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What did you think of the flyweight title fight?

What did you think of Joseph Benadivez/Demitrious Johnson? POLL INCLUDED

8K views 144 replies 51 participants last post by  LizaG 
#1 ·
I was shocked some people seemed to be dissapointed in this fight cause I thought it was a FOTY contender and was incredibly entertained by what I thought was an exciting fight. That said what are others opinions?
 
#84 · (Edited)
HA - probably the best comment I've read, but I think there's sadly a bit of truth to it.

These guys have all the skill in the world, but when I see people smaller than me (I'm pretty tiny) fighting I can't help but laugh a bit.

This is one topic that the MMA world seems to be split down the fence on. Unfortunately most of the little guys look like they are throwing muffins at each other. They are quick as hell, but theres a definite lack of power behind the attacks in general - I can't remember the last time I saw a KO that "wowed" me at 145 or below. I don't see any difference between a fight at 125 and 145.

As mentioned, it's tough for me watching these fights when you are sure that 9/10 will be point fights, with no chance of a KO. The odd fight will have a tko/submission, but if you look back historically, there aren't many KOs, and a hell of a lot of decisions.

I've often heard MMA as being called the "fast food" of combat sports (compared to boxing) -- the sport draws a lot of fans who want to see a violent, quick fight. Point fighting doesn't appeal to a large chunk of MMA fanbase. I don't think it's wrong or right, that's the way the sport and fanbase have evolved, and a champion like GSP has taken a lot of flak for what people would consider point fighting, but yet a fight like this gets people screaming FOTY.

I think the biggest problem was the UFC jumped the gun a little bit. Within a very short time frame 3 new divisions were created - all that offer a very similar viewer experience/product.
 
#36 ·
Find me a post where I said I liked this card? Just one post. Can't? It's because I didn't but just because I didn't doesn't mean I have to agree with every pointless thing that comes out of your mouth.
 
#39 ·
I'm not going to attack anyone's opinion on here. But Dana has said it best. If you don't like whos fighting on a particular card, DONT BUY IT! I think on paper and in actuality, this was a really really solid card. 2 title fights. Bisping vs Stann was my favorite FOTN. Even though I really like Stann over Bisping, they both fought hard and Bisping deserved the W. They are both getting a lot better and I hope to see a rematch in a couple of years.

ON TOPIC: I enjoyed watching this fight. This may be one of the few fights that Ive watched and was more impressed by one fighter's defense than either of their offenses. Demetrious Johnson is so quick. Benavidez really tried hard. He'll likely have another shot at gold in this weight class some time down the road. On a scale from 1-10, 1 being crap and 10 being Hendo vs Fedor/Shogun, I give this here first FW Title fight in UFC history, a 7. :thumb02:

-3dlee
 
#43 · (Edited)
I'm not going to attack anyone's opinion on here. But Dana has said it best. If you don't like whos fighting on a particular card, DONT BUY IT! I think on paper and in actuality, this was a really really solid card. 2 title fights. Bisping vs Stann was my favorite FOTN. Even though I really like Stann over Bisping, they both fought hard and Bisping deserved the W. They are both getting a lot better and I hope to see a rematch in a couple of years.

ON TOPIC: I enjoyed watching this fight. This may be one of the few fights that Ive watched and was more impressed by one fighter's defense than either of their offenses. Demetrious Johnson is so quick. Benavidez really tried hard. He'll likely have another shot at gold in this weight class some time down the road. On a scale from 1-10, 1 being crap and 10 being Hendo vs Fedor/Shogun, I give this here first FW Title fight in UFC history, a 6.5. :thumb02:

-3dlee
 
#47 ·
I want so badly to take a morally, intellectually correct stand here and lecture you guys on the heart and skill those two showed last night.

But the honest truth is, I had to slap myself awake, fix a drink and walk outside because I was afraid I would fall asleep and miss Belfort/Jones. and that's just wrong :(

 
#100 ·
I want so badly to take a morally, intellectually correct stand here and lecture you guys on the heart and skill those two showed last night.

But the honest truth is, I had to slap myself awake, fix a drink and walk outside because I was afraid I would fall asleep and miss Belfort/Jones. and that's just wrong :(
Don't feel bad, neither of those things are actually true.

I've gone on record before saying that I don't particularly care for the lighter divisions, but I tried to enjoy the fight, and just watched it again to see if my early impressions were correct.

I can say this with some conviction: If you think this fight was exciting, you're weird. And if you think it was good, you're flat out wrong.

When the best thing you can say about the winner is that he was extremely elusive, you're not talking about a particularly exciting fight, IMO. But OK, that's subjective.

but as for skill and heart? Objectively, the skill and heart shown by these fighters was nothing to write home about.

Joseph Benavidez' striking is quite poor. He throws extremely wide, looping, telegraphed punches. But at least he was moving forward and throwing flurries, even if they were about as accurate as sgt. Mulligan's mortars.

Johnson spent most of the fight circling and countering, but never once followed a successful strike with more punches. Between rounds 3 and 4 Matt Hume actually told him to "start fighting."

Here are some figures from fightmetric:
Demetrius Johnson - 156 strikes thrown in a five round fight.
Michael Bisping - 141 strikes thrown in a 3 round fight.
Brian Stann - 141 strikes thrown in a 3 round fight.

And Joe and Goldie were talking about Johnson's cardio and pace. Well guess what, dancing around takes less out of you than actually throwing leather.

So in the striking department we had one fighter showing heart by moving forward, but that's hardly exceptional, and the other fighter showing skillful footwork, but not using combinations or staying in the pocket. So neither fighter showed both. Nor an exceptional degree of either skill or heart.

In the grappling department we got extremely lackluster submission attempts from both fighters, and some nice takedowns from Johnson in the 5th, but he couldn't really do anything with them.

There was nothing good about this fight other than the scrambling.

Before watching the fight a second time I voted "good, but not great" after watching it a second time I think the Canadians were right to boo.
 
#48 ·
I thought it was a good fight but not FOTY or FOTN or even runner up to FOTN.

1. Jimy Hettes vs Marcus Brimage
2. TJ Grant vs Evan Dunham
3. Sean Pierson vs Lance Benoist

Those are six men that really went out there and gave it their all. I'm a little dissapointed by the lack of respect those men are being shown when all of them really went above and beyond tonight.
 
#50 ·
Benavidez was clinched up with Mighty Mouse, then he did a 360 for no reason whatsoever and remained clinched with Mighty Mouse without getting his back taken.

I love watching these guys fight, I was thinking how cool it would have been if Uncle Creepy won, either way we were in for an exciting title fight though.
 
#52 ·
The general consensus among those who did not enjoy the fight seems to be that they didn't feel like there was a chance of the fight being ended which is crazy when you consider that both guys have managed to finish over 50% of there fights. I get the feeling that those who did not enjoy it wrote it off as midgets dancing with no chance of a finish before the fight and I doubt any of the people who didn't enjoy it actually watched it with an open mind.

Either way despite getting called out in the official thread for saying it was a great fight I feel the poll vindicates my opinion.
 
#55 ·
Umm... are you looking at the numbers, Toxic. You claimed most would agree it was a great fight. It's more than 2 to 1 against that. You are just justifying your position by saying those didn't enjoy it was only because they didn't go in with an open mind. Deciding that you are simply more enlightened than the people who disagree with you doesn't vindicate your opinion. You can have your opinion but don't try to make judgement calls as to why others didn't like the fight.
 
#58 ·
The general consensus among those who did not enjoy the fight seems to be that they didn't feel like there was a chance of the fight being ended which is crazy when you consider that both guys have managed to finish over 50% of there fights.
Did you ever feel a finish was coming? You just get a feel for it after a few rounds that no finish is coming...not to mention neither guy has ever been finished - i think just about everyone was picking a decision here.
 
#53 ·
I personally just didn't find it to be entertaining. It's one of those fights where the punches are landing but the fighters arent being phased. It's the same reason why Evan Dunham's fight wasn't instantly FOTN. Punches were big on both ends, but neither man was put in any trouble so it just didn't captivate us that much.
 
#54 ·
I was there and I have to say I was bored out of my tree watching the fight. Call me a non-MMA fan but I have zero interest in watching 125lbers fight. I said to my gf and the guy beside me that this was going to be 25 minutes of boredom before it started and I was right.

There was some good action in the fourth, but two fights broke out in my section during the fight and everyone agreed they were more entertaining.

The worst fight of the night was Hamill vs Hollett. Absolutely atrocious. Dana should start handing out penalties to WFOTN (worst fight of the night) so you lose 25 percent of your purse or something. It was an atrocity.

When I originally found out Penn and MacDonald was scrapped and that Johnson-Benavidez was the main event I thought the card was laughable.

I'm definitely biased though in that I enjoy watching bigger, more physically imposing fighters compete.

Naturally when Jones was added to the card I went to kijiji to get some tickets.
 
#56 ·
I can't see the poll on my phone but the numbers of people who likes it vs those who were indifferent or disliked it were about 4-1 this morning


Sent from my iPhone using VS Free
 
#60 ·
Your stance was that most here would see the fight as great. Here's your original statement.

I think most people here would agree that was an awesome fight.
17 - Great
16 - Good
26 - Indifferent or not exciting
3 - Bad

That is 45 to 17 on people not seeing it as a great fight. That is about a 2.5 to 1 ratio against your original statement. Even if you count the good as agreeing with your FOTY stance - which you shouldn't since most are in heavy agreement that Dunham/Grant was FOTN - that would put it at 33 to 29. Which is just slightly above a 1 to 1 ratio.

Numbers don't lie.
 
#57 ·
View Poll Results: What did you think of the flyweight title fight?
Great Fight 17 26.56%
It was good but not great. 16 25.00%
Indifferent, it was filler 12 18.75%
Wasn't very entertaining or exciting 13 20.31%
Complete Garbage 4 6.25%
Strawberry Shortcake reruns. 2 3.13%
 
#59 ·
Wow that change drastically. There were only 4 negative votes when I left the house


Sent from my iPhone using VS Free
 
#61 ·
It was alright. Like everyone else said, the 4th round was good. But other than that I just didn't feel like they were engaging that much. It was basically 5 rounds of watching Mighty Mouse use his movement to avoid damage and get points. Impressive, yes. Exciting, not really.
 
#62 ·
And I am shocked by that but me be wrong does not make you right, you were just as certain that everyone would agree with you and hate it.


Sent from my iPhone using VS Free
 
#63 ·
I didn't hate the fight. I was just bored with it and I said most would agree that it wasn't that great a fight. Most agreed that it wasn't great according to the poll you put up. Take from that what you will.
 
#64 ·
I do not see the problem. This fight is what every fighter should aspire to be - no gassing, no sloppy brawling, to be skilled in all areas and be able to apply that skill 100% for the full scheduled fight time.

If the two skill sets take each other to decision, so what? Ok, if you watched the fight drunk or high or during a social event, you may have missed a lot. Take the time to watch it properly, as a fight fan, it's a crazy 25 minute display of very high level MMA, I love it.

If you genuinely did not enjoy it though, and you are a member of this MMA forum, that is rather strange.
 
#65 ·
See... comments like this piss me off. All it says is that "real" fight fans would love that fight and that there is something strange about you if you don't. It's elitist.

The fight was not that good. The skill level of the fighters was not that high. There was no amazing technique technique shown. It was all speed and cardio. That's it. The techniques used were solid but nothing technique wise stood out. Neither fighter possessed more than 2 of the 4 requirements for truly effective maneuvers. In only one of the rounds did either fighter try to end the fight.

I personally dislike any fight where the fighters aren't trying to finish their opponent. To me that defeats the purpose of fighting. And you can disagree but don't talk down to those who didn't like it.
 
#69 ·
It was a solid fight but to label it as a FOTY contender is more then a stretch. The FOTN isn't even a FOTY contender and a fight that didn't get FOTN is supposed to be?

I have nothing against these guys and there were entertaining but I think some of you look at the speed that these guys are moving at, and think that its a better fight because of it.
 
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