metricjulie

I said I would write a post-UFC entry tonight, but I’m not sure what exactly there is to say anymore. I’ve literally been sitting here, shaking my head, since Saturday. So I’m just going to throw some stuff at you. Randomly. I’m good at that.

BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar

Watching the fights again, right off the bat in the first round, what I can see is Edgar moves really fast, moves A LOT, is dynamic and wants it. What is also obvious is Penn controls the pace and connects with the better strikes at least in the early rounds. As I judge the fight for myself, I cannot help but get a sense of déjà vu. In my entry posted on October 27, 2009 titled UFC 104 – The One With The Immediate Rematch featuring the controversial championship fight between Lyoto Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua, I gave my own breakdown of the fight and how I scored it:

Upon watching the fight again more sober attentive, this is how I would score the fight, with my non-existent knowledge of MMA scoring and complete lack of experience judging fights professionally:

the metricjulie scoring system
Round 1: Machida
Round 2: Rua
Round 3: draw, but let’s say Machida for the sake of my post so it’s more interesting
Round 4: Rua
Round 5: Rua

Now, to score this BJ Penn vs Frankie Edgar fight according my own highly UNscientific scoring system:

the metricjulie scoring system

Round 1: Penn
Round 2: Penn
Round 3: Penn (in a less dominating fashion than the two previous rounds, but still.)
Round 4: draw, but let’s say Edgar for the sake of argument
Round 5: Edgar

Result: 48-47 in favor of BJ Penn but really pushing it so that my point comes across.

Pushing it, I could give rounds 4 & 5 to Edgar. Even if I really wanted to favor Edgar in this fight and give him round 3, that still doesn’t explain how the judges could have scored the fight as follows:

50-45, 49-46 and 48-47, all in favor of Edgar.

… with all due respect, which isn’t that much, WHAT ON EARTH WERE THEY THINKING and WERE WE WATCHING THE SAME FIGHT? Did Edgar get points for moving quickly and looking like he wanted it more? Did he get a million bonus points for sorta taking Penn down when none of his opponents had managed to do so in the last 55 years? I guess you could say Penn was fighting not to lose his title. This is stretching the limits of what my inner rational fan is willing to endorse from the crazy and/or casual fan, which constitutes 92% of any fanbase.

Perhaps the 10-point must system isn’t suited for MMA; if you want to read the “world’s first comprehensive mixed martial arts statistics and analysis system”, go to FIGHTMETRIC.com and read their breakdown of the Penn-Edgar fight. Their system also has Penn winning in dominant fashion.

So I guess my biggest question is this: If Machida won his fight against Shogun, how does BJ Penn lose his title against Frankie Edgar?

Anderson Silva vs DemianMaia

As I write this, I am afflicted with the world’s most gigantic headache caused by my eyes being stuck in the back of my head from too much EYE ROLLING. I won’t reinvent the wheel here with my comments on whatever the hell happened, but I will say this:

1. I am a fan of Anderson Silva’s mind games, as evidenced by this tweet of mine in the early stages of the fight:

I have weird sexual fantasies. I never act on them though.

2. … but after the first two rounds, ENOUGH ALREADY, frig.

I read some pretty intense comments, ranging from people wanting their money back to others being utterly embarrassed by Anderson Silva’s existence. Not just in the sport. His existence, period. To those people, I would like to suggest getting dolled up, going out to your favorite bar, having a few drinks, and then perhaps hooking up in the bathroom with the first random person with whom you make eye contact. You all need to get laid. Honestly, if Silva felt he had some sort of mental toughness & advantage over Maia, which he did, why wouldn’t he make good use of it? I admit it was a little much, and the line can be hard to see, which is why I came up with the following point system to properly evaluate Silva’s game:

the metricjulie taunting system

Round 1: Silva
Round 2: Silva
Round 3: It was starting to be a little annoying, but let’s say for the sake of my post, we let Silva have this one.
Round 4: It was exasperating. Just fight already. It was more annoying than Fedor’s excuses not to fight ever. Advantage: Maia for having the patience not to bitchslap him (as opposed to landing a, you know, regular strike)
Round 5: I was touching myself, I was so happy Silva got a warning for literally RUNNING AWAY IN CIRCLES AROUND MAIA. Advantage: Maia

Result: I think the mindgames Silva was playing were legit in the early rounds and effectively managed to break Maia a little bit, but it WAS rather disappointing in the second half of the fight. It’s a little shameful to goad someone so much when you’re not actually doing anything. It’s almost as embarrassing as making the playoffs by one point in an overtime loss, but not quite.

I won’t get into the fact that Dana White apologized about Silva’s performance because frankly I could care less and am highly annoyed by all the drama surrounding the UFC that is often caused by its own president. In fact, this whole event was kind of a circus. I’ve been tweeting on and off about it; I can’t get over how weird it was. Sometimes I think I’ve made my peace with it, then another surge of whatthefuck makes its way to the surface, as you can see in the following tweets that were written at various moments over the past 48 hours:

Plus the Habs lost, frig.

CLOWNSHOES.

At least I amuse myself. Wait that sounds wrong --

Also, is it just me or is it sort of silly that Renzo Gracie asked for Matt Hughes to help him upduring their fight? What a weird, weird night of fights. I don’t even know what to say in conclusion.