1. Patrick Cote did not impress. Yes, he lasted to the third round, but lasting three rounds against a guy who is not employing his full range of skills while doing nothing of note yourself is not impressive. Every time Silva engaged he caught Cote with shots. Not getting knocked out is not a “win.”
2. There IS a precedent for TKO’s due to injury. These aren’t directly MMA cases but they are boxing which commissions genearlly handle such situations the same. Last February Jesus Chavez’s knee gave out without being punched and was counted out, a similar situation happened in January of last year as well when Jameel McCline went down with a knee injury without being punched. BE commenter Zocalo posted a rule about accidental injuries in the comments of the live thread which said that in early rounds the fight is a technical draw, in the later rounds it goes to the judges scorecards. This is the case in an accidental injury caused by a foul, this was a different situation. A fighter’s knee giving out is not an “accident” as SC (BadLeftHook’s editor in chief) stated “If a body part gives out, that’s not an accident. That’s your body failing you.” Had the fighter continued to the end of the round and retired on his stool because of the knee injury it would be a TKO, it is no different in the case of an injury occurring in the course of the fight.
3. I have been severely underrating Thiago Alves. Yes, Josh Koscheck made a bad decision in not going balls out for takedowns and instead staying standing where he had next to no chance of getting the victory…but Alves had the gas to go hard for the full three rounds, was explosive when he engaged and was able to avoid takedowns with ease. While I’d still pick GSP were they to meet, it would be a lot harder for me to do so than it was 48 hours ago.
4. The UFC heavyweight division is deep but is not very clear. Mir, Nogueira, Couture, Lesnar, Carwin, Velazquez, Werdum and now Dos Santos. It may not be a list of the top 10 in the world but there is a VERY bright future. The unfortunate thing for Werdum is that he isn’t exactly “over” with the fans so he got a deserved title shot pushed off, then lost out on making the 4 man title tournament. There was a definate feeling of “trap fight” when the Dos Santos matchup was made and it only took a minute, twenty-one seconds for that to be proven as the case. There are the top four guys in the tournament and then no real clear hierarchy below. It’s time to start matching the next tier of guys against each other to clear the picture up. Either way the weakest division in the organization has a lot of bright days in its future.
5. Sean Sherk is in Rich Franklin territory. ..and BJ Penn is his Anderson Silva. As long as Penn is on top of the 155 division Sherk doesn’t have much of a shot of being champion. But that being said, I don’t know that there are a lot of guys that can beat Sherk at 155. Sean gets a lot of crap for “paint by numbers” boxing, but that isn’t the case anymore. Sherk showed dynamic combinations and his technique has advanced past “pre-programmed boxing.” I’m just not sure where there is for Sherk to fit in to the divisional picture.