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UFC 86 Jackson vs Griffin: A Look Back

Oct 27

Posted by Matthew Brown in MMA | Comments off

 

I originally saw this event live. I must admit I didn’t remember what a great card this was until a recent review. This event was held on July 5, 2008, at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Corey Hill vs Justin Buchholz

Hill was known as the tallest lightweight in the UFC. With the height came a seven inch reach advantage. He came out strong in the early rounds showing off his cardio and solid striking. It looked like early in the fight Hill was going to take it with ease. Buchholz has a wrestling base and had been training with then WEC Champ Uriajiah Faber. Even though Justin had been punched in the face several times but started to land a lot of good leg kicks. Later in the first round he started to look a lot more comfortable. Even so Hill kept bring superior striking and killer uppercuts. Justin was rocked more than once to finish the first.

In the second round it looked it was only a natter of time before Hill’s striking finished the fight. However, Justin came out with a strong leg kick and rocked Hill followed by a flurry of punches. As they went to the ground, Hill tried to seperate Justin’s arm and jumped to side control but as Justin rolled his able to get to Hill’s back and sink in a huge rear naked choke FTW.

Melvin Guilliard vs Dennis Siver

One of the best performances of Guillard’s career. He came out and almost instantly caught the German with an overhand right that knocked him to the ground. Siver survived the initial on slaught and they both stood-up. In only a few seconds though Melvin caught him again and then just reigned down a flurry of punches that reminded me of a Vitor Belfort finish. Currently he doesn’t look like Guillard has come very far. He still isn’t a well known lightweight and isn’t considered in the top five.

Jorge Gurgel – Cole Miller

Both of these guys opened with decent striking, clinche and working their opponent. Later in the 1st Miller got rocked. He was able to regain his composure in the clinche. After a few leg kicks round one was in the books.

After almost two rounds of back and forth striking with less than a minute when the fight went to the ground Jorge left his arm in the guard and Miller slipped in a nice triangle. This was an amazing submission of a long-time jujitsu black belt.

Gaberial Gonzaga vs Justin Mccully

Mccully had been working his way up the heavyweight ranks and caught Gonzaga on his way down. Geberial, once a title contender became a gate keeper and tested Mccully. This fight was all Gonzaga as he dropped Mccully early with a tremendous Leg Kick. This put Gonzaga on top and he was just to much. With the mount he easily put on an Americana.

Tyson Griffin vs Marcus Aurelio

Griffin basically dominated the entire fight. Oddly enough he hasn’t done a whole lot in his career since then. Griffin is one of those guys that’s hard to match up with the fighters currently in the division. It has yet to be seen whether or not Aurelio has since developed. After watching this fight it’s obvious that he needs to work pretty much everything except jujitsu.

Patrick Cote vs Ricardo Almeida

This was a really close fight. Usually even when the judges have a close decision I still have a clear winner in my head. It looked like Almedia ground n pounded the first round, but Cote scrapped out the second. The third round was extremely close. I believe this fight really gives props to Almedia though.

Looking back cote had a title shot against Anderson Silva because he beating and finishing guys and the fact he couldn’t do anything with Ricardo is kind of amazing. Cote has the Split decision. Watching this fight it’s easy to see how Almedia lost a fight to Matt Hughes.

Jackson vs Griffin:

Well, I certainly remember this fight quite vividly. All I can think about is leg kicks and Forrest taking Rampage’s belt. Jackson did do more damage in the first round than what I remember. Forrest had already worn that leg out in the 2nd and Rampage dropped so he could get elbows for the rest of the round.  I enjoyed this fight more the second time around. It’s kind of funny how irrelevant both of these guys seem now at the light-weight division has taken on a completely new form.

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UFC 115: Liddell vs Franklin

Jun 27

Posted by Matthew Brown in MMA | Comments off

The fastest sell out in UFC history came in a mere thirty minutes as Canadian UFC fans wanted their chance to see the “Iceman” in his final performance on June 12th in British Columbia. Before I get into why it was his last fight and the performance speech we’ll start with the welterweight fight.

Carlos Condit vs Rory Macdonald – I love fights like this. Two very technical lighter weight phenoms going toe to toe. In the end however, A classic example of a more established and experienced fighter teaching the younger guy how it’s done. Condit started methodically picking Macdonald apart in the second and third rounds and you could see him slowly being overwhelmed. Now I say the later rounds because in the first round Macdonald came out to win it. He came out to finish the this fight like he had finished all the others. His energy was apparent and he landed more shots on Condit than in any other round. For Macdonald this fight could catapult his career if takes what he learned from this fight and apply it. For Condit, a significant victory like this (TKO due to strikes) solidify’s his position in the division and he will most likely enter the gateway to be a top player in the division.

Barry vs Crocop –  Pat Barry has a future in the UFC. He is one of the strongest and hard hitting heavy weights the division has ever seen. We seen this during his fight as he knocked Crocop on his head twice during the match. However, he has much work to do in controlling his emotions. He lost this fight via to much hero worship in the 1st. I could see this coming when I watched the countdown video and Pat talked about his mother and how much she meant to him. When you saw the replay of him crying in front of the cam after his last win. Even to how much he was talking about how much he respected Crocop. To be fair to Pat he was literally fighting his childhood hero. It looked much like the GSP vs Hughes 1 fight where GSP couldn’t even stare him in the eyes he was so intimidated. I must admit the mutual respect for both fighters was refreshing but when you step into that octagon as a professional fighter you must be a fighter. This performance by Barry did not impress me, the fans or @danawhite. Unfortunately for Crocop it does a disservice to his victory as well. Since Barry was the heavy favorite for this fight was his win to solely to Barry’s lack Crocop’s assertion? I think PB will learn from this experience and come back stronger than before. As for Crocop I think we still see him hanging in there. It was rumored after this fight that he may retire so go out in style and not let a string of losses affect his legacy.

Carlos Condit

Liddell vs Franklin:

I had a tweet leading up to this fight insinuating that this would be Liddell’s last only because @danawhite said himself that if Chuck lost it would be time for him to retire. I have seen every Chuck Liddell fight in the past several years and did not see any change in his abilities for methodology towards fighting nor would I want to. When I saw him come out to the octagon I saw a much leaner and meaner Chuck than we have seen in a long time. He looked great and came out hungry. When the fight started he came out hard like he meant business. The high kick that broke Rich’s arm looked devastating. I believe I read his arm was broken in two places. I’m really an Iceman fan I would have loved to see him come out with a win. However, The Iceman lost this fight and several of his past fights for one reason: At his age, he has a glass chin. The very short jab that shut him off that night sealed the coffin to his fighting career. With this sport you have got to be able to take punches and as we have seen on multiple occasions Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell can no longer do that. I don’t want to take away from Rich Franklin on this fight. Rich looked fantastic after such a long layoff. He may not be able to beat Anderson Silva but I think he’s a great fighter and a great guy. I’m eager to see what he can accomplish in the new weight class.

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UFC 114 Jackson vs Evans

Jun 26

Posted by Matthew Brown in MMA | Comments off

Another event where the preliminary bouts shined through to save from a lack luster (more lacking than lustering) main event. This event took place on May 29th at the MGM in Vegas. I was troubled to watch one of my favorite fighters Amir Sadollah lost his bout. He just gained a new sponsor and I was hoping to see a win for him. I’m not sure how much longer he will be around or how many more fights he has in his contract from winning TUF.

Duffee vs Russow: When Roy Nelson busted on the scene of the UfC’s reality TV show with a large gut and the ability to fight I thought that he would be the only fighter we would see in a long time to look in such bad shape and be so tough and a good fighter but wow at Russow. Duffee with this massive muscular physique came charging at Russow’s fat rolls like he was going to kill. For the most part he did though Duffee landed some pretty big shots but Russow just kept absorbing them and moving around. By trying to end the fight so quickly the Mr. muscle ran out of gas and out of no where Russow landed the big KO punch in the third round. While I was watching this fight there were a lot of guys laughing at Russow because he was so soft looking and over weight. It looked as though this fight was going to be a joke. One of the things I love about this sport is the surprises.

Diego vs Hathaway: Diego looked focused walking in. He always does. I’m definitely a fan of his attitude and zeal for his fights. He knows what he’s doing but this young British Hathaway kid looked really good. His striking and combos was on key – good head movement and foot work. I was really surprised as I had never heard of Hathaway before this event. He definitely has talent and a future in the UFC at his age. As for Diego, he seems to be moving into a more stagnant gate keeper role like Josh Koscheck to the true contenders in his weight class.

Noguiera vs Brills: A close fight. It was hard for me to really examine a close fight like this in the environment I was in. There was a lot of ground action. It’s been some time since I’ve enjoyed a fight with so much ground work. You could tell both of these guys wanted a win bad. This was a very good fight for the virtually unknown Brills. Even though he lost this fight to one of the Nog brothers it was a tremendous effort that put him in the spotlight.

Rampage vs Evans: Another fight that doesn’t live up to its hype. Say what you will about Anderson Silva but if he isn’t going to finish a fight at least he dances for you. After all the trash talking and verbal abuse by these guys you would think that there would be a little bit more going on. All they basically did was pin each other up against the cage and sit there. Okay, it was ‘wrestling’. Of course the brief moments of ground and pound by each fighter followed by more boring pins. Not enough to justify a PPV main event. It just goes to show the business is just as much about hype as it is fighting. Of course we also understand the case that these guys did want to play it conservatively. I mean who wants to go in guns blazing and get KO’d early in the first round?

I think the truth is it’s going to be hard for a fighter to focus on winning fights when they are doing everything but training for it. We have seen numerous examples of what happens when fighters focus on other things than the fight game and with all the tine and energy that goes into making the movie the distraction proved to be to much for Rampage. He looked out of shape.

Now that Rashad is looking at another title shot is anyone really interested in a Shogun fight? Does anyone really think that Rashad can beat him? Nope.

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UFC 113 Machida vs Shogun 2

Jun 3

Posted by Matthew Brown in MMA | 1 Comment

This was probably the best event the UFC had had in awhile.  This event took place on May 8th   There were a lot of good fights.  I was pretty surprised when it was announced that this fight was going to be in Canada.  You don’t really think of Canadians as MMA fans but hey you never know.   I thought the next time I see the UFC in Canada GSP would be fighting for sure.

A couple of notables were:

 Jeremy Stephens vs Sam Stout which was a really good fight and Sam Stout’s third fight if the night in a row. 

Kimbo Slice vs Matt Mitrone  where Slice suffered yet another loss.  In the post fight pres conference Dana White said it would probably be his last fight in the octagon.

Patrick Cote vs Alan Belcher where Cote had his first fight after his loss to Anderson Silva in 2008 for the middle weight chamionship  I think this was a good fight for Cote after such a long layoff.

Koscheck vs Daley -  This was an interesting fight to see for me.   I couldn’t help but to root for the more established fighter.   JK basically just controlled Daley with his wrestling and kept him on the ground where he couldn’t land any shots.   I’m still confused on the knee to the face situation.   JK fell back like he got kneed in the face  but when they showed the replay he never got hit with anything.    It was like a major fake.   I don’t really see the point in this unless he was looking for a point deduction from the ref.   If so, then he deserves to get booed for that.   I don’t really think that he deserves to be booed just because he didn’t stand up and go to toe to toe with Daley.  I mean obviously Daley would have taken him down quickly.  You have to ask yourself would you really want Daley to fight GSP?  The results would have probably been similar to the fight with GSP except Daley would probably never get off his back the entire fight.  Having said all of that OMG Daley takes a shot at Kos after the fight had ended. A sucker punch from behind that ended Paul Daley’s UFC career and possibly his career in MMA.  I think Dana’a decision to kick him out of the UFC was a solid decision that sends a message to all the fighters about what is expected of them from a sportsmanship point of view. 

Machida vs Shogun -  Shogun did what he said he would do,  a big knock out victory that apparently sets the record straight after his controversial lost after his last fight with Machida.  I’m a fan of Machida’s because I was attracted to his fighting style and his aura of invincibleness.   It’s the same aura that attracts people to Tiger Woods.  You want to see those that are really good get even better.  You want fighters who are seemingly invincible to be invincible.  Then you can say you watched it all go down.   Unfortunately we saw in this fight that Machida certainly isn’t unbeatable at all and after blocking a kick dropped his hands so that he could get punched in the face. 

I think this could be a new era in the division.  I don’t see Shogun going anywhere any time soon.   The winner of the Rashad Evans vs Rampage fight at UFC 114 it logically the next bout to see gets to challenge him for the title.

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UFC 104 Machida vs Shogun

Nov 3

Posted by Matthew Brown in MMA | Comments off

Machida vs Shogun

Machida vs Shogun

Anthony Johnson v Yoshiyuka Yoshida

When Josh Koshcheck decimated Yoshiyuki Yoshida at ‘UFC Fight for the Troops’ I knew that he didn’t have what it takes to be a serious UFC contender. As a matter of fact I was surprised when I found out he was on the televised card for 104. I wasn’t very surprised however to see Anthony Johnson KO him in the first round. Johnson is not a very talented fighter but he is much better than his opponent last Saturday.

Update: It’s recently been announced that Anthony Johnson is now fighting Josh Koshcheck at UFC 106.

Update of Update: Josh Koshcheck submmitted Johnson in the 2nd round in UFC 106
Spencer Fisher v Joe

When Joe Stevenson was walking out towards the octagon I knew that he was probably going to win the fight. You could just look at the guy and tell what what he was about to do. I would have thought that his vicotory was going to come by a vicious knockout but a 2nd round submission will still do. He has taken quite a bit of criticism over walking out to a Black Eyed Peas song. He was quoted as saying that the Kanye West he had been using was no longer giving him the positive energy he needs after the MTV music awards. After all the smack that Spencer Fisher had been talking before the fight I can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same. This could be a new beginning for Joe ‘Daddy’. He’s been working with a new trainer and you could definitely tell last Saturday. Spencer had been accusing him of being a one trick pony but he was mixing it up quite nice. However, when things got to heated up top Joe Is still is going to take things to the ground and make it his fight, and that’s exactly what he did. I think this win puts him in a different tier of fighters and gets him pretty close to the upper echelon of fighters who are in contention for a title shot.

Machida vs Shogun

I don’t even know where to begin on this fight.  I’ve seen many fights where fans contest, Dana White included, that the Judges Decision was bad.  Until now,  I’ve never seen so many people upset about a decision that was decisively decided by judges in a unanimous decision.  Neither one of these fighters put on a show and both of them were afraid to lose.  Machida was clearly to afraid to come out and put on a show.  He saw how reckless Rashad Evans had been and it had cost him the belt.  I know Machida did not want to make that same mistake.  The excuse Shogun keeps coming out with is that his corner kept telling him that he was winning the fight, and that just doesn’t cut it.  When you fight conservatively in a title fight and you are the challenger, you deserve to lose.  Here is the thing,  neither one of these guys fought well and really showed the judges that they deserve to be the champion.  My thing is when both are fighting bad the current champion has the advantage.  If you are going to come out and TAKE the belt from someone you need to come out and dominate them, not just out-kick them a little bit like Shogun did.  Machida out performed Shogun in my opinion, but even if he didn’t,  a title fight should be scored a bit differently.  You can’t blame your corner and fight mediocre and take the belt –  it just doesn’t happen that way.   As far as Machida goes, we didn’t see much of a dragon that night but more of a lizard.  I know he will be back and he will learn from that experience.   I’ve heard a lot of people coming back with metrics on the fight saying that Shogun had more strikes and did more damage etc, but I saw the fight and to me it didn’t happen. Lets face the fact that it was a unanimous decision and not a split decision. All three judges scored the bout the same and they had better seats than any of us.    as DW has said both fighters have already agreed to a re-match and I’m sure that it will be rather quick. (few months).  I do think its interesting to note that these guys are pretty good friends and have a lot of respect for each other.  I was suprised when I found out that they had shared a flight together from Brazil and had actually sit next to each other.  I’m wondering what effect that their relationship had on the fight.

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UFC 101

Aug 8

Posted by Matthew Brown in MMA | Comments off

9912088_36_1Less than six weeks after the much publicized UFC 100 came the next event for the top MMA organization on the world. I must say what makes a good fight is not what kind of show the fighters put on but when two fighters go toe to toe and you really don’t know who will win. That’s not exactly what happened last Saturday when former LH Champ Forrest Griffin stepped into the cage with now the undisputed best pound for pound fighter in the world, Anderson Silva.  Like most MMA fans would admit,  no one really expected Forrest Griffin to win that fight. We aren’t exactly short of highlight reels of Anderson Silva dominating veteran fighters again and again but the issue with this fight isn’t just that Griffin lost, but with the the way he basically folded up and gave it to Silva. I pride myself on being an MMA fan. I boast about the fact that Its a sport that isn’t just about spectators and pay per view subscriptions but its about a sport full of fiercely competitive guys who want to win, but after watching that fight I really didn’t know what to think. Did Anderson Silva really knock him out with a falling away jab? It looked like something You would see in WWE match, and what was with Forrest running out of the Octagon before the official announcement?  Griffin was one of my favorite fighters in the organization, but after a display like that I have definitely lost some respect for him as a fighter. It’s not because he lost to Anderson Silva – who cares if he can’t beat the spider. As a mater of fact who can beat him?  He ran forward and threw two wild punches that looked reminiscent of the Stephan Bonnar  fight. What did he think Silva would do? I know reports have said that Griffin thought his jaw was busted but so what? This is MMA. Yeah, maybe he got knocked down but he just layed there and didn’t want to finish the fight. Pitiful.

This leaves a big question as to who the next person in the org the Spider will fight. The way I see it, White has two choices. it’s Silva v GSP or Silva vs Machida, take your pick and if you don’t know Silva has vowed never to fight Machida because of their friendship. After that display Saturday night I don’t think anyone would really argue with me if I said that GSP couldn’t stand up to Silva’s striking. GSP would have to take him to the ground, but then again wasn’t that Forrest Griffin’s game plan?

Oh… and BJ Penn smeared Florian. Big Surprise…

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