Hey Dave,
I give UFC 90 a thumbs up. Even though it was pretty disappointing seeing the main event end the way that it did. It would have great to see how much longer Cote could have made it.
Best match: Sean Sherk vs. Tyson Griffin
It was also great to see Junior dos Santos knock out Werdum like that. Werdum was always a boring fighter and this just makes the heavyweight division even more interesting.
Koscheck vs. Alves was also a good fight. Both guys have really improved a lot and it made for a good fight but I'm glad to see Alves win here, because he's a better contender for GSP at the moment.
I think that at the end of the PPV they should have shown another fight, since there was time. They could have even shown the entire Spencer Fisher fight instead of just the end of it.
Jason McNeil
| Thumbs Down Best Fight: Kos/Alves Worst Fight: Clementi/Maynard I've been forgiving of UFC PPVs in the past, but this show was an extreme let down. I went in thinking that there were a couple of mismatches that could result in exciting finishes, unfortunately in those fights there was 1 nice finish (Dos Santos) and 1 unfortunate one (Cote). The other fights I figured would be really exciting back and forth virtual non-stop action fights. I was let down in all of them save the Kos fight. I don't have problems with decisions as long as both fighters show that they want to win and to me that means attempting to finish their opponent and not just try to outpoint them. The Kos/Alves fight was a very exciting fight in a fight that had the potential to be a very boring one - I'm glad that it lived up to my expectations for it. Kos showed a willingness to fight the standup game and not just grind Alves against the cage and work for a takedown for 4:30 mins a round. He showed that he has improved his hands even since his last couple of fights and he actually showed better standup to me, he just doesn't have the natural power that Alves does hence the reason we had such a nice standup battle. While Kos did go down in the first rd, when I was watching I was going nuts b/c Rogan and Goldberg were insistent that Alves hurt Kos when it was clear to me that Kos was HIT not HURT, he just lost his balance due to it being a temple shot. If he was hurt he would have been finished and not been able to find his bearings and defend the Alves followup attack. I wanted to cheer for Kos so bad, but I couldn't b/c I wanted Alves to be there as the next natural contender for the WW title following the GSP/BJ fight. I was really disappointed in Gray, he showed me nothing in this fight other than he can control his opponent with his wrestling. While that is a very impressive thing to be able to do, at this point of his MMA career he should be able to at least add some EFFECTIVE GnP to his game. Clementi also seemed to be very cautious with his sub attempts as he looked like he was worried that if the sub didn't work he'd be in a worse position and as a result he just seemed to wait until Gray 'moved himself into a vulnerable position' and Gray essentially didn't move. I have to admit I was expecting a lot more from both fighters. Surprised that Werdum got dusted that easily. I thought he would essentially do what Leites did do in just work for a takedown right away and sub Dos Santos very quickly. Credit to Dos Santos for doing what he was supposed to do if Werdum stood with him. Great performance by Leites and he likely put himself in position to be Anderson Silva's next contender. Silva has shown that he can be taken down, so I'd expect that Leites would be able to do so should they be matched up and Leites' jits is better than Lutter's and Marquardt's IMO so he should be Silva's most dangerous opponent (since Henderson just wanted to stand with Silva). Silva looked very dry when he entered the cage (i.e. didn't warm up enough) so he started even slower than normal. Even when Silva looked at his best in this fight he still didn't look like the guy we've seen for the past 2 + yrs in UFC. Very unfortunate finish, but I suspect most wouldn't have expected Cote to go to the 3rd RD so it's not like Silva didn't have a chance to impress prior to the injury. I wouldn't be surprised if some people moved him down below Fedor in the P4P rankings (I already had him below so it wouldn't change for me). The Griffin/Sherk fight went pretty much exactly like I thought it would, Sherk would outwrestle Griffin and win a decision. Had moments of excitement, but other than the Sherk attempts in the first round neither fighter looked to do anything remotely like attempting to finish the fight. I don't think Griffin even attempted 1 shot - even if unsuccessful as long as you don't give your back, you more than likely would end up in an advantageous position. Disappointed in this fight - in fact I've been disappointed in every Griffin fight this year. I know not every fight can be as good as his fights against Edgar, Guida and Tavares from last year, but at least they can move at that pace. Ditto for Sherk, he's had exciting fights in the past against Florian and Franca - or at least fights that looked like FOY compared to the fight tonight. No shame in not finishing a fight - to me there is shame in not leaving it all in the cage. Disappointed in no Rachelle as ring card girl after saying it for weeks. Also this is the 3rd UFC event out of the last 4 that Edith hasn't worked (the 2 in Sept and tonight - but did work last week's in England). When GSP was there I thought that maybe BJ would be there also and they would announce the fight tonight - originally I thought they would do so in 3 weeks at the Brock/Randy PPV and it looks like that is when they will do so (or hopefully they will). Maybe I'm being hard on the PPV tonight, but I think I've also been easy in the past. With so many PPVs being produced now it's hard for every one to be great, but this year they've had maybe 3 worth buying (in retrospect). I'm sure that there will be a lot of pissed customers tonight and I suspect it will hurt the next UFC especially with the Roy Jones Jr/Joe Calzaghe fight the week before and (to a lesser extent) 2 more big PPVs in Dec in UFC 92 and the Oscar/Pac Man fight. Wouldn't be surprised if buyers start to be more selective in their UFC purchases and wouldn't be surprised that unless they stack the next Silva PPV that it would be the lowest since 2005 (and break tonight's which likely will be the lowest). Rishi Malhotra Toronto |
| Thumbs in the middle Best Fight: Tyson Griffin vs. Sean Sherk Worst Fight: Rich Clementi vs. Gray Maynard I was not crazy about this show. The main event was weird all around with Silva's dancing to Cote's injury. On another note both the Sherk/Griffin and Koscheck/Alves fight's were tremendous. Dos Santos looked very impressive. Alves stamped himself a contender to GSP. I would like to see rematches of Sherk/Griffin and Silva/Cote in the future. Maynard's fight was not entertaining. I am very much looking forward to the next show. Anthony Pape |
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