UFC 133 thoughts

Since no one else seems up for the task I'll make a go of it.


As with most ppv's nowadays, I didn't watch it live, instead watched most of it off linker this morning. The card was obviously devoid of compelling big time matchups. Tito coming off his first win since beating Shamrock 5 yrs ago and he's in the main event vs a guy who hasn't fought in a year? for $50? And the rest of the card is filled with who? Color me antipathetic.


And even though I did have interest in the Belfort fight, I didn't even know he was on the card till earlier in the day. Did the overall disinterest in the card as a whole, cause there to be disinterest in what imo was an interesting fight? Dunno, but this fight was flying well below the radar.

But as often is the case, the least anticipated card delivered the best.

-And it started early with the MacDonald giving us a scintillating performance. Now I think Rogan is getting just a bit ahead of himself in saying Rory has a higher ceiling then GSP, but man he ripped through Pyle, effortlessly staying away from the danger that is Pyle's submission game, throwing every punch with intent, both standing and on the ground. Hurting Pyle, and then following up and finishing nicely.

Since his only loss to Condit, MacDonald has followed up with 2 very nice wins, which seems to suggest he is ready for guys in the title contention mix. Though at 22, his youth might be the only thing that keeps him away from what seems like the natural next step.

-Phillipou vs Rivera? A decision? Not worthy of a breakdown on this card.

-Ebersole vs Hallman. Was Hallman trying to connect with his inner old school Wandy with those "shorts"? Well it didn't work, and if ur going to wear trunks like those, u better kick some ass, otherwise u just look gay.

Once Hallman whiffed on the sub while having Ebersole's back he was done for. Ebersole wrestled him up, that's his thing, nice GnP, over.

-Belfort. This went as I expected. Akiyama's career has been reeling since his slugfest vs Belcher. 1st gassing vs Leben, outboxed by Bisping, and now KO'd by belfort. It's been a rough year(plus one month) for Sexy.

But the problem here for sexy was: he was not the more technical striker in this affair, he did not have the faster hands, and he did not have the more power. I mean Belfort's power is such that, I can't even see the punch that rocked Aki. Or at least I didn't see it land. Looks like it whizzed right on by, but as Lyoto will tell u, those temple shots, even if they are not of the solidly landed variety, are a bitch.

Now I don't know about yall, but I have Spider vs Belfort 2 as a fight I'd really like to see. Not that I think the win by Silva was a fluke, but the way in which he won it was pretty fluky. I'd bet the house the next fight would not be decided by front kick to the face. Belfort def needs at least one more win, preferably in aki/franklin fashion, but I have this fight in the "should happen" category.

Aki: It will not have near the hype as the first potential matchup would have, but can we rekindle the Wandy Aki fight? Seems logical for both guys. Though a loss for either would prob mean the end.


-Evans vs Ortiz. In terms of who won, it was as expected. The fact that it was exciting, I wasn't counting on it. the two mixed it up early, Ortiz actually was game for a bit, but Evans all phase dominance soon became apparent. Stuffing takedowns, winning exchanges, and then putting Ortiz on his back, and easily working towards dominant position.

Tito def went into cover up mode that is reminiscent of some of his more famous losses, but the knee to the plexis looked pretty brutal.

Jones did Evans a favor in letting him get a tune up fight in. Still I'll be very surprised if Bones doesn't bust Evans up.

Tito? I really don't care.

Only prelim fight I watched was Gustaffson. Striking looked real nice, moved around the ring well, and picked apart a wrestler who didn't seem interested in wrestling.

Hamill is a tough guy, but he is not talented enough to not fight an intelligent fight. Why is he not wrestling this guy up? In truth, Im glad he didn't, I prefer the KO, but from his perspective what was the game plan? Did he not know that Gustaffson is a better striker then Tito? Does he not see that the only loss on this guys record was a 1st rnd stoppage vs a wrestler?


Biggest win for Gustaffson to date. Only 24, he is still due a bit more seasoning imo b4 messing with the top of the division. Vera?

Vera is a step back from Hamill. Hamill has been fighting stupid for a long time now.

freakzilla wrote:

Vera is a step back from Hamill. Hamill has been fighting stupid for a long time now.

Ur prob right, but I like the striker vs striker nature of the fight, and in such an affair Vera is dangerous.

Thought maybe Thiago as well.

Maybe Lil Nog?

i think hamill did try to wrestle but just couldnt get gustaffson to the matt. this fight also showed us how one dimentional rampage is now days. the reason gus was able to get the tko and not page was cus of his footwork. he didnt just come straigh foward t-rex style, he picked hamill apart in every angle. dude is impressive and young, hopefully he keeps climbing.

now like i said before rory is a stud. prior to this fight pyle has been a journyman and was coming off a big win over the propect in hathaway but rory showed how well rounded he is. is he the next gsp, dont think so but only time will tell how good he is gonna be. i still think the stoppage to condit was a lil too early and would so pick him over condit in a rematch but dont know if is quite ready for the elite in the division. winner of diego/hughes maybe. how bout kampmann

the hallman fight looked like it was gonna be a good ground battle until brian reversed it and layed some awesome gnp.

the rivera fight was ok but nothing impressive from either. this card should of stayed on the prelims. its funny how some think rivera stood a chance against bisping had the knee to the head not landed. in the end it wouldnt of matterd. im actually happy he lost especially after the bs he pulled goin into the bisping fight

now vitor. classic vintage vitor. i feel bad for akiyama for dude brings it and is an exciting fight but this make is 4 losses in a row (imo) for him. what next. do tell u one thing. this was classic vitor but classic vitor will either put u away early or fade as the fight goes. i would still easily pick anderson over him no doubt as well as sonnen or okami.

finally evans/tito. now as a fan of both i hoped nothing more than a draw with the excuse being tito being old and shad coming off the long lay off. the first time they met tito won no doubt (the point deduction was bs). this time tito put on a good fight however it was only for 3 mins. after that he looked so out of it and gassed. he went into the second looking like a t- rex. still evans looked great. he mixed it up alot more on the ground that previously and just looked dominant. this was a great tune up match for him and dude is the 4rth best lhw out there.

well in the end it turned out to be a really good card. was it 50 dollars worth? i dont know, i dont pay for them, i work for a distrubitor for a promoting company that sells the fight to bars and restaurants so i dont ever judge a card based on money but instead the event itself and i must say it was a really good one. now that its over we will most likely see rory get a top ww maybe. vitor get okami next after he loses to anderson. evans get jones next after he beats page. also now people will go back to hating tito for no reason and say once again that he should retire even though a week ago they were super excited and on the train cus of the bader win kinda like how they are over hendo and his last win. really good card to sum it up

I still can't see the punches that hurt Sexyama, Belfort just swarms all over him.

Speed=Power.

Was sort of similar to the Franklin stoppage, Belfort's so fast it looks like a phantom punch.

Ali wrote:

I still can't see the punches that hurt Sexyama, Belfort just swarms all over him.

On the reply they kept showing last night he misses the first punch then last one to the temple.

Ali wrote:

I still can't see the punches that hurt Sexyama, Belfort just swarms all over him.

The punch that dropped Sexy was the one after he ducked down and got cracked right in the temple

killerofchicken wrote:

Ali wrote:

I still can't see the punches that hurt Sexyama, Belfort just swarms all over him.

The punch that dropped Sexy was the one after he ducked down and got cracked right in the temple

Im with Ali. Yes I know which punched dropped him. But I'll be damned if I can see it land.

lol, it's ok... i saw it in slow mo and thats the only reason i know

a couple points @ throwdown.

1)Hamill's takedown attempts were rare and came with little conviction. Most of the attempts were so half hearted they didn't even look like takedowns. We've seen plenty of situations where a wrestler's initial attempts are stuffed, but then stick with the gameplan and eventually find success. At the very least Hamill needed to crown Gustafsson, bully him against the fence, and continue to work for the takedown. We saw none of that, instead Hamill was willing to stay at distance with a taller and more talented striker.

2)agree that gustaffson destroying Hamill makes the Page win less impressive. I for one am not totally high on the "page is rededicated" theory, and suspect Bones will knock him out,

3)Tito has one win in 5 years. Hendo has won 6 of his last 7, with 3 consecutive KO's. The situations are not comparable.

Page's win over Hamill wasn't even impressive before last night. That fight was awful

bobbitt15 wrote:

Page's win over Hamill wasn't even impressive before last night. That fight was awful

In truth I didn't see it.

When watching fights the morning after, if I see the fight went the distance, and Im not hearing alot of buzz about that fight, I tend not to watch.

It was Hamill shooting some of the softest takedowns you've ever seen in your life, then just circling around the cage while Page was pretty much going through sparring practice

Don't know if it's been mentioned yet in this thread, but one of the highlights of last night was when it looked like Tito could possibly finish the fight via guillotine when i was making fun of him in the pre-fight for randomly saying Evans has a weakness with guillotines..and then Evans walks right into one. Tito did his homework i'm guessing.

That would have been epic

captain organic wrote:

a couple points @ throwdown.

1)Hamill's takedown attempts were rare and came with little conviction. Most of the attempts were so half hearted they didn't even look like takedowns. We've seen plenty of situations where a wrestler's initial attempts are stuffed, but then stick with the gameplan and eventually find success. At the very least Hamill needed to crown Gustafsson, bully him against the fence, and continue to work for the takedown. We saw none of that, instead Hamill was willing to stay at distance with a taller and more talented striker.

2)agree that gustaffson destroying Hamill makes the Page win less impressive. I for one am not totally high on the "page is rededicated" theory, and suspect Bones will knock him out,

3)Tito has one win in 5 years. Hendo has won 6 of his last 7, with 3 consecutive KO's. The situations are not comparable.

well yes, i agree with some of that. im not saying hendo isnt good or washed up like tito. im just saying its silly for some to jump on the wagon and think he will be the #1 guy one day and pick him over guys like anderson. he has looked good in recent fights but it not like he was fighting elite guys or anything. lets put it this way, at this point i dont give tito a chance to be successfull against the top 10 of the division but i do give hendo. now as for the top 5, well the only one i would give hendo a chance against would probably be page. other than that some just get too hyped up over fighters most current preformances forgetting what reality may be.