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UFC 88 (9/6 Atlanta)
By Zach Arnold | September 6, 2008
Reports: Sherdog | MMA Junkie | MMA Mania | Bloody Elbow | Fightlinker | UGO
Plus, Steve Cofield on Kurt Pellegrino.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Thoughts after first 3 fights:
1. The crowd is horrible. Lots of booing. USA Chants. Booing Foreigners. I guess this is to be expected in the deep south.
2. Dong Hyun Kim vs. Matt Brown – Kim looked great in his first UFC fight. He looked extremely average in this fight. Brown showed heart (as always), but just doesn’t have enough talent to be a top level fighter. The judges got the decision right. Joe Rogan did a horrible job as commentator.
3. Nathan Marquardt vs. Martin Kampmann – Does Marquardt actually have a killer instinct? Wow! That was impressive. I hope he gets to avenge his “loss” to Leites next. Or perhaps a fight with the winner of Bisping/Leben? Kampmann, for a striker, has shown very little skills on his feet. He should really move down to 170.
4. Dan Henderson vs. Rousimar Palhares – Decent fight. Henderson was slipping all over the octagon. Something tells me a Henderson/Filho fight would end up very much like this one did. It was nice to see Henderson get a victory. If he lost here, his UFC career was basically over.
I didn’t think Evans was that unpopular.
Fantastic KO.
Well, Rashad just killed UFC’s mega-money run for December. 🙂 Good work, Rashad. Joe Silva’s about to grab the anti-acid right about now…
I got to quote Josh Gross from a certain place after Rashad KTFO’d Chuck.
those rednecks in atlanta about to go out lynching tonight
LOL
5. Tim Boetsch vs. Michael Patt – Stoppage was a little too early. Don’t think it would have changed the result. Boetsch a solid gate keeper, nothing more.
6. Rich Franklin vs. Matt Hamill – Franklin looked decent against Hamill. However, we all know he is a sitting duck against the better fighters of the division. Hamill’s wrestling just isn’t that good to make him a threat.
7. Rashad Evans vs. Chuck Liddell – First round was bad. Rashad ran the entire time. That KO punch was unbelievable. I have been saying Chuck has been getting old for a while. KO’s like that prove it. He is too old, lost his speed, and is no longer a threat in that division. It’s time for him to retire. Machida or Evans are now the #1 Contender.
On a side note, if Liddell is going to lose (cause he is old), it is much better for the UFC to see him get KO’d like that then lose a boring decision to Jardine. At least this will make a name out of Rashad Evans.
8. Jason Lambert vs. Jason MacDonald – Is McDonald ever in a boring fight? Not the best fighter, but time after time, he is fun to watch. Time for Lambert to leave the UFC.
Chuck may be old, but the reason he lost is that he was clearly over confident and sloppy. In his past fights he has been letting his hands down and Rashad with lightning put him out. I love that it was silent in the arena after that — and this match in my opinion saved the card. Glad to see Hendo get the win. Otherwise, another average UFC product.
does anybody know what the hell that drink was that hendo was drinking after the fight?
So Rashad has now beaten Liddell, Bisping, Keith Jardine (in an “exhibition” along with a bunch of bad heavyweights), Stephan Bonnar, Jason Lambert, etc etc etc. He’s undefeated. How exactly would he not be the #1 contender right now?
The drink appears to be Fruit Punch flavored Gleukos. His trainer went to substantial effort to ensure that you got a good look at it 😀
Only one thing to do with Rashad, put him up against Lyoto.
If they run Rampage/Forrest II (and honestly, why not?), Evans/Lyoto on the undercard for title fight status would be solid.
thanks bro, had a crappy tv and couldn’t see it
Rashad is ahead of Machida in terms of a title shot. I am a fan of Machida, but I just don’t understand places like Sherdog.com having him ranked #2 in the world. It just doesn’t make sense.
Griffin/Evans should be in December.
Machida should get the next shot after that. Either way, having too many title challengers is never a bad thing.
I don’t think Liddell is done by any means. I just think that Evans announced tonight how good he really is.
I’m embarrassed about the crowd. There’s no reason to collectively chant your country’s name simply because there is a foreigner in the ring. It just makes me cringe, I can’t stand it.
Anyone know if Kim’s translator grossly mistranslated him again?
Some of the bloggers out there are plain idiotic. Somebody was dogging on Palhares’s rudimentary shooting techniques, yet fails to mention that Henderson has a fantastic sprawl, and he’s a god damn Olympic wrestler. Give me a break. I thought Toquinho did fairly well in the face of some very tough adversity in Henderson.
Dong Hyun Kim won. If you think Brown got a 10-8 round in the second, you should probably stop believing your scores altogether. 10-8 means pure domination to the point that someone is about to lose. Brown won the round, but 10-8 second round? No, sorry.
Lambert should be done. He’s just too technically unsound to compete at this level.
Brown’s 2nd round was 10-9. It was a clear win, but it wasn’t that dominant.
Incidentally, Tohquino translates loosely as tree stump. 🙂 I laughed when Goldberg disclosed that…