Instead, I've left it for 48 hours after the fact. Watched all the damn fights again and decided to share a couple of my insipid observations. Also included are lovely links to the fights of the evening (even if the quality is kind of crappy).
Just remember that online videos are not written in stone. What is here now, may be gone a few days later.
The roster for UFC 75:
Anthony Torres vs. Jess Liaudin
Paul Taylor vs. Marcus Davis
Houston Alexander vs. Alessio Sakara
Mirko Cro Cop vs Cheick Kongo
Matt Hamill vs. Michael Bisping
Quinton Rampage Jackson vs Dan Hollywood Henderson
Right off the bat, I'm going to admit that I know very little about fighters outside of the UFC world. It probably because the accessibility to international fight events are slim pickings, especially if you're not plugged into digital cable/satellite (c'est moi). Also, there's a good 8 years where I didn't keep in touch with the going ons of MMA, so my knowledge of fighters contains the really old fighters and the up-and-coming ones that have already been well exposed in the UFC. I had to do a lot of background checks for these fights just to figure out what the hell is going on.
Anthony Torres vs. Jess Liaudin
Anthony Torres, 29-year-old, had one UFC match under his belt, a win against Pat Healy, and was coming into this match with an MMA record of 5-0. He trains out of Hawaii and his fighting background is in Brazilian Jiu-jitsu. So I guess it's no surprise that his strength is in submissions.
Jess Liaudin is a 33-year-old Frenchman, fighting out of London. He's one of those older fighters who has had quite a bit of exposure to international fighting. His MMA record before this fight was 10-8-0, with 1 match (win) in the UFC. Though his background was initially karate and kickboxing, he's suppose to be fairly well-rounded in both standup and ground, though describes as unorthodox.
VIEW VIDEO HERE
This ends up as a one-rounder fight and incredibly one sided to boot. Highlights:
- Liaudin scores a fantastic strike to the face at the 2 minute mark, but can't seem to finish it as Torres manages to fight him off and eventually stands back up.
- Liaudin scores another knockdown punch with a little more than a minute left in the first round, but again doesn't finish it, as Torres staggers back to his feet again.
- Liaudin proceeds to pummel Torres with heavy strikes to the head and face despite the fact (or because) that Torres had him in a limp clinch. The fight gets called with 50 seconds left do to the technical knockout (Torres was out on his feet).
Paul Taylor is a 27-year-old English fighter with an MMA record of 8-0-1 and 1 match (win) with the UFC - (UFC 70 Nations Collide). I saw the one match he was in, and he seemed to be a fairly well-rounded fighter.
Marcus Davis (34 years old) is someone I'm more familiar with since he was on The Ultimate Fighter 2 season. Best know for his heavy hands (ex-boxer) and super quick footwork and strikes. He was on quite a tear since a mediocre showing during the UF show, with a 4-win streak under his belt.
VIEW VIDEO HERE
Another one-round fight. Getting shorter, I swear! Stuff to look for:
- From the very start, some fast little flurries of strikes are are pretty fun to watch
- About 30 seconds in, the ex-boxer tries for a leg sweep/takedown (looks like the striker is trying to expand on his skills - nice)
- Just a little over a minute in, Taylor gets a solid, hard kick to Davis' head and knocks him down
- Submission of the night: Davis gains full mount and proceeds to pound on Taylor, who's still managing to hang in there and is actively defending himself. About 50 seconds to go, Taylor bucks up and starts turning Davis over. As Davis slides to the mat, Davis swings his leg up and slaps on an arm bar submission. Not to shabby at all for a boxer.
Houston Alexander is best known for his 48-second knockout debut against The Ultimate Fighter contestant Keith Jardine at UFC 71 (see fight here). It was a short, vicious fight, with Jardine on the receiving end of Alexander's fists in his mouth. So I guess the number one question most people were asking was if this guy was for real, or if the knockout of Jardine was a fluke.
Alessio Sakara has been in the UFC for a couple years, with a not so shiny record of 2-2. Still fairly young at 26, he's known as a striker with a boxing and Brazilian Jiu-jitsu background.
VIEW VIDEO HERE
Another ridiculously short fight. Don't blink and maybe you'll see the following:
- About 20 seconds in, Sakara scores a one-legged takedown, but Alexander ends up kicking back so Sakara flies off of him. They scramble to their feet and Alexander throws a couple dangerous looking knees towards Sakara's chin.
- Exactly 45 seconds in, Alexander throws an BEAUTIFUL, perfectly-placed knee square on Sakara's chin. Sakara goes down like a sack of bricks.
- Alexander attains full-mount and pounds out Sakura.
- Time of match: 1 minute.
- Alexander's total UFC career thus far: 1 minute 48 seconds.
Okay, so this is the big "redemption" match for Mirko Cro Cop, named as one of the world's most dangerous strikers. This was the guy that was suppose to fight Randy Couture at UFC 74, but ended up getting a knockout kick to the head from one Gabriel Gonzaga. Randy has since then safely defended the Heavyweight championship by outmanuvering Gonzaga, but Cro Cop still needs to redeem himself from losing a fight that a majority of people have said he shouldn't have lost.
Factoid: Randy Couture has been on a prediction tear. He chose Gabriel Gonzaga to win his fight against Cro Cop because of his strong stand-up skills and submission ability.
Cheick Kongo...I've never seen him fight (because I kept missing the events he was in, or his matches weren't televised), but this guy HUGE! On a completely irrelevant thought, Kongo is as black as Cro Cop is white. The contrast is incredibly striking. If you want to see someone who's born to be a fighter, Kongo is probably it. The dude's been training since he was 5, and although in the past he's had some weaknesses in his ground game, it seems he's been training harder in the Rampage camp to incorporate a wider range of skills.
VIEW VIDEO HERE
The first painfully long match on the card so far. Cro Cop fans were most likely not very pleased with his performance during this one. Goes the full 3 rounds. A few highlights if you managed to stay awake:
- At the 3:37 mark, Kongo goes for another kick, swings a little high and end up on his ass and IMMEDIATELY bounces back up again as Cro Cop tries to pounce on him (sort of the trampoline effect).
- At the 1:55 mark, Kongo goes for a leg kick, Cro Cop steps in for a nice take down. (Not sure how I feel about 2 strikers pulling off the ground game...hmmm)
- Zzz...
- 7 seconds left in the 1st round, Kongo rolls Cro Cop up and over and gains top position as time expires.
- At 3:35 of the second round...hey look at this! Kongo's got side control (Joe sounds pleasantly surprised).
- Zzz...
- 4:19 in the 3rd, Cro Cop takes a solid knee in the jewels, not once, but twice in a row. Ouch.
- 1:02 to go, Kongo puts up a tight little punching combo and follows up with a solid knee
Alright...the Ultimate Fighter 3 lightweight finale...or what should have been the UF3 Finale. Hamill, the deaf, highly decorated wrestler who had the misfortune of getting injured during the UF3 season. Tito Ortiz's number 1 pick to win the whole thing, Hamill has a lot he wants to prove, especially the fact that he has more than just wrestling skills to get him through the MMA. You want to cheer for the guy, simply for the fact that he's overcome so much and accomplished so much in such a short time. On the other hand, he does and says so many stupid things, he also makes you want to punch his face in. Can't win either way, I guess.
Michael Bisping, winner of the lightweight title of the UF3 season, is the poster boy for the UK UFC invasion. In his fights, including his finale, I've really enjoyed Bisping bash his way through his opponents. He's a pretty feisty fighter, and well rounded enough that he's familiar with quite a few techniques. I've noticed though, as he continues (unbeaten), he's become a little sloppy in his matches, perhaps over confident, if not just a bit irritatingly arrogant. This match looks to be no different. I figure either in his next match or two, he's going to get beaten down pretty badly, and perhaps like GSP (who I still love by the way) was, is due for a bit of humble pie.
Controversial Decision? This is by far the most controversial of all the fights on this card. Split decision, and many on the internet are disagreeing with the verdict. This is the problem having judges in sports like this, but in the end, that's the reason you fight so you don't leave it up to them. There's also a reason why judges are judges and spectators are just spectators. A lot of viewers are forgetting that a take-down doesn't guarantee the win if fighter can't do anything with them.
VIEW VIDEO HERE
Personally, I think Bisping looks terrible at the beginning of the fight where there are points where he's almost running away from Hamill so the guy can't get his huge paws on him. However, he settles down in the 2nd and 3rd, and looks more capable of control Hamill's attacks so he's able to inflict little to no damage. Even with the win, none of us will be surprised if he drops down to middleweight after this.
Random points of observation:
- 4:33 mark, Hamill attempts a flying knee.
- Last 5 seconds of the 1st round, Bisping pulls off the butt scoot to get away from Hamill after catching a punch. Guess it's a good thing the time expired before Hamill could lumber over.
- 4:49 mark of the 3rd round, Bisping has a NICE right hand, left hook combo.
- 1:48 mark, Bisping attempts a knee, Hamill takes him down.
Whoo hoo...finally, at long last, the main event of the event. After the last couple of snoozers, you can only hope that at least the main event was worth the wait. Rampage, 2-0 in the UFC, 27-6-0 in the MMA, and the UFC Light Heavyweight champion, all at only the age of 29, won an impressive victory against the then supposed invincible Ice-Man, Chuck Liddell. Now it's the dream match up, the unification of the UFC and Pride Light Heavyweight titles.
Rampage's opponent, 37-year-old Dan Henderson, Pride's current middleweight and welterweight champion. The guy has more hardware than Home Depot. Right of the bat, we already know that this is no face match, something to pad the victory vaults for UFC's champion.
Factoid: Randy Couture predicted that Rampage would come out on top in this match given Henderson's tendency to forget his game plan and duke it out with his opponent. Couture also correctly predicted that Rampage would win over Liddell for the title belt at UFC 71.
VIEW VIDEO HERE
I enjoyed this match so much, I'm not even going to bother giving you highlights because you should watch the whole thing anyway. This is what a great matchup should be like with two high caliber fighters in the cage. On top of this, there's no false animosity, just pure competitive spirit...Henderson & Jackson are actually great friends, even having trained with each other on occasion.
By the way, the interview with Rampage at the end by Joe - it's a gooder. Rampage is one funny guy.
Quote of the night: ...I knew [Henderson] was tough. But I never knew he would beat up my fists with his face. It's, it's, man, my fists hurt right now...[Insert Joe's question about his wrist injury] Actually my wrist did good, but my knuckles going upside his head, they hurt, it's a whole new injury now...
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