First of all, I am a really big Patrick Cote fan and I enjoy watching him fight, but I should have known that after a very long lay off due to a knee injury, plus a setback, would have had effect on him, especially considering he was fighting a very good fighter in Alan Belcher. Second of all, I really don't like Josh Koscheck and I was hoping more than anything that Paul Daley would have been able to stuff Kos's takedowns like he said he would have been able to. However, I think I did discuss both of these issues regarding each fighter in my preview, so shame on me for picking them wrong, but at least I acknowledged what the determining factor would be had they both lost. Finally, Sam Stout, I would like to say that I do not agree with the decision at all for Jeremy Stephens. I think the judges fell in love with Stephens' style and his heavy hands, and totally neglected the fight overall. Yes, Jeremy Stephens looked brilliant for brief periods of the fight, but like I said it would be, that fight was all Sam Stout. He never backed down, and never left Stephens' personal bubble. Stout ended the fight stronger and I thought he easily could have taken it 2-1 in rounds. I was completely dumbfaced when Bruce Buffer announced that one judge had it 30-27 for Stephens. Just another reason to frown upon the judging in MMA. Just to be clear, I am not so much annoyed with the overall decision as I am with the one judge scoring it 30-27 Stephens.
Now for my winning calls, my bet the house calls. I can take solace in my 2-3 record with the fact that I won both of my money bets. Mauricio "Shogun" Rua and Matt Mitrione, who I am quickly becoming a fan of for his approach to the game and for that stupid fucking grin that he chooses to not wipe off his face. I loved it.
Let's start with Mitrione. I don't want to take credit in predicting this fight because to me it was just too obvious. Kimbo Slice brings with him a lot of hype and a lot of fair weather fans from his youtube days. For instance, the venue I was watch hing it at was filled with guys prepping everybody for a vicious KO by Slice. I didn't think Mitrione was going to win, and I didn't necessarily want Mitrione to win, I knew Mitrione was going to win. Kimbo Slice is just way too small to be a heavyweight. Considering he weighed in at 225 with not an ounce of fat on his body, it was just too apparent that Mitrione was going to be able to will himself on Kimbo. Matt Mitrione has a lot of things he needs to work on to be successful in the HW division, one being that fact that Kimbo was able to land some nice shots and also slam him down at one point in the fight. Kimbo hits hard, but he hits 225 pound hard. Mitrione was at around 250 pounds.
I think it's too bad Kimbo Slice was cut from the UFC shortly after by Dana White. I would have liked to have seen Kimbo drop down to the LHW division at 205, but I'm guessing weight cutting does not come easily to Kimbo with the little amount of body fat he has. Too bad because there are some pretty exciting matches for him at 205 with guys like Keith Jardine, Forrest Griffin, and even Chuck Liddell.
Now for the main event. I am going to try my best to give my thoughts without explaining how revenge or justice was served with Shogun's win because I have done enough of that already. I also just want to look at the positives surrounding Shogun.
I called Shogun to win the first fight and I called him to win this fight as well. But I never expected it to end as fast as it did or in the fashion it ended. I never could imagine either fighter being KO'd or TKO'd. I was absolutely shocked. I expected Shogun to come with a similar yet a bit more aggressive style than his first fight, and win a decision. Him getting a KO just goes to show how motivated he was and how he wasn't going to let another judging debacle ruin his chances at the UFC LHW title. His first fight with Machida he respected Machida's striking to the point where it made him hesitant for the first 4 rounds to attack. He chose to just pick his shots. I'm guessing after 5 rounds of going unscathed against Machida, all of that respect went out the window and Shogun went for the kill.
My observation on why Shogun was able to KO Machida, and how Machida left himself vulnerable to such a shot is that the first fight played into the mind of Machida and distracted him in the second fight. I try to tell people all the time a fight is different from a game. It's not basketball, hockey, or football. It's a fight. A lot of people thought Machida would have not outstanding effects from the first fight and would be able to alter his game plan so much so for the rematch, that he would be able to just walk through Shogun. I on the other hand tried to relate it to real life. When somebody beats you up in life, it takes a toll on you emotionally, mentally, and physically whether the judges scored it for you or not, the fact of the matter was Shogun beat up Machida in the first fight. He didn't dominate, but he cracked him and solved him enough to land strikes almost at will and the beating seemed to get worse as the fight went on. The punishment was accumulating with the rounds.
I think once Machida got hit with a few shots by Shogun he mentally packed it in and physically did not want to endure another 5 round attack from Shogun, especially considering this time Shogun was being much more aggressive, hence the 2 takedowns form Machida. Shogun getting up so easily from those takedowns didn't help Machida's mental state either. Like I said earlier, when you get beat up in MMA, it's not like any other sport where you can acquire new players, or practice harder, or win using some new and improved style, or even get saved by a great individual performance from a pitcher, goalie, or a running back. It's a fight, and most fighters are limited to the tools they already have. A Muay Thai guy can work on his BJJ as much as he desires, but rarely will it ever turn him into a BJJ styled fighter. Same goes for American wrestling, Wanderlei Silva can train with Randy Couture as much as he wants, but he will never be able to use wrestling as an advantage for him in a fight.
Don't get me wrong, fighters do win rematches against opponents they have previously lost to, but it mostly happens with age and deteriorating skills playing a major role in the result.
My .02
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1 comment:
Good post Morgan!
Now,don't be so hard on yourself,there. Like you said: "It's a fight" and often, those guy you'd think would dominate people get crushed in a New York Minute.
Cote was ok, but yeah, Belcher just took the fight to him, took him off his game plan and there was the submission.
On the Koscheck/Daley battle: it pretty much went as expected. Daley tried hammering Kos, Josh took him down pretty nicely, gassed him out and that's pretty much end of the story. Too bad Paul didn't make it, I was rooting for him, too. Oh and on that note: Paul, you're a f*ckin idiot for ruining your career with such a cheap shot. Plus, give Josh an Oscar for his award-winning performance on the illegal knee.
Matt vs Kimbo, yeah, nothing to be said there. Matt looked sharp, great high-kicks for a HW, Kimbo...well what did Kimbo do? I mean while preparing for the fight. He knew him from TUF, he knew he has good hands and a kick. Huge error there. But ey, his weight was reaaaaally ridiculous. He looked great, but didn't deliver at all.
Did you notice, Machida didn't really use his karate stands? He switched back and forth, maybe part of his counter-attacking strategy, but that didn't really get a chance. And what a gentleman Rua was, when he got Machida down. Full-mount, 4 hands and then lets go of him,even before Lavigne stops it. Confidence and knowing your craft,that's what that was.
Now, I'm looking forward to Rampage vs Rashad.
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