What fights have you watched today?

Pride Critical Countdown

Overeem impresses again but against a faded Igor. Still though, he is a force to be reckoned with now at LHW.

Rua wins an absolute war against Rogerio were he was just a little bit better at everything.

Arona lands a fluke kick on Sakuraba that slits his face open and then capitalises to begin a grotesque beating that leaves Sakuraba a bloody mess.

Silva looks back to his best again as he beats down Nakamura but you can't help but feel he's slipped now.

 

UFC 52

GSP dominates and pounds Miller over 3 brutal rounds. Looks immense but totally unproven at a high level right now.

Hughes and Trigg have the best round I've seen for a long time. Trigg lands a knee down low, Hughes goes to complain, Trigg sucker punches him then lays on a brutal ground and pound. Trigg then goes to lock in a choke, tires himself sinking it in and Hughes reverses, slams him lays his own G&P then chokes him out. Immense action.

The main event sees Liddell finally crowned as world champion. Not just that he does so by knocking out Couture in a round. Couture, one of the bonafide ATG fighters in the history of MMA and Liddell dominates him. How good does this make Liddell now? Better than Randy, Tito and Belfort but not as good as Wandy, Rua or Jackson for my money.

 

UFC 53

Franklin gets his claim to greatness here as he defeats the excellent Evan Tanner. The fight was extremely competitive but ultimately Franklin managed to force the stoppage.

Arlovski flukes a win.

Bit of a meh card.

 

Pride 2005 MW GP final.

What a stacked card this was.

Arona bullies Wanderlei, takes him down time after time and ultimately dominates him to a points win. Quite similar to the Tito fight tbh and now you have to wonder about his ability against wrestlers, especially Randy Couture and Tito Ortiz.

Rua survives an early attack by Overeem and lands a brutal G&P to end the fight.

The final sees Rua cut through Arona like a knife through butter and stake his claim as the premiere LHW today. Exceptionally dominant performance against an excellent fighter coming off a career best victory.

In the co main event we see Fedor stake his claim at TBE in dominating an excellent Cro Cop. He again shows he can take down anyone and he can maintain a gut wrenching pace for the full duration.

Great event this.

 

Yeah it really was incredible. All good fights as well.

 

Were to begin

UFC 54.

GSP looked quality, absolute beast mode. Lidell was clearly more cautious than normal but process again he's one of the best ever in his weight class. In fact, at this point in time he's probably a favourite in a rematch with Quinton and a favourite in a fight with Wanderlei. Rua is the man now in the division.

Bushido 9. It's the start of the LW and WW tournament. Sakurai proves his greatness by smashing Pulver into bits. Gomi shows himself one of the best ever at this weight. Henderson and Bustamante prove a class above the comp. Filho is on the card as well but not entered into the bracket.

Pride 30, Sakuraba vs Shamrock, meh who cares. Mirko proves his superiority to Barnett again by pounding out a decision. The match that interested me the most was Kharitonov and Werdum. Very close fight, easily could have gone the way of Werdum. Unlike Mir and Nog, his striking is quick and elusive enough to score meaningful points when he isn't trying to submit. I'd have probably scored this for Werdum as I think he held his own striking and his submission attempts were more dangerous than Sergeys power shots.

UFC 55

Only thing of note is the news Mir won't be returning so Arlovski can claim his championship proper but I mean by now the only half decent HW in UFC is out injured and the pride roster craps all over this division right now. I might favour the whole of prides top ten to beat Arlovski, he's just never ever impressed me.

 

I just can't rate him highly. He has too many damaging losses for me, even at this point now as champion. That plus he hasn't faced the best in the UFC nor Pride so he's just hard for me to rate.

No Overeem is still a LHW were I'm at. A very inconsistent LHW actually, you'd never dream this man will become one of the very best HW fighters in the world.

 

Yeah he's fought a who's who of MMA as well and really chased a Fedor fight.

 

UFC 56

GSP looks world class now the way he smashed Shark.

Hughes looked dominant as ever and has clearly worked on his submissions now. I love a Kimura as well, it's my favourite submission to do on people in the gym and I can imagine it's quite a handy self defence maneuovre as well.

Franklin with an absolutely brutal KO as well.

 

Take it back up.

I'm 29 and only started BJJ earlier this year and I'm loving it. I might never be a world champ but at some point I'll be able to enter a white belt tournament and I'm sure at some point I'll have enough ability to win such a tournament.