Two huge shows on
New Years Eve weekend. One featured the return of a legend and
attempted to channel the spirit of the long dead Pride FC. The other
saw two saw two throw back fighters in a fight many thought had to be
exciting. What worked what didn't? Who made an impression and did
Condit get screwed
The In Ring
Action- I will get this right
out of the way I did not like RIZIN show. I
was never a big Pride fan and honestly resent the rose colored
glassed people look at it with. Seeing Sakruba was a truly sad fight
I hate to see. The once great fighter now a mere shell of his former
self unable to do anything against a younger fighter in his prime.
The tournament was clearly
set up so King Mo could win easy. And the main event or Breakfast
with Fedor was a total joke. His opponent clearly had no idea what to
do on the ground and it gave Fedor an easy win. And lets not even
start with the womans fight featuring an untrained pro wrestler who
was clumsy pro wrestler and a freak show fight with a washed up Sumo
Wrestler dong it for Money and a guy known to throw fights. The bad
defiantly outweighed the good.
UFC
195 on the other hand was a truly amazing show. (Yeah go a head call
me a UFC fanboy. Do you call fans that would watch NFL football over
the Arena bowl NFL zombies?) Often in fights hyped
like the main event with two known strikers like Lawler and Condit
the fight is a let down. Instead
this fight exceed your wildest dreams. Honestly
no break down or recap can do it justice. Buy the replay if you
didn't see it live. The fight was amazing. Condit hurt Lawler early
but as has been the case in his recent fights Lawler came back
strong. We might have seen the single best round of the year on the
second day of the year. Lawler hurt Condit time and again but TBK
never fell. The two men ended the fight trading before collapsing
into the cage. In the end two judges gave it to Lawler and he
retained his title. But there was no loser in this fight.
A lot of people will argue the decision. I myself had it scored for
Condit. And the numbers
point to Condit as he threw and landed more strikes. However the fact
remains the fight was close. It appeared Lawler was landing the much
harder strikes. In a system where the fight is scored round by round
Lawler did enough to win.
In
the semi main event Stipe
Miocic took less than a minute
to snap Andrei Arlovski's winning streak. To
the shock of many Arlovski rebounded his career and was on the verge
of getting another UFC title shot. But Miocic was a man on the
mission after being told point blank he lacked the popularity to get
a UFC title shot Miocic went right out. With hard accurate punches
Miocic got the job done and than ran across the cage to yell at Dana
White to give him a shot. If
the event had a theme it was come from behind submission wins. On the
pre-lims Michael McDonald fighting for the first time in over two
years looked extremely rusty and easy picking for Masanori Kanehara.
But McDonald escaped a
submission and locked one in for the win. In the first PPV card fight
Tony Sims was in controll early on against Abel Trujillo only get
caught in guillotine choke. Diego
Brando once again found himself in
control early on only to face. Brian Oregeta manged to pull guard and
get the triangle lock for the win. Two
other fights worth highlighting were the welterweight fight between
Albert Tumernov and Lorenz Larking. Also the fight pass fight with
Dustin Poirier and Joseph Duffy.
Biggest Winners
Robbie Lawler-
Why there will no doubt be debate about the decision
end of the day Lawler retained his championship. Its an overused term
“He gets stronger as the
fight goes on.” But for Lawler it might be true. When
he won the title it was a strong attack late that secure the win, at
UFC 189 he entered down on
the score cards needing a finish and smashed McDonald's face once
again to keep it. Once again at UFC 195 he needed the fifth round.
Once again Lawler went on the attack late. He caught Condit with shot
that would have finished many fighters. Fans were often critical for
GSP's title defenses finding them boring. Even people that disagree
with the decisions love watching Lawler fight.
Carlos Condit- It
was a championship effort from Condit. This
was the kind of fight fans will be talking about years and years down
the line. And many will
debate Condit should have won. While Condit has talked about retiring
there is still a good chance for a rematch. Condit
made history with this fight and maybe that is greater than being
champion.
Stipie Miocic- At
long last Miocic got his big win. In
his first UFC Main Event he was upset by Stefan Struve. In
his fight with JDS he fought an exciting fight that he should have
won but instead took a decision loss. Why it would be easy to look at
Arlovski and say he was a 36 year old that had been KO'ed numerous
times. But the man was on a long winning streak having beat legit
contenders. Miocic with his wrestling and boxing could be a real
challenge for the winner of Werdum and Velasquez.
Biggest Losers
Tyron Woodley-
What has been overly reported
is “White promised Woodley a title shot.” That isn't true. After
Hendricks was unable to fight White said Woodley was most likely next
in line. But urged him to fight again since anything could happen.
And well anything did. Even on the post fight show with Woodley at
the desk, Daniel Cormier had no problem naming others he felt should
get a shot first. Woodley seems to want to play the waiting game the
problem is he again risks getting passed over. Had he fought he could
have made a strong enough case no matter how close 195 was he should
get the next shot.
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