Interesting evening…Shonie Carter looked like he was ready to fall asleep, heavy eyelids and all…and looked like s**t the whole bout. Davis should have ended that fight before a decision, so I wouldn’t look for great things from him in the future, either.
The Koschek fight was entertaining though it seemed as though he took a step back in his development…GSP or Matt Hughes—or Diego Sanchez—would take him apart fairly easily, IMO.
Karo Parisyan and Drew Fickett was easily the most entertaining match of the evening, and of course the most bloody. A good back-and-forth bout that seemed like it could have gone either way, though it was apparent Fickett just didn’t do enough to win, and I can’t disagree with the judges’ scoring on this one. Karo’s got some work to do, though, to be considered at the top of the now ultra-competitive welterweight division.
And then there’s Diego Sanchez…a very interesting study in contrasting styles between he and Riggs, and it was a simultaneous set of rights that landed from each fighter—Sanchez’ just had a bit more ooomph to his and good on him for sensing that and going in for the kill, not letting Diesel recover at all. DS seems to have lots of skill and if his stand up continues to improve, I can see some good matches with either Hughes (should he stick around for a while) or with GSP, though St.Pierre is certainly the more well-rounded fighter at the moment IMO.
Overall, I would score the night a 3 out of 5 stars…one very boring match, two decent ones and one very good, entertaining one. And how about that crowd----could they have been any more into it?
Good fights, Shonie looked a bit like a dud, and the Irish handgrenade should have unleashed his bombs…IMHO. Diego has got some serious focus and no longer surprises me. I agree that Karo and Drew was the best fight, it was an absolute battle.
Liddell Ortiz. I am hoping that fight will be epic. I have a feeling it will be the Liddell show and he will own Tito. Of course, Tito still goes home with Jenna, so who is the real winner?
Oh man that will be one hell of a night in Vegas. Who else if fighting? I know Michael Bisping is fighting but I am not sure who he is fighting.
Liddell and Ortiz…I can’t even imagine who will win that, Tito wants his belt back and Liddell wants to keep it, I don’t know who will be the most motivated
Should be a great night overall—Forrest Griffin, Michael Bisping, Leben, Arlovski on the card. Should be good stuff.
Liddell/Ortiz—watched their first fight last week on “Unleashed”, and it was interesting to see how tentative Tito was. Haven’t seen him fight like that since, and I would imagine he would be a bit more aggressive this time…though as we’ve seen with many that have fought Liddell, that could backfire in a hurry. Count me in as one who is very much looking forward to this one!
I don’t know who will win, but I love Liddell’s style. I think he just waits for an opening and then POW. In his last couple of fights it seems that people just refuse to watch film. It seems to me that people have tried to punch it out with him, which I think is idiotic. Is he just so tought to take down that people refuse to try? That is one bad dude.
Here are the undercards:
Jardine v. Griffin (I want Griffin to win, but I think this one will be close)
Arlowski v. Cruz (Arlowski with that great beard. Who wouldn’t be afraid of that face?)
MacDonald v. Leben (Not sure on this one)
Schafer v. Bisping (I want to see Bisping actually win this one)
The rest may or may not be broadcast:
DeSouza v. Alves
Marrero v. Gonzaga
Okami v. Singer
Perosh v. Wellisch
Diego—I think GSP would absolutely destroy him. With the exception of BJ Penn, who is just a freak of nature, I don’t think there is anyone in MMA who is so dominating (with of course the MAJOR exception being Fedor, who just destroys everyone he faces (and would embarass anyone in the HW UFC)). He destroyed Hughes, humiliated Trigg, and gutted one out over Penn.
Give Diego a few more years, but what weapon does he have that GSP doesn’t have 2-3 answers for?
As for Riggs–that guy needs to take break as he is getting beaten every time out & seems to have lost something.
And as for Jenna & Tito–ran into them in Big Bear on Thanksgiving day buying a turkey at the supermarket up there…lets just say that w/o some makeup & airbrushing, she looks a bit rough…and I’m being kind.
I’d love for Tito to win, but 4 fights in one year is tough. I think Lidell has too many weapons.
Griffin? Can you say emperor has no clothes? Going to be a tough road back for him & after what Silva did to him, don’t think he wants back in that ring anytime soon.
I figured there was a of confusion there. Anderson Silva destroyed Franklin! That was pretty upsetting actually. I was hoping for a bit more out of Franklin or a little less from Silva.
Love it. It used to be a mess, especially in the 1990s with little or no rules, weight classes & every biker/tough guy out there was climbing into the octagon & making a mess of things.
Now? Its much, much different. Both UFC & Pride have their own problems, but the skill sets the (current) top guys bring to the ring is quite impressive, and while guys like Forrest are still pretty much one-trick-ponies & little removed from bare-knuckle brawlers, guys like Anderson Silva & especially George St. Pierre are ridiculous atheletes, and the future of the sport.
Watch 5-10 episodes of UFC Unleashed on spike to get a feel for the sport, and then rent (or youtube) the GSP/Matt Hughes title fight from last month, or the Anderson Silva title fight against Rich Franklin—you’ll see an entirely different class of fighter than what is mainly out there.
Compared to boxing, MMA is like human chess–you have to be thinking 3-4 moves ahead, anticipating what your oponent is doing not just with his hands, but with his feet + cage positioning. While striking is what carries most of these guys, the real art is when there is grappling involved & the moves & combination that the jujitsu guys can pull off is astounding.
If UFC & Pride were to work together, the combined sport, world-wide, would be bigger than anything except soccer & probably basketball. Spike’s UFC Fight Night is already one of the most popular shows on cable, and it outdrew the World Series this year in several demographics. Give it some time–it both appeals to the basest of human nature, in that is is visually more violent than boxing, while at the same time being much, much safer & technical.
I think Sanchez got lucky…he may have still won but I watched the final few seconds a few times and Riggs slips as he goes to recover. If that slip didn’t happen, Sanchez doesn’t get the knee in and the fight goes longer. Diego may still have won, but not that easily. I was looking forward to the Kos fight and personally, was unimpressed. He has a great takedown but after that, nothing that will take him to the top. Joslin was a newby to UFC and had pretty good standup and great defense…Kos won purely on his takedowns. If Joslin had better takedown defence, he would have won since he was the better striker and better on the ground. His butterfly defense was awesome.
The Dec 30 card will be good. Tito can’t make a mistake…if he does, Liddell will jump on him, in his typical manner. But I’ve seen Liddell get beat before and it can happen again. If Tito comes in as prepared as he can be, it should be a great fight. But the one to watch in my opinion is the Leben-MacDonald fight (and not just becasue I’m Canadian). MacDonald is awesome…an amazing athlete, great patience and great on the ground. If he beats Leben, it will set him up large for a future run, IMHO.
All in all some good fights to end the year and some great ones coming up in the new year (can you say UFC in Montreal…GSP-Hughes rematch???) Should be a great 2007 for UFC.
I agree. From what I’ve seen Sanchez is over rated. His wins were not that impresive. His fight with Nick Diaz didn’t show me anything. He won due to being on top more, but Diaz showed awesome defencive skills and gave some nice shots from the bottom.
As to Diego vs. GSP, certainly as I posted above GSP is the more well-rounded fighter at this point…and one could argue that Sanchez was a bit “lucky” with the connect to Riggs on Wednesday night, but let’s say that heretofore Diego has not been known to be much of a striker, and that punch did indeed do some damage to Riggs, did it not?
Sanchez himself says he’s taking his time----whether he can ever beat GSP we shall see at some point, but he is on the right track. Guys get beat sometimes, and then there’s guys that fight nobodies to pile up an impressive record. Thus far, Diego has not been beaten and he has not fighten pure “nobodies”.
Carter/Davis:
Davis has improved a lot, and was actually pretty impressive IMO. Shonie Carter is impossible to sub, and he almost did it. He got closer to a ground win over Shonie than Matt Sera did, and that’s just amazing. Combine real ground game with bona-fide boxing skills, and this guy could wind up being really good. Remember, Shonie makes everyone look bad, even when they win.
Kos/Joslin:
What part of “BJJ blackbelt and multiple time National Karate champ” did you miss? Joslin is a seriously talented guy, and Kos handled him. Granted, this looked like a lay and pray victory to a casual observer, but Joslin has a fantastic guard, and made life really, really hard for Kos after the takedown. Did you see that triangle? Man, saved by the bell! I was hoping Kos would lose this one, and he would have if he had not improved considerably since his RNC loss to Fickett, who is nowhere near as good on the ground as Joslin is.
Koschek is a young Matt Hughes, but he’s going to be even better, because he’s probably the best wrestler in MMA not named Lindland. Too bad Kos is also such an A-hole…
Karo/Fickett:
Again, don’t underestimate the winner just because the opponent made this a close(ish) fight. Remember, Fickett is the only blemish on Koschek’s record, and a serious threat to anyone in this division. Karo won this one in a shut-out, and if Fickett hadn’t landed that elbow from the guard, it wouldn’t have been nearly as close. Remember, that much blood makes sub wins nearly impossible, and Karo is a sub or decision guy with only one KO to his credit.
Diego/Riggs:
Well, all the boxing lessons with the DeLaHoya camp are paying off, 'nuff said. He's the real deal, and likely to be the biggest star in all of the combat sports at some point in the future. Look for a UFC fight in Mexico at some point in the future, and a gigantic bidding war for his services when his Ultimate Fighter contract runs out...
but Joslin has a fantastic guard, and made life really, really hard for Kos after the takedown.
Points well taken…Joslin is apparently a UFC newbie but does have skills, and Koschek did an excellent job at taking him down, even though Joslin had good defensive ability. Have to watch it again.
Davis has improved, but for whatever reason Shonie just looked…off/awful. Seems to me that he should have been able to finish Carter off but chose not to try, perhaps being fearful of some sort of weird counter from Shonie and decided to play it safe instead. He won, so I suppose in the grand scheme that’s what counts.
How about this future matchup… GSP gains about 15 pounds (he could do it in his legs alone) and Anderson Silva comes down a bit in weight. That would be awesome!