UFC 142: Aldo vs Mendes Discussion Thread

[twelve_grand]

Daley is fighting on the next Strikeforce card....

 

Thanks - I thought they had fulfilled his contract in the last two fights and he was done. Do you know if the fight is under his original contract or a new one?

[Snake Plissken]

I'm more concerned that Rumble will end up in BAMMA.

[Craig The Hunter]

Cracking main show with some excellent finishes. That kick from Barboza will be on every single highlight reel from now on, will be watching for it appearing on SportsCenter and possibly Sportsnation, PTI and ATH. Insane knockout.

 

Was delighted to see Belfort tap out Rumble, and not sorry to see him cut whatsoever. Belfort looks right at the top of his game right now, possibly in line for a title shot in the near future? Possibly Belfort/Sonnen if Sonnen wins in 2 weeks and Anderson doesn't recover as quickly as expected?

 

Aldo is the man, that post fight reaction was utterly incredible.

 

Really enjoyed that show.

[JNLister]

Pools panel verdict: home win.

[jimufctna24]

Great Show

 

Aldo had his coming out party in the UFC last night. After 2 fights where he didnt fully show what he is all about, he knocked out in impressive fashion the number 1 contender before a rabid hometown crowd, it does not get much better than that.

 

The celebration at the end was a great moment, Aldo could become the next Anderson Silva in the next few years and also the first proper big star in the new lighter weight classes.

 

Belfort winning was great as well, it felt like justice after Johnson did not make weight. I did not expect him to submit him though, Belfort rarely shows how good he is on the ground. I see him beating Wanderlai over the summer as well and putting him in the title picture once again.

 

Barboza put on a show last night, I picked against him as I felt he was overated, fuck was I wrong. He was clearly beating Etim before that highlight reel knockout, but fuck what a way to leave a impression.

 

Palhares raised his stock as well with a solid win and even though the record books say he lost Erick Silva also looked impressive in his short fight. There are a lot of promising fighters coming out of Brazil and with the record ratings they score over there, the UFC has a lot to smile about even if the buyrate in America is not very good for this card.

 

Roll on UFC 143.

[Kaz Hayashi]

That was a great, great show. Especially considering the lack of promotion. (Not that it wasn't promoted, but it didn't have a shupershow vibe in the lead up).

 

Some cracking fights, amazing finishes, and contoversy. The mental DQ for back head shots was an OMG moment for me, i could'nt believe it and i hope he appeals and wins, purely just for his record stats.

 

As previously mentioned, Dan Miragliotta quick breaks in lock ups was slightly concerning too. There was a particular lock up and rumble seemed to be stepping for some kind of throw, Dan broke it up and rumble face seemed to suggest "your kidding?".

 

Either way, whole show was boss!

 

Good effort

[Egg Shen]

sorry to pipe in late, but i was suspended for a few days here's a few quick thoughts on the show...

 

* Massive win for Aldo. If anything catches fans attention's, it's finishes....and although Aldo took out two solid contenders already int he UFC the wins weren't exactly spectacular, so he needed this to kind of justify the attention and hype the UFC give him.

 

As for the fight i completey underesitmated Aldo's takedown defence. I thought Mendes was gonna grab takedowns right from the bell but Aldo looked great. Having said that i was leaning towards giving Mendes the first round, the tactic he adopted towards the end of the round was very smart, he pinned Aldo up and punished his legs and if it wasn't for a blatant foul Mendes would have scored a heavy takedown. I would have loved to have seen the fight go on because Mendes seemed to have found somewhere we could get success, whilst clearly already suffering from the Aldo legkick attack.

 

I loved the celebration too, i bet Dana shit a brick but that kinda summed up Brazilian MMA for me, it's a little bit wild and the crowd is so passionate. Amazing scenes...remember when Tito Ortiz did the same after he beat Vitor Belfort, it didn't really have the same effect, he just kinda ran up the steps, then walked back down.

 

* Belfort/Johnson ended up being an exciting round of fighting, but i was so glad to see Belfort come out on top. It seemed like justice was done. The crowd for Belfort was absolutely insane. I think it's gonna be hard for the UFC to deny Belfort another shot if he destroys Wanderlei (and i think he will).

 

As for Rumble, he was rightfully cut. I still can't believe he came in overweight like he did. Some people are defending the 'doctors told him to rehydrate' story but that's ridiculous, the only reason he was told to rehydrate was because he had to lose so much weight in the first place. Johnson moved up to make life easier for himself yet he just put himself in exactly the same position at 185. If he can go out and win a couple of fights and make weight i think the UFC will bring him back, but Johnson has to prove he can do it.

 

* Barboza/Etim. The finish was probably the greatest in MMA history, it's in the top 5 for sure but besides that...

 

The fact this got Fight of the Night shows it was a weird kinda night. MMA is the kinda sport that works on moments. Despite being a pretty average night in terms of fights, everyone's raving about the show because it was packed with memorable moments. I'm cool with that though cause i nearly fell out of my chair when Barboza landed that kick. During the fight though i was getting annoyed at Rogan, he was clearly all over Barboza's nuts and was raving about him all fight, but am i the only one that thought the fight was a lot closer than Rogan was making out? Outside of them sweet leg kicks i thought Etim was outworking Barboza and i had it scored 1-1 going into round 3. The commentary continues to annoy me.

 

* As for fight of the night, i think i would given it to Arantes-Carvalho or Alcantara-Omigawa...the UFC overlooks the prelims though if they aint really special.

 

* The Erik Silva got a little too much critisicm for me. It was definitly a confusing situation but the whole thing came about because Prater couldn't continue. If Yamasaki thinks illegal strikes are landed and calls a break he pretty much has to disqualify the other guy. It seems unfair and in my opinion they should call it a no-contest due to not being overly intentional. It's a grey area though cause stuff like this happens all the time and sometimes nothing happens (see Belfort vs. Akiyama). My personal feeling is Prater played up to being hurt and it even looked like he talked Yamasaki into believing there were illegal strikes, but who knows?? There was a gif showing the illegal strikes on Sherdog, but i can't find it now.

 

Still, Silva is by no means hurt by the decision. He'll still be looked at as being higher in the UFC than Prater and he got his cash...set up a rematch i say.

 

 

[444 4444]

UFC 142 is definitely in my top 5 PPV's ever.

[darepool]

I mirror the comments of most above about this being a rather good event.

 

I'm glad Rumble was cut, very unprofessional. I watch the dana white blog videos on youtube when they go up, he tells Belforts manager that he'll get 20% of Rumble's money and Rumble also has to weigh in at 205 on fight day, they uploaded a short video and rumble was 211!!

[METAL ON METAL]

I mirror the comments of most above about this being a rather good event.

 

I'm glad Rumble was cut, very unprofessional. I watch the dana white blog videos on youtube when they go up, he tells Belforts manager that he'll get 20% of Rumble's money and Rumble also has to weigh in at 205 on fight day, they uploaded a short video and rumble was 211!!

 

No, Rumble was 204 on fight day hence how the fight went ahead. It was the pre-fight weigh-in (3 hours before the actual fight) where he weighed in at 211.