Thumbs Way Up on this show! A nice contrast to that horrid Strikeforce show the night before!
Best Match: Koscheck vs Rumble... awesome match with everything thrown in,, including the heel promo after the match (which really rocked, especially because the camera got a good shot of Dan Hardy's mocking reaction at ringside!).
Worst Match: Nothing sucked. Nothing. Damn, I loved this show! It don't get more bitchin' than that!
Kurt Brown
Thumbs maximum extension up
Best fight: I'll eeny meeny miney Kos vs. AJ, but the whole card was good
Worst fight: wasn't anything even approaching 'bad'
KO: Little Nog, Saunders
Sub: Kos, Grove, George S
This became a low expectation card when Brock pulled out, but as so often happens, theese turn out to be the best cards. This was the best UFC in months, maybe of the year.
The prelim show set the bar very high. Grove and Rosholt was terrific. If Jake was a bigger puncher, it would have been over when he tagged Grove, but he isn't and that made the fight more entertaining, and allowed Grove to survive Jake's excellent grappling attack and turn it around with his JJ.
The short finght lets the card opening dark fight make air. George S opens the live card on a high note with an excellent performance in a good if slightly onesided fight vs. Dent. Striking and grappling of a very high level. Dent is skilled but too small for UFC and should lose the saddlebags and be fighting at 145 or even probably 135.
Saunders was just too big and too young and too Muay Thai for Marcus Davis. More excellent action till Saunders landed the fight ending knees from clinch.
Foster put on a great fight vs. Larson, but what has happened to Larson? His last couple fights he seems to have just come apart mentally.
The PPV for once picked up where the free show left off and kept going. Amir's Muay Thai looked murderous and Phony Baroni did well just to survive the three rounds. He's finally at the right weight class but it's just too late. Again the judging is asinine. Both the 2nd and 3rd should have been 10-8 rounds as Amir just battered Baroni around the ring at will with no counteroffense.
Little Nog completely routed Cane, who just seemed to come apart when he got tagged (odd after having walked through harder shots from Sokoudjou).
Thiago vs. Volkmann was IMO a highly entertaining and competitive fight, although I think the finer points of a lot of the grappling escaped a lot of people. Volkmann is very good on the ground and I had it a draw.
Kos fought a great fight vs. AJ, all the weirdness with the eyepokes and cheap shots aside. He more than held his own standing, landing the better shots, and had sense enough to take it to the ground, where he was clearly the superior guy, and to put AJ when he had the chance. AJ looked like a big lightheavyweight, not a welterweight. Kos cuts a great heel promo after the fight, too (although it was one of those The Heel Has A Point, Here, heel promos... )
The main was better than I expected and at least they managed to get the decision right this time, although barely with one judge amazingly managing to vote Ortiz, who has still not evolved, still has no standup, is still whining about his back which before the fight was supposedly miraculously healed again, and hasn't, in fact, changed or improved one bit. Oh well. I guess he still does less damage to the cards fighting than commentating. Forrest needed this win, but he's still gonna be in deep doo doo with the boxer/punchers who populate the upper realms of 205, and there's one more of 'em now than there was yesterday.
Great card bottom to top.
Crimson Mask
Thumbs Up
Best Fight - Kos vs Johnson
Worst - None
Another great card.
Like many people, I predicted that win or lose, Tito was going to give
us a laundry list of injuries and excuses why he couldn't train
properly. Has anyone in the UFC ever been as whiny? Why even bother
having a Countdown show? They're so predictable - Every time Tito
promises us he's 100%, and every post-fight interview he says he was
60%. Why not just have a hype show where Tito bitches about his aches
and pains and promises us he'll move like an 80-year-old by round 3?
Count me among those who'd like to see Hardy-Kos. Hardy would
definitely deserve a shot if he got thru Koscheck and vice versa.
Right now I can't call Koscheck a clear-cut #1 contender with his KO
loss to Paulo Thiago, his loss to Thiago Alves, and his loss to St.
Pierre the first time. But Kos's level of competition has certainly
been better than Hardy's.
Ben Saunders looked good. Saunders-Hardy would be another good fight.
Funny how out of Saunders, Swick, and Hardy, Saunders had the most
dominant performance against Marcus Davis. But Swick schooled
Saunders. Oh MMA math, you never add up!
What happened to Brock Larsen? His train is seriously off the tracks.
Dean Jenkinson
Thumbs up
Best: Griffin vs. Ortiz
Worst: Thiago vs. Volkman
A solid thumbs up from the free fights on Spike/Rogers Sportsnet to the actual PPV show. The prelims shown on Rogers/Spike were the best ever!
The Thiago vs. Volkman fight wasn't really that bad, but it was the least entertaining of the fights shown.
I'm happy the judges gave the fight to Griffin. It would have been ludicrous to call Tito the winner after he basically did zero in round 3. I was afraid they gave Tito the fight 2 rounds to 1.
A. Wong
Toronto, ON
Dear Dave (and Bryan):
Best fights: TIE
Ben Saunders (170) vs. Marcus Davis (170)
Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (205) vs. Luis Cane (205)
WORST FIGHT:
Josh Koscheck (171) vs. Anthony Johnson (170)
AND Tito's constant excuses AGAIN.
So, wait, all we been hearing is that "Tito is 100% now" and "Tito is back" and what happens after the main event? EXCUSES. AGAIN. This man has no respect for anyone or anything.
The crowd booed him, and rightfully so, and he should be thankful that Forrest saved his immature promo after the fight. Man, I wish I could whine on command like Tito can. I only want a third fight so we can watch Forrest do to Tito what Tito did to Ken.
Dave, I am so sick and tired of hearing Tito make excuses for the fact he actually GASSED in this fight. So much for his cardio. If he had any measure of respect for Forrest, he would have taken that shirt off. How about next time he gets a "Gas, Tito, Gas" shirt for Forrest...
Forrest got better as the fight went along, and that third round showed it. I had it 29-28 Forrest, like the last judge did. But Tito had to go and make Brett Rogers look like a Rhodes scholar.
Oh, and do not get me started on Josh "Where did that knee hit?" Koscheck. If he is the #1 contender then the division SUCKS. The crowd caught on to him once they saw that one particular angle WHERE NOTHING HIT HIM. Then he actually pokes Anthony Johnson TWICE for real. This was am embarassing card tonight, and I am glad I did not pay for this pile of crap. I can not say that about the wings place/bar that did pay for this craptacular card.
UFC 105 was a five star event compared to the show tonight. The undercard had the real fighting and without that, this card would have really been awful.
Luckily, UFC 107 looks to be better than this show. But tonight? Tonight was awful.
SamoaTexas
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