CHESSNOID

There seemed to be a lot of shows this weekend.  I caught a few of the UFC 99 fights.  I was sure Silva would win the decision over Franklin to set up a Anderson vs Wanderlei fight, but I was wrong. Crocop had a good return fight.

The best fight of the weekend was a boxing match between Cotto and Clottey. It went the distance and it was a back and forth battle.  There were a few times I thought Cotto might go down but didn’t.  Cotto definitely has power in his punches and a good chin.  Clottey had some opportunities to do some damage but for whatever reason he never fully engaged Cotto and let his fists go.

There was a weird moment in the fight where Clottey looked like he got tacked or judo thrown and he lay there motionless.  At first I couldn’t figure out what happened.  It looked like some freak accident.  Then when the slow motion was played back, the announcers were saying he hurt his leg. He limped a bit.  I thought he was going to give up.  Later on in the fight, there was an accidental low blow and an accidental hit in the back of the head, but Clottey seemed to overact on both counts.  At that point, I realized he was looking for points to be taken away from Cotto.  If you watch pro basketball, every time someone gets fouled they collapse on the floor giving Oscar worthy performances of fake pain.  That is what Clottey looked like.  I think Clottey must have realized at some point in the fight, he was not going to be able to knock out or put away Cotto.  It was a closer fight than what the judges gave on the split decision, but I thought the better fighter did win the split decision.

Lastly, here is a clip of a boxing turned into mma fight between heavyweight boxer Ray Mercer and heavyweight mma fighter Tim Sylvia.  This isn’t good for Sylvia’s boxing career.  He went out like a light just like Arlovski in his last fight, except Mercer only needed 12 seconds. That is how long the fight lasted.