The Golden boy of the UFC vs. the perfect Bad Boy! As a Canadian obviously I am on team GSP! Not only because he is Canadian and absolutely gorgeous, even with the cauliflower ears, he is an incredible fighter and current Welterweight Champion. With a record of 20-2, he has taken down huge names like Dan Hardy, Thiago Alves, Jon Fitch and completely dominated former lightweight champion and arguably at the time the best pound for pound fighter BJ Penn. He has defended his title 5 times. He displays an amazing amount of respect for the sport of mma and to every fighter he faces. His only loses have been to Matt Hughes and Matt Serra both early in his UFC career. The loss to Hughes (Also one of my favourite fighters) was a title fight back in 2004 when he was the current Champion. This was also only his third fight in the UFC!! He avenged this loss by taking the belt from him in late 2006. His loss to Serra came early in 2007 when he lost his belt in the first round. He redeemed himself in 2008 after gaining the interim belt by defeating Hughes AGAIN and going on to win the Welterweight Championship against Serra.
Moral of the story, his only loses have been avenged and not just in beating his opponent, but by doing it multiple times and decisively! Hughes was defeated by head kicks and elbows and then by an arm bar submission. Serra was defeated by knees to the body. Since these fights however I do feel like the excitement of GSP’s fights has gone downhill. Well maybe only slightly down the mountain because he is still an explosive and exciting fighter to watch. Three of his last four fights have gone all five rounds. The only fight that didn't was his fight against BJ Penn which was called after the 4th round by corner stoppage.
Many people have said that GSP has no personality. I agree that he is slightly robotic in the way he speaks and how he carries himself sometimes but when you sit anyone next to Koscheck who is Mr. Personality he starts to look a little boring. BUT I think GSP has a great, quiet personality. He made a joke during the show that Daniel Head would need to take a little vacation after the punishment he took from Lentz. Yes I know not the funniest comment, a little obvious but he's French, give him a break. Very similar to his reaction to BJ Penn's team accusing him of greasing his back during the fight, essentially cheating. GSP’s response... yes, I did cheat, I paid a man to kiss him on his way out. Obviously in reference to the masculine woman who leaned over the guard rail and kissed BJ's cheek while he was making his entrance.
I definitely think this will be an incredible season. Not only for the contestants but I feel like training with these "raw" fighters will really help GSP. These guys are out to kill, they've got nothing to loose, its balls to the wall they're in it for the contract. GSP hasn't really finished his opponents, he beat them down and tires them out but he needs to knock someone out! He needs to decisively finish the fight and I am totally looking forward to Koscheck being at the receiving end of those blows.
As for the other coach, I'm not a big fan of Koscheck, he trash talks and goofs around. In the end he's a great, skilled, and experience fighter. His most recent wins have been against Paul Daley, Anthony Johnson and Frank Trigg. Not the biggest names in the UFC but two of the three wins have come decisively by TKO and submission. His most recent fight against Daley that earned him the spot as coach and a title shot against GSP did go to a decision. Both fighters are huge trash talkers. Koscheck obviously won the verbal matchup as well as he aggravated Daley to the point he felt compelled to throw a punch to the jaw of Koscheck after the fight was over and the doctors and team were in the cage. Koscheck is a strong, skilled fighter and will definitely bring it to GSP, we'll see how his aggressive personality and style will translate to coaching.
Dana announces they're bringing back the wildcard this season, great news for the fighters!
It’s so hard to tell who is going to go far after seeing just one fight. Especially since it’s only two five minute rounds. A third round is necessary if the judges deem it a tie after the first two. The endurance of the fighters isn’t fully tested. Of course with all the adrenaline running through these fighter's veins I'm sure that plays a major role. However at the same time you get a pretty good view into the fighters’ personality with their pre and post fight mini interviews. You can’t judge work ethic without seeing the training. Here's what happened with the prelim fights, not all of them were featured so some I only caught the results but here's how they went down. Suited up and ready to fight, fresh meat in the ring, its time!
1) Marc Stevens vs. TJ O'Brien
Stevens was a wrestler for Koscheck in
2) Spencer Paige vs. Steve Magdaleno
Paige dominated the fight. Magdaleno landed a few kicks in the first round and started off the second round strong with a takedown but wasn't able to control Paige on the ground and lost the unanimous decision.
3)
First off Budnik looks like a young Randy Couture. But not too young, at 35 he's been around a while too. Apparently a pro skateboarder, he's competed in a few x-games. Both fighters seemed very inexperienced to me. Phan landed a great body shot that took Budnik down then finishes the fight by TKO. Sorry I don’t often say this because its mma, its spur of the moment you get whatever control you can take but these dudes got in some awkward positions.
4) Jason Brenton vs. Andy Main
Main wins by submission, armbar/triangle
5) Ran Weathers vs. Jonathan Brookins
Brookins dominates and wins by unanimous decision.
6) Toby Grear vs. Sako Chivitchian
Sako takes the win by decision naming it the greatest day of his life and then pukes, lovely
7) Jeffery Lentz vs. Daniel Head
GSP crosses out the Lentz and his flaming red hair before the fight even starts! And boom, he completely dominates!! Huge heavy hands, 13-14 hits in a row! Huge elbows and ends it with a submission. "Never count me out"
8) Paul Barrow vs. Alex Caceres
9) Pablo Gazro vs. Michael Johnson
"Throws everything with bad intentions", I love that line from Dana. Johnson wins the unanimous decision clearly dominating the ground game.
10) Aaron Wilkinson vs. Michael Richman
Wilkinson wins decision representing the
11) Joseph Duffy vs. Kyle Watson
Watson gets the submission, and trains at Matt Hughes’s (one of my top favourite fighters) gym!!!
12) JJ Ambrose vs. Sevak Magakian
Magakian somehow gets out of a ridiculous arm bar and grabs the decision.
13) Cody McKenzie vs. Amir Khillah
McKenzie is a commercial fisherman, go figure. He reveals he has a secret move that we will see unfold through the season. He calls the fight himself!! Says he's asleep and let’s go of the submission, that’s respect. GSP calls it exactly, guillotine.
14) Dane Sayers vs. Ariel Sexton
Right from the beginning I like Ariel's attitude, he's got a big reach and hoping his opponent has little t-rex arms! Sayers opens with a punk move, no touching gloves and an attempted flying ninja superman knee flip thing. I want this kid to get knocked out! Unfortunately he gets the submission and now I have to listen to him for the rest of the season, ugh.
Some of my favourites so far;
Johnson
Watson
Bruce Leroy
McKenzie
Lentz
Upcoming on this season...
Mike Tyson makes an appearance??!
Koscheck tries to choke one of GSP's trainers?? (Although trying to grab his neck is like wrapping your hand around the circumference of a basketball, not so much...)
Also... looks like Lentz was wearing a red shirt, which would be an amazing turn around!
Next episode the teams are picked!!
No comments:
Post a Comment