RT @SaintMMA: ICYMI, Dana told @arielhelwani that Silva cracked the shin on first kick, broke it on second, according to his corner. Weidman has some super fucking strong knees.
Yeesh, that was ugly. Rousey-Tate was a hell of a fight. Both were incredibule, Tate appears to have improved by leaps and bounds.
You think Tate improved? I wasn't impressed with her that much at all. She was the better striker in their first fight and challenged Ronda to stand with her this time and got her ass whooped. She was outclassed everywhere the fight went. Yah, she made it out of the first round with Ronda, but that was a big one-sided, 3 round beat down. Tate needs to stick to modeling, she has no chance in hell to ever beat Ronda.
I didn't say shes ever going to beat Rousey, but she put up a fight and seemed to have a counter for everything up until the end. She was much more competitive this fight than the last, and more competitive than anyone I've ever seen fight Rousey. Rousey didn't roll her in a minute, she was a challenge, thats impressive.
I thought Tate looked pretty good just in terms of pure heart and effort. In terms of fight science she was awful and kept repeating mistakes, mainly clinching with Rousey and shooting on her when she was losing all the grappling exchanges handily. Her strategy was to stay outside and land punches but she didn't stick to it. Fear can do that to a person. I will say that the bar I was at (200+ people) was CAPTIVATED by that fight like no other. People who weren't there to watch the fights were watching that one. People left after the Rousey fight which to me suggests they weren't interested in the UFC but stayed to watch that one play out. Rousey's refusal to shake hands after the fight was shitty. Even Nick Diaz is super respectful after the fight. Her junk excuse of "her family being disrespected" by Tate is lousy behaviour for a champion. She's a great heel. Brandao is a nutter. We knew this. Missing weight then going on Twitter to thank god for making weight? That's crazy. His behaviour in the TUF house was crazy, too. He's fun to watch (before he gasses) but he ran up against a serious featherweight in Poirier. Travis Browne looked excellent. Is he going to be the interim champion if he gets that fight with Werdum? Probably. I don't know if he can beat Velasquez. Maybe not.
Belfort/Weidman should be interesting. The closest guy to Belfort that Weidman has fought would be Alessio Sakara. Can't wait for that one.
Outside of Belfort and Machida, are there any other challengers at 185 right now? I can't think of any.
Payouts via MMA Junkie... Champ Chris Weidman: $400,000 (includes $200,000 win bonus) def. Anderson Silva: $600,000 Champ Ronda Rousey: $250,000 (includes $50,000 win bonus + $150,000 FOTN & SOTN bonus) def. Miesha Tate: $103,000 (includes $75,000 FOTN bonus) Travis Browne: $131,000 (includes $28,000 win bonus + $75,000 KOTN bonus) def. Josh Barnett: $170,000 Jim Miller: $92,000 (includes $46,000 win bonus) def. Fabricio Camoes: $8,000 Dustin Poirier: $46,000 (includes $23,000 win bonus) def. Diego Brandao: $20,000* Uriah Hall: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Chris Leben: $51,000 Michael Johnson: $36,000 (includes $18,000 win bonus) def. Gleison Tibau: $39,000 Dennis Siver: $66,000 (includes $33,000 win bonus) def. Manny Gamburyan: $25,000 John Howard: $32,000 (includes $16,000 win bonus) def. Siyar Bahadurzada: $17,000 William Macario: $20,000 (includes $10,000 win bonus) def. Bobby Voelker: $12,000 Robert Peralta: $24,000 (includes $12,000 win bonus) def. Estevan Payan: $10,000 * – Brandao fined 25 percent of purse for missing weight; half went to NSAC and half to Poirier (not reflected in above figures)
Finally re-watched the fight, that ending isn't any easier to watch. I am still very impressed by Weidman's ability to stand on his feet and throw his hands with Anderson.
