1. Wow! We all just witnessed something extraordinary. The so-called best fighter on the planet was thoroughly dismantled with relative ease tonight. Then he pulled out a miracle and even though I struggle to think that Sonnen actually did tap out, Silva had his hand raised in victory and left the arena broken, embarrassed, exploited and completely found out for what he truly is as a fighter, although he does have twelve pounds of gold still with him. I won't pretend that I've ever liked Anderson Silva, although until the Cote fight I was indifferent towards him. Tonight though, the skeptics, which were few (me and a handful of others, mostly Canadians), were actually 100% unequivocally right about this guy. He can't wrestle effectively. Most of Sonnen's take downs weren't really all that spectacular and a good to moderate wrestler would have stuffed them. He isn't good on his back, let alone very good or great, or even in any way worthy of having a bjj black belt. He pulled out a submission on a tired wrestler late in a fight but was unable to advance to any decent positions for 23 minutes against a virtual white belt. He looked lazy on his back, as usual. He took a lot of damage from his back. He was unable to get up off of his back. He was reversed, the couple times he managed to have top position, with no difficulty at all. Then you have to look at his striking. I actually did think, before this fight, that he was the best technical striker in all of MMA. I was wrong. He isn't. That did just happen. He actually did get owned by Chael Sonnen in the striking department. He was dropped by a guy with no knock out power in two separate rounds. He has fluid offense but virtually zero defense as a striker. If that was Vitor Belfort in there tonight, Anderson Silva would not have survived the first round. The only thing Anderson Silva did do tonight was win, and I'm not convinced that it was even legitimate.
2. Chael Sonnen deserves to be a champion. He wasn't scared or intimidated and didn't lose before the fight began like the last several opponents Anderson Silva fought, or rather was supposed to fight but kind of didn't. I don't think Chael tapped out. I'm not sure he's been beating the drums about it though and the replay did show his hand touch Silva's leg, once. Is one tap a tap out? No. It takes repeated taps to tap out. More than one tap needs to be made to signify a submission. Either way, if he did tap, he shouldn't have. Blood chokes aren't even dangerous and the energy used to signify that you're a quitter would be better served trying to get out of the hold. There is no danger in going under to a blood choke. It doesn't make sense to tap out at that point in a fight. There is nothing to gain from it. It's not safer. It's no different for your health than going under and being woken up straight away. I actually think he was moments away from getting out of the choke. I could be wrong. For the sake of the sport's integrity I hope to be but one touch of a leg with no verbal submission is not a tap out. That I know for sure.
3. Not to harp solely on the main event tonight but this does change the pound for pound argument completely. It can no longer be argued that Anderson Silva is a better fighter in this realm than Georges St. Pierre. If you are still arguing that, you are clearly delusional at that this point. Georges has never been decimated like that, even in defeat, and not only that but judging by how Sonnen did, with half hearted take downs and mostly not even getting take downs to attain the top position, it can easily be said the best wrestler in mixed martial arts (St. Pierre) would have absolutely no difficulty doing that and even more to Silva for five rounds. Not only would Georges beat Anderson but at this point, it would be no contest. Anderson would actually be lucky to not get submitted himself, let alone have any hope of pulling off another lucky hail Mary attempt. In fact, we now know why Anderson is not fighting at 205 any more as well. Rua would have no difficulty out classing him in any way he chose to. Silva won the fight tonight but he is below Rua, St. Pierre, and Aldo in the pound for pound rankings now and if Edgar beats Penn again he'll also pull ahead of the Spider.
4. Jon Fitch is awesome. He is the best fighter in all of mixed martial arts to not be a champion, including Sonnen. The crap Joe Rogan was saying about Alves not looking right made me want to slap that idiot. Alves did not gas out at all. He looked to be in great condition and the weight didn't effect anything. Any reasonable person watching the fights would see that. Alves was explosive and powerful. Fitch just happens to be a much better grappler than Thiago and actually had the edge striking tonight as well. This fight was really no contest. Good for Fitch. He deserves this.
5. Junior Dos Santos looked kind of so-so. I like his hands and his overall athleticism and the mentality he brings to the cage. It's not enough though. Cain Velasquez or Brock Lesnar will beat him with little to no difficulty. He deserves the opportunity but I don't see him making good on it. He'll be lucky to get out of a single round with either of those two guys. Roy Nelson showed some heart tonight. He won some fans over, including myself. He's not an elite fighter though. He is a relevant fighter and he's a good guy to push on main cards and main events of fight nights and I look forward to seeing more of him now. I couldn't say that before the TUF finale so he has come a long way.
6. Hughes didn't look good. He still looks like a shell of himself actually. He won though and he did it convincingly. It's weird to say those two things in the same paragraph but it's true. I don't know how that little crappy left hook hurt Almeida but it did. The choke was academic once it was on because of the fact that Ricardo was so hurt from the little left hook. It was strange to watch. That shouldn't do anything to a guy like Almeida. I've never been so confused. I did think Almeida was going to win easily and the fact that he was so devastatingly stopped is a shocker for me. I don't know what the future holds in store for that guy. I know that even though Hughes has technically won three straight, although I still dispute the Serra decision, that his career is still essentially over. He's not the same or even close to the same guy anymore.
7. I don't really care about the rest of the card. The Struve fight was entertaining. I wish Phil Davis would have made the pay per view or his fight could have been on the Spike prelims that they didn't do. That would have been awesome. As usual, Clay Guida did his best to ruin a good night of fights. Thanks for that, Clay. If there is a more boring and dismal fighter to watch I'd like to hear about him. I have no patience for that guy. He looks like such a dud anyways. I hate his stupid hair and his fake mean guy look where he's trying to be scary but he is really coming across as laughably pathetic. He's an embarrassment. I don't see the appeal, at all. Why are people fans of this guy?
Overall, I haven't been this entertained by a fight card in quite some time. This was a wondrous night for the sport. I was riveted for nearly three hours, save for the second and third rounds in Guida's fight. The sport can only gain from night's like this. I'm David Vaessen and this is my point of view.
'Til next time
No comments:
Post a Comment