This is a strange review because the first four fights were televised on Sherdog. Luckily, they are still there for me to watch and review, so I will. A number of the videos have fucked up sound, so I don't bother to listen to the play by play. That's a shame. Since its kinda the same but not really part of the PPV show, I'll separate them out and even give a trio of D&R Ratings.
1) Eric Davila vs. Pete Spratt: This is the opener. Pete Spratt headlines MFC shows. How did they afford this card? Did they? Davila showed up over 6 lbs overweight.
FIGHT: Davila Submission Rnd 2. (1)
Spratt: Spratt was pretty well controlling the standup exchanges and the pacing of the fight. However, in the second round, there's a clash of heads and his bell is rung. They rush him to restart and Spratt clearly isn't all there, making some gestures to clear his head and touching his head. He eats a knee from Davila, gets dropped hard, and then ends up in a guillotine trying to get back up. Up to that point its not like he looked stupendous either. I mean, he was kinda slow and clearly in no rush to engage Davila.
Davila: Shocked to see that he won this fight. Basically getting controlled for most of the fight up till the accidental butt. As best I could see, that was his strategy - jump straight in, lead with the head, hope it or a punch lands, capitalize. Aside from that, there was a single takedown at the end of the first round.
2) Daniel Straus vs. Karen Darabedyan: Darabedyan was a WEC contracted fighter who didn't do much. Straus I saw in his defeat of Joe Heiland in the NAAFS and thought he was pretty good. The fight is preceeded by a message imploring me to support the troops.
FIGHT: Straus Unanimous Decision. Nothing against Straus, but honestly? If I'm scoring the fight? Darabedyan 30-27. So much of this fight was spent at great distance in what amounted to point fighting, and I can actually see Straus winning that by the slightest of margins. But Darabedyan had numerous big submission attempts and takedowns in this fight. When Straus was winning the fight, either he won big for about 10 seconds a round (1st and 3rd) or was barely eeking it out in a slow standup contest. Darabedyan would then come in for about a minute or so per round or more and just totally dominate the flow of action and be the one seeking the finish. (1)
Straus: Striking isn't that bad nor is his wrestling. I gotta say that seeing him get taken down the way he did in the 3rd round was sorta disheartening, because its like he didn't prepare for it at all or see the shot so obviously coming and was caught flatfooted and wide open. He had a couple solid takedowns of his own and quickly passed to mount twice, but he never made anything of it other than landing a few quick punches that didn't seem to have any lasting effect. On the mat he nearly got submitted with a leg lock attempt. I liked the way he controlled Darabedyan's leg/foot in the third round as he tried to figure four the leg and roll for a heel hook. Showed good presence of mind. Still some ways to go.
Darabedyan: He had a golden, GOLDEN opportunity to finish this fight in the first round with a rolling leglock attempt, but he was too close to the cage to pull it off and get the extension. Straus basically was stacked and defending by default because there wasn't enough room for him to fall down. His takedowns and positional dominance were more impressive in my mind than what Straus was doing, so I think he got jobbed. Really, his stand up isn't at the level it needs to be to compete far beyond this level. Needs to move his head to get inside. Left his hands down. Could have thrown a straight right and blown out Straus in theory...if he knew how to do it.
3) Aaron Rosa vs. Devin Cole: Heavyweight contest, with Rosa being an ex light heavyweight who put on pounds. Would have liked to hear the commentary, but had to mute it because the sound was off by like three minutes. Oh well.
FIGHT: Rosa Unanimous Decision. This was a hellacious fight to watch on mute. Stunk on ice. (1)
Rosa: Why did Rosa win? Because, frankly, he is from Texas and it was probably to give the fans a "hometown" winner even if the hometown was hours away. Rosa gets squashed against the cage by the smaller man (Cole), and absorbs shots from him. He wins the second round of inactivity with a really cool throw and an eyepoke, but Cole wins one and three in my book cleanly having gotten takedowns and landing more effective shots. The real losers were the fans though, who had to watch this. Rosa could have ended this early with leg kicks, but only threw 2-3 the whole time.
Cole: Cole lost a lot of his career for a couple charges of sexual assault and shit like that, so he is suspect in my mind as a person. As a fighter he was never that great either. Here he is smaller than Rosa (in spite of Rosa being a light heavyweight with a penchant for twinkies) but still manages to push him into the fence for, I dunno, 12 of the 15 minutes. Standing he shuffles forward slowly and puts nothing together in spite of having a basically frozen opponent in front of him that can barely amble backwards. Because of that he loses. I lose too for watching. Exchanges with these guys looked like a flailing of limbs, like an octopus slap fight. Abysmal.
4) Ronnie Mann vs. Doug Evans: For the SHARK FIGHTS FEATHERWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD. And this isn't on the PPV, why? Mann was in Sengoku's Featherweight tournament and Evans was in the UFC for a little while and got his shit pushed in by Bao Quach in EXC.
FIGHT: Mann Split Decision. Crowd boos the shit out of this when it ends. Absolutely dull fight where the counter puncher (Evans) basically is comprehensively outworked by the aggressive fighter (Mann) but happens to score a couple takedowns that lead to nothing, but score with the judges. The 48-47 card for Evans is nearly criminal IMO - I had this 50-45 for Mann, could have seen 49-46 for Mann if you gave Mann Round 2. (2)
Evans: How does Evans try to win this fight? I'm not really sure. He really only shoots a couple times, and his deepest takedowns come off of getting down Mann from flying knee attempts. His punching is pretty weak and his wrestling is just sorta OK. Didn't kick at all.
Mann: Basically follows around Evans, never cuts the ring off, goes for Superman punches and flying knees rather than cornering him and delivering combinations. This means that occasionally Evans grabs him and takes him down when one of those hail mary attempts doesn't do actual damage. This fight is basically terrible because Evans doesn't engage and Mann isn't good enough to force it, nor chase the fight down to the mat. Also, he had opportunities and landed clean punches, but had nothing behind them.
5) Paul Bradley vs. Johnny Rees: Bradley has a no contest on his ledger BECAUSE OF RAIN. Rees was in the UFC and I already forgot him.
FIGHT: Bradley Submission Rnd 1. Pretty dominating fight for Bradley. Shoots early, grabs the takedown, and then starts looking for position changes. He moves to half guard then to side mount, then to north south (with a choke attempt that goes nowhere), back to half guard, then Rees scrambles to his feet. Or he tries to, because Bradley jumps on the back and chokes him out. (2)
Another thank you to the armed forces video thing because hey, what better way to pay tribute to the US Colonial forces than with CAGE FIGHTING~
6) Tarec Saffiedine vs. Brock Larson: There was a time where people on the internet thought that Larson was a monster because he was muscular and beat up people in the WEC. Then he went back to the UFC. Saffiedine is a proud prospect out of the Team Quest camp.
FIGHT: Saffiedine Unanimous Decision. 30-27 on all cards. (3)
Larson: Frye says that Larson looks "sick" coming in, like he's tired or whatever. Possibly true? Don't know? Who cares. Larson does nothing the whole fight other than shoot for takedowns he doesn't get. Also gets hit in the face standing and on the mat.
Saffiedine: Complete domination stuffing takedowns, hitting Larson standing and on the mat. Never really had Larson in trouble aside from forcing him to shoot in round three after landing a combination to the body and head.
7) Danillo Villefort vs. Joey Villasenor: Most interesting part about this fight is that we get Don Frye essentially admitting he beats his wife during the walk-ins. Villefort was a last minute replacement for Drew McFedries.
FIGHT: Villefort Unanimous Decision (2)
Villefort: Takedowns, low kicks, occasional punches. On the mat he controlled but rarely had any sort of serious submission attempt being set up, much less executed. Villasenor was custom made.
Villasenor: Smokin' Joe is a good slugger, but man, he doesn't have much of a ground game and never has. That was his undoing here. Even when he went for a takedown and was successful in the 3rd, he was swept and put on his back again. Real shame for the fans that Villefort, a guy who is the opposite of Drew McFedries stylistically, was the guy brought in as a last minute replacement.
8) Jorge Masvidal vs. Paul Daley: Daley is a good fighter and that's it. Masvidal is a guy who is willing to fight pretty much anyone anytime. He's Nick Diaz with less press.
FIGHT: Daley Unanimous Decision (3)
Daley: Lackluster performance at best. He was taken down repeatedly with single legs but neutralized Masvidal off his back. Standing Daley was open to the jab but landed plenty of leg kicks and even a couple body shots. At the end of the third, Daley wraps the round and fight up by stuffing a single leg and then beating on Masvidal for the last 53 seconds of the bout standing and on the mat.
Masvidal: So much smaller than Daley, he still came close to winning before gassing out (perhaps by using so much energy for the takedowns). His big problem was the standup, where he only landed the occasional counter shot while moving straight back. Just wasn't active enough to get a decision over Daley. He showed he's a good fighter though, for sure.
9) Houston Alexander vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou: Two dudes who came to prominence with fast KOs over big names, then suffered a ton of brutal defeats.
FIGHT: Alexander TKO Rnd 2 (2)
Sokoudjou: So Alexander is rocked badly in the first round and Sokoudjou capitalizes and lands a ton of blows while Houston is holding onto the leg to survive. And survive he does - while Sokoudjou tosses him over with a judo throw, he's basically blown himself up and from there, Alexander begins to slowly impose his will. When the second starts, Sokoudjou basically throws some terrible arm punches and then is dropped and KOed.
Alexander: Still not that good, but has lead fists and can KO guys even late in the fight. After nearly being stopped early, he actually ends the first round on top and then blasts him out in the second round. No growth, not gonna grow, this is what he is.
10) Keith Jardine vs. Trevor Prangley: Prangley is straight in the opponent role here - you might remember what I said about Jason Dent about a month ago becoming a gatekeeper type who was entering professional loserville. Prangley should be going there in this fight with the ex-UFC star. Should. Also, did I mention that this is a nontitle fight with the champion being in the bout? Amazing.
FIGHT: Prangley Unanimous Decision (3)
Jardine: Jardine's style of counter punching works well against men willing to come forward. His arms cover his body and his hands cover his chin fairly effectively. But when someone isn't willing to engage him, Jardine has problems. Actually, he has problems when guys rush him and he's cold. Or when he's tired. So basically, Jardine is a gatekeeper fighter. He is hurt in round one with a knee that cuts him, and in round 2, he's dropped and hurt badly with a punch. But in round three, Jardine comes forward and is actually effective in doing so. He hurts Prangley and really puts the rush on him for the last two minutes. But he doesn't do enough to stop Prangley or justify a 10-8 round, so Prangley wins.
Prangley: Slow and methodical, Prangley was pretty tired by the third round in spite of doing so little in the bout. His connection rate must have been like 40%-50% because he threw so little but landed when he did. His wrestling wasn't really enough to beat Jardine in and of itself - when on the mat he was nearly armbar'ed in the first round, though he defended it successfully. His striking and boxing wasn't that fantastic, but has it ever been? Frankly, if this was a 5 round fight, Prangley would have lost his belt. After the fight Frye talks about how he needs a cigarette and shot of tequila because it was like "rough, hard sex".
FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Sokoudjou/Alexander
KO OF THE NIGHT: Sokoudjou/Alexander
SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Bradley/Rees
OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 4 out of 10 for the PPV, 2.5 out of 10 including prelims. Man, any way I cut this, I can't give it a great review. The reason I separate out the D&R number about how relevant a card is and this number that I personally prescribe it is based on how entertaining the card is. This was not an entertaining card, first and foremost. Complaints about matchmaking or Shark Fights business model aside, the most interesting aspect of the show was hearing Don Frye and Bas Rutten talk shop for hours and say absurd things. And with the prelims being as bad as they were (and frankly, they were lousy), watching the PPV by itself is a case of addition through subtraction. Rosa/Cole is a contender for worst fight of the year alongside Mir/Cro-Cop. With prelims, you're talking about an investment of something like 4:30 watching fights that, for the most part, aren't competitive or if they are, end up being competitive due to a lack of competition from the competitors.
By comparison though, the Shark Fights card is currently the most important and relevant MMA card that I've reviewed to the present day. I suppose that isn't too crazy given that it was a month ago, but I've reviewed plenty of recent shows only to see them end up getting tragically bad numbers. So as a hardcore fan, is it important that you watch this? Perhaps, at least as long as you plan on betting on these guys or winning prediction leagues. But from a "will I enjoy it stand point", you're talking about a show with YAMMA levels of production, about equal levels of entertaining color commentary, and fights that are only moderately better. Sokoudjou/Alexander is sorta like an upscaled Pat Smith/Butterbean. Either way, they're not gonna be a cornerstone of what is great about MMA. Maybe you'll get a smile out of those though.
D&R Ratings:
Prelims - 20%(5/20)
PPV - 50% (15/30)
Both together - 40% (20/50)
No comments:
Post a Comment