Ufc 79

[bujingodai]

So is there any fights confirmed for that night other than the 3 advertised on the website?

[pauli]

mmaweekly says:

-Chuck Liddell (#4 Light Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Wanderlei Silva (#5 Light Heavyweight in the World)*
-Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (#6 Light Heavyweight in the World)* vs. Lyoto Machida
-Dean Lister vs. Jordan Radev
-Manny Gamburyan vs. Nate Mohr
-Rich Clementi vs. Melvin Guillard
-Roan Carneiro vs. Tony DeSouza
-Doug Evans vs. Mark Bocek
-Eddie Sanchez vs. Soa Palalei
-James Irvin vs. Luis Cane

[DaeHanL]

what about GSP and Hughes?

[duderanch182]

Tut tut for forgetting GSP vs Hughes ;)

I'm surprised Guillard is fighting as I thought he had an 8 month ban from fighting for taking cocaine, he shouldn't allowed to fight until January 2008 if I read everythin correctly.

[KickinIt]

Better be better than UFC 78!

Wonder what UFC will do when they get past the 100 mark, UFC 101, 102..............UFC 753.

[Davey Bones]

Dude, there ins't much that could be WORSE than the last one!

[DaeHanL]

Dude, there ins't much that could be WORSE than the last one!
tell me about it. i couldn't believe i paid money to watch that terrible horse-manure. thiago silva vs houston alexader was the only semi-interesting fight of the night...

[bujingodai]

I hope Manny does fight. I'd like to see him win after that shoulder issue in the TUF final

[funnytiger]

I really want to see Manny and Nate go at it again. Manny was clearly winning that fight (points wise) before his shoulder popped out.

[bujingodai]

I am suprised this isn't being talked about a little more considering the event has been touted so much.

Any predictions for the fights?

[Davey Bones]

I think a lot of people just don't care. Serra's out and Lidell hasn't been up to form. I just read an interview with him, and he's clueless about how to approach this fight.

[bujingodai]

Oh that is a shame. I have been waiting for the fight for sometime. I guess we'll just have to see if this card works out.

Personally I don't care much for Serra so that was no loss to me.

But here are my pics just for giggles.

Silva
GSP
Sokoudjo
Clementi
Manny
Sanchez
Irvin
Lister
DeSouza
Bocek

I am liklely wrong on a bunch but hey good for discussion

[callsignfuzzy]

My picks-

GSP by (T)KO, R2.
Manny by UD. Dude's crazy strong w/good grappling.
I'd like to see Lister and DeSouza win, just 'cause I know who they are.
Machida vs. Sokoudjou is tough to call. Machida's got an awkward style, and I haven't seen that much of Sok. I saw Machida's experience and game planning takes it by UD, but of Sok scores a KO it won't be a surprise.
And finally, the main event! I don't care, I'm still psyched about this one, even though it's supposedly two years too late. Some say that Silva's relentless forward pressure plays right into Chuck's hands. However, if he can get inside the Ice Man's reach, I don't think Liddell will have any answer for his clinch. I just think Silva's got more tools here, so I'll give him a R1 KO. I hope they have some good undercard bouts, 'cause there's a bunch of these fights that have the potential to end pretty early.

The rest? Don't know or don't care.

[Sever]

Results - please keep the spoiler tags in until tomorrow :)

-Mark Bocek def. Doug Evans by unanimous decision
-Roan Carneiro def. Tony DeSouza by TKO, R2.
-Dean Lister def. Jordan Radev by Unanimous Decision
-Manny Gamburyan def. Nate Mohr by submission (ankle lock) at 1:31, R1
-James Irvin def. Luis Cane by Disqualification (illegal strike to downed opponent) at 1:51, R1
-Rich Clementi def. Melvin Guillard by Submission (rear naked choke) at 4:40, R1
-Lyoto Machida def. Sokoudjou by Submission (head and arm triangle choke) at 4:20, R2
-Eddie Sanchez def. Soa Palelei by TKO (referee's stoppage due to strikes) at 3:24, R3
-Chuck Liddell def. Wanderlei Silva by unanimous decision
-Georges St. Pierre def. Matt Hughes by Submission (armbar) at 1:54, R2

Liddell/ Silva was a pretty good fight; maybe not as good as I was hoping (frankly, I was hoping for a Silva win), but far from the borefest I was fearing. St Pierre just DOMINATED Hughes bell-to-bell and it's a kinda fitting end to the trilogy that GSP won by armbar (which is how Hughes won the first bout). The Machida/ Sokoujou fight was pretty cool too
All-in-all, a good end to the year for the UFC. They've not had the greatest of years IMO - most of their events haven't been that good, they've made what I consider to be some bad calls (putting titles on hold for their crappy reality show, buying then killing Pride, missing some big signings, Randy drama etc), but this event was pretty solid. Roll on Yarennoka

[Thomas]

Thanks for the summaries! Overall I thought it was a pretty good show!

-Manny Gamburyan def. Nate Mohr by submission (ankle lock) at 1:31, R1
I liked the match... I like Manny and hope his shoulder holds out. His submission was realy cool!

-Rich Clementi def. Melvin Guillard by Submission (rear naked choke) at 4:40, R1
Ugggghh - what I didn't like was all the WWE-like and juvenile posing and talking crap and swearing and such. I don't like it as a fan and think all it does is encourage the "thug" mentality and image of MMA. If you can't act professional, don't be a professional, I'm sure there are young hungry professionals who would love that spot on a PPV.

-Lyoto Machida def. Sokoudjou by Submission (head and arm triangle choke) at 4:20, R2
I hate to say it but when they mentioned that Sokoudjou was an ex-PRIDE guy who hadn't been in the UFC yet, I didn't have high expectations at all. Maybe they should have the ex-PRIDE guys do a few non-televised matches to see if they compete at their expected levels...

-Eddie Sanchez def. Soa Palelei by TKO (referee's stoppage due to strikes) at 3:24, R3
Heh heh heh... I sort of like Eddie (excpet for his smack talking after the match was stopped). I get the impression he is supposed to be used like those WWE "jobbers" who put the other over by getting beat up. Seeing him win was great over the guy who was "supposed" to win.

-Chuck Liddell def. Wanderlei Silva by unanimous decision
I was worried about how Silva would fight... the whole ex-PRIDE thing and all but I was pretty happy with the match, it was exciting (although didn't have much aside from some boxing in it). This was a good match though!

-Georges St. Pierre def. Matt Hughes by Submission (armbar) at 1:54, R2
I loved this - I was hoping GSP would win becuase I like his attitude, class, and style. At the same time, I really wanted to see Hughes win so he could face Serra. Great match!

[Stevebjj]

Some good jiu jitsu last night.

[callsignfuzzy]

I didn't see the PPV itself, but saw some of the matches on the 'net today. It took some restraint not to read any spoilers before seeing the matches, though. Was there really a lot of smack-talk going on? Doesn't sound too good, but I suppose it sells tickets.

Climente impressed me with his kicks and guard work (armbar-omaplata-sweep to side control... nice!), and I was surprised he took down Guillard. Granted that Guillard isn't really at the top of the 155lbs division, but maybe this is a revival of Rich's career?

Machida continues to impress me with his technical, methodical, and somewhat unexciting style. That said, after seeing two of his fights on PPV I'm not sure why people describe him as "boring". It was also nice to see him finish a fight. Sokoudjou, I think, has the potential to be a great GNP fighter, with his Judo sweeps/takedowns and his natural power, and while Team Quest might help him refine that style, I'd like to see him train with some good BJJ guys so he doesn't flounder on his back anymore. And his lack of sub defense... I mean, Machida telegraphed that choke, if you could call a sub telegraphed. Soko had about a minute to defend against it, but really had nothing. I think he's got tons of potential, but his glaring weakness right now is his BJJ/sub/bottom game. The match also left me wondering who they'll match Machida against next? He's a tough fight for anyone, it looks like.

GSP vs. Hughes... wow. It was like their second fight, only on the ground. To see Hughes get "Matt Hughes'ed" was a sight to behold. Nice transitions by GSP, especially gaining the sprawl possition when Hughes tried to turn into his guard (gotta be seen to be believed, folks), and in the final submission sequence.

As for Liddell-Silva, it was one hell of a fight, and I'm surprised, but not really disappointed, that nobody got KO'd. The second round was one of the best rounds in MMA I think I've seen. Both guys looked like they were wobbled at different points in the fight, Silva more so. I've gotta give it to him, he showed some heart in staying in there and surviving against Chuck's onslaughts. I also underestimated Liddell's ability to avoid the clinch, and his reach advantage really came into play, with him scoring in exchanges where Silva barely missed. Chuck also showed some of his forgotten wrestling background, and smartly took Silva down for about the last 20 seconds of R3. He showed greater variety in his strikes, too, with spinning backfists, elbows, and even front kicks coming into play. This was probably the best and smartest Liddell I've seen, certainly since he became champ.

Overall, some very exciting fights, of the ones that I saw.

[Infrazael]

I look forward to an improved Silva.

[NaziKiller]

Was rooting for Silva :<. Still IMO the best striker in MMA. Better luck next time.

[RussianKenpo05]

I didn't see the PPV itself, but saw some of the matches on the 'net today. It took some restraint not to read any spoilers before seeing the matches, though. Was there really a lot of smack-talk going on? Doesn't sound too good, but I suppose it sells tickets.

Climente impressed me with his kicks and guard work (armbar-omaplata-sweep to side control... nice!), and I was surprised he took down Guillard. Granted that Guillard isn't really at the top of the 155lbs division, but maybe this is a revival of Rich's career?

Machida continues to impress me with his technical, methodical, and somewhat unexciting style. That said, after seeing two of his fights on PPV I'm not sure why people describe him as "boring". It was also nice to see him finish a fight. Sokoudjou, I think, has the potential to be a great GNP fighter, with his Judo sweeps/takedowns and his natural power, and while Team Quest might help him refine that style, I'd like to see him train with some good BJJ guys so he doesn't flounder on his back anymore. And his lack of sub defense... I mean, Machida telegraphed that choke, if you could call a sub telegraphed. Soko had about a minute to defend against it, but really had nothing. I think he's got tons of potential, but his glaring weakness right now is his BJJ/sub/bottom game. The match also left me wondering who they'll match Machida against next? He's a tough fight for anyone, it looks like.

GSP vs. Hughes... wow. It was like their second fight, only on the ground. To see Hughes get "Matt Hughes'ed" was a sight to behold. Nice transitions by GSP, especially gaining the sprawl possition when Hughes tried to turn into his guard (gotta be seen to be believed, folks), and in the final submission sequence.

As for Liddell-Silva, it was one hell of a fight, and I'm surprised, but not really disappointed, that nobody got KO'd. The second round was one of the best rounds in MMA I think I've seen. Both guys looked like they were wobbled at different points in the fight, Silva more so. I've gotta give it to him, he showed some heart in staying in there and surviving against Chuck's onslaughts. I also underestimated Liddell's ability to avoid the clinch, and his reach advantage really came into play, with him scoring in exchanges where Silva barely missed. Chuck also showed some of his forgotten wrestling background, and smartly took Silva down for about the last 20 seconds of R3. He showed greater variety in his strikes, too, with spinning backfists, elbows, and even front kicks coming into play. This was probably the best and smartest Liddell I've seen, certainly since he became champ.

Overall, some very exciting fights, of the ones that I saw.
anyone have a link to watch the bouts online?

[Southpaw535]

Liddell's was the best Ive seen in the short time I've watched UFC. ONe of the bloodiest too! IS anyone going to UFC 80?

[callsignfuzzy]

anyone have a link to watch the bouts online?
http://mmafightvideos.blogspot.com/
http://mmafever.blogspot.com/2007/12/ufc-79-nemesis-fight-videos.html

[slipthejab]

Wow... some clean BJJ techniques going on there.

Guillard VS Clementi
Had some nice moves in it. Clementi showed some good BJJ skills there to finish that one fast.

The Liddell VS Silva
Meh. Silva seems like he always cuts around the eyes easily and he ate a ton of the little probing jabs that Liddell threw. To his credit he wasn't afraid to go toe to toe in stand up... but he got sucked into Liddells game plan it seems. With Liddells reach I don't think that'd have ever worked out for Silva. Chuck was smart and kept moving never getting set in one spot. I think everyone knew that Silva wasn't going to get in on Chucks reach. Anyone with less courage and softer punches maybe... but not Chuck.

Lioto VS Sokoudjou
I thought Lioto was going to get murdered. But looks and size ain't everything as we all know and he showed great strategy not only dominating Soko on the ground but getting through with lots of stand up shots as well. Nice work... Very technical. It seems someone forgot to tell Soko about sweeps. He had lots of opportunity to sweep from the guard or on his back... but he never tried it. Not once. Jeez.

[Patrick_baji]

chuck used his wrestling as well...for the first time since......that pride tournament he entered maybe?

I got owned on ufcfantasy.com, only picked 1/6 winners lol

[duderanch182]

Not a bad show imo.

Clementi vs Guilard
I was expecting that Clementi would take down Guilard and submit him so no surprise. The smack talk didn't bother me as it happens a lot in sport and did make me laugh at the end when Clementi wound up Guilard but that is partly because I don't like Guilard.

Machida vs Sokoudjou
I hate to admit but Machida is a good all round fighte and deserves a title shot soon though I do have to say that his fights are pretty boring to watch.

Liddel vs Silva
We all knew it would be mostly a stand up war and was pretty good to watch but not surprised that no one was knocked out. Who will Chuck face next? I think he should fight Rashad Evans.

Pierre vs Hughes
I was worried Pierre would not be fully prepared but how wrong was I. Wow George is amazing and will destroy Serra when they eventually fight. I hope to see Pierre and Jon Fitch fight one day. Who could Hughes fight now if he does not retire? I hope that Serra and Hughes fight one day as that will be a good fight imo.

[Satsui_No_Hadou]

Peirre is just pwning atm! He completely destroyed Matt at his own game!

[DaeHanL]

actually, i believe Soko had one single leg sweep near the end. but it didn't do much for him. i thought the liddell vs. silva fight was ok at best. chuck at least wasn't afraid of coming in, i felt that silva was. very unusual for the "axe murderer."

gsp is king. i too was fearful he wouldn't have the mental toughness or focus, but now i see really is at the peak of his performance. the best GSP i have ever seen. poor Serra, i bet he wishes he could have fought Hughes for his first title defense. i'm curious how much ring rust he'll have, last fight he had in the octagon was in april. so after he heals up it will have been at least a year...

[Moridin2]

I also thought Sokoudjou would abuse Lyoto Machida. Oh boy!

Sokoudjou sucked! Sorry people, but if i was a betting man i'd say he threw the match. Ofcourse Machida won by skill and effort. But the one thing that shocked me is that Sokoudjou did <bleep> on the ground.

Wasn't he a serious judo guy???? I no longer take his resume/CV serious. He looked CLUELESS on the ground. Even the commentator said it.
Anyone can lose, but he got done so badly it was embarassing. My aunt would call him big-for-nothing. (go figure)

Then Wanderlei Silva....oh boy! What a disappointment. This man used to be viciously aggressive. Like a hyper-active kid. Against Liddell he was strangely slow. I know Liddel is a skilled puncher, but it didn't look like Silva was as we know him. Remember his two matches against Rampage for example?

Oh yeah, Guilard should indeed learn some jiu-jitsu. :)

[Sever]

Styles make fights. There was no point Silva rushing the great counter-puncher in Liddell the way he would anyone else - it'd lead to him getting his head knocked off. Coming off two KO losses, I can understand him being a little tentative, and Liddell's reach advantage was clearly problematic. That said, Silva came, fought and made no excuses and - assuming Liddell doesn't retire soon - I'd be shocked if there's not a rematch this year. The fight did, however, highlight the continuing problem with UFC judging - anyone who gave that fight 30-27 to Liddell (two judges) needs their eyes checking. Silva took the second round. I'd really like the UFC to either A) clarify their scoring criteria for their clueless judges, B) petition the SAC's for MMA-knowledgeable judges instead of boxing ones or C) actually develop a judging system that works for MMA. Not that Liddell didn't clearly win, but he didn't dominate the fight either
Machida, again, is a very difficult matchup for just about anyone. He's a totally different fighter to pretty much anyone on the scene and, as such is difficult to train for. Sokoujou clearly needs to spend more time training off his back, but Machida was always going to be a tough proposition

Moridin2, stop attempting to circumvent the profanity filter

[Davey Bones]

Thanks for the linkage. Wow, some great fights. Great jiu jitsu as pei commented. Liked the energy in the fights I've watched thus far. Will be back with comments on the main cards in a bit...

OH, I got a woody watching GSP make Hughes his bitch. Sever, if that's not appropriate, sorry. I *hate* Hughes, and although I personally disagree with the decision to have an interim title fight so quickly (especially with these two again), gotta give GSP props for being prepared on short notice and kicking butt and taking names.

Lidell/Silva. Wow. Expected more with all the hype. It was a great fight, and Chuck was certainly back in form (finally!), but it just seemed kinda "meh". Maybe it's because of the high energy of the other fights. It's nice to be wrong, looks like Lidell got his head together after his losses to Jardine and Jackson. He looked a million times better than he did in either of those fights. I still wanna know what on Earth is up with the PRIDE guys; another two bite the dust in the UFC.

[Sever]

I still wanna know what on Earth is up with the PRIDE guys; another two bite the dust in the UFC.Arena and ruleset, mostly, I think, though with Sokoujou & Wand it was also a stylistic clash. For all the conspiracy-theories/ "OMG Pride overrated/ exposed" crap that's touted by the keyboard warriors on far stupider forums than this one, the fact remains that it's tough competing in one style of ring under one ruleset and going to another. I found it a nightmare going from international rules kickboxing (allowing leg kicks) to full-contact rules (no strikes below the waist) bouts despite having trained quite a bit under that ruleset coming up to the bout, I can't imagine how tough it must be for someone like Wanderlei for whom stomps, soccer kicks and knees on the ground (not to mention the ring as opposed to an octagon) were his bread-and-butter to having to concentrate on fighting his muscle memory. Not to mention that a lot of Pride fighters have been put in there with solid fighters straight away, rather than getting some tune-up fights against complete cans
There'll be an adjustment period, no doubt, but I'd be surprised if by this time next year, Shogun (especially now his knee's healthy), Wanderlei, Nog and Sokoujou aren't hitting their stride again

[Moridin2]

Moridin2, stop attempting to circumvent the profanity filter
I thought i did the right thing by replacing a letter with * or #. Didn't mean to be cheat. It's just hard not to use certain pet-words. :) Sorry.

Well said Sever, i keep forgetting that there's a significant change of rules. I remember Silva for the insane stomps! Must say i think the Pride rules were better. Except for the ring/ropes.

UFC rules benefit the grappler because he will not be punished with kicks or knees for missing a take-down attempt as it's forbidden to kick/knee if the opponent is on his knee(s). Sucks.

PS Sever, my actual account is "Moridin" , but i can not acces it. I have tried to reactivate it, but the thing is; i lost acces to my old e-mail account. I made a new password and forgot it. So i can't click the link you guys sent me.
I would rather use my old account again. Can you guys help me?

[Thomas]

Arena and ruleset, mostly, I think, though with Sokoujou & Wand it was also a stylistic clash. For all the conspiracy-theories/ "OMG Pride overrated/ exposed" crap that's touted by the keyboard warriors on far stupider forums than this one, the fact remains that it's tough competing in one style of ring under one ruleset and going to another. I found it a nightmare going from international rules kickboxing (allowing leg kicks) to full-contact rules (no strikes below the waist) bouts despite having trained quite a bit under that ruleset coming up to the bout, I can't imagine how tough it must be for someone like Wanderlei for whom stomps, soccer kicks and knees on the ground (not to mention the ring as opposed to an octagon) were his bread-and-butter to having to concentrate on fighting his muscle memory. Not to mention that a lot of Pride fighters have been put in there with solid fighters straight away, rather than getting some tune-up fights against complete cans
There'll be an adjustment period, no doubt, but I'd be surprised if by this time next year, Shogun (especially now his knee's healthy), Wanderlei, Nog and Sokoujou aren't hitting their stride again


Really fascinating reply (and insightful). I was thinking the other day along similar lines while watching a Couture match and watching how Randy really exploited the rules to help him win. To me it seems like the rules become more and more important and have shifted MMA more towards the "sports" arena than towards the whole "as real as it gets" idea.


Now, before anyone gets all worked up and blasts back with the "MMA rocks in the cage and on the str33t and it's as real as fighting can be", I'm just saying I find it interesting to see where MMA is going (and where it has come from)... who knows, with a few more rules, maybe it'll look like WTF Taekwondo pretty soon. :D

[callsignfuzzy]

I was thinking, in the aftermath of Liddell-Silva, if or how things might have ended up differently if fought in Pride. I wanna preface this by saying that I thought it was a hell of a fight, I'm neither hating on Chuck or giving Wandy excuses, but rather trying to imagine how things would have been different.

There were a few times when the old Pride rules really would have benifited Silva. The "no elbows to the head" thing might have kept him from being cut, or at least cut so soon. There were also two times Chuck ended up on his butt (slip or knockdown, whatever) where Silva hesitated; maybe if the stomps and kicks to the downed opponent had been allowed he would have capitalized. And most importanly I think, the couple of times that Silva was backing up Liddell, Liddell was able to circle away, which is much easier in an eight-sided cage as opposed to a four-sided ring. How would things have changed if Silva had been able to corner him and finally unleash his knees?

Well, it's all speculation anyway. I still think it's a very, very good fight. I hope the former Pride fighters make the adjustment. I think one thing that may hurt them is the old "lock down the guard and wait for a standup" tactic that Silva and Crocop have utilized in the past. They need to either develop good sweeps or subs, pronto. The alternative is to be mauled by some good GNP or get LNP'd to a loosing decission.

[Sever]

I thought i did the right thing by replacing a letter with * or #. Didn't mean to be cheat. It's just hard not to use certain pet-words. :)Profanity is not permitted on this forum and trying to hide it's off limits too, so please refrain from such posts in the future
PS Sever, my actual account is "Moridin" , but i can not acces it. I have tried to reactivate it, but the thing is; i lost acces to my old e-mail account. I made a new password and forgot it. So i can't click the link you guys sent me.
I would rather use my old account again. Can you guys help me?I'll have a look at it later