It’s hard to imagine Ortiz vs. Sharmrock II will be any different than the first one. I hope I am wrong but Ken might get seriously injured in this fight.
I’m going with Arlovski in the rubber match, he’s still too fast for Sylvia.
I agree, I saw the way both Ken and Tito train on Spike (or suppossedly). Tito trains at high altitude with a squad of guys who are all beasts. From looking at Tito’s training versus Ken’s I’d say Tito has a big advantage. Besides he won the last fight too. I like Ken as a person and a fighter, lets hope what I saw on Spike wasn’t all he used in his training. He was doing target HR work on an eliptical for cardio!!!
Tito on the other hand, would pound the #&^% out of a muy thai bag for 3 straight minutes and run up a mountain. Tito will definately be more prepared, I like Ken more, but I have to admit it.
Arlovski is a beast, he is very mentally focused. I think anything can happen, but I am going for Arlovski.
As much as I like watching Shamrock’s fights when he’s there to fight and not just get paid, I think Tito will destroy him. Tito looks much quicker, plus Ken’s 42. Shamrock does have a decent chance IF he gets a good position on the ground. Arlovksi should beat Silvia – last time he was careless and got caught with a shot.
Some thoughts on the undercard –
Jeff Monson will twist Anthony Perosh into a pretzel. Monson is silly strong and a great grappler.
TAFN.
Man, those fights SUCKED. Herb “Mommy” Dean stopped the Shamrock fight in 1:18 after Ken caught a few elbows in the guard. Everyone at Hooters (which had the fight for free) was mad at that. The undercard was mostly boring, with the exception of the Burkman-Neer fight, which Burkman won by decision. Both fighters came to throw and did, with Burkman getting the better of it. Joe Stephenson was beating Yves Edwards, having grounded and pounded till blood was all over the place, when the doctor advised a stoppage before the 3rd round.
I was just trying to remember if there was another fight, and oh, yeah, the main event . . .yawn. Silvia was content to counterpunch, and Arlovski made zero attempt to do anything other than punch. They not only didn’t go to the ground, they only even clinched once. It looked like --hell, it was-- a boxing match between two lazy heavyweights.
Silvia got the decision, which was right since he was less lazy and less ineffective than Arlovski.
yeah those were some of the worst fights that i have seen. and frank mir looked so fat and out of shape. did anybody else notice this? probably the best fight of the night was jeff monson and they only showed the highlights.
Yea I thought it sucked too. I don’t understand how they let Yves bleed 2 litres of blood but stop Shamrock immediately. At least it is fun to watch Tito get totally jacked before his matches.
Wow, that pay-per-view sucked! I could have waited until this one came on television. It was unfortunate that Ortiz-Shamrock was stopped so early but I don’t think Ken had a chance anyway. Frank Mir and Dan Christison both looked out of shape. What’s with Frank Mir, he used to be a submission expert but I hardly saw any submission attempts from him? Arlovski-Sylvia was a yawner. Arlovski just juked around for five rounds, not enough to win a decision. Sylvia deserved the decision for landing more shots in the later rounds but that fight was uninspiring. The UFC needs to bring in some more heavyweights.
Ken should see that Tito is in way better shape and bag it, but he wants to get paid. I was dismayed that McCarthy, who is the closest thing to a decent ref the UFC has, wasn’t working the fight. Ken got mauled for 3 rounds in the first fight and was still fighting. Calling it so quick gyps the fans. I wanted to see an asskicking at least.
BTW, props to Hooters for having the fights and for letting us just stand there and watch. It was jammed full of fight fans, no one leaving, and they could have told us to go away but let about 8 of us hang out at the entrance for free.
I’ve been hit in the head enough to know that the decision to stop the fight was a good one. Trust me, Ken was not going to recover from that one. If the ref wouldn’t have stopped the fight, Ken would have had about 20 more elbows, the results of which would probably have left him blind or brain dammaged. The fighters can take a hit for sure, but c’mon now, 5 unanswered elbows!!! The fight was over.
I agree that Saturday was the most boring UFC I have seen. Ken wasn’t defending himself and the ref made a smart decision. I think after Tito bodyslammed Ken, he was out of it and just couldn’t recover.
Arlovski would have won the fight had he been a bit more agressive with those kicks to Silvia’s left thigh. He should have kept working them because they were working. Arlovski should have definatly took the fight to the ground eventually. Also a yawner. Let’s hope Iceman puts the smack down on Tito again, or else he will never shut his trap…lol.
On your criteria, Herb, most fights should be stopped much much sooner. We have all seen guys take a lot more than that. Maybe he wouldn’t have gotten out of it, but the ref shouldn’t assume that. I imagine you would have stopped Silvia-Correra midway through the first round?? Hughes-Gracie was about right --it was clear that Royce was just getting beaten up. Tito threw those elbows, but not all of them landed cleanly, and Ken was still trying. Once he is unable to defend himself it should be stopped, not if the ref thinks he will probably eat a bunch more so let’s stop it now.
What fight were you watching? Ken had his hands down, his body was limp, no tension in his legs. He wasn’t defending himself. So I guess according to your criteria the fight should have been stopped.
I agree wit herb, at least Gracie had his hands up while he was getting pounded, Ken was just enjoying it…lol.
so wanderlei or chuck? i pick wanderlei.
Chuck must defeat Renato Sobral in August first. He can’t afford to look past “Babalu”.
I just looked at it again. His right hand was trying to defend, hard to see what the left was doing. He wasn’t holding a closed guard, but I don’t see how you can say no tension in the legs, and his body wasn’t limp.
He would have very likely lost, but Ken (and we the fans) had a reasonable expectation, based upon his previous fight with–well, mauling from–Tito, as well as many other fights in the Octagon (his and others) that he would have the chance to fight out of a bad situation. We’ve seen others do it. It’s a bit like the pass interference in the end zone in the last Superbowl–technically shmecnically it wasn’t that bad, but you don’t call it super-strict in the end zone in the Superbowl when players get away with worse every week.
I am not advocating piracy and I didn’t post it to youtube, but if you look at it again there you will see that of the last four elbows, the first two missed, then one to the forehead, then a glancing blow to the side of the face. The ref assumed that Ken must be in trouble and jumped in prematurely. I won’t post the link, but you can look for yourself if it’s still up.
Edit: Ken had his head to the side, with his left hand in front of his face. The two of the last four elbows that connected are a gray area–if you want to see them as damaging, you can see that, and if you want to minimize them, you can see that. Tito would have continued to throw elbows, and Ken likely would have found them too much, but I still say we weren’t there yet.
Edit again: Just to be clear, I agree that Ken was going to be TKO’d. I just don’t think we were there yet.
UFC turning into WWE? I’m not saying its coregraphed but is the fight already predetermined?
Just a thought. I do however think that certain legends are fighting just for the money and don’t care what the end result is as long as they get paid (bills, that condo in Hawaii, you know how it is!)
Hey all, check out Rupert’s avatar. It reminds me of what Tito did to Ken in their first fight!
true, but i dont think babalu has the tools to put chuck away. well see though.