UFC: Cruz vs. Johnson thoughts/Rate it

Great show. UFC has Versus has been consistantly good while the UFC on Spike shows have been consistantly sub par over the years IMO. It's a shame that this hot streak will come to an end. Great action tonight...i'll give it an 8...it was much better than the Jones-Rampage PPV.

Fight of the Night: Mac Danzig vs. Matt Wiman
Knockout of the Night: Yves Edwards(It would be Johnson, but can't really say that was a real KO..stoppage was hasty)
Submission of the Night: Paul Sass

Cruz-Johnson - Solid fight. Johnson was able to keep Cruz from settling into a rythm in the standup and he definetly messed with Cruz's pace tiring him out but that was really about it. He never truly landed anything significant, could not get a takedown, and in my view was dominated. A lot of it had to do with Cruz's size, but Cruz was also the more talented fighter. Cruz showed excellent tecnique in defending takedowns, some excellent transitions into dominant positions, a couple nice suplexes.

I see some say that the size was really the only thing Cruz had over Johnson and thats enough. We can't just chalk this all up to the size advantage...everybody Johnson fights is much bigger than him but it does not stop him from taking them down at will. Cruz nulled just about everything that made Johnson the #1 contender. It's not the performane we like to see from Cruz but it does show how well rounded the guy is. He was able to take the grappling game away from Faber as well. Cruz has amazing takedown defense and he's good at taking guys down. Cruz has a lot going for him and is having a very good run with the title. A third fight with Faber may be the next best fight though.

Struve-Barry: Not much to talk about. Barry is a one dimensional kickboxer facing a guy that has solid ability to lock in subs. I did pick Barry because i was predicting he would land something significant. He was winning the stand up but Struve got the fight where he needed it and it was over from there. Weak point of the main card.

Johnson-Brenneman: I picked Brenneman in my silly darkhorse pick of the week...where i pick somebody i know does not really stack up but think there is some magic there and i'll look smart. Not tonight and not Brenneman. I knew within the first 10 seconds of the fight that Charlie stood zero chance of even making the fight competitive. He was scared shitless of the standup, and Johnson has a strong enough wrestling base that you can't just go in there with a "just shoot" approach. You can't get guys down like that, i don't care how good your wrestling is...the same thing would have happened to a wrestler the level of Ben Askren if he didnt atleast pretend to mix it up against somebody like Rumble. Kos was successful because he pretended to play the game with Rumble and then took him down, but the notable difference between Kos and Brenneman is that Kos had built a level of respect for his striking.

Brenneman's hovering was sad to watch. You can tell he nixed any plans of being competitive after the second telegraphed TDA failed miserably which led to Johnson having his back and landing punches. I would typically be outraged by such a quick stoppage, but in the case of this fight, that was definitely a "dude, just stay down" moment. Incredibly one sided affair.

Matt Wiman vs. Mac Danzig. Total war. Fight of the night. The first round was Nick Diaz-Takanori Gomi esque...they were both trading damaging shots. Nothing weak was thrown and just about everthing landed and did visible damage. The second round started off the same way with some close calls on the grappling side with Wiman almost achieving an impressive armbar finish. The third round was another striking war when Danzig took Wiman's back and seemed to be on his way to taking the third round...but Wiman ended the third round strong with some brutal elbows from the top. Great battle, and i typically find Mac Danzing borrring. Good decision. Wiman deserved it.

Yves Edwards vs. Rafael Oliviera- Oliveira could not get it to the ground and there was no pop behind his punches. It was inevitable Edwards landed something significant. He eventually did, he landed several significant shots...The fight should have likely been stopped about a head kick and 5-6 clean GnP punches to the temple before it was eventually stopped by Mario Yamasaki, whom along with his brother Fernando had a horrible night.

Michael Johnson vs. Paul Sass- I was not all that familiar with eitheir of these guys, but thought the fight was pretty cool. Sass is a clearly one dimensional fighter and it also appeared he was going to be unable to take the guy down..but somehow he baited this guy in his guard and it was incredibly clear what he was going to attempt to do and Johnson could not stop it. Nothing worth re-watching or even telling other people to watch it...but it was pretty cool.

Mike Easton vs. Byron Bloodworth- OK fight. Easton spends the first round trying to mimic Cruz's foot work..he seems to do a good job copying the dance steps, but he forgot to mimic Cruz's activity with the strikes and didnt so squat in the first round. In the second round, Easton stopped dancing and fought the style that earned him acclaim on the indy circuit. He landed big punches and knees and finished the fight. Easton will have a good UFC career at 135. As for Bloodworth. Shows up overweight and looks poor in debut fight. He's cut.

TJ Grant vs. Shane Roller- Was the highlight of the prelims...the fight was very competitive in the first. Both were on the offensive end of some solid wrestling/grappling but Grant appeared to have the upper hand. Much of the same in the second round. Grant continued that in the 3rd round and locked in an armbar. Roller didnt tap and Fernando Yamasaki stopped the fight via technical submission. This fight was Grant's though, impressive debut at 155.

Missed Neer's fight, and the opening fight...though i hear the opening fight was another Mario Yamasaki blunder.

Good show though

Gotta watch the prelims still.

I went 8. They card was very good with alot of finishes and great matchups. The main event was entertaining and the rest of the main card was awesome. I loved the Josh Neer fight and the Danzig vs Wiman fight. Overall a very good card.

lol thats awesome Primey! Perfect timing though Kings. I was just thinking about a rate it thread and here it is.

Anywho, I gave it an 8 because there wasn't an 8.5 to rate it. The card had great fights but there wasn't alot of big name fights imo. It was free so I can't bitch about having one big name fight. I thought every fight I watched was really good and exciting so good job to Joe Silva for creating good match ups.

8

7, decent card.

I gave it a 7. It was a solid free card. Good fights good action I liked it.

Gave it a 6.

I'll give it an 8. Some really sweet stoppages and a decent title fight

OU gives it a 6 via Might Mouse losing lol. It's ok OU he put up one hell of a fight in that loss.

MMAEYES wrote:

OU gives it a 6 via Might Mouse losing lol. It's ok OU he put up one hell of a fight in that loss.

Cruz was about as exciting as GSP vs Jake.

OU wrote:

MMAEYES wrote:

OU gives it a 6 via Might Mouse losing lol. It's ok OU he put up one hell of a fight in that loss.

Cruz was about as exciting as GSP vs Jake.

hard to be exciting when you're fighting with a broken hand

I thought Johnson made the fight exciting because his speed was throwing Cruz off. I thought it was a good fight.

yeah yeah yeah... truth is, he still Dominated. which is kinda scary

MMAEYES wrote:

I thought Johnson made the fight exciting because his speed was throwing Cruz off. I thought it was a good fight.

Agreed. Mighty Mouse made this fight, but was definitively beaten by Cruz. If Mighty Mouse's wrestling been a bit stronger, he could have won this fight on his feet, but that is an enourmous "if." I think he will be a title holder at 125 in the near future.