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UFC 74
By Zach Arnold | August 25, 2007
Live show reports: The Fight Network | Sherdog | MMA Weekly | UFC Junkie | F4W Online | UFC Mania | MMA on Tap | Irish Whip Fighting | Steve Sievert | The Observer | Yahoo Sports | Alex Marvez
Non-UFC note: The Fernando Vargas/Ricardo Mayorga fight has been postponed.
Kevin Iole – Renato Babalu disgraces the sport, Dave Meltzer – Josh Barnett marks out. Update: Kevin Iole reports that the NSAC is withholding 50% of Babalu’s $50,000 USD fight purse.
For our faithful Fight Opinion Radio listeners, you know that there was only one site member who picked Patrick Cote to beat Kendall Grove and that would be me. You could have made some money by picking that upset, too.
Kevin Iole raises an interesting question (unwittingly) about Roger Huerta’s victory at UFC 74 — is it fair for a fighter (in his own fight!) to be able to watch himself on a TV screen or does it give that fighter an unfair competitive advantage (even if the other fighter has access to the same technology)?
Media reaction to the fallout from UFC 74 can be seen in full-page mode.
- UFC HP: Naturally disastrous – Couture stops Gonzaga in three to retain crown
- AOL Fanhouse: Randy Couture beats Gabriel Gonzaga to keep heavyweight title
- Bloody Elbow: The bad-ass Greco-Roman kingpin who comes in with the gameplan showed up at UFC 74
- Associated Press: The ultimate champion – Couture TKOs Gonzaga to retain heavyweight crown
- The Canadian Press: Couture retains heavyweight title, GSP looks strong at UFC 74
- The Orange County Register: Babalu hangs on against David Heath
- CBS Sportsline: Couture dominates Gonzaga, retains UFC heavyweight title
- The Houston Chronicle: Couture retains his crown and St. Pierre rediscovers his winning formula
- MMA California: Couture defeats younger, larger Gonzaga to remain champion
- Fight Report: 44 year-old Couture batters Gonzaga to a bloody pulp!
- Jeff Hamlin: UFC 74 radio wrap-up show (this was a GREAT show for train-wreck technical-difficulty radio, Jeff deserves a gold star for putting up with this chicanery)
- The Boston Herald: A bloodied Gonzaga is TKO’d by Couture
- Yahoo Sports (Kevin Iole): Anything possible with ageless Couture
- The Los Angeles Daily News: UFC heavyweight champion Couture pounds Gonzaga
- Yahoo Sports (Dave Doyle): UFC 74 notes – GSP back on track
- The Los Angeles Times: Couture relies on experience to retain title
- The Los Angeles Times: Kyle Maynard – a fighter’s ultimate challenge
- The Republican (MA): Gabriel Gonzaga knocked out
- The Calgary Sun: GSP lays down the law
- The Washington Post: GSP, Couture register statement wins in UFC 74
- Sam caplan: Fire Renato Babalu
Topics: Boxing, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 58 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Much, much, much better pacing to this show compared to the last one. The last one had way too much down time between fights. UFC 74 is really getting one fight after the other (relative to a UFC PPV). I think White got a little scared of another UFC 33 incident after the last event.
Plus, as the announcers said, there are some really good prelims, so I’m sure they want to show one or two of them.
Cote faithfully representing Sityodtong Boston 😀
Now if Zagaga wins the main event…it will be a great day for Massachusetts and it’s adopted fighters 😀
The event has been very good so far.
They are giving GSP/Koscheck a Main Event type of entrance….. Well deserved….
Koscheck really needs to win because Iole says he’s only slotted to make $10,000 base pay and $10,000 for a bonus. 🙂
This is his eighth or ninth UFC fight now (depending on if you count the Ultimate Fighter Finale), so he’s got to be coming up for a new contract soon. You better bet he wants to win for a thousand reasons.
Koscheck will still get a good contract, even with a loss here.
It is safe to say GSP is “back”. Not like he really left….
I am happy that Koscheck lost. Mostly because it keeps the door open for Jon Fitch once he beats Diego Sanchez….. I would love to see a Fitch vs. GSP fight…..
Of course it is legal for someone to watch themselves on the big screen. It is available to every fighter, plus, it is pretty much the same as getting advice from your cornerman. No problem with it at all.
Two things about that broken nose:
1. If Gonzaga didn’t hold the fence, his nose wouldn’t have been in that position.
2. It showed that against adversity, he doesn’t have a champions heart. Remember GSP against Penn? He showed the champions heart.
1. Great event.
2. Great crowd.
I didn’t think Gonzaga would break so easily and so quickly. What’s next for Gonzaga, and who’s Couture going to defend against next? The winner of Kongo/Cro Cop?
I’m disappointed about the eye thing with Gabriel, I’m not sure what was going on there yet.
He’ll be back, he’s too good for UFC to discard. Next time, he’ll have some way to fight back against the Greco Roman. He just didn’t have ANY tools to get off that fence.
I have never been so disappointed in a fighter as much as I am right now with Gonzaga. He needs to take his butt back to Brazil and apologize to everyone of his countrymen for shaming Brazil so, and then he needs to make a trip around the world apologizing to everyone for putting on such a crappy fight. Randy did great…but damn Gonzaga, at least put SOMETHING up and don’t cheat.
And yes, I know he landed a punch and a high kick. Wasn’t enough and in my eyes, he is a worthless piece of sh*t, and will always be.,…in my mind at least.
And Jeremy, it is not that he didn’t have any tools for getting off the fence…it is that he didn’t even attempt to get off of it. He just stood there…like a tree in the forest.
*****PRELIM SPOILER******
From the description online, it looks like Guida/Aurelio was a boring fight. I am honestly shocked by that. And Aurelio lost, which I am not shocked by. He was extremely overrated.
It also sounds like Sobral was a complete J@ck@ass…. He held a choke on Heath far beyond the tap….. Enough where Heath was twitching afterwards…. That is pathetic….. And Josh “I Got Busted For Roids” Barnett was playing it up to the crowd. Even more pathetic…..
Um…o…k…
I just read that Babalu is getting 50% of his purse withhold…. Good for the NSAC… That is garbage…. Pre fight talk is one thing… To try and give a fighter brain damage is just criminal. Wait a minute. Wasn’t Babalu recently arrested? I guess he has a history of this now….
Couture is god, plain and simple. Complete Pwnage!!!
I have to see the Babalu thing…..And Cote finishing for once…I slept in….also there is some whore on Yahoo saying MMA “Blew it again” dumb bitch.
And thats for all the clowns who disaggreed with me ranking Randy Couture the #2 Heavyweight in the world. One more performance like that and he overtakes Fedor.
Pizza – please give me the link to that person’s comment on Yahoo.
Yes, what Huerta did was perfectly fine and I’m positive its been done before in the UFC, just not as obvious.
I wonder how the main event would have gone if not for the broken nose.
Randy admitted that it was his head that broke GG’s nose.
Randy was masterfull, but the broken nose played a huge part in GG gassing as early as he did.
Again, Randy was amazing, but the headbutt takes away a little of it.
It’s Bianca P. If that doesn’t work just go to the half of Babalu’s purse link that you posted and go to page 2. On page 1 she (assuming it’s a she, or at least a guy thinking he’s a chick) even asks why the posts are being deleted.
She’s dumb like Miss South Carolina (Want the link? It contains lulz)
For the record, I think Huerta and GSP and Joe Stevenson did a good job tonight.
“And thats for all the clowns who disaggreed with me ranking Randy Couture the #2 Heavyweight in the world. One more performance like that and he overtakes Fedor.”
LOL
My picks are over on MMA on Tap. I went 6-3 ( 7-2 I didnt really think Crane would beat Huerta, just hoping ). I also picked Cote.
Lynchman, exactly.
I don’t know how many of the rest of you have had the pleasure of regurgitating a few pints of your own blood at the ER, but believe me, when you’re bleeding down the back of your throat, that does quite a bit to put a crimp in your performance doing normal things like standing up, and driving yourself to the ER, let alone fighting.
After an evening’s reflection, I’ve also decided that it’s entirely possible that he WAS having trouble seeing, and when he realized they would call the fight he had to play it off.
All that said, even before the head–>nose incident, Randy was taking it to Gonzaga early and often. I think it’s very likely the fight would have gone the distance at the least, and I’m not sure a decision would have gone anything but Randy’s way (although with Cecil Peebles on the jury, who can tell).
When you put two massively huge and massively strong guys up against one another in the ring, even if they’re both in the top five in the world, one of them is going to walk away a loser, unless one of them is Tito Ortiz.
What a great event. Couture absolutely blew me away… How does he do it?! GSP back on track, Koscheck neatly slapped into place.
Alberto Crane’ jiu jitsu was looking very, very slick in the beginning, but he needs more MMA experience…
Oh, and looks like lots of yummy house-destroying drama in the new Ultimate Fighter… ah, one of my guilty pleasures…
Crane took some unnecessary punishment in the fight vs Huerta. Mazagatti could have stopped it earlier, and Crane’s corner should have thrown in the towel.
This ‘building up Huerta’ business is ridiculous. It doesn’t impress me to see him beat up on a helpless guy. What would impress me is a Huerta victory in a fair match-up.
Oh, people need to stop making excuses for Gonzaga. I thought he was going to win, but that nose injury is his own fault. He held onto the fence going down, causing his head to be in that position. Hey, if a fighter wants to break the rules and gets busted up like that…. It can’t be used as an excuse later on….. Either by himself or the fans.
To all those condemning Babalu, how many have actually seen the fight? Seems like none of you. It was the bloodiest bout I have ever seen, the blood was actually pouring out of Heath’s head. Both fighters were covered head to toes in red. But Babalu held the choke an additional 2 secs. Hardly something we havent seen before. Equate it to two punches after the ref TKO’s the fight. So what. Only mistake Babalu made was that he admitted to it.
And Huerta is so overrated. Put him in a cage with Nick Diaz. He’ll be boxed up and subbed with a gogo.
First, Nick Diaz can’t make 155 lbs. Secondly, Diaz would get beaten by Huerta. Huerta has fantastic sub defense and strikes better then Diaz.
MoreThanUFC,
Obviously it’s a big enough deal that the NSAC has decided to take action against him. Plenty of people have held onto chokes after the person has tapped, but from all accounts it seems as if Sobral went overboard here.
The only way someone can overtake Fedor before ’08 is over is to beat him. If he continues to remain inactive, then that is a whole different ball of wax.
Good comments, great event. That reaction on Gonzaga’s behalf to hold the fence cost him big time. He should have taken Randy into his gaurd and eaten a few elbows in order to play his ‘world class’ jiu jitsu game that we NEVER got to fucking see! wtf!
Enjoyable PPV:
Randy looked great – wonder if he will retire or go for another payday. A fight with Wandy would be great, but as have trained together it’s not likely. I can see him beating Cro Cop easily due to his style (if he can get through Kongo…) I thought they would bring out Lesnar before the main event – that would be a good fun matchup.
Didn’t know you could call for a time out in the UFC – I though Couture had gouged his eye or something.
GSP looked huuuuge compared to Kos – reminded me of what BJ Penn said in an interview about him. Very impressive though, as he absolutely ran through him.
Crane was totally outmatched, an amateur vs a pro – very poor matchmaking. And how come the it’s okay for the posterboy of the UFC to use Goodridge style elbow strikes?
Fedor will be overtaken in the rankings, and fan’s opinions if he doesn’t sign for Heroes or UFC as he’ll become another Rickson style enigma, still if he just wants to do his sambo and get massive paydays from money marks, good luck to him.
Also, funny how they talked up Franca and Sherk – thought they would pretent they never existed. I cannot understand why Rogan thought it would be a good idea to talk up a drug cheat’s conditioning.
I don’t see how Fedor can stay at #1 for very long. His last meaningful fight was in August 2005. As one of the guys from Sherdog.com has pointed out, he has only beaten 2 of the current Top 10 fighters. It’s not like he has completely dominated the entire field of the top guys out there. If he doesn’t sign with the UFC, he will be left with possibly fighting Barnett and nobody else. I’m sorry, but the sport continues to progress at such a fast rate…. Anybody who is not fighting the top guys for over 2 years becomes obsolete until proven otherwise.
As for the Huerta elbows, they are perfectly legal. The elbows weren’t coming from the sky and down. GSP threw a couple of illegal elbows, and he was warned for them. But the Huerta elbows are no different then what Silva did to Lutter.
Croatian Strength,
GSP walks around at 180 or so.
If you are referring to Penn’s comments about thinking some of his past opponents used steroids, I would remind you that GSP has been tested and always passed.
David and others,
You don’t see time outs often in UFC, but they do come up from time to time. Usually they’re blood in the eyes, and normally you see the ref making the call. Also, I THINK they still use the 2 minute break if one of the fighters is bleeding significantly after a round.
When Ian Freeman turned Frank Mir’s face into hamburger at UFC 38, BJM called a time out near the end of the first round. Of course, he almost immediately called the match after that because Mir couldn’t continue…
Fedor hasn’t fought since April. He only had two fights, both toward the end of the year, in 2006. At some point you’ve got to implement the Tito rule and give the plaudits to someone else unless he’s going to fight. I think that giving him another 16 months is a little more than is necessary.
Yeah, I give Fedor another year max to show up and beat a serious heavyweight soundly. I dunno if I’ll give the new #1 to Couture, but he’s beat the last two guys he’s fought soundly. If I was the UFC I would give the next shot to CroCop if he beats Kongo soundly. Giving Minotauro a shot after the pathetic performance against Herring would be a travesty. The winner of Sylvia/Vera could also be considered for a title shot.
On a side note, with GSP getting the next shot, that means the WW division is set till spring. Meanwhile Karo Parisyan is supposedly fighting Mach Sakurai very soon. If he beats Mach, what the fuck does he do? Sit on the shelf for 9 months or just keep risking his perpetual ‘third wheel’ position? Sucks to be Karo, although I’ll bet Dana is paying him quite well to compensate.
BJM all but straight up said that Herb Dean screwed up the call on the eye thing on After the Bell on TFN.
Transcription:
“What happened was, um, Gabriel had a problem with his nose and was bleeding, and from that point the blood was getting into his eyes and at that point he was tired, he was gassing from the clinch game that Randy was doing and he went and actually called for a timeout from the referee, Herb Dean was the referee and Gonzaga told him, ‘I can’t see.’ And when you have a fighter that says ‘I can’t see’ he’s telling you that he doesn’t want to be a part of the fight at that time, so Herb has a decision to make, he can either tell the person, ‘if you want to continue to fight, fight now’, or he can end the fight. And at that point, Herb said he made the decision to we’ll check the cut too, along with the eye. What happens is there was no foul that ended up causing an eye injury or doing anything to Gabriel’s eye. It was blood in his eye from his nose that was done from a legal blow. And so, if you wanna go and give that timeout, as a referee we don’t have that ability at that time, we have a decision to make, we either call the fight or we let them continue to fight, but we don’t stop it and take it to a doctor.”
So, Herb fucked up.
The case with Karo Parisyan is very simple….. He fights the winner of Fitch/Sanchez with the winner getting a title shot in 2008.
45 Huddle…you never told me UFC’s planned main event for December that they have been planning 6 months in advance.
Adam, there’s a gif on the UG and the video is up at Bloody Elbow. Tell me after you watch it what you think.
MoreThanUFC,
You’re right, it’s not as bad as Iole was making it out to be. He holds on for about three seconds afterward. Still, it’s out of line and Babalu deserves whatever punishment he receives. The fact that he admitted to it and justified it afterward was probably the nail in the coffin for him.
Is there any truth to this rumor that Heath wore a shirt to the Octagon with Babalu’s mug shot on it?
Wow, nobody else is commenting but I will.
The UFC talks entirely too damn much! If I wanted a 20 minute diatribe from Joe Rogan, I would go watch his Fear Factor re-runs.
Seriously. Show the prelims instead of more talking from the lackluster conversations between 2 men we could care less about.
Zack, you mean UFC 79 in Vegas on December 29th?
It’s Hughes vs. Sera in a welterweight championship match. Rumor has Wanderlei Silva on the card too.
On the Herb Dean timeout – I wrote about it in my post on Sprawl n Brawl, and it was something that immediately stood out to me as incorrect at the moment. At least Herb restarted them in the same position, but it was just the wrong move to make, and he’s lucky Gonzaga didn’t recover significantly and put Couture down. Could have been another easy opportunity for people to bash Herb.
I think the confusion stemmed from Gonzaga saying he couldn’t see. Herb seemed to think Gonzaga was quitting, and stopped to make sure he was understanding him correctly given the language barrier. When he realized Gonzaga was just asking for an illegal timeout to wipe his eyes, he recognized that the stop was unwarranted and restarted the fight — with Couture all the while standing by in disbelief. I also saw Big John on the Fight Network After the Bell, and he couldn’t have been clearer in saying it was the wrong call.