Damn I don't want to use the spoiler tags so I ain't saying much but damn I was pretty surprised in at least 2 fights. Hope y'all are catching the show free stateside!
I was gutted thought the show started at 11pm on ESPN only to get in at 10:50 turn the tv on and it started at 8pm with all the match highlights and winners being announced! GREAT that was a waste of hard disk recording space Looking foward to UFC 106 next week mind!
ok I think its cool to post spoilers right? Really really disappointed in Dennis Kang. Bispbing really did break him mentally. I wasn't rootin against Bispbing as much as I was rootin for Kang. Really dissappointed. Dan Hardy's win... not a surprise kind of. I mean I never really thought Swick was ever top 10. Dan Hardy is definitely movin up. Is he worthy of a title shot. I gotta say no but I wasn't shocked he beat Swick. Couture vs. Vera. I don't know what shocked me more. Couture's slowness or his continued dominance.... Erghh I gotta say his continued dominance. I definitely feel Couture coulda out striked Vera 5 years ago at least in terms of beating him to the punch. So seeing him strike I was expecting him to stick to dirty boxing but wasn't surprised Vera could still whip a kick hard to his gut. I was surprised how quickly he restored the pace of the game after the whip kick though. I thought that he was going to fold after that but he kept on clinching and even lettin his hands fly a bit more. I wasn't surprised at Vera's continued lameness. Never saw why he got so much hype. Any dude can look good in 2 or 3 fights. I never saw anything devastating about Vera ever. I don't think Vera will ever be more than a gatekeeper.
Man Vera gets no love. The guy has absolutely great technique. He is very technically sound. A good fighter. I thought Vera was robbed against Jardine and also against Couture. But he needs to not let it go to the judges...
The Winner-Delgado fight was the most exciting. Delgado could still be having trouble stringing a sentence together after the way he got knocked out.
I think Dan Hardy is a good fighter but needs to fight in the US before he faces G.S.P i may be wrong but i think he has only fought in the uk
I don't understand how anyone can think Vera was robbed. Each round is judged individually of all the others. Randy definitely won the first. VEra definitely won the 2nd. The third was close due to Veras take down at the end, however Randy got up quickly. It was a close ifght, it could have gone either way. Neither really dominated the other so no one got robbed. I was dissapointed by Joe Rogans little rant about the decision at the end. It was very disrespectful to Randy (The rant got edited out on spike TV apparantly, but if you watched live you know what I mean) . I was most impressed by Ross Pearson. Very fluid striker. Hardy did well but he will still get destroyed in the cage with GSP he needs more fights.
Why? What does the geography of his fights have to do with how worthy an opponent he is? Although, incidentally, he's actually fought in the US already. And in Japan. He's more well-traveled than GSP, if you want to get down to it. It's all a matter of opinion, of course, but I disagree. It was a pretty one-sided beating. I preferred the fight between Brown and Wilks. Both guys showed technique, toughness, and heart. We saw submission attempts, takedown attempts, and a fair bit of striking, even if it wasn't too technical. They kept up a pretty good pace for three rounds. I thought that was "Fight of the Night", compared to Bisping-Kang, which had a pretty boring first round (aside from the knockdown) and was unspectacular in the second round. After the initial GNP from Bisping, Kang just mentally crumbled, and didn't show any of that black belt BJJ skills. Luckily for him, he fights at 155 I liked his pressure, his improved striking, and how easily he blended the strikes with the clinchwork. I'm definitely keeping an eye on him. I thought the main event could have gone either way. Couture will probably always have the advantage in the clinch game at 205, but there are some quick strikers there that can catch him. For a bit of trivia, he's now the oldest victor in a UFC match (46). The record for oldest participant is still 51, set by Ron Van Cleif at UFC 4. However, I can almost believe Couture can break that record, if he picks the right fights. Unlikely, I know; file it in the "wouldn't it be neat" column. I like Hardy's striking and gameness, but GSP will just take him down and rearrange his face with elbows. Seriously, Rush needs to move up in weight. The only remotely challenging fight for him at 170 now is Jake Shields, who's in another org, or maybe Paul Daley, who didn't show much TD defense or ground game vs. Shields a few years ago. I wonder if GSP and Silva could be ready to fight one another by the end of the year?
You make good points. The Jardine fight was also not a robbery, but a close decision. My choice of words were poor. My point is that Vera has some very good skills and only got dominated in one of his losses (Werdum). Yet no one seems to like him. Maybe I'm just lonely as a Vera fan and bitter.
I'm saying it doesn't matter. They could hold the fight outside of Hardy's front door, and GSP would still win. It doesn't matter where he gets his passport stamped, he's still outgunned in every aspect of the fight. The Canadian is bigger, stronger, probably faster, and has better takedowns, takedown defense, ground-and-pound, ground grappling, submissions, striking, and transitions between these skills. I agree that travel can affect performance, but that's the least of Hardy's worries.
Y'know that reminds me I'm really not a big fan of fighters who are super tall for their weight classes. They never stick to the outside striking they usually don't use those long limbs for Jujitsu. Even if they do use jujitsu like in the case of Kendall Grove in his last fight they might even be so long that their opponent might slip through their grip. Tall light guys just don't carry any power. So when they punch they just don't pack any power cuz they're all skin and bones. Maybe if I actually saw a tall light fighter stick to the outside I might see them fight interesting but all too often they get knocked out and don't control from the outside. Delgado needs to beef up and move up one weight. If he still can't hang he needs to find a new job. I'm so sick of seeing tall skinny dudes get knocked out.
I agree with you thats what i meant by needing more fights in the US maybe against a previous contender or champ like serra or hughes dont want to see him served up as cannon fodder
Taking your example, would his fights with Serra or Hughes have less meaning if they were in the UK as opposed to the US? Hardy is a fair opponent. His toughest competition has come since his UFC debut, but he really hasn't been tested that much. Having competitive matchups with Davis and Swick don't bode well for him. On the other hand, who's left for GSP? Koscheck has run hot-and-cold, and didn't look that good against him the first time they fought; Anthony Johnson has potential, but has two losses and weight-cutting issues; Daley only has one UFC win and looked terrible the last time he faced a good wrestler (Shields); Hughes, Serra, Fitch, Penn, and Alvez all lost to him pretty decisively the last time they fought. He needs to either retire or move up in weight.
