(pic from here)
Wild night in Philly (though I watched from SE Portland). Anderson Silva had an unbelievable defeat over Forrest Griffin. He was so much faster than Griffin that there was no chance of him losing. In the final few seconds, he put his hands down and just threw random punches, much the same way Naseem Hammed used to do it. He knocked Griffin out with a really short punch. It was, to say the least, surprising.
BJ Penn regained his good name. Kenny Florian kept trying to take him down, and BJ kept resisting, preferring instead to make a boxing match. He was breathing hard after the first round, and although I think BJ won most of the first three rounds, it was close. Finally, BJ shot in for a double leg takedown, easily got the mount, and choked Kenny out. His jujitsu is amazing.
I’m actually surprised BJ doesn’t use more jujitsu. He’s a great boxer, no doubt, but he’s supposed to be one of the greatest jujitsu fighters ever. He became a world champion after only three years of training, which is why they call him “Prodigy.” Why not use it? I think he could’ve taken out GSP with jujitsu (although GSP cheated with the Vaseline).
Okay, maybe I’m being a bit critical. Both fights were great.
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I agree with everything you said. About #1…I think...
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Yeah, BJ Penn is the man. The GSP fight really woke him up. He looked really good physically and they talked about his totally new, and amped up training. He’s always relied too much on his natural talents and ego, but now he’s putting in work to maintain his name and move forward. Talent isn’t everything. Hard work can make up for a lot of lack of talent. By the way didn’t he hold titles at 3 different weight classes in his career?
As for Silva, I would like to see Cung Le or Okami get another shot at him. Yes, yes I know Okami is a boring fighter but so what…he gets the job done. Okami is like the stereotypical Asian worker who doesn’t get the promotion or raise because he’s not self promoting enough, flashy enough, or outgoing enough. Is the real world that much different from the entertainment world of fighting sports?
Cung Le vs. Silva would be awesome. If they keep it to stand up, Cung Le would hold his own. Ground game might be different. But anyways, Cung Le is movie action star wannabe these days, so I think his serious fighting days are done. His last fight was March of 2008 of something against Frank Shamrock.
Am I the only one who noticed the unsightly bulge in the dude’s tights?
I’d say he finds grappling with big sweaty men to be rewarding in more ways than one!
I just saw the old Machida-Penn fight from K-1. I’m wondering why BJ doesn’t shoot for the legs as much as he used to? With the double threat of boxing and jujitsu, he nailed Machida harder than I’ve ever seen him hit. He literally snapped Machida’s head back with a few punches. With Machida’s rise, I don’t think he’d be able to do that anymore; still, I think that double threat could make people think twice when fighting BJ.
Cung Le is an awesome fighter, but he may be getting ready to retire. I’ll bet anything that if Le-Silva took place, Silva would be trying to do a jujitsu game. Cung Le is just too good of a striker.
This has nothing to do with MMA, but it is sports-related. Usain Bolt just shattered the world record in the 100M at 9.58 sec.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCFEYHoxUUc&feature=related
As this commentator below says, Usain Bolt is like someone from the future. Pretty amazing.
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/trackandfield/news/story?id=4402644
That was amazing. He’s only 22 years old, so he also will have many more opportunities to break that record again.
Great espn talk too. Imagine…30 miles an hour! I don’t even know if I bike that fast!