Now that UFC 79 is over, I think we all are feeling a bit of emotional drain after all the hype and buildup leading up to the main event fights. Overall, UFC 79 was an excellent fight card with the exception of the Sanchez - Palelei fight, which had no business ever being on a televised PPV card. Needless to say, UFC 79 was the worst event for me for predictions as I only picked four of the nine fights correctly.
- Georges St Pierre vs Matt Hughes went down pretty much exactly how I anticipated. GSP showed his dominating style and Matt Hughes showed his aging fight game. After dominating Josh Koshcheck so easily on the ground, I figured GSP would employ much the same gameplan against Hughes. Hughes, who is supposed to be the super strong farm boy type, was being musceled around by GSP as if he were a rag doll. Finishing Hughes via armbar was a fitting way to close out the rubber match since Hughes defeated GSP via armbar to start the trilogy.
- Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva lived up to the hype in one sense, and didn’t match the hype in another sense. The fight was an excellent match of two top level fighters and kept me on the edge of my seat the whole three rounds knowing that at any moment either fighter could have clipped the other and ended the fight early. Unfortunately, neither guy was able to walk-the-walk and KO the other, and I had Liddell winning the first and third rounds to take the fight 29-28. As I said in my preview, Wanderlei was the one who could afford to lose this fight, and Chuck stepped up his game and won the fight he needed to win.
- Lyoto Machida proved once again that superior technical skills and game planning are more important than brute strength and hype. Sokoudjou looked like a deer in headlights and extrememly uncomfortable on his back, which I find unusual since he trains with Dan Henderson and his crew. I really think the use of elbows to the head on the ground really affect the guys from PrideFC making their UFC debuts. You never take a full elbow strike in training, and that first time you get nailed in a match, I think it can completely change the whole fight.
- Eddie Sanchez vs Soa Palelei reminded me of the old Gabriel Gonzaga vs Kevin Jordan fight from two years ago. Extremely boring from start to finish, this fight had no business even taking place, much less appearing on the televised portion of a PPV event. I believe that by accepting the fight with Mirko Cro Cop, Sanchez was guaranteed a four fight contract with each fight occurring on a PPV show.
- Matt Hughes really needs to step away from the UFC and retire. When some of the first words out of your mouth after a defeat are about your new book and a possible second book, your head just isn’t in the game anymore. I think that we’ll see GSP roll through Serra and then Serra and Hughes fight sometime in late 2008, and then Hughes will officially hang up the gloves. If for some reason a fight with Serra can’t come to be, I don’t think we’ll see Hughes fight in the octagon again.
The UFC wrapped up a great 2007 with an excellent show and we all can only look forward to an even better 2008.
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Doc you always do that and its annoying!!!
Everytime you predict a fight right you start off by saying: “Went down pretty much exactly how I anticipated”.
EVERYTIME! Its nice that you picked the gsp one right because its pretty much the only one that you did…
dont take this the wrong way
after all your the god of mma
why your….dr ******* J
when you pick a fight right
we’re all damn sure what your gonna say
so just shut up and give the replay
dont try and sound like you know night from day
when it comes to the sport of mma
***plenty more where that came from boys
I hope a new MMA org will come out strong in ‘08 to compete against the UFC…to discover new fighters and make it more exciting
I gotta hand it to GSP man, he controlled the whole fight, he set the pace and he beat Hughes at his own game. Wow, when Hughes got that double leg, then switched to the single and he was still too tired to take GSP down, thats when i knew it was over. You could see Hughes was giving it 100% man, but its like he reached deep down and it just wasnt there. Hes not that same guy who picked up Carlos Newton straight into the air while inside the triangle. Matt Hughes truly is a legend, he trained his best, he fought his best, and he just hasnt got it anymore. Every era comes to an end, and all empires eventually fall, he will join guys like Sakuraba in my book. If he DOES fight again, im cheering for Hughes to win baby! no matter who its against.. and if it IS Serra.. oh man, i hope he doesnt lose to Serra.. Im still a big Hughes fan and always be on the Hughes bandwagon.
As for GSP, im incredibly impressed, after he gets his title back from Serra, i forsee a long reign as champ this time. He knows what happens when you get blinded by the lights of stardom and i dont think he will have another “Serra Incident” anytime soon. His wrestling impressed me most.. seriously, maybe he SHOULD consider wrestling man.. id love to see him try out for the canadian olympic wrestling team hehe.
@Doc
All my boys took a beating man.. Hughes, Wandy, Soku, Melvin.. i ended up getting 3 out of 9 LOL.. so atleast you beat me on this card hehe worst card on the playground for me so far..
[quote comment="12771"]Doc you always do that and its annoying!!!
Everytime you predict a fight right you start off by saying: “Went down pretty much exactly how I anticipated”.
EVERYTIME! Its nice that you picked the gsp one right because its pretty much the only one that you did…
dont take this the wrong way
after all your the god of mma
why your….dr ******* J
when you pick a fight right
we’re all damn sure what your gonna say
so just shut up and give the replay
dont try and sound like you know night from day
when it comes to the sport of mma
***plenty more where that came from boys[/quote]
ouch… someone didn’t drink their V8 today.
so maybe I overuse the phrase “went how I expected”, but what can I say. The GSP - Hughes fight went exactly how I expected it. What more can I say. Same thing with the Thiago Silva - Houston Alexander fight. They did happen exactly as I thought they would thats all I’m trying to get across. Just because I started the recap that way, doesn’t mean I still didn’t give a little analysis…
Next time I’ll step up to the plate and bring a better recap. Thanks for keeping me in check and on top of my game
Wow, I picked almost every “upset” correctly, but the undercard fights killed me. Hey Doc, can you get any info on Nate Mohr’s injury? it looked like he Gamburyan snapped his femur or something.
Regardless,
Many of you that know me here for a while, know that Dennis and I always used to have “conflicting view points” on Chuck Liddell. I had always said that Chuck’s opponents were hand-picked for him to beat. However, I can now say that with every recent fight of Chuck’s, especially last night’s…win or lose…I have gained even more respect for him and his craft. I appreciate more and more what he does and certainly hope that he still has a few left in him.
[quote comment="12781"]Wow, I picked almost every “upset” correctly, but the undercard fights killed me. Hey Doc, can you get any info on Nate Mohr’s injury? it looked like he Gamburyan snapped his femur or something.
Regardless,
Many of you that know me here for a while, know that Dennis and I always used to have “conflicting view points” on Chuck Liddell. I had always said that Chuck’s opponents were hand-picked for him to beat. However, I can now say that with every recent fight of Chuck’s, especially last night’s…win or lose…I have gained even more respect for him and his craft. I appreciate more and more what he does and certainly hope that he still has a few left in him.[/quote]
Handpicked…????? WTF? Are you serious……Dude first of all chuck fought all he had to fight to get where he is today, given that they were grapplers and wrestlers, that doesnt matter. He dismantled them…soundly. To say that chuck hand picked his opponents is disrespectful to chuck and to the opponents he fought. Then you said you JUST gained respect for chuck because he beat the breaks off wandy the majority of the fight is even more insane on your part. Man, people dont give chuck credit for anything saying this and saying that about him. He helped put ufc on the map and he has one of the best styles to watch. Chuck should have BEEN had your respect for the plain and simple fact he steps into the octagon and lays it out and gets knockouts to make people like you happy.
Wow, over react much Zak? Let me think what’s a phrase in the english language I could use to describe something that happen very close to the way that I had previously described it? Hmmm…Oh! How about “went down pretty much exactly how I anticipated.”? Though a writer needs to be careful not to be caught in the trap of using catch phrases, which can happen easily. We all have different ways of talking depending where, when, and how we learned how to speak. When talking among friends and family you will tend to u se certain phrases over and over again. When communicating to a mass audience it’s always good for the writer to avoid those as much as possible. Also zak, you don’t have act like a d*ck to give constructive criticism.
Now for my thoughts on the card. It went down pretty much how…..Just kidding! It was a great card, and it will impact the 2007 fighter award nominations somewhat. For instance Sokokjou got destroyed by Machida. Who else is climbing on board the Machida train besides me? As far as Silva/Liddell…well silva fought Chuck’s game. When people fight Chuck’s game, what happens? They lose, and they usually get KTFO.
@ TODD,
First off dude, do you know how to read? secondly, do you know how to intepret what you read when your reading it?
“I HAVE GAINED EVEN MORE RESPECT FOR CHUCK!!!”
Let me break that down for you…That means I always had some.
Finally,
Many people in the MMA world and on this website in particular, would argue the same thing about Chuck..I for one, have no interest in returning to old topics…it was a great fight by both fighters…and read what people write before you try to call them out.
ok first are you HIGH or do you just write with no meaning? lmao… How can you say you have respect for someone but…..they handpick opponents….lol lol, makes no sense….Oh…. but since he beat up on wandy a little now you respect him? Who is you fav fighter amir?
@amir,bvrasp,or mmakansas,or doc j..
Do any of you guys think wandy got the octagon “jitters” because in watching it again wandy wasnt throwing like he normally does..i mean, he was launching the rockets but he seemed a little hesitant at times. Does any of you think that he got the jitters?
todd
na i doubt it
@ pat do you think wandy with his style and how rampage still covers up with the high elbow thing he does, do you think wandy could still beat wandy?
todd
yea i believe that wandy could beet rampage if he fights him again… id put my cash on wand
doc u gotta give zak a bag for that comment lol
@Pat,
Nah, I think Zak was trying to make a point. He just did it a little over the top. its cool
lol ok i over reacted I was just testing out my poetic side.
Hey Doc how come u stopped posting how we did in mma playground?
I’m going to post the playground stuff.
I’ve been getting stuff ready for some updates for 2008.
I think season 2 at the playground ended with UFC 79 so I’ll post the overall results from Season 2 and give some info on Season 3.
Check out the inside the cage with Paul Buentello, It was a cool video over the last nights fights… Paul made some cool points, don’t mind the white guy…I liked it
411maina.com
I just re-watched the “FIGHT OF THE AGES” and I now believe that the first round was a draw… watch it everyone and tell me it wasn’t… fine if you think not but the scoring was WAAAAAY off.. I also noticed that Joe Rogan went on and on and on and on and on about Chuck this and that from go time, and this whole fight was about Chuck in the eyes of the commentators… seems like this fight was “pro liddell” from the get go, Wand was the “outsider” coming in… I think round one was a draw, round two definately went to Wandy, round three, Chuck all the way…. split decision would have been fair, I would have agreed with 28-29 because it could go to either, but the scoring didn’t go that way across the board and I have less respect and trust for the UFC judges, and I do believe the UFC leaned everything they could towards their boy… it was held in Chucks town, it was Chuck that had the final entrance to the octagon, and again the commentary was 90% Chuck 10% Wand… one last thing I noticed when breaking this down, was that Wanderlei was NOT rocked in round one when he backed into the cage, he did so because he needed “ring corners” to draw Chuck into him so he could land, it was completely game plan, I knew that at the time but going back I can see it better now. I can’t take a thing from Chuck, he wont the fight, he looked great, but had this happened in a ring, in japan, with wandy having the final entrance, and the commentators all for him and so on and so forth and japanese judges rather than ALL American judges, what then?????? hmmmmmm ……oh well I know some of you will rip on me for this post, but I think it’s valid and if you will be honest with yourselves and go back and watch the fight you might actually see what I am saying…
yea i re-watched it too about five times, and after reading your post i made my co-workers watch it too(they do not watch ufc) and they all voted for chuck and gave wandy the second like you said. But idk kansas i think wandy was rocked in that first round maan. If he was using “corners” or watever you call it, then he should have did that the whole fight then bro not just when chuck clearly connected with a punch. And if you think about it he didnt have to draw chuck in,because chuck was comming at him the WHOLE fight and when chuck didnt come wandy was pressuring so i dont think the “corners” think was the case at all. If you watch his other fights that he got rocked in he did the same thing, he retreated to the ropes to regain his composure, which is smart on his part…real smart. He keeps his balance and has a chance to keep up. But he was rocked clearly the WHOLE fight. I think he underestemated chucks power.
@Todd
I think he was baiting Liddell, there were several times he was rocked, but not at the opening bell…. ali hit the ropes a LOT in his fights, it wasn’t until he was RETIRED about 5 years after that he revealed his “rope a dope” strategy…. Wandy only trained boxing, some kicks for this fight, unwise I think, but anyways, I think he was trying to implement a plan that just didn’t fit his style, he needs to go back to knees and elbows, and just beating the crap out of people from start to finish..
KANSAS
whats up so what happened to wandy?
lol nice dude, your only four days late in kicking a man while hes down.
what can i say my computer was broke,plus i wanted it to settle in for a bit
richard
simple ……he lost lol
Nothing.. he lost a DECISION… period.. Chuck didn’t get his MOJO back.. he played by the RULES and clearly accepted a DECISION by round 3 after getting knocked on his *** in round 2… guess he figured it would be better to win then try for a KO again and get knocked down AGAIN…
still no respect for chuck plain and simple wandy got beat like i said he would and he also didnt regain his mojo buddy
one last thing… RICHARD… how can you say “no respect” for Chuck.. I have posted more than 10 times since the fight.. did you read ALL of them or not????
I gave Chuck kudos, I think you are like Gatties, you don’t read what people post you just throw mud and start kicking people when their people lose, Wanderlei was more exciting in his DECISION loss than Arlovski, Sylvia, or Fedor was in their most recent WINS… so i guess all I can say is good job Chuck, good job Wand, he still rocks the house, read some other sites’ threads about the fight, both looked good, both of their stocks went up on this fight, their is already talk of a rematch, and again my question to you Richard is who is your favorite fighter????
i didnt read all of them i just had to talk some smack,but on the real side wandys an animal i was on my feet the whole fight probably the most exciting fight all year
@Richard
Wand looked great even in his loss Richard, cannot say the same for Chuck when he came back in with Jardine, heck even with Wand he hit the canvas 2-3 times, how many times did Chuck knock Wandy down????
I have a SERIOUS question for you Richard, who is your favorite fighter????
Check it out…
Wandi landing a nasty punch to Chuck’s grill
kansas check it out… “he lost”.. who cares.. richard ..kansas lets move on shall we
PATRICK SHUT UP, WE WILL MOVE ON WHEN WE WANT TO… YOU WEREN’T INVITED TO THIS POST SO GO POST SOME OF YOUR BABBLE SOMEWHERE ELSE PAL.. DON’T NEED YOU CHAPERONING THIS WEBSITE… TELLING PEOPLE THIS AND THAT… YOUR A DAY LATE ANYWAYS…
damm kansas take a mydol or somethin
yeah wand did knock chuck down but wandy was stunned way more times than chuck.my favorite fighter probably sergei kharitonov,aleksander emelianako,paul buentello
UFC just posted the ONLY Wand post fight vid…. he didn’t show up to the press conference.. I heard him speaking portugese after the fight in his locker room with his trainers and with his friends Machida and Anderson Silva, they were encouraging him, Anderson Silva told him it was only 3 rounds, if it had been 5 the result would have been different… Wandy was pretty down on himself, his only comments I could understand in Portuguese were..”ALL THAT TRAINING… AND NOTHING…. FOR NOTHING”… I watched the Liddell post fight interview at the “press conference” he was HONEST and CLASSY… I am also a big Liddell fan now… he showed he has always been a great champion and he has the attitude of an honest man as well… when asked why he couldn’t finish Wand there were no excuses, he just said it.. Wands a tough man, he kept coming back…
kansas
now this is a great comment buddy,wandy didnt look bad at all in the fight everyone was saying who ever loses this match needs to retire but now after seeing the fight i dont think so
@Doc
Any rumors on Cro Cops return or next fight… I read somewhere in “january” but thats a bust…
nah,
Nothing at all on Cro Cop. I’ve been looking too. He definitely doesn’t have anything booked or even on the table at this point.