WOW, was I wrong about Chuck vs. Wandy. It actually looked like Chuck could’ve finished him a couple of times there if he’d gone in for the kill and stayed on him. If the fight had gone 5 rounds I think Chuck definitely would have ended it. Hell, if that last round went one more minute I think he would’ve ended it.
As for GSP and Hughes, jeezus, GSP just ran a fucking clinic on Hughes. Utter domination. That guy is athletic as all hell. With GSP back in such awesome form, Serra might be at minute 14:59 right about now.
Anyways, I was extremely impressed by Machida. He executed his game plan flawlessly. Liddell’s takedown was probably the most shocking thing about the card. I think he learned his lesson from the Jardine fight and was digging for points.
GSP, hole lee shit! That was fucking unbelievable. He completely steamrolled Hughes. Hughes was humble in defeat. I think we’ll get one more fight out of him so he can end on a high note.
Seriously, Machida is amazing. He makes everyone basically turn into a piece of shit after one round. His style is so unique is beyond anything else I have seen in MMA I have no idea how you would prepare for it.
[quote]Chewie wrote:
Was anyone else laughing as hard as I was about the Predator mask?
Hilarious. [/quote]
I dont follow UFC that much, but I thought that dude would steamroll the other guy. WRONG. I thought the predator mask would guarantee him a victory…wrong again lol
Also St. Pierre annihilated Hughes. That one sweep he had at the end before he made him verbal tapout was amazing.
The Iceman killed Silva as well. You could have just looked at their faces to determine who won.
ALSO…the first fight of the night…Melvin Guillard vs. Rich Clementi was a pretty sweet fight just because of how much they hated each other. Guillard coming out and flipping him off was so cocky and then he got stomped…I was glad he lost.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
Seriously, Machida is amazing. He makes everyone basically turn into a piece of shit after one round. His style is so unique is beyond anything else I have seen in MMA I have no idea how you would prepare for it.[/quote]
Right donut. That guy is amazingly skilled. I'm so happy I got it right with Chuck. That was the most thrilling fight I've seen in a long, long time. My heartrate was flying the whole fight through. Fantastic.
It looks like Hughes is done. He's just not going to be able to compete with the more rounded guys like Georges who train their whole life in a balanced fashion like that. But he's got his place in history for sure. I really enjoyed this card, and it will be hard to bring it like they did on this one again. Forrest and Rampage should be a good one, and BJ and Stevenson looks dismal already..I don't care, I'm so happy right now I could just shit.
ToneBone
The interviews with Matt Serra and Forrest Griffin before the fights were hilarious as expected, unfortunately I didn’t get any autographs or pictures. If anyone wants me to go into detail, I will.
There was also a brawl between a big black kid and some skinny Irish kid in one of the corridors after the fights were over, and the Irish kid clinched, tripped him, and pounded his face in. It was one of the best street fights I’ve ever seen.
Anywho, as for the UFC fights, the Chuck/Wandy fight had me on the edge of my seat the whole time, I thought Wandy was unimpressive and would have gotten KTFO if round 3 was a minute longer.
The only way GSP could have been more dominant is if he came in Hughes’ eye after he tapped. Just my .02
Also, after Chuck threw that spinning backfist at Wandy, everyone in MSG immdediately looked at Matt Serra and laughed.
Called every fight tonight except for Chuck/Wandy, which went completely opposite of expectations…as exciting as it was, Wandy just seemed too tentative and fell into Chuck’s pace, getting controlled, backed up, and losing exchanges. Pretty disappointing, but I have to give it to Chuck…he looked sharp as hell, and those takedowns were just a complete WTF moment.
GSP/Hughes was pure fucking domination - 'nuff said. That little fluke Serra pulled is going to be corrected with Serra getting tooled like the tool he is.
Machida/Sokoudjou went exactly the way it should’ve…Machida is untouchable, and it’s really cool to see him try to finish fights these days and add a little excitement to his style.
As for the other fights, nothing really worth mentioning…though the Guillard/Clementi fight was pretty entertaining…especially the “suck it” at the end…priceless.
Kind of a perfect way to end the year, GSP and the Iceman getting back on track from their mistakes and getting back at the title…best card this year imo, and probably til next March.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
Seriously, Machida is amazing. He makes everyone basically turn into a piece of shit after one round. His style is so unique is beyond anything else I have seen in MMA I have no idea how you would prepare for it.[/quote]
He’s good but you might be getting a bit over excited there donut I’m going to reserve that type of judgment until he fights someone like Liddel, Shogun, Griffin, Rampage, Silva…
Soko is talented but as I said, far too green and totally overrated at this point. He had nothing from his back. He looked like he wanted to quit as soon as he got dropped. As for the hype…it’s just hype. It plagues MMA. If they were hyping up that Ozzy/Kiwi guy who, along with Eddie Sanchez, does not belong in the UFC, why not hype Soko up? Two freak wins. Make him a bit of money. Back to the drawing board and to fight his way up the rankings properly.
The GSP performance was surely one of the best I’ve ever seen. Serra must be bricking it!
Silva v Liddel had my heart pounding. Chuck tooled him in the last round. Silva dint seem to have any option but to brawl with left/right 2 punch combos. Was he a bit direction less? How gutted did Rampage look? He seems to favour the ex Pride guys, like when he commented that Shogun would destroy Forest. Or do you think it was because he wants to rematch Silva?
The only way GSP could have been more dominant is if he came in Hughes’ eye after he tapped. Just my .02
Also, after Chuck threw that spinning backfist at Wandy, everyone in MSG immdediately looked at Matt Serra and laughed.
-dizzle[/quote]
hahahahaha.
The ref was a bit fuckin late pulling George off as well. Hughes said tap about 4 times before the ref did anything. I’d be a little pissed if my arm broke!
What a fuckin’ clinic by GSP. Hughes didn’t get one ounce of offense in the entire fight. His strategy was horrible, too, with the switch to southpaw. Not sure who came up with that, but it wasn’t effective at all, as he couldn’t jab in to set up his shots and came away looking like a worse version of Tito Ortiz, shooting in from 10 feet away.
That leg trip takedown by GSP was awesome, as was the kimura-to-armbar transition. He brings this mentality to every fight, he’s impossible to beat.
Liddell-Silva lived up to the hype, even if the first couple of minutes were slow. Liddell got his edge back and Wand showed a lot of heart. That second round was awesome. Still can’t believe I saw Chuck shoot in for a couple of takedowns and the spinning backfist was hella cool. I didn’t see it 30-27, but I definitely think Chuck won. I’d have given the second round to Wand.
Machida is a stud. He makes everyone he fights look like they’ve never done this before. Soko had no answers. Tough night for Team Quest all around.
Clementi was funny post-fight. I thought Guillard was going to cheap shot him during his interview.
[quote]Djwlfpack wrote:
What a fuckin’ clinic by GSP. Hughes didn’t get one ounce of offense in the entire fight. His strategy was horrible, too, with the switch to southpaw. Not sure who came up with that, but it wasn’t effective at all, as he couldn’t jab in to set up his shots and came away looking like a worse version of Tito Ortiz, shooting in from 10 feet away.[/quote]
Obviously leaving Pat Miletich hurt his game planning, because that was a real head scratcher. I’m not sure why he would do something like that in probably the last enormous fight of his career.
Boy, I shit the bed on this one. I think all my picks were wrong.
It was a pretty good card and for one fleeting moment I thought I was going to get probably the most unlikely call I have made in Silva by submission in the 2nd. It would have been interesting to see that round go on a little longer.
GSP basically destroyed Hughes. I was speechless and still can’t believe it.
I thought Guillard was going to cheap shot him, too. The best part of it was Clementi saying something like, “That’s cause he’s learned his lesson, get out of here!” That was fucking classic.
[quote]Donut62 wrote:
Djwlfpack wrote:
What a fuckin’ clinic by GSP. Hughes didn’t get one ounce of offense in the entire fight. His strategy was horrible, too, with the switch to southpaw. Not sure who came up with that, but it wasn’t effective at all, as he couldn’t jab in to set up his shots and came away looking like a worse version of Tito Ortiz, shooting in from 10 feet away.
Obviously leaving Pat Miletich hurt his game planning, because that was a real head scratcher. I’m not sure why he would do something like that in probably the last enormous fight of his career.
[/quote]
Yeah, it really made no sense at all. I understand him wanting to try and take GSP down, but you have to try and set that up. Hughes was an average-at-best striker standing orthodox, why did he think he’d fare any better going southpaw?
Miletich must’ve been laughing when he saw that development unfold. No way he’d ever have Hughes do something like that in that big of a fight.
Hughes’ run at the top is now officially over. He can still fight some up-and-comers like Fitch, Koscheck etc. and there’s still money to be made in a Serra-Hughes fight down the road. But it’s clear after last night that Hughes doesn’t have much time left.
I think GSP is a nuclear reactor; I haven’t seen that good of conditioning in a long time nor that explosiveness. Hardworking guy deserving of every win.
And I don’t care how dominant the ‘Iceman’ is/has been, I still think the dude comes across as a punkass douche. I was glad when Rampage knocked the piss outta him.
Is there a clip of GSP-Hughes? I can’t find it anywhere.
I’m going to reserve that type of judgment until he fights someone like Liddel, Shogun, Griffin, Rampage, Silva…