This Is The Re-Watch: UFC 76: Knockout.

Drew Shayze · 04-16-2008, 02:35 PM

Holy crap, Omigawa vs Wiman was fun stuff. Sloppy, sloppy stuff, but fun, fun, fun. The first round is one mad scramble, and then they say, "Screw this technical stuff" and start tagging each other and being sloppy. Omigawa is a smaller guy, probably should be at 145, yet he's in there with these LW's and he's doing decently. I like that, that's the Yoshida mentality.

Scott Junk is such a cool name. Christian Wellisch? Eh, not so much. Junk's all, "What the hell is this touchin' gloves stuff?" and the crowd boo's. The dude didn't want to touch gloves, nothing wrong with that. Wellisch quickly finishes things with a heel hook, complete with Junk just laying there and doing nothing. That reminded me of Valentijn Overeem against Vovy, where Overeem just laid there like a complete dumbass while Vovy was playing footsee wootsee.

Diego Saraiva vs Jeremy Stephens was decent. Both guys are scrappy, both guys are fun as hell. Diego's had really fun fights against Hazelett & Gurgel (Whoa, how odd is that?), while Stephens is Neer's boy, so that means he's game. Saraiva's shows some nice, technical BJJ and gets Stephens back early. Stephens gets out and starts feeding Saraiva elbows like they were slices of pizza. Whoa, triangle attempt and Stephens powerbombs Saraiva. That was awesome. Stephens just GnP's Saraiva in the second and third rounds, but damn, Diego constantly goes for stuff. I liked this.

I really liked Johnson vs Clementi, mostly because Clementi is swanky. Credit to AJ, he brings the pain, but Clementi is a vet, you can bet, he can swim underwater and not get wet, and he chokey, choke, choke, choke, chokes a gassed Johnson out. That was fun.

I absolutely loved Griffin vs Tavares. Total FOTYC stuff from these 2, and my Tavares love rose after this, because he was in against a dangerous opponent, and he did quite well. Sure, he lost, but he made Tyson work. I scored it 29-28 for Tavares, actually, since Thiago landed that swanky knee in the second round that stunned Griffin and Thiago was able to go for an omoplata attempt in the third and was able to land some nice knee's, get his back, go for an armbar attempt and then attempt a leg-lock. Man, that was amazing.

Machida completely smokes Nakamura for 3 rounds and I smile. Oh, I smiled, I smiled a lot, since I am in love with Lyoto Machida, and feel he'll be champion in the future. This was a complete schooling and people who find Machida boring should watch this, because he's far from boring in this one. Hell, the only fight that could be labeled as, "boring" was his fight against Heath, and even that wasn't bad. Exciting stuff, and Nak's no slouch, yet he was treated like one. Man, Machida is awesome.

I really liked Fitch vs Sanchez, and I felt that Diego did enough to win. He was constantly working, going for subs and landing nice strikes from the bottom. I can see why they gave Fitch the nod, since he controlled Sanchez, and landed some nice HAMMAFISTS!!! but still, Diego was working way more. Sanchez promised that he would come out crazy and he sure as hell did, and that ruled. Sanchez, even though he lost, still came out looking solid, since Fitch is a monster and he was able to do well against him.

Many will say that Shogun won the first round, and they'd be wrong. Forrest was constantly punching Shogun in the face, while having Shogun's back. He also landed the better strikes standing. Wow, Shogun looked horrible here, while Forrest actually looked solid. I've always said that Forrest had an underrated ground game, and he finally got to show it off against a solid ground fighter. Great win for Griffin, while Shogun is 0-1 with the likes of Greg "The Ranger" Stott. This fight made many go emo.

You know, I didn't really care for Jardine vs Liddell at first, but then I re-watched it, and yeah, on the re-watch, it's the goods. I mean, who doesn't love watching 2 dudes beat the piss out of each other? Man, Jardine landed so many sickening body kicks, that just turned Chuck's side into hamburger meat. Jardine ended up looking even uglier, but he likes looking like that. Jardine executed a smart gameplan, he landed a bunch of leg and body kicks, used his odd movement and got in and out before Chuck could do anything. Chuck was completely baffled. It was amazing.

Great, great show, my favorite show of 2007, actually. So many solid fights. Hell, I liked every fight on the main card, and Fitch vs Sanchez & Tavares vs Griffin were FOTYC's for me. Totally recommended.

Discuss.