UFC 90 - Spoiler

Bigger Stronger Leaner
1

I have to say, this was a better card then I thought it would be. None of the fights were terribly flashy but talk about even match-ups.

Sherk - Griffin

I had no idea what to expect with these two great wrestlers. It could have been a real stinker but was anything but. Both these guys have pretty good striking and this was a fun kickboxing match to watch.

Sherk is so damn quick with his strikes. He could be much better if he didn’t look like his feet were stuck in concrete.

Wedum - Dos Santos

Shocker. I was never really a Werdum fan, so I didn’t mind seeing him lose. I does shake up the HW rankings a bit and creates a bit of a mess after the mini tourney.

Who gets the next shot? They should give Dos Santos another fight quick to see what he can do. Maybe Gonzaga or Kongo. I would like to see Werdum in against Velasquez or Carwin.

Maynard - Clementi

Pretty much how I thought this would go. I thought it was a good fight and enjoyed the ground work. The ref in this one was absolutly horseshit. “let’s go guys”, “let’s work guys”, “I’m going to stand you up guys” constantly while they were on the ground and working.

Between this and the gay ass crowd in chicago booing all the time, I had hit the mute button to enjoy the fight.

Alves - Koschek

Alves is quickly becoming one of my favorite fighters. He is a devastating striker with really good takedown defense. GSP is the only guy that has a shot at beating him at 170.

If he beats GSP he has to fight BJ or Anderson. Kos is tough guy. He took some really good shots and recovered good. Not sure why he took this fight on two weeks notice.

Silva - Cote

This was the only disappointment. Silva was really agitating me with his dancing and running around. Did he come to fight or clown around. If he thinks Cote is out of his league, just finish him then. I can’t wait to see Silva get beat now. Just give him Marquart and Henderson again and quit fucking around.

2

[quote]dhickey wrote:

Silva - Cote

This was the only disappointment. Silva was really agitating me with his dancing and running around. Did he come to fight or clown around. If he thinks Cote is out of his league, just finish him then. I can’t wait to see Silva get beat now. Just give him Marquart and Henderson again and quit fucking around.[/quote]

This was my big question and complaint of the night for any one that actually fights - was Silva feeling him out for those two rounds, toying with him, or just didn’t want to mix with Cote’s ‘knock-out’ power? It was really confusing. It seemed that at any moment he could have overwhelmed Cote and ended the fight. So, who’s next?

3

Sherk - Griffin

Awesome fight. Sherks standup is under-rated, but dudes lack of reach hurts him. The way he throws, keeping his arms in close, makes him fst as hell, but dude will get jabbed to shit when fighting a guy who reaches further ex: Penn.

Werdum - Dos Santos

Brutal knockout, but dude benefitted from Werdum’s forward momentum. Too short a fight as well. Need to see more of him to judge, kind of like with Gonzaga after the cro cop kick.

Maynard - Clementi

Decent fight, but the ref and the entire chicago crowd need to die.

Alves - Koschek

Good showing by Alves. Fucking impressice defense against a very game Koschek. Koschek hung in there with the striking, especially round 2. Disagree about gsp being his only problem at 170. I could see an in shape bj penn wading through his strikes with his iron head and submitting him. His only problem would be getting him to the ground, no small task.

Silva - Cote

Total fucking agreeance. The fame has gone to his head. Dude still tries to act humble like he was before, but he aint. He showed it in the fight. Dude needs to be forced to watch an old prode dvd, so he can reminded of the chonan flying scissors to bring him back to earth. Hell, I still have a fresh memory of a Lutter mounting him and punching him out before he went for a lame armbar attempt. Silva didn’t look so uinvincible flailing around then. He will fall. He is no Fedor. Would like to see him vs Lindland, or Filho if he would fight him.

4

It seems like the title fights are boring quite often.

I might even prefer the fight nights to the PPVs. The fights seem more spirited.

5

[quote]TheDudeAbides wrote:
dhickey wrote:

Silva - Cote

This was the only disappointment. Silva was really agitating me with his dancing and running around. Did he come to fight or clown around. If he thinks Cote is out of his league, just finish him then. I can’t wait to see Silva get beat now. Just give him Marquart and Henderson again and quit fucking around.

This was my big question and complaint of the night for any one that actually fights - was Silva feeling him out for those two rounds, toying with him, or just didn’t want to mix with Cote’s ‘knock-out’ power? It was really confusing. It seemed that at any moment he could have overwhelmed Cote and ended the fight. So, who’s next?[/quote]

The title match was a bit strange. I kept waiting for Silva to really unload but never did. Was there something that Patrick was doing that was throwing Silva off his game? I do think it was only a matter of time though.

And why would Kos take a fight with someone of the caliber as Alves with only 2 weeks notice? It doesn’t make you a man it makes you a fool. Are they afraid of some sort of retribution from UFC if the phrase “I’m not ready” is spoken?

6

[quote]BlackSabbath wrote:
Alves - Koschek

Disagree about gsp being his only problem at 170. I could see an in shape bj penn wading through his strikes with his iron head and submitting him. His only problem would be getting him to the ground, no small task.
[/quote]

Agreed. I was keeping BJ at 155. That would be a good fight. BJ would definately hit him but not sure if he can knock him out. Probably go to decision.

7

no nothing cote was doing was “throwing off” silva. it was a 5 rounder and silva’s plan was to frustrate cote onto some wreckless striking where he, being an awesome counter-striker, could take advantage. cote and his team knew this which is why cote was also being patient and not wreckless. granted silva didn’t throw all that much but what he did throw, he landed. believe me he knows exactly what he’s doing.

and was anyone else annoyed as fuck at these damns refs? every damn 5 seconds “come on guys…let’s get busy” wtf? the guys were fighting! it can’t be action every second of every friggin’ round. especially that guy todd frederickson in the maynard/clementi fight. that guy is the worst. even joe rogan was commenting that he couldn’t understand why the ref kept repeating to get busy when they were on the ground. really, really annoying!

8

Wow, am I glad I didn’t buy this PPV! Now in all fairness, I’ve only read some of the play-by-plays and descriptions of the fight and I was just able to watch the 1st round online (couldn’t find the rest of the fight anywhere online). Gameplan or not, it was obvious that Silva was completely toying with Cote. He likely could’ve knocked him out well before the injury happened if he actually tried to.

Hell, Cote was the aggressor for pretty much the entire first round; he was the one who pressed the action and had ring control. Silva just ran away, danced around and dropped his hands. I’m pretty sure that first round should’ve been scored to Cote. (Again, I haven’t seen the second or third rounds).

But in all fairness, Dana White is always talking about how, win or lose, he likes fighters who get in there and FIGHT. That’s something that Anderson Silva did NOT do in this fight. Period. Now, can you ever imagine Fedor doing what Anderson did in this fight, dancing around and trying to play coy for 2 or 3 rounds?? Not in a million fucking years! Fedor closes with you and destroys you as soon as possible. See Fedor vs. Tim Sylvia for an illustration of that. He’s a wrecking machine. Fedor comes to FIGHT, and he brings it EVERY time.

Who’s the “best pound-for-pound fighter in the world” now . . . ?

9

[quote]Damici wrote:

Who’s the “best pound-for-pound fighter in the world” now . . . ?[/quote]

According to Anderson himself, he never was. That was the hilarious part about Dana bestowing that title upon him.

I didn’t see the PPV last night(like I’m dropping $40 for that shit card), so I’m interested to see the Silva fight. He has never been one to go after his opponent. He simply waits for them to attack and then goes for it. I still wouldn’t totally write him off though. He may have had an off night, injury, or something else. He has always come throw down every other fight I have seen of his.

10

Fedor never claims to be either, nor does GSP. That’s beside the point. All of them (save BJ Penn) are too classy to publicly make that claim. So it doesn’t matter what they say. The fact is that Anderson isn’t even close to Fedor.

[quote]analog_kid wrote:
Damici wrote:

Who’s the “best pound-for-pound fighter in the world” now . . . ?

According to Anderson himself, he never was. That was the hilarious part about Dana bestowing that title upon him.
[/quote]

11

That title match was the biggest case of MMA blue balls in a while. The flurries kept gaining in intensity, the tension kept building, and then all of a sudden the fight ends over a fluke injury. Even though he didn’t land many clean shots, Cote impressed by surviving some hard shots to the head and continuing to fight back.

12

[quote]chitown34 wrote:
That title match was the biggest case of MMA blue balls in a while. The flurries kept gaining in intensity, the tension kept building, and then all of a sudden the fight ends over a fluke injury. Even though he didn’t land many clean shots, Cote impressed by surviving some hard shots to the head and continuing to fight back.[/quote]

Yeah…that is why so many people are frustrated about it. It was frustrating to see 2 rounds of “feeling out” but to Silva’s credit he wasn’t taking Cote lightly…and vice versa for Cote. But with no major action,it was a MMA cock-tease…lol.

13

[quote]Damici wrote:
Fedor never claims to be either, nor does GSP. That’s beside the point. All of them (save BJ Penn) are too classy to publicly make that claim. So it doesn’t matter what they say. The fact is that Anderson isn’t even close to Fedor.

analog_kid wrote:
Damici wrote:

Who’s the “best pound-for-pound fighter in the world” now . . . ?

According to Anderson himself, he never was. That was the hilarious part about Dana bestowing that title upon him.

[/quote]

This is a misrepresentation of BJ- he did not claim to be the best ever, he stated that he wanted (as in aspires to) to go down as the best ever, which is pretty much the mindset of everyone engaging in any competition. If you’re not in it to be the best, then in all likelihood you won’t be.

14

[quote]1morerep wrote:
Zeppelin795 wrote:The title match was a bit strange. I kept waiting for Silva to really unload but never did. Was there something that Patrick was doing that was throwing Silva off his game?

no nothing cote was doing was “throwing off” silva. it was a 5 rounder and silva’s plan was to frustrate cote onto some wreckless striking where he, being an awesome counter-striker, could take advantage. cote and his team knew this which is why cote was also being patient and not wreckless. granted silva didn’t throw all that much but what he did throw, he landed. believe me he knows exactly what he’s doing.
[/quote]

Plus, Cote just ate the strikes that Silva landed like they were nothing. That guy has an iron chin. So perhaps, Silva’s camp knew this and planned on trying to wear Cote out and perhaps even take the fight to the ground in the later rounds where Silva has a considerable advantage.

[quote]
and was anyone else annoyed as fuck at these damns refs? every damn 5 seconds “come on guys…let’s get busy” wtf? the guys were fighting! it can’t be action every second of every friggin’ round. especially that guy todd frederickson in the maynard/clementi fight. that guy is the worst. even joe rogan was commenting that he couldn’t understand why the ref kept repeating to get busy when they were on the ground. really, really annoying![/quote]

Hell yeah, that was ridiculous. The reffing has definitely gone down in quality since big John retired. Speaking of which, I heard that he was considering coming out of retirement to start reffing for the UFC again. Anyone else hear this?

15

[quote]1morerep wrote:
Zeppelin795 wrote:The title match was a bit strange. I kept waiting for Silva to really unload but never did. Was there something that Patrick was doing that was throwing Silva off his game?

no nothing cote was doing was “throwing off” silva. it was a 5 rounder and silva’s plan was to frustrate cote onto some wreckless striking where he, being an awesome counter-striker, could take advantage. cote and his team knew this which is why cote was also being patient and not wreckless. granted silva didn’t throw all that much but what he did throw, he landed. believe me he knows exactly what he’s doing.

and was anyone else annoyed as fuck at these damns refs? every damn 5 seconds “come on guys…let’s get busy” wtf? the guys were fighting! it can’t be action every second of every friggin’ round. especially that guy todd frederickson in the maynard/clementi fight. that guy is the worst. even joe rogan was commenting that he couldn’t understand why the ref kept repeating to get busy when they were on the ground. really, really annoying![/quote]

Yeah I just watched the post press interview with Silva as he stated he was trying to confuse Cote.

16

[quote]dhickey wrote:
I have to say, this was a better card then I thought it would be. None of the fights were terribly flashy but talk about even match-ups.

Sherk - Griffin

I had no idea what to expect with these two great wrestlers. It could have been a real stinker but was anything but. Both these guys have pretty good striking and this was a fun kickboxing match to watch.

Sherk is so damn quick with his strikes. He could be much better if he didn’t look like his feet were stuck in concrete.
[/quote]

To be honest, Sherk’s striking didn’t impress me at all in this fight. Yeah, he took Griffin down, for which he deserves some credit, but he couldn’t really do anything with him once he got him there, and Griffin was able to get back up rather easily.

Sherk didn’t seem to learn his lesson from the Penn fight. Yeah, his striking looked ok against an opponent who is the same height, and doesn’t have any speed/striking advantage over him like Griffin. But he’ll still get whooped on if he tries to counter punch like that against Penn again.

He needs to go train with someone who’s conceptual knowledge of “boxing” goes beyond just standing in the pocket and trying to counter punch the whole fight. Until he does, I don’t think we’ll see him regain the LW title (as long as Penn holds it anyhow).

Yeah, it definitely screws up the HW landscape. But who knows, maybe Dos Santos is a legitimate title contender and he’ll prove that this wasn’t just a lucky punch.

I’d love to see Carwin get a shot at a legitimate HW, whether it be Werdum or someone else.

Yeah, Kos said before the fight that he “had nothing to lose”, which isn’t true, he had another title shot to lose, and he did. Two weeks just isn’t enough time to prepare for someone of the caliber of Alves.

I think that Fitch could give him a legitimate run for his money. It wouldn’t be a pretty fight, but as fitch proved in his fight with GSP, he’s tough as nails, and might possibly be able to wade through Alves’s punches to get a takedown. Or at least to get close enough to smother Alves’s power.

Speaking of which, was anyone else screaming at Kos to throw some elbows/knees when he had Alves up against the fence? He really needs to work on setting up his takedowns.

17

Fitch already beat Alves

18

I didn’t see anything wrong with Anderson Silva’s performance. Anderson didn’t go out and destroy Cote in two rounds and we have people bashing Anderson. ???

Cote didn’t do anything of significance besides just lasting into the third round. He didn’t win either of the first two rounds. His pressure was ineffective and he didn’t show much “ring generalship”.

Anderson is a great striker but he is an efficient striker, he doesn’t waste much movement or just throw stuff out there like many fighters do.

It is too bad Cote got injured.

19

This was a decent card IMO, much better than the last two.

20

[quote]drewh wrote:
Fitch already beat Alves[/quote]

Well there ya go. :slight_smile: I was right.