saoirse

OK, I could not find any mention of this finale. I did a search, but to no avail.

Anyway, my thoughts are that this was the worst of all seasons. The 2 extremely early ref stops and the completely bullshit final fight decision made me think that perhaps this is the end of the real UFC. Perhaps it's time for me to focus on Pride Fighting, because, frankly many things seem very fixed with the UFC now. Sad, but I think true. As a fan of mixed martial arts, I am really disappointed in what I witnessed on the weekend. What do you think of the finale? Do you think it was fair?

Muad'Dib

Ya, the Matt Serra fight was pretty damn boring. Although, the Drago/Smith fight was great. I would love to see a rematch between those 2 guys.

FantasticVSDoom

Yeah, that Drago/Smith fight was pretty crazy...Not all that great in technical skill, but those last 2 hits were insane. I was rooting for Serra just because I am a Renzo student myself, but he is going to get crushed by either Hughes or St. Pierre.

I hope they go back to the old format with this show, because this season was just boring. Granted, I dont really care for all the drama, but they had Couture and St. Pierre and they barely showed them at all, not too mention, most of the fights were pretty terrible.

gimmepilotwings

I sat there and watched the last part of the Drago fight 3 or 4 times. I told myself when he got hit with that body shot that it was over, and that he broke a rib.

When he landed that punch, I was amazed. What a haymaker.

Bill Needle

First off, this season seemed to drag on forever. It was tough to really get interested in many of these guys this year. The fights were pretty nondescript too.

As far as the finale, the Drago fight's wild finish was worth watching the show for, though I admit to only watching the DVR version and FF'ing through a lot of the "set up" which cut the show from about 3 hours down to about 90 minutes. That helped. Too often the fights seem to have the "pound" removed from "gound and pound." They must be giving away points for ride time. That also opens things up to those bizarre decisions that go 30-27, 27-30, 30-27. WTF? Maybe the middle judge got the fighters names backwards. The one thing I will say though is I am interested in seeing what happens in the title fights. Serra will get killed, but the Lueter fight might get interesting.

To the OP, as far as Pride and UFC fight fixing, you do know that Pride is alleged to be run by the Yakuza (Japanese mafia) through Dream Stage Entertainment? I wouldn't go so far as to say the fights are fixed, but neither would I believe the UFC fights are, since they have little if anything to gain and a lot to lose.

FantasticVSDoom

Yeah, I seriously doubt the fights are fixed...I will agree that the judging can be questionable at best sometimes, but that is more a lack of standard to judging criteria and using an antiquated system used for boxing rather than worked outcomes.

saoirse

Just saying, based on that finale, I don't know what happened, but it seemed they wanted a particular winner. This season was a joke, all the previous seasons were better. I'm just afraid that too much exposure has perhaps caused a few problems. Just a thought. As for Pride, I never heard that rumour. Is that the way it has always been, or just recently?

Muad'Dib

Ya, Pride does have some ties to the Yakuza, or so the rumor goes. It's still a great org with some scary fighters (Can anyone say Cro-cop, wandy, etc?). Hopefully the new format for the show (lightweights) will be good.