Good night I thought and as usual I'd like to stress that I'm no where near as clued up about fighters as most people so all of this is just my opinion. Serra v Trigg Spoiler Only time I've seen Trigg fight was online against Matt Hughes when Matt somehow reversed that rnc. I thought trigg was donig ok in this fight though wasn't really landing big but for a first round I thought the jabs were a nice idea. Beautiful right though Maia v Miller Spoiler I was phasing in and out of consciousness during this fight so I don't remember much but I was impressed with Miller's scrambles. I only know Maia by reputaiton since the only fight of his I've seen was him getting KO'd by Marquardt but for such a reknowned bjj fighter I was kinda dissapointed by how Miller seemed to be able to negate him a lot on the ground. Swick v Thiago Spoiler Ah Swick,I haven't seen him fight in ages not since I started watching the highlight shows that got me into martial arts. Again I was pretty much asleep by this point and I don't really remember the fight other than a nice leg kick from Thiago and the choke at the end but I loved the finish. Think thats the quickest I've seen a guy go out Marquardt v Sonnen Spoiler Dude, dissapointment of the night for me. I hadn't heard of Nate before I bought the game but watching his fights and reading about him I really didn't expect that level of domination but fair play to him he didn't completely lay down and die. Impressed by Sonnen and I'm looking forward to seeing him fight Silva, if anyone can give me some idea what Sonnen's like on his feet that'd be appreciated. This one also wins the award for making me sit up and go "come on, come on, come on..." I really, really though that guillotine was going to end it and I was depressed like mad when it didn't work. Couture v Coleman Spoiler AS proof of how bad an mma fan I am I've never seen Coleman fight or Couture much although I'm picking up some stuff on him reading his book and I was very impressed with him when he fought Lesnar. Coleman I know has a lot of respect in mma and he has it for a reason but he did look sloppy to me in that fight. Bit harsh for me to talk down a legend but there it is, he just wasn't there IMO. And Ortiz made himslef look like a twit again. I really dont like the dude. Soooo what did you think of the night?
I didn't see Serra-Trigg, but from what I understand, many people were surprised he didn't shoot for the takedown. His ground-and-pound is much better than his stand-up, and Serra has proven that he hits hard on the feet, dropping everyone from Karo to Hughes to GSP. Trigg has since been cut from the UFC. I was pretty sure he was going to lose to Kos, but he blew it here by not capitalizing on his strengths and at least putting up a good fight. Maia is an incredible BJJ fighter. He looks like poetry in motion on the ground. I was more impressed with Miller's ability to keep the fight standing than anything else. With that said, that match was full of sloppy stand-up. Not pretty. Mike Swick needs to learn how to fight like a tall, lanky fighter. He could (and probably should) have circled away and kept Thiago at the end of his jab, but instead pressed forward and mixed it up. Thiago's shorter reach helped him on the inside. That was a beautiful D'arce choke, and Swick was out almost immediately. Chael Sonnen's submission defense, for years, amounted to screaming like a girl whenever someone caught a limb. Now he's fixed that hole in his game and has steadily improved his striking as well. This was a pretty good fight, but I was disappointed in Marquardt's bottom game. He was busy holding on to the back of Sonnen's head instead of trying to wrap up his arms, which were actually the things that were damaging him. It just seemed like Marquardt had a bad game plan to me, or didn't execute the one he should have. The main event was almost sad. I've seen Coleman muscle through and pound out guys in his prime, but in this fight, he was a smaller, weaker, slower, older version of the guy who was one of the most feared men in MMA's early years. Couture was much better on the feet, took him down at will, and subbed him almost without a fight. It was a fight that make Randy look good, and probably spelled the end of Coleman's career. In the other fights, Rolles Gracie was practically a disgrace to the family. He gassed out super-fast, had no stand-up, and his takedowns were poor. It's like he didn't even want to be there. I was also surprised, as were the guys who watched it with me, at the result of the Guillard-Torres fight. I thought the stand-up was nearly even, but Torres was doing a little better, but the grappling was all Torres. I don't understand how getting taken down and being on the bottom makes you a winner.
So what do you predict for Maia v Silva? Personally I wanted Marquardt to get the shot since Maia doesn't seem that great boxing and I can see him getting picked apart. Again, most of my ufc knowledge is now comign form quikcly watching fight videos of fighters with good reputations but from what I've seen Marquardt is a much better fighter than what he showed against Sonnen and, at least looking at their faces, did more damage. Seemed to me Sonnen did the normal wrestler trick and lay on the other guy for 15 minutes. Hey you never know maybe he didn't? I feel sorry for any Gracie now they've got so much pressure on them but that said he looked poor and thre UFC were right to drop him.
