Fight Night

I vegged out last night. Ok, eating a couple of burritos may have added to the sluggishness I felt (hey, I still had burrito fixins') yesterday but at least there was good TV to watch. It was UFC Fight Night. 3+ hours of mixed martial arts (check out mmajunkie.com for all your MMA news). All I needed to do was make a quick jaunt to Bert's to get some beer and I was set.

I don't know how many of you watch either the UFC or any of the other MMA shows. Having grown up watching pro wrestling and some boxing, it felt like a natural progression to be interested in a sport that combines both. Plus with the referees in there to protect fighters, no one gets the living crap beat out of them anymore. It is the one sport where the no name guy can really take down the champ with one punch out of nowhere.

Last night the shows started with some fights from past pay per views. We got to see Matt Serra winning the title with a knockout. We also saw Matt Hughes get beat up for two rounds before BJ Penn hit a wall in the third. What happened there? Penn dominates the first two rounds and puts everything he has into a submission at the end of the second. When he comes out for the third, he looked like a totally different fighter. Like he had just run 5 miles in the hot sun. He looked beyond tired. And he paid the price as jab after jab was landed. He was soon on the ground receiving a pummeling and the fight was called.

Later in the live portion, there were two more good fights. The Quarry/Sell fight was a good example of why you can't sit back and try to just win on points. Sell easily won the first two rounds. But Quarry connected with a big right in the third, sending him to the mat. One more pop to the noggin and it was done. A nice comeback for the man with hands of stone.

Another great fight to watch was the Diaz/Anunsicao (sp?) fight. It went back and forth in the first round with them exchanging holds, countering each other, rolling in and out until Diaz landed a couple good punches and locked in a submission. I hate to think people would watch that and think it was boring. It was a great example of how strategy and training wins fights.

I still have the new season of the Ultimate Fighter to watch. I will probably catch the first episode tonight before I head out for some beers. Hopefully this season will be a bit better than last where too much emphasis was put on the guys trashing the house and fighting each other there. I so wish they would kick out any and all fighters who think it is acceptable to trash a nice place like they are given. It shows absolutely no respect for the opportunity they have.