Tonight Darkside and I decided to head to a local watering hole to take in UFC 61: Bitter Rivals. The place was absolutely packed. I mean standing room only. Darkside noted that it was a very young crowd - a lot of early 20's guys and girls. That in itself is a great sign for the UFC. They are growing a young fan base.That being said, the card itself really didn't live up to expectations.
Ken Shamrock has been talking shit for months about how his first fight with Tito Ortiz was a fluke. He said Ortiz stopped him quickly because he wasn't in shape, wasn't prepared etc. Tonight, Ortiz stopped Shamrock in just over a minute. It was brutal. Elbows to the face until the ref just said that's enough.
Shamrock hopped to his feet and seemed pissed about the stoppage, but he was clearly out and wasn't defending himself at all. A few more Tito elbows and Shamrock would be dead.
Sadly, this fight - which Darkside and I agreed was likely the weakest on the card was the highlight of the evening.
Tim "The Maniac" Sylvia and Andrei Arlovski fought five rounds of stand and jab. Is Arlovski an idiot? Sylvia is 6'8" and a SLUGGER. Why wouldn't he shoot the legs and TRY to negate his size / reach advantage? Why not try to submit him since he has some ground game. Jab, punch, counter, repeat. Slow, boring, bad.
Who is that fighter coming out to the ring pretending to be Frank Mir? I liked the old Frank Mir a lot better. He was a bad ass. This Frank Mir faced a tomato can named Dan Christison (formerly of Ultimate Fighter) and LOST. Sure, he had his hand raised and declared winner - but ask anyone who watched the fight. Mir lost. He had one good round, and was basically controlled by sloppy ass Christison. In his defence, Mir has been out of action a long time following some serious injuries ... but hell, if you're not ready to go ... don't.
We expected Josh Burkman to DESTROY Josh Neer, but instead had to take a win from the judges table. Neer looked decent holding off the heavy hitter, but didn't do much in the way of offence. He tried a couple submissions, but didn't get anywhere with them. His best spots of the night were his brazen taunts and dropping of his hands DARING Burkman to knock him out.
The first fight of the night saw Yves Edwards bleed like a stuck pig at the hands of Joe "Daddy" Stevenson. Edwards was caught with a nasty elbow in the head that took out a huge chunk. He covered the ring, his opponent and himself in blood. For whatever reason, Big John didn't stop the fight. He did pull Stevenson off to have doctors look at Edwards cut, but the fight continued. At the end of the first round it was stopped by the physicians. Edwards was pissed and was screaming, "I CAN STILL FIGHT".
Just curious - why couldn't the UFC run fewer ppv's and make sure they have at least 7 or 8 of their top 14, 15 guys on every show. Tonight, I was more impressed with the guys around the ring.... Chuck Lidell, Wanderlei Silva, Matt Hughes, Kendal Grove, etc etc. Oh, it was also announced by Dana White that if Lidell gets past Renato "Babalu" Sobrai at UFC 62, he will face off with Silva. Now that will be a fight worth watching!
Overall, I give this show a 5 out of 10 with only a few legitimate O's.
8 comments: on ""Bitter Rivals" disappoints"
I just watched the Ortiz-Shamrock debacle on YouTube.com. I understand why Herb Dean stopped the fight. I was questioning whether or not Shamrock was still awake as well. But damn... for all the hype of that fight to have ended in such a hinky manner. You just know we're going to get Shamrock whining for a rematch. A more decisive finish could have put an end to all this.
Ortiz really did come off looking like the heel, didn't he?
You can't get more decisive than that...
Ortiz knocked his ass out....
The only thing that leaves doubt in people's minds is Shamrock's bitching after the match that he could still go...
Dude, if you could have kept fighting, maybe you shoulda tried a little something called "blockin the bloody elbows that keep hitting you on the top of your square head". It's a time honoured MMA technique.
It was a waste of $40 from my point of view. Only three good things that came out of UFC 61 were the announcements of Liddel/Sobral, the possible fight between Liddell and Wanderlei Silva, and Yves Edwards putting in his two cents for the "Muta Scale". Goddamn did he bleed like a stuck pig or what?
watch-wrestling....
if you don't see the natural connections between MMA fans and wrestling fans you arent paying attention.
Actually there is definately cross over appeal.
#1) there are more and more stars who have competed in both every year...
#2) the UFC's new model is a lot like wrestling. heated promos, character development, then a blow off
#3) If you like seeing guys fight, why wouldn't you like seeing a REAL fight?
MMA isn't for everyone... and if you're not down with it, you don't have to read about it.
It is a sport, once UFC has tornado tag matches and flaming tables, then its professional wrestling
Well, compared to the UFC of old, it might as well be. Which is why I shell out more money to watch Pride FC and K-1 Hero's.
Big Daddy, I dunno what you're talking about. Beer + Wings + fighting = awesomeness!
Yeah, that show sucked. The wings were hella good, and the beer that I spilled all over my shorts was pretty wicked as well.
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