When the decision of a unanimous 29-28 decision came for Diego "The Dream" Sanchez at last night's UFC on Versus 3 card in the main event against Martin Kampmann, it was a familiar chorus for Kampmann : Boos. The announced crowd of just over 8,000 cheered when Kampmann said deservedly so, that he won the fight.
Sitting in front of a TV many miles away in Toronto, I thought his disappointment was justified. After all, Kampmann controlled most of Sanchez's Takedowns and left Sanchez's face a bloody heap that resembled the cover of the Pig in the classic book "Lord of the Flies".
Nearly 24 hours later, after reading the numerous opinions on various message boards, from The Score to MMAJunkie, I watched the fight again with the sound off. Still my opinion isn't changed.
The exchanges I saw, Sanchez was throwing wildly. While he did land a couple of shots to stagger the Dane, the end of the second round saw Kampmann drop Sanchez with a right. Was that not taken into account? Secondly, Sanchez went a reported 1 for 15 in takedown attempts (the one being with 2 and a half minutes in the 3rd), that was taken into side control...only for Kampmann to slide out from underneath Sanchez and finished with a Muay Thai knee, and backpeddled away.
The managment was clearly satisfied with the judges outcome, with UFC President Dana White saying "Diego won that fight for sure!!!!! wow" via Twitter. Lorenzo Fertitta tweeted with "I love these guys. What a War! great night for ufc".
Fighters however, disagreed. From Ben Henderson to Kenny Florian to UFC legend Randy Couture, I was only able to find one fighter (Joe Lauzon) that scored the fight for Sanchez. Florian went so far as to say he agreed with Kampmann winning 30-27 (all 3 rounds).
MMA is above other things, a brawl. There is nothing tactical about being in a fight and throwing down to a decision victory. However, last night, Compustrike registered Kampmann outscoring Sanchez in the striking category by a significant margin (97 total to Sanchez's 45). Add to all this, Kampmann broke his hand during the fight and still finished going for the jugular.
People may argue that Jon Fitch got robbed, but I still believe that draw was justifiable. For Kampmann however, to be so close to the Welterweight title of the world and now to lose it so unfairly, and not to lose a fight that he should have clearly won. If you want to talk robbery, look no further than Martin Kampmann.
No comments:
Post a Comment