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Make your predictions: UFC Fight Night 9/15 in Austin, Texas
By Zach Arnold | September 15, 2010
Of note — Efrain Escudero showed up at 159 pounds and missed weight, so his fight with Charles Oliveira is at a catch-weight.
Tonight (starting at 8 PM) is the Austin, Texas card which is the lead-in for The Ultimate Fighter 12 with GSP & Josh Koscheck as coaches.
Dark matches
- Welterweights: Brian Foster vs. Forrest Petz
- Welterweights: Anthony Waldburger vs. David Mitchell
- Middleweights: Rich Attonito vs. Rafael Natal
- Light Heavyweights: Jared Hamman vs. Kyle Kingsbury
Main card
- Lightweights: Ross Pearson vs. Cole Miller
- Lightweights: Jim Miller vs. Gleison Tibau
- Lightweights: Efrain Escudero vs. Charles Oliveira
- Middleweights: Nate Marquardt vs. Rousimar Palhares
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 27 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Palhares trains by wrestling anacondas, cougars, and monkeys in the Amazon. I am cheering for Nate but this is going to be a tough fight for him me thinks.
Only 8 fights? Can’t remember the last time we only saw 8 fights on a UFC card.
Typical Fight Night stuff here. Nothing special, but a good way to give more experience to up & coming guys and see if Marquardt can turn around his bad loss to Sonnen and start making a title run again.
Todd Duffee got cut from the UFC. I think everybody is collectively waiting to hear what the story behind the cut is. It makes no sense for him to get cut this far after a fight and after only 1 loss like that.
Yea that is a little weird. One loss in the UFC after he was hyped like crazy, and the lone loss was kind of a “lucky punch” scenario. Very interesting.
From Josh Gross’s Twitter….
“Sounds like accumulation of things led UFC to release Todd Duffee. Overall attitude probably being at the top. Duffee’s rep on plane to U.S.”
and later…
“Quote from Duffee’s manager Alex Davis. Great one. Via text: “Well, I’m not sure exactly what the problem or problems were.I tryed [sic] hard to avoid, but Dana wasn’t listening. It unfortunate, but Todd’s an ass.” Said Duffee will keep fighting, of course.”
And there is also talk about him doing a movie a month after he pulled out of a UFC bout due to “injury”.
About the last quote, apparently the transcription of the quote got cut off accidentally. The manager was saying “asset”.
LOL
Called in sick so that he could film a bit role in ‘Never Back Down 2’ and got caught by the boss.
Hilariously dumb.
Marquart vs Paul Harris should be awesome.
I have convinced a number of regular yet casual UFC fans that his name is actually ‘Rousimar’ Paul Harris.
Tibau by dec. The guy is like 250 stepping into the cage.
missing Yves Edwards vs John Gunderson and Dave Branch vs Tomasz Drwal
Has Escudero gone from big time prospect to headcase in the course of of a year? I would tend to think so.
First he gets beat by Dunham. Then he puts on a completely lacklust performance where he literally looked uninterested for during minutes of the fight. Now he comes in a disrespectful 4 pounds over.
I think he needs to get his head on straight at this point in his career.
My predictions are:
Marquardt, Oliveira, Miller, & Pearson.
Efrain Escudero is really starting to remind of Victor Ortiz. They even kind of look alike. Both got upset big by a guy who is now looked as a top contender, both had a lackluster fight right after their loss… maybe I am reaching.
Picks are Escudero by tko(I am thinking of a Anthony Johnson/Yoshiyuki Yoshida scenario); Pearson by dec or late tko; Tibau by dec(really depends on Miller’s defensive wrestling); Marquardt by dec.
I’ve never heard of any of these dudes other than marquardt and the braz.
That was a crappy ending to an exciting fight.
How was that crappy? The guy got KO’d. And there was no controversay because the commission did what they were supposed to and check the legs out ASAP before anything could be debated.
I just don’t like to see fights end that way, and I reckon you don’t either. You are suppose to protect yourself at all times in the Octagon and “Paul Harris” failed to do that. Hell, even if Marquardt’s legs were oozing Vaseline, protect yourself at all times.
Im with you Jonathon. Really shitty ending.
Fight Night Thoughts…
1) I was suprised Cole Miller won, especially the way he did. That entire 9th season of TUF was a big waste. They put in a bad American team in order to give the Brits a chance and now none of those Brits are worth anything.
2) Miller is good, but I always see him losing to the elite of the division. He doesn’t have the speed or power to make it to that next level.
3) Escudero is absolutely a head case. He doesn’t look mentally into the fights. He was obviously stalling beyond belief in those clinches. If I never have to see him fight until he gets his act together, I will be a happier fight fan.
4) Oliveira is good. I think they need to take him along slowly. He needs to hire a good wrestling coach an build up some strength into his body. Still interesting to see a submission guy with such strong striking potential.
5) I’m glad the commission checked out Marquardt’s legs ASAP. Last thing the sport needs is some big scandal because the AC didn’t check the leg when they had a chance.
6) Palhares seems like a mental midget much like Paulo Filho. That was beyond stupid to look away from his opponent during a fight.
What is the surprise about TUF 9? I said that when the season’s contestants were announced.
Hasn’t this been the case with the past 5 or 6 seasons? This year doesn’t look like any world beaters are on there, and it’s been that way since season 5.
So far this is one surprisingly good Gracie Documentary…
It is enjoyable. I kept waiting for Dan Severn to break into “pro wrasslin'” character and challenge him to a re-match in the cage.
Zuffa really needs to find a way to use Severn more often. I would love to see them bring him in as an occasional ‘third man in the booth’ like they used to do with Couture after his post-Chuck retirement.
I <3 The Beast.
Oliveira got a cool looking sub but took way too many strikes as counters when he was rushing in with wild techniques he hadn’t set up and gave his back 3 times with poor attempts at throws, and got elbowed in the dome a ton with a fourth failed throw. He’s exciting and reckless but far, far from being a contender in the lightweight division. No reason to rush him given his age – he shouldn’t be fighting top 30 guys for another year. At least.
Palhares gave himself an excuse in that fight, so now people will probably argue that he was “winning” by having gotten Marqhardt to the mat for 5 seconds and failing to lock in a leg lock while Nate was scrambling to his feet.
Oliveira showed a ton of heart last night IMO.
I mean, he took an absolutely brutal knee to the groin that looked just about capable of debilitating any other dude for the rest of the night. He could have easily excused himself for the rest of the night, but he didn’t.
He took his five minutes, returned to battle with a lingering painful grimace on his face & quickly took control of the contest & latched onto a RNC submission out of nowhere. Really slick & impressive stuff to my eyes.
As for Marqhardt, I was awfully impressed with his performance as well.
He had a strong, hungry, highly dangerous opponent in front of him & he took care of business in less than a round. An excellent rebound from the Sonnen loss that puts him right back into the mix for another title opportunity.
Palhares?
Not to be childish, but his is simply a case of “losers weepers”.
THE #1 thing all fighters are taught & instructed to do before a match is to protect themselves at all times.
Palhares failed to do so & paid the price.
Tough luck to him.