the lightweight fight was aweomse, sherk just squirtin blood, but i really wansnt expecting another tito shamrock in the heavies. good to see some standup though.
I was expecting Franklin to win, but I was also expecting him to try to take Silva down. Wrong on both counts! Franklin wasn’t doing badly standing with Silva; I’d even say it was about even, but once Silva clinched with him it was pretty much all over but the shouting.
I was expecting Sherk to pretty much dominate Kenflo from bell to bell. The early cut changed my prediction a little - Sherk dominated him from bell to bell while bleeding on him.
In terms of exchanges on their feet I would say Silva/Franklin were pretty even but Silva has way better footwork and it seemed he had more options which Franklin could not answer.
[QUOTE=WinterPalm;712841]In terms of exchanges on their feet I would say Silva/Franklin were pretty even but Silva has way better footwork and it seemed he had more options which Franklin could not answer.[/QUOTE]
The big difference was Silva’s body work in the clinch. Franklin’s never been good in the clinch, and it killed him here.
aftermath of Silva’s knees …
Check out the rearranged nose of Franklin following his fight with Silva. Not looking too pretty anymore – hopefully when they reset it he will look normal again but man, that was pretty devastating. Score one for the muay thai clinch …
my nose looks pretty normal. so franklins will too.
it was that knee ta stopped the fight. getting your nose busted takes it out of you pronto.
so there you have it. yet another example of no matter what you train or how hard, there will eventually come along someone who will knock you down and take your place.
that is the price in the sport.
you don’t realy know if you’re willing to pay it until after you’ve paid it. (ie had the experience).
It would be interesting to see if Franklin sticks with it now that it has possibly permanently disfigured him.
I know I toned down my fight attitude and wants quite a lot after getting some heavy damage over a couple of confrontations. It changes you.
The domination of Franklin surprised me. It was a late night though, so I’m happy it was a quick fight.
The Sherk fight would have been channel-flipping boring if I hadn’t known Kenny. It’s just my personal preference, but I can’t stand lay and pray type tactics. That’s fine for the prelims, but you know you’ll have to see it again when it’s a champ doing it. I just hope it was a bad match-up for Sherk and he’ll be able to actually do damage in his future title defenses.
[QUOTE=Ford Prefect;712964]The domination of Franklin surprised me. It was a late night though, so I’m happy it was a quick fight.
The Sherk fight would have been channel-flipping boring if I hadn’t known Kenny. It’s just my personal preference, but I can’t stand lay and pray type tactics. That’s fine for the prelims, but you know you’ll have to see it again when it’s a champ doing it. I just hope it was a bad match-up for Sherk and he’ll be able to actually do damage in his future title defenses.[/QUOTE]
It’s not lay and pray when you’re as active as Sherk was. He hit Florian a ton of times, and the fact that Kenny’s tough and has good defense doesn’t take away from the fact that Sherk was constantly on the attack.
Hey guys, I just got back from Vegas and I was at the fight.
I almost put down some cash on Silva for the upset but actually didn’t have time.
The Florian/Sherk fight was interesting. Most of it of course was Kenny being dominated by Sherk. I was impressed with Kenny’s ability to get up and have some striking ability inbetween the long ground sessions. This fight was actually booed by the crowd wanting the ref to stand them up.
The crowd response to the Silva Franklin fight was also interesting. My friend and I were talking about how Silva was underated and how we thought that he would give Franklin a good fight. We talked about putting money on Silva but it turned out that the odds weren’t so great.
Anyway, Silva entered the arena and a large percentage of the crowd booed him. I didn’t get it. Then Franklin entered the arena and everyone went wild.
They started the fight and both fighters were jockeying for position. A few shots were landed and then the clinch. Franklin was on the receiving end of several knees to the body. These shots really took the wind out of his sails and opened him up for the knees to the face. These of course lead to an awesome round house to the face and then the final knee.
My friend and I were jumping out of our seats. Most other people were stunned and silent. Franklin was on the mat for a little while. When he stood back up the camera was on him and they put his face up on the big screens and everyone saw the damage. There was a large gasp and ooooohhhh! from the crowd when we saw that Franklin’s nose was now on his cheek.
The event was a great time with many good fights. In all of the bouts there were no tap outs. Most ended in the ground and pound but a few went the distance.
Afterwards my friends and I went to dinner. While eating we saw several UFC and Pride fighters. It was pretty cool.
[QUOTE=LeeCasebolt;712971]It’s not lay and pray when you’re as active as Sherk was. He hit Florian a ton of times, and the fact that Kenny’s tough and has good defense doesn’t take away from the fact that Sherk was constantly on the attack.[/QUOTE]
It’s not far off. He never tried to land any big shots. He played it safe and just threw little shots the whole time. The onus falls on Kenny to for not being able to escape, but I think anybody with sub grappling experience can attest to, it’s far easier for a better wrestler to land a takedown and stifle subs and sweeps than it is for a bottom guy to push the action.
I just hate fights like that. Whether it is Sherk or Hammill on Spike on Tuesday. The only reason I bought the PPV was because I expected an exciting fight for both title fights. I’ll be less apt to buy now if Sherk is one of the main fights of the night. I’m sure some other non-hardcore UFC/MMA fans feel the same way too.
Chief,
That’s one thing I didn’t get. There should have been more standups. I’m a fan of exciting fighters no matter where they come from or what their style is like. I’d definately like to see Silva fight again. That was impressive.
Sherk slammed Kenny several times and actually almost DDT’d himself with one of the slams. Ater these slams, it didn’t look like he was attempting to finish Kenny with strikes. He mostly did A LOT of elbow grinding on Kenny’s face. One could speculate that he wasn’t able to strike because Kenny was tying him up.
During the fight a large part of the crowd was chanting “KEN-NY, KEN-NY”.
Twice during the fight Kenny had Sherk in a guilotine. One of them he had for what seemed like a long time. Sherk was able to get out of both of them. It really looked like Florian was just un-able to handle Sherk’s strength.
Kenny was also grabbing on to the fence with everything he had at different points during the match. One time Sherk picked him up and was going to slam him in the middle of the ring but Kenny grabbed the fence so Sherk turned around and slammed him into partially into the fence.
It looked like Kenny’s BJJ skills were better but Sherk was just too strong for him.
[QUOTE=Ford Prefect;712980]It’s not far off. He never tried to land any big shots. He played it safe and just threw little shots the whole time.[/quote]
Actually, in the first round he postured for big shots quite a few times. After the cut, however, every time he sat up to create distance Florian went after the cut, so he spent most of the fight pressing his head against Florian’s body to protect it.
The onus falls on Kenny to for not being able to escape, but I think anybody with sub grappling experience can attest to, it’s far easier for a better wrestler to land a takedown and stifle subs and sweeps than it is for a bottom guy to push the action. .
It certainly is easier for a better wrestler to take someone down and hold them in guard than it is for a bottom guy to push the action.
I wouldn’t, however, say that it’s easier to pass the guard multiple times, mount twice, and get back control than to push the action from the bottom.
Disagree, FD. It looked like a bunch of those times Sherk passed from 1/2 guard was just Kenny letting him, so he could turtle and try to reverse position of scramble to his feet.
If anything, it highlights the fact that Sherk dominated positionally and still wasn’t able to do much in the way of damage. Either Kenny is phenomenal at defense and can hold off a top 3 170 lb’er for 25 minutes, or Sherk wasn’t going for the kill.
I just expected a more exciting fight especially with Sherk insisting he wasn’t just a strong wrestler anymore and that he was a serious fighter who’d take a fight on a days notice. I’d expect more from “not just a wrestler”, and I’d expect for more aggression and less care for a cut from somebody who was putting down another fighter for wanting to heal his injured back before having the biggest fight of his life.
[QUOTE=LeeCasebolt;712842]The big difference was Silva’s body work in the clinch. Franklin’s never been good in the clinch, and it killed him here.[/QUOTE]
That was the option I alluded to.
[QUOTE=Ford Prefect;713019] I’d expect for more aggression and less care for a cut from somebody who was putting down another fighter for wanting to heal his injured back before having the biggest fight of his life.[/QUOTE]
Why would criticizing another fighter for not fighting at all oblige him to fight like a moron?
i liked the sherk fight.
I just found this post fight picture of Rich Franklin. Looks like his face is just about back to normal.
[QUOTE=Chief Fox;713263]I just found this post fight picture of Rich Franklin. Looks like his face is just about back to normal.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, he’s looking good!
Haha! That was painful to watch his post-fight interview.
[QUOTE=Ford Prefect;713019]Disagree, FD. It looked like a bunch of those times Sherk passed from 1/2 guard was just Kenny letting him, so he could turtle and try to reverse position of scramble to his feet. [/quote]
that would seem more reasonable to me if it weren’t for the fact that most of the times Sherk passed his half guard, he /didn’t/ try to turtle or reverse position, but rather tried to get back to guard. Also, at least twice Sherk passed directly from full guard to side mount, which I doubt very much Florian “let” him do… not to mention I have a hard time thinking that Florian “let” him mount him twice.
I just expected a more exciting fight especially with Sherk insisting he wasn’t just a strong wrestler anymore and that he was a serious fighter who’d take a fight on a days notice. I’d expect more from “not just a wrestler”, and I’d expect for more aggression and less care for a cut from somebody who was putting down another fighter for wanting to heal his injured back before having the biggest fight of his life.
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Like I said, “just strong wrestlers” don’t typically pass guard repeatedly and mount BJJ black belts, and
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Why would you expect “less care for a cut” from anyone, in any situation?