UFC 100

[Brother Brian]

Assuming my cable doesn't flake out: (and it may, it gave me a weird error message earlier), I'll be putting down my thoughts on UFC 100 in real time.

If it does flake out, you'll hear me ranting and raving from wherever you live.

Feel free to join in.

(Good News, I got in touch with a poor guy named Steve who was able to ensure the PPV got ordered!)

Prepare for my ramblings!

[Brother Brian]

Before the first fight, I want to comment quickly on the Griffin vs. Bonner TUF 1 finale being voted as the greatest UFC fight of all time.

It may be said that it was the most important fight in UFC history, and it was certainly hugely entertaining. But at the end of the day, I'm not sure that a slugfest short on technique is really the ultimate example of UFC greatness.

[carmachu]

I cant disagree with that. But then again, the crowds love a slugfest.

[Brother Brian]

Anyway, we open with Aaron Belcher vs. Yoshihero Akiyama.

Everything says that Akiyama does everything a little better than Belcher. That says, Japan's stars tend to get overrated in the online world, and I haven't seen a lot of his matches.

Akiyama wins the entrance battle, with a classy entrance, which, given his great marketing of himself in Japan, was I'm sure is designed to build a traditional martial arts mystique with the American audiance.

Listening to Rogan and Goldie, it seems to me that Akiyama is expected to crush Belcher.

Buffer's got a little extra in his delivery for UFC 100. He does not use Akiyama's "Sexyama" nickname.

USA is the most mainstream sponser I've seen yet.

Belcher is much bigger.

They feel each other out, until Becher crushes Akiyama's nuts about a minute in. Akiyama's crawling around.

We see the replay more often than is comfortable during the time out.

When the action resumes, the two go back and forth with strikes, Belcher gets a knockdown, but didn't really hurt Akiyma. Later Akiyama takes belcher down, Belcher gets a sloppy omaplatta, but the round ends with Akiyama on top.

Close round, I call it 10-9 Belcher.

I noticed between rounds, 1 or more of the undercard fights were bloodbaths. The canvas looks like a butchers cutting block.

Round 2

Akiyama takes Belcher down right away, Belcher sweeps and goes for a heel hook, but Akiyama takes the top and holds it for 3 minutes. He doesn't do too much with it.

Belcher rands a couple of leg kicks and a couple punches, and the last leg kick seems to have buckles Akiyama.

That said, not much in the round, I give it to Akiyama 10-9 for Octagon control.

Round 3

Belcher has more energy, but Akiyama lands the cleanrer blows to start. Belcher going back to the front leg kick. Akiyama really needs to start checking those.

Belcher is controlling the action through the middle part of the round, Akiyama is game, traying to coutner, but isn't landing a huge percentage.

Belcher gets dropped when Akiyama catchs a kick and counters.

Becher tries a superman punch off the cage. It is way to blantent to connect but was fun.

Akiyama gets a takedown with 23 seconds lft, but Belcher escapes.

Another close round. I give it 10-9 Belcher, but the takedown might have won it for Akiyama.

I call the fith 29-28 Aaron Belcher, but I could be way off.

Judges score it: 30-27 Akiyama, 29-28 Belcher, 29-28 Akiyama

All rounds were close, but I can't see how anyone can score it 30-27 for Akiyama.

[Brother Brian]

Between fight thoughts:

They showed Lesnar and Mir walking to their locker room.

Lesnar has always looked like he's just on this side of retarded to me. Mir looks like a complete douche.

Speaking of douches, Bisping is fighting next. In just about the only fight I actually want to turn out a certain way, I hope Henderson crushes "The Count".

It looks like the cut guys are now being sponsored by Tapout. I know that Matt Hughes' "One More Round" brand was sponsoring them before. Then again the UFC doesn't own a piece of "One More Round".

[Brother Brian]

Dan "Hendo" Henderson vs. Michael "The Count" Bisping

If "Dan Henderson defines Mixed Martial Artist", then "Joe Rogan defines Hyperbole".

Does Henderson have an ad for "Xtreme Yogurt" on his ass? Not where I would have placed that one myself.

Bisping looks emaciated at 185, IMO, where Henderson looks like it's his best weight.

R1

Hendo is swinging for the fences early, while Bisping is working distance and speed.

Henderson hunts down Bisping, catches him, but I'm not sure if Bisping's hurt, Rogan thinks he is.

Hedo is moving straigt in, and Bisping is starting to get his timing.

Bisping starting to throw combos as Hendo gets a clinch against the cage, and lands some knees to the body.

Bisping shoots from the other side of the ring and predictably misses.

The round ends with Henderson landing a big right hand.

Hendo a clear 10-9 winner.

[Brother Brian]

Between rounds, Bisping's cornerman yells a bunch a stuff, but I could only understand the swears through the accent. Bisping is gassed and drinking a lot of water. I wonder if he had a tough cut.

R2

Bisping floating light on his feet, but has nothing to his early shots. It looks like he's point fighting.

Henderson lands 2 rights that were more effective than Bisping's pitty pat.

Bisping continues point fighting, but drops his hand and catches Henderson's trademark right hand, he circles into it, and get's knocked out cold with one punch. Hendo throws hard diving punch to the ground while Yamasaki is trying to get in there.

Bisping may be really hurt, he was unconcious for a long time. In the back ground, you can see he's having a hard time staying vertical

Henderson shows all the class of Charles Manson in the post fight interview, saying he knew Bisping was out before the diving punch, and he doesn't usually do that, but wanted to shut Bisping up.

[Brother Brian]

Georges St. Pierre vs. Thiago Alves

Prefight: Alves is disrespectful, but worse, he's coming out to some rap that is sampling Led Zepplin's Kashmir...which should be illegal and punishable by death. I'm officially rooting for GSP. ;)

God Alves looks big. I wouldn't be surprised if he was actually pushing 200 lbs.

I've got to say, I like GSP's minmalist trunks. He doesn't look like a walking NASCAR.


R1

GSP with an early takedown. Alves gets up into a clinch, but GSP takes him back down and gets Alves back. Alves sweeps nicely and gets back to his feet.

GSP did a good job of making Alves expend energy while he conserved it.

Alves gets agressive, and again gets taken down. Again though GSP can't keep Alves down.

No telling blows, but an easy 10-9 round for GSP.

[Brother Brian]

Between rounds, GSP gets his special rub down, and you could see the NSAC guy immediately checking for grease. ;)

R2

GSP takes the center of the Octagon, and again when Alves gets agressive, GSP takes him down. Alves active on the bottom avoiding subs. GSP gets to mount for about a second and a half.

GSP has busted up Alves nose. GSP is super calm from the top, it's very clear the fight is going exactly as he intended.

Alves gets up with 35 seconds left, but Alves doesn't seem to have much left in the tank.

Another 10-9 round for GSP.

[Brother Brian]

Greg Jackson is the hippy corner man. :)

On the other hand he's right. Alves comes out swinging.

He almost seems afraid to commit. He threw a superman punch that didn't get within 2 feet of GSP.

Another takedown, more GnP by GSP.

Alves gets back up.

Late in the round GSP puts Alves down with a straight. GSP jumps into guard, but is to careful to finish it.

10-9 GSP

[Brother Brian]

R4

Cable went a bit wonky, GSP got a takedown, then it came back a bit later and Alves was on top. He's working an overly save GNP, and as soon as he gets really agressive, GSP pushes him off and comes back to the feet. GSP is owning this fight, Alves has to swing for the fences now.

It's somewhat similar to the BJ Penn fight, except Alves isn't a whiny quitter.

GSP gets Alves down again, an again gets his back, he's close to a RNC, but there's not enough time left in the round.

GSP 10-9

[Brother Brian]

R5

GSP told Greg Jackson (his trainer) that he pulled his groin, to which Jackson responded "I don't care".

You can see GSP wince a bit as he bounces to loosen up.

As the round starts, GSP still moving, and Alves is persuing. GSP gets another takedown.

Jackson is extorting GSP to lay and pray the round away.

Alves gets up, but can't stay there. GSP isn't tryng to do anything on the ground.

Alves again gets up, but gets taken right back down again.

GSP doing just enough from half guard to keep the fight from being stood up.

Another 10-9 round for GSP, albeit a lackluster one.

[Brother Brian]

One sided victory by GSP. I'm a bit concerned that Jackson is going to turn GSP into a lay and pray guy.

GSP takes the unanimous decision, it wasn't remotely close on any scorecard.

GSP is clearly in pain during his post fight interview. He gets asked about a super fight with Anderson Silva. GSP defers saying he'll have to put on weight to fight Silva, but not ruling it out.

[Brother Brian]

Frank Mir vs. Brock Lesnar

With 2 of the first matches going to decision (including the 5 rounder) we're going right to the Main event. (Fitch vs. Thiago may get cut/ happen after the main event.)

Rogan is spending a lot of time talking up Mir...then again Rogan studies Ju Jitsu with Eddie Bravo...who works with Mir. Plus, I'm pretty sure Rogan has undergone some pharmaceutical enhancement.

I've got to say, Lesnar's whining about the first fight is annoying. "I gave that kneebar to him". While taking a point away was foolish, he hit Mir in the back of the head a half dozen times, and stopping the fight and standing it back up was NOT inappropriate. Mir took advantage of Lesnar's inexperiance...which doesn't make him lucky, and doesn't make the tapout a fluke.

That said, this is not that Lesnar.

Did I mention that something about Mir, (I think it's the goatee, but I'm not 100% sure), screams "I'm a douche".

Mir looks like he's getting a full back tattoo, a samurai I think, but it's hard to tell.

Lesnar wins the "best ring music" competition, by virtue of not selecting rap. :laugh: (I wish these things started earlier. I get punchy after midnight. )

Mir pacing, not energencially, but nerviously. He's trying to give off a look of calm serenity, but he looks scared. Then again, Lesnar's not giving out a super confident vibe either.

Mir has both ankles and one knee taped. I don't know if that means anything or not.

Lesnar refuses to touch gloves.

[Brother Brian]

R1

Brock much calmer than in his first fight, setting up a right hand.

Mir tries to roll in a leglock, but Brock ends up in half guard. Lesnar is patient, Mir is calm.

Ref Herb Dean extorting Brock to keep working.

The crowd not happy with Brock's lack of offense.

Brock slips some good right hands from the top.

Mir real calm, on the bottom, but he's not scoring any points. Brock rolling him to the side, and landing some good short punches.

Mir's face is showing the beating.

Brock calmly controls Mir and takes round 1 10-9.

Mir's corner telling him to relax. Brock shakes out his arms in his corner.

[Brother Brian]

R2

Sloppy takedown, but Brock lets him up.

Mir hits Brock with some good knees, I think they hurt him, but he was able to take Mir down.

Crowd booing at the lay and pray. Mir trying to use the cage. Crowd is chanting, "Stand them Up". Brock again landing some good shots to the face, and he turns it up and knocks Mir out with a flurry of hard rights on the ground.

It looks like Mir tried to congratulate Brock, but Brock acted like a total asshole, and then flipped off the crowd.

Brock Lesnar has made a ton of enemies, and I'm not entirely sure that playing the heel is going to sell UFC PPV like it does WWE.

Dana White looks a little pissed off by the whole thing. Brock's giving a pro wrestling interview to Rogan after the fight. He badmouths the UFC's sponser (Bud Light)

Mir is classy in his post fight interview.

I've got this feeling that Lesnar's going to flake out sooner rather than later.

Rumor has it that they are going to put Carwin vs. Valasquez, with the winner facing Brock. I'm really interested in that one.

[Brother Brian]

So it looks like we will get Fitch vs. Paulo Thiago.

Thiago grabs an early guillatine, but looks like more for control than as a sub right now, but Fitch needs to be careful.

Thiago changes to a DArce choke, but Fitch has his legs so he can't get the full squeeze.

Fitch escapes, but Thiago is doing a great job working from the bottom.

Really nice technical ground battle. I give it 10-9 Paulo Thiago.

Round 2

Fitch lands a right, gets the clinch, and takes Thiago down. Thiago again trys to control Fitch with a headlock/guilatine from the bottom.

They grapple for the whole round. Neither is able to do any damage or come close to ending the fight, but Fitch takes it 10-9 for dominant position.

Round 3

Fitch spends 30 seconds on his feet and goes for the takedown.

Thiago looks tired, keeps giving up his back.

Fitch gets sloppy and almost gets caught in an Anacoda choke, but ends up back on top.

Same as round 2, Fitch gets the round by control.

[carmachu]

hanks for the rundown BB.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it doesnt sound like Brock was his usual agressive self. In fact it doesnt sound like how he's been at all in the UFC.

[carmachu]

Damn, Danzig has fallen a long way since TUF.....

[carmachu]

OH!

I forgot to mention this, as it wasn't broadcast, but it was mentioned: C.B. Dollaway got choked out in under a minute of the first round!!!

WOOOHOOO!!

Now, Amir Sadollah needs to get fighting...


Agreed on both counts. When will they show the fight there on CB?

[Brother Brian]

Are you shitting me? Really?!? That was the number one fight?!?

Oy gevalt... I will never understand why such a big deal is made of that fight. Both men showed themselves to be inept buffoons in that bout. It was awful, easily one of the worst displays in a professional fight I've ever seen. "Short on technique" doesn't even begin to cover it. I've seen better conducted and more exciting schoolyard brawls. Both have grown a lot since, especially Griffin. But when you see some of the other fights in the top 100, to have that as #1? What an embarrassment.

Yep. I get that it was important, but Great...not so much.

I totally had it 30-27 for Akiyama, but I figured it would be 29-28 at best for him with the judges. Belcher had moments -- Akiyama controlled the whole fight. He needs to consider dropping a weight-class, though. He is small, giving up range and strength. He was nailing Belcher with combos pretty much at will for much of the fight, but having to box at the extreme edge of his range robbed his blows of a lot of power. Belcher's tough and he's got a chin, but he didn't mount much of a credible offense, IMV, really only having isolated moments of aggression and effectiveness.

I'll have to watch it again. I think Belcher got credit from me for doing more damage with his strikes than Akiyama did. That said, you are 100% correct that Akiyama has to drop to 170. Weight cutting in Japan is usually limited, and in the US 20 lb weight cuts are common. He's going to get crushed by the better performers at 185.

Agreed. I understand why Bisping cut to middleweight, because there is no way he can hang in that division, not even a little bit. Mind you, he can't hang in the middleweight division either. Bisping is a glorified gate-keeper who doesn't know his role. He looks like he hasn't settled into this weight class yet, in any event, giving up way too much shoulder and chest mass by the looks of it. Hendo looks badass at this weight and better than he's looked for a while.

I have to admit, I was worried that Bisping was going to take it -- he's a clown and a clown of limited ability but he's a TUF winner, so he's been protected and groomed. Hendo may be a legend in the sport, but he's really at the end of his career and legends seem to be dropping like flies these days. I figured that the UFC was feeding a washed up Hendo to Bisping to boost his credibility. Man, was I wrong. Hendo clearly knows his body -- his fight was well-paced and measured. He didn't launch himself with profligate abandon, he methodically stalked Bisping around the octagon. Bisping bounced and flitted and even got off one decent attempt at offense. But ultimately, Hendo was crushing him. The knockout was *devastating* -- Bisping isn't eating anything more challenging than chocolate pudding for month at least. The follow-up shot was brutal and we were afraid we were going to see the first UFC fatality, as Hendo dropped on Bisping with the cou de grace and his fist bounced off of Bisping's jaw and it looked like a nasty forearm to the throat was the result.

In any event, I am so glad that Bisping finally faced a real opponent and got his frigging head handed to him. Maybe he'll learn a little humility now, or even quit, which wouldn't trouble me in the least. Bisping is in no way contender material, let alone a potential champion. Hendo could have been a little classier in the end, but Bisping is such a cock, I don't find it in myself to be too down on him.

Oh, I'm not too down on him, it was just out of charecter for a guy who's biggest trash talk of his career was calling Bisping "kind of a douche".

But yeah, Hendo studied Bisping an knew he didn't have to worry about Bisping coming out strong. (He hasn't tried since Matt Hammell beat the snot out of him in the first round of their fight.) Hendo didn't waste an ounce of energy, and just crushed Bisping.

The Count will be better off fighting at 205 in Strikeforce I think.


I think that that is really premature. Considering that he pulled his groin somewhere in the third, it only made sense for him to try and keep it on the ground. Also, GSP works from the top, so lay and pray is hardly an apt description. We all knew going into the fight that GSP was going to be taking to the ground as much as he could: he learned his lesson from that upset loss to Matt Serra -- anybody can land a good shot and knock you out. And Alves isn't just anybody -- he's the biggest fighter in the division, cutting from 195 - 200 to fight at 170. He's strong as hell and a very dangerous striker (although I find it funny how GSP was once considered a dangerous striker and now people were giving the edge to Alves and going on about GSP's wrestling advantage -- IMV, GSP is the better striker too, he's just a lot more savvy about the vicissitudes of a stand-up war) -- the game plan going in was to go for the take-downs and control the fight from top position, which he basically did.

Kudos to Alves -- the kid is really good and really strong. He's the future of the division, I think, depending on how long GSP can keep it up. Unfortunately for him, he's small for light heavyweight, so his options are welterweight and middleweight, which like being forced to choose between standing in front of the eastbound or westbound trains, given that the champions there are easily two of the very best fighters in the world, let alone their divisions or even the whole UFC. On the other hand, I think he's likely going to be able to avenge his loss to Fitch -- that might be an interesting follow-up fight for him now.

I'm curious as to who is going to be next for GSP; much like Silva, he's really more or less cleaned out the division. Anthony Johnson is there and he might present a challenge to GSP -- "Rumble" is athletic as hell, fast as a whip and strong, with serious KO power. I just don't know if he can counter GSP's brilliant and strategically insightful use of wrestling to control a fight.

My concern is with what Jackson was saying in the corner, and shouldn't be seen a slight on GSP. He kept on GSP about control, telling him not to go for finishes. It didn't seem to be related to the groin injury.

Time will tell if this is something Greg Jackson continues to advise or if it's opponent specific.

And Rogan said that according to Joe Silva, GSP will get the winner of Swick vs. Kampmann.


OH!

I forgot to mention this, as it wasn't broadcast, but it was mentioned: C.B. Dollaway got choked out in under a minute of the first round!!!

WOOOHOOO!!

Now, Amir Sadollah needs to get fighting...

It's nice to have things we can agree on, like a loathing of Dollaway.

OMFG...

Just checking the results on the undercard... Coleman beat Bonnar by unanimous decision... E-frigging-gad! Buh-bye, Bonnar. If you can't beat Coleman in a full three-round contest (never mind not being able to finish him -- losing a decision), you need to consider a different line of work.

Oy.

Watch, he'll try to drop to middleweight like Bisping did and get eaten alive in *that* shark-tank.

I talked to a friend yesterday who went to the show, and he's a Bonner hater.

He thought Bonner got ripped off. Coleman laid and prayed for two rounds, while Bonner went for subs, and fought off his back. He had it 30-27 Bonner.

I'm guessing based on his description that Coleman recognized that Bonner would have a hard time knocking out a toddler, and didn't worry about getting hit on his way in. I'd like to see the fight before I can say though.

Oh, BB -- was that not the worst nutshot in recent memory? The edge of Belcher's foot came right in under the cup and labeled Akiyama dead-bang...

It's a close second to Overeem's repeated shots to Cro-Cop in Dream about a year ago. (Cro-Cop needed surgery to reposition his nuts according to rumor.)


Damn, Danzig has fallen a long way since TUF.....

Danzig is overrated and undersized at 155. Pre-TUF he made a decent career for himself by being "The best fighter not in the UFC". He's seen the quality of opposition jump, and he can't keep up.