Affliction: Banned Results
Fedor Emelianenko submits Tim Sylvia in 36 seconds
And what a 36 seconds it was. Fedor is the baddest man on the planet. I thought maybe he’d slipped a bit with the years of fighting relative no ones (to be fair he fought Mark Hunt at Shockwave 2006 and Hunt’s no mug) but he looked as good as ever against Sylvia. The punches that put Tim down were murderous, his ground and pound when Sylvia was hurt is just typical Fedor, and the fact that he could get that rear naked choke when Sylvia has defended well against that submission in the past in the time he got it in shows how good this guy is at grappling.
Fedor and Couture have to fight each other next. I don’t care where they fight or what it’s for but these guys have to fight. All this talk for years of who would win when the UFC and PRIDE Heavyweight champions fight each other, it just has to happen now. Randy is the UFC champion, and as far as I’m concerned he’ll stay that way until someone beats him. If I was Dane White, I’d swallow my pride, offer Fedor a $5 million one fight contract and have him fight Randy in the UFC. He’s better off to risk Fedor leaving the UFC after winning the title and having the biggest fight of all-time happen on his show (theres still a chance that Randy beats Fedor especially in the cage) then he is letting another organisation take all the glory.
Andrei Arlovski KO3 Ben Rothwell
This fight reminded me of Arlovski vs Cabbage except that Rothwell punched back a bit more then Cabbage did. Excellent fight, probably the best of the weekend. Arlovski looked the best he’s looked since he lost his title back at UFC 59. Rothwell was a lot better then I thought he was, but he was just too slow to handle Arlovski. The leg kicks in the first round really slowed Rothwell down as I expected them to but he still fought on. That guy takes an incredible amount of punishment. In my opinion, Arlovski stands the best chance at beating Fedor out of anyone. He can match Fedor’s speed (well sort of) and because he is a former Sambo world champion, he’ll be a bit more prepared for Fedor’s ground game. In saying that, I’d still pick Fedor to beat Arlovski.
Josh Barnett KO2 Pedro Rizzo
I have to say, I’m a much bigger Barnett fan today then I was yesterday. I’ve always had it in for this guy, probably because I’m a huge Couture fan and Barnett has run his mouth in the past about their fight. He impressed the hell out of me yesterday. His stand-up was very good and he kept Rizzo off balance throughout the fight and the finish was top notch. I’d like to see Barnett in against either Sylvia or Arlovski next.
Vitor Belfort KO2 Terry Martin
Belfort looked pretty good. He was moving well and boxing well. He never allowed Martin to get in the fight. I don’t know how people thought Martin won the first round, he was getting jabbed and turned around repeatedly and only landed that one shot on Belfort’s shoulder while he was off balance. I’d like to see Belfort fight Matt Lindland, that would be an excellent fight. As for Lindland, he looked good considering he’d been out for a while. He needs to fight again soon though so he can keep himself in good fighting shape.
Other Comments
The main thing that dissappointed me about this card was the quick stand-ups by the referee. For fuck sake, let these guys fight. Fighting on the ground is still fighting. These guys are the top of the food chain, they don’t need to be stood up. Stand-ups should only be used in lesser promotions to keep the fights interesting, when the guys are world class it should be entertaining enough that you’ve got two world class fighters fighting each other without the referee using his stupid arse opinion that stand-up fighting is more exciting then ground fighting. You just have to watch Wladimir Klitschko’s last two fights to know that isn’t always the case!
I like the ring in general (not as much as the cage though), but the Affliction ring definately needs some work. The ropes were way too slack, the table on the outside was dangerous and the referee’s don’t know what they’re doing with it. Why didn’t the referee’s restart them in the middle instead of turning them into the centre? Have these guys ever watched PRIDE before? If someone like me knows that the PRIDE officials used to turn them to the centre before they realised it was retarded and re-started them in the middle instead, then surely these guys in positions of power should know this as well right? As comical as the Japanese MMA is at times, they know how to work the ring. You need the officials on the outside supporting the ropes so the fighters don’t keep going through them, you need tight ropes and you need a referee who knows what the fuck is going on!
Overall, I enjoyed Affliction a lot. It beat the hell out of the UFC card (well on paper it should have). I’ve read people making fun of the back production but this is their second show. Go watch UFC 2 and see how bad that is. Megadeath worked better then I thought, I especially liked the intro with the fighters on the ramp. As you may have guessed I like my Japansese MMA, and this was similar to the PRIDE intros without the crazy Jap dude playing his drums and screaming. The production is only going to get better.
UFC: Silva vs Irvin Results
Anderson Silva KO1 James irvin
When I said that Fedor is the baddest man on the planet before, thats only because he’s bigger then Silva. Pound for Pound, I think Silva is number one (although its very close) mainly because of the manner he’s destroyed the number 2 and 3 guys. Fedor is yet to beat Randy Couture who in my opinion is the number two guy in the World. If he goes through him like Silva went through Franklin and Henderson then I think he’ll take Silvas pound for pound title away. Oh yeah, Silva destroyed Irvin with the first heavy shot he landed, did anyone think he’d do differently?
Other Fights
Vera looked sluggish, but that should be expected the first time he cut weight. Not to mention he was coming off back to back losses. He’ll be stronger next time he fights at 205lbs. Edgar fought a great fight, but I think he should go down to featherweight. Guys like Sean Sherk and Gray Maynard (who already beat him) are just going to outmuscle this kid if he stays at this weight. Jake O’Brien got bashed and I couldn’t be more happy. This guy doesn’t belong in the UFC, so they should get rid of him. He’s not a fighter, he’s a sexual deviant who likes to molest people. CB Dollaways submission was top notch and Burns should have been disqualified. Overall, it was a decent fight night, but not close to what Affliction was.
One last thing for those UFC nuthuggers who aren’t real MMA fans, Fedor beat Sylvia a lot better then Mir did and he beat a better version of Sylvia. He dropped him and made Sylvia tap out, he didn’t get taken down and have the ref stop it from an armbar (I very much believe that you have to tap for the fight to be stopped, if you’re crazy enough to fight with a broken arm then thats up to you). Not to mention Sylvia wasn’t straight off the roids yesterday like he was when he fought Mir. If you want to compare Fedor’s performance to anyone’s over Sylvia, then Arlovski is your man. But then again, Arlovski isn’t in the UFC anymore so that means he’s shit. There’s nothing wrong with a bit of competition, infact it will only make the sport better. Build a bridge and get over it!
