The Tuesday Leg Lock Report 05.27.08

Posted by Justin Thomas on 05.27.2008

The Tuesday Leg Lock comes back with a review of UFC 84: Ill Will and a preview of EliteXC: Primetime. Also, I give my thoughts on Herring vs. Lesnar, Fitch vs. GSP and Danzig vs. Guida. Plus, some reader thoughts and my replies inside.

Welcome to another edition of The Tuesday Leg Lock Report! A huge UFC 84 event took place last Saturday. It was an excellent show and I'll give my thoughts on it. EliteXC is this Saturday and WEC: Faber vs. Pulver is next Monday. A lot of MMA action this month. I will preview EliteXC: Primetime, but I won't give my thoughts on the upcoming WEC event, because I'm not a big fan of WEC and this column will still be full of content, including an early preview of UFC 87 card.




UFC 84 Review



-Antonio Mendes (14-3 MMA) vs. Thiago Silva (13-0 MMA). Great fight and a nice way to open the show. Mendes landed a nice high kick early, but wasn't quite able to capitalize on it. He failed to execute a judo throw, ended on his back and there he couldn't defend the punches well and it was only a matter of time until the fight ends. Mendes probably realized that himself and just tapped out. Not a super dominant performance by Silva, but he got the job done and demonstrated really good ground control. Thiago needs to be tested, but he has really good skills and a bright future ahead of him, that is if he continues to improve. UFC should bring back Mendes, he didn't look bad and it looks like he got some serious striking skills.

-Tito Ortiz (15-6-1 MMA) vs. Lyoto Machida (13-0 MMA). Surprised to see this the second fight of the evening. Ortiz doesn't get a superstar entrance and he's changed his music theme! Not a very exciting first round, but it was what you could expect. Tito tried taking down Lyoto several times, but that didn't work. Lyoto was his usual self with unorthodox karate style kicks, but he really surprised everyone, including Tito with a successful takedown to end the round. Ortiz could do nothing and I give this 10-9 Machida, but I wouldn't be surprised if the judges scored this 10-8. Second round was similar, Lyoto was not aggresive, but he threw enough leg kicks to score points and win the round. Tito tried to be aggressive, but he could not catch Machida. That had to be frustrating for Ortiz, but hey, that's his fault. Third round was awesome as Machida was passive and Tito could finally find his range and actually hit Lyoto with a few shots. Some work in the clinch and Machida landed a solid knee to the body of Tito and almost finished him. Tito quickly recovered, locked in a beautiful triangle choke and then transitioned into an armbar, but Lyoto knew the counters and refused to tap out. I'd actually give the third round to Tito, he landed some nice shots and almost secured a triangle choke, but well, that wouldn't have changed anything. Good win for Lyoto, but not a very impressive performance, he does not deserve the #1 contender spot yet, in my opinion. And as for Tito, I was surprised that the UFC gave him a farewell interview. He looked good tonight and this loss didn't hurt his image. Gary Shaw, be prepared to spend money!

- Wilson Gouveia (10-5 MMA) vs. Goran Reljic (8-0 MMA). Well, Goran really made a good impression in the first round. I knew he was training with Cro Cop, but I didn't expect a submission fighter to throw high kicks. They were blocked, but the damage to Gouveia was done and we all know what happened to Frank Shamrock after he absorbed too many of those. Wilson, late in the round, started throwing some bombs, some connected, but Reljic wisely pulled guard and avoided more damage. I score this 10-9 Goran. Amazing second round. Gouveia was aggressive early, landing some solid shots and a beautiful left hook to knock Reljic down. The fight was really close to being stopped, but perhaps Gouveia didn't even want to hold Reljic down for long and let him recover. That was a mistake, Reljic didn't look tired and now he landed a nice left hook and knocked down Wilson. Gouveia was trying to defend, but he was still eating punches and the referee stopped the bout. Really impressive performance by Goran, who is primarily a submission fighter, but demonstrated very good striking tonight. He only needed to set up those kicks more, but I'm sure he is still learning, because he is only 24 years old. Reljic is another light heavyweight, who could become a force in the UFC and I wish him luck.

-Wanderlei Silva (32-8-1 MMA) vs. Keith Jardine (13-4-1 MMA). Ah yes, the fight I was waiting for the most. Silva shaved his head and once again looks like the murderer that he was in PRIDE. I'm actually surprised that Silva got such a huge reaction. I guess his last fight against Chuck and UFC's hype machine had a lot to do with this. When the fight starts, Silva isn't overly aggressive, but he waited for Keith to throw a leg kick, got inside and landed some huge shots to knock down Jardine and you don't want to be knocked down when your opponent is Wanderlei Silva. He finished Jardine quickly and FINALLY he's back for real. Huge victory for him, but perhaps he should drop down to middleweight, because he is a small fighter for the light heavyweight division and just imagine how good he could be in the middleweight division. I don't see him dethroning Anderson Silva, but he could definitely be one of the top fighters there.

-BJ Penn (13-4-1 MMA) vs. Sean Sherk (32-3-1 MMA). Sherk is boo'ed heavily. Csonka must be loving this. First round wasn't too exciting, but not surprising. Sherk decided to strike with BJ, not the best idea in the world, but perhaps that is part of his gameplan. Penn used his jab well, opened a cut under Sherk's right eye and definitely won the round, but Sean did alright. The second round was more of the same, BJ controlled the fight, landing a lot of clean jabs. Sherk also landed some good hooks, bet Penn looks to be in a much better shape than Sherk. I guess we'll see more takedown attempts in the third. And I was wrong. Disappointing 4 minutes and 50 seconds, Sherk continued to exchange punches with BJ which was obviously a wrong decision and BJ wasn't aggressive, he just continued to land punches and score points. In the last 10 seconds, however, Penn quickly attacked, landed some shots and then a beautiful flying knee to drop Sherk. Kind of disappointing that the fight was stopped, but Sherk certainly was not smart, he was losing the fight, continued to exchange punches and finally was rocked. Not an impressive performance by BJ Penn either, but a good victory for him. I don't want to see BJ Penn vs. GSP, by the way. Let the champions defend their belts for god sake.

-Overall thoughts. Great event, as usually from UFC. Fast KOs, technical, fast-paced fights, we had it all in UFC 84. Ortiz/Machida and Sherk/Penn were not too exciting, but the name value in those matches was enough to keep me interested. Also, most of the favorites won their fights, except maybe Gouveia. Not a lot of ground fighting we saw tonight, but that's probably because most of the fights were in light heavyweight division and the lightweight main event was surprisingly a kickboxing fight. Anyways, I would give this 8/10, definitely worth your money.


"EliteXC: Primetime" Preview



This will be a stacked card, full of big name fighters. Not necessarily good ones, though. But I hope they'll deliver and provide exciting fights, because that is what EliteXC wants to achieve with this first network television MMA card ever.

-Jon Murphy (4-2 MMA) vs. Brett Rogers (6-0 MMA). I'm glad that EliteXC is trying to establish names. Brett Rogers is a beast, all of his six victories were due to strikes. Well, he is a newbie-friendly monster type of fighter and he can get popular with ease. Murphy is being feeded to Rogers and really has slim chances to win the fight. He probably has better submission skills, but he'll be outweighed and, well, he'll not take down Brett. Rogers is not an elite striker himself, but I see him coming out aggressive and finishing Murphy in the first round.

-Phil Baroni (10-9 MMA) vs. Joey Villasenor (25-6 MMA). Ah yes, this is gonna be good. Both of them are strikers, they like to bang and they usually have exciting fights. Baroni is certainly the more popular fighter, mainly because he talks a lot of trash about others and he's definitely a charismatic person. Despite that, he lost 4 out of his last 6 fights and desperately needs a win to resurrect his career. On the other side you have Joey Villasenor, who seems to do well against weaker opponents, but he has never won against top competition. His last 3 losses were against Ryo Chonan, Murilo Rua and Robbie Lawler. He didn't win EliteXC's Middleweight title, but now he's looking to make his way back up. Currently Joey is on a two fight winning streak. I think Joey will continue that streak and beat Baroni. Phil is exciting, but he had really bad cardio last time he fought and while he has the chances to knock out Villasenor quickly, Joey would probably win the fight, if it went to decision, because he is more of a technical striker than Baroni and is training with Greg Jackson's camp, which also helps. But, well, if this fight will be exciting, I'm sure that Phil will be back in EliteXC and maybe next time he'll get an easier opponent.

-Gina Carano (5-0 MMA) vs. Kaitlin Young (4-1 MMA). It's very nice, that Gary Shaw found a place in this show for a woman fight. Gina Carano is almost as popular as Kimbo is and she should attract some more viewers. Besides, you won't see chicks fighting in the UFC so it's always good to throw in something different. Both fighters are primarily strikers, but I won't be too surprised if this ends up on the ground, as they both can work on the ground. I don't know who the favorite is here, Gina is certainly more popular, but I'm not sure that she is the better striker, because I haven't really heard about Kaitlin before. Anyways, let's hope this fight will be as good as Carano vs. Kedzie.

-Scott Smith (13-4 MMA) vs. Robbie Lawler (15-4 MMA). It's easy to view EliteXC as a secondary organization, because both of these guys fought in UFC before, but did not stay there, because they lost most of the fights they had in there. Scott Smith is a good fighter, but I think he was brought to EliteXC only because he was in the UFC. Robbie Lawler, however, is a serious fighter. He has some good wins, recently defeated Frank Trigg and Murilo Rua to win EliteXC Middleweight title. Unsurprisingly, both guys are strikers and EXC probably hopes that they'll deliver and put on a show for the fans. No one wants to see boring 5 round fights and people switching channels during this match would be the last thing that EliteXC wants. Well at least they don't have Lay'n'Pray wrestlers here, like YAMMA did in their first event. Perhaps this should be the main event, but I guess EliteXC wants viewers to stay tuned in and wait for the main event, which features Kimbo. As for predictions, I think Lawler will retain via KO in the second or third round. Smith is not on the level that Robbie is, I'm not saying he can't win, but I'd bet on Lawler.

-Kimbo Slice (2-0 MMA) vs. James Thompson (14-8 MMA). KIMBO IS HERE! And yes, he is getting an easy opponent again. Thompson lost 6 out of his last 8 fights, most of them via KO. He was brought to EliteXC to lose, but he should make some good money in the process for headlining a primetime television event. This fight will likely be quick, neither of them wants this fight to go to the ground. But I think Thompson has an underrated puncher's chance. These guys will swing punches wildly and who knows, Kimbo might get caught too and Thompson in the past showed that he knows how to KO his opponents. Slice perhaps tested his chin in the streets though and with the training he gets from Bas Rutten, I'm sure he has a lot more chances to win. I want Slice to win, but next time they could give him some younger and more dangerous opponent so everybody could see if Kimbo really has some skills or not (and I believe he does).

OTHER NEWS

UFC 87: Brock Lesnar vs. Heath Herring. Wow, this will be a huge match. Coleman is out and I actually hope he won't show up in the octagon or at least fight against an opponent with no takedown defense. Talking about guys with no takedown defense, Heath Herring (28-13 MMA) replaced him as Lesnar's (1-1 MMA) opponent. Well I don't know why would Joe Silva make Lesnar face a fighter, who's really close to being a Top 10 heavyweight. Brock is a big star, he's marketable, he brings in money and a second loss for him would be devastating. However, stylistically Herring is a good opponent for Lesnar. Heath could not defend Kongo's takedowns, so he has very little chances to defend Brock's takedowns. Herring will likely end up on his back. He has good submission skills, although he showed none in his fight against Kongo, but those skills are nowhere near the level of Frank Mir's BJJ. And on his back, Heath is not dangerous, most of his submission wins are chokes or keylocks and to do those, you gotta be on top. Herring won't manage to sweep Lesnar, he's not well versed in leg locks and his best bet in pulling out a victory here is to sink in a guillotine choke or land a knee to Lesnar's chin. Herring is experienced enough to outsmart the rookie Lesnar in the ground game, but I think Brock has slightly better chances to win this fight, thanks to his size, reach and brutal GnP.

UFC 87: Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch. Despite Fitch (17-2 MMA) being #2 in my Welterweight Top 10 list, I don't really find this fight exciting. Fitch is 8-0 in the UFC, but he's not too dominant and hasn't really beaten much top competition. That being said, I think he deserves a title shot more than anyone else currently in the UFC's welterweight division. But GSP (16-2 MMA) is a monster and, on paper, Fitch shouldn't be a problem for him. Georges is a better striker, he's a better wrestler and the only logical choice for Jon to win this fight is to outwork GSP on the ground, but you gotta takedown Georges first. If the beast GSP, who dismantled Serra, Hughes and others, shows up, he should win without much trouble. That is, if GSP will be mentally strong enough and finds motivation for this fight...

UFC 87: Mac Danzig vs. Clay Guida. Certainly a lot of matches added to UFC 87 this week. This is an interesting bout and a tough test for the TUF6 winner. No weak opponents for Mac Danzig (18-4-1 MMA), I guess, but if he wins this one, he'll probably find himself close to becoming the #1 contender. I don't know who's going to win this one, by the way. Guida (23-9 MMA) is 3-3 in the UFC and is more of a gatekeeper in the lightweight division. He never scores enough wins to become a contender in the division, but he always provides exciting fights and let's hope this will be a good match.

READER THOUGHTS

Last week, Anon had this to say:

"his victory against Mirko was pretty much a fluke as I'm sure that Mirko
would beat Kongo in a rematch"

How do you figure? Kongo dominated Mirko standing up. The way to beat Kongo
is take him down and pound/BJJ him. That's not CroCop's style.

Kongo did not dominate Mirko. He won two rounds decisively, yes and he has good striking skills, but Cro Cop is a world-class kickboxer and you can't take away all of his achievements. The same could've been said about Serra/GSP, Matt dominated GSP on the feet in their first fight, but got owned in the second one. And if Mirko and Kongo meet again (which is unlikely), I'm sure that Cro Cop will prove to be the better striker of the two. Just my opinion, man, if you think Kongo would outstrike Mirko again, then fine.

The 411 staff got a lot of heat in the UFC 84 roundtable and while most of the comments weren't directed to me, one of them was and it came from romano:

does grammar matter? "Dana White could care less" - Justin Thomas.

so what you are saying is that he really cares? the phrase you were looking
for was "Dana couldn't care less"...since not of you fanboys are
experts at mma, the fucking least you could do is get the English language
right.

What do you mean "since not of you fanboys"? Didn't you mean "since none of you, fanboys"? You could fucking get the English language right. What my point is, everyone makes mistakes. I always spellcheck and grammar check my articles, but I didn't notice that mistake. So thanks for correcting me, but no need to be so harsh. Relax, dude.

BYE BYE!

And that wraps up another edition of The Tuesday Leg Lock report. Thank you for reading and please leave some comments. See you all next week.