What fights have you watched today?

Overeem vs Hunt.

Overeem has made his move to HW permanent, so far he's 4-1 splitting a series with the dangerous Kharitonov.

Hunt is about to go on some woeful form and he does look out of shape here.

Overeem is known as a glass cannon at LHW, can hurt anyone but he gasses and isn't too good on the ground. Moving to HW should sort out his cardio failures and here he demonstrates a good ground game. Now out of all of the HW fighters who are near a top level Hunt is probably the worst on the ground for me, he doesn't defend his arms at all, he still thinks he can just attack with his back on the mat. I think if I ever took him down I'd be able to tap him myself tbh.

Here again he leaves an arm out, allows Reem the space to figure 4 it and his defence on the mat is poor he just keeps rolling which increases the leverage Reem has until the key lock is fully locked in...good win for Reem.

 

JDS Vs Werdum.

This fight is incredible. This is prime Werdum here, after the loss to Arlovski he joined Chutebox to work on his striking and it proved a career saver for him as he demonstrated with wins over Gonzaga and Vera in dominant fashion. I don't think Werdum ever improved from this fighter who has probably the best ground game of all time and now has very good striking as well.

JDS on the other hand is fresh off a submission loss and is known as someone with a weak ground game (he only got his black belt in 2012 remember).

The plan here should be take him down and beat him as Joaquim did, instead Werdum is too busy showing off his striking skills trying to earn those fight contacts, little did he know he's in there with one of the all time elite strikers we will ever see.

After exchanging a few jabs JDS lands a hellacious uppercut which ends affairs quite dramatically.

In terms of the HW picture I'm not sure where it leaves Werdum, a failed contender perhaps. Beaten clearly for the 3rd time sporting an 11-4 record is not a good look.

JDS however announced himself in dramatic fashion.

 

Emilianenko Vs Sylvia

This is still Fedor at his best for me. Although it's probably his last great performance.

He completely out strikes and out grappled Sylvia within the first minute he dropped him and took his back then choked him out.

After this he enters the sambo world championships and gets bronze for the first time which indicates a slippage.

I haven't seen the fights with Arlovski and Rogers yet so I'm not sure if he's still considered prime for them.

Either way great showing this by Fedor.

 

Well the LW scene is very confusing right now (2008)

We have Gomi losing to Diaz but then having it overturned in a none title fight. We have Gilbert Melendez losing two fights in a short time span. BJ Penn has just unseated the champ in Sherk.

In UFC the outstanding contender is Florian. By a mile, but outside of the UFC it has got a bit confusing.

Over in dream there's a big tournament with Aoki favourite to take home the gold. Instead the star of the show is Eddie Alvarez (the supposedly weak champ that McGregor would defeat), unbeaten as a LW he wins convincing victories over Hansen and Kawajiri. He then withdraws from the GP leaving Hansen to take his place to upset Aoki in the final. So that seems clear right just like Filho in the Pride GP a year ago.

However to complicate matters Alverez challenges for the LW championship in WAMMA against Aoki, the man who's just been stopped in a round and Aoki beats Alvarez in round 1 himself.

So outside of the UFC we have 2 men vying for attention, Hansen and Aoki who are 1-1 with each other.

Has it happens Aoki will beat Hansen next year but he never joins UFC unfortunately.

Either way it's a great showing the way he beats Alvarez, great as in the final reversal is top class. The way he begs him to join in the mat is a bit ridiculous though.

 

Just watched Griffin Vs Rampage.

For me the following are clear rounds

1: Rampage
2: Griffin
3: Griffin
4: Rampage

5 was a swing round for me so I can see Rampage winning 3-2, that being said round 2 could easily be 10-8.

I think any score from 48-46 Griffin right through to 48-47 Rampage are acceptable scores.

For me personally, the right man won.

Rampage fought an awful strategy in this fight, for one he has over trained his boxing and neglected his grappling game (something I think he did throughout his prime tbh) he clearly took too much from the Jardine fight and thought he could walk right through Griffin. Beyond that his leg defence is the worst I've seen since an early UFC tournament were I think Hackney dominated someone with leg kicks till they submitted. He literally just took them flush every time, no defence with his knee and no trying to grab and take down. Yes he has immense one punch power, maybe the most in LHW history but you can't wait 5 rounds to land that one punch.

Is this fight controversial, well history says it is, but for me whilst I think it's justified giving the fight to Rampage I feel it's more justified giving it to Griffin.

 

Rampage Vs Silva.

This was very similar to the Liddell fight. Rampage was stalking forward, not doing much. Probably losing the round on activity and then as soon as Wandy opens up boom one punch ends the fight.

Wanderlei is shot at this point, make no mistake.

That being said, right now in history the 4 greatest LHW fighters are very clearly Wanderlei, Rua, Rampage and Liddell.

 

I've yet to see the Bisping fight, I find it amazing he beats him.

 

Evans Vs Liddell.

Very similar to the Jackson fight. Liddell was stalking forward with occasional success but Evans was clearly the quicker man. Not far into the second round Liddell throws and uppercut and Evans counters over the top, his lands first and Chuck is switched off brutally.

Clearly not the Chuck of old, like Wandy he's shot at this point. But it's a big statement from Rashad and an excellent victory.

 

Evans Vs Griffin.

Rashad seals his greatness here with a win in a very competitive fight but one were his power proved too much for Griffin. He adjusted to the leg kicks very quickly, was patient when his shots lands and ultimately landed a brutal round long g&p which Griffin tapped out to.

That's it for 2008, let's see what 09 brings.

 

Melendez Vs Ishida 2.

Gilbert Melendez is a great fighter and he fights a complete game plan here as he dominated and destroys Ishida, the man who have him his first loss.

His takedown defence has improved massively and his striking is ever improving as well.

This was for the interim belt as the champ is Josh Thomson who's the only other man to beat Melendez.

 

Aoki Vs Hansen 3.

These 2 are always going to be closely matches as Hansen is a vastly superior striker but Aoki is a vastly superior grappler.

In the feet that advantage is clearly Joachim's and he probably shaded the first round here (Dream is on a fight scoring not a round scoring) with better strikes as Aoki didn't really go after any sub attempts.

In the second Aoki gets an early takedown the fight is reset and he takes him down again, works towards a guillotine choke forcing Hansen to defend and give up his arm, then he gets the arm bar, rolls through with Hansen and gets the tap.

Aoki has only lost 4 times. One of those was avenged tonight. The other was a very early loss to Nakao (by KO!!!) And the only other man to beat him is Sakurai who's a WW.

As far as LW fighters go Aoki is clearly one of the best in the world.

 

Shields Vs Lawler.

This is fought at MW but it doesn't change the result.

Lawler strikes, Jake grapples. They're both masters at what they do.

Robbie comes out firing, looks to be in control but as he puts his head on the chest of Jake to start wailing away Shields goes for the guillotine and pulls guard.

Robbie desperately tries to stand up and slam him but just collapses back down and taps frantically.

Shields, boring as hell but with wins over Condit, Lawler and Sakurai he's racking up an ATG resume.

 

Faber Vs Pulver 2.

Pulver the whipping boy with the big name value. Hard to believe this man was once good enough to fight BJ Penn for 5 rounds on even terms.

Faber destroys him here, out strikes him, takes top position, locks in a choke. All over within 2 minutes.