Fantastic win from Fedor Emelianenko on Thursday afternoon. There is a great breakdown of Fedor’s technique in that fight over here at BloodyElbow. Some criticize the win saying why would Fedor fight Rizzo. But there aren’t that many quality heavyweights out there, even inside UFC there is a limited amount of top heavyweights. Outside, Rizzo while really past his prime is a perfectly decent heavyweight opponent. Also, Fedor beat him with total style and beautiful technique, it was nice to see. Here is the video of the fight.
There was a lot of greta highlights on this event. Dan Miller having a 10-8 round in the 3rd against Ricardo Funch and then locking the guillotine on Funch. Funch then tried to roll over, but Miller rolled with him and got the mount to make Funch tap out. Nice win for Miller, one of the most likable guys in MMA. Brown vs Ramos had a nice finish was Brown hurt Ramos badly. Steven Siler continues to improve, his wins over the Micah and Cole Miller were not flukes at all. He put a pounding over Gambino. I hope he faces someone like Cub Swanson next. Good Rick Story performance against Brock Jardine, but I expected him to finish a late replacement. Hioki looked pretty good in the 1st round, the most impressive thing Lamas did was drop Hioki on his head in one of the most brutal slams I’ve seen in a long time. After that, I was surprised at how Lamas kept capturing Hioki in a guillotine. Lamas also outstriked Hioki. Very good win for Lamas, huge upset in a way. Swanson-Pearson was awesome, and a great KO win for Swanson. He’s come a long way since being tapped out by Jens Pulver. Glad to see Swanson look so good. Ebersole vs Waldburger was all sorts of awesome. Great ground and pound, great submissions, even Ebersole was hurt by a punch in the 1st. I gave Ebersole the 2nd and 3rd. He was losing the 2nd but came alive in the last minute with some brutal ground and pound. Man, Spencer Fisher looked as good as he’s looked in five years (since the last Stout fight)! He looked awesome in that first round, he easily won that round, he landed the more damaging strikes on Stout. 2nd round was Stout’s as he came back, but the 3rd round was a close one. I’m cool with Stout winning but I’m upset that none of the judges gave Fisher the 1st round. Guida vs Maynard was one of the most frustrating and weirdest fights of the year. First round was fine, but as Maynard said “the stuff got old”. Guida turned himself heel, and Maynard turned himself into Nate Diaz in the 4th round, which was the most awesome thing in the fight. Glad that Maynard got the decision.
I have yet to see the fight but I saw the finish of Zorobabel Moreira defeating Roger Huerta via soccer kick. Lots of controversly over what happened. According to people that watch ONE FC, referee Yuji Shimada was supposed to give a hand signal to indicate that he allows soccer kicks. He did not, it appeared he was saying “no kick”. Now they are claiming he was saying “low kick”. Who situation is ridicolous, looks like Shimada made a huge error and the company is covering up for him. Huerta was already done at that point, Shimada should have stopped it too before it even came to that. Also, this isn’t a pro or anti-soccer kick thought, I just want to say the hybrid rules are really lame and gimmicky. Having to wait for an approval and seeing all the confusion this has caused should make people realized that this rule set is not a good idea. Either have soccer kicks or don’t have soccer kicks but don’t have this gimmicky rule set.
UFC 147 just didn’t feel like a PPV quality card at all. It was hard to get motivated about watching two finales to a show that I never saw and had no emotional investment in. The middleweight finale was a good fight and the featherweight finale was okay, but all four guys didn’t feel like UFC caliber at all. The best fighter of the whole show, Fabricio Werdum looked awesome and he destroyed Mike Russow rather easily, even landing some neat uppercuts. Silva vs Franklin II was a good fight, highlighted by the epic 2nd round that saw Franklin barely survive what I scored a 10-8 round. Another referee probably would have stopped it. After that Silva didn’t seem to have anything left in the tank, and I gave it to Franklin, 4 10-9 rounds to 1 10-8 round for Silva.
Josesito Lopez vs Victor Ortiz was the best fight of the weekend. Amazing fight, both guys were hurt and stunned at different points. Lopez was landing some awesome uppercuts and a lot of great powershots on Ortiz. Ortiz was landing some bombs there too and a good jabs. It was incredible when Lopez started backing Ortiz down. I thought Ortiz was winning the 9th round but Lopez broke his jaw in brutal fashion. Great great fight. Also, the co-main event of Soto vs Matthysse delivered. Here are the highlights for those that missed it.
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