UFC Fight Night 24

[akatdrake]

March 26, 2011
Seattle, Washington

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira vs. Phil Davis
Dan Hardy vs. Anthony Johnson
DaMarques Johnson vs. Amir Sadollah
Leonard Garcia vs. Chan Sung Jung
Alex Caceres vs. Mackens Semerzier
Jon Madsen vs. Mike Russow
John Hathaway vs. Kris McCray
Edwin Figueroa vs. Michael McDonald
Sean McCorkle vs. Christian Morecraft
Mario Miranda vs. Aaron Simpson
Johny Hendricks vs. T.J. Waldburger
Nik Lentz vs. Waylon Lowe



Phil Davis is a stud, but right now at -300/+220 you have to at least THINK about putting a little something on Lil Nog. HOWEVER, seeing vets look bad lately makes me think twice. Hardy blew his last appearance, so revenge might be a factor here.

Leans: Amir Sadollah, Korean Zombie, Bruce Leroy, John Hathaway

[akatdrake]

Main event: Though I like Davis as said earlier, he has this fight on relatively short notice as Tito Ortiz goes out with injury a few weeks ago. Also, people have been talking up Phil Davis as Jon Jones' next true challenger at LHW. Davis is playing it off humbly, wanting to get through Nogueira, and "he'll try" [to get toward the title shot]. This lack of confidence, coupled with Lil Nog's experience might make me take a flyer on the underdog.

Rest of the televised card: Well, Anthony Johnson made weight, much to the surprise of a lot of people. He's coming off a long layoff and injury and we all know how that affected Shogun last week. Hardy coming off consecutive losses to GSP and Carlos Condit. Both can hit hard, both have great chins. Like Hardy to land the first blow. Hardy going off at +160 now.

Amir Sodallah hasn't been able to gauge his opponent as his first scheduled opponent (Duane Ludwig), or his second (James Wilks) have both bowed out due to injury. Sadollah hasn't been the awesome fighter we thought he was since winning TUF 7, but he's skilled on his back enough to overcome Johnson's wrestling and ground-and-pound. Amir will work in the clench as well.

Garcia/Jung: these two met last year for WEC fight-of-the-year with Garcia winning a close decision. This looks like more of the same, even though Jung says his days of being the Korean Zombie is over. We'll see what happens when Garcia comes out with his usual balls-to-the-wall pace. This should be a fun one to watch.

[akatdrake]

Watching some undercard on Facebook right now...

Plays for today:

Dan Hardy +160 for one unit.

Going back and forth on Davis/Nog and Sodallah/Johnson - decided against it. Just going to watch some fights tonight.

[akatdrake]

Well, another card where the favorites all won except for one fight. Unfortunately this time, I wasn't on the live doggie side. In fact, my doggie Dan Hardy got his butt whooped! He was dominated start to finish and has a real shot to be cut after this fight.

Korean Zombie submits Leonard Garcia by a "twister," I've never heard of it, or felt it... take your right arm and cross it behind your head, and then imagine it pinned to the back of your head. Then getting your head cranked to the right... ouch!! Garcia taps at 4:59 of the second round. One second later he gets through the round. Holy moly.

Amir Sodallah destroys DaMarques Johnson through and through. Johnson takes the fight on two weeks notice and gets crushed.

Hardy got dominated. Anthony Johnson beat him up, took him down, grounded-and-pounded and show no ill effects from his layoff and surgery.

Phil Davis won an unanimous decision, but is nowhere near the class Jon Jones is at 205. Unimpressive victory, he attempted to trade standing up with Lil Nog in the first round where he attempted to unsuccessful shoots. Second round he was able to take Lil Nog, but barely got to guard, and only made it to half-guard once. Lil Nog took a few punches from his back in the second and third round, and while the decision was one-sided, it was not impressive. It will be interesting to see who gets the shot.

0-1, -1 unit