Tonight was an interesting night of fights for sure. Before I get into that, I'd like to thank my buddy Ryan for having the fights over at his house. I had a great time and a big part of the reason I love fight nights is because of the camaraderie that comes with it. Back to the fights... the consensus from the group of people that I watched the fights with was that the fights were a bit of a letdown. At first, I thought that way too. Now that I've had some time to think about it. I don't really feel that way. There was a lot of hype about the fight and that's Dana's job, to get people excited about the fights and he is the best at what he does. The one thing that stands out to me more than anything is how special it is to watch guys like Anderson Silva and BJ Penn. They are incredible. I will talk about them 20 years from now when my kids want to know what it was like to watch guys like "Baby J" and "The Spider". I never really thought about that until today and I don't think a lot of people think that way either. These guys fight 2, maybe 3 times a year. Five years from now, I think both of these guys will have retired. That means that we have maybe 10 more times to watch these guys compete. I can't really say enough about how incredible these guys are. I am in awe. I feel lucky to be able to watch them every time they step into the octagon to display their skills. So no, the fights weren't a disappointment. In fact, I think they lived up to exactly to how they were billed.
THE UNDERCARD
I really wish they would show all of the fights. I would love to see that. I know that you can watch them online at UFC.com for $10 a month, but I'd much rather see them live. I think the UFC would have an easier time selling some of these guys if we knew who they were before finally reaching a main card. Don't get me wrong, they do a tremendous job selling their product, but if I could make a slight suggestion regarding the issue, that would be it. I can't really comment on all of the fights because I didn't get a chance to see them. So I'll be brief in my recaps of those fights. If you want full details, go to www.mmajunkie.com.
Jesse Lennox vs. Danillo Villefort
From what I read, this fight was close going into the 3rd round and during a scramble on the ground
George Roop vs. George Sotiropoulos
I said that I hoped they would show this fight so I could see George S and he did not disappoint. He outclassed Roop in all aspects of the fight and looked especially impressive on the ground passing guard and moving side-to-side with ease and at will. I think that Roop's lack of ground game also made George's jits look that much better. George was a heavy favorite, so that I'm not surprised that he won and won easily. I'll even go as far to say that I don't think Roop should be in the UFC based on his performance tonight.
Dan Cramer vs. Matthew Riddle
The Junkie reported that Riddle was in trouble early, caught in a guillotine, but eventually got out and went on to win in a split decision. That doesn't surprise me at all. I bet he was and is still grinning ear to ear.
Thales Leites vs. Alessio Sakara
I spent too much time talking about these guys in my previous post so I won't do that again here. I read that the fight was boring and met with boo's...shocking. I hope these guys get dropped from the UFC. They just don't compete at the level I would expect a UFC combatant to compete at. Sakara won in a split decision then apologized for his performance. Yea, whatever. Thank God this fight didn't make it to the main broadcast.
John Howard vs. Tamdan McCrory
I'm pretty bummed this fight didn't make it to the main broadcast. I would of much rather watched this fight then the Nelson/Riley bout. Howard won a close decision in a fight that was spent mostly on the ground, not standing up like they had predicted. I picked McCrory to win but I also wrote that this one stood out as a play on Howard because of the way the betting line was set.
Shane Nelson vs. Aaron Riley
I didn't really care about this fight before the fight and I care even less after having watched it. I was wondering why they didn't show any post fight interviews for a few of the first fights and I came to find out that they had time constraints and this fight was pushed to the main broadcast. The fight was okay. Riley was in control the whole time. I agree with Joe Rogan, Nelson should drop to 145 and fight in the WEC where he can be more competitive.
MAIN CARD
Josh Neer vs. Kurt Pellegrino
I think this fight was a disappointment for a lot of fans who were expecting to see a lot of fireworks out of the stand-up, but the fight didn't go that way. Neer wanted to stand but Pellegrino took him down at will and did enough in Neer's guard to win the decision. Neer seemed frustrated and upset during and after the fight. Upset I can understand, frustrated, yea I can understand that too, but don't complain about it. If you don't want to spend the fight on your back, don't get taken down. I think Neer knows that he needs to work on his takedown defense so I'll look for him to improve upon that and bounce back. I wouldn't be surprised if these guys fought again in the future.
Ricardo Almeida vs. Kendall Grove
This fight went how I thought it would as far as the outcome. I thought it was kind of odd that Almeida was able to land better strikes and Grove almost pulling off an armbar because Grove was supposed to have the better stand up and Almeida the better ground game. Almeida was tough and disruptive. It didn't look like Grove really got any kind of flow going and Almeida was awarded with a unanimous decision. After watching the fight, I still think these guys are somewhere in the middle of the middleweight division, but definitely not title contenders. I would love to see "Big Dog" Alemeida fight Michael Bisping. I think that would make for an extremely interesting matchup. This wasn't a bad loss for Grove, just not his night. I think maybe an opponent like Amir Sadollah, CB Dolloway, Tom Lawlor, or Johnny Hendricks will be up next for Grove.
Johnny Hendricks vs. Amir Sadollah
This fight was a major disappointment. I think the stoppage was made too early, but that's hard to say when you're caught up in the heat of the moment. I'm not going to talk trash on Dan Murgliata, but it's frustrating as hell when a fight ends like this. I think that Amir could of done more to protect himself. You can’t be on all fours and not block your face and expect the fight to go on for much longer. In the minute or so that I actually got to watch Hendricks, I was impressed. I think he could definitely make some noise in this division. I’m looking forward to what he does in the future.
Depending on who you were rooting for, you either loved or hated this fight. Apparently Dana loved it enough to give it Fight of the Night honors for a nice $60,000 bonus for both of the fighters. I know it's not all about the money for these guys and especially a guy like Forrest, but making $20,000 a minute is nothing to balk at. Silva also got Knockout of the Night for this fight and another $60,000. I'm sure the extra $120,000 made this KO even sweeter for The Spider. I'm not really disappointed in Forrest. He obviously did his best. The guy is a tremendous fighter and has a huge heart, so for him to be put out of a fight like that after only 4 minutes, had to be pretty devastating. The final blow was not pretty at all and an embarrassing way to go out, especially with the way he fell. It looked awkward and cartoonish.
Champ B.J. Penn vs. Kenny Florian (for UFC lightweight title)
Baby J, way to bounce back! BJ looked calm and composed and fended off everything Florian threw his way. I think Florian made a tremendous effort, but BJ is in a different league than him and most of that division right now. I thought Florian had a decent game plan, but there's not much you can do against a guy like BJ. Watching my favorite fighters is not really enjoyable at all. Usually I'm all pins and needles until they win. So tonight I was very happy that BJ won and that he was able to finish Kenny. I was really impressed with the patience that BJ fought with and his display of jiu-jitsu in the 4th round was so fluid. It was a beautiful thing to watch. It’s no wonder why they call him “The Prodigy”. The rear-naked choke netted BJ a cool $60K and Submission of the Night. Diego "The Nightmare" Sanchez is up next for BJ. That matchup is going to be tough for BJ but the way he looked tonight. I don't know if anyone can beat him.
Well tonight was fun and although UFC 101: Declaration had its disappointing moments, as a whole, it definitely didn't disappoint. The good news is we get to do it all over again tomorrow for WEC 42: Torres vs Bowles. So check back in tomorrow for my thoughts about that fight.
Thanks again for checking out the blog and thanks to the following for updates and photos...
www.mmajunkie.com
www.mmaweekly.com
www.vaallday.com
-jg-
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