UFC 129 Parting Shots

It’s been a week since UFC 129, which featured not only two successful title defenses, but the (presumably) final fight of Randy Couture, a UFC Hall of Famer and legend of the sport. There’s been some time to think about what happened and answer such questions as: what was up with GSP’s eye? Will he ever stop fighting so conservatively? And of course, is Doug Crosby the worst judge in MMA?

Eye injury makes it hard to appraise GSP’s performance

Georges St. Pierre seems like a good person; he works hard and has a ton of talent, as well. However, I was completely prepared to come here and tell you that I think St. Pierre needs to see a sports psychologist, that he has some serious issues and that his fixation on his upset loss to Matt Serra has probably changed him permanently as a fighter.

Then, word started going around about his eye injury. What many of us thought was simply an eye poke during the bout was actually a fairly serious injury called a hyphema, which is often caused by blunt trauma. The condition leads to sensitivity (check) and blurred vision (check), two symptoms which St. Pierre says he is still battling a week later. Fortunately, the injury isn’t close to career-threatening, nor is it going to require surgery.

So, do we give St. Pierre a free pass on this one? I think so. I know, I know, he’s had way too many fights go to decision. However, he tore his groin against Thiago Alves and couldn’t see out of his left eye against Jake Shields. Wouldn’t that change how you’d do in a competition? I’d think so.

It actually explains why GSP was having trouble with his range in the fight. I kept wondering why he kept pulling the trigger on that overhand right and leaving it several inches short each time. Well, if his depth perception was all messed up, that makes a lot more sense now, right?

I still suspect that what I was hinting at earlier is at least partially true. St. Pierre seems to still be affected by the lesson that the Serra loss taught him: anyone can upset anyone in MMA. However, instead of simply using that as motivation to never let up on an opponent or take a fight for granted, he’s used it to become a rather gun-shy, conservative fighter.

That could cost him one day. If these challengers are as dangerous as St. Pierre says, why let them hang around for five rounds? At the end of the day, it’s about being the best fighter in the world, and if you think you have that distinction, you should be confident that a challenger at his best can’t handle you at your best. Speed up the “riddim” a bit next time, Georges.

Aldo not exposed in fight with Hominick

When a fighter such as Jose Aldo- who has been downright dominant in previous appearances- finally has a competitive fight against a very game opponent, fans like to say he’s been “exposed”. “Oh, so and so established the blueprint on how to beat him!” “This fighter or that fighter could follow the same gameplan to a win!” I don’t think that’s the case with Aldo-Hominick, though.

Mark Hominick fought a great fight, and was always there, pushing the pace, actively striking, even taking the last round in what was a 10-8 effort in my book. However, before we go too far with the line of thinking that Aldo can actually be beaten now and that fight proved it, remember two things:

1) Aldo could always be beaten- anyone can be.

2) He still won most of the rounds of that fight.

So if the fight that’s going to give future contenders a glimmer of hope is one in which the champ still managed to win probably 4 rounds of, that’s not as encouraging as it may seem. We saw a similar reaction when Anderson Silva squeaked out a late submission win over Chael Sonnen. In that case, I actually think the reaction was more warranted, since Sonnen really did establish a blueprint (though not an entirely creative one, nor one that hadn’t been thought of before) and had won every round going into the fifth. Still, what happened after that? Silva front-kicked Vitor Belfort to sleep and we all remembered that this guy simply operates on another level.

Not every fight is going to be a dominant performance. It doesn’t have to be, though, and the kind of performance that a guy like Aldo can put on during an “off” night is actually just as impressive, if not more so, than a dominant performance.

Quick Shots

–Doug Crosby is still not a good judge, but he’s not quite as bad as he thought. During the broadcast of UFC 129, it was announced that Crosby had scored Aldo-Hominick an incomprehensible 50-43 for Aldo, when he in fact didn’t. He did give the last round to Hominick, after all. Still, he was the only judge to give all five rounds to St. Pierre in the title fight, and I’m not going to forgive that 50-45 Frankie Edgar score from the first BJ Penn fight anytime soon, either. When I took to Twitter and said that Crosby should never judge MMA again, I was going off of the announced Aldo-Hominick score, but I still wouldn’t mind if he just decided to lay low for a bit.

–Holy shit, Lyoto Machida! Seven days later, and that kick is still incredible. I don’t know if I was disappointed or amused that he gave a shout-out to Steven Segal after the fight, though. I mean, really? We’re gonna give this guy yet another reason to strut around as if he has some credibility in the sport? I have a place in my heart for the traditional martial arts, as well as for the martial artists in the pre-MMA days, but to talk vaguely about “deadly techniques” and pretend to be all secretive about something as basic as a fucking FRONT KICK is exactly what I didn’t like about martial arts before we had MMA. No one had to prove anything, no one had to back up their talk, they just said stupid shit like “my techniques are too deadly for competition” or “if so and so signed, we could fight and settle the score” knowing full well it would never happen. Thank goodness that the UFC came around when Segal was already pushing 40, so he never had to prove his prowess in the cage, right?

–Three cheers for the undercard, which really brought the entertainment on Saturday night. Between Pablo Garza’s beautiful flying triangle choke and John Makdessi’s cringe-inducing spinning back kick, we already got a night’s worth of memorable moments in just the first two preliminary bouts. Still, damn near every fight was finished on the preliminary card, and just about every fighter came in and fought like he wanted to prove himself worthy of a main card slot next time around. That’s what I like to see, and those who tuned in on Facebook and/or SpikeTV definitely got a good show, and for the low price of “free” at that.

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Tags: Georges St. Pierre, horrible judging, Jake Shields, Jose Aldo, Lyoto Machida, Mark Hominick