Let’s start with the obvious, GSP had another decisive win. Wow, for real? Did anyone find that surprising? Because if you did you have the analyst skills of a six year old. Even the people who were picking Diaz for the upset weren’t shocked at the fact that Diaz didn’t amount much offense the entire fight.
It’s good to know the Johny Hendricks is getting the next crack at GSP. I still think it’s ridiculous the Nick Diaz got the chance first, but I’ve ranted enough about that in the past. I was surprised to see that so many people had picked Carlos Condit to win, because the fight played out exactly as I predicted with Hendricks taking a decision. He threw his left hand with bad intent, and when Condit was focused on evading the haymakers, Hendricks would shoot in for a takedown. Condit did have moments of success, but Bigg Rigg did what he does best, and won me $100 with his win. Damn glad my money was on Hendricks.
Now just because Hendricks in getting the next title shot, doesn’t mean that Jake Ellenberger isn’t far behind. He’s beaten Mike Pyle, Sean Pierson, Jake Shields, Diego Sanchez, Jay Hieron, and he just added Nate Marquardt to that list with a devastating knockout. One more solid win over a top opponent and he should get the next title shot, possibly Josh Koscheck, Tarec Saffiedine, or a rematch with Martin Kampmann.
I’ll admit that Patrick Cote performed better in his welterweight debut than I expected, but Bobby Voelker won that fight. The only ones that didn’t seem to agree were the bias sons of bitches that judged the fight. And of course they all three judges just so happened to score it for the Canadian fighter. Know why no one complained about the decision? Oh I don’t know, probably because they were in Montreal. I scored it 30-27 for Voelker, but I can see Cote taking the second round, but with equally as many combinations as Cote, with more takedowns and ground control? No way. I’m just glad that the judges didn’t fuck up any other fights that night.
Jordan Mein had one of the best UFC debut’s a fighter can have, and against a UFC veteran. Not only did he show excellent striking and KO Dan Miller, but he also demonstrated proficient submission defense. I’m not saying that he’ll be fighting for the belt anytime soon, but we could be looking at a future top ten contender.
The judges may have only screwed up one fight, but another was all the doing of ref Yves Lavigne that screws Antonio Carvalho. Darren Elkins landed a hard punch that clearly wobbled Carvalho, he covered up the best he could, but one follow up punch dropped him to a knee. That’s it. Not flat on his back, didn’t even fall on his ass; just dropped to a knee and stood back up. But Yves Lavigne said no. All you need to do is take a knee and Yves Lavigne will step in and spoil a good fight. But then again, we all knew he was more than capable of screwing up a few fights.
– Ryan “Fight Freek” Poli
@FightFreek