Thursday, October 29, 2009

TUF last night

I was totally surprised to realize that Scott Junk can't fight adult men. They should have let him square off against perhaps a Shar Pei, or a tender chicken breast, because he didn't have shit in the cage. And that included ten minutes worth of fight. Neither guy was close to having the cardio he needed. Mitrione lasted about 3.5 minutes before he was gasping with an open mouth. At least Junk lasted til the second round. But even with his opponent weezing like an old man Junk couldn't do a thing about it.
This episode was inexcusable crap. Everything about it was bad...the only thing, in general, that redeems these man-dramas is the fight at the end of the show. Even that was horrible. They need to issue a public apology for the fights they've shown so far. Especially Wes Sims.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

dear UFC Unleashed,

Why do you add crazy cheering to your fight replays? I don't need it. I saw a lot of these fights live (on TV), and they weren't cheering that much. New rule: if someone may reasonably still have a live broadcast of a fight on their DVR to go back and compare the two broadcasts, do not start adding cheers.
thanks,
g

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Instant legend

Cerrone-Henderson should go down in the books as one of the classic MMA battles of all time. It showed pretty much every aspect of MMA as a discipline, and some absolutely dynamic and frankly jaw-dropping scrambles, submission attempts, submission defenses, and cardio. This was my fight of the year, and there's going to have to be two guys who want it real bad to beat out this fight.
One thing to note: the surface for this fight was stupid. It offered a poor grip for the fighters. Several times guys looked like they were stunned or in trouble but they were simply fighting for footing. That's basically the only bad thing that happened. Shame on SA for not putting down a decent floor.
That said, Donald Cerrone is a fucking man. He gets stronger as the fight goes on, and never stops walking forward. He constantly tries to finish, and he has a great submission game that flows naturally from position to position. Henderson is a cardio maniac, who makes guys like Clay Guida and Randy Couture look like slouchers. His scrambling was astounding at times, mainly because Cerrone is such a phenomenal scrambler himself. "Smooth" didn't get to show off, or chose not to show off, his own heavy hands, but he has 'em.
I watched the only round in contention and still think Henderson won round 1. The problem is that there is not straightforward weight of any given MMA action vs. another action. For instance a sub attempt (from the guard? From a dominant position? from a bad position? standing?) isn't worth "1.1 points" or whatever, and a sub escape isn't worth ".9 points" etc. Maybe it should be! But it isn't. So we end up with guys watching and feeding their own viewpoint as to the value of a given act in the cage. I think position and postural control is extremely important, and a good sub escape nullifies much of a good sub attempt. I also think a good standup nullifies much of a good takedown.
But that's a discussion for another day. In the meantime, we're lucky to have seen a fight like Cerrone-Henderson, that displayed everything great about MMA: talent, heart, skill, and determination. Congratulations to Henderson...train hard! You're going to face Cerrone again if you hold onto that belt!

Saturday, October 10, 2009

cerrone-henderson

uh, sherdog has a (somewhat justified) hard-on for cerrone. two of the people judging the fight for them gave 10-8 rounds to the cowboy. i have a hard-on for him myself, but not that hard.
honestly, i can't give anyone a 10-8 when they walk out to Kid Rock. Never.

jansen-crunkilton

I have no argument with the decision, but this fight was in some respects a verification of the worries that good MMA may turn into shitty kickboxing, whoever stated that first (I think it was Josh Gross or Kid Nate but couldn't find the link, and I won't link to bloody elbow for any amount of money, being as they're a bunch of cock-gobblers, and not the good kind). If Crunkilton had a modicum of good striking, instead of the ol' "serviceable"striking wrestlers develop to fend off kickboxers, he would have KO'd Jansen easily. Jansen had his number on the ground, but there were some very exciting exchanges.

mackens-waggney

i was thinking about the aldo-brown fight and wondered if they were giving waggney a fight to keep him busy...and thought of werdum-dos santos as a "keep busy" fight gone horribly awry. and boom, triangle, top fiver goes down. weird.

varner

I'm watching the WEC on DVR right now, so I don't know what happened, but as far as how he's talking, it sounds like Varner isn't, and hasn't been, ducking Cerrone. He brings up an important point that gets glossed over by tons of people: Varner won that fight via decision. He was ahead on the cards. He didn't win via DQ. Cerrone had the exact same opportunity to win the fight in those four rounds that Varner did. Still and all, I hope Cerrone wins so they can rematch to unify the belt. I like Henderson a lot, and he's got a chance, but Varner-Cerrone 2 is what I want to see. With no timeouts.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

I'll say it



Ben Henderson looks a lot like Crab Man from "My Name Is Earl".

rampage the abandoner

while as displayed on TV rampage's actions after last week's fight seem pretty lame, i still hesitate to go too crazy over what Spike chooses to air.
some of the fighters on the show blogged that it sucked, so i'd rather take their word for it, honestly.

Friday, October 2, 2009

Roy Nelson's mistake

While Nelson's strategy basically guaranteed a win, it also was a major screw-up. Roy took part in one of the top five most-watched MMA fights ever. And he looked boring and lost on his feet (to me), despite his display of technical mastery on the ground. So basically when given the big stage, he opted for safety, and he had the balls to complain about not making money. Seems like he shipped away a lot of money, for himself, and MMA fighters in general.
It's his career, and what he wants is a win, and to win the tournament, and win every time he steps in the cage. But bitching about his money, and taking the least exciting path to win (for the people just tuning in. For the record I thought some of the clinch work on the cage was pretty exciting), well, that sounds stupid. You have to take chances if you want to grab the brass ring. It comes down to this: will Roy Nelson be more famous if he wins TUF, or if he'd put on a crazy war with Kimbo in front of over 6 million viewers?

 
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