MMA World Rankings

MMA World Rankings

WEC 36 (November, 2008)

WEC 36 – November 5

145 lbs. Title – Urijah Faber [1] vs. Mike Brown [8]

Result: Huge upset. Faber’s agressiveness is usually what wins him his fights but this time it cost him. He went for a swinging elbow but Mike Brown stepped to the side and leveled him with a right hand. He pounded away on Faber until the referee stopped it. This was a matter of living by the sword and dying by it. Faber got caught. Mike Brown is the real deal but I’m sure there will be a rematch down the road. For now, Mike Brown is top dog. Brown rises to 1. Faber drops to 2.

185 lbs. – Paulo Filho [2] vs. Chael Sonnen [22]

Result: Filho failed to make weight and failed miserably to inflict damage on Chael Sonnen. Paulo did his best Kalib Starnes impression in losing a unanimous decision. I’m not sure how he’s going to bounce back from this loss. Horrible performance. After some light leg kicks to his butt-scooting opponent in the first round, Sonnen jabbed away the last 2 rounds. Sonnen rises to 18. Filho drops to 19.

145 lbs. – Jens Pulver [3] vs. Leonard Garcia [11]

Result: Garcia blew away Pulver in the 1st round with stikes. Leonard stepped into the pocket like he said he would and beat Jens in the fire-fight. Hand speed appeared to be the determining factor here. Garcia now eyes Mike Brown for the title. Two of the best camps in the world will be represented. American Top Team for Mike Brown and Greg Jackson’s Gym for Leonard Garcia. It should be a great fight. Garcia rises to 3. Jens drops to 9.

185 lbs. – Nissen Osterneck [80] vs. Jake Rosholt

Result: Rosholt won this fight on pure guts. His standup looked very raw and Nissen tagged him a bunch of times. Jake staid in there, showing a solid chin and lots of heart. After Nissen tried a careless spinning back-fist, Jake got the takedown and pounded him out for the 2nd round TKO. Jake has the heart of a champion but he must improve his standup ASAP. Jake debuts at 79. Nissen drops to 81.

135 lbs. – Yoshiro Maeda [3] vs. Rani Yahya [14] 

Result: Yahya winner by 1st round submission (Guillotine choke). Yahya rises to 10. Maeda drops to 11.

155 lbs. – Rob McCullough [55] vs. Donald Cerrone [73]

Result: Cerrone winner by unanimous decision. Cerrone rises to 51. McCullough drops to 66.

145 lbs. – Jose Aldo [20] vs. Jonathan Brookins

Result: Aldo winner by 3rd round TKO. Aldo stays at 20.

November 2, 2008 - Posted by | MMA Analysis | ,

6 Comments »

  1. Yet another MW falls hard. For a long time I’ve been skeptical of Filho at a 2-3 spot. It was justified insofar as Filho had never lost.

    I’m so glad Sonnen’s corner told him to knock off that butt scoot silliness and let Filho stand up (where he posed pretty much no threat to Sonnen).

    That was a boring fight and I thought it followed in the footsteps of:
    Burkman/Swick and Diego/Kos – in that we saw a guy losing and doing nothing to not lose, not abandoning the failed gameplan, and,
    Tim/Monson – in that it was a jab-a-thon where the jabber feared the ground

    Now I wait for Lindland to fall to his proper ranking.

    Aaron Simpson scored one of the best KOs I’ve seen in WEC.

    Faber/Brown and Pulver/Garcia were both pretty shocking.

    Comment by Aas Gutú Adéli | November 6, 2008 | Reply

  2. I should add that you rank Lindland where I’d put him, and I failed to notice when other sites dropped him off the top 10.

    Comment by Aas Gutú Adéli | November 6, 2008 | Reply

  3. We’ve had Lindland outside of the Top 10 since April.

    http://www.fightmatrix.com

    Comment by JCS | November 6, 2008 | Reply

  4. Gutu,

    Filho went through some depression and I’m not sure how dedicated he is to the fight game. Coming in overweight and putting in a lazy performance tells me he’s lost his will to fight. Paulo can still submit a ton of people and he can probably get a lot of weaker wrestlers to the mat, but he is nowhere near a great Mixed martial artist.

    I agree with the fight comparisons. Guys need to start coming up with alternate plans in case the main fightplan doesn’t work.

    Lindland, ironically, is probably fighting Vitor Belfort in Affliction 2. Vitor is another guy who has had some mental issues and who is a proponent of the butt scoot (vs. Sakuraba in PRIDE).

    Simpson’s KO is definately hard to top for KO of the year.

    I think the Pulver and Faber losses show the world that the Featherweight division (and especially the WEC) is on the verge of exploding with talent. I expect a lot of guys from 155 moving down in weight.

    Comment by Kevin | November 6, 2008 | Reply

  5. Jens Pulver was using his reach early on, but for some reason, felt compelled to keep stepping into Garcia’s jabs later in the round.

    He should’ve fought a much smarter fight.

    Comment by Terrence Brannon | November 9, 2008 | Reply

  6. Urijah was in a compromised position against the fence and he winds up, pulls back and steps forward with an elbow…

    In other words, the opponent saw it coming way before it got there.

    He was being outstruck anyway. So he tries a hail-mary elbow and pays the price.

    Comment by Terrence Brannon | November 9, 2008 | Reply


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