Fight Game Blog

Thanks to Cactus Jim for logging the play by play of last night’s UFC 90.

About a week ago, I wasn’t so sure that I was going to order UFC 90. There was really two matches that looked outstanding on paper. I was sure that Tyson Griffin and Sean Sherk would be excellent, and I was sure that Josh Koscheck and Thiago Alves would be good as well. But do you spend $45 a show ($50-55 in HD) on two good undercard matches? No, you don’t. You pay for the main event. And on paper, Anderson Silva vs. Patrick Cote was severely lacking.

The undercard match-ups delivered. Griffin vs. Sherk was a stand-up war and those guys were hitting each other hard. They were throwing great combinations, highlighted by Griffin throwing a high kick and then following up with an off balanced right hand, which landed. But Sherk was too strong. Griffin made the fight, but in making the fight, he was in Sherk’s wheel house. Griffin pressed the action and was the more active fighter, but Sherk’s striking was a tad bit more pinpoint.

Koscheck was his cocky self until he got hit with a left hook that dropped him to a knee. (Photo by East817) After that, he was pretty much done. I give him all the respect in the world for coming back and continuing to fight. But at that moment, he went from someone who probably thought he was going to win, to someone who didn’t think he was going to be able to win. Thiago Alves has the perfect nickname. He was a pit bull in the ring. He almost looked like a machine rather than a human being. I started to wonder who would be the next big match-up for Alves. If George St. Pierre and BJ Penn are fighting in January, the next fight for either guy would probably be April/May. Alves will need to fight again between then. I was thinking that a rematch against Jon Fitch could be interesting. Fitch is so big, Alves wouldn’t simply be able to punch right through him. Or, if Jake Shields joins UFC, that could be a great fight for both guys.

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Mike Goldberg welcomes us and starts hyping the main event and introduces us to Joe Rogan who says Patrick Cote has heart, balls, and gas(?). Standard pre-recorded introductions and rules follow.

Up first is Sean Sherk versus Tyson Griffin. This is a non-title fight scheduled for 3 rounds. As usual, Griffin enters to “Eye of the Tiger”. Randy Couture is in his corner for this fight. The announcers take a minute to pimp the upcoming Lesnar/Couture fight. Sherk comes in looking incredibly focused. I love Michael Buffer’s herky jerky pointing as he introduces the fighters. It’s always good for a quick laugh. David Smith is the referee.

Round 1 – Sherk take down of Griffin right away. Has back. Griffin is on his feet w/ Sherk on his back and shakes Sherk off. Sherk is the aggressor and seems to have the better striking. Another Sherk take down. Sherk is bleeding from the nose. Griffin up. Griffin lands a few shots. Punches in bunches followed by leg kicks from Sherk. Griffin landing a few of his own. Sherk stuffs a take down attempt and takes Griffin’s back. Back to striking to end the round. Good round with lots of action. I give the round to Sherk.

Round 2 – Sherk get s take down, but Griffin is back up quickly. Slower pace to start the round. Back and forth striking. No clear advantage to either fighter. Griffin looks a little sluggish. Griffin is getting pissed and “hulking up”. Sherk is landing more and better shots. Nice hard body shots and stiff jabs. Nice high kick attempts by Tyson. But nothing lands. Griffin seems to be gassing. Sherk is fresh and takes the 2nd round.

Miquel Torres is shown between rounds.

Round 3 – Lots of striking to start the round. Tyson rocked Sherk, rushed in, but Sherk recovered quickly amd started landing his own shots. Tyson looks a little desperate. Sherk throwing lots of kicks and landing most of them. Griffin is landing more shots at this point. Both guys finish swinging. Close round, but I’d give a slight edge to Griffin. I’d call it 29-28 for Sherk.

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Rather than do a preview for UFC 90, where Anderson Silva defends his middleweight championship against Patrick Cote, I decided to put together something that my brothers at FGB helped me put together.

I posed a question to them that simply asked, who was better pound for pound between Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko?

To me, it boils down to how well you dominate your weight class, the competition level, and how easy you make your wins look. There’s no question that both guys are dominating fighters. They haven’t been tested in years. From a competition level, Silva definitely has the edge (at least over the last few years), and while both guys make it look easy, Fedor wins in ways that make him look disgustingly better than anyone else across from him.

Big D thinks that while Anderson Silva is near unbeatable, he thinks that Fedor’s aura is that of someone who is even more unbeatable.

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We are promised a Junie Browning fight, which should be pretty good.

Frank Mir asks Rolando Delgado about his black belt in jiu-jitsu. Most of Team Mir thinks he’s bullshitting.

Junie says he bought his black belt from McDonalds.

Mir says that he had to get his black belt by submitting Tim Sylvia.

Junie tells Rolando that if he gets out of the first round, he’ll tell Dana to give the fight to Rolando. Somewhere, I missed that this fight was definitely taking place.

Frank Mir makes it official. Junie throws a black belt at Delgado and Delgado playfully wraps it around him. Then Junie pushes him, puts the belt down and spits on it. Big Nog is never going to do this show ever again. Big Nog says he does it for attention. Anderson Silva says Junie did it because he was scared of Delgado and then tells him to kick his ass. Can you imagine being on a team with Big Nog and Anderson Silva?

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News and notes from around the MMA, pro wrestling, and boxing world …

- Tons of media for this weekend’s Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito fight.

Cotto is ready for business.
FoxSports interviews Miguel Cotto.
Cotto vs. Margarito is a throwback fight.
There are two sides to Miguel Cotto.
De La Hoya to watch Saturday’s fight closely.
Cotto and Margarito go to war.

This file is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License

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I used to do a post once or twice a week at my old site in which I posted links and recapped news stories. I’m bringing it back. The column was MMA only, but because our new site focuses on MMA, boxing, and pro wrestling, so will this column.

News and notes from around the MMA world …

- The UFC Fight Night payouts were just a we bit less than the Affliction payouts. Yes, it said that Tim Sylvia made nearly $800,000 for 36 seconds of work.

- Eric Raskin (for The Ring Magazine and through ESPN.com) says that if you see one fight all year, you have to see Miguel Cotto vs. Antonio Margarito.

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I wanted to do this live, but my crappy cable company couldn’t figure out what time the show was on, and my DVR was only going to record what the menu said, so I was screwed very much. We still have play by play, it’s just not live anymore.

The hardcores are paying attention to the Affliction show which is in Anaheim and on PPV. We have live play by play of the Affliction show done by our own Cactus Jim.

Jesse Taylor and CB Dollaway open up the show. It’s pretty amazing that Taylor is back in the UFC so quickly, but with competition the way it is, you don’t want to see a guy you promoted on TV for three months get picked up by EXC and put on TV immediately.

1. Jesse Taylor vs. CB Dollaway

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You can call it Super Saturday, or in my house, you can call it “Affliction is $40 and UFC is free, so I’ll watch UFC”. But it truly is a big night of fights.

The big one is Fedor Emelianenko vs. Tim Sylvia for the WAMMA Heavyweight title. UFC counteracts with Anderson Silva in his UFC 205 pound debut against James Irvin.

Your friends at Fight Game Blog have put together a preview of sorts. Since there are two shows, we simply took the best five fights on the shows combined and predicted the finishes, the winner, and included a bit of commentary about the fights. Enjoy.

Fedor picture is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0

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1. Jon Fitch vs. Chris Wilson

Chris Wilson has an Andrei Arlovski-like beard. Fitch has a pretty gnarly beard as well. From a size standpoint, they are near replicas of each other.

Wilson actually won the round by staying active on the feet and rocking Fitch a few times. Fitch did get two takedowns after getting stuffed early on.

Round two was exactly what you’d expect from Fitch. It was take down, ground and pound, take down ground and pound. Wilson wasn’t ever hurt, but it was all Fitch.

The third round was more in Fitch’s favor. Wilson was game on the bottom though as he locked in a triangle near the end of the round.

Winner: Jon Fitch by way of unanimous decision

Only one judge gave Wilson round one which I thought he won fairly easily.

Mark Coleman announced that he’s going to be Brock Lesnar’s next opponent.

2. Evan Tanner vs. Yushin Okami

Okami looks huge compared to Tanner. It was mostly Okami as he set the pace and knocked Tanner down with a big right. He also controlled Tanner in the clinch against the cage.

Okami hit a huge knee to the chin that knocked Tanner out. It was all Okami for the entire round as he was sticking his left hand in Tanner’s face all round long.

Winner: Yushin Okami by way of 2nd round TKO

3. Chris Leben vs. Alessio Sakara

What a great first round. Both guys came out slugging. Each man was able to take each other’s best until Leben was able to land two looping left hooks that knocked Sakara down. He followed up with more shots and Herb Dean stopped it.

Winner: Chris Leben by way of first round TKO.

Chris Leben should always fight on PPV.

4. Cheick Kongo vs. Heath Herring

Herring landed a big right that knocked Kongo back into the cage to start the fight. Kongo got the better of the rest of the round by using wrestling interestingly enough. He also had Herring’s back, but gave it up to try to get back to the strikes.

Kongo again dominated with the takedown, but this time, Herring reversed position, got side control and spent over a minute throwing about 20 knees into the side of Kongo. I’d say it was Herring’s round, but neither guy really tried to finish the other.

Herring knocked Kongo down with a kick to start the round. Kongo ended up on top, but not for long. Herring bulled him into the cage and ended up on top for the entire second half of the round in side control, with the last thirty seconds in the full mount. I’d give the round and the fight to Herring.

Winner: Heath Herring by way of split decision

5. Dan Henderson vs. Anderson Silva

Silva started the round by landing some sharp and loud sounding kicks. But Henderson got the takedown and ended the round on top, utilizing hammer fists. Henderson’s round.

Silva showed why he’s possibly the best guy going today in round two. He simply owned him. He hit a knee that knocked Henderson loopy and simply kept Henderson on his back until he got his back and then sunk in the rear naked choke and Henderson tapped.

Winner: Anderson Silva by way of 2nd round submission

6. Dustin Hazelett vs. Josh Koscheck

Round one was close. Both guys swung for the fences early on, though near the end of the round, Koscheck was answering more. Koscheck got a big takedown near the end of the first, but was stuck in a triangle as the round ended. Either man’s round.

Koscheck ended the fight with a head kick that knocked Hazelett down and he finished him up quickly.

Winner: Josh Koscheck by way of 2nd round TKO.

Rather than do the regular news updates, I’m going to give out some awards. This will encompass all of MMA, but really, my focus will be on the American companies since I didn’t see much of Pride or K-1 this year.

Fighter Of The Year

There are some great candidates for this one, including guys that will get overlooked like Urijah Faber. But I think the year belonged to three men. Randy Couture had the comeback that all comebacks will be measured by, but near the end of the year, he was done with the UFC and any proposed big year end match was out the door. Quinton “Rampage” Jackson had a banner year by beating Marvin Eastman, Chuck Liddell, and Dan Henderson. Anderson Silva held the middleweight title all year long, beating Travis Lutter, Nate Marquardt, and Rich Franklin for the second time. If you look at someone who dominated their division, the choice is Silva. But if you’re looking for who won the toughest and biggest fights, the answer is Jackson.

Winner: Rampage Jackson

Fight Of The Year

In the early summer, Frank Shamrock and Phil Baroni had a war that ended when Shamrock called his own shot. Early on, he mocked Baroni, by putting his hands together on his cheek, insinuating that he was going to put Baroni to sleep. And after two rounds of fighting that left both guys completely exhausted, Shamrock caught Baroni in a choke and rather than tapping out, he went to sleep, just like Shamrock predicted. Tyson Griffin seemed to be on fire all year long, having great matches in wins against Clay Guida and Thiago Tavares. But his best fight was one in which he lost, against Frankie Edgar at UFC 67. It was a wrestling war and ended with Griffin pulling on Edgar’s knee at the bell after putting him in a knee bar. Edgar would take the decision. Right before year’s end, Roger Huerta shook off two losing rounds against Clay Guida at the season finale to The Ultimate Fighter Season 6. He would go on to finish him in the third round in a very exciting comeback victory. While the two UFC fights were great, I have to go with the fight I saw in person.

Winner: Frank Shamrock vs. Phil Baroni at Strikeforce Judgment Day

Fight Card Of The Year

Strikeforce Judgment Day was an exciting card with a fantastic main event. UFC 68 had the most emotional MMA match that I’ve ever seen. UFC 76 had five matches that went the distance and had two of the biggest upsets of the year. And I was never able to see a good copy of the Pride show in February. But if I had to choose the card of the year, I’d have to go with The Ultimate Fighter Season 6 Finale. It had two fight of the year candidates with an exciting finish to end the night when Huerta came back to stop Guida. The War Machine vs. J-Rock was a great brawl as well.

Winner: The Ultimate Fighter Season 6 Finale

Upset Of The Year

Oh, there were many. How about Randy Couture coming out of retirement to chop down Tim Sylvia? What about Forrest Griffin beating Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, who was in his first UFC fight, after coming over from Pride. Keith Jardine outpointing Chuck Liddell? Or what about both Gabriel Gonzaga and Cheick Kongo beating Mirko Cro Cop? Well, I guess that since he lost twice, maybe they weren’t such huge upsets. But the winner has to be Matt Serra beating Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69 in Houston. When that fight ended, my jaw hit the floor. St. Pierre came into the fight looking unstoppable and Serra took the fight right to him, knocking him out and shocking St. Pierre himself.

Winner: Matt Serra knocking out Georges St. Pierre at UFC 69.

Promotion Of The Year

When the UFC is the biggest game in town, how can they not be the best promotion? They are making money and drawing huge crowds and good PPV buyrates. Who are their competitors? Well, Zuffa, the same company that owns the UFC also owns the WEC, which put on some very fun and exciting cards, focusing on the smaller fighters. The San Jose based Strikeforce understands their fan base and sets up fights that the locals want to see. With local fighters like Cung Le and Frank Shamrock, they should have a pretty good 2008 as well.

Winner: UFC