say. A lot of the criticism Dana gets is for Joe's decisions. Dana is a tv guy. That's his main function. He works on tv contracts and deals. Of course he knows about the fights and most of the guys in the UFC but if you ever talk to him you'd be shocked at how little he follows the sport or knows about the fighters past fights and their coming up, accolades, backgrounds, etc.
I always wondered that. I seem to see him less and less at events. He doesn't seem to be that much of a fan anymore, honestly. I'm sure he's very busy, and with the crazy pace of the UFC's new schedule, he's probably burned out and/or doesn't even care about anyone besides the top guys. That's cool about Joe Silva.
I'm bummed about Drysdale too. It's really disappointing. A lot of times it's a crap shoot about these high level BJJ guys because a lot of them just aren't used to grappling against people that aren't trying to stand up. They're too used to the person on top "playing guard" when they get swept. Also the open guard work has become so ridiculously good in modern high level jiu-jitsu that it's damn near impossible to lose if your guard is not passable (see Rafa Mendes, Miyao Bros, Keenan Cornelius, etc.) Drysdale knew the importance of that, but he's getting older and he might not even fight again after this fiasco. Braulio Estima is getting older and had a broken neck...I understand why he opted out after his first win to just focus on jiu-jitsu and his family.
I'm interested in Kron too. I thought it was cool that he pulled guard and climbed up to an armbar, but I wonder how successful that strategy will be against better opponents. If anyone could do a throwback to old school BJJ in MMA, it's Kron, but if he really thinks he doesn't need to train anything but BJJ I think he'll be wrong. I want to see him rematch Garry Tonon, either in grappling or MMA. Not sure if you're familiar, but at ADCC/Abu Dhabi last year, Garry Tonon was relatively unknown and had Kron beat, but tapped with 3 seconds left because he didn't know the time. he called him out at Metamoris for a rematch, and said he'd be willing to go to MMA if Kron didn't want to come to Metamoris or ADCC for a possible rematch. Tonon is a savage.
I didn't know that about Buchecha. I could see him being very good if he can develop even some decent wrestling and standup. I don't compare many jiu-jitsu athletes to Jacare in terms of athleticism and explosiveness, but Buchecha is really the guy I think of that comes close.
face has me 
