Archive for June, 2009

I have been sick, so I did not make it down to the Warren for this one. Public health safety and all. This card was hit and miss. There a lot of guys on here I am not real sure about and a few I am positive will not be in the UFC for long. There are a lot of fights definitely worth seeing though, so if you get a chance Netflix it or something.






Terry Etim vs Justin Buchholz 155-Lightweight
Buchholz rocks Etim early in the first round and almost sends him limp. Etim is able to recover and go for an armbar, scrambles to the top and takes Buchholz’ back. He tries to sink in a Rear Naked Choke but gets flipped. This does not phase him as he switches to heel hook. At this point, you can see that Buchholz’ striking has absolutley smashed Etim’s nose. In the 2nd round they trade a bit and Etim gets Buchholz in a Muay Thai clinch, blasting him with knees to the face. This allows Etim to pull Buchholz to the ground and he sinks in a Darce Choke for the win. Etim displayed good chin, some nice Muay Thai ability, and a great chain of Jiu Jitsu submissions.



Etim: Stay Tuned Buchholz: Look Away






John Hathaway vs Rick Story 170-Welterweight
There is lots of grappling in the first round. Story gets most of the takedowns. Hathaway gets a Kimura in the last seconds but the position is bad for him to finish with Story doing such a good job to protect against it. In the 2nd round they stand up and strike a bit until Hathaway gets a takedown and pounds Story on the ground for around three minutes. The 3rd round is much the same but Story is able to use a Kimura to get top postion. However, Hathaway then throws on a Triangle Choke. Hathaway gets the Unanimous Decision in his second UFC fight for a record of 11-0. This was only Story’s second loss but it was his first fight in the UFC.



Hathaway: Stay tuned Story: Stay Tuned






Paul Kelly vs Rolando Delgado 155-Lightweight
I did not expect much out of Rolando coming into this fight because I was never impressed with him on TUF 8. Paul Kelly has a fair amount of good wins, his only loss was to Marcus Davis and he trains at the grammatically incorrect but increasingly renown Wolfslair in England. In the 1st round, Delgado has a good time of grappling, getting Kelly to the ground, locking in a body triangle and then attempting a Triangle Choke. Kelly gets a Guillotine early in the 2nd round but Delgado gets out pretty easily, takes Kelly’s back tries to lock on a Rear Naked Choke. Kelly gets back to top and avoids an Armbar and then a Knee Lock. The 3rd round is all Kelly. He gets Delgado to the ground and really hurts him; he is able to ground and pound most of the round. The fight goes to Kelly in a Unanimous Decision but I really think Delgado had him the first two rounds.



Kelly: Stay Tuned Delgado: Look Away






Dennis Siver vs Dale Hartt 155-Lightweight
Siver is the hometown boy from Germany in this fight. He has the striking advantage early but Hartt takes him to the ground. Hartt has to quickly escape an Armbar and the fighters scramble. Siver ends up on top, slamming Hartt to the ground. He gets to Hartt’s back and sinks in the Rear Naked Choke for the submission. After the fight, it appears the slam or the Armbar probably hurt Hartt’s shoulder. Siver has some experience in the UFC and has a nice string of wins. One more and against the right guy and he should be in Lightweight title contention. Hartt has lost two of his three UFC fights and his only win was a TKO over Corey Hill in one of the most vicious MMA injuries…ever. Watch at your own peril. Corey Hill



Siver: Look Out Hartt: Look Away






Denis Stojnic vs Stefan Struve 265-Heavyweight
Ok, if you see this fight, the first thing that pops in your head will be, “6 f-ing 11, that guys is freaking tall.” Struve isn’t called the Skyscraper for nothing. Let’s just say this, his reach is sick. However, Stojnic took him to the ground like a sack of rocks. Struve goes for a Kimura, fails, and then epic fails as Stojnic seriously opens up his face. They have to call a temporary stoppage to clean up all the blood and make for sure Struve’s face has enough skin left to stay on his skull. In the 2nd round, Struve goes down easy again, but this time goes for a Heel Hook. This allows him to take Stojnic’s back and work on a Rear Naked Choke. However, his blood is now spurting out of his head, and his own blood is lubricating the choke hold. Stojnic finally taps, but it is kind of out of nowhere. Struve looks to have a pretty weak Rear Naked Choke, but Stojnic may have just given up due to the pain of the Body Triangle Struve had locked in. For Stojnic, thats two lossed in the UFC, both to up and comers, but he will not have many more chances. For Struve, he showed a lot of Jui Jitsu skills and great heart with those cuts. He has a lot of experience and is supposed to be an excellent kickboxer, though we did not see that in this fight. There are a lot of good wrestlers in the Heavyweight class, so that could be a real weakness for him.



Stojnic: Look Away Struve: Stay Tuned






Paul Taylor vs Peter Sobotta 170-Welterweight
This was a pretty lackluster fight. They trade some strikes and low blows in the 1st round. Taylor gets a takedown and does very little. In the 2nd round, Sobotta gets a takedown immediately but Taylor spends the rest of the round pushing him around, throwing him to the mat thrice. The 3rd starts out and finishes the same way. Sobotta gets a quick takedown, but then Taylor gets up and takes him back down directly into side control. Taylor does close to nothing and slides back into half guard. They stay in that position for most of the round, get up and trade some blows for the last few seconds. Sobotta is pretty gased and the decision goes to Taylor. Taylor’s UFC career is peppered with losses, and this was Sobotta’s first UFC fight. Don’t expect to many more out of either.



Taylor: Look Away Sobotta: Look Away






Dan Hardy vs Marcus Davis 170-Welterweight
There was a lot of drama going into this fight. Evidently, the American Marcus Davis was upset that the British Dan Hardy said he was not Irish. Not sure why Davis would have a problem with reality but he is from Maine. It is a little ridiculous that Davis only fights overseas. Most of his fights have been in the United Kingdom and this one is in Germany. The first round was mostly controlled by Davis. He took Hardy to the ground early, right into full guard. Dan Hardy was able to advance his position but did not get off the ground until there was a minute left. He almost immediately connects with strikes and rocks Davis. Had Hardy been able to get up a little earlier, he may have done some real damage. The second round begins with each man trading punches and counter punches. A little over a minute and half in, Hardy catches Davis in the Muay Thai clinch and blasts him with knee to the face, sending him to the canvas. Davis recovers quickly and starts to throw submissions until the action stalls. Once the action is back standing up, Davis starts to tighten the round like Hardy did in the first. He connects with strong strikes and takes Hardy to the ground. Davis starts the third round with a straight jab that drops Hardy, but he is able to recover as Davis drops into guard. Marcus Davis goes for a heel hook, and scrambling Hardy is able to reverse positions. Hardy opens Davis up with an elbow that stops the fight so that the doctor can check the cut. The fight restarts with Hardy in full guard on top of Davis. Hardy works the cut area a bit, but the fighters are stood up. After that because of the swelling and blood, Hardy is able to control the last minute of the fight with strikes. Dan Hardy gets the split decision and then talks about working him psychologically before the fight. The decision was correct but it was a very close fight. The damage to Davis’ face was the difference on judges card.



Hardy: Stay Tuned Davis: Stay Tuned






Spencer Fisher vs Caol Uno 155-Lightweight
These are two very experienced fighters, each man considered title contenders at points in their careers. Most of the fight was a chess match, Fisher sprawling against Uno’s takedowns and Uno scrambling and reversing when Spencer got him down. The first round, Fisher controlled most of the action from the clinch and on the ground. The second round was very similar but Uno was able to out grapple Fisher. The third was still a battle of grappling strategy with Davis inflicting most of the damage through the middle of the round. However, in the last minutes Uno got the mount and was able to inflict more damage than either fighter had in the previous rounds. In the end, Spencer Fisher got the Unanimous Decision. I can’t say I agree with the judges but the fight was very closely contested.



Fisher: Stay Tuned Uno: Stay Tuned






Ben Saunders vs Mike Swick 170-Welterweight
Swick pretty much consumed Saunders with his ground game and before the TKO he was definitely winning the fight on paper. Saunders did a good job keeping Swick in his guard but the only offense he offered from the ground was a body triangle. Typically, the body triangle is a defensive move applied to rob the top fighter of their oxygen so they gas later. This was far from the case with Swick. He looked very fresh even after the fight. For Saunders, he simply ran into someone who was not overwhelmed by his leg strikes and in fact was acutely prepared for them. Saunders is an excellent striker but he had a real problem telegraphing his kicks. In fact, it was a predictable body kick that ended the fight. Swick saw it coming for the twentieth time in much the same way and nailed Saunders, then unloading with a flurry until the fight was called. Saunders needs to vary his striking and with his length I would love for him to develop a submission game. Mike Swick is there. He looked good in a lot of ways and has the conditioning to go five rounds. Alves, Hughes, or GSP should be next.



Saunders: Stay Tuned Swick: Look Out






Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic vs Mostapha Al-turk 265-Heavyweight
Cro Cop was impressive his UFC return but still a little disappointing in a lot of ways. First off, the technical knock out was not clean. His finger caught the eye of Al-turk and then strikes led to the stoppage. But Cro Cop did have Al-turk rocked in an exchange before that. In Cro Cop’s previous UFC fights he was flat on his feet, plodded forward, and showed very little movement. These were his weaknesses before and it doesn’t look that anything has changed. For Al-turk, that is two fights and two losses in the UFC. He has had two very good opponents in Kongo and Cro Cop, but probably only has one more chance.



Filipovic: Stay Tuned Al-turk: Look Away






Cheick Kongo vs Cain Velasquez 265-Heavyweight
Kongo took this fight on only three weeks notice but it still revealed a lot of fundamental weaknesses in his fight game. Kongo was able to completely rock Velasquez in each of the first two rounds, dropping in two shots right to the chin in the first and on the temple in second. But all that showed was Velasquez’ ridiculous chin and excellent recovery time. I am going to nickname him “the Anvil” because he took some of the hardest shots in all of fighting and just shook it off. Velasquez came into this fight with wrestling conditioning and even though he spent the entire fight riding an extremely strong Kongo, he was not really that tired in the end. Even showing such a dominant performance, Velasquez did not show the finishing ability he needs to be a top heavyweight. He had ample opportunities for Rear Naked Chokes or just should have been able to finish Kongo with strikes. All that being said, Lesnar should be next for Velasquez, no matter what happens at UFC 100. There is no other Heavyweight that deserves the fight and the UFC already set a precedent with giving Lesnar himself such an early title shot. Velasquez is very similar to Brock and it should be a very good fight. They were both very good amateur wrestlers; Velasquez was a 2-time Pac 10 Champion at ASU. And Velasquez just beat the fighter, Kongo, who would have been next in line to face Lesnar. In the minds of Dana White and Joe Silva, Velasquez was a prep fight for Lesnar in a couple months and with Velasquez winning, they now have another young, undefeated Heavyweight to promote for title contention.



Kongo: Stay tuned Velasquez: Look Out






Rich Franklin vs Wanderlei Silva 195-Catchweight
The idea behind this fight was interesting in several ways. The initial obvious reaction is holy shit. This is one of those super-fights between two legends of the sport. Rich Franklin was the baddest Middleweight on the planet, pre-Anderson Silva, and Wanerlei Silva was the most dominant Pride fighter of all time. So the scale of the fight is a little awe-inspiring, but there was also a bit of an ulterior motive. Franklin had moved up to 205 because he wants a belt and he had already lost to Anderson Silva twice. Wanderlei was on his way down to Middleweight, so they decided to meet at 195 for a Catchweight bout. Maybe, just maybe, this was a test fight for a possible new division in the UFC. There are enough name Middleweight and Light Heavyweight fighters to easily fill out a division in the middle. Dana White would not mind having another three to four title fights to promote a year. Just don’t be surprised to see a lot more 195 fights in the UFC. On to the actual fight. Franklin got the Unanimous Decision but it was a much closer fight than the result. Wanderlei had Rich rocked once but most of the fight was Franklin controlling the pace and location. Franklin did a good job of keeping Wanderlei outside of his game and never really let him penetrate his defenses. Franklin was so impressive between rounds, lucidly going through the fight strategy with his corner; he was easily the most calm and collected mid-bout fighter I have ever seen. Wanderlei was gassed from cutting weight and you could tell. Had he been used to cutting maybe this fight would have had a different result. The Axe Murderer may be beyond fighting for titles but he will be selling out huge fights for a while to come.



Franklin: Look Out Silva: Stay Tuned



Well, I am looking forward to the Ultimate Fighter 9 Finale on Saturday, June 20. I will desperately try to get my review of the rest of the season up by then and run down all the fighters on the show. We will try to see what they need to do to get on the UFC roster and stay there. I am also going to get up some rundowns of the Strikeforce: Lawler v Shields and WEC 41: Brown v Faber 2 events. Nothing spectacular happened. After all that, the big day is coming up July 11, UFC 100. Can’t wait for that one, there should be a ton of good fights.