Im in Miami, so ive been following this on sherdog play by play. Hughes defeats Gracie. Sherdog play by play made it sound like it was a UD for Penn...NOT. Frankie Edgar, UFC's new lightweight champ. I wanna hear input from some of you guys who watched the fight. shocking.
i missed the penn fight, but the silva fight might've been one of the weirdest fights i've ever seen. silva went from "cant miss ppv" to "i don't know if i'll ever watch him fight again."
espn had the scoring in the Penn loss as 50-45, 48-47, and 49-46... made it sound like Penn landed harder strikes but never hurt Edgar, and was dominated in the 5th as he faded. Silva dominated rds 1-2, then disengaged and barely even tried to compete, and got warned for stalling, the rest of the way. espn said he was apologetic after the fight for the way he acted inside the octagon. after an uneventful rd 1, Hughes used around 20 stiff leg kicks to break down Gracie and controlled rd 3 with more leg kicks until finishing him with punches with 20 seconds remaining.
While you'd like to see titles changing hands more dramatically, I can't say Edgar didn't deserve it. It wasn't the greatest fight you ever saw. It only went to the ground once, when Edgar scored a nice takedown, then right back up a few seconds later. But Edgar controlled the action. He made BJ fight his fight. BJ couldn't do anything with him. 50-45 is wrong IMO. But it was close and BJ didn't beat Edgar IMO. For what it's worth, BJ's face was busted up. And he was gassed at the end. Edgar was fresh as a daisy. Anderson Silva pisses me off. He was two levels above Maia. And the clowning was entertaining the first two rounds. But that fight was horrible. Between Rounds 3-4(?), Rogan was saying Dana had walked over to Silva's manager and was visibly angry. The crowd was chanting Maia. Then they chanted GSP (he was ringside). Silva he absolutely REFUSES to throw hands first. Be a champion. Initiate! Nowhere in the rules does it say that you can only counterpunch. Referee Dan Murgliotta actually threatened to take a point away in the 5th because Silva was essentially running laps around the outer part of the cage. Silva is so dominant, and yet he is only half the champion GSP or Fedor is. Say what you want about Fedor not coming to the UFC (I have). But when the lights turn on, those guys take take the fight to people. That's makes 3 of Sliva's last 4 fights that ended up this way. Like I've said, unless he's got someone coming at him, Silva ain't doing ****. At any rate, they confirmed tonight before the fight that Silva will drop to 170 and take on GSP next. MEGAFIGHT.
For a card with such promise, EPIC LETDOWN. Renzo Gracie I thought was going to end Matt Hughes, but just stood there. It was a night where every single favorite just stood there...and continued to just wait around and do nothing. I get that Silva didn't want to trade with a fellow Brazilian, no reason to expose yourself to risk when you're clearly the best fighter in the world. His job is not to be entertaining but to retain the title. He can't be challenged right now @ 185lbs or 205 lbs. I don't think he was "tired," I think he was bored and felt like there was no reason to risk getting hurt. If Silva really wanted to, or if Maia was stupid enough to try and retaliate, he could have ended Maia in the first round. He totally outclassed Maia in every way. I disagree with the jeers; present him a real challenge and he'll rise to the occasion. Maia wasn't anything close to a challenge. Maybe Machida will challenge him, who knows. Silva (Vs) GSP won't be close. No way GSP will be able to handle his power. Its a shame that at this point there's no one Silva can fight. Imagine Ali with no Frasier. Holyfield without Bowe. Patriots without the Colts. Dolphins without Jets. Yankees without Red Sox. We need SOMEONE to challenge Silva. Right now, I'm thinking that person hasn't been born yet. Can you imagine someone else clowning another top level fighter like Silva did last night? The person who could challenge may not have been born yet. BJ Penn...I bought into the hype. I really thought he was this supreme fighter @ lightweight. I was wrong. What an EPIC fail. He couldn't handle a Frank Edgar? Who the hell is Frank Edgar? He's a nobody! IF Penn is so dominant, he should have crushed Edgar. Hugely disappointed in Penn. This fight, for me at least, makes me question his whole place in UFC history. Just really disappointed in Penn for not even trying to take him down and for not being conditioned enough to fight. Everyone keeps saying he stopped buying his own hype, but I think he did before this fight. I definitely tore up my Penn fan club card this morning.
Edgar's gameplan was to box and out point Penn..and he won the title..but he really did not "WIN" the title. I could not understand why Penn didn't just shoot on him after it was clear that all that Edgar wanted to do was dance and score. Silva's performance was a disgrace. He dominated the first two rounds and then actually ran for 3 rounds straight. Dana White even got up to complain to Silva's manager.
Silva gets paid to fight. If he'd decided not to risk anything, he should have taken the fight for free. What kind of champion doesn't fight? His job is to fight and be a champion. It's not a dance competition. He is so much better than everybody in that division, yet he's got one gigantic flaw to his game and it pisses everybody off. You can't just wait on the other guy forever. Especially when you, he and the entire world knows you can take him out at any time. At some point your just disgracing yourself and the game. Dan Murgliotta almost took a point away for it. And it's ironic because Silva comments afterward would suggest that he should have finished him off. Silva says Maia disrespected him pre-fight and he wanted to punish him. What better way to prove your point than to demolish him? I think there's a lot for him at 205. Machida (who he won't fight), Shogun, RAMPAGE to start. Wait a year or two and Bones Jones should be a serious force there. All things being equal, he should beat GSP because he's the bigger man. But Dana's right; he doesn't deserve to fight Georges right now. Both fighters might have to take interim fights, Silva to get the buying public back on his side.
Penn got screwed. No way he lost that fight. I thought it should've been 48-47 Penn. Look at the breakdown: http://www.fightmetric.com/fights/Edgar-Penn.html IMO, Edgar didn't deserve to win the belt, he hopped around on the outside for 5 rounds while BJ held the middle of the Octagon and out-pointed him. Terrible judging. Atrocious.
