1) Rick Reeves vs. Gustavo Machado: A Machado to start this off. How awesome is this? Jason Herzog is the ref. Reeves is a former Lion's Den fighter. This is like the best show of the year and I'm 10 minutes in. Landless is a judge too! Unreal.
FIGHT: Machado Split Decision. Didn't expect a standup fight in this. (1) for the Machado name.
Machado: Machado easily wins this, in my opinion, though the judges disagreed. Lots of solid low kicks that forced Reeves to switch stances in round 3. He gets some solid body shots in, two leg lock attempts when it hits the mat; one of the body shots forced Reeves to drop his mouthpiece.
Reeves: Decent fighter but it didn't look like he turned over his fists at all when he punched. Kinda a tough thing to hurt someone when you don't do that. Kicks were light, and he started to transition to a different gameplan in a desperate attempt to change the pace of the fight in round 3 with takedowns. Instead, Machado started getting setups for leg locks. Just didn't have enough to win.
2) Diego Garijo vs. Jens Pulver: A low moment, but an important one nonetheless.
FIGHT: Garijo Submission Rnd 1. Pulver and Garijo trade - Garijo is a significantly larger man, and they're trading. Pulver just can't take the shots though these days - where as the olden days saw him going back and forth with Gomi, a single punch from Garijo drops him hard. He tries to scramble to a single, but gets choked out. (3)
3) Erin Beach vs. Joao Silva: Never heard of either.
FIGHT: Beach Unanimous Decision (0)
Beach: This guy is a lightweight fighting a featherweight. He's not terrible or anything - his takedown defense is at least OK and he's a decent striker. But lightweight is a jammed division. I don't see this guy fitting in.
Silva: Tough guy, takes a lot of punches and gets a hematoma on his face. His takedown attempts are all stuffed and he tries going to pull guard after awhile.
4) Thales Leites vs. Matt Horwich: Oh my god, what a great fight. Horwich is deeply underrated - maybe because he's inconsistent. Great wrestler, tough dude all around. I do worry about where he'll be in 10 years. Leites is, as we discover forever here, totally overrated. This is a FIVE ROUND FIGHT for some sort of title bauble.
FIGHT: Horwich Submission Rnd 4. Just a wild fight...but in slow motion. If I were watching live I'd have had a coronary. (4)
Leites: Leites is so much better technically and it shows for most of the first two rounds. And then after numerous failed submission attempts and getting pushed around by Horwich....he starts to gas with a minute left in the second. Horwich finishes strong. In round three, Leites picks back up a little bit, but again begins to fade at the end of the round, with Horwich proving capable of escaping a doombringing side choke. When the 4th opens, Leites is done.
Horwich: Bas says it best - Horwich makes good fighters look bad. And as this proves, sometimes he beats them. Attaining positional dominance over and over and over again, Leites couldn't finish Horwich. Instead, he ran himself empty over the distance, and Horwich made him pay. He slowly pressed forward with his strikes, ended up spinning around Leites, slamming him down, and then applying a RNC. Totally out of the blue, IMO. Horwich isn't any better than he was 3 years ago, and actually he looks slower on his feet. All those wars are a likely attributing factor to that. But he still has something left, even for fighters on the cusp of the top ten. Great show for Horwich.
5) Jason Lambert vs. Tony Lopez: These are the PWP titles. What? Yeah. This is for the 205 lb version - Originally this was gonna be Lambert/Allan Goes, but Goes fell down the stairs again or something.
FIGHT: Lopez TKO Rnd 2 (3)
Lopez: Lopez is getting pushed around the whole fight by Lambert who does NOTHING aside from try and clinch and hold, and then he lands a knee to the head and takes Lambert out instantly. A couple punches are landed as he slumps.
Lambert: He has lost his last 7 now. Lost to Horwich. Lost to V-Mat. Dude is so done, its not funny.
6) Terry Martin vs. Jorge Ortiz: Martin was a fight away from the middleweight title in the UFC once. Ortiz? Well, no, nothing similar. Best career win is Jason Guida. Martin is super cut up at 170 - Looks like a totally different person.
FIGHT: Martin Split Decision. (2)
Martin: Martin wins this fight effectively off of the first two rounds where he's able to acquire takedowns and have control on the mat. As a striker, he has changed little in his move down from heavyweight to welterweight - the punches are still totally wide and he throws fewer combinations than ever. Ortiz clips him with a punch in the second round that seriously rocks Martin's world too. Good body shots, I'll give him that.
Ortiz: Comes on strong in the third round, which makes me wish this was for a shitty belt and went 5. While he wasn't terribly exciting or effectively in rounds 1 and 2, he landed a nice counter that gave him confidence, and in the 3rd round he started to open up more with punches and low kicks. However, his hands and defense were still open enough that he got clipped with frightening regularity.
7) Tim Sylvia vs. Paul Buentello: MAIN EVENT. 285lb catchweight or something. Timmy looks really soft here. Flabby gut.
FIGHT: Sylvia TKO Rnd 2 (4) This is classic Tim Sylvia. At distance, its about the jab and low kicks to control distance. When Buentello gets to punching distance, Sylvia decides to push him into the corner and put weight on him. And then its so effective, he keeps doing it in the second. Buentello tires out and starts taking a beating in the clinch, and when they're separated by McCarthy late in the fight, low kicks start to fell Buentello. He freezes up in the corner, takes a uppercut to the head, and drops hard. Buentello is still the same man as before too - hands are OK speed wise, but he's no great wrestler, he's soft in the middle, etc etc etc. After the fight, Tim Sylvia and Pedro Rizzo discuss a potential future title fight for a belt that will likely never be defended.
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Leites/Horwich
KO OF THE NIGHT: Lopez/Lambert
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Garijo/Pulver
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 8 out of 10. No really terrible fights. Even watching it knowing the majority of the results, I was riveted. I kid you not in saying that Horwich/Leites is one of my favorite fights in 2010 - legit skill, a melding of all things that make MMA great as a sport, plus an underdog story. The whole thing is a passion play. I mean some fights could have been better and the random jobber/prospect bouts were nothing special, but whatever. This is a great second tier show. One of the best I can think of in recent memory. The next event is slated for 2011 in Rio, so you can probably kiss them goodbye.
D&R Rating: 48% (17/35)
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