Spilled Bag of Fights: RIO!

First of all. I gotta say, I missed Joe Rogan. Kenny Florian does a fine job on “MMA Live” but for commentary he lacks Joe’s enthusiasm and humor that plays so well off Goldie’s… umm… Goldieisms.  It’s hard to argue that Mike Goldberg isn’t the Goldiest.

In a prelim fight that was shown three times (well, it was only forty seconds long), Erick Silva caught Luis Ramos with a huge right hand that had Ramos not out cold but you could almost imagine the birds chirping and flying in a circle around his head. Then Silva jumped in and threw another thirty or so punches in about two seconds to finish it. Nice debut, kid.

Dan Miller vs. Rousimar Palhares. Wow. How did this not get “Fight of the Night”? I mean, it had it all. Crazy back-and-forth submission attempts, Palhares knocking Miller down and pounding on him, then deciding that he won and jumping up on the Octagon cage. Herb Dean then informed him that it was actually his job to stop the fight and he hadn’t. Awkward. Then when the fight was restarted Miller dropped Palhares. He recovered but damn, dude. Let’s not forget the time Palhares stopped to complain to his corner that he thought Nate Marquardt was greased while the fight was still happening and then getting hammerfisted in the face by Nate Marquardt who knew that the fight was still going on. Anyway, Palhares won pretty handily all the same. I haven’t seen a Miller get his ass whooped like that since… well… about two weeks ago.

Spencer Fisher is one of those dudes that never is quite in title contention but always puts on great fights. Unfortunately, he’s not really in his prime and Thiago Tavares was able to control him for the whole fight until the TKO win in Round 2. Then he jumped on the Octagon and started screaming like a mad man. Alright, simmer down, Brazilian. I know it must be nice to win in your home country but it’s not like it was a spectacular finish or you won a belt. Jeeze, man.

I called Stanislav Nedkov over Luiz Cane for the upset. When I saw Nedkov swinging wild windmill punches that made Tank Abbott look like a precision striker, I was a little worried but then again, Nedkov was undefeated. Nedkov caught him with a punch that made Cane think he could run through the fence to get away. Unfortunately for Cane, the laws of physics didn’t go anywhere and he wasn’t able to escape through the fence like a ghost and Nedkov hit him several more times. Anyway, I was right. Let me just say that again: I was right. It’s always satisfying to be right when you pick an upset. Also, I dunno what kinda customs they have in Bulgaria but apparently wiping your nose blood on the Bulgarian flag is totally respectful. Who knew?

Okay, why was Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs. Brendan Schaub before Ross Pearson vs. Edson Barboza? Especially in Brazil where Nog is legend? All I can think is that Pearson had to take a wicked dump or something. Anyway, I thought Nog’s cage rust and coming off surgery would be a factor especially considering how hard Schaub hits. I’m glad to be wrong in this case. It was nice to see Big Nog win with a spectacular KO over a tough rising contender in Schaub. Especially since Schaub was attacking the knee that Nog just had surgery on. That’s some ruthless Karate Kid Cobra Kai shit.

Pearson vs.Barboza. It was apparent that Kenny Florian had a total chubby for Barboza. Some people said Pearson was robbed. Seriously? Robbed? It was a really close fight. Barboza had slightly more accurate striking and Pearson was slightly more aggressive. I think the first coulda went either way, the second I gave to Barboza and the third I gave to Pearson. Anyway, this was a really good fight but I don’t think it deserved “Fight of the Night”. It was competitive all the way through but it didn’t have the back-and-forth excitement and drama that I think a FotN should have… but I don’t write the checks.

“Shogun” Rua vs. Forrest Griffin. This was the fight I couldn’t make my mind up on. Which Shogun was going to show up? How was getting destroyed by Jon Jones going to affect him? Would it motivate him or fuck with his head? Well, Forrest was off, maybe due to his wife going into labor back in the US but even more unfortunately for Forrest, PRIDE Shogun showed up ready to smash and Forrest  always being a slow starter never got a chance to get going. And the Brazilians in the house lost their shit. Hopefully, we see Shogun fight again sooner rather than later.

Chael Sonnen said Anderson Silva has been ducking Yushin Okami for years…Well, Anderson continued ducking Okami Saturday night as he ducked every punch Okami threw. Once again, Anderson not only uses his amazing striking and head movement but he uses psychological warfare better than anyone in the game except perhaps Nick Diaz. Just think how it must feel to have an opponent walk towards you with his hands down like you’re a joke and he’s bored. It’s gotta get in your head and you can see it threw Okami off his game big time. First of all, if you’re going to fight Anderson Silva. Do not, DO NOT give him a round to feel you out. Anyway, Chael rematch, then 205 or bust. Despite Dan Henderson’s tear lately, I don’t see a rematch being all that appealing.

Anyway, that’ all I got for this week. I was going to get to Bellator but it’s getting late. Leave a comment and share the link. Thanks, Icemigos… or should I say Obrigada.