UFC Thoughts

I thought it was overall a good show. It wasn't one of UFC's best, but it had enough fun stuff to go around. Spencer Fischer vs. Matt Wiman was one of the best fights I've seen so far this year. Just a really fun spectacle with near finishes, a huge reversal, trash talking and a spectacular finish. The Melvin Guillard knockout was also spectacular, but his opponent was so obviously unworthy of being there that it took away some of the fun because it didn't really reflect much to me. I need to watch Gonzaga-Scherner again, as I was apparently the only one watching this show to think the stoppage was premature. Scherner was gassed no doubt, but it didn't seem he was unable to defend himself and he was going for a shoot when it was called. But given nobody seems to think this, I evidently need to watch this again. Perhaps people were just eager to see him out of there. Horn-Sonnen was a good enough battle that went just as expecting, Sonnen punching from the top and Horn attempting submissions. He finally caught him with a slick triangle into an armbar. I love that move, because it's "gotcha!" but doesn't feel fluky like a guillotine. Speaking of which, the next two fights of course ended by guillotines. Still, it featured the guy I wanted to see go over winning, so I can't complain. Brandon Vera and Mike Swick both have a world of potential. Diego Sanchez vs. John Alessio was great. I took way too much perverse pleasure in it. After about the third stuffed takedown in the first round, I said to Ben Miller that if this ended up as a boring three round decision, it would be totally worth it if it ended in Diego getting booed out of the building. And that's exactly what happened. The crowd really liked Diego as he came out, but then he started acting like a total jackass prancing to the octagon and you could feel the cheers diminishing as we watching this guy acting like a total buffoon. And by the end the crowd hated him. I can't really say why, because he was aggressive throughout the fight and it was Alessio that wouldn't engage all that much. Maybe there were more people than I thought like me, just waiting to boo him. I gave the fight 29-28 Alessio, but I can understand even the 30-27 Sanchez. Only clear round was the last for Sanchez, and I think you can justify the first or second for Diego. Both guys clearly did enough to lose. And of course the fight also had the weird koala position for 3 minutes which was another highlight. This will go down as one of those great perverse MMA fights that I joke about with my friends, like the toe stomping Marco Ruas fight or the Krazy Horse match where he used the ropes for leverage on a drop kick, or the time Matt Lindland knocked himself out. I blamed Sakara for his loss more than Lister. I thought he could have avoided going to the ground in the first place, and he clearly had an opportunity to leave the guard but instead dove back in. So if you're stupid enough to go to the ground with Lister when you are a boxer, you deserve to be submitted. I'll be more impressed when Lister does it against someone with a better gameplan. This reminded me of Mir-Sylvia. And the main event was also a spectacle. Watching Royce get all that love coming to the ring made me sad, because I knew he was going to get killed. I didn't really want to see the fight at that point, and wished they could have called it out. Still, Royce seemed okay about the whole thing and he got a nice payday, so I guess it's alright in the end. Will I make it three UFCs in a row with UFC 61? Stay tuned...