MMA Analytics 11.19.07: A Weekend Recap of Strikeforce and UFC 78
Posted by Leland Roling on 11.19.2007
This weekend's events were what many fans expected, boring. Strikeforce featured a middleweight tournament that returned dominant performances from Jorge Santiago and main event wins from Alistair Overeem and Cung Le. The UFC 78 card featured some boring battles, but some surprise finishes as well. We'll take a look at both cards, the ups and downs, and the surprises from each in this edition of MMA Analytics.
This weekend consisted of some bigger events in the mixed martial arts landscape. Namely, the Strikeforce event on Friday evening featuring the Middleweight four-man tournament and the main card battles of PRIDE veteran Alistair Overeem vs. Paul Buentello. The UFC 78: Validation event on Saturday evening featuring the the main event of Michael Bisping vs. Rashad Evans and battle between BJJ expert and striker Thiago Silva vs. power striking Houston Alexander was also on the slate this weekend. Both cards had some climaxes as well as some low points. Many fans have gone so far as to say that Strikeforce may have consistently produced better fights this weekend than that of the UFC, although the UFC's card didn't look as bad as people had once thought. Let's take a look at both events, analyze what occurred over the weekend, and come to a few conclusions as to what my thought were on those two events in the landscape of the mixed martial arts scene.
UFC 78: Validation that this was a weak card
The most exciting fights of the evening weren't televised, and the fights that many fans looked forward to produced some boring action. The first fights of the night were Akihiro Gono vs. Tamden McCrory, Marcus Aurelio vs. Luke Caudillo, Joe Lauzon vs. Jason Reinhardt, and Thiago Alves vs. Chris Lytle. For the most part, these fights seemed to go fairly quickly compared to the main card. Akihiro Gono, the entertaining PRIDE veteran with his outlandish entrances, is considered to be a tough competitor and I believe he is underrated by the American fanbase. Gono took on an undefeated McCrory who has some significant length and reach on Gono. Gono took him down in his zebra tights and put down a crazy armbar that didn't look like it would finish, but it got the job done.
Aurelio came out quick as I expected against a lesser opponent in Luke Caudillo. Aurelio took down Caudillo twice and secured the armbar during his second takedown from side mount in the first round. Joe Lauzon took out the overhyped Jason Reinhardt easily in the first round by rear naked choke. Although Reinhardt had an 18-0 record, his quality of opponents were poor and he is very small in size compared to Lauzon.
In one of the more even matchups of the evening, Chris Lytle tried to earn himself a win and get back into the UFC limelight. His opponent had other ideas. Alves landed a huge right early in the fight that cut Lytle above the eye, a cut is the only reason Lytle has ever been stopped. This proved to be a problem and for the second time ever in Lytle's career, he was stopped. Alves won via TKO due to a doctor stoppage because of the cut after the second round. Fans were visibly upset with the decision to stop the fight.
What can we take from these early battles? Akihiro Gono has a future at Welterweight. He took on a much taller, lankier opponent and was still able to get him to the floor and work his ground game. Although it wouldn't be considered a quality opponent to Gono, it's still a win in the UFC where other PRIDE fighters have been unable to win in the Octagon. Joe Lauzon looked beastly in his win, easily disposing of Reinhardt. His computer background seems to convey the analytical and tactical thinking he has during his fights. During his post-fight interview, he talked about how he was looking for Reinhardt to go to his knees after he hit the mat. Reinhardt did exactly that and Lauzon reacted by circling to his back and sinking in the choke. Aurelio is no joke and should have fought this aggressive against Clay Guida, although Guida is one strong individual. Alves's standup looked good and he finished a fighter who is considered one of the toughest in the game to actually stop without going to decision. We'll see more of him.
Validation's main card analysis
Frankie Edgar came out with a pretty simple gameplan. His gameplan was to take down Fisher as much as possible and destroy any chance that he had to mount any kind of offense. Edgar completely dominated Fisher, and I wasn't surprised. Although I thought Fisher would somehow have the ability to outlast Edgar's onslaught, I was wrong. Edgar was a monster in the takedown game and Fisher's takedown defense was non-existent. Edgar should be a force in the Lightweight division. His power in the takedown game is very hard to counter, although a great ju-jitsu fighter could counter him.
Joe Doerksen had it won. In the second round of his battle with Ed Herman, he managed to sink in an armbar with about 5-6 seconds left in the round and nearly had it extended when the horn sounded. Herman had been saved and would live another round that would pay off. Herman knocked out Doerksen in the third round with a good bob and weave to a huge right that down Doerksen. To be honest, I'm not a fan of Ed Herman, but he was fairly impressive during this fight. He showed improved strength, great takedown defense, decent striking, and controlled Doerksen, a BJJ veteran, for most of the fight. Although Herman had some of the sloppiest standup in the final round, he was one of the more improved fighters on the card.
Karo Parisyan won a fairly boring unanimous decision over Ryo Chonan. Chonan had no real answers to counter Karo's ability to get him down at nearly every chance Chonan tried to leg kick Parisyan. I figured Chonan would learn from this, but continued to be taken down by Parisyan at will. Combine the takedowns with some decent ground and pound from Parisyan, and it turned out to be an easy, but boring win for Parisyan. I don't think we will see him in title contention just yet. It may be awhile since Hughes vs. Serra is up in December and then Georges St. Pierre will be in line.
Houston Alexander has been exposed. Despite all the hype around Houston's supposed self-proclaimed great ground game that he has yet to use in the Octagon, it seems that it was nothing but hype. Houston was taken down, mounted, and knocked out quickly by the BJJ tactician that is Thiago Silva. Silva is mostly known for his decent power though and knocking out opponents. He used his power in the mount and Alexander's imposing style was completely nullified.
The main event of Rashad Evans vs. Michael Bisping was a poor main event. Evans was able to control Bisping by taking him down multiple times, but he didn't do much damage in the guard. Evans also showed better striking than Bisping, although many fans disagree. My thoughts are that Rashad outstruck Bisping with the one-two combination landing at will. Bisping's standup defense was terrible. Bisping had a few good punches that he landed and possibly a knee or two, but for the most part, Bisping became frustrated by some of the takedowns and as he grew tired, he was susceptible to the combinations. Evans won by split decision, which I also believed was judge's error. It should have been unanimously given to Rashad. I have no idea how a judge thought Bisping won, and it shows how some judges judge takedowns differently than others. A huge problem in mixed martial arts.
This card wasn't horrible, but it wasn't good in my opinion. Joe Silva seemed to matchup a lot of fighters that have a tendency to go to decision. Evans vs. Bisping was exactly what I expected, a boring fight. The fact that Bisping somehow won over a judge is ridiculous. Rashad outstruck Bisping slightly and took him down at will at times. Rashad won the fight clearly to me, yet someone gave Bisping the win. Obviously judges need to start attending Herb Dean and John McCarthy's MMA judging clinics. Alexander was exposed and I thought that was a good matchup to test Alexander. I looked forward to that battle much more than the main event. Parisyan was once again proven to be a decision fighter. He needs to continue to work on his power and boxing if he wants to end fights. Herman vs. Doerksen was one of the most exciting fights of the night and that fight was 3 fights before the main event, come on UFC! Edgar vs. Fisher wasn't exciting if you like a guy who basically dominates another guy but can't finish. I enjoyed it to an extent, but not of tremendous excitement. Overall, the UFC's matchups for this card were poor and they need to take a hint from this event from the hardcore fans.
The Ups: Ed Herman, Joe Lauzon, Akihiro Gono, Thiago Silva, Frankie Edgar.
The Downs: Main Event, Karo Parisyan again, event matchups were destined to be decisions and boring.
Strikeforce quick hits
1. I thought the event was decent, but much like Validation in that it didn't live up to the hype that Strikeforce pushed on the fans. The tournament was controversial because of an eye gouge that Prangley put on Vitale and the referee had to decide, which is very old school, but it was decent nonetheless.
2. The tournament had one positive, Jorge Santiago has improved significantly in his quick strikes and kneeing. He flying kneed Salmon out cold within 20 seconds, and beat a tired Prangley with a knee as well. Fairly impressive.
3. Cung Le is an idiot. He went for the highlight reel kick win for almost the entire matchup and risked by fantastically knocked out by a flailing Sam Morgan. Although Morgan had zero technique, he was so wild, it was a possibility that he could have landed one shot. Cung could have ended it in the first round when he mounted Morgan, but he got off Morgan to get the kick. Stupid.
4. Frank Shamrock will kill Cung Le. Cung's ground game is still unproven and seems to be fairly bad from what we saw during the fight. Frank may have an easy fight there. Cung should have taken Frank's advice and waited.
5. Paul Buentello has no ground game. Alistair completely dominated him, probably 10-8 rounds each round. Overeem was bigger, stronger, and had the ground control the entire fight. His gas tank wasn't tested significantly, but it was better. I predicted a first round meltdown of Overeem's cardio, but I was wrong.
6. Luke Stewart's illegal knee stomp after he dropped his opponent should get a fine from the CSAC. It was unbelievably dangerous, Shogun-esque from PRIDE.
7. Sean Salmon apparently had a seizure after he was completely knocked out and dropped like a gigantic Redwood tree, reminiscent of the Rashad Evans fight. Salmon, who I like as a fighter, needs to either improve his defense or quit MMA for he may have a hard time getting cleared and his life could be in danger. People get knocked out and are standing after the fight, but Sean has had two fights where he wasn't standing for quite some time afterwards.
8. Overall, not a bad event, but the March card of Melendez vs. Thomson and Shamrock vs. Le will be a very good card with those two main attractions.
Overall, not a bad event, but about the same stature as Validation. UFC 78 didn't live up to any hype that was produced and generally was what most fans expected... lackluster. Strikeforce was the same way, but hey, it was streamed free on Yahoo! What more can we ask. A free card with some fantastic knockouts isn't bad in my book. That's my thoughts on this weekend's events, and hopefully the upcoming UFC 79 Supercard will be better... I mean, it has to be, right?
411 debuts a new fight feature as MMA fighter Paul Buentello brings us this special video feature, breaking down the fights from UFC 78! This was done out of town for Paul, and is limited due to him having a fight Friday night, but in the future it will continue to grow:
