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Check Us Out in the UFC 100 Magazine
It's a little like playing Where's Waldo, but if you look closely, you can find FightMetric in the premier issue of new UFC magazine.Can't find it? Check out the feature on The 20 Greatest Fights Ever, starting on page 108. The yellow band at the bottom of the subsequent pages contains some interesting factoids from the UFC's history. And if you follow it all the way until the end on page 116...there we are. How could you miss it?
Why Won't Judges Call a Round 10-10?
With the judging at the TUF 9 Finale raising so much ire this week, much of the focus has been on two fights that were not broadcast on Spike. We have now posted the stats for two controversial decisions on the undercard, the fight between Melvin Guillard and Gleison Tibau and the fight between Brad Blackburn and Edgar Garcia.Both fights produced scores with the same issue: Two of the rounds were too close to call, with the third round producing a clear winner. In both cases, the system produced a score of 30-29. Of course, to do this, you have to be willing to call a 10-10 round. This is no problem for an objective stat system but seemingly impossible for a human judge. It wasn't always that way. Back at UFC 33, the first UFC event held in Las Vegas, there were three fights that had judges call at least one 10-10 round. Only one event since has had as many as two fights with a 10-10 round. The judges at UFC 33 are the same exact ones working shows today. What changed?
What Good is Top Position...
...when you're getting beaten by the guy on the bottom? Round two of last night's fight between Diego Sanchez and Clay Guida was an object lesson in why top position is not always better. While Guida did maintain top control, he got outstruck 16-3 in power shots to the head, thanks to a bevy of elbows coming from Sanchez on the bottom. Joe Rogan made the comment that those might have been the most effective elbows from bottom that we'd ever seen, but we've seen those elbows used to pretty good effect before. Anderson Silva vs. Travis Lutter and Kenny Florian vs. Joe Lauzon are some other good examples of the devastating effect of this under-utilized weapon. They very well might be the most effective strike that most fighters will never use.An impressive showing by Sanchez is made more impressive by the advances he has made in putting offense into his guard. What a difference this was from the guard he displayed against Jon Fitch, where Sanchez landed basically no strikes of consequence on the ground. In the Fitch fight, Sanchez concentrated almost exclusively on submissions. In the fight against Guida, Sanchez threw strikes where available and still managed to latch-on a few good submission attempts. The scores from the fight show a victory for Sanchez 30-26, though that could very easily be 29-27, as Glenn Trowbridge scored it. Round 1 was a 10-8 round, using our objective criteria (score over 100 and more than 6x opponents' score) and Round 2 goes to Sanchez thanks to his offensive guard. Round 3 is basically a toss-up, which the system gives to Sanchez on damage, but could easily go Guida's way instead.Also, check out the stats from Joe Stevenson vs. Nate Diaz and from Chris Lytle vs. Kevin Burns.
Rich Franklin = Nailbiter?
Historically, Rich Franklin is not a fighter you associated with razor-thin decisions. For the better part of his career, Franklin either won big or lost big (thanks to Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida). The exception to this rule was Franklin's fight against Yushin Okami two years ago. This was a very important fight for him, because a win would get him another crack at the middleweight belt, while a loss would set him back severely. Franklin fought a cautious fight and capitalized on Okami's slow start, just squeaking by for a decision. Franklin's win over Wanderlei Silva on Saturday night marked his second consecutive close decision. The stats for the fight show a clear victory in Round 1 for Franklin, but then two close rounds that could have gone either way. This, following a coin-flip kind of decision against Dan Henderson, that could have easily been called a draw. Is this Franklin being cautious with his career, facing stiffer competition, or is this kind of fight one that we can expect consistenly from the new Rich Franklin?Also, check out the stats from Dan Hardy vs. Marcus Davis to see if Davis has a case when he says he didn't lose, and look at the numbers from Cain Velasquez vs. Cheick Kongo to see just how many of those little punches to the head Velasquez landed.
UPDATE: By popular demand, we've added the stats for the fight between Spencer Fisher and Caol Uno.
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