UFC Fight Night

i agree with the Parisyan fight, he was ready to go

Anthony Johnson looks like an absolute beast but it looks like they paired him up with some donk. I've never heard of Tommy Spears but he really did get owned. Lookign forward to see AJ Fight some tougher competition

I mean, it's not like it's a Kid vs Sudo class stoppage, Karo collapsed.

Houston was out man. I dont know why they ever bother to ask fighters if they thought they went out or not. No one ever says "yeah right there Im out". Best/funniest was I think Gray Maynard vs whoever he fought at the TUF finale. Dropped the guy knocking him out and knocked himself out in the process. He was lights out and then just flat out lied about it.
With Karo I think it was a quick stoppage but that does not make it bad. The knee DID catch him and DID rock him. You say to let him recover but come on you should know that it only takes a split second and someone can get messed up bad. If it happens where the ref lets it go for even 2 more seconds and someone gets seriously hurt then you can bet it will have a big impact on the sport.
The Lauzon fight was totally different situation. I dont even know how you can compare the first two with the Lauzon fight. Lauzon was defending but was just stuck. They were not big punches, there was no huge devasting blow that rocked him etc. Also just as a note though the running joke amongst the people who watch these events with me is that Herb is one laid back dude when it comes to stoppages and warnings. Those elbows were just about all illegal imo I think Fox wrote about it as well. The rules state you cannot perform downward blows like Kenny did let alone hit the back of the head like he dead. When a fighter is cut on the back of the head you cant really argue that he wasn't hit there. As soon as Kenny started his barrage I was like wtf is going on. There is a reason you dont see this ever.

As a side note Gray Maynard looked HUGE compared to when he weighed in. At weigh in he looked like a Nintendo Mii just a huge head and tiny body. Also that Tim Mills ref in the prelims looked hilarious. Aurelio looked good I thought.

a fighter collapsing shouldn't end a fight
if it did, then where would big nog be?

yes, both were badly hurt, and both were probably gonna lose with houstons being the most obvious. but these guys aren't fucking glass dolls, they can take an extra punch or two. it's similar to the babalu choke on heath...yeah he shouldn't have done it but saying an extra 3 seconds in an anaconda choke is gonna cause some serious brain damage (like half of sherdog suggested) is down right ridiculous.

basically, i hate how people want to treat fighters like fragile commodities. they're fighters, it's their job to be able to take punishment and struggle through very difficult spots...it's why guys like big nog and don frye are legends. so give them the benefit of the doubt, mma and the ufc have grown enough that a serious injury isn't going to suddenly kill the sport.

as for the lauzon comparison, i used it because lauzon was in an almost impossible to escape situation (gassed out, hurt, cut, with florian high mounted on him) and herb dean could have ended the fight long before he did. and about the cut, i don't the exact rules on rabbit strikes in the ufc but those weren't elbow spikes so that wasn't the issue...im not really concerned with the rule so much as the restart as they were restarted standing.

and fwiw, it's going to be the lauzon-esque situations that cause the serious injuries, not the karo-esque situations
reference: enson vs igor.

igor vs anything = injury

Yeah I can see where you are coming from regarding the glass doll syndrome. I am all for giving fighters the benefit of the doubt. However as you would probably be aware fighters and men in general are stubborn when it comes to ego and their limits. I mean just listen to Houston when Joe talks to him post fight, Joe doesn't believe him ("right here". I'm sure Hammill would describe his lip as a scratch.

I do not think the sport is big enough yet from a business point of view for it to have any major incidents at all. I still think it is in a delicate area of sport regarding sponsorship and venues etc.

I had never heard Joel Silvers name mentioned so much as at this event. Maybe I'm blind to early stoppages because I just want May 24th to be here already.

well my only counter to karo is nog was hurt far worse by herring and they didn't stop it.

if you're a veteran contending for a title you really have to give the fighter some opening to defend himself.

I could understand a random undercard between newbies. But karo vs thiago the winner of that is gonna definately get a title shot after Fitch.... so i mean you gotta let that one be for SURE.

All I'm saying is I don't think it's an unreasonable stoppage, the ref was pretty far away (which is obviously not too great) so it was probably hard to tell too. I enjoy come back wins as much as the next guy I just don't think it was a terrible stoppage, as I said, I reserve that kind of label for the really awful ones

If I remember correctly, Nog was in a position where it was easier to tell how he was doing, while this one was sort of at a weirder angle.

reffing mma is a really hard job no doubt
i just think if they're told to give a fighter an extra two seconds than normal after a knockdown (and inevitable scramble to get the stoppage) it would go a long way to not only eliminating bad stoppages (as most quick stops occur this way) but also to making much more memorable fights.

I cant remember it that great and the video is on a dead hard drive but didn't Herring back way off like a moron gesturing for Nog to get up, giving Nog time to become undazed? I can't remember how it went down that well so correct me where applicable.

I think 2 seconds is a bit long. From the time Houston took the first punch to the last punch was 2 seconds (4:55-4:53) and a lot happened in that time. It's a fine line regardless. Like Tian said I would of loved to see Houston/Karo recover and go another 1/2 rounds but I don't have a problem with the stoppages either.