The Flog!

UFC 101 Declaration offered a variety of fights and fighters, some fights with surprising results, others not so much. 

Amir Sadollah, winner of an Ultimate Fighter season, but whom we never saw fight afterward, fought Johny Hendricks. Sadollah was seen doing interviews during the last The Ultimate Fighter season quite successfully: he’s personable and camera-friendly, but speaks way too quickly.

Perhaps not having fought for such a long time (for whatever reason) was the problem: his head kick was blocked by Hendricks, although he landed other leg kicks and punches. Hendricks connected with an upper cut at the fence and Sadollah went down at 32 seconds of round 1.

Hendricks may have broken his hand when he blocked the head kick; he cradled his left hand after the match and looked to be in agony. 

Josh Neer fought Kurt Pellegrino for the full three rounds. Their match started with a strong take down by Pellegrino to his being in half guard and applying elbows and punches to Neer. Neer fought from the bottom controlling Pellegrino’s wrist and arm, moving from butterfly guard to full guard. Round 2 had Pellegrino taking Neer down again and Neer’s elbowing from the bottom and trying juji gatame. Neer’s butterfly guards and full and half guards are so good that Pellegrino could not pass.

Round 3 had both men kicking and Pellegrino again taking Neer down. Neer held on to Pellegrino’s wrists, elbowed from the bottom, and tried numerous triangles, all of which were suppressed by Pellegrino.

Unanimous decision in Pellegrino’s favour, however he passed Neer’s guard only once.

The fight between the Georges (Sotiropoulos and Roop) was fast and showed BJJ techniques from start to finish. Roop is a very tall fighter and Sotiropoulos is a more solid, compact man. Sotiropoulos took Roop down several times, moving from guard to side mount to north/south to the other side, whatever he wanted to do. He moved very quickly, perhaps too fast – he didn’t give himself any time to do a submission. Roop did manage to escape from a grapevine, even with the hooks in.

Round 2 had both fighters punching after a take down by Sotiropoulos. Sotiropoulos was sitting in full mount and then side control. He submitted Roop with a Kimura very quickly.

The Shane Nelson match against Aaron Riley went the distance. It was an example of the problems with having fighters who are basically different weights fighting each other. Nelson is perhaps a natural 155 whereas Riley is far heavier, having fought at 170 in the past. Riley dominated Nelson standing and on the ground. He was very aggressive, rushing Nelson and putting him in the clinch, then applying knees and elbows. On the ground, Riley used his weight difference to hold Nelson down and then ground and pound him.

In the third round, Nelson had Riley in his guard, with ankles crossed, but he should have tried to sidle out. Although overwhelmed by Riley, Nelson fought hard throughout the fifteen minutes. Unanimous decision in Riley’s favour.

Kendall Grove‘s match against Roberto Almeida went the distance as well. Grove is six inches taller and has a five inch reach advantage over Almeida. In this match, though, the smaller man was the aggressor: Almeida took Grove down at least six times. Grove attempted a guillotine, a juji gatame and had a body triangle on Almeida but Almeida controlled the fight. When standing, Grove applied some knees, but Almeida’s take downs kept on coming. Unanimous decision in Almeida’s favour.

Anderson Silva‘s fight against Forrest Griffin had lots of media coverage beforehand. Silva’s last two fights were weird and boring, with his showboating and not actually fighting very much. I thought that Griffin would put himself on the line and actually fight as he had against Bonnar and others: he seemed to love the fight. This match was almost on par with Silva’s other recent matches: his opponent was hesitant, feeling Silva out, and Silva started showboating, trying to goad his opponent. His hands were down, he stalked Griffin, who walked backward. Silva switched stances caught Griffin’s kick, punched Griffin a couple of times. Silva connected solidly a couple of times and Griffin went down, but got up immediately.

Silva had his hands down, bobbing and weaving; Griffin could not connect with anything, but continued to walk forward and Silva backward. Silva then threw a little right shot to Griffin’s jaw and the fight was over. Knock out in the first round. Knockout of the Night.

There has to be someone out there who can fight this guy. I understand this fight was awarded Fight of the Night. Not in my book. It was a good fight, but the fight was too one-sided.

The main event of the night was fairly boring: B. J. Penn versus Kenny Florian. Florian was the aggressor in this match rushing Penn and squashing him against the fence while attempting a take down. This happened many times. Florian ground his shoulder into Penn’s side or his stomach, pushed him into the fence and did body shots to Penn’s side. As they broke the clinch Florian would finish with an elbow just before the break.

Penn moved forward following Florian throughout the match and would have a flurry of activity just before the buzzer. At other times, Penn connected with shots when Florian made a mistake or missed his attempt. Penn did not attempt take downs nor was he the aggressor during the first three rounds.

Round 4 had Florian attempting a take down again, but Penn went after him this time, succeeding with his own take down. After some ground and pound, Florian rolled and Penn ended up with Florian’s back, putting the hooks in and had a rear naked choke (hadaka jime) from the grapevine. Penn by submission. Submission of the Night (although Sotiropoulos’s Kimura was on par).

As for Fight of the Night, I think I’ll go with Shane Nelson versus Aaron Riley. Although Riley dominated, Nelson never gave up and fought his way through the entire match.

ayjay

August 10 2009 

Living on a sailboat has its disadvantages: in winter, we’re frozen in most of the time. That means the boat doesn’t move and we have satellite reception. In the last four days, though, we’ve had very warm weather and, as of yesterday, no ice. My main concern was, would I have paid for UFC 96 Jackson versus Jardine, invited friends over, etc., just to have the wind pick up to move the boat and lose the signal? In the hour before the fights, the signal was sporadic. We could only hope that the wind wouldn’t pick up.

First off, Joe Rogan was wearing orange! What’s with that?! I’ve only ever seen him wear brown or, once, black, I think. It threw us all off.

The first fight was between Gray Maynard and Jim Miller, both undefeated in the octagon. Maynard is an all-American wrestler and Miller, a BJJ brown belt, known for his submissions. The fight started with Maynard possibly breaking Miller’s nose and Miller mouth-breathing throughout. They traded punches and Miller attempted takedowns. Just at the bell, Miller walked into a shot, resulting in a huge mouse below the left eye.

Round two had Miller doing lots of leg kicks and Maynard punching only. Miller managed a takedown, but Maynard got up immediately, to continue punching. Miller was bleeding profusely, muttering, frustrated that he couldn’t take Maynard down.

Round three was the same as before, Miller with kicks, Maynard with punches. Then Maynard did something inexplicable: he took Miller down. Why do this when he was winning the standing game? Miller came close to accomplishing a kneebar. Then he was in half-guard, but Maynard kept punching Miller’s face, which was looking raw meat-like. The match finished standing with the guys trading punches again.

Miller’s one tough guy, considering his injuries, but the unanimous decision went to Maynard, who controlled the fight.

Next came Matt Hamill against Mark Munoz, both wrestlers. Hamill has certainly changed since he was in The Ultimate Fighter. There was no groundwork here. He traded punches with Munoz, stuffed Munoz’s takedown attempt, did a little dirty boxing. Munoz had his hands down a lot. Out of the blue, Hamill kicked to Munoz’s head, connecting from the shin to the tips of his toes. Munoz dropped immediately, hitting his head on his own knee and then against the fence. The guy was out for a long time. Knockout of the night. 

Next came the welterweights, Pete Sell and Matt Brown. Sell is one of Matt Serra‘s guys, a BJJ black belt. Brown has about an even number of submissions and knock-outs. The fight started with a kick and two punches from Brown, such that Sell hit the mats and the referee went to stop the fight. This was the strangest part of the evening, because the referee changed his mind and let them continue. For the next minute or so, Brown clobbered Sell from one area of the octagon to the other, waving his hands around, imploring the referee to stop the fight. When the referee finally stopped it, we were all relieved. I think Sell really was out of it from the beginning and the ref’s instincts were right. Brown didn’t give Sell any time to come to his senses, so it was just a prolonging of the agony. Then again, some fighters complain loudly when fights are stopped early, so it’s all subjective.

Kendall Grove and Jason Day, from the undercard, came next. Day had nice techniques and Rogan mentioned that he looked much better than his previous match, but Grove got him to the ground and that was it: ground and pound and the match was over.

The heavyweights were on with Gabriel Gonzaga and Steve Carwin. Gonzaga is best known for dropping Mirko Cro Cop with a huge kick. Carwin came into the fight undefeated at 10-0, with none of his fights going a full round. My concern there was whether he had the stamina to go three rounds. I shouldn’t have worried about it, because Carwin made a name for himself last night: Gonzaga had him in full mount, but Carwin managed to stand up (Gonzaga was 257 lbs.). Gonzaga then threw a punch, which connected, but Carwin counter-punched, just a short right punch, no hips, and Gonzaga went down. Knock out.

The undercard again: Tamdan McCrory versus Ryan Madigan, welterweights. McCrory had control on the ground, moving from one position to another, easily passing guard and going wherever he wanted. He planted lots of elbows and eventually went to double elbows, resulting in referee stoppage. Interestingly, we covered holding your opponent down using your chest and body placement just Friday night. All McCrory’s moves from side mount to full and in-between were exactly as we’d done the previous night.

The main event of the night, Quinton Jackson versus Keith Jardine came next. Both these guys are characters: Jackson stared at Jardine to psych him out and Jardine grinned into Jackson’s face. Pretty funny. They are both heavy hitters, with Jackson being exceptional at clinch takedowns and clinch strikes, and Jardine having high connects with leg kicks, and body shots (92%!). Jardine had some inside leg kicks and a nice uppercut. In the latter half of the first round, Jackson connected with some good punches and a couple of kicks.

Round two had both kicking again, and then Jackson dropped Jardine. Jardine managed to come to standing, but was taken down again. They were in a clinch at the fence, but the referee broke them apart. Jardine looked as though he were out of it for a while, but came back to apply lots of shots, such that Jackson was in trouble by the end of the round.

The final round had Jackson doing another takedown, but the men got up immediately. Jardine scored with solid leg kicks. Just before the bell, Jackson dropped Jardine, the last thing the judges saw in the match. Unanimous decision in Jackson’s favour. Fight of the night.

The remainder of the fights were from the undercard: Brandon Vera against Mike Patt and then Tim Boetsch versus Jason Brilz.

Vera vs. Patt: Brandon Vera was in control from the start, switching from left to right stances, connecting with virtually all his kicks and punches. Mike Patt took several minutes to accomplish anything, but he didn’t give up. Round two had Vera attacking Patt’s lead leg such that eventually the leg gave out and the referee stopped the match.

When Tim Boetsch and Jason Brilz started fighting, the announcers talked at length about Boetsch and his jeet kune do and his strengths. Brilz was sort of an afterthought, that is, until he found his rhythm. Then the men traded punches, Brilz took Boetsch to the ground, knee on neck (we like that) and was in total control. When they stood up and were at the fence, Brilz still holding Boetsch, Brilz kneed the back of Boetsch’s legs. In the third round, Brilz took Boetsch down again, immediately went to side control, applied some knees to Boetsch’s side and then elbows and forearms to the head, and the full mount again. Unanimous decision in Brilz’s favour.

There were no cool submissions last night, but Miller sure tried. McCrory had lots of opportunities in his match against Madigan, but mostly just jumped from one position to another applying elbows – in control, yes, but where are those armbars or chokes? The main event was the fight of the night for a change (in my opinion) and the fighters put forth all they could. Our satellite signal held. We had a good time with friends and family watching UFC 96 Jackson versus Jardine. What more could you ask for?

ayjay

March 7, 2009