BIG SHOW PREVIEW FOR UFC 130

I've missed the last couple Bellator cards, so no reviews there. Maybe when I get this spate of travelling and OT working done, it'll happen.

So UFC 130 is happening - the question about the main event is "Can Rampage be motivated enough to win?" That is the only interesting thing. I think 60% of Rampage demolishes 110% of Hammil. Rampage wins by TKO in a fight where the only drama is in the minds of a few hardcore fans like me.

Rick Story is super strong, but Alves is too. Considering that Story has had tough fights with less, I think he gets beaten up here. Safe pick with long time top 5 welter Alves.

Roy Nelson KOs the shit out of Frank Mir. Everyone thinks Nelson is an elite heavyweight afterwards except people who watched Nelson fights prior to TUF.

Browne KOs Struve inside a round.

Santiago KOs Stann. I know Stann hits hard and Santiago's chin is questionable, but c'mon. Santiago is a skilled fighter who's faced better.

Has anyone noticed that Demetrious Johnson got his ranking beating a guy who hadn't had a meaningful win in like 3 years? And by beating Damacio Page, who's fame comes from an episode of the unwatchable shitfest that was Tapout? Miguel Torres is winning a decision and brings the exciting back because he's easily hittable.

Kendall Grove beats the shit out of the Viking Boetsch. Guys moving down like this who were never that good at their original weight rarely work. He'll probably lose a lot of his strength and get KOed.

Tibau and Tractor are both top control guys. Who wins? The guy who is stronger. That's Tibau. Tibau wins.

Other fights I know not enough about both competitors to make a prediction.

Fight Time 3 (2/18/2011)

I wish I could have brought a review of Fight Time 2, but it was not to be. And they want like $1o on Gofightlive. This, meanwhile was on Sun Sports. How nice of them! Alex Donno is announcing along with Din Thomas on color. I also reviewed this whole thing and then Blogger lost it in its outage. Piece of shit.

1) Caleb Archer vs. Aaron Cerda: Rhadi Ferguson is the guest commentator for this bout.

FIGHT: Caleb Archer Unanimous Decision. Not a terrible fight at all. (1)

Archer: Has wild hair and thai boxing shorts, so I know what is gonna happen. He's sorta robotic and slow with his stuff, his thai plumb is pretty good, and he gets hit a ton by Cerda in the first round. To be honest, Archer nearly gets stopped that round and takes a beating that only ends and reverses when a very nervous and overactive Cerda gasses out totally. When that happens, Archer keeps coming forward and grinding on Archer. The more effective blows are thrown by Archer from the second round on, and when someone needs a takedown to enforce their lead in the fight, that man is Archer. I don't think Archer's traditional style of muay thai mixed with some grappling prowess will win him a lot of fights as he moves up the ladder, but he might be in some more fun scraps as time goes on.

Cerda: Karate background as a striker is nice I guess when it works. This is a guy for whom strikes are very fluid. He throws and throws and throws and moves and moves and then, oh, wait, he did too much without doing enough damage and the tank is empty early on. You can't jump around if you aren't setting stuff up or moving to get position. Jumping to jump is a bad idea. Being technically superior and better minded to fight doesn't matter if you don't have the energy to work. Archer survives the first 3 minutes and then starts grinding away.

2) Bruce Bellochi vs. Sid Carlton: Fat heavyweights.

FIGHT: Bruce Bellochi TKO Rnd 1. Fat dudes swinging. One of them wins. Both are gassed. (0)

3) Rafael Dias vs. Chris Ensley: Dias is a prospect, Ensley is not.

FIGHT: Dias Submisson Rnd 1. Mugging as Dias comes right at his man throwing bombs, gets taken down with a headlock into a throw, but reverses position soon enough, gets the mount, and gets an armbar while Ensley tries to escape/gives up. (1)

4) Marcio Armeli vs. Doug Rossi: Dudes.

FIGHT: Armeli TKO Rnd 1. Rossi goes the Carlson Gracie route of flailing and clinching for a takedown. He's flipped straight out of side control and gets kimura'ed in like a grand total of 30 seconds. (1)

5) Hansel Calderon vs. Robb Chadwick: More dudes I don't know.

FIGHT: Calderon TKO Rnd 1. Another mugging with Calderon getting the stop by TKO in 22 seconds after throwing around Chadwick like a rag doll and rushing him. (1)

6) Mike Bruno vs. Avery McPhatter: Some guy against a former noted prospect. I have expectations here, gotta admit.

FIGHT: Bruno Unanimous Decision. I dunno, Bruno gets a lot of takedowns, gets tired, and McPhatter basically gets dominated in top position. He has some success in the third round as Bruno tires out but even then, he's still on the bottom pretty much that whole round too. (0)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Archer/Cerda

KO OF THE NIGHT: Calderon/Chadwick

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Dias/Ensley

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3.5 out of ten. Some squashes, fat man fight, and a mediocre, boring decision in the main event against irrelevant guys. There's some prospects in bad fights here so that sorta matters but so much of this doesn't.

D&R Rating: 13% (4/30)

RETRO REVIEW: KOTC Redemption On The River (2/17/2006)

#7
Redemption On The River (2/17/06)

After another stinker, back to a PPV card. This time it eminates from the Mark Of The Quad Cities in Moline, where the IFL has run twice and is in a pretty serious MMA lovin' area. Lots of stupendous talent on this card to get excited for also and some realy intruiging matchups. Announcers are Eric Apple and JENS. Oh, and Terry Treblecock. Rounds are 3 minutes because we're in Illinois and it is February 2006.

1) BILLY AYASH vs. DENNIS REED: Ayash has a couple bullshit belts and trains with Franklin. Dennis Reed is cited as "growing all sorts of stuff in the background."

Reed gets the takedown and Pulver and Treblecock note that he's really good at getting takedowns and then gassing out after 45 seconds. This is exactly what happens. As he gasses, Ayash is able to get out from underneath, and as they scramble, Reed is plunked out with a right hand to the jaw.

2) MATT JAGGERS vs. JUSTIN ROBBINS: Robbins is 5-0 but naturally the smaller man in this 145lb bout to Jaggers, who is making his pro debut and looks about 12.

This is another short but glorious bout. Jaggers gets the take down and gets in side control. His attempt to move to mount is easily nullified and Robbins gets guard. Not long after comes a triangle attempt, and Jaggers fully elevates Robbins for a power bomb escape. It breaks the hold momentarily but he's so far in it Robbins is able to reapply the triangle before Jaggers can reassess his position and escape.

3) WAYNE WEEMS vs. BART PALASZEWSKI: Its hard to believe that of the two, Weems is the dude who was in UFC. Bartimus will eventually. Or the UFC will collapse like a house of cards. Who knows?

Weems lands a single right hand that breaks Palaszewski's nose. After that, Bartimus turns it up, takes down Weems and beats the living shit out of him as Weems gives up his back and does nothing to defend himself. Short, but its something.

4) JASON REINHARDT vs. MIKE LINDQUIST: Reinhardt was tooled badly in his UFC debut recently and is pretty old. Lindquist is said to be 10-4 coming in.

Reinhardt throws a knee to the nuts early in the fight and is pissed that Lindquist complained and got time, so he takes him down, beats on him a little, and then gets the choke out. Reinhardt is an intense competitor but ridiculously limited strategically. Lindquist has gone 2-11-1 since this fight.

5) CLAY GUIDA vs. TRISTEN YUNKER: Yunker is huge at 6'3'' and Guida is a dude you should damn well know already. Yunker has had a mixed bag of success since being on one of the IFO's shows (though I don't remember his bout with Rob Kimmons) and recently on HDNet Fights losing to Pete Spratt.

Another short fight, but not at all as expected for me, having not looked up the results ahead of time. Yunker goes for the single leg and gets it, picking up Guida and slamming him (though Guida almost pushes off the cage to get a reversal tornado DDT style). Yunker quickly gets the back and both hooks, and though Guida struggles with him for a few seconds, Yunker eventually gets under the chin and wins the fight. Wow.

6) JOHN STRAWN vs. JOE JORDAN: Both men have fought basically all over the place. They don't usually win when they're far from their hometowns though in the midwest.

Mediocre fight for the first two round with Jordan dominant in top position. Round three is a significant change of pace as Jordan decides, for whatever reason, not to engage Strawn for takedowns and control but rather in a Dana White favorite: the pier six standup brawl. Jordan eventually gets the win with a highlight reel KO via looping overhand right. Decent fight though, automatically FOTN thus far because it went past 1 minute.

7) JOEY CLARK vs. BRIAN GASSAWAY: Clark is a pretty experienced local fighter and Brian Gassaway has been in MMA since the dawn of time, initally appearing on awful IFC shows and shit like that.

First round is short but interesting with Joey Clark getting a Sashimi Ippon Mothra (or something) early on and then tries to get a north/south choke. Failing that, he lets it back up to the feet where they clinch up. Gassaway tries to suplex him but doesn't have enough strength and Clark lands back in side control. He holds on there until Gassaway somehow pulls around him and nearly gets a rear naked choke. Round ends pretty soon after.

Rounds 2 and 3 fall into a pattern in which Clark gets the takedown, gets mount, gets bucked off or moves to side control, and then back to mount, and then cycles again. Dull stuff. The crowd boos the end of the fight and Clark gets a unanimous decision. Andrei Arlovski is in the crowd.

8) GIDEON RAY vs. BRENDAN SEGUIN: Ray’s been in pretty much all the big shows and Seguin is making another appearance on these reviews.

First round sees Seguin get the takedown and take top position with Ray against the cage. Not a lot of offense gets put in by Seguin in the dominant position, and with the round winding down, Ray scissors the leg of Seguin and rolls for a kneebar. Seguin defends and Ray does it again, this time going for a heel hook and succeeding.

9) TREVOR BARRETT vs. TERRY MARTIN: Barrett is a career loser and Martin worships Mike Tyson in copying his nickname, towel, and black trunks.

Martin wins by KO in the first round. I’m shocked. He also does get a nice takedown/slam in also.

10) VICTOR MORENO vs. LAVERNE CLARK: Victor Moreno is a mediocre fighter and Laverne Clark is a name those watching for eons should know from the olden days of UFC as a “professional boxer” turned MMA fighter. FUN NOTE: Clark faced 5 future or past world champions as a boxer. He lost to all of them. In fact, he never went the distance with any.

This is actually a pretty fun fight that Clark largely controls. The first round is almost all standup but subsequent ground fighting is primarily consistent with Clark in control on top and Moreno largely ineffective with the guard. Clark also lands some wild shots at times. No worse than most of the UFC’s recent major fights, as Clark wins a 3 round decision.

11) CHARLES “CRAZY HORSE” BENNETT vs. JEFF CURRAN: Intros not necessary.

Short but immensely entertaining. Some decent standup with Bennett throwing body punches that surprised Curran and the two trading slams early with Bennett throwing a SHOOT BACKDROP DRIVER~! No real shock that Bennett gets tapped with an armbar in the first round but it was great while it lasted.

12) SHONIE CARTER vs. JASON BLACK: Another fight where no real introduction is necessary. That always rules.

Another short but unsatisfying fight. Carter and Black tussle in the clinch early, and Carter gets the takedown. In doing so, Black is injured and Carter gets a W. I have to admit in thinking about it that I’m shocked Carter isn’t in the UFC still. He could provide decent tests for young 170lb fighters and he’s someone the crowd can get into.

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Bennett/Curran - Fun fight, though short. Lots of great action throughout.

KO OF THE NIGHT: Jordan/Strawn - Brutal KO.

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Ray/Seguin - I'm a sucker for leg locks when they actually happen.

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 7 out of 10. Probably the high water mark for these shows. Unfortunately there's 18 to go. Fuuuuuuuck.

BIG SHOW REVIEW WEEK OF 5/7

So this didn't get posted because Blogger was down for like two days. Oh well.

ULTIMATE FIGHTER 13:

Chuck O'Neil wins with a d'arce against Torres, who doesn't do anything but try and wall and stall in fights. Torres just doesn't belong in the top tiers of the sport. Can't check leg kicks, can't throw good punches. O'Neil is no superman either - he's throwing hooks and leaning back while he does it. But he's a better grappler and won. Dominated in top control in the second.

BELLATOR 43:

Rich Bouphanouvong had strong takedowns and nothing else. Not all that effective in GnP, leaves limbs and the head out there. Watch out for that triangle from David Rickles! Oh. Too late.

Vince Lucero was fat and out of shape, ends up on his back and then gets a kimura. Classic strong man submission from Ron Sparks.

Jose Vega shoots on the wrestler Chase Beebe, gets guillotined. Not like Chase didn't go for that 3-4 times in the fight beforehand. Oh. He did. Beebe has now won 6 of his last 7, but hasn't beaten a single meaningful opponent in years. Closest to it was Mike Easton in a lousy decision he lost, but Mike Easton kinda sucks.

Joe Riggs is washed up. What will we tell the papers? Oh, he's still a UFC vet and DANGEROUS. Well, a danger to himself, sure. Baker clobbered him at distance while Riggs could only windmill forwards.

In the welterweight tournament fighter, there were two grapplers tenatively stiking and one wins because he threw about 5 more shots. Rick Hawn landed the best punch of the fight in the second and did so little else in the bout that he ended up losing a split decision that even he admitted he lost. Jay Hieron, meanwhile, is the poor man's GSP. I still think he's fighting hurt. No takedown attempts at all. Only some odd spinning kicks along with the jab for offense. Didn't move very well.

NAAFS Cage Fighting (3/27/2011)

This show is edited from Caged Fury 14, held on 2/26/2011. Decent main event.

1) Bill Algeo vs. Victor Crenshaw: There's a new team Titan in PA. Wonder if they have decent fighters, unlike the other one in OK. Lightweight amateur bout.

FIGHT: Algeo TKO Rnd 2. Sorta an ugly fight. Crenshaw was landing some really good shots and spinning Algeo's head around along with having top control when the fight was on the mat, until a punch partially lands right on Crenshaw's eye. The fight is stopped, doctors check Crenshaw, and they restart. Crenshaw is blinking a ton though, and Algeo gets close, clinches, and takes down Crenshaw, leading to a GnP finish. (0)

2) Tyler Saltsman vs. Isiah Chapman: "The fight we've been waiting for". Who is we? Another bout with a Team Titan guy (Saltsman).

FIGHT: Chapman Unanimous Decision. Close, competitive fight with Saltsman going for takedowns, occasionally getting them, but never being on top long in the first or second. Chapman lands some decent strikes in the standup and that basically wins him the fight. The third is all Saltsman, who gets on top early after being busy to start and picks up the round by controlling the rest of the 3 minute round. Chapman needs to work on his wrestling BIG TIME. (0)

3) Dan Spohn vs. Josh Hendricks: Hendricks was a heavyweight gatekeeper, solid wrestler, and UFC vet. Spahn has a few decent wins in NAAFS' weak 205lb weight class. Kinda interesting fight.

FIGHT: Spohn TKO Rnd 1. Spohn lands some solid blows early in the round and Hendricks is forced to shoot. Spohn ends up on his back, and gets tagged with a elbow or two that opens a bad cut over the left eye, and Spohn wins the fight as a result. Hendricks even seems to have a knee problem as he limps around. (1)

OVERALL FOR THE SHOW: 5 out of 10. Decent amateur fights with some skilled guys not embarrassing themselves, and a let down of a main event that still matters.

WEC 5: Halloween Havoc (10/18/2002)

At Tachi Palace in the desert. Jeff Weller (IFC dude and ring announcer for early WECs) is dressed like Gene Simmons. Jesus, old people. This show is 45 minutes long and was included on Bad Breed TV 2.

1) Gabe Ruediger vs. Sam Wells: CAKE.

FIGHT: Wells TKO Rnd 1. Surprised by the outcome, to be honest. Ruediger got an outside trip takedown to start and I was thinking he was gonna walk this. Instead, Wells escapes out the back, slams down Ruediger during a guillotine attempt, and controls him on top. Then after they go back to the standup, Wells lands a few straight punches and Ruediger goes down. (1)

2) Chris Moody vs. Diallo Baza: Baza is from AKA. Fight is at 185.

FIGHT: Baza TKO Rnd 2. Moody rushes Baza at the start and shows his wrestling prowess by getting the fight down (and nearly toppling the cage when he pushes Baza into it). They trade takedowns and position pretty much the entire first round. Moody is completely out of gas after 5 minutes and ends up getting taken down right at the start of the second, and Baza gets to his back. After the RNC doesn't come for a minute and a half, Baza transitions to mount and punches Moody until the ref stops it. Neither guy has really gone anywhere since. (0)

3) Tim Kennedy vs. Mack Brewer: Kennedy at this point was training at The Pit. He also has a black eye. Brewer looks like a schlub and the announcers state he was drinking beer at the weigh in.

FIGHT: Kennedy TKO Rnd 1. KOTC special with Kennedy getting a nice slam off the single at the start and he pounds out Brewer after getting to mount and forcing Brewer to roll to his stomach. (1)

4) Rich Crunkilton vs. Victor Estrada: Crunkilton comes in dressed like Hannibal Lector and no one bothers to keep the camera on him, instead focusing on the scummy ring girls. Estrada is apparently a WEC and IFC vet. Josh Thomson in the corner of Crunkilton.

FIGHT: Crunkilton TKO Rnd 1. Estrada drops Crunkilton early and then goes for a guillotine. Crunkilton slams and later pulls his head out, but Estrada goes for an armbar. Nearly got it too. Crunkilton pulls out from it and then when they are both standing, we have a body lock and Crunkilton does a belly to belly. Estrada lands awkwardly and hurts his ankle, turtles up immediately, and the ref stops it after a couple of shots. Crunkilton shows that his chin is touchable and that he's not that good at preventing subs from the bottom. That came to be important later on in his career. (1)

5) Jeff Bedard vs. Antonio Banuelos: 135lb fight. Banuelos was a big draw in California for a little while. Bedard comes from Colorado and got to fight with the WEC many years later on Versus.

FIGHT: Bedard Submission Rnd 1. Man, Bedard runs over Banuelos. He gets the takedown immediately is in half guard, and then postures up. Banuelos puts his head in for the guillotine and gets tapped in like 30 seconds. (1)

6) Cole Escovedo vs. Philip Perez: Main event time. Escovedo was nearly crippled at one point and made a strong enougn comeback that he fought in Japan's big leagues, incredibly.

FIGHT: Escovedo Submission Rnd 1. Perez gets knocked down with a jab very early, but still goes for the takedown. Clearly, he's a grappler who looks for positional control, but Escovedo is better than that. Cole's not the superior wrestler per se, but he sweeps Perez once and catches him with a triangle later in the round to end it. In between, Escovedo gets back to his feet and lands with the foot when throwing a high kick against Perez. Not that great a fight or anything. (2)

FIGHT OF THE NIGHT: Moody/Baza

KO OF THE NIGHT: Wells/Ruediger

SUBMISSION OF THE NIGHT: Escovedo/Perez

OVERALL FOR THE EVENT: 3 out of 10. Nonessential fights with prospects who occasionally did things in MMA.

D&R Rating: 20% (6/30)

BIG SHOW REVIEW WEEK OF 5/2

UFC 129:

Pablo Garza looks to be in an entirely different weight class than Yves Jabouin. Pencil legs or not, it seems like this should be a walk in the park. Garza can't check kicks at all though. It doesn't matter here because he pulls into a flying triangle and eventually locks that in to win by submission, but against a bigger, stronger guy, it will be relevant and it will matter.

Makdessi was on a season of TUF that I should have recapped and didn't and now I don't remember anything about it. Oops. So here he fights Kyle Watson and basically dismantles him. Joe Rogan in this fight (along with the Rory MacDonald fight) did a very good job breaking down not only what Makdessi was doing well but why it was working well on Watson, who's chin was vertical and head unmoving. Even dropped Bill Superfoot Wallace's name. Makdessi does very impressive looking kicks, no doubt about it, but he still has a tendency to shuffle straight back when someone comes forward at him, no doubt something that is ingrained from years of point karate. He's also a small guy. No reason to lie about that. People who are that undersized have a tough time competing in a sport filled with powerful, skilled wrestlers.

Daniel Roberts is a top control grappler who throws a lot of arm punches or shots across his body. Against Claude Patrick, he was in deep against a guy who is as skilled a takedown artist, a better striker, and better at submissions. End results: Roberts loses a decision, gets hit in the face a few times, is on his back more than on top, and eats low kicks. Patrick is a skilled all around fighter who doesn't give a star vibe but has consistently strung together wins, sometimes struggling, but still getting Ws against largely an equivalent level of competition. When does he step up?

Ellenberger/Pierson went not entirely as expected. I expected Pierson to be good enough to hang with Ellenberger for a little while. Instead he walked into left hook twice, the second time causing his body to shut off and he sorta topples to the mat.

Menjivar/Valencia was possibly the fight I was most excited for off the main card. Hell, even among fights on the main card I was most excited for it. Instead, it had a cool finish but not much else. Menjivar and Valencia were in the clinch and Menjivar cracks him with a tight thai elbow that blows up Valencia's face. Nothing super fancy, nothing innovative. All effective. All technique.

When we get to Nate Diaz's fight against Rory McDonald, man, how have I ignored that Diaz has a sub .667 record all this time? Seems like he has been more successful given the fight with Gray Maynard and stuff like that. In this fight, I thought McDonald would have a significant disadvantage with Diaz's wild boxing style and grappling. Bzzz. Wrong. What Rory did was nullify Nate's attack by closing the distance and clinching (forcing Diaz to rely on very poor wrestling) any time the bout got to boxing range. Otherwise, it was low kicks, low kicks, low kicks. By the third, Nate had been ground down enough that McDonald, the stronger of the two men, started throwing him around like a rag doll and was on top without fear of submission. Very smart plan. To Nate Diaz's credit, he got some separation and landed blows in the second round, but McDonald stayed composed and would immediately clinch after being hit.

What was Ryan Jensen's gameplan with Jason MacDonald? I have no idea after seeing that. Looks like he thought he'd just bomb him out with wide looping shots. Instead MacDonald shoots, takes him down, and runs a clinic on him en route to an easy triangle win. Jensen needs to get a pink slip. That simple.

Randy Couture: Please stay away from the Octagon. Its not a thing of hatred. You just don't have it anymore. And against Machida, you probably never would have had "it" to begin with. The athleticism is gone and now guys have much superior technique too. Couture was treated like a moving punching bag. All the talk about the brilliant Randy gameplan flew in the face of flatfooted, following Randy Couture of the last two Liddell fights. That's who we got here.

Want to see two overrated lightweights fight one another? Ben Henderson's win against Mark Bocek is your fight. I guess that's not fair because no one that meant anything ranked Bocek, but you have a couple guys with OK wrestling kickboxing and occasionally pummelling and sometimes being on the mat. Henderson's a better athlete with better standup and even though his takedown defense is so-so, that's enough of a combination to prevent Bocek being on top for more than two minutes in the fight. In the interim, Henderson lands better shots and wins rounds or forces the fight down with his strength to having top position. I dunno, I'm not sold on Henderson and until he frequently beats top guys, I never will be.

Jose Aldo's performance in defending his title is not easy to sum up in a single sentence. Was it disappointing? I guess. Its what I expected though. He got hit a lot more in this fight after fighting super busy and fast in the first, and gassed out, even losing the 5th round to the Elephant Man. But my expectations are naturally a low lower than most, who see Aldo as top 3 pound for pound. Aldo got takedowns and had dominant positions on the mat against a guy who has repeatedly been exposed as being lousy off his back or defending submissions. Aldo should have tapped him in the first. Instead, he went for GnP and not even to really pass. Hominick is a known quantity, and beating him for four rounds and then losing the fifth is OK and whatever else, but you gotta take him out to show that you're world class, and he didn't do that. The right hands he landed were fine and hurt Hominick; OK. The elbow caused what should have been a fight ending hematoma. Alright. I don't care. Aldo should have won by armbar 4 minutes in after his takedown midway through the round. He didn't. He even lost the final round and got beat up in doing so. Exposed.

Finally, we arrive at the main event. George St. Pierre's gameplan I understand. Makes sense. Meant that he was so far ahead after 3 that he could coast (as he had to) and win the fight with only one eye against the guy who was argurably the best contender for a world title in two weight classes. But still, I'm bothered that he didn't show another gear and start stringing together combinations and demolishing Shields. Jake never would have had the chance to poke him like that in the 3rd if Shields had taken him out in the second, and it wouldn't have taken much more than throwing a second jab followed by a straight right or uppercut and working the body to drop Shields' hands. Jake did nothing round after round and smiled because, presumably, he won a round and did better therefor than most everyone else GSP has fought since the first Serra fight. I dunno, whatever. No one is gonna care 20 years from now that Shields did incrementally better than Dan Hardy or Thiago Alves.

INSERT NUMETAL INTRO HERE TUF 13

Lew Polley goes home, some jobbers got hurt, and WOW. Who cares.

Tony Ferguson and Justin Edwards kick it off and they went at it. Ferguson throws some solid punches - tighter stuff, good hooks and uppercuts. Edwards wants takedowns and Ferguson keeps busy on his back and gets up. But when Edwards stands out of the guard and looks to try and pass, and he's hit with a heel upkick and Edwards is out. Dana is so stoked at a 4 minute fight. OK, I guess? Ferguson has some of the best creds on the show.

Zach Davis fights Chuck O'Neil in the second fight of the episode. Another fight Dana loved for reasons I cannot ascertain. Davis gets a takedown early and lands some okay shots, gets up to pass, does so, gets swept while going for a kimura, and then locks in a triangle. Apparently Chuck O'Neil is some sort of warrior because he's a grappling warrior. I dunno. He gets picked along with Torres for the wildcard. Hoofuckingray.

PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS PREDICTIONS:

Last week: 7-3

Overall for 2011: 32-15

Bellator 43:

Rick Hawn shouldn't beat Jay Hieron. I've said it before. He might though given how mediocre Hieron looked in his last fight. I think Hieron has a bad wheel but even with an injury that he's keeping quiet, he should still have good enough striking to outland Hawn on the feet and good enough grappling to keep the fight from going down in any fashion other than Hieron on top.

Joe Riggs is fighting Bryan Baker? Seriously? Baker has lost twice - once was to Chael Sonnen in Magic Juice Sonnen phase. The other is to Alexander Shlemenko, who is a worthy adversary and a long time vet. He's beaten a lot of other solid fighters though - Jeremy Horn, Art Santore, Matt Horwich, Rory Singer, Eric Schambari, Sean Loeffler, Reggie Orr, Jesse Forbes. Some of those guys were never weres, some were pretty OK fighters, but most were well past their best. I can say that confidently about at least 5 of those names. Joe Riggs is a guy past his best. He was stopped on punches in January in a show no one has seen against a guy no one has heard of, and Louis Taylor aside, he hasn't had a win of any real profile since beating Phil Baroni 2 years ago. He hasn't beaten a contending fighter since 2006. Bryan Baker is KOing Riggs back to the little leagues.

Neil Grove should KO Zak Jensen. Much bigger, Jensen can't wrestle, and they'll bang. And it could be terrible.