WE’LL MAKE THIS QUICK. IT’S ABOUT SEVEN HOURS before the broadcast starts; that is an hour after the event really kicks off at the Honda Center in Anaheim, California.
We’ll risk error and humiliation by making known our picks for UFC 76: Knockout. Drum roll, please. Mauricio “Shogun” Rua over Forrest Griffin by knockout. Rua is too strong, too quick, too complete, too brave for Griffin. Despite the injury to his right arm suffered in the Pride match against Mark Coleman, Rua will win by sheer dominance. But then again, the UFC has been blessed with a lot of surprises the past five tournaments or so.
Chuck Liddell over Keith Jardine. Again, on sheer superiority. By KO. Liddell is still the supreme striker in the light-heavy 205-pound division. Don’t let the loss to Quinton Jackson fool you. There are humps in the road you just can’t get over. Rampage is the Iceman’s bump too high too climb. There is a word for it in Cebuano – nabalhibo-an. Against most other opponents, Liddell will need just a few minutes to warm up and get his range. He is the best at picking his shots and making them count.
This corner roots for Diego Sanchez against Jon Fitch. Nothing against Fitch. We just want Sanchez to get back on the road to winning, just like Liddell. They’re both gifted athletes with big hearts whose winning records will be good for the sport. Although underdogs have an uncanny way of biting you in the ass when you least expect it. Sanchez by submission. We hope.
That’s all the time we have. I got to get some sleep for the big event later. Dabbled and wrangled with a new blog…on classic rock…of all things. Among many things. I fancy myself a writer but I ain’t no visual artist/designer. Took me 10 hours to get it all together.
YAWN! G’night. Or g’mawnin’. See you around the Octagon or in front of your TV set.
Almost as quickly as I read the following email yesterday, I just as quickly replied to it and promptly got a bounce. That shows how not-so Internet savvy this Free-For-Aller is. It's only appropriate since I got this email from "'Anonymous'
"This message is not flagged. [ Flag Message - Mark as Unread ]
Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2007 08:11:01 -0700 (PDT)
From: "Anonymous"
To: paulotaneo@yahoo.com
Subject: [Free-For-All] New comment on Addendum.
Anonymous has left a new comment on your post "Addendum":
Hey Paul. nice to see you writing you blog again. Its me, Aldie aka Doggymeat.
What did you think of GnP 3 last week? I was at ringside enjoying the action and was surprised none of the MMA bouts went to the 3rd round. MMA in Cebu has gotten to the next level indeed.
What's your take on UFC 74? I have "The Natural" winning by decision. another match i'm looking forward to is GSP vs Kos with GSP winning by a split decision. That card might as well be called "Really Stacked" as card looks really solid on paper. Asides from the GSP vs Kos tussle, I think the match of the night would be against Marcus Aurelio vs Clay Guida.
Lastly, try to visit www.mmaplayground.com if you have time to kill. It's a Fantasy MMA site and is quite fun. Earn points by predicting who wins in what round and how they will win.
"Hope to see more columns from you."
Aldie,
It's also nice to read you email again.
I took notes right after scoring the rounds of the GnP 3 bouts. I will write about the competition as soon as time allows. It would also be fun to speculate on UFC 74 but there's a lot of stuff I want to write about going four to six UFCs back. I will always root for Randy "The Natural/Captain America" Couture until he turns Unnatural/Captain Universal Cop. I hope he wins by submission/referee stoppage but a decision will do all right.
If you were at ringside, you must have seen me. Were you the tall Filipino-looking English-speaking guy with what appeared to be two Middle-Eastern MMA fans behind me to my left who kept on doing color commentary and giving fight suggestions as the matches went along?
By the way, Aldie, please use your name instead of "Anonymous" next time. I tend to ignore Mr./Mrs./Miss/Ms. Anonymous when I see their names on my Inbox. Fortunately, this wasn't one of those times.
Thanks and do keep on reading Free-For-All and emailing me.
Paul
The Flash’s flashback, the Executioner’s slowburn
Posted by Paul Taneo Labels: Bernard 'The Executioner' Hopkins, Nonito 'The Filipino Flash' Donaire, Rodel Mayol, Ronald 'Winky' Wright, Ulises Solis, Vic Darchinyan
EARLIER today, the most exciting fight for Filipino fight fans was a replay. Bernard “The Executioner” Hopkins did not really fight Ronald "Winky" Wright, he followed the brilliant strategy of his trainer cornerman, Freddie “I promise you” Roach, to the letter and kept the smaller and younger Wright at bay for 12 rather boring rounds. The cut that Wright sustained above his left eye in the third round was the single most galvanizing moment of the match. Hopkins thoroughly deserved the unanimous decision win and the anger of the fat guy at ringside who kept on standing up and yelling what may have amounted to insults on Hopkins’ (and maybe also Wright’s) mother, for raising such pansy world-class fighters -- one surely bound for the hall of fame. Shame on both of them Sunday. The weigh-in scuffle at the Mandalay Bay had more excitement and elicited more damage – Roach reportedly tore a stomach muscle.
On the other hand, Nonito Donaire Jr.’s devastating KO win over the previously undefeated (28-0) Vic Darchinyan two weeks ago (shown on GMA 7 while Hopkins-Wright was on ABS-CBN 3 -- which scored a coup by hiring Donaire to do commentary for Hopkins-Wright) was a picture-perfect match-ending display of courageous and smart counterfighting that suddenly placed the Filipino-American in the top 5 of his division. Taller, younger, and just as powerful as the Armenian slugger, Donaire also had a burning desire to avenge his older brother Glenn’s just as damaging KO loss to Darchinyan.
The faux redhead Czar Amonsot’s defeat to Michael Katsidis for the WBO interim lightweight belt, on the other hand, had more thrills for half the number of rounds than the 12-round chess-match Chinese checkers (more chess than Chinese checkers) dance-o-rama of the Hopkins-Wright championship bout. Two of the most exciting portions of the Amonsot-Katsidis fight were the knockdowns Amonsot suffered in the second and 10th rounds. A fairer judge would have declared it a draw at worst and a slight win on points for Amonsot at best, but despite the profuse bleeding and swelling on Katsidis' left eye, Amonsot did not do enough to convince the judges to give him the win. The Aussie fighter claimed that the damage to his left eye was caused by Amonsot's elbows and head butts. "I said I was going to introduce new blood to the sport and I guess you saw a lot of new blood," Katsidis said in a post-fight interview. He failed to mention that most of the blood was his. Match referee Jay Nady could have stopped the fight before the 12th round due to Katsidis’ badly-injured eye and could have warned the Australian-based slugger as often as he did Amonsot for infractions, still…Okay, Amonsot lost but at least he wasn’t knocked out and didn’t have his hair turn back black.
“The Filipino Flash” Nonito Donaire’s victory to claim both the IBF and IBO 112-pound titles made up for the dreariness of Hopkins-Wright and the frustration of Amonsot-Katsidis. Donaire is now a name that Filipino boxing fans can lump with the likes of Manny Pacquiao and Boom-Boom Bautista, another two-fisted fighter you can root for and not feel too scared he might lose because he knows his craft like Pacman and Boom-Boom do.
Donaire’s left-hook that landed on the lower part of Darchinyan’s jaw was a thing of lethal beauty, a Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missile taking out an Iraqi bunker from miles away. You know it's destructive but you just have to admire it. As Darchinyan stepped in, faked a right jab, his right hand near Donaire’s head, his left hand winded up for an uppercut, Donaire had already winded up for his own left-hook counter. Just like a smart bomb, at the exact moment that Darchinyan had presented himself as a target, Donaire lit the fuse of his left fist and detonated it on Darchinyan’s jaw. BLAM!
Donaire had positioned himself so perfectly that his left foot was between Darchinyan’s feet the moment he hit him. Donaire said pre-fight that he did not respect Darchinyan’s power. After Darchinyan got KO’ed, the Armenian should have developed respect for Donaire’s power. Grudging respect, perhaps, but respect nevertheless.
In the fight game, it’s all about respect, power, winning, money, and all the intangibles and tangibles in between. When Rodel Mayol fights Ulises Solis on Aug. 4, here’s hoping he has learned his lessons not just from his 24 wins but also from his single loss. Who knows, Mayol might do a Donaire and have his name enshrined in the hearts and minds of Pinoy fight fans along with Pacman, Boom-Boom and the Filipino Flash. "Magnum Force" looks good side by side with the Terrible Trio among our current ring heroes.
I wrote my take on UFC 73 -- Stacked almost right after watching the slambang action at Arco Arena last Sunday on Solar TV (a great blessing to MMA “freaks” like this blogger) but having no Internet connection, yet, I had to make do with hitting the keyboards on my second-hand laptop and saving my latest masterpiece (cough cough) on my trusty USB and biding my time until I could go to a wired location to post it. So, without further ado...Free-For-All presents (drum roll, please) after a long while...the latest (don't ask how late) FFA post. Thank you for putting up with me and hooking up again. “Without actors, critics won’t have jobs.” And acting is not limited to the stage, screen, ring and Octagon. Jobs? That’s another story. Another post for lack of a print column. Hopefully, not for long.
Of Missed Opportunities And Equestrian Idiocy
Posted by Paul Taneo Labels: Anderson 'The Spider' Silva, Antonio Rodrigo 'Minotauro' Nogueira, free-for-all, Heath 'The Texas Crazy Horse' Herring, Nate 'The Great' Marquardt, paul taneo, UFC 73
UFC 73 – Stacked
July 8, 2007 Arco Arena
THIS one didn’t have the MMA world-shaking upsets of the previous three UFC tournaments or the blank space in my mind of UFC 72 (which I didn’t see) but it sure lived up to its “Stacked” title. Although the main event welterweight championship between Anderson “The Spider” Silva and Nate “The Great” Marquardt was ironically the least exciting of the card.
The Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira-Heath “The Texas Crazy Horse” Herring barnburner is the figurative perfect match to start a martial arts tournament. The legendary heavyweights, picking up from where they left off in Japan’s Pride, exchange punches. Herring falls while Nogueira gets side cradle control and goes for back control but Herring suddenly stands up to escape. On their feet, the Minotaur hits the Horse with a strong left straight that slightly buckles the latter. Later, with about 30 seconds left in the round, Nogueira misses a left straight and Herring counters with a left roundhouse head kick that hurts Nogueira a lot more than he hurt Herring earlier. Nogueira falls to the canvas and Herring follows him to the ground to deliver a pounding.
Inexplicably, Herring disengages, gets back on his feet and motions for Nogueira to do the same. Nogueira does not look a gift horse in the mouth (heh…) and Herring again fells him. With Herring in Nogueira’s guard and punching out Nogueira, the Texas Crazy Horse, true to his moniker, acts crazy and again stands up while motioning with his hands for Nogueira to get back up. Nogueira survives Round 1 with his wits and poise intact. In our scorecard, we give it, of course, to Herring, 10-9.
In Round 2, Nogueira, fully aware that he has to rally, tries several submission holds on Herring, which the strong and patient Herring all escape from. On those failed submission attempts alone, Nogueira wins the round, 10-9.
Herring, in the last round, again does one of his great escapes from Nogueira’s chokes and Kimuras, the most dangerous looking is a rear-naked choke that locks on the lefts side of Herring’s face, Herring bides his time and pulls out of the hold and even manages to reverse into a dominant position while landing on Nogueira’s guard. Herring fights on but is obviously fading, while Nogueira having gone back to boxing Herring, increasingly gets more confident and does enough to win Round 3 to add to his points from Round 2 – no mean feat, considering the dire straits he was on in Round 1. Nogueira, 10-9.
The UFC judges had it officially at 29-28 for Nogueira just like Free-For-All’s. To beat a dead horse (sorry, the pun is irresistible), we have to question Herring’s chivalry, sportsmanship, stupidity, or a combination of all. Although, it’s no big mystery. Even though Herring was on the verge of taking out Nogueira with his striking while the Brazilian was dazed and very vulnerable on the ground, the two previous defeats (a decision and submission by Anaconda choke) he suffered to Nogueira had planted the seeds of fear and respect in his mind. Nogueira can submit anybody anytime when all his resources are locked on predatory mode. Perhaps also flushed with his power, Herring wanted to show the world that he could end the fight on his feet instead of on the ground.
Everyone is welcome to post their opinion on the matter. I used to write a sports column just as long as this one in a local English news daily where I was getting paid a pittance (everything is relative), so you can’t blame this Free-For-Aller for reserving the rest of the card for (no, not three or four days later, as my schedule had it then) next time when I feel like it. Take that, editors of all stripes and egos! No deadlines this time…and no column pay either. Well…c’est la vie.