I purchased it, I was all excited and I was sorely disappointed for the most part. I don't remember the exact order of the fights, so I'm gonna wing it.

Obviously, the Arlovski/Buentello fight was a letdown. Yes, Buentello got totally rocked and he was in a lot of trouble. But (IMO) that was the most prematurely I've ever seen John McCarthy stop a fight. I believe Buentello was in trouble, but I don't believe he even had a chance to prove that he was capable of further defending himself. I'm actually surprised that Big John didn't allow it to continue to at least see if Paul was still in it. For me, this fight was a total letdown.

Riggs v. Lytle. I thought Riggs was fighting Sell, because that's how the UFC website had it. Anyhow, it sucks when a fight is stopped on a cut, but it sure looked like Riggs was on his way to a decisive win anyway. Pretty decent.

Babalu v. Sonnen. Pretty decent fight. Except for the length, I wasn't too disappointed. It was good to see Sonnen put up a good fight and when he shouted out in pain, that was cool too. The two had much respect afterwards, which kinda surprised me since Babalu looks like a violent ex-con. :icon_pale

Forrest v. Elvis. Awesome! Exciting! WAY too damn short. But hey, I'm sure Elvis didn't want it to end that fast either. It was good to see two fighters who say they're gonna go to war actually do it. Almost everyone says pre-fight "You're gonna see a war" and "It'll all be left in the octagon/ring". These two were actually gonna live up to that. And I loved Forrest's derogatory assessment of his own performance in the replays. Hilarious. :icon_smil

Sakara v. Faircloth. In all my years of boxing and MMA viewing, I've never seen a guy so wounded from a groin shot. Don't get me wrong, I believed every ounce of Alexio's pain. He was even gagging, which I've done after a kick in the identical place. But he even went to the hospital! Daaaamn. Faircloth loses AND he feels like a grade A tool about it.

Hinkle v. Gannon. Not only was my prediction way off, I was SO entertained by this fight! I felt bad for Gannon, but how can you have Kenny Florian in your corner and not know any jiu-jitsu? I know, maybe he did, just because Florian was there doesn't mean he taught Gannon, I get it. But you don't often see a UFC fighter that helpless on the ground. And the Blood... holy Christ. That was heavy. It reminded me of Randy v. Vitor at UFC 49.

Hallman v. Rivera. I had Hallman by a walk(or an armbar), but wow was I wrong. I also thought after the first minute that it would be sorta competitive and exciting. But wow was I wrong. Jorge had a clear advantage in the third round, Hallman is GASSED and shows the most flaccid boxing stance I've seen in a long time. Does Jorge, a very accomplished striker, do anything? Anything? Nope. I'm not a fighter, but I never understand why these guys stop throwing altogether at some point. And it's not like Jorge was gassed either. So this one could've been much better.

So, the UFC is now running an hour under the scheduled time of the ppv, so what do they do? They show us highlight clips of the Kunihara/Cruz fight, instead of the whole thing. WTF?! I don't know whose call that was but it sucked.

I'll probably sound like a sucker at this point, but I Am going to purchase UFC 56. Why? Because I really wanna see the main event matches. I don't see either of them being too short or a big rip-off. I see both champions retaining their belts, but with significant struggles throughout. Pretty vague prediction, but I'll write more when the time nears.

UFC 55: Grade; C-

Gannon needs to learn how to shrimp.
And Renato made me a fan of his last night.
Usually on the ground guys just lock up, and im screaming for them to do something, like grab a leg for a heel hook.
I never needed to scream once at babalu :)
Yes i know im a bit of an "Armchair quarterback"
time to coin a new term......
"Armchair UFC'r"
Since armchair fighter sounds like a bullshido'ist.

I didn't get to see it, thanks for the recap. I'm interested in Forrest vs Elvis. They went to war, yet it was way too short? Can you share more detail about that one?

I actually thought it was a great PPV. The fighters stayed active and fought hard. The one thing that pissed me off is that they only showed a highlight of the Pe De Pano match. He might not be the most famous guy in the world, but he's pretty well-known in BJJ circles, and that is kind of a slap in the face.

The ball kick sucked. And is anyone else thinking that Dana White's admonitions (probably more like threats) about being lazy in the ring were well-received by the fighters tonight?

Stopping the Arlovski fight sucked, but Buentello was fucking OUT. If Arlovski hadn't been underneath him when Buentello started to go down, Buentello would have just fallen flat on his face. He had rubber legs when McCarthy actually got him up. That fight was over. No premature stoppage there.

Gannon looked disgusting at the end of his fight. We DVRed it and WOW. Gross.

Interestingly Bullshido did apply to the UFC's PR firm for press credentials for this event and this request was turned down because they did not consider us "media". I understand from Omega that other internet forums also got the cold shoulder.

I suspect that they want to portray the event as being "cleaned up" to the mainstream media and a bunch of fervent fans on the internet may almost be an embarrassment to them. i.e. we know that MMA fighting was prettymuch cleaned up before the present owners of the UFC bought it and announced that things were different then from under the old regime.

I didn't order it. For a number of reasons. But I was able to get the highlights about an hour later off other sites.

LOL for the shittiest UFC in a long time. And not so LOL at the $34.95 pricetag.

Supposedly there are some new happenings in the UFC that are going to be released very soon. Things do not bode well.

I didn't get to see it, thanks for the recap. I'm interested in Forrest vs Elvis. They went to war, yet it was way too short? Can you share more detail about that one?

The fight was really good because they both came at each other with punches without worrying too much if they themselves got hit. But they did use some pretty cool technique, trying to slip counters on each other.

In the first part of the round, Elvis was actually getting the better of the exchanges. He was beating Forrest to the punch and landing more. I don't remember exactly how it went, but then Forrest started coming back and landed a few good shots himself. Forrest eventually planted Elvis with a right that sent him ass-backwards into the cage. Forrest came in with a huge right that connected flush with Elvis' jaw on the ground and it was over. I think it was around 4 minutes, but I said it was too short because I always want that kind of fight to go the distance.

Oh, and I missed Mike Goldberg. "Craig Hummer" wasn't that much fun to listen to. However, I Did like The Freakin' Puerto Rican announcer guy. If they ditched Bruce Buffer for him, that would be okay with me.

Gannon fought so bad that I'm questioning whether or not he threw the fight! He punches like a girl. He had absolutely nothing behind them. Look at his weak shots from the ground. I hit harder than that when I'm sparring! How can a 5 or 6 time golden gloves winner punch like ****?

He had no knowledge of footwork. The guy looked like he wanted to be very light on his feet. Did he think that this was a ballet recital?

Those were the most hilarious looking tattoos I've ever seen.

Branden's a ***** for using elbows. Gannon had no chance Might as well have rung down punches and made him suffer longer.

Worst UFC ever.

what does ufc do now? it really seems like their going downhill, and having TUF was a desperate attempt to capture some more fans, but having ppv's like this isn't going to help. I have never bought a ufc ppv and i probably never will.

Obviously, the Arlovski/Buentello fight was a letdown. Yes, Buentello got totally rocked and he was in a lot of trouble. But (IMO) that was the most prematurely I've ever seen John McCarthy stop a fight. I believe Buentello was in trouble, but I don't believe he even had a chance to prove that he was capable of further defending himself. I'm actually surprised that Big John didn't allow it to continue to at least see if Paul was still in it. For me, this fight was a total letdown.

I just saw it, free on UK TV :icon_tong . Looking at the slowmotion replays, Buentello was completely out of it. The way he didn't look upset about the fight being cut short, but relieved to be in his corner at the end should tell you all you need to know.

Anyone else think there is a chance the UFC would consider banned elbows due to recent fights such as Tanner, Gannon, etc?

Gringo Grande

PS: A local bar carried it live on huge ass project screen tv's....the crowd was really into it.

I watched it live at Hooters and it was refreshing to listen to how the crowd had grown more technical in their ability to see what was going on. Of course there was a few guys crying out how grappling was gay, which it is, but most seemed to enjoy the show.

But in terms of quality, I hope the next one is better. I did like Lytle's earlier fights, but he seemed out-classed last night. Gannon's fight made me nearly shed a tear (well the waitress also happened to spill a little of my pitcher of Alaskan Amber).



But the wings sucked. I call bullshido on Hooters claiming that they have great wings.

Watching this UFC made me think two things:

1 - What is TUF for? The big prize at the end of it is "a contract with the UFC", and everyone on the show makes a big deal about "oh jesus this is my dream, i must get this contract". But at UFC 56 Nate Quarry has a title shot against Rich Franklin. Nate Quarry? The feller who got injured within the first few episodes of TUF1 but stuck around because they figured he's got a nice face and he's a nice guy and he's popular with folks? I mean, come on; what does this teach the guys who compete in the other TUF series, that all they need to do is appeal to the faceless masses and they can get in?
I don't have anything against Nate per se, in fact I think he's a great fighter, but it just seems to me that by promoting him so heavily the UFC are somewhat undermining the purpose of TUF.

2 - This one isn't so much of a rant, it's more of a genuine question; is Lidell OK? How come he's not in UFC56? Is he injured? What about Couture?

But the wings sucked. I call bullshido on Hooters claiming that they have great wings.

It's the thighs and breasts that attract customers of Hooters.

I think they want all the titles to be important. Like have Heavyweight for one PPV, Light Heavyweight for another, and Middleweight+Welterweight for another. They don't seem to care about the lightweight title though...Cus ya know...in the WWE the only important titles are WWE and World, all the other titles are crap. Bad example I know....but ya get the point.