Watched the UFC on FOX last night. Wasn't impressed much. Here's how it all looked to me:
Damian Maia vs. Chris Weidman
A sloppy borefest. I don't know much about Weidman and I understand that he took the fight on 11 days notice and I've always liked Maia, but this looked like amateur tough guy boxing night. They're both grapplers that ended up doing standup striking and I get that, but, really, I was almost embarrassed for the UFC with this fight. This was the first fight on a card televised on a national network and it was, for the most part, an ugly boxing match with a few sloppy kicks. After a minute into the second round I just wanted it to end. Maia was originally scheduled to fight Bisping and he's lucky he didn't, he probably would have had his butt handed to him.
Chael Sonnen vs. Michael Bisping
I don't care for Michael Bisping. I think he's a jerk and I'm always rooting for whoever he's fighting to give him the same treatment that Dan Henderson did and shut him up decisively.
However, I do respect his fighting ability. He's a warrior and one of the best strikers out there and his fights are always entertaining. Due to an injury to Mark Munoz, he had to prepare for a different fighter: Chael Sonnen, arguably the best wrestler in the UFC.
This was a pretty good fight. Bisping accounted himeslf well and it was very close up until the third round which was decisively Sonnen's. That being said, the first two rounds could have gone either way. Chael didn't look nearly as good as he did against Brian Stann or Anderson Silva. Did he cut too much weight?
Chael's post-fight Joe Rogan interview was a hoot though when he turned the questions back to Joe: "Are you not mesmerized? Do you not have chills going up your spine? For the first time on FOX for you to be here in Chael's Octagon, on Chael's channel, holding Chael's microphone, interviewing Chael?"
You just gotta love it.
Rashad Evans vs. Phil Davis
Again, another not very exciting fight. Phil Davis was out of his league and I wonder at the decission to pit him against Rashad on such a national stage. Not great matchmaking, if you ask me. If people turned in to watch UFC fights for the first time , I'm not sure they were overly impressed. Davis was outclassed in every area. And his kicking ability, which he was somewhat touted for, just wasn't very good. He really needs to check out my videos!
I'm definitely not a Rashad fan but I found myself rooting for him here for some reason.Maybe he's gotten a tad humbler over the years. He sure didn't seem to be fighting all out though. He had plenty of opportunities to really take it to Davis and he just...didn't. I think he was just playing this one safe and was really more concerned with only doing enough to get the win so he could concentrate on the upcoming Jon Jones fight.
Blogging more regularly
Sorry it's been so locg between blogs. I have had a lot going on. My work has been sucking up energy that I'd rather spend on writing, but what can you do? I still have a lot to offer to the martial arts and I want to show what a dedicated martial artist can do at ages well over fifty. I'll be 59 in a few weeks and I still train regularly and effectively. I'll be discussing that quite a bit over the next few blogs as well asgiving tips tips and loading videos and a buncha stuff. My plan is to publish at least one blog a week. I have some big ideas for this blog. It will eventually contain my history and the fullness of my art. Big plans. Stick around and check it out.
