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You are reading LIVE from the MGM Grand Garden Arena in faboulous(ly cold) Las Vegas, Nevada. For full play-by-play and coverage of the UFC 125 undercard, ION preliminary bouts and pay-per-view main card, check out Dave's report at http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/18906/. This page will be for additional commentary on the events happening inside the arena.
To make things easier for those refreshing along as the show progresses, I'll be posting the most recent match at the top of the page.
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I think we're going to get a lengthy br--. Woops! Just as I was about to stand up, the video package for the main event started. Here we go!
Main Event: Gray "The Bully" Maynard (entering to "Lose My Mind" by America's greatest current rapper, Young Jeezy, featuring Plies) vs. Frank "The Answer" Edgar (entering to "Kick in the Door" by Notorious B.I.G for the UFC Lightweight (155 lb) Championship will finish the show. Sorry, Biggie, but I give the entrance music victory to Jeezy. If you want to win an old school vs. new school battle, you almost have to go with Tupac. A good number of boos for Edgar in the intros, which I did not expect.
10-9 round for Maynard (if you're Adalaide Byrd). Otherwise it's a 10-8, maybe even a 10-7.
Frankie Edgar has some f***ing heart. Gray dropped him with a right early and almost finished. Maynard his a big right/left combo later in the round that dropped him again. In between, a staggered Edgar did the Dougie around the ring as Maynard winged shots, many of which hit. Plus when you look at the two, Edgar looks 10 pounds (at least) lighter.
That was an awesome round. I thought Maynard may have punched his arms out, but we'll see. Edgar was just getting smoked by counterpunches any time he started an exchange and that's Frankie's game, so it's tough to see how he breaks down Maynard unless Maynard is as tired as he looks to me.
Round 2 saw the crowd turn big time in Edgar's favor. There was a "Frank-ie" chant and a big takedown that garnered a great pop. Edgar even stuff what looked like a sure takedown late in the round to another pop. I think that was Edgar's round, so a competent scorecard should show Gray up by a 1-2 point margin. This is kind of nuts. I think maybe the crowd likes Maynard because he's now a Las Vegas guy, but how can you not love Edgar's heart and punching skill. Let's see what happens in round 3. I'm guessing more of Edgar.
Finally Maynard gets a takedown towards the end of round 3, and Edgar nearly turned it into a guillotine! Tough round to score there, but I thought Maynard landed harder shots. Edgar did hit a couple of nice leg kicks, but judges rarely value those. Probably 2-1 Maynard (plus an extra point or two in round 1). Frankie may need a finish.
The late takedown attempt came from Edgar in round 4. Maynard stuffed it. I have been praising Edgar a lot, but Maynard is a machine. Just a big, tough, smart guy who looks darned near impossible to put in trouble. I'd give Frankie the round because he was more active and he hit more shots. I have it 2-2 with an extra 1-2 points for Maynard in round 1). Round 5 up next.
Wow. Helluva fight. Round 5 was very even. I'd score it 10-10 and give Maynard the win based on his round 1 margin if I could, but like Nelly Hamilton I'm not going to fall on that (10-10) sword, so I'll give it to Edgar and score it a draw.
Draw.
Something fascinating went on in the last minute of the round. The round had little action to that point, and what happened was both guys started going for takedowns in an attempt to steal the round. Neither got one, but Frankie had a stuff that almost led to a guillotine. I'm guessing that Maynard won rounds 1, 3 and 5 on the scorecard that had him winning 48-46, and I wonder if Edgar attempting a sloppy guillotine would have gotten him the round on that last scorecard.
The really interesting card to me is Edgar 48-46. That's an Edgar sweep after round 1. I can see how you could score it that way, but it just didn't feel like a fight that was one-sided enough that one guy would win. That's how it is with round-by-round scoring. You can have a razor-thin advantage for one guy and the scorecards could read 50-45.
Let's wrap this up by noting that this makes 4 straight memorable New Year's cards for UFC. 2007 had the legendary Liddell vs. Silva match, 2008 had the triple main event and the fall of Big Nog, 2009 had the card that fell apart, but ended up with great fights and then tonight had a main event that few people will forget. Great job by UFC, and don't forget to check out Dave's full play-by-play here and check me out on Twitter @benjamiller.
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Co-Main Event: "All American" Brian Stann (entering to "Hard To See" by Five Finger Death Punch) vs. Chris "The Crippler" Leben (entering, as always, to "Love Rollercoaster" by the Red Hot Chili Peppers) is our next bout. I am dead serious when I say that Stann's song sounded like something a Marine would play while he's obliterating terrorists. The other alternative is a song that was overplayed in 1997, so I guess I'll give the nod to Mr. 50 Cal.
Wow! Stann with an annihilation of Leben. Leben looked lethargic and sloppy from the jump. It felt like he just did not respect Stann's power or technique. He left himself out there with lunging punches and Stann was more accurate. Stann hit a devastating left that might've ended it if Josh Rosenthal-Mazzagatti hadn't been the third man in the Octagon. Stann continued with big, measured punches and hit a superb knee against the cage followed by punches on the ground.
I just saw a replay and the left hook hurt Leben, but the punch that dropped him was a right cross.
I should note that I do like the idea of giving guys a chance to recover rather than stopping fights at the first sign of trouble, but it just so happens that tonight both close calls resulted in the guy on the ground taking a lot of hard shots. It is a contact sport, I guess.
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Main Card Match #3: "Ben's Man-Crush" Thiago Silva (entering to "Ratamahatta" by Sepultura) vs. Brandon Vera (entering to "Runaway" by KanYe West, featuring Pusha T) is your first big man match of the night. Let's get it!
Leglock attempt from guard. Double hammer fist. Post-round stare down.
Round 2 was less interesting than round 1. From a Thiago Silva fan, that's carny for, "it stunk". Silva controlled Vera on the ground after an early takedown, but Vera played good D and Silva played save O. It's probably 2-0 Silva, so maybe Vera will come out aggressive here in round 3.
Before this match, I wrote on the site that I was excited because I could see the winner ending up with a championship match by the end of 2011 and the loser ending up in Strikeforce by February. I'll lay my cards on the table now and say that I was hoping for T. Silva to be the former and Vera to be the latter. Vera has great charisma, but against top guys he appears to have kicks (usually leg kicks) as his only weapon. The 3rd round was flat, with Vera coming out blazing, Silva quickly getting his back on the ground and Vera being unable to escape. Silva did get a laugh when he started slapping the side of Vera's head, but even a T. Silva fan like my self must admit that the match was subpar.
Straight sweep for Thiago Silva from the judges, including a rare 30-26 score. V. Silva (if you need me to spell it, you should be at another site) got a nice pop from the crowd when shown on the screen. I think I see Stephen Bonnar, too.
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Main Card Match #2: "The Stun Gun" Dong Hyun Kim (entering to a mix of what sounded like a hip-hop song and the score from a movie) vs. Nate Diaz (entering to "Ballad of a Dead Soulja" by 2Pac) is up now. I am even more excited for this one. Let's see some great grappling and Jiu Jitsu.
Man, do I love the Diaz brothers. And I love Dong Hyun Kim, too (though not quite as much). The round was mostly groundwork with Dong Hyun controlling, but Nate Diaz is just so much fun. It really looks like he can't stand the guy he's in the Octagon with. He just has this look like the opponent just talked bad about his mother or something. I've got to think that's Nick hyping him up before his fights.
It's really too bad this is only a three round fight. Dong Hyun controlled the round again, using his strength and wrestling skill to stay on top on the ground in varying positions. With about half a minute left in the round Diaz executed a great switch to get Dong Hyun's back. From there it was a cool positioning battle followed by a few haymakers from both guys to end the round. Dong Hyun is up 2-0 on my scorecard and I'm pretty sure he has it in the bag, but the fight is still compelling.
We have a delay from an illegal blow. Dong Hyun was doing the ol' hand down trick to make knees to the head illegal. Nate tried to time it so that the knee would hit immediately when Dong Hyun lifted his hand, but in the eyes of Yves Levigne, he was too early. I think Levigne missed that call. Dong Hyun sold it to boos, but it ain't gonna help Diaz recover this win.
Round 3 ends with Diaz getting a pop, but Dong Hyun likely getting a 2-1 victory. Diaz controlled the round and showed great fire at the end peppering Dong Hyun with shots as they were in close against the cage. Unfortunately, this is round-by-round scoring and I don't see any other score than 29-28 (the judges all scored it that way). Stun Gun wants GSP, but instead he's getting boos from the crowd and derision from press row because apparently people think he'd get beaten.
"He wasn't able to charge his stun gun tonight, but next time he'll make sure he's able to charge his stun gun," followed by a round of boos. Fantastic. Dong Hyun just went up in my book (which matters not one bit, but still).
I have to say the show is a bit flat compared to what I expected it to be so far, but we have our first fight in a money (heavyweight or light heavyweight) weight class coming up.
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Main Card Match #1: And heeeeeeeeeeeere we go! "The Fireball Kid" Takanori Gomi (entering to "Scary" by The Mad Capsule Markets) vs. Clay "The Carpenter" Guida (entering to "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters) starts us off with a match that is highly anticipated, at least at Press Row B, Seat 14. At this point some of the top end ringside seats and the 3rd and 4th rows of the press section are just about the only empty areas in the arena.
And Guida's pop is massive.
How is Guida's nickname not, "Blanka"? His fights are so unique because of that herky-jerky, lunging style that he has. He probably took round 1 on the judges' scorecards with the late takedown. I thought Gomi landed better shots when they were up and had good takedown defense overall, but in fairness Guida did hit the biggest shot, a headkick early in the round.
Guida wins! Nice guillotine from the bottom of guard for Guida in the middle of the 2nd round. He really controlled the fight. He movement and awkward style seemed to keep Gomi out of rhythm throughout. And Guida just quoted The Big Lebowski in his post-fight interview. You've got to love that. He also credits Joe Stevenson (whose name got a pop) with helping him work for the guillotine.
Randy Couture was just shown in the crowd.
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ION Prelim Match #3: Jeremy Stephens vs. Marcus Davis (no entrances for either) rounds out our preliminary matches tonight.
Frank Mir and Urijah Faber are among the glitterati at ringside that I've been able to spot thus far, but I've seen no non-fighter celebs yet. New Year's shows are always tough for drawing celebs because Hawaii and New York city are such wonderful places to ring in the annum.
I was uninspired by round 1. I must admit that Marcus Davis is sort of like a Randy Orton to me. I appreciate that people find him to be a high level professional, but my tastes run elsewhere. I'd give round 1 to Davis for hitting better shots, though.
Round 2 saw Stevens attempt a Kimura on Davis' left arm from the bottom, but otherwise it seemed to be Davis' round to me. I think Stevens' corner feels the same way because they implored him to finish between rounds.
And did he ever!! Stevens with the straight right while Davis was ducking for the KO and then he added a Hendo/Bisping dive punch as an exclamation point. Wowza.
And it's 6:55 p.m. PST. Dang it! We aren't going to get Baba O'Riley. Aargh. Main card is next.
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ION Prelim Match #2: Dustin Poirier (entering to "Drop the World" by Lil Wayne, featuring Eminem) vs. Josh Grispi (entering to "Opposite of Adults" by Chiddy Bang) is our fifth match of the evening. We are only 16 minutes into the ION show, so it's possible that we'll get the full "Baba O'Riley" (teenage wasteland) intro before the pay-per-view portion of the card. Here's hoping. This is another featherweight (145 lb.) match.
If Poirier lasts three rounds, it will be amazing. He won round 1 in my opinion, but the man was swinging haymakers like "The Coal Miner's Daughter" Christy Martin. (That is not a compliment.) Grispi, as usual, is looking for submissions and he got Poirier in what looked to be a compromising position with a Kimura attempt from the guard late in the round.
I was afraid Mazzagatti was going to stop that there at the end of the round. Round 2 was more of the same and I have to take back what I said in round 1 about Poirier not having enough gas in the tank to make it through three rounds. This man is a menace. He does look sick of Grispi, though. Grispi almost locked a triangle choke at one point (and Poirier almost powerbombed his way out of it), but other than that it's just a good ol' fashioned whippin'. 2-0 Poirier, but Grispi always has the possibility of a submission victory.
I'm going to give myself half credit here. The fight ended with Poirier hanging on for dear life from underneath Grispi's side control. He wasn't trying to get up, he had been there for the last two and a half minutes of the fight, and if this was a five round fight or a fight with no time limits on rounds, he probably would have lost. Instead, he got a 30-27 decision (Poirier landed hard shots early in the round and we all know that MMA judges are clueless when it comes to giving credit for Jiu Jitsu positioning). I guess that a 29-28 loss would have been no different in the grand scheme of things than a 30-27 loss, but it still just plain sucks that Jiu Jitsu guys are disrespected by both MMA judges and the fight-of-the-night decision makers.
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ION Prelim Match #1: Brad Tavares (entering to "Right Above It" by Lil Wayne [a.k.a. Weezy, a.k.a. Junior, a.k.a. JR], featuring Drake) vs. "The New York Bad Ass" Phil Baroni (entering, as always, to "Bad to the Bone" by the great George Thorogood) starts off the live show on ION, and I expect the pace to pick up, especially if this first fight goes the distance. Last time I saw Baroni live he came out blazing and gassed halfway through the first. I think he did that because he wanted to be exciting and keep his job. This time I'm expecting a far more cautious Baroni.
Tavares wins on punches as Josh Rosenthal does his best Steve Mazzagatti impression in letting Tavares his about a half donzen too many punches before stopping the fight.
I love ya, Phil, but you belong in another promotion at this point. He hit Tavares with a great left hook that might have finished the fight in Baroni's younger days. For the finish, Tavares hit a kicked that staggered Baroni to the cage, and then when he came in he hit a big right cross that Stevie Wonder (showing my age now) could've seen coming. Nice win for Tavares, though.
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Dark Match #3: Diego Nunes (entering while my Shazam was offline) vs. former WEC featherweight champion Mike Brown (entering to Dave Meltzer's favorite song, "Simple Kind of Man" by Lynyrd Skynyrd) is next. Mike Brown is over, which is nice to see. With Aldo on top it's hard to see Brown ever getting a big UFC payday, but if he strings a few wins together it may well happen.
This first round is awesome. Check Dave's report here ( http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/18906/) for the details, but Nunes has a heck of a lot of heart and Brown is still quite the handful. I do wonder if Brown shot his
This fight is awesome. I know I already used that adjective, but the fight is awe inspiring, so it's the best one to use. Second round was Nunes', and again, I implore you to check out Dave's full play-by-play here. Brown is fading as I expected, but he is far from out of it. What heart by both guys.
Tip: If you ever get in a street fight with Diego Nunes, look out for the spinning back kick to the ribs. The man must have thrown a dozen of them in this fight. Great action with that was carried by heart but also showcased a lot of technique, especialy on Nunes' side. I'd give the decision to Nunes, but Brown got a late takedown and we all know that judges love late takedowns. Split decision win for Nunes (all scores 29-28). In my opinion that is just, but there were a lot of boos from the crowd. I hope Joe Rogan gives the crowd what for.
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Dark Match #2: Greg Soto (entering to "Victory" by P. Diddy - the former background music for nWo Japan music compilations for New Japan in the late '90s) vs. Daniel "Ninja" Roberts (entering to "Death Rides a Horse") is up next. Between the nickname and the song, I'm definitely rooting for Roberts.
And Roberts, it is! A victory in under 4 minutes via Kimura for the lad. It's clear that Roberts is still uncomfortable on his feet (his only loss in 13 fights is via two minute knockout to John Howard back in March), but the man is a dogged wrestler, powerful athlete and clinical submission fighter. He works just the type of style that would make for a fascinating matchup with GSP down the road, as that was his 9th submission victory. Maybe not for GSP's next fight, of course, but by the end of the year or in summer of 2012, I could see it happening.
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Dark Match #1: Antonio "Mandingo" McKee (entering to an overplayed song by the Black Eyed Peas) vs. Jacob "Christmas" Volkmann (entering to "T.N.T" by AC/DC) starts us off at about 4:37 p.m. PST. Volkmann wins the battle of entrance music, though the crowd (looking less than 25% full at the moment) is apathetic towards both songs. At this point I am really hoping that my friend Chris is not reading, as his brother is Will.I.Am's assistant.
First round was close, but I'd give the edge to McKee for hitting a couple of cleaner punches. While we wait for round two, I have a few notes. Note number one is that I overheard Anthony Pettis talking about Showtime sports bar in Milwaukee at 1118 N. 4th Street. As a long time Milwaukeean I am a big fan of Pettis, so if you make your way to America's largest city to ever elect a Socialist mayor, make sure you check that out. The other note is that thus far Kenny "KenFlo" Florian is the only celeb or UFC fighter that I see at ringside. Impressive that he is here right from the opening bell.
Second round saw Volkmann get McKee's back most of the round, but fail to sink in a rear naked choke (RNC). Full details from Dave will be at http://www.f4wonline.com/content/view/18906/. The psychology of the round was fascinating, and a lesson for any pro wrestler. Volkmann got McKee down and took his back with clinical efficiency early. He then authored a mechanical assault on the head and neck in attempting to sink in the RNC. When McKee reversed into top guard at the end of the round, he got by far the biggest babyface pop of the night so far. The lesson is that you can work heel by showing emotionless skill and a babyface can get over by surviving against a skilled opponent and turning the tide after spending an extended time playing defense.
Volkmann won a split decision. He deserved it, in my opinion. He won round 2 and the other two rounds were close.
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