Does this mean you enjoyed when PositiveBalance went absolutely crazy? Lol
Sadly, I have no memory of that. I was around, he was around, I posted a lot about GSP, he posted a lot about BJ, but I don't actually remember any interactions and I don't remember the meltdown beyond remembering that it happened. I wish I could go back over old threads to refresh my memory, but alas, time and server migrations have left me with nothing on this front.
All of that said: Yes, I savored the tears of BJ fans after listening to idiots talk about how BJ was robbed of the decision in the first fight (he wasn't, and Matt Lindland whining changes nothing) and then how he was going to "expose" GSP in their second fight (all that "To the death" shit drove me nuts). When GSP got up and punched the fence because he was so charged up, that's about as hyped as I've ever been while watching a fight. And then BJ "To the Death" Penn quit after mounting literally zero offense and getting utterly destroyed.
That was a great night.
lmao fair point. I did like both, but you gotta pull for the underdogs, especially the way gsp was laying on people.
He wasn't laying on people then, he was still in his "Rush" phase. Fitch was tough as nails, so GSP had to beat on him for five rounds, but GSP was in Terminator mode after shaking off the surprise loss to Serra with that rebound win over Koscheck. He then made Hughes his bitch, destroyed Serra, berserkered Fitch, and pulverized BJ. It was after that, after regaining his belt and reestablishing his dominance, that he sort of took his foot off the gas and just concentrated on staying atop the hill.
Except for Joe'z commentary which waz extremely Nick friendly.
I didn't really have time, but I just watched it again... lol... WAY too many timez both would land significantly & Joe would call out Nick's shot every time. "Great strike by Nick!" lol... what about GSP's strike at teh same time? (that happened a lot)
Oh, the BJ rematch was even worse. I've posted this a lot on here over the years, but it's the single best example of (a) what biased commentary looks and sounds like and of (b) what it looks and sounds like when Joe is obviously rooting for a particular fighter. At one point, GSP is in side mount and BJ uses the "jailbreak," a technique where the person on the bottom uses their foot to create a hook and spin themself from out of side mount back into butterfly guard, and gets back to guard. At the same moment as BJ is trying to reposition on the bottom, GSP smashes him in the face from on top and the crowd pops. Joe actually comments on how the crowd just cheered someone getting back to guard.
No, Joe, they're cheering GSP bouncing BJ's little Cabbage Patch Kid head off the canvas
Also, I wasn't watching with scoring in mind.... but in R3... Nick seemed to be landing just as much as GSP... but Nick actually wobbled GSP... which is of the very highest of scoring criteria... & as close as that round waz, I gotta give R3 to Nick.
Nick caught GSP with like a minute left when GSP looked up at the clock. GSP let his guard down, Nick caught him, and then he followed up with a couple of shots one of which cut GSP's nose and one of which popped his mouthguard out. He had like 15 seconds of sunlight and then GSP took him down and that was that. Hardly Condit catching him with that head kick or Hendricks busting him up with power shots. And at no point was GSP wobbled. He swung wild on a hook and was out of position. Meanwhile, for the other four and a half minutes of that round, GSP was jabbing Nick like crazy, hitting him with inside and outside low kicks, front kicks to the body, and firing off head kicks.
I guess I’m not sure how else to say it then, if you think “bit” is excessive.
You could say that the only success Nick had was a 15-second window with a few punches after catching GSP looking up at the clock and stopping a handful of TDs. Anything beyond that is embellishing Nick's "achievements" in that fight.
GSP had been 100% on TDs up to that point.
No, he hadn't. BJ stopped several of his TDs between their two fights and IIRC Fitch stuffed a couple. And like I said, Nick already showed excellent TDD in his fight against Sherk. It's been a lot of years and I don't want to speak for anyone else back then, but I certainly wasn't surprised that he stopped a handful of GSP's TDs. And I knew, as GSP and most everyone else knew, that there was no way he'd be able to stop enough to not get thoroughly outwrestled.
Nick stopped 3 of his TD attempts, and landed some good shots that had GSP looking up at the clock and shooting a TD to get Nick down because that stand-up exchange was starting to go Nick’s way. Between rounds, Firas’s advice to GSP was “grab his kegs as much as you can.” Fires didn’t want GSP standing with Nick for a significant length of time.
Why GSP didn't ALWAYS and ONLY just shoot on people, I have no idea, considering how incredible his wrestling was. A coach telling their fighter to do what they do best is hardly damning evidence of anything except his not being an idiot.
I sense a bit of disdain for Nick though that is maybe causing you to take issue with how I characterized it.
