UFC 91 Thread

[Brother Brian]

OK, the friends I was going to watch with bailed on me, so I'm watching (and paying for) UFC 91 alone. Since my wife is utterly uninterested in pugilism, I figured I'd come on here and give my thoughts fight by fight.

[Kalzazz]

Im doing HW, so you win

[Brother Brian]

I've been interested in this matchup. Quarry was the best fighter going into the original season of TUF. A series of bad luck (getting rolled on during the show, the back injury) as well as unfair match making (he was clearly not at Franklin's level) sidetracked him. He's still, IMO a good 2nd tier fighter, and could be considered a legitimate gatekeeper at 185.

Maia is a BJJ guy. Working with Wanderlei Silva can only serve to help him with his standup, but IMO if he stands with Quarry, he's going to get knocked out.

[Brother Brian]

Im doing HW, so you win

????????

I don't understand.

Never mind, I just figured out HW = Homework, not Heavyweight.

;)

[Brother Brian]

Round 1

They touch up, and Maia immediately tries to pull guard. Quarry tries to fight, not taking top, but Maia pulls him down and gets top position. Quarry gives up his back trying to roll out. Maia locks in the body triangle, slowly working for the RNC.

Quarry doing a decent job on defense, but continues to focus on the left arm. Maia locks in the RNC at 2:13 of the first round.

I don't think Quarry even threw a punch.

[Brother Brian]

Kind of a wasted fight in my mind. Gonzaga beats a series of cans, and then beat Cro Cop. I don't know if Cro Cop's downfall was because of Gonzaga, or just first appeared there, but subsequently, Gonzaga has beaten nobody of note, while losing to the only two high level oponents he's fought in Coture and Werdum.

Hendriks is an unknown. He trained with Coture to get Coture ready for Lesnar, but I understand he's more of a striker than a wrestler.

[Brother Brian]

Round 1

Clinch fighting to start, Gonzaga getter the better with knees and uppercuts. Throwing harder shots.

Gonzaga lands a straight right hand that floors Hendriks. Ref Mazagatti gave Hendriks every chance to show he wasn't out, and Hendriks took an extra shot before the TKO.

Gabriel Gonzaga at 1:10 of Round 1 by TKO.

[Brother Brian]

From the prelims.

Brown is from the last season of TUF. Not familiar with Thomas.

Brown tags Thomas early, but Thomas recovers and gets top position.

Back to the feet and Brown works knees from the clinch. Thomas appears stronger, and gets Brown again.

Rogan's saying Brown took the fight on short notice.

Brown gets it back up, throws a few more knees, before Thomas takes him down again.

Brown for a triangle, and transitions to an armbar. Thomas escapes when Brown tried to turn it into an Omaplata and gets side control.

Back to gaurd, and Thomas unable to do anything.

Brown reverses, and Thomas uses rubberguard to avoid damage.

Back to the feet, Thomas shoots for a takedown. Brown locks in a guillotine, but Thomas escapes. Brown goes for a triangle as the round ends.

I give the round 10-9 to Brown, he did more damage, and between the choke and the armbar was closer to ending the fight.

[Brother Brian]

Round 2

Both guys throwing leather to start, but Thomas goes for the takedown again.

Brown again goes for the armbar, Thomas tries to slam out, it doesn't work, twice. Brown rolls Thomas over, and is able to stretch out the armbar, causing Thomas to tap.

Matt Brown by Submission (Armbar) at 0:57 of Round 2.

[Brother Brian]

McCrory comes to the ring wearing some geek worthy glasses...makes me wonder if he's got vision problems that would effect him in the ring. He's a wrestling guy, but to be honest, wouldn't look at all out of place at a gamers table. I think he's sporting a tat of the screaming guy from Pink Floyd's "The Wall".

Hazlett looking less like a hobbit now that he's growing his beard out. He looks like a smaller...redneck Andre Arlovski. He's a BJJ player. (Don't blame me, that's what they call people who compete in Brazillian Jiu Jitsu.)

Round 1:

McCrory throws combos, which looked nice but didn't connect much. Hazlet knocks him off balance with a front kick, but is unable to connect with a flying knee followup.

Trading kicks. Hazlett lands a nice right, which stunned McCrory only momentarily. Half way into the round, its anybodies.

McCrory takes Hazlet down, but Hazlet quickly rolls into an Oma Platta, they roll but Hazlet is able to maintain the omaplatta.

McCrory doesn't seem to know how to get out of it, and Hazlett transitions to a straight arm bar, and McCrory taps out.

Winner: Dustin Hazlett by submission (armbar) 3:59 round 1.

Nice Jiu Jitsu on display, beyond your usual kimura/armbar/RNC that you see in MMA.

As an aside, I know Joe Rogan studies with Eddie Bravo, but he really needs to get off his knees and stop servicing the Rubber Guard. Omaplata's existed before Bravo.

As another Aside, If I was as bad ass as Anderson Silva, I could rock that totally gay pink sweater too. ;)

[Brother Brian]

Lightwight matchup from the prelims. (I like that they are filling the time with fights, not just filler.)

Dos Anjos looks loose in his UFC debut. They feel each other up, before locking up at about the 1 minute mark. Dos Anjos keeping Stevens against the cage, but it's Stevens landing an elbow. Dos Anjos gets Stevens back standing, and slams him down. Still controlling the back, he's not moving to get hooks in.

Stevens rolls, keeps trying to use the cage to get up, and the effort to keep him down is topping Dos Anjos from landing anything. Stevens has a lose guillatine from half guard, but Dos Anjos escapes and ends up in side control / north south positions. He may be looking for a sub.

Steven rolls him over, but we see another oma plata from Dos Anjos. Nice camera shot showing the torque on Stevens shoulder as Dos Anfos reaches over for a crucifix. Stevens survives the round and is saved by the bell.

I give Round 1 to Dos Anjos 10-9.

[Brother Brian]

Round 2

Stevens throwing a right with bad intentions, and then a knee. Neither lands, but it looks like he's trying to end the fight with one strike. Nice knee to the body by Stevens.

Dos Anjos goes for a double let and pushes Stevens into the fence. Dos Anjos gets him down, and again has Stevens back, and this time gets the legs hooked before going to a body triangle.

Again we see high level Jiu Jitsu as Dos Anjos tries to capture the arm, but Stevens reverses and ends up on top in guard.

Stevens lands some good elbows and ground and pound, but not enough to risk stoppage.

Somewhat even round, but I think Stevens did more damage.

I have the score tied going into the final round.

[Brother Brian]

Round 3

Both guys are breathing hard between rounds.

Slow start in the first thirty seconds, the two trade leg kicks.

Out of nowhere Stevens lands a massive uppercut...like something out of a not terribly realistic videogame, and Dos Anjos goes down . A couple more shots for good measure but the fight is over.

Winner, Jeremy Stevens by KO 0:39 of round 3.

(Ooops, apparently it's Stephens, not Stevens. Nice comeback.)

[Brother Brian]

Tuf I vs. TUF 2

Both have one major fight coming into this. Florian beat Huerta, and Stevenson got embarrassed by BJ Penn. As the winner of this fight will face Penn, I'm pulling for Florian.

Stevenson looking a bit anxious as he makes his way to the ring.

Florian keeps looking at the screen pre-fight.

Florian opening up with a technical striking game, moving in and out with knees and punches. No real damage yet. Stevenson stalking, and throwing heavy punches, gets Florian against the cage and struggles for a takedown.

Florian warned for grabbing the fence, but it saved the takedown.

In the past, Stevenson has blown his load" early and he's appearing gassed already.

Florian takes down Stevenson, stands and moves into mount. Raining punches, he forces Stevenson to give up his back with a little over a minute.

Florian locks in a deep RNC, and forces Stevenson to tap.

Winner: Kenny Florian by submission (Rear Naked Choke), 4:03, Round 1.

Analysis: Nice fight for Florian, and it looks like he game planned well for Stevenson. As Chim said in the eliminator thread, Florian knows how to play the rules, and avoided getting slammed down. He used the fence well, and once he had top position, never looked back.

I don't give him much chance against BJ Penn, but I think he'll make a better fight out of it than Stevenson would have.

[Brother Brian]

I think we'll know pretty early how this will go. Brock can overwhelm Randy, and take it, but plays into Randy's hands if he's overly careful.

Coture looking calm and collected. Brock showing a little more energy.

The crowd is clearly on Coture's side.

Coture really seems to be conserving energy. He's dwarfed by Lesnar during the introductions.

Round I

Early clinch, Lesnar with a couple of good knees, Randy pushes him against the cage.

Slow going as Brock reversed and pushes Coture against eh cage. They break, and coture lands a nice right.

Coture stuffs a takedown and is up against the cage.

Lesnar finally gets him down, and is pressing his weight down on Randy. Lesnar almost gets' the mount, but coture reverses, almost gets Brock's back, and brock ends back up on top in half guard. Nice chain wrestling.

From the top it looks Lesnar is going to follow the Herring gameplan, and is being careful. He does land a fe good blows.

Randy rolls, and is looking to get out, and makes it to his feet. Lesnar being too careful.

Randy tries hard to take Brock down, but can't.

Based on Octagon Control, I call round 1 10-9 Brock Lesnar.

[Brother Brian]

Both fighters breathing hard between rounds.

Coture slips a jab, but get's stunned by an elbow. It looks like Coture's recovered quickly. Brock didn't hit square, and still hurt Randy.

Randy pushing Brock against the cage.

Brock lands a good knee, but Coture responds with a nice combo. Brock is cut.

Brock seems much slower than he did in round 1. Randy with a single leg against the cage, Lesnar throws some ineffective punches.

Brock's Cut is right on the eyebrow, and could be trouble if Coture can work it.

Another knee by Lesnar.

Brock kncoks down Coture, with a nice right, he's hurt. Lensar going off with short punches, Coture not doing anything to defend...and Yamasaki stops it.

Brock Lesnar is your new UFC Heavyweight Champion.

It looks on replay like the right wasn't entirely square. Lesnar is hugely powerful.

After the fight, Lesnar's wife (Former WWE Diva) Rena "Sable" Lesnar is in the ring. When does that happen? If Tito comes back, I don't want to see Jenna Jameson in the Ocagon.

Lesnar is sort of saying the right things, but you can tell that he was taught how to do interviews by Vince McMahon.

Coture doesn't seem all that upset at the loss. He calls Brock a "Big Sumbitch".

The questions about his age seem inappropriate. Coture got caught, he didn't look bad, and in all honesty, handled Brock well until he got caught.

I'm not sure that there's any marquee fights for Coture at Heavyweight at this point, unless they go out and get Overeem or Fedor.

Winner: Brock Lesner by TKO at 3:07 of Round 2.

[Brother Brian]

From the prelims.

Gurgel is a "new fighter" as evidenced by his new tatoo I guess.

These two both had big hopes from their pre-UFC days, and neither has lived up to it.

They throw strikes without much landing until about 4:15 when Reily kicks Gurgel square in the crotch.

Time out for Gurgel to recover. (Recently in a dream event in Japan, Mirko Cro-Cop had a testicle ruptured by a groin shot.)

Gurgel coming out fast, he's apparently unhappy with being kicked in the balls. Gurgel's standup looking much better than the past.

Back and forth, with Gurgel getting the better of the exhanges. Either reily has a great Chin or Gurgel isn't landing with power.

Nice body kicks by both.

More back and forth exchanges.

Gurgel kicking the body, and that's going to pay off later I think.

Reily responds with some good combo.

Rogan pointing out how Gurgel is a BJJ blackbelt, and is still giving up takedown opportunties to keep it standing.

A solid, action packed round.

I give it to Gurgel by a slim margin 10-9.

[Brother Brian]

Mark Delegrote is correct in telling Gurgel that the body shots are working and to keep them up. Gugel still winning the exchanges, but not doing significant damage except on body kicks.

Reily with a nice Muay Thai knee. Now he's moving forward, and the two trade punches. Reily lands a nice combo finishing with a high kick. He's winning the exchanges.

Reily gets Gurgel down, and we'll see if he uses his Jits.

Nope, he stands. They continue to trade, and Reily is winning the exchanges.

Gugel wins an exchange with some good punches.

Gugel is brawling, but gets a takedown with 10 seconds left, but doesn't have enough time to do anything with it.

Reily clearly wins this round, making it even going into round 3.

[Brother Brian]

Delagrote is trying to keep Gurgel fighting technically, keeping range.

Gurgel looks pretty gassed, but comes out moving quick, lands another body kick and a nice cross.

Another good body kick by Gurgel, but Reily lands a head kick.

Gugel hut by another head kick, Reily persuing, Gurgel is game trying to fight through it. Reily seems much fresher, landing good Muay Thai knees.

Another good body kick by Gurgel, but he doesn't follow up.

I think Gurgel is out of Gas. Reily is lbeating him pretty clearly in this round. Gurgel needs to step up if he wants to win the fight.

Reily takes Gurgel down with a leg sweep, but doesn't do much with it.

Gurgel goes for a takedown but is stuffed. 30 seconds left.

Gurgel fails another takedown, and catches another high kick with his chin as the bell sounds.

10-9 Reily.

I socre it 29-28 for Aaron Riley.

Official Results: Aaron Riley by Unanimous Decision (29-28 on all 3 cards.)

Gurgel needs to use his Jiu Jitsu more.

[Brother Brian]

Overall, I found this to be a highly entertaining night of fights. We saw a higher level of Jiu Jitsu, some exciting standup, good wrestling, as well as some important developments in UFC history.

I'm hoping Nog beats Mir, Nog vs. Brock is an interesting matchup as I see it.

[Mouser]

Since this is the closest thing we have to the Musashi Flex, who would you put as Primero?

[Brother Brian]

I'm torn -- I'd love to see a Mir/Lesnar rematch; Lesnar was robbed that first time and Mir won't pull off a sub like that again. But Nogueira... that would be an interesting fight.

Whether I'd like to see it or not, I have the odds of Mir beating Nog at 10-1 against. Nog is better at every aspect of the game.

That said, HW is weak enough that the rematch will happen in the next couple of years.

[Brother Brian]

I had a couple of buddies over to watch the fights (I made pizzas). The early fights were fantastic, but overall, a really good night of fights. Serious jiujitsu on display last night: Demian Maia manhandled Quarry. Quarry is somehow still riding the his mystique from TUF 1, where he was perceived as a favourite, despite never having fought. His performances since then have been okay but not stellar. I don't think he's really going to last in the modern MMA scene, where more and more depth and breadth of skills are becoming increasingly common and serious athletic talent in being combined with elite training methodologies. In any event, Maia pretty much ate him. While the rear naked choke was the proximal cause of Quarry tapping, he was finished as soon as Maia locked in the body-triangle, which he worked brutally.

The Dos Anjos fight was entertaining and good, but Stephenson was simply too strong and Dos Anjos' lacked the ability to take strength out of the equation. A great display of heart on Stephenson's part, gutting through some nasty submissions. His win was simultaneously impressive and annoying: truly a spectacular knock-out punch (KO of the night for sure, unless Dana feels the need to butter Lesnar up even more), but also cartoonish and inept. It was a clumsy, hail mary Sunday Punch and Dos Anjos had every opportunity to avoid it, but seemed frozen, a deer in the headlights. People are going to wank on about Stephenson's knock-out power, but a skilled boxer/striker will still cut him to pieces, based on his performance last night, at least. Still, great heart and an entertaining fight.

The Hazelett/McRory battle was fantastic to watch. I liked that Hazelett used a bit of versatility in his kicking, but the awkward, lurching stand-up was merely an amuse-bouche for the ground war (while both guys have decent Muay Thai, being essentially stick-figures, their stand up was funny-looking, although still impressive -- McRory got an early flurry in that was vicious). If McRory's shoulder wasn't dislocated, I'm a gorilla -- the final flurry of rolls and transitions was a clinic in proficient jiujitsu, with both men impressing, even if Hazelett did walk into the ring looking like the Unabomber.

I have to add my name to the list of those who underestimated Florian's ground game and physical ability -- I may have called a victory for Kenny, but he took it decisively, in a manner I hadn't anticipated. He seemed to match Joe Stevenson strength for strength and ultimately owned him on the mat decisively. People (including myself) were expecting Kenny to try and grind a decision on the strength of a dusting of blows or, possibly, getting a medical stoppage from one of those cuts he likes to open up with his elbows. N'uh uh -- it started off that way, with some dancing and peppering, but it went to the clinch and the ground fast, where Florian proved that he earned that black belt in BJJ.

I'm still scratching my head a little about the Lesnar/Couture fight. Lesnar was overly cautious, IMV. I would almost suspect there was some tampering in making the fight go to the second round, because he passed up some easy opportunities. Couture seemed to be able to impose his will on Lesnar, at least a little bit. I also didn't like the KO -- Rogan claimed it hit the temple, but the replay confirmed my suspicions: he nailed Randy on the back of the head. I don't think it was intentional, but there you have it. The fight smells a bit fishy to me, personally. I think Lesnar was trying to play it out for the full five and landed a flukey shot that pretty much forced him to hammer out the win by a silly little hammerfist G n' P. If I were on Brock's training staff, I'd be working the subs and sub defense. It makes a much more natural transition for him. I wouldn't ignore his stand-up, he could certainly do with having his boxing tightened up, but he's got a solid chin, it looks like and ultimately, with his strength, speed and size, giving him a solid submission game would make him dangerously close to unbeatable. Frankly, I'm looking past the Mir/Nogeuira match-up (it may be premature, but I don't really think either of those guys can beat him) -- the one I want to see is Shane Carwin (http://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Shane-Carwin-14013) vs. Lesnar. Carwin has made some impressive showings (he's got a 10 - 0 record and he's finished all of his fights, half by KO/TKO and half by submission), with some good knock-outs and he isn't someone that Lesnar can just push around. Mind you, Brock wasn't pushing Randy around that much -- I'm guessing he was letting Randy wear himself out a bit, but I think it almost looks like there might be a chink in the armour...

Funny, the Main Event went as I predicted. Lesnar is being careful because he has to be. He knows there's a lot he doesn't know. He was willing to grind out a decision, but when Coture didn't lie there like Herring did, he got confused.

In the second, we saw him go gorilla like he did against Mir when he got Coture down.

He hit Coture just behind the ear, and it was somewhat glancing. He's got such amazing power though that it was enough.

What I'm wondering is this: Rumor had it Dana was willing to work with Fedor to set up a fight with Coture. Will he do the same with Brock?

[Brother Brian]

We clearly were watching different fights, with different fighters and with different eyes.



Which would serve to undermine your hypothesis above, no?

No, it means that when the gameplan was ineffective, Lesnar changed it, and "went for broke" when he had the opportunity, like he did against Mir.

In round 1, Lesnar couldn't control Coture. That would make continuing a control game plan pointless.

[Brother Brian]

He was controlling Couture just fine -- Couture blew a shitload of energy trying to manhandle Brock. Just because he wasn't sitting on top of him the way he did with Herring doesn't mean he wasn't accomplishing something. Couture never had Lesnar under control. At best, you could argue that he had him pressed up against the cage, but he was never able to turn that into a working position from which to work. I still think my analysis is solid.

Dude, read my analysis. I agree Brock won round 1. But Coture handled him better than Mir or Herring. It was pretty clear that Coture's plan was to push Lesnar, tire him, and then to outpoint him standing. Sort of his plan in his first two fights against Liddell.

The problem he faced is that like Liddell, he lacked the power to really end the fight standing, and only needed to get hit hard once to lose the fight.

Which is what happened.

[carmachu]

Funny, the Main Event went as I predicted. Lesnar is being careful because he has to be. He knows there's a lot he doesn't know. He was willing to grind out a decision, but when Coture didn't lie there like Herring did, he got confused.



Considering that also he might have been careful becuase Coture has a history of beating the odds there, and beating younger fighters....he might have to be.

[Mouser]

Who is the best fighter out there?

[Brother Brian]

Either Anderson Silva (Middleweight Champ in the UFC) or Fedor Emelianenko (Affliction HW Champ).