It appears some other people watched the fight last night so we might as well discuss it here.
Fight 1
Yoshiro VS. Belcher
Prefight thoughts:
I’m more of a casual fan so I had to look these guys up to form a prefight opinion. I was excited to see that Yoshiro was a Judo black-belt. I was hoping to see some pretty throws and sweeps. My prefight prediction was for Belcher to win it. Japanese fighters seem to have trouble adjusting to fighting in the UFC.
Fight Thoughts:
I had Belcher winning the first round and Yoshiro the next two, but it was a close decision. I thought Yoshiro was going to get robbed in the judging with Belcher having the home field advantage. I was disappointed the Yoshiro didn’t display his Judo. I love watching Karo throw people around. Joe Rogan and Goldman thought Belcher was robbed but I disagree. The kick in the groin looked nasty. The way he reacted I thought Yoshiro would be done after that.
Bisping Vs. Hendorson
Prefight thoughts:
I had Henderson winning by decision. It surprised me so many people were hyping Bisping up. Henderson has a much better resume and is an elite level fighter. He held two belts in Pride before coming to the UFC. Bisping has fought no one near Henderson’s caliber I assumed that Bisping would employ the same strategy he used to beat Chris Leben. I figured Henderson would get tired of that and take him down and grind to a decision.
Fight Thoughts:
Bisping was trying to stick and move but Henderson is just too good for that. Henderson was continually cutting off the cage and forcing Bisping to trade. That take down attempt by Bisping was about the weakest I’ve seen. Henderson set up the big right with a little inside leg kick and just unloaded. The second shot from Henderson was unneeded but legal. I was glad to see Bisping get beat, he has really come off like a tool lately. His comments after the Hammil fight just didn’t sit right, and he came off very badly in this season of TUF.
GSP Vs. Alves
Prefight thoughts:
I figured GSP would win this fight. Not exactly going out on a limb with that one. I bet my friend a dollar that GSP would get a take down in the first minute and a half.
Fight Thoughts:
Wow Alves is big. They said he was probably walking around at 190ish at fight time. It was kinda scary to finally see a guy out muscle GSP. George got his back many times but Alves was able to shake free each time. I didn’t realize George had pulled his groin until he said something to his corner in the fourth. I wonder if that was a factor in Alves managing to keep him grounded for so long? His trainer telling him to knock out Alves with his pulled groin was good for a laugh. For him to still be landing explosive take downs with his injury was a testament to just how good of a wrestler GSP is. You could tell George was really hurt in the post-fight interview and he did not attempt his backflip. Good fight, and I won a dollar.
I will skip the MIR Lesnar fight as there is already a thread going on that. Fitch Vs. Thiago
Prefight thoughts:
I had none. I forgot this fight was even on the card. Fitch is always dominate though.
Fight Thoughts:
I didn’t follow this fight as close, it was late and I had already seen enough.
Fitch surviving that Guillotine to D’Arce was crazy. I thought he was gonna go to sleep there. Thiago’s arms must have been jello after holding those chokes so long. Fitch got caught in a lot of chokes in this fight, but evidently his brain doesn’t need blood to function.
Henderson’s flying fist-bomb on Bisping was one of the most brutal things I’ve ever seen. I wanted Henderson to win but daaaamn. The rest of the night paled in comparison to that.
I can’t believe Buffer did the 360 and the bastards didn’t show it.
Jon Fitch was in another snoozer. How did I predict that? :rolleyes: They should’ve put his boring ass on the undercard and showed up-and-comer Jon Jones or legends Bonnar/Coleman instead. At least Fitch went for a finish this time, but it was in the last few seconds and he never even came close. It was probably just part of the “pray” half of his “lay and pray” strategy.
What I really liked about the Bisping fight was that Rogan called him on his bad strategy right before he was laid out. It was literally the last thing said before Hendo put him down, twitching.
I did think that Hendo should have not popped him again at the end. There’s no way the ref was going to let that fight continue. I think Hendo’s training doesn’t include “assess opponent for focused eyes when down.”
From the perspective of someone who really only likes to watch the grappling/submission aspect of the game, this card really didn’t end up entertaining me all that much. The main thing I was really wanting to see was Bisping get smashed, and Henderson delivered in spades.
I actually thought we were going to see our first death in the Octagon, it was that bad. He was out when hit, slammed his head on the canvas, then got crunched again by Hendo. When he lay there for a couple minutes w/o moving, I was seriously worried.
Bisping’s corner was screaming at him at the end of the first not to circle towards Dan’s right. I think Dan was herding him that way. Bisping wanted to stick and move and Dan was cutting off the octagon well. I think once Hendo closed the gap he made it so Bispings only outlet for separation was towards his power hand. I might be over thinking this though, my knowledge of standup is limited.
The ultimate fighter finale last month had some nice ground work. Stevenson hit some beautiful rolls and I about crapped my pants when he hit the splaydle (sp?).
Yeah, that was a really good fight. It seems that the Diaz brothers are involved in lots of the fights I like, win or lose. I wish they didn’t otherwise irritate me so much. (I think it’s spladle.)
Well how would he know he’s truly out until the ref stops it? Look at the head kick Guida took at TUF finale, that would have KO’d most, but he got up again. You keep going until the ref stops it.
Admittedly, he said he knew Bisping was out from the 1st punch and the 2nd was ‘to shut him up a little bit more’, that makes him a bit of a dick but it was a legal move.
Personally I find Bisping entertaining but he does need to come down to earth a little. I think Henderson, from what I saw on TUF is a bit of a numpty. He didn’t seem to manage the team well at all!
I can’t wait until Wilks and Pearson get up to Bispings status, then us Brits will have fighters to really be proud of!
I honestly didn’t know Hendo was still fighting. I also thought Bisping was dead. I didn’t know he was a trash talker. While I like seeing trash talkers get what they deserve, especially if they can’t back it up, while legal, I thought Hendo’s last hit was excessive. It was great and grueling to watch at the same time.
GSP continues to impress me. Who is the unofficial pound-for-pound best fighter in the UFC? I thought it was BJ Penn, but GSP beat him. I thought Thiago was going to be a better match, but that dude got taken down 129438573 times. He also gave up his back just as many times. Skill or luck getting out? A little of both, I’d say.
Did anyone see any of the other fights? What put all that blood on the mat? My gf wanted to go home. I wanted to see the Coleman (another retiree) / Bonner fight and the “Stun Gun” Kim. I haven’t checked the results yet (I guess I’ll do that now).
I don’t think that fight was an accurate meaure of pound-for-pound since Georges has about 25lbs of muscle on BJ, and he cheated. Fightmetric scored their first fight in Penn’s favor, though the judges gave a split decision to St. Pierre.
All the fights went pretty much how I thought they might.
The one fight I wanted to see most of all was the Henderson/Bisping fight. You just knew Henderson was pissed off and he was out for some punishment doling. Now, Bisping: brash guy, lot of talking, but he’s got the skills. He’s very quick, very fluid, very technical and he can bring it when he needs to … but I just had this feeling that sooner or later he was going to leave his chin where he shouldn’t have left it. Especially after hearing everyone from his coaches to the announcers say that he was circling into Henderson’s right all the time.
And it happened. I’m not a big Bisping hater, in fact, he was my favorite fighter in the Ultimate Fighter series that he won. But in the run-up to this fight, and all through the USA v Britain Ultimate Fighter, he was just getting on my last nerve. So I guess I was a little pleased to see him get knocked into next week. And what a vicious fucking knock-out that was. That second punch, while Bisping was asleep on the deck, that Henderson let loose on him after leaping six feet in the air and then coming down on him, was a bigger “fuck you” than Lesnar’s post fight flipout.
You know, I was thinking before the fight that the UFC is really coming into its own, and about the only thing that could totally derail it is a death in the octagon live on TV. And for about a half a minute, I thought Bisping was the corpse.
Nasty frickin’ knock-out. Who knows if he’ll be the same fighter from here on out.
Seriously. Entertaining, and even a good fighter, but he was not ready for Henderson. Hen has something like 105 belts in 105 weight classes, and Bisp is that one dude from the reality show. His largest victory was a certified robbery against Hamil, another guy from a reality show, given to him by those thieving British judges.
Nope he wasn’t, he was way too cocky, the evidence being not heeding the advise to stop circling into Hendo’s right.
I think his record might have put him the frame of mind that he’s invincible, and I’ve met a fair few people with the same mindset at TKD comps, but they do come down to earth a little when they have their ass handed to them the first time.
There might be the fact he’s not as used to being on TV either, not being in the limelight for as long compared to Hendo, then having it thrust onto him, maybe went to his head a bit or something.
I watched BAMMA for the 1st time the other week, you guys should check it out, it doesn’t have the ‘US TV sheen’ of the UFC, but the fighters are a lot more down to earth.
[hijack]
Sorry to double post, but I’ve just watched the UFC 75 match.
I think Bisping did have the edge, Hamill dominated round 1 but towards the end of round 2 and the whole of 3, Bisping was landing punches, though not as Strong as Hamil’s, they did reach the face rather than the guard (which Hamil kept dropping), and all those were worth points, and on the ground, whilst he didn’t initiate he was actively blocking transitions and escaping, whilst Hamil wasn’t doing much.
And the only British judge (of the 3), Chris Watts, gave all the 3 rounds to Hamil, though you were probably joking.
I think the main reason people think Hamil got robbed is because they didn’t want Bisping to win, cause he’s a bit of a dick!