Trying to find a place showing the PPV and not packed with Plastic Paddies was a bit of a challenge on Saturday so we missed two or three fights. The last one I saw was the girls then we got to the bar in time for the Sanchez fight. Also missed the Fight Pass prelims. Garcia/Spencer was a great fight. I thought they'd be in the running for FOTN. I think it was good for Garcia to be pushed. Spencer is a talented boxer and has solid take-down defence. Garcia is still a stud prospect but this fight might feel like a loss for him. There were times in the fight he looked destined to finish but there were also times that exposed his inexperience. I don't imagine he'll get a big jump up in competition next time around. The UFC would do well to groom him like they did with Jon Jones and Rory MacDonald. I would imagine a fight with another tough guy like Court McGee is next for him. Bermudez is a tough fighter for me to judge. Maybe an easy comparison to make but he looks like Urijah Faber with more rudimentary striking. His pace and his ability to mix take-downs and submissions are really tough to deal with. He has a tendency to lead with his face and has been rocked and hurt in a few fights--it's probably a habit that will taper down as he gets more experienced. He doesn't look like a world beater yet but he is getting hard to overlook in that division. He's set himself up for a fight against a highly ranked opponent. Somebody like Hatsu Hioki would be a great test. I think he would love to rematch Brandao as well but I think that guy has another fight booked. I didn't find the Andrade/Pennington fight very interesting. A lot of the female fights seem to devolve into haymakers. The gap between the top of the division and the middle is huge. There was also a pretty significant size difference between them. A little bit silly that virtually every female in the UFC is ranked by virtue of the fact that there aren't very many of them. Andrade was ninth in her division. Tyrone Woodley was tenth. No comparison between skill levels of the men and women yet. The women are ten years behind but it won't take that long to catch up. I think it's important to have them in the UFC. The exposure will attract better female athletes to the sport and gyms will be more open to training women. For the time being I guess we have to take what we can get. I don't know who either should fight next. Can't really blame Lombard for fighting the way he did. He threw bombs in the first round and couldn't put Shields out. He probably had the Hendo match in the back of his mind. Hendo obliterated Shields in the first round, gassed, and had Shields mounting him for the rest of the fight. Lombard did what he had to do to win with a few nice throws mixed in but I don't think he improved his standing in the division as much as he might've if he'd gone a little harder. Beating Shields is a great achievement nonetheless. I'd love to see him fight Robbie Lawler. I guess I didn't love how Jury fought but I understood it. Reminded me of MacDonald/Maia. There were times where he had Sanchez hurt and eating his gum shield but he fought cautiously and with technicality. He mixed his striking with take-downs to keep Sanchez off balance and he refused to get into a brawl with him which was clearly what Sanchez was looking for. There was a time in his career when Sanchez would be in command of the fight. I don't know if he is still that fighter anymore. He's logged a lot of miles. Aside from a dubious split decision win over Gomi, Sanchez hasn't won a fight since 2011. There's a point at which trying to get the fight of the night every event could just start to break you down physically. I saw Jury being matched up with Jim Miller next but any ranked lightweight should do. Nate Diaz would be good. I really like what I saw from Woodley. I think he could use a bit more composure and pacing but his combination of power and wrestling make him look like Rashad Evans from a few years ago. He hit Condit with a couple of shots that looked like knockout punches and threw kicks like he was swinging logs. He was on his way to winning that fight. His demeanour after the fight was a bit off-putting but I think we expect too much from fighters immediately after a fight. He should be the top contender and Condit is likely to be shelved for several months with a knee injury (never good news). I thought Hendricks would beat Lawler. I thought he would knock him out. I thought Lawler would get tired. I didn't expect it to be such a close fight. The first two rounds were Hendricks looking comfortable. Doug Crosby scored the second round a 10-8 which to me didn't seem justified, especially in light of the fact that he didn't score any round a 10-8 for Lawler. I think Hendricks got the first two rounds under his belt and started celebrating mentally the way he did against GSP. Lawler took it to him in the middle rounds and nearly knocked him out. The fifth round started well but Hendricks started gaming him and spamming take-downs and top control. Again, can't really blame him given that he did what he needed to do to win, but it is hard to say whether this is the beginning of a long title run or if Hendricks is a placeholder champion. His last three fights have been close or razor-thin decisions. Then again maybe he is someone like Demetrious Johnson who needs to get over the hump to become a better fighter.
Love the input, thanks speeds! In regards to your post.. Lombard/Lawler would be an all out war. I definitely think that could be the perfect match up for both of them. If Nick is serious about coming back (which he may be, he seems to be in an amazing place mentally right now), he could match up well with either of these fighters as well. I'd love to see the shit talking in Lombard/Diaz. Perfect comparison for Woodley, reminds me of Rashad a few years back. He did seem to slow down a bit though. I wonder how he'd do in a 5 rounder. I don't know if he could KO Hendricks, but some of those shots he hit Condit with were absolutely brutal and would put 99.9% of fighters out. Props to Condit's chin. I don't know if Hendricks just started coasting in the 3rd or if that big punch Robbie landed on him put him out on his feet and took a lot out of Hendricks, because he seemed to be coasting up to that point as well. That punch landed flush and Robbie took it to him for a last half of round 3 and all of round 4 after that. I think Hendricks gained his composure again towards the end of the 4th and into the 5th. Can't wait to watch both guys in their next matches.
Either the UFC gave Nick a new contract or he's broke. Either way he's been turning down fights left and right for the last year so the sudden change in attitude must be about money. Plus the UFC could really use a PPV draw. I would guess that his next fight will be a title eliminator. I'm sure they'd love to get him in there with Hendro or whoever is champion by then.
Renee Forte missed weight and lost; his third loss in four UFC fights. I don't think he's out spending money right now.
Johny Hendricks says he wants to fight Georges St-Pierre next. I don't think that's going to happen, Johny.
Hector Lombard: $300,000 Johny Hendricks: $150,000 ($50,000 to show, $50,000 win bonus, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus) Robbie Lawler: $133,000 ($83,000 to show, $50,000 Fight of the Night bonus) Tyron Woodley: $104,000 ($52,000 to show, $52,000 win bonus) Ovince St. Preux: $96,000 ($23,000 to show, $23,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus) Dennis Bermudez: $78,000 ($14,000 to show, $14,000 win bonus, $50,000 Performance of the Night bonus) Jake Shields: $75,000 Diego Sanchez: $60,000 Carlos Condit: $55,000 Rick Story: $27,000 Frank Trevino: $17,600 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus, $1,600 from Forte for missing weight) Myles Jury: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus) Kelvin Gastelum: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus) Jessica Andrade: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus) Alex Garcia: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus) Justin Scoggins: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus) Sean Strickland: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus) Robert Whiteford: $16,000 ($8,000 to show, $8,000 win bonus) Daniel Pineda: $15,000 Will Campuzano: $10,000 Nikita Krylov: $8,000 Raquel Pennington: $8,000 Jimy Hettes: $8,000 Sean Spencer: $8,000 Robert McDaniel: $8,000 Renee Forte: $6,400 ($8,000 to show, $1,600 to Trevino for missing weight)
