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UFC Fight Night (8/17/2006)
By Zach Arnold | August 17, 2006
By Zach Arnold
Here we go. Full show review.
1. Welterweights: Josh Koscheck vs. Jonathan Goulet
Koscheck not such a fan favorite. Red Rock Casino is the new venue for UFC Fight Night. It looks so much better than the Hard Rock Casino building. Goulet aggressive early with some kicks. Rogan put over Koscheck’s improved stand-up and as he did that, Koscheck nailed Goulet with a right punch and then went for a choke on Goulet. Koscheck let go of the choke hold after a minute or so. We transition into boringness with Koscheck on top of Goulet and not letting go. Koscheck started raining down some punches and Goulet hasn’t managed to get out of this predicament. George St. Pierre is shown watching the fight from Goulet’s corner. GSP is warning Goulet to watch out for a side choke hold. Koscheck transitioned and got on Goulet’s back, going for a choke hold and moved onto raining punches on the back of Goulet’s head. Big John McCarthy stopped the fight and Koscheck just destroyed Goulet. Koscheck symboled after his win for a title shot.
WINNER: Josh Koscheck (late R1 referee stoppage -> TKO)
2. Middleweights: Dean “The Boogeyman” Lister vs. Yuki Sasaki (“UFC Rookie”)
This was quite the word jiu-jitsu situation for Goldberg, as he kept pushing Sasaki as a “newcomer” yet kept talking about how many fights he had in Japan. Pancrase was not mentioned at all by name.
Referee Steve Mazzagatti has a mustache. This is not working for him.
Lister goes for the clinch against the cage, and Sasaki reverses position. The fans are booing the guys clinching the cage, and the referee breaks them up. Both men exchange leg kicks. Lister tried taking down Sasaki and Sasaki showed good takedown defense. Lister managed to get Sasaki down and got on top of Sasaki’s back, going for a choke (at first). Lister managed to take down Sasaki and go for a choke. Sasaki showed some great defense and stood back up, only for Lister to suplex him backwards and go for the choke sleeper again. Despite Lister’s various submission attempts, Sasaki avoided all of them.
Round two. The men stay standing up and Lister goes for a takedown, only to land in buttscoot position and Sasaki decided to go into Lister’s guard on purpose. Lister wrapped his legs around Sasaki and Sasaki didn’t do much in the guard. Three minutes left in R2. Lister managed to go for an arm-scissors hold and Sasaki remained patient to fight out of it. Lister wrapped his legs around Sasaki’s head for a triangle lock. Lister started raining elbows on Sasaki’s head while in the triangle. Lister is in total control here, managing to get Sasaki’s arm and mount, only for Sasaki only to manage to wiggle out of it. Rogan was marking out here. 30 seconds left. Both men standing. Lister tagged Sasaki with a shot, only for Sasaki to really tag Lister with several punches for a great ending. The fans were really into this.
Round three. Lister is very tired. Amazing. Sasaki looks the fresher of the two, despite being behind on the score cards. Lister went for a takedown on Sasaki, but Sasaki stayed patient. Rogan and Goldberg contemplate whether or not Lister cutting weight has hurt his conditioning. Sasaki stood up and got out of the ground position. Sasaki continued to strike well and Lister fell down to the ground, waiting for Sasaki to get into his guard. The fans really started turning on Lister. Two minutes to go. Sasaki kept grabbing the fence of the cage throughout the fight. Lister dragged Sasaki to the ground, but both men are back standing and exhausted. Lister caught Sasaki with a good elbow. Lister got one last takedown and that was it.
WINNER: Dean Lister (after 3R by judges’ decision -> 30-27 three times)
Interview with Randy Couture, putting over the first TUF season versus the fourth season.
3. Middleweights – Jorge Santiago (ATT) vs. Chris Leben
Herb Dean is announced as the referee — and is thankfully not booed. Round one. The announcers kept trying to put over Leben’s courage to fight so quickly, with little to no pushing of Santiago. Leben managed to catch Santiago with a push and get him down on the ground. Santiago applied the guard. Leben stood up and fell back into Santiago’s guard, only to stand back up again. A boring fight so far. Herb Dean stands up both guys. Leben continued to strike and get in close to Santiago. Santiago managed to take Leben down and managed to get side control.
Round two. Leben and Santiago stood up, only for Leben to catch Santiago with a nasty left punch and a slew of other punches to take down Santiago for the KO.
WINNER: Chris Leben (early R2 left hook -> KO)
Afterwards, Leben cut a great promo saying that he wanted to get back in the Octagon as soon as possible because he was tired of being told how he should have fought Anderson Silva, including a guy at Starbucks serving him coffee and telling him (Leben) what he should have done.
4. Welterweights: Joe Riggs vs. Jason Von Flue
Riggs caught VF with a nice punch. Both clinch and Riggs pulled off a great takedown to gain side control. Riggs went for a choke sleeper, only for Von Flue to reverse position. Riggs went for the triangle lock and caught Von Flue (and managed to grab Von Flue’s left leg to prevent a reversal) for the submission. Von Flue was very upset with himself after the fight.
WINNER: Joe Riggs (R1 2 minutes, 1 second: Triangle lock -> submission)
5. Welterweights: Karo Parisyan vs. Diego Sanchez
Big John McCarthy is the referee. Goldberg hyped that the winner could receive a potential title shot for the winner of the Matt Hughes vs. GSP fight. Diego went for the takedown immediately. The action is fast in this round. Sanchez went for a choke sleeper, but Karo showed good defense. Sanchez locked in a body triangle and started throwing punches, only for Karo to reverse the outcome and did a judo takedown. The crowd really got into supporting Karo. Diego managed to go from his back to get on Karo’s back in a really quick manner. There are “Diego” chants. Parisyan did an amazing Judo throw that got the crowd to its feet. Karo went for another judo takedown and Diego landed head-first on the mat. Very entertaining first round.
Tito Ortiz is shown in Karo’s corner, giving him instructions on what to do in round two.
Round two. This feels like a big-fight atmosphere. Lots of stand-up exchanges. Karo caught Diego with at least two or three shots, then picked him up for a big takedown. Diego nearly caught Karo in a heel hook when the two were repositioning on the ground. Both men went back standing, only for Diego to go for a sloppy takedown and leaving his heel exposed for a heel hook attempt by Karo. Karo managed to get Sanchez in the guard. With 30 seconds left, Sanchez found himself on his back with Karo on top (and Tito screaming “choke! choke!”). End of round two.
Round three. Both men are tired, but Sanchez picked up the pace on the stand-up action. Karo picked up Diego and took him down. Sanchez reversed position with three minutes to go and started going for the choke sleeper. Both men back standing with 90 seconds left. Diego really landed some excellent punches. He caught Karo with a major right knee, and Karo went for a takedown only for Sanchez to manage to reverse position and get Karo on his back. The fight finished with Sanchez laying punches and Parisyan trying to apply the guard.
WINNER: Diego Sanchez (After 3R by judges’ decision -> 29-28 twice, 30-26)
I have no idea how a judge came up with the 30-26 score. Quite the show.
Topics: All Topics, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I know Boogie won and all, but how do you get 30-27 out of that?
I was really rooting for Parisyan to pull through. Ah well.
2 judges got the main event right, but how in the name of Zues’ butthole did any “trained” official get a 10-8 round in that fight? It’s mind-boggling!
Koscheck owned Goulet as expected, he has really solid wrestling skills it would be interesting to see him go up against some higher caliber opponents.
Lister versus Sasaki was kind of dissapointing in that Lister totally gassed. Credit to Sasaki for escaping that triangle and actually being able to attack afterward, but both fighters were in sorry shape. Chris Leben has the strangest standup and yet he is able to knock out people like Jorge Santiago, good fight.
I loved Von Flue’s little middle finger of defiance before losing to a triangle choke from Joe Riggs of all people, Flue is overated and should not be asked to return.
Sanchez vs. Parisyan was one of the best fights i have seen all year, consistent back and forth action throughout the rounds, with Sanchez taking over in the end, such a wild fight. Sanchez is somewhat the real deal now, by proving it against a tough competitor like Karo.
The 30 – 26 was a sore spot.
And it’s funny how people is complaining about GSP vs. BJ Penn cause GSP won the fight with “3 takedowns” and now people is complaining Karo should of won does he did a few take downs in one round.
Anyways, honestly I think Diego did win the fight and the right call was made.
It was neck and neck until Diego pulled out the stops in the last round, IMO.
But man were those some sweeeet judo throws. His head must have been spinning after them.