UFC 70- Spoilers inside

Vince135792003

God might be starting to hate the UFC:

Gonzaga knocked Cro Cop out. With a head kick. I'm sure Couture Gonzaga will do well but Cro Cop Couture would have been monster business. Maybe this will make Gonzaga huge now. I just feel sorry for Mirko. 2007 has been a crazy crazy year for upsets in MMA.

b0bsquish

holy sh*t, I had a feeling it could end up like that but I still wanna see

crocop and Couture, Guess I wont now

Vince135792003

b0bsquish wrote:

I share your sadness.

Fozzy

I was getting the feeling that it might happen. People still don't seem to realise that literally anything can happen! A Couture vs Crocop fight looks unlikely now, unless Couture were to lose the belt, which I don't see happening unless he were to fight Nogueira. But with the way things are going, Nogueira will lose to Heath Herring!

It certainly makes Crocop look kinda useless to the general American audience who wouldn't have known about him before he joined UFC. He did deserve the build up they gave him though, can't wait to hear Joe Rogan when he gets knocked out

Vince135792003

Its getting to the point where an upset is when the favourite wins!

For Cro Cop to lose to of all things a high kick is just the icing on the cake. I'm not sure how this effects the UFC generally. They have lost a dead cert mega fight. They have built a guy up (legitimately) to the US audience and he's sunk which will make it harder for guys like Noguiera to get over. On the plus side, they could have just made a star in Gonzaga.

Fozzy

I find the whole thing really fascinating when I look at it with my wrestling cap on. In wrestling, you can build up feuds and matches knowing that nothing will get in the way of any plans (barring an injury really). The UFC can build up feuds and matches, but they've no idea what's going to happen once a match takes place. They've got to react to what happens and maybe change their whole approach to a certain division after a fight. And they've been doing it well so far

Vince135792003

Speaking of good promotion Serra and Huges are the next Ultimate Fighter coaches.

Fozzy

Haha, awesome!

Probably should have put spoiler tags around that

Charlie

In relation to what Vince said,

They had Serra on Between The Ropes recently after his title win and one of the topics that came up was Hughes. He legitimately sounded like he hated the guy. Whilst he acknowledged that he was a good fighter, he pretty much let it be known that he thinks the guy is a giant douche. Should make for an interesting series.

How did Bisping get on?

Was the PPV worth the 20 blips (to those that acquired legally) and would it be money well spent buying the replay?

Fozzy

Judging by a quote from Dana White, I'm not sure it was one of their better shows:

"I have to be honest, I was a little disappointed with our showing tonight," he said. "Usually from top to bottom, all of our fights are exciting. Some guys didn't pull the trigger tonight, a lot of stalling, a lot of staring - very unusual for a UFC event."

Vince135792003

charlie mchugh wrote:

How did Bisping get on?

He won and apparently it was fight of the night.

EDIT: The Bisping and Cro Cop fights are must see. The high kick that got Mirko was sick. He landed really really badly on his knee. "

Ph3n0m

video of fight
http://www.dailymotion.com/relevance/search/Gonzaga%2B/video/x1s49b_ufc-70-crocop-vs-gonzaga

But damn that kick was out of nowhere

nacho libre

Will this event be shown on Bravo late tonight?

ShawnRaven

Don't think so, didn't Setanta buy the rights to a few of them, kinda like Channel 4 bought the rights to show a few WWE shows a few years back?

VR!

Vince135792003

Setanta have the UK UFC events on ppv, available on Sky but not NTL digital to order.

So unfortunately it won't be on Bravo tonight.

Mossy Monk

nacho libre wrote:

Will this event be shown on Bravo late tonight?

Bravo wont be showing any UFC events that take place in Europe. They will be shown exclusively on Setanta PPV.

Vince135792003

Cro Cop comments:

"The fight went the same way I fought it, I didn't deserve any better", analyzed Mirko and continued: "That's seems to be the cross I'm carrying, I fall down every once in a while, I don't know why. I've been two times through such crisis, against Randleman and I came back, against Fedor and I came back. I'll come back after this again. It's part of my carrer, so I should handle it."
It didn't take long since last night's defeat for speculations to arise whether Gonzaga's hick-kick ended Mirko's career aswell. But to our question whether he'll continue fighting after this Cro Cop answered: "Of, course, I will fullfil the contract, I have 4 more fights to go."

Mossy Monk

That was some kick Cro Cop took to the head. Bisping really had no trouble at all. One way traffic.

Dragan

I'm not buying into the whole "end of Cro Cop" thing. People said the same thing when Randlemann knocked him out, and when he failed to beat Fedor people said he had no where left to go.

There is always another fight, always another champion to beat. As it was, the Heavyweight division was just getting TOO confusing.....you had Arlovski in the wings, the old champ wanting his shot, the new champ who was never supposed to be there, Cro Cop who was supposed to clear out the division and then Nog out of the blue who would tap everyone.

Too many match choices and Gonzaga was never even to be featured. Even now, people won't accept the fact that some fighters just come out of NOWHERE and not only put on a show, but stay around and put on some more. Look at Ramage Vs Saku is you want an example of someone taking advantage of getting to the big show.

Personally while i feel bad for Cro Cop because he lost, it's good for the division and the UFC, because now you don't have everyones name linking to Couture for their next fight. Here is how i would run things myself.

Couture Vs Gonzaga, winner to take on Arlovski.

Big Nog Vs Cheick Kongo (your giving Kongo a loss, but hey, it's upset central these days ) ( same card as next fight )

Sylvia Vs Filipovic, winner to take on winner of Arlovski vs ? title fight. ( same card as last fight )

Big Nog Vs Couture if he lost to Gonzaga, or loser of Sylvi/Cro Cop fight....whoever is most deserving of a shot at number one contender based on performance.

Winner of (Arlovski vs Sylvia/Cro Cop) vs (winner of Big Nog vs ?)

But thats just me.

Vince135792003

]

I definitely don't think its the end of Cro Cop but its a long road back. I hope he can do it.

For UFC though, they lost a monster money match (at least for now) in August. I'm sure Gonzaga versus Couture will do well but not to the level of what the Cro Cop match would have done. The promotion you could have done for that match would have been so easy to do and to me could have threatened the Tito/Lidell 2 buy rate. .

Dragan

Nah, I think the UFC can do great things with this match if you think about it. Two guys who were never supposed to win? That makes a great story! Oh I have no doubt that buys will be less than they would be for Couture Vs Cro Cop, but in the long term I can see far more money being pulled in this way.

Vince135792003

Your right, the fight will do good business. To be honest, I think any fight Couture is in will do great, plus alot of people saw that high kick of Gonzagas.

In saying that if Gonzaga wins (and its a big if), would he be a bigger draw as champion than say a Cro Cop or a Couture? I'm not sure. Again though its a long way down the track


On more thing, you forgot Verra in your booking! Like you said the division is stacked especially when you compare it to last year.

Dragan

I didn't want to write in Vera because as far as i know there are STILL disputes over his contract, which is just silly.

He's a talent with the potential to be a champ, but he's not a champ yet. He needs to sign for 3 fights, get in there and win and then worry about the belt. He screwed himself over and has been out of the scene for too long now.....he was grand before CC, Nog signed, Couture came back and various other upsets happened. There are too many people ahead of him now!

If he does sign though i would defo work him in, most likely have him travel a different route to Big Nog.

The Sparrow

hey do we really need all the spoiler tags if the thread title clearly says spoilers inside? i know I`ve complained before about spoilers being given away, but even I`m not dumb enough to check a thread out that says spoilers inside if i don`t wanna know any results! just a thought...

I thought it was a pretty poor night of fights except for the obvious exceptions in the Bisping/ Sinosic and Cro Cop/ Gonzaga fights...

I dunno how to put spoilers tags up, but just to say I finished watching the show a couple of minutes ago and the highlight of the night blew me away!! Wow!

BTW congrats on new Mod status to Fozzy... Good luck with it!:D

The Sparrow

Dragan wrote:

I didn't want to write in Vera because as far as i know there are STILL disputes over his contract, which is just silly.

He's a talent with the potential to be a champ, but he's not a champ yet. He needs to sign for 3 fights, get in there and win and then worry about the belt. He screwed himself over and has been out of the scene for too long now.....he was grand before CC, Nog signed, Couture came back and various other upsets happened. There are too many people ahead of him now!

If he does sign though i would defo work him in, most likely have him travel a different route to Big Nog.

I think they sorted out his contract... i`m not a 100% sure about that, but i thought I remembered hearing something to that effect.

Ah yes here it is:

http://www.thefightnetwork.com/news_detail.php?nid=3519

And he specifically says he wants Cro Cop!

Dragan

Of course he did, we're talking about a guy who called out Chuck after his first match in the UFC.

Thats why i love him.

Vince135792003

And the weird thing is he was originally supposed to face Silvia in February but due to the whole contract saga they nixed it. Then Couture stepped in. Funny how things work!

Fozzy

woooo232 wrote:

I dunno how to put spoilers tags up, but just to say I finished watching the show a couple of minutes ago and the highlight of the night blew me away!! Wow!

BTW congrats on new Mod status to Fozzy... Good luck with it!:D

Thanks. I've updated the charter to show how spoiler tags are used. Start off with

and end with

, without the spaces

The Cro Cop/Couture non-match has definitely cost the UFC a lot of potential money. Couture did say that he'd rather face Cro Cop before the fight though, he thinks Gonzaga has a better chance of beating him. So the potential is there for Cro Cop/Couture in the future if Gonzaga were to become champ. Sure, it won't do as many buys as it would if they both didn't lose, but it's still a match a lot of people want to see. The trouble is that Cro Cop looks useless now to the average UFC fan (that point was just brought up on Wrestling Observer Live as I was typing it, haha)

Chuck's been champ for 2 years and one week now! He's the only guy the UFC can rely on these days it seems

Vince135792003

Fozzy wrote:

Chuck's been champ for 2 years and one week now! He's the only guy the UFC can rely on these days it seems

Don't jinx him!

The Sparrow

Fozzy wrote:

Thanks. I've updated the charter to show how spoiler tags are used. Start off with

and end with

, without the spaces

The Cro Cop/Couture non-match has definitely cost the UFC a lot of potential money. Couture did say that he'd rather face Cro Cop before the fight though, he thinks Gonzaga has a better chance of beating him. So the potential is there for Cro Cop/Couture in the future if Gonzaga were to become champ. Sure, it won't do as many buys as it would if they both didn't lose, but it's still a match a lot of people want to see. The trouble is that Cro Cop looks useless now to the average UFC fan (that point was just brought up on Wrestling Observer Live as I was typing it, haha)

Chuck's been champ for 2 years and one week now! He's the only guy the UFC can rely on these days it seems

Thanks man. Oh and Rampage might have something to say about your last point! Woof! Woof!

Fozzy

Haha, true. Rampage winning wouldn't really be an upset. Imagine if they had booked Rampage in a fight on Saturday, and he'd lost. They'd really be ****ed then!

The Sparrow

Yeah i guess the lesson from this year is to do less No. 1 Contender/ Tune up fights and if a fight has box office appeal to just do it because you never know when the underdog will ruin your plans.

Talk about the year of the underdog:

Keith Jardine over Forest Griffin (technically Dec. 30th 2006 but close enough!)
Dan Henderson over Wanderlei Silva
Nick Diaz over Gomi
Soudkjdou over Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera
Jake O'Brien over Heath Herring
Randy Couture over Tim Sylvia
Matt Serra over George St. Pierre

Gabriel Conzaga over Mirko Cro Cop

And its only April ffs!:eek:

fatal

OMG cro crop got knocked the **** out.................
thats three fights in the last 3 ufc ppv (all the mainevents) being won by the that that has been the underdog.
Just looking at cro crop's legs twisted underneath him after he got kicked is hard to watch

fatal

woooo232 wrote:

:

Keith Jardine over Forest Griffin (technically Dec. 30th 2006 but close enough!)
Dan Henderson over Wanderlei Silva
Nick Diaz over Gomi
Soudkjdou over Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera
Jake O'Brien over Heath Herring
Randy Couture over Tim Sylvia
Matt Serra over George St. Pierre

Gabriel Conzaga over Mirko Cro Cop

actually yea...in my post above I was referring only to the UFC fights but the same has been happening in PRIDE since the start of the year aswelll

Dragan

woooo232 wrote:

Keith Jardine over Forest Griffin (technically Dec. 30th 2006 but close enough!)
Dan Henderson over Wanderlei Silva
Nick Diaz over Gomi
Soudkjdou over Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera
Jake O'Brien over Heath Herring
Randy Couture over Tim Sylvia
Matt Serra over George St. Pierre

Gabriel Conzaga over Mirko Cro Cop

And its only April ffs!:eek:

Don't forget Soudkjdou over Arona....that was quiet the uperset.

Tiger Upercut and all that.

Vince135792003

Dana responds from latimes.com:

“Cro Cop’s guys wanted to have a couple fights before they fought Randy Couture. And to be honest with you I think they wanted the fights to milk the contract.”

A recent report stated that the Croatian would fulfill the remaining four fights on his UFC contract and then retire, but there’s been no official word from the UFC.

Said White: “No idea. I don’t even know what he wants to do next. I’ll have to talk to his people, see what he’s thinking, see where his head is, no pun intended.

“I think he needs to go out and fight a big name guy. Gonzaga’s an awesome fighter but nobody knew who he was.”

Vince135792003

Ratings are in from www.f4wonline.com :

UFC 70 in Manchester did a 1.84 rating and 2.8 million viewers over three hours on Spike TV. It was the second highest-rated UFC special in history behind Shamrock/Ortiz. It peaked at 3.5 million viewers for the Gonzaga vs. Crocop fight at 11:45, which is quite the number at that hour.

The Sparrow

Vince135792003 wrote:

Dana responds from latimes.com:

“Cro Cop’s guys wanted to have a couple fights before they fought Randy Couture. And to be honest with you I think they wanted the fights to milk the contract.”

A recent report stated that the Croatian would fulfill the remaining four fights on his UFC contract and then retire, but there’s been no official word from the UFC.

Said White: “No idea. I don’t even know what he wants to do next. I’ll have to talk to his people, see what he’s thinking, see where his head is, no pun intended.

“I think he needs to go out and fight a big name guy. Gonzaga’s an awesome fighter but nobody knew who he was.”

Please, please make that big star Cro Cop fights next be Tim Sylvia! Oh that would be sweet!:D

yayamark

wow that was some finish i thought he broke cro cop neck:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

Vince135792003

UFC 70 payouts (mmatap.com):

TOTAL PAYOUT: $933,000

Gabriel Gonzaga - $60,000 (Win) - $30,000 for win, $30,000 for best kockout.
Mirko Filipovic - $350,000 (Loss)

Andrei Arlovski - $160,000 (Win)
Fabricio Werdum - $80,000 (Loss)

Michael Bisping - $54,000 (Win)- $24,000 for win, $30,000 for best match.
Elvis Sinosic - $38,000 (Loss) - $8,000 for win, $30,000 for best match.

Lyoto Machida - $40,000 (Win)
David Heath - $6,000 (Loss)

Cheick Kongo - $40,000 (Win)
Assuerio Silva - $8,000 (Loss)

Terry Etin - $42,000 (win) - $12,000 for win, $30,000 for best submission.
Matt Grice - $3,000

Junior Assuncao - $6,000 (Win)
David Lee - $2,000 (Loss)

Alessio Sakara - $20,000 (Win)
Victor Valimaki - $3,000 (Loss)

Jesse Liaudin - $6,000 (Win)
Dennis Siver - $3,000 (Loss)

Paul Taylor - $8,000 (Win)
Edilberto Crocota - $4,000 (Loss)

Fozzy

Are these bonuses for best match, knockout and submission new? Don't think I've heard about them in UFC before. Sinosic certainly did well for himself with it!

It's gas, all the guys who were getting paid more than their opponent won, except for the guy who got paid the most

Vince135792003

Fozzy wrote:

Are these bonuses for best match, knockout and submission new? Don't think I've heard about them in UFC before.

They've been around for quite a while. The size of the bonuses have increased though.