More UFC feedback from weekend
big thumbs up for ufc 189
I got to hooters around 9:30pm it was pretty packed. By 10:00pm there were people lined up behind me. The crowed was really good, bigger then last years July show. I would say the last time there was this many people would be when st pierre fought last. What was different is that everybody stayed through the main event it was packed all night, last year everyone left after the Ronda fight.
Lawler vs. MacDonald was the best fight (maybe of the year.)
i watched evolve 45 (thumbs up) over the weekend as will Roderick Strong vs. Zack Sabre Jr. was really good…i haven’t gotten to evolve 46 yet.
John Juett
FIGHT WEEK
INVICTA 13
Gotta go thumbs down on this one. Most fights noncompetitive. Presentation continues to decline as Julie keeps getting worse (although wasn’t off-her-ass drunk this time), the guy whoever he is doesn’t even understand what he’s looking at, and they are under obvious orders to shill.
Best fight: Moyle vs. Montenegro
Worst fight: pretty much everything else
Best performance: Cyborga I guess
Worst performance: too many
KO: Cyborga
Sub: Brown (default)
Marina Shafir (Ronda’s sparring partner) gets dropped and and pounded out early by pro debuting Amber Leibrock, who was getting a ‘little extra leverage’ blatantly holding the cage with her free hand, which Magoo Mazzagatti managed not to see. Commentators barely mention it either. 37s.
Jamie Moyle more than holds her own with the much bigger Amy Montenegro and should take a 29-28 and does on two cards, the other going the other way.
Amber Brown completely squashes Catherine Costigan with a quick TD to mount then alternating pounding, smothering and submissions till Costigan gives up her back and the RNC.
Pannie Kianzad comes on after a close first and should take the UD over Jessica Rose Clark and does 30-27. Clark landed a knee to the liver but too late to help.
Styles Make etc. Ayaka Hamasaki is much harder for Herica Tiburcio than Watterson was and that fight sort of looking like a fluke. Hamasaki able to land strikes from outside and score TDs more or less at will. Tiburcio busy on the bottom but to not much avail. Hamasaki looked to win 4 rounds, 49-46. Tedious fight. Oh God it’s split. 48-47 split and the last judge gets it right. Ayaka takes the AW title.
Irene Aldana reportedly down with the flu and just can’t keep Tonya Evinger off or even outspeed her and the ref steps in with a few seconds left in the 4th, even though the punches were missing, but didn’t matter. Reffing is dreadful. Evinger takes the vacant BW title. ALdana shouldn’t have fought.
Another squash for Cris. Faith Van Duin just in way over her head. Everything Cyborga landed did immediate damage. End comes off a knee to the liver and G&P in 45s. Cris retains the FW title.
UFC 189
Thumbs schmumbs. Lotta people are saying ‘best card of all time’. Very possibly.
Best fight: Robbie vs. Rory. Almost everything else would have been most nights.
Worst fight: Pendred-Howard and Garcia-Swick were tedious.
Best performance: Robbie but again, almost everybody was top of game
Worst performance: Swick or Pendred
KO: Robbie
Sub: Brown (default)
Cody Pfister survives Yosdenis Cedeno’s early barrage of low kicks and grinds his way to taking the 2nd and 3rd and should take a 29-28 and does on all cards. Terrific technical fight between Louis Smolka and Neil Seary, who spends most of the fight on his back but is effective from there. Smolka edges all three rounds on all cards.
Another good fight as Cody Garbrandt and Henry Briones alternate technical boxing with heavy leather. Garbrandt scores a big KD in the 2nd and hits all the throws and takes all rounds on all cards. John Howard pretty much exposes Cathal Pendred and should take a 30-27 but made it harder than it had to be by not keeping up the low kicks in the 3rd. Split 29-28 but at least the right guy wins. Not sure how Pendred won one round let alone two. Mike Swick trying again after several years no longer very quick, and gets beaten to the punch and ragdolled by Alex Garcia, himself off a year, for three rounds. One judge (wanna bet it was the same one that gave Pendred two rounds?) somehow gives Swick a round. First FotN candidate as Tim Means rocks Matt Brown early, Brown lands an eyepoke that Means maybe does not take enough time for and then it’s constant back and forth till Brown counters a Means elbow with a harder elbow and snags a Guillotine late in the round ftw.
Immediately topped for FotN as Thomas Almeida makes the mistake of boxing with Brad Pickett early and gets dropped twice and his nose broken. He then drops Pickett with an elbow. Pickett comes out in the 2nd with a flying knee. Almeida counters with his own flying knee and knocks Pickett cold.
Gunnar Nelson drops Brandon Thatch early and easily works his way to RNC for the tap.
FotN now becomes ridiculous as Jeremy Stephens and Dennis Bermudez tear it up too until Stephens nails him with ANOTHER flying knee early in the 3rd and finishes with G&P. Stephens bad weight miss obviously not a cardio problem.
We now forget FotN and start thinking about all-time with Lawler vs. McDonald. Rory edges a feeling-out 1st. Robbie outboxes Rory in the 2nd and most of the way through the 3rd, stuffs his TDs, and busts him up. Rory stuns Robbie late in the 3rd with a HK and nearly finishes him. Robbie, now busted up also, fights his way back in the 4th. At the end of the round they stand there and stare at each other. Robbie finishes Rory with a straight left to the nose early in the 5th and retains the WW title. Just amazing fight. I had it even after 4 but the judges had Rory up 3-1.
Live music walkouts to the main fail dismally IMO. Sinead’s voice is gone. Chad Mendes comes out to some mopey country that makes you want to go lie down in the hog pen and die. Conor McGregor lands pretty much at will standing but Mendes takes him down pretty much at will and both do damage. Mendes off only a 19 day camp uncharacteristically gasses and Conor drops him late in the 2nd and Dean is perhaps a little suspiciously quick to jump in. Gotta wonder what if it had been an in fight shape Mendes but in the meantime ‘it’s what’s best for business’.
TUF FINALE
Thumbs up. Had a tough act to follow but good card. Seemed to be new judging directives as more of the 10 points were used.
Best fight: Waterson vs. Magana
Worst fight: Blanco-de la Torre for Lavigne’s as usual inept reffing
Best performance: Thompson, HM to Samman, Usman and Masvidal
Worst performance: Lavigne
KO: Thompson
Sub: Samman
George Sullivan fails to finish late sub Dominic Waters at the end of the 1st but dominates the 2nd and holds off from back mounted in the 3rd to take a 29-27, 30-25 (which seemed a bit much), 29-28 UD. Dan Miller back from long layoff effective striking early but does not have the strength or cardio to deal with Trevor Smith’s top game which totally dominates the last 2 rounds. Miller maybe too small for MW in 2015. 30-25 X 2, 30-26. This time I agree. Heavily favored Russell Doane chooses to wrestle with former NCAA D1 champion Jerrod Sanders and it appears to have backfired on him as Sanders is the one who comes on late after a back and forth contest and takes the 30-27 29-28 X 2 upset. Josh Samman walks through Caio Magalhaes, busting him up and taking RNC from standing back mount for the tap in short order. Magalhaes spits blood at him afterwards.
Another premature stoppage from the always too early or too late Yves Lavigne gives Maxi Blanco an asinine 16 second KO over Mike de la Torre, who was already shooting a single by the time Lavigne got there after the KD.
After a competitive 1st, Michelle Waterson takes over and drubs Angela Magana, finishing with RNC from back mount in the 3rd. Too bad she’s going to have to fight in a weight class she’s too small for. They should just add 105 and 125. There’s enough fighters.
Jorge Masvidal coming up to welter from light, drops Cesar Mutante, coming down from middle, with an elbow/punch combination coming off the fence and finishes him with followup G&P. ATT 1 BZs 0. Masvidal calls out Matt Brown.
Michael Graves controls pretty much the entire fight and takes a 29-28 UD over Vincente Luque. ATT 2-0.
In the fight to decide the season, Kamaru Usman ragdolls a still pudgy Hayder Hassan at will throughout the 1st. Could be a 10-8 the way they’re scoring tonight. Hayder comes out winging desperately and rattles Kamaru but Kamaru reacts by taking him down again and cinching up an arm tri and forcing the tap without fully passing to side position. Really one sided fight. Final score: BZs $300,000—ATT $200,000.
Jake Ellenberger lands one punch and knocks Stephen Thompson down with it but that’s the best it gets. His TD gets reversed and Thompson hits him with everything plus the sink, dropping him twice with spin back hook kicks, the second time for good. Jake may be shot but this was scary.
Crimson Mask
Hi Dave,
A solid thumbs up in my mind
Best Fight: Lawler vs MacDonald but Bermudez vs Stephens isn’t far behind
Worst Fight: Pendred vs Howard
Best Performances: Thomas Almeida, Jeremy Stephens, Robbie Lawler
I really liked the big feel aspect to the card. Having the main event players have their opening music sung live was a big plus and added to the event. I wouldn’t do it for every card but definitely for the big card of the year much like a Wrestlemania event.
Main card really delivered.
*Great start to the PPV with that sick knockout by Almeida. I hope they don’t cut Pickett as he is usually in an entertaining fight.
*Nelson totally controlled Thatch and Thatch’s stock has suddenly dropped quickly. From fighting Bendo in a main event with people thinking he was going to be a player in that division to be being stopped quickly.
*Bermudez vs Stephens was an awesome fight. Hoping they both get a bonus as they went for it and brought the atmosphere up huge.
*Lawler vs MacDonald – what another war. Both showed great heart in this fight and delivered a possible fight of the year. I was rooting for the Ruthless one here and going against my fellow Canadian. Something about MacDonald’s personality I just don’t like, maybe it is because he doesn’t really have one. Is he going to change his nickname every few fights? He picked another stupid name here..The Red King..WTF? Maybe he should just combine them all and go for the worst nickname of all time, Rory “Ares, the Red Waterboy King” MacDonald.
*McGregor vs Mendes – I thought it was weird that McGregor came out first. The show was being built around him so he should have came out last. He proved that he could weather a storm and has a great chin as those were some vicious elbows from the mount he was taking. He looked calm the whole time he was on his back and kept talking to Mendes the whole time. Couldn’t have been a better ending for UFC and the future Aldo vs McGregor fight. Let the hype begin!
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Grant Zwarych
Wrestling Observer Index