I can’t frickin’ stand Uriah Faber. I hate his face, I hate his hair, I hate his attitude, I hate the way the the WEC commentators lick his asshole any time they talk about him. I hope he ends up as a bloody heap of blood and goo who has to stand there in abject humiliation as Pulver’s hand gets raised.
So, did you mean to put this in The Pit or in the Game forum? 
Previous threads on MMA events (Faber and Pulver will be fighting live in about 40 minutes) have been here, so this seemed like the best place for the thread.
Was that before or after there was a new forum created for sports and games?
Off to the Game Room.
OMFG, Faber has his hair in cornrows. What a fucking douchebag.
I thought it was a great fight. I like Faber a lot, and thought he and Pulver were well-matched.
The cornrows make sense since he wants to keep his hair long, but needs to keep it out of his face during a fight. They were all messed up by the end of the fight, so I’m guessing his hair is un-cornrowed this morning.
No love for Faber, huh? I like the guy okay. He seems to come off pretty decent in interviews, and he’s a frickin’ machine in the cage, just plain fun to watch. I like Pulver, too, this was one of those fights that I was sorry that someone had to lose. Pulver fought a great fight and gave Faber his hardest win yet.
While we’re on it, did anybody see the EliteXC thing on CBS on Saturday?
The only fight that was worthy where the female competitors, great fight. Overhype Slice, well that match went how I thought it would.
Yeah, the female fighters seemed to be far more skilled than any of the male fighters were.
The fact that a lot of America’s first experience with MMA will be Saturday’s EliteXC event infuriates me to know end. It was a glorified toughman contest.
My thoughts exactly. The Robbie Lawler/Scott Smith fight wasn’t bad (although the stoppage was ridiculous), and the Carano/Young fight was good. As for the rest of it, eh.
I would let Gina put me in a triangle choke any time.
It’s less hatred of Faber-the-guy than it is loathing of Faber-the-product. He’s the WEC’s biggest asset at the moment and WEC is hyping the hell out of him, and it gets tiresome.
He lives up to the hype, though. Can you blame them for pushing their good-looking, unstoppable fighting machine?
I don’t blame them for pushing him. I just get heartily sick of the sycophancy of the announcers and interviewers. One example that just sticks in my mind and is pretty illustrative is a fight, can’t recall the opponent’s name, where Faber took like four or five shots in a row and threw one punch at the end. No mention of the flurry of strikes from the opponent and the one return shot is greeted with “And Urijah goes to work!” And it’s like that with every fight of his I’ve seen. And the post-fight interviews, they suck up to him so much I expect Frank Mir to drop to his knees and start blowing Faber in the middle of the cage. And the constant mentions of Faber during other fights where he’s not involved. “How do you think Urijah would have countered that takedown?” and shit like that. Guys, we get it, the sun shines directly out of Urijah Fabers rectum, give it a rest.
I haven’t really noticed much of that, but we do fast-forward through all the parts of the show that involve talking and no fighting so I’m sure we just miss a lot of it. That does sound a little over the top.
Prior to last night, I had never watched an entire MMA match, but I happened to catch the beginning of this one, and the idea of watching these two guys beat the hell out of each other seemed appealing. After watching it, though, I must admit it seems I have some ignorance which must be fought. Throughout the fight, the commentators were insistent that this was an excellent “back and forth battle”, and that Pulver was “giving as good as he gets” and “really bringing it back to [Faber]”. I just didn’t see it. Personally, I would have described it more as “Pulver standing around getting punched in the face”.
Every round more or less consisted of repetitions of this cycle:
- Dance
- Jab
- Faber punches Pulver in the face
- Dance
- Faber punches Pulver in the face
- Faber punches Pulver in the face
- Jab
- Pulver kicks Faber in the hips
- Dance
- Takedown
- Faber gets on top and punches Pulver in the face
- Pulver lies there as Faber punches him in the face until round ends
It was that last bit that really confused me…Faber would take a 10-second break from punching Pulver in the face, and Pulver would lay there with his hand resting on Faber’s head…dude, if there’s gonna be contact between your hand and his head, shouldn’t it be in the form of you knocking on his occipital, or sending a cross into his ear, or really just doing anything other than laying there until he decides to start punching you in the face again? Meanwhile, the commentators are going on in awed tones about how normally both fighters will use these takedowns as an opportunity to rest, and how amazing it was that Faber was taking the opportunity to beat the living shit out of Pulver while he had him on the ground offering no resistance.
Barring a couple instances where he got in a single good shot (and didn’t bother to follow up on the resulting “deer in the headlights” stun it inevitably caused Faber to go into), it really didn’t seem like Pulver DID much of anything. I mean, I admire the dude’s stamina, but c’mon…just look at them during the after-match interviews. Pulver’s sweaty, bloody, and has a right eye socket the size of a grapefruit; Faber looks like he’s having a bad hair day.
I fully admit I know nothing of martial arts or MMA scoring, so please explain to the layman: in what way was this anything resembling a “close match”?
A lot of that time when it looked like they weren’t doing anything, they were grappling. They’re both great at it, so sometimes it looks like they’re holding still. MMA consists not only of striking, but grappling (wrestling/jiu jitsu) as well, so a fight can end with a knockout or a submission. In some fights, the fighters do get tired and seem to be resting in those holds, but that wasn’t the case in that match. Faber and Pulver both have the conditioning that lets them keep going and going.
You couldn’t really say Pulver gave as good as he got; I had him losing every round, and I think most of the judges did too. Rather, Pulver gave pretty damn good, all things considered.
First off, Faber has been marching through fighters like Ghengis Khan going through Asia. To put this fight in context, prior to this fight Faber had 21 fights and 20 wins. Of those, 10 wins were in the first round and 7 were in the second. He’d only been to decision twice (and won both). None of his last 12 fights had gone the distance, and he’d won 4 of his last 5 by knockout or submission in the first round. He’s a beast.
Now, against this beast you’ve got Jens Pulver, who’s an older fighter but who has never lost at this weight. He makes it through the first two rounds pretty good, losing on points but making Faber work hard for it, and getting a few shots in. He definitely lost the rounds, but scored some hard shots, stuffed a few explosive takedown attempts, and most importantly, didn’t get knocked out or submitted, which is more than the last twelve guys who fought Faber can say. In round three Faber rocked Pulver and put him on the canvas, but Pulver withstood a flurry of punches until he got his legs back underneath him. That took a lot of energy out of Faber, and could have been disastrous for him if he completely gassed himself and coudn’t defend against a submission.
In the last two rounds Pulver knew he probably couldn’t win except by submission or knockout, and he had Faber in good position on the ground and against the cage a few times. A lot of the time when he was on the ground not appearing to do much, it was because Faber had him tied up so well, or because he was trying to clamp his hand over Faber’s mouth and nose for a few seconds, stealing a little bit of oxygen from Faber and getting a little rest for himself. In the last round Pulver definitely had to submit Faber or knock him out, and he tried his damndest. So yeah, Faber beat him pretty soundly, but Pulver made him work for every inch of it, and fough five full rounds against a guy who’s been winning them in one or two. Except for his one loss, nobody’s fought a better fight against Faber.