Affliction "Day of Reckoning" 1/24/09- Re-Cap

Affliction: Day of Reckoning (1/24/09) – Anaheim, CA (Honda Center)

Lightweight Fight- Dan Lauzon (11-2) vs. Bobby Green (7-1)

Bobby Green is fighting on short notice as he replaced Chris Horodecki. Lauzon is a wrestler and jiu jitsu fighter. Green describes his fighting style as “hood”.

R1- Green really took it to Lauzon in the first round. Green hit Lauzon with two low blows and we get two five minute rest periods and two warnings for Green. Green is winning the fight but can’t keep his knee off of Lauzon’s jock. They start back and Green hits him with another low blow although it was a glancing blow. Lauzon looks like he sold this one more than the others. Green got a point deducted for this. Green should just stop throwing kicks at this point unless he’s kicking him in the low part of the legs. Lauzon went for a heel hook but Green survived. Lauzon then quickly took Greens back and tapped him out with only about 10 seconds left in the round.

This would have been a good fight if we didn’t have 15 minutes worth of waiting due to the three low blows. Edit those out and it was a good one round fight.

Winner: Dan Lauzon by Submission (Rear Naked Choke) R1 4:55

Heavyweight Fight- Paul Buentello (29-10) vs. Kiril Sidelnikov (5-2)

Kiril is Fedor’s protégé and he is nicknamed “Baby Fedor”. No pressure there at all. That’s like dubbing some poor Quarterback as the next “Joe Montana”. Buentello has a 3” height advantage, a 6” reach advantage and a 15 pound weight advantage.

R1- Decent first round as Buentello opened up a cut under Kiril’s eye. Buentello takes the first round 10-9.

R2- The first half of this round was more of the same but Kiril got a good flurry into the corner before Buentello wrapped him up. Buentello started landing some good shots towards the end of the round. Buentello took this round as he controlled with the exception of the flurry by Kiril. Buentello 20-18.

R3- Buentello just picked Kiril apart in this round. Kiril lost his mouthpiece twice and the second time the doctor at ringside stopped the fight. Buentello looked solid in this fight and Kiril didn’t show much of looking like Fedor except in his ability to take a punch. The strikes landed in the first round were about the same and by the end of the fight Buentello had landed twice as many strikes as Kiril.

Winner: Paul Buentello by TKO (Ref Stoppage) R3 4:18

Light Heavyweight Fight- Renato Sobral (31-7) vs. Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou (5-3)

Sokoudjou was last seen gassing in about two minutes in UFC and then getting taken apart by Luiz Cane. Prior to that he got a TKO victory in Round One against Kazuhiro Nakamura and prior to that he got submitted by Lyoto Machida. Sokoudjou needs to finish in the first round if he is going to win this fight. Babalu fought on the November Strikeforce card and beat Bobby Southworth for their Light Heavyweight Title. Babalu got a decision victory over Mike Whitehead at the first Affliction show.

R1- Not a great first round as neither guy really got going. Sokoudjou had good take down defense and landed a couple of shots in Ground and Pound. Sokoudjou up 10-9 in a very even round.

R2- Babalu got a quick take down at the beginning of the round and landed some Ground and Pound. Babalu got the Anaconda choke clamped in and finished the fight. Sokoudjou once again gets foiled after the first round. Babalu looked good and I think we just need to comes to terms that Sokoudjou isn’t a very good MMA fighter.

Winner: Renato Sobral by Submission (Anaconda Choke) R2 2:36

Middleweight Fight- Vitor Belfort vs. Matt Lindland

Lindland looked very out of shape in his fight back in July for Affliction so it will be interesting to see if he has cardio in this fight if it goes for a while. Belfort looked good in his win over Terry Martin back in July.

R1- Belfort stuck Lindland early and floored him and then just destroyed him. Utter dominance by Belfort. I guess we won’t have to worry about Lindland’s cardio. Lindland has been very unimpressive in his last two fights.

Winner: Vitor Belfort by KO R1 0:37

Post-match Tito Ortiz says he sees Vitor taking apart Anderson Silva. Lindland and Terry Martin probably weren’t even in the Top 25 Middleweights much less among the top P4P fighters in the world. Impressive victory by Vitor but let’s see him beat a Top 5 or Top 10 Middleweight before jumping to Anderson Silva.


Heavyweight Fight- Josh Barnett (23-5) vs. Gilbert Yvel (42-12)

Barnett beat Pedro Rizzo in somewhat of a snoozer at the last Affliction show. Barnett is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and New Japan Professional Wrestler. Yvel is a Muy Thai fighter and Kick Boxer. He has 37 Knockouts in his career.

R1- Barnett got a take down and controlled the round and really poured on some Ground and Pound at the end of the round but Yvel held on and showed a tremendous ability to take punishment. Possibly a 10-8 round.

R2- Barnett dominated this round as he got an early take down and got some Ground and Pound but didn’t inflict the punishment that he did in the last round. Yvel got in some offense in the last 20 seconds. Barnett 20-17 so far.

Scott Farrell should not be on my television. He has a face for radio. Ditto for Chuck Zito.

R3- Barnett got another takedown and hit more Ground and Pound until Yvel tapped out to punches. Good showing from Barnett.

Winner: Josh Barnett by Submission (Strikes) R3 3:05

WAMMA Heavyweight Championship: Fedor Emelianenko © (28-1) vs. Andrei Arlovski (15-5)

R1- This was a weird fight. They fought evenly for about the first two and a half minutes. Arlovski started to push forward and take a brief lead and then Fedor hit a shot that looked like it barely hit and Arlovski dropped like a ton of bricks. I’ve watched this replay several times and it barely looks like it hit. I guess it hit in the right spot.

Winner: Fedor Emelianenko by KO R1 (3:14)

Overall, this was a solid show. I thought it was clearly above and beyond their first show. They did a good job improving the pacing of the show. Fedor and Belfort both had good knockout showings and Babalu and Barnett looked good. No above average fights on the show but no stinkers like Negao/Lindland from last show and no issues with the ring ropes. The announcing was adequate but left a lot to be desired when you compare it to the UFC. I think Tito Ortiz was the weak link in the booth as he didn’t come anywhere close to providing the type of analysis and insight that you get from guys like Joe Rogan, Frank Shamrock and Bas Rutten. They need to just stop with the backstage announcing as it just didn’t feel right- probably due to the guys they had doing it and the fact that they went backstage in between fights when they would be better served showing the corners (UFC had some great moments from Phil Baroni and Rich Franklin during corners at the last show). Good performance from Affliction and an upgrade from their first show.