Hey hey, now that the event is over, Ima talk about it.
From top to bottom the card was great. I'm relieved that a card that looked good on paper actually ended up being good. The only dark spots were the first round in the De Fries/Thompson fight, and the eye poke. But that shit happens, oh well.
I'm not going to run down every fight, but I do want to comment on the main and co-main event, along with the Lauzon fight.
The Lauzon/Varner fight was a candidate for Fight of the Year. It won't be number one, but it's Top 5 right now. This was pretty back and forth, and even though Varner got tired, he still brought it. It also ended in a really exciting fashion with a great triangle by Lauzon. I call this fight as fight of the night to my brother before it happened and for once I was actually right.
I'm not impressed by Machida because I never lost faith in Machida. I knew he was still a top guy and he proves it here, by dismantling Bader with ease. I was happy, I don't like Bader, and I like Machida. He deserves the next title shot, good for him.
Shogun is one of my favourite fighters, so I was incredibly nervous going into this fight. He fought like he did with Little Nog back in Pride. He mixed it up, went for takedowns, worked his under-used ground game. Before I continue I just want to say that I'm not one of these negative MMA fans who instantly cry how washed up everyone is. I give a lot of props to Vera for bringing it, even though on places like Sherdog, all you see is, "Both of these guys suck." Which I think is just such bullshit. Everyone always goes right to the "bad performance" comments instead of giving some props to the guys. Like, maybe Vera was just tougher than people wanted to realize.
With that said, as a big Shogun fan, I have to say that I'm really happy he got the win but we have to just accept the fact that Shogun is not what he was. He's only 30 but it's an old 30. His knees are shot. You can tell there's just too much mileage on his body. This is to be expected in the fight game, especially when you have the style and training that Shogun has had. It's just sad to see a guy this young who's THIS banged up. His movement is mostly gone, he plods along and eats shots, relying on his iron chin and his big heart. His cardio needs work big time, he's not the guy he was in 2005 where he could fight for days. He relies more heavily on his boxing, because due to his injuries and surgeries, he is more of a brawler than what he was. He has okay boxing, and tremendous knock-out power, but lacks fundamentals of boxing like a jab. He has a few signature punches that can put out anybody, but kicks were always his thing.
In his last 4 fights he has gone 2 and 2. A dismantling by the current champ, Jones, which was depressing as shit. Then he wins against Forrest Griffin in quick fashion BUT I wouldn't say Shogun looked impressive. He still plodded along. In his fight with Dan Henderson it was more of the same, and he got by because of his chin and heart. In this fight it was again more of the same; eating shots, but being tough as nails and completely game. Shogun is still a test for people, because Shogun really is a warrior. He gasses out after the first round where he was ON TOP in the Vera fight, but stays in there, because he doesn't know when to quit. That still makes him dangerous to people and I will always support the guy because he's given us a lot of great memories and is one of the very best LHWs to ever fight.
Also; this card had a nice mixture of knock-outs and submissions. We got to see a North/South Choke, which we don't often get to see, along with the slick triangle from Lauzon.
