UFC Events

[twiztor]

UFC 137 was last night. here's my thoughts:

Tyson Griffin vs. Bart Palaszewski (Spike TV Prelim)
-fun match, was rooting for Bart (partly because Griffin couldn't make weight). He won with a KO in round 1

Dennis Siver vs. "Cowboy" Donald Cerrone (Spike TV Prelim)
-Cerrone won with a rear naked choke in Rd1. was rooting for Siver here, but he was just dominated.

Brandon Vera  vs. Eliot Marshal (Pre-Spike TV Prelim aired on Spike)
-not much of a match here. Vera used the strategy of "hold him against the fence" and Marshal seemed like he wanted to really go, but didn't have the skills to break out of Vera's holding pattern. Vera broke his arm in rd3 but still won the decision.

Hatsu Hioki vs. George Roop
Hioki is supposedly a jiu jitsu and submission specialist, but he didn't show it here. he won via split decision, but Roop should've taken it easily (i even had Hioki in our pool)

Scott Jorgensen vs. Jeff Curran
snoozer of 3 rounds. Jorgensen (my pick) won via unanimous decision

Mirko "Cro-Cop" Filipović vs. Roy "Big Country" Nelson
Nelson lost a lot of weight coming in for this one. Nelson won fairly easily against an aging and disappointing CroCop. CroCop retires post-fight.

Cheick Kongo vs. Matt Mitrione
this fight really exposed how terrible both of these guys are. a unanimous decision for Kongo was still the worst match of the night, as nobody really did anything.

BJ Penn vs. Nick Diaz
definitely fight of the night, it was a slugfest. BJ probably won rd1, but Diaz started teeing off on him in rd2 and continued it thru rd3. Diaz won a hard fought decision. Penn retires post-fight. Diaz will next fight Georges St.-Pierre for the WelterWeight Title on the SuperBowl weekend card.

overall, a pretty terrible card. the two prelims were both decent-good and the main totally lived up to the hype, but everything else was easily forgettable.

[twiztor]

ufc139 was fan-fucking-tastic, top-to-bottom.

a total of 5 prelim fights were shown on SpikeTV (usually they just show 2) because they were all very quick, and incredibly exciting. Notably, Ryan Bader beat Jason Brilz in 1:17 with a crazy good punch.

the first two main card fights were unanimous decisions. one featured Martin Kampmann soundly beating Rick "Horror" Story in a good fight, and the other starred Stephan Bonnar beating someone in a boring fight.

Urijah Faber  vs  Brian Bowles
Faber was the poster boy of Zuffa-owned WEC but hasn't really lived up to that hype since merging with the UFC. he's always a top contender, but never THE guy. Bowles has looked impressive consistently, and is also always a top contender. Faber just made Bowles look silly while being damaging and crazy awesome.

Wanderlei Silva  vs.  Cung Le
Cung Le is a movie martial artist, he uses a lot of crazy shit like spin kicks and all that stuff you actually see in movies, and he does them well. Silva used to be a murderous bastard in between the ropes, but his prime is long past him. fight started off with Le landing lots of little shots (and a couple big ones)while Wanderlei bid his time until he just hauled off and cracked Le with numerous knees to the face (including one that just shattered Le's nose!). awesome f'ing fight.

the main event, Dan Henderson vs Mauricio "Shogun" Rua, wasa fucking EPIC WAR! close first round, Hendo dominated the next two, then gassed out, so Shogun dominated the last 2. razor close decision, but dan henderson survived the late onslaught and took the dub, and the likely next title shot in the Lt Heavyweight Division.

[twiztor]

UFC 140!

Mark Hominick got KO's by the "Korean Zombie" Chan Sung Jung in 7 seconds, which is tied for the fastest fight in UFC history. crazy way to start the night.

Next, Claude Patrick fought Brian Ebersole in a terribly boring fight. non-action was the name of the game here. Ebersole usually has an arrow shaved into his chest hair (pointing towards his head) but this time he opted for the TapouT logo. maybe next time he should spend more time on having a game plan and less on grooming. he did walk away with the split decision win, tho.

Tito Ortiz came out and looked like he was about to KO Little Nogueira, but Lil Nog turned it around and decimated Tito's ribs. must have broken a couple or something, as Tito was a little bitch about it and gave up.

Speaking of Nogueiras, Big Nog was rocking shit on Frank Mir's face. That is, until he knocked him down and jumped on him to finish. Mir grabbed an arm, hooked in a kimora, and broke Nog's arm for the craziest submission win this side of Mir/Sylvia way back when.

and in the main event, Lyoto Machida looked to unrest the Light HeavyWeight Title from champion Jon Jones. Machida looked good in the first round, landing a couple flurries and keeping Jones at bay. Jones tried using spin kicks and the like, but they had little to no effect. Round 2 starts and Machida is landing a few more, until he gets locked in a standing guillotine choke. Jones really cranks it on, and Machida passes out. Jones drops him to the mat and celebrates his second title defense.

AWESOME event. it's crazy how much i've been saying that recently. can't wait for Friday, Dec. 30th for the big Lesnar vs. Overeem card.