UFC 114 review and thoughts

Full Results:

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PRELIM RESULTS:
* Ryan Jensen def. Jesse Forbes via submission (guillotine choke) - Round 1, 1:06
* Aaron Riley def. Joe Brammer via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
* Cyrille Diabate def. Luiz Cane via TKO (punches) -Round 1, 2:13
* Melvin Guillard def. Waylon Lowe via TKO (strikes) - Round 1, 3:28

A quick word on the prelims. Forbers and Brammer are probably gone now, maybe Lowe as well (how many fights has he won/lost?) Diabate vs Cane was a good fight, Cane panicked when he got hit and the snake put him to sleep. If they keep Cane around, I think he should move to MW because he looked quite undersized against Diabate and there are bigger guys in the division. If they let him go, I think he would be good for SF. Lil Randleman looked good yesterday, he has serious power in his whole body. I've always thought Guillard is a talented fighter but his attitude has always been wrong. Jackson is the perfect coach for him I think.

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Prelim Spike TV:

Lightweight bout: Efrain Escudero vs. Dan Lauzon
Escudero defeated Lauzon via unanimous decision (29–27, 29–27, 29–27).

Welterweight bout: Amir Sadollah vs. Dong Hyun Kim
Kim defeated Sadollah via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–27).

Both of these fights were one sided victories. Escudero is a talented fighter but he lacked the finish in that fight which suprised me a little. He didn't seem to eager to finish, he was kind of toying with Lauzon for a lot of the fight. Escudero still has a lot of holes in his game but he has alot of potentiol. Lauzon will be out of the UFC for a while I assume. Stungun dominated the fight against Sadollah which sucked to see but I wasn't suprised. I think Stungun has a lot of potentiol but he still needs to improve in some areas. He took Sadollah down easily, controlled, passed, looked for submissions and went for punches. It wasn't an exciting fight but I think for a lot of that fight he was looking to finish.

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Main Card:


Welterweight bout: Diego Sanchez vs. John Hathaway
Hathaway defeated Sanchez via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 30–26).

Light Heavyweight bout: Antônio Rogério Nogueira vs. Jason Brilz
Nogueira defeated Brilz via split decision (28–29, 29–28, 29–28).

Heavyweight bout: Todd Duffee vs. Mike Russow
Russow defeated Duffee via KO (punch) at 2:35 in round 3.

Middleweight bout: Michael Bisping vs. Dan Miller
Bisping defeated Miller via unanimous decision (30–27, 30–27, 29–27).

Light Heavyweight bout: Quinton Jackson vs. Rashad Evans
Evans defeated Jackson via unanimous decision (29–28, 30–27, 30–27).


Great performance from Hathaway, I have always liked him. I was kind of pissed they give such a tough fight but he looked fantastic, and he is only 22. He has a very bright future. Sanchez struggled with his reach and he couldn't take him down apart from once or twice. That knee was brutal, Sanchez has a crazy chin. Hathaway is one of the few brit fighters who has a good ground game and he is one of the better wrestlers there as well. He is the best representive of MMA I can think of right now. I'd like to see Hathaway fight stungun next but with the way Silva has been giving out fights, im not sure it will happen. Not sure what happens with Sanchez now he got dominated, maybe Sadollah next.

How about the performance from Brilz? Seemingly out of his depth before the fight, he did excellent and I thought he won the fight personally. I really disagree it was a robbery or anything like that but I just thought Brilz edged it. Second round Brilz easily won with the guillotine attempts and rocking Lil Nog. Third round I gave to Lil Nog. So it comes down to the first round. I gave it to Brilz because he got the takedowns. Before anyone says takedowns mean nothing, ok fair enough but Brilz actually was improving his position and was in sidecontrol getting some good hammerfists in. He also landed some good shots on the feet as well. But I could easily see how it went to Lil Nog. Brilz was a class act after the fight as well which is good to see.

I honestly think Jones will be kicking himself after seeing that though. I think Lil Nog might have underestimated Brilz but Jones would have finished Lil Nog in a round yesterday.
Not sure what now for Lil Nog, maybe The Snake. Brilz can fight Cane if he sticks around at 205 and is still in the UFC.


I don't know what to say about Russow vs Duffee, I am SHOCKED Holy shit is all I can say, I have only ever jumped up like I did once before watching MMA. Duffee was looking good, Sunthunder on chatbox mentioned how he looked like he was reincarnated greek god. He was tagging Russow with shots and most people would have been finished. But he didn't finish and it came back to bite him in the ass and how. His conditioning also looked poor. Russow looked like shit to be fair but credit to him for sticking at it.

Scott Smith, eat your heart out.

Bisping vs Miller was a shit fight. Miller came in with a terrible gameplan and Bisping won a boring fight on the feet. Thats all there is to it.


Now onto the main event. Evans won like most people thought, he was much quicker, he utilised his wrestling, he dropped Rampage, that first round he looked excellent. Second round he basically just Wall n Stalled. Third round, I was sure Evans was done, Rampage caught him on the temple and rained blows down I thought it was over honestly. But he let Evans recover for some reason. In his last two fights Evans has become the new Fabricio Werdum. People seem hesitant to pull the trigger. But Evans pulled it out and won the his takedowns and some GnP towards the end. It was a pretty good fight but Rampage could have fought a lot better. To be fair, so could Evans but I didn't think he want to risk any stupid which meant he fought safe.

So Evans will fight Shogun next for the title. Thats a pretty tough fight for Evans IMO, He will be able to take Shogun down but can he keep there? I don't know, Shogun is an excellent grappler and got up every time Machida took him down. If Shogun rocks Evans once in 25 minutes you bet he won't let it go like Rampage and Silva did.

All in all a pretty decent nights of fights. Some big upsets, great performances, possibly the greatest comeback in MMA and new stars were made.

Thoughts?

Pretty much agree with all of that. Although I wouldnt say the Bisping fight was that bad. I thought he showed some encouraging stand up improvement, he looked a bit crisper and quicker than usual and was actually throwing A FEW decent looking punches. However, it was a shame he couldnt finish Miller. Having said that, I cant see Bisping moving much further up the ladder now. His gatekeeper status is impending!

Hathaway looked awesome, he seems to have it all. Sanchez didnt have anything for him and that knee was savage!

I guess Duffee couldnt live up to the hype. I thought after the first 30 seconds or so he was gonna steam roll his way through Russow (who almost has a figure to rival big country) but credit to Mike, he absorbed everything Todd was throwing at him and caught him on the temple. I was half asleep when that happened and nearly shit my pants. Duffee looked like a huge oak tree falling to the ground! I think the only part of his body lacking unnaturally sized muscle is his chin!
What do you guys think Joe Silva will do with these two now?

Credit to Jason Brillz and for putting his "balls in a wheel barrow and stepping forward" as Rogan put it. Could have gone either way but he will take a heck of a lot away from that fight.

The main event was as I expected but was still pretty frustrating to watch. I was backing Rampage and couldnt figure out why when he had Evans badly hurt, he didnt capitalise but allowed him time and space to recover. I think Jackson tripped over his own feet in the first incident in the first round and he wasnt as rocked as everyone made out.
Was really impressed by Jacksons after-match classiness.

from the top:

Rampage managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. The first round was clearly Evans due to the knockdown and the fact that Rampage really didnt get off with any offence.

The second round was close, because nothing happened, Rashad stayed out of range the whole fight and only entered range to take him down. Personally i would have scored it a draw because Rashad tried so many takedowns and was stuffed consistantly.*

The third round belonged to Rampage, i think that he failed to capitalise when he had him badly hurt in the exact same way that Silva did. I picked Rampage via KO because i knew that he would hurt him at some point, and i thought he would not let up until he was done....but i was wrong. after Rashad managed to get back to his feet he was badly hurt but it was 60-90 seconds before Rampage did ANYTHING AT ALL.
It's his own fault he lost, if i was him i would be kicking myself, and i'm not surprised that he wants a rematch.

I think it could have been a draw in all honestly.

* In Machida/Shogun 1 the judges said that Machida's takedown defence gave him the nod in the octagon control department!

Does anyone else think we should see the superfights be 5 rounds when they arent a title fight???
i would definitley want to see a 4th and 5th round.
Couture/Nog, Wand/Chuck, Wand/Franklin would have been great with the extra rounds.

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Vintage Bisping.
I was impressed by his takedown defence and how he got back to his feet (something which i'm sure he has drilled hundereds of times). On the feet he was quicker to the punch but never really hurt him.
I hope Miller doesnt get cut, he is talented guy.

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Joe Rogan needs to chill out, this kind of thing happens in strikeforce all the time its Scott Smith's signiture move!
But i was hugely impressed with Duffee.
He reminded me a lot of Mirko Crocop.
His physique is just like a bigger version of Crocop, and the way he shrugged of the takedowns of a supposed superior grappler was fantastic.
I was expecting Russow to dominate

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i think the Nog/Brilz fight could have gone either way. It was on the 1st round like Chelsea said.

In my scoring i would have gone with Nog, because the third round is the most important and he really came strong.
We have the judges because there is a limited amount of time on the PPV, there job is to decide who wins this fight based on what they saw in 15 minutes. For this reason the 3rd is the most important round, whoever finishes stronger is really the better fighter. If the fight had gone on Nog would have owned him, Brilz was spent and hurting in round 3. Nog would have finished him if he watched more old school UFC



with that said, i was mightily impressed with Brilz. I was one of the few who thought it wouldn't be a walkover for Nog (one of my favourite fighters btw) and i picked Nog by decision in the league. I didn't think Brilz would do so well and he has a great attitude all round from what i can tell, i will definitley cheer for him next time out!

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other fights:

great job by hathaway. i predicted by Diego by sub because i thought he could take him down. he couldnt and thats where i went wrong in the prediction.

Great job also by Stun Gun. Very methodical performance. it isnt LnP because his plan was to advance to a mount or rear mount and finish Sadollah from there. He almost had it and the end of rounds 1 and 2, and there wasnt a second n the fight where he wasnt working towards that goal.

Guillard with another highlight reel finish !!!

There is absolutely no way in hell that Rampage-Evans could have been a draw! What a ridiculous statement! Seriously mate, Evans won it by a mile. That one judge even gave Rampage a round was a surprise. He clearly won all 3 rounds. Rampage had 30 seconds of the fight where he was in control and if you watch the replay, most of the GnP shots missed. After that Evans took him down twice and punched him in the face. Easy win for Evans who has great powers of recovery and has probably the best cardio/speed/wrestling combination in the UFC. Rampage on the other hand was tired after the first round.

Shogun hits hard but not as hard as Thiago Silva or Rampage and i don't think he'll land clean on Rashad. I think Evans has a great chance of beating him. Evans has great takedowns and excellent control. He's also incredibly strong. I think if he fights smart he beats Shogun. If he tries to draw him into a striking contest, Shogun will kick his ass, but if he fights like he has in the last 2 fights, he'll be a 2 time champion. His speed will cause Shogun major problems. Of course, Shogun could get lucky and land one to the temple but lightning rarely strikes twice. I think Rampage should fight Griffin next. He needs to stay active.

I was impressed by both fighters immediately after the fight, especially Rampage. It's a shame they didn't shake hands in the cage but they may have backstage afterwards. And then Rampage started running his mouth again afterwards. He lost the war of words, then he lost the fight, he should shut up and start looking for a new camp

Bisping fight was typical Bisping. Boring, never in any danger of knocking his opponent out and his opponent believed the hype and didn't commit. Bisping vs Cote next IMO. Rogan was ridiculously biased towards Bisping in this fight by the way.

Duffee messed his hand up and was shown up as a one-dimensional fighter. Any fighter with a good chin and power will beat him IMO. A poor mans Dos Santos.

I agree with what Chelski said about the Nog fight, i thought Nog lost but it was a close close fight. I think Nog took the fight lightly. Huge credit to Brilz, great performance and he could make a decent career in the UFC for himself. Never a top 5 fighter but could become a Cote or Bisping level fighter.

John Hathaway is THE BEST BRITISH MMA FIGHTER IN THE WORLD. I was hugely impressed with him. His composure, his performance, top top class. I think he's now got to be considered at number 10 in the WW rankings. He's 22 and IMO the only British fighter with a chance at UFC gold somewhere down the line. I think they need to be careful and not rush him though. Like Chelski suggests, Kim would be an ideal next fight for him. Diego should go back down to 155 IMO. Other than Penn, he's the best in the UFC at 155.

On the undercard, Escudero was impressive but still has much to work on. Cane needs to get his head sorted, he didn't look in shape which is unusual for an ATT fighter, 185 will probably become his new home. UFC won't cut him just yet i don't think.

If Guillard wasn't a prick he could become a really good fighter.

Riley was impressive and that sub from Jensen was sick!

Personally I had Evans winning three rounds as well, you could argue Rampage won the last one but Evans got some good takedowns AND GnP in as well. He didn't just lay ontop of him. I don't think this is done tbh, there will be a rematch somewhere down the line and if Rampage wins that there will be a third. Both guys were ok after the fight but I would have liked to seen them shake hands. It will happen, but I think after the rematch.

I COMPLETELY agree that Joe Rogan was biased in the Bisping fight, ridiculously biased. Listening to him you would have thought Bisping was pulling of a striking clinic. This is the one major problem with Rogan, sometimes he gets carried away with him self.


I don't know if Duffee is a one dimensional fighter, because I heard he was a decent wrestler in college. He just didn't use it at all. He still has a lot of holes in his game though but he is only 24. I think he has time to improve.


Anfield is Hathaway the first British fighter you have given credit? But I agree, I thought he looked great. Good grappling and good striking, he has a bright future indeed.


"he didn't look in shape which is unusual for an ATT fighter"

Unless your this guy:

At worst the 3rd round could have been given as a draw. But the first round could have been a 10-8. Completely one-sided. Knocked him across the ring with a bunch, took him down easily and Rampage didn't land for the first 4:45 of the round.

Having watched replays of the Rampage knockdown of Evans in the 3rd, it wasn't a punch that knocked him down. He caught his head on Rampages knee going for a takedown.

Oh, and yes Hathaway is the first English fighter i've rated highly.

Intresting comparison of Duffee with Cro Cop but two things. How many headkicks did Duffee throw? You can't be Cro Cop with out the kicks. And I don't think I've ever seen Cro Cop that big

I know what your saying about last round wins the fight criteria but im not sure I can completely agree with it. It's a little unfair, because that round has nothing to do with the other two rounds. Brilz also won the second round more decisive than any other round.

He caught his head on Rampages knee going for a takedown.

I missed that, it looked like Rampage caught him on the temple.

I really hope Rampage changes camp now. Not sure where he could go, there is no way in hell is going to Jackson's. Don't think he will go to black house with Machida and Lil Nog there and especially if King Mo moves there full time. ATT could be an idea, he could actually improve his ground game if he goes there and his old friend Kimbo trains there as well.

Duffee is still a good prospect, he's very young, he was completely dominating Russow for 2 and half rounds. He just got caught pure and simple. At this weight class one punch can end it at any time. He also showed good take down defense.


I think they will rematch him and Russow. ala Smith-Cung Le. Interesting how Duffee 2 UFC fights have had holy shit moments in them


If your going to lose, then loosing a fight you are dominating for all of it, and getting caught is not the worst way to lose. I would be way more critical if he got taken down and dominated for 15 mins on the ground. This should be a good learning experience for him and i still got high hopes for him.

He was fighting a guy that wasn't on ANY top 25 HW lists that i know of. A very average fighter who is second only to Big Country in terms of belly-space-to-rent-for-advertizing.

Dominating him was the minimum requirement.

UFC 114 Fighter Salaries

-Rashad Evans ($435,000) def. Quinton Jackson ($250,000)
-Michael Bisping ($190,000) def. Dan Miller ($15,000)
-Mike Russow ($24,000) def. Todd Duffee ($8,000)
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira ($120,000) def. Jason Brilz ($11,000)
-John Hathaway ($22,000) def. Diego Sanchez ($50,000)
-Dong Hyun Kim ($64,000) def. Amir Sadollah ($15,000)
-Efrain Escudero ($30,000) def. Dan Lauzon ($15,000)
-Melvin Guillard ($38,000) def. Waylon Lowe ($6,000)
-Cyrille Diabate ($12,000) def. Luiz Cane ($19,000)
-Aaron Riley ($20,000) def. Joe Brammer ($5,000)
-Ryan Jensen ($16,000) def. Jesse Forbes ($6,000)

Total pay out: $1,371,000

I really enjoyed the card. Drama, some great fights, a good night all told.

Kims grappling was nice to see, love me a bit of slick transitions. Escudero v Lauzon wasn't up to much until the last 25 seconds, but a clear win for Efrain.

Well impressed with Hathaway, some impressive stuff, totally embarrassed Sanchez. Lost my money straight away but didn't care, was really happy for John. He's got a nice future ahead of him. Bisping solidifying his gatekeeper status soon, unless he'll fight at the London event - he'll get a nicer fight if he is.

Watched the Brilz v Nog fight again, scored it 2-1 for Brilz again. Very, very close though. He's not lost anything though, a solid performance, despite gassing in the 3rd. He's made a ton of new fans, and Joe Silva will give him a nice thank you for taking the fight on short notice and performing as he did. Winner of Jardine v Hamill?

Sucks to be Duffee. Unlucky for him, but that's heavyweights for you.

Rampage v Evans was alright, went exactly as I thought it would. Rashad using distance and speed to his advantage for first couple minutes of each round, get takedown/get against the side of the cage, run the clock down, rinse and repeat. Looks like loads of you got this one right in the predictions.

payneNglory1 wrote:UFC 114 Fighter Salaries

-Rashad Evans ($435,000) def. Quinton Jackson ($250,000)
-Michael Bisping ($190,000) def. Dan Miller ($15,000)
-Mike Russow ($24,000) def. Todd Duffee ($8,000)
-Antonio Rogerio Nogueira ($120,000) def. Jason Brilz ($11,000)
-John Hathaway ($22,000) def. Diego Sanchez ($50,000)
-Dong Hyun Kim ($64,000) def. Amir Sadollah ($15,000)
-Efrain Escudero ($30,000) def. Dan Lauzon ($15,000)
-Melvin Guillard ($38,000) def. Waylon Lowe ($6,000)
-Cyrille Diabate ($12,000) def. Luiz Cane ($19,000)
-Aaron Riley ($20,000) def. Joe Brammer ($5,000)
-Ryan Jensen ($16,000) def. Jesse Forbes ($6,000)

Total pay out: $1,371,000

Please tell me that is a miss-print re Bisping! I've never had the bottle to ask why people dislike him so much, but on that showing he seemed pretty one dimensional.
Circle, jab, jab, throw a right and about once a round he remembers he has legs as well? He did well to stuff a takedown and escape one, but might that be because of Millers wrestling (Don't know much about him).

Brilz can feel very proud, I think if he had been fighting someone of his own standing, he might well of got the decision.

Hathaway was awesome, look forward to seeing more of him.

CompuStrike Stats: UFC 114


UFC 114
5/29/10 - Las Vegas, NV
CompuStrike Stats

Main Event

Rashad Evans beat Quinton Jackson UD

http://www.compustrike.com/stats_files/ufc_114/jackson_evans.php

Inside the Numbers: Evans nearly doubled Rampage's total strikes landed 45-23 en route to a unanimous decision. Jackson landed just 10 of 36 arm strikes after averaging 44 of 87 in his previous six UFC fights.

Michael Bisping beat Dan Miller UD

http://www.compustrike.com/stats_files/ufc_114/Bisping-Miller.HTM

Inside the Numbers: Bisping outlanded Miller 88-46 in total arm strikes as they stayed on the feet 14:34 out of the possible 15 minutes. Bisping landed 41% of his arm strikes after landing 30% in his previous 11 UFC fights.

Mike Russow beat Todd Duffee KO rd 3

http://www.compustrike.com/stats_files/ufc_114/Duffee-Russow.HTM

Inside the Numbers: When you let a guy stick around longer than he should then you run into trouble. That's exactly what happened here as Russow was getting outlanded nearly 3 to 1 before 1 big punch ended the fight. Duffee outlanded Russow 56-21 in total arm strikes.

Antonio Nogueira beat Jason Brilz SD

http://www.compustrike.com/stats_files/ufc_114/Nogueira-Brilz.HTM

Inside the Numbers: Brilz outlanded Nogueira 35-34 in total strikes, including 12-8 in total arm strikes. He also took Little Nog down 4 times but apparently that's not enough in the judges eyes as they gave the split-decision to Nogueira.

John Hathaway beat Diego Sanchez UD

http://www.compustrike.com/stats_files/ufc_114/Sanchez-Hathaway.HTM

Inside the Numbers: Completely one-sided fight as Hathaway outlanded Sanchez 101-23 in total strikes, including 46-20 in total arm strikes and 44-1 in total ground strikes.

UFC 114 GIFs

-Ryan Jensen def. Jesse Forbes by Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 1:06, R1


-Melvin Guillard def. Waylon Lowe by TKO (Knee) at 3:28, R1


Cyrille Diabate def. Luis Cane by TKO (Strikes) at 2:13, R1


-Mike Russow def. Todd Duffee by KO (Punch) at 2:35, R3

Todd Duffee earned bugger all for that fight, I was impressed with his boxing thought he had very good head movement and his upper cuts were pritty much madning every time... we know he's got it in him to KO people, would love to see him throw some Headkicks... think he was scared of being taken down.

Rampage was dicked unfortunantly, I had Evans to win the fight, just don't think Rampage wants it anymore. I was very dissappointed with the fight... as long as he trains at wolfslayer hes done... it's so sad to see.

Hatherway = Legend!

He was well ahead on the judges scorecards during the third round of their UFC 114 but a quick right from Mike Russow sent Todd Duffee reeling and down to the canvas. Duffee talks the loss via the UG:

"It was on the temple I felt the shot...it just shut down the CNS system couldn't use my arms to catch my fall or anything i was watching everything till my head hit the canvas(which may have put me out)i blinked and he hit me with a hammer fist....the way i fell made it look much worse than it was...I wasn't gassed i was more frustrated and trying to stick to the game plan should of threw that out after the first 30 seconds ...my game plan was horrible......i wasn't snapping punches instead i was muscling them should of kicked should of grappled should of fought....I'll be back and show I am more than capable of wrestling etc., thanks for the support and thanks to the people who helped me out sorry i let you down it will pay off in the long run."

What a great event, i think the best UFC show this year by some margin. Only shit fight was Bisping but the rest were all just edge of seat, "holy shit" filled moments.

From the knee Hathway hit, to Brilz nearly choking out Nog, to Brilz getting robbed, to Russow winning by divine intervention, to great performance by Rashad, to Rampage coming back in the 3rd. It was just great all round. Best event of the year IMO.


Everything i could say has already been said here, so i'll just leave it at that.