[Ari]

Rich is my favorite fighter, so I'm happy to see him win but I'm also sad to see Wanderlei lose. One of those fights where you want both fighters to win. Still thought Franklin took it convincingly 49-46.

[John8204]

Originally Posted by Abrissbirne

This was a great fight! I scored the second round 10-8 for Wandy, but all other rounds for Rich. I really enjoyed this fight tho, both did great!

10-8's don't go for guys who dominate for a minute. Franklin won the first four minutes of that round 10-8's only go for guys that dominate for five minutes and do massive amount of damage. It was a great minute of violence and the ref could have stopped the fight but all that did was win him the round.

I think this fight actually saved Wanderlei's career, as crazy as it might sound he may survive getting brutally KO'd by Vitor to get one more fight.

[michelangelo]

Yamasaki lets fights go on far too long.

1. BJ Penn knocked out Sean Sherk, then stopped when he saw Sherk was out. Mario wouldn't stop the fight, so he had to keep beating a defenseless fighter.

2. Brock Lesnar delivered about 3 dozen hammer fists in 30 seconds to Couture before Yamaaski stopped the fight. Obviously, Couture was not "intelligently defending himself" if he's eating that many punches in such a short period of time.

3. Wanderlei beats Franklin senseless while Franklin cowers in the fetal position for an entire minute. No stoppage.

Rich himself after the fight, says he didn't remember ANYTHING from the 2nd to the end of the fourth round.

The fight should've been stopped for Rich's own safety.

[americanfighter]

Originally Posted by michelangelo

Yamasaki lets fights go on far too long.

1. BJ Penn knocked out Sean Sherk, then stopped when he saw Sherk was out. Mario wouldn't stop the fight, so he had to keep beating a defenseless fighter.

2. Brock Lesnar delivered about 3 dozen hammer fists in 30 seconds to Couture before Yamaaski stopped the fight. Obviously, Couture was not "intelligently defending himself" if he's eating that many punches in such a short period of time.

3. Wanderlei beats Franklin senseless while Franklin cowers in the fetal position for an entire minute. No stoppage.

Rich himself after the fight, says he didn't remember ANYTHING from the 2nd to the end of the fourth round.

The fight should've been stopped for Rich's own safety.

I am a huge rich Franklin fan so I may be a little biased but I got to dissagree. I look at fights like Congo vs pat and carwin vs Brock which are fights that easily could have been stopped but it's a good thing they werent. This fight also could have been stoped but it's a good thing it wasn't.

[John8204]

Originally Posted by michelangelo

Yamasaki lets fights go on far too long.

1. BJ Penn knocked out Sean Sherk, then stopped when he saw Sherk was out. Mario wouldn't stop the fight, so he had to keep beating a defenseless fighter.

2. Brock Lesnar delivered about 3 dozen hammer fists in 30 seconds to Couture before Yamaaski stopped the fight. Obviously, Couture was not "intelligently defending himself" if he's eating that many punches in such a short period of time.

3. Wanderlei beats Franklin senseless while Franklin cowers in the fetal position for an entire minute. No stoppage.

Rich himself after the fight, says he didn't remember ANYTHING from the 2nd to the end of the fourth round.

The fight should've been stopped for Rich's own safety.

Watching it again

Rich goes down at :41
Rich shuffles out of the way at :32
Rich rises up and goes for a single at :26
Wanderlei returns the beating at :20
Rich wiggles out of a beating from Wandy at :08
Rich answers the call to move at :03

Wanderlei had two points that the fight could have been called but Franklin was able to intelligently defend himself. Rich did turtle up but he never turned his head away from the punching (which is "tapping" to strikes).

[michelangelo]

Originally Posted by americanfighter

I am a huge rich Franklin fan so I may be a little biased but I got to dissagree. I look at fights like Congo vs pat and carwin vs Brock which are fights that easily could have been stopped but it's a good thing they werent. This fight also could have been stoped but it's a good thing it wasn't.

Those are fun fights for the spectator, but threaten the long term health of the fighters. The first thing Rich stated after the fight was that he couldn't remember 3/5 of the fight. He only recalled his corner telling him it was the start of the fifth round. A surprise to Rich, as he could only recall events up to the end of the 1st.

MMA has a remarkable track record for safe-guarding the welfare of it's fighters, while still providing some of the most dynamic action in all of combat sports. I don't want to see that balance change.

[osmium]

Originally Posted by Roflcopter

Only in MMA where the level of striking is so poor in general that people don't realize they have a low probability of getting KO'd if they actually throw jabs and and short precise crosses and not load up on every punch and throw wild hooks.

Matt Brown isn't even a good striker really, he's just good for MMA because he knows how to touch guys and not get hit that much. It's sad when you see more high level striking from Matt freaking Brown than "ME" fighters.

The Brown thing is a stretch he finds success with that against cans and middling fighters Wanderlei has been more effective against better fighters in his career with his striking. Brown would get smoked by the top WWs fighting that way.

We saw what happens to guys like them more often than not at the top levels of a division tonight either way. So you aren't wrong about the level of striking in MMA but that isn't generally how it works at the contendership level these days.

Rich at the very least is still good enough to be competitive at the top of 185. This fight was somewhat disappointing I was hoping that Wandy would be more active; the majority of the fight was him being a punching bag. Hopefully we will see Rich fight some better guys again soon.

[evilappendix]

I thought this was a great fight. I happily shelled out cash to see these two square off again and I rarely purchase cards. Wand was super close to getting the KO in the second but Rich was savvy enough to survive to the bell. Would've liked to see Wand get the win not only because he is and forever will be my favorite fighter but then we'd also be set for a rubber match between these two. Still, great fight, Rich ate leather like a boss then recovered well and stuck to his game plan showing his heart and skill as always. Also, props to Ace for brushing up on some Portuguese for the crowd, perpetual charmer that he is.

[Roflcopter]

Originally Posted by osmium

The Brown thing is a stretch he finds success with that against cans and middling fighters Wanderlei has been more effective against better fighters in his career with his striking. Brown would get smoked by the top WWs fighting that way.

We saw what happens to guys like them more often than not at the top levels of a division tonight either way. So you aren't wrong about the level of striking in MMA but that isn't generally how it works at the contendership level these days.

Rich at the very least is still good enough to be competitive at the top of 185. This fight was somewhat disappointing I was hoping that Wandy would be more active; the majority of the fight was him being a punching bag. Hopefully we will see Rich fight some better guys again soon.

Which strikers outside of Nick Diaz at the "top level" are so much better at kickboxing than guys like Stephen Thompson?

Being a good MMA fighter =/= being a good striker. A lot of guys that are good or okay at striking like Matt Brown suck at other things and therefore lose to guys like Hendricks and Koscheck who are just really good wrestlers.

And quite frankly Wanderlei has never really beaten a good striker.....who is the best one he's beat in his UFC run? Keith Jardine? A 40 year old movie star Cung Le?

Hell, even in his PRIDE days he beat Rampage before Rampage really knew how to box and was mostly just a wrestler.

[osmium]

Originally Posted by Roflcopter

Which strikers outside of Nick Diaz at the "top level" are so much better at kickboxing than guys like Stephen Thompson?

Being a good MMA fighter =/= being a good striker. A lot of guys that are good or okay at striking like Matt Brown suck at other things and therefore lose to guys like Hendricks and Koscheck who are just really good wrestlers.

And quite frankly Wanderlei has never really beaten a good striker.....who is the best one he's beat in his UFC run? Keith Jardine? A 40 year old movie star Cung Le?

Hell, even in his PRIDE days he beat Rampage before Rampage really knew how to box and was mostly just a wrestler.

I said when he got signed I didn't like the way Thompson throws punches and his boxing defense. I think a lot of guys would hand him his ass standing because of the smaller gloves and how open he is. Also this is MMA your takedown defense is essentially part of your striking ability. When you can get taken down by Matt Brown swatting at your legs it will get in your head while you are standing.

Hendricks would crush Brown standing he is slow and sloppy and has less power. Wanderlei in his prime was a better striker than Brown just based off of his explosiveness.