UFC Fight Night: Saffiedine vs. Lim (Jan. 4th)

[REDDzone]

Ooooh, I liked Lim vs Siyar fight cammo. Love betting against guys with embarrassingly bad cardio like Siyar.

[CPT]

Fell asleep watching it live, finished it this morning. May have missed a couple fights.

Crowd was dead for everything except the main event. Might have just been Asian-style spectatorship though. I kind of hope the event didn't do well, because I think the UFC's strategy of "here's a **** card, but come watch it, because we're the UFC and we've never been here before" deserves to fail.

Kang looked really good, but I think the Japanese guy he was fighting was pretty low level.

Enjoyed seeing the UFC debuts of Kikuno and Kawajiri. Both did well, though the competition wasn't really there.

Lots of terrible reffing, as mentioned.

The main event was kinda weird. There was some good technique, and Lim showed a ton of heart, but there were also some seriously boring parts. Saffiedine should have been deducted a point, if not several, for running in the final round. He wasn't trying to create angles, he was avoiding engagement. That **** is against the rules.

Most of Cammo's matchups going forward are good, at least for the fighters I care about. I think only two cuts from this card is pretty generous though.

[REDDzone]

I like watching the Asian dudes. Lots of different styles. Kikuno, what is his stand-up style? Karate I guess, but seems like there are a lot of types of karate, variability within karatekas... IDK if I've ever seen anything like that in mma.

Those guys grapple differently as well. Not sure what the main art most of them train is, just judo newaza? I used to think CACC but I feel like that is actually a lot more rare than people think (or not?). But the "unorthodox" (at least compared to American/Brazilian style grappling) positions are fun to me. Also cool to see guys rolling for legs and such sometimes, even if there wasn't so much of it here specifically.

[Cammo101]

Ooooh, I liked Lim vs Siyar fight cammo. Love betting against guys with embarrassingly bad cardio like Siyar.

Those dudes would show up and bang. And if Siyar lost, he'd likely get cut.

[CPT]

I like watching the Asian dudes. Lots of different styles. Kikuno, what is his stand-up style? Karate I guess, but seems like there are a lot of types of karate, variability within karatekas... IDK if I've ever seen anything like that in mma.

Those guys grapple differently as well. Not sure what the main art most of them train is, just judo newaza? I used to think CACC but I feel like that is actually a lot more rare than people think (or not?). But the "unorthodox" (at least compared to American/Brazilian style grappling) positions are fun to me. Also cool to see guys rolling for legs and such sometimes, even if there wasn't so much of it here specifically.

Yeah. I miss having something even as high level as Dream, let alone Pride. Maybe I should give OneFC more of a look, but their combination of guys I've never heard of and completely washed up dudes doesn't entice me to watch their events. I try to keep up with RoadFC locally, but they keep having events in stupid places or on dates that don't work for me personally (the audacity!).

Kikuno's stand up style is awesomeness. What did the broadcasters say about his stance?

The grappling is more judo based, I would think. Or just jiu-jitsu? Not Brazilian? Is that still a thing people do?

[cowboyronnie]

I'm on the kawajiri fight as of now, I've never seen ANY mma event with so many illegal techniques used.

From knees to the head on a downed opponent, to kicks to the head of a downed opponent, to 12-6 elbows, to elbows to the back of the head.

This is just unreal.

Also, this Steve Percival guy may be in competition with Yamasaki for worst ref in mma. Taking 2 points after no warning for Kang after 12-6 elbow, missing a tap and causing Soriano to go out from a rnc by Crusher being the most egregious acts thus far.

Not to mention, Kang also lost position. A finishing position and two points? Are you kidding??!

[REDDzone]

The grappling is more judo based, I would think. Or just jiu-jitsu? Not Brazilian? Is that still a thing people do?

Hm yea good call IDK. I kind of doubt it, as I don't think they do too much sparring in traditional ju jutsu or japanese ju jitsu. And that isn't really just a grappling system I don't believe, its a full combat system with standup and everything, even a weapons component I believe, at least at one point. Judo is an offshoot of that though, actually (and bjj/sambo offshoots of judo, so ju jutsu would be kind of like the grandfather). But judo cut out a lot of the fluff (stuff that couldn't be done at full force to a fully resisting opponent) and added randori (sparring).

Anyway I tried doing a little research and a few people were saying most japanese fighters have a "wrestling" style. IDK if that means cacc or not. And idk if that is different for the Korean or Chinese, etc. fighters. My guess is judo primarily. Maybe cbr knows.

[cowboyronnie]

Yeah, it's CCAC and rural American submission wrestling via 'pro wrestling', I think. Pro wrestling was, of course, sort of legit and competitive for a long time - into the 70s/80s even. That's what Sakuraba practiced.

Someone like Kid Yamamoto would be different.

[cowboyronnie]

Do people remember Kikuno from Dream? There were some great fights. His switch to a lead left liver kick is so beautiful. Look up HLs. Shout out to Bloodstain Lane. He didn't display much this fight but a great sense of distance. How did his opponent get into the UFC? He had no strategy at all to win. Fall to guard, clinch til he gets stood up - repeat?

Holloway's opponent is no good. Those were such slow, pushed, terrible punches. No snap, wide. Then again, I'd say the same watching the Diaz brothers throw.

[REDDzone]

Yeah, it's CCAC and rural American submission wrestling via 'pro wrestling', I think. Pro wrestling was, of course, sort of legit and competitive for a long time - into the 70s/80s even. That's what Sakuraba practiced.

Someone like Kid Yamamoto would be different.

Yea I remember all those early early pride guys would come in together and were all pro wrestlers. Sakuraba, Takada, Shoji, and the others sometimes even wearing masks and such. I don't remember any of them really being any good though lol besides Saku so I wasn't sure if that was a common thing.

[REDDzone]

On another note, I thought Stann did a pretty meh job on this one compared to usual. Like how he kept saying that it was impossible for the dude to win after getting two points deducted, the best he could hope for was a draw lol. Or when he said that Wee was "too good to fall for a triangle". IDK, a couple of little goldbergisms like that. Also said something about how you can NEVER start with a leg kick or something like that, it stuck out to me as weird at the time.