Fantastic fights and very surprising. I was rooting for Sean Sherk and was happy with his performance fantastic! Kenny Florian is a warrior though it was one of the best fights in recent memory!
I was utterly shocked for the Silva Vs. Franklin match. I was shocked in how shocked Franklin was, he looked as if he saw the face of God when he was in that Muay Thai clinch, it was as if he was stunned, confused, and worried. Silva busted his nose badly. People were saying that Silva didn’t deserve a title shot…
Silva a middle weight and middle guy in Pride came through and tore Leben apart which was not nearly as impressive (Leben seems to be a middle calibur fighter) as what he did to Franklin, and I feel a bit bad for Franklin as I was rooting for him.
I was giving Franklin the benefit of the doubt.
I must admit that the American fans had me swayed about Franklin, regardless of what I thought of his mediocre stand-up.
Why Franklin decided to stand-up with Silva I do not know.
Kenny Florian coming out to “The Good, The Bad and the Ugly” was the best enterance ever!. He might not have won, but he had a great showing and didn’t appear too phased by the “Muscle Shark’s” power. Sherk will be a force to reckon with.
Franklin got owned! Too bad i spent 40$ for this although i was also looking for the Sherk fight which was good. I was expecting Silva to win but not that easily, heard rumors Franklin was sick but i think we was just not prepared to face a guy like Silva especially after coming off a big lay-off and injuries.He should have brought the fight to the ground, he seemed totally clueless about what to do in the clinch once Silva got him there, he probably thought he was going to out-muscle him based on body type and size.Bad game plan!!
Kongo was exposed as a one-dimesional fighter with big holes in his arsenal, lucky for us he was exposed before being given a shot a the title which was probably one fight away with the ufc’s poor talent pool in this division
That big belt wearing goof Tim Silvia must be shiting his pants after what happened to Franklin, i would love to see him being torn apart by one pride’s elite heavyweight.
It didn’t look like much of a fight to me. More like an instruction session where the teacher is showing the student the clinch to see if the student can figure any way to get out.
I was utterly shocked for the Silva Vs. Franklin match. I was shocked in how shocked Franklin was, he looked as if he saw the face of God when he was in that Muay Thai clinch, it was as if he was stunned, confused, and worried.
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Lol well repeated knees to the face tend to to cause that reaction in most people. But jeeze Silva’s standup is just nasty. I wouldn’t be too worried about Rich. With the UFC’s set up we will be seeing at least 2-4 more re-matchs between them haha.
By the way… I hate Ken Florian. I just think he’s awful. He won Tuff by a complete fluke with an elbow cut to an opponent who was destroying him. I was glad to finally see him get beat.
Kongo was exposed as a one-dimesional fighter with big holes in his arsenal, lucky for us he was exposed before being given a shot a the title which was probably one fight away with the ufc’s poor talent pool in this division
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biggest disappointment of my night and the only eye sore on my bets for the card. haha that fight was supposed to be the easiest pick on the card, and it turned out terrible.
Yeah, I find it funny that the large amount of not just new but uninitiated “fans” and bandwagon fans are now ripping Rich Franklin apart. Some even going so far as to say he is only a paper champion and “all marketing.” This after they had their lips around Franklin’s nuts in a permanent seal.
[quote]EmperialChina wrote:
Yeah, I find it funny that the large amount of not just new but uninitiated “fans” and bandwagon fans are now ripping Rich Franklin apart. Some even going so far as to say he is only a paper champion and “all marketing.” This after they had their lips around Franklin’s nuts in a permanent seal.
The UFC audience never ceases to amaze me.[/quote]
It isn’t just UFC fans, I think it is indicative of “western” fans of MMA. The fan base is so fickle, you lose once and you become a second tier fighter, lose twice and you’re a can who only beat up on subpar competition. Everybody thought Arlovski was the UFC’s answer to Fedor, he loses twice to a game Sylvia and now he sucks? A fighter will have a bad fight every once in awhile, it happens.
As much as I hate to admit it, because I can’t stand him, Diego Sanchez is a good fighter. Everybody is waiting for him to face GSP or Hughes and lose so they can start saying what a crappy fighter he is, but even if he does lose, he has faced and beaten good competition.
BJ Penn loses to the top two guys in the division and there is some asshole on here writing that he looked average? Average, are you kidding?
[quote]EmperialChina wrote:
Yeah, I find it funny that the large amount of not just new but uninitiated “fans” and bandwagon fans are now ripping Rich Franklin apart. Some even going so far as to say he is only a paper champion and “all marketing.” This after they had their lips around Franklin’s nuts in a permanent seal.
The UFC audience never ceases to amaze me.[/quote]
I for one, am still a Franklin fan and hope he recovers and comes back with a better game plan. kind of sucks he’s going to be a part of the opening credits for Unleashed.
[quote]slimjim wrote:
EmperialChina wrote:
Yeah, I find it funny that the large amount of not just new but uninitiated “fans” and bandwagon fans are now ripping Rich Franklin apart. Some even going so far as to say he is only a paper champion and “all marketing.” This after they had their lips around Franklin’s nuts in a permanent seal.
The UFC audience never ceases to amaze me.
It isn’t just UFC fans, I think it is indicative of “western” fans of MMA. The fan base is so fickle, you lose once and you become a second tier fighter, lose twice and you’re a can who only beat up on subpar competition. Everybody thought Arlovski was the UFC’s answer to Fedor, he loses twice to a game Sylvia and now he sucks? A fighter will have a bad fight every once in awhile, it happens.
As much as I hate to admit it, because I can’t stand him, Diego Sanchez is a good fighter. Everybody is waiting for him to face GSP or Hughes and lose so they can start saying what a crappy fighter he is, but even if he does lose, he has faced and beaten good competition.
BJ Penn loses to the top two guys in the division and there is some asshole on here writing that he looked average? Average, are you kidding?[/quote]
You have a good point.
Sometimes I think that fighters are built up too much though. I understand it must happen in order to promote a fight. Still the only UFC division I can truly understand in the welterweight division. There are three great fighters there. The UFC middleweight division I just never “got”. I just did not understand why it was/is considered the best in the world and why Franklin was always ranked the number 1 MW in the world. We get little or no coverage of Franklin in Japan. We do get coverage of the welterweight division and Liddell in the magazines. My impression from the Japanese media is that Franklin was not important enough to do features on. The media might be biased of course. Just like the American media does not give Misaki any credit even though he beat arguably the best MW in the world.
Franklin is a good fighter. He had a horrible strategy against Silva. I still do not understand it. If he did not realize his stand-up was inferior to Silva someone should have told him so.
[quote]chewie wrote:
Did anyone else notice that Tim Sylvia was wearing his championship belt with his street clothes on? What is with that? [/quote]
Even funnier was before the Hughes-Penn fight when the backstage camera showed Syliva holding mitts for Matt while wearing the belt. He certainly loves being the champ.
[quote]slimjim wrote:
EmperialChina wrote:
Yeah, I find it funny that the large amount of not just new but uninitiated “fans” and bandwagon fans are now ripping Rich Franklin apart. Some even going so far as to say he is only a paper champion and “all marketing.” This after they had their lips around Franklin’s nuts in a permanent seal.
The UFC audience never ceases to amaze me.
It isn’t just UFC fans, I think it is indicative of “western” fans of MMA. The fan base is so fickle, you lose once and you become a second tier fighter, lose twice and you’re a can who only beat up on subpar competition. Everybody thought Arlovski was the UFC’s answer to Fedor, he loses twice to a game Sylvia and now he sucks? A fighter will have a bad fight every once in awhile, it happens.
As much as I hate to admit it, because I can’t stand him, Diego Sanchez is a good fighter. Everybody is waiting for him to face GSP or Hughes and lose so they can start saying what a crappy fighter he is, but even if he does lose, he has faced and beaten good competition.
BJ Penn loses to the top two guys in the division and there is some asshole on here writing that he looked average? Average, are you kidding?[/quote]
Great post.
I’d think Matt Hughes’ victory must have been pretty hollow. He got absolutely fucking schooled on every aspect of the game, and then wins only due to BJ getting some freak injury. BJ just can’t be called average.
Eventhough I dislike Hughes I still think he’s a great fighter. Let’s say GSP beats him through the xycience ad in the middle of the octogon. I’m not going to say “see he’s a one dimensional fighter blah blah”. He’d still be a badass…still be a dick too I’m sure.
As annoying as fickle fans are fans that make excuses when their guy loses. That still goes back to making excuses for BJ. Only lost because of a “freak injury”? Maybe he lost for the reasons Hughes stated? Being that he only has the gas for the first two rounds. He didn’t suffer an injury against GSP, but only looked good in the first round.
Maybe he hurt his ribs trying to control a guy as strong as Hughes? An injury like that is still part of the game. If not then I think Rich lost because of a freak injury to his face. BJ himself did not use the injury as an excuse for the loss. BJ is an exceptional fighter and fun to watch, but he got beat by Hughes fair and square.
Poor Franklin got demolished in front of his family. That has to suck beyond words.
I enjoyed watching Sherk dominate. It reminded me of the scene in Fight Club where Tyler Durden lets the goons beat him and then bleeds on the gangster guy. Props to Florian for not getting KO’d by that brutal slam in the last round though.
Conspiracy theory: Tito to 185 to fight Silva? He can get that light.
Speaking of Tito, him and Jenna Jameson looked like they were going to homecoming, hahaha. Makes you wonder.
