UFC 163: 'Aldo vs Zombie'

[wandshogun09]

I've never been a fan of Tom Watson neither, I think he'll win this weekend though.

 

I'm uncertain who will win that. If Leites is still as good as he was (people hold the Anderson fight too much against him IMO), he could give Watson problems. He's a handful on the ground and I haven't seen much to suggest Watson is any great shakes in the grappling. If he can keep it standing I'd defo favour Watson though.

 

But yeah, I get the knobhead vibe off Watson. I always think he seems a bit of a twat when he hear him speak, the monkey mask entrance is pretty cack and coming out to that 'I wanna get freaky with you' song is quite gay. Also, after his outburst against TRT after his last fight (which I agreed with in principle), he started mouthing off at Wandy on twitter, accusing him of being a cheat (despite Wand never failing a test since coming to the UFC). It's not just 'cause it's Wand either, I just think it's a bit of a dickhead thing to do throwing accusations about on twitter and trying to tarnish someone who's accomplished a ton more than you and who's rashguard you're not fit to sniff. If he'd accused say, Rich Franklin who I'm pretty indifferent to, I'd say the same thing. There's ways of trying to get a big fight, and if you're going to be a twat at least be a funny twat.

[jimufctna24]

coming out to that 'I wanna get freaky with you' song is quite gay.

I found it mildly amusing, but then again I do not enjoy Tom Lawlor's similar antics and find them annoying, so I know what you mean.

 

I enjoyed his fight with Nedkov, but I could forget he exists. He is not the sort of fighter I would ask "when is he fighting next" or go out of my way to see him on a prelim. My indifference is proven as I did not know about the Wanderlai comments, and agreed it is a silly target when there is Chael, Hendo and Belfort out there where there is more proof. Just reeks of trying to talking yourself into a money fight in a dickish way.

[wandshogun09]

Yeah, I loved the Nedkov fight. It's one of my favourite fights this year so far.

 

coming out to that 'I wanna get freaky with you' song is quite gay.

I found it mildly amusing, but then again I do not enjoy Tom Lawlor's similar antics and find them annoying, so I know what you mean.

 

That's the thing, at least with Lawlor, even if his schtick isn't for you, you expect it because he's a weird fucker. Thats the way he is. With Watson it just seems forced and it doesn't fit him at all. Whenever he speaks he seems to have all the charisma of a breeze block, so it comes across like he's overcompensating for his blandness by trying to be wacky on his entrance. If he was playing it for laughs like Lawlor, Genki or Gono did, fair enough. But he doesn't. He rips off the monkey mask and he's deadly serious, doing his best menacing face while the high-pitched squeals of Dane Bowers play over the arena sound system. It's almost comical.

 

It doesn't go with his serious hardman swagger at all. Imagine if Cain walked out to Gangnam Style or something? It would just look silly. Closest comparison I can make would be when Rory MacDonald came out, stone-faced stoic, all-business, serial killer serious to...MC Hammer's 'You Can't Touch This'. What was he playing at there?

[jimufctna24]

I should say I found a MMA fighter coming out to the song funny, nothing about Watson himself I found amusing, as said he does seem a bit dull.

[wandshogun09]

 

 

If Machida wins this one, which I expect he will, does he get the title shot? He was meant to get it after beating Ryan Bader and that was a year ago, then he was meant to get it after beating Dan Henderson, you'd think another win would guarantee the shot. But now Jones is mentioning Glover Teixeira as the possible next in line after Gustafsson. Machida will probably be left as the odd man out again.

[wandshogun09]

Some Aldo stats I just read...

 

*He's scored the most knockdowns in featherweight history and has never been knocked down himself.

 

*He's successfully defended 61 of 66 takedown attempts. A 92.4 % success rate, which is incredible in itself but when you consider he's gone up against the likes of Edgar, Mendes, Faber etc who are all really good wrestlers, it's really amazing.

 

*He's landed 106 of 124 leg kick attempts. 85.5 % success rate.

 

Madness.

 

Oh while I'm here might as well post this;

 

 

New Brazilian ring girl.

[Egg Shen]

i feel you on the Kong thing. It's kinda weird because if you read all his quotes you'd expect him to be some kind of outgoing loud mouth but when you actually hear him speak he's very reserved and comes off as a very quiet guy.

 

Watson called himself the most exciting fighter in MMA this week on MMAjunkie, dunno if i'd go that far but's had some quality fights...the Nedkov is probably the best MMA fight ive seen live, it was epic.

 

I think the guys just playing the media and trying to keep his name in the mix, not that it means anything really but ive met Watson a couple of times and both times he's been super nice...the guy spent a lot of time on the UK scene and i guess he's just trying to make the most of his oppurtunity.

 

Hes got a tough gig this weekend though.

[pryko]

 

New Brazilian ring girl.

[wandshogun09]

Weigh ins are done;

 

MAIN CARD (Pay-per-view, 10 p.m. ET)

Champ Jose Aldo (145) vs. Chan Sung Jung (145)

Phil Davis (205) vs. Lyoto Machida (205)

Cezar Ferreira (185) vs. Thiago "Marreta" Santos (183)

Thales Leites (185) vs. Tom Watson (185)

John Lineker (129)* vs. Jose Maria (126) - 129-pound catchweight bout

 

PRELIMINARY CARD (FX, 8 p.m. ET)

Vinny Magalhaes (205) vs. Anthony Perosh (205)

Sheila Gaff (135) vs. Amanda Nunes (136)

Neil Magny (171) vs. Sergio Moraes (170)

Ian McCall (125) vs. Iliarde Santos (125)

 

PRELIMINARY CARD (Facebook, 6:30 p.m. ET)

Josh Clopton (145) vs. Rani Yahya (145)

Francimar Barroso (204) vs. Ednaldo Oliveira (205)

Viscardi Andrade (170) vs. Bristol Marunde (171)

 

* Lineker missed weight and will surrender 20 percent of his purse to Maria.

 

 

Fucking Lineker. I'm a fan but he's a twat for missing weight. With how shallow 125 is right now, an impressive win tomorrow could have secured him a title shot. He can forget that now after coming in heavy. This pretty much guarantees Louis Gaudinot is the next in line for a crack at flyweight gold.

[Gooner]

I'm rarely a gambler but we did a football thing at work today on a four fold and I won well. I figure I may as well put some of it on a famous Zombie victory.

[444 4444]

Well, Watson changed his entrance music - to fucking Backstreet Boys.

 

If Leites doesn't send him packing I hope Bisping gets to beat the shit out of Kong in the near future.

 

Edit - Forgot to mention, Moraes transition to the triangle and the roll at the end was bloody brilliant.

[wandshogun09]

First off, bonuses are;

 

Fight Of The Night: Uncle Creepy vs Iliarde Santos

KO Of The Night: Anthony Perosh

Sub Of The Night: Sergio Moraes

 

Well that was a disappointing ending to an otherwise fun show. Poor Zombie.

 

Aldo vs Zombie wasn't the action packed fight we were expecting. But it was heating up nicely there towards the end. You always hate to see fights end like that on an injury, but I thought this was even worse because I actually thought the momentum of the fight was starting to swing in Zombie's favour slightly. We'll never know now but Aldo again was showing signs of slowing down after a fantastic but measured performance in dominating the first two rounds. After that I thought Zombie was on the right track, when he did attack he was doing better and Aldo didn't seem to be able to time him so well, hence him starting to hold him on the fence I suppose. Zombie landed some decent shots in the 3rd and those two flying knee attempts (round 1 and 3 I think) were inches away.

 

Then the shoulder popped out looked horrible. Poor sod. I hope it's a case of looking worse than it is and they can pop it back with no long term damage because the last thing he needs now is more time on the shelf.

 

What next? Personally Aldo vs Lamas and Edgar vs Swanson make sense to me. But then again, they got Chad Mendes at #1 in the rankings so he has to be in the mix, especially if he beats Guida in a few weeks. Like I said before, if Pettis beats Bendo again, I'm all for an Aldo vs Pettis champ vs champ superfight.

 

Machida vs Davis - well fuck first off, I agree with the decision. I had Davis taking rounds 1 and 2. I got this completely wrong and underestimated Davis. Regardless whether you agree with the scoring or not, you have to admit Davis fought better than pretty much anyone expected. Machida still stuffed a lot of takedowns but I disagreed with Stann (who I thought was really good all night by the way) acting like Machida was winning every round. He did admit it was close but they were acting like Machida was dominating and I didn't think so at all. Round 2 was Davis', round 3 was Machida's. Round 1 is the decider IMO. And I didn't think Machida did as much as the commentary suggested. Even that mad flurry, yeah it looked good, nearly everything missed though. And Davis closed the round with a takedown followed by some solid elbows and punches. It wasn't dominant by either but I though Davis edged it.

 

What really surprised me was how well Davis was doing in the stand up. Again, I'm not saying he was outstriking Lyoto, but the fact it was even competitive was a bit of a shock to me. He landed some decent stuff and took some good shots well.

 

Not a great fight, but I think the right man won. Machida moaning after, I mean how much can you complain? He didn't do much for large spells of the fight. You can't expect to win a decision on takedown defence if you're not following it up. I really thought Davis was a perfect opponent for Machida to look good against, I can't believe he lost this.

 

Ferreira looked great. That could've got SOTN actually. Cracking finish. Ferreira looks like the result of a Vitor Belfort and Mark Kerr night of passion.

 

I enjoyed Leites vs Watson. Was it just me or did Leites look massive compared to his last UFC stint? Good performance. He was sloppy in the striking at times but his BJJ looked as good as ever. Have to give credit to Watson for seeing the final buzzer. I thought he was done a few times but he kept escaping. Good fight.

 

Lineker vs Jose Maria was a good opener. Lineker showed a ton of toughness to come back from that spinning backfist. He was fucked there for a bit. Good comeback. Shame Maria got hurt though. He fought well up to then. Lineker won't be getting that title shot after missing weight though. He's set himself back with that I reckon.

 

Prelims were a lively bunch weren't they. Perosh KOing Vinny in 14 seconds was pretty awesome. Vinny seems like a bit of a willy and it's nice to see Perosh dishing out a quick KO after being on the receiving end against Jimmo last year. Bit of redemption for the Hippo. Amanda Nunes looked like a killer. She could be one to keep an eye on, she looked huge for the weight as well and she looked quite a bit improved since I last saw her. Bloody hell, she can talk for days though. Stann had to almost rip that mic away. That Viscardi Andrade looks handy as well. Really impressive.

 

Good show. Just gutted the finish of the main event went how it did. Roll on Boston in 2 weeks.

[niff]

I only caught a couple of fights including Watson's who hung on in there somehow, completely absorbing stuff. With UFC now on BT I'll definitely be watching more of it.

There's a replay on BT Sport 2 at 11pm tonight for anyone who missed it.

[jimufctna24]

Machida vs Davis - well fuck first off, I agree with the decision. I had Davis taking rounds 1 and 2. I got this completely wrong and underestimated Davis. Regardless whether you agree with the scoring or not, you have to admit Davis fought better than pretty much anyone expected. Machida still stuffed a lot of takedowns but I disagreed with Stann (who I thought was really good all night by the way) acting like Machida was winning every round. He did admit it was close but they were acting like Machida was dominating and I didn't think so at all. Round 2 was Davis', round 3 was Machida's. Round 1 is the decider IMO. And I didn't think Machida did as much as the commentary suggested. Even that mad flurry, yeah it looked good, nearly everything missed though. And Davis closed the round with a takedown followed by some solid elbows and punches. It wasn't dominant by either but I though Davis edged it.

1 and 3 for Machida on my card.

 

Machida bossed Round 1, landed all the meaningful shots and generally had the rule of the fight. Davis did very little with the takedown. Machida was guilty of doing fuck all in round 2, but he still again landed the majority of the very few meaningful strikes, Lyoto mainly defended but did not push forward enough. The knees from Davis on the ground were enough for me to entertain giving Davis that round. Round 3 was all Machida.

[wandshogun09]

I disagree Jim Sylvia. Having a quick look about online it seems I'm in the minority but I defo had Davis edging the fight. I can see the argument for Machida winning round 1 but he didn't boss shit last night. Except his funky little entrance, that was lovely. He almost broke into a full-on dance at one point but decided against it, shame. But yeah, no-one "bossed" anything in that fight to me. I thought the striking was pretty even in round 1, Machida did that flurry (which I'm guessing is one of the reasons everyone seems to think he won the round) but like I said, the replays clearly showed fuck all of it landed. You can't score 'nearly strikes'. And the headkick which backed Davis up against the cage looked to be all on Davis hand/arm to me. So I had the stand up close, then Davis ended the round with a takedown and some elbows, that was enough for me. And like I always say, it was a really close fight which you can justify scoring for either, so I really don't get this outcry of robbery online.

 

Machida's a weird one. Whenever he loses a decision everyone cries robbery, it was the same against Rampage which I also didn't think was a bad decision. He seems to mesmerize people into thinking he's doing more than he really is IMO. He moves around well, darts in and out brilliantly, but there's not a great deal of actual output a lot of the time. He throws one shot and lunges out again most of the time. When he does throw combos he looks lethal, I wish we'd see more of that from him. Davis was the aggressor for most of the fight, and he landed good shots and got a couple of takedowns.

 

It's frustrating because I still feel like Machida is the better fighter. If he'd upped the attack at pretty much any point last night, I think he could've stopped Davis. But he left it too close to complain.

 

And anyway, he was alright with bad judging when he 'won' that robbery against Shogun. You've got to take the rough with the smooth sometimes

 

EDIT -

 

Niff, defo watch the next show on Aug 17. Pretty much guaranteed to be a fantastic show top to bottom. Probably the most stacked card of 2013. Until UFC 168 in December anyway.