Frank Shamrocks views on UFC 55.

AikaImmortal · 10-10-2005, 11:26 PM

Frank Shamrock reports on UFC 55

UFC 55 opened strong at the Mohegan Sun Indian Casino with Craig Hammer and Joe Rogan as commentators and some pretty great graphics. There was big build up for the main event of Andrei Arlovski vs. Paul Buentello.

Chris Lytle vs. Joe Riggs

Nice story with Joe Riggs starting at 300 lbs in MMA and dropping down to welterweight for this fight. With a bit of feeling out Lytle gets the first takedown and advances to side mount. Riggs moves to half guard and then finally to full guard.

Unexpectedly Riggs attacks with a Uma Plata (shoulder lock with the legs) and uses the submission hold to reverse the position and a stand up follows. With a small exchange of light punches Riggs moves in for a leg trip taking Lytle down and advancing to side mount. From side mountRiggs lands huge left hands to the head of Lytle badly damaging him and pushing the action.

Defending those big shots Lytle retreats to full guard and quickly turns Riggs over with a leg sweep from the guard. Riggs moves to guard and begins pushing the head away to set up the Uma Plata once again; with Lytle’s head pushed away Riggs blasts him with an elbows opening a one inch gash on his head. Riggs wins via stoppage for the cut from the bottom. 1st round TKO

Renato Sobral vs. Chael Sonnen

The rematch from a previous controversial fight that saw Sonnen take the victory in a questionable decision. Sonnen opens with punches and Sobral catches a right kick and follows with a right hand to get the takedown. After a brief scramble and stand up, both fighters do some damage from the clinch with knees and elbows.

Sobral during the clinch fight ducks under Sonnen’s arm and attempts a standing side choke. With Sobral nearly finishing the choke; Sonnen finally escapes and immediately eats a kick to the head. Sobral moves in for the takedown and Sonnen gets an immediate reversal from his back. With Sobral working in the guard position to defend punches he finally manages to push Sonnen away and goes for the heel hook. Sonnen screams in pain as the hold is applied but Sonnen spins his way out into a knee bar.

As time runs out and the second round starts Sobral gets the takedown as Sonnen tries to kick. Returning the favor Sonnen from his back kicks Sobral away and as he lands on his back; Sobral sets up a triangle choke for this finish. 2nd Round Submission

Forrest Griffen vs. Elvis Sinosic

Sinosic opened very strong and controlled the striking with straight punches and double kicks. Sinosic kept pressing the action landing more damaging puches and stunning Griffen with a nice right hand.

Griffen in return retaliates with his own left hand evening the score and perhaps turning the tides in the fight. Another left hand sees both men tiring and yet another left hook sends Sinosic to the canvas.

Referee Mario Yamazaki runs in and stops the fight with the earliest UFC stoppage I have ever seen. Griffen 1st Round KO

Sean Gannon vs. Branden Lee Hinkle

This fight had no business on PPV. Gannon whose claim to fame is he fought some knucklehead, bare-knuckle in a stand up fight on the internet and he is a Chicago cop. Dana White even went on camera to explain how it was sanctioned and legal; a bunch of BS.

It was truly a step backward for the “sport” as this guy was not even in the league of Hinkle nor did he look or fight like a professional athlete. Although he did have a decent sprawl and as the fight started he was able to thwart the takedown of Hinkle for about 25 seconds.

As soon a Hinkle got him down though it was a bloody massacre. Hinkle was switching between a shoulder lock and side mount to steadily rain elbows on the head and face of Gannon. From the mount to side mountHinkle would change position and slice the face and head of Hinkle with elbows.

Finally with Gannon grimacing, rolling n blood and hiding his face the fight was stopped. Hinkle 1st Round TKO

Paul Buentello vs. Andrei Arlovski

The main event of the night was another smashing. Buentello immediately took the center of the ring and aggressively pursued Arlovski with his hands. Arlovski circled away as Buentello, with his eyes closed, stepped in with his first real combo.

Unfortunately with his eyes closed he never saw the counter right hand of Arlovski that hit him right on his chin and put him to sleep. The crowd did not see it either and immediately started to boo.

The fight was only 15 seconds or so and they were primed for some action as almost all the fights ended in the first round. Arlovski was interviewed by Joe Rogan and came off good but has to learn some English so we can all relate. Arlovski 1st Round KO

All in all it was a lame show. The PPV was only about 1 hour 30 minutes, which was not worth my $34.95. Crazy how when I fought in the UFC it was only $20.00 and fights would go on until the end. The production value is great and the venue of Mohegan Sun is spectacular.

The fights were not, although I would give the fight of the night to Sinosic and Griffen with there back and forth stand up war.

As for the talent they need some coaching. In the big build up of the next PPV most fighters are not sticking to the story line of the promotion. Griffen put Chuck Liddell over saying if they fought Griffen “would end up face down on the canvas but it would be an exciting fight”.

Don’t get me wrong that’s a great piece but misplaced I thought. Lastly when Rogan interviewed Nate Quarry for his upcoming fight he told Rogan on live PPV that “they made me say that he has weak hands.”

Guys we need to stick to the promotion or the tickets will remain at the box office.

For the entire show I give it 1 star out of 5. FS

Goeth27 · 10-11-2005, 12:19 AM

I thought it was good..

angryjonny · 10-11-2005, 05:29 PM

It was decent but definitely one of the weakest cards I've seen in quite some time. I thought UFN 2 was way better. $35 for UFC 55=crap sandwich. I would like Mario to never ref a fight that there is most likely going to be a knockdown in. UFC, please don't let Mario ref if a standup fighter is stepping in the cage. Thanks! Note to anyone who thinks I am trashing on UFC. I was very disappointed with the stoppage, not because I didn't want Forrest to win, I didn't want the fight to end and Elvis could have easily regained composure, and continued to give the fight of the night.

rhtufts · 10-11-2005, 08:28 PM

This is probably a dumb question but where did you get this from Frank Shamrock?

I do agree with him 100%

Good event summary

AikaImmortal · 10-11-2005, 08:30 PM

http://www.frankshamrock.com/page4.html

DrumzCT · 10-11-2005, 11:05 PM

Thats odd that Nate said they made him say he has a weak chin. (The article says "weak hands" but Quarry never says that. He says weak chin...)

DirtyChuckRulz! · 10-12-2005, 11:10 AM

i agree, this was a very week card and it didnt help that the main event only lasted 15 secs, Dana white is making a joke out of the UFC, at least the 56 card is lookin strong.

Grave · 10-12-2005, 04:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DirtyChuckRulz!

i agree, this was a very week card and it didnt help that the main event only lasted 15 secs, Dana white is making a joke out of the UFC, at least the 56 card is lookin strong.

How is this PPV dana white's fault? Thats as crazy as trying to place blame on paul for loseing in 15 seconds and not putting up a better fight,ruining the PPV.

From i've read it was the really SHORT and somewhat dissapointing fights that made the PPV suck. Well with real fighting thats the reality,not every match will be exciting 3-4 round fights.

RobOne · 10-12-2005, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Grave

How is this PPV dana white's fault? Thats as crazy as trying to place blame on paul for loseing in 15 seconds and not putting up a better fight,ruining the PPV.

From i've read it was the really SHORT and somewhat dissapointing fights that made the PPV suck. Well with real fighting thats the reality,not every match will be exciting 3-4 round fights.

Its Dana White's fault because he hand picks he fights. We all knew Buentello was gonna be a cake walk for Arlovski. This card looked weak from the get go. You might say well who else are they gonna put in there? Exactly they have no one else, and that is Dana's fault aswell. He continuously releases good talent, because of lack of excitement or 1 poor outing. He has no idea what he is doing, and they need to hire a replacement stat.

angryjonny · 10-12-2005, 05:31 PM

Also I think it has been well established that we all know that Dana is not the one responsible for everything but it is easier to just say Dana since he is the spokesman and everyone knows him and that he is one of the top dogs in UFC.

The card was weak because the matchups were weak. It's pretty sad when your free telecast is better than your PPV. That's all there is to it. When the most exciting fight comes from an unknown fighter to most and a TUF fighter, that is not a big sign that it was the greatest card. I don't know why people get so upset over that. Now 56 looks a bit more promising. But lets see how many more people that Dana (and Zuffa, just to clarify) can piss off before it happens.

subgenius · 10-13-2005, 02:21 PM

I find Frank Shamrock to be wrong. He praises the production values, but they sucked. The camera work was especially bad. Maybe he was drinking too heavily when he watched the PPV. He has the details of who said what confused. The fights themselves were actually very good... even the main event. The production values were bad.

diablerie27 · 10-14-2005, 10:32 AM

I cant really say anything about the PPV since i didnt actually see it. after reading what frank had to say about it i was glad that i didnt pay for it. it was the first UFC i didnt pay for since TUF1 started. I was not that interested in the card besides the babalu fight but i wasnt going to pay for the whole PPV to see that fight.

also, with all the things going on with dana white and the UFC i wasnt sure if i wanted to give them my money this time. i just hope we dont see the UFC fall apart when it is at a point to really get popular and more excepted by the public.

sorry i was a little off topic

Billdolfski · 10-19-2005, 05:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by angryjonny

It was decent but definitely one of the weakest cards I've seen in quite some time. I thought UFN 2 was way better. $35 for UFC 55=crap sandwich. I would like Mario to never ref a fight that there is most likely going to be a knockdown in. UFC, please don't let Mario ref if a standup fighter is stepping in the cage. Thanks! Note to anyone who thinks I am trashing on UFC. I was very disappointed with the stoppage, not because I didn't want Forrest to win, I didn't want the fight to end and Elvis could have easily regained composure, and continued to give the fight of the night.

It was pretty much crap sandwich. Anyways, I thought that Yamasaki stopped the fight early too, but upon seeing the reruns, he was on his ass and out. Fight was over, I support his decision.

subgenius · 10-19-2005, 09:38 PM

UFC 55 is the reason that I think that the UFC ought to have a weekly two-hour program on Spike TV. UFC 55 was a TV event, and it would have been a damn good TV event for sure. Many here did not like UFC 55, or were disappointed (to say the least) by it... But, I thought that it had some good fights.

Were they PPV quality? Some of them were, but not all of them. I may be among the few that watched Arlovski destroy Buentello with one punch in :15 seconds and actually LIKED IT! Seeing Babalu brought up a lot of excitement, mostly because I had started to forget about him. Seeing Griffin beat Sinosec was worthwhile... I think that it would have worked out well as a TV event.

SmashingMachine · 10-21-2005, 12:03 AM

Frank should come back to the UFC. The UFC could definetly stand to gain another top notch fighter...as they seem to be lacking in that department...outside a handful of guys. I'm getting more and more disappointed with UFC, it's Fight Cards and fighters as of late.

Unknown · 10-21-2005, 02:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SmashingMachine

Frank should come back to the UFC. The UFC could definetly stand to gain another top notch fighter...as they seem to be lacking in that department...outside a handful of guys. I'm getting more and more disappointed with UFC, it's Fight Cards and fighters as of late.

I also wouldn't mind seeing him in the UFC again. But I don't trust his view on UFC 55. The production values wern't deserving of praise. It wasn't a great card but I enjoyed it and I am looking forward to UFC 56.

SWIBC · 10-22-2005, 12:37 PM

Just curious how come Frank does not fight anymore, he can not be more than 32-33 y,o,
Wondering since I am watching his fight from UFC XXII against Tito (circa 2000)

subgenius · 10-24-2005, 11:32 AM

Frank Shamrock has been in PRIDE FC for a while, IIRC.

Gooner · 10-25-2005, 09:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by subgenius

Frank Shamrock has been in PRIDE FC for a while, IIRC.

WTF are you talking about? I don't know what you mean by "been" in PRIDE, but he sure hasn't fought there. His last fight was in 2003 (at WEC) I believe. I'm a huge fan myself and would love to see him fight again, but I'm not holding my breath.

Gooner · 10-25-2005, 09:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Goeth27

I thought it was good..

Boy, you're easy to please aren't you? That (UFC 55) was an incredibly crappy event. Has there EVER been a worse one, I have to wonder.