UFC 83 Post-Mortem

Oh man....Leben would CRUSH Bisping

• Serra was outworked tonight and outclassed. He'll do the same to Hughes.
  
• Fitch will beat St. Pierre; mark it down.
  
• I called the end of the Lutter fight perfectly after he failed to get the armbar.
  
• Franklin should not see a title shot as long as Silva is the champ.
  
• Quarry is back. He should get Franklin next but I doubt it. Give him Jason Day.
  
• Starnes is a joke. He should not be allowed back in the UFC. Ever.
  
• Do you realize how crappy you have to be to get a 30-24 score? You get 24 just for not dying in the octagon.
  
• Bisping fought well. They'll build him up for one more fight then have him face Silva. It won't be pretty.
  
• The "turtle" defense doesn't work. Someone relay this message to Chainsaw.
  
• Danzig is legit at 155. He should get Edgar next. Maynard will coach him to victory.
  
• Bocek looks like he's twelve. And fought like he's six.
  
• MacDonald looked good tonight. He has a huge fight coming up next. More on that later.
  
• Doerksen is annoying. I'm glad he lost. Again.
  
• "Dooms" Day was dominant over Belcher. His next fight should be against Quarry. I hope.
  
• Belcher did not look good. Maybe now we'll see him fight Almeida and lose. Can't believe I picked him.
  
• Maia tooled. That is all.
  
• Maia and MacDonald should (and probably will) be made.
  
• Someone teach Ed Herman how to defend against a triangle choke. Please.
  
• Also, someone can revive Ed Herman now.
  
• Don't worry. I'll wait.
  
• Clementi continues to get better. He's now won his last five fights. Gray Maynard could be next for him.
  
• Stout looked decent but not great. Give him Spencer Fisher.
  
• Cain Velasquez will win the UFC Heavyweight title one day. Mark it down.
  
• I was 9 seconds off from calling that fight perfectly, by the way.
  
• I did have Maia with the right submission victory, as well.
  
• Why does the UFC not hype up Sherk-Penn?
  
• Kenny Florian borrowed from the wardrobe of Joe Rogan tonight. And his watch, too.
  
• I went 6-5 on my picks. Eh.
  
• Maia won. That is the only reason I'm happy.
  
• By the way, Herman is still out cold.
  
• And Maia is still tooling.

gotta love this Quarry starnes gif  from the underground....

I was really glad that GSP came back the way he did. Hopefully he'll never underestimate another opponent again. It really seems like he's grown up a lot since the last fight, and I'm stoked to see him take on the rest of the division. We all knew that he had the physical skills, and hopefully he's got the maturity!

Of course, I still maintain that Serra's a talented guy, even though GSP made an ass out of him last night. (That, after all, is what we expect from one of the best p4p fighters.) Then again, Matt's fighting up at 170, so it'd be nice to see him get a run at the 155 belt eventually.

Danzig did great - knees out of nowhere, and great transitions. It looks like he read BJ's new book with the way he was bringing strikes in when breaking out of the clinch, sprawling or what-have-you. I can see him developing into a top fighter if he can improve his submission game.

Pretty good card with the exception of the Starnes fight. That was definitely a disgrace.  He embarrassed himself, his country and the sport.  I am ashamed that he's from the same province I am.  Kick the bum out, cause he certainly doesn't want to fight.

I had high hopes for Lutter, but again, as usual, the guy just keeps disappointing.  I believe he's a smart fighter who can be cunning at times, which is what you need to beat Silva, but apparently not smart enough to bother to get better conditioning.  Sometimes I think he forgets there is more than one round per fight.

Bisping looked good on his feet, but he has a long way to go if he wants to take on Franklin or Silva.  

GSP: What can I say?  He dominated.  He molested Serra on the ground, just like he did to Kos and Hughes.  Going up against Fitch next probably, which will just be more of the same.  Fitch on his back, Fitch ground and pounded.  I was hoping to see more of GSP on his feet, but he looked a bit tentative to me, which I guess is expected.  Personally, I hope this isn't the case for the rest of GSP's career.  And I think you're right, Dana isn't going to do a champ vs champ, at least not any time soon.  GSP will probably reign for a couple of years and we'll see what happens after that.

Apologies for the essay.

Fitch has very little chance against a prepared GSP. That goes for anywhere: standing or on the floor.

I agree.  I don't see any way Fitch wins.  He might be a slightly better version of Koscheck, but that won't be nearly enough to challenge St. Pierre.

A few thoughts:

GSP did nothing surprising...including working an excellent game plan and winning the fight solidly.

GSP will beat Fitch. I know it is trendy to pick the forgotten guy, and I also like Fitch, but he does not have the ability that GSP possesses.

Franklin did a great job of not panicking and realized the roll-out was there. Nice job neutralizing Lutter's one shot at a win. And Lutter looked out of shape to me, does he take his career serious?

Did Goulet fight in UFC 1, lol? Seems like he has been around forever.

Wish they could have shown Maia/Herman.

Danzig looks strong and could make some noise if the matchups are right. Bocek looked...tough. He definitely won't quit in a fight, but he got manhandled.

Bisping looked...thinner. He wasn't impressive, but it is hard to be impressive when your opponent just covers up.

McCarthy and maybe Lutter, should get on the first train out of UFC land, BUT they should hold a spot for...

Starnes. I usually don't like to go so far as to bash a fighter, but this is certainly an instance where it would be deserved. Ordinarily I would give credit for just getting in there and fighting, or even just exposing himself to the possibility of a beating. Not in this case. Starnes logs into Sherdog frequently and bashes posters and other fighters all to often. Many times he berates other fighters for their less than exciting styles. Makes me wonder what he would have to say about himself? I thought coming out of TUF, that he had a lot of potential, but that disgrace last night was it for me. Why did he even take the fight if he was so scared to engage with Quarry? Definitely knocked the show down a notch and he should be held accountable for it.

Quarry...appearing at the Laugh Factory April 25-27. If all else fails, he can fall back on his stand up comedy routine. Definitely the most entertaining aspect of that fight. How about a Quarry/Leben fight?