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UFC 11/21 Las Vegas, Nevada
By Zach Arnold | November 21, 2009
Venue: Mandalay Bay Events Center
Broadcast: Pay Per View
Dark matches
- Lightweights (155 pounds): George Sotiropoulos vs. Jason Dent
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Brock Larson vs. Brian Foster
- Middleweights (185 pounds): Kendall Grove vs. Jake Rosholt
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Ben Saunders vs. Marcus Davis
Main card
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Amir Sadollah vs. Phil Baroni
- Welterweights (170 pounds): Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson
- Light Heavyweights (205 pounds): Tito Ortiz vs. Forrest Griffin
Event results: MMA Opinion | USA Today | Sherdog | MMA Torch | Bloody Elbow
Someone want to explain by Marcus Davis vs. Ben Saunders, which aired on Spike TV, is on the PPV?
Reaction
“Tito is startlingly slow. It looks like he’s fighting submerged in the same invisible liquid that suspends Ed Herman in the cage.
No more talk about Tito’s success not passing. Today, guys can use butterfly, wallwalk, just get back up if you don’t get dominant position.
Two minutes until we hear about whatever the latest Tito Ortiz injury is. Bring on the neck injury.
Tito can’t counter, and his takedowns are always go forward and explode, so throwing volume at him kills him. Easy pickings at this point.
Also, Glenn Trowbridge’s Ortiz scorecard reaffirms why he’s the most dangerous man in MMA since the evaporation of Dalby Shirley. (scores were 30-27, 29-28 for Forrest, Trowbridge had it 29-28 for Tito.)”
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 30 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The most doomed card. If Amir loses to Baroni I don’t even know.
This is an ugly card. Its 2009; what is Phil Baroni doing on a featured UFC PPV bout?
I think Karo/Hazelett is a great matchup.
Its a decent fight between a drug addict and a midlevel gatekeeper type that could easily turn into a lay and pray fight depending on Karo’s mood these days. Its not the kind of thing that makes me want to spend money.
Of course not…it would be a nice UFN fight. I’m looking forward to it nonetheless. I always just watch at bars for free.
Luiz Cane vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira is on the main card as well, despite not being announced yet.
This went from card of the year to one of the worst. Still should have a few fun fights to watch, but injuries really killed this card.
What’s up with Joe Rogan’s head? It has doubled in mass over the past couple of years.
Despite this card really getting ripped apart… The first 5 fights they have shown have all been fun to watch…
1) George Sotiropoulos – Can they finally give this guy a quality opponent? It seems like he has been given a really easy start to his UFC career…. And it’s not like he is a young fighter….
2) Grove vs. Rosholt – That was Jake’s fight to win and he completely left his arm out there. It wasn’t like it was a quick submission either. That arm was out there for a good 15 seconds….
3) Brock Larson & Marcus Davis – Both of their careers are basically over. I wouldn’t be shocked to see Brock cut from the UFC.
4) Amir Sadollah – Needs to work on his power….
Ortiz/Griffin all comes down to how the 1st Round was scored. Ortiz won Round 2. Griffin won round 3. The first round was close. Personally, I had Ortiz winning it, but it could have gone either way.
I predict no matter who wins, people will complain online.
“Forrest came out with a lot of heart. He had nothing to lose. He had a broken foot. … I wasn’t able to spar at all… Forrest put on a great show tonight. … I had a bulging disc, C-11, or C-6 and 7 (crowd boos)…
“I want to see somebody fight with a cracked skull. I came in and I stepped in with a cracked skull. That’s why I’ve got a black eye this whole time. I step in and fight to give you guys a show. You guys don’t like the show? … I want to see someone else step in here and do the same (stuff).”
Like 105, there were a lot of fun fights between not-so-big-name guys on the undercard, but the co-main events were kind of weak.
Brian Foster reminded me of when NBA rookies (like Brandon Jennings) play out of their minds and score 40+ points out of nowhere. He could not have fought better, and by the end Brock Larson was grotesquely busted up.
Ben Saunders was an easy pick to make given his reach advantage, but I didn’t expect such a savage beatdown in the clinch. And Rogerio Nogueira didn’t even have to use his very underrated clinch very much, he just destroyed Luis Cane with clean punches. Hopefully he will finally get some credit as the top 5 LHW he is, especially after the generous consideration given to Luis Cane (and Gegard Mousasi) in most rankings systems
“Someone want to explain by Marcus Davis vs. Ben Saunders, which aired on Spike TV, is on the PPV?”
Because Spike aired every undercard fight except the Uno fight, which went to a decision. They usually show at least 2 undercard fights per PPV to fill time, which means you’re guaranteed a repeat.
So, I’m guessing it’s some combination of:
A) They didn’t have time to show the Uno fight.
B) It was boring.
C) They’re showing the Saunders/Davis fight for the people who either didn’t watch Spike or don’t get Spike (like the international viewers).
They ended up doubling-up on three fights by the time it was over. They were all good fights, but I think I may stop watching the one hour prelim show in the future, because then I end up watching fights twice :/ Maybe I’ll DVR the prelim show, and if I’m still feeling like more, then I’ll watch it afterward and skip the commercials and any fights that I saw on the PPV.
Ortiz was never winning that fight.
Marcus Davis looked old. Glenn Trowbridge probably writes Tito fanfic in his spare time.
Glad to see Lil Nog expose the vastly over-rated Luiz Cane. This guy fought Lambert, Cantwell and Soko (who has looked to be a total flash in the pan, time and again) – and if he was under the banner of any other company he would be given the same scrutiny that people should have been giving to fighters like Kang, Alvarez and Santiago and no one would have been ranking him as a top 10 LHW.
Too bad Lil Nog probably won’t fight Spider or Lyoto – so his winning won’t solve any problems.
And bye-bye Tito Ortiz’s drawing power w/ next to no rub to Forrest.
Another one bites the dust….
@ Icemuncher
ESPN in the UK always shows the prelims before they show the PPV’s.
Maybe they can let Wanderlei move back up to 205 so he can deposit Tito’s head in the 5th row…because if they rematched now, as shot as Wandy is – he’d cave Tito’s head in.
Paulo Thiago vs. Jacob Volkmann ended up being a damn good, back-and-forth, very close grappling battle with plenty of big shifts in momentum. I also enjoyed the display of great Jiu-Jitsu skills from George Sotiropoulos, and Antonio Rogerio Nogueira’s impressive debut.
The end result of Josh Koscheck vs. Anthony Johnson was exactly what it should have been for a fight with someone who has Koscheck’s ground skills going against someone who has Johnson’s ground skills.
Koscheck’s decision to stand up with Johnson for so long as part of some misguided machismo could have easily gotten him knocked out, and it makes no sense in the context of trying to win the fight, given how good Johnson’s stand-up is and how mediocre his ground game is.
As for why Koscheck would do such a thing, it’s no mystery. The UFC often rewards that kind of behavior with their kickboxing-happy Fight of the Night Award bonuses, and what do you know? Koscheck vs. Johnson was determined by UFC management to be the Fight of the Night at UFC 106.
Also, Tito Ortiz is now 0-3-1 in his last four fights and should not be put anywhere near the main event of a $45 pay-per-view event unless he goes on a long winning streak.
That was a fun show, because it’s going to shut some people up who need to be shut up.
It’s going to shut Tito Ortiz and his fans up from thinking his name value from 3 years ago is deserving to walk into instant #1 contendership. Of course it was the same Tito Ortiz fight you always see, where he parties in the Octagon like its MMA circa 1999. And again with the damned excuses “Wah, I got hurt training even though I told you Friday I was in the best shape ever!” I picked him to win because I didn’t have faith in Forrest’s mental state, but Forrest didn’t freak out when he got taken down so he looked fine. And his FRACTURED SKULL THAT COULD BE FATAL IF HIT AGAIN is the funniest excuse since Mike Tyson claiming he won a fight with a broken back. I hate Tito Ortiz. Go re-enlist Jenna in porn and go be a suitcase pimp, because you suck in the sport you peaked in 8 years ago.
It’s going to shut up the new Dan Hardy bandwagon fans. Koscheck calling out that boneheaded decision to apparently give a guy with one of the least impressive records in the WW division a title shot hopefully makes Dana realize how horrible of an idea it is and makes Koscheck-Hardy first, where if Hardy wins at least he’ll have beaten a bigger name than freakin’ Marcus Davis and Mike “Human Nyquil” Swick. There’s a huge difference between being able to be undefeated and fighting respected names. Josh Koscheck is all kinds of awesome. I want to be like him when I grow up from my prolonged adolescence.
It’s going to shut up the Luis Cane nuthuggers who were honestly calling for him to get the next title shot. He never faced top competition. He did tonight. And he got destroyed. Time to exit his bandwagon.
It’s going to shut up the idiots who pretend like Marcus Davis is a legit top 10 WW. What happened to the good old days when you would have to get wins against at least a name or two to get ranked rather than just string a bunch of wins against people nobody cares about? I’m sure he has a job 4 life like Wanderlei because he pops crowds, but he looked horrible out there. Keep him on the UK cards, preferably on the untelevised undercard where I don’t have to see him.
It should also be noted Trowbridge gave Baroni a round in that absolute 3 round destruction. He’s another boxing judge who knows nothing about MMA. I can excuse a bad decision from one of them if you have a ground fight they don’t know what they’re watching, but clearly Baroni got his (New York Bad) ass handed to him. He gave him the 1st round because of the knockdown. He needs to be informed that this isn’t boxing. Baroni’s face was a mess after round one and the one knockdown was all he did. That doesn’t deserve a round win.
Ortiz on his feet looked so slow and so old. That last round was 10 – 8 to me. Ortiz did nothing at all. Tito shouldnt be main eventing on PPV’s!!
In all fairness they had their backs against the wall with the main event. Outside of cancel the entire thing (which would have put out a lot of fighters), they did the best they could in the circumstances.
Josh Koscheck to the casual fans eye just put on a good performance. To a hardcore fans eye, he really showcased two major things about the UFC matchmaking. One with his fight, the other with his words….
1) Joe Silva has a good idea of how fighters match up. He is cageside for most fights and has a good eye for it. Doesn’t mean he can predict every fight, but he kind of knows what will be even fights. With that said, he kind of threw Anthony Johnson to the wolves by having him fight Koscheck. Unless Johnson KO’d Koscheck within two minutes, he had no chance in that fight. He just isn’t at the leve of Koscheck. Me thinks that this was a little payback for Johnson missing weight by so much last time. Same thing is happening to Mike Pierce by getting Jon Fitch. Pierce lay’d and prayed in an extremely boring fight for his last performance…. Feeding him to Fitch is payback.
2) Koscheck really revealed how the UFC matchmaking works when he said Hardy had never faced a fighter like him. This to me is the biggest unspoken issue with the UFC matchmaking. They did it with Kenny Florian and now they did it with Dan Hardy. Two guys with decent but not great takedown defense, are completely kept away from the high level wrestlers of the division in order to push them towards a title shot. Hardy & Florian still had to win their fights, but they really should have to face a Koscheck or Maynard first before getting those title shots.
I’m kind of hoping for a Paulo Thiago vs. Josh Koscheck rematch so Josh can revenge his loss. If he does that, he could be the next challenger for the title. Plus, I think people forget that his fight with GSP was actually pretty darn close and he has really been the only guy to get him on his back with a good level of success.
Way to focus on the positives, Mark.
The positives aren’t anything to trumpet. It wasn’t a huge news event show. The huge news was Tito isn’t much better off than Randy Couture.
-Forrest is on reserve to fight Rashad if Rampage doesn’t come back. If Rampage comes back they probably have him fight the loser of that fight or the loser of Shogun-Machida maybe.
-Nogueira will probably fight Jon Jones unless Hammill upsets him, but either fight would be entertaining. But unless Shogun beats Machida he’s just pretty much a PPV spoiler since he’s good enough to run through the division and refuse to face Machida.
-Koscheck gets stuck where he always is: the #3 contender. Maybe he’ll fight #2 contender Jon Fitch for the next title shot but I have a feeling they’ll just give it to Fitch when he beats….Mike Pierce? Seriously, they made that fight? Well when Dan Hardy is #1 contender I guess nothing is surprising. Or maybe…
-Thiago maybe gets put against Koscheck again, but that rematch might be too soon. If so, I think maybe Alves would be a good fight for him. If he wins that put him in a #1 contender fight. Or the comedy Matt Hughes option.
Why does Paulo Thiago need to fight Josh Koscheck at all? Let him build a run first then make the fight. No need to rush thing’s at Welterweight.
Josh Koscheck need’s to Rematch Thiago Alves. That Would be a step up.
I really think the time has come for Dana & his boy Silva to SERIOUSLY consider creating a sort of “SPECIAL ADDED ATTRACTION” slot for future cards. A spot in which “past it” fighters like Tito, Couture, Coleman, Liddell, Hughes, even your Baronis & now Davis’ of the organization can meet up with others of their ilk in interesting “name” bouts rather than attempting to compete with younger, stronger, quicker fighters.
Let’s face it, it’s time has come.
Kos versus Hardy should happen before Hardy gets a title shot. I still want Alves vs Fitch for the #1 contender bout that almost happened. Alves is quite possibly the future of the division, and will keep improving with time. Best option is they sign Shields and can make him and GSP happen in 2010.