UFC 121

[Guest Frank Botch]

Really cool Brock interview with Jim Rome. His answer to the Sonnen question is awesome (and seemed legit).

 

[YOUTUBE]s73dayC4S5U[/YOUTUBE]

[etz 78]

Props to Brock, that is epic beardage!

[BRM 220]

Brock Lesnar and Tito Ortiz on the same card.

 

Natural charisma that pro wrestling can only dream of.

[Guest Sparrow]

Pro wrestling don't need to dream, it has had both! :lol

[etz 78]

Yeah, they're more like pro wrestlings memories of the glory days than dreams :D

[Guest Rikidozan]

I didn't think I could love the guy anymore, but his Sonnen reply is priceless.

[Paul 584]

Everyone made weight.

 

 

MAIN CARD

 

* Champ Brock Lesnar (264) vs. Cain Velasquez (244)

* Martin Kampmann (170) vs. Jake Shields (170.5)

* Diego Sanchez (170.5) vs. Paulo Thiago (170.5)

* Matt Hamill (203.5) vs. Tito Ortiz (206)

* Gabriel Gonzaga (254) vs. Brendan Schaub (239)

 

PRELIMINARY CARD (Spike TV)

 

* Ryan Jensen (185) vs. Court McGee (184.5)

* Patrick Cote (185) vs. Tom Lawlor (185)

 

PRELIMINARY CARD (un-aired)

 

* Sam Stout (155.5) vs. Paul Taylor (155)

* Mike Guymon (170) vs. Daniel Roberts (170)

* Chris Camozzi (185) vs. Dongi Yang (186)

* Jon Madsen (254.5)vs. Gilbert Yvel (249)

 

 

http://cdn1.sbnation.com/imported_assets/573400/brockcain_medium.jpg

 

 

 

Jeez, considering its only 2 inches difference Brock looks to tower over Cain. In fact Cain just looks tiny all around next to the Brockmeister. Must be the beard.

[Guest Rikidozan]

Compare the size of the two guys arms:eek The winner gets Junior Dos Santos next year sometime, I assume March/April. JDS is an inch taller than Lesnar, but 20lbs lighter. Interesting scenario, but that's a ways away. Pumped for tonights show!

[Paul 584]

Of all people I couldnt see JDS beating Brock, the guy wants to hope for Cain winning. Edited October 23, 2010 by Paul

[Guest Rikidozan]

I'm kinda going back and forth on that one DS; on the one hand, I can see Brock blasting straight thru JDS, on the other, JDS has great boxing and stand-up which is far more advanced than Brocks. Either way, the UFC 215lbs division is utterly compelling right now (will remain that for quite a while).

[Paul 584]

JDS has, from the few bouts I have seen, pretty poor groundwork and takedown defence compared to what Brock would bring in. Cain I think would be more willing to stand and bang.

[Guest Rikidozan]

JDS is a brown belt in BJJ under 'Minotauro' Nogueira. His only MMA loss was via armbar tap-out, so yeah DS you're right about his ground work. Although that loss was back in 2007, so I assume he's improved on the ground.

[Guest Rikidozan]

A great little interview from Dana White in which he savages Frank Shamrock

 

[Guest Sparrow]

Dana is one cool dude.

[Guest Sparrow]

Wow just wow. Lesnar got owned. Cain just looked like a machine.

 

Lesnar looked bad, I hope he can recover from this, because he is a draw. Brock's face was messed up badly.

[Guest Dante Spears]

Man, what the hell happened to Lesnar, it was going fine and then he just randomly spazzed out and started rolling around the ring?

[Guest Jimmy Redman]

HOLY JESUS.

 

Brock just got murdered. That was an ass whooping. I was devo for Brock, but Cain was a damn beast, and he looked so happy I was happy for him. The heat and the pop were incredible.

 

This is the first show that I've actually watched the entirety of. I'm glad Shaub won, Gonzaga didnt do a thing though, and raising his arms after the bell was hilarious. I kind of just feel sorry for Tito now. I love Diego and he was awesome, great performance. Shields couldnt do much and was really saved only by Kampmann doing even less.

[ShaolinHandLock 73]

Haven't seen the show, reading the results however.....

 

 

I picked Cain to win.....and he did it! Now I'm torn.....I mean, I wasn't going to be suprised if Brock won, but I'm still suprised now that Cain has won, even though I picked him to win. Plus, even though I picked against Brock, I was still somewhat hoping that Brock would win.....Argh!

 

[Guest Dusty Finish]

Still up and buzzing from the main... that result has paid for my car insurance, which is up next month.

 

A real mixed bag of a show. Names from the past cropping up- John McCarthy back on a "numbered" UFC, and Larry Landless a judge for the main event. How clear did they make it that McCarthy was a CSAC appointment & is no longer a UFC ref, with Buffer dropping the "Biiiiiiiiig John" from his intro? McCarthy had a bit of a ropey night, to boot, with two very debatable standups & by failing to administer point deductions for Cote's grabbing the fence to escape a submission, plus Shield's repeated grabbing of Kampmann's shorts.

 

Lawlor proved a very bad match-up for Cote. McGee-Jensen was a lot of fun (and in truth demonstrated why McGee should be kept around this level of competition for the forseeable), and a FOTN contender for a while.

 

Sexy anaconda from Daniel Roberts. Shame for Guymon, I kinda like him; inspirational story.

 

I was unsure who to go with in the heavyweight opener. A Schaub win was clearly in the long term interests of the division. Gonzaga for me has always fallen into the Mir/Vera/Belfort bracket in that the ability to be top of the tree is undoubtedly there (witness the RNC he would've secured with another 5 seconds to spare), but some mental stumbling block, or something, keeps it from happening. A comprehensive & clever performance from "The Hybrid", who probably needs another 2-3 fights with the Struves & Madsens of the division before we talk about him stepping up to face Top 10'ers. Mitrione might be an idea for a semi-marquee bout somewhere.

 

Hamill-Ortiz started in tasty fashion, but just as quickly slowed right down. A gruelling fight, this was. No arguements with the scoring, as Hamill dictated the second & third from mount. I was half expecting Tito to announce his retirement at the end.

 

Although he's an irksome character, fights like Nick Diaz, Parysian, Stevenson, Guida.... and tonight are why an in-the-mood Diego Sanchez is one of the best guys to have around. The screaming, running slam, repeated escaping of Thiago's D'Arce attempts & final manic flurry were all awesome. Fight of the night by miles, and a lot of speculation as to Sanchez's future; for my two penneth, he should drop again now that Penn is out of the way at 155lbs, as he'd give either a Edgar or Maynard a real run for their money.

 

Shields-Kampmann was minor catastrophe. As Joe Rogan rightly incinuated, 170 looks on this evidence to be too big a cut for Shields. It was man against boy on the mat, but once Shields was out of gas, "The Hitman" fought a ridiculous third round- he could've brought the fight upright at several points, but chose to go for submissions, where an exhausted Shields still brushed him off like he was swatting flies. Using exhibits Henderson & Sonnen, I'd wager Shields needs an immediate rethink as to where his future lies ie. a run at Anderson Silva. Whilst I think that Koscheck will give GSP more problems than most are anticipating, and that Shields would likely handle Kos, I can't see him lasting 5 rounds with St Pierre on this performance, barring a catchweight which would be the height of pointlessness.

 

The Champ is here! I've had an inkling for a while that Velasquez was something truly special, but wasn't certain until tonight, partly the reason I've stayed for the most part out of the Lesnar vs Fedor debates... there was another guy just outside the picture. I think it's fair to say that no other heavyweight in the world would or could've survived Lesnar's immediate bull-rush & double-leg, coupled with his firm-takedown reply to Velasquez's first strike. His immediate spring-action repsonse to Lesnar's two quickfire takedowns was just incredible. Fair play to both men, they came out & went straight for the juggular. Once again, Lesnar simply does not react well to a decent shot, be it a sledgehammer swing (a la Carwin) or a concentrated strike like Cain throws, as witnessed by his stumbling halfway across the Octagon. This is his achillies heel as it's something inherrent, that all the training in the world may dilute, but will never eliminate.

 

I like and rate Dos Santos, but didn't fancy him to beat whomever came out on top tonight. Velasquez is going to be champion for a while. It's win-win for the UFC, as Cain has JDS & (if he can win a couple in quick succession) a re-invigorated Carwin to round out the "Big 4" with, while Brock's climb back to #1 contendership can start with the big money rubber match, Lesnar-Mir III.

 

I'm hoping I can catch Stout-Taylor online this week, too.

[Guest The Beltster]

WTF was up with Undertaker and Brock after the fight? Brock walks past Taker, throws him a nasty look, Taker says "You wanna do it?!" and Brock says nothing and walks on, Ariel Helwani asks if they are cool and Taker says its a personal thing.

 

Maybe Brock told Taker in advance "If I lose, I'll walk past you, you say something and we'll start an angle for WrestleMania because I dont wanna get beaten up for real anymore!"

 

:lol