- Michael McDonald doesn’t have a damned thing to hang his head about. 99% of bantamweights do not get back up from those haymaker uppercuts unless it’s several minutes later and they’re being gently aided by a ringside medical professional.
- Josh Grispi’s, “I was”, when Andy Ogle said he was a bad man was absolutely heartbreaking. Josh is young and hopefully just needs a change of scenery to get his bearings back.
- Minuwa vs. Te Huna. Now.
- Still not aboard the Gunnar Nelson Hype Express.
- Aldo vs. Cub could provide a great backstory and theme, something that’s usually missing from his title fights.
- Te Huna’s walkout. Amazing. I’m so happy that there are still guys who can have fun and put a little theater into their walkout and show some personality instead of just “RAWR KILL KILL RAWR”.
- Tom Watson just landed four more knees in the clinch to Stucky Nedkov while I typed this sentence.
Contributor: Dan Galvan
It’s time to stop accepting stupidity.
The human being that penciled in a 29-28 scorecard for Che Mills at UFC on Fuel 7 was wrong.
There wasn’t some grey area in the fight between Che Mills and Matt Riddle. This wasn’t like Shogun/Machida or Henderson/Edgar where the controversial scorecard can at least be kinda-sorta justified. Matt Riddle beat Che Mills.
Matt Riddle definitively dominated the first two frames (and won the third on my scorecar). Riddle scored takedown after takedown while the only offense that Mills could muster was a few combinations. That’s it.
A person was given the responsibility to pass judgment on an athletic contest. And they failed. Thankfully, the other two judges actually watched the fight and scored it for Riddle. Still, that abomination of a scorecard should not be forgotten.
The verdicts from judges affect the livelihoods of Mixed Martial Artists. A fighter on the wrong side of a poor decision could lose sponsorship money as well as fight opportunities. Judges are given the opportunity to steal money from the pockets of hard-working fighters.
So, what can we do to fix the problem?
The first thing to do is eliminate the idiots. Eliminate the judges with a track record of head-scratching verdicts. Eliminate the judges that have even a scent of bias attached to any of their judgments. Eliminate judges who chuck the actual scoring criteria out the window and use their own convoluted theories. It’s time for athletic commissions to stop talking about evaluating officials and actually do it.
And it should start now. Simply put, the judge in the Mills/Riddle should NEVER judge a professional fight again. Judging MMA contests isn’t some god-given right, it’s a privilege, and that privilege was lost the second that judge handed in his 29-28 score for the elite killer Che Mills.
- Aside from the scare in the first round, Barao looked really good. He was in control of the fight from the second round until the finish. Nothing to be ashamed for McDonald though, he did a great job of neutralizing Barao and quickly getting back to his feet on the first two takedowns. He still has a very promising future.
- Swanson and Poirier got robbed of their FOTN bonus. Swanson vs KZ when he returns sounds pretty awesome to me.
- Gunnar Nelson picked up a very good win over Jorge Santiago. Even though he had sucess with his striking especially when he switched his punching offense from straights to uppercuts, he also showed some bad karate habits (kicking more to touch than to do damage and more importantly keeping his lands dangerously low).
- Terry Etim might be allergic to Brazilians. He’s lost to every one he’s ever faced and they account for 4 of his 5 losses.
- As if I needed any more reasons to root for him, James Te Huna gave us the most awesome walk out in recent memory. He then proceded to come back from a brutal first round high kick and beat the shit out of Ryan Jimmo. The scorecards were a bit weird (no 10-8s on 2 cards and a 10-8 for Te Huna but not for Jimmo on the last one), I had it 28-27 Te Huna and while I feel like a 28-28 is a fine scorecard, I don’t think I would have really been ok with a draw. I don’t care all that much about the scorecards though, I was just happy that Ryan Jimmo got punched in the face numerous times.
- Matt Riddle did what he said he was gonna do and chose to wrestle instead of his usual shadowboxing gameplan. Since that was my main criticism of him I probably should have been happy or something. But no. I think I just don’t like you Riddle, sorry. With that said, to the judge that scored that fight for Mills: what the fuck were you watching?
- Josh Grispi had one of the hardest falls I think I’ve ever seen a prospect take.He just looks like a broken fighter. It’s hard to watch and it might be time for him to look at other career paths.
- I loved watching Watson beat down Nedkov in the clinch. The fight was an extremely fun brawl and without a doubt the high point of the prelims. But still, not FOTN.
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