UFC 94

Few days into the aftermath of what started out as a pretty awful card and only picked up after the Machida knockout (seriously), seems that much of the talk is about vaselinegate, but even if what happened was done deliberately, could Penn have come back from there at all? I’m not sure. The way the fight went, Penn didn’t look like he had any realistic way to keep the fight standing from round 2 onwards, and GSP was controlling ridiculously from the top, any extra grip that Penn might have had from the back seems to be of very limited use.

As for how the fight actually went down, St. Pierre looked slightly better in most areas in the first, but didn’t do anything to really punctuate it. Penn’s takedown defence was useful enough here, but a 10-9 first round. Second round was far more one-sided, and his ability to inflict damage and pass on top against someone with Penn’s BJJ skills was really impressive. 10-9 again, nearly 10-8 but that’d probably be a stretch. Third was another clear St. Pierre round, not as emphatic with less damage sustained by Penn, who by now was offering little. Fourth round was 10-8 imo though, GSP ran him over to the point where Herb Dean nearly stopped it, and wouldn’t have been at fault if he did, as Penn had no way to win.

Machida – Silva was a mismatch. Silva was picked apart by Machida’s counterpunching, twice being knocked down before being KO’ed at the buzzer. Someone give this guy a title shot already. Would be hilarious if he had to wait behind Jardine should he somehow beat Rampage.

Jones – Bonnar wasn’t a terrible fight compared to the first two, the first round was (at the time) easily the best round of the fight with Jones winning it clearly, using nice unorthodox striking, good takedowns, scoring a high quality knockdown and nailing a good knee to boot. Second round I also scored to Jones but it was much more even, with Bonnar coming back with good striking later in the round, and there were hints that Jones might have been tiring. As such, Bonnar took the third (but lost the fight 29-28 on my card), was much better standing, and when Jones took Bonnar down he wasn’t able to do much, with Bonnar looking closer to finishing the fight via triangle.

Prior to that we had two instantly forgetable fights, Karo Parisyan edging a very close 29-28 decision over Dong Hyun Kim which highlighted some of the flaws of the ten-point must system in a fight with few rounds, with him taking the first easily with superior positioning and control, threatening subs and doing some damage. Parisyan was much improved in the second with Kim not offering much at all, and he just took the third in a very close and dull round. I think the right result here would be a draw (but not a draw that necessitates a rematch) but Karo’s two rounds outweigh Kim’s much clearer first round.

Clay Guida – Nate Diaz was similar, I had Guida taking the first two but Diaz the third. Diaz looked to have a slight but noticable striking advantage, but after a takedown Guida’s solid ground game was enough. Second was much slower and duller, with Guida controlling an extended grappling session, barring brief sub attempts from Diaz. Diaz took the third by doing enough in early striking but nobody really cared by that point.

A potentially good card that went down the toilet quickly, rescued by two interesting if unbalanced fights. And they really need to stop referring to the penultimate fight as the co-main event regardless of what the fights are. It implies they are on the same billing, and if anyone thinks Machida/Silva is as important as St. Pierre/Penn 2, I want some of what they are smoking.