Cageside Seats' Post-Fight Throwdown - UFC 127: Penn vs. Fitch
by Kaleb Kelchner on Feb 27, 2011 1:08 AM EST
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The card might not have looked incredibly strong on paper, but UFC 127 delivered another exciting night of fights. This is Cageside Seats' post-fight throwdown, where we run through the event, analyzing and discussing the storylines coming out of tonight's fights.
- Fans world wide asked judges to become more liberal with their usage of 10-8 and 10-10 rounds, and we're getting it. It's insane that two months back to back, we've had two UFC pay-per-view main events be ruled as draws. Solution? Five round non-title main events. It might not always help (Edgar/Maynard was a five round title fight) but I can't help but feel that in tonight's main event, two more rounds would have sealed the deal for either fighter.
- B.J. Penn impressed in the first two rounds of the main event. Coming out and looking to take down Jon Fitch is a slick strategical decision. With Penn working on his boxing with Floyd Mayweather Sr. some believed that Penn's focus would be on striking, and apparently, Fitch was part of that group. Penn working to take Fitch's back was wise, and was a great strategy. I wasn't going to be surprised if he locked in a rear naked choke.
- Fitch is exciting when he fights someone who can make the fight competitive. Penn pushed Fitch harder than he'd been pushed in quite a while, and it resulted in an exciting fight, at least, in comparison to past Fitch performances.
- If sad puppy BJ Penn didn't make your heart hurt in the post fight interview, you're tougher than I.
- Michael Bisping was mega emotional after FINISHING (FINISHING!?!?!?) Jorge Rivera in the second round of the co-main event. He got in Rivera's face, asked for an apology, said "Talk about my family? Go home loser.", then spat at Rivera's corner. Mixed emotions on this.
- Bisping should have been the bigger man, and just let it go. Now, I'm not going to act like 9/10 of the snoody folks who shat on Bisping for all this and say he's classless. No. I'd do the same damn thing. Why?
- I'll tell you why. Because Rivera took nothing less than a huge, steaming shit all over Bisping in the lead up to this fight. It was unprovoked, and obviously, legit. How come there are all these people come out harping on about Bisping being classless, but there were only a handful of people questioning Rivera's pre-fight chatter? Let's not pick and choose here, this was a jerk, beating a jerk, and rubbing it in that jerk's face. Badda bing, badda boom.
- That said, the fight was really effected by the illegal knee Bisping landed in the first round. Rivera was seriously hurt, and I wouldn't have complained had Rivera refused to continue, or the doctors wouldn't allow him to.
- Last on Bisping/River, Bisping still has a knack for eating right hands...that's no bueno. Not for him at least.
- George Sotiropoulos really dropped the ball tonight. Myself and many many others felt he was taking a step down by fighting Dennis Siver. Well, turns out that we were wrong, Siver won a very solid decision.
- Sotiropoulos needs to work on his wrestling. If he was even a little bit more skilled at take downs, he may have got the fight to the mat, and secured a submission.
- Brian Ebersole is one of the most unorthodox, strange, and just awkward fighters I've watched in a long time. Oh, and he handled Chris Lytle handily. Not too bad for a UFC debut.
- Chris Lytle sounded punch drunk in his pre-fight UFC promo. That's sad on a lot of levels.
- Not a whole lot to say about the preliminary fights, other than, WOOOOOO MARK HUNT! Save for that one glorious moment, there's not much of anything worth mentioning other than the stream was good, Ion was good, and that I like being able to see free fights.
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Fun night of fights, ruined by idiotic judges who have no idea what they are doing. I love mma but when I see these bs decisions it’s drives me crazy Fitch was robbed and it’s disgracefull.
Besides that I thought people were sleeping on Siver, the guy has improved time in and time out in the cage and Sot’s striking and wrestling isn’t good enough to beat him looks like I was right.
As far as Rivera he got what he deserved, people can cry about the illegal knee but it is what it is Jorge to me looked more gassed than anything. Bisping was simply better than him and if things got heated afterwards it was because of Jorge and his antics which were out of character and desperate imo.
Finally Lytle should be ashamed he would have been destroyed by Condit tonight, looks like his dreams of ever fighting for the WW title are over nice job by Ebersole though.
As far as Rivera he got what he deserved, people can cry about the illegal knee but it is what it is Jorge to me looked more gassed than anything. .
That’s ridiculous. To imply that it was ok because Jorge talked shit is asinine. That’s like saying Daley was justified in hitting Koscheck when the fight was over because Kos is a jerk who tried to cheat during the fight.
Michael Bisping was mega emotional after FINISHING (FINISHING!?!?!?) Jorge Rivera in the second round of the co-main event. He got in Rivera’s face, asked for an apology, said “Talk about my family? Go home loser.”, then spat at Rivera’s corner. Mixed emotions on this.
Nothing mixed about it for me. Jesus, and people got on Brock’s case after he beat Mir. This was way worse.
Let’s not pick and choose here, this was a jerk, beating a jerk, and rubbing it in that jerk’s face. Badda bing, badda boom.
Oh, they’re both jerks, I agree w/ that. But I still think Bisping hit a new low for how he conducted himself in victory, especially when the course of the fight was clearly affected by the illegal knee. And yeah, Bisping showed that he was still susceptible to eating a right hand…and I’m a little surprised by just how ineffective many of his takedowns were. Doesn’t bode well for his future IMO.
People aren't talking about Rivera's pre-fight stuff
because it didn’t seem to be done with malice. I think most informed fans knew that this was Jorge’s way of talking himself into a big payday. I’ll fully admit the prefight stuff worked for me but I also didn’t watch any of Rivera’s stuff aside from one video.
But Bisping, in my opinion, BLATANTLY fouled Rivera. I’ve come down a little bit from my emotions last night but I still think Bisping knew what he was doing when he threw that shot. Then, as Rivera is on the ground, Bisping is on the other side of the cage taunting him. It was gross to me and then to go over and spit at/on the cornermen after the fight? Fuck off Bisping.
I’d also like to add that I thought Rivera was going to be able to catch Bisping at some point of the course of three rounds. As the fight unfolded it was pretty clear to me that I probably wasn’t going to be getting this one right and that Bisping was clearly the better fighter. I still think he’s head and shoulders better but he didn’t need to get the W like that.
Oh and the doctors/ref shouldn’t have let that fight continue. Rivera was glasseyed from the moment he ate that knee until the end of the fight. I don’t care if he was able to get a few shots off, he was fighting on instinct at that point.
When Bisping went across the cage after the downed knee, I think he was just trying to get the crowd pumped again, they were going mad with boos. I might have missed Bisping saying/doing something, but from what I saw and heard, he was just doing crowd control while Rivera recovered.
Before the knee Rivera wasn’t winning, but he WAS catching Bisping occasionally. He was definitely in the fight. And yeah, that fight needed to be stopped, without a doubt.
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by Kaleb Kelchner on Feb 27, 2011 6:00 PM EST up reply actions
Solution? Five round non-title main events.
And what do you do when you have fights like Edagr Maynard? Its better to have drawn fights than draw out non title affairs longer than they should be.
When you have fights like Edgar and Maynard, they go to a draw. Of course, I should also clarify that I think only PPV main events should be five rounders, not anything live (unless it’s a free numbered UFC event). It’s rare that there’s ever a PPV main event that isn’t worth going five rounds.
Twitter me @kkelchner621
Read me at Cageside Seats
by Kaleb Kelchner on Feb 27, 2011 5:53 PM EST up reply actions
The point of scoring rounds as draws is for situations when there’s no clear winner. How do you judge the importance of a takedown vs positional control? When no fighter can do enough to clearly win, why should the fight be drawn out further?
If fighters cant put in more effort to win a fight, score it a draw, don’t give them two more rounds to continue. If a fighter wants a five round fight, earn the right to fight for a championship. Don’t grind out 3 rounders.
More five round fights equals less fights broadcast due to time constraints. Continue with the draw system, it works.
Fair call about Bisping
I disagree about the knee though, but that’s going to be a purely academic argument for sometime to come. Americans don’t like the trash talking Brit, that’s okay, not a lot of people like Americans in general.
I thought Hunt vs Tuchsherer fight was a solid contender for fight of the night. It was certainly not beautiful, but it had a lot of ups, downs, big hits and blood. That upper cut and walk before The Crowbar hit the ground was staunch. Ka pai Mark Hunt!
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