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UFC 76
By Zach Arnold | September 22, 2007
Event reports: MMA Weekly | Sherdog | MMA Junkie | UFC Mania | MMA on Tap | Sprawl ‘n Brawl | Steve Sievert | Observer | Yahoo Sports | Steve Cofield | F4W Online
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Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 123 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
I have Tyson Griffin winning 2 rounds to 1….
I don’t have a problem with that 30-27 score either. That second round was very close and could have gone either way.
The final decision really comes down to how much you score those submission attempts from Tavares. To me, a lot of them barely score because Tyson was never in pain from any of them. And Tyson put a lot more punishment on Tavares from there.
29-28 either way, 30-27 is bullshit.
I wouldn’t say it is bullshit.
Round 1 – Tyson Griffin without question.
Round 2 – The toughest round to call. Tavares had a lot of back control, but did nothing with it. He did have one big knee. Beyond that, Griffin hit him with some heavy shots, including that slam that messed up his face. So that is a 50/50 round.
Round 3 – Griffin pushed the action more. He controlled more of the round and hit the harder shots.
So 30-27 or 29-28 for Griffin is the right call.
It is bullshit but there’s no way I’m going to argue with you about it. It seems like in every fight that goes to dec. there’s 2 guys who get it right and then theres the 30-27 guy.
Rogan is obsessed with guys dehydrating themselves to the absolute max. Why should Nak cut to ’85?
I don’t think Nakamura can get down to 185 lbs. He is stocky for his weight class.
I am kind of surprised the crowd wasn’t rougher on Nakamura/Machida. The fight wasn’t exactly fun to watch. Not a bad fight, but the type of fight a CA crowd would typically rip apart.
A bit of a sloppy fight, and Nakamura really wasn’t able to put anything together at all.
Why didn’t he go to K-1?
Yeah, surprising he didn’t head to HERO’S. It’s going to be hard for him to make a name for himself in the UFC, and he’s much more recognizable to the Japanese audience. He’s in that group of guys like Gomi, Yoshida and Misaki for who it would seem to make the most sense to go to K-1.
Would make you think that K-1 had no interest in him. K-1 doesn’t really have a Light Heavyweight Division except for Sokoudjou…. And something tells me he will be fighting Heavyweights….
Fitch vs. Sanchez
Round 1 – Fitch
Sanchez got peppered with punches trying to clinch and did nothing while clinched for a while. Fitch stayed active on the ground, and the Sanchez submission attempts weren’t close enough to give him the round.
Wow, those are some horrible judges. A submission means nothing unless a guy needs to really really struggle to get out of them.
I can’t see one round going to Sanchez. That is a horrible judges decision, even though they got the winner correct.
It has nothing to do with the scoring… It has to do with competent judges.
Good for Fitch, I was hoping he’d win.
Scores were a bit wonky.
“It seems like in every fight that goes to dec. there’s 2 guys who get it right and then theres the 30-27 guy.”
And that guy is Cecil Peoples.
Those scores pissed me off more then Bisping/Hamill….. Mostly because those submission attempts meant nothing…..
From the second Fitch was in the guillotine, he held his thumbs up 3 times. There was no danger. The only close submission was the triangle in the 3rd round. That was it. That is all Sanchez did. That should not earn him even a round.
Well, it’s upon us. We get to watch Shogun, one of the best, fight without his best weapons.
You heard him, guys.
GET STUNG.
I’m glad Fitch won, sanchez did nothing…Sanchez’s winning record before was luck and fighting guys that are weak…Hope Forrest wins and give Shogun a UFC welcome…Shogun maybe another Cro-cop??? And will someone SHUT Bisping up!!! What a nut!
Can Rogan be any more biased towards Griffin during this fight?
I am cheering for Forrest, but Rogan is getting pathetic….
t.her, a UFC welcome means nothing. The UFC doesn’t allow half the strikes out there. The UFC is weak compared to where Shogun used to fight. In the UFC, if Shogun knocks Griffen down, all he can do is TRY to punch him. In Pride, by the time his opponents were close to the mat, he was already in the air with a heal aimed for the head. This isn’t true fighting.
Rogan sounds like he’s alreay fought everyone in MMA and knows it all….pathetic
TUF>PRIDE
Heard it here first…. hahaha
I usually don’t mind Rogan… But this fight he is horrible….
I have Round 1 to Rua and Round 2 to Griffin…..
Shogun looks exhausted.
:O
DO YOU BELIEVE IN MIRACLES!!!!!
My UFC Fanboy @SS has never been happier. Pride is officially overrated….
Prides = steroids. Pride myth is now officially BUSTED!
You know what this means? Houston Alexander for next UFC champ!
Pride most definitely means steroids.
And this gives some respect to the TUFers…..
Very, very impressed with Griffin, but at the same time, pretty disappointed with Shogun.
Entertaining fight.
I think it is fair to bring up the issue of performance-enhancers in PRIDE now.
Frankly, right now, I don’t really care if Fedor signs or not.
UFC finds itself in an interesting situation. They have managed to kill PRIDE and the majority of the PRIDE fighters have either lost or looked terrible in the UFC cage. However, it was clear from Dana’s enthusiasm with Wanderlei that he wanted to see mega-matches with PRIDE vs. UFC fighters. However, none of the PRIDE guys are performing at a top level, therefore killing off some big money chances.
Forrest by Rear Naked Choke in Round 3.
I completely agree with Zach. These guys are coming to a regulated state with extra body fat…. They are slower…. They have less cardio…. And it just isn’t one of them…. It is a bunch of them….
YEAH go Forrest!!!! thankx
Eat that Rogan!!!
Now will all those sites that have Shogun ranked #1 drop him to the ranking he actually deserves? Forrest Griffin may be inconsistent but he is damn exciting, reminds me of a young Rampage…
I’ll reserve my final judgment on the PRIDE guys until the majority have fought more fights.
For every Rampage and Anderson Silva we get like 3 Nakamuras.
Rampage has won twice (including a win over Henderson). Nogueira looked shaky in his fight against Herring. Cro Cop is only 1-2. Shogun has lost. Nakamura lost. Werdum lost ugly to Arlovski. Herring is 1-2 and struggled to beat Brad Imes. It has not been a good year for the PRIDE fighters.
I hate being right about Shogun’s gas tank (or lack thereof).
I am astounded, not so much that Shogun lost, but that he gassed halfway through the second round. How does that happen!?!
I could care less about the main event right now. Honestly, I bought this PPV for the first 4 fights.
I just heard a rumour Mark Hunt is close to being signed with UFC? There’s a Pride guy I dont think would let the team down.
If Hunt could make 265, that would be interesting.
The Pride v UFC battle is a study in how television and video production can influence people to belive anything. Obviously fighters are fighters. There are no UFC or Pride fighters. But the Pride production was grand. Lighting, music, camera angles and other elements of the Pride shows were the most important factor in making the myth of the superior Pride fighter. Fans put their judgement and knowledge aside and let the Pride “magic” take over their minds.
I recall Hunt fighting in K-1 at around 230, he still looked overweight though and it was some years ago but his punching power was the same. If he has continued to improve his ground game over the past year he could bring something to the UFC they dont have, a true heavyweight that cannot be knocked out with scary striking power.
Video and production only goes so far.
The real issue is performance-enhancers, which is something I brought up in the Sportsline article about MMA’s drug culture. PRIDE was the virtual wild west with no real stringent drug testing policy. I even quoted an agent who claimed that PRIDE’s own doctors injected a fighter with pain killers.
This is not about production values or graphical smoke ‘n mirrors. The real smoke ‘n mirrors has to do with the drugs a lot of guys were likely using.
Chuck Liddell continues to look old.
His last “Young” fight was against Renato Babalu. He still had a lot of jump in his step. He appeared to slow down slightly for Ortiz, especially in the second round where he showed his biggest symptoms. These last two fights (Jackson & Jardine) make him look even older. A younger Liddell would have KO’d Jardine in the first.
If Keith Jardine wins, Dana White has no one to blame but himself for costing UFC millions of dollars and effectively killing off Liddell as a main eventer.
TUF>PRIDE
TUF>UFC
TUF>THE WORLD