Spring 2012 Writing Assignment: Fight Analysis (U of U students)Filed Under: Uncategorized
No matter who you are, its good to take time and analyze fights to sharpen your mental game.
For U of U students, the assignment is as follows:
Go to http://www.allthebestfights.com/best-mma-fights-of-2011/
Watch any one of the fights of your choosing.
Post a comment in this post using your first name and first letter of your last name. (Eg. Bart B, Mike F, etc)
State the fight you watched at the begining of the comment. (Eg. “Jim Miller vs Melvin Guillard)
Following the title, in about 200 words summarize the fight briefly and attempt to analyze the keys to victory for the winner. If one fighter was faster, stronger, a better striker … or even just lucky, explain how things played out. Think about how fighting style, aggression and technique may have affected the winner’s victory. Use all the knowledge at your disposal to craft your insights – don’t worry about being perfect or knowing it all, just do your best.
Before hitting the “submit comment” button read the comment OUT LOUD to yourself and make any changes you’d need to. Remember, if you type something like ” XOXOX I lulz’d and <3 MMA so when d00d got jacked from kickz i was like OMG! 
” the spirits of justice and grammar will find where you live and punch you in the face next time you fall asleep. Also, I will not accept your assignment.
Remember, after submitting your comment, it will not immediately show – they go to my inbox for approval before being visible.
If you have any questions, let me know.
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- BartB
- 25 Jan 2012 12:43 PM
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January 25th, 2012 at 1:00 pm
[...] This Article comes from SLC MMA To see the full original article click here [...]
January 28th, 2012 at 10:58 pm
Hello,
My name is Daniel Kennedy and I am interested in MMA in SLC. I don’t have any prior training and would appreciate any advice you could offer on getting started.
Based on the high quality of your site you obviously know what is going on with the sport.
Any guidance you could offer with respect to places to train or people to speak with would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
-DK
January 30th, 2012 at 1:10 am
Cheik Kongo vs. Patrick Barry
From the very beginning of the fight, Barry was far more aggressive, which ended up being a major factor in his undoing. Kongo was more calculating with his attacks and seemed to look for openings in Barry’s defenses before striking instead of hoping his attacks landed. Kongo learned that Barry would react to fake attacks through a few fake kicks, and used this to his advantage later in the fight.
Barry’s right hand eventually connected with Kongo’s temple because Kongo did not return his hands up to protect his head after throwing a jab at Barry. Barry did a good job following through to try and finish off Kongo by following him to the ground, but then stands back up to keep striking Kongo’s head. By standing back up and not regaining the proper stance, Kongo was able to take Barry’s legs to try and bring him to the ground. Barry reacted appropriately by leaning over Kongo to retain a dominant position, but by doing so Kongo was able to regain his feet. Barry did an excellent job in taking advantage this by taking another open shot to Kongo’s temple. When trying to regain his feet, Kongo feigned another dive at Barry’s legs, so Barry took a step back to avoid it, which allowed Kongo to stand back up unmolested. Barry continued his high aggression and ran after Kongo. Barry did a decent job protecting his head from Kongo’s first punch, but allowed Kongo to sneak a straight in past his defenses and connect with his jaw. This knocked Barry sprawling, and he tried to retaliate by grabbing Kongo’s neck with his right hand in an attempt to grapple. However, this left an opening for Kongo to sneak in an uppercut to Barry’s jaw, knocking him unconscious.
Kongo’s less aggressive, but more calculating strikes and use of fake attacks won him this fight.
January 31st, 2012 at 5:15 pm
Taylor – Nice write up! I’m going to watch that fight again to see those feigns.
Daniel – there are a lot of great places to train and several approaches. This type of question is similar to asking, “Where should I go to college and what should I major in?”.
The most important thing is to just get started. If there is a boxing gym near by – go there. If you can join a college wrestling club, do that. If you can take a university MMA class or there is a MMA gym you can afford, check it out.
Almost any gym will let you take a few classes for free to see if you like it. After a few months if you need to make an adjustment to a different style or better suited gym, go ahead.
There are a lot of pieces to the MMA puzzle and they’ll be plenty of time time to sort them out.
If I had to name names, Bernales, Fusion BJJ, Horns Elite, Pit Elevated, Institute of Muay Thai, Sorenson center boxing, Kingdom club wrestling, etc etc etc.
Also feel free to come up to the University of Utah and check us out.
January 31st, 2012 at 10:01 pm
I watched the fight Dan Henderson vs Fedor Emelianenko.
I have seen this fight before, but now i recognized what each fighter was doing right and what they were doing wrong.
Both fighters are obviously very advanced with their striking skills. this usually calls for a very short fight, which it was. I believe that the fight came down to how well the fighters were defending themselves. Henderson and Fedor were both exchanging very well until Fedor got hit with a big bunch and turned his back and dropped his head. This is when Henderson threw a quick, low uppercut and hit Fedor right on the chin. Game over.
February 1st, 2012 at 1:08 am
Antonio Silva vs. Fedor Emelianenko
At the beginning of the first round they were both kind of reserved, which made sense considering both of these fighters are pretty big guys with a pretty impressive record. Also from the beginning we knew that Fedor was really going to have to fight smart because Antonio weighed 34 pounds more than him and Antonios arms were 7″ longer than Fedor’s.
Personally I haven’t followed MMA very much so I could not tell you any patterns in their fighting styles that caused problems or anything like that. But I did notice that Fedor spent more time with his hands a little lower and an extra step away, as if playing defense, which would make sense if his goal is to play smart against his bigger opponent. On the other hand Antonio Silva definitely made more of the offensive effort, which also makes sense considering is longer jabs and heavier build.
In the first round we see Antonio putting Fedor up against the cage putting his weight against Fedor. This was very useful because he was using minimal energy on his part while causing Fedor to be struggling and pushing to try and escape. You could tell Fedor was really getting exhausted because his efforts to escape holds and pins slowly just turned into defensive maneuvers and less active attempts to switch things around. Antonio’s long arms really helped a lot, especially with the connections he made as Fedor would escape a hold and back away from the wall. It almost seemed that Fedor forgot the extra 7″ Antonio had because Fedor, on a number of occasions, didn’t back up far enough to escape Antonio’s reach. And Antonio would clip his chin, jaw or nose.
I feel like the simple jabs were bringing Fedor’s moral down and that on top of the immense exhaustion from grappling with Antonio all led to a key moment in the Second round where Antonio Silva was able to take advantage of a single moment and land a solid mount on top of Fedor and then he just starts giving Fedor the old fashioned ground and pound. Fedor trying multiple times to get out of this mount but doing so only exhausted him more.
They traded a couple of holds but they both toughed it out until the end of the second round where the doctor noticed Fedor’s right eye had swollen completely shut and he could not see anything out of it. This was undoubtedly due to the ground and pound beating he took. The doctor threw in the towel and Antonio Silva won with a Technical KO.
Maybe if Fedor played a little more aggressively with strikes and kicks it might have caused Antonio to slow up and think more and it may have been a longer fight with some better action on both sides. I just think that Fedor didn’t really give Antonio much reason to hold back or hesitate. Although Antonio was definitely getting exhausted because he was extremely excited to find out there wouldn’t be a third round.
p.s. Sorry about submitting a whole freaking essay. i just started typing and thinking about the fight. My bad! haha
February 1st, 2012 at 1:21 pm
Jim Miller vs Benson Henderson
This fight was won by Ben Henderson and there are a few reasons why: while Henderson was clearly smaller, he was also faster and could get out of tight locks. It was like Miller was trying to put a choke hold on a river. At the beginning of the first round, Miller and Henderson were both seemingly equal in aggression but Henderson was faster. He used his speed to throw varying attacks which kept
Miller guessing and defending and he could not affectively take an offense. When it turned into a grapple, Henderson got into some tight spots but he was really good at getting out of them again. He could sense when to conserve energy and when to be quick to get out. When Henderson got Miller in a good hold, instead of trying to go for a choke out or something, he just held him there and did his best to punch or elbow him in the head. Come the second round, Henderson was clearly more aggressive. Miller was more sober as if he now knew he could not underestimate his opponent. But the third round saw Miller with a renewed energy and aggression. Unfortunately for him, it was not enough though. Henderson was clearly faster and that made the difference.
February 1st, 2012 at 7:54 pm
Pablo Garza def. Yves Jabouin
Right at the start of the fight, Pablo Garze came right in with a punch and a leg kick. He wasted no time in letting Yves Jabouin know he meant business.
I thought that Pablo Garza was just being a show off, but it turns out, he was just timing things to his leisure. This turned out to be a really good thing. During the fight Yves Jabouin figured out a little of the puzzle. He gave a good kick to Pablo, and could tell that he had hurt him. From that moment on, Yves knew his opponent’s weakness. Kicks. However, like the start of the fight, Pablo the scarecrow Garza knew his timing. At the right time, he got Jabouin in the triangle choke. And that was all that it took for Jabouin. He hadn’t won this round.
I do have to give credit to both men. To me, it looked like they both knew how to block very well. Both knew just what to do to try to keep the other person away. However, Pablo really knew how to time things.
February 6th, 2012 at 10:41 pm
Diego Brandao vs Dennis Bermudez
Brandao’s style seemed to be a bit slower, but more packed with force and strength. He tended to leave his punches and kicks out longer than Bermudez did, but they also seemed to do more damage. Bermudez is very fast with his punches, squeezing in four to five when Brandao would only get a couple in. Bermudez also seemed to capitalize on any chance he could find while Brandao calculated his moves. I thought that that would be his downfall, but it proved to be his winning move. Bermudez was so fast and able to get Brandao to the ground a couple of times, but Brandao took all the right risks and got out of them. It seemed over when Bermudez got in a perfect elbow to the chin as Brandao was closing the gap, but then things got sloppy. Bermudez left his left arm while he was wailing on top of Brandao, but that’s when Brandao capitalized on his unguarded face. He got his legs up around his head and arm (in an arm bar..that’s what the announcer guys kept yelling) and it was over in less than 3 seconds. Sometimes it seems as though the slow, powerful ones burn out and get defeated, but if it’s your intention to take all the right risks, you can come out on top.
February 7th, 2012 at 1:32 pm
Nice write ups guys – I like how everyone is starting to get the little nuances of the game. Keep ‘em coming!
February 8th, 2012 at 1:22 pm
Diego Brandao vs Dennis Bermudez
Both Brandao and Bermudez were content with standing and striking throughout the fight. I thought this was interesting since many of Bermudez’s wins had come from submissions, while all of Brandao’s had come from knockouts.
Bermudez’s strikes were much quicker, and often were straighter punches down the middle. Brandao’s punches weren’t quite as fast, but he put his whole body behind each punch, making each more lethal. Brandao also worked angles and hooks to try and get outside of his opponent’s defense. In addition, Brandao mixed his striking more than Bermudez did by using knees and kicks.
Bermudez ended up getting one clean counter-punch to Brandao’s jaw and dropped him. At this point, Bermudez wanted to press his advantage and end the fight. His punches became very wild and aggressive. It almost paid off, but his technique became sloppy and he left his left arm in a dangerous spot.
At this point, Brandao did an excellent job of being aware of what was going on around him, even while his face was being smashed up. He found Bermudez’s left arm, wrapped it up, and then crossed his legs over Bermudez to clinch in a vicious armbar. In a matter of seconds, Brandao’s awareness and preparation turned a loss into a win.
February 8th, 2012 at 5:20 pm
Nick Diaz vs. Evangelista Cyborg Santos
The first round of this fight showed Santos really going for the inside leg kicks to try and weaken the base of Diaz. Diaz throughout this round seemed to almost not feel too threatened by Santos as his hands rarely went up to block and he took the first several leg kicks without even trying to block. As the round ended you could see that Santos was already beginning to tire and Diaz used this to his advantage and stated moving in on him with several good strikes. Diaz was not protecting himself that well through the entire round and the only reason I could make for this is that he saw himself in better striking position by not doing so even though a lot of his punches seemed to come from the outside rather than straight ahead.
The second round seems to show Diaz covering up a bit more but he is still letting Santos rest too much in-between hits and this does not help him in wearing Santos out when he is letting him rest so much. The striking continues until Santos finally takes the fight to the ground in the end of the round. Diaz quickly sees an opportunity to try for an arm bar when Santos shuffles, he puts himself into position and you can see him wait until Santos lets up to reposition and then Diaz explodes out into the arm bar and quickly submits Santos. This shows how one misread or wrong position can end the fight in an instance even when you appear to have control of the situation.
February 9th, 2012 at 12:04 am
I decided to watch the fight “UFC 133: Evans vs. Ortiz 2″ because back when I used to follow UFC, one of my favorites was Tito Ortiz. They both started out the fight going for strikes and just dancing around. they were trading shots but mostly keeping their distance. Tito shoots in and pins Rashad against the fence, they kind of stay there for a little while as Tito goes for the leg while Rashad tries for the guillotine. Tito stops going for the leg and takes some hits. He’s slowing down and looks tired. Rashad takes the opportunity to get underneath his arms pick him and then drop him, driving his shoulder into his chest. Evans then slowly gets side control where Tito manages to just barely “intelligently defend” himself until the end of the round. In the second round they’re both a little more sluggish and trade hits. They both try and throw fakes (head fakes as well as pretending to shoot in) but Tito does it more. This time Rashad shoots in first. Tito gets a guillotine on him but Evans is able to get out before has to tap out. Then Rashad almost gets a crucifix, twice. While he can’t hold it (partially because they were so close to the fence) he gets in some good hits. Ortiz gets out and is able to stand up just long enough to take a knee to the sternum. Looking at the replay, that was when he lost it. Tito then doubled over, took more hits as he slowly went to the ground, and a few more as he was on the ground. There was just less than 20 seconds on the clock but the Ref. called it because he had pretty much stopped moving (he was conscious, just stunned). So it seemed that key strikes were what one the fight overall but proper conditioning also played an important role. Positioning helped Evans win the fight as he had Ortiz against the fence a good portion of the time.
February 9th, 2012 at 2:31 pm
I watched Bao Quach vs Alvin Cacdac
The match began with a kick from Quach and a punch from Cacdac. Both made contact, but the two resumed to fight, closing in the distance also while delivering quick strikes. Quach eventually was able to take Cacdac down with the double leg and went into side-control then into north-south position. Cacdac was battling to get out and flip Quach by grabbing Quach’s neck, but it was futile. Slowly transitioning back into side-control, Quach was using his strength in submission and attempted to mount Cacdac. Finally, Cacdac broke free and had Quach against the ropes, kneeing his opponent while he still could. Quach eventually broke free from Cacdac and the opponents continued to trade strikes. Quach seemed to know what Cacdac was going to do, so he was able to avoid some of the strikes Cacdac delivered. After a successful combo from Quach, Cacdac pushed Quach to the ground and failed to follow up. Once again, Quach was able to get Cacdac back to the ground. Quach tried to go for the choke, but it wasn’t possible. Cacdac rolled out of the choke, but was put back to the ground with Quach gaining the advantage of the higher position, this was the deciding factor the fight. Quach mounted on Cacdac and began to deliver strong, and somewhat playful, punches all while getting ready for the arm bar. Quach finally went into the arm bar and although Cacdac was able to get up and seemed to have the advantage due to the position he was in, he tapped out leading to Quach’s victory.
Overall, Quach had better control of the fight and took the fight to the ground. By utilizing more ground tactics than Cacdac, Quach reigned supreme throughout the match.
February 10th, 2012 at 12:59 am
Cheick Kongo vs. Patrick Barry
At the beginning Barry comes out with fire and quick strikes. He is very aggressive and comes straight at Kongo. Kongo, on the other hand, dances around Barry analyzing his fighting style. Kongo is always moving with quick little steps and in contrast, Barry is also moving his feet, but significantly more slowly. For the first minute or so Kongo just dodges while the two are tossing kicks and punches back and forth. Clearly, kicking is obviously Barry’s strong point as he is a kickboxer. After the kicking section, punches start to get thrown and when Kongo’s jab misses, Barry takes advantage and finds Kongo’s neck to throw him down with a tough right hook. Barry starts beating on Kongo while he’s down but Kongo bursts up continually despite the fact that he’s being pounded on and is mainly in the bottom position the entire time. At this point, the fight looks pretty close to done for Kongo until he gets up to his feet to combat. Barry comes back at him but Kongo is quick to throw a hard punch to Barry’s side of the head, knocking his equilibrium. This second of instability is all Kongo needs to land a knock-out punch to Barry’s chin.
Kongo wins because of his quicker moves and lack of offense. While his missed punch is taken advantage of, he still is able to get up and capitalize on the mistakes of his opponent. He also goes straight in for the knock-out rather than wait to beat down Barry. He takes some hard hits, gets a little bit down but ultimately finds the opening and takes it.
February 10th, 2012 at 2:09 pm
Jones v. Machida
In the first round, it was obvious that Jon Jones was not quite ready for Machida. Normally Jones dominates the round with unorthodox and aggressive striking (his long reach helps). He takes advantage of the consistency of his opponents’ fighting styles. But Machida’s style is a lot more diverse than he is used to. Jones never knows where the next strike is going to appear.
Worse (for Jones), Machida is lightning fast. Machida can mostly predict Jones’s strikes because Jones has a sort of characteristic Muay Thai wind-up to his attacks. Machida strikes like a python, without warning.
Machida surprises Jones with a few powerful leg kicks, and even a pretty solid blow to the face. So Jones sensibly slows the fight down, becomes more experimental in his attacks, like he’s gathering information rather than going for the kill. Machida is doing the same — against an unpredictable fighter like Jones, he pretty much has to.
Machida’s style is still very hard for Jones to pin down. Several times he surprises Jones with a sudden burst of aggression, a blitz rush in which he rarely fails to land at least one powerful jab to the face. As the second round begins, Jones is very tentative in his fighting.
At one point, Machida almost scores a choke, and there’s a sort of transformation in Jones. All the sudden he gets aggressive, and Machida is unprepared for it. He rushes in and scores a double-leg on Machida, taking the fight to the ground. He dominates Machida with blow after blow, opening up a nasty gash in Machida’s forehead.
At this point, it’s practically over. Machida is slower and weaker, telegraphing his moves, and Jones dominates him even more, finally rolling him up into a guillotine choke for the KO.
This fight was more like a game of chess than usual. Both contestants had fighting styles that were very unfamiliar to their opponents. They had to spend a lot of time thinking, gathering information. In the end, Jones wins through sheer aggression, but based on his performance in the first round, its clear he could not have done so without first taking the time to be analytical about Machida’s fighting style.
February 10th, 2012 at 5:02 pm
Nick Diaz vs Evangelista Cyborg Santos
I am going to start by saying I do not like Nick Diaz very much even though he did win this fight because of Cyborg’s poor arm bar defense. Cyborgs stand up game was working well throughout most of the fight. He was exchanging punches and dealing considerably hard inside knee kicks to Nick Diaz in the first and second rounds. Diaz was able to recover in the first round when he figured out Cyborgs Rhythm and range but things got switched around in the second round. Diaz was giving Cyborg to much time to recover and Cyborg was able to basically win the stand up portion of the fight. This did not stop Diaz from taunting Cyborg the whole way. When the fight ended I think that cyborg got overconfident after he got a spinning kick to Diaz’ front leg and from there took Diaz down. Diaz is a Gracie Black Belt. He got an arm bar on cyborg and even though cyborg could have defended it better he didn’t. Diaz won the fight through BJJ even though he had been beaten in the stand portion of the fight. This shows resilience which could be one belief of how the fight was won but I believe that cyborg should have defended the arm bar.
February 10th, 2012 at 8:28 pm
I watched the fight “Paul Daley vs Jordan Radev” The fight started with each guy just squaring off. After a bit, there were some attempted strikes and kicks, but they were either blocked, or nothing connected. Radev dropped his body down to avoid a strike, then lunged forward and tried to catch Daley in a Clinch. Daley began throwing his knees, trying to catch Radev in the face. After grappling for a bit, Radev begins to use his head to hold Daley’s leg down. This causes him to lose the upper hand, and Daley breaks free. Daley then kicks Radev in the body, and while he defends jumps in for the clinch, where he begins throwing keens that connect with Radev’s face. Miraculous, a very tired looking Radev holds out until the end of the round. The second round starts with Radev keeping his distance from Daley, but Daley begins to kick him in the arms and head. Radev, after taking several beating (strikes, elbows, kicks, knees) from Daley, he is able to turn the tides and get Daley in a corner, clench him good, and deliver punch after punch. When Daley Breaks free, they begin exchanging strikes again until the end of the round. Round three begins, like the others, squaring up, and sharing strikes. You can tell the fighter are getting tired, because they are blocking less and less. Finally, Daley Land a kick, but drops his guard to do it, and Radev takes the chance to strike to the side of Daley’s head. He then pushes him into the corner, and begins delivering blows. After a while, Radev grabs Daley’s leg, and then with a nice sweep, takes him to the ground. Radev flatens out, tried to take side control, but they are to close to the wall, so gets back between the legs, but presses down by the thighs do Daley can’t use them. After several low power blows, you can see it begin to ware on Daley. He tries harder and harder to block. Finally, he works his legs free, and pushes Radev off, but Radev uses the wall and jumps right back on. He spends the rest of the round keeping Daley on the ground, and punching his head. Daley ends up winning the fight for his performance in the first two rounds.
February 10th, 2012 at 11:38 pm
The heavy weight bout with “Frank Mir vs Antonio Rodrigo Nugueira” was a definate surprise. It looked to me that frank, for the life of him, could not keep his hands up. Nugueira’s 1-2 combo seemed to be connecting almost every time, Mir just looked sloppy.Frank definately knew that he wasn’t going to win the stand up game considering Nugueiras’ experiance as not only as a formal UFC champoin but also a Pride belt holder. It surprised me that Frank finished Nugueira so fast. I thaught it was an amazing fight considering that both are multiple degree bjj black belts. However, in the end Nugueiras’ experiance just wasn’t enough. Franks grappling skills proved to be dominant considering how Nugueira tried rolling out of the kamora. I think that was just i little novist like, if you knew what i mean. I also think that Mirs, advantage, 30lbs over help with the ground game, ALOT. Mirs weight advantage was obvious when Nugueira tried reversing and Mir kida just flopped right over the top of him. It aslo seemed that Mir took him down a little to easy. But Frank did get rocked by Nugueiras power. Best part of it thought was when Frank snapped Nugueiras arm ,owch Tap It or Snap It!!!!!!!
February 11th, 2012 at 10:42 am
Okami vs Silva
In this fight, Silva controlled the whole thing. He was aggressive but in a controlled and smart way. He switches up his stances so that okami never has time to adjust or come up with a game plan. Okami was way too conservative in this fight. He attempts a couple of sad takedowns but never really accomplishes much. When he finally does take him down, he is reckless in trying to keep him there. Silva lands a couple of big kicks on okami until he finally lands one that knocks him completely out. The experience of Silva really shows here. He tests okami and sees what is available. He picks his shots very carefully and analytically, never being over hasty, but pushing the fight to a fast paced tempo that Okami couldn’t keep up with. Okami’s gameplan was to take Silva down and submit him, but he became so focused on that plan that he never really adapted mid fight, which is very necessary when fighting someone like Silva. Okami didn’t fight smart at all, literally lunging at Silvas legs, attempting to force his gameplan to work, when really he needed to switch up his strategy, or just take his time with his original one.
February 12th, 2012 at 5:28 pm
Mauricio Shogun Rua vs Dan Henderson
For the majority of this fight Dan Henderson was moving quickly and landing a good number of punches. It was clear from the first round that Rua wanted to take the fight to the floor – he landed some kicks to Dan’s legs and initiated several grapples. This strategy, however, didn’t pay off until the fourth round,where Rua got Henderson to the ground for a substantial amount of time. The fifth was were Rua’s grappling really began to pay off though. Both fighters spent most of the five minutes on the ground, with Rua landed a good number of punches and a couple of elbows on Henderson. In the end, I suppose Henderson’s victory makes sense, as he clearly landed a lot of hard punches, mostly to Rua’s head, throughout the game, whereas Rua missed a good deal of the time.
February 13th, 2012 at 5:04 pm
Rashad Evans vs Tito Ortiz (2)
From the start I thought Ortiz was too aggressive. Not that aggression is bad but I believe that it was clouding his tactical thinking. Rashad on the other hand seemed to have a very level head going into the fight. Either that’s just his style or he was confident in his abilities enough to be relaxed. I believe this is ultimately the reason why Rashad beat Ortiz.
During the fight they both had decent exchanges, although Rashad was in control most of the time (only losing it in a couple of instances like Tito’s guillotine).
In the end, Ortiz was up against the fence sitting on his knees. This was the deciding moment where he failed to get to a better position, instead, took a knee to the solar plexus and went down.
February 15th, 2012 at 3:30 am
I watched Shogun Rua VS Dan Henderson
From the moment the fight began I realized that these men wanted blood, and that’s exactly what they got. When they threw a punch or kick there was no beating around the bush, they went in for the kill every time. Their training was evident while looking at their stances, it was prepared for defense but always looking for a strike. There was so much force and speed behind everything they threw at their opponent including punches, jabs, knees and kicks. There was an instance where a single leg take down didn’t turn out too well and it ended up being detrimental for Shogun who was the one attempting that method. I saw the circling technique all the time where instead of backing into a corner they would lead the predator in a circle. I also noticed how much balance is held in the hips. I saw how many times Henderson was able to get lower in his stance and throw more power behind his punches and have more balance in his stance when trying to counteract Shogun’s pushing and grappling. I heard a lot of comments concerning “the right hand” from the announcers showing that it was a powerful blow. I recognized so many techniques including elbow slams, knees to the stomach, liver zingers, over under arms, grappling and gift wraps. After the five rounds were up Henderson won due to a unanimous decision- I didn’t know that’s how it worked! I think that Henderson did great during the first two rounds, but the tables turned and Shogun took it from there. Shogun had Henderson in a full mount and was just slaughtering him. I think Shogun deserved to win.