October 21st, 2007 by Jemaleddin Cole

Well, I only managed to correctly pick 5 out of the 9 fights, but it turns out I did about as good a job as the bookies, so I don’t feel too bad.

As mentioned, I got to take my first trip to Hooters. I had a sandwich that was labeled “Probably Iowa beef” which I should have taken as a warning, and it was disgusting. Maybe the menu should read, “probably meat.” They were showing fight on plenty of TVs and you could kind of hear the play-by-play over the crowd, but as usual it’s the people that let you down. Our waitress seemed like a nice kid, but she was really dumb. Like criminally dumb. Like I expected her to set down our drinks upside down dumb.

There was an idiot sitting in our line of sight (sporting some very prominent man-boobs) that seemed really upset that people would root for Anderson Silva against Rich Franklin. When Rich came out he yelled, “Amurica! Whooooo!” and when Silva came out (to much applause from the local crowd) he booed. When the crowd quieted I said loudly, “Don’t boo until after he gets done kicking Rich’s ass.” Sadly, I don’t think he heard me.

Speaking of which, Silva completely destroyed Franklin. At the end when he had him up against the cage, Silva was mixing kicks, knees and punches in one of the most devastating displays of punishment I’ve ever seen. It looked like he was dismantling a toy or something. Hopefully Franklin will go back to teaching or something, because he’s just not in the same league as Silva. For fun, here’s a clip of Silva knocking out Tony Fryklund with a standing elbow. Ouch.

It was also a bad night for Franklin’s Jiu-Jistu coach, Jorge Gurgel, who spent two rounds on the ground eating leather. I’m gonna suggest that Rich get back any money he paid this guy until Gurgel can prove he knows what a closed guard is.

Brandon “The Truth” Vera let me down with his 3 round dirty dancing session with Tim Sylvia. Vera’s kicks looked great, but he didn’t seem like he had a game-plan for handling Sylvia’s reach advantage other than to hug him for 15 minutes. Evidently the truth is dull.

Stephan Bonnar proved that steroid abusers can have cardio too, surviving a rear naked choke attempt to make it into the second round where he bea the crap out of Eric Shafer on the ground.

Speaking of steroid abusers, former professional “wrestler” Brock Lesnar was on the PPV to announce that he’d signed with the UFC. For those of you who don’t watch grown men play dress up to act out childish melodramas, take a look at this awesome picture of Brock. That’s one unfortunate penis-looking tattoo between his boobs. And it’s also good evidence of why steroid use should come with a lifetime ban from all sporting events. Even if that gorilla stops filling his veins with human growth hormone today, do you think that extra hundred pounds of muscle might give him an unfair advantage in the future?

Anyway, it was a pretty good night of fights - what did everyone else think?

5 Responses to “UFC 77: Wrap-up”

1. Yeah, Hooters was pretty bad. I was initially quite impressed with how clean the place was, although now that I think about it I don’t know why I would have assumed it would be dirty. And so sorry about the mystery meat sandwich - I’m glad to see you’re still around despite it :) And Hooters still owes you a Coke!!

   The fights… were they fights? I guess the good one of the evening was Silva v. Franklin . Silva looked completely calm and focused and he’s much more of a predator than I previously gave him credit for. He made it look easy - nicely done.

   I don’t really remember the other fights, largely because my psyche chooses to block them out. Vera and Sylvia waltzing around was just the most boring display I’ve seen in a long time.

   Maybe Fedor Emelianenko can help revitalize the UFC someday. Too bad he’s signed up with M-1. Have you seen his record? Where can you watch M-1 fights? :)

   — CanadiensFan October 22nd, 2007 at 9:00 am #

2. PS - Thanks for the picks!! :)

   — CanadiensFan October 22nd, 2007 at 9:02 am #

3. I assumed that they’d actually have some kind of decor - the furnishings were plain and ugly. Too bad we didn’t get a seat outside.

   Unless they PPV them, the only M-1 fights you’re likely to see are the old St. Petersburg episodes of BodogFight which are thinly disguised M-1 promotions from what I understand.

   The Starnes fight was pretty good until his face turned into the grand canyon:

   http://fightlinker.com/?p=788

   Yuch.

   And while Fedor is pretty much undefeated (except for that bullshit loss in RINGS), there are still a lot of good fighters that he hasn’t faced. Randy may be old (and a crybaby) but he knows how to wage a war. And the Pride rules are just different enough (knees and socker kicks to the head of grounded opponents, no elbows) to allow a serious ground and pounder to screw up his game.

   Read more about the bullshit loss here:

   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fedor_Emelianenko#RINGS

   And then scroll down to see that Wikipedia thinks he beat Matt Lindland by blowjob instead of armbar. Yay!

   — Jemaleddin October 22nd, 2007 at 11:04 am #

4. The question is: Are you looking forward to seeing Silva take on Dan Henderson when he drops down to 185 and they do another belt unification fight?

   And who do you think will walk away from that one with the title? Silva is pretty solid, but I think Henderson could be fairly dominant in that weight class as well.

   — jerry October 23rd, 2007 at 2:47 pm #

5. I think it’s a moot point because Dan has shown no desire to come back to 185. He just can’t seem to reconcile himself with the fact that he’s too small for 185 (Wanderlei too).

   If they were to fight, I’d be hard pressed not to give the advantage to Silva anyway, because as stubborn as he is about staying at 205, Dan is even worse about wanting to stand and bang when he ought to be taking people down for some ground and pound. Ever since he discovered that he had knockout power in that right hand, he’s been neglecting his ground game. And I can totally see him trying to stand and bang with the sharper, more accurate, better moving Silva.

   I think Silva destroys him on the feet, and I’m willing to bet that Silva’s long lean frame gives Dan trouble on the ground. Silva probably couldn’t avoid the relentless take-downs from Dan, but this is a guy with a black belt from Big Nog. He knows how to avoid submissions and work a guard long enough to get stood up.

   I’m in the minority on this one, but I’d put my money on Silva over Henderson at 185 any day.

   — Jemaleddin October 23rd, 2007 at 3:47 pm #