By Nicholas Bailey (nbailey@mmaratings.net)
UFC: Fight for the Troops was somewhat of a throwback event, with the raucous and unruly crowd, the booing, the late stoppages, generally poor refereeing (breaking up belly-to-back, are you serious?), and the brutality. I think the UFC really needs to do some kind of planning next time there’s a bad injury or serious knockout. Viewers at home aren’t stupid enough to not notice that Yoshida is still down, so something needs to be said, even if it’s the standard lines about great doctors, the safety of the fighters, and how he’s leaving the ring on a stretcher for precautionary reasons.
I’m going to get up on my political, non-MMA soapbox for a minute here, so skip to the next paragraph if you just want MMA from me. This event shouldn’t have existed. It’s ridiculous that we have to go to some third party to raise money to treat our injured troops. The government has assumed responsibility for choosing how to ‘spend’ the lives of our military, but it won’t deal with the consequences. Yet President Bush and the Republicans managed to pass massive tax cuts. Maybe they should have held onto some of that money to help out the soldiers they supposedly support. Of course, the Democrats don’t get a free ride on this either, since they have done very little to stand up for the veterans in the face of the “pro troop” party. It’s just sad and wrong that we have to turn to Dana White for this. Remember that in the next election, and maybe we can vote in some more help for these veterans. We may not be in Iraq any longer at that point, but these men’s lives will still be shattered.
Ben Saunders vs. Brandon Wolff
Saunders looks absolutely huge for the weight class, doesn’t he? He has a lot of potential, and a good skill base, but he’s going to need to do more than crush the hapless Brandon Wolff’s of the world if he wants to be a top fighter. Still, he’s being developed nicely, in an environment that is much lower-pressure than what faces the winners of the show.
Well I was almost completely wrong in this fight. Wiman was a flash in the pan, his standup sucks, and Miller either drastically improved his standup or I saw things incorrectly in his fight with David Baron. Miller has strong wrestling and a nasty ground game, so he has a lot of potential, especially since the UFC’s 155 doesn’t have a lot of strong strikers.
Seriously gross. I’ll never be able to look at Corey’s toothpick limbs again without worrying they’re going to go all gumby on me. A shame, too, since Corey was beating up on Dale Hartt, who’s going to wash out of the UFC in short order, despite having this ‘W’ on his record.
Eddie Sanchez vs. Justin McCully
What a terrible fight. McCully looked better than normal here, which isn’t saying much. Sanchez looked horrible, wading around helplessly and getting nothing done. If only the fight had been 20 seconds longer, so we could have seen a finish. If only the fight had been 15 minutes shorter.
This fight went the way I expected the Wiman/Miller fight to go. Credeur’s standup looked really poor, but at least he had some. Loughran’s psycho-boy looks didn’t save him from the fact that he was just a punching bag for Mr. Roboto in this fight. Loughran has a lot of work to do, although at least he has really nasty grappling. Credeur’s well-roundedness is only going to get him so far, because he’s really not that great in any aspect of the game.
Bruno showed that, despite his horrible performance against Chris Wilson, he really can fight and wrestle. Rees looked like he needed about two more years of technique training, although physically he’s there already. Bruno is going to have world’s of trouble with the fact that the entire 170lb division is filled with guys that are both technically skilled and physically gifted.
Luigi Fioravanti vs. Brodie Farber
Luigi did what he needed to in order to win. I don’t think he looked particularly better or worse than in any previous fight, so his performance here does nothing to change my opinion of him.
Razak al-Hussan vs. Steve Cantwell
Why!? Why didn’t you tap, Mr. al-Hussan? Horrible. Hussan looked like garbage in this fight, with goofy TKD punches that were ineffective, and for a supposed ground specialist, he looked awful on his back, like Pride 1 level awfulness.
Mike Swick vs. Jonathan Goulet
Poor Goulet has no chin. Swick still has a long way to go to demonstrate that he can be someone important at 170 pounds, but I guess he still has some punching power and handspeed.
Josh Koscheck vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida
Impressive performance by Kos. His standup continues to improve, and even if he’s not the most fluid striker in the division, his explosve power is going to be a big asset if he can connect. This was really one of the cleanest knockouts in a long time, a knockout of the year candidate for sure. Yoshida looked tentative the entire fight. Many people overrated his standup, so it’s possible he was just uncomfortable exchanging with Koscheck. However, I think that Yoshida was also held back by nerves from being placed under so much pressure—his first high-profile UFC fight, a main event, and a foreigner main eventing such a nationalist-themed event.
Sometimes a big, flashy finish over a quality opponent is worth more than two decisions over two higher-quality fighters, in the eyes of fans and matchmakers. A brutal stoppage like this goes a long way towards erasing the memory of Koscheck “only” losing a decision to Thiago Alves, although in reality it was a very dominant decision. I only hope Yoshida can bounce back from this and live up to his potential as an exciting and skilled fighter.
I had no problem with the stoppages, or the “brutality.” Certainly Hill’s leg brekage was gross, but that was some freak shit that no one could/should have prevented. Yoshida, Goulet and al-Hussan should absolutely NOT have been stopped any earlier. al-Hussan looked like he was going to escape until the very end. Its not likewe haven’t seen that (type of escape) happen before.
The only fight that perhaps should have been stopped earlier was Saunders/Wolff. He looked like he was getting his Lina Kvokov on, but I wouldn’t be surprised if, HAD the fight been stopped earlier, he would have protested.
I think the more relevant matter on this card was the fund raiser. It was an extremely touching affair, but I totally agree with you:
“UFC: Fight for the Troops shouldn’t have existed. It’s ridiculous that we have to go to some third party to raise money to treat our injured troops. The government has assumed responsibility for choosing how to ‘spend’ the lives of our military, but it won’t deal with the consequences.”