UFC 142

Best, most exciting card this year! Okay, its only the first event this year so far...but so many quality finishes on one night was amazing.
With almost every fight ending in the first round there was no chance to take your eyes off the screen.

There was only one Facebook prelim last night, Felipe Arantes vs. Antonio Carvalho, a great opening fight that went the distance ending in a unanimous decison for the Brazilian.
We then moved to FX for the preliminary card where the action was started straight off when Mike Pyle TKO'ed Ricardo Funch. Originally rocking Funch with a straight right, he followed it up with a brutal knee and following him to the ground, raining down punches, the ref jumps in 1.22 into the first round.
Another unanimous decision came for Yuri Alcantara after a nice bout with Michihiro Omigawa making good use of his judo. The end of the first round ends in confusion when it is unclear until the tape is played back whether Omigawa had tapped to the vicious arm bar Alacantara pulled on with just seconds left of the round, it is confirmed that there was no tap and the fight goes the distance.
 Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Ednaldo Oliveira, originally the Brit Rob Broughton vs. Ednaldo Oliveira, starts with an display of faints leading to a small exchange where Gonzaga grabs his chance to bring it to the ground. Here he wastes no time in making this the second 1st round finish of the card with a super fast rear naked choke! Awesome.
The last pre lim fight again goes the distance and ends in a unanimous decision defeat of Sam Stout for Thiago Tavares.

Main card time! And what I am sure many will regard as a definite contender for KO of the year.
Following an attack on Terry Etims legs, the first two rounds go to Edson Barbosa. No change in 3rd for Barbosa use of leg kicks and at 2.02  he lands a sweet spinning wheel kick square on Etims jaw knocking him out cold. Everyone goes crazy, including all of us twitter fans :P This fight also was awarded KO AND fight of the night.
Next up alot of controversy after the Erick Silva stoppage of Carlo Prater. Only 29 seconds in and the fight is stopped with Prater unable to escape the barrage of hammer fists but as Silva celebrates, ref Mario Yamasaki declares him disqualified for illegal punches to the back of the head. After many replays no one can see the apparent illegal blows, Joe Rogan especially found the result unjust as he 'interviewed' Yamasaki practically telling him he was wrong.
Rousimar Palhares vs. Mike Massenzio, again, was a first round defeat. Palhares, the ADCC silver medal holder used, what could be said to be, his signature heel hook to finish Massenzio just over a minute into the fight securing himself the submission of the night bonus!
Jam packed full of action even before the co-main fight took place, the event kept up its string of outstanding fights when the legend that is Vitor Belfort makes this his first submission stoppage (in the UFC) since 1997,  rear naked choking Anthony Rumble Johnson, despite his failure to make weight. Coming in at 11lb over the weight limit, this isnt the first time Rumble has come in over and it has been reported that he has now been cut from the UFC roster for his continuous cutting issues.

Personally the fight I was least interested in was the main event and featherweight title fight between  José Aldo  vs. Chad Mendes in which Aldo retained his belt. KO by knee joining the evenings 1st round finishes and celebrating by running into the crowd! ( Much to the horror of the security. I'm sure he can take care of himself lol)

Overall defiantly a hard card to follow you should agree. Just wish I could of afforded to be there live.
 Now to look forward to seeing Bang KO Neer on the 20th! Woo!!

UFC 141

Overall, yet again, another super exciting card!
This is the very first full live event that I've watched in the comfort of my very own flat :) but that didn't take away how agitated I get when watching.
In terms of my picks, things didn't go so good, starting off with the Facebook prelims...
I picked Manny, purely I guess because I liked him from TUF 5 and the fights I've seen of his have been good to watch, and unfortunately he lost (what I believe to be) a pretty close decision.
Next up was Efrain Escudero and Jacob Volkmann when yet again my pick lost! Lay on his back for most the fight only showing any slight dominance when he managed to get Volkmann in a guillotine in the final minutes of the last round which was somehow superbly defended. 2-0 to Jake in our personal betting stakes haha!
Bringing it back for me in the third fight of the night was Dong Hyun Kim with his unanimous decision over Sean Pierson who he really should of finished after having him super rocked with a front kick late into the second round.
Here was our break in the nights fights as we didn't get to view either of the Spike prelims of Anthony Njokuani vs. Danny Castillo or Ross Pearson vs. Junior Assuncao, the latter of which I was really looking forward to with Ross being a fellow North Easterner (and the only Makam I'll ever support in anything! lol). After reading the Sherdog live play by plays I'm looking forward to getting to watch both fights in the near future.

Main event time! Full of surprises and somewhat disappointment.
Jim Hettes proved himself to be a one to watch in 2012 and had my eyes glued to the screen. Not only does he have awesome judo and ground skills but I think he proved his UFC.com pie chart rating of 1% Striking very wrong. With a domination of Nam Phan that I'm sure not many people expected, especially not me, I take my hat of to the young up and comer! I would very much like to follow his future after such an brilliant fight and  listening to his post fight interview with Ariel Helwani in which he seems like such a humble, down to earth guy.

Not much to say for the next fight. I thought Matyushenko stood an okay chance after his quick KO of Jason Brilz in his last fight, but it wasn't to be when the vet was ground and pounded until the ref stepped in at the end of the 1st.
Getting closer to the main event and another surprising yet exciting bout when Johnny Hendricks knocked out Jon Fitch with one punch 12 seconds in! Being a fan of both I didn't know what to do, so I cried haha. Gutted for Fitch, but chuffed for Hendricks...not sure if he quite deserves the title shot hes asked for just yet though.
Now, a fight everyone was hyped for. You know when the 'Diaz' name is involved its going to be a brawl and Nate didn't disappoint. 3 rounds of back and forth slugging with Cowboy Cerrone making good use of his leg kicks although he failed to take the top position after sweeping Nate's legs which could of secured him more points. The official fight of the night and another of my picked making me happy! War Diaz!


This is it. The painful part to type so I'll not write much. Overeem's debut fight in the UFC and he defeated Brock. I though Brock would of managed to take him down and ground and pound but nope :/ Anyways, before the post fight interview with Joe Rogan I called that he was gonna announce his retirement. Which he did. Fair enough he may not be the most amazing fighter ever, but I find that alot of the unnecessary hate against him is because of his WWE background and I cried again to see another guy I like leave the UFC roster this year. At least we got MIGUEL TORRES back eh?!


Happy New Year all, roll on UFC Rio in two weeks! Yey!

SAVE MIGUEL!

Another quick MMA realated blog entry, post UFC 140.(Yey, I got to watch it live! So good to have proper internet access again.)
Typing from my phone so I'll keep this short...

Overall a freakin well exciting card, with a (technically) new tie for fastest KO by Korean Zombie, a snapped arm for Nog and yet another win for Bones Jones.

Duane 'Bang' Ludwig will always hold the fastest KO for most people,  but that takes nothing away from Chan Sung Jung with his 7second stoppage, hes always exciting to watch and I  expected a good fight. I was chuffed for Little Nog too for his 1st round TKO of Tito (who I dislike with a passion) via body shots and was surprised that he made no excuses in the post fight interview...!
The night hit a downer with another of my least favorite fighters, Frank Mir, defeating Big Nog, it was sick to see his arm snap :( and to round off the evening Jon Jones remained undefeated to my mispleasure. Although, all props to Machida for having Bones rocked in the 1st and not tapping to the standing guillotine in the 2nd.

Moving on.
The more important reason for blogging tonight.
The fact of Miguel Torres being realesed from the UFC.
Disgraceful, plain and simple and on the UFCs behalf not Miguels. Anything said on twitter should be taken with a pinch of salt especially with jokes reapeated from else where. Fair enough the company had to cover their own backs but I cant help thinking theres something else to fuel his dissmissal when a week beforehand, Forrest Griffin got away with a pretty similar case.
Whatever happened its certain Torres will be a huge loss from the UFC and we can only hope he is given a second chance.
Enjoy this picture of Me and the man in question from the UK expo last year.:)
SAVE MIGUEL!!