Since my last blog the MMA world saw the return of Georges St-Pierre, who answered everybody’s question of how he would bounce back from injury. It looked like he hasn’t missed a beat.
The fight went kind of how I thought it would. It went five rounds and he used his wrestling, put Condit on his back and basically dominated. It wasn’t super exciting though.
Sure Condit caught him, and had him in trouble — I wouldn’t even say huge trouble — but you have to say in any five-round fight there will be moments when you won’t be dominating. That was a small moment. He was in control from start to finish with the exception of just a few moments.
Of course the talk immediately afterwards — and ever since — has been about whether he’ll fight Anderson Silva next. At the post-fight press conference, Georges kind of side-stepped the question. He said he was going on vacation, and would talk to his coaches.
Meanwhile, Anderson Silva’s doctor is making statements, saying it would be unhealthy and a crime to come all the way down to 170 pounds. What’s really happening is both sides are building in excuses. Georges is not going to come up to 185 because Anderson is too big, Anderson is not going to come down because it will be detrimental to him to fight Georges there.
People are going to have to realize that this fight doesn’t make sense for the fighters. Sure the fans want to see it, and Dana wants it to happen, especially after he’s just proclaimed his pay-per-view king (GSP) is back. But the fight is not going to happen, and the sooner people let it go, the better. People should instead focus their energy on Jon Jones vs. Anderson Silva happening if they really want a blockbuster marquee fight. As for GSP-Silva, I’m sick of hearing about it and reading about it.
I thought the rest of UFC 154 had some huge upsets in my mind. I was shocked that Johny Hendricks knocked out Martin Kampmann so fast. It’s Martin’s MO, he’s a slow starter, he gets rocked early and comes back. Well, he didn’t come back on that one.
I never saw Mark Bocek losing to Rafael dos Anjos. I thought he would dominate the fight on the ground, but it didn’t really go down that way.
I thought Mark Hominick would beat Pablo Garza, but that reach was causing problems for him. Sam Stout clearly lost to John Makdessi, but in my opinion Makdessi didn’t really come to fight. He would throw a punch then run away, punch then run away. It was a smart game plan, don’t get me wrong, but he was running like Michael Bisping did with his stick and move against Chris Leben. It worked but didn’t make for an exciting fight.
As for the Patrick Cote fight, I don’t agree with it being ruled a disqualification. I agree that some of those punches from Alessio Sakara at the very end were to the back of his head, but they were unintentional. And the referee should have stepped in earlier to do something about it. It just seems like they decided to disqualify him after the fact and it baffles me more that the athletic commission upheld the ruling.
If it was so clear live that he was hitting him illegally that you decide to disqualify a guy, why didn’t you step in to stop it? If you can so definitively say those were fouls, it never should have gotten past the first couple blows.
I have to also say that it’s very revealing that the event was not a sellout. If you can’t sell out a GSP fight card in Montreal, then you have a product that’s too watered down. Canada is a hotbed for the UFC and he’s fighting in his city. That just says are there too many shows in my opinion.
Dana White might have been happy with gate, but isn’t it all about spectator experience? He always talks about the live experience of a UFC show, so how about dropping prices? You can still have the same gate, but more can come and have a better experience. I’m not trying to tell Dana how to run his business but it seems like a no-brainer.
I read Nick Denis’ decision to retire and I thought it was smart. He sounds like an intelligent guy. I don’t know him personally, but it sounds like he researched it and decided that if he keeps getting punched in the head, he’s going to have long-term issues, and he’s not willing to trade brain issues for fighting. It was a well thought-out decision and I wish him all the best in building his dirt house in the middle of the woods as he plans to get away from the grind.
I think every fighter has a shelf life. Many pro athletes don’t know when to call it a wrap. He based his decision on a very serious concussion he received in Japan. I never received a very serious concussion. I can’t base my decision on the same thing, but I’m sure there are many who can.
Lastly, I read that Ronda Rousey likes to have as much sex as possible in preparation for her fights. I’d love for her to convince my wife of the benefits of that.
Ronda, please call my wife and bring her up to speed on this.