Hi Dave,
Just wanted to give some feedback on the UFC Fight Night on Fox. I gave the card a Thumbs up, it was a pretty good show, not great with big marquee match/ups in my opinion, but a good fight night. This is the 4th UFC event I’ve watched since they implemented the new Reebok uniforms and I’m completely sick of looking at them already. I didn’t think it would make a big difference, but it really does. I mean plain black and white fight gear in every single fight on every fight card since they implemented the new uniform style? When they showcased examples of the fight uniforms and how the would look, I seem to remember a variety of clothing styles being presented, different colors, different styles, all with the Reebok logo. I know this is not a fashion show, and in a good fight it should not even be a factor on what they are wearing, but my god are these things bland! They actually make the fights boring if that makes any sense, and nobody really stands
out in my opinion, especially on the undercards. Every fight and just about every fighter looks the same. I just don’t understand the goal of Dana White here in making the product look as bland as possible. No cageside sponsors, nobody stands out at the weigh-ins, and don’t even get me started on the huge injustice to Stitch! But I digress, at least go with a different color scheme for every fight card, I’m so fricken sick of the black and white color scheme and feel like a complete idiot complaining about it, but it really does take away from the entertainment and look of the product which is very important.
Anyway, I skipped the prelims basically for this reason, and just watched the main card, which was very good, but some oddball decisions in a few fights in my opinion.
1. Joe Lauzon / Takanori Gomi – Lauzon gets the TKO over Gomi as Herb Dean is slow on the draw, but at least Lauzon was paying attention, lol. I think Herb Dean is the best ref in the world, but even he was bored by the uniform styles by this point and I think he fell asleep on his feet as a result, lol. Good stoppage though as Gomi was done, even though the stoppage was by the fighter and not the ref initially.
2. Edson Barboza / Paul Felder – A very good fight with Barboza getting the decision, even with a nasty eye bump that looked painful. A good decision in my opinion, the right guy won. I’m sure the executives on Fox just loved it when Felder decided to drop an “F” bomb when he lost by decision and then refused to shake hands and just left the cage. Or maybe he was more upset by the new uniform style then the decision? It’s really difficult to say, lol. But I’m sure a financial fine was waiting for him as he returned back stage to the dressing rooms.
3. Miesha Tate / Jessica Eye – “Takedown” Tate is now “Cupcake” Tate, lol. How about “Enhancement” Tate if you know what I mean? I like Tate, don’t get me wrong, I’ve been a big fan of hers since her Strikeforce days, but I think that Jessica Eye was the clear winner here. I think the decision went in her favor due to the rematch aspect of her and Ronda in my opinion. Not sure how good Jessica would do fighting Ronda, but pretty sure Ronda would bulldoze through her as they are clearly running out of contenders to challenge Ronda, and now need to look at making every fight for Ronda as personal as possible to keep her motivated I think and keep the crowd into it. A rematch between Ronda and Tate would be interesting, I just don’t think Tate won this fight as she clearly didn’t look like the winner by the end of the fight as she was banged up pretty bad and Jessica Eye really didn’t have a mark on her.
4. Dillashaw / Renan – Really good fight, I like both these fighters, I like Dillashaw as champ and he is on fire right now in my opinion. I hope they get a chance for a 3rd fight as I like Renan too, but he has to work his way back to a title match. But a good main event, good fight, not sure how it would have done on PPV as far as if I would have bought this fight, but a good fight night match up. Good night of fights, but I think I may need to join a group therapy session for my disdain of the new uniform style! It’s dumb to complain about it I know! And it bothers me more then it should, lol. But it does really take away an aspect of the excitement and Dana White and company should really revisit that aspect.
Thanks,
Jon Southerland
Clovis, Ca.
UFC on fox
Thumbs up, consistent show. Everything was decent except the officiating.
Best fight/Worst fight: nothing off the chart either way, several very good fights, nothing really bad
Best performance: would have to split this 5 or 6 ways
Worst performance: Barao I guess if we’re not counting the judges or Yves Lavigne (what else is new)
KO: Lawlor
Sub: Krause
Zak Cummings makes short work of late sub Dominique Steele with a flurry of punches. Local yokel ref lets it go way too long. Jessamyn Duke, down two rounds, comes up with a 3rd round onslaught that has Elizabeth Phillips saved by the bell. I would call the 3rd 10-8 and the fight 28-28 but the judges won’t. 29-28 UD Phillips and reverses an amateur loss a few years back. Good UFC debut late sub performance from Andrew Holbrook but isn’t in shape to quite hang with Ramsey Nijem and gasses late. Good technical fight especially while both were fresh. 29-28 split for Holbrook? What planet were the judges on? Darren Cruikshank tags James Krause a lot very early but Krause takes him down and immediately takes back and sinks the RNC for a quick upset win. Eddie Wineland off a long layoff looking overtrained, undersized and rusty never gets any range and Brian Caraway wins a comfortable decision without even being able to take the fight to the ground. Wineland tries coming on late and might steal the 3rd and does on two cards and even that’s questionable.
Ben Saunders-Kenny Robertson even more interesting than expected as Robertson able to more than hold his own standing most of the time. Saunders dominates the 1st but Robertson drops him hard late and seems to dominate the 2nd. Saunders traps Robertson in a triangle most of the 3rd and busts him up with elbows. Robertson is the hometown guy but Saunders gets the 29-28 split. Really good. Very close fight between Jim Miller and Danny Castillo. Much improved kicking from Castillo. Late TD by him may be the margin. Miller takes the SD with one asinine 30-27. Getting bullied by the much bigger Gian Villante, Tom Lawlor catches him coming in hands down with a right hook and knocks him silly early in the 2nd. The new uniforms mean we get no more Tom Lawlor Entrances even for weighins, which highly sucks.
Joe Lauzon stands briefly with Takanori Gomi, takes him down, takes back, flattens him out, knocks him out cold with G&P and gets up and walks away. Dean checks Gomi and then calls it. It’s announced as a ‘T’ KO. Not sure what’s ‘technical’ when the guy’s out cold.
Edson Barboza and Paul Felder, both late subs, amazingly go the distance in essentially a high level Muay Thai fight. Both do serious damage. Very similar fighters, more spinning strikes in this fight than I think any other MMA fight I’ve seen. Movie fight. Really good. Barboza a little faster and comes on late and should take the decision but tonight who knows. He does, 29-28 UD.
Jessica Eye outboxes Miesha Tate most of the 1st but is just too small to take Miesha’s power and Miesha takes over with a big overhand right KD late in the round and dominates the rest of the fight for a card sweep UD and I guess we have to watch Ronda clean her clock again. Jessica is a flyweight forced to fight at bantam because UFC for some reason still hasn’t started 125 for women. She might be better off starving down to 115. Lavigne manages to miss a blatant ground head kick by Miesha.
TJ DIllashaw repeats his dominance over Renan Barao. Barao lands a little more than last time and the fight is less dynamic till the finish but even Barao’s power seems to be gone. Maybe he has no choice other than to go up to 145 but it’s such a shark tank compared to 135. Dilashaw finishes it in the 4th with a flurry. Thought Dean let it go too long.
Crimson Mask
Click Here: collingwood magpies 2019 training guernsey
ROH Death Before Dishonor 13
Dear Mr Meltzer,
rating– Thumbs Up
best match— Adam Cole vs Dalton Castle… Cole was in much better shape than in his return match in Philly vs AJ. Good to see he’s been working hard. Castle got a ‘holy shit’ chant for a clean break, pretty tough to do. They got the most out of doing the least. Enjoyed castle’s deadlift’s very much.
worst match— Silas Young vs Will Ferrara… no one knew Will. Flat crowd for an opener, didn’t think it achieved it’s purpose.
Good, not great show I thought. But well worth my time and money.
I figured Roddy/Lethal was going broadway very early. At no point did I think it was match of the year though as the crowd chanted afterwards. I give both guys credit for having a good match go an hour. That’s pretty damn hard to do.
thanks for your time,
Dan Petrucci
Thumbs up
Best match: Lethal-Strong
Worst match: Silas-Ferrara
Great event. Maybe not as good as “Best in the World”, but pretty close. Loved the main event and Broadway makes perfect sense. The tag matches were fantastic. Loved ACH. Loved Adam Cole. Kelly and Corino are great as announcers. Stream was flawless
Britt Whitmire,
North Carolina
Overall: Thumbs Up
Best Match: Strong vs. Lethal
Worst Match: Silas Young vs. Will Ferrara (not bad, just given the least amount of time)
A fantastic show that I’m afraid very little people saw. You’re simply not going to see any better professional wrestling on TV and PPV from America than ROH. Death Before Dishonor XIII seemed like a show to hold you over until their big show in Texas in September. The crowd kind of spoke to that as I felt like they hurt the show. Overall though I would definitely recommend anyone to order the replay if they want to see a fantastic 60 minute draw in the modern era. A definite MOTY contender. I can’t imagine how they did it in that heat as it looked like Roderick Strong legitimately sweated off 5-10 lbs. Every match was great. Dalton Castle and Adam Cole had a far better match than I ever imagined them having. Castle isn’t just a goofy gimmick, he’s a really talented wrestler. Moose went from being way too green for ROH, to fitting right in. He impresses me more and more each time I see him and Cedric Alexander looked the best I’ve seen him in a long time. Every other match was typical ROH goodness. Every time I order a ROH show I feel like I got my money’s worth plus some.
-Matthew Burrill
@mattb425
Ring of Honor: Death Before Dishonor
Overall: Thumbs in the middle. Below ROH standards and a far cry from BITW. The undercard provided little to celebrate or praise. The main event was a marathon of attrition. It almost entered the classic phase.
Best match: I wanted to love the main event because of the extreme effort, but it only partially won my love. It built and built and built. With that said, the build was almost too slow.
Worst match. Page and ACH had no flow. Because of this, the dangerous spots felt completely wasted.
1. Silas Young vs. Will Ferrara. Quick paced, solid opener. As a heel, Young has grown on me. On the ROH roster, he is unique. I am not yet sold on Ferrara. His wrestling ability is fine, but he lacks anything that stands out in ROH or anywhere else. ** 1/2
2. Moose vs. Cedric Alexander. A few good spots, but the match lacked a consistent story and strongly defined roles. Too many missed kicks. *3/4
3. The Briscoes vs. Roppongi Vice. As I suspected, good action from start to finish in this contest. My one reoccurring complaint with ROH tag matches is the inconsistent enforcement of tag team rules. To sum it up, the break down and chaos goes on way to long. Nonetheless, I was entertained. ***1/2
4. Dalton Castle vs. Adam Page. Castle amuses me. His facial expressions and body mannerisms are awesome. A long, back and forth, fifty/ fifty match. If the plan was to go so long, a traditional template would have perhaps been more effective. As it stands, it was okay but below expectations. **1/2
5. Adam Page vs. ACH. ACH started with good fire, but the match lost momentum and subsequently lost the crowd. By the end, it was a few violent high spots in a match with no flow. **
6. Tag Title Match: The Addiction vs. Redragon vs. War Machine vs. The Kingdom. At the onset, the crowd had cooled off. The match picked up and the crowd came alive after the hot tag to Redragon and the dive spot. From there, the match turned to the familiar take turns spot fest. War Machine was given a nice shine during this phase. In my opinion, the spot fest went on too long and lost momentum prior to the finish. ***
7. ROH Title Match: Roderick Strong vs. Jay Lethal. Methodical pacing that felt worthy of a title match. Near the latter stages of the match, it felt as though the crowd was begging the athletes to quicken the pacing and increase the intensity. It never really happened, and hence what could have been epic, never reached that special level. Strong had a few outbursts of offense, but none that were built upon. This was a war of attrition, and a true marathon. For my taste, the build was almost too slow They wrestled a 60 minute match, 45 of which looked like exhausted desperation. The effort should be commended. ***3/4
Thanks, Derrick Hubbard
Utah
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