Arena Let's get it on!: The Mixed Martial Arts Discussion Thread

UFC 67 live coverage



by Dave Meltzer

Dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Welcome to our live coverage of UFC 67 from the Mandlay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas.

We're looking for your thoughts on the show, so please leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match on the show to dave@wrestlingobserver.com

Dustin Hazelett b Diego Saraiva. Hazelett took all three rounds on every scorecard to win 30-27.

Lyoto Machida b Sam Hoger 30-27 across the board over three rounds. Totally dominant performance by Machida, who knocked Hoger down three times in the first round and two more times in the second. Most of the knockdowns were scored when Hoger would throw a kick and Machida would connect on a punch to the jaw.

We could have an upset here. Frankie Edgar has been outwrestling Tyson Griffin for two rounds. Edgar appeared to solidly win round one with several takedowns. Round two was a close call. Griffin was gassed in the third round, but nearly got a submission with a leglock. Edgar dominated the round and took the fight 30-27, 29-28, 29-28

Terry Martin b Jorge Rivera in 14 seconds. Rivera came out and threw a kick, but Martin caught the foot and threw him down, and stunned him with three hard punches on the ground and Rivera was done.

They announced that Lutter hadn't made weight. Lutter apologized. Joe Rogan said it was inexcusable. Anderson Silva said that he felt he disrespected the fans and disrepected the championship.

Scott Smith vs. Patrick Cote is up now.

Dull first round. People are booing. Both had brief seconds of offense. I'd give Cote the round because he scored with a bodyslam and a few punches on the ground before Smith got to his feet. For two sluggers, much of the match was dancing or in a clinch against the cage.

Cote rocked him with a hard right early in the round, but didn't follow up. Smith even did a Ric Flair beg for mercy spot and a karate kick spot. But overall a boring round. I've got it 20-18 for Cote as Smith did nothing in the round, not that Cote did much more. Lots of boos.

Best round of the three. Smith even scored with the best punch, but Cote hit more punches and I had him winning the round. I've got it 30-27. Eddie Bravo also has it 30-27.

All three judges had it 30-27. Fans booed the fight a lot. On paper, you'd have expected a more entertaining fight from these two.

Quinton Jackson vs. Marvin Eastman is up next. The place is going pretty wild for Jackson. If he scores an impressive win here he'll become an immediate superstar.

Until the end of the round, little happened. Jackson caught Eastman with a left punch to the jaw that took Eastman's knees away. The end of the round may have saved Eastman.

Second round was slow again until Jackson scored with five straight short punches inside that put Eastman down. Two more on the ground and ref John McCarthy stopped the fight. At least he scored a decisive victory but not a blow-out.

Jackson got over better on his promo than with his fighting. He said he was nervous and this was the first time he'd ever been booed. He said he needs more sparring, and advertised for needing sparring partners to get his skill level up before a match with Chuck Liddell.

Right now 77% believe Silva will beat Lutter.

Roger Huerta vs. John Halverson is next.

This is going to be controversial. Huerta knocked Halverson out with a knee to the shoulder, but some of it hit the head. Of course a knee to the head is illegal. Halverson was on his stomach and laid there. Huerta threw about 16 unanswered punches on the ground and it was over in 19 seconds.

Mirko Cro Cop vs. Eddie Sanchez is next. Will Cro Cop come out to "Wild Boys." This is even more stunning. Cro Cop came out to the Pride theme song. The fact he's doing that in some form may be a hint to what will be the biggest news story in this industry of 2007. Live it didn't appear anyone understood the significance of that.

Cro Cop dominated the entire fight. He nailed the left high kick and a few punches and Sa

 

Really had no intention of ordering this PPV. The main was weak and then finding out Lutter didn't make weight makes it even worse. Rampage and Cro Cop were being fed victims, so there was nothing really to sell this show. Don't know what happened to Serra fighting, but that still wouldn't have been enough to get me to buy it. Rampage needs about two or three totally dominant victories with brutal knockouts, then let Chuck get his chance to avenge his loss to Rampage.

 

GSP got hurt training so they had to push back the Serra fight.
I think they are now fighting in April.

 

The last ppv was sub par at best despite the UFC debut of Rampage who like he himself admitted after the fight was nervous, and Cro Cop aka Robo Cop who could of let his opponent stand a little longer before delievering that high kick to the head. GPS getting hurt was a little dissappointing, and then the fact that Anderson Silva's opponent couldn't even make weight was grounds for a partial refund.

Chuck vs. Rampage should be a good one once Rampage gets back up to speed, and I don't know I would like to see Cro Cop drop down to 205, and join that weight division which would really spice things up.

 

I tried watching BoDog Fights the other night and I finally had to change channels. Maybe I caught a bad episode, but there was nothing at all entertaining about the show. The fights were slow and boring; I don't think there's an actual audience there other than the other fighters in the competition and a few BoDog hotties; and the announcers seem really stiff. I think they were fighting in a ballroom in Russia or something. It was really weird and did not televise well at all.

 

Some upcoming UFC events:

[image=http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/5421/ufcupcomingnw0.jpg]

 

Wow, that seems like a pretty big step down for Hughes and Franklin that they're facing a couple of TUF alums. Lytle has some skill, but Hughes should be able to overpower him. McDonald just strikes me as a bit of a ***** and I'm amazed he's even still fighting. I would hope Franklin would be able to knock this guy out with ease. I'd really like to see Couture take out Sylvia.

 

[image=http://img136.imageshack.us/img136/2958/ufcupcomingdk3.jpg]

Updated with an additional main bout for UFC 70.

 

Oh man, I came back to the JCC after a super long layoff and was hoping there was a MMA thread. Doesn't seem like there's enough fans though

I've been watching since UFC 1. I have two black belts in TMA (Traditional Martial Arts) and am taking Brajilian Jiu-Jitsu now (love it).

 

Saw they finally signed the Liddell/Jackson rematch for UFC 70. Chuck finally gets a chance to avenge the one loss he hasn't paid back yet.

 

That will be a great fight. Rampage owned Chuck in the 1st fight in all aspects but it was still a war.
A highly motivated, prepared Chuck is a nightmare for anyone. Usually he walks in underprepared and convinced he'll get the KO at some point.

This time he'll be like he was for the last two Randy fights... determined not to make a single mistake. You could just see that in his body language, especially in the second fight. I think that Chuck beats Rampage but we'll see.

Meanwhile it's very hard to say if Rampage is still as good as he used to be. A lot of people say he's lost his fire and it kind of looks that way but you never know. This is his best chance for a championship belt so I think he'll come to fight.

 

I was wondering that. It seemed like they rushed this fight, but after Rampage's sort of bland debut, maybe someone was afraid Rampage would lose to some "up and comer" before the Liddell rematch and take the shine off of it. I guess they figured they better cash in now before something bad happens.

 

That's exactly what happened (IMO). The rumor is Page wanted another fight and Dana basically said tough luck.

 

I don't even think it could be classified as a rumor, Rampage said it post fight (UFC debut). After he said he'd never been this nervous before, he said he'd like 2-3 fights so he could build himself up and "earn" a title shot not just be given one, but he'd fight whoever the UFC put in front of him.

I could see them not wanting to risk a Rampage loss, but I could also see them trying to give Chuck an edge by not letting Rampage get really comfortable in the Octagon yet.

Hope it is a good fight, and I'd like to see Rampage win to shake things up.

 

It's official... the UFC has bought Pride. Wow, many dream match ups are on the way. I can't wait.

 

Well Fight Night ended up being a bit of a letdown. I was all amped up to see Melvin Guillard get his mouth shut on TV, but it happened so quickly, it was almost like I didn't get a chance to enjoy it. Plus the card itself was kind of weak for the most part anyway.

On the plus side, I finally got to see the Hughes/GSP fight on Unleashed and it was sick how outclassed Hughes looked in that fight. I don't know if he underestimated GSP that night or if GSP just really turned his game up a notch.

TUF 5 looks like it's gonna be entertaining. The fight was the weakest part of the show, but everything leading up to it was great. I think Dana hit the nail on the head when he said all the lightweights had "small man syndrome" because they're all a bunch of idiots. I'm trying to find one to pull for, but haven't found it yet. Though I've already seen about 5 I want to see lose. When Penn asked the guys to raise their hands if they wanted to be on his team, the look on Dana's face was classic. I think it's gonna be a good season.

 

You had doubt that Koscheck was going to dominate Sanchez? Sanchez can't handle it when his opponent won't let him bullrush him and get the takedown, he wasn't going to do that against Kos and he lost because he refused to implement a better gameplan against a clearly superior fighter.

 

Funniest news I've heard so far today, it's being reported that apparently Dana White was considering suspending and fining Koscheck for when Diego shoved him at the weigh-ins. That's right, White was going to fine and suspend the guy who got pushed.

 

Just saw the PPV results - that is nuts about Serra winning, but that's what's great about MMA - everyone has a chance. I'm moderately surprised about Sanchez, but not a lot. UFC was really spoonfeeding him I think and they just wanted a nice clean record on him whenever they put him in a title fight. His only legit win was probably over Parisyan. If he hadn't inadvertently punched Joe Riggs at the same time Riggs hit him in their, Riggs might've gotten Sanchez first.

 

As much as I hate Sanchez, he was lefit, out of all the TUf winners he was the one most noticeabley not being spoonfed. He was given Brian Gassaway for his first fight, and that was an easy fight for his debut. However after that he was given Nick Diaz, a top 10 WW and currently top 10 at LW, and he beat Diaz. I personally thought that Diaz won the fight with his guard work, but when you don't finish a fight you have to live with whatever decision is handed out. Next he squared off against John Alessio, a guy with top 10 talent that presented an interesting problem for Sanchez, his jab and sprawl are among the best in the business so how would Diego get around that? Diego didin't do a good job of adjusting, but once again in the judges eyes he did enough to win, although I would differ. Next up was top 10 WW Karo Parisyan, and in a great fight Diego constantly took the fight to Karo and absorbed what Karo brought to him winning a decision, another one I thought should have gone the other way, but that's the problem with letting the fight go to a decision. Then he faced and knocked out top 15 WW Joe Riggs in under two minutes, and impressive feat. Finally he ran into his achilles hell in Josh Koscheck, a top 10 WW wrestler who Diego couldn't impose his will on and bully around.

To summarize, in the UFC at 170 he's beaten, and keep in mind this isn't even counting the handful of wins against good opponents he had outside of the UFC at 185,

Kenny Florian: A good fighter but at the time he had yet to really develop like he currently has
Brian Gassaway: A can and not worthwhile
Nick Diaz: Top 10 in two weight classes, a great win
John Alessio: Top 10 talent, and a guy who ha his fair share of big victories throughout his career, a good win
Karo Parisyan: Top 10 WW, a great win
Joe Riggs: Top 15 WW, occassional top 10, a good win

That's nothing to guffaw at, Diego is a super talented fighter and is still a top 10 guy, about number 7-8, even after the loss. The big question for Diego is whether he will allow this loss to let him recognize the holes he does have in his game and improve them, because unless he does he'll never beat guys Like Matt Hughes, Georges St. Pierre, Josh Koscheck, Akira Kikuchi, Jake Shields, Jon Fitch, or Brock Larson, guys who he can't impose his will on and bully around.

 

But Diaz and Riggs have the same problem - they're just not there mentally. They beat guys that make them look unbeatable, then choke out to guys they probably shouldn't lose to. The thing I immediately noticed about Diaz's and Riggs' pretaped comments about their fights with Sanchez is they both said they didn't want to a stepping stone for a TUF guy. That says everything about their mindset right there. They're looking not to lose. Diaz had the skill to embarass Sanchez, but played defense the whole time. Sanchez has it mentally over both those guys and I'm not saying he's not legit, I'm just saying he was fed guys that were technically great in the ring, but didn't have the mental toughness to overcome a guy that UFC is obviously building for the future. As for the judges' decisions with Diaz and Parisyan, it just goes to show how dangerous that is, as I had no doubt Diego had won both those fights and you saw it the other way, and I can easily see why you saw it the other way.

I'm glad to see this thread picking back up. I'm hoping TUF 5 helps to revive it.

 

Kos deserves credit for the win but I don't buy that Diego was left on the outside hoping for a lucky punch because of Kos's TD defense. Like him or hate him, the one word to describe his style before this fight was relentless.
He's beaten everyone (Kos included... on TUF) by putting up a pace his opponent just can't handle. He fell in love with boxing training and was too stubborn/crazy to let it go.
And, oh yeah... that will easily be the most dissapointing fight of the year when all is said and done.

TUF looks great this year. I'm an admitted BJ Penn nuthugger. Can't wait to see him fight again.

 

Saw an interesting article about how UFC was hoping to build for GSP/Hughes III in Montreal later this year and now Serra has screwed it up. The jist of the article was how this past PPV has actually hurt some marketability for the company in that Serra was basically about to hang up his tights to teach when TUF came knocking and now he's a champion. They were groomig Diego as a big star because Latinos are a major economic force when they have someone they feel they'll pay to support and Kos kind of screwed that up. On top of that, the consensus is basically that Kos is not a likable guy and will people pay to see him fight if they don't like him. It's not necessarily like pro wrestling where some fans will pay to see a bad guy get beat up, so would they just start marketing Kos as a heel or what? It was an interesting read.