The Doggy Bag: Spider Venom

Apr 26, 2009
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"The Crow" was awful at UFC 97.
I'm a huge MMA and UFC female fan. I attended UFC 97 at the Bell Centre and was disgusted by the majority of the performances. David Loiseau was a huge disappointment. He looked old and tired... The Silva fight was an absolute joke! I hope Dana White was listening to the crowd. I will be very cautious on how I spend my hard-earned dollars on the UFC from now on.
-- Darlene

Greg Savage, radio host: I don’t think it is a stretch to say UFC 97 wasn’t one of the better events of the Zuffa era, and the Anderson Silva-Thales Leites fight definitely didn’t live up to the expectations of most of your fellow attendees in Montreal.

I think it was obvious that Dana White heard the crowd’s frustrations by his post-fight comments.

I too share your disappointment with “The Crow.” He has shown explosive ability in the past, but just has not been the same fighter since enduring the 25-minute beating he took at the hands of Rich Franklin. And unfortunately for him, I don’t think we will ever see him back in UFC again, save for some kind of career rebirth.

Like many UFC events, there were some lackluster fights sprinkled in with some very entertaining scraps. Not every event can be a homerun with every fight being a barnburner for the ages. However, when a main event fails to deliver, that is what tends to be remembered by viewers.

As for how you spend your MMA dollars, I would always suggest being an informed consumer. There is so much MMA out there now, especially with the UFC’s flooding of the market, that there are plenty of chances for you to pick and choose the events you feel are worthy.


Talk Back

In this edition of Talk Back, forum users chime in on Sherdog.com’s MMA rankings and “Greasegate II.”

Greasegate II proves that Greasegate I was blown out of proportion. Why? B.J. Penn fans. It proves they blew it out of proportion, and at least Thales Leites fans knew that it wouldn’t have made a difference that night because of the one-sidedness and so should Penn fans.
-- Fashion Assasin

Greasegate II? What's the controversy? The referee wiped Silva down and Silva helped him. Thales' corner gave the thumbs up.
-- Dr Knockout

The problem with Sherdog.com's pound-for-pound rankings is that they make an attempt at objectivity by basing their results on records. Unfortunately, it is impossible to make an objective choice. You always run into problems such as, "who has fought better comp?" Or like in the recent Silva fight, objectively, you can't lower a guy in the rankings if he wins, no matter how lackluster he looks. I think Sherdog needs to base their rankings on skill in various areas of MMA, adopting the true, "if they were all the same size" mentality. There are already top-10 rankings made via fight records. It would be entertaining to read something new, and especially if it meant bringing in fighters to weigh-in on their p4p top ten. You can't be objective anyway.
-- Gun'n'Run

Why is Fedor Emelianenko demerited for having "few top ten fights in the past three years," while Penn has beaten... I think one top-ten fighter (Sherk) since... Was it Takanori Gomi? How many years ago was that? I understand Fedor being ranked below St. Pierre and Anderson, but if a lack of recent top-ten wins is a knock on a fighter, what is Penn doing at the top of his division, and four in the pound-for-pound?
-- Sydney 1-6-3

If you're a fan of MMA, you should be able to see that Fedor Emelianenko is the greatest fighter in the history of the sport. Heavyweight, P4P, use whatever qualifier you want, Fedor Emelianenko is the greatest fighter on the planet and has been for years, and while Dana's relentless hyping of Anderson did manage to permeate the sport's fanbase and news media -- including our own Sherdog.com, who's been riding the Anderson bandwagon for a while now -- the recent Sherdog poll asking who we thought was the best fighter in MMA showed that the vast majority of this site sees beyond Dana's hype to the truth: Fedor is the greatest. No matter how vehemently Dana wants to cram it down the throats of us fans that Fedor is a terrible, overrated fighter and Anderson is God's gift to MMA, people who have followed the two men's respective careers know who the greatest fighter in the world is.
-- Bullitt68



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