In most conditions, the collective the vast majority of lovers will make the suitable judgment, inference, or summary in their MMA opinions tonight was not 1 of all those circumstances. The Principal Party, featuring Georges St. Pierre vs. Josh Koscheck was awarded “Struggle of the Night time” honors. The battle of the night should constantly go to the most evenly matched and most evenly fought combat of the night time. This combat was anything at all but evenly matched and fought. As with GSP’s last 7 fights, this was just a further dominant general performance.
Georges St. Pierre possibly landed two jabs for just about every sensible ass remark that Josh Koscheck has built to him about the earlier two months. On the other hand, Koscheck appeared to put a lot more energy into two months of striving to get beneath GSP’s skin than he did in their 25 moment struggle.
St. Pierre dominated the struggle from start to finish. He hasn’t shed a solitary spherical in the earlier 30 rounds he has fought. Saturday, he started the combat flashing quick bounding jabs in Josh’s facial area and saved on with that concept the complete struggle. It truly is often been said that the jab is the most underneath-used weapon in MMA not in this struggle. GSP may perhaps have thrown upwards of 120 to 150 of them in their 5 round bout.
As hyped as this struggle was, St. Pierre’s recipe for disaster was instead easy: jab, hold the still left hand up to protect any wild hooks that Koscheck throws, jab some much more, shoot for the takedown when Koscheck assaults aggressively with combos, jab some far more. When he was completed with that, he made the decision to jab a small extra for very good evaluate.
By the end of the initially round, Josh’s eye was approximately swollen shut from easy straight punches. He was wiggling his reduce jaw suggesting that it could have been broken as effectively. At the close of the 3rd spherical the doctor required to halt the combat, on the grounds that the eye was also poor to carry on, and he experienced previously lost sufficient rounds to shed a selection. Even so, you have to give “Kos” credit rating for showing the coronary heart to want to continue on. Herb Dean also assisted persuade the health practitioner to make it possible for his beating to continue on. By the end of the fourth spherical, just after one more brutal collection of jabs with a couple of straights and hooks tossed in to hold Josh guessing, Koscheck wouldn’t make it possible for his corner to utilize the “No Swell” bar to his experience, foremost some to believe he may well have a fractured orbital bone at this level. Right after the fifth and remaining round, Josh’s slurred speech and swollen face appeared to glance and sound additional like a pretty fantastic impression of Sloth, from the Goonies.
What’s far more is GSP’s graciousness in victory. He could have stooped to Koscheck’s stage and returned the trash discuss soon after his a person-sided victory, but no. Depart it to the supreme “excellent activity” to bail Koscheck out and dismiss all of his trash talk as just a way to create up hype all around the fight. This is why we adore GSP he has the talent to dominate everyone for any length of time he is the most humble fighter in the background of the UFC he is the top “Superior Dude”.
So, what comes upcoming for GSP? This gentleman has quite a great deal run the gauntlet of the full Welterweight division. Jake Shields failed to go to the UFC from Strikeforce for nothing. He appears most very likely to be the next deserving opponent, even even though he showed that the slice to 170 is quite complicated for him. Over and above that, there is up-and-comer Carlos Condit. Paul Daley, now in Strikeforce, is out there as very well, but he may require to set a few more wins collectively just after Koscheck abused him previously in the year. Understanding this is all GSP has still left, we can assume that the supporters are going to be making use of the force to see a “Superfight” in between him and Anderson Silva. Which is the a single we are all ready for, and as considerably as we are from seeing it, it still appears inevitable that it has to transpire.
As for the relaxation of the UFC 124 struggle card benefits:
Stephan Struve weathered a further storm prior to turning the tide on his opponent, in this scenario Sean McCorkle, and pounding him into a referee stoppage in the 1st spherical. Struve is a freak of nature who finds techniques to earn, but it will be exciting to see how he fares from the elite Heavyweight fighters the moment he starts receiving upper degree fights.
Thiago Alves confirmed that he is back to his previous self, if not a great deal improved on his outdated self. He poured 15 minutes of leg kicks and vicious combos onto John Howard, and attained a unanimous determination victory. Seem for him to retain feeding on the welterweight course in an attempt to gain his rematch with GSP.
Jim Miller was shocking in his combat versus Charles Oliveira. The truth that he received the struggle is not shocking it is really the truth that he caught a quite superior Brazilian Jiu-jitsu fighter in a straight ankle lock and transitioned it to a knee bar. I had Miller profitable this fight, but I was contemplating KO or TKO. With this win he most probable moved himself up someplace close to just guiding Grey Maynard in the line to battle for the Lightweight title.
We may possibly have noticed two fighters place in the UFC graveyard this past Saturday night time. Joe Stevenson came out hunting very good for the first minute or so of the combat, until Mac Danzig caught him with a remaining hook when retreating from 1 of Joe Daddy’s flurries (a la Chuck Liddell). Equally males essential to win this struggle. Stevenson has now dropped 5 of his previous 8 UFC fights I cannot see him finding any extra than one last shot to confirm he even now belongs here.
In the prelims we also noticed what may have been the demise of Dustin Hazelett. He hasn’t been the fighter he was before using an prolonged harm leave. He is now missing three fights in a row, and 4 of his final 6. The point is, in the past 3 losses he has not gotten out of the second spherical and on Saturday he got submitted by Mark Bocek by a triangle that commenced from the mount in the initially spherical. If we haven’t seen the previous of these two fighters, you can bet the house that if they are offered a further shot, it will be their previous if they are not able to be productive.
In other Preliminary bouts:
Light-weight bout: Pat Audinwood vs. John Makdessi [(Makdessi defeated Audinwood via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-26)]
Welterweight bout: TJ Grant vs. Ricardo Almeida [(Almeida defeated Grant via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)]
Welterweight bout: United States Matt Riddle vs. Canada Sean Pierson [Pierson defeated Riddle via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)]. This was a fantastic struggle. It ought to have gained “Combat of the Evening” even so, the supporters had been so enthusiastic about viewing their favorite villain receiving pounded by GSP that they awarded the Key Celebration with “Struggle of the Night time” honors.
Middleweight bout: Canada Jesse Bongfeldt vs. Brazil Rafael Natal [Bongfeldt and Natal fought to a majority draw (28-28, 28-28, 28-29)]
