OT: Diago Sanchez is an animal!

[keith335]

All I've tried to get you all to look at here is that Luke and Diaz both showed more skill than their opponents. Not which person was more aggressive of threw the most punches but which person impressed me the most. I thought Luke was awesome considering Joe beat other guys during UF2 kinda of easily. Luke went toe to toe, rocked him hard and even was on top ground and pounding of his own. One more round and Luke wins that fight for sure. The Diaz fight came very close to being stoped due to Diago's cut. After the fight it didn't look bad at all, but during he bleed a lot. He got caught with a tough punch and that flush kick. He seemes to haphazard just throwing punches. I thought Diaz was far beter on the ground. I'm worried about Rich Franklin. I want to see his winning streak continue.

[ncook]

Too bad records only show W's and L's.

[Osmosis]

Originally posted by keith335 All I've tried to get you all to look at here is that Luke and Diaz both showed more skill than their opponents.

Well I wouldn't exactly say that...

Luke was very crisp in the standup, but Joe was very slick on the ground. I give props to luke for weathering the storm and squirming his way out of danger, but the fact is joe completely controlled that fight. He was out of gas by the end and probably would have gotten KO'ed if the fight had gone on longer, but that's not how things went down...

Diaz and Diego both impressed me...they both showed a lot of grappling skill, all kinds of reversals and position changes on both sides. Diaz did a great job stopping the GnP of Diego by being offensive from the bottom, but Diego did a great job keeping from being subbed and nearly sunk an armbar of his own.

I think diaz's downfall was that he was simply out-wrestled and out-muscled by diego. He had a clear advantage standing, and when they were standing up in the third round diego looked terrified. However, diaz doesn't have the wrestling ability to stop diego's takedown, and when diego took him down he held him there.

Diego is, in my eyes is a strong but not incredible wrestler, with moderate submission skills and weak standup. He isn't well rounded enough to contend for the title yet, although he still has time to improve. There are two types of fighters who will have his number every time until he rounds out his game--someone who is stronger than him and a better wrestler than him will nullify his only strengths...Matt Hughes is that man and would own diego. The other type is the Liddell-style fighter, someone who has good standup and is hard as hell to take down and keep down. St. Pierre is that fighter at that weight class and would own diego. If BJ Penn ever got back into the UFC he would own them all

Originally posted by keith335 The Diaz fight came very close to being stoped due to Diago's cut. After the fight it didn't look bad at all, but during he bleed a lot.

It didn't look that bad after the fight because there was half a tub of vasoline smeared on it!

[tjs]

1. Florian definitely has ground skills, but he's simply too small to fight even at welterweight. If they ever bring back the lightweight division he could be successful, but the UFC is just too deep at welterweight for him to be competitive, except against one dimensional fighters like Cope.

 

2. The Stevenson-Cummo fight could have gone either way. I had Joe winning the first, Luke winning the second, and the third as a toss-up. Stevenson was gassed, and had Luke forced the action more in the third he could have won it. Both of them have a future in the UFC, although they both have a long way to go before they can hang with the top dogs in the welterweight division. Joe needs a lot of work on his cardio, and he's a bit on the smallish side (like Florian, he would be much better off fighting at lightweight). Luke needs to improve his ground game and takedown defense.

 

3. Evans-Imes also could have gone either way (keeping in mind that we are using UFC scoring criteria, not Pride's). Evans won the first, Imes the second. Who you give the third to depends on whether you think one flash knockdown outweighs dominance of the rest of the round. As for their futures, Rashad could win some decisions in the light heavyweight division right now, but he needs to work on his knockout power, and the elite fighters in that division would kill him. Imes probably has the most potential of anybody from this year's show, particularly since the heavyweight division, apart from Andre Arlovski, is extremely weak. I'd personally like to see Brad train with Team Quest (imagine a 6'7", 260lb guy with even a minute fraction of Couture's Greco skills!) Brad needs work in every aspect of his game, but he's already demonstrated his ability to learn, and with the exception of Arlovski I think he could potentially beat anybody in the heavyweight division within a couple of years.

 

4. Diego clearly beat Diaz. No, he didn't pound Nick into the ground, and anyone who knows a thing about the ground game knows that Diaz did an excellent job of playing defensive jiu-jitsu. However, with the exception of a couple of half-assed knee- and armbar attempts, that's all he did. The cut he opened up on Sanchez, while ugly, wasn't in a position to interfere with his vision, and therefore wasn't enough to stop the fight. Diego controlled the entire fight, and there is simply no way anybody can argue that Diaz won it. Both of them are very young (Diego is 23, Diaz 22), and so they both have a chance to succeed in the welterweight division after the top dogs have moved on. However, at the moment, Matt Hughes would destroy either of them. Which brings me to my next point...

 

5. Yes, Hughes is a beast. In my opinion, he would easily beat anybody on that show (including the heavyweights - yes I realize that's a bold statement, but he's actually strong enough to take them down and control them on the ground, and none of those guys showed enough takedown defense to make me believe that they could keep him from doing so). The one guy who might have a chance against Hughes is, of course, Rich Franklin. Unfortunately they are good friends, so we'll never get to see that fight, though it would have been interesting to say the least.

 

6. Hughes will easily defeat Riggs in his title defense. While many people think George St. Pierre would have a chance, I don't see anybody in the welterweight division beating Matt at the moment, barring the omnipresent puncher's chance. To beat Hughes, you need somebody with either great takedown defense AND knockout power (of which there aren't many people in the WW division), or you need somebody with an excellent ground game AND who is strong enough to keep Hughes from powering his way through submissions (again, not many people with both traits in that division). If Diego Sanchez were much stronger and much better at standup, he could possibly give Matt a hard time, but as it is I think Hughes could just flat out overpower Diego on the ground and clobber him on his feet.

 

7. Franklin-Quarry could be an interesting fight. I'm still picking Rich to win it, but Nate is no pushover, and could very easily walk away with the upset. I'm looking forward to this one.

[presa_tito]

Trust me, St. Pierre can take out Hughes as much as Hughes would be likely to win. I'm going to place a nice bet on Pierre for the rematch, hopeing he gets by Sherk and earns a title shot. I'm confident he will and I realize Sherk's skill as well.

Pierre is virtually better at every aspect of the game than Matt is except for pure wrestling. He made a rookie mistake and got caught in the armbar. He was winning up until the bell. I think it was the fact that he knew the round was about over and didn't concentrate and got caught, it happens. Pierre owned Trigg so bad in that last fight it wasn't funny and overpowered and outtechniqued him faster than Hughes ever has. I have a lot of respect for Hughes' abilities, but Georges is evolving so damn fast. The rematch will be so sweet. That's my most anticipated fight for a while.

[lastcall]

I hate Diego... Absolutely can't stand that little punk ass bitch. I would love to see him go up against Hughes just to see him get pounded. If the UFC doesn't put him up agains someone who can kick his ass in the his next fight, I might have to come out of retirement and pound him.

[cincy]

I wish Diego and Diaz was 5 rounds. It was a very good fight.

[tjs]

Originally posted by lastcall I hate Diego... Absolutely can't stand that little punk ass bitch. I would love to see him go up against Hughes just to see him get pounded. If the UFC doesn't put him up agains someone who can kick his ass in the his next fight, I might have to come out of retirement and pound him.

 

BJ Penn, is that you?

 

Seriously, though, I would love to see Diego get the {censored} pounded out of him, if for no other reason than to make him stop referring to himself in the third person.

[presa_tito]

Originally posted by tjs BJ Penn, is that you? Seriously, though, I would love to see Diego get the {censored} pounded out of him, if for no other reason than to make him stop referring to himself in the third person.

HEY! This is Diego here. Diego Sanchez, the Nightmare, is here to stay!

[tjs]

 

Originally posted by presa_tito Pierre owned Trigg so bad in that last fight it wasn't funny and overpowered and outtechniqued him faster than Hughes ever has.

 

 

In all fairness to Hughes, in his last fight with Trigg he took a shot to the sac, avoided getting KOed in the flurry that immediately followed, excaped an almost sunk RNC, and won shortly thereafter. St. Pierre has the skills to beat Hughes, but he'll have to really put him away or he'll once again find himself on the wrong end of yet another comeback win for the reigning champ.

 

It'll be a good fight, though, assuming he can get by Sherk.

[thewaterchapter]

Originally posted by keith335 It must just be me, but I thought the other guy should have won that decision. Also, I thought for sure that Luke Cuomo beat Joe easily. I was suprised that the heavyweight fight was a split decision. Brad was rocked hard several times. I'm starting to wonder if this stuff is as funny as boxing when it comes to the decisions. Then again, how many of those fights are actually going to be won or lost by decision?

 

 

 

sorry, this is in by no means disrespect. but by the words in your post, it doesnt seem like you know what youre talking about when it comes to MMA. which is fine... new fans are great!

 

in my opinion the night was amazing, and the decisions went to who deserved them. MMA is really tricky for the new fan. aka, the guy on his back typically has the advantage over the guy in his gaurd (guy on top). Joe beat Luke unanimous and deservedly so.

 

anyway, being a long time brazilian jiu jitsu guy... im really glad the sport is getting some exposure finally.

[thewaterchapter]

Originally posted by lastcall I hate Diego... Absolutely can't stand that little punk ass bitch. I would love to see him go up against Hughes just to see him get pounded. If the UFC doesn't put him up agains someone who can kick his ass in the his next fight, I might have to come out of retirement and pound him.

 

 

 

stay in retirement... hed own you. i hate the guy as much as you. but you have to give him respect for beating diaz. i never saw that one coming. i want to see a joe vs diego fight! i think joe would win in the 3rd... but it would definitely be a good fight!

[tjs]

 

Originally posted by thewaterchapter the guy on his back typically has the advantage over the guy in his gaurd (guy on top).

 

 

I disagree. This may have been true in the early days of MMA, when most fighters didn't know how to handle being in an opponent's guard, but that is no longer the case. While there are still some fighters who excel in fighting from their backs, most of the time the fighter in the guard (assuming he has decent sub defense) has the advantage due to his superior position for striking.