MMA's 3R's 03.07.13: UFC on Fuel TV 8 Edition
Posted by Jeffrey Harris on 03.07.2013
From Wanderlei Silva's triumph over Brian Stann and Mark Hunt splitting Stefan Struve's jaw in two to the incompetence of MMA girlfriends and more, 411's Jeffrey Harris breaks down the Right, the wRong, and the Ridiculous for UFC on FUEL TV 8!
*The Column Concept*
Greetings loyal readers and welcome back to a brand new edition of The 3R's of MMA. The rules and format are still the same as I will be taking a look at the Right, the wRong, and the Ridiculous in the MMA world. The Right will be about the good to great fights or positive news items for the week or big fight announcements. The wRong will be the bad fights, showings or performances, and bad fight bookings. And the Ridiculous will be the worst of the world of MMA.
The 411 Ground and Pound Radio Show was back this week to review UFC on Fuel TV 8:
Welcome back to the MMA's 3R's. UFC finished off a run of three weekends of shows as they returned to Japan with UFC on Fuel TV 8. Bellator was back on Spike TV with Bellator 91. So let's get to it.
THE RIGHT:
Wanderlei Silva vs. Brian Stann: A fight that I am sure will be a likely candidate for fight of the year. Just when I think Wanderlei Silva is done, he continues to surprise me just like he did in the Cung Le fight. As impressive as Silva was here, I wish he would go ahead and retire and end his career on a high note having returned to Japan and beaten a tough opponent. Realistically, Wanderlei is not going to win a title or be a contender again at either middleweight or light heavyweight. He really has nothing else left to prove, and I don't think it is worth it for him to risk further damage further in life. But the problem is that fighters are addicted to winning and when they win like this there is really no reason for them to retire. Still this was a great fight that saw both guys get dropped before Silva was able to finish Stann off. Outstanding fight that saved a card that was getting quite tedious because of all the decisions and split decisions.
Wanderlei Silva knocked out Brian Stann at UFC on Fuel TV 8 in Japan.
Mark Hunt vs. Stefan Struve: I like Stefan Struve a lot. He's very talented but man it's frustrating to see him make the same mistakes over and over again. Again Struve did not utilize his length and range well. He let Hunt just punch him and with a guy like Hunt it's like being hit with a baseball bat. Struve gave up good positions to Hunt and some of his submission attempts looked downright bizarre. Still credit to Hunt who has some marked improvement throughout his recent UFC run. This was a guy I had basically written off as a relevant fighter and basically saw a Bob Sapp-type sideshow and now he's 4-1 in the UFC and has the best winstreak in the heavyweight division. That might not seem all that impressive considering it is the heavyweight division but compared to where Mark Hunt was just a few years ago, he's come a long way. Struve's lower jaw was broken clean in two after the fight. Google the X-ray pictures online, they are hideous. I think Hunt deserves a top five fight after this provided he can stay healthy. With a win over a top name you'd have to consider him a title contender at that point.
Mark Hunt knocked out Stefan Struve in their fight at UFC on Fuel TV 8.
Dong Hyun Kim vs. Siyar Bahadurzada: Man I like Dong Hyun Kim. He's not the greatest at finishing and he doesn't pack a lot of power but I enjoy watching his fights. Kim's looked very good since his recent loss to Demian Maia against a guy I expected a lot more out of as well in Siyar Bahadurzada from the consistently failing Blackzilian camp. The fight ended up going a similar way to Kim's fight with Paulo Thiago. Kim didn't get the finish but he did do the Donkey Kong punches from the mount position and also even did a little David Gardner "Hello Japan" bit when he threw up the peace sign. At least he didn't mess up and get caught in a stupid submission.
THE wRong:
Miesha Tate Does a Poor Job of Cornering Her Boyfriend: Miesha Tate is going to have a hard time living down her MMA coaching skills as she instructed her boyfriend Bryan Caraway that he won the first two rounds of his fight with Takeya Mizugaki so he should just "cruise" through the third. Well that didn't really work. Caraway can't blame Mizugaki or a home cooked decision. He has no one to blame but himself and Miesha Tate on this one. And for that matter, it is getting tiresome when corners tell their fighters they won a round that was legit close or they actually didn't. That is typically some of the worst advice ever I think. You never know what the judges are seeing so you have to do more and fight every second. Its one thing to be on the defensive, but don't cruise it. Caraway wanted a fight with Mizugaki and he wanted it in Japan, so it's on his head.
Yushin Okami vs. Hector Lombard: Another unimpressive showing for Hector Lombard in the UFC. I'm not going to be as outspoken about the issue as Chael Sonnen was on Fuel TV and say Lombard should be fired, but I think he could be on his way out if he doesn't win his next fight. I think a fight with Brian Stann would be a good idea. If not, Lombard I think will have to seriously consider a move down to middleweight. In the UFC middleweight division, he's clearly outsized by everyone because even a guy like Okami is a giant middleweight. This fight was just kind of there. I don't know how it got scored a split decision. Lombard has some good punching power, but his movement and footwork is poor. He's a high-level judo guy, but he doesn't utilize his judo and throws well in MMA and his takedown defense is poor. Lombard was able to hurt Okami in the third round but instead of capitalizing on it he kept jumping into Okami's guard instead of standing the fight back up when he really should've been fighting like he was behind 2 rounds to none. Okami wins his 13th bout in the Octagon here so I do think you have to give him a big fight next. Perhaps the winner of Belfort/Rockhold or Jacare/Phillippou.
Yushin Okami defeated Hector Lombard by decision at UFC on Fuel TV 8.
THE RIDICULOUS:
Diego Sanchez vs. Takanori Gomi: This gets the ridiculous slot because the judging was terrible in this fight. I'm sorry to Mark Radulich and Pat Mullin, but Sanchez did not win this fight. Gomi looked really better than he ever has throughout his rather underwhelming run in the UFC, and he was the more active fighter. Sanchez looked lost in this fight. He did have some takedowns and some decent shots, but Gomi was way more active. The stats show he did outstrike Sanchez. Sanchez's grappling wasn't effective as he wasn't able to do really anything with his takedowns, so that's not effective grappling. It looked like whenever Sanchez wanted to get mean he'd run straight in and then just didn't react or do anything at all. Sanchez was overweight for this fight as well and complained that it was because he was way overweight at the start of camp and because Japan doesn't have distilled H20. To me, that's inexcusable. Sanchez wanted to move back down. He's been fighting long enough that he should know what he has to do in order to make weight and prepare for an overseas trip.
Diego Sanchez believes he earned the controversial win over Takanori Gomi at UFC on Fuel TV 8.
That's it for the R's. But what else is going on 411mania.com with yours truly, the 411mania Jack of All Trades?
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Check out my live from Las Vegas event report of UFC 156 HERE.
