O.K. just got home from watching them.
The UFC has had some major upsets lately. But unlike other sports, if you bet the underdog on a consistant basis in mma you will lose. The favorites win the majority of the time. The UFC does have the "we need this guy to win" mantra. Why did Cro Cop fight get put back on their feet so quickly? Dana also was pulling heavily for Liddell in the Rampage fight. But indeed, the UFC just moves on without missing a beat these days.
The fights:
Ed Hermin v Scott Smith
I had picked Smith to beat Herman via KO due to the way Herman had performed the past 3-4 fights. He has been out of shape and unaggressive. This fight was TOTALLY different than the previous. He looked good, pushed the action, in Smith's face the entire time. He went at Smith the entire 1st round. Doing a lot of damage. Really messed Smith's nose up with a hard elbow. Give Smith credit, he never flinched one time. He was a hard ass tonight! Second round was the same. Herman came full force and finally got the TKO. If Herman looks like this again, he will do sme damage. He finally looks like the fighter he was built up to be.
Tyson Griffin v Clay Guida
The was a prefight report that this could possibly be the fight of the year. It lived up to that. Striking, take downs, jiu jitsu, submissions, submissions defense, everything. It was a very, very close fight. Should Griffin have won? Yes! Should Guida have won? Yes! It should have been a draw! One round to Griffin, one round to Giuda going into the 3rd. Griffin won the 1st 3 minutes of round 3 and Guida won the last 2 minutes of the 3rd round. I had no idea who they were going to announce as the winner. Winner? Griffin. Watch out for both of these guys. More so, IMO, Griffin. He has some sick jiu jitsu, BJ Penn shit.
Jason MacDonald v Rory Singer
When a fighter comes into a fight off a nasty beating like Jason is from the hands of Rich Fraklin, you always wonder how they are going to perform. I picked this fight as the "easiest" on the board. The 1st round I was nervous. I though Singer was going to finish MacDonald. We were talking that MacDonald came into this fight not the same. First rounf easily to Singer. Second round was totally different. Jason pushed the pace and absolutely dominated Singer, as I expected, and got a referee stopage. Keep an eye on MacDonald as I think he will be a measuring stick of contender or joe-smo fighter.
Forrest Griffin v Hector Ramirez
Just as MacDonald, how was Griffin going to come back from a KO? He use to come out of his dressing room smiling, high 5ing on his way to the octagon. Not this fight! He came out and actually pushed fans away on his way to the fight. He dominated the entire 15 minutes. I would not have been surprised at a Ramirez win, earlier today, but once the fight started, Ramirez wasnted nothing to do with Griffin. He would not engage, throw combinations, look for takedowns, NADA. Griffin was easily the victor.
Rich Franklin v Yushin Okami
I stated earlier how BIG Franklin was. I stated that Okami was also a BIG middle weight. I am telling you something, Okami is a fucking MONSTER. Holy shit is this Japanesse fighter huge?!?! I say that because most Asian fighters are small. He walked up to Franklin for referee instructions and he was much bigger than Franklin. I began to get nervous. The fight started and Okami wanted nothing to do with Rich. I wished now I would have countd how many punches he threw this fight becaue I probably could have used my fingers and toes for all of them. Franklin chased him the entire time. And what I was nervosu about, the takedowns of Okami, he never tried. Franklin won the 1st round. The 2nd round was the same. Booing from the crowd, which I think is ignorant and stupid, reigned down. Okami refused to exchange with Rich. For his size I was disappointed with him. The 3rd round came and just like round 1 and round 2 where they went to touch gloves, Rich went to touch gloves and Okami, piece of shit, threw a haymaker while Franklin was being respectful. Rich wagged his finger at him saying that is BS. This pissed Franklin off, you could tell, and he pressed the action again when he didnt have to. This put him in a position half way through the round to get taken down and did. Okami sink in a kimura with about 2 minutes left and I chlked it up as a loss, setback and a learning lesson for Franklin. But Franklin kept moving, rolling, putting himself in a position to relieve the pressure from the shoulder. It was a pretty nice effort on Franklin's part to get out of that. The fight was a solid 2-1 Franklin.
This was a very good fight card outside of name recognition. The fights were solid, the action was good, and I MADE SOME GOOD MONEY.
Any thoughts?
