Initial thought: does Mike Goldberg need to stop sporting the go-tee?  I mean he is just the play by play guy, he doesn’t need to look tough.  Goldberg should be thankful that he has that one line, “inside the octagon” when he can legitimately pump his fist and look kind of tough without being a complete jackass.

Leonard Garcia versus Chan Sung Jung: did Joe Rogan really call their first meeting, “fight of the decade?”  Isn’t that a bit embarrassing to have two bad fighters in a non-UFC fight be considered the fight of the decade?

Commercials: um, how shameless is GSP doing his appearance in his sponsored Underarmor?  Speaking of commercials, it takes 14 minutes before the fighters are introduced.  It feels like an NFL kickoff, which is a touchback that bleeds into the end of a quarter—4 commercials zero no action.  Great start UFC.

Korean Zombie could be the best worst nickname I have hard since Big Baby Glen Davis.  Is Dan Miragliotta wearing a v-neck in there?  Is that necessary?  Highlight of round 1 is the break between round 1 and 2 when the ring girl exits after strutting her stuff mouths “hi mom” to camera.

Round 2 coming to a close, mildly eventful… Oh my… that is one of the coolest submissions I have seen in a fight recently… I have never seen a twister before.  Thank God Joe Rogan could explain that to me because I have no idea how that actually works.

Thankfully we have invented DVR because the amount of commercials is driving me insane.

DaMarques Johnson versus Amir Sadollah: nice second round stoppage.  Good finish, not a bad fight, but don’t know that Sadollah is a prime time fighter in the weight class.  I mean, Johnson is hardly a top tier competitor and I wouldn’t say he has beaten anyone noteworthy either.

Anthony Johnson versus Dan Hardy: Rumble is a freak of power, and looks “a weight class” above Hardy according to Joe Rogan.  So far, into round 2 I must applaud Johnson for executing the smart game plan.  Wrestle him down, stay on top and beat him up.  Most interesting thing is Joe Rogan taking a legit swipe at NY State for not sanctioning MMA.  I agree Joe, but the timing of that was like Dana White was texting him, “dude, just mention the NY thing already.”

Yes, that is the crowd booing, and yes that influenced the ref to stand them up.  How dumb is Hardy to try and take this beast down?  And then, how dumb is he to think that Johnson won’t go for the shoot every time they stand up again?  Should we credit GSP as the most successful boring fighter?  I mean, this is what he does and actually did to Hardy.  Take him down, beat him up, can’t finish the fight.  But we love GSP and are booing Rumble?  Easy 30-27 victory, Hardy is never going to be a top contender again (probably should not have been in the first place) and Matt Serra looks even more stupid for calling Hardy’s ground game understated.

“Main Event” (I put that in quotations) Davis versus Little Nog:

Random thought: Why is it that the Nogs always look to be in terrible physical condition?
Davis looks tentative, showing a lot of respect.  But it has to be worrisome that Davis is 0-2 on takedowns.  Little Nog is shrugging these off like Davis is an amateur wrestler.  It doesn’t even look hard to defend them.  End of round 1, 10-9 little Nog on cleaner striking and control (not getting taken down).

Round 2: Davis is looking like he is thinking, “oh shit, it’s not working, what do I do now?”  Little Nog looking better and better, but then in a transition David finally gets a takedown.  Davis looks like the physically weaker opponent, not normal for a wrestler.  Little Nog makes one mistake in transition and ends up doing the turtle pose against the cage eating punches and knees for the last minute of the round.  That may have just changed the complexion of the fight; 10-9 Davis.

Round 3: Is it me or does Davis have a little Rashad Evans in him with all of those feints and the wrestling background.  So far a technical win on control since he is on top and had the takedowns.  But his ground and pound is worse than Johnson’s from the previous fight.  Davis 10-9, should win 29-28.  Judges give it to him 30-27.

Not a great night of fights, but we did get to see a twister for the first time ever.  And where was Dana White?  Do you think he was thinking that this was an average card and Seattle isn’t exactly Vegas…

Well that wraps up this one.  Until next time fans, inside the octagon.

For the last few years we have seen an influx of athletes trying their hand at MMA.  Hershel Walker is one of the more prominent figures who has succeeded, but we cannot forget the boxing crossover Lights Out Toomey fight either.  The difference in my mind between a Walker and a Toomey is athleticism: while both are great athletes, one clearly is more athletic than the other.  Athleticism has translated into success in the MMA, because whether the purists like it or not, sometimes raw talent, power and speed can overcome form and skill.  That is what the Jon Jones-Mauricio Rua fight was about in a nutshell.  I won’t sell Jones short, the kid has got some form and skill, but he seems to disregard the classic fighting poses and styles and instead leads with his athleticism.  This was on display for the entire fight.  Watch it again and see that he was the faster, stronger fighter.  He almost always got off first, landed the bigger shots, slipped away when he wanted to and dict
ated where the fight took place.  Rua looked uncomfortable, like he was grasping, in addition to gasping, when he would dive on a leg for a weak submission attempt that inevitably backfired.  Suffice to say, Rua could not figure out how to penetrate the athleticism of Jones: his length, his speed, his power and his confidence.

Confidence is an underappreciated part of a fighter’s weapons.  One always seems to do a lot better when he is comfortable.  And when you allow Jones to get comfortable, we, the viewer, are treated to a man who thinks he can do anything.  And usually he does.  Three exchanges highlight this sense of invincibility: a superman punch to the body, a spinning back elbow from the clinch, and a transition from top guard to a leg lock to a spinning back hammer fist to end round two.  I tried to think about how many times I have seen any of those moves (the answer I could count on one hand per move).  Then I wondered why don’t we see fighters do crazy things like that?  The answer MMA purists will tell you is that such moves expose you to unnecessary risk or are less effective.  But when you are confident that you can handle the risk because of your natural ability, because of your athleticism, then everything becomes a possibility.

I want to be clear that Jones is a lot more than just an athlete.  He is a terrific wrestler (most people don’t know because he doesn’t fight like one), and despite the hoopla around his strikes, finishes more people on the ground via submission.  Just a few weeks ago he dominated Ryan Bader, another well respected wrestler (undefeated too).  That he has never really been hurt in a fight is astonishing as well given his style and pace.  His elbows, the basis of his ground and pound, will be mentioned in the discussion with David Loiseau and Kenny Florian for most vicious.  And his overall gameplan for the fight was brilliant (thanks Greg Jackson): to the body.  Jones was able to deliver knees in the clinch (against a Muay Thai specialist), leaping hooks to the body, the superman punch, and at the end, it was a knee on the ground and then a hook standing up, both to the body, that saw Rua crumple and fall.

Jones is a natural talent that is absorbing the mixed martial arts game at an alarming rate.  He is the future of the UFC according to Joe Rogan.  I would expect more freakish athletic talents to get into the game now that they have a role model to look up to (crime fighting, humble, good looking, what more do you want?).  There are some of these athletes floating around the UFC now, Brendan Schaub and Matt Mitrione from TUF season X are two examples.  Neither of these guys are super exciting, Anthony “Rumble” Johnson in the welterweight division I think has potential if he gets his head on straight and develops some form of a strategy.  He is fighting on the next UFC card (for free March 26th) against Dan Hardy a classic puncher.