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UFC 76

By Zach Arnold | September 22, 2007

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Event reports: MMA Weekly | Sherdog | MMA Junkie | UFC Mania | MMA on Tap | Sprawl ‘n Brawl | Steve Sievert | Observer | Yahoo Sports | Steve Cofield | F4W Online

Post all comments, spoilers, etc. here.

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 123 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

123 Responses to “UFC 76”

  1. Body_Shots says:

    Body_Shots, a loser quits match?

    I don’t give a damn how they do it, it just needs to happen.

  2. Grape Knee High says:

    45, that’s fine, but that doesn’t spell dominant victory. It was a close decision. (Body_Shots, I agree with your scoring for submission attempts.)

    Anyway, do I at least get credit for predicting the way that Liddell and Shogun could lose? 🙂

    I said Jardine could win by keeping distance and using his leg kicks, and predicted that Shogun would lose if it came down to cardio. Which, in the end, sucks because we won’t see Liddell/Silva and Rampage/Shogun 2.

  3. 45 Huddle says:

    Body_Shots… That makes absolutely no sense.

    1. A strike the wobbles somebody…. That actually did damage.
    2. A submission attempt like Sanchez was doing did absolutely no damage. It did not help him get out on top. It did not help him get to his feet. It did not hurt Fitch. It did nothing. See the logic skills there?

  4. D. Capitated says:

    For the people knocking the matchmaking with Liddell/Jardine: Jardine has pourous defense, mediocre offense, can’t do take downs, has been KOed in short order before, and would stand in front of Chuck Liddell all day. Theoretically, this makes him perfect for Chuck. The problem is that Chuck is old, fat, and physically getting worse. Skills diminish with age, and that is no different for Liddell. He’s just not an elite level MMA 205lb fighter anymore. The proverbial “got old overnight” moment was tonight.

  5. Body_Shots says:

    45 Huddle, the way you judge striking is always going to be > than grappling no matter what.

    I don’t see it that way, this isn’t boxing. You get someone in a submission hold you are as close to finishing the bout as a hitting someone with a strike that wobbles them or knocks them down. Jon Fitch’s will and toughness got him out the guillotine and triangle just like Liddell’s toughness got his ass off the mat when Jardine put him down, both Jardine and Sanchez were close to finishing the fight respectively it should be scored as such.

  6. 45 Huddle says:

    My way of judging favors a wrestling over a BJJ guy… That much is certain. But it does not favor a striker over a grappler.

    “You get someone in a submission hold you are as close to finishing the bout as a hitting someone with a strike that wobbles them or knocks them down.”

    Wrong analogy. Throwing a submission that does nothing is the equivalent to throwing a power punch that doesn’t land. At the end of each, the receiving fighter is in no less of a bad position.

    A submission should only score for one of the following:

    1. A truly near submission, where a guy is in pain in the joint or is losing oxygen/blood to a great degree from a choke.
    2. If it allows a fighter to get to the top position.
    3. If it allows a fighter to get to the feet.

    As you can see… All three of those things have one comment element. The guy giving the submission hurts his opponent either physically or position wise. IT ACTUALLY DOES SOMETHING!!

    See, you say that those submissions were close to ending the fight. I completely disagree. Jon Fitch is a submission master. Like he even said, he gets caught in submissions all the time and gets out. Not a big deal. If they were so close to ending the fight… They would have. But they didn’t, so they mean as much as a failed punch. Close…. And it counts for aggression… but nothing else.

  7. Body_Shots says:

    If they were so close to ending the fight… They would have.

    That’s like saying a punch that badly wobbles a fighter isn’t close to ending the fight… cause it didn’t.

    No offense dude, but there’s really point in arguing with you. I won’t even begin even to disect the ‘submissions that hurt people’ nonsense.

  8. 45 Huddle says:

    A fight that wobbles a fighter DOES SOMETHING…. Just like my 3 examples I used above. See the theme going on?

    I come from a grappling background…. But I just can’t stand this BJJ nonsense….

  9. Luke says:

    Zach – Who was picking Jardine in this fight? Who gave Jardine even the slightest chance to win? Everyone thought Liddell had this one in the bag. This was as much of a gimme for Liddell as they could get away with for a main event fight. Maybe instead of slamming Dana White, it would help to recognize that Chuck is 37yrs old, and maybe that combined with his lifestyle has taken its toll on his body, and he’s slowed down.

    What would you have done? Liddell needed at least one fight in between the title match with Jackson, and the dream match with Silva. Especially since the Silva fight had to be pushed back, after Silva declined to take the fight for this show.

    Regardless of how much Liddell’s star power has dropped. They still have a match up that could be just as marketable, with Rampage vs Forrest Griffin. Both very marketable guys, and well known to casual fans. Its not the dream match that Silva vs. Liddell would have been, if it had happened sooner, prior to both guys losing fights they were expected to win. But its still a very strong main event that UFC can sell. If thats what you’re concerned with.

  10. ajax says:

    MMA is becoming very fickle.

  11. Zack says:

    110 responses? Great job, Zach…this site rules.

  12. Zack says:

    UFC should’ve given us the fights we wanted to see for years…instead they tried to build up fighters for the “casual fans” and fucked everything up. As a fan of the sport for a long time, I can appreciate the business aspects and the ideas about building up a fighter, but seriously, fuck the casual fan. Just do the best vs the best ASAP before everything is blown.

    Cro Cop should’ve fought Arlovski or Sylvia off the bat. Shogun should’ve fought Chuck tonight. Nog? I’d say Sylvia or Arlovski again. Those are the only two dominant UFC heavies they had for a while. You can’t blame Nog for not looking so hot against a guy he had already schooled twice. People also seem to forget that he won every minute of that fight other than the near KO. And how many dudes would have the chin or balls to come back from a shot like that?

    If you’re going to consider Herring a “Pride guy” then consider Anderson Silva one too. Otherwise, consider Herring a K-1 guy and Anderson a Cage Rage guy. Werdums loss meant nothing…people were much more interested in seeing how Sergei and Aleksander matched up against Arlovski/Sylvia than anything. Hell, I still am.

    It will be really interesting to see how results like this affect the long term interest in the sport.

  13. Blocker says:

    I think 112 comments on one post on one website answers that question Zack

  14. IceMuncher says:

    Zack, if they should do “the best vs the best ASAP before everything is blown”, maybe those particular fighters aren’t “the best” in the first place.

    I don’t like it. Don’t hype up fighters past their accomplishments. Give them all roughly the same path based on their record and quality of their wins, and let the chips fall where they may. Letting popularity decide who is in the important fights is not in the spirit of the sport.

  15. Jeremy (not that Jeremy) says:

    I picked Jardine.

    The guy in the bar who thought that Chuck was a coke fiend also picked Jardine, although he INSISTED that he was a HUGE Chuck fan. 😀

  16. The Gaijin says:

    WOW – just got back in town and checked out the results….

    PRIDE is officially overrated – even as the staunchest PRIDE and Chute Boxe guy, I gotta say I’m embarrassed about pumping up all of these guys coming into the UFC.

    WTF Shogun?!?!? GKH was right tho – Griffin f#$ckin’ towered over him, I didn’t realize he was that big of a 205er.

    The 205 division got turned on its head tonight…Wandy looked absolutely crushed at the end of the night! His heir apparent got choked out and his huge money fight got pissed away! I guess it’s easy to say in retrospect but White blew it by not doing it right away.

  17. The Gaijin says:

    P.S.

    Never bet against Couture or any Couture trained fighter.

  18. The Gaijin says:

    Liddell did NOTHING to deserve a decision, that judge was on crack.

  19. D. Capitated says:

    UFC should’ve given us the fights we wanted to see for years…instead they tried to build up fighters for the “casual fans” and fucked everything up. As a fan of the sport for a long time, I can appreciate the business aspects and the ideas about building up a fighter, but seriously, fuck the casual fan. Just do the best vs the best ASAP before everything is blown.

    Nobody cares about the fights hardcore fans have wanted to see for years. Those guys came into the UFC and couldn’t validate their own performances elsewhere before being built into someone that the UFC could sell. This is dumb. Don’t blame Dana White because Cro-Cop and Shogun were immediate and total failures.

    If you’re going to consider Herring a “Pride guy” then consider Anderson Silva one too. Otherwise, consider Herring a K-1 guy and Anderson a Cage Rage guy. Werdums loss meant nothing…people were much more interested in seeing how Sergei and Aleksander matched up against Arlovski/Sylvia than anything. Hell, I still am.

    Except that Herring fought a far larger portion of his career in PRIDE than Anderson Silva. C’mon now. People really wanted to see Aleksander and Sergei instead of Werdum? That is ridiculous. Maybe they should have won their big bouts in PRIDE instead of getting KOed or beaten by Werdum.

  20. Zack says:

    Sergei beat Werdum (although he didn’t look too stellar) and Aleksander lost to Werdum in a fight outside of Pride.

  21. The Gaijin says:

    Don’t blame Dana White because Cro-Cop and Shogun were immediate and total failures.

    I think it’s a bit premature to call Shogun a “total failure”. Time will tell that, however he certainly tainted his run with that shite performance.

  22. MMA fan says:

    I wonder how well UFC fighters would do if they fought in PRIDE with ring and PRIDE rules?

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