What fights have you watched today?

Silva Vs Griffin

Probably the best highlight KO ever.

Silva drops his hands, slips two haymakers and counters with stiff right hand that knocks out Griffin.

I don't care what anyone says, Silva is TBE

 

Evans Vs Machida

Well with this fight Machida seals his greatness.

He's been one of the most outstanding contenders in history going unbeaten, not even losing a round to date. He already has big wins over Penn, Franklin and Ortiz.

Not just that, no one does karate at this level so guys don't know how to defend his low impact strikes as he doesn't put himself off balance and he has a black belt in BJJ as well so taking him down isn't the answer either. He's probably the quickest LHW since Belfort and his quick strikes lead to the big accurate shots.

He smacks Evans around something crazy here. Quite a brutal finish.

 

Rua Vs Liddell.

Chuck and Wandy, man I hate seeing them fight now, so far removed from what they once were.

This fight is a way for Rua to rebuild.

He came into UFC as the highest ranked LHW fighter in the world. However what happened was he completely overlooked Griffin and got battered. He then has his rematch with an old Coleman and really struggled before putting him away.

Here he dominated but against a spent force.

Will he proved he's back to his best against Lyoto?

 

Machida vs Rua 1

This was a very close fight between two expert strikers. No one had the upper hand really and it actually became somewhat of a chess match.

Was this a robbery? No, not for me. It was a close fight where the champ got the edge.

No complaints.

 

GSP vs Penn 2.

Penn, for me, is one of the absolute ATG talents we've ever had. I think he's incredibly under sold tbh.

Maia and Jacare are always touted as the number 1 grappler, but Penn won a black belt world after only 3 years, his Jits is incredible.

Actually when you look at Penn's career it's incredible. Those who beat a prime version of him: Pulver (later avenged), Hughes (later avenged), GSP (could have gone his way first time), Machida (speaks for itself). Not sure Edgar beat the prime version of BJ.

So his losses are very acceptable.

Now look at his win list: Thomas, Uno, Serra, Gomi, Ludwig, Pulver, Stevenson, Sherk, Florian, Sanchez. Add to that wins over Hughes and Renzo.

From 01-09 he was an absolute force to be reckoned with.

Now this loss ended his prime for me, I know he has two very big victories after this but he took some serious punishment here. This is how good GSP is, he out grappled and out struck BJ. A BJ above his best weight, but a prime motivated Penn none the less. GSP dominates him.

 

Edgar Vs Sherk

Well Frankie Edgar burst onto the LW scene with this win. He lost a very close fight against Maynard over 3 rounds but here he proved to be Sherk's master nullifying all his best work and out striking him consistently.

Very good win.

 

Penn Vs Florian and Sanchez

I do think Penn has slipped, he's been around the top level for an incredible amount of time. Been almost a decade now.

But even past prime he still has enough to finish the two top contenders in his division.

He's absolutely gotta be seen as the best ever LW fighter at this point.

 

Not seen Edgar 1 yet so I'm looking forward to that one and the controversy.

 

What about the Davis fight?

 

So many 3 rounder decisions can go either way. The issue is when you have fighter A with 1 big round and fighter But edging 2 close rounds.

 

Dos Santos - 2009

No point splitting these fights as they're all the same story, JDS lighting people up with his brutal combinations. Only Cro Cop got out of round 1 and even though he was competitive, it was still a domination.

 

Velasquez Vs Rothwell

Cain shows a g&p game that we haven't seen since Fedor.

There's two types of G&P for me, there's the technical type like Coleman, Randleman, Couture used where they shot for the takedown and gained mount and then started punching.

Then there's the brutal G&P that we saw Fedor use and Tito to some extent were they would punch through the guard with brutal fury. That's what we saw from Cain against Rothwell, in mount, in guard, in side, from the back he didn't care where he was he just smashed him.