For those of you who happen to watch the UFC Ultimate Fighter 14 Finale, you may have noted the rather excellent, acrobatic (some might say disco) and skillful rolling Omoplata attempt Tony Ferguson fired off against Ives Edwards. The reason why I bring this subject up is because it is exactly the same amazing disco move that Ian showed our class on Thursday last week. What are odds? You get shown a move for the first time one day and two days later the same technique is featured on a show of the most highly viewed outlet for your beloved martial art of choice. Good stuff.
Re-watching it now, Ferguson fires into it from too much of an angle which allows Ives to follow it over with his nearside leg to block the move. Then Ferguson can't hold him down to finish the sub and Edwards has the strength and ability to posture up out of it. Shame, a definite sub of the night if it lands.
Sub of the night honours did, however, go to Diego Brandao for his awesome arm bar submission victory over Dennis Bermudez. Brandao ate a pinpoint accurate right hand from Bermudez whilst he was charging forward swinging a wild left hook, dropped to his ass and then had to use his high calibre guard game to fend off Bermudez' vicious ground shots. When the New York native stepped back to take a breather then jumped back in it was enough time for the talented Brazilian to line him up, grab an arm and roll him over for the very flashy arm bar finish. That fight also earned both fighters fight of the night bonuses.
My hat also goes off to Michael Bisping, who, even though he's not a renowned Brazilian Jiu Jitsu artist, showed off some very good Bjj defence in the first round against a far superior grappler in Jason "Mayhem" Miller. Bisping was mounted midway through the first round but showed great tenacity in holding on until an opportunity to break free came available. Bisping then pretty much controlled every other aspect of the fight on his way to a third round TKO stoppage by knees to the body and strikes to the head. Bisping is on a 4 fight streak now and has been talked about in conjunction with a title shot. Michael was the first person to put those talks to rest saying he still has a bit of improvement to make on his game before a shot at 'The Spider' Anderson Silva. Wise choice Mike. Although a good few options for some marquee fights in the near future for the UK number 1.
\m/
This is an ongoing blog about Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and my experiences.
Showing posts with label UFC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label UFC. Show all posts
Monday, 5 December 2011
Sunday, 6 November 2011
UFC 138
Well, last nights UFC card, the 138th of their numbered shows was staged in Birmingham, England, and what a show it was.
I was foolish enough to look at Joe Silva's fight selection for this event and decide not to go. In hind sight that is a decision I will regret. The UFC doesn't come to the UK very often and I'd gone to the last event here back in October 2010 at UFC 120 at the O2, London. Seeing what I thought to be a lower quality card for star power and given the fact that I am extremely broke at the moment, I made the bold statement that I would not go to another UFC in England unless it had some real big names on the bill. Let me officially go on the record as saying I now rescind that previous (and very stupid) statement.
I have just got done watching the show from last night that I Sky Plus'd off of ESPN and I was pretty blown away. The main card fights were absolutely first class. Terry Etim, Liverpudlian UK MMA superstar, back from a 19 month break due to a rib injury absolutely stole the show with his 17 second submission finish of Edward Faaloloto by a fantastic jumping guillotine to his standing opponent, pulling him to the ground and drawing the tap. With this victory Etim equals Damian Maia for Submission of the Night awards with 4. An amazing return for one of the UK's top prospects.
The second televised fight was a classic example of the striker vs grappler debate. Australian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, Antony Perosh fought French kickboxer, Cyrille Diabate in a good paced two round affair where who controlled the balance of the action was basically dictated by where the action took place. At the beginning of both rounds there was a spell where the fight was carried out standing and Diabate showed his obvious class and out struck the Aussie (hate the way Mike Goldberg says that) using his Muay Thai talent. Unfortunately for "The Snake", the action in both rounds didn't stay on the feet. Perosh managing to secure some fairly scrappy takedowns, in the first he got to mount but didn't manage to finish the fight, in the second he got to mount and decided to soften Diabate up with some ground and pound. As a result of this, Diabate gave up his back to protect himself which was a written invitation for the Bjj ace to slap on the Rear Naked Choke for the sub victory.
Now the third fight shown on tv was actually the second prelim fight of the night, and this was really the fight I was wanting to see. Ché Mills, former Cage Rage Champion, who happens to train with Trojan Freefighters and Checkmat BJJ, was on his UFC début taking on former Tough Enough season 13 alumni Chris Cope. And what a welcoming to the promotion it was for the Brit. Mills issued a 40 second beatdown on the American punctuated by two particularly violent knees, one that started Cope's down fall, the other that finished it. A couple of follow up punches to his downed opponent were all but immaterial as the damage had already been done, the ref stepped in to stop the fight and I was jumping out of my chair. Ché looked over the moon with his performance and the British crowd were really popping loud for him. He was also lucky enough to be awarded the $70,000 dollar bonus for KO of the night for his performance.
After the fight as Ché was exiting the Cage, who should be the first to congratulate him, Chico (Mendes) my Bristol instructor. I was like "hey, that's Chico!!!" to my five year old son who really didn't care one bit.
With the fourth fight (3rd Mian card bout) came another quick submission victory, this time at the unlikely hands of Thiago Alves against Papy Adebi. Alves, predominantly known for being a Muay Thai wrecking machine showed off his immense MT skills from the start, eventually hitting Adebi with a two punch combo that dropped him to the floor. Jumping into mount, Alves then peppered his opponent with punches and elbows, one of the latter of which bust Adebi open somewhat. None of this served to finish the bout though and Adebi rather unwisely gave up his back then eventually succumbed to a rear naked choke. This submission marks Alves' first tapout in the UFC and his first career sub that wasn't due to strikes showing that he's really trying to develop his game.
The Co-Main event was a Bantamweight throw down between Brad "One Punch" Pickett and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, Renan Barão. The fight was a lightning paced punch up between the two, with the Brazilian looking more technical but the Brit landing some heavy blows and tasty combos. It was all academic once it hit the ground though courtesy of a combination from Barão, the talented grappler easily taking the back and then locking in a RNC with minimum effort at just over the four minute mark. A great match with both guys earning themselves bonuses for fight of the night. During Barão's interview with Joe Rogan after the match there was a great cameo appearance from Braulio Estima acting as the in ring translater and doing about as good a job in the role as anyone I've ever seen do it. Much better than some (cough cough Ed Soares!).
The Main Event was another good punch up between Chris Leben and Mark Muñoz. Both came out aggressive but "The Filipino Wrecking Machine" taking the upper hand due to his wrestling and Leben didn't look himself cardio-wise. The action carried over to the second round though with Muñoz going on to severely batter Leben's face down the left side during a positive bit of ground and pound. Referee Mark Goddard gave Leben the opportunity to call it when he stopped the action to ask if he could see alright. Leben said he could so the bout continued but the damage had been done. After the second round Leben's corner threw in the towel saying their guy couldn't see out of his left eye. Leben didn't seem to argue with this decision.
As I said earlier, the bout didn't look the prettiest on paper but action-wise it was a scorcher and from a Bjj fan's perspective it was the best UFC in a long while. Looks like I best go to the next one in the UK then.
Til next time \m/
I was foolish enough to look at Joe Silva's fight selection for this event and decide not to go. In hind sight that is a decision I will regret. The UFC doesn't come to the UK very often and I'd gone to the last event here back in October 2010 at UFC 120 at the O2, London. Seeing what I thought to be a lower quality card for star power and given the fact that I am extremely broke at the moment, I made the bold statement that I would not go to another UFC in England unless it had some real big names on the bill. Let me officially go on the record as saying I now rescind that previous (and very stupid) statement.
I have just got done watching the show from last night that I Sky Plus'd off of ESPN and I was pretty blown away. The main card fights were absolutely first class. Terry Etim, Liverpudlian UK MMA superstar, back from a 19 month break due to a rib injury absolutely stole the show with his 17 second submission finish of Edward Faaloloto by a fantastic jumping guillotine to his standing opponent, pulling him to the ground and drawing the tap. With this victory Etim equals Damian Maia for Submission of the Night awards with 4. An amazing return for one of the UK's top prospects.
Etim choking out Faalolott
The second televised fight was a classic example of the striker vs grappler debate. Australian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, Antony Perosh fought French kickboxer, Cyrille Diabate in a good paced two round affair where who controlled the balance of the action was basically dictated by where the action took place. At the beginning of both rounds there was a spell where the fight was carried out standing and Diabate showed his obvious class and out struck the Aussie (hate the way Mike Goldberg says that) using his Muay Thai talent. Unfortunately for "The Snake", the action in both rounds didn't stay on the feet. Perosh managing to secure some fairly scrappy takedowns, in the first he got to mount but didn't manage to finish the fight, in the second he got to mount and decided to soften Diabate up with some ground and pound. As a result of this, Diabate gave up his back to protect himself which was a written invitation for the Bjj ace to slap on the Rear Naked Choke for the sub victory.
Perosh finishing Diabate via RNC.
Now the third fight shown on tv was actually the second prelim fight of the night, and this was really the fight I was wanting to see. Ché Mills, former Cage Rage Champion, who happens to train with Trojan Freefighters and Checkmat BJJ, was on his UFC début taking on former Tough Enough season 13 alumni Chris Cope. And what a welcoming to the promotion it was for the Brit. Mills issued a 40 second beatdown on the American punctuated by two particularly violent knees, one that started Cope's down fall, the other that finished it. A couple of follow up punches to his downed opponent were all but immaterial as the damage had already been done, the ref stepped in to stop the fight and I was jumping out of my chair. Ché looked over the moon with his performance and the British crowd were really popping loud for him. He was also lucky enough to be awarded the $70,000 dollar bonus for KO of the night for his performance.
The pleasing sight of Ché Mills tko-ing Chris Cope.
After the fight as Ché was exiting the Cage, who should be the first to congratulate him, Chico (Mendes) my Bristol instructor. I was like "hey, that's Chico!!!" to my five year old son who really didn't care one bit.
With the fourth fight (3rd Mian card bout) came another quick submission victory, this time at the unlikely hands of Thiago Alves against Papy Adebi. Alves, predominantly known for being a Muay Thai wrecking machine showed off his immense MT skills from the start, eventually hitting Adebi with a two punch combo that dropped him to the floor. Jumping into mount, Alves then peppered his opponent with punches and elbows, one of the latter of which bust Adebi open somewhat. None of this served to finish the bout though and Adebi rather unwisely gave up his back then eventually succumbed to a rear naked choke. This submission marks Alves' first tapout in the UFC and his first career sub that wasn't due to strikes showing that he's really trying to develop his game.
Alves closing out play with a text book RNC.
The Co-Main event was a Bantamweight throw down between Brad "One Punch" Pickett and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, Renan Barão. The fight was a lightning paced punch up between the two, with the Brazilian looking more technical but the Brit landing some heavy blows and tasty combos. It was all academic once it hit the ground though courtesy of a combination from Barão, the talented grappler easily taking the back and then locking in a RNC with minimum effort at just over the four minute mark. A great match with both guys earning themselves bonuses for fight of the night. During Barão's interview with Joe Rogan after the match there was a great cameo appearance from Braulio Estima acting as the in ring translater and doing about as good a job in the role as anyone I've ever seen do it. Much better than some (cough cough Ed Soares!).
Yet another Rear Naked, this time Renan Barôa over Brad Pickett.
The Main Event was another good punch up between Chris Leben and Mark Muñoz. Both came out aggressive but "The Filipino Wrecking Machine" taking the upper hand due to his wrestling and Leben didn't look himself cardio-wise. The action carried over to the second round though with Muñoz going on to severely batter Leben's face down the left side during a positive bit of ground and pound. Referee Mark Goddard gave Leben the opportunity to call it when he stopped the action to ask if he could see alright. Leben said he could so the bout continued but the damage had been done. After the second round Leben's corner threw in the towel saying their guy couldn't see out of his left eye. Leben didn't seem to argue with this decision.
As I said earlier, the bout didn't look the prettiest on paper but action-wise it was a scorcher and from a Bjj fan's perspective it was the best UFC in a long while. Looks like I best go to the next one in the UK then.
Til next time \m/
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)