UFC 139 thoughts and RATE IT

I'll give it a 10 and has overtaken UFC Rio as my card of the year. It started off bad with fairly weak prelims and a god awful opener from somebody who is usually relied on to deliver entertainment..The last great battle of PRIDE surpassed my expectations and it's always amazing when big guys can deliver a FOTY caliber fight. Usually reserved for lighter weight fighters like Frankie and Gray..and from earlier tonight Alvarez-Chandler. I was emotionally invested in this battle. Firmly behind Hendo despite being a fan of Shogun as well. It may be my personal fight of the year despite the last two rounds being very ugly with both being too tired to threaten a real finish.

Hendo-Shogun - A TEN! I scored it 47-47..with first three rounds being a clear 10-9 for Henderson, round 4 10-9 Shogun and then the final round being a clear 10-8. If Shogun had just sat in a mount the entire round without working knowing Hendo was too tired to try anything. Yes, i can understand only giving him a 10-9...however, Shogun was working, he was throwing punches, improving his position everytime Hendo escaped. He was working, although too tired to finish, he was working and i think it's extremely unfortunate that not a single judge gave Rua a 10-8 round there. This is was probably the most true draw i've ever seen in MMA.

The fight overall was a draw , but i do think the first 3 rounds were very telling on which one of these guys is the better fighter. It was clearly Dan Henderson. Henderson only struggled after the engine stalled because of no gas and i would say that says a lot for Shogun in comparison for championship fights. When both guys were somewhat fresh. Henderson brutally punished Rua for 3 rounds and i'm amazed Rua survived. Henderson won the stand up for 3 rounds, he suprisingly eluded a lot of Shogun's power shots which surprised me, everytime the fight went to the ground in the first 3 rounds, Henderson reversed him and punished him with GnP. It was all Hendo in the first 3 rounds and even for the first couple minutes of the fourth before Shogun ended up taking the round. I was a bit surprised Shogun didnt work more leg kicks, but he might have found that Hendo would have been able to catch him if he came with a leg kick approach, who knows? there must have been a good reason he was not throwing many leg kicks because he clearly was not afraid of Hendo's wrestling.

Anyway, amazing fight. Best LHW scrap of all-time IMO. Since i'm sure the UFC is committed to Machida and Evans in that order. I say make Hendo vs. Shogun II...maybe only a 3 rounder this time, but in that case..i think Hendo was a much superior fighter over the first 3 rounds.

Wanderlei Silva vs. Cung Le- Pretty much a more brutal version of the first Cung Le-Scott Smith fight. Cung flustered Wandy early with the kicks, eluded Wandy's punches and appeared to be much superior on the feet...then he got tired and it was just a matter of when Wanderlei wanted to bull rush him and he only had to do it once. What worried me about Cung Le heading into the fight was his gas tank and the layoff along with the fact that he can be pretty predictable. Hopefully Cung comes back soon and fresh like he did after the first Smith fight. I think he proved he can hang..but in reality, i doubt we'll see Cung Le again in MMA. As for Wandy. Sorry, i was not impressed. Don't get me wrong, i know it may seem like i've become a Wandy hater but thats not the case..i'm a huge Wandy fan but that loss to Leben will leave me skeptical of him for awhile. Tonight..i think Wandy just took advantage of an extremely gassed old man coming off a long layoff. So, i'm not on the vintage Wandy wagon just yet like i'm on the...

...VINTAGE URIJAH FABER WAGON. Masterful performance from Faber. Perhaps his best performance since 2008. Quick on the feet. Landing that uppercut. Explosive takedowns. Relentless pace. Quick sub. This is what made Faber so popular and why he is considered a great instead of just a product of an era. All against an excellent fighter in Brian Bowles. That close loss against Cruz lit a fire under Faber. Watch out..number 3 is going to be fireworks.

Kampmann-Story. Strong performance by Kampmann as expected. Picked Story apart on the feet and then once again showed that he is an incredibly and criminally underated grappler by owning Story in the department many thought Story would have the clear advantage. I think Story took some guys like Alves and Hendricks by surprise. Once he got the attention of the WW division, he has been owned by Kampmann and Brennerman. Im still having trouble processing how any judge saw Story winning 2 rounds. He was quite dominated in the last 2.

Bonnar-Kingsbury- Horrible Horrible Horrible. First off, Kingsbury should be and will be cut because let's face it...anybody who is thoroughly dominated by Stephan Bonnar for 3 rounds has no place in the Ultimate Fighting Championship. Though Bonnar dominated, this is not why the put him on the first fight of the night. You can't tell a guy that because his job is to win anyway possible, but Dana was probably pissed watching Stephan team Jackson it up in there. Anyway...low point of the night.

Bader-Brilz: as expected. Bader knocks out a poor mans version of him fairly easily. I think we all overreacted to Brilz after the Nog fight(myself included) but the Janitor and now Bader have shown that the guy is nothing to write home about and is fairly limited. If anything, Nog's struggles with Brilz and his performances since from both guys show that perhaps Nog is well over the hill. Much needed win for Bader.

McDonald looks like the real deal. All the time in the world with this kid but he'll get the Charles Oliveira treatment if he keeps impressing. He'll be facing some high level LW's in no time...which might be a mistake much like it was for Charles.

Bailey and Pace...come in overweight..lose, and likely get cut.

Matt Brown..tough luck

Great night of fights.

9 out of 10.

fight of the year.

Great card, great two main events! Rua and Henderson were just badass! I gave it a 9 and those 2 have FOTY in my book as well.

EPIC.

Absolutely great in all aspects.

The main event was great. The gassing was the only low point, but great war and the judges made the right call.

Wand and Le was great. Vintage Wand makes me happy.

Faber showed a mean streak I've never seen before versus a very game opponent.

Kampmann and Story was another great great fight. The judges almost screwed Kampmann AGAIN!

Bonnar put on a clinic.

Badar with a nice KO to get back on track.

McDonald looks like one of the UFC's best prospects.

What am I missing?

Regretting not getting tickets for this...

GDP had the right idea.

oh, another noteworthy thing...Hendo defeated the Fedor curse tonight.

win or lose, first fighter since Matt Lindland to follow up their fight with Fedor with a W. If you disregard Lindland for the fact he fought a complete scrub after Fedor..Mirko CroCop responded to his fight with Fedor by defeating Josh Barnett in 2005.

I thought it was great.

Castillo kicked it off right and whipped on Bailey like a true pro.

Seth Baczynski embarrassed Brown, impressive.

Torres looked good, along with several other Bantamweight fighters.

Tibau is just a monster at 155 always, so big, won big.

Neither of those decision fights were bad, crowd was into them.

Weidman delivered the quick work, he looked focused.

The spike fights were sweet.

Good that Bader broke his losing pattern off at two than lose to Brillz.

McDonald... What a finish!

Bonnar schooled, and Kampman only won, low points of the night!!! How do those fights be the low point of the nights?

Faber looked as good as he has looked in a while. Bowels is no joke, was surprised he survived some of what he did. Faber got a HUGE reception from the crowd before the fight and when he won with the action.

Silva got a louder reception then Le did even in SJ. Not surprising though. Probably the most popular fighter in MMA ever. Him and Le got the place fired the fuck up to unreal levels... It was an awesome fight, awesome finish. The place went nuts, louder than I thought it could....

I don't even know what to say about the main event... fucking pork chop sandwich!

Event was a ten.

I have no complaint, though I scored the 5th round of the main event 10-8 Shogun for the draw. I don't think Dan gave a 9 point round in the 5th compared to what he was given from Shogun. That said I have zero problem with the result. For Hendo it was gonna be draw at worst or a win. I hate seeing either of those guys have to lose after what they gave in that fight.

10

Here are some pics from the nose bleeds, had a good open view of all the big screens, worth the o money, well worth it.

Good stuff GDP. Wish i had coughed up the money...i have a feeling they will be back in San Jose in the not to distant future. I think San Jose is becoming #4 in MMA destinations behind Las Vegas, Canada, and Rio. All the successful Strikeforce cards and good fan reception tonight.

I could go for a rematch even. Felt it was a draw.

Wand fought noticeably more composed tonight, wasn't stepping into as much stuff as he had been. Made smart decisions tonight.

I don't think my phone can do HP Pavilion any justice, that place was loud.

The Axe Murderer Sandstorming



First round of Shogun vs Hendo

GDP, I am really glad you got to go and enjoy this. Sorry I wasn't there.

I thought it was a 10!!!! Every fight was great to me besides Bonnar vs Kingsbury which was OK to me.

Great breakdown Kings.

If Im ever going to give a card a 10, this would have to be it.


Completely epic main event. Epic showcase of chins, toughness, back and forth action that was close to being stopped numerous times. Thought Hendo won 3-2. Im not going to give Shogun a 10-8 5th, a rnd in which both dudes were pretty gassed, and though dominant in position not much true damage. Can't do it when in the 3rd we saw a Shogun being as close to finished as u will ever see without the ref jumping in. I kind of thought it was getting dangerous there, Rua was in bad bad shape. But he manned up. Totally awesome. How many KO shots were landed in this fight? A bakers dozen easy.

Le vs Wandy. Sweet fight here too. Def 2 guys who are way on the other side of the hill. Both guys looked real old. But apparently when 2 old guys are in the ring togethor, they can put on a great show. If Le lands that spinning head kick just after he rocked Wandy, it's game over, but it breezes by, Le tires, Wandy wheels out old school knees(this was the vintage part, been too long since we seen some devastating Wandy knees), very nice win for Wandy. Le's lack of power in conventional punches again proved a hurdle, he landed some clean shots on an iffy Wandy chin, and Silva ate em up.

I have to believe Le retires. In his 1st UFC fight, he gassed in the 2nd, he's not committed anymore, and his noes was fucked. No shame in leaving off that loss. Too bad he didn't come to MMA when he was younger, or at least follow up off the momentum of the Shamrock win.

Loved the Faber fight too, I've been waiting for a fight that backed up the "Faber is a great fighter" argument for awhile, and finally we got it.

Post fight trash talk was pretty funny too.



Anyone see Chael in the back ground with the "medium rare" shirt on? What a dick that guy is. So hope they make that fight for Fox.

Great card. 9/10

gdp- I cant even hear the music on wands come out the end.

kings- i dont think the first 3 rds of shogun vs hendo showed who the better fighter was. Hendo mauled rua and had him hurt early. Shogun was in fuzz land and survived. I think these 2 would split in 10 fights.

And how bout Hendo and his late career surge? Remarkeable.

Actually think this fight reopens the fighter of the year debate.

captain organic wrote:

And how bout Hendo and his late career surge? Remarkeable.

Actually think this fight reopens the fighter of the year debate.

+1

captain organic wrote:

And how bout Hendo and his late career surge? Remarkeable.

Actually think this fight reopens the fighter of the year debate.

i agree 100%. what an epic year in fights too

what if Hendo gets a W against The Spider? does that automatically make him GOAT?

I don't like the fact that Wandi will now delude himself into thinking he can still compete, Cung is an undersized out of shape actor who's almost 40.

He was going to keep fighting regardless and now has wins over Bisping and Cung in 2 of his last 3 fights. Everyone needs to get off his back

Gonna add some other event thoughts.

HP Pavilion is TOP NOTCH, very nice, four above octagon big screens, 6 even bigger projectors, perfect sound, that place got loud and oh lawwdy rowdy. Tailgating in the arena parking lot, no prob for smoke and drink.

T-shirt selection was bunk, only 8 shirts on sale in the entire arena, I thought thererr would be maybe a couple of other vendors, I guess it's just too expensive to sell shirts at a UFC event, not even Tapout shirts for sale. The one i did want was $60, the one Rogan was wearing at the weigh-ins. When I was leaving they had it marked up to $90.

Whateves for Arriany and Chandella, the hottest employee was their's and Joe, Goldies, Dana's, etc. makeup artist. Hot Hot hot asian chick in dem big black boots.

Cain and his wife were front row, Schaub was there, Skyscrape and punkass, Big Black, Chael Sonnen was there in a camera spot by the cage entrance, Mir and Anik were filming a bunch of stuff, Rosenthal is like the most popular ref in the building, always talking a laughing with fans, he is always like that in Lemoore too, cool dude, Mayday came out after his fight to watch Wanderlei and the Main with a lil hottie, Bader and Tibau came out after too, Dana White spends 90% of fight nights texting on his phone. Teenage wasteland opening was epic.

thoroughly entertaining, i'll give that one a 10.

it would've been interesting to see how the bonnar/kingsbury fight would've gone without that nut shot.

17 votes, all votes are 9 or 10. Wow.