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UFC 63 Wow...

Puzzled

Shared on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 22:36

 I thought this was a decent UFC actually.  I guess I was most looking forward to the Swick-vs-Loiseau and Penn-vs-Huges fights.  And thankfully, these were pretty good fights.  I was wrong on both counts on my predictions but... anyways.  LOL!

Swick -vs- Loiseau was a battle, IMHO.  Swick realized the danger that Loiseau can create by those blades he calls elbows and intelligently stayed fully covered up when he was in danger of receiving an elbow strike.  Loiseau was truly conservative the first two rounds, I guess he had viewed enough tape on Swick to know that Swick's strat of "punches in bunches" has KO'd plenty of really tough guys.  Swick fought a very intelligent fight and decidedly took the first two rounds by landing more standing strikes and nailing a few takedowns.  Loiseau's corner must have told him he was down two rounds and came out the 3rd round looking to end Swick.  Swick landed a few spinning back kicks, which surprisingly is what Loiseau and St. Pierre have made good use of in the past.  LOL.  Swick was extremely quick, hence the nickname right, but more than just being able to quickly launch a volley of multiple strikes, Swick was able to avoid some pretty impressive strikes, kicks, etc.  I think Swick is now the #1 contender for Franklin, who is a freaking machine.  Should be fun to see these two strategists go at it. 

Oy... Hughes -vs-Penn.  Man what can I say?  Penn nearly destroyed Hughes in the first two rounds.  He totally frustrated Hughes primary strength of being able to take his opponent down.  Hughes made at least 3 solid takedown atempts on Penn, but was handily stuffed each time.  That was impressive.  Penn landed some effective strikes standing and visibly had Hughes puzzled at the end of Round 1.  Round 2 was more of the same, w/Penn more confident and continuing to stuff Hughes take downs, Penn landed more standing strikes to Hughes and looked like he was going to dominate the champ.  Hughes got on top of Penn I think off of another takedown attempt but Penn somehow took the back door out and got Hughes back.  It was almost a replay from their earlier bout, but Hughes didn't panic and Penn was up kind of high on Hughes back.  So Penn locked on some freakey modified triangle choke and nearing the end of the round, he tried to lock Hughes arm out as well.  Penn was unable to finish the champ and he wobbled a bit walking back to his corner.  Hughes got up, bleeding and having lost the round, but the little bugger was smiling.  Round 3 showed a shell of a man name Penn standing across a much fresher Hughes.  Who proceded to land several clean, unanswered punches to the face.  It was as if Penn was completely gassed.  Hughes got the takedown after a mild struggle, got top position and started grinding away w/punches and one or two elbows, took up a scarf hold position and worked Penn into a most disadvantageous position.  Hughes then proceded to land blow after blow to Penn's face until Big John (ref) called the fight seeing that Penn could not escape, nor defend his head from Hughes gloves.


More Youtube greatness:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJYY_wVD74s[/youtube]



[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKHxa5tDc8E&mode=related&search=[/youtube]


 


 

Comments

wareaglebeene1's picture
Submitted by wareaglebeene1 on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 22:48
great halo vid
MikeTheKnife's picture
Submitted by MikeTheKnife on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 22:54
Hey Puzzled, you are definitely versed in the MMA. I think Swick just outplayed Loiseau. I didn't like all the clinches but you could see even from the clinches they had, as soon as they released from the clinch, Loiseau let fire with a barrage of elbows. So I think Swick was playing smart in getting a referee release from those clinches. BJ versus Hughes, well I thought Hughes would win out but I though it would be a lot sooner than it was. Penn actually got completely winded, you could see that he wasn't even blocking blows to his head there at the end. He was gone, putting him on the mat and submitting him was just official put-him-out BS. The guy was out long before that and he took some serious punches. I think BJ can actually take some positives away from the fight and be a contender in the future, but I still think he got lucky against Hughes the first time. That's not to take away from the title, I mean being lucky is part of the fight. But this time, he wasn't as lucky as the first time.
Raider30's picture
Submitted by Raider30 on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 23:22
I didn't think this UFC was all that bad, though most of the fights were relatively forgettable to me. The Swick fight was a decent one. The Penn/Hughes fight was shaping up to be a decent one until round 3. I enjoyed the first 2 rounds with the give and take of both fighters. However it appeared that Penn really burned up his energy attempting the choke towards the end of round 2. Unfortunately as Puzzled says when round 3 started Hughes landed 2-3 straight jabs right away, I mean Penn didn't even try to block. It was obvious that he was really gassed. Once Hughes got him down and managed to lock up the arm there wasn't much Penn could do except get hit. I thought he did a fairly good job of keeping his face tucked into Hughes' body so that half the punches would hit on the back of the head but that will only help you for so long in that position and it was right for the ref to stop it. However, I lost a lot of respect for Hughes in his post fight commentary. It was completely unnecessary for him to call out Penn like that. A total lack of class. I've been watching the old Prides I mentioned before, except I picked up Pride 1-5 so I started with those first. Man I love Sakuraba(sp?), his fight with Vernon White in Pride 2 and his next one vs Carlos Newton in Pride 3 are fantastic examples of grappling skills. I can't wait to rewatch his later fights vs the Gracies. Also I can't wait to rewatch Igor's fights, I love that guy.
Puzzled's picture
Submitted by Puzzled on Sun, 09/24/2006 - 23:50
Great comments guys. Your right about Penn being done before the end of the fight. His fatigue was soo obvious, and as you noted, when he was just eating light lether from Hughes w/o even raising his hands to block... I said, he's done. He has nothing left. It was just a matter of time then. They said his corner had to carry him away and he went straight to the Hospital. I'm still not sure if it was just his cardio that just melted at the end of round 2, or did he get injured. One MMA forum has a rumor of him cracking a rib. We'll hear more of that if it's true. I remember when Quinton Jackson, cracked a rib against Shogun I think, he just went limp. But just watching the fight, it looked like he either lost the will to fight or his cardio melted. Oh, yes, I love to watch Sakuraba go at it. That dude got's crazy talent. He's soo unorthodox it's scary. Never know what he's gonna do. Well, except V. Silva... that was just an ugly fight. But Sak is tough, skilled and always an entertainer. On Hughes comments... in his defense, Penn has been doing some minor smack talk. Well, more of "Sure I'mma beat Matt... I already did it once." type of stuff. I think Matt got tired of that and decided to rib a little back on Penn by bagging on his cardio in the post fight. Also, did you guys catch how ticked Matt was over what St. Pierre said? Pierre said... "I'm not impressed." And Matt got pretty torqued. Pierre is tough as crap also and really, this weight class has some decent talent in it, so I'm excited. One of the guys that used to train at my old fight gym Brandon Vera is going to be fighting Frank Mir soon. Vera is an up and comer, so you fight fans keep an eye out for him. His a sick grappler but his striking is what's winning him his fights. He's got some devastating leg kicks (low/high) that has chopped down some pretty tough competition. I just hope that Vera faces an in shape and battle ready Mir. Mir won his last fight, but it was sloppy. The dude's recovering from a major bike accident, but he needs to get back in fighting shape. He doesn't need the body builder phisique back, but he needs to be able to breathe in every round. I don't know which UFC it'll be on, but as soon as it's officially announced, I'll let you guys know.
Raider30's picture
Submitted by Raider30 on Mon, 09/25/2006 - 07:32
Yeah I thought St.Pierre's comments were pretty funny and Hughes did get ticked off, which I thought was just a little payback for the talk about Penn. I've got no problem with smack talk but you don't bag on a guy right after you win. Or you figure out another way to say it. Like "It seemed BJ used up a lot of energy trying for the choke at the last round and that left him open for the takedown", something like that. Also which fight was it that ended with a straight punch to the solar plexus. Man that was awesome. That guy really drilled it in there. At the bar I was at you just heard this collective 'UGH' when that punch landed. Speaking of local fighters. One of the guys who used to train at the gym I went to, Justin James from Council Bluffs, Iowa, I believe is scheduled to fight in the October UFC. I think he was supposed to fight Yves Edwards, which was most certainly have been a televised fight, but they changed the card on him and its someone else now and I don't think it will be in the televised portion(unless like this last one some of the fights go short and they need filler). Ok, enought fight talk, gotta head to work.

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