The Flog!

UFC 107 contained some very strong submissions, stunning knock-outs and so-so fighting:

Frank Mir versus Cheick Kongo – Mir struck Kongo, partially putting Kongo out and then, from his back, applied a front guillotine. Mir had to tell Herb Dean that Kongo was unconscious. Dean lifted one of Kongo’s arms and watched it fall.Hadaka Jime – Front Naked Choke

When Kenny Florian fought Clay Guida, Florian struck a left and right and Guida went down. Florian grapevined him and applied a rear naked choke. Hadaka Jime – Rear Naked Choke

Damarques Johnson almost lost his match against Edgar Garcia when Garcia applied what is commonly called a Peruvian Necktie, a variation of a front guillotine. In this case, Garcia had his head to the floor, face down, and his legs at Johnson’s upper chest. Johnson fought the choke amazingly and managed to escape it. Later in the round, Johnson applied his own choke, Sankaku Jime – Triangle Choke, from the guard. He first up-kicked Garcia’s head, rocking him, and grabbing an arm, did a figure-of-four with the legs and Garcia tapped out. Submission of the Night.

The Knock Out of the Night went to T. J. Grant in his bout against Kevin Burns. Burns came close to knocking Grant out early in the round, but just before the buzzer for the end of round 1, Grant kneed Burns several times and then struck him on the jaw to knock him to the ground. Grant jumped on Burns and struck him four more times.

The B. J. Penn match against Diego Sanchez had the potential for fantastic ground game. Penn almost ended the match seconds on as he rocked Sanchez with a heavy strike, just as Joe Rogan talked about Penn’s striking abilities. He rocked Sanchez again near the end of the round. Sanchez was determined to take Penn to the ground, but Penn stuffed every attempt, and there were many – so many that the audience booed eventually. The single-leg take down attempts were consistently unsuccessful, but Sanchez continued to try them.

By the fifth round, Sanchez had many facial wounds, one of which was a vertical cut on the bottom lip. As with all the other rounds, Sanchez tried the single leg take down. He also dropped, but Penn sprawled his way out of the take down. When standing, Penn threw a kick to Sanchez’s face, striking him on the left forehead. This opened a huge gash, causing blood to gush down his body. TKO referee stoppage.

The Fight of the Night was a slugfest between Alan Belcher and Wilson Gouveia who stood toe-to-toe trading heavy strikes until a right upper cut by Belcher knocked Gouveia out.

My Opinion: If I were awarding the Fight of the Night, I would have given it to Johnson and Garcia. The men showed a variety of skills, standing and ground, were evenly matched and had an exciting bout. After Garcia struck Johnson successfully several times, Johnson actually gave kudos to his opponent during the match. It was fun to watch.

ayjay

December 15, 2009

The Ultimate Fighter Season 9 Finale (TUF9) was one of the best events the UFC has put on.  Not only was it free (yay), the fights got better and better, from one fight to the next. Even Joe Rogan changed his mind about which fight was the Fight of the Night.

The first broadcast fight was between Nate Diaz and Joe Stevenson. You’ll recall that in his bout with Diego Sanchez, Stevenson kept the fight standing and lost. In this battle, he and Diaz spent a great deal of time on the ground, trading guillotine choke attempts. Stevenson had Diaz at the fence several times applying knees. To avoid knees to the head, Diaz put one knee on the ground, but Stevenson was in control each time.

The best segment of round one had Stevenson trapping both of Diaz’s arms, one with his legs and the other with his arm. Diaz was at the fence and rolled over, but his arms were still trapped, with Diaz on the bottom. Diaz managed to escape, but then got put in a very tight guillotine, which came close to ending the fight.

Round two was more of the same, guillotine attempt by Diaz, Stevenson in Diaz’s half guard, Diaz turtling and Stevenson’s applying knees. Stevenson controlled the round while standing and on the ground.

Round three had Stevenson attempting a single leg take down, but Diaz did an harai goshi, ending up in Stevenson’s half guard and then full guard at the fence. Diaz managed to pass the guard.

Stevenson then did his own take down and kneed Diaz’s side at the fence.

Standing again, Diaz tried a take down and many, wild strikes, but little was connecting.

Unanimous decision in Stevenson’s favour.

The Ultimate Fighter lightweights were up next – Ross Pearson versus Andre Winner. I must admit, I thought Pearson had a wider range of skillsets than Winner, and would completely dominate Winner, who is mostly a stand-up guy.

Almost the entire match was standing, with many clinches at the fence as the men worked for superior positions. (I heard no booing here and this fight was not much different from the UFC 99 fight between Spencer Fisher and Caol Uno in which the audience booed throughout as the fighters jockeyed for position.) They traded knees, used dirty boxing, with Pearson throwing huge overhand looping strikes and Winner a flurry of body strikes just before the end of round one.

Round two had Pearson kicking to the head and body, trying a take own, and connecting with knees, while Winner managed a strong uppercut and knees of his own. The round ended with Winner’s flurry of strikes again.

Round three had the men in the clinch for a good portion again, trading strikes and knees. Pearson’s uppercuts were effective as was his take down of Winner. Winner went down to one knee and up again. While in the clinch, Winner had some shoulder strikes and short jabs. Pearson had a straight jab which rocked Winner.

Unanimous decision in Pearson’s favour, but Winner was not easily dismissed.

Chris Lytle and Kevin Burns came up next. Lytle had fifty-seven professional matches coming in to this fight.  Burns came in with ten. Lytle wanted to have fight of the night and knock out of the night, so we expected big things.

Lylte came out with huge punches, big looping strikes, and big kicks. Burns applied leg kicks, high kicks, body kicks, knees and strikes. He rocked Lytle with an uppercut, tried to deal with him on the floor, but Lytle came to. Burns followed up with many strikes and knees up to the buzzer.

Round two had Lytle rocking Burns with his overhand shots. Burns managed a take down, ending in half guard.

While standing Lytle kept striking Burns’s left side, doing combinations, one strike to the head, the other to the ribs. Burns backed up throughout most of the round, half turning his body as he went.

Round three began with a huge overhand right by Lytle which produced an enormous cut over Burns’ left eyebrow, with blood pouring down his face and chest immediately. That did not stop Burns, though, as he answered with a knee and body kick.

Lytle punched Burns’ left temple again, causing him to stumble. Burns tried head kicks and strikes, but he was exhausted.

Unanimous decision in Lytle’s favour.

The Ultimate Fighter welterweights Damarques Johnson and James Wilks fought next. Johnson mouthed off a great deal during season 9, opinionated, and expressing real hate toward Wilks.  Johnson was also regarded as the U.S. team’s best chance.

What we saw from start to finish of this fight was complete domination by Wilks. He began with strong jabs and knees, such that Johnson was protecting himself at the fence, unable to reciprocate.

Wilks took Johnson down and while in Johnson’s guard, tried a heel hook. Johnson slipped out of it, but a few seconds later Wilks tried it again.  Wilks then trapped one of Johnson’s legs and compressed it, while Johnson struck Wilks on the head many times as he tried to extricate from the leg compression.

While in Johnson’s guard, Wilks tried an oma plata, and as Johnson moved around, the arm got more and more trapped, such that people on our boat were groaning, imagining the worst.

Wilks grapevined Johnson and tried for the choke, but Johnson’s chin was down. For some seconds they fought this until Wilks trapped one of Johnson’s arms with his leg and tried for the choke again. Tapout at six seconds before the buzzer in round one. Technique of the Night.

Wilks’s battle with Johnson had the potential to be fight of the night until Diego Sanchez came out against Clay Guida. Both these fighters have at least two dozen professional fights. Sanchez is a BJJ black belt with one school and brown with his current school. Guida is a wrestler wth fantastic cardio, who came out singing and jumping.

The match went the full three rounds with both men succeeding in take downs and ground and pound. In round one, Sanchez connected with a head kick to Guida and Guida hit the dirt. We thought it was a knock out as his head bounced, but amazingly, Guida got up straight away.

Round two had Guida in Sanchez’s full guard and Sanchez elbowing the top of Guida’s head. Now Guida had blood from his nose and from the top of his head. Sanchez tried a Kimura, but Guida freed the arm and did some ground and pound. He then trapped Sanchez’s arm behind his back (we’d just mentioned it as a possibility).

Round three had Guida chasing Sanchez with strikes and combos. Sanchez really had slowed down by this point, even though he wasn’t the one bleeding profusely everywhere. Guida attempted a take down and Sanchez, an arm triangle, which Guida spun out of. While in Sanchez’s full guard again, Sanchez attempted the Kimura again. Blood was everywhere and Guida was slick, resulting in his avoiding all the arm bars.

Split decision in Sanchez’s favour. Fight of the Night. In the post-fight interview, Guida was still jumping around as he’d been before this brutal match. He’s amazing.

ayjay

June 21,1 2009

First off, I’m glad this was free. Doesn’t it seem as though we’re paying for fights every other week? PPV is expensive.

Now, as for this UFC, it was unusual in the number of knock-outs. After some nights in which everything is referee stoppage, or so it seems, we have this night in which most fights were short and to the point.

As for the individual fights: Koscheck versus Paulo Thiago. Joe Rogan just got finished criticizing Thiago’s propensity for dropping his hands when he clocked Koscheck with a right upper cut and a left to Koscheck’s temple. Koscheck was out on his feet after the first punch. He was angry at the referee’s stopping the action, but he sure looked loopy and out of it. So Thiago, the jiu jitsu six-time champion, won by punches while standing. Knock out of the night.

Demian Maia, a lefty, did a beautiful left-sided sasae tsurikomi ashi on Chael Sonnen to take him to the ground and then submitted Sonnen with a strong sankaku jime. I missed a comment he made at the end, something to the effect that you can still win without hurting the other guy. I prefer the fights without the blood spilling everywhere as well. Technique of the night.

The heavyweights, Junior Dos Santos and Stefan Struve (6’11″ with a 7″ reach advantage) had a very fast match with Dos Santos knocking out the twenty-one year old at the 54 second mark of round one. Although Struve has a huge win record (20-2), he looked a bit nervous and he’s very young. He really had no opportunity to do anything against Dos Santos, who was very aggressive and in-his-face from the bell. One thing of note, Struve was so tall that his shoulders came to the upper bar of the cage. 

The match between Nate Marquardt and Wilson Gouveia went to the third round, with rounds one and two going to Marquardt, who was the aggressor. In round one, Marquardt had nice kicks and punches to the body of Gouveia and managed to get out of a tight guillotine. Round two had Marquardt in Gouveia’s guard. Marquardt had some solid shoulder punches and elbows. He let Gouveia get up, but Gouveia had hands down and was wobbling. I thought it was finished until Gouveia threw a couple of punches right before the bell. Round Three had Gouveia looking pooped, hands down, plodding along, until Marquardt struck him with a flying knee which connected below the left eye, leaving a huge gash. Then Marquardt attacked with all manner of kicks and punches, most of which did not connect, but Gouveia was out of it. TKO. Fight of the night.

Since the fights were so short, Spike broadcast a fight from the undercard (at least I believe that’s the case, since we learned nothing about them), that of Terry Etim and Brian Cobb, lightweights. While standing, Etim was solid with punches and kicks. Then he did something inexplicable: he pulled guard and then lay there, holding Cobb’s left arm, while Cobb punched his ribs. The referee brought them to standing. This happened twice in the match. Why pull guard if you are successful at stand-up and then not do anything, forcing the ref to have you stand again? Weird. The match ended in round two with Etim kicking Cobb to the head, causing Cobb to drop. Etim then followed up with a punch to the head, which bounced off the floor.

The next lightweights were Evan Dunham versus Per Eklund, with Dunham in control from the start. He counter-punched Eklund, dropping him, and then followed up with multiple punches to the head. Referee stoppage TKO. Dunham did a wee bit of showboating, quite unnecessary.

The heavyweights, Neil Grove and Mike Ciesnolevicz, had both guys trying heel hooks very early on, with the much larger Grove looking as though he would win. Ciesnolevicz turned the tables on Grove and succeeded with his own heel hook, actually causing what looked like a knee dislocation. Yeow. TKO round one. 

The welterweights came up next with Dan Hardy, he of the Mohawk, a tae kwon do guy, against Rory Markham, who was a Golden Gloves boxer. Both guys are known for their knock-outs. The fight lasted less than one round with Hardy counter-punching Markham, to drop him, and then applying two punches to the floored Markham. Knock-out.

The main card had Diego Danchez against Joe Stevenson. Joe Rogan worried about Sanchez’s stamina and strength since he had dropped from 190 to 155 to go lightweight, losing fat and muscle. As of last night, he was at 172. He certainly looked smaller than Stevenson, who is quite muscular, and actually looked like a different person: his face has altered due to the weight loss.

So here we have Sanchez, a BJJ purple belt and state wrestling champ, against Stevenson, a BJJ black belt and judo black belt.  Stevenson punched throughout the fight, not even attempting a kick, never mind a takedown. Sanchez returned punches and threw some kicks. Round two had Sanchez throwing a flying knee and ending on Stevenson’s back. Stevenson stood back up, basically holding Sanchez upside down. Back to stand-up. The rest of the round was punches by both.

Round three was the same as the previous rounds, stand-up and trading punches, with Sanchez being the aggressor and showing more variety.

Sanchez won by unanimous decision. This wasn’t a very interesting fight, due to Stevenson’s only punching. I know the UFC has it as Fight of the Night, but it was mostly boring. It’s not a boxing match; if I’d wanted to watch boxing… Sanchez definitely won, though.

ayjay

February 22, 2009