Recent UFC thoughts

Catching up on recent UFC issues:

The Ultimate Finale- Well, man, once again a top notch show. The Ed Herman/Kendall Grove fight was beyond anything I would have suspected. Both guys left nothing on the table and the fight could have gone either way. Both gave out and received tons of punishment. Herman seemed stroger but Kendall's cardio was unreal. I was un the edge of my seat the whole fight. How Ed hung in at the end was amazing. The 2 contract thing will become old the more often it happens, but it was the right call. This was a more ground based version of Stefan Bonner/Forset Griffin and depending on how they do against other opponents, a rematch eventullay would garner a lot of interest.

Michael Bisping may be the find of all 3 seasons. He's fast and strong and if he hadn't messed up on the knee while opponent is on the ground would have easily scored a fast first round victory. He has a little attitude as well which a lot of fans like. With Europe being a major target market, UFC is banking on this guy. Josh Haynes proved to be a tough guy and a great story. I can't beleive he's talking about dropping to 175 as he looks kinda "loose" even at 205. Well, he probably earned himself another fight or 2.

Kenny Florian continues to impress me. I'm amazed how well he did at 2 weight classes above his natural weight. His striking (especially those razor sharp elbows) has improved a ton and his ground and submissions are top notch. I am really hoping they can establish the 155 weight class as the action is unbeleivable.

On the rest of the show, I was pumped Little Evil Jens Pulver was back as he was a personal favorite and a real challenge at 155. The Shamrock/Ortiz dynamic was totally missing from the show. It would have really been the time for one of Ken's pro wrestling promos to sell a few more PPV buys. Keith Jardine got what should have been his second win in a row after getting jobbed against Stefan Bonner and Matt Hammill looked much improved since the show. If he can learn some submission, watch out

Ultimate Fight Night-A much more exciting show top to bottom then T.U.F. While I didn't feel the best fight was as good as Herman/Grove, The Cummo/Goulet fight was off the charts exciting. While by UFC judging the scores seemed about right as Goulet really dominated the action, I feel Luke came a lot closer to actually finishing the the fight and the 2 chokes at the end were unreal. Luke has actually upped his worth in 2 close losses. The rest of the card really seemed to me to be a recent trend of all the T.U.F. guys moving up in competition and really showing where they are at. Bonner has been unimpressive in his last 3 fights including being dominated by Rashad. Rashad has great wrestling skills but is the kind of fighter the fans hate as he simply controls the ground and does nothing from there. Leben was destroyed in remarkable fashion. Joe Stephenson already lost, Brad Immes seems to have disappeared, Nate Quarry got destroyed and may be done. The true stars from the show appear to be Winners Forest Griffin who remains strong despite the loss to Ortiz, Diego Sanchez who remains a top contender despite being very unpopular with the crowd, Kenny Florian a real threat at 155 and Mike Swick who continues to impress. OK, I know that was a real rant. In general tho, I was really impressed with Goulet, Cummo, and Anderson Silva...really impressed with Anderson Silva.

Shamrock/Ortiz 2- I don't think this fight has any chance of living up to the hype and will be a 2 round destruction of Shamrock (a personal favorite) by Ortiz. Ken just hasn't changed his style with the times and at his age, while always having a chance, unless Tito makes a mistake, he's looking at a one sided loss. Arlovski/Sylvia is a tough call. Arlovski seemed unbeatable until the shocking finish against Tim Sylvia last fight. I think Syliva is underestimated a lot but feel Arlovski is just too much. This one doesn't make it past the first round again