UFC 144 thoughts/Rate it

This returns after being absent for 143 and recent cards i didnt catch in their entirety.

I give the card an 8...like many Japan cards there was many highs and huge lows. The 7 fight main card really did have sort of a JMMA feel. The Japanese crowd overall stayed true to form apart from the booing Ryan Bader, which even for one of Bader's biggest critics in me seemed odd snf incredibly uncalled for even for the disrespectful just bleed audiences here in the U.S...anyway

Edgar-Bendo - Good fight, would not call it great like the second Edgar-Maynard fight but the best fight on the card. I'm not sure if i buy the stats the Henderson landed more, it seemed to me like Edgar landed the most. I scored it 48-47 Bendo. I don't think the quanitity of Edgars strikes(as i saw it) matched the quality of Bendo's and im just having a hard time giving Edgar the credit for the takedowns because for atleast 3 of the takedowns, it was more like he threw Bendo down because he didnt go down with him and gained no control, and the other times he did go down he couldnt keep Henderson down for no longer than a couple second, IF THAT. It would contradict my view on how takedowns should be scored if i let Edgars takedowns be a tipping point in my scoring..his takedowns really did or led to nothing and the scoring for them should be minimal. They just didnt do anything, they didnt help Edgar. I have to watch it again though. I had trouble calling the rounds but comparing scores with other posters, and the real judges scorecards..i think i was on target.

Edgar can do what he wants. If he stays at 155..i can see him making another run at the gold. If he goes to 145 even better.


Jackson-Bader..not much to discuss. Horrible, boring fight. Jackson looked like a corpse. Something was not right, this was below a typical rough night for Jackson. He would have lost to several LHW's tonight. Bader..reaped the benefits of pinning a dead body for the 3 count. I've never been impressed with Bader and i'm still not impressed with Bader. Phil Davis is the obvious next step. Don't know who wins and don't care because i hold them both in the same regard. Rampage...i don't know if i'm disappointed in him or sympathetic to a real legit reason why he came in overweight and gave arguably the worst performance of his career against a fighter he should beat...maybe we'll never know. Tito/Griffin winner/loser or Franklin next for him.

Hunt-Kongo..So happy for Hunt. I was thinking if this is the greatest career bouncebacks in MMA history..Hunt is on quite a roll after being the laughing stock and making Dana uncomfortable when they had to honor the rest of his PRIDE contract. They had to explain why a fighter with a losing record who has not won for years got signed to the biggest baddest promotion where only the strong survive. Now he's got his weight under control and his striking his still accurate and powerful. Tonight, he knocked out arguably the top gatekeeper in the UFC. Hunt is officially relevant again.

Shields-Akiyama. Solid fight. Though Jake clearly won every round despite Rogan's best attempts to make it seem like Akiyama was somehow dominating the fight. Just kept throwing...Im sure we all expected Akiyama to have the edge striking but he was focused solely on stopping the takedown that he forgot to throw strikes and im guessing he didnt expect Shields to be so agressive with his strikes. Eitheir way, Akiyama had no chance vs. Shields. If Akitama came out gunning it like he usually does..Jake gets him down easily and dominates or submits him. He decided to come out and stop takedowns, Jake caught him off guard striking. akiyama should have been deducted a point as well..there was the two times he held the fence to stop takedowns in the 3rd...he also did it one in the first. Jake would have still took him down several times if Akiyama didnt grab the fence. Can't believe so many people were picking this guy.

..and Rogan..you're awesome but please check your nuthuggery at the door. It was sad the fuckin Goldberg had to be the one to remind the audience that Jake Shields was in fact clearly winning the fight despite you gawking at everything Akiyama was doing while making Jake out to be a one dimensional jobber despite him dominating the striking...though Mike returned to form with gems like "Mark Hunt brutalized Fedor for 8 minutes"

Hioki-Bart. Dominant performace and one you would expect from Hioki if you watched him before UFC. Id give Frankie the first fight if he moves down..but if not..Hioki got next. I'll think he will do better than overrated Mendes did..though, doing better will still not be enough against Aldo.

Orgami-Boetsch - While it was an exciting finish..you gotta hate when a legit high level MW loses on a fluke to a middle of the pack guy who will now get smashed in subsequent bouts against high level MW thanks to a win in a fight in which he was outclasses throughout. Boetsch probably fights Weidman..Okami-Bisping.

Pettis-Lauzon..nice KO by Pettis. Not much else going on here. He beat Bedo clearly a year ago..i think he's got next...i was wrong about the WEC guys. Im still not big on Cerrone but i was on the Bendo wagon after the Miller fight, and i'm coming around on Pettis. Im very interested to see him fight for the title and he deserves it. Stephens and Lauzon arent the best guys in UFC's LW division but the Bendo win is still fresh enough to count towards a rematch with him since he's now the champ.

The prelims are of the who cares variety.

Kid is done..but he was done before he came to the UFC so don't give credit where it's not due noobs.

Gomi won, but is still done...been done for a long time.

Cantwell and Mongolian Wolf are through..the guys who beat them will follow them in the coming months because they arent that good.

i haven't seen it yet, is it worth downloading later?

i have seen the results though and my win pct has taken another kick to the testicles in the GOR competition :/<-:

7.5, good card but not spectacular.

I went 8, but it was right between and 8 and a 9. Very good card. Lots of memorable KO's and competitive fights. Would watch again. And all 12 fights got shown on the FX and PPV, awesome shit.

I think this gets a little bit of decent buzz in Japan as well. It had the excitement and it had the crowd at the right spots.

I watched it bit and pieces so it is hard for me to judge. Still haven't seen the main event. I'll say 7 at this point. 8 if I like the main event.

9 to me. Big time main event that was close, aton of finishes, an awesome comeback win from Tim Boetsch, a nice sub from Vaughn Lee. I mean this card had alittle bit of everything on it.

9...fantastic card ruined only by Rampage's pitiful performance (I will never pick him to win a fight again) but that was quickly made up for by Bendo-Edgar

Fantastic main event. Just a pure display of skill from both sides in a competitive fight in the best division in MMA. I had Bendo getting the nod. Gave him 2-4 personally and Frankie 1 and 5 I believe

Awesome KO from Hunt. Kongo is trash. He's only beating dudes who he can take down at this point, his striking has grown increasingly shitty and his defense sucks. Shoulda been knocked out by Barry and if Mitrione actually would've fought he probably woulda put him to sleep too. I'll take Hunt-Struve for the lolz next

Nice performance from Pettis. Not much to say, he put the bow on it early and is a better fighter than Lauzon. Stoked for Pettis-Bendo II. That will be fantastic

Akiyama probably belongs at 170 and I thought Shields will definitely struggle to get him down, but what the hell happened to his striking offense? This dude was throwing sick multi-strike combos against Belcher and has progressively tailed off each fight into more of just a head hunter and last night he didn't throw shit. Weird fight

Boetsch-Okami...wow. I was pumped for that ending because it was nuts but couldn't help but feel a little bummed for Okami who was clearly proving himself to be the better fighter

Hioki was marvelous. I was worried during that 2nd round that he was just going to stand the rest of the fight and lose a nonsense decision but luckily he went back to the ground in the 3rd where he treated Bart like a little kid. He deserves shot against Aldo and while I don't think he has enough to win if he can hang around and get a trip takedown or two later into the fight...who knows

Prelims, thought Mizugaki got the shaft, didn't understand that decision at all. Gomi didn't look good but it was still cool to see him get the win. Kid was so bad when he had Lee hurt just tossing punches right into his arms. Come on dude. Fukuda looked solid, see ya later Cantwell. Nice KO by Tamura

bobbitt15 wrote:

9...fantastic card ruined only by Rampage's pitiful performance (I will never pick him to win a fight again) but that was quickly made up for by Bendo-Edgar

Agreed but Page let me down so much I went with 8

Page was so much of a let down I damn near forgot how much Sexiyama pissed me off by not letting his hands go against Shields.

I rounded up to 9, it was excellent. Good mix of competitive fights and finishes. Very entertaining fights, main event was great. Would have been a 10 if Rampage would have showed up. IMO Timmy B vs Okami should have shared FOTN honors.

KingsOwn19 wrote:

Orgami-Boetsch - While it was an exciting finish..you gotta hate when a legit high level MW loses on a fluke to a middle of the pack guy who will now get smashed in subsequent bouts against high level MW thanks to a win in a fight in which he was outclasses throughout. Boetsch probably fights Weidman..Okami-Bisping.

Don't agree with this one at all.

That was no fluke. He wasn't fighting and his corner had to and did make him realize that going into the third. "Wake up, you gotta go out super aggressive." He did just that and dozed through Okamis game and finished him spectacularly. Plenty of people had Boetsch going into this one, he is better than Okami.

I thought Timmy showed he is one tough mother fucker that possess crazy power at MW. Good luck breaking that guy.

His moniker is very apt.

He would maul Bisping.

OU wrote:

He would maul Bisping.

Random

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

He would maul Bisping.

Random

Reality.

OU wrote:

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

He would maul Bisping.

Random

Reality.

No very random, are you trying to hurt me because Mike's British or something ?

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

He would maul Bisping.

Random

Reality.

No very random, are you trying to hurt me because Mike's British or something ?

No, I'm saying what I said on fight night. Just cause.

OU wrote:

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

He would maul Bisping.

Random

Reality.

No very random, are you trying to hurt me because Mike's British or something ?

No, I'm saying what I said on fight night. Just cause.

It's too late, I am crying now.

Good, that pleases me...

Weird, I didn't realize Scotland was a part of Texas?

Ali wrote:

OU wrote:

Good, that pleases me...

LOL well played