UFC 123

Holy shit, someone from a fight commission might actually be held accountable for a fuckup they made during an event! Remember those missing six seconds from the Falcao / Harris fight that probably saved Harris from getting subbed out? Michigan's Bureau of Commercial Services has filed a complaint against the timekeeper. But lest you think the government is ever efficient unless it's related to jailing, fining, or taxing it's citizens...

The state commission will determine whether or not to take disciplinary action against Daher after the complaint advances through the contested case hearing process, where he will have the opportunity to defend the allegations.

Daher has 15 days to reply to the formal complaint, dated Jan. 13, by opting for a compliance/settlement conference or a formal administrative hearing. A conference could be scheduled in as little as two weeks, while it would take six weeks to appoint an adminstrative judge for a formal hearing.

The commission will then decide upon a penalty that could include a fine, a suspension or revocation of license.

Jesus Christ. It's pretty goddamn simple: look at the fricking video. Slap the timekeeper upside the head. Say 'Screw up like that again and you're fired!' Case closed.

Phil Davis managed to walk through his fight with Tim Boetsch with barely a scratch, but the scratch he took sure needed a lot of stitches to close up: 36 in total. From MMA Weekly:

“Thank God I didn’t go home like that. Knowing me being me, I wouldn’t have gotten medical attention right away and I would have gangrene and I’d probably lose my foot or something. Not even joking. It was cut all the way to the bone. It was about two inches to maybe two and a half inches long,” Davis explained.

The surprise about the cut basically came from the fact that little to no blood came out of Davis’ leg from the injury, even though the gash went all the way to his bone.

“It was deep and it should have been bleeding a lot,” Davis said.

Just an update on that last post: Gerald Harris was indeed fired! I guess that just goes to show you that even a 3-1 record with two KOTN awards won't save you during the current purge period.

I feel like I've done a bit of a disservice to all the readers out there who feel Lyoto Machida won that fight against Quinton Jackson. Hey, a personal MMA blog is gonna have my personal opinions, and in my opinion Lyoto Machida is a douchenozzle who should never win anything ever. But just so you don't feel too disconnected with dissenting opinions, here's Anderson Silva (via the above video, which has captions):

"There's no way, Lyoto won the fight man. He came closer to finishing the fight. Shit, Quinton didn't even touch him. It's tough, it's tough. Lyoto was much better. The fight was tough but Lyoto was much better. He connected with strikes that almost got Quinton get knocked out. So it's like that ... we don't know what kind of criteria the judges are using the score the fights. Unfortunately, it's American territory, American soil, he fought an American, and he didn't knock him out. The rules remain the same. Unfortunately you have to get the KO, especially when you fight in the manner that Lyoto fights which is a game of countering, of walking backwards. Quinton didn't offer any danger whatsoever. It's quite the opposite, right?"

Yes, Lyoto Machida's style of fighting means he NEVER wins decisions. Between that and the fact that America is as corrupt as Japan when it comes to judging foreigners, it's no big surprise that Lyoto Machida got screwed out of winning the fight!

Lyoto's manager Ed Soares adds to the discussion:

"I watched the fight wanting to see Quinton win," Soares said. "I don't want to sit here saying, 'Oh, it's bad judging.' I wanted to see what Quinton did to win that. In the first round, I think Lyoto did enough to win that first round. People will say, 'Oh, but he wasn't aggressive.' But that's Lyoto's style. And they'll say, 'octagon control.' That depends on how you look at it. At the end of the day, Lyoto was doing what he wanted to do to put Rampage where he wanted him. He had Rampage chasing him and that's what Lyoto likes, is to find those openings."

So the fact that Lyoto's style isn't aggressive means that we shouldn't count aggression against him, and the fact that Quinton was cutting off the cage shows that Lyoto was leading him around at will. Wow, that Lyoto. He's amazing. Even when it looks like his style isn't working for two out of the three rounds, it still is. Just because that's how he fights, stupid.

It's time for Fired / Not Fired, a game I think we'll be playing quite a bit considering the suddenly obese UFC roster.

Fired: Karo Parisyan
Everyone including Karo knew the second that Big Tan Dan pulled Dennis Hallman off him that this would be the end of the road. Dana White confirmed Karo's cut at the post-event press conference with the oh so emasculating "I'm afraid for his safety in there", and now we're all left with bigger frowny faces than the fat fold across Karo's belly button.

Not Fired: Tyson Griffin
As if having one of the worst fights of the year wasn't enough to earn Nik Lentz the ire of fans everywhere, he just got given a bullshit decision win over Tyson Griffin at 123. That means a ton more hate for him and some love from Dana White for Griffin, who was told he "got fucked big time tonight" and wouldn't face the snip.

Fired: Seth Petruzelli
The Silverback got a taste of how European gorillas attack and it resulted in a first round smashing from Karlos Vemola at UFC 122. Two in a row means you gots to go, but don't worry too much, Seth. I'm sure Gary Shaw needs a beatable opponent for Kimbo's boxing debut and considering how half assed that's going, it very well could be you!

Not Fired: Gerald Harris
You wouldn't expect a guy who's now 3-1 in the Octagon to be worrying too much about a loss, but then again you didn't spend about 8 minutes of your last fight doing absolutely nothing in the cage. Maiquel Falcao has been getting most of the shit from people regarding that 'Ultimate Staring Championships' match, but Harris was the dude heading into the final round down by two. He was more aggressive than Falcao, but then again so was Joe Silva at ringside. Still, Harris has been assured he's not taking the fall for what happened.

Fired: Goran Reljic
Why doesn't the UFC have any of those young and flashy hot prospects out of Europe like DREAM, Strikeforce, and Bellator? Because they usually end up getting chewed up and spit out like Goran Reljic just did.

Fired: Peter Sobotta
See above.

Maybe not fired: Matt Brown
You know the UFC loves Matt Brown, but three losses in a row against guys closer to being gatekeepers than contenders is hard to ignore. Still, the UFC has told Matt they "need a few days to look over the roster and see if they can find a fit for him." Personally, a break from the meatgrinder might be just what Brown needs to grow from TUF to UFC level.

Still on the chopping block: In order of most likely to go, Nick Osipczak, Kris McKray, Aaron Simpson, Rob Kimmons, and Andre Winner. It's a good time to be a Brit!

When does a difference of six seconds in an MMA round matter? When that round is the first round of Gerald Harris / Maiquel Falcao, where Falcao locked in a fight finishing choke and Harris was saved by the bell.

(via Middle Easy)

As if raising the other guy's arm after the fight wasn't enough to show that Quinton Jackson thought Lyoto Machida won their fight at UFC 123, Machida shares that Rampage told him he won as well:

"After the fight Quinton came up to me and said ‘no, you won the fight', I thanked him and told him he's a great champion too, even more for acknowledging that [I won], it's not easy to do that, but he added ‘don't you worry about that, you won the fight, and I'll give you a rematch because I know I didn't deserve this win.'"

Of course, Quinton Jackson seemed like he kinda expected to lose via decision the moment the fight was announced, so I'm not going to consider him the ultimate arbitrator of what really happened on Saturday night. Fortunately, it sounds like Machida accepts the decision and isn't planning on demanding an immediate rematch. Besides, why bother with it now when these guys are bound to run into eachother again over the next two years? Quite possibly with championship rounds added to the deal.

Ryan and Subo team up to break down UFC 123, going through the main card and it's 'questionable' decision along with all the ideas floating around that will 'fix' the problem. We also wonder wtf was up with Falcao, consider the idea that the Lauzon brothers might have cardio issues, and debate the merits of Jon Fitch vs BJ Penn. 45 minutes of recent UFC event blither blather!

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If it wasn't bad enough that Karo Parisyan's short, jiggly abortion of a performance got shown TWICE last night, he's also out of a job:

"I'll never put a fighter in harm's way," White said. "But Karo came in here tonight and proved he can't compete at this level anymore."

The way Dana tells it, it was Karo contacting him about getting back in the UFC, not the other way around. Let's hope the guy gets another shot ... when he's actually ready for it this time.

Fightmetric has the Jackson / Machida fight as a draw on the 10-point must system and Machida as the winner via their arcane winner-ness calculation. As far as I can tell, this is based completely off more 'significant' leg kicks in the first round, which seems ridiculous when you remember Quinton Jackson nearly decapitating the dude with uppercuts. Leg kicks are important, but let's not get crazy now.

Fortunately, Dana White says there will be no immediate rematch. Thank you, baby Jesus.

As for BJ Penn's future, he's being somewhat laissez-faire:

"You know what? For the first time in my career, I'm going to let Dana make that call," Penn said. "Whatever Dana says, we'll go with that."

That left the boss in shock.

"Holy [expletive]," White gasped.

Which has already led to a proposed fight between BJ Penn and Jon Fitch at UFC 127 in Australia.

A lot of people want to retool the entire judging system over Rampage / Machida. Some are saying this is exactly why we need five round main events. Others say this all could have been 'fixed' by half point scoring, or even a 20-point must system.

And hey, even though he didn't need it, Rampage still had a reason for losing ready to go:

"None of you guys know this, but this fight was almost canceled a few days ago because I caught a fever from my son and was throwing up and everything and had to cut weight," he said. "I was like, 'I almost didn't make it to the fight.' But I didn't want to let my fans down. I really wanted to come in and do everything I had and give it my all since Detroit was so pumped for this fight."

Ariel Helwani's post-123 interview with Dana White. Sounds like the 'big make-up' fight Dana was talking about post-UFC 112 is officially dead.

The Palace at Auburn Hills can hold a staggering 24,000 people, so I was very interested to see how attendance did for UFC 123. The answer: 16,400 people for a 2.1 million gate.

Australia > Germany. The UFC is going to feed Dennis Siver to George Sotiropoulos in Australia. It's not a shoe-in victory, but we all know what direction this is supposed to go.

This quote from Pat Miletich before the Penn / Hughes 3 fight seems extra relevant now:

 Jonathan Snowden: When you have two top fighters, the littlest things can be huge. What was the difference between Hughes and Penn on that night?

Pat Miletich: B.J. was hungry man. He came out and got Matt early and that's what you have to do with Matt. Guys are not going to win a long drawn out battle with Matt. If you don't get Matt early or get Matt hurt early, you're in for a really crappy night because he's going to wear you down. His strength and his power - it'll wreck you.