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

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