Weekend Wrap Up

Lots of good fights this weekend. First, in the most watched main event ever in MMA, James Thompson walked in with the biggest set of Cauliflower Ear the non-MMA/Wrestling world has ever seen. It was enormous, and it was not old. It was fresh, and exploded in dramatic bloody fashion late in the fight. Couldn't Garry Shaw have had somebody drain that thing before Thompson walked in the ring? Yuck.

Overall, the WEC event was at a such higher skill level than the EliteXC event it is embarrassing to even mention them in the same sentence. With the exception of the Lawler/Smith fight, the comparison is on the level of the WEC's NFL to EliteXC's 7th grade Pierce, Nebraska football team (Go Bluejays!!)

EliteXC on CBS

Joe Sampieri def Mike Groves TKO (Strikes) 4:58 rnd 1
My Pick: Joe by KO first round.
Perfect!!

Zach Makovsky def Andres Soares Decision
My Pick: Andre by RNC first round
Damn!!

James Jones def Calvin Kattar Submission (Rear Naked Choke) 4:49 rnd 1
My Pick: James by some sort of choke first round
Perfect!!

Wilson Reis def Justin Robbins Submission (Rear Naked Choke) 4:06 rnd 1
My Pick: Justin by KO first round
Damn!!

Matt Makowski def Nick Serra DQ (Wouldn't Get Up From Butt Scoot) 3:57 rnd 2
My Pick: I say Matt by decision.
Honestly, if you get thrown out for not getting up from the butt scoot, you need to find a new profession...
The story goes that Matt was roughing Nick up on the feet and Matt tried to pull guard to get it to the ground. Matt, not being a moron, escaped the attempt and motioned for Serra to get up. Serra stayed on the ground and a point was deducted for Nick not getting up. Eventually Nick did get up and tried to pull guard again. Again Matt escaped and motioned Nick to get up. Again Nick did not get up, another point was deducted, and still Nick refused to get up. At that point the Ref DQed Nick. Horrible. Unprofessional. Unforgivable.

Carlton Haselrig def Carlos Moreno TKO (Corner Stoppage) 5:00 rnd 1
My Pick: Carlos wins by KO first round
Ummm... Wow.

Chris Liguori def Jim Bova TKO (Cut) 4:31 rnd 1
My Pick: Chris by KO second round
No surprise Chris was so much bigger.

Brett Rogers def Jon Murphy TKO (Punch) 1:01 rnd 1
My Pick: N/A (I missed this one somehow)
Very good first fight on the televised card, good that it ended quickly and did not give a chance for both obviously out of shape fighters to gas.

Joey Villasenor def Phil Baroni TKO (Punches) 1:11 rnd 1
My Pick: Phil by first round KO
Joey looked awesome. He was able to stick Phil with punches Right on the button. Joey looked like the real deal, Phil justed looked silly. His ring entrance took longer than the fight.

Gina Carano def Kaitlin Young TKO (Doctor Stoppage) 3:00 rnd 2
My Pick: Gina by armbar first round.
Gina looked, well looked gassed immediately in to the first round. She wore herself out going for a submission she had no idea how to finish. Lesson to new fighters!! Don't go for gogo platas. Just don't. Only Brad Imes and Nick Diaz can go for them.
Gina did well at the end of the first and the entire second landing the right hand that, I am sure, broke some bones in Kaitlin's face.
I hate woman's MMA. I don't like to see them get all busted up. Hate hate hate hate it.

Robbie Lawler Scott Smith No Contest (Thumb in the eye) 3:26 rnd 3
My Pick: Robbie by KO first round.
Robbie was clearly winning the fight before the accidental thumb ended it. Good fight for both guys.


Kevin Ferguson def James Thompson TKO (punches) 0:38 rnd 3
My Pick: Kevin by KO early first round
Let's be honest... Kevin was getting his ass handed to him before he caught James. Kevin did not quit he persevered. This was good. The skill level displayed in this fight... Awful. Just awful.
Hopefully the EliteXC can gather some money now and pay some real fighters to show what they can do. Good opponents for Joey Valisnior, and Robbie Lawler will do much to lend credibility to the show.



WEC 34 - Sacramento

Dominic Cruz def Charlie Valencia Decision

Jose Aldo def Alexandre Franca Nogueira TKO (Punches) 3:22 rnd 2
I would have picked Nogueira to win this one... Nogueira has been such a dominating force in Shooto for so long that I thought he was bullet proof... I guess not.

Alex Serdyukov def Luis Sapo TKO (Corner Stoppage) 5:00 rnd 1

Tim McKenzie def Jeremy Lang Submission (Guillotine choke) 0:40 rnd 3

Will Ribeiro def Chase Beebe Decision (Split)
Wow. Chase should have taken this one easy...

Mike Brown def Jeff Curran Decision
Good work for Mike Brown!

Donald Cerrone def Danny Castillo Submission (Armbar) 0:30 rnd 1

Rob McCullough def Kenneth Alexander Decision (Split)
Rob just looked bad in this fight. It seems as if he just can not get back to is old butt kicking ways.

Mark Munoz def Chuck Grigsby TKO (Punches) 4:15 rnd 1
This fight was a lot of fun. It is nice to see guys with good skill, just winging punches at each other...

Miguel Torres def Yoshiro Maeda TKO (Doctor Stoppage - Swollen eye) 5:00 rnd 3
Maeda looked very good in this fight. He met eveything Torres had ad then some. He just had trouble stopping the Jab, and Torres made him pay for it. Good fight, and I hope they bring Maeda back.

Urijah Faber def Jens Pulver Decision
Faber looked great, BUT Jens looked, well, old. Jens just didn't let his hands go. I don't know if the left side of his face was hurt or what, but the Jens Pulver that slugged it out with BJ Penn, and Takanori Gomi just wasn't there last night...