UFC bj penn vs. matt hughes

[93civiccpe]

...I for one believe the fight was called right between George and BJ. I had BJ for round 1 and George for 2 and 3. You can't take 1 round and coast for 2 and win the fight. People saw the fight they wanted, which was BJ coming out on top, it wasn't the same fight I watched.

I rewatched the Pierre vs. Penn fight again last night, and every time I do the wrestling side of me contradicts my common sense. In that first period Penn beat down Pierre pretty bad. The problem is that in the UFC if you win a round, even convincingly the best the judges will give you on a score card is 10 to 8. In my mind that's completely BS. In this fight the judges must have scored it 10 to 9, which is outrageous to me since Pierre did nothing to earn 9 points. Judges just give them the points.. which I've always hated. I mean, if a guy comes out there and lands every shot and doesn't take a single punch or kick or takedown from his opponent the best he'll do is still 10 to 8 if he's lucky. In my opinion the first round should have been more like 10 to 2 for Penn.

The second and third rounds are where I have mixed feelings. The wrestler inside me says "yes, takedown is worth more than an escape". So yes, the fact that Pierre took down Penn several times even though Penn escaped each time would put Pierre ahead points wise. BUT, this is NOT wrestling. In the UFC it's all about punishment and beating up your opponent. Pierre did almost nothing with his takedowns.. he was ineffective against the guard of Penn and really didn't gain any advantage from being on top.. no real shots landed and no submission attempts, whereas Penn almost had an insane submission held in from the bottom. This is an area where I think there needs to be a reform in the UFC. Penn was comfortable to go to the ground with Pierre even if he was on the bottom because he was looking for submissions from the bottom. His ground game and defense in my opinion was a hell of a lot more impressive than the takedowns from Pierre. Pierre got him to the ground and did nothing with it. Penn easily stood up or tried working submissions from his back while preventing Pierre from getting any damage. But apparently the judges gave Pierre a 10-9, 10-9 ruling in those rounds because of takedowns.

I think the first round should have been no less than 10-8 for Penn, at which they would have made it go to one more decisive round. But when my common sense comes into play, I look at what happened the entire fight... Pierre got some good takedowns, but did little with it while on top. He couldn't keep Penn down when he had a takedown, Penn got up at will. On his feet Pierre was definitely defeated by Penn, and didn't land anything of significance. Then you look at Penn... beat Pierre bloody in the first round landing a ton of punches and having his way with Pierre and almost having the fight called because of the cut he opened up on Pierre. Then he showed an incredible ground game and almost got a submission from his back... when taken down he either got right back up or used it to his advantage to try to get a submission. In either case, I thought Penn was out of shape and way too defensive in the end. It cost him against Hughes, although at least in that fight his conditioning was 200% better... (he had strength for two rounds instead of just one against Pierre).

Who knows Dana may have paid George to sit this one out. I really doubt that George is ducking Hughes, my money says he will eventually get the belt anyway.

I agree that Pierre isn't ducking Hughes, because he's been begging for a title fight.. I just think Dana realized there was more money in the Hughes vs Penn fight and that's the fight people thought was deserved. (BTW.. isn't his name Georges St. Pierre... waht's with the plural on the George... silly Canadians.. lol). But seriously, I can't wait to see the Hughes versus Pierre rematch. I hope Hughes destroys him again. And as for Pierre eventually getting the belt, I could see it happening with two big IF's... first is IF Matt Hughes retires, and the second is IF BJ Penn stays out of shape and decides he doesn't want to be the UFC Champion anymore and just goes back to fighting overseas. I do not believe Pierre can beat Hughes, at least not right now. And I don't think Pierre could have beat Penn in his condition for fighting Matt Hughes. Penn definitely thought Hughes was much more of a fighter as shown by his better conditioning. Just think of what would have happened if Penn was in that shape against Pierre.. that would have been two rounds of a beatdown and there wouldn't be enough for Pierre to do to allow the judges to give him the match. Common sense shows that Hughes beat the crap out of a much stronger Penn, who Pierre struggled against to say the least. But I could be wrong.. we all know it only takes ONE punch to change all this. If Pierre lands that one punch then everything changes.. but we'll see. In any case I'm just glad there are real challengers and real action at the welterweight class. I'm a fan of Rich Franklin as well but he's just walking through people right now.. hopefully his upcoming match with Silva will provide some entertainment. After that who is he going to fight?? Swick?? Swick barely lasted that third round against.. darnit.. what's his name.. the guy who Franklin beat down for 5 rounds in his last fight. I like Swick, but don't think he's ready for Franklin yet, but maybe that'll get hyped up and be a good fight. Nevertheless, should be interesting.

[RoadDawg]

My boss and his son went to this event. Between the 2+ fights (one in a suite) that broke out in the crowd, he claimed it was borderline criminal.

From that I am drooling to see the vids.

Also, what do you guys think of Shamrock vs Ortiz on SpikeTV. Last time neither fighter got a sweat prior to the bell.