UFC 118 Discussion and thoughts

All in all a pretty good card, not near as good as the past 3 UFC's but still an exciting card with some good fights. There was a pretty good turnout on chatbox and some nice banter to boot, nice one lads



Anyway, i'll start with the first fight on the prelims show, Winner- Lentz. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz, that is all.



Next fight was pretty much just Joe Lauzon against absolutely noone, honestly he should have just fought himself, at least then there would be some opposition. He simply manhandled Reudiger and give him a sound beating, finishing with a nice armbar in the first that showed Maia how to finish.



First fight on the main card was an exciting toe-to-toe stand up battle between the impressive Nate Diaz and the disappointing Marcus Davis. The first round was fun, with both coming out swinging but ultimately both missing until Davis cracked Nate and had him stumbling. Typical Diaz brother though as he recovered very quickly and from there it was just all Diaz. All of us on chatbox had our own little digs at Marcus' "pro boxing" and how invisible it was. He was throwing total arm punches and getting nowhere near Diaz, only tagging him a a handful of times. Diaz on the other hand loosened up in the second round and was tagging Davis at will, cut his eye BADLY and choked him out in the last round.

Interesting that when Diaz sunk the choke in, referee Yves Lavigne checked Davis' arm, it was limp, then he let go, waited a few seconds and checked it again, before stopping the fight. He could have just been making sure he was out and avoiding a Wiman- Danzig situation, but what do you guys think about that?



Florian- Maynard was the next fight and was comparable to a sack of shit. Pretty much the same as the Winner- Lentz fight, or any Jon Fitch fight for that matter. Disappointed in Florian but what can you do when you show up to fight and the other man is just intent on sexual intercourse. Maynard UD.



Next up was Demian Maia vs Mario Miranda and this fight had a few of us cacking our pants at the thought of Miranda sparking Maia. That fear was completely unjustified when it became evident that Miranda was nowhere near as good as he was hyped up to be. Maia completely schooled him on the feet and the mat but just couldnt get the submission which was quite a wake up call, his BJJ is clearly not all its cracked up to be either. Fairly dominant UD for Maia.



Randy Couture vs James Toney, watching it back, is absolutely hysterical, but i can tell you at the time, everyone was holding their breath until the takedown, which came around 17 seconds into the fight and was the result of a lovely Sakuraba style anklepick. What followed was the most foregone conclusion since the dawn of man. Couture transitioned straight, and i mean STRAIGHT to the mount, absolutely no resistance from Toney who looked like a turtle on his back. The Natural pounded away and eventually locked up an arm triangle, Toney tapped almost instantly. What was all the worry about?



Now, the main event between Frankie Edgar and BJ Penn was a great fight all round IMO. May have come as a shock to some, but Edgar absolutely schooled Penn in every single department. Ragdolled him around like no other LW and dished out some GSP-esque domination. Multiple takedowns and some beautiful combinations on the feet. Even looked to have BJ hurt in the last round when he wobbled him with a knee. Penn's best part of the fight was the 4th when he took Edgar down and got his back, but Edgar just spun out of it and reversed BJ, ending up in his guard. 50-45 across the board unanimous decision for LW Champ Frank Edgar, with only the fourth round in any sort of question, but it was still given to the champ.

Great performance by Edgar and has now set up a very tough-to-market Lightweight Title match between himself and Gray Maynard. The card that fight is on will have to be STACKED, probably on a double championship card such as 100 and 112, maybe the Silva- Sonnen 2 card or the Lesnar- Velasquez one.



Good night of fights overall and although there were no (T)KO's i still went to bed at 7am this morning feeling very satisfied with what i had just watched, Kudos UFC



Thoughts guys?

Impressive performance by Lauzon.

Gutted about Maynard v Florian. Kenny didn't offer enough and Grey took advantage with some dry humping. Once he catches a hold of Edgar unfortunately I'd expect to see the title change hands. Shame, Florian v Edgar would have been an entertaining fight.

As soon as the Toney fight went to the deck it was over. I'd doubt we'll see him in the UFC again.

The_Axe_Emperor wrote:

Next up was Demian Maia vs Mario Miranda and this fight had a few of us cacking our pants at the thought of Miranda sparking Maia. That fear was completely unjustified when it became evident that Miranda was nowhere near as good as he was hyped up to be. Maia completely schooled him on the feet and the mat but just couldnt get the submission which was quite a wake up call, his BJJ is clearly not all its cracked up to be either. Fairly dominant UD for Maia.

Miranda is a very good brazilian jiu jitsu blackbelt, submissions are his specialty so he was savvy enough to block chokes and escape when maia went for the armbar.

this card was pretty dire.
really only 1 good fight.

nice wins for Miller, Maynard, Maia, Diaz.

I still think BJ can beat frankie, but he looked like he did not want to be there, i have seen so much better performances from him in the past, and its not just Edgar makingh im look bad either.
honestly i think BJ was acting as if his energy was at a premium from the opening moment.
If he had fought the fight like Lauzon did he would have won.

by the way the commentating was terribly biased i think BJ won the first 2 rounds.

I think Miranda was out of his league,but he did do a good job of defending the sub attempts.
I think the problem Maia seemed to have,was nothing to do with his skills,IMO his skills are unqeustionable when your talking BJJ,it was his cardio that did him,in that third rd he looked bolloxed,he didn't have the juice left in his arms to sinch in or even attempt any successfull kind of choke.

The only fights that I didn't enjoy were obviously Lentz and Maynard,the rest of the card was good.

I think it's more a case of you being baised there mate,I'm a BJ fan also and obviously wanted him to win,but Frankie schooled him and won every rd.

Meanie, i think you need to have a word with your mate that claims he's a "hardcore fan" and waffled about Miranda and how Maia would have trouble standing, and getting takedowns. Chap is clearly a blagger.

I wasn't impressed by the card. It looked great on paper, was fairly average in reality. Hopefully Diaz will kick on from this and string together some wins.

Maynard-Edgar 2 will go the same way as Maynard-Edgar 1 IMO. It can't headline a card though. I think they'll put it on the same card as BJ-Alves which i'm hearing is a possibility.

I will Anfield Atleast i had a few guys on the chatbox last night bricking it for Maia... lol


I had very high hopes for this card so its not a suprise to feel like its been a letdown. But i wouldnt call it "Dire". I really enjoyed all the main card fights, and it would have been perfect if Maia pulled off a highlight reel sub.


And im a big Maynard fan and picked him to win by decision so it was enjoyable for me to watch him get the biggest win of his career last night.

To each his own......

Thought the card was pretty awful really, Diaz/ Davis was a good brawl but that was about it. I think the trend of wrestlers who refuse to finish or gain positions like Lentz and Maynard is starting to annoy me. How it can be ok for someone to dry hump another fighter against the cage and inflict no damage is beyond me. I'm glad I don't have to pay for PPV's like this.

On BJ Penn; sumit is just not right with him, as good as Edgar was, I felt BJ just wasn't up for it, and his corner are comically useless. Hope Edgar beats Maynard next and him and Aldo step up for a superfight in the near future.

More fighting and less hugging please Dana.

as people know on here im a massive randy fan i am so pleased he never got punched. but i also dont think we will see toney in ufc again he looked terrible he looked lost.

Decent card, nothing special but a few boring fights there as well.

Lentz vs Winner was boring as fuck, Lentz struggled to get the take downs at times and just pushed Winner up against the cage. When he did get the take down he did absolutely nothing until the last 30 seconds. I thought Winner won the first round personally, Lentz did no damage at all while Winner rocked him once. Second round could have been a draw because Lentz really just did nothing. I hope Lentz gets banned from appearing on TV.

Lauzon vs cake boy was just a massacre, poor matchmaking on this one IMO, someone on chatbox said that even Dana questioned the decision to bring him back and its not hard to see why. Lauzon was disappointing last time because he had come off a huge layoff, but he is far and away better than Rudegier who is a can. Really had no right to be in there and to top it off he ignored Lauzon's attempts at a hand shake. Hopefully the last I'll see of Rudegier and bigger and better things for J-Lau.

I was impressed with Diaz, he looked excellent. One complaint is near the beginning of the fight he started taunting Davis and he got rocked, no need to risk losing the fight by being a dick. Either way he looked excellent, I would recommend he stay at WW because he looks so much more powerful and healthy. Nice submission to finish things off as well. Davis looked poor, his hands were awful and he was just slow. I think he needs to consider retiring soon otherwise he will take too many Nate Quarry-like beatings.

Maynard vs KenFlo was a typical Maynard fight. Grinding the fight out using his wrestling and strength. I would really like to see Maynard be more aggressive with his GnP because he could be a much better fighter. He has power in his hands and if he took a page out of someone like Coleman, Hughes or recently Sonnen he would be good to watch. Dissapointing for Kenny, its back to square one for him.

Miranda is an average fighter, Maia beat him convincingly. Not sure whats next for either, maybe Okami for Maia.

Nothing much to say about Randy vs Toney, very easy victory for Couture. I assume Randy will go back to LHW, maybe fight the winner of Bader vs Lil Nog. Toney is out I think.

Shocked at how easily Edgar won but the commentating was really poor at times in this fight. The first two rounds were much closer than Rogan and Goldie were making it sound and any big shot that was landed by BJ was just ignored by them. Still Edgar was clearly the winner and BJ looked poor. He couldn't handle Edgar's speed and Edgar really began to land some huge shots. Something Sun said yesterday which I though was a good point was about Edgar's chin. He seems to have a really good chin because a lot of other LWs would have been hurt from some of the shots landed by BJ. Im also suprised BJ didn't take the fight down earlier because he was losing the standup but I guess thats his stuborness. He wanted to beat Edgar standing.

This card brings up some interesting points in relation to how much Dana White has to do with the fights that get made. Ruediger was brought back without Dana being consulted and then there's the whole thing with Nate-Palhares getting moved. Also, CroCop vs Mir was made without Dana being involved. Is Dana actually anything more than a mouthpiece these days? I don't think so. I think Fertitta and Silva are running the show and Dana is just a figurehead with a big mouth.

Isn't Dana just the promoter? His job is just to promote the UFC events and the UFC as a brand in new cities. That's why I was always surprised he was always such a focal point of the UFC and that he gets so much attention.

Considering his past its also surprising that Gabe was brought back without Dana's go-ahead. I didn't know Silva had that kind of power, so if Dana has such little power over who go's in, why has there always been problems with bringing certain fighters in?

I also forgot to say two things. First regarding Maynard vs Edgar. I think Edgar has a good chance to win this fight if he can avoid being manhandled. When BJ got a hold of him he took him down easily, Veach in the picked him up and slammed him with no problems and ofc Maynard has as well. He himself has good take downs as well and took down BJ down several times last night and landed a few slams. He really needs to avoid getting in a wrestling match with Gray and maybe try for a take down occasionally to throw Maynard off guard but I think he has a major advantage standing. He needs to work on his take down defense and maybe add some muscle so he doesn't get rag dolled. TBH Edgar could make 145 and Maynard could make 170, its a tough fight but I think he can do it.

Secondly, I just wanted to check if anyone understood what the fuck Toney said after his fight with Randy.

He claims to be the president and the one running the show. To me he's just a PR guy who whores himself and his product around. There to advertise and do anything to make money. Basically he does the same thing as



and



and of course

Goldberg referred to Nate Diaz as a "classy guy" after the fight last night! For fuck sake!

I do think we need to give Toney some credit here. He ran his mouth and then got beaten pretty easily but at the end of the day, he stepped into a cage with a man who's been doing this for 15 years or so and fought. I don't see too many MMA guys rushing to get into a boxing ring with a guy like Toney. And despite the laughable presentation of a black belt to Couture following his second sloppy submission in a row, Toney actually survived on the ground well enough. He never tried to escape and didn't really know how to defend the submissions but he survived the first one(despite Couture trying to re-enact the last Mac Danzig fight), he took some punches but was never in danger of being stopped from them. And maybe he'll be more realistic now and come back and fight a lower end guy who he might have a chance against.

A few things i disagree with in that post Anfield but to avoid a petty argument all i'm gonna say is if Toney does fight in the UFC again i really hope he fights Pat Barry, because he would get absolutely schooled in the stand up by HD.

After watching this a few times,I have finally worked out most of what he's saying,so can now comment

I guess it is too much to ask James Toney to show some respect to the man who thoroughly beat his arse.
Regaurding the takedown "We expected it because that's what scared people do."

I also found it funny,the way he claims to have escaped Randy's 1st attempt at a choke

Randy let go because you verbally quit,you tried to cheat by denying it and throwing a couple of weak shots off your back,so Randy just reapplied the choke with a little more pressure and made you tap.

You know to be honest before the fight I thought Randy would Sub him in the 1st but I honestly wasnt sure that Toney would Tap I though he would get an arm broken or choked out, supprosed the verbally quit when a choke wasnt even really on.

I think Dana should have gave someone who would stand with him but 750000-1million payday isnt somehting they can keep shelling out for.

Co-headliners James Toney ($500,000) and Randy Couture ($250,000) garnered the most attention heading into this past weekend's UFC 118 event, and they also walked home with the evening's largest disclosed checks.

MMAjunkie.com recently requested and today received the list of officially disclosed paydays from the Massachusetts State Athletic Commission.

The total disclosed payroll for the Aug. 18 event was $1.428 million.

Toney and Couture accounted for 52.52 percent of the disclosed figures.

UFC 118 was the first trip to Massachusetts for the world's biggest mixed martial arts promotion. The event took place at the TD Garden in Boston, and the main card aired live on pay-per-view. A pair of contests were also featured on Spike TV.

In a bout UFC president Dana White openly referred to as a "freak show," Couture took Toney down easily and submitted him in the first round. While the contest was only a co-feature, it netted the most attention in the days prior to the fight.

Meanwhile, in the main event, Frankie Edgar proved his April win over former champion B.J. Penn was no fluke. The new champion dominated "The Prodigy" for five rounds en route to a unanimous-decision win.

Edgar took home $96,000 for his effort, while Penn was issued a $150,000 check.

The total paydays included:

Frankie Edgar: $96,000 (includes $48,000 win bonus)
def. B.J. Penn: $150,000

Randy Couture: $250,000 (no win bonus)
def. James Toney: $500,000

Demian Maia: $68,000 ($34,000 win bonus)
def. Mario Miranda: $8,000

Gray Maynard: $46,000 ($23,000 win bonus)
def. Kenny Florian: $65,000

Nate Diaz: $60,000 ($30,000 win bonus)
def. Marcus Davis: $31,000

Joe Lauzon: $24,000 ($12,000 win bonus)
def. Gabe Ruediger: $8,000

Nik Lentz: $22,000 ($11,000 win bonus)
def. Andre Winner: $10,000

Dan Miller: $30,000 ($15,000 win bonus)
def. John Salter: $8,000

Greg Soto: $12,000 ($6,000 win bonus)
def. Nick Osipczak: $10,000

Mike Pierce: $24,000 ($12,000 win bonus)
def. Amilcar Alves: $6,000

Now, the usual disclaimer: The figures do not include deductions for items such as insurance, licenses and taxes. Additionally, the figures do not include money paid by sponsors, which can oftentimes be a substantial portion of a fighter's income. They also do not include any other "locker room" or special bonuses the UFC oftentimes pays. They also do not include portions of the pay-per-view revenue that some top-level fighters receive.

For example, as previously reported, UFC officials handed out $60,000 UFC 118 bonuses to Lauzon (Submission of the Night), Diaz and Davis (Fight of the Night).

In other words, the above figures are simply base salaries reported to the commission and do not reflect entire compensation packages for the event.

Toney earned over $2,500 per second.

Anyone seen pay-per-view figures?