UFC 69 (Spoilers)

Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooow.

Matt Serra.

Didn't see that one coming. Good break for Matt Hughes though. He matches up much better with Serra than with St Pierre.

Koscheck vs Sanchez was kinda a sleeper. Good to see that freak Diego have his path to destiny get fucked up though.

Huerta/Garcia was a lot of fun.

UFC 70 on TV for free in the US. Very cool.

Man, with the last two huge upsets in the UFC, I'd hate to be a heavily favored defending champ these days. Which reminds me, is Sherk ever going to defend that lightweight belt?

The smile on Hughe's face right now it's so big . .

And damn I haven't read one good report on Sanchez/Koscheck yet . . . (Except all the Sanchez haters hooting it up)

Pride Fighting had it's last PPV under the Dream Stage Entertainment Banner this weekend as well . . interesting MMA weekend.

I only recognize a few of those fighters, but I hear it was a very solid card.

RE: Kos/Sanchez

Koscheck fought a perfect game plan. A damn boring, but perfect game plan. He simply wanted to get the win more than he wanted to entertain the crowd. Given the fact that he was fighting a guy who was 19-0, and has this arrogant belief that he is divinely destined to retire an undefeated champion, I kinda don't blame Koscheck for playing it that way.

Plus, Diego just looked terrible. ZERO energy. Koscheck landed about 4 or 5 good right hands and Sanchez never answered once. If Kos had any ability to string out punching combos Sanchez would have been knocked out.

Except for the takedown at the end of the first round, Kos refused to engage Diego. Diego would come after him, and he'd just back up. I hate when fighters do that. In Pride he would have gotten a yellow card. If I was a ref, I would have gave him a warning, and if he continued, then deduct a point.

That being said a lot of the blame rests with Diego, too. If your opponent is not wanting to engage, you need to press a little more. Diego should have changed up his strategy in the middle of Rd 2 or earlier. He should have went for a takedown or bull-rushed Kos. I know that's dangerous, but if you're getting pittypat from shots far away and your opponent is running, you have to do something. Diego's corner should have told him to cut off the ring and go for a takedown or do more leg kicks. You can't just wait for your opponent forever....especially if he's gonna land a couple of pittypatty shots from the outside, run, and repeat.

I think the leg kicks were thrown out because of the fear of a takedown. And I don't think Diego could score a takedown on Koscheck anyway. Diego needed to charge him and try and clinch up against the cage. Sanchez never once tried the clinch game. Now maybe it was because he was afraid it would make for easier takedowns for Koscheck, but really Kos's takedowns are built around his incredible shot, so I think not clinching was a bit of a strategic mistake by Sanchez.

I do know one thing. Diego Sanchez's standup is NOT good enough for him to compete at the top of the 170 division.

I'll go back to my original point. Koscheck hates Sanchez so much that he valued laying a defeat on Diego more highly than showing an impressive performance of his own.

Koscheck even left a comment on Diego's myspace: 19-1 Happy Easter.

I also think that Diego was way too wary of Kos's ground game. The one time Kos took him down, Diego immediately reversed it and took his back (but the bell sounded). I think Diego could have taken him down at least once. It would have been hard, but I think he could have done it. Also, you're right about the clinch. I think Diego's dirty boxing is pretty good (look at his fight with Parysian), but his technical boxing isn't up to speed yet, and it might have been easier to work for the ground there. Actually Diego tried to clinch one time briefly, but it didn't work out - but he didn't try it again. His corner should have changed up the strategy. You have to have a Plan B and Plan C. They only had a Plan A it seemed.

They showed a quick glimpse of him in the stands. I'm not sure if it's because him and Serra have had some trash talk between them in the past, or because Serra should be a much easier match up for him than GSP.....or maybe it's a combination of both.

Huge kudos to Matt Serra, though. Nobody thought he could do it. That was a Douglas/Tyson type upset with respect to the odds. It was the biggest fight of his life, and he fought the best fight of his life. Also, he didn't come into it scared. GSP has been steamrolling through everybody, but Serra came into it confident and willing to trade, willing to go for the win instead of fighting to not lose.

Concerning your Sherk question....he had an injury, and that's the reason for the delay. He's "unofficially" slated for the UFC 72 on July 7th versus Hermes Franca.

The MMA Weekly rumors section is almost always right, unless there's an injury:

http://www.mmaweekly.com/rumors.asp

With Serra winning and Kos winning, the welterweight picture is all messed up now. From the rumors going around it's going to be Hughes that has the first shot at Serra. I'm hoping Kos will face GSP, and Diego will face Fitch. That would sort things out and make for some great fights.

Also.......Pride 34 spoiler below.....
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SOKOUDJOU!!!!! I can't believe he did it again. You can't take out Little Nog and Arona, and still be a fluke. Those are two of the elite fighters in their weight class, and he knocked both of them out in short order. Also, his ground game is supposed to be his strength....we haven't even seen that yet. Arona wasn't even able to take him to the ground. This guy is for real, and he's with a great camp. He might be a title holder before too long. Henderson is his training partner, though, and he currently has the belt at that weight, so Sokoudjou might have to wait.