UFC 70 Review
by: DarthMolen 1 year, 5 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 9 hours, 34 minutes ago
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Zuffa Entertainment
This year has officially been renamed “They Year of the Puncher’s Chance”. The night started out with a lively match and ended with somebody’s head landing in next week.
Cheick Kongo (W) vs. Assuerio Silva
The first match of the night was Cheick Kongo versus Assuerio Silva. Kongo is a stand-up fighter and Assuerio Silva is a ground person so on paper, this looked like a mis-match for Kongo who has no ground-game.
Round one starts with Silva opening up some leg kicks but Cheick answers back with his own. Assuerio stands up for a short time and then quickly shoots in and picks up Kongo by one leg and slams him down. Kongo goes for a guillotine but it is real weak and Assuerio moves to half guard. Kongo reverses and gets back up. Kongo at this point is practicing some decent take down but Assuerio still is able to get another single leg and a slam. This time Assuerio lands in side control but can’t do anything with it and Kongo eventually reverses in his clumsy way at the end of the round.
Round two gets incredibly boring with flashes of excellence. Kongo is repeatedly taken down but Assuerio does nothing with the chances. When they do finally stand on their feet, Cheick showcases his stand-up game and literally dismantles Silva. Leg kicks and hand combos are the soup du jour and Silva has no answer on his feet. Eventually the round ends with Joe Rogan remarking that somebody needs to kidnap Cheick and send him to wrestling school because he looks so rickety when taken to the ground.
Round three has Kongo hungry for activity and he opens up with kicks and hands delivered with extreme prejudice. Silva gets another takedown but with no activity after the takedown, the referee stands them back up. Kongo starts to really apply the pressure with his fists and has Assuerio in trouble. Silva goes for a takedown in desperation and ends up on the bottom. Kongo starts to throws elbows from the top and opens up some nasty gashes on Silva’s face. Eventually the bell tolls and the action stops with Kongo declared the winner by unanimous decision.
Kongo wins by unanimous decision.
Terry Etim (W) vs. Matt Grice
The next match had the building roaring as one of the hometown favorites, Terry Etim, entered the octagon to fight an American wrestler, Matt Grice. The first thing that you notice is the huge height difference. Terry Etim is very tall compared to Matt Grice.
Round one starts and Matt rushes in. Terry stuns him with a quick punch and immediately rushes in with a flying knee. Matt is still aware and pays back Terry’s mistake by catching the knee and slamming Etim down. Grice starts to really land some nasty shots with Etim flat on his back and Terry can’t seem to control Matt’s posture. Terry’s face is starting to look the worse for wear but he eventually uses the fence to get up and applies a standing guillotine choke to Matt. There’s no guard applied but the arm is in deep and Grice starts to go out but escapes and goes down to the mat. Terry follows him down and applies another guillotine that puts Grice out cold. At this point, the crowd is going wild for the hometown favorite and the referee steps in to pull Terry off.
Terry wins in the first round by Guillotine choke.
Michael Bisping (W) vs. Elvis Sinosic
The crowd favoritism continues when Michael Bisping enters the arena. The house is literally shaking as the charismatic Bisping enters the house. Bisping is so excited that he almost runs past the referee posted to do the safety inspection.
Round one opens up with Elvis looking very confident. Bisping catches a leg and Elvis inexplicably throws himself to the mat. Bisping immediately jumps in and starts the GNP. Michael lands some great right hands from the guard and it starts to show on Elvis face. Bisping is so excited that he jumps up and then immediately back in lowering the boom on Sinosic’s head yet again. Elvis is bleeding like crazy at this point and yet he still stays on the ground taking the beating. The bell finally rings for the end of the round and Elvis is a mess.
Round two starts and Bisping opens up with some great kicks and hits. Elvis actually catches the crowd favorite with a knee and sends him tumbling, much to the dismay of the crowd. Elvis jumps in on the stunned Bisping and goes for a Kimura that forces Bisping to give up his back. At this point Elvis is breathing hard and doesn’t have the strength to do anything with it. Bisping easily reverses and starts the GNP. The crowd is going crazy at this point and eventually the referee has to stop the bout because of lack of defense.
Bisping wins in the second round due to ref stoppage due to GNP.
Andrei Arlovski (W) vs. Fabricio Werdum
The next bout pitted Andrei Arlovski against Fabricio Werdum. Fabricio is a recent addition to UFC from the PRIDE ranks and is also the trainer of Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filopovic. Andrei is the ex-champion of the UFC heavyweight division and this should have been a decent bout. Too bad it was so boring that we will just give you the brief overview, except for the first round.
Round one starts out nicely with lots of inside and outside leg kicks from Arlovski. Werdum has no answer for these damaging blows throughout the match. Werdum looks confident and clinches with Arlovski but the champion makes him pay. Werdum clinches with Arlovski and throws a nice right and an elbow as he backs off the Andrei. Andrei continues the kicks and even gets a nice uppercut that stuns Werdum. Fabricio gets frustrated and drives Arlovski across the ring with a flurry of straight punches and four of them actually land. Andrei counters nicely and the round ends.
We won’t even differentiate the second and third round. It pretty much had Andrei stalking Fabricio but not staying engaged. When Fabricio would shift his weight forward, Andrei would immediately back pedal and forty-five off. Repeat that ad nauseum and you get the idea for the bout. Andrei eventually wins by majority decision (one judge was so disgusted, he considered it a draw). Andrei then apologizes to the crowd for the boring fight but it was pre-meditated and he stuck to his game plan.
Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filopovic vs. Gabriel Gonzaga (W)
Then the fight of the night shows up with Gabriel Gonzaga versus Mirko Cro-Cop. Joe Rogan has been pumping up Gabriel Gonzaga all night long and talking up the match even though Gabriel is a new-comer to MMA. Randy “The Natural” Couture actually picked Gabriel to win. All of this is moot because we are talking about Mirko “Cro-Cop” Filopovic, the wiley PRIDE veteran and terror of all human kind, right?
The first round starts with Gonzaga throwing the first punch. He circles and feints. Cro-Cop throws a nasty kick but Gabriel catches it rebounding off his rib. He immediately takes down the seasoned vet and starts the GNP in earnest. Even though Cro-Cop is calm, the blows are starting to take their toll. There’s a cut up near his hair line and his hips aren’t moving that much. Herb Dean, the referee jumps in and brings it back to the feet.
They both circle for a little bit and Gonzaga throws a right leg head kick that comes in over the top of the hand and lands flush on the side of Cro-Cop’s head. Cro-Cop goes down like a ton of bricks and his leg gets trapped underneath him. Gabriel follows him down with some nasty hits to the head before Herb Dean can pull him off and un-trap the bent leg.
Gabriel Gonzaga wins in the first round due to KO from a head kick.
I don’t know how the hell you can call the first fight a “lively match” since most people used it to go to the bathroom or do something other than watch those two slap fight for 15min.
That Arlovski match was one of the most boring things I think I’ve ever seen. He SERIOUSLY needs to step it up if he ever hopes to regain that belt. NO ONE wants to see a champion who explodes the first round and then evades his opponent the rest of the fight.
I am still in shock over Cro Cop losing.
I talked with my buddy over in England and asked him if Cro-Cop’s head had landed in his yard this morning after re-entering the atmosphere.
Regrettably, it had not so my hypothesis is that it is in orbit still.
I don’t even see how that’s funny.
What’s not funny about that?
I’ve been blown up in training before, and he did get his head kicked off his shoulders.
Was just curious where it landed after being kicked into next week.
The interesting thing was that if you go watch that kick, it wasn’t a teleporting kick like Cro-Cop usually throws. It was just a deceptive head kick.
Gonzaga stepped into it which is a big tell but Cro-Cop guessed wrong and went to block the kidney / rib area and instead got hit in the head.
Arlovski has been boring the last couple of fights I have seen him in. It’s like he wants to be a boxer who doesn’t throw any punches. He just dances around.