I'd call this the second best card of the year - UFC 117 with Silva/Sonnen edged it out.
Penn's KO was so fun to watch that the entire bar was screaming - guys, girls, Penn fans, Hughes fans, the staff, just everyone. He was shouting "Fucking dick! You fucking moron! You fucking dick!" during the walkout and I'm not sure if he was reacting to a fan touching him, yelling at himself or yelling at Matt Hughes. Whatever the reason, he was angry and very mentally present in a way I haven't seen fully in a long, long time (maybe the Sherk fight?).
Fitch is a tough, tough match-up for him though. That's gotta be producing the next title contender after Shields. I'd have loved to see Penn-Alves, rather than Fitch, speaking from a Penn homer's point of view, but it's going to be a great fight. Plus it keeps Penn riding that crest of momentum.
We saw ghosts of it in the first round of Edgar/Penn II, the first round of Penn/Sanchez and it was so good to see it be fully realized again.
Phil Davis is so freakin' strong. He could probably bolt wings on those lats and fly. He also has some very, very good instincts on the ground and is going to be a nasty, -nasty opponent for anyone on the ground inside a year.
Lauzon did the right thing in trying to push the pace to such a frenetic level that could cause Snuffleupagus to gas in the second and third. Unfortunately, he got stunned by a few strikes and then outmuscled on the ground. That fight deserved FOTN for sure though - so many scrambles, positional changes, good sprawl, good striking by both men.
Barboza nearly lost the fight a couple times to a gogoplota, but he leg kicked the hell out of Lullo like Aldo/Faber, but worse. Such a fun fight to watch.
Foster/Brown was fun as hell too.
Karo is just sad. Hallman is decent, but he shouldn't be KO'ing people at this point in his career.
Munoz has bad stand-up, but his ground strikes are so hellaciously strong that Simpson nearly went down to that a couple times. It's like once Munoz gets his knees on the mat, boom, he turns into a Fedor-caliber ground and pounder. It's like.... Antares except his knees need to be in contact with Gaea.
Falcao was unlucky in that the commission ended the first round about seven seconds too early (legit timing error) and he couldn't finish the RNC in time. He hits so hard that it put the fear in Gerald Harris. After the first round, Harris said to his corners "Holy crap, that guy is strong." (Lipreading rocks)
The more I think about it, the more Rampage-Machida should have been a draw. I gave Rampage the first and Machida cleanly won the third. The second should have been a draw. It's interesting that Machida spent so long in the half-guard working for the kimura on Rampage, who I think is too strong for something like that to be muscled out. His mount was so nice that I wanted to see him stay there longer and not work the armbar.
But tell me you didn't go "IT'S ARONA AGAIN!" when Rampage lifted Machida up...
This post has been edited by amphibian: 23 November 2010 - 05:22 AM
I survived the Permian and all I got was this t-shirt.