Pretty decent pay per view with some big names on it. The under card doesn’t seem to have anyone to exciting, but not to say that some of the fights might not end up being exciting.
RESULTS: A long night of decision fights. All out three round wars since there were no title bouts. Alot of the main card fights were not as people predicted especially me.
Chuck Liddell Vs. Keith Jardine
(Keith Jardine Wins by Split Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)
RESULTS: Chuck and Jardine came out swinging the first round and both of them landed a few combos and such. Round pretty much even with maybe Chuck winning it. Then Jardine started to come alive with killer leg kicks and body blows to the ribs one after the other. At one Point Jardine even knocked Chuck down with a punch to the head. Chuck recovered quick though and for the rest of the rounds Jardine would land more punches and killer kicks. Chuck’s ribs looked like a side of red meat. I think Jardine should have one this unanimously for sure.
It will be cool to see Chuck fight without all the pressure or hype on his shoulders to see if he does something different. Both of these guys are coming off of really bad knock out losses in the first round. I don’t think the loss has affecting Chuck much mentally like it would most fighters. He keeps saying that he is not gonna change anything or any of his training, but I hope he at least prepare differently for each fighter. Everyone says that when people fight Chuck they fight his fight and his style. I believe this to an extent, but there are alot of better fighters these days and they know how to impose there will. Not to mention that the big aura of Chuck being the SUPER light heavyweight champ is gone now. Both of these guys are strikers with Chuck being the better of the two in clinches and against cage control. I think Keith may get in a couple of good punches, but I expect Chuck to run side to side staying just out of Keith’s reach. This will start to test Jardine’s patience and he will put himself in front of Chuck just like Chuck wants. I see this one ending in Typical Chuck fashion with him getting a TKO or KO.
Mauricio Rua Vs. Forrest Griffin
(Forrest Griffin Wins by Submission at 4:45 in the 3rd round by rear naked choke)
RESULTS: Rua came out pressing some action, but Forrest held his own and quickly took over with the pace. Griffin took him down alot and controlled him better. In the second round Shogun goes from gas in the tank to empty sputtering on the side of the road. Griffin pretty much dominated the fight from here on out gaining top control and go after alot of submissions. Finally in the third round with only 15 seconds to go he sinks in a RNC.
Ouch. Forrest just got a much needed win over Hector in his last fight. To bad he was put up against SHOGUN. Even Forrest in his interview is like, “Shogun is a really good fighter and that sucks”. This division just got alot more competitive and the saying, “There are no easy fights” is going to be this way from here on out in the UFC. Everybody has seen Forrest Griffin take alot of punishment and go the distance in alot of his fights, but the Jardine fight showed that he isn’t made of steel. Shogun will probably leg kick the crap out of him and get him in some overwhelming clinches and fire away with knees. For those who don’t know Shogun to well, he is a PRIDE fighter. The reason why people keep referring to PRIDE fighters as such bad dudes is they would still do tournaments sometimes fighting some of the baddest dudes in MMA. Shogun also has never been knocked out. His last loss was to Mark Coleman because his arm broke and was one of the nastiest arm breaks in a ring that I have see. It was kind of a weird fall and it wasn’t even from a submission. The only other loss was to my man, BABLUA with a straight up Guillotine. He is most notabel these days as having KO’ed Quinton Jackson. Well if you watch the fight you can clreay see that Jackson does not get knocked out and that Quinton is trying to get his corner to throw in the towel because his rib is hurt. I am betting that everyone will talk about how he beat him, blah blah blah. Two things, he got hurt by Shogun (Gotta give it up to Shogun) and could not continue to fight and after taking several knees to the face he was still concsious. The other thing is Quinton was not training in proffesional facilities like Shogun at that time in Jackson’s career. Anyways I am seeing Shogun disable Forrest in this fight. Forrest isn’t gonna go for any crafty submission attacks or anything. He will try to fight Shogun at his best game standing up striking. I think Forrest might have a chance to make it to the second round, but it is gonna hurt alot. Shogun with a TKO in the early second round.
Jon Fitch Vs. Diego Sanchez
(Jon Fitch Wins by Split Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)
RESULTS: Man oh man, the beginning of this fight started out like the old Sanchez. Fearce start down and started out by running at Fitch for a take down. Then they went back and forth the whole night. They stayed against the cage alot and Diego seemed to perfer to fight from his back as he went for submission after submission. He almost got a Guillotine, but somehow Fitch didnt even seem phased by it. Then at another time Diego had a sick Triangle choke on Fitch, but Fitch twisted out of it. Fitch got alot of dominate positions, but didnt really do anythig with them and Diego seemed to be fighting from his back to get a submission. Kind close depending on how you looked at the fight.
This is gonna be an emotional fight for me since I am a huge fan of the Diego. His career this year has been an emotional roller coaster from doctors telling him he had Hepatitis and he would have to end his career to being to weak to really fight at all in UFC 69. I don’t believe in excuses, but to all the MMA fans that have watched Diego know that he was not present in his fight with Josh Koscheck. He did step in the ring and chose to fight, but I think he wasn’t right. Anyways it will be good to see the old Brawler Diego go in there and push the pace at the high octane level that he does. Fitch even said he was training harder on his cardio because he knows what kind of fighter Diego is. Eveybody says that Fitch is the man and that people dodge him in fights, but I don’t think Diego knows how to dodge a fight. Most of the stuff I have seen from Fitch does not live up to the hype. He is a great fighter and well above average, but he hasns’t fought anybody that great yet. I don’t know about all you guys out there, but I am looking past Fitch and highly anticipating the one day that Pierre and Diego meet up. Anyways I see Diego bringing it hardcore style like he does and trying to do a little boxing (Please Diego don’t stand up the whole time), but going back to his hard tossing power house ways of dominating a fight. I think Fitch will be able to go the distance and last, but don’t expect to see him on top much. Im going with Diego winning via unanimous decision.
Kazuhiro Nakamura Vs. Lyoto Machida
(Lyoto Machida Wins by Unanimous Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)
RESULTS: Machida pretty much took down Nakamura alot and rained down some good punches and elbows. Webt back and forth alot, but Machida was never threatened by Nakamura.
This will probably be the most underated fight of the night. Most people don’t know how bad a dude Machida is. His record of ten wins is a list of whos who in MMA today. Click HERE to see his wins over guys like BJ Penn, Rich Franklin and Stephan Bonnar. People complain that he is a boring fighter. This is can be a disease in the upper tiers of MMA for fighters. They get all the way to the top and they forget that they are fighters and that all of a sudden get over cautious. Nakamura is another one of those fighters that will be underrated in the US for a while until people get to know him. This guy has fought alot of the hardest dudes in MMA and went the distance with a couple of them. I think this will be alot of back and forth top mount dominate positioning and so forth. Machida has one advantage over Nakamura that he has fought in the UFC cage a few times and Nakamura has not. I will go with Machida winning via unanimous decision.
Thiago Tavares Vs. Tyson Griffin
(Tyson Griffin Wins by Unanimous Decision at 5:00 in the 3rd round)
RESULTS: Pretty much Griffen contolling the whole fight with alot of intensity. Griffen would give his back up alot, but the second time he did he dropped Tavares hard on his head/neck area. Both of these guys were battling each other not really phasing the other. Tavares went for alot of submission, but could not complete one maybe because of cardio, strength or just Griffen’s defense.
Everybody loves Tyson Griffin and the excitement he brings to the crowd as he pushes the pace of each of his fights. His last couple of fights have been decisions and a little controversial to who won. This guy has a great record giving the only loss that Urijah Faber has. Anybody that watches the WEC knows how bad Faber is. Tavares hasn’t fought anybody to bad, but he has showed some great control and his experience in ground fighting. He will need it going against Griffin. Hopefully this will be fight of the night, but who knows. I think this will be the hardest fight of the night to predict. I will go with the favorite on this one and say that Griffin will win via unanimous decision.
