The way Mir handled himself tonight, I would be so quick to assume Lesnar will hand him a pummeling. I still think Mir has an uphill fight to beat Man Mountain Marko, but Lesnar better keep his limbs close to the torso.
Oh, I don’t know if he’ll win or lose, I just want him to lose. I really wanted Nog to win.
That would be the money fight but if Machida wins then he is the number one contender, no question about it, and they’re gonna give him a title shot. Anything else would make me very surprised
I’m sure that the UFC heads would like to see Machida lose only so that they can avoid the pitfalls of an unmarketable titlefight with a potentially non-selling champion but I cant recall them ever plain refusing a legitimate challenger a title fight for money reasons. Machida’s title run has been deliberately drawn out, sure, but they haven’t exactly passed him over for lesser competitors either. It’s not like they had Forrest Griffin fight Tim Boetsch for the title. The UFC has been good about making the best fight the best and making the best out of whoever’s left standing. It’s part of what separates them from the crapfest that is pro boxing.
But hell yes, I’d love to see Evans meet Rampage. I just don’t think it’s gonna happen anytime soon.
I got all the fights right, included round and manner of victory, except picked Rashad by KO in 2nd, and got completely surprised by Mir’s performance. I like Minotaur “are your hands ready to kill?”, but was really happy to see Mir fight such a smart fight and have the stamina to pull it off after all his adversity. Great card.
Anyone watch yesterday’s show in Dublin? Pretty weak card - UFC really is diluting these cards - if they’d combined this card with the one in 2 weeks with GSP vs BJPenn it would have been a great one. Now we’re getting Diego Sanchez vs Joe Stevenson as a main event next? Come on.
Shogun looked like a joke - he would have been destroyed by even a moderate contender in the division, like Bisping. Coleman shouldn’t have even been in the ring, but I couldn’t help rooting for him after seeing how out of shape Shogun was.
Similarly, why does Jeremy Horn get UFC fights? Does he just get the call when someone gets injured or is he actually considered an attraction? Obv a veteran with technical skills, but he just seems like a masochist - I just don’t understand how anyone who chose this sport as his profession could refuse to ever go into a gym to address the flab-allanche that is his body.
Disappointing performance by Rich Franklin, although he probably would have won a 5 round bout. He just never really got it going. Unlucky headbutt might have derailed him temporarily. On the bright side, I’d rather have Dan Henderson as coach of the Ultimate Fighter - guess there’ll be quite a delay before the new season this time, since they’re just naming coaches.
Alan Belcher has the worst tatoo in human history. He also seems to have the brain of a pea. Pretty amusing win though, after just lumbering after Kang getting smacked prior to that point.
Lytle/Davis fight delivered though - the UFC needs more guys like those guys. Neither one is likely to ever really hit the big time given their ages and their lack of success against the top tier, but they consistently provide solid fights, and show up in great shape, are versatile and entertaining.
Pretty bad card and show – the next one should make up for it though - that card is awesome.
I’m annoyed that the Kampmann bout didn’t air. Guess I’ll have to wait until the undercard bouts pop up.
Shogun looked terrible, though he’s been out of the game for a long time now. With a fresh win, even against an overmatched giant like Coleman, maybe he’ll get his head together and work on his conditioning now.
Franklin was screwed, IMO. He had better contact and controlled through most of the rounds. It was a bullshit decision.
It was so close I don’t feel that way, although I think as you just did, one can make a case for Franklin winning. Just like the Lytle fight, it could have gone either way and I don’t begrudge Davis or Henderson their wins, unlike some others Eurozone fights coughBispringcough.
Overall I felt this was a pretty good card, particularly for one in Europe. You had some good fights and some fairly big names. A very mediocre card for a stateside show and had it been I would have echoed the call for consolidation but as outreach to what the UFC hopes to be their next big market, I didn’t mind it at all.
Belcher’s win over Kang is one of those things that makes MMA awesome: you can be dominant but get sloppy for a second and it can be all over in a much more reasonable fashion than a homerun knockout in boxing. Yeah, poor choice of tattoos.
Horn looked a little better than he did in the past, physique-wise. He is one of these guys who desperately needs a trainer and a nutritionist. Maybe he could get Ken Shamrock’s. He gets fights because he has the experience to survive and put up a fight against superior opponents. Sure, the cover-up wasn’t a crowd-pleaser last night but it gave him a chance against one of the best BJJ guys in the UFC.
Shogun should be humiliated. He was embarrassed by Griffin and then comes into this fight and does this poorly against a 44-year old Coleman was obviously exhausted before the fight even began. He staggered while being greased, FFS. He never had anything other than a graveyard stare and every punch looked weak. He had to give his exit speech hanging on to the fence. Coleman appeared the be the victim of trying to cut too much weight at the end for the fight. I think Rua needs to be put out to Cro-cop pasture.
I thought the Henderson/Frankling decision was correct. The 30-27 judge for Franklin really blew my mind. Franklin no question won the 3rd round, and I don’t believe there’s much argument that Henderson didn’t win the first so it all boils down to how you saw the 2nd round. Tough call, you had Franklin with the better of it for several minutes standing, and Henderson with the take down and control. Neither did a whole lot of damage.
I don’t think either of them would have much trouble with Bisping.
Coleman/Rua went about as I expected with the real joy of the fight coming from listening to Baroni give instructions between rounds. Priceless. I’ve wrote Shogun off at this point. I heard he’s signed to fight Chuck next, and that’s an interesting fight, where someone is going to be on their way out(maybe both).
Kang continues his downward spiral. He continues to look good and lose consistently.
I read that they’ve signed Rampage to fight Jardine in April I believe it is. This is a really odd decision. You have an ex-champ coming off a brutal knockout of Wanderlei Silva fighting a guy who was just brutally knocked out by Silva? I don’t see what Rampage gains from this fight. He either brutally knocks out Jardine or is crippled from not checking leg kicks.
Lytle/Davis definitely carried the show.
Very excited for the next card though, much more solid all-around.
I agree with the Henderson decision - I think the 2 judges scored it exactly right: Henderson won the first 2, lost the second. 30-27 Franklin is just nutty - he clearly lost the first round. I don’t think it would have been terrible if the split decision went the other way though (although that 30-27 score would have tainted it).
Tacitus - don’t think anyone was talking about those guys vs Bisping, but agree. Good analysis of the rest.
Jardine is still a viable contender, and Rampage hasn’t fought him - although Jardine lost badly to Silva (and probably will again to Rampage), he just beat Brandon Vera pretty convincingly, and in his last 5 fights also has wins over Forrest and Chuck, so he’s legitmately still in the mix.
Wtf is Belcher’s tattoo? – I went back and forth from Elvis, Johnny Cash, Muhammed Ali/???
Well I just meant since they announced the winner of the Henderson/Franklin fight would be an opposing coach to Bisping and would be set to fight him next. I think either one would beat Bisping, but Henderson is the tougher matchup. This means we’ll probably be seeing a Henderson/Silva rematch which I wouldn’t mind.
Yeah Jardine is legitimate, but I was hoping to see Rampage either get a title shot, or get a shot at Forrest or Shogun to get some revenge. I think those fights give him more, but I guess this is a holdover for another title shot.
Does make it look like Machida is finally getting his shot as long as he gets past Thiago Silva.
We were leaning towards Heavy Elvis. The natural question But why? remains unresolved. Belcher was surprisingly cocky for a guy who was consistently eating hits and letting the other guy dictate the pace of the fight.
Coleman had no business in the octagon in the first round, won me over with his persistence in the second (not that I ever changed my opinion regarding his presence in the cage), and had me rooting for him in the third, right up to the submission. Very odd to see a guy older than me in the ring. Still – enough, man.
Weak card, but they still wanted $45 and an extra $10 for HD? Screw that. I’d complain harder but there are 2 free fight nights currently announced and a numbered UFC card airing for free as well.
EDIT: woops, thought Coleman lost in a submission, but it was a TKO.
Yeah, it’d be nice if there was a discount at least for weak cards like that. I’m one of the suckers who paid $55, but I had a crew over to watch at least. It was the first card in a while that I was tempted to wait for the torrent.
Belcher’s tattoo is of Johnny Cash, the music he walks out to.
Is anyone going to get eh Affliction PPV this Saturday, featuring Fedor vs Andre A.? That match is good, but the rest of the card is a bunch of UFC left-overs. I do like Barnett, but I don’t think he’ll have any trouble with Yvel.
I would have gotten the Affliction PPV… but it turns out I’m heading to France that morning. Bleh. It’s a decent card, and for me, the Arlovski/Fedor fight is worth the price itself.
Agreed that the UFC is putting too many cards together; it was okay for a bit while they were trying to build up a following in the UK… but this is getting ridiculous. At least the BJ/GSP card is full of good fights.
I might have been able to forgive my feelings on the Franklin fight if it wasn’t for the eye gouge and the headbutt. It was a cheapassed fight. I think Round 1 was Franklins. Takedowns count for far too much, especially since they did absolutely nothing.
And this is one of a few reasons why I hate Henderson, he just never evolved his game beyond wild bombs and takedowns. He has no submission ability, no martial arts striking (skilled kicks). All he does is take people down and rub them for a decision. I can’t stand his matches. Thankfully, Anderson Silva schooled him on the ground.
And yes, the UFC is having too many events, dulling the PPV experience. I said it a few years ago, the fall of the UFC will come from having too many events.
Seems like almost every Lytle fight is a contender for Fight of the Night. I was pulling for Coleman after listening to him being interviewed by one of the better MMA writers out there (Steve Cofield). Ditto Dan Henderson. Great interview and he’s open and honest about his motivations and experiences.
I’m not sure what’s up with Jeremy Horn, but I love seeing him continue to get UFC fights while better fighters get cut. Dana uses him as a gatekeeper.
Regarding too many / too thin cards … perhaps the fighters need to fight more often?
Thanks all for the great recaps and discussion. Very entertaining and informative.
The problem with Chris Lytle is that while he’s aiming at getting Fight of the Night, which has a rather hefty money incentive attached to it, he seems to forget about actually trying to win. He was behind, he must have known he was behind, yet he kept on doing the same thing.
See I have trouble seeing anyway to give Franklin the first. I can see arguments for the 2nd going either way, and he obviously had the first but I think Henderson easily won the first. He did more damage in the first, had Franklin stunned, and looking through the places that tally stats he actually landed more shots in the round.
http://www.compustrike.com/stats_files/ufc_93/Henderson-Franklin.HTM
The rest of the fight Franklin was ahead in the stand-up for sure, but he seemed really hesitant to let go. The headbutt on the replay I think was completely unintentional. That’s exactly what Dan does every time he swings, he lowers his head like that, and it looked to me like Franklin actually moved into it, and not that Dan threw it maliciously. The eyepoke sure looks bad on a replay, but that happens often, and I tend to think Dan was looking to parry a shot and messed it up. That one is a little tougher to judge. With the eye poke though I tend to think it didn’t impact the fight much, it killed Franklin’s momentum for that last 30 seconds, but he wasn’t going to stop Henderson, and he’d already won that round.
I’m ok with the call. I’m not sure who I wanted to win. I think Franklin/Bisping would be a fun fight to see, but I sure as hell don’t want to see Franklin/Silva 3, and I wouldn’t mind seeing Henderson and Silva fight again. I think this will work out, maybe Franklin stays at 205 now and we see him in some interesting fights there.
Completely agree on the over-scoring for takedowns though, but that’s been the case since they started judging. Judging in MMA in general is a mess imo, and I really think they need to stop looking at it like they do a boxing match. I even much prefer the Pride method of scoring the entire fight.
I’m a sucker for watching Fedor fight, so I’ll be watching Affliction on Saturday. I still would’ve preferred to see Fedor/Barnett, as I think Barnett is one of the few guys out there that poses an interesting match-up to him, but I’ll watch this anyway. All the training Arlovski has done with Roach, and the crap that Roach has been spewing is making me hope that Fedor brutalizes him standing.