What fights have you watched today?

I've heard Rampage was hard done by on the cards against Griffin and Evans, not seen those fights yet

 

Faber Vs Cruz 1

Great showing by Faber this. He's the star of WEC currently and you can see why. Comes out swinging and when he gets a chance he locks in the choke and despite Cruz trying to escape really well Faber stays one step ahead with a great ground game.

 

One of the reasons I'm watching fight by fight like this is so I understand the context of the fights as they happened. Looking at resumes can often be deceiving.

Right now Faber is the poster boy of WEC and quite rightly the best FW in the world. In MMA people tend to decline quite quickly due to the amount of ways a fight can end, so it's important knowing the context of a fight to know how good the person truly was.

Right now Faber looks awesome.

 

I didn't expect to watch another full card but UFC 73 actually was stacked.

Edgar, dominates a low level opponent again but this time he finishes him which I'm glad at.

Rodrigo beats Herring. The man has clearly lost a step, that's beyond dispute. Unlike Cro Cop he wasn't on the form of his life coming into UFC. That being said I reckon he's the best HW in the company right now. (Fedor), Rodrigo, Gonzaga, Couture. That's the top 4 in the world I reckon as it stands. So whilst Rodrigo isn't the prime beast he once was, he's still an incredible talent.

Ortiz Vs Evans. Rounds 1 and 2 were exceptionally close. Round 3 was clear for Evans. I don't think this was a robbery, I think it could be scored a draw. More importantly I don't think Tito has declined by this point, Evans has great TDD, is very confident and came to fight. Any striker with a TDD will give Tito hell. Great showing by both men.

Anderson Silva. Since he's got his black belt he looks pretty much unbeatable. I hate saying this but the guys he lost to earlier wouldn't have a chance against him now. He's the deadliest striker I've seen since prime Wandy (maybe not Cro Cop level though) and he has a genuine ground game (never understood how Belfort or Wandy gained their black belts).

I really wish Filho came over and faced Silva before his capitulation. At this point he's clearly the second best MW in the world and about to get the big fight with Chonnen, he's also about to give into his coke addiction and become crap over night. Such a waste of talent because he has a great BJJ style that looks like it could succeed against anyone, he hold position like a wrestler but sweeps and submits like a BJJ specialist. Reminds me of a quicker Barnett. Gutted when I found out he didn't become the goat but instead became a crack head.

 

Didn't even mention Sherk dominating again! What a card that was.

 

Wish we saw Faber Vs Nogueira, that would have been immense.

 

Carlos Condit Vs Brock Larson.

Now Condit has lost a handful of times, but because of his fighting style he gets big fights quickly. With a record of 18-4 he moved over to WEC and beats their best 3 WW fighters. Now their division isn't hugely strong but he's shown a superiority there which is noteworthy.

What to make of his 4 losses so far. One to Shields, who let's be honest, will ending winning fights against most of the top ten WW ATG fighters, despite his boring style. He has a loss to Prater which will be avenged later on. 2 other losses in his record to consider then. Kitaoka and Pat Healy. The Kitaoka loss is in Pancrase and I've stated my feelings on those fights a few times. So the troubling loss in terms of how we can rate Condit is the Pat Healy loss. Not seen that fight anywhere so can't really say to much about, other than if Condit is one of the best should he be losing to Pat Healy? Healy does lose to Prater who goes on to lose his rematch with Condit so maybe it isn't a huge black mark.

Either way he's come over and dominated one of the big 2 in terms of the WW division. Pride has gone now so this is the only competition right now with the lower weight classes so his victories do show a level he can compete at imo.

Can't wait to watch his fights with Lawler and Diaz but they're way down the line.

 

Mir Vs Hardonk.

Mir looks to be back in shape now. For the first time in 3 years he's actually in fighting shape and injury free. I'm not excusing his poor showing in 2006, I am suggesting this version of Frank Mir would have been better suited to the trio of fights he was in though.

He actually looks like he's fully prep and came to win rather than just showing up for the paycheck.

I love the way he reversed the reversal on his Kimura attempt. When he's on fire he can beat anyone for my money.

It remains to be seen how he'll do against top level opponents again but it's good to see him looking like he gives a **** again.

 

Couture Vs Gonzaga.

And Randy seals his legacy with this win. Gonzaga was the man who ended the prime of Cro Cop and Randy dominated him. Battered him from side to side of the octagon until Herb Dean saw enough and called it off in the third.

Let's get it right, Randy is not on the level of the top 4 ATG (Fedor, Nog, Cro, Barnett) but he is the next best after that by a clear margin.

And p4p he's better than Cro and Barnett for me as well due to his phenomenal success at LHW.

What a fight.

 

Cro Cop Vs Congo.

Cro Cop started so well and he won the first handily for me.

But then he let himself get controlled against the cage, shipped big knees, was taken down too often and was actually outstruck in the last round.

He's spent so long trying to improve his ground game to compete in UFC it seems he's neglected his kickboxing training or hes just lost a step.

Either way he looked bad tonight. Really bad.