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The Carnival of UFN Reaction
By Zach Arnold | January 16, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Update on 1/17 at 9:00 PM EST
This is going to turn into one huge, massive post of links. I will update this throughout the next day or two, as there should be a lot of opinions about Monday night’s UFC Ultimate Fight Night live event.
- MMA Opinion – Booking For Money
- El Campane Twist – What a crappy fight (UFN main event)
- Caddock’s Martial Arts Reviews – I love Spike TV
- Stix and the City – What the hell?
- Flying Python – Big Announcement
- Version City – The Sporting Life
- Guns and Butter Blog – Old Legend Comes Back to Fight
- Sherdog (Jake Rossen) – Return of the Warrior
Onto round two of links:
- Infinity Squared – Is That Royce f***** Gracie?
- Conserve the Truth – Ultimate Fighting
- Ian Garrett – Watching UFC for the first time
- Wrestling Press Box – UFC brings back Royce Gracie
- No Holds Barred – Royce Gracie, Back in His House
- Double Viking – Royce Gracie returns in May
- Here Now – Say Yer Prayers, Mr. Gracie
- The Spyderz Web – The Ultimate Fight Night…
- The Surreal Law School Life – Worst UFC Ever…
- Feral – “This is my house. I built it.”
If you want to post your own blog/journal/web site link with UFN thoughts, post it in the comments section and I will add it.
Topics: All Topics, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 5 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I find it ironic that on the same show which Dana White pulls fighters aside and emphasizes the importance of the guys “leaving everything in the octagon” and “putting on a great show” or in other words – Standing and Banging, he chooses ROYCE GRACIE to back up his promise of “the biggest announcement in UFC history”. While acquiring the services of godfather of the UFC is definitely big news, it certainly doesn’t back up the hype.
On another note, props to Matt Hughes for standing across from Royce and saying how he really feels about Royce and his chances in their May match. Whether Matt is just a dick and has little respect for Royce, or he does, but understands that he needs to create an additional atmosphere of tension to get this fight over, it’s great that he verbalized his thoughts. On first thought, I cared very little about the potential for Hughes dominating the past-his-prime Gracie. However, after the segment I was left wanting to see Royce enter the Octagon in top shape and at least put on a good showing and give Hughes a scare, if not win outright. Majority of people love the underdog, and Hughes is a great heel when he chooses to be.
While the main event seemed anti-climatic, it was decent. This one doesn’t hurt nor enhance my view of the heavyweight division. It only downgrades my opinion of Tim Sylvia. Leading into the fight, the “Maniac” couldn’t pass up an opportunity in interviews to tell anyone who would listen that his ground game was underrated, and fans would be surprised at how good he was on the ground. Yet when Assuerio pulled guard and gave big Time a chance to step back and drive Silva to the mat, he stalled and waited for a break. We also hear of how Tim is in the greatest shape of his fighting career and how fitness guru Billy Rush made him a better fighter, yet Tim gassed three minutes in and throughout the fight was unable to muster the energy to finish Assuerio when Silva was shaken. Assuerio is tough, but this match-up was tailer made for Tim with his reach advantage but it never seemed like Tim was close to finishing the fight.
Finally, on the heels of the announcement that the UFC will be making the long-awaited debut in California this April, referee “Big” John McCarthy chooses to have a bad night. If I’m sitting to the athletic commission in California, I’m a bit miffed by a couple of the events in the final bout of the evening. John McCarthy sat before the commission in California and thoroughly explained the rules of the Octagon and touted that the SAFETY of the fighters is the ultimate concern. Yet in the main event, Tim Sylvia finished the second round by stomping a downed Assuerio Silva (a violation of UFC rules) and holding onto the cage to prevent a takedown in the third round, also a violation of UFC rules. Neither occurrence resulted in a point deduction, and the stomping incident was completely ignored by the announce team.
In professional sports when rules are violated and go un-penalized by the officials, the organization governing the sport usually step out and issue a statement acknowledging the situation. Just this past weekend in the NFL playoffs, the NFL had to apologize to the Pittsburgh Steelers for their referees blatantly missing an interception call that could have changed the outcome of the game. If the UFC wishes to be viewed as Sport, and not sports entertainment, either they or the NSAC need to address the occurrences in Monday night’s main event.
It’s pretty amazing, in my opinion, that rarely do you actually see point deductions being handed out in UFC fights. That stomp should have been an automatic 1 point deduction (at least; maybe even 2 points) as it was recklessly dangerous in terms of the fouls (after all, Wes Sims got DQd for stomping Frank Mir silly in their first fight). It shouldn’t have just been a warning. The octagon grabbing should have had a “Get off the fence, Sylvia!” warning and if he continued to have held on, ‘Big’ John should have taken a point away and restarted the fight with Silva still having the belly to back waistlock and Sylvia being far enough from the octagon that he couldn’t grab it again (center of octagon?).
For those who wonder what happened to Phil Baroni. He’ll be goin’ 2 fight against a Ryan Gracie’s black-belt named Fabio Leopoldo at Cage Fighting Championship-“Team Gracie vs. Team HammerHouse”. Leopoldo is a 2-0-0 MMA fighter with appearances in Pancrase and in a Massachusetts MMA organization.
He’s trainin’ in Gracie Barra Combat team
I am just shocked that the so-called “MMA news” websites have failed to pick up on the infractions during the Sylvia/Silva fight. Rules are rules. I am not a Tim Sylvia detractor, nor an Assuerio Silva supporter, but I have defended the UFC against some of it’s detractors and today, I’m left with no defense. The announcers have a voice feeding info and on-air dialogue into their headsets, so one has to believe that Goldberg and Rogan were told to ignore the stomp, as it was never addressed. So from this day forward, one has to assume that STOMPING a downed opponent is NOW LEGAL in a UFC bout.
A special thanks to everyone who has added a comment to this thread so far. I appreciate it.