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 I am still coming down from the excitement from Saturday night. I love
watching St-Pierre fight and he was in top form. At the same time, many
props go to Jon Fitch as well for that fight. Overall, it was a good
night of fights and I wanted to share some of my thoughts on the night.
The night started
off with Demain Maia facing Jason MacDonald. With the reach advantage
that MacDonald had and the class of Maia BJJ game,
I couldn’t believe that MacDonald actually was going to grapple
with him. Even though in the end he got finished, “The Athlete” earned
my respect. Not only did he engage in a ground war with Maia, he held
his own and even got close to a submission! Maia still needs work on
his stand-up before ANYONE mentions him facing the likes of Anderson
Silva. Enough about the fight though. I want to say that MacDonald’s
nickname of “The Athlete” is just not appropriate. Shouldn’t
that nickname belong to Georges St-Pierre? I mean, Mike Goldberg says
that “GSP may be the most athletically gifted athlete in the
UFC.” How profound is that?
No, Kenny. You don’t
always finish fights. Yes, Roger. You can be beat. While it may have
looked to the untrained fan that Kenny spent
most of the fight running away, he was really picking and choosing his
shots against Huerta. Roger Huerta got a little careless and would catch
a jab while coming in on Florian. The punches may not have done a lot
of damage, but they were enough for the win. I was, however, impressed
with Huerta’s submission defense. Being able to defend against
a Kenny Florian submission is impressive. I think with BJ Penn wanting
to fight at welterweight, Kenny Florian will face the winner of Sean
Sherk vs. Tyson Griffin for the lightweight title that Penn will vacate.
Rob Emerson vs. Manvel
Gamburyan. Wait, what happened bro? Bro, why did the fight stop? I
can keep going bro. Emerson looked great with his
12 second knockout. No question here on whether the fight should have
been stopped. Gamburyan was out. So much for another shot at Nate Diaz.
Okay, Brock Lesnar
won and did so dominantly. For me, I was not impressed by his performance.
That was a pretty bad case of lay and pray in my
opinion. The fight consisted of mostly takedowns and ground control.
I am sure Lesnar was playing safe, but I still saw some mistakes in
his game. He even made the same mistake he did against Mir. While standing
over Herring, Lesnar leaves his leg deep into his opponents guard while
he is on the ground. A more skilled BJJ practitioner would have been
able to take that leg. As for who is going to beat Lesnar? That is
a good question. With his strength and agility at heavyweight coupled
with his ability to control his opponent, he is going to be difficult
to get an upper hand on. Brock Lesnar could be “the next big
thing” after a few fights, but he really needs to cut the post
fight WWE antics. Laughing at Herring? Ugly. Lassoing Herring as he
walks out of the Octagon? Disgusting.
Finally, the main
event. I called for a 5 round war. While it was 5 rounds, it was more
of a one-sided beat-down. I still believe that at welterweight,
Fitch is St-Pierre’s toughest opponent. The problem is the “hardware.” What
do I mean? To me, Fitch is like GSP version 1.0 while GSP is currently
functioning at version 3.0. They are similar fighters as they are very
well versed in all aspects of the game and excel at wrestling, but
GSP is just better at everything. St-Pierre’s stand-up was crisp,
his takedowns were sharp, and I still am shocked every time he defends
a takedown. Fitch though, has to be one of the toughest guys to step
into the Octagon. He took so much punishment, but kept coming back.
I can’t finish
this article without expressing my thoughts on a GSP vs. Penn rematch.
As an MMA fan, I want to see this fight. Who wouldn’t
want to see two fighters from the top 5 pound-for-pound list face-off.
My issue with this fight is that BJ Penn doesn’t deserve a welterweight
title shot. He has not won a fight at welterweight since 2004. I find
this unfair to top contenders such as Diego Sanchez, Josh Koscheck, and
Thiago Alves. A three round fight for the fans? Sure. For the title?
No way. If Penn wants a title shot, he should be forced to face the winner
of the Sanchez vs. Alves fight. |
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