I was right on the four I made predictions on: Penn, Silva, Machida and Soko. I also called the outcomes correctly, except for having Penn by sub instead of TKO. For once, I look really smart. This sport doesn't do that very often. There are some events where all my predictions get tossed out the window..
Good, I always like to see Ortiz lose. Even though this time, he is right about White being a tight pocketed, *****.
My Ortiz and Jardine picks were heart, not head. Really all three victors tonight were quite predictable.
Yeah, but most times things look predictable in this sport, they don't go anything close to like planned. GSP over Serra in their first fight looked about as predicatable as it gets.
My thoughts: It was great how many fights they showed, and great that on the whole card all but 2 of the fights were finished within the distance. Thiago Silva looked typically good after he recovered from the high kick, he is a real contender at 205. I'd only seen a little of "Toquinho" grappling before, but my god is he slick. With him, Demian Maia, and Ricardo Almedia there are some incredible BJJ guys at 185 in the UFC. Reljic's high kick seemed like if it connected it could be lethal, must be a croatian thing. Gouveia was foolish to not even try a takedown, guys get 1 KO an all of a sudden they think they are CroCop or Liddell and totally abondon what got them to where they are in MMA. Wandy was ****ing classic and it was great, the place went nuts, didn't realize there were so many casual Wandy fans. Throttling Jardine's throat while finishing him off was so fitting, hope Jardine is ok though. It was like the collective will of all his fans pushed Wandy back into wild dog mode. Sokoudjou looked good, didn't really learn any more about him though. I'm being a little harsh here, but its getting old, Machida needs to ****ing at least try to finish a fight, Tito had absolutely nothing for him and Machida was content to do as little as possible and let the clock run out. Machida is great to watch when hes doing something, but there is way too much waiting around, and not nearly enough initiating. When he does initiate, he is incredibly exciting, even when he is strictly countering he is exciting, but you can't counter somebody who has no offense, at that point the onus is on you to finish a fight. BJ, Wand, and Thiago Silva all get a guy hurt and finish them off in spectacular fashion, Machida gets a guy hurt, and either backbeddles away, or finally at the end of round 3 follows up, but when it doesn't happen right away he just camps out in the guard and Tito came kind of close to getting probably his first sub from his back ever. At some point "interesting", "unique" and "technical" need some tenacity behind them or its just point sparring. BJ looked like he has turned a corner much like GSP and Anderson Silva have, he was controlled when he had to be and looked like he could have gone 7 rounds. His striking looked so natural and crisp, making Sherks look forced and muscled. BJ's jab uppercuts were killer, and when he did kick it was to great effect. When he hurt Sherk he went after him like a true finisher and looked just like he did against Uno, like he said. I would love to see BJ fight GSP, but it would be much bette for BJ to stay a 155, which forces him to be in shape, and be a dominant champion, because I don't think any lightweight in the world can beat him right now.
You wanna tell me which one was bigger ? It would surely have to be a title fight correct ? So Penn-Pulver 1,Pulver-Lewis,Pulver-Uno,Pulver-Hallman,Penn-Stevenson,Sherk-Florian,Sherk-Franca which 1 of those where bigger then this ?
I was wrong about Tito and Jardine. I don't think it was an accident that Tito was paired up with Lyoto for his last fight. If you are looking for a contract somewhere else, there is no person worst to fight right before you go to the negotiating table than Machida. I think he could make any fighter look bad and boring. I want to see Machida-Lidell next. Chuck is a counter-fighter too and I think he could actually make Machida come to him. Also, Chuck doesn't have to land too many punches to make them REALLY count against Lyoto, so his elusiveness will REALLY be tested. I thought Sherk was doing MUCH MUCH better at the standup portion than Rogan or Goldberg did. Sure, he wasn't WINNING but I thought he was keeping the fight very competitive, especially considering his hand seemed hurt.
Word to the wise... be prepared when Sokoudjou goes for a leg kick. Brutal. Lyoto Machida is the Bernard Hopkins of the UFC. Very talented and smart fighter who will never be as popular as his talent suggests he should be. It was obvious that Ortiz was going to have trouble with Machida's takedown defense working solidly, yet Machida fought like he'd has his ass kicked early in the fight. I wanna see Ortiz again, just to see if he's really done. Wanderlei Silva Redux. Good for him. Jardine got the kind of bombed that could irrevocably effect the rest of his career. Whew! It looked to me like Sherk was either trying to make a statement ("I'm gonna stand with him and knock him the **** out!") or he figured trying to take down Penn is an almost useless proposition. Either way, his gameplan was ******ed. Just imagine if B.J. had taken every fight seriously the way he did last night... Anderson Silva would be chasing Penn for the p4p title if that had happened.
Wanderlei was strong as ****. Well done to him after a little losing streak.:good Machida dominated Tito- however my hat goes off to Tito for almost armbarring him, and pressing the action the whole time. he really did give it all he had. BJ Penn was phenomenal. He's conditioning was excellent and he landed continuously on Sherk and thoroughly beat him. I wanted BJ to win but doubted his preparation in the cardio dept...I'm glad I was wrong. However, if he fights GSP again, GSP will beat him.
Thats what I was thinking, it really was the biggest LW fight in UFC history. Theres a bit of an argument for Uno-Penn 2 because it was the final of a tournament, but it was a rematch after Penn ran through Uno like he wasn't even there.
Not entirely. Unlike in the past, White doesn't seem as hesitant about the idea of Penn moving out of 155 soon.
why would that fight take place? Penn doesn't want to fight at lightweight because he can't get motivated unless he fights a big name like GSP or Hughes. i'm not sure if Dana would allow this fight....
