Big Happenings at UFC show tonight

[The Thread Killer]

After one of the fights at the UFC show tonight (which was otherwise disappointing, by the way) UFC President Dana White came out to make some major announcements...

 

Liddell/Couture III is signed, sealed and will be delivered on February 4th 2006. Tickets go on sale tomorrow. Awesome.

 

Former Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir is finally making his comeback in 2006. Arlovski vs. Mir WILL finally happen in 2006.

 

Dana thanks the fans for their support of The Ultimate Fighter. The coaches for season 3 are announced and they are KEN SHAMROCK and TITO ORTIZ!!! Both Ken and Tito make their way out. Ken gets cheers, Tito gets a mixed reaction. Ken and Tito get into a shoving match! This going to make for some VERY interesting television, since these two guys legitimately HATE each other.

 

Finally, Dana announces that he has RE-SIGNED BJ Penn. For those of you who don't know him, Penn is a former UFC wonderboy, who choked out Welterweight Champ Matt Hughes easily to win the belt. He then violated the terms of his contract by taking a fight for K1 in Japan...and then got busted for punching a cop. I guess he and Dana have patched things up.

 

Fight results for those who care...

 

Jeremy Horn defeated Trevor Prangley by Judges Decision. This was a rather boring fight, and it looked like Prangley actually won...but as Dana says, never leave the fight in the hands of the judges because you'll never know what they'll do. It was amusing to hear Horn try and justify the judges call and get booed like hell...although he did also admit that even he thought he lost.

 

Georges St. Pierre defeated Sean Sherk by TKO. This was a pretty good fight...GSP looked awesome, and after the fight he literally got on his knees and begged for a title shot. Funny stuff.

 

Matt Hughes defeated Joe Riggs by Tap Out. This was NOT a title match because Joe Riggs couldn't make weight. Kudos to Hughes for taking the fight anyhow, as he could have opted out. Joe Rogan rightly pointed out that Riggs probably had nothing in the tank after trying to hard to cut weight.

 

Gabriel Gonzaga knocked out Kevin Jordan. This may have been the worst fucking fight I have ever seen in my life...EVER. Both guys were WAY out of shape, sloppy as hell, and afraid to engage. The announcers were openly mocking how bad they were, and the fans were chanting "GO HOME" at the fighters...that's how bad it was. With like 30 seconds to go, Gonzaga finally rushed Jordan and knocked him out with a sick looking forearm...and then celebrated like he had won a gold medal. This was a fucking abortion and I'll lay hard money we never see either guy in UFC again...with good reason. This was awful.

 

Rich Franklin knocked Nate Quarry the fuck out. Man...Nate almost got himself KILLED in this one...TWICE. I was amazed that the ref didn't stop it after a knockdown...but then Franklin hit Nate SO hard he knocked him out on his feet...Quarry was literally OUT before he hit the ground. Sick looking ending.

 

 

Afterward, Franklin said he felt he had to do that to make up for the fight before theirs.

[Guest Cam Chaos]

Penn's back?

 

Oh shit. Things have got VERY interesting now.

[Guest brian]

Jeremy Horn defeated Trevor Prangley by Judges Decision. This was a rather boring fight, and it looked like Prangley actually won...but as Dana says, never leave the fight in the hands of the judges because you'll never know what they'll do. It was amusing to hear Horn try and justify the judges call and get booed like hell...although he did also admit that even he thought he lost.

I liked this fight. It's very methodical on the ground, and Horn definately controls. I was very happy with the decisions, as damage looked near equal in the stand-up, Prangley scored takedowns but did literally nothing with his position (little shots, laid in guard), and Horn attempted two arm-bars and two guillotines (almost sunk in the guillotine, but Prangley stayed calm and was able to power out). I had the fight scored 29-28 for Horn, but I was afraid that they'd give too much credit for top position, as often happens. Horn had a very fluid guard, moving from butterfly to spider, and when he closed his guard, Prangley offered little. First round was quite good, second and third were decent.

 

What Horn was saying was that he was surprised in the same way that I was, and that though he did more from the bottom, that he assumed the judges would give Prangley credit for being on top.

 

On the Gonzaga win, I was hoping he was going to finish off Jordan early with a bicep choke, as he looked fine for the frist three minutes. The rest lives in infamy.