AFFLICTION “DAY OF RECKONING” PLAY BY PLAY REPORT

Posted on | January 24, 2009 | No Comments

ROUND BY ROUND BY: RICH BERGERON

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Dan Lauzon Vs. Bobby Green:

This fight was really all over the place with Green looking a little too wild but maybe promising except for his three groin strikes. Would have been cool in the early days of the UFC, but there’s no Andrew Golotta excuse for that crap in the sport right now. Lauzon looked a little out of sorts dealing with the unorthodox “Hood” style Green brought to the fight, but he finished it in the closing minute of the first round with a picture-perfect rear naked choke after trying every heel hook in the book and failing to lock one. Lauzon also almost slipped Green into a triangle in the round, which prompted Green to bring the fight right back to the feet. Kudos to Referee Herb Dean for taking 2 points from Green.

Paul Buentello Vs. Kiril Sidelnikov

“Baby Fedor” will be bawling after this one. Buentello is just teeing off. This is the most boring, almost entirely stand-up fight I’ve ever seen. You’d almost think it was Buentello being trained by Freddy Roach. Sidelnikov is European basic and too lumbering and one-dimensional for Buentello.

I’m just hoping for a knockout to end the thing. Deep into Round 2 and Buentello doesn’t look like he has a scratch on him. I guess this is not the matchmaker’s proudest moment.

Sidelnikov keeps losing his mouthpiece. The doc stops it wisely. Thank you, sir. That guy’s eye is tooled up.

Thierry Sokoudjou Vs. Renato “Babalu” Sobral

Round 1:

Thierry is taking it slow. Babalu is popping and snapping punches. Some good Muay Thai knees by both guys, Big John separates them. Babalu grapples Thierry to the mat, but Sokoudjjou tries to dive through the ropes and then somehow winds up on top after McCarthy resets them in a different position.

Thierry is wailing away, but it’s all wild. Sobral gets out of harm’s way and back to his feet. Both go slamming back down together and right back up. They grapple in the corner with Sobral trying to get a hold of a leg. Sobral is scoring with more knees.

Tough round to call. Thierry landed the more damaging blows in the frame, but Sobral was more consistently in control of the action.

Round 2:

Thierry is looking like a rookie in round 2. Sobral is a master of the mat. I smell RNC. I guess he just stopped halfway. An Anaconda ends the night for Thierry. It’s over. I don’t even know how he did that. It looked so easy.

Funny, Tito says he’d love to fight Renato when his back gets better “in a few months.” Damn, it doesn’t look like Tito has a bad back. Sounds like an excuse to pop Vicodin all day and stay home with that hot ass wife of his doing only God knows what.

Matt “The Law” Lindland Vs. Vitor Belfort

Round 1:

Two real legends going at it here. Belfort makes first contact with a leg kick. After a short dance, he lands a crushing blow followed by several successive pumelling shots to the head. Lindland got so KTFO that his leg was twitching like crazy and his eyes were off in space. He takes a few minutes to come back to Earth. He’s trying to take down the ref!

Now he’s trying to stand up. Yikes, this is getting to be quite a bad spectacle for the sport. Lindland is really funked up.

OK, now he’s A-OK and wants to walk out under his own power.

Wow, only 8 strikes in the whole fight. Vitor Belfort is back!

Josh Barnett Vs. Gilbert Yvel

Round 1:

These are two big boys and they don’t seem to want to trade. The biggest blow in the first minute is and Yvel leg kick. Barnett muscles himself into a takedown. Barnett starts raining blows down in half guard. Yvel is doing everything he can defensively, including slipping out of a couple submissions.

Yvel is almost wriggling out, but Barnett is the better wrestler. Josh keeps cranking that arm. Barnett gets to full mount with a minute left. It’s all but over. He’s throwing every kind of shot he can at Yvel, but nothing with KO power. Yvel gets to his feet miraculously and takes a final uppercut for his trouble.

Herb Dean kept that one going wisely. Even though Barnett was landing so many successive blows they were not doing much damage.

Round 2:

Yvel winds up on his back early. Barnett is imposing his will with pure wrestling.

Barnett’s back to the Kimura again. He’s got full mount again but can’t do anything with it. Yvel is controlling his hands well. Yvel is landing a few shots from the bottom. Yvel is doing the MMA equivalent of the rope-a-dope technique.

Yvel reverses with just a few seconds left but lands some really nice blows. Barnett is pretty gassed. Who knows what Yvel might be able to do if he can stay off his back in round 3.

Round 3:

Yvel looks good for the first few seconds, but then he gets mounted again. Damn, this is gonna be a boring round. Barnett is just picking and choosing his shots, putting his forearm on Yvel’s neck and riding it out. For a guy that big it’s amazing Barnett hasn’t thrown the knockout blow yet.

Yvel taps out. H’es just too deep in the hole. Barnett is modest and candid in the post-fight interview. He shows great character by giving tribute to some people he has in his prayers. He admits what I was thinking, he’s got to step it up for the next fight.

Andrei Arlovski Vs. Fedor Emelianenko

Let’s hope this one lasts longer than Fedor’s last Affliction fight. Tito is predicting fight of the year. My guess is this one’s not going to a decision.

Round 1:

Fedor seems willing to let Arlovski try to box him. Andrei is landing well and looking good. Fedor looks really flat. There’s lots of leather being traded. Fedor lands a good knee against the ropes. Arlovski tries to grapple and changes his mind. Big John puts them back in the middle of the ring. Arlovski is all about boxing again.

Arlovski is landing phenomenal 1-2s. Fedor reaches out from nowhere and lays out Arlovski with a right. Where the heck did that one come from???

WOW! I totally missed that one. I looked down for a second. Arlovski jumped up for a flying knee and got popped with a wild no-look, looping right hand. I think Fedor got lucky there, but still that was an amazing punch. The legend continues.

Great card. No decisions. Just the way I like it.

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