Ufc 79

http://mmafightvideos.blogspot.com/
http://mmafever.blogspot.com/2007/12/ufc-79-nemesis-fight-videos.html

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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...

 

I,too, was mistaken.

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

 

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?

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

I'll have a look at it later