UFC 79: Nemesis 12/29/07

Interim Welterweight Championship: Matt Hughes vs. Georges St-Pierre. St-Pierre continued to be impossible to takedown, not just stonewalling Hughes attempts but quickly turning them into takedowns of his own. As Hughes isn’t going to beat St-Pierre in standup similar to Matt Serra, it was quickly apparent he was in for a long night, if he was lucky. St-Pierre just dominated him, taking Hughes down 3 times in the match, and was always able to improve his position. Hughes certainly knows how to defend himself, but that was about all he was able to do tonight. He wasted a lot of energy on a failed takedown and then St-Pierre threw him over the hip into side mount and soon forced him to submit to the arm bar. 2R 4:54

Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva. Both are likely on the downside and had a lot to prove coming off two consecutive losses. I always considered Silva a counter puncher, timing your strike then coming in with a combination of straight punches when you either start to throw or miss, but for some reason Joe Rogan considers Silva the most aggressive fighter in MMA history. The match started slow as both were looking to counter, with Mike Goldberg getting in his requisite Babalu reference before anyone even landed. After a minute or two Liddell looked like he was in his prime, while Silva remained sluggish. Liddell did a great job of exploiting his reach advantage, landing several jabs from a distance that was a bit too far for Silva to hit him back with any authority, if at all. Liddell was also very elusive, showing excellent footwork that seemed to baffle Silva. Silva, who was bleeding from his left ear, finally stopped allowing Liddell to dictate and began stalking him in R2. Liddell stopped jabbing and was backing up a lot, but never gave Silva any openings. Liddell turned it on toward the end of R2, opening up a big cut to the outside of Silva’s right eye with a left elbow. Chuck took Silva down at the end of R2 and outset of R3, showing some new wrinkles in his game that made things even more difficult for Silva. Silva was down 2 rounds to 0, so he needed to finish Chuck, but Liddell iced the fight connecting with a spinning backfist mid R3 and following it up with a flurry of punches. Liddell was very accurate the entire fight, but despite blowing what remained in his tank he couldn’t come close to knocking Silva out during this onslaught. Liddell shut it down after this, throwing in a takedown at the end of the fight for good measure. Silva didn’t know what hit him. One judge gave Silva one round, but even that was generous. The announcers pretended it was a great fight, but unless Chuck Liddell winning equals a great fight it’s hard to say too much good about, and even good seems a stretch. This looked like the best UFC of the year on paper, but out of the 6 matches that aired not one of them was close. You can’t blame the matchmaking this time, so I don’t know what to say other than dominant performances don’t make for a good show. Only Eddie Sanchez vs. Sao Palelei was boring (about as exciting as digging a ditch), but it was an incredibly disappointing show because pretty much every fight had someone that didn’t perform at a level even near their past and/or billing.

UFC Ultimate Finale 6 12/8/07

Clay Guida vs. Roger Huerta. Though both have a wrestling background, it seemed more similar to a wrestler vs. kickboxer match. Huerta is a better striker, using jabs, punch combinations, and kicks. Guida has far more punching power, but lacks any diversity to his arsenal. It really didn’t matter though, as Guida would use his punching to open up the takedowns, which for the first two rounds he attained at will. Every time Huerta would get anything going in standup, Guida put him right on his back. Guida is something of an unorthodox wild man, but he’s also perpetual motion, never resting for a second. Due to his energetic style it was hyper action throughout with regular scrambling and several reversals on the mat. Guida had a rear naked choke attempt near the end of R1, but Huerta turned into guard. Huerta’s striking was more successful in R2, landing a few kicks only to be taken down, and later left/right punch combinations, but Guida bashed him with one punch that did more damage than Huerta’s two before taking him down. After a few good combos by Huerta, he dropped to his knees to stop Guida’s shoot but Guida pulled up and leveled Huerta with a right uppercut then pounced on Huerta with hammerfists. For a second it looked as if Guida had a legitimate chance to win here, but Huerta held him close until he was ready to strike from the bottom, and more importantly kept Guida from passing his guard. Guida had clearly won the first two rounds, and there was no reason to think the third would be any different unless Guida was finally able to finish Huerta. However, Huerta, who was in survival mode at the end of R2, quickly turned the fight at the start of R3. Guida came out punching to open up his requisite takedown, but Huerta landed a left middle kick. Huerta tried to follow with a big left high kick, but as usual Guida shot after being hit. In a major case of bad timing, Guida dropped his face right into the kicking Huerta’s knee. Huerta charged in with another far less damaging knee, sending already stunned Guida into desperation shooting mode. With Guida on his knees, Huerta spun out of his failed shot, took his back, and went right into the rear naked choke for the great comeback win. Very good fight. R3 0:31

Jon Koppenhaver vs. Jared Rollins. Far from the greatest technical fight, but it was a back and forth fight with both men fighting hard and bleeding constantly. Lots of ground striking, with both doing damage as Rollins threw pretty good elbows from the bottom. Koppenhaver was literally leaking blood onto the canvas while on top, which the vampire fans were eating up, as early on the match wasn’t good enough to garner such chants otherwise. Rollins was pummeling Koppenhaver at the end of R2, punching down on him for 20 seconds, but ran out of gas then time to finish him. Koppenhaver avoided Rollins takedown at the start of R3 and landed some big elbows from the top, but quickly gassed resulting in a standup. Rollins then had another chance to finish, defending the takedown with knees including one when Koppenhaver was squatting. Though Rollins was too exhausted for a big flurry, Koppenhaver seemed as if he might be done. Suddenly, Koppenhaver swept Rollins out of nowhere with a Kimura and used a series of short elbows and punches for the stoppage. Good match. R3 2:01

UFC 78 Validation 11/17/07

Michael Bisping vs. Rashad Evans. Evans took Bisping down repeatedly even though Bisping’s takedown defense was pretty good. Evans was unable to do much once he got to the ground though, with Bisping sliding over to the cage then using it to stand up. Bisping seems to think that his defense once he gets taken down in escaping without damage negates the takedown itself, but that can’t be the case since since Evans controls the segment and the takedown itself is more offense than Bisping has during the segment. Bisping is a better technical fighter in standup, probably landing more strikes than Evans because he has a jab, but Evans is a more explosive striker who certainly hits harder, so I didn’t see any real advantage for Bisping beyond not looking as though he was ready to the oxygen tank. Bisping’s best portion was halfway through R2 when he got his second wind after getting back to this feet at the same time Evans showed serious signs of exhaustion. Bisping even took blown up Evans down at the R2 bell. Evans sucked wind, but found it in himself to continue taking Bisping down in R3. All in all, though a close fight, even if you give Bisping the nod in standup because he looked better doing it he once again didn’t do enough offensively to negate his opponent’s takedowns and warrant the decision victory. Evans took the split decision. 3R

Karo Parisyan vs. Ryo Chonan. Karo is normally a human highlight film, so by his standards this was a boring fight, probably as dull as he’s had. Chonan’s standup is based on his ability to kick, which Karo totally eliminated. Chonan’s claim to fame was landing a good right hand than making Parisyan at least eat a kick to take him down. The rest of the time Parisyan took him down as soon as he lifted his leg. Chonan’s defense was excellent, so Parisyan was more similar to a wrestler here. Parisyan kept setting Chonan up for his judo throws, but Chonan always maneuvered out of trouble so Parisyan would have to settle for traditional wrestling style takedowns, which he got at will. On the ground, Karo was unable to pass Chonan’s solid guard. He’d regularly resorted to standing and trying to use a strike to break around the corner, but instead Chonan would quickly scramble back to his feet only to be quickly taken back down. Parisyan finally mounted with 3 minutes left in R3 only to be immediately swept. Parisyan landed a few good blows in standup and some elbows while in Chonan’s guard, but essentially he coasted to the unanimous decision through dominating position and reducing Chonan’s offense to virtually non-existent. Karo was disgusted with his performance, regularly apologizing to the fans for not delivering his usual excitement. 3R

Joe Doerksen vs. Ed Herman. Doerksen took the fight on 2 weeks notice when David Terrell pulled out. He didn’t seem to have his usual strength or stamina, never really looking right as he was overpowered trying takedowns, off balance and sloppy on his feet. Herman’s standup looked better than ever, coming in with elbows from various angles. Doerksen wanted the fight on the ground, but Herman would not only fight off his takedown, he’d use Doerksen’s momentum to get the takedown himself. Herman landed some good blows in standup, but actually opened up a nasty cut under Doerksen’s left eyebrow with a grazing jab. After round 1 it was looking as though Herman might coast to victory. However, Doerksen turned the fight in his favor halfway through round 2 when Herman tried to walk Doerksen down from the clinch, but Doerksen swung his upper body and transitioned right from the takedown into back control. Doerksen had a good chance to finish the fight here, but failed to secure Herman’s body allowing him to not only escape but get his back. Doerksen prevented Herman from choking him out with a leg lock attempt. Doerksen had Herman dead to rights in a triangle at the end of R2, but time expired. Though Doerksen was battered and bloodied, the fight was even at 1 round a piece. Early in R3 Doerksen avoided a left hook, but missed with his right hook counter and got hit with an overhand right. Herman ducked Doerksen’s right hook counter, ending the exchange by clipping Doerksen on the jaw with a left hook for the 1st KO of his nearly 20 fight career. Good fight - the best on the adequate show - particularly for the exciting 2nd round. 3R 0:39

EliteXC Renegade 11/10/07

Lightweight Title Creation Match: Nick Diaz vs. K.J. Noons. Diaz wasn’t messing around similar to the Mike Aina fight. Noons’ strength is striking, so Diaz went right for the takedown. When Noons was able to stop it, you knew Diaz might be in some trouble because high level strikers (Noons doubles as a pro boxer) who can defend are very dangerous. Diaz switched to boxing until he could open up a takedown, but though he’s normally as accurate as any fighter in the game, he wasn’t connecting at anywhere near his usual rate. Diaz landed a few good shots with more power than his usual, but he was also taking as well with circling Noons landing as he came in. The key point in the fight came midway in round 1 when Diaz ate a knee on the bridge of the nose shooting in, but stuck with the takedown until he had Noons on the mat. Live, it seemed to be advantage Diaz, but within seconds Noons had escaped back to his feet and it was clear Diaz was cut badly. Noons confidence soured with Diaz’s major effort leaving him with a nasty cut on the right eyelid that would bleed right into the eye as well as one on the bridge of the nose that would only be problematic if Diaz was on his back. Noons put Diaz down with a straight right when Diaz was coming in to punch, refusing to go to the ground with him and further opening the cuts with his standup striking, particularly knees. Diaz weathered it and managed a takedown just after the first round ended, but the doctor stopped the fight due to the eye cut. Diaz was livid, flipping everyone off and storming off to the back. The first round was good, but this was a well matched fight that may well have went to the judges if not for the cuts, so the outcome was disappointing though not incorrect. Diaz isn’t a fast starter and can really take a blow, so I doubt he was hurt, but when you cut easily it’s going to cost you some fights. I’d like to see a rematch. 1R

Seth Kleinbeck vs. Kyle Noke. Noke is an Australian making his US debut, but he fought as though he were at home. Cool, calm, and poised, he showed good defense in standup and on the ground. Kleinbeck got the takedown catching his leg, but Noke was getting close to an arm bar when the round ended. The favorite Kleinbeck, who they just signed to a 6 fight contract, was on offense and in more, winning the round on 2 of the 3 judges scorecards. Noke distracted Kleinbeck with a punch combo at the outset of round 2 that opened up the takedown, though Kleinbeck nearly used the wizard to immediately escape. Once this failed, Noke took his back and had all the time in the world to get the hooks in and finish with the rear naked choke. Kleinbeck wasn’t about to surrended just because he was caught in a terrible position, guarding his neck and doing a beautiful quick spin into Noke’s guard. Noke regained control, cutting Kleinbeck badly over the left eye with an elbow while in Kleinbeck’s guard. Kleinbeck’s eyebrow looked like a pumpkin someone began carving, so the doctor rightfully stopped it near the end of round 2. Again, a pretty good fairly fight between well matched competitors. 2R 4:22

UFC 77 Hostile Territory 10/20/07

Middleweight Championship: Anderson Silva vs. Rich Franklin. Ace fought better than he did the first time he met Spider, but still wasn’t even worth a deuce. You could tell Franklin put a lot of time, thought, and effort into facing Silva, but it amounted to little more than getting an early takedown by defending against Silva’s deadly muay thai clinch. For Franklin to win he needed to outwrestle Silva because punchers don’t beat muay thai fighters in standup, but Silva’s open guard was so good he was back to his feet before Franklin could even throw one punch. Silva is an amazing striker because he’s got superb accuracy, lightning speed, and excellent power. Most fighters don’t even have the guts to try spinning strikes because they are high risk and low reward. The few who do tend to hope to get lucky with them, figuring it’ll at least give their opponent something to think about, help keep them honest. Silva actually landed a spinning savate, but more impressive to me was the uraken that Franklin blocked. Silva is so quick that rather than getting clobbered because he was off balance or out of defensive posture, he followed by catching Franklin with a jumping knee then landed a heavy right hand. Another aspect that makes Silva lethal in standup is he can get away with holding the opposition. There are a number of fighters who can occasionally get the thai clinch, but very few who can regularly get away with holding their opponent with one hand while striking them with another appendage, usually the other hand. This was basically a standup fight, with Silva coming at Franklin from all angles with an infinitely larger arsenal. Silva would have won if he had another 5 or 10 seconds in round 1, as he’d dropped Franklin with a right hand in the final moments. No matter, as Silva flurried early in round 2 for the TKO. Exciting but as one-sided as expected. 2R 1:07

Alvin Robinson vs. Jorge Gurgel. Gurgel always gets sucked into standup wars, which please the crowd but keep him away from his strength and result in him being a regular at the doctor’s office. Finally we saw him in a strong technical ground fight. Being the far more experienced and decorated jiu jitsu player, after the fast paced first round it looked as if he was going to dominate Robinson. Gurgel put on a clinic in positioning, winning the scrambles, reversing Robinson after a failed Kimura, taking Robinson’s back at the end of the round, and so on. The one thing he failed to do was damage. The second and third round were almost an entirely different fight. Robinson might not be able to win a pure jiu jitsu match, but he had enough jiu jitsu to gain advantageous positions he could ground and pound from. Gurgel helped Robinson out quite a bit by failing to respect his ground and pound. Working from a very open guard, Gurgel stubbornly tried to get the arm bar, eating punch after punch. Robinson returned the favor getting Gurgel’s back at the end of R2. He repeated this in R3, this time with more time, he controlled Gurgel’s arms and pounded away for the final minute. Robinson easily won the decision, having bludgeoned Gurgel for the final 2 rounds. Good match.

EliteXC Uprising 9/15/07

EliteXC World Middleweight Championship: Murilo Rua vs. Robbie Lawler. Lawler was a tough matchup for Rua in a 5 round fight because Rua was going to have an extremely difficult time taking him down. Lawler knew Rua would throw continuous strikes in standup, so he let Rua punch himself out. Lawler insured the pace was kept high by Rua, not that Rua exactly needs prodding, all the while being largely inactive. Rua’s best defense is a constant offense, so Lawler picked his spots for his power punches, doing good damage but regularly being on the receiving end. Rua did well when he was kicking, landing several punishing low kicks, but he never seemed any threat to knock Lawler out and lost the majority of the boxing exchanges. The leg kicks were slowing Lawler, but Lawler correctly gambled that it would be less so than trying to strike continuously would slow Rua. Rua was winning every round by pressing the action, using his jabs to open up his kicks, but as the fight progressed he grew increasingly sloppy from fatigue, throwing arm punches and dropping his guard. Lawler was content to land between one and three power punches, knowing the limitation of his opening. When he saw he’d finally done some real damage to Rua, he immediately went for the kill with a flurry of punches. Rua was basically done when he dropped to the ground; too woozy to defend himself he allowed Lawler to drop punches down on him. Lawler didn’t need to bother mounting, he just clubbed Rua from whatever distance he felt like until the stoppage, which came at least a dozen punches too late given Rua wasn’t making any real attempt to intelligently defend himself. Good fight. R3 2:04

Nick Diaz vs. Mike Aina. Aina claims to punch harder than Takanori Gomi, but Diaz didn’t take him seriously. Diaz, who’d been out of the ring for over half a year, fought the first round like a rusty fighter who didn’t know how he wanted to beat his opponent. He not only gave it away, but was taking some impressive technical combinations of strikes to the legs, body, and head. Diaz fought his fight once he figured out what that was, using his incredibly accurate constant barrage of light punches from the inside, throwing something hard only when the opening was absolutely there. Diaz had trouble taking Aina down though, and was knocked down by a right hand early in round two. Diaz wasn’t particularly hurt though, and was the aggressor in the second round. It took him until the final 30 seconds to get a takedown, and by that point Aina had cut him above the right eye with his formidable standup. Diaz arguably would have won the fight if he had more time, as he got reverse mount but didn’t have time to lock his neck. You could give this round to Aina for the knockdown, but Diaz controlled most of it, turning the fight after the knockdown. The third round clearly went to Diaz. This time he got the takedown with 1:40 left, but again couldn’t get the choke. Diaz had the arm bar locked at the bell, and was thinking Aina had submitted immediately, but no such luck. If Diaz had another 5 seconds he surely would have won the fight. This was a tough decision because, taken as a whole, Diaz clearly won the fight. However, he toyed with Aina early and Aina landed some powerful strikes while he had distance in addition to keeping it in his realm of standup for almost 13 minutes. In UFC, Aina wins because he’s the home fighter and he did a hell of a lot more than Michael Bisping. In PRIDE, Diaz clearly wins because you don’t score round by round. You could easily give Aina the first two rounds, though Diaz took over and debatably could have submitted Aina with more time, which could easily override a knockdown. Diaz is clearly the better fighter, but this was a disappointing performance and he was lucky to get the split decision. Good fight though.

Joe Villasenor vs. Riki Fukuda. Very close fight with every round being difficult to score. Fukuda was the better wrestler, but found taking Villasenor down difficult. One time when he did get a takedown Villasenor did a beautiful buck and roll reversal just as Fukuda was attempting to mount. Fukuda did fine in standup from the inside and clinch using Thai knees and dirty boxing, but lost most of the exchanges when Villasenor had distance. Villasenor did more damage, though he wasn’t controlling the fight and landed less often. Villasenor threw several high kicks that looked good, though Fukuda blocked them properly with his arms and hands. Fukuda showed an impressive chin taking some hard punches, but he was marked up while Villasenor was never hurt. Villasenor took the split decision in a good fight.

UFC 76 Knockout 9/22/07

Chuck Liddell vs. Keith Jardine. Excluding the early loss to Jeremy Horn, Chuck Liddell’s losses have come to fighters who aren’t overly intimidated by the feared striker’s standup. Randy Couture and Quinton Jackson are capable of taking him down, but realized it wasn’t necessarily a necessity. Keith Jardine had no interest whatsoever in the ground, so there wasn’t a takedown attempt in this entire quasi-kickboxing match. Jardine was the far superior technical striker, throwing crisp blows with both hands and feet, and regularly using head punch combinations to open up a low or body kick and vice versa. Liddell looked more like a wrestler or submission fighter who has trained enough to become proficient in boxing. He threw nothing but his looping overhand right, and his looping right hook, sprinkling in some left jabs to try to keep Jardine honest. His idea of a combination was a looping right followed by a looping right, and you aren’t going to win a lot of standup wars against top notch strikers with that type of reliance. Jardine got off quicker than Liddell, regularly hitting Chuck when he tried to set or stood still, which forced Liddell into the pattern of the lunging rights in order to be aggressive and get some offense in. As Liddell is a better counter striker, that kept him out of his game, but even when Liddell wasn’t chasing he was never particularly successful countering Jardine. There were some good exchanges because they were willing to stand toe to toe, but Jardine tended to win these by ducking Liddell’s predictable punch and throwing his own at the same time. Liddell actually started walking to the wrong corner after the second round. Jardine was quite tired in the 3rd, having a hard time holding his hands above even his waist, but he never slowed down. Liddell’s leg and body were redened from Jardine’s repeated precise kicks, but Jardine looked more like he’d been beaten up. The Dean of Mean had a few head cuts, including a decent amount of blood from one on the left side, which I figured would be the judges excuse for typically giving the close enough fight to one of Dana White’s favorites. Luckily Jardine managed to garner a split decision. Very good standup battle.

Forrest Griffin vs. Mauricio Rua. Griffin has been training with Randy Couture, and his cardio was awesome. He basically willed himself to victory over a superior fighter by running him into the ground. Rua was his own worst enemy in a sense because he just keeps going forward, pressing the action. Normally that works, but this was such a sprint that he was uncharacteristically blown up mid 2nd round. Shogun won round 1 having Griffin on the defense most of the time, though Griffin did get a leg trip takedown and wasn’t taking too much punishment. Rua cut Griffin on the nose in round 2, but Forrest’s confidence never wavered. Despite Rua’s fatigue, Griffin didn’t really take over until a reversal midway through round 3. Rua fought the hooks off, but Griffin was able to do some damage with his strikes. This helped Griffin finally get the rear naked choke in the final 30 seconds, but his dramatic submission victory was more a product of completely gassing Rua than any punishment Rua may have sustained. I thought Griffin won the 2nd and 3rd round, but round 2 was very close and Rua may well have gotten the decision if he could have held out for another 15 seconds. Very good all action fight that bettered a main event that exceeded expectations. R3 4:45.

WEC 27 5/12/07

Marcus Hicks vs. Sergio Gomez. You don’t want to be a one-dimensional fighter, but sometimes you can beat yourself by not sticking to your obvious advantage. Gomez is an electric puncher with super fast hands who was rocking Hicks anytime he had the distance to do so, landing some brutal uppercuts and nearly closing Hicks’ left eye by the end of round 1. Gomez is apparently more comfortable on the ground due to his jiu jitsu background, but jiu jitsu is the majority of Hicks’ game. Gomez was certainly capable of hanging if not matching Hicks on the ground, but what was the point? Hicks showed nothing in standup, but Gomez would close the distance, clinch, and go for the takedown. Gomez landed a nice knee from the clinch and did score with the takedowns, but then Hicks had a chance. Hicks likes to use the guillotine, and tried to apply it standing in R1, but Gomez stopped his shoot and used his hands to defend so it was never a threat. In R2 Hicks transitioned into it from the ground, attaining body control before Gomez tried to react, and by then it was too late. Good fast paced match.