Rich Franklin Outpoints Wanderlei Silva, Cain Velasquez Dominates Cheick Kongo at UFC 99
In a clash of former champions, Rich Franklin defeated Wanderlei Silva via unanimous decision on Saturday in Cologne, Germany in the main event of UFC 99: The Comeback.
Silva connected with heavy punches throughout the 195-pound catchweight contest, but Franklin countered with frequent kicks and punches of his own. Both fighters were hurt on multiple occasions during the three-round, 15-minute bout, but the frequency of Franklin’s strikes were enough to earn him the unanimous decision victory.
As was the case with all of the card’s unanimous decisions, the official judge’s scores weren’t announced, but the fight appeared to be closer than the unanimous scores indicated (MMAFrenzy.com scored the bout 29-28 Franklin).
With the win, the former UFC middleweight champion Franklin, who now competes at light heavyweight, improves to 25-4, while Silva, a former PRIDE light heavyweight title-holder who is moving down to middleweight, falls to 32-10-1 following the loss.
In a battle of heavyweight contenders, Cain Velasquez used his superior wrestling to dominate Cheick Kongo en route to a unanimous decision victory in the UFC 99 co-headliner. Velasquez, now 6-0 in his young career with four-straight UFC victories, should meet another contender in the 265-pound division in his next bout with fellow wrestling prospect Shane Carwin among his potential opponents. Kongo, meanwhile, must improve his ground game if he’s to climb back up the heavyweight ladder towards a title shot, as Velasquez easily secured mount and rained down ground and pound throughout the bout.
Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic successfully made his return to the Octagon at UFC 99, dispatching of Mostapha Al-Turk with punches midway through the opening round of their heavyweight fight. An accidental eye gouge that set up Cro Cop’s finishing flurry was the only blemish on the bout, but appeared to have little affect on the result as Al-Turk had been staggered with punches moments earlier. Unbeaten in his last four fights, Cro Cop improves to 25-6-2, while Al-Turk falls to 6-5, including an 0-2 mark in the UFC, and should soon find himself released by the promotion.
Mike Swick stopped Ben Saunders with punches in the second round of their welterweight contest on Saturday at the Lanxess Arena, lining himself up for a fight against a 170-pound contender, with the loser of July’s matchup between current champion Georges St-Pierre and Thiago Alves, Martin Kampmann, or Carlos Condit among the possibilities. Swick is now 14-2 on his career with wins in 9 of 10 UFC bouts, while Saunders drops to 7-1 with the first loss of his career.
In other main card action, Spencer Fisher spoiled Caol Uno’s UFC return with a unanimous decision victory and Dan Hardy won the biggest fight of his career by outpointing Marcus Davis via unanimous decision in the pay-per-view opener.
The event’s official results were:
- Rich Franklin def. Wanderlei Silva via unanimous decision
- Cain Velasquez def. Cheick Kongo via unanimous decision
- Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic def. Mostapha Al-Turk via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 3:06
- Mike Swick def. Ben Saunders via TKO (strikes) — Round 2, 3:47
- Spencer Fisher def. Caol Uno via unanimous decision
- Dan Hardy def. Marcus Davis via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
- Terry Etim def. Justin Buchholz via submission (D’Arce choke) — Round 2
- Denis Siver def. Dale Hartt via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 1
- Paul Taylor def. Peter Sobotta via unanimous decision
- Paul Kelly def. Roli Delgado via unanimous decision
- Stefan Struve def. Denis Stojnic via submission (rear naked choke) — Round 2, 2:37
- John Hathaway def. Rick Story via unanimous decision
[Pictured: Rich Franklin]
Tags: Ben Saunders, Cain Velasquez, Caol Uno, Cheick Kongo, Dale Hartt, Dan Hardy, Denis Siver, Denis Stojnic, John Hathaway, justin buchholz, Marcus Davis, Mike Swick, Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic, Mustapha al Turk, Paul Kelly, Paul Taylor, Peter Sobotta, Rich Franklin, Rick Story, Rolando Delgado, Spencer Fisher, Stefan Struve, Terry Etim, Wanderlei Silva
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Oh my goodness. All my picks but 2 came in. I’m not too bothered by the Hardy/Davis outcome but im surprised with a Unanimous Decision for the Wandi/Rich fight. Unanimous? Jeez, who judged that bout?
I thought the judges were right. Franklin won the first two rounds clearly.
I thought the second was very close and could have gone either way. Seeing as how not much happened in the 1st, the most significant thing was wandi’s take down and control. No one won anything clearly imo.
I thought the FIRST** (not second, my bad) was very close and could have gone either way. and the 3rd was also very close but having just watched the fight back, i cant argue I guess. It was close though.
I thought Franklin won the first round because of his stand up. While Silva did take Franklin down, he didn’t do anything with it, at least imo. I thought Franklin nullified any attack off his back. In the second round, more of the same, though Franklin got caught. I thought Wanderlei won the third round.
I thought it was a draw. While Franklin won the 1st half of all 3 rounds, Silva won the 2nd half of each round.
while i think this fight was close….i would give it to silva….rick was in bad trouble in the fight and like the commontator said….silva inflicted the most damage in the fight….at the end of the fight….rich looked like he had lost so i dont know
wow…………. lots of decisions in the key matchups . Not sure if that was the way they set it up .Seemed like it was supposed to be a night of KO’s .
……….. How would you guys rate this PPV ?
I thought it was a cool show, one thing that annoyed me was the fans booing. Rogan summed it up though as they were clearly un-educated. God knows why people boo the ground game, im not satisfied unless a fight hits the deck! lol
Good fights for a Euro show though.
I mentioned my disappointment with so many fights going to decisions with this otherwise quality PPV over on another thread.
I’ll throw this out there so I can get the collective wisdom of the forum on this:
Is it possible that as the sport in general and the UFC in particular gets larger and larger, and the fighters paychecks do not grow proportionately, and the fighter releases seem to come with more and more frequency after losses, the fighters are somehow less motivated to resolve things in the cage, as opposed to leaving it in the hands of the judges? Are they too cautious for professional reasons?
Or is it that so many fighters across the weight spectrum are so evenly matched and trained when it comes to striking, grappling, and submissions, that fights going to decisions are inevitable?
Also, as it relates to the “how the fights were set up” comment, I was under the impression from various articles and interviews that Dana White was most defintitely NOT a fan of fights going the distance, and thus has instructed his matchmaker to schedule fights with the greatest potential for dramatic conclusion [T/KO, submission, etc.].
Now no one would probably think beforehand that a Wand fight would necessarily go the distance, especially with a tough customer like Franklin. Same with an experienced striker like Kongo taking on a guy in his 6th pro fight like Velasquez. And with all the smack-talking between Hardy and Davis you would think that someone would have been KTFO’ed. Yet somehow there was a surprisingly high percentage of key fights going to the judges table for resolution, as dr doom mentioned.
Was it even matchmaking, or something else?
Maybe Dana White could do something about this if he offered a doubling bonus to the fighters for ending things decisively, and not letting 3 people sitting ringside for free decide the fate of athletes in the world’s fastest growing sport?? I suggest this IN ADDITION to the usual fight of the night, KO of the night, and submission of the night bonuses already paid out. I’m all about putting some more cash in the hands of the people responsible for making MMA the greatest sport on Earth. Somehow I don’t think its fair or right that Dana White has his own plane and yet somehow Rich Franklin sold his TUF coach H2 on eBay last year to help pay the bills, or that Matt Hughes passed on his TUF coach H2 in favor of a John Deere farm tractor because they are so damn expensive. The guy was the most dominant WW the sport has ever seen, and yet somehow he has to choose between an H2 and a tractor for his farm, while his boss wears a Rolex estimated at 30 grand?
That’s just not right.
I would think that maybe if a fighter instead of being offered say a 20/20 contract [20 to fight, 20 more to win, by whatever means necessary], he were offered a 20/40 or even a 20/50 contract, wherein he’s getting 20 to fight and another 40 or 50 to end things in the cage instead of it going to a decision, that might take matters away from the judges, which benefits EVERYONE concerned, from the promoters, PPV people, and venues [more excitng product] to the fighters [more scratch in their pockets] and down to the fans.
To be fair you could maybe even structure fighter contracts trifold, instead of split level, wherein a fighter received 20 to fight, another 20 to win, and yet another 20 to win in the damn cage instead of being handed a decision, no matter how well-earned or deserved.
I know most MMA fighters are by no means living large. An extra 33-50% salary is a Hell of an incentive to settle things in the cage, and its not like the xtra xash will break the promotion.
Of course there will always be fights going to the scorers table, for a variety of reasons, but if the promoters, particularly Dana White, were to re-structure some of these contracts so that fighters were financially motivated to finish things in the cage, we the fans would see a lot less decisions and a lot more KOs and tap-outs.
I’m really curious if I’m the only MMA fan out there that sees this as a problem, or if I’ve had just a few too many Red Stripes this weekend…
A few too many something
Very good points. I think u maybe on to something good here.
I think there are incentives to end fights rather than let them go to scorecards. Not 100% sure, but I believe they are there. They may not be equal to whatever the fighter is getting paid to show up, but they are there. Remember even the guys on TUF get offered 5k for a finish. Then there’s the fact that you never know how the judges score a fight, so why leave it in their hands. If you finish the fight, you know you’ve won and have nothing to worry about. I’ve seen a lot of fights that both guys clearly wanted to finish their opponent and they just couldn’t for whatever reason.
In terms of Hughes’ money, an H2 is around 50k, Hughes owns a proper farm, and a proper tractor for that kind of farm is probably more than an H2. Hughes also was saving up so he could build his gym, if the guy can build a gym.
The whole thing about Dana has a Rolex but the fighters only have blah blah… if the employees make more than their boss that company is in big trouble. And if you think that Dana’s pay is disproportionate to the fighters’ pay, take this into consideration: Yankees owner George Steinbrener (sp?) has the money to pay all of the exorbitant salaries of his players, then pay the luxury tax for exceeding the “salary cap” (I know that’s not quite the right word) plus pay the coaches and other staff, and still spend money tons of other places. If he has enough money to pay A-Rod, Jeter, Rivera and the rest, that means he makes A WHOLE LOT MORE than they do.
Something more specific to Dana’s situation, he works 14+ hours a day 365 days a year building the UFC, opening new venues, scheduling events, and trying to grow the sport of MMA. Yes, fighters “train” year round, but they normally do a 10-16 week camp going into a fight where they train a lot, go fight, then take a couple weeks “off”. Between off time and camps they train, but not the same. Going into the fight tonight Kongo was reported to have said that he was always trains, but when he’s not training for a fight it’s 1-2 times a day, but when he’s in camp for a fight its 4+. I doubt he’s putting in even 8 hours a day at the Wolfslair when he’s on his 1-2 times a day.
Sure, it would be nice to see fighter salaries increase, but the company has to stay profitable, and stay capable of growing the business. As time progresses, so will pay. But remember, it cost the UFC a lot of money to go to Germany and put on an event to garner only a $1.3 million live gate.
I wholeheartedly agree, Justin; however, Dana White really needs to mature on the profanity. The way he speaks, you’d never know he was a married man with children (which he happens to be…).
As I pointed out on the other thread you referenced, it is on the fighters to make the matchups exciting, the UFC just sets the fights up. As has been referenced before, Dana White, on his E60 bit has bonuses for submissions (4:00 or so of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UdSQ4Yn0XY&feature=related ) (and by logical extension, knockouts) in the area of $20k (for the event in Montreal). Not to mention, as is pointed out repeatedly, the DISCLOSED paychecks on the contract do not represent any undisclosed bonuses (see above mentioned clip), or any potential Fight/Knockout/Submission of the Night bonuses. And then there is the issue of sponsors. And then there is the issue of other outside businesses. These guys don’t make their money in the octo\agon. They make their money outside of it. They make their money by whoring their butts out to CondomDepot.com. They make their money by allowing Tapout to sponsor them. Or Xyience (sp?). Or whoever ponies up MONEY to have their name/logo on their poster/shorts. (Could someone point me to the article where Mir says how much he makes from sponsors vs. UFC pay? Thanks)
The matchups are, as mentioned in the other thread, set up to do two things 1) order rankings within divisions, from title holder to number one contender all the way down the rankings (Franklin v W Silva and other one off fights the exception) and 2) sell PPVs with the second one being subservient to the first. In some of the other fights, maybe set up a matchup that has explosive results (see Houston Alexander), but even those fights have a higher function than to sate the bloodlust of the fans. In the end, the matchmakers deal with fights ON PAPER. In the octagon, it is up to the fighters to fight a good one. End of story.
The comment you are referring to on the Mir thing is here. It’s another few months back in time where Dbiz linked to the actual article, I don’t feel like going that far.
I was shocked that Franklin was given the unanimous decision, I scored it 1st for Franklin, 2nd for Silva and anyone could have taken the third.
I think the judges scoring system needs to be shaken up a little, effort to finish the fight should be the number one factor that the judges look for if no clear winner can be established from a five minute round
j.cohl, to answer some of your concerns, some fighters (top guys gsp, A. silva, rampage, etc.) have 100,100 contract, they get a 100k to fight and another 100 or more to win. not to mention the sponsors, if you look at the fighters trunks you see their sponsors who pay them. noone knows exact figures but they do get paid. but, a fighter has to pay taxes, pay their coaches, etc so some of their money goes away once they finish a fight. we dont know the guys spending habits, maybe some like to buy expensive clothes or cars or jewelery etc. maybe thats why they have to choose between a hummer or paying the bills. do I think fighters are underpaid, damn straight I do. almost all proffessional athletes are overpaid, look at nfl, nba, and baseball players. these guys are getting paid upwards of 50 mil and you would think for that amount of money they would be perfect and never miss a shot, pass, etc.
as far as making fights end by a ko or sub instead of a decision, fighters cant be forced to entertain the crowd, just so the crowd doesnt boo. this aint rome, people need to quit being bloodthirsty. I think mma is growing a bit too fast and quite a bit of the fans are uneducated and just want to see blood and ko’s. me personally I prefer watching evenly matched guys throw it down. its a match of skill to see who can make who make the first mistake.
fighters have to be a bit cautious, the way it seems lately with the ufc is if a fighter loses two or three straight fights they are cut, or two out of three or four. some guys quit their jobs and mma is how they pay the bills, if they are reckless in the octagon they could get caught by a punch and be ko’d and be cut. look at gsp, he is a cautious fighter, machida, maia, hendo, etc. yet they are still exciting to a point.
j.cohl I want you to know I am not trying to start a feud or anything with you, I just am giving you my opinions and thoughts.
Man, Franklin didn’t deserve to win. What I really hate about UFC is they say points is based on aggression and that’s total bullsh*t. Basically I can come at you throwing punches while you can run away and then just land one leg kick at the end and you basically win the fight. If I wanted a for sure win in UFC I would just land one lower leg kick and run away for the rest of the fight. I would win by point system. That is why I loved pride you had to stand and fight or they would take away points from running away. Not like UFC who reward fights for running from a real fight
1. The UFC doesn’t judge the fights, independent judges do.
2. Franklin didn’t run away, he fought a smart fight and landed a lot of strikes on Wanderlei. It was a close decision, but I think Franklin earned it.
3. If you think the UFC rewards “fight(er)s for running from a real fight,” you should ask Kalib Starnes how that worked out for him.
so since when has two evenly matched fighters going to a decision been a horrible thing….wandy and franklin was an awesome fight in my opinion, who cares who won, wandy didnt seem too pissed about losing…some of my favorite fights ever werent finished…people just wanna see people fighting cans i guess and predictable finishes…i’ll take competitive split decisons and and five round wars(more for the 54.95 im dropping) the end
ps….thanks justin for stating once again that the ufc doesnt judge the fights
i thought this was a good card. i thought that the judging sucked. wand should have pulled out a split in my opinion. i thought he controlled most of the fight had franklin wobble a couple times n had a beautiful takedown in first round.
davis should have got the victory as well.
cain was disappointing becuase after dominating a guy that long n u cant finish him come on now. were not here to watch u wrestle. kongo gound game is horrendous to say the least but thats why cain had success i feel that gonzaga or carwin would destroy cain and bring out his flaws.
murgliotta obviously wasnt paying attention becuase u could see that poke in the eye a mile away. but cro cop looked alrite.
all in all it was pretty good fights, ****ty judging and reffing but i guess what do u expect for 50 bucks. hahaa
what the ufc doesnt judge fights??? who lied to you justin, thats the only one rich lost to hendo, because hendo poked rich in the eye. had that not happened rich wouldve won that fight. the ufc pays the judges to score the fights that go to decision. how else did forrest beat rampage in their fight and how did hardy beat davis?
ha ha ha just kidding, again thanks for stating to the noobs that the judges are not from the ufc and the ufc has no influence on them on how to score a fight.
Great night of fights.
I thought that the main event was really close. Franklin scored a lot of points and played it smart, but i felt that Wanderlei pushed the pace more and hurt Franklin more than Franklin hurt Wanderlei. When the fight ended i had Wanderlei by split dcision, but i knew that Rich’s takedown at the end most likely earned him the victory, but it was a way better fight than I had originaly thought it would be. Congrats to Franklin on the win,and as for Wanderlei, i think he showed why he’s one of the best ever and one of the most poupular fighters ever also, the guy is just awesome to watch and it’s sad to see him towards the end of his road, but still it was a great main event.
I’m not going to lie, I didn’t really give Velasquez the chance he deserved before the fight, i knew he was good, but i felt his lack of experience was going to be a big factor in the fight, but he proved me wrong bigtime. I was rooting for Kongo, but Velaswuez in all honestly kicked Kongo’s ass and gave him the worst beating he’s ever had. Goes to show that now a days, you either haveto be a well rounded fighter or be really really good at the one thing it is you do and Velasquez showed how powerful he is,he showed that he can control and dominate bigger guys and he just honestly impressed the hell out of me. He took some huge punches and never once looked discouraged or anything like that, he came to fight and showed a big heart and for sure i think made a huge statement to the other top Heavyweights that he’s coming and he’ not fu*king around. I wanted Kongo to win, but Velasquez showed up to fight. However if he encounters a guy with good takedown defense and decent wrestling and with his main base being striking, then that’s when i see Velasquez getting knocked out.
I was excited to see Cro-cop not only be back in the UFC,but i was happy to see him get the win, but man he went out like a bi*ch signing with Dream, he really messed it up for himself…good luck Cro-cop, you just lost lots of fan support and respect from a lot of people.
Like I said before the fight, I knew that Davis was going to come in fighting with more emotion than he should have and i felt that played a role in him losing to Dan Hardy. I thought the fight was close, but i feel that Davis’s getting cut and taking more damage won the fight for Hardy. I can understanf Davis not wanting to shake hands with Hardy after the fight because come on, Hardy did talk loads of personal crap so it’s not that simple to just forget about it, but at least Hardy was a gracious winner.
I wanted Killa B to get the win, but Swick i think, wanted it more and showed that he wanted the win more. Saunders should have been more agressive because that’s normaly his style and what made him so successful before, but Swick looked god early on.
Great night of fights, i hope that Wanderlei can go down to 18 and put a few wins together and he for sure has what it takes to deal with the 185 pounders after taking on bigger guys like Rampage,Jardine and Franklin.
Frankln should get a top contender next which will finally show if he will challenge for the 205 crown or on in the future.
Thanks for all the feedback.
And for the record, I don’t think that anyone that disagrees with me or sees something differently from me is trying to start a feud or whatever. I do have legitimate concerns that the men most responsible for the popularity of MMA aren’t being properly compensated, and it was great to read how other MMA fans view the issue.
I also don’t consider myself a “Roman” sort of MMA fan [great reference bigchris2328], or a new to the party fan. I’ve been following this sport for over 10 years, and like others are both delighted and maybe concerned about growing pains. While I certainly don’t want to force fighters to be “sports entertainers” like pro wrestlers, I do think that it isn’t inappropriate for the promoter to add as many cash incentives as possible to encourage fights to be decided in the cage, and not at the scorers table. If that’s happening and I was unaware, then thats my bad, and I apologize. To the best of my knowledge no one is getting paid cash bonuses, TUF aside, to end things in the cage.
And while I don’t think fighters should make more than promoters, and like a lot of MMA fans appreciate what Dana White has done for the sport, I don’t think fighters should have to “whore their butts” [great quote bsbiz] to earn a fair-as-it-relates-to-the-market wage.
Again it was great to read how others view this issue.
Specifically, as it relates to the Franklin-Silva decision, I have to wonder about Franklin being awarded points for “aggression and Octagon control”. I generally understand why he was awarded the decision, but from where I was sitting Franklin didn’t seem overly aggressive, and I think you’d have to maybe stretch the definition of Octagon control a little bit to solidly award enough rounds to Franklin to hand him a unanimous decision.
That aside it was an excellent fight, as were several of the others, and well-worth the $55 bucks IMO.
Have you ever met a fighter that doesn’t want to win,or a fighter that wants their fight to go to a decision? As the sport evolves fighters will naturally become more evenly matched which will no doubt lead to more decisions,regardless of the paycheck(the prospect of being released should be enough motivation).I have no problem with fights going to a decision as long as the fight is entertaining like Franklin vs Silva.The days of the one dimensional fighter(Kongo)are going to go the way of the dinosaur.
The bonuses you are referring to for encouraging finishes are there, but they aren’t disclosed. $20k for a submission isn’t anything to sneeze at. The guys are well compensated for their blood and sweat. As is the case with most professional athletes, most of the money is made through sponsorships (golfers with company logos on shirts, hats, golf balls, clubs, etc; basketball and shoe deals) and outside business interests that are made available to them because they are Professional Athletes. UFC fighters are paid more than any other MMA organization that hosts fights in the US (I have no idea how much Dream or the other Japanese people pay) top to bottom. If you go back in the archives to the last time there was an Affliction card, you’ll notice that while the top guys get more disclosed money than UFC guys, the guys at the bottom of the card get significantly less than the guys at the bottom of UFC cards. Not only that, but this discussion raged for several days/weeks and will rage again in early August after the next Affliction card.
Just to further a point: Athletes in pretty much every sport make more money from sponsors than they actually making from “playing the game”. Tiger makes hundreds of millions from Nike, and only low millions in purses for winning tournaments. Michael Jordan gave his entire NBA salary to charity for several years at the end of his career, because he too made hundreds of millions from Nike and only low millions in his NBA salary. Nearly all of the money that team owners make, to go towards paying the drivers in all forms of auto racing come from sponsors, not purses for winning races. The percentage of athletes that make money from sponsors varies from sport to sport, as many non-star athletes in the “four major” sports do not get endorsement deals, but sponsors have long been a part of prize fighting and auto racing, and provide a large stream of revenue for both organizers and participants.
What a ****ing war between Franking and Wandi.. I can’t remember the last time I saw two fighter of this caliber falling over at the end of the THIRD round becuase they are so exhausted.. and talk about a finish to the third.. GOD DAMN YALL! ! ! !
Great card yesterday.. can’t wait to see swick alves
I can’t believe no one mentioned that Wandi looked totally unlike himself. The weight cut had a dramatic effect on him. I love Franklin he is my second favorite fighter but, I believe if the weight cut didn’t have an effect on him he would have beat Franklin pretty easy. Cain isn’t as good as people think Congo’s ground game is totally horseshi*. Training at the Wolfs Lair you would think they would have him train at his weaknesses witch is obviously the GROUND. A good wrestler or jits guy would exploit Cain. He didn’t seem to have the best of chin IMO. Hardy caused more damage with the few strikes he did land I thought Davis should have got the nod simply cause of the Ground control he displayed but, when the judges see cuts, poring and the other fighter look so gassed they give them the benefit of the doubt. Swick has no chance against GSP or Alves give him the winner of Kos vs Trigg just to see how he will deal with a dominant wrestler, since Gsp will smack either one of those guys around. Last of all, as for Cro-flop I couldn’t care less to see him in the UFC anymore anyway he was far from impressive to me at least. That eye poke was nasty and the only reason the fight was stopped, although Al-Turk did look like he was getting scared when Mirko started to turn on the presser. Before the replay I had not seen the poke in the eye and thought the old banger MIrko was back maybe not.
turk,
i agrre with you on the Kongo-Velasquez fight. Kongo’s ground game does suck a$$ and if he did have better wrestling and better takedown defense he could have problably finished Velasquez after he rocked him. I too think that Velasquez is not “that” good like Kongo’s $hity ground game made him look, however I do think he has a decent chin because Kongo did hit him pretty good a couple of times and Velasquez was able to recover quite quickly, but I still think a guy with better takedown defense and better wrestling than Kongo can give Velasquez some trouble.
Cro cop looked so sh1ty!!! I wonder under what ground he turned down the fight agst Cain.
@ turk
I’m must have missed something with the velasquez fight…how does he not have a good chin? just wondering.
You cant say that his chin is good but then again you cannot say that his chin is poor.
Its just a suspect chin. The thing that seems to quash the weakness of his chin is his recovery! The instant he dropped down he was shooting in or Kongo with full strength. Who cares of his chin is suspect.
When it comes to fights going to decision. I honestly agree with some of the comments above saying that the match makers are putting fights together with the least possibility of going the distance. But if you stop and think about it, some of the best fights ever i the UFC have been those that have gone to decision…Forrest Griffin vs Stephan Bonnar, Wanderlei Silva vs Chuck Liddell, Rampage vs Griffin, and if Franklin or Silva would have finished the fight i think it would not have been as exciting as it was. I do think that they should be more specific in terms of the criteria the judges are scoring the fights in.
It’s always great to see fights finished,but when you have fights that reach the later rounds,especially title fights, i think it makes the fights more special and helps us get a true feeling of what the fighters are truly made of.
I also agree that some fighters fight more cautious now and days because of fear of losing and then being cut or released, that must for sure play a role in more fights going to decision, but i think that it also has the opposite effect because it problably makes guys want to win decisively to “impress” the “right” people.
My personal opinion, i love to see guys get knocked the fu*k out,guys get submitted, BUT i don’t mind the 3 or 5 round wars that make this sport the exciting sport that it is.
The only reason I said his chin is weak or “suspect’ was because those punches were basically jabs not huge looping punches he did although recover rather quickly but, let Carwin, Ganzaga, or someone of that sort land a big shot and he won’t be popping back up so quickly just saying.
franklin wandy was a high quality matchup!
the comment that wand didn’t look like himself..
hmmm,
dunno.
although he’s known for going seemingly wild,it’s not why he
has a great record against top opponents.
he’s great well rounded skill and heart and conditioning and speed.
i think he has slowed only very slighty he’s getting older and has taken a few good lumps so. yea.
still franklin is an elite 185 er. wand has had some recent losses due to not being methodical, not being washed up. i think he looked great for being intelligent and patient but still looking to close in and kill when the chance came
although franklin might have been technically more slick an WAS certainly ahead on points I did feel like wand was the one who was closer to getting the kill. not just the time franklin blacked out for a sec but in general.
so the scoring goes to the better scorer not the guy who seemed closer to ending it. whatever GREAT FIGHT THOUGH, and improved wanderlei who seems ready for the next poor bastard.
and those backward elbows near the end rocked.
3 rounds just because there is no belt sucks much like getting a jay walking ticket on an empty road.
there needs to be at least another round or two for the top dogs like wand and franklin
While I would love to see extra rounds in certain fights between certain competitors even when there is not title on the line, I have to consider what the possible unintended consequences might be. Those include less fights on a card, less chances to see under card firghts promoted to TV, and potentially boring fights going on longer than they should.
Great Fights
I knew Rich would come out on top but boooy oooohhh boooy was it barely. Wandy is the type of guy you just gotta love, no matter what!! He gets it, and comes with it every time.
My boy Kongo got dominated.
Swick prove Killa b is just a silly nickname for a fighter and no real treat.
Davis I thought would have pulled this one off buuut hey.
Great fights.