UFC 95 Hangover

Some thoughts while I recover form my UFC 95 hangover...

-  For Diego "The Nightmare" Sanchez his lightweight debut was anything but. A thin faced Sanchez entered the O2 in London on Saturday night, his eyes filled with intensity and determination. All the questions surrounding Diego's massive 37lbs. weight cut, were silenced as he defeated Joe Stevenson via unanimous decision. The fight was vintage Diego, high intensity, fast paced and ferocious striking. While Stevenson weathered the early storm a late rally in the third round was not enough to change to outcome of the fight. Sanchez's debut at lightweight was a success and will most likely find himself in title contention in the near future.

- Diego Sanchez looked...well...he almost looked anorexic coming into the O2. I didn't even recognize Diego at first.

- Rory Markham's entrance music, Dropkick Murphy's version of Amazing Grace, may have been an attempt to steal some U.K. love from his opponent. It would of been better if he entered to Anarchy in the U.K. by the Sex Pistols. I think this was a better strategy than Matt Hamill's entrance music when he fought against Michael Bisping in England. Sorry but Born in the U.S.A. is not a patriotic song. The first line is "born down in a dead man's town" for crying out loud.

- Nice job on the part of Spike and the UFC for showing every fight but one. Granted most of the fights ended quickly but it was still fun to see Mike Ciesnolevicz submit Neil Grove and Evan Dunham knock out Per Eklund.

- Thank god for DVR. I mean I love Grand Theft Auto IV and Watchmen as much as the next 18-35 year old white male, but I don't think I could of handled all those commercials.

- Terry Etim and Dan Hardy's victories may be a sign that the UFC is finally identifying some promising U.K. talent besides Michael Bisping. 

- "I just want to do my thang" ~ Quinton "Rampage" Jackson. Sorry Rampage still not excited for your fight in Columbus. 

- Pretty convincing win on the part of Nate Marquardt. But I think Wilson Gouveia's analysis that Marquardt does a lot of things well but nothing great is accurate. 

- The 6'11" Steffan Struve should be a basketball center because Junior dos Santos destroyed him. 

- Do not go on the ground with Demian Maia, just don't do it. 

- Mike Goldberg, "Chael Sonnen is under no illusion about what he is up against tonight." This is the same Chael Sonnen that said he was a better middleweight than Anderson Silva right?

- Can Demian Maia be given a title shot now?

- Joe Rogan, "Josh is becoming a Chuck Liddell." Do you mean he gets KTFO by a guy he was suppose to beat easily? 

- Paulo Thiago landed an upper cut then a left hook, to knock out Josh Koscheck. The stoppage may have been premature, the fans certainly thought so,  but that doesn't mean that Thiago couldn't of finished Koscheck on the ground with a few more punches. It did appear that there was a massive delay from when the referee jumped in and when Josh hit the ground. Now that could have been due to the referee being so far away from the fighters. Koshcheck did look to be conscious after he hit the ground, but on the other hand it was a devastating one-two combo. I guess its just the nature of the beast, that is MMA.     

- I didn't know that Paulo Thiago is a member of the Brazilian Police Special Operations Unit. I mean, I have seen Elite Squad and City of God, and if Thiago deals with that shit on a regular basis then it totally makes sense for him to knockout Josh Koscheck.