I’m of a mixed opinion of ground elbows. On one hand I hate seeing a fight stopped because of a cut, especially when it is competitive and both fighters are otherwise capable of continuing. On the other hand, I think elbows are a great tool for the man on the BOTTOM to be able to use against a guy resting in his guard, and fights aren’t stopped because of cuts NEARLY as often as they used to be… or at leas thats how it seems. So basically I’d be fine with whatever is done with them.
I would like to see the UFC allow some amount of knees or kicks to the head of a “grounded” opponent, however. I hate seeing a guy avoid damage just because he has brushed the canvas with his fingers.
RickH
1642
That could be fixed with a change to the definition of grounding to require at least a knee on the mat.
That’s being discussed, though the current proposal sounds awfully subjective.
I would definitely not want to see elbows removed from the game. The stoppages from blood because of it are over stated IMO. I don’t feel it actually happens very much at all. Heck I don’t like how they took out knees to downed opponents. This is combat, and guys are going to get hurt no matter what. I don’t want to see MMA go the route of the NFL and screw with the core of the sport by constantly coming with more rules.
Sooo… Melendez vs Sanchez… FOTY?
Still have a few events to go for the year but its hard to argue against. Crazy stuff.
Also Cain is the Energizer bunny of heavyweights. Just a freak with his cardio.
No kidding. Its not that his technique or skill or whatever is the best… but that he can do HIS absolute best for the full 25 minutes of a fight, as opposed to having to pace himself and go 100% in spurts like most heavyweights do.
z22
1649
And Dodson IS the Energizer Bunny. They need to make a commercial with him just bouncing off walls.
Yo_Rudy
1650
I’m not really sure why people are gushing over Melendez-Sanchez. Melendez beat the shit out of Sanchez for the first two rounds, got briefly dropped in the third, recovered, then resumed beating the shit out of Diego. His face looked hardly scratched at the end of the fight, whereas Diego looked like he’d gone through a wood chipper.
I thought Jones-Gustaffson was way more compelling, technical, and closer. Jones was getting tooled by Gus’s boxing, but managed to figure it out and put it together and nearly finish Gus in the fourth. It was the first time the invincible Jon Jones looked in real trouble, and yet he managed to show incredible heart and overcome losing the first two rounds to get the win. And afterwards, there was an intense debate over who won - the only person who thought Diego Sanchez won was Diego Sanchez.
Agree, but both fights were highly entertaining, and beyond the norm. Great card overall on Saturday, while the Jones-Gustaffson card was abysmal and saved by that spectacular main event.
A FOTY should be at least somewhat competitive. That was a five round gladiatorial execution, with brief moments of hope for a crazy underdog win.
Exciting? Very much so. Entertaining? Definitely, especially with those brief flurries of hope for Sanchez. Just not a FOTY.
It was only three rounds, and I thought it was fairly competitive. Not that Melendez was every really on the ropes except for when Sanchez dropped him (in the third?). Melendez easily won, but I thought Sanchez made it much more interesting than most fighters would.
I don’t disagree with your FOTY criteria, but considering the huge fan reaction, I think its a frontrunner, and arguably will win. I think most fans and UFC brass focus on the exciting and entertaining factors.
Er, sorry, yes. Three, not five. Still, though, I didn’t see any round as close in any real sense. Diego had two moments of potential, but was completely dominated in every other moment of the fight.
That said, I fear you’re correct and that the “FOTY!” meme is taking hold. Jones/Gustafsson was, for example, a far, far better fight.
You know what? Jones-Gustafsson is the only main event I’ve missed this year. I went out of town to visit a friend and came back to hear it was a great fight. I gotta find it somewhere to watch. To hear Jones got pressured like that seems a little incredible, considering how he has basically run roughshod over everybody else. BRB.
edit:
Watched it. I’d give Jones all five rounds. Round 3 was close, and I could argue that one for Gustafsson, but in the first three rounds Jones was the chasing Gustafsson down and appeared to be landing more shots, and the last two Jones did more damage. Now getting cut and taken down in round one probably swayed a lot of people against Jones in that round, but the takedown resulted in zero subsequent damage or control. It looked like Jones was controlling the Octagon better, was being more aggressive, and was landing more solid strikes, even it Gustafsson was landing more punches, which look better.
Watching Jones meet somebody who attacked effectively, didn’t wilt under the pressure, and actually did some damage probably swayed a lot of people in Gustafsson’s favor. I would like to see them fight again, and it was obviously Jones’ closest fight to date, but I think at the worst it was 4 rounds to 1 for Jones.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oon3PQnsUbw
All that being said, it was a great fight. Considering how easily Jones has dealt with all of his other challengers, it was really something else to see Jones have to fight somebody who could keep up with him.
Is it just me or did Kenny Florian look a LOT like Charlie Day tonight?
UFC 167 spoilers ahead
Close fight but Hendricks should have gotten the nod. Maybe it comes down to the judges relying on the old adage “to be the champion you have to beat the champion,” and they thought Hendricks didn’t do quite enough to beat GSP in some of those rounds.
Decisions like that are what made boxing a joke to most people and now these judges screw with MMA like this. I love GSP as a fighter and think he has been a great champion especially in how he carries himself but that belt should be around Hendricks waist today not his.
Agreed. In the post fight press conference last night Dana White said something to the effect of “judges in Vegas are what ruined boxing and I don’t want that to happen to the UFC. I’m [freakin] scared to come back here and have more events in Vegas because of decisions like this. The governor should step in and do something.”
I paraphrased pretty heavily, and I’m sure you could google the exact quote, but it was something to that effect.
Desslock
1659
The most embarrassing decision in the history of the sport. There is no way to rationalize giving GSP the nod in rounds 1-2 or 4. I love GSP and was rooting for him, but this tarnishes the sport – Dana was right to compare it to the debacle of boxing. Watch the press conference - he really let’s loose
After thinking about the fight some more, I think the real problem is the 10-point-must system. Most people agree, taking the entire body of the fight, that Hendricks won. But if you’ve seen the scorecard the deciding round was the first round, which was certainly the closest round of the fight. I remember watching that round and wondering which way the judges scored it, but thinking it wasn’t going to matter because Hendricks was either going to KO GSP or GSP was going to be able to outwork and eventually wear Hendricks down. So yeah, while I think Hendricks won the fight I think I’m a little more sympathetic to the judges who awarded it to GSP when it basically comes down to deciding who to give the only close round to.
Still think Hendricks should have won, but I can see the argument of giving the fight to GSP based on the way the UFC has its fights scored. Maybe MMA should proceed to let judges score the fight in its entirety instead of per round, or maybe scores should be posted between rounds so that fighters know what they’re working with and don’t coast to a loss like Hendricks did on saturday.
