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UFC Fight Night 20 in Virginia (1/11 Patriot Center)

By Zach Arnold | January 11, 2010

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Television: Spike TV

Dark matches

Main card

Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 29 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

29 Responses to “UFC Fight Night 20 in Virginia (1/11 Patriot Center)”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    A decent card but nothing major. The two most important things are:

    1) If Gray Maynard wins, he should get a title shot. I think he would be 7-0 at that point, including revenging his TUF loss.

    2) I expect the winner of Lawlor/Simpson to get a huge hike in competition level.

  2. Alan Conceicao says:

    The price is unbeatable, imo.

    Maynard/Diaz is a solid keep busy fight Maynard should win without much trouble, but Diaz will put in enough effort trying to win that it shouldn’t be a drawnout and awful affair. Amir is gonna get his clock cleaned. Efrain is a fantastic prospect; I love to see him fight. Lawler is a good message board poster, so I’m rooting for him even if I might go wash dishes instead of watching him.

  3. Detective Roadblock says:

    There are 11 fights on the card. I’d really like to see UFC run two of these per month. One week it’s live the next you see the taped dark matches and then you have weekly fights like ESPN does boxing. Actually like Tuesday Night Fights was on USA since Espn runs a season and is dark half the year.

  4. Mark says:

    What’s the deal with Leben on the undercard? Is he leaving?

  5. Alan Conceicao says:

    There are 11 fights on the card. I’d really like to see UFC run two of these per month. One week it’s live the next you see the taped dark matches and then you have weekly fights like ESPN does boxing. Actually like Tuesday Night Fights was on USA since Espn runs a season and is dark half the year.

    Better yet: Take the semi-main from this show (Efrain’s fight) and have another live show in two weeks using half these fights. Use a live swing bout and run the undercard using local guys on one fight contracts that feature options for more bouts. Suddenly, the future talent base for guys like Bellator and Strikeforce would be completely gone. But…not gonna happen.

  6. 45 Huddle says:

    It wouldn’t actually be bad to see Scott Coker working in the UFC if Strikeforce went south. Have him and Reed Harris be the “weekly” show guys. The UFC can do 2 shows per month (as recommended above), with half of them being live, half of them being from the undercard of the previous week… That would mean Harris and Coker would each be responsible for about 12 to 13 shows a year. Let White and Silva deal with the numbered events.

    The current MMA environment means that fighters are being brought in before they are ready just to block the competition from getting their hands on them first. I understand why it needs to be done, but it really hurts the long term growth of the sport compared to an environment where good prospects can be properly brought along at the right pace.

    Okay… Enough of my fantasy world… Back to reality…

    And Zuffa is now taking legal action against bars (and making it publicly known) for playing UFC’s without paying for them. I actually agree with that tactic…

    I also don’t see the problem with going after bigger websites who stream the events. You can’t stop it, but you can certainly minimize it.

    Now, if they start going after individuals…. That is about the dumbest thing they can do. I think they would be going after their own fanbase, people who might buy some of the PPV’s but not all of them. Sue them once, and you lose them as a customer for life. Is it really worth it? Probably not.

  7. Mark says:

    As we’ve seen with the music industry, even going after small time piracy distributors makes them into the bad guy and turns people off. Those streaming sites (from what little I know about them so correct me if I’m wrong) are all user oriented content so it’s not like they set themselves up to pirate copyrighted material from the getgo like Napster or torrents.

    And going after bars for not paying the licensing fee? Yes, they’re in their right to do it, but come on they’re suing a small bar for $640,000, that is nearly as bad as going after individual streamers. I get it that this is their blanket statement to scare others away, but that’s still going to piss people off.

    As we’ve seen when they offer a quality show people are happy to pay for it. So instead of blaming internet piracy and bars, how about they cut out bullshit like Couture vs. Coleman? I hope as many people as possible stream that crap in protest. There’s no doubt they lose revenue from piracy, but with piracy you have to ask how many people were going to actually buy the show if it wasn’t available for free. And plus they’re much better off than the music industry because watching MMA is a million times better on your television in clear quality without lags so they are always more likely to be purchased.

  8. Ultimo Santa says:

    Rogan said it best during the Penn/Sanchez fight (in response to Goldberg saying that Maynard might be next in line for a title fight) “Yeah, but who are you EXCITED to see BJ Penn fight?”

    Gray Maynard is the Jake Shields of 155. He’s boring as all hell to watch, listen to and look at.

    And he brings nothing to the table that Sanchez didn’t.

    If the UFC wants to test how many PPV buys BJ Penn can draw with literally NO other reason for the fan to purchase, they should run Maynard vs. Penn (kind of like when they ran Anderson Silva vs. Patrick Cote).

  9. Oh Yeah says:

    “And he brings nothing to the table that Sanchez didn’t.”

    A simple and incorrect statement.

  10. Alan Conceicao says:

    I want to see Penn fight guys who can beat him. Frankie Edgar is less likely to beat him than Gray Maynard, ergo, I’d rather see Maynard fight him.

  11. Alan Conceicao says:

    We’re like 5 minutes from Blackburn/Sadollah and I still can’t believe they made that fight. Do they want to cut Amir?

  12. Cory says:

    aw man that shitty Bad Blackburn showed up tonight

  13. Cory says:

    Compared to the Brad Blackburn who shows up every so often and looks unstoppable

  14. spacedog says:

    Man Joe and Goldie are terrible. It’s like they pick a a winner and just hype everything they do irrespective of what’s actually happening in the fight.
    They have zero ability to make a fight sound exciting.

  15. 45 Huddle says:

    Wouldn’t want to be a judge for either the Maynard or Simpson fights. Very tough fights to score.

    Maynard is like Fitch in that they both suck the life out of the shows they are on.

  16. The Gaijin says:

    BJ Penn would absolutely beatdown Gray Maynard…that would be a sanctioned death sentence.

  17. 45 Huddle says:

    I’m more interested in seeing Penn vs. Edgar at this point. But if Maynard gets passed up, that would be total BS. He might be more boring then Holiday at the in-laws, but he is 7-0 in the UFC and deserves his shot at the title.

  18. Steve4192 says:

    “We’re like 5 minutes from Blackburn/Sadollah and I still can’t believe they made that fight. Do they want to cut Amir?”

    Nice call.

    PS – I’m normally not one to bust balls over bad fight picks, but you gave me a heaping helping of shit after Dos Santos-Yvel, so I figured I owed you one.

  19. Fluyid says:

    Alan has been under attack lately.

  20. Alan Conceicao says:

    To be fair, Brad Blackburn beat someone that is decent in the last decade, thus my confusion over his ability to more competently compete than Yvel.

  21. The Gaijin says:

    After that fight, they just can’t justify putting Maynard in there with Penn. He was (apparently, or so it seemed) afraid to use his wrestling to take Diaz down and risk getting subbed and that lead to standing and trading with Diaz and getting hit waaay too much.

    If he’s afraid of Nate Diaz on the ground, he’s going to be scared stiff to take BJ down and play in that world and he will get completely obliterated on the feet. That fight makes no sense to make after watching last night’s event. Zero.

  22. Jonathan Snowden says:

    Note to Efrain Escudero: You are not Renzo Gracie.

    http://www.heavy.com/post/note-to-efrain-escudero-there-is-only-one-renzo-gracie-2823

  23. Alan Conceicao says:

    After that fight, they just can’t justify putting Maynard in there with Penn. He was (apparently, or so it seemed) afraid to use his wrestling to take Diaz down and risk getting subbed and that lead to standing and trading with Diaz and getting hit waaay too much.

    He has the best win/loss record at the moment and BJ’s losses at LW or WW come to guys who wrestle him down. I get that he didn’t look incredible (it was a terrible boxing match actually that had me looking up the weather online instead of watching), but I still think he’s most worthy.

  24. 45 Huddle says:

    Alan might want to stop making fight prediction for a little while. Or continue while I set up an account to bet against your pick to make a profit. Lol

    Amir continues to impress me. He lacks power in his strikes, but te guy can fight. And his fights arefub to watch.

    Gray Maynard and Nate Diaz both came across as immature, sloppy fighters last night. Both of their stocks dropped big time. Maynard could have thrown so many kicks to Diaz’s front leg. He could have used the cage to battle him in the clinch. Instead, he threw horrible looping punches for 15 minutes. Crap fight.

  25. The Gaijin says:

    He’s almost definitely the most “worthy” but man that’s not saying a whole hell of a lot. As 45 said, his stock dropped BIG TIME with that turd.

  26. 45 Huddle says:

    Now, here is the caveat….

    If Gray Maynard wants the title shot, it should be his without question. There is talk that Couture doesn’t think he is ready. If that is the case, I have no problems with them putting on Penn vs. Edgar. It’s the next most logical fight.

    But if anybody says Maynard is not deserving, they are full of it. He avenged his TUF loss. He is the only UFC blemih on the 5-1 records of both Edgar and Miller. And he is 7-0 in the UFC. If that doesn’t give you a title shot, then just throw legit criteria out the window….

  27. Fluyid says:

    Is Guymon back to being suicidal?

    Check this out:

    http://twitter.com/JokerGuymon

    🙁

  28. Alan Conceicao says:

    Well, Edgar/Penn is official. I’m not that shook up: I’ll just pretend its an optional defense and that Gray will get his mandatory status later in the year. UFC 112 looks great.

  29. 45 Huddle says:

    From a sporting perspective, this is a big UFC fail. From an entertainment pespective, this is a big UFC win.

    Few are going to complain about this decision…. as Edgar is still a qualified challenger… But a piece of me has died today as the UFC did something I do no approve of…. lol

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