Quote:
Originally Posted by scuba264
Anyone catch the UFC on Fox fights? The whole thing, prelims included, were pretty great. I was most excited for the Rory MacDonald,/BJ Penn fight. MacDonald is going to be a beast, that kid is young and has skills. Only gripe with him is I'm afraid he's fighting too much like GSP. Amazingly technical but not able to finish fights. He had BJ staggered twice where if he got aggressive he could have ended it. Early on BJ was ready to curl up in the fetal position from some good body blows but he just kept picking at him.
I think thats the problem with really smart fighters like the GSP camp haha. They stick to their safe gameplan so much that they won't pounce to end it when they can.
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I agree with you on Rory's potential. He executed perfectly, and his stand-up continues to grow and expand.
However, I completely disagree with you regarding the gameplan discipline. As someone who trains in MMA, that level of discipline is very admirable, and takes a long time to obtain. BJ Penn is no slouch. Even when hurt, he is incredibly dangerous. I think Rory went about trying to finish him the right way without leaving himself open to significant counterstrikes. Keep in mind, BJ Penn has NEVER been knocked down and never knocked out. He was definitely hurt many times in that fight, but he was firing a good counter left that could have done some damage. He did catch Rory a few times.
My biggest issue with the last 3 fights, the big fights, was the scoring by the judges. I am getting very concerned with the way judges are handing out 10-8 rounds now like they are candy. In the three fights, at least one judge scored a 10-8 round for one of the fighers. While all three winners won in fairly dominant manner, I can't say they won a one-sided, 10-8 round at any point. Hell, after the Gustafson fight, I figured it might even be a split decision, or at best a 29-28 unanimous. Very surprised at the extreme scoring of the judges.