UFC 115 thoughts: Death of an Iceman

I've been posting pretty regularly at MMA-Report, so if you feel interested in what I've got to say (weirder things have happened) check it out. I'm going to be careful to cross post here from now on.

What else can you say about Chuck Liddell that hasn't been said a million times? Guy is a great athlete, he showed every facet of MMA last night except one: a chin. Whatever it looked like in real time, the replay showed he got hammered hard by that right hand. Still, a top light heavyweight needs to be able to take that shot and weather the storm. Chuck can still fight. There's a hundred thousand LHWs out there he can beat. But does he want to go down the Dan Severn road and whup on nobodies for (probably sizeable) paychecks? Or does he want to call it a career as one of the most respected fighters of all time? Plus a likely long and involved blowjob from Dana White.
Middleeasy.com shows Chuck's journey from ER to partying with "Gayface" Shields.
I missed one of the prelim fights, so I'm rewatching now. Mac Danzig is a case study in how terrible 99% of TUF fighters are. Remember how clearly he dominated that show? No one was even close to his game, his experience. Then they throw him in the UFC and he gets clownschooled constantly. Sure he's showed some flashes, but really he was matched up just right against Matt Wiman in a #1 gatekeeper bout. Maybe it's the vegan lifestyle.
All that said he did get robbed pretty badly. Of course, if a ref shakes your hand to see if you're out, you should give him the thumbs up to let him know you're fine. Good job saying that Lavigne has a tough job. Danzig was pretty classy about this. Rematches however are annoying as shit.
Side note: I watched Australia vs Germany in World Cup. HOLY SHIT I thought the Aussies had a good chance in that game. It looked like little boys playing against grown men.
Evan Dunham says, in politer terms, what I was thinking: What the fuck is up with a judge giving that fight to Tyson Griffin? What a load of shit. Dunham is a great up and comer, but where does Tyson go? He's a talented dude, but he's lost to the top of the division pretty consistently. Does he move from Xtreme Couture? In a related note, is Ariel Helwani related to Nosferatu?
Carlos Condit vs Rory MacDonald...the blogosphere is up in arms about the stoppage, but it seemed pretty justified to me. It seemed like any time in the last minute and a half or so it could have been stopped, regardless of how many animated GIFs someone posts about the fighter on the bottom moving his hands. As MacDonald himself said: "it was a just stoppage. He was kicking my ass." From the mouth of baby fighters. I am looking forward to Rory going forward though, he's a talented young fighter. Condit may have won, but he's got a lot of questions that need answering, especially his inability to start out strong.
Pat Barry and Cro Cop...the hugging has to stop. Barry needs to find a way to get that killer instinct fired up. He's a powerful striker, and young, but he has to find a way to finish guys when he hurts them. It did turn out he had a broken hand (my brother and I spotted it while he was fighting, I was proud of myself) and foot, but he had Crop Cop hurt and down and let him off the hook. Congratulations Mirko, even if I'm not 100% convinced you're "back".
Mike Pyle vs Jesse Lennox...as much as I think Pyle is a talented fighter, he's equally as much of a cocksucker. I totally root for him to get beat, especially after his bullshit in EliteXC about female fighters. He's a petulant shit. He has technique, but god I hope they put him up against a top 170 pounder so he can get his ass kicked.
Overall, however, that was one of the best cards the UFC has put on in a while. There were multiple "Fight of the Night" candidates, and some back and forth wars. Rothwell-Yvel was the only fight that was a real dud...talk about throwback heavyweights. That was a high-quality Joe's Backyard Brawls bout. I hope we don't have to watch either of those guys again any time soon. Other than that I was glad to have found a way to catch this card.