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9:00 PM
I have never suffered from insomnia, and I really need my beauty sleep. If it's not forthcoming during the night, i need a power snooze before and after a card; this is crucial to lasting the duration. I get a couple hours of sleep, eventually managing to wake myself up, followed by a quick shower. I'll neck down my first can of Red Bull, have a cup of tea, and load up the Playstation 3 ready for some pre fight action.
11:00 PM
I usually hand out a Call of Duty thrashing to a few cocky kids, geeks, or weirdo's online, but tonight, I am all over UFC Undisputed 3. I'm 11-2 with my London born lightweight fighter, going by the moniker 'British Express' (Lame!). After winning my first 11 fights, I was given a sound beating tonight by both Joe 'Daddy' Stevenson and Takanori Gomi. Maybe I shouldn't have made my fighter British, it's going to be a challenge trying to get near a title shot after those two dire performances.
01:30 AM
The first fight of the night is set to start on Facebook and Mike Goldberg is now tasked with keeping me awake for the next six hours or so (God help me). It's certainly not an ideal way to watch live fights, but it's better than missing it all completely, and I'll take it until a better alternative comes along. Hopefully the first 30 seconds of the fight between Zhang and Tamura are a sign of things to come later. Great performance and KO from Tamura, especially after agreeing to take the fight on short notice. Wow, great start and I'm wide awake; unfortunately for me, I have already lost my parlay bet for the evening. Not the best of starts from a personal stand point (0-1 in my predictions).
02:00 AM
ESPN UK used to show the same live prelim fights aired by Spike, but abruptly stopped it several months ago. Nothing to do with the UFC on FOX deal, they simply didn't want to waste extra money broadcasting unknown fighters. Please god let Sky Sports win the UK broadcasting contract this summer should they want it, because for now, I am reduced to watching the next four fights on UFC TV. I am sick of watching these fights on a tiny screen whilst my 46" HD TV remains unnecessarily switched off.
I had Mizugaki winning his fight with Cariaso, he wasn't robbed, but he did more than enough in my opinion. At least no one will be accusing the judges of being biased towards the home fighters (0-2). Enjoyable fight between Riki Fukuda and Steve Cantwell. Not sure why Fukuda took the fight to the ground mid way through the last round, especially when Cantwell was only ever going to win by submission. Some good boxing shown by Fukuda, with Cantwell often resembling a human statue (1-2).
First time in a while that i've not backed an English fighter, I haven't had much luck backing them recently, so this is a bit of reverse psychology on my part. Wow that certainly had me on my feet cheering, impressive performance by Vaughan Lee, and that win will mean the world to him. A defeat could have seen him get cut. Great to see Vaughan being very respectful in the interview and awesome to see the Japanese fans applaud it too (1-3 but i'll happily take that loss on the chin). Considering Gomi was a second or two away from tapping, his comeback in the second round was very impressive. Props to his corner for the instruction and props to Gomi for actually listening to them (1-4). Very enjoyable prelims, best in ages, and not one duff fight anywhere to be seen.
04:00 AM
Longest intro in UFC history, it was fully expected but it went on a bit. Despite hating metal music I do love that Stemm song and i'll never get bored of it. I have Pettis to win the first main card fight. WOW WOW WOW what a kick, I'm sure Joe Lauzon doesn't even know what country he's in right now. Pettis has another highlight for his already impressive reel. He's got to be the No 1 contender now, his performances, and the timing, make a title shot inevitable (2-4). Hioki needs to get some new intro music, that song was released in 1994, and it wasn't cool then! I fancy Palaszewski to upset the home crowd here Hioki didn't exactly cover himself in glory last time out against George Roop. Fight starts and instantly he looks like a million dollars. Does the travel really have that much of an affect on Japanese fighters? Surely Hioki is next in line for Jose Aldo later this year (2-5).
05:00 AM
Boetsch and Okami up next, and the latter is landing some crisp strikes, at least he took something away from the Anderson Silva fight last summer. Okami is comfortably winning this fight and it should be a comfortable decision win unless he gets a finish. Well forget that blimey, Boetsch must have ate some spinach, he's just landed some sick upper cuts to get the win over Okami. I never saw that coming, amazing comeback, awesome. Rogan sounds impressed which is a major understatement! It's well past my bedtime though and I am wide awake, that's the perfect sign of a quality fight card (2-6).
Jake Shields is up next, plenty of poor striking and leg humping on route to a unanimous decision win is almost guaranteed. Apart from Michael Bisping coming out to Blur, Akiyama's entrance is my favorite by a country mile, it's a shame he's not at his once elevated level. Decent fight and better than expected, not surprised that Shields got the win though. There would have been plenty of controversy had it gone Akiyama's, way especially seeing as Akiyama should have had a point deducted for holding on to the cage late in round three (3-6). Mark Hunt up next. Mark Hunt blasts Kongo, and then almost collapses the Octagon in celebration (3-7 so far, poor indeed).
Loving the entrances of Bader and Jackson, this should be a barn stormer early on. Not quite what I expected. Rampage had Plan A and Plan A failed within 60 seconds. Bader was tactically supreme tonight, he showed far more composure than in previous fights. There was only going to be one winner after Rampage failed to land a KO punch in the first couple of minutes. I'd like to see Bader and Davis fight next.
06:45 AM
Size wise this should be a comfortable evening for Benson Henderson. However, his opponent is Frankie Edgar and that guy would happily go to war against Alistair Overeem and put on a decent performance. This guy is amazing and has the heart of a lion. I am buzzing for this, so I hope it doesn't disappoint, sure it won't. Far too engrossed to type anything during the fight, what a fabulous end to the best six hours of UFC fights i've ever witnessed. Edgar, despite the facial injuries, was more than a match for Henderson. Most fighters would be unconscious after that up kick mid fight. I had Henderson winning it by the narrowest of margins but I would have had no problems seeing Edgar retain the belt. What a great fight. I'd like to see Henderson face Pettis next and Edgar drop to 145 to face Jose Aldo, both would be amazing FOTY candidates without a doubt.
08:00 AM
Right that's it folks. This report is far from being up to Jamie Penick or Rich Hansen standard, but that's my take on UFC Japan from a UK fan perspective, pure and simply the best UFC card I have ever witnessed either on TV or live in the arena. What a great night and what else would I do for weekend entertainment? I don't need to head to a bar to find the future Mrs M, I can't dance to save my life, and every movie at the local cinema is dubbed in German language. I honestly couldn't think of a better way to spend my Saturday night, and long may it continue, especially if every card is as good as UFC 144.
Feel free to follow me on Twitter - @dannymoore5515
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/Staff_Editorials_19/article_12625.shtml
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