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UFC 10/24 Staples Center (Los Angeles)
By Zach Arnold | October 24, 2009
Event reports: Observer | OC Register | USA Today | Sherdog | MMA Torch | Bloody Elbow | Yahoo Sports | MMA Junkie
Dark matches
Heavyweights: Stefan Struve vs. Chase Gormley
Light Heavyweights: Kyle Kingsbury vs. Razak Al-Hassan
Light Heavyweights: Ryan Bader vs. Eric Schafer
Middleweights: Jorge Rivera vs. Rob Kimmons
Middleweights: Yushin Okami vs. Chael Sonnen
Heavyweights: Antoni Hardonk vs. Pat Barry
Main card
Welterweights: Anthony “Rumble” Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
Lightweights: Joe “Daddy” Stevenson vs. Spencer Fisher
Lightweights: Gleison Tibau vs. Josh Neer
Heavyweights: Cain Velasquez vs. Ben Rothwell
UFC Light Heavyweight Championship: Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Shogun
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 148 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Buentello/Duffee? That’s a strange fight to list as one you’re really super looking forward too. Like being stoked for Neer/Tibau.
Like I’ve said before, “unpredictability~!” is a crutch in this sport for a lot of writers when it comes to lousy matchmaking. Shogun ain’t playing the part of Matt Serra at UFC 67 Saturday night. I do think its more likely that it will end up a decision than a KO though. I think Shogun gasses in the middle rounds and ends up dragging the fight out by disengaging and just trying to survive while Lyoto dances.
It’s not that fight that I’m super-stoked about. I was just listing what most likely looks like the 5 fights on the main card. It’s the other 4 fights that are great.
There’s 5 top 5 fighters in Penn, Fitch, Alves, Mir, and Florian. As far as the 5 major divisions are concerned, that’s 20% of the world’s top 5 talent all on one card.
Not to mention Diego Sanchez who comes in at #6 for LW according to the rankings at this website, but would probably be favored over most of the top 5 LWs.
Also, it’s not “unpredictability”. The fact is that we don’t know how good Machida truly is. Comparing him to GSP or A. Silva at this point is premature. He’s looked great, but he’s only beaten one cream of the crop fighter. Shogun is a very good test.
I mean the other 4 fights are solid, but that fifth one is just filler. Prospect against lumpy dude. I’m not all that excited.
As for “unpredictability”, I agree fully that Machida is not necessarily proven yet. He may very well fall short in the future against better competition. The problem is that I don’t see Shogun as approaching that level of competition. He’s got two modes of attack; Either he swarms you standing (probably not the best way to get to a counter puncher) or he shoots and tries for GNP (better wrestlers of course, having failed). I think for him to win would be a fluke, regardless of the level that Machida has been “tested” at up to this point. I think that’s a primary issue in promoting the fight, too.
“Buentello/Duffee? That’s a strange fight to list as one you’re really super looking forward too.”
What’s not to like?
An up and coming but untested young stud versus a grizzled veteran of the sport. That’s exactly the kind of fight I love to watch. Is Duffee the real deal? Can Buentello run his UFC record to 4-1? We’re about to find out.
What’s not to like?
Buentello’s a chubby guy who never beat a top ten heavyweight and has never been loved or cared about by fans. Duffee is a prospect who’s making a small leap in competition to face The Headhunter. Its not a terrible fight, no. Not any worse or better than Buentello’s fight with that chubby M-1 guy who got busted for roids from Affliction. But its not the kind of fight that makes a event into the fight card of the year.
It’s a potential fight card of the year because the only other card this year that had the same level of talent was UFC 100.
Duffee/Buentello has nothing to do with it, outside of providing an additional solid fight to an already great set of fights.
“But its not the kind of fight that makes a event into the fight card of the year.”
You’ll get no argument from me there. I just think it is always interesting to see really hyped prospects take their first step up in competition. And yes, I was also fired up to see Buentello fight Baby Fedor.
I also think you are selling Buentello short. He is a perfect gatekeeper. He can’t beat the A listers, but he smashes B listers. We are about to find out if Duffee is really an A lister or if he is just another impressive physical specimen with limited abilities.
The Okami train has just been derailed by Chael Sonnen.
Hopefully this will end all the mewling about him being on prelims and being ‘passed over’ for a title shot.
@ Steve: A-Men to that!
Highlight of the night. Okami fans finally being STFU. Now go wn me some money Shogun.
Rothwell looking as confused as I am right now.
And now he’s looking angry.
Big win for Cain either way.
No way Ben was going to win that fight…but at least *let* him lose.
I’m not thrilled with the way that the Rua vs Machida fight was called. I do think that Rua won, but the call was ridiculous.
I saw 1 for Rua, 3 for Machida, 2 was a draw or tossup, 4 the same, 5 Rua took, but none of them were particular blowout rounds, and every strike that Rua attempted to throw was a “wicked blow” “staggering” etc even when it didn’t even seem to connect from the camera’s perspective.
Official decision says:
48-47,48-47,48-47 Machida.
Looks like the judges agreed with me and put the throwup rounds with Machida.
I just read that Machida won via questionable decision.
Is this correct?
More questionable if you were one of the goons calling the fight.
Almost every round was too close.
Wow the judges fucked it. This is a bigger sham than the Aoki and Hansen fight.
That has to be the worst decision ever.
I just jumped on a few minutes ago to the live updates on USA Today, and those guys think Rua won and are somewhat surprised at the scores.
My goddamned dog woke us up and needed to go outside, and now I’m wide awake. 🙁
Shogun BEAT that ass. It’s shit like this that makes you question the honesty of the judges.
Horrible decision.
As usual, watching it with the comentarry on would lead you to believe that one fighter (in this case Rua) had it in the bag.
It was a really, really close fight. Far too close to say it was a robbery or a bed decision. Couple of rounds could have easily been draws.
I scored it a draw, 48-47 Shogun if I was forced to pick a winner.
The truth is that it could have gone either way. Cue three weeks of ‘robbery’ talk before everyone starts moaning about Couture getting a title shot for decisioning Vera.
“a tactical battle” is I’m sure how some will put it. Instead, it was two guys terrified to engage. One threw leg kicks and had the announcers constantly calling action for him. The other guy threw leg kicks to relative silence. The fight could have been a draw; I don’t care. There was no question in my mind we were going 5 full rounds coming in and it was that way throughout the fight.
Entire night on the main card was as expected. Only fight that surprised me on the whole show was Hardonk/Berry. Most everyone won and didn’t show me any growth in doing so. Sonnen is still a gatekeeper, Cain is still too wild, Bader looks like he’s chasing bonuses, Joe Stevenson is still a one trick pony, and the need for Machida to be exciting ended when the belt got put on him. Felt like every lame-o HBO PPV that shouldn’t have been a PPV that I’ve suffered through in my life.
I don’t know that we need to question the honesty of the judges.
Maybe the AC needs to put an end to the antiquated notion that ringside judging with obstructed views through black fencing can be even remotely as accurate as viewing a clean camera angle.
That was a very close fight. I had rounds 1 & 5 clear for Shogun but 2,3,4 were very close.
Shogun would have won under Pride rules, but you gotta score round by round.
Rua was robbed there.
Hell, I think by the expression on Machida’s face when he was declared the winner was that of “holy shit, I won?!”
Shogun dominated Machida and could have been credibly given all five rounds.
Machida getting the win is a joke and embarrassment for the sport.
None of those judges should judge another MMA event again.
Apart from the 5th I don’t think anyone cleanly won any round. There wasn’t enough action nor attempts to inflict damage to lean it one way or the other. The announcers I think had a huge impact in how people saw the fight. No question based on the reactions.
It was close fight but Shogun was more aggressive, landed more shots and in general controlled the fight. When ever they clinched he broke with a nice elbow or hook, worked the legs more to better effect, landed harder and more frequent body shots and over all did more damage. He also landed WAY more knees in the clinch.
Robbery.
Just to throw more wood on the fire; no doubt in my mind Anderson Silva beats Machida if they fight now. None. Shogun is technically limited as a muay thai fighter; always extremely linear going in and out on guys. Anderson is technically superior and I think taller and longer to boot.
I scored Rounds 1, 2 and 3 for Machida and 4 and 5 for Rua.
Still, the moral victory is Rua’s. He put to rest any doubts about his cardio endurance. And he punctured Machida’s aura of invincibility.
I hope the UFC doesn’t resort to an immediate rematch – I hate those. But a rematch down the line may be called for.
The announcers are likewise sitting behind black fencing at ground level next to the cage. Unlike the judges, they’re both sitting in the same spot, and they’re paid by the promotion instead of the commission.
Shogun was absolutely screwed.
Awful, embarrassing, terrible call. Dana White should make a formal apology on the part of the UFC and take measures to improve the scoring, and make the judging system more transparent.
This is absolutely becoming boxing now, and it’s disgusting.
Yeah, what got me the most about the main event was they once again were calling a fight for the wrong guy. It was a very close fight and they acted like Shogun was dominating.
Jeremy, that’s also why Rogan/Goldberg inexplicably get things wrong as well.
I don’t think people are as influenced by the announcers as naysayers may think, especially when Rogan is notoriously well-known for biased commentating. If he were so influential, fans would not think this.
Rogan clearly ignored some of Machida’s strikes as he is wont to do once he picks a winner, but depsite that, I believe that Shogun controlled the fight/octagon, landed more strikes, did more damage, and was the aggressor throughout.
If Rua was given the victory, do you think more than a handful of people would even venture to say “Machida was robbed”? I think not.
Yes, actually. It was a “Pride guy” vs a “UFC guy.” I expect that had the decision gone the other way, it would be the other group whining.
In my fantasy world it was 49-48 Rua, but that score was never going on anyone’s scorecard. I’m neither shocked nor dismayed by the decision rendered, but I am annoyed by how bad the call was. I would have been equally annoyed if the decision was the other way (in fact I wrote my post above and waited for the decision expecting it would narrowly go to Rua).
I really can’t imagine anyone seeing that for Machida. The fight was only close insofar as there wasn’t a lot of action. But what action there was came by way of Shogun’s legs and knees.
That was a robbery. What a shame.
If Rua was given the victory, that’s probably not the case as the entire fight wasn’t spent by the announce crew talking only about the things Machida did, obviously. The talk instead would be that it was very close and could have gone either way, and a Rua win is perfectly acceptable.
That was a heck of a chess match. For what it’s worth, I had Machida winning Round 1, Shogun winning Round 2, Machida winning Round 3, Shogun winning Round 4, and Shogun winning Round 5, which means I had the fight scored 48 to 47 in favor of Shogun.
Joe Rogan’s most interesting lines of the night:
-saying that Demi Moore looked like Ozzy Osbourne
-saying that Demi Moore sucked Ashton Kutcher’s blood every night
-calling the booing fans “L.A. douchebags”
-and last but certainly not least, right after Mike Goldberg read a prepared anti-piracy statement, Rogan said, “You can’t stop the Internet!”
I’m typically not for instant rematches, but that title fight warrants one.
PLEASE guys. The commentators somehow skewed our collective conscience, and because we’re sheep we were led – incorrectly – to *believe* Shogun won?
From what I can tell, 15,000 fans in the crowd thought Shogun won as well, and none of them could hear Rogan or Goldberg.
This was an absolute embarrassment on the UFC and MMA as a whole. It’s on par, or worse, than Matt Hammill losing in the UK.
LA douchebags are the natural enemy of Bostonians, everyone knows that. It’s particularly difficult for the people from Boston who go to LA to pursue a career as an LA douchebag, such as Rogan.
“It’s on par, or worse, than Matt Hammill losing in the UK.”
It’s worse. Some people were arguing then that Bisping truly won that match. From the end of that match and still to now it gets debated as to who truly won the Bisping/Hamill match. But here we have no one believing that Machida won that fight.
I personally had the fight 50-45 for Shogun. Only the third round was questionable but Lyoto lost the little flurry that he intiated there so I couldn’t give him that round.
This will definitely go down as one of the worst decisions in history. Right now (my memory sucks) I think I have it as the worst in my book.
I don’t ever listen to the commentary during fights. Shogun set the pace. What pace there was. Machida was hurt, flat footed and refused to engage. Shogun clearly won 1, 2, 4 and 5. 3 was a toss up. Awful decision. Did the announcers call it for Shogun?
Machida shouldn’t be allowed another fight before he fights Shogun again.
I had 1-3 for Machida and 4-5 for Shogun. I would like to see a rematch; Shogun’s kicks really fucked Machida up. Shogun did a great job of countering Machida’s karate low kicks with super hard Thai-style low kicks. Machida was having a hard timing getting any movement by the later rounds because his legs were so hurt. Shogun showed a great chin as well, because Machida timed him and landed a lot of good right hands that didn’t seem to really faze the challenger. I wonder if Machida broke a rib? He had a giant welt on his midsection from one of Shogun’s kicks..Lyoto’s takedown defense is phenomenal.
I thought that Shogun won the fight, 48 to 47, but come on, it’s not a worse decision than Bisping-Hamill. In that fight, there were 2 (out of 3) rounds that Hamill clearly won and which were not even close, and yet Bisping got the decision. In the Machida/Shogun fight, at least we’re talking about close rounds in Round 1, Round 2, and Round 3. The last two rounds were pretty clearly won by Shogun, but reasonable people can (and do) have all kinds of different scores for those first three rounds because they were close. There’s a big difference between that and Bisping-Hamill, where it came down to rounds that shouldn’t have even been close.
“I’m typically not for instant rematches, but that title fight warrants one.”
Yeah..I’m sure lots of people want to spend their money on seeing that again.
Well, given that the fans were promised on both the Countdown special and the Spike TV pre-show that Machida vs. Shogun would be a stand-up battle, it was nice that there were none of those annoying submission attempts or wrestling exchanges… (sarcasm intended)
Rounds 1-3 for Machida. Were you steady taking bong hits the entire time? Shogun picked Machida apart the first two rounds. Machida had one nice flurry in round 3 and Shogun still landed the biggest shot in it.
I hope this takes some of the mystique from Machida. Also I don’t ever want to hear that Shogun is washe up again. Can the hater please admit that his knee was clearly hurt vs Forrest and that the Coleman fight was his ring rust fight.
For what it is worth, I did not see any of the fights….so I do not know if it was justified or not.
On the down side, I am very sad to see Yoshida lose…I had such high hopes for him!
Just watched it. Wasnt a great fight but Shogun won the fight no doubt. Not sure how you sell a rematch as far too often nobody was ready to engage.