sirshannon.com

[Note: These are notes as from last night as I watched UFC 60 on pay-per-view. I didn’t bother correcting them today.]
The first fight on PPV tonight is The Ultimate Fighter Season One’s Mike “Quick” Swick against recent (and arguably undeserving) title contender Joe Riggs. Swick has gained his nickname because he has won ever UFC fight in a remarkably small total time. While most alumnis of Spike TV’s UFC reality show have given us fights that end in decisions or losses, Swick has had less probably had less than a full round of ringtime in his post-tv career.
So we have what is a guy who has been winning his fights but intoo short a time to really prove himself. Unless I know the guy knocked out on his back 30 seconds into the fight, I can’t really believe he was a worthy opponent. This is the fight where the question will be answered.
Joe Riggs is a showboat and probably didn’t deserve the title shot he failed to qualify for (he didn’t make wait) and then lost to Matt Hughes. If Swick wins this, he proves he can fight. If he wins in short time, to proves he earns his nickname.
Wow. I don’t know that a submission at 2:40 in round 1 qualifies as “Quick” enough, but damn… Swick is no joke.

____

UFC 61 in Vegas will feature washed-up punching bag Ken Shamrock getting his face further rearranged by loudmouth beach bum Tito Ortis and, they just announced, the almost immediate rematch between newly recrowned Heavyweight Champion Tim Silvia taking on the disenfranchised former champion Andre Arlovski. This could be good.

_____

The Hughes vs. Gracie fight IS NOT A TITLE BOUT. I am willing to bet that this fact has been mentioned or at least avoided during the last few months of hype for this fight, but I feel duped. If the belt isn’t on the line, the fight means nothing. It makes me think someone think the old man has a chance.

_______

Diego Sanchez is tonight’s second Ultimate Fighter Season One alumni. The difference between Sanchez and Swick is that Sanch won the whole shebang. Since then. Very little has happened for Diego. The night Joe Riggs lost to Matt Hughes, Diego Sanchez won a decision against Nick Diez. The next time we saw these fighters, it was Nick Diez taking on Joe Riggs.
Now, in Sanchez’s next fight, he takes on John Alessio, in a fight that should make one of these guys walk out tonight with a name worth writing on a ticket with a fighter somewhere near the top of the welterweight bracket.

In the second round of this fight, Sanchez finally stopped attempting his failed takedowns and actually landed a couple good punches that surprised me and Alessio.

They just announced that tonight’s untelevised undercard fights, along with other on-demand offerings, will be available tomorrow at the new(?) UFC On-Demand Video site: http://video.ufc.com

At the end of the second round, the fight has no clear winner, which makes them both losers in my mind. Sanchez has failed every takedown attempt and has taken a punch almost every time. Alessio has avoided the shoots but has done little-to-nothing else.

The lack of offensive aggression is evident now, in the 3rd round. Sanchez has been on Alessio’s back for almost 2 minutes as Alessio walks around trying to get Sanchez in an armbar submission using his own head. And Sanchez fails to do anything while riding on Alessio’s back while Alessio fails to escape.

This seems to be the all too typical fight these days: 2 fighters that are either equally good or equally bad who meet in the octagon and flop around until the last bell rings and the decision goes to the judges. As one of this season’s UFC losers (and my wise coworker Ben) said: if it goes to the judges, nobody really won. Real sports don’t need judges.

_______

Some rocker guy in the crowd just earned some camera time. His girl noticed and seemed to like it until they put a label under him that had not his name, but the name of his band, Atreyu. Assuming they got the band right, the guy looked at his girl and said something along the lines of “my name is not Atreyu”. She spent the last 30 seconds of their screentime scowling at the camera and her face and mislabeled boyfriend on the Staples Center’s big screens.

__________

Wow. We’re on the 4th fight now and I don’t know either of these guys by name. I guess I should have caught the looping pregame on the PPV channel before the event. Or maybe that terminally boring “UFC 61 Hughes Vs. Gracies Preview” on Spike should have included something other than the main (and surprisingly non-title) event.

2 guys I don’t know in a ppv fight? I guess this means these guys are good. I can usually tell the political soap opera plot reasons for most “big” fights in the UFC. If neither or these guys are showboat flash guys, maybe they are real fighters. I guess I’ll find out later. The “boxer” tapped out early to the well rounded fighter Dean Lister. But don’t we know that anyone going in with a description of “boxer” probably doesn’t have a chance?

Ah… This winner is a coach on the show this season and this this is his first UFC fight.
_______

Hahahahahahahaha
The camera just stopped on Chuck Liddell for a while. David Spade and Paris Hilton were behind him. Paris seemed to get pissed when she saw her face on the screen but not her name. And the camera didn’t budge for a quite uncomfortable length of time (for her). I’m sure you’ll get a more entertaining telling of this on Spade’s The Showbiz Show next week. After all, now that Heather Locklear is too sober to be seen with him, he can’t possibly avoid the obvious material he is setting up by slumming with starfucker media’s favorite punchline.
_________

Now for the main (and non-title) event. Gracie could win, I guess, but Hughes will not lose his belt. He’ll lose a lot a pride and the UFC will lose a bit of sheen if the winner of UFC 1 beats him. Sure, Hughes will still be champ but who will respect his belt if he loses?
I don’t see that happening. I predict Hughes in round 1. Most of the celebrities are predicting Gracie. But not the ones that know wtf they are talking about.
Hughes won in the first round after having total control the entire fight. It was good to see him dominate the old guy on the floor. Gracie was in his own territory for most of the fight and could not do anything with Hughes. The closest thing to offense Gracie displayed was somehow not getting his arm snapped by the vicious armbar Hughes got him in early. He was unable to escape from Matt, he never even looked like he was going to be able to escape.