My personal opinion was that the presentation of the show was insulting to me as an experienced MMA fan. The pedantic announcing moreso than the “intro to MMA” segment. The dancers, the musical talent…this stuff doesn’t shout “MMA” to me, it shouts “MMA isn’t interesting enough, so we need to put mustard on it.” You’re getting your mustard in my chocolate, and I’m not happy about it.

If there was a fight on that card that helped to establish ranking, it was probably the Kimbo fight. I think it revealed a lot of significant holes in his game that we should expect any capable opponent to attempt to exploit in the future. He’s going to have to go back and fix things to remain competitive against reasonably capable opponents.

I did enjoy two of the fights on the card, and one was stopped between rounds, while the other was ruled a no contest when the fighters were by all evidence healthy enough to continue. I didn’t enjoy them because of the controversy, I enjoyed them because of the two rounds of each that I actually got to see, and I wish that I had had the opportunity to see them finished in the cage instead of at the stool, even if they had gone to decisions.

I found the first hour of the show especially disappointing, because we got didacts, narpets, and poorly coordinated nyphets at the expense of more than three minutes of fights.

After the no contest, we lost more time waiting around for an explanation than it would have taken for them to give the man his five minutes and finish the fight, so that was a disappointment to me as well.

If you had a great time, then that’s your opinion, but to me it was a pretty dreadful show, and I can’t see myself tuning in for more of it. This is the first time I’ve even watched a Pro Elite show, because I’d been hearing bad things about it all along that I’ve now confirmed with my own two (four, whatever), eyes.

If it was a PPV event aimed at the MMA fanbase, it would have received even more criticism.

Please feel free to stop over to the site and leave some thoughts. It’s always good to have some new faces (or maybe names? usernames? I dunno) at the site. I’m very open to anyone writing as well (sorry Zach, I don’t mean to shamelessly plug again) to share their thoughts on anything.

We’ll going to have to agree to disagree on this one.

I just noticed that he was threatening to stand them up during the crucifix up against the fence.

It was a display of UFC wasting Machida’s time and trying to cash in on a no longer game Tito once more. It was just as one sided as the Penn fight. I’m not on the “Machida is boring” bandwagon, but that fight was boring. Machida is, of course, much more skilled than Kimbo and Thompson put together, but he can’t put on a better fight by himself. Lack of skills doesn’t mean it’s a bad fight. It’s often the opposite.

I’d have to go back and watch UFC 84 again to remember the lower matches, and I think that says enough. I have been in MMA overload this week catching up on Cage Rage, Dream, Strikeforce, EXC, IFL, and everything else. UFC 84 is probably one of the 2 or 3 least memorable cards of the 12 or so I’ve recently watched.

Again, UFC has had some stellar shows but I didn’t think 84 was one of them. The top two matches were non-competitive and the next absurdly short. I enjoyed the rest, but nothing stood out.

Machida VS Ortiz was an awesome display of technical fighting. If you don’t like technical battles, then it may not be exciting for you. This was the best fight of UFC 84 for me. It also showed who is at the top of the light heavy division.

Penn VS Sherk was not as competitive, but we saw two top level lightweights determining who the best lightweight in the world is. Did any fights at EliteXC determine anything in the MMA pecking order?

Kimbo VS Thompson was a bout between two lackluster fighters with bad cardio and a horrible ground game. If Thompson had any power in his punch, or skilled in submission, Kimbo would’ve been done in the first round. Add in the one-sided ref job and you got a disaster.

Gina VS Young was competitive only in the first round. After that, Gina’s muay thai skill took over and it wasn’t even close. The skill level was apparent right away. Oh yeah, the winner didn’t make weight.

Lawler VS Smith was a good fight that ended with a ridiculous stoppage. However, this was a one-dimensional fight with strikers who’s punches were more effective than their kicks, and there was hardly any display of a ground game. However, this was a good fight, nonetheless.

Compare that with Goveia vs Reljic, an awesome technical fight with great stand up, punches and kicks, to great ground and pound, and submission defense.

Silva VS Jardine shows what a definitive end is and how a superior MMA fighter finish his fights, no praying for an early stoppage by a biased referee. It may be short, but it’s the epitome of the forceful and unpredictable nature of MMA.

Thiago VS Mendes showed the ebb and flow of great fighters can come back from near defeat, and how skill can overcome near flash KOs. It also signal the emergence of a new top ten light heavy.

The rest of preliminaries on UFC 84 gave us a glimpse of how talented and good the new UFC fighters are. All fights end in great technical display, never say die determination (Jason Tan), and no fighter had suspect cardio.

Need I go on?

The trend you noticed may actually help the UFC, or at least some other RESPECTABLE company, to get a network deal. The show went over ok with the uneducated which means it may be safe to put on the air. The smart folks hated it which means they need to get some real fights, fighters and promotions on TV instead.

I can only pray.

I won’t spend time howling about last night. I said this would happen and it did. Yes, it is even worse than people think. But it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. I am so happy it is over. OVER!…for now.

Plus, Lawler was the most skilled fighter on the show, and I would have liked to see if he could have finished Smith.

FF

One of the judges also gave the 2nd round 10-8 to Thompson. That’s a pretty crappy fix, and giving him that round by two points is fishier than anything else that happened last night.