My UFC 74 thoughts (spoilers for yesterday's fights)

First off- what an amazing night of fights. It turned out to be everything I thought it would be. Just amazing! We'll work from the top down-

Couture/Gonzaga- Couture once again proves never, EVER, EVER bet against him. At 44 years old he did exactly what he said he'd do in the interviews "Beat the crap out of Gabe Gonzaga" The fight started off with some boxing in the middle of the ring. Both fighters actually threw some pretty good punches, but Randy wobbled Gonzaga early and took over from there by pushing him against the fence and unleashing some dirty boxing. Those who had jumped on the Gonzaga bandwagon thinking Gonzaga had the strength to put Randy off his game were proven wrong. Randy executed a perfect high single to double leg takedown resulting in a broken nose for Gabe Gonzaga. It was all downhill from that point as Randy continued to brutally punish Gonzaga up against the fence opening wide the cut on the bridge of Gonzaga's nose. Gonzaga was already showing signs of gassing and losing his heart for the fight, while Randy passively attempted a few takedowns but was happy to unleash punishment up against the fence. A couple of the times the men were off the fence Gabe Gonzaga tried his slow but powerful head kicks- seemingly buying into his own hype. As those of us who know Randy knew would be the case, his boxing stance kept his hands up about his face and his toughness kept his feet under him. Eventually Randy sealed the deal by taking Gonzaga down and raining blows on him.

I have to admit, even though I never doubted Randy, I was still impressed by his domination. That fight was nothing short of an absolute clinic.

Gonzaga should have let it go to the ground. However, I get the feeling that with his broken nose and the amount of blood involved he specifically didn't want to try the ground because he was afraid blood would get into his eye. He was having trouble seeing on his feet enough as it was. All in all- he got schooled. I feel like he'll learn a lot from this fight, though, and we'll be seeing him again in the future. I actually wouldn't mind seeing him fight Tim Sylvia.

GSP/Koscheck- I am so impressed by GSP's gameplan that I can't even begin to mouth it into words. For such a young fighter to be that focused and mature about his gameplan says a lot about his future in the UFC. We will be seeing him for a LONG, LONG time. His resistance to the takedown was equally impressive and left Koscheck looking like a complete idiot who's only real shining moments were when he unleashed a few good looking boxing combinations on the feet.

Stevenson vs. Pellegrino Stevenson's boxing didn't look as crisp as I've seen it look in the past. I figured if he had any advantage in this fight besides his size I was betting on his boxing. One shining moment for Stevenson was hte GnP he was unable to unleash while up against the fence. Still, it was an impressive bout from a ground game standpoint, and Pellegrino showed that he's a force to be reckoned with. I don't feel that the fight was a total loss for Pellegrino.

Cote/Grove- Cote showed himself to be one dimensional again, but this time the dimension fit perfectly. I picked Grove to win, but I put my money on Cote knowing that at any time that devastating punch of his could get through. Sure enough, Grove took one right to the mastoid process and it was all over from there- which screamed to me that I was an idiot for not listening to my instinct.

That's about all I want to write on that part. I still have to watch some of the undercards. I will say that I was impressed with Huerta, although I feel that he needs to really step up his BJJ game since he nearly got subbed by a thoroughly gassed opponent.

grove noo!!

Man did I love to see Cote win by KO. even though i put money and picked kendall to win, when the fight started i was rooting for cote, I mean shit he hits hard and closed kendall's reach by working from the clinch.

Yeah, man.. I loved watchin Cote get the knockout, too. He's been so close so many times. It's just great to finally see him get it. You could tell he was stoked

Great PPV.

Here are my thoughts after last night.

1) Betting against Couture is NOT a smart move
2) We might to have consider GSP one of the best wrestlers in the UFC after watching that clinic against Kos.
3) It's time for Huerta to get in there with one of the "big boys" in LW division.
4) I think that Stevenson has earned a shot at the LW title.
5) After reading about the actions of Babalu, I really don't care if I ever watch him fight again. Tough guy and good fighter but that was a very classless move.

My thoughts.

Really dissapointing that gonzaga got his nose broke or it would have been a closer fight.
GSP proved he is a top guy. stuffed a takedown of the best wrestler in MMA!
Loved see Cote KO kendall even though i bet on kendall and pick him. But i should have remember that cote dropped tito and went toe to toe with leben.
Roger needs to fight the top guys now. Frank Edgar at 78?
Stevenson needs to fight for the title. Joe vs BJ would be good.
Frank looked good.
Thales is proving to be good threat at MW
Babalu made a statement with Heath, glad he's back on track.
Good to see Guida get the win when i picked againest him haha.

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Posted by Twenty20Dollars

My thoughts.

Really dissapointing that gonzaga got his nose broke or it would have been a closer fight.
GSP proved he is a top guy. stuffed a takedown of the best wrestler in MMA!
Loved see Cote KO kendall even though i bet on kendall and pick him. But i should have remember that cote dropped tito and went toe to toe with leben.
Roger needs to fight the top guys now. Frank Edgar at 78?
Stevenson needs to fight for the title. Joe vs BJ would be good.
Frank looked good.
Thales is proving to be good threat at MW
Babalu made a statement with Heath, glad he's back on track.
Good to see Guida get the win when i picked againest him haha.

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Yeah Babalu sure did make a statement to the tune of "I'm an asshole that doesn't deserve to fight for a living"

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Posted by Twenty20Dollars

My thoughts.

Really dissapointing that gonzaga got his nose broke or it would have been a closer fight.
GSP proved he is a top guy. stuffed a takedown of the best wrestler in MMA!
Loved see Cote KO kendall even though i bet on kendall and pick him. But i should have remember that cote dropped tito and went toe to toe with leben.
Roger needs to fight the top guys now. Frank Edgar at 78?
Stevenson needs to fight for the title. Joe vs BJ would be good.
Frank looked good.
Thales is proving to be good threat at MW
Babalu made a statement with Heath, glad he's back on track.
Good to see Guida get the win when i picked againest him haha.

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I was disappointed that he broke his nose because I knew people would be preaching exactly what you're preaching.

"He got his nose broke so he wasn't 100%"

What kind of a cop out is that? I respect your opinion, but it's a FIGHT. If you get your nose broken in said fight, chances are you got your ass kicked. No ifs ands or buts about it. You can't blame something that happened during the fight for your losing like it's an unfortunate incident. He got his nose broke because Randy dropped his ass and an intelligent Randy put his head in line with the takedown to break his nose. He also continued to work the cut purposely so that blood would get everywhere and Gonzaga's heart would stay out of the fight.

I mean, come on.. seriously that's like saying "It would have been a closer fight if he didn't get knocked out" I was hoping for a 5 rd brawl, too.. but fair is fair and I say fair is that Gonzaga got absolutely schooled/dominated/made into Randy's beeotch.

On to the other points-

Everyone should have known GSP would school Koscheck

I went against my gut feeling and picked Grove for the win, too. I'm also hating myself for it, but at least I put my money on Cote.

Put Huerta in with the top guys, I'd love to see him get KO'd ;)

BJ would destroy Stevenson, although I really like Stevenson.

I hope Frank is back

Babalu looked unstoppable in that fight. Well, unstoppable by anyone but himself, which he probably succeeded in doing.

He isn't blaming the loss on the broken nose. He said it would have been a better fight had he not broke his nose. And that's true, it potentially could have been. Taking a BJJ expert into late rounds always makes for the possibility of an incredible submission.