The Tuesday Leg Lock Report 06.10.08

Posted by Justin Thomas on 06.10.2008

The Tuesday Leg Lock comes back with my thoughts on UFC 85. Also, I preview the huge Middleweight Grand Prix in Japan. My thoughts on Kimbo vs. Thompson fight's controversial outcome, UFC's big announcement, Liddell's next opponent and more inside.

Welcome to another edition of The Tuesday Leg Lock Report! This past weekend we had the UFC 85 pay-per-view, which wasn't great, but still a solid show, I'll provide my match-by-match thoughts, as usual. Also, I'll preview DREAM 4, which looks to be a really decent event. Other news include UFC's Big Announcement, Liddell's next fight and Affliction signing Arlovski. Now Let's get it on with The Tuesday Leg Lock!




UFC 85 Review



-Fabricio Werdum (11-3-1 MMA) vs. Brandon Vera (8-2 MMA). Surprised to see this as an opener. I thought this would be the co-main event. Anyways not much was going on in the first round, Vera was not aggressive and Werdum did nothing on the ground at first. When there was like 1 minute left, Fabricio again took down Vera, mounted him, rained punches really quickly and the fight was stopped. I defended the stoppage by Miragliotta in Kimbo/Thompson fight, but this was seriously premature. I mean Brandon was defending, he was moving his head and it did not seem like he was hurt. Anyways, good victory for Werdum, he definitely should be considered the #1 contender now, but I guess still one more fight for him to prove that.

-Nate Marquardt (26-8-2 MMA) vs. Thales Leites (13-1 MMA). The first round was good, Leites probably surprised even himself with that knockdown. And another surprise was that Leites couldn't do much on the ground, even in the mount position. Marquardt did a good job escaping and landed some nice shots, but I think Thales won this round 10-9. The second round started out weird, Maruqardt took down Leites and landed an illegal knee, which was definitely illegal, no controversy here. After a time out, Nate was aggressive again, he took down Thales and controlled him on the ground. He executed some nice GnP and busted open Leites. But the Brazilian showed that he has good cardio, he took down Nate in the last seconds on the second round and with that, he saved himself from a 9-8 round. So I score this 9-9. By the way, watching Thales coughing and spitting blood was a nasty visual. The third round is CONTROVERSY~! Nate was deducted a point for landing an elbow to the side of the head, which is legal. Well this situation is similar to the Aoki/Calvancante I fight, but Leites was not hurt here, unlike Aoki, so I feel that the point deduction was unnecessary. Herb Dean enjoys deducting points, not that there is anything wrong with that. Anyways, Nate controls the most of the third round, but both fighters are tired, not much was happening. Marquardt clearly won the third round, but Thales wins the fight. The fight was good, but it just sucks that we have controversial decisions in these two fights. Marquardt was a top contender before this one, now he lost, but Thales got dominated and is still far from a title shot...

-Marcus Davis (14-4 MMA) vs. Mike Swick (12-2 MMA). Not too exciting in the first round. Swick took down Davis and controlled him there. Davis could not do much on the ground and Mike showed good ground control. He was not overly aggressive and decided to score points and not risk losing the position. 10-9 Swick. The second round started out slow, but got more interesting in the end. Swick once again controlled the fight on the ground after knocking down Davis. Marcus was able to stand up, but did not capitalize. 10-9 Swick. Marcus Davis was pushing the action in the third round until a point was deducted from Mike. After that, Swick realized that he has to win the round and quickly took down Marcus, did some damage there and easily took both the round and the fight. Not an impressive performance by Mike, but he got the victory. Too bad, I thought Davis was going to knock out Swick, but unfortunately, Marcus showed little takedown defense and ground skills, which was the deciding factor.

-Michael Bisping (16-1 MMA) vs. Jason Day (17-6 MMA). Well Jason Day was overwhelmed. Bisping looked great, he looked very energetic before the fight, he was aggressive, landed some nice punches and this time the stoppage was good, because even though Day was defending, alot of shots slipped through and Jason wasn't doing anything to improve his position. Bisping looked barely warmed up. Well this performance was really great and I want him to fight some tougher competition in the middleweight division now. Rich Franklin anyone? Time to protect Bisping is over, give him some tough competition so he could prove himself.

-Matt Hughes (42-7 MMA) vs. Thiago Alves (15-3 MMA). Disappointing first round for Hughes. He was able to take down Alves, but he did absolutely no damage to him, even though he controlled the fight. Alves did a lot more damage to Matt and easily takes this round. In the second round we saw the destruction of Matt Hughes and proof that Matt can no longer compete at the top level. Alves showed good takedown defense, he attacked Matt with his punches and then a flying knee, which basically finished Hughes. Disappointing, considering that Thiago missed the weight and because of that, he shouldn't be considered the #1 contender. And it's time to retire for Hughes, maybe after fighting Serra.

-Overall thoughts. In my preview last week I said that UFC 85 could be the worst UFC PPV of the year and now, after the event is over, it certainly looks like this is one of the weaker UFC events. I'm not saying that it was bad by any means, but it could've been a lot better, even with the injuries that the fighters got. The first two fights were spoiled by controversial referee decisions and the main event was sad to watch, because Hughes lost and Alves failed to make weight, so this win doesn't mean much for him, I'm sure he won't get the next title shot. Other than that, Bisping looked great, Swick looked solid and the UFC showed us some nice preliminary bouts. Well, every UFC event can't be great, this wasn't worth your money, but those who bought the event shouldn't be disappointed either.

DREAM 4 Preview



DREAM 4 is this Sunday and I'm really excited about it. At first I took a little cautious approach to this tournament, there were plenty of fighters who didn't deserve to be there. But now that most of them are gone, this is beginning to get interesting. The second round of Lightweight Grand Prix was awesome and let's hope that this will be the same. Plus, we still have one LWGP bout here, seeing Aoki in action is always great.

-Mirko Filipovic vs. Ralek Gracie. OK, this match is now gone from the card, due to an injury, suffered by Filipovic. Here are my thoughts about this fight that I wrote before the cancellation:

Now this is a very, very weird match. You see, this is not an MMA bout, it's a submission grappling match with modified ADCC rules. At first Mirko was scheduled to face JLB at DREAM 4, but then reportedly he was injured and the fight was postponed to DREAM 5. Then suddenly he's healthy again and wants to fight at DREAM 4. Hm. Filipovic said that he wants to test his ground skills, but I'm not sure that facing a member of the Gracie family is a good idea. Fortunately for Mirko, if he survives two 5 minute rounds, the fight will be a draw, no judges. Well if it goes to distance, Cro Cop can announce himself the winner, because he in his entire MMA career submitted (by a submission hold) only Kevin Randleman. Besides that, Mirko has rarely tried going for submissions in his fights. So to think that he can submit someone who is good at BJJ is ridiculous. I'm glad that Cro Cop is working on his ground skills, they'll help him at least defend the submission attempts from other fighters, but this fight is still weird. Well, maybe Mirko will actually takedown JLB and submit him, who knows.

So on one hand, Mirko looks a little mentally unstable by first getting a match at DREAM 4, then pulling out of it, then he says that he still wants a match at DREAM 4, he gets it and now he pulls out of it AGAIN due to the SAME injury. But on the other hand, I understand Cro Cop. Maybe the doctor advised him to cancel the match, maybe he wanted to be 100% at DREAM 5, because that is what's important for his career. As I said, the grappling match was a weird idea in the first place and the cancellation isn't such a big deal.

-Shinya Aoki (15-2 MMA) vs. Katsuhiko Nagata (4-2 MMA). Does anyone really feels like Nagata has a chance here? Katsuhiko is kind of new to MMA, he defeated some unknown fighters, but lost both times to tougher competition in Akiyama and Uno. Aoki is on a 10 fight winning streak, having recently defeated Calvancante by decision. Nagata will be outmatched here and hopefully Aoki can finish this quick, without suffering any injuries, so he could compete at DREAM 5.

-Zelg Galesic (8-3 MMA) vs. Taiei Kin (3-2 MMA). Actually these two fought each other only 8 months ago. Galesic defeated Kin in only 36 seconds in the first round and I don't see this rematch being any different. Both of these fighters are primarily strikers, but I think that Zelg is better both on the feet and on the ground, so I expect him to once again easily defeat Kin and advance into the semis.

-Gegard Mousasi (21-2-1 MMA) vs. Dong sik Yoon (4-4 MMA). On paper, it looks like Mousasi should crush Yoon. But don't underestimate the Korean! Yoon submitted both Manhoef and Galesic, who are both part of this tournament, so I wouldn't be surprised if Yoon pulled of another upset here. Mousasi's ground game isn't too good, despite that triangle choke victory against Kang, where Denis just walked into the triangle. Realistically looking, Mousasi is still a big favorite, he hasn't lost for almost two years and he has all the chances to win this match and maybe the whole tournament.

-Kazushi Sakuraba (24-10-1 MMA) vs. Melvin Manhoef (21-4-1 MMA). This will probably be our main event, because everyone loves Saku. This is a tough fight to pick. Manhoef is a beast, he can possibly KO Sakuraba quick, Kazushi never had a good chin and now when he's older, he's slower and should be even easier to knock out. However, Manhoef got submitted by Yoon and Akiyama, he certainly doesn't have a good ground game and Kazushi is a master when it comes to submissions. If Saku is able to survive for a few minutes and take down Manhoef, he'll win the fight, but I think that Melvin will have KO'ed Kazushi before that.

-Ronaldo Souza (8-1 MMA) vs. Jason Miller (21-5 MMA). Jacare will certainly be tested here. Ronaldo is ADCC Middleweight division champion and he finished second in the absolute tournament. And that means that his BJJ is one of the best in the world. Miller is also good at submissions, but still he's nowhere near the level of Jacare. Jason is way more experienced in MMA and he could use that to his advantage. If Ronaldo can't execute a takedown, then Jason will likely score points with his punches and on the ground, I think he'll be good enough not to get caught in a submission. It can go either way, but I'll go with Miller here. Make the Mayhem Monkeys proud!

10 facts about Kimbo/Thompson fight



Like it or not, EliteXC: Primetime was one of the most talked about events in MMA history. There was a lot of criticism about it, but like I said last week, I feel that most of it was undeserved. EliteXC did a good job in their primetime network MMA debut. And here are 10 facts about the Kimbo vs. Thompson fight that MIGHT change your opinion a bit and realize that the fight was not that controversial. I gathered these from various articles and post-fight interviews.

Kimbo did not tap, he gave a thumbs up. For those, who don't realize that, if Kimbo was really in trouble, he would have tapped again or otherwise, he would have been put to sleep.

Therefore, Brett Rogers' comments about Kimbo tapping were absolutely false and he made himself look like a fool.

Kimbo locked in a guillotine choke on Thompson, but forgot to close his guard, otherwise he would have won the fight right there.

Dan Miragliotta did not stop the fight in the 2nd round, because Kimbo was giving the referee a thumbs up and informing him that he's alright.

Kimbo did not try to escape the situation in the 2nd round because the elbows and punches weren't hurting him and he was saving energy for the 3rd round.

Bas Rutten thinks that the fight should've been stopped there and that Kimbo should've been more active.

Miragliotta stopped the bout in the 3rd round because the look in Thompson's eyes changed, like he was out.

After the fight was stopped, Thompson didn't realize that the referee was in front of him. He apologized to Dan after he got back to his senses.

Ferguson revealed that his gameplan was to go for the ear of Thompson and that he would have hit it again if the fight wasn't stopped.

Bas Rutten and Kimbo both said that Slice made a lot of mistakes in his last fight and that he needs to work and improve his ground game.

Overall, the referee's only mistake could have been in the 2nd round when Kimbo was eating punches, but then again they weren't hurting him. And it's not like things like these never happened in MMA before. Nate Diaz in his last fight against Pellegrino was eating powerful punches, Kenny Florian rained punches from mount to Lauzon for like 2 minutes before the fight was stopped. There's nothing controversial here. Seriously, if you hate Kimbo, if you hate the fact that he's a main eventer, just say that, but don't make stupid things up.

OTHER NEWS

Floyd Mayweather signs with the UFC? Dana White will make a huge announcement this Thursday and some believe that it will be the signing of the undefeated and now retired boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. Now I say that this is bullshit. First issue is the money. Officially, UFC's highest paid fighter is Chuck Liddell, who earned half million for his performance at UFC 79. But Floyd wouldn't be satisfied with that. UFC lost/did not sign many fighters because they refused to pay them more money. And Floyd has a huge ego, I don't imagine that he could be satisfied with low salaries of MMA fighters. Besides, Mayweather isn't even training MMA, so why would he be signed to a UFC contract before he even starts to train? If he wants to prepare properly, he would need at least a year. Plus, if Mayweather comes to MMA, he would likely fight at featherweight and there's no such weight class in the UFC. Surely, he could fight at lightweight, but I guess he wouldn't feel comfortable fighting at a bigger weight class than in boxing (147 lbs.). So these rumors make no sense to me. It would be HUGE for UFC if they could sign Floyd, but unfortunately, I seriously doubt that it's going to happen.
Actually, yesterday Dana White denied all of those rumors and he also denied that UFC signed a new TV deal. Well what could it be then? A new sponsor would be kind of disappointing now. I still believe this coud be a TV deal, because we all know that Dana can't be trusted. Or was the UFC sold to FOX? That sounds ridiculous. Well one thing is for sure, Dana White got everyone talking about it. So now let's wait and see...

Affliction – Banned: Arlovski vs. Rothwell. Andrei Arlovski (12-5 MMA) is a huge signing for Affliction. Not only he's a top heavyweight, but Andrei is well known to the public for his career in the UFC. Arlovski was a very dominant champion, but after losing to Sylvia, he became more cautious and I don't think he'll be aggressive in his fight against Ben. Rothwell (29-5 MMA) will be looking to trade punches, but Andrei will likely try to take him down and control him there to secure the victory. And this Affliction event will be huge, I mean, this would be a supercard even if it was promoted by UFC. Not only do they have most top heavyweights, but they also have such names as Babalu, Lindland, Rogerio Nogueira and Vitor Belfort. Great card, let's hope that it will get many buys and Affliction won't get out of business after only one event.

UFC 88: Liddell returns. And, don't worry, I don't know who Chuck's (21-5 MMA) opponent is. But I guess it could be one of these: Lyoto Machida (13-0 MMA), Mauricio Rua (16-3 MMA), Rashad Evans (11-0-1 MMA), Wanderlei Silva (32-8-1 MMA). This will be the main event so a strong opponent is needed for Chuck. Machida had a bout in May, he was in a bad shape and I doubt that his next fight would be on September. It's still unknown if Rua will be healthy enough to make it in time for the fight. A rematch against Wanderlei Silva is a possibility, but one has to question if Dana would want either of them to lose. I mean another loss for them would likely end loser's hope of getting a title shot ever again. Evans would be the most logical choice. He hasn't got a fight scheduled and he hasn't fought since November. Rashad isn't booked to fight in the near future, so yeah, a match against Liddell would be the best choice. The fight would be much more interesting to me, if Shogun would be Chuck's opponent, but on the other hand, I would like to see Rua fight a weaker opponent and see if he can still be the animal that he was in PRIDE.

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!