What fights have you watched today?

UFC 68

Hughes and Franklin both win their comeback fights in impressive fashion.

This night is all about Couture though. He absolutely dominated Sylvia. Took him down at will, out struck him at will and completely bossed it.

UFC have now began their monopoly and the we might finally see the HW crown befitting a worthy man. Couture is great, don't get me wrong, but the best HW is seen Fedor, who won't come over to UFC. Big Nog and Cro Cop are considered to be prime at this point but Cro Cop has more momentum with the 2006 tourney. He dominated in his UFC debut and him Vs Gonzaga is to determine the number 1 contender. Now obviously Cro Cop is a huge favourite to beat Gonzaga and Couture back to back and become champ. Whether he does it or not time will tell.

 

UFC 69

This is a woeful card. The co main event was Kosheck Vs Sanchez and it was a proper bore fest.

The main event sees GSP, the man who right now is considered the best MMA fighter in history with some hugely impressive victories and a resume showing he's beaten everyone he ever fought. He's against Serra who's a failed fringe contender but recently took the prize in TUF.

For the second card in a row we have a huge upset in the main event. This fight didn't even go past the first round. The fight was a stand up affair, Serra hurt GSP and then chased him around the ring as he finished the job. Performance of a life time.

This is probably the MMA equivalent to Douglas v Tyson.

Wow.

 

UFC 70

The pride buyout is complete now and everyone bar the Russian heavies have moved over. There's still Strikeforce and WEC but the clear frontrunner in MMA is now UFC.

Strikeforce have some big names but they'll all find their way over. WEC are dominating the lower weights but from WW above they're no contest either.

I'm first off Machida. Very talented but God for a stand up fighter he's incredibly boring. His whole strategy is based around countering and I kinda dread watching his fights now.

Bisping again comes to fight and survived a very strong knee and a very deep Kimura attempt to reverse and finish with his own G&P. Two fights in a row now he's impressed with good displays.

Speaking of boring, Arlovski Vs Werdum managed to actually send me to sleep. I don't feel right allowing anyone the right to say they won this fight. The quick flurries from Werdum were few and far between. Arlovski times him very well and managed to keep it standing. Every fight I've seen of Werdum, the first solid **** that lands he drops to the floor and opens his guard, surely no one will ever fall for that ploy?

The main event. Well now this brings everything into question with what we thought about Pride and it's dominance. Fedor has a safe place in any ATG lists but Nog and Cro Cop have both moved over with everyone expecting them to dominate. Cro Cop did not dominate at all. Stalling in the guard is not an effective strategy the way UFC is scores and he almost guaranteed himself to lose the first round. When the fight was stood up we saw Cro Cop ended at the top level. Gonzaga threw a kick which started low, Cro Cop went to check it with his arms but the kick actually was aimed at the head and when it landed, the fight was over. Cro cop fell in a disgusting way and his knee must have suffered some damage from that.

 

The loss suffered by Cro Cop makes one wonder if he was ever that great.

Was Pride really so far ahead of UFC in the HW stakes. Would Cro Cop have really dominated Couture?

Cro Cop isn't past his best here, well maybe now after this loss he will be but he is in his prime at this point. Not even a year after his legendary GP victory.

I mean that being said it could just be that Gonzaga is the future of the division, but if he loses to Couture it does raise valid questions.

His victories over Barnett are solid though, and he did dominate Couture and has beaten everyone he faced aside from the big 3. And Mirko has beaten everyone he faced aside from the big 2 (and now Gonzaga).

He was the most feared man in MMA and now he's just a crumpled mess in the octagon. Never training in a cage was naive and not being familiar with the unified rules was naive as well.

Need to think about how I rank Cro Cop after this.

 

2003/2004 how does he do Vs Arlovski and Sylvia?

For me he beats Randy based on the Liddell fights.

 

Well i can think of one man who does fall victim to it lol.

 

I don't buy him being past prime tbh. Rather than aasy hurrah I see the GP and being his pinnacle showing.

I think he took Gabriel lightly and never recovered mentally from the loss.

 

Those losses were at a different state of his career though.

At the time of the loss to Gonzaga people were genuinely believing he might just be the best fighter in the world.

Had he got the rematch with Fedor it would have been close to 50/50.

I'm not sure his skills look declined to me. I think he didn't prepare well for this fight. Gonzaga clearly worked on catching the body kick and taking down with a single leg. He also utilised elbows on the ground which is something CroCop never normally has to defend against. Then there's also the pressure that once a round is finished in UFC it's lost, you can't finish with a big flurry 15 minutes into the fight and win on points.

 

The continuation of my MMa journey now is watching key fights throughout the previous decade.

Liddell Vs Rampage UFC 71

Well what an upset this was. Yeah Rampage held a stoppage victory but Chuck was probably considered p4p number 1 at this point with the GSP upset and his wins over Couture.

This puts the LHW division into context because Rampage is a clear level below Wandy (prime) and Rua but quite clearly a level above Chuck. Good job he never got those unification fights he kept shouting about.

The fight was very cautious with Chuck countering as always, but Rampage was better at countering and he does it on the front foot.

Midway through the first minute Rampage taunts Chuck getting him to open up, Chuck falls for it, gets a bit reckless and Rampage lands a peach of a right hook knocking him clean out.

Gutted for Chuck as I loved watching him but that's the way the cookie crumbles.