damn the way he talked about stevia.. and if it actually works for diego.. with his training in a higher altitude.. it might be all enough to win the fight.. unless joe luckily clocks diego..
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Rogers SportsNet will air UFC 95 live at 3:00PM EST on Saturday in HD in all zones. Good news for Canadian UFC fans.
Is it too much to hope for a double knockout in the main event? I really dislike Sanchez and Stevenson.
I think Sanchez is a complete douchebag so I hope he loses. Stevenson... I've just never been that impressed. He's a high level gatekeeper IMO.
Diego Sanchez (156) vs. Joe Stevenson (155) Dan Hardy (170) vs. Rory Markham (170) Chael Sonnen (185) vs. Demian Maia (184) Nathan Marquardt (185) vs. Wilson Gouveia (185) Josh Koscheck (170) vs. Paulo Thiago (169) Junior dos Santos (239) vs. Stefan Struve (240) Paul Kelly (169) vs. Troy Mandaloniz (168) Brian Cobb (155) vs. Terry Etim (156) Evan Dunham (154) vs. Per Eklund (155) Neil Grove (263) vs. Mike Ciesnolevicz (235)
I can't see any way for Stevenson to win this fight... unless maybe Sanchez has a bad cut and gasses in the first round. He isn't going to choke Diego and he isn't going to out wrestle him.
Results: <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr><td class="HeaderBlue" align="center" width="56" height="25">Match</td> <td class="HeaderBlue" align="center" width="126">Winner</td> <td class="HeaderBlue" align="center" width="126">Loser</td> <td class="HeaderBlue" align="center" width="160">Method</td> <td class="HeaderBlue" align="center" width="71">Round</td> <td class="HeaderBlue" align="center" width="69">Time</td> </tr> </tbody></table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"><tbody><tr align="center"> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="50" height="30">1</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="126">Paul Kelly</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="126">Troy Mandaloniz</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="160">Decision (Unanimous)</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="71">3</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="63">5:00</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="50" height="30">2</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="126">Mike Ciesnolevicz</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="126">Neil Grove</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="160">Submission (Heel Hook)</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="71">1</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="63">1:03</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="50" height="30">3</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="126">Evan Dunham</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="126">Per Eklund</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="160">TKO (Punches)</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="71">1</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="63">2:13</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="50" height="30">4</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="126">Junior dos Santos</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="126">Stefan Struve</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="160">TKO (Punches)</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="71">1</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="63">0:54</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="50" height="30">5</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="126">Terry Etim</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="126">Brian Cobb</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="160">TKO (Head Kick and Punches)</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="71">2</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="63">0:10</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="50" height="30">6</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="126">Paulo Thiago</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="126">Josh Koscheck</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="160">TKO (Punches)</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="71">1</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="63">3:29</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="50" height="30">7</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="126">Demian Maia</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="126">Chael Sonnen</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="160">Submission (Triangle Choke)</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="71">1</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="63">2:37</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="50" height="30">8</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="126">Nate Marquardt</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="126">Wilson Gouveia</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="160">TKO (Knee and Punches)</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="71">3</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="63">3:10</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="50" height="30">9</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="126">Dan Hardy</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="126">Rory Markham</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="160">KO (Punch)</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="71">1</td> <td class="Txt11Gray OddBgd" width="63">1:09</td> </tr> <tr align="center"> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="50" height="30">10</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="126">Diego Sanchez</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="126">Joe Stevenson</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="160">Decision (Unanimous)</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="71">3</td> <td class="Txt11Gray" width="63">5:00</td></tr></tbody></table>
It was nice to have every fight televised. Strange that you get to see all ten fights on a free PPV, but when you pay for it, sometimes you only get six. Of the ten fights, most of them were really entertaining. I see a lot of bitching on the big forums, UG and Sherdog, and I don't get it. Not only was it free, it was a card with only two fights going to decision, and several first round stoppages. Some sweet knockouts and a couple of nice submissions. STFU and GTFO. Paul Kelly vs. Troy Mandaloniz was classic. Mandaloniz looked to have a bit of a conditioning issue (shocking since he's from BJ Penn's camp) but kept putting together good bursts against Kelly. The Brit's offense wasn't varied but it was effective and he mashed up Rude Boy's face pretty well. Both fighters should be at lightweight next time around. Neil Grove fucking sucks, no surprise. If anyone saw his fight with Rob Broughton, it was one of the worst fights of 2008 and a good precursor to today's tilt. Good work by Mike C to win by heel hook seeing as how 90% or more of the heel hooks attempted in the UFC fail. Evan Dunham, Junior dos Santos, and Paulo Thiago all had nice knockouts. Of the three dos Santos seems like the best prospect. He has crushing power behind his punches. Skyscraper wasn't a pushover, he is an experienced fighter, albeit a young one. He has wins over UFC veterans Colin Robinson and Mario Neto. Cigano is just too heavy handed. Thiago's knockout was a little premature. I think the ref got anxious. If you rewatch the fight the ref actually jumps on Koscheck and tries to keep him from getting up. Koscheck was rocked but he's been rocked before, especially against Thiago Alves. I think he could've survived. It was actually mostly Thiago's doing, I reckon. By not following up Thiago made it look like Koscheck was hurt worse than he was. Maybe the kid has no killer instinct or maybe is a master strategist. Didn't work for Christiane Santos! Terry Etim looked great. I never saw his fight with Sam Stout but the kid with the marble-mouthed Liverpool accent has potential. His only losses have come by decision. I don't know how old he is but with the right camp I think he can become a dangerous fighter in that division. Chael Sonnen's jiu-jitsu defense sucks and it was no shocker to see him get tapped by Maia. Maia is probably two wins away from a shot at Anderson Silva. We need to see him fight someone like Dan Henderson who has great take-down defense to see if that defuses him or if he can still find a way to win. His next match, as has already been suggested on this board, could be against Nate Marquardt, which I think would be fantastic. Marquardt still has a bit of a suspect chin but he did well against Gouveia, who gassed (as he has before in the UFC). I don't see Marquardt getting a title shot soon and I don't see him faring any better against Silva the second time around. Dan Hardy looked great. He's a blue belt under Eddie Bravo, so I guess that means he's as obsessed with the rubber guard as Joe Rogan is. There aren't a bunch of black belts in the welterweight division so I think he's alright for now, but he's got to keep working on his ground game if he wants to challenge guys like Hughes/Serra/Alves/Swick or eventually GSP. Joe Stevenson was terrible. Whatever his strategy was in this fight, it failed utterly. And it failed against an equally unthreatening strategy by Diego. Both fighters fought not to lose and in the end both of them came out looking worse for it. This should be Stevenson's last headliner, unless he goes back to King of the Cage. As for Sanchez, there aren't a lot of interesting match-ups for him at lightweight, so I'm not sure where he goes from here. A rematch with Kenny Florian seems like an obvious choice but with Kenny fighting BJ in the summer, that fight won't be available for six or more months. In the meantime maybe they'll throw him in with a Tyson Griffin or Gleison Tibau.
Was the Paul Kelly match on tv? I thought they skipped over that one. This was a good event, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
$40,000 Bonuses: Submission of the Night: Demian Maia (fourth time in five fights!) Knockout of the Night: Paulo Thiago Fight of the Night: Joe Stevenson vs. Diego Sanchez (bull)
