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« | Home | »

UFC 149 (Calgary): Hector Lombard, Court McGee discover Canadian judging to be brutal

By Zach Arnold | July 21, 2012

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Event: UFC 149 (7/21 Calgary, Alberta, Canada – Saddledome)
TV: FX/PPV

Dark matches/FX

Main card

LATEST COMMENTS START HERE.

****

Event: UFC 148 (7/7 MGM Grand Garden Arena, Las Vegas, Nevada)
TV: FX/PPV

Dark matches/FX

Main card

On the main card favorites, they were favored early and often. In the last week, all the money has gone on them and not the underdogs.

*****

Event: UFC on Fuel 4 (7/11 San Jose Arena/HP Pavilion)
TV: Fuel TV

Dark matches

Main card

Topics: Canada, Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 123 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |

123 Responses to “UFC 149 (Calgary): Hector Lombard, Court McGee discover Canadian judging to be brutal”

  1. 45 Huddle says:

    Chael Sonnen is in the head of Anderson Silva. Wow, he really has f#cked with his mind. No two ways about it. Doesnt mean he will win. But I do think that if Silva doesnt either stop Sonnen in the 1st or at least win the 1st, then he is going to lose. He has slowed down since their last fight.

  2. Megatherium says:

    Rumor is out there that Sensei Seagal has shared the deadly secret of his quivering palm Dim Mak technique with the Anderson for this fight. If this rumor is indeed true, we may be looking at the first fatality in the UFC octagon.

    Let’s pray that the rumor is false; the alternative is too terrible to contemplate.

  3. kutti says:

    somehow my feelin says, that the rematch will be like their 1st match. sonnen will take him down etc etc., without getting caught in a choke this time. usually nothings diffrent in a rematch…no matter what they tell during a press conference. maybe we´ll see silva performing magic..?!

    (sorry for my english..)

  4. […] UFC 148 – The Odds (FightOpinion.com) […]

  5. 45 Huddle says:

    Anderson Silva shoulder struck Chael Sonnen during the weigh-ins. He should be fined for that.

    Anderson Silva being a 3 to 1 favorite is a joke.

    Sonnen has played the mental warfare game perfectly. Silva can’t even hold in his emotions now. He is going to go for the KO and probably get taken down that much easier now.

    • Mark says:

      And subbed that much quicker…..

      Mind games don’t mean Chael’s mind and fight IQ improved any.

  6. Megatherium says:

    Dim Mak

  7. Megatherium says:

    These guys have really outdone themselves hyping this fight though. Best hype job for a big fight in a long time. Everybody is salivating, the boards are going nuts.

    Sales should be healthy to say the least. Whale of a job really.

  8. David M says:

    IN CHAEL I TRUST

  9. 45 Huddle says:

    The Ortiz/Griffin Trilogy has certainly been entertaining.

  10. liger05 says:

    lol @ chael sonnen. A spinning backfist, really.

    That shit was embarrassing. Sonenn got murked and made to look stupid. I dont know why so many people picked chael. Bisping beat him and was robbed.

    Yeah the first fight was close but mayweather v castillo 1 was close and we saw what happened in there 2nd fight. Silva is way beyond sonnen in skill level and I said at the time of the 1st fight sonnen would never have a better chance than winning and he blew it.

  11. The Gaijin says:

    🙂

  12. Megatherium says:

    Chael just didn’t perform with the same crazy wild energy and aggression without his TRT fueled rocket pack. Looked like a completely different fighter in there tonight, as some of us expected.

    Show was probably a million seller but the actual fights were pretty dull. Anderson did deliver though, making it worthwhile for me.

    • edub says:

      Yea that first round looked completely different, and the second had nothing to do with Silva having improved his TDD… right.

      He was on the same treatment.

      • The Gaijin says:

        Unless his “treatment” had him with a T/E ratio of 16.5:1, then no, he wasn’t on the same “treatment” this time.

        Also, while it’s probably just Monday morning quarterbacking I saw an interesting take on the 1st round of the fight last night:

        “I won’t say that Silva didn’t try in the first round. He clearly tried to strike and clearly tried to stop the takedown but once on the ground Silva was more inert than normal. I’ve been critical of Silva’s jiu jitsu for his inactivity, but he did not actively resist Sonnen on the ground. At one point Sonnen had an arm isolated to work for a submission and Silva did nothing to fight it off as Sonnen started to lock on a submission. It seemed to me in that moment Silva dared Sonnen to be great and he let the arm go. Sonnen’s jiu jitsu coach, Vinny Magalhaes, went on record saying Sonnen lacked the confidence to finish submissions at times and I think we saw that here. It very much seemed like Silva, once taken down, wanted to see what Sonnen would offer that was different for their first fight. After the round Silva’s corner said “Now the fight can start” so don’t think it is crazy to think Silva was playing possum a little in the first round. I think he felt fairly safe under Chael, he knew that Chael doesn’t hit hard enough to get a TKO and would not submit him.”

        Not that it matters – he merc’d him pretty badly last night, so even if it was just the fact that Sonnen’s top notch double was trouble for him again – it is what it is.

        • edub says:

          16.5 – 1 doesn’t show testosterone level in the body as we all should know by now. With his treatment not being on record, and no CIR done we don’t know if he was really on a shit load of testosterone or not.

          Simply put, I didn’t see any difference in Sonnen. He missed on a few takedowns in the second, but was only done after that “mostly legal” knee. Anderson just proved he had the skill to make the necessary changes, and showed against his insane accurate/powerful striking.

        • The Gaijin says:

          I thought he looked kinda spent after the first round and his takedowns were not looking very effective. Admittedly, it’s skewed b/c you only need one to get them there so missing on all of them in the 2nd messed the avg. up.

          And granted, I have to admit Silva’s TDD looked imporoved – but Sonnen really had little for Silva on the ground (he controlled him and did get some position on him) and was largely ineffective. I’ve seen some people give Sonnen Rd. 1 10-8 (BE) and I just have to wonder what on earth they were smoking to score that 10-8 unless this is ADCC or olympic wrestling.

      • Megatherium says:

        Silva hasn’t improved his tdd at age 37, come on now. Chael has never, before or since, looked like the jet propelled Tasmanian Devil he resembled in the first Silva fight. He is clearly a different sort of cat with a TE ratio of 16.5:1, whatever advantage that gives Chael is obviously key. I have seen Chael fight plenty, going back to the IFC tournament in ’03, and the Chael of the first Silva fight was something different.

        • edub says:

          He looked the same way against Yushin Okami, Nate Marquardt, Dan Miller, and Brian Stann. Plus he looked the exact same in the first round.

          Silva could have easily gotten his TDD good enough to stop a takedown for 3 minutes. That’s all he needed.

          Good for you seeing Chael fight since 03′ I’ve seen matches from him going back to his first Mayhem fight. It adds nothing to this discussion.

          He’s been a changed fighter since going on TRT. The T:E ratio means very little, and it was proven in the first round. Along with every other fight hes been in since the treatment started reportedly a year before the first Silva fight.

        • The Gaijin says:

          “He looked the same way against Yushin Okami, Nate Marquardt, Dan Miller, and Brian Stann.”

          Coincidence that this is basically when he started his TRT treatments? Yeah, I think not.

        • edub says:

          Gaij, I completely agree. I’m just saying there’s no difference between that one particular fight and Chael after TRT.

      • Megatherium says:

        Well, I guess I saw a once in a career performance from Chael that coincided with him gettin’ busted for ped fueled cheating. You saw same old same old. And I’m also, admittedly, not the Sonnen completionist that you are.

        Well what can I say. We disagree?

  13. CapnHulk says:

    I wonder how Steven Seagal will take credit for this one.

  14. kutti says:

    i watched the postfight press-conference. the question for me still waits for an answer: its obvious that silva is not leaving the devision. but…ist chael now “leaving the U–F–C for everrr…”?

  15. Tradition Rules says:

    All I can say is, “Why the hell did Sonnen try a spinning backfist against Silva, of all people?”

  16. bluerosekiller says:

    Well, I’ll tell you what, despite my disdain for all thing republican, I feel quite badly for Sonnen. I admit, I bought into his chances of victory in this one because of how dominant he was in their first bout. But, a focused, 100% Silva just proved that he’s still head & shoulders above the competition.
    So, what’s next for both men?
    For Silva, I guess he goes back to defending his title a couple of times a year until he gets bored enough to hang ’em up. Bisping & Munoz ( as long as they win their next fights, of course ) are the obvious men next in line. With, I think, Bisping being the more competitive of the two. Munoz? I fail to see what he can do better than Sonnen.
    As for Sonnen?
    I guess he just tries to reestablish himself as a top contender & then stay in a holding pattern there with wins until Silva decides to hang ’em up.
    Either that or he could request a move over to Strikeforce in an attempt to pick up that belt. The only other alternative is for him to retire.

  17. The Gaijin says:

    Chael Sonnen – a cheater and hack that roided his way to a title shot, lost and then smokescreened everyone with a bunch of inane “smack talk” like a realz pro rassl0rz d00dz!!…glad we won’t have to listen to or be forced to take this insanely overhyped (mainly through cheating) blowhard seriously anymore.

    • edub says:

      C’mon man none of it was entertaining to you?

      • The Gaijin says:

        Honestly, no. It did nothing for me at all. Maybe I just don’t “Get it.”, I guess. I just thought it was incredibly forced and insanely see through – “I beat Anderson Silva! I’m the real champion!”…LOLZ!!

        …and it wasn’t even a “This guy is being so ridiculous, I hope he gets his face punched in b/c he’s so over-the-top.” It was 100% – “Man I just wish this guy would lose and go away because I don’t think I can bear to listen to another guy cut a c-rate Billy Graham promo that he can’t even get the lines right.”

        Add to that the guy was clearly juicing to get there and the best thing people could say was “He almost beat the champion, he was winning for 4.5 rds!” all the while ignoring the fact that even if he had held on to win, he would have been stripped of the title and had the decision overturned b/c he was pissing 16.5:1…it’s as if losing was by far the best thing that happened to this guy’s career.

        I mean, kudos for talking your way into a huge fight for the belt, but that’s all he can do (and the style’s not my cup of tea) and I guess the timing was right bc people are so hard up for a challenger for Anderson. Maybe he can fight Vitor or Wanderlei and try to do a Brazilian Killa “angle” (even if he’s like 1-15 against them…I guess that’s never stopped him before). Also, I’d love to see Hector Lombard melt a hole through his face…maybe he can start cutting promos about illegal Cuban immigrants swimming onto the shores of the great state of Oregon and burdening the welfare rolls.

        • Mark says:

          His original stuff was good. But after the first Silva fight, he jumped the shark at levels never seen before. I was so embarrassed for him at the UFC on FOX fight.

          Using pro wrestling-esque smack talk is fine. Cutting an actual promo? Sad.

          And he was aping Razor Ramon (Not Razor Ramon HG, fortunately) this time. Talk about scraping the bottom of the barrel. I guess maybe he can redeem himself if he turns into late 90s Scott Steiner the next time out. He’s got the TE ratio to do it.

      • The Gaijin says:

        edub – I responded to you (twice) but it’s caught in moderation. I’ll wait to see if Zach can free it up before typing out more again.

        The basic gist, is honestly no, not really. *Some* of it was mildly amusing – the first time – which was like 18 months ago. Since then it’s been the same tired, force and played out schtick.

        The only thing other than that that I’ve found remotely entertaining was his “American Gangster” interview about Oregon and the littering and twins sharing a Mercedes…I’ll admit I shook my head and chuckled at that.

  18. 45 Huddle says:

    Those last 2 fights saved that event. It was a very lackluster card. The first 5 or 6 fights went to a decision. Two fights in a row were not even fun to watch squashes.

    I was rooting for John Alessio to finally get a UFC win. But his fight IQ isnt high enough to avoid bad positions and to capitalize when he is ahead.

    As much as some people are saying Anderson Silva is the best of all time… Look at his list of challengers for the Middleweight Title. Hardly an impressive bunch.

    • Chuck says:

      It was not a very good card. Ortiz/Griffin was decent though.

      Want to know something extremely funny? The TNA ppv last night (Destination X) was way better than UFC 148! That was actually a great show. TNA has been on a roll as of late. Too little to late at this point though.

    • Mark says:

      Oh man. You used to make all kinds of excuses for the pre-2007 Light Heavyweight division being better than PRIDE’s Middleweight division (to work in your Chuck > Wanderlei talking point.) But now Anderson Silva cleaning out his division isn’t an accomplishment? Hilarious.

  19. me says:

    45 Huddle sure does cry about Anderson a lot.

  20. The Judge says:

    One should point out that the translator interpreted Silva post-fight remark incorrectly. What Anderson actually said was: “What, we are throwing spinning $h!t now?”

    Superior striking technique and training: half the guys would not have been able to deliver a critical finishing blow like that, even with Sonnen smack dab in front of them in a corner, sitting down.

    I am really proud of myself last night. After the first round, with everybody thinking Silva was finished, I said, “Look, Sonnen is sitting down. Silva is standing up.” and then added: “Next minute decides this.” It seemed like being on top for 5 minutes took more out of Chael than out of Anderson, or maybe the latter is just better conditioned. It’s hard to dominate for a long time on the ground, not much easier then being on the bottom. I thought that if Sonnen didn’t take him down again right away, he would be dominated standing up. He was more tired, in poorer control and paid the price.

    Also, the other reason for gloating is as soon as Griffin left the cage, I, to the disagreement and shock of all parties present, went, “Oh, you idiot, you probably won the fight!” It’s true, Ortiz won, but judges often give it more to the guy who landed more punches than the guy who did more damage and looked like he would be more likely to finish on top if this was a “no time limit” content. One more reason not to judge rounds.

  21. retzev says:

    “Whopper of a knee” HAHA! I like it. Anderson is king.

  22. 45 Huddle says:

    $7 Million gate. Biggest in UFC History. I would say the big fights are still as strong as ever for the UFC.

    • The Gaijin says:

      Yup. Big fights are still the big draw for them…it’s just tough to get people interested in the rest of the cards these days. Kind of like another sport that has that sticker tagged on it an awful lot.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        The UFC does a better job then boxing. And in a way we get spoiled by the quality of cards sometimes.

        But there are certainly growing pains associated with the UFC’s current schedule. They dont have the depth at Bantam & Fly yet to make these cards meaningful. Heck, look at this upcoming FUEL TV card as example. The main event is solid and the rest of the card is junk.

        • Mark says:

          So you’re fine now with UFC being exactly like boxing where they can only manage two PPVs a year over 600K after years of that being why boxing is dead, because they’re down to two guys people will pay to see? Interesting.

        • 45 Huddle says:

          Um no. What level the sport is popular I could care less. That is for the UFC and whatever company they are airing on to care about.

          The UFC has every single Top 10 fighter from Heavyweight to Welterweight. And they probably are only missing 1 or 2 per weight class from Lightweight to Bantamweight. Flyweight will soon be dominated by them as well within 1 to 2 years. All of the best under one company. That is the way to go. The best naturally rise to the top, and we get to see the best actually fight each other.

          It is a great system for the fans. The only problem is that the smaller weight divisions are undeveloped which means they don’t have the talent to fill out their current volume of cards. Because of that, some are looking weak right now. In a few years when Feather, Bantam, & Fly have more veterans, this will fix itself and the cards will naturally look better.

    • david m says:

      It isn’t the biggest in UFC history, it is the biggest in UFC history in Las Vegas. They sold out 55k seats in Canada, did you forget that?

      The show was meh, but nobody really cared because everyone came for the main event. Tito looked god awful, so did Forrest, and Cody looked like he had never sparred a day in his life. To get KO’d from a single body shot from a f’n wrestler (not exactly Manny Pacquiao out there) in under a minute was disgraceful.

      The combined athletic ability of Tito and Forrest is literally zero. The fact that a fight like that could be a co-main event is a joke. They both suck as fighters at this point and should retire. Forrest probably won’t though, so the UFC (if they are smart) will use his name to build up prospects like Gustaffson and Phil Davis.

    • Megatherium says:

      Just re-watching the event now, alone. The crowd may be record breaking but it is easily one of the surliest, most negative crowds I have seen recently for UFC. Lots of non fans in those seats last night.

  23. Megatherium says:

    Highlight of the evening for me was Anderson’s post fight interview, when he invited Chael to come to his home in Curitiba for bbq. Chael seemed genuinely ‘touched’ by the gesture.LOL

    What a class act our Anderson is !

  24. Megatherium says:

    Lol. “Come to my house for a bbq Shael, my wife will cook us some beef”.

  25. RST says:

    silva won…
    arguably fairly.

    (Except for the greasing and the shorts grabbing and the borderline illegal knee. These borderline moves seem to reoccur with him. And he always seems to get a pass.)

    As fair as TRT!
    So I have no sympathy for Sonnen!

    But that hasn’t hasn’t solidified silva as a great fighter IMO!

    He just beat CHAEL SONNEN!

    In a vastly cleared out division.

    It’s the same as it was a week ago.

    • Robert Poole says:

      Grease was wiped off immediately before the fight by Yves Lavigne. Holding of shorts lasted 1-2 seconds total before Silva was warned and let go. They played ZERO pat in the fight. How is Silva not a great fighter when HE cleared the division out?

      Seriously the lengths people go to de-legitimize certain fighters is sort of sickening.

  26. Theo says:

    Anderson Silva is one of the best champions the UFC has ever had. Just look at his record! Not only that ,even though some people dont like him, overall he is polite and respectful. Ok against Maia he was not, and the shoulder to the chin was not either, but given the context of both it shows that he is human. YES he has CLEARED out that division! I only see 2 possible people that AS could fight next. Bisping, yea he probaly does not stand a chance ,but he is “next” / the only other person I can think of is Dan Henderson. No matter if he wins or loses against Jon Jones he might be tempted to fight AS again. He didnt do too bad the first time.

    • Chuck says:

      Tim Boetsch and Hector Lombard are fighting soon, probably to be in the pipeline for a middleweight title shot. Dan Henderson is solidly a light heavyweight now, so that fight isn’t going to happen again.

    • Megatherium says:

      Yes and he has accomplished all of this in his thirties, the prime of his career was arguably wasted by the Chute Boxe management. Had Rudimar Fedrigo not pulled him from his UFC 34 welterweight title fight with Newton imagine the kind of legacy we might be looking at.

      • Jonathan says:

        Agree with everything everyone has said. He is, now, without a doubt, the most accomplished/best fighter we have ever seen in MMA.

        But let’s not forget that he got triangled by Daiju Taikase and flying heel-hooked by Ryo Chonan.

        • Steve4192 says:

          For me, those two losses only serve to add to his legendary status. The amount he improved from his early career to his peak is amazing. Fedor was clearly a better fighter early in his career than Anderson was, but Anderson’s peak was absolutely phenomenal. That is what puts him over Fedor in my mind.

        • 45 Huddle says:

          That is strength of schedule. Despite his list of title challengers being sub-par…. They are far more impressive then what Heavyweight had to offer during that era. Especially when he was fighting the Hong Man Choi’s of the world instead of a rematch with Cro Cop or a fight with Josh Barnett.

        • The Gaijin says:

          Really, we’re going to the well on this STILL? Cro Cop and Barnett jumped orgs/ducked him, not the other way around.

  27. 45 Huddle says:

    UFC 148 prelims did 1.8 Million. This is the 2nd biggest audience for a prelim show in the history of that format (including SpikeTV). The only bigger ratings success was UFC 126 that did 2 Million…. But that during a snowstorm in which people were forced to be home in many parts of the country.

    Dana White can no longer use people not knowing about the UFC on FX as an excuse for poor future ratings. People know.

    I bet this event did over 1 Million PPV Buys easily….

    • The Gaijin says:

      I predicted (on twitter – yes, UGH, I have joined the tweeting masses) they would pull a 1.1 million. I may have undershot it…but I think I’ll be pretty close.

      Ed. — And you didn’t send me a note over there. Shame.

  28. Jonathan says:

    There was a UFC fight tonight? Was it tape-delayed?

  29. Megatherium says:

    Did not know this card was even on until I checked in here at FO. Pretty darn good night of fights, better than Saturday anyway. Weidman made a big statement with his dominant win over Munoz. I hope he gets a couple of more fights under his belt before he faces Anderson though, tonight was just his ninth pro mma fight. He is looking better every time he steps in the cage though. Very impressive.

  30. edub says:

    Weidman will beat Anderson if he fights him.

    I told myself I wouldn’t be stupid enought to bet against Anderson again after the Chael TKO win, but I can’t get away from the style match up. Chris is a better wrestler than Chael, by far a better grappler, better finisher, and actually has decent striking (not just decent striking becuase of a great double leg). He’s long, and he’s big (for 185).

    We’re talking about a former D1 third place finisher that made it to ADCC after a year of BJJ training. That’s fucking incredible.

    I’m sure they won’t make the fight yet though, but if/when they do I will be picking Weidman.

    • The Gaijin says:

      That Weidman hype train just walked through some mutagen ooze and turned into a full on Godzilla style Voltron with bunker buster missiles for eyes! 🙂 j/k

      • edub says:

        Damn right. And I’m the driver!

        • nottheface says:

          I’m with you. Only fighter at 185 who I even give a chance against Silva is Weidman. And a pretty good chance. He can wrestle like Silva but do damage instead of just lay on him.

  31. edub says:

    Forrest fought Tito with a TUE for TRT use.

    The list keeps growing.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Dammit. If only Dana White, who is against this practice, was in some sort of position of power to stop it. Then and only then could we see an end to such madness.

      Anytime I see somebody use it, I automatically assume they are a prior steroid user.

  32. Megatherium says:

    They need to shut this crap down. It’s well beyond embarrassing.

  33. edub says:

    Anybody else think the ref made a mistake stopping the Khan-Garcia fight?

    • Chuck says:

      Are you kidding? Khan was done for. The dude’s equilibrium was shot, there was no way he was going to win. That was as good of a stoppage as any.

      • edub says:

        His equilibrium was shot in the Maidana fight too. He walked forward and said he was ok.

        I’d have been fine with it being stopped earlie (when he was flailing all around), but he seemed to find himself a little bit (even after the last knockdown).

        • Chuck says:

          Khan was on borrowed time at that point. Merely running on fumes. It was very entertaining to watch, but there was no point in continuing on with it. And of course he was going to say he was fine. The man has a bad case of the “Arturo Gatti syndrome”. He’s all fighter through and through.

          Gaijin;

          I wouldn’t have been too pissed off if the referee (Kenny Bailess) decided to let it go on a little bit further, but as it was, the stoppage was just.

        • edub says:

          -There was certainly reason for letting it go on. He was landing hard back while trading in an extremely exciting fight. If he was on borrowed time, he would have been stopped later on. This act that because he was hurt bad he couldn’t come back is asinine.

          -I never said the stoppage wasn’t just. I asked if the referee made a mistake in stopping it, and if you agree that it wouldn’t have been detrimental to the fighter to let it go on a bit further with a short leash then I think that’s a valid complaint.

          Bottom line: It was a very defensible position, but Kenny could have easily let it go on longer. If you’re gonna give a fighter a chance to fight through it, let him fight through it. Or just stop it when Danny was knocking him all over the ring a minute earlier.

    • The Gaijin says:

      I didn’t mind the stoppage, but I would have been ok with giving him a bit more rope. Boxing just can’t catch a break with the prospects – Ortiz now Khan…but Khan’s always been a bit chinny.

      • edub says:

        It was a bit sad too that a guy with such a great Olympic pedigree could be hit by the left hook over and over. Even after the initial shot to the neck that put him down it landed over 15 times.

        • The Gaijin says:

          I know! I was astonished too…you could see it coming 10 miles away and he kept eating it over and over. I’m sure part of it was him being on queer street already, but I thought this was a guy that Roach had schooled on impeccable defense.

  34. Megatherium says:

    So there is money to be made on Faber and Boetsch on this card, if you’re the gambling kind.

    And oh what a crappy card it is.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      I am picking both Faber & Boetsch to win. I think as long as Faber can avoid being stopped or really damaged in the first that his superior cardio will win him the fight.

      And Im just a Boetsch fanboy…. But I also think Lombard is highly overrated….

  35. david m says:

    LOL @ this being a ppv. Injuries suck.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      Another positive comment from the glass half full member of the forum.

      • My Sweet Mandingo says:

        Glass Half Full = Da Truth about this PPV.

        Embrace reality, my son.

      • david m says:

        dude, I don’t work for Zuffa; I don’t have to shill for them; that is your job, you simple mark.

        If Zuffa puts on a good card, I am full of praise; if they put shit on a platter and tell us to eat, I will similarly voice my opinion. Get out of here with your thought police antics.

  36. 45 Huddle says:

    Another highly touted “champion” coming into the UFC and looking like a complete dud. Not sure who will win between Lombard/Boetsch…. but Lombard is putting on a horrible performance. Going up against better competition will make fighters look very different…

    • 45 Huddle says:

      And this is why I laugh at any fighter not under the Zuffa banner being ranked at all. Zuffa tests their fighters. As fighters work their way up, they give them different style fighters to make sure they have no holes in their game. They fight a top level guys all of the time.

      How can a guy be so dominant for so long…. And then look so pitiful like this? It’s level of competition. It is performing under the big lights.

      Time and time again the MMA Media shows how ignorant they are by putting out these bogus Top 10 rankings filled with non-Zuffa fighters. The writing has been on the wall for years….

      • Megatherium says:

        45, I have a feeling you’re going to love what happens when all those top ten Japanese flyweights eventually meet the American and Brazilian flyweights that UFC has signed.

        Be prepared for a massage shuffle in the rankings as that starts to happen.

      • Alan Conceicao says:

        Where are these rankings in 2012?

        • 45 Huddle says:

          Sherdog has 5 fighters in their Top 10 (not including Flyweight). And 10 many more in their next 5 that are honorable mentions.

          Are there really 15 fighters in the Top 15 outside of the UFC? No. That is 14% of their ranked fighters are not from Zuffa.

          Bloodyelbow…

          For there Top 25…. For the Top 7 weight classes…. They have 30 fighters not in Zuffa ranked. 17% of their ranked fighters are outside of the UFC. And all their ranking are is a compilation of all of the other rankings out there.

          There is still a major problem with this. It has gotten better…. But mostly because even the biggest Zuffa haters cant bring themselves to rank guys like Wiuff or M’Pblahblah at all.

          If you take the entire Top 25 in the sport from Heavyweight to Welterweight, there is probably only one guy outside of the UFC who should be ranked, and that is Ben Askren.

          From Lightweight to Bantamweight…. A maximum of 7 fighters….. Chandler, Alvarez, Curran, Kawajiri, Pitbull, Dantas, & Fernandes. And that is being generous.

          Rankings like BloodyElbow have over tripled the reasonable number of non-Zuffa fighters being ranked.

        • Alan Conceicao says:

          I’m looking at the rankings right now from Sherdog that you mentioned – there’s one non-Zuffa fighter on the whole of Heavyweight-Welterweight. One. And it’s Ben Askren at #10 at Welterweight. There’s one at lightweight (Chandler), one for Featherweight (Curran, who I think is highly suspect there), and one at Bantam (Dantas).

        • 45 Huddle says:

          You are completely ignoring my comments on BloodyElbow…. Which is just really a snapshot of all of the rankings out there today.

          17% of the fighters ranked are outside of the Zuffa banner.

          These websites are still overestimating the value of non-Zuffa fighters big time.

        • Alan Conceicao says:

          BE runs consensus top 25s. You complained about top 10s. I look at BE’s rankings, and I see a single top 10 fighter from 155 to heavyweight outside Zuffa. When you start complaining about who the 23rd best middleweight in the world is and how he isn’t getting properly tested or whatever, you sound like a frothing maniac.

        • Alan Conceicao says:

          Also I’m pretty sure that their consensus rankings aren’t based on other sites and a compilation of those rankings, but rather a bunch of ex-commentors and pseudobloggers now.

        • edub says:

          You both have points. Some people still get ranked too high outside of Zuffa, but as Alan points out there is only one inside the top 10 for the “big 5” weight classes. 2 if you go down to 145, and 4 if you go down to 135.

          On the other hand, Eddie Alvarez is ranked behind guys like Jim Miller, Donald Cerrone, and Clay Guida (along with Anthony Pettis). Which is insanely stupid.

  37. 45 Huddle says:

    That was one horrible PPV. Since UFC 30, I have probably only missed a handful of PPV events. And this one is certainly Top 5 worst. Sometimes these things just happen.

    I’m skipping the next PPV. I have no interest in Henderson/Edgar 2, and the rest of the card is poor.

    The next 2 PPV’s after that….. Jones/Henderson & Benevidez/Johnson are looking good. And then there is a solid free FOX show.

    • edub says:

      You watched this over Henderson-Edgar 2??

      • 45 Huddle says:

        Yes.

        I was interested in seeing Faber/Barao. Faber is almost always exciting. I enjoy watching Kongo and Boetsch.

        I have no interest in seeing Henderson/Edgar 2. It is a pointless rematch. And there isn’t one fight on the undercard to make change my mind on that card.

  38. 45 Huddle says:

    The current headline reads:

    “UFC 149 (Calgary): Hector Lombard, Court McGee discover Canadian judging to be brutal”

    How did anybody have Lombard winning that fight? There is no round he landed more significant strikes. He landed only 47 strikes the ENTIRE fight. His takedowns were irrelevent.

    Boetsch barely did anything. Lombard did do nothing. He loses.

    It was the correct decision.

    • edub says:

      Nope, bad decision.

      But who even cares? I’d have rather it be a draw. Terrible fight.

    • The Gaijin says:

      Bad decision, but as edub said – who cares? He looked terrible and killed any interest.

      As for ripping apart the media and every non-UFC fight apart, you do realize that the UFC obviously thought he was as billed as well right? So the idea that just the weak willed or ignorant thought he was as good as he was sold is pretty foolish in and of itself.

      Lombard is clearly undersized at 185, that was one of the big takeaways for me from last night.

      • 45 Huddle says:

        I don’t think the UFC necessarily believed Lombard was great.

        They paid him a lot of money to get him away from Bellator. By default, he is going to have to be put into a higher slot on the card and tested faster. Their promotion of him has more to do with the size of his contract then with anything he has done in the past.

        This has happened a lot in the UFC before. When you make the big money, you get thrown to the wolves….

        • The Gaijin says:

          That’s a tad revisionist methinks.

          They would not have signed him to such a big money deal and pushed him with the hype and press they did if they didn’t think he was the real deal. To say otherwise is ridiculous.

        • 45 Huddle says:

          They have signed champions from other organizations to big contracts that they had not proven with competition previously. The money is worth it just to hurt the other organizations.

    • Robert Poole says:

      I think it was a bad decision. Lombard did barely anything but everything he landed was harder than Boetsch’s 1 leg kick per 2 minutes. At one point Boetsch actually winced from a body kick which means for as little as Lombard did, he still landed the more impactful blows.

      That said, Lombard was hyped to the gills before his fight and he didn’t do a damn thing to make UFC do anything other than make him work his entire way up the ladder from the bottom. He’s nowhere near an Anderson Silva fight.

    • Megatherium says:

      Just watched the fight again last night. 30-27 Lombard.

      But yeah, it was a bad fight.

  39. Megatherium says:

    I had to stop and re-watch the first few seconds of the press conference when Dana said the gate for this turkey was $4.1 million and the attendance was 16,000+. How they justified not keeping the Shogun fight, or at least adding a good fight like, say, Glover vs Fabio Maldonado or Thiago Silva, beats me. I didn’t watch the prelim fights, they might have been very good fights, but the lineup on paper was worse than any Fuel tv event that I remember seeing this year.

    Shoddy from top to bottom and the fights didn’t exceed expectations by any stretch either. I really feel sorry for the 16,000 Calgarians who paid good money for a completely different event than the one they saw. I get that the original card was wiped out by injuries; I don’t get that they got replaced with low grade Fuel tv matches.

  40. Dave says:

    This event really makes an argument that if things fall apart, just cancel the card because it’ll do more harm than good. It is hard to blame UFC for the card falling apart and having to replace every fight, but at the same time it is just illustrating that they are putting on too many show and don’t have the talent to fill up the cards.

    I’m not sure if Lombard got screwed in a decision or not because I had to walk away during the fight. There were just too many consecutive shitty rounds on that card, by that point it was simply too much. I didn’t even bother with Faber/Barao when it was chugging along at the same pace.

    Back to Lombard, it isn’t shocking. As much as he was a world beater outside of UFC, it was clear that wasn’t going to be the case within the UFC. What I found funny was they’ve been selling him as a top contender even before he made his debut. Seriously, what was his competition again? Shlemenko? LOL

  41. Tradition Rules says:

    I have to be honest, on paper, this was a weak looking card to begin with, so my expectations going in were not high.

    But honestly, I really enjoyed the UNDER CARD, and the Clements/Riddle fight on the main card….but the rest of the main card was very lackluster.

    I’ll watch Henderson vs Edgar 2 because I love both guys, but the rest of that card seems better then this card overall (for me) if not stellar, and the next UFC on FOX card looks really good. I believe this strong line up is to try to get the ratings on FOX up, so I think its a smart move.

  42. Alan Conceicao says:

    How many times do we have to go through a million fight cancellations due to injury until people realize that’s how the sport is? This has been going on for a couple years now, basically following in the footsteps of the UFC’s decision to run 14 PPVs come hell or high water. I expect having this same opinion 12 months from now when buyrates for a show like this are even lower and we’re still saying the same things.

    • 45 Huddle says:

      12 PPV’s maximum. And they should all be stacked…. That way when these injuries do occur…. They have a natural back-up plan.

      I cancelled cable a few weeks ago…. And I missed the FUEL TV show. That card was so weak, I felt like I really missed 1 interesting fight. Having FUEL TV is not worth it for 1 good fight in a month…..

      • The Gaijin says:

        Just curious – what are you doing as a replacement now that you’ve cut the cord?? Netflix? Hulu?

        • 45 Huddle says:

          Netflix right now. Hulu Plus come September. UFC.tv for the PPV’s. Tried to use my Roku for the last PPV, but ended up watching the main event on my PC because it was having issues. I might try it on my XBOX 360 for the next event to see if it works better.

          I have an extra HDMI cord through my receiver to hook up my PC…. so on Friday I watched Bellator on my TV. Picture quality isn’t perfect but it is good enough.

          And then for shows that aren’t on Hulu, I will buy them through Amazon or Apple Store. Shows like Walking Dead and Mad Men.

          And I am going to connect an antenna for the local channels so I can see UFC on FOX and other sporting events. Shouldhave that up and running by then.

          I did the math and even with the a-la-carte format, I will be spending less then half of what I did with cable.

          Saving money is nice, but the biggest benefit so far has been just a better lifestyle. Instead of just turning on the TV and watching garbage to fill up the time…. I feel like I am watching less overall but better quality when I do.

          So far so good. Obviously the only negative is that I don’t get to see every fight. I do miss some of them. But between the PPVs, FOX, & Facebook…. I should get enough….

        • edub says:

          How long does it take new episodes of TV shows to make it to those formats?

        • 45 Huddle says:

          I think some of the shows on Hulu now have a 1 week wait. Amazon & Apple are typically available the next morning.

          But if I want to watch something live on network TV, I can just use the antenna.

        • The Gaijin says:

          Thanks for the insight, I look forward to hearing how it goes.

          I have been threatening to cut the cord myself, but since I moved back to Canada recently I have noticed that the options for cutting the cord are rather s**ty…Canadian Netflix, while improving, is sadly deficient to the U.S. version and Hulu is unavailable. While I’m fairly adept with ending around in order to use U.S. Netflix, Spotify, etc. it is a pain in the ass and not always perfect. And of course the lady friend is not high on not being able to see True Blood, NewsRoom (gag!) or Game of Thrones, etc. when it immediately airs.

          Antenna didn’t seem like it was a good alternative while in a condo or NYC apt., but now that we’ve bought a house I am leaning towards getting one for the network stuff.

          “Saving money is nice, but the biggest benefit so far has been just a better lifestyle. Instead of just turning on the TV and watching garbage to fill up the time…. I feel like I am watching less overall but better quality when I do.”

          All kinds of +1 for that statement. I certainly hear you there.

      • Jonathan Snowden says:

        I cut ties with cable/DirecTV in January. I haven’t missed it at all. It’s opened up so much time for me and my family. Now, when we do watch TV, it’s very purposeful and only stuff worth watching.

        The combination of Hulu Plus and Netflix is pretty powerful and you can buy the occasional series on iTunes if you can’t live without it. You’ll find you can.

  43. Simon says:

    Hi Zach – you’ve got the Clements & Riddle fight result the wrong way round, Riddle defeated Clements in one of the rare high points of the card.

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