Sunday 15 January 2012

UFC 142 - I told you so, and other thoughts.

UFC 142 went down last night with the main event and co main event ending as I predicted (albeit a little quicker than I thought).  Having said that it did not take a genius to see how these fights would go.  Below I will go through my thoughts on what happened in the two main fights, sympathise a bit with Terry Etim and then make a few contraversial comments about Mario Yamasaki.

Photo from Sportsnet.ca

Aldo Knocks Mendes Out

I absolutely thought that Jose Aldo would be able to nullify Mendes' take downs for the most part, but I had no idea that he would be able to do it so effortlessly, even if he did use one sneaky grab of the fence to keep upright.  Then problem for Mendes in this fight was that if you are fighting a well rounded fighter like Aldo and you have only one legitimate route to victory, you are going to quickly become very predictable.  That is doubly bad if you fail to implement your game plan.  Mendes was frustrated by Aldo's ability to stay up and forgot technique for a moment, diving in recklessly headfirst for a shot and a ate a knee for his troubles.  That was the end of that one.

Then it was really fun to watch Jose Aldo burst straight out into the crown and I was a little bit worried at one point because he disappeared and I feared he had drowned in a sea of Brazilian adulation.  Luckily the sobering monotony of a Joe Rogan interview via translation brought him round.





Belfort Submits Johnson


Photo from sports.yahoo.com




Going in to the fight, most people were talking about either Old Vitor or whether or not Johnson could weather the early storm and wait for Vitor to gas.  Those commentaries look pretty funny now.  In reality Johnson's weight cut issues always meant he was going to come into this fight seriously depleted and that is probably why we saw him be so aggressive for the first few minutes.  Belfort just played things relatively safe and technical until it kind of seemed like Rumble finished himself off, regardless of the choke Vitor put him in.

Barboza Kicks Etim in the Head


That headline is as unspectacular as this kick was spectacular.  I really thought that Rogan and Goldie were over egging Barboza's pudding a little bit, because while Barboza landed some leg kicks, I really did not think Etim looked that troubled.  I felt like Etim would go for broke in round 3 as he figured Barboza out.  Lucky for me I was watching the fight by myself so no-one heard me shout that at the TV moments before Barboza landed this bomb.  Anyway, as much as I love Etim, I was stoked to see this kick and went and demonstrated it for my girlfriend with effortless grace.  Ahem.

GIF from mmanation

Contraversial Disqualification of Erick Silva

Here is a video of the fight, look towards the last couple of minutes for the controversy. Oh, and get there quick because no doubt the UFC will force the video of the site in good time.  There has been some discussion on what exactly the back of the head means, just exactly when does it merge with the side of the  head.  Well it is very confusing and there is no clear rule for referees to follow.  I am not going into the fairness of the decision, just to say that I think since it is hard to say in a clear cut way whether it was right or not, criticism of the referee is harsh.  Now, it is one thing for us fans to moan about referees, but for Joe Rogan to pull the guy up on it in front of thousands of angry Brazilians and a disappointed fighter, was absolutely unprofessional, not to mention mean spirited.

The Future for Anthony Johnson


Photo via espn.go.com


Let's be clear.  He was ill when near to his target weight because he attempted to make weight from crazily above his target.  Not only that, it has happened twice before.  He absolutely ought to be cut and in the future, other organisation should be wary about his ability to come in at his contracted weight.

The featherweight Division


It is easy to say that a division looks when you have one guy who head and shoulders above the rest, look at the middleweight division with Anderson Silva.  I think there are plenty of good fighters at 145lbs but Jose Aldo is just something super special.  I am not really sure who is there to provide a legitimate challenge for him after Mendes.  I wonder how the fight with Frankie Edgar could be made possible.  Having said that, I have not made my mind up how Edgar's fight with Ben Henderson is going to go, maybe he will not even be in a position for a champ vs champ super fight.

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