UFC 156 Review

UFC 156 is in the bag and once again the talk on everyone’s lips is incredible knockouts and questionable judging decisions 

Antonio Silva def. Alistar Overeem KO (punches) R3

It’s only fair to start on the knockout of the night  and possibly the year.Who saw this one coming? I’ll tell you who-Bigfoot’s corner men. They told him at the end of round 2 it was all set up for him to finish and oh how he did. Whether or not it was cornertalk that got lucky or they genuinely believed he could do it is irrelevant because the big man believed them. Overeem only has himself to blame; this is a fight he should of won. No disrespect to Silva but I still see Overeem  on another level to him and I expect him to bounce back sooner rather than later. Overeem was to cocky, to sure of himself and to be frank, to lazy. His eyes were on a title shot and not his opponent, always a deadly mistake. I like to see a Overeem v Mir fight in the near future, both are top fighters who need to get themselves back on track after a big loss. As for Silva you got to wonder where he figures in the already full of top contenders title scene? Surely a man who holds wins over Overeem and Fedor has got to be considered for a shot at the gold?

Jose Aldo ( c ) def Frankie Edgar, points, unanimous

I want to start off by saying I think the right fighter won but that’s not the issue here. The issue is the horrendous judging score cards. 2 out of 3 had it at 4 rounds to 1 in favour of the champ, what fight were they watching? As the final bell rang in my eyes the first 2 rounds were Aldo’s, the final 2 were Edgar’s and whoever won that third round would win the fight. And this isn’t just my humble opinion; the commentators and pretty much all UFC fighters posted the same on twitter, every journalist and fan like wise. What has a fighter got to do to convince the judges? Some people even thought Edgar had won 3 rounds (a decision I wouldn’t argue with). It brings us back the age old questioning of the judges. The fact that Joe Rogan even said on air that the judging in Las Vegas is always dodgy really does blow open the question more for me-what can be done about this? I often felt UFC need to bring in their own judging panel and not use the states (and I know that’s a whole other issue so I won’t go there), do they need to put the judges away from ringside and into a tv monitor area? As for the fight itself I thought it was a great effort from the challenger, as it always is with Edgar. He is truly a fighter’s fighter. It’s not hard to imagine him getting a rematch 12 months down the line; He is a former world champion, regardless what the judges saw the whole world saw he gave Aldo as good as he got and I shall imagine he will win his next couple of fights. For Aldo this was a victory he will be proud of; he dominated the early rounds and weathered the storm of a spirited comeback.

Antonia Rogerio Nogueria def Rashid Evans, points, unanimous

How many coffees did you need to keep you awake during this one? What happened? Or to be more precise, why didn’t this fight happen? What on paper looked a tasty number turned out to be a complete miss. These things happen in fighting, not every bout can be a killer. Both fighters were more interested in not getting hurt than scoring it seemed. I don’t think it was all bad, I quite enjoyed Rashid Evans blocking the jab, I tried this myself a little during my afternoon training session and found it can be an effective technique, more physiological than anything. It’s the sort of fight that benefits nobody, none of them looked impressive and neither will be moved up the ladder after this. I can’t help but feel Rashid Evans is now clearly past his prime.

A quick note on Demian Maia, how long before he gets another title shot? Based on recent performances I would like to see him given another chance, he is an artist. As for Fitch well he may still be the toughest guy to submit but if that means every fight you’re just going to find yourself smothered by somebody trying their best Jiu-Jitsu skills then what good is that claim?