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UFC 80 was one of
those events that proves the point that you can't "judge a book by
its cover." On paper UFC 80 may not have looked great, but I really
enjoyed it. I hope that is not just because I am a junkie...
 If
I was a betting man, I would have come out a bit ahead as I continued
my streak of going 6-3.
The night started
with Sam Stout vs. Per Eklund. I did not see this fight and judging by
the write ups that I have read, the fans at the event probably wish that
hadn't either. Stout spent three rounds stuffing the takedown and throwing
enough punches to take a unanimous decision to the fans' boos. I will
NOT be viewing this fight on UFC on Demand.
After being bored
through the first fight, the fans were treated to one of the most interesting
takedown defense I have seen. This fight was like a woman chasing her
man as he tried to get away. James Lee's takedowns looked lazy as Alessio
Sakara used the "run away" technique to defend. As Sakara was
running, Lee grabbed on like a ball and chain and just held on. The whole
fight was quite amusing. With 205 being so stacked, I think Sakara is
making an intelligent position to move down to 185.
In the next fight,
the 2 Brits put on an amazing show. I have not seen an opening exchange
like that in quite a while. I picked Paul Taylor in this fight, but it
was truly based on the fact that I really knew nothing about Paul Kelly.
Well, I do now! Paul Kelly is like a miniature version of his teammate
Michael Bisping. His stand-up looked good and his ground-and-pound was
great. Taylor showed a lot of heart hanging in there to the end of this
fight. This fight was definitely deserving of winning the "Fight
of the Night" moniker.
It is going to take
me longer to write about Antoni Hardonk vs. Colin Robinson than the fight.
Well, that is about 17 seconds right there... Anyway, great kicks by Hardonk.
There was damage done to Robinson's knee and I think the ref made a good
decision to stop the fight. It may have lasted to 20 seconds but who knows
what kind of damage could have been done to Robinson in those 3 seconds
after he fell back to the ground. By the way, does anyway else ever think
of "badonkadonk" whenever they hear the Dutchman's name?
The first fight on
the main card reinforced one of my rules. The rule is: Unless your name
is Genki Sudo, do not come to the Octagon wearing a mask. If you do, you
will lose. This rule seems to be true in at least 90% of the fights where
a fighter wears a mask. Jorge Rivera used the same game-plan that Patrick
Cote used to defeat Kendall Grove. Rivera was a bully in this fight and
was constantly in Grove's face throwing punches. This is a disappointing
loss for Grove being his second in a row in the same way. He really needs
to get back to the gym and develop a plan in case he gets in that situation.
For Rivera though, this win was great. He needed it at this point in his
career. Does anyone know if Rivera has a family member that is autistic?
I ask because of the emblem on his shirt that he held to the camera before
the fight.
Only one word to describe
the finish of the the Gouveia vs. Lambert fight. The word is WOAH! After
being dominated the first round, I was shocked to see Gouveia finish the
fight with a knockout of that caliber. Very much deserving of "Knockout
of the Night." For Lambert, the fight had to be similar to his fight
with Babalu except that he was on the other side. I was very impressed
with both fighters. While Gouveia was on the defense so much of the first
round, he continued looking for submission after submission. Lambert did
a great job of defending those submissions and giving some vicious ground-and-pound.
Looking forward to seeing both of these guys fight again soon.
Another unreal knockout
came quickly in the first round when Marcus
Davis landed a solid left to the side of the head of Jess Liaudin.
The Joker went down stiff after the strong left. Marcus Davis now has
a 6 fight win streak in the UFC, but needs to work on his interviewing
skills. I can't even remember how many times he said "I am for real."
Gabriel Gonzaga has
the potential to be the best in the HW division, but his problem is his
cardio. His kicks to Werdum's legs in the first round were just vicious.
His stand-up is so powerful, he has an amazing ground game, but he gasses.
Two out of the three keys to MMA will not make you the best. Werdum took
advantage of Gonzaga's cardio in the second round and earned a title shot
against the winner of Sylvia/Nog for his win. Wait, he earned a title
shot? What happened to the UFC HW division?
It was awesome to
see BJ Penn come into the fight in such great shape. He has obviously
put some time and effort into his training. He has even forgone the "ab"
that he had when he fought at WW and now has a defined SET of abs. Is
this the new BJ? I hope so because he is going to be unbeatable. I usually
do not feel bad for fighters when they lose, but I truly felt bad for
Stevenson. This fight meant so much to him. It was very obvious that he
did not want to tap but had no choice. He does need to buck up though
because he is young and still has a bright future.
Once GSP gets the
WW title back and with BJ as champ at LW, the lowest three divisions in
the UFC (LW,WW, and MW) each have the most dominant fighter as the champion.
Don't forget, UFC
Fight Night is on Wednesday. Mike Swick will be making his WW debut and
McFedries returns from a serious staph
infection. Should be a good card.
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