WEC 36 Notes

By Nicholas Bailey (nbailey@mmaratings.net)

Well this was a wreck of an event, both in terms of sport, and personally for my wagering. A debacle like the Filho fight is enough to ruin the enjoyment of any event, and the bizzare, anticlimactic ending to the main event certainly didn’t do anything to help.

As far as wagering goes, I knew I was in the wrong positions going into this fight, and I really should have taken the opposite sides at that point just to cut my losses.

I’ve been on a bad streak since I started writing for this website, but I’m hopeful for the future, given what I see as favorable odds in many upcoming fights.

Rani Yahya vs. Yoshiro Maeda
I haven’t been able to see this fight yet, but apparently Maeda jumped guard and tried to guillotine Yahya. Rani can sub anyone. Sometimes I think it’s a trend for Japanese fighters to try to sub anyone, even if it doesn’t make sense and is a terrible idea. I have no idea why Maeda wouldn’t just try to impersonate Crocop or Chuck Liddell and run away whenever his opponent touched him, but so it goes.

Jake Rosholt vs. Nissen Osterneck
Roshholt looks like the lovechild of Jeff Spiccoli and Rocky from “Mask”. He favors Spiccoli pre-fight, looking more and more like Mask as the fight goes on. The guy is seriously going to have to learn how to defend himself on the feet instead of staggering forward zombie-like eating shots. Good toughness and GnP from Jake in this fight, and of course excellent and dominant wrestling, but he has a long way to go before he has lived up to his hype.

Rob McCullough vs. Donald Cerrone
Cerrone passed the test.

Jens Pulver vs. Leonard Garcia
I just felt bad for Jens in this fight. It’s a good win for Garcia, but it’s just sad for a veteran to get embarrassed like that.

Urijah Faber vs. Mike Brown
Wow. I mentioned in passing that Faber might get overconfident in his standup, but I didn’t expect that he’d think he was Anderson Silva. Embarrassing. Then again, this is MMA and any mistake can cost you the fight.

Paulo Filho vs. Chael Sonnen
This was a sad fight. Not just because Filho was lost out there. Sonnen actively contributed by throwing literally the weakest punches I’ve seen from ANYONE in MMA. It looked like he was playing tag out there. Filho didn’t bother blocking those punches or avoiding them because there was NOTHING on them. I don’t understand it at all. In their first fight, Sonnen tattooed Filho’s face and generally busted him up pretty badly. In this sparring session Sonnen didn’t even leave a mark on Paulo. Pathetic. Filho even invited more punishment and Sonnen refused to give it to him.