UFC 157: 'Rousey vs Carmouche'

[Egg Shen]

my Rogan gripe ofr this show (ive gotta have one) was during the second round of the outstanding Grice/Bermudez fight. Rogan at some point in round 1 completely fell in love with Grice 'improved standup', so much so that for 4 minutes of round 2 he basically dismissed anything Bermudez did and rubbed his dick about Matt Grice under the announce table...in reality Bermudez was very much in the round and despite having a more conventional approach at striking than Grice won the round on 2 judges cards (as well as mine).

 

Rogan just goes off on one sometimes and i cant help but notice it.

 

what a fucking fight it was though, the 3rd round was unbelievable, ive never seen anyone basically use the cage to stay on his feet and still continue to fire back like Grice, insane performance by both guys and a bonus cheque well earned.

[Egg Shen]

The Lawlor stoppage was a tad early, but Dean got it right still. Lawlor landed an absolute bomb and you could see Koscheck go out for a couple of seconds as his eyes roll back into his head. The fight was over right there and then and Dean was ony saving serious damage on Koscheck's part. Lawlor is back and I can't wait for more!

i don't agree, Koscheck was out for a second or two and basically woke up as the fight was stopped. He was also in a position where if Herb hadn't stepped in Lawler would have just smashed in more right hands, Lawler's a fucking killer in that kind of position.

 

 

I discredited Lawler a little beforehand based on a few recent Strikeforce performances but he looked great, rejuvinated and the win will fill him with confidence. Welcome back Robbie Lawler.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, I really think it's a combination of being back in the UFC lighting a fire under him, and cutting to 170 forcing him to really push it in training. It's brought the out the best Robbie Lawler we've seen in years.

 

To put it in perspective, GSP couldn't put Kos away in 8 rounds. 40 minutes. And Kos had a smashed face for a big chunk of the second fight. Lawler put him out in 1 round and with his first real flurry of the fight. Impressive.

[Egg Shen]

its weird how Dana said that Lawler always said he'd only cut back to 170 if he came back to the UFC, to go 8 years fighting out of your favorite division during the prime years of your career is a strange move, i'd like to hear more about why he chose to do that.

 

 

 

...also the post fight speech was probably the first time ive ever seen Robbie Lawler smile, what a miserable bastard.

[wandshogun09]

Ha, Lawler totally blanked Ronda at the press conference as well. He was sat next to her and when she was talking he had a "shut up bitch" look on his face at times. Then at the end when they were all getting up, Ronda looked like she was gonna say hello/shake hands whatever and he just walked past her. He's a grumpy fucker is Lawler.

[jimufctna24]

Robbie Lawler and Josh Neer, two southern hicks who are a tough as nails and possess a fighting style about as refined as Dana White's language. The start of UFC 157 felt like a time warp back to 2003 with those two.

 

Credit where it is due, I thought Lawler was washed up and overhyped even in his younger days. I thought he had little chance of catching Kos and whilst Kos has a tendency to lose to fighters he should beat with ease (Paulo Thiago and Drew Fickett) Lawler still took his chance. He will now make a some money as a UFC mainstay as he will surely have at least 3 more fights. Probably on Main Cards due to his fighting style and fairly recognizable name.

[Supremo]

A fantastic show, with a main event that truly lived up to the hype. A complete home run.

 

I'm gutted for Carmouche. By fight time I was completely rooting for her and it was heartbreaking how close she came to scoring the upset. I can only imagine what it must've been like for you guys who put bets on her, too! I'm glad to hear she's going to be taken care of by the UFC though. She deserves a million kitchen tables. She's been an absolute revelation these past few weeks and I'd go as far as to say that her involvement in the build up, from her personality to her story, has done far more good for the division, the company and the sport as a whole than Cyborg ever would've done had she been in her place. The coverage I'd seen and read was glowingly positive, focusing on what a great role model Liz was as both a lesbian and a marine, and in retrospect I'm so glad neither Tito nor Cyborg were around to shit it all up with their brand of awkward, amateur promotion, coupled with a shady, drug-riddled past. In that sense, I hope Cyborg never makes it to the UFC. This division is simply better off without her. Tito should never speak publicly again, either.

 

Very surprised by Robbie Lawler. I always assumed any success he had in Strikeforce was a case of him simply fighting a level of competition below what was in the UFC. I fully expected Josh to smoke him with his wrestling. An arguably premature stoppage, but like always I'd rather we saw early stoppages than late ones. A rematch would be cool though, perhaps as an FX headliner?

 

Great win by Faber. It's amazing how he looks so outclassed in almost every title fight he has, yet manages to demolish everyone else in the division. It's a really weird position for him to be in. Awesome submission.

 

Machida vs. Henderson was fucking boring. I'd love to hear from whoever said this was the real main event. It sure as fuck didn't feel like it from watching the show. And can you imagine how dreadful it would've been if this was the last fight on the PPV? Jesus Christ. Machida's a weird one. When he fights that style and then eventually catches a guy like Bader or Rashad then it's a super cool thing to see, but when he does it for three straight rounds and nothing materialises then it can be pretty shit and frustrating. Still, I don't think anyone watching was even half as frustrated as Henderson, who looked absolutely furious. For the record, I scored it two rounds to one for Machida. Shit fight though.

[Egg Shen]

Robbie Lawler and Josh Neer, two southern hicks who are a tough as nails and possess a fighting style about as refined as Dana White's language. The start of UFC 157 felt like a time warp back to 2003 with those two.

this is something ive brought up before but despite everyone saying the UFC 'Boom' happened around the TUF 1 finale in 2005, i always find that the actual boom started around '02/'03 and then peaked going into 2005...i know the boom is all to do with the TV show on Spike and whatever but the seeds were definitely sewn around 2002.

 

Ironically it's the time i got into MMA, but i also found that around that time the UFC was more popular over here than it is now. Not from a die-hard fan standpoint and certainly not from a standpoint of people actually practicing MMA (there weren't many), but in terms of casual fans i think this was the time when MMA was at it's height over here. I have MMA conversations with random people from time to time and i find that many people's MMA knowledge starts and ends around this period. it's always 'is Chuck Liddell still fighting?' and similar questions. I had it re-inforced yesterday in work when a guy i work with who recently found out i like MMA had a brief conversation about 157, he said two things 'you see them two chicks fight? did you see the Robbie Lawler fight'...hes about as casual fan as you can get and told me he went to the first UFC's over here, but when i mentioned who fought on the London card last week he didn't know any of the fighters... but he's still familiar with Lawler from the timespan i mentioned. For some reason people fondly remember that period.

 

The UFC/MMA was a fad for some people, and the fad happened during that early Zuffa UFC 36-TUF 1 era... anyone else encounter people like this?

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

For me personally, that 2005 "boom" period was actually the time I wasn't watching. My first event was Ortiz vs Shamrock in 2002. I asked my uncle to tape Survivor Series for me, and he said he couldn't because he was watching UFC instead. I remembered Shamrock from the WWF, so I grabbed the tape from him. After that, neither my mum or my uncle could afford pay TV, so I didn't watch MMA until Lesnar debuted and I had a good enough Internet connection to watch his fights that way. From there I was hooked.

 

That Ortiz/Shamrock fight (UFC 40) was a monumental step for UFC's success, it was their biggest event since they got booted from TV and had to clean up the sport. I think that got a lot of people's attention.

[Egg Shen]

For me personally, that 2005 "boom" period was actually the time I wasn't watching. My first event was Ortiz vs Shamrock in 2002. I asked my uncle to tape Survivor Series for me, and he said he couldn't because he was watching UFC instead. I remembered Shamrock from the WWF, so I grabbed the tape from him. After that, neither my mum or my uncle could afford pay TV, so I didn't watch MMA until Lesnar debuted and I had a good enough Internet connection to watch his fights that way. From there I was hooked.

 

That Ortiz/Shamrock fight (UFC 40) was a monumental step for UFC's success, it was their biggest event since they got booted from TV and had to clean up the sport. I think that got a lot of people's attention.

yeh, UFC 40 kickstarted it for me, its the first build up i ever followed and although i knew the result before i saw the fight i had to see it...i fringe followed it then till UFC 45, then it all kicked off. I find a lot of people around my age had some sort of interest at that time, it just fell off again a couple of years later. Its just most people still refeference that time when talking about MMA.

[David]

I must be one of the old dudes on here, as I remember hunting down VHS tapes of the very first UFC and watching that at a friends house after hearing about it from a relative in the US. I think I've pretty much seen them all, and found myself going from a 15 year old "just bleed" kid watching Gerard Gordeau kick Teila Tuli's teeth out of his mouth and thinking that was "hardcore" to becoming more a fan of the technical aspects of the sport.

[ColinBollocks]

The Hendo/Macheda fight went exactly as I expected. Macheda is too clever to get caught, and sadly Hendo is 42 and just coming off major knee surgery - it's going to slow anybody down, even a beast like Hendo. Fight was proper boring, though.

 

The main event was more exciting than I expected. UFC are sure to be thrilled with it, as both women looked excellent. The return match is sure to do great numbers, if Carmouche can get a couple of impressive wins.

[Carbomb]

The Hendo/Macheda fight went exactly as I expected. Macheda is too clever to get caught

 

 

Surprised United gave him permission to fight.

[ColinBollocks]

Haha. He's a karate wizard, you know.

[wandshogun09]

I'm surprised I didn't get into MMA sooner, I grew up a MASSIVE Bruce Lee fan. Seriously, when I was 6/7 I must've watched Enter the Dragon every day, my Mom can still rattle off lines verbatim. She was sick of Brucey. I also loved the Turtles, Bloodsport, Karate Kid and Kickboxer growing up. I was always fascinated by martial arts and boxing and became a huge Nigel Benn fan. Watched the Rocky films relentlessly. Of course wrestling was a constant as well. I've basically loved watching people fight since I was born. Naturally I took up boxing and Muay Thai and did it on and off.

 

But oddly, didn't follow MMA properly until UFC 52 in 2005. Saw bits before that. First fight I recall was Baroni/Menne which I caught on Bravo. Shamrock/Ortiz didn't pull me in. I just looked up the result, saw pics of Ken's mangled face and moved on. TUF didn't get me. Late '04 my mate showed me Wandy/Hendo 1 and something about that fight just got me. From that day I've been an MMA junkie and Wand bummer.