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One of the best fights I saw during the Summer was Faber vs Brown 2 for the WEC Featherweight title! For those of you not familiar with the WEC featherweights, Urijah Faber had it for a while. When I first started watching Faber a couple of years ago, he was the kind of fighter that always won by submission. It was kind of fun to watch his fights because often he would give up his back and then pull a reversal and win the match!
Urijah showed off his standing game (for the first time I saw) in the first Jens Pulver fight. Faber has a kind of karate distance - lunging punch that can bridge the distance easily but it packs a wallop! The main move I love is his elbows (which you will see a lot of in this fight).
In this post I will first show the video of the fight and then contrast it with the moves that I normally see from Faber. By the way the previous time Mike Brown took the WEC Featherweight belt decisively – Faber was taken down and he seemed to recover a bit too quickly (bounced right up) and he bridged the gap with a crazy elbow! Brown hit Faber with a right hand and easily followed up for the win! What I was most hoping to see in this fight was Faber not losing the match but each fighter duking it out to see who was the best fighter. Here is the full fight (if it slows down – pause it for a minute)
If this is the first time you are seeing Urijah Faber – you have witnessed how someone that broke his hand in the first round could go the distance! I’ve seen boxers go the distance with a broken hand but I do not typically see this in MMA. Especially if there is a lot of grappling because it takes a lot of strength and maneuverability to pull of the take-downs and escapes – hard to do that one limb down.
Gets speed bags or speed bag plaform.
Mike Brown is a great fighter and I really do respect his fighting ability. I was hoping to see an all out war where both fighters had all of their tools until one took the other out. This match was simply amazing to me because I saw all of Faber’s signature moves including the lighting fast elbows, the quick twists and turns, a great ground game with what he had to work with and yes, even the lunging back hand punch early in the first round.
Mike Brown is simply a world class fighter and there is just no way Urijah could have taken him out without his power punch standing. Likewise gain a submission with just one hand.
I guess by now you have noticed while I stated I like Mike Brown, I spent most of my time talking about Urijah Faber. The reason for me, even though Mike Brown is the champion, I’m still not so sure of the outcome if both fighters had all of their tools. Mike Brown decisively took out Faber in the first fight but the second fight was supposed to be about getting clarity. I’m not so sure we have that after Faber was able to survive rather well without the use of his right hand for four rounds.
This author will be awaiting in anticipation for a Faber vs Brown 3! I hope you have enjoyed this review of the WEC Featherweight title match shown exclusively on Versus TV!
September 15th, 2009 at 6:32 am
John- nice post. I saw the fight as well, and was impressed by the elbow action and Faber as well. It was surprisingly even, but with the handicap taken into account, I’d have to give Faber the edge.
One of the drills we use is to handicap a particular part of the body (you probably do it too), such as one arm, a knee, or even vision. It definitely makes you compensate and improve.
Loving the blog. Thanks- Nathan
.-= Nathan´s last blog ..Top Technique: Brachial Stun =-.
September 15th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Hi Nathan,
Yep handcapping yourself and then fighting is great practice. I’ve not done it in a while.
It is good to see you back man!
April 17th, 2010 at 9:12 pm
Classic!