UFC RIO thoughts/rate it

Great show. I'll give it a solid 9. No disappointments. No shenanigans. The good guys won.

My Fight of the Night: Rousimar Palhares vs. Dan Miller
My Knockout of the Night: both Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira and Mauricio Rua
Submission of the night: No submissions

Another great performance from Anderson. Yeah, most figured he would beat Okami but going in i thought Okami would have been able to impose a little more on Spider than he did. He did a good job nuetralizing the clinch but it was apparent it was taking more out of Okami than it was Spider. Silva shrugged off his takedown attempt like nothing and thats when i knew Okami has about as much chance in this fight as Demian Maia or Thales Leites had against Spider. ZERO. .you're pretty much done. Sonnen had the luxury/skill of having great takedowns to set up strikes to set up takedowns and so on and so on. Sonnen is durable enough to go in head first on Anderson Silva. Okami not so much. Okami found out he had to engage with Silva to get him in a position to grind him and thats when Anderson took over.

Shogun-Forrest. I was a bit concerned to see the bread basket on Shogun but it turned out OK. Glad to see Shogun make a statement out there with Griffin. Went out there incredibly agressive and on target. Got Griffin down and as you can always expect when Shogun is standing over a knocked down opponent..the body stiffening up is soon to follow. Shogun showed their first fight was an aberration as if you watch, Shogun was incredibly rusty and struggling with an injury that eventually put him out for an extended period in that fight.

I understand people hate excuses...they want to believe every fighter is 100% the same figher every single time they step in the cage. I also think that is somewhat fair. If a fighter decides to step in the cage, pretty much you hate to see them to cite injuries or rust when they decided to go anyway. However, That was not the case the first time these two fought. Shogun was not Shogun in that fight..and who knows...maybe Griffin isnt the same fighter now that he was back then, but we definetly know that Shogun is not even close to what can be considered top form when he fought Griffin. Glad to see it set straight tonight. SHogun beats Griffin 9 out of 10 times...and that one time already happened what is becoming a long time ago.

Barboza-Pearson: This seemed like one of those fights where nobody really landed. They were both throwing a lot but it's hard to find a clear cut winner here. It's like one of those sword fights you see in the movie when all the do is swing em yet nobody lands shit. Not saying this was like a reckless no technique Leonard Garcia fight..both guys are really good strikers, but it seemed nobody really had the upper hand. I thought Pearson probably could have won at first but was not miffed by the decision. It was whatever. Weakest fight on the main card when i originally thought it could steal the show. It had the activity, but it just seemed like one giant stalemate to me.

BIG NOG!!! Glad to see him tally up a W. Would have hated to see him lose to Schuab. When i saw how slow he was moving on his feet i was worried but near the end Nog displayed the best head movement we have seen from him in awhile. We have seen recent fights with him where he just could not get out of the way of punches and Nog was always a better boxer than that. He was able to dodge some punches and then started showing his superior boxing skill to the pure headhunter in Schuab. I might still lack the confidence in present day Nog against the higher level HW...which Schuab is not and never will be...but it was definetly a good Big Nog moment tonight.

Luiz Arthur Cane...the black sheep. The only brazilian to leave the arena with an L. That is tough. He was looking solid and crisp with the strikes but SENGOKU import Stanislav Nedkov stayed patient and landed the big one. Nedkov is a small LHW but probably not built for MW. That may hamper him down the road, but excellent debut and a nice win over a good fighter.

Great performance by Palhares. Wild fight to. FOTN. This guy is an absolute beast. He would have likely finished this fight in round 1 if he didnt brain fart..he would have likely got the shot at Anderson Silva if he didnt brain fart against Marquardt. He looked good every where in this fight. His transistions were top notch as usual and his GnP was brutal which we arent used to. Now Dan Miller is like the Brooklyn Brawler of UFC middleweights but he is a formidable fighter and Palhares definetly looked better than Marquardt did against him...way better. However, what the fuck was up with the 30-25 score?

Tavares destroyed Fisher. Not much to talk about, but Fisher really can't get it done in the UFC anymore i don't think.

You'll see Ed Soares randomly appear next to Erick Silva after his next fight which willl likely be another impressive KO. Very nice.

Paulo Thiago outclassed Mitchell everywhere. Kind of disappointed he could not finish with a submission, but Mitchell had nothing for him.

Didnt see the other fights.

Final thoughts. Great show. Great atmosphere. Great fights. Great performances...i also like how this event was UFC RIO more so than it was UFC 134. The numbers have got to go unless it's like a milestone like 200, 300, etc. I thought Strikeforce was on to something by simply naming their events after the main event or the city they were in. Dana said long before 100 that he wanted to get rid of the numbers but it was not easy...and i believe him.

once again...a 9

good post king but once again ur uneducated about the whole first sho/forrest fight. Anyways besides that fight the whole event was great. Nog exposed schuab as a hype. Anderson showed to be the goat. Not to cool with the ross fight since he was the only one coming foward but not a robbery by any means.miller too showed heart for sure. Good event. Great fights. I give it a 7 for sure maybe an 8.

Quote :

Shogun was not Shogun in that fight..and who knows...maybe Griffin isnt the same fighter now that he was back then, but we definetly know that was not Shogun is even close to what can be considered top form when he fought Griffin. Glad to see it set straight tonight.

Unfortunately, Shogun was Shogun that night. Bad Shogun is real. It's his alter ego.

Shogun loses when he under achieves. Forrest wins when he over achieves. Those career paths intersected at a fateful moment.

I voted 10. One of the best head to toe UFC's ive ever watched. Historic.

I was very close to giving it a 10.

but i'm still waiting for...the one.

10 Legendary Status Card. Best EVA discussion.

Pearson-Barboza won FOTN. Wow..i just don't see it. I could not get into it and i was totally looking forward to the fight.

Wolfgangsta wrote:

Quote :

Shogun was not Shogun in that fight..and who knows...maybe Griffin isnt the same fighter now that he was back then, but we definetly know that was not Shogun is even close to what can be considered top form when he fought Griffin. Glad to see it set straight tonight.

Unfortunately, Shogun was Shogun that night. Bad Shogun is real. It's his alter ego.

Shogun loses when he under achieves. Forrest wins when he over achieves. Those career paths intersected at a fateful moment.

I think Forrest looked worse than Shogun looked good. Not trying to take anything from Shogun, but I left unimpressed.

ill give it a 9.5.

lot's of great knockout finishes and really tough performances. Dan miller showed a lot of heart to an improved Palhares.

I love the Big Nog win. He deserved a moment like that. Good for you Big Nog!

I wish Foreest would have had a better showing but i knew a healthy motivated Shogun would be a different result.

And Anerson is amazing. What else is new.

Dan Henderson vs Chael Sonnen anyone?

Dan ain't cutting weight for anybody but Anderson

Or Chael if he wins...

I'm giving it a ten!

Shogun got the revange win he was looking for

I'll gladly eat crow for Nog knocking the fuck out of Schaub, I said it wouldn't happened but damn am i happy it did!

The only thing that had me confused is why Okami never shot for a takedown, Silva looked as good as ever, faster by leaps than Okami. Great fucking card!

Okami did try for takedown out of the clinch against the cage. Anderson easily shook it off.

Yushin was overmatched. Completely.

A) Not watching fights as they happen live blows. Tracked down the Silva-Okami fight first and Goldie conveniently drops in that Shogun and Nog already won by KO tonight. Thanks you useless turd

In order:

Yves Jabouin looked solid in his first fight at BW. Defensive grappling looked better than it has in the past and did some decent work striking. Makes for exciting fights if nothing else and could hang with some top guys who aren't elite on the ground

Erik Silva should be a nice prospect to watch. Good early finish. Think he would've beaten Swick as well

Paulo Thiago isn't very good. Total squash match against a scrub opponent but his defensive grappling still sucks and he's just a wild swinger with decent pop. Keeps from getting cut for now but there are so many guys at WW I'm picking over him with no hesitation at this point

Thiago Tavares has some talent, just not sure about the mental makeup. Spencer is just about done. Nice UFC career

I'm pretty much tired of Paul Harris. Every fight its something new with this little shit. Torques a dude's knee after he taps, quits fighting and gets knocked out, and then randomly celebrates like he's won a fight where the ref made no motion of stopping it. I was so pumped when Miller landed that punch, was hoping he would finish. Not to mention a cheap shot at the end of round and constant fence grabbing in the 2nd by Palhares. He's a dick

Still haven't seen Barboza-Pearson which is the only fight I can't find anywhere

Wow, how far has Cane fallen over the last couple years. A striker who can't deal with punches being thrown at him. His time in the UFC is about at a close

Nice combination by Nog and awesome moment in his first fight in Brazil. He still looked old and shot though. Schaub can't take a punch and is nowhere near a top level HW. He needs to take a couple steps back after this. I wouldn't mind a fight with Einemo if they got all that shit worked out and he comes back to the UFC

Shogun with a nice brutal early stoppage of Forrest. The questions remain about what kind of shape he was in due to the early finish, but still a nice win. Another top fight coming up, interested to see who he gets given the current landscape of 205. I say bring over Hendo and make it happen

Okami had nothing for Anderson. I said the day it was announced this would be a savage and very early finish for Silva. Okami is not and will never be Chael Sonnen. He's strong and good in the clinch but he doesn't have an elite takedown game and doesn't have the in your face mentality. Awful matchup for him and he was certainly getting laid to waste


It wasn't the same listening to fights without Joe either. Not even close

wow, i must say bobbit has the greatest idea ever.....shogun vs hendo....better yet shogun vs hendo on fox. Dont think it will happen seeing how greedy hendo is but that would be an awesome match

I concur...Shogun vs. Hendo is definetly one of the last PRIDE fights that should have happened but didnt. Make it happen.

It was ok. I mean if one is a Pride fan boy it was an awesome night and worthy of a 10, if you want to see good fights? It sucked quite a bit.

Okami forgot to take the fight to Spider, didn't work hard in the clinch and therefore was overmatched, how is that fun?

Forrest looked horrible and Shogun looked a little flabby, not quite a lot of fun.

Schaub did get exposed, which is sad in some ways, but it was the feel good story of the night, because a lot of people, including myself, had written Nog off. I still think this was his Chuck moment in the Wandy vs Liddell fight and will decline from here.

Pearson vs Barboza was no fun to watch. Watch the stout Limey chase jungle boy for 15 minutes. All in all, not too much fun, but all the prelims on FB and Spike helped ease the thing.

Silva is the GOAT!

thumbs down

I went with a 8. The card was awesome and I was very happy to see Spider with a nice KO over an overmatched Okami.

I might have gave it a 10 because Shogun demolished gump... i stand by it!

10 for me, the card was thoroughly entertaining.

throwdownfight1 wrote:

wow, i must say bobbit has the greatest idea ever.....shogun vs hendo....better yet shogun vs hendo on fox. Dont think it will happen seeing how greedy hendo is but that would be an awesome match

I've been suggesting that fight all week.

slightly disappointed with the live broadcast, pearson/barboza was the only really good fight.

to be honest, i don't want to see main events where one guy can be dropped with a jab and shogun will never have an easier nights work than that.

too many guys knocked out far too easily for my liking.

when were knockouts a bad thing?

killerofchicken wrote:

when were knockouts a bad thing?

when they come too easily. i want to see a good contest, not a lamb sent to the slaughter.