The UFC thread. Because I don't want a ball involved in my televised violence.

You should have a John Madden Does UFC thread in order to capture all of these insights in one place for posterity.

Meh. He's just been a letdown, that's all. The UFC is quickly becoming a Yeats poem: the best lack conviction, while the worst are full of passionate intensity. Half the champions are broke, lame, lazy, or fight-dodging cowards; while the fighters worth cheering for can't seem to get a win. It's been almost a year of nothing but heels winning and the decent guys being shit on.

Alas poor Chael!

There have been some fantastic fights this year, you are a crazy person.

You seem to have the UFC confused with soap opera. Again, and again, and again.

Oh, there have been great fights - but the winners are the ones I hate to see win.

You must have a curious list of fighters you hate, I'm guessing.

That's not untrue.

In the grand scheme of injuries sustainable, having your arm popped in an armbar is one of the least unpleasant. You'll usually recover just fine almost all the time. Most armbars pop at the elbow, but in some cases you'll have a break in your forearm (e.g. Sylvia vs. Mir), but most of the athletes I've seen get nailed by armbars and not tap end up recovering and continuing to fight later.

Knee injuries (heel hooks and knee bars) are way worse to recover from, and I'd argue shoulder injuries end up being really bad as well (any of my friends that have shoulder problems seem to have them chronically).

EDIT: this is also why chokes are considered way more reliable than joint locks/pain compliance. You can't muscle out of oxygen deprivation or just suck it up, you'll pass out. And blood chokes are way more benign than any type of joint lock, with the (drastic) extreme case that they're either totally fine or will kill you if someone untrained doesn't let up. There's very little chance of accidentally getting killed by a heel hook.

UFC 153 is in the books.

Never thought I'd say this but Jon Fitch looked great. Erick Silva put up a good fight, including a rear naked choke I still have no idea how Fitch got out of, but eventually Fitch's grappling and ground and pound was just too much.

Phil Davis did what he needed to do against Wagner Prado. I'm not sure he has the striking to compete with the better LHW's out there but he's still a contender and two wins could see him up for a title fight if things play out right for him.

Dave Herman, so much promise but he keeps falling short. Good kicks and good grappling but Nogueira managed to punch him in the head over and over again and when it hit the ground Nogueira is still the best HW grappler in the UFC. Frank Mir and Fabricio Werdum might take offense at that but until Big Nog retires I'm sticking with him.

The main event was all but designed to make Nute cry. Biggest mismatch in I don't know how long. It only took Silva a minute to realise he was in no danger and invite Bonnar to do his best against the cage. And Bonnar did, it just wasn't ever going to be good enough. It had some drama and a spectacular finish, even as a squash match I have to say I was entertained throughout.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.

I don't know what to say. Jon Jones and Chael Sonnen to coach The Ultimate Fighter. Sonnen will get his title shot.

I feel like the UFC just took a giant dump over the credibility of the sport and their most visible champion in order to prop up their shitty reality show.

I'm still bitter over the Jones-Sonnen TUF coaching/title fight, I think it's the closest anything has come to killing my love for the sport since I first discovered MMA, Bonnar testing positive for steroids was just another serving of shit on top of it all.

But UFC 154 was last night and, you know, GSP was making his return. I'm not gonna say all is well but watching GSP go to work went some way towards making me feel that maybe it's not all bad. But enough about me.

Mark Hominick is now 0-4 in his last four. It was a fun, and bloody, but he's just seems to have lost whatever he had that got him his title fight. Even in a thin FW division I wonder if the UFC is really going to keep him around.

Johnny Hendricks. Can you say one-punch knock out? Holy shit. He did it to Fitch and now he did it again to Kampmann. He is one scary WW. I know we have Nick Diaz whining in the wings (hoping to talk his way into a title fight, because every contender except Condit is the kind of fighter who can take Diaz down and keep him there for three rounds so his chances of winning any contender bouts are pretty slim) but Johnny should get a title fight ASAP. With GSP looking pretty disinterested in the Anderson Silva fight I don't see a better fight for GSP.

GSP did what GSP does. The jab was there, the explosive takedowns were there. Condit made things interesting in the 3d but GSP was the better fighter. And this after rehabbing an injury that is frequently career-ending for professional athletes. It wasn't the best fight ever but it was worth watching.

Tom Lawlor's walk-in costumes are amusing. The awful, awful fight he had with Carmont was not.

Whoo, that left hook/right jab knockout combo from Matt Brown was a thing of beauty.

Man, that was a great four fights. Something seemed off about Nate Diaz - Henderson did a great job neutralizing all of his strengths and just plain outwrestling him on those kneebar attempts - but Diaz didn't look like he was at the top of his game.

I think the surprise of the night was BJ Penn just looking outclassed by Rory MacDonald. At least three times in that fight I could have swore Penn had no clue where he was after some of those blows.

A fantastic event. Ben Henderson put one hell of a beating on Nate Diaz and I loved all five rounds of it. He even made leg punches look effective, something I've never seen before. Anderson Silva has done them too but they did not look as powerful and as stifling as Henderson's. The power Henderson packs at lightweight is phenomenal.

The Shogun fight was Gustafsson establishing himself as a contender. It was a fun back-and-forth brawl and I was happy to see Gustafsson weather the storm but despite my inner swedish cheerleader I'm not feeling he's capable of taking the belt. For one thing, Jones absolutely demolished Shogun in two rounds, and that was back when Shogun was still at the top of the game. For another, Gustafsson used his takedowns to edge the fight in his favour and punish Shogun when he overcommitted on strikes, he won't be able to do that against Jones. The title is locked up for the bullshit TUF season anyway so I hope the UFC brings Gustafsson back to Sweden for a fight in the meantime.

Rory McDonald looked fantastic. That powerful jab reminds me of GSP and he put on excellent combinations too. BJ looked like he quit on his feet in the second round after taking those body shots. The only chance BJ had when his boxing didn't cut it was to go for a takedown and work submissions, and Rory was too skilled and too powerful to let him. Then again, as impressive as Rory looked he really needs to stop fighting smaller guys so we can get a good look at what he's capable of when he's not physically overpowering his opponents.

Matt Brown looked like the stronger fighter from the very start. It was a fun first round of grappling positioning and then a second round KO for an exciting finish. He hit those punches right on target even as Swick was falling backwards. I'm impressed. Wonder what's next for Brown.

Oh, and the UFC decided that they'll keep giving away title fights to people coming off losses because Nick Diaz is getting the GSP fight. After losing the interim title bout with Condit, and serving a year-long suspension for weed on top of that. This is the type of bullshit that ruined boxing right here.

What does the year-long suspension for weed have to do with anything in terms of his credibility? If anything, it's absolutely insane that a sport so rife with blatant examples of real performance enhancing drugs still has time to deliver moral censure over a victimless crime.

In terms of his credibility, very little, it was just the bonus WTF served on top of the heaping of bullshit that was the fight announcement.

I watched it again this morning and by the middle of round 3, it seemed like Henderson's attitude was just "I don't care what position you're in, I will punch you anywhere I want and you will accept it!" About the only moment where Diaz seemed like he was in his own wheelhouse was the dueling heel hooks/kneebar. Trouble is, he started telegraphing that and Henderson took away those weapons pretty decisively.

I really like watching Gustafsson fight. I don't think he's got the chops - yet - to take the title from Jones. Therein lies the problem - how do you train for an opponent like Jon Jones?

Well, for one thing his striking defense needs to look a lot sharper. What puzzles me is that he seemed a lot smarter in the Thiago Silva fight about where and how he would exchange strikes and as a result he got hit a lot less. I dunno. Maybe he decided he wanted to stand and bang with Shogun. That said, the main concern in a fight with Jones is always going to be his wrestling and submission game. Gustafsson was able to time quick takedowns on Shoguns telegraphed punches and he still looked like he was in trouble on the ground at times even when he was on top. If he has trouble with Shogun then, well... Jones isn't going to give away takedowns, that's for sure.

Oh look, it's Michael Bisping losing yet another title eliminator. He lost to Henderson, Wanderlei, Sonnen, and now to Belfort, and I expect his legacy will be that of the guy who never quite got to the top. What gets me about this finish is that Belfort had just tagged Bisping with that left high kick in the previous round. I guess Bisping couldn't adapt. Normally I'd be all "I guess we'll never see him in a title fight" but between Nick Diaz and Chael I wouldn't be surprised if the UFC just booked Bisping vs Anderson anyway, because fuck the sport.

Anyway, the FX card wasn't too bad. Gonzaga put away Rothwell before the heavyweights could embarass themselves too much and CB Dollaway had no business in a co-main event but managed to put on an entertaining bout with Sarafian. The highlight was definitely Khabib Nurmagomedov though. He's undefeated, 3-0 in the UFC, and he looked absolutely spectacular in that stoppage. Lightweight is packed with fighters though so I have no idea where to place him but another win could set him up as a title contender.

What was your take on the Miragliotta call? People said they saw the poundee doing stuff with his legs but it mostly seemed like twitching under a severe beating.Dana got dramatic.

My take was that the ref was an idiot who put that fighter's life at risk because he chokes when he has to make the big decision to step in and end things. Grabbing a leg and turtling up is not intelligent defense unless you try to move away from the positon. The fight should have been stopped after four or five of those elbows, not fifteen.

Dana is full of shit about most things but taking the refs to task for failing to to their job is not one of them

I agree, but then again I probably would have stopped a lot of good fights prematurely.

I agree. Count me in as not a fan of DW but he's absolutely correct here. Though again DW should probably handle this behind the scenes and not on twitter.

Jack Slack explains why Bisping fell prey to repeated high kicks.

It's good to know that Bisping wasn't being a complete idiot and did try to adapt, but that it was a result of Belfort leaving Bisping with a poor set of options.

Cerrone looked ok, but Pettis had his number with the stance. That is, objectively, a terrible stance that no one should get away with in modern MMA.
Rampage looked solid if the standard was continuing to stand. His takedown defense and rebound was solid, but frankly it seemed like Teixera was seriously overrating his dominance on the ground. Maybe he needs another few years in a second rate league to get his act together.
Mighty Mouse and zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Seriously. I can't watch this shit, so that's when we left the bar. Let me know when the UFC breaks in the 95lb category.

What do you mean? Fighting southpaw? There's no way to stop people changing stances if they think it's to their advantage. In this case Pettis, who has outstanding technique on his kicks, found a gap in Cerrone's defence and exploited it.

I meant Cerrone's rigid stance. Pettis was able to crack him apart with kicks he was in no position to evade or dampen.

Really? Cerrone's a veteran fighter and one of the more accomplished strikers at lightweight and Pettis is the only fighter to ever hurt him like this. I don't know enough about the finer points of kickboxing to objectively claim that Cerrone's stance was good (or bad) but clearly he's been having a lot of success with the way he's been doing things up until now.

That said, I didn't see anything particularly awful about Cerrone. What I did see was Pettis using superior speed and footwork to get off first which clearly had Cerrone flustered before those body kicks landed.

It came off sounding more critical of Cerrone and less impressed with Pettis than I intended it or would have written it with a few less pints in me. What I meant was that while I expected speed and accuracy, it seemed to me like Pettis did a really good job of factoring in Cerrone's unusual stance, and in addition to speed and movement he was able to time and angle his kicks in a manner that made it impossible for Cerrone to absorb or deflect the blow, where his own weight and stance was being used to reinforce the damage done. That kick that preceded the final kick was reminiscent of other great body shots in MMA history, where the fighter shrugs it off at first and then starts to really feel it go through his whole frame.

Tonight is UFC 156 which is the most stacked card I can remember in a very long time.

Jose Aldo vs Frankie Edgar
Alistair Overeem vs Bigfoot Silva
Rogerio Nogueira vs Rashad Evans
Jon Fitch vs Demian Maia

I can't wait to see Aldo again, or see if Demian Maia can submit Fitch.

While waiting on the fights here's Gray Maynard trying to think of something nice to say about Frankie Edgar.

Demian Maia could not submit Fitch. Fitch might be un-submittable. But Maia did shut down Fitch so hard that it made me wonder if Fitch's wrestling was any good to begin with. Which is crazy, Fitch is a beast of a wrestler, but that just goes to show how much better Maia is. Not a fun fight to watch but that level of domincance is impressive enough to be worth watching.

Overeem got the biggest karmic payback possible.


Thinking things over I'm actually happy Overeem lost because that means he can be given a fight with JDS. On the other hand, Cain demolished Bigfoot not too long ago so the UFC might just do Cain vs JDS 3 since there aren't any real contenders out there at the moment.

Aldo and Edgar put on a great fight but five-rounders with no finishes do tend to feel dragged out. Watching Frankie surge in the fourth was exciting but he never did make it seem like he could hurt Aldo while Aldo certainly hurt him. I could have done without Joe Rogan speculating in a Frankie win when Aldo had beaten him in three straight rounds but then I've always been a fan of open scoring.

Dead Man Down and MusclePharm make that photo perfect.

I watched the prelims. Never seen a crowd, and a Vegas crowd at that, boo a standup before. Wow. Shitty stoppages atleast gives refs the excuse that they have to make split-second decisions but this, this was just a horrible decision. She should be ashamed of herself, and grateful that she didn't end up giving away the fight as a result.

Benavidez and McCall was a good opener, although I really was surprised by the amount of punishment that McCall was able to take.

The Maia-Fitch struggle was one of the finest fights I'll probably see all year. Fitch probably won't get that much credit in terms of appearances and score (and the inability to convert), but that whole thing was a pleasure to watch.The crowd, unsurprisingly, embarrassed itself in this fight.

The Overeem beatdown was perfect, and it was probably the first time that I felt like a Bigfoot victory was a product of superior tactics. That is probably the most humiliating way that fight could have ended, because it wasn't even a lucky a haymaker in the first round or anything like that.

I don't give a shit about Rashad Evans and only watched it in the hopes it would be a surprising but violent finish to his deathly boring career. Alas, Rogerio was not up to the task.

I also don't much care for Aldo's malnourished middleweight approach to dominating his title, but I guess it keeps winning those points. I was kind of hoping Edgar's patented punching bag style would lead to an upset but unfortunately you have to be able to hurt the other guy when he's beating you on points.

Again, the crowd was embarrassing. I'd like to blame it on a bunch of casuals there for football the next day, but instead I will settle for saying that the UFC is long overdue an Arthur Clarke: Childhood's End moment for the benefit of every pissant in the crowd who thinks every fight should like a goddamned cartoon.

Kalle brought the recent firing of Jon Fitch and fifteen others to my attention. One of them found out via twitter. But seriously, Fitch? So many heads should roll before his in a just world.

Every day Leonard Garcia keeps his job is a disgrace to the sport.

More analysis on the cut.

Good card tonight. Faber in particular did a lot to redeem himself by really working for the finish. The judges were accurate in giving the Dragon the edge, although Koscheck definitely got screwed by Dean in that call.

But most of all, the title fight was excellent. Rousey showed incredible heart in surviving that face crank, and I thought Carmouche was going to make it through the first round all the way through the second bout of arm defense.



But you can't do much when it's textbook.

Good god, was she trying to take that arm home with her?