ufc/pride

Pettis body kicks looked painful, and I didn't expect Benson to lose by submission. Dude has been in too many crazy, near subs before. Either way, the lightweights are just too good.

Glad to see Barnett get a win. Not sure what to say about the stoppage though. Although he did recover right away, Mir was definitely out as he hit the ground. If it hadn't have stopped, Barnett could have kept hitting him. Mir may have powered through, may have not.

Chad Mendes knocked out Clay Guida. Chad's sprawls were insane too. Good stuff.

Yeah I'm glad Barnett got the win. Yes it was bitter sweet,yet dominating all the same. Which brings me to another point:

Would the finish have been as contraversial if Mir hadn't of protested it?

Originally posted by mr.smiley
Yeah poor Shogun. Now it's pretty much a coin toss if whether he will win or not. I think perhaps after beating Machida and battling injuries perhaps he feels their's less to prove?

As for Overeem I think Bas said it best when he mentioned he has a hard time coping with combination fighters. Overeem himself is somewhat like a a good,accurate,sniper rifle. He can get the job done in one good shot,but if provoked to engaged in a fire fight gets hit everytime.

Yeah, he's certainly not making a strong case for "K-1 level striking" right now. lol

Originally posted by mr.smiley
Yeah I'm glad Barnett got the win. Yes it was bitter sweet,yet dominating all the same. Which brings me to another point:

Would the finish have been as contriversial if Mir hadn't of protested it?

I'd love it if Frankie Edgar went back to LW now that Bendo's no longer champ. He's got that perfect combination of wrestling, toughness and pressure to shut down Pettis's game imo and would beat him.

I respectfully disagree.

Edgar likely wouldn't try to take Pettis down too often, Pettis is too good off of his back. He went for TDs against Bendo, Maynard and BJ, but none of them have ever really threatened anyone off their back (excluding Bendo's up-kick to Edgar's nose).

I mean, Bendo probably has a better top game than Edgar and he lasted like 30 seconds on the ground with Pettis.

Standing, Edgar gets caught too often. Pettis is also better at countering his opponents with quick combos with his hands whenever there's an opening, and of course there's also his kicks, knees, and general unpredictability.

It's a bad fight for Frankie imo. I think Anthony would outstrike him and likely get the finish.

I don't know if we're quite ready to start referring to Pettis as some kind of submission artist; sure he just scored a submission victory over a truly legit guy in Bendo but it's not exactly the norm. This isn't Frank Mir we're talking about.

Charles Oliveira by comparison has a far greater reputation for submitting guys off of his back and Frankie didn't really have too much of a problem taking him down at will. Frankie is probably the last guy that would be afraid of taking someone down in fear of being submittied, he has a very legit ground game himself, and has escaped extremely dangerous positions on the ground on multiple occasions.

I think Pettis was just a bad matchup for Hendo, I think he has his number and that it's almost entirely because he has the psychological edge over him. Bendo didn't really seem himself, he came across as being afraid to stand with Pettis and tried to grind it out as much as he could. Bendo is at his best when he mixes things up but he came across as being far too tentative against Pettis and basically wanted to outwrestle him and minimising the standing exchanges as much as possible.

I also think Bendo was probably still hurt from those body kicks when they went to the ground and physically just wasn't able to stop the submission in time, it seems to be what Pettis is crediting the submission with and if you look at Bendo in previous fights he's usually far more solid and mobile in that position.

Frankie has the better footwork and boxing going into the matchup and has a number of counter measures against Pettis's most dangerous weapons in his kicks - he's got the best takedowns at that division and will probably be able to take him down every time Pettis throws one, he's pretty much the best in the business at catching kicks, and if a few land, he's basically so tough that he would in all likelihood not even be phased by them - I mean Jose Aldo's leg kicks by all accounts are some of the most powerful strikes you can be on the receiving end of and Frankie took a number of them without ever slowing his pace and changing up his footwork for the entire 5 rounds. I see him flustering Pettis with his footwork, his pace, mixing up his striking and wrestling, and making him pay every time he throws a kick - and when it gets to the ground defending against any submission attempts. Anybody can get finished but I think Frankie might be the single most unfinishable fighter in the UFC, so I see it being a clear decision for him.

Pettis's UFC run has really not been particularly impressive aside from the fight with Bendo, I mean he lost to Clay Guida, got a split decision victory over Jeremy Stephens, Joe Lauzon was never truly a very good fighter and Donald Cerrone hasn't looked all that great in his last few fights either. Frankie has been far more impressive in that same time span and has the tools to make him a bad matchup for Pettis. The fights with BJ, Gray, Bendo and Aldo were largely so competitive because he was facing guys that could give him trouble standing but were also really good wrestlers themselves (defensively in BJ and Jose's cases) - in Pettis he faces a guy with pretty mediocre wrestling.

^Yeah, nothing is guaranteed with the lightweights.

And yeah, so....that Gusstafson vs Jones match. I'll be the first to say it: I had no faith in Alex before this fight, but that was just too damn good. It is interesting that Jones looked different when he didn't have the massive reach advantage he normally has.

And seriously, Alex stuff all but one of Jones's takedowns, and even took Jones down. Crazy. I think a rematch is in order. Alex's boxing, when combined with his other attributes, could be the answer to Jones.

Not to take away from Jones of course. He gave as good as he got in this fight. They are both warriors.

Jones expressed interest in fighting at HW before the Gusstafson fight. Didn't know that.

I think it's hilarious how Jones can lose a fight and still be considered the #1 p4p fighter in the world. GSP be like...

Yeah, it is pretty crazy. I think many people find GSP's style boring, so they throw Jones ahead of him.

If Hendricks knocks GSP out, I bet we'll hear about "overrated" GSP is.

I had Jones winning a close fight. Wouldn't have been pissed if Gus got the nod tho.

Cain FTW again. He's better than JDS. Always has been IMO

Yeah, I've always thought the first fight was a bit of a fluke. Due to JDS's power, he would probably KO Cain a few times if they fought 10 fights. Cain should consistently win though.

Last night was a pretty good example of that. The question is...what now? JDS could beat any other HW, but loses to Cain.

I'm not interested in seeing Cain and JDS IV. Josh Barnett is around now though. Maybe Overeem will get his act together?

Totally forgot to mention Melendez vs Sanchez. Crazy good fight.

So....Machida is dropping down to MW to fight Mark Munoz.

What are everyone's thoughts on that?

Machida is on another level than Munoz. The only MW that I think would give him problems is Anderson Silva, and they aren't going to fight.

I think Machida is very dangerous at MW too, assuming the weight cut goes well.

I know Silva/Weidman II is coming up, but I'd be interested in a Machida/Weidman match. I think Machida could counter the wrestling pretty well, and outstrike Weidman. I'd like to see it for curiosity's sake still.

I hope the MW move isn't permanent though. I know the decision against Davis was a setback, but I still want Machida/Jones II.

I expected Machida to win, but thought the fight might go to the second round. Machida KO'd Munoz a few minutes into the 1st. Nice restraint from Machida when he saw Munoz was out too.

Fight basically went as I expected and it's nice to see Machida get another nice finish to add to his HL reel but hopefully he'll go back to fighting elite competition once again. I think in some ways the Phil Davis fight may have been a blessing in disguise; I mean Machida's basically gone through every interesting matchup at LHW by this point (aside from Gus) and now that he's at MW a tonne of exciting matchups have opened up to him. I see Weidman, Anderson, Vitor, Jacare and Mousasi all as great potential challenges to Machida but I would honestly favor him above all of them at this point.

Hendricks got robbed tonight.

Originally posted by Darth Martin
Hendricks got robbed tonight.

Well... I tought he won too, but:

I think everyone agree to gives Hendricks rounfs 2 and 4, and GSP rounds 3 and 5.

It's the matter of who won round 1, and it was pretty darn close.
Personnally, I'd gave it to Big Riggs, but he had to dominate GSP, and he didn't.