http://www.sherdog.com/news/articles.asp?n_id=6675

I'm impressed that Lutter was able to hang with Silva as long as he did. He got several takedowns with relative ease and even had Silva mounted at one point. Strangely, though, he didn't rain down his punches with any force and Silva eventually escaped. Aften an unsuccessful triangle attempt, Silva just opted to pound Lutter, who was still in the position of a triangle choke, with elbows to the head, eventually forcing Lutter to tap.

The fight itself was pretty decent, but as some have pointed out, Lutter looked disheartened and weak. Too bad about the whole non-title fight thing.

Rampage wasn't overly impressive, but it's understandable, given that it's his first time in the UFC and he was fighting a guy who had beaten him before.

CroCop. Devastating and imposing, as always. Sanchez didn't have a prayer. He was constantly backing away, but it's hard to blame him. Probably should have given CroCop a little better opponent to make it a more interesting fight to watch.

And how about Edgar, disposing of the promising Tyson Griffin? Very impressive, but he will be heartily stomped by Sherk.

I didn't see Lutter/Silva, but Lutter hanging on longer then Leben and Franklin is pretty impressive, although to read his comments about not making weight as being "he couldn't find the motivation" was a really piss poor excuse. I'm surprised he even said it. Come up with something better then that so you at least come across like a professional who deserves a shot at the champion.

The only fight I looked for online after it was all said and done with was Crocop/Sanchez. I couldn't find Rampage/Eastman. It was strange seeing Crocop in the UFC. That is one thing about watching Pride fights...there are SO many people in attendence, that it just makes the fight seem that much bigger and more important.
All Sanchez did was run backwards the entire time. It bothered me a bit that they took someone who's obviously not on the same level as Crocop and just threw him in. I was hoping for more I guess.
How about Crocop walking out to the Pride theme? Dana said he approved it, which I believe he did, but in an interview Crocop said he had it played for personal reasons that he didn't want to discuss.

Interesting. That makes me think he's kind of regretting his decision to go to the UFC.

I agree- he does look strange in that Octagon.

What's also strange is I think I'm starting to not like the whole Octagon format. I'm not even sure why. It just seems like a ring is more "professional", I guess. Plus, I hate it when they have to get camera shots through the fence. That's irritating.

You should be there live, it's annoying as well. I actually think a front row upper deck seat would be the best seat in the house, vs close up. When Mirko came out, that place went nuts. I was shocked at the numbeer of croations that showed up, it was insane. On top of that, the crowd was SUPER excited to see him fight. It just looked like he played with him. He could have finishe that SO much sooner.

After watching fights in both the ring and the cage, I too prefer the ring.
There are a lot of rules that Pride has which I would like to see utilized in the UFC. Yellow cards and knees to downed opponents would be a couple. I'd like to see elbows gone from the UFC as well.
I don't see the UFC ever switching to a ring, unless the state atheletic commission required it. The UFC is too stubborn to change.

My wife looked into getting me tickets to a live event, but I told her I wouldn't want to go. I'd miss most of the action and it seems most of the time would be spent watching the replay screens anyway, which I can do from the comfort of my own home.

Yeah, I bet the fence is even more annoying in person.

Knees on the ground would be awesome in the UFC. Too bad the athletic commissions will probably never allow it.

Removing elbows would be interesting because it would greatly change the ground game. I think we'd see more submissions with no elbows in place.

No elbows on the ground would not mean more subs but more lay n pray. Might result in mroe stand-ups and a chance for a KO though.

I agree with Mike that a upper tier seat is the way to go. There's a bit less obstruction due to the overhead view. Also the UFC lights not only the cage but the first several rows of the audience. From ground level the fighters get lost in the background though it's not as bad as it has been previously. With the ring it seems to be easier to view the contestants and again the higher vantage point provides a better view.

The ring vs cage will be debated until a better structure or environment comes along. The ring lets opponents escape to the ropes and they even use it to deflect strikes when on the ground. This also leads to a number of restarts which can slow the action. It also allows one to throw strikes to the head with more abandon as you don't have to worry about hitting a fence in the process. It also appears to be easier to cut corners and trap your opponent forcing them to engage. Both of these were evident in the Crocop fight. The cage though allows fighters greater ease to get to their feet. It also keeps a downed opponent from trying to escape and thus forces a bit more action. The cage also protects the fighters from falling outside its confines which gives a wrestler an advantage as they don't have to worry about tumbling outside a ring. Which is better, hard to say but they certainly change the way one fights.

BTW, if you have the balls, wait till the last second to buy tickets off ebay. I did this for this fight and bought 10 tickets, all 750.00 tickets, for 2k total. I resold most of them that day at mandalay. I simply went to roulette tables and looked for the dude who'd hit a big win while betting 25 chips on numbers. I swapped out chips for tickets. In the end I made 2 grand, which paid for my entire weekends worth of expenses.

The only reason this all worked was I bought the tickets friday afternoon and had them overnighted saturday to the hotel. It's risky, but you can save yourself a ton of money.

Really risky. Among other things, the tickets you buy off of E-bay could be counterfeit.