UFC 104 Main Card = Everything You Hate About MMA...

[Jerky1312]

I don't mean to come off as a hater, it was a very good card coming in, but if you had to make a textbook night of fights that displays everything wrong with mma or could go wrong with mma, this may have been that night.

Let's starts out with the first fight of the main card...

Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida - Overweight
This opening fight of the night and we were awarded with a great mismatch. Let's avoid the obvious first and point out that Yoshida was coming in as the underdog, having a height and reach disadvantage. Although not as important, he was also 10 years the senior of Johnson. Now to the gross obvious, which was Johnson not making weight by a total of 6 pounds. In a HW bout, this is trivial and irrelevant for the most part, but when a fight is at welterweight, a 6 pound difference is pretty big. We also aren't taking into account that Johnson cut from 220, so he probably put back on far more weight after the weigh-in, which probably had him far above the official 176 lbs. It doesn't happen often, but it happens enough that it needs to be addressed and dealt with far more strictly to deter fighters from having such advantages.

Second fight of the main card...

Joe Stevenson vs. Spencer Fisher - Elbows & Cuts
I'll start out again by stating I know the cut wasn't caused by an elbow, but by a thumb over the eye. That said, Stevenson abandoned all other strategies and focused on expanding that cut and trying to win the fight via stoppage. Cuts are inevitable in the sport, whether you keep elbows or not, but when the objective of the fight becomes creating cuts and/or making cuts worse to win the bout, maybe we need to reexamine whether we want this kind of strategy in our sport and if we can do something about it. Elbows themselves can be an effective tool in fights, but I don't enjoy fights when I realize the top-positioned fighter is using the edge of his elbow to create and expand cuts. It takes away from the technical aspect of the sport, which presents a vast array of options for fighters to win a bout.

Third bout of the pay per view...

Gleison Tibau vs. Josh Neer - "Lay & Pray"
Lay & pray may not be the ideal terminology for this fight, may be "takedown & stall" would be better. Either way, this fight presented us one of the more lackluster & frustrating fights of the evening. We had one fighter who was better on the feet, but couldn't defend the take down. Tibau utilized takedowns to avoid having to trade blows with Neer. The first few takedowns were exciting, but once you realize he wasn't able to accomplish anything there and couldn't even keep it there to stall time, it become predictable and boring. This isn't really a criticism of Tibau's strategy, but the ruleset that allows for such a strategy to be rewarded with decision victory. A fighter shouldn't get a W for simply having superior takedowns. This isn't a Judo/Sambo bout, where we should point fighters for successful takedowns. Essentially, that is what this fight was and it was one of the most boring fights of the night. We can also blame Neer for having very poor takedown defense or solid offense of his back, if you want, but the ruleset could be changed.

First co-main event, fourth fight of the PPV...

Cain Velazquez vs. Ben Rothwell - Bad Stoppage
This fight on paper would look like a mismatch in favor of Ben Rothwell to the less informed, having 30 more career fights to a 6-0 budding star, but that wasn't the case and isn't the point of this post. Cain dominated this fight from start to finish, but the finish came a little too soon. It may seem silly that someone would argue about a stoppage,when one fighter is being so clearly dominated, but that shouldn't change the fact a bad stoppage was such. In mma, the scope of a fight can change at moment's notice and that is what makes this sport so exciting and unpredictable. On the same night, although in a different promotion, we saw Sakuraba take maybe 15 unanswered punches while holding on to a leg and the referee let it go and Sakuraba got the hold he was looking for and won the bout via kneebar. Rothwell, who is known to have a solid chin, took far less shots and was actually improving his position, he was getting up and the fight was stopped. He wasn't rocked either. This is not the way you want to see fights ended.

Now for the main event of the night...

Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Rua - Bad Decision
This was a fight of the ages and the president of the company said as much, saying this may be one of the best LHW matches in years. You know what, it lived up to the billing. Two great fighters fought their hearts out, exchanging the best they had for the whole 25 minutes. I believe everyone in the arena, the millions watching around the world, the commentators and even the two fighters in the cage were expecting a new champion's hand being raised. The judges' decisions couldn't have received more boos. The right decision would have made all the negatives from the previous fights all but forgotten, but we got an even bigger pill of disgust to swallow, when the deserved winner walked out the cage as the loser. A fighter who has been criticized by fans for being a fraud and possibly a juicer, who debuted with a just loss. He was criticized in a win over Coleman, albeit one he wasn't 100% in. He defeated a legend in Liddell, but again he wasn't given his due by everyone, stating he defeated a shell of a fighter. The true challenge was Lyoto and he was given no chance, but he proved himself to be deserving, but not of an unjust loss.

[Turn on the gun]

valid points

[KyuByuNimErdles]

yep. best fights were on undercard.

i been saying last few UFC PPVs have been really poor.

[cormorant]

Agreed, except for the Stevenson thing; I think Stevenson dominated and that TKO was quite warranted, and really had nothing to do with the cut. When you're in that position taking hard elbows to the face you need a miracle not to get TKO'd in <5 seconds.

[DULLAH]

Originally Posted by Jerky1312

I don't mean to come off as a hater, it was a very good card coming in, but if you had to make a textbook night of fights that displays everything wrong with mma or could go wrong with mma, this may have been that night.

Let's starts out with the first fight of the main card...

Anthony Johnson vs. Yoshiyuki Yoshida - Overweight
This opening fight of the night and we were awarded with a great mismatch. Let's avoid the obvious first and point out that Yoshida was coming in as the underdog, having a height and reach disadvantage. Although not as important, he was also 10 years the senior of Johnson. Now to the gross obvious, which was Johnson not making weight by a total of 6 pounds. In a HW bout, this is trivial and irrelevant for the most part, but when a fight is at welterweight, a 6 pound difference is pretty big. We also aren't taking into account that Johnson cut from 220, so he probably put back on far more weight after the weigh-in, which probably had him far above the official 176 lbs. It doesn't happen often, but it happens enough that it needs to be addressed and dealt with far more strictly to deter fighters from having such advantages.

Second fight of the main card...

Joe Stevenson vs. Spencer Fisher - Elbows & Cuts
I'll start out again by stating I know the cut wasn't caused by an elbow, but by a thumb over the eye. That said, Stevenson abandoned all other strategies and focused on expanding that cut and trying to win the fight via stoppage. Cuts are inevitable in the sport, whether you keep elbows or not, but when the objective of the fight becomes creating cuts and/or making cuts worse to win the bout, maybe we need to reexamine whether we want this kind of strategy in our sport and if we can do something about it. Elbows themselves can be an effective tool in fights, but I don't enjoy fights when I realize the top-positioned fighter is using the edge of his elbow to create and expand cuts. It takes away from the technical aspect of the sport, which presents a vast array of options for fighters to win a bout.

Third bout of the pay per view...

Gleison Tibau vs. Josh Neer - "Lay & Pray"
Lay & pray may not be the ideal terminology for this fight, may be "takedown & stall" would be better. Either way, this fight presented us one of the more lackluster & frustrating fights of the evening. We had one fighter who was better on the feet, but couldn't defend the take down. Tibau utilized takedowns to avoid having to trade blows with Neer. The first few takedowns were exciting, but once you realize he wasn't able to accomplish anything there and couldn't even keep it there to stall time, it become predictable and boring. This isn't really a criticism of Tibau's strategy, but the ruleset that allows for such a strategy to be rewarded with decision victory. A fighter shouldn't get a W for simply having superior takedowns. This isn't a Judo/Sambo bout, where we should point fighters for successful takedowns. Essentially, that is what this fight was and it was one of the most boring fights of the night. We can also blame Neer for having very poor takedown defense or solid offense of his back, if you want, but the ruleset could be changed.

First co-main event, fourth fight of the PPV...

Cain Velazquez vs. Ben Rothwell - Bad Stoppage
This fight on paper would look like a mismatch in favor of Ben Rothwell to the less informed, having 30 more career fights to a 6-0 budding star, but that wasn't the case and isn't the point of this post. Cain dominated this fight from start to finish, but the finish came a little too soon. It may seem silly that someone would argue about a stoppage,when one fighter is being so clearly dominated, but that shouldn't change the fact a bad stoppage was such. In mma, the scope of a fight can change at moment's notice and that is what makes this sport so exciting and unpredictable. On the same night, although in a different promotion, we saw Sakuraba take maybe 15 unanswered punches while holding on to a leg and the referee let it go and Sakuraba got the hold he was looking for and won the bout via kneebar. Rothwell, who is known to have a solid chin, took far less shots and was actually improving his position, he was getting up and the fight was stopped. He wasn't rocked either. This is not the way you want to see fights ended.

Now for the main event of the night...

Lyoto Machida vs. Mauricio Rua - Bad Decision
This was a fight of the ages and the president of the company said as much, saying this may be one of the best LHW matches in years. You know what, it lived up to the billing. Two great fighters fought their hearts out, exchanging the best they had for the whole 25 minutes. I believe everyone in the arena, the millions watching around the world, the commentators and even the two fighters in the cage were expecting a new champion's hand being raised. The judges' decisions couldn't have received more boos. The right decision would have made all the negatives from the previous fights all but forgotten, but we got an even bigger pill of disgust to swallow, when the deserved winner walked out the cage as the loser. A fighter who has been criticized by fans for being a fraud and possibly a juicer, who debuted with a just loss. He was criticized in a win over Coleman, albeit one he wasn't 100% in. He defeated a legend in Liddell, but again he wasn't given his due by everyone, stating he defeated a shell of a fighter. The true challenge was Lyoto and he was given no chance, but he proved himself to be deserving, but not of an unjust loss.

All exactly on point.

[Benzine87]

As long as the UFC is making money and the guys they want to promote are winning, they arent to bothered about ridiculous judging, terrible referees or fighters basically cheating by coming in probably 2 weight classes too heavy.

If Rothwell and Yoshida had won by early stoppage and missing weight, Dana would have called for rematches already. But because an up and comer (Johnson) and the next Latino hope (Cain) won, nothing will happen

[anaconda69]

What's so wrong with cutting a guy?

It is a fight you know. If I was fighting someone and had the opportunity to make their face a bloody mess I would do so, as I'm sure nearly 100% of others would as well.

When fights get stopped because of headbutts that cause cuts, that sucks. Spencer got cut by legit techniques, punches and elbows. I had no problem with that fight, it was probably the most exciting on the card.

other than that I do agree with you, definitely not the happiest I've ever been with spending money on a PPV...... hopefully the next card free on spike makes up for it

[JoshRose]

Good post. The whole night was unsettling. Not just the main event. Let's hope the next UFC's look better.

[electricfuneral]

thats an interesting POV.

[KRS 27]

Originally Posted by KyuByuNimErdles

yep. best fights were on undercard.

i been saying last few UFC PPVs have been really poor.

REally?


100 was a huge night, 101 was a good card, 102 had great fights, 103 was a great night of fights, Vitor, Kos, Daley, and now this card.

So how have the last few UFC cards been poor??