VIOLENCE - We Are SEVEN-For-SEVEN In Finishes At UFC Paris
***AUTHOR'S NOTE: ORIGINALLY WRITTEN WHEN WE WERE ONLY SIX-FOR-SIX, UPDATED COUNT AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG***
You gotta love an afternoon UFC card - ESPECIALLY one in front of a live crowd full of rabid French fans cheering on the violence. It just makes every fight feel more intense, and I swear it makes every fighter go harder for the finish. They feed off the energy in the building and turn good cards into great cards, and that's exactly what is happening in Paris right now.
We're just six fights into the prelims, and we've seen six straight finishes. It started with Sam Hughes dominating/outclassing Shauna Bannon for an easy submission, then the three TKOs I've embedded above (Rinat def. Andreas Gustafsson, Bryczek def. Brad Tavares, and Sam Patterson def. Trey Waters) - and then a devastating leg kick TKO over Harry "Houdini" Hardwick from Kaue Fernandes....
Pretty much any time you see a UFC fighter writhing in pain like that, it's even more excruciating that you're imagining. And Herb looked like he wanted Hardwick to keep going! I don't know what that was all about, the delay in stoppage was absurd. His leg basically turned into one big welt and gave out on him, to the point he had to be wheeled out of the octagon….
TOUGH way to make your UFC debut.
I get it though; I'll never forget the hurting that one (1) leg kick from Meatball Molly put on me….
Author's Note: I was just about to hit the "Publish" button on this blog, highlighting the fact that we were five-for-five on finishes already - and Ante Delija made us six-for-six in no time….
This card fucking rocks, and it's still just getting started - so flip over to ESPN+ if you've got a spare television handy. Or just throw it on a laptop!
UPDATE: We're now a perfect SEVEN-FOR-SEVEN finishes on the prelims (thanks to Oumar Sy defeating Brendson Ribeiro), with five of those coming in the first round. We only even saw the third round once! What a god damn card so far!
And the French crowd couldn't be better - they were probably as loud as any UFC audience all year during the friggin prelims. I can't even imagine how electric it's gonna be in there during the main/co-main event.