UFC 161: 'Henderson vs Evans'

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, shit fight aside, Shields won. He did more of what he wanted and for longer. Woodley seemed out of ideas and had no answer for Shields' clinch game.

[Shane O' Mac Version 2]

Haven't seen the show yet, read the report and it seems a little lackluster. Is it worth going out of my way to watch it?

[wandshogun09]

Not really. There were some good fights but nothing must-see. Rashad-Hendo, Nelson-Miocic and Krause-Stout are all worth 15 minutes of your time if you've got nothing else on. But don't plan your day around it like.

[melina_mma]

David, you didn't watch Rousey vs Carmouche?

Nope, and when I checked the results the next day it appeared that I didn't miss much. First round armbar? Yup.

Didn't miss much? It was probably one of the top 3 most gripping fights of the yearYour ignornance is shocking

[Dai]

Thought the main card was bland as hell. Ill be interested to see the buy rate of this show, as I struggle to see how someone can really justify buying a PPV like this. This card is essentially no different from most of the free TV events they do. After a PPV like this, and even after 160, I assume that there must be thousands of people who have bought it who regret doing so. There must be lots of die-hards out there.The Delorme/Figueroa match was my FOTN. Really exciting, especially the first round. Stout/Krause was also great.

[David]

Didn't miss much? It was probably one of the top 3 most gripping fights of the yearYour ignornance is shocking

Was the end result ever really in question though? Was Carmouche ever close to finishing Rousey, or even looked as though she may be close to doing so? As I said, there's obviously a major gulf in class between the top two recognised female fighters on the circuit at present and the rest.I'm not interested in watching Rousey armbar her way through the relatively mediocre 135lbs fighters that she'll be facing. Her next bout, a rematch with Tate, will most likely end in the same way that their first bout did, am I right? Did Tate offer anything in their first fight to suggest she could possibly win?By the same token I have no real interest in seeing Cristiane Santos smash her way through the competition at 145lbs either. If the UFC ever stage a bout between Rousey and Cyborg at 140lbs I'll tune in, if they don't, I won't. I'm not missing much, especially with the sheer amount of male MMA we have these days.

[DannRead]

Didn't miss much? It was probably one of the top 3 most gripping fights of the yearYour ignornance is shocking

Was the end result ever really in question though? Was Carmouche ever close to finishing Rousey, or even looked as though she may be close to doing so?

By Rousey's own admission, yes when Carmouche had her in a neck crank. Everyone was losing their shit when that happened.

[David]

By Rousey's own admission, yes when Carmouche had her in a neck crank. Everyone was losing their shit when that happened.

A bit more competitive than I thought then, eh? I doubt that's enough to make me buy into it though to be honest.

[melina_mma]

Didn't miss much? It was probably one of the top 3 most gripping fights of the yearYour ignornance is shocking

Was the end result ever really in question though? Was Carmouche ever close to finishing Rousey, or even looked as though she may be close to doing so? As I said, there's obviously a major gulf in class between the top two recognised female fighters on the circuit at present and the rest.I'm not interested in watching Rousey armbar her way through the relatively mediocre 135lbs fighters that she'll be facing. Her next bout, a rematch with Tate, will most likely end in the same way that their first bout did, am I right? Did Tate offer anything in their first fight to suggest she could possibly win?By the same token I have no real interest in seeing Cristiane Santos smash her way through the competition at 145lbs either. If the UFC ever stage a bout between Rousey and Cyborg at 140lbs I'll tune in, if they don't, I won't. I'm not missing much, especially with the sheer amount of male MMA we have these days.

Carmouche was seconds away from victory, Rogan actually thought it was over. As mentioned the place went ape shit as one of the biggest upsets in UFC history nearly went downAnd Tate/Rousey was a fairly close fight if memory serves correct, Tate gave her a good go and lost because she under estimated her.

[DannRead]

161 was fine. Overall I didn't feel bad having paid

[DannRead]

Can't find the post show press conference anywhere, anyone know where I can download that and UFC Tonight?

[David]

Carmouche was seconds away from victory, Rogan actually thought it was over. As mentioned the place went ape shit as one of the biggest upsets in UFC history nearly went downAnd Tate/Rousey was a fairly close fight if memory serves correct, Tate gave her a good go and lost because she under estimated her.

The point is that any victory over Rousey would be considered a "huge upset" because no one is really expected to do anything other than get armbarred within five minutes, are they?It's not competitive enough to hold my attention I'm afraid, much in the same way as recent "must-see" fights between St-Pierre/Diaz and Jones/Sonnen didn't have me amped up or eager to watch them. I pretty much knew that barring a major upset the result was always going to be the same.My interest in female MMA outside of seeing Rousey face Cyborg at 140lbs is pretty much non-existent. That's not to say that it's not popular, or that others shouldn't like it. I'm simply saying I don't have any interest in it.

[wandshogun09]

DannRead - Not sure about UFC Tonight but the 161 post-fight press conference is on YouTube (sorry I can't link to it right now). UFC's YouTube channel has it.

By Rousey's own admission, yes when Carmouche had her in a neck crank. Everyone was losing their shit when that happened.

A bit more competitive than I thought then, eh? I doubt that's enough to make me buy into it though to be honest.

YeahYou couldn't really ask for a much better one round fight, there's only a small handful I'd rate higher (Diaz vs Daley, Rousey vs Tate, Kongo vs Barry etc). And if you want competitive fights, Zingano vs Tate was as competitive as it gets, likewise Alexis Davis vs Rosi Sexton from this event as well. There's some good fighters in the womens division. You talk like Carmouche was a total scrub they fed to Ronda, Liz Carmouche is a talented fighter, she gave Marloes Coenen a beating for 4 rounds before getting caught in a submission, and I'm pretty sure that was on short notice. Rousey has beat some very good opposition, I'd love to see her fight Cyborg as well but just because she hasn't beat Cyborg doesn't mean the girls she's beating are shit. Could it not be that Ronda is actually quite good as well?To be honest, I don't really get why anyone would put a UFC PPV on, sit through all the fights, sit through a lackluster Hendo vs Machida fight then switch off before the main event just because either a) it's women - fair enough if it's not your bag, I don't get it though really. A fun fight is a fun fight regardless of whether the combatants have bollocks or boobies. Or b) you think it won't be competitive - which if you go by that logic you might as well stop watching Jones altogether. And as a few of us have said, there's been plenty of competitive womens fights. It's only really Ronda who's dominating, which kind of suggests she's actually very skilled more than that her opponents are not.It's a growing division. You can't expect it to be as deep or at the level of 155 or 170 yet. It takes time. Closing yourself off from an entire division just because they haven't made one particular fight (Rousey vs Cyborg) seems a bit silly to me. Each his own I guess.

[David]

Was that it? She just shook her off and readjusted the straps on her top as if it was fuck all. People were losing their shit over that?

You talk like Carmouche was a total scrub they fed to Ronda, Liz Carmouche is a talented fighter, she gave Marloes Coenen a beating for 4 rounds before getting caught in a submission, and I'm pretty sure that was on short notice.

I'm not saying that Carmouche was a scrub at all, I'm saying that there are two female fighters at the very top of the pile, and the rest are miles behind.

Rousey has beat some very good opposition, I'd love to see her fight Cyborg as well but just because she hasn't beat Cyborg doesn't mean the girls she's beating are shit. Could it not be that Ronda is actually quite good as well?

As I said previously, there is a huge gulf in ability between Cyborg/Rousey and the rest.

I've quite clearly said on at least a few occasions that both Rousey and Santos are head & shoulders above everyone else. That isn't me saying that Ronda is no good, is it?

To be honest, I don't really get why anyone would put a UFC PPV on, sit through all the fights, sit through a lackluster Hendo vs Machida fight then switch off before the main event just because either a) it's women - fair enough if it's not your bag, I don't get it though really. A fun fight is a fun fight regardless of whether the combatants have bollocks or boobies. Or b) you think it won't be competitive - which if you go by that logic you might as well stop watching Jones altogether. And as a few of us have said, there's been plenty of competitive womens fights. It's only really Ronda who's dominating, which kind of suggests she's actually very skilled more than that her opponents are not.

I've watched female MMA bouts in the past, before the UFC decided to pick them up. I simply don't think that they're all that good I'm afraid. I find the stand-up (except Cyborg) to be largely sloppy, with plenty of poorly thrown punches and eyes being closed whilst doing it and the grappling isn't much cop either. Didn't Alexis Davis (apparently a BJJ black belt) have Rosi Sexton is a triangle choke for almost two and a half minutes? Obviously I didn't see it, but I'm assuming she had it locked up properly? You give any other BJJ black belt practitioner that amount of time and position and it would be fight done within thirty seconds at most.I have no doubt that the fights are competitive, but so is a fight between two equally skilled goons at a local show in shit-town, USA. I wouldn't watch them throw poor punches and fail to submit each other for three frames either, no matter how exciting it was.Dana White held the opinion that the UFC couldn't entertain the idea of a female division because "he didn't think there were enough elite competitors and too often fights were lopsided, which he struggled watching."None of that has changed. The only thing that's changed is that he now has Ronda Rousey, and he can market her and make money from her, which is fair enough.None of that makes any difference to me though, so those who want to watch female MMA can batter in and do so. I'll sit it out until either the fight I want to see gets made, or the fighters improve drastically.

[lambyUK]

David, I have to be honest, I'm not particularly a massive Women's MMA fan either, but you're really having a nightmare here.The way you're shrugging off the Rousey/Carmouche fight in particular really is embarrassing to say the least. Normally I think your responses are largely balanced, but this time you're being ridiculous.This is the first time in a while where (even though you probably don't mean it) you appear to be just fishing for a reaction.The simple fact is, that Rousey/Carmouche was a stunning moment in MMA history.