Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Liz Carmouche vs Lauren Murphy

Here's the fight video of Liz Carmouche vs Lauren Murphy from today's UFC show in Fairfax, VA. First, a warning. This is a terrible fight. Sometimes I think there should be a no decision given when neither fighter deserves a win. Though I thought Lauren got jobbed in her UFC debut, in this fight we see flaws in Lauren's game that weren't that noticeable in Invicta. We already knew she is a striker with no ground game. But she can't finish fights either. She's rolling the dice each time she steps into the cage hoping the judges see things her way in a close fight. That doesn't work. Liz lost her last two fights and probably isn't as good as some thought a couple of years ago. The first round is the key round because Lauren clearly won round two and Liz clearly won round three. Round one was just wretched. Neither of them did much of anything. Liz kept backing up. And instead of taking advantage of that passivity, Lauren lacked aggression too. There was way too much clinching on the fence mostly initiated by Lauren. I guess she didn't want to get taken down. So I scored the round 9-9 because neither deserved to win the round. Of course judges don't score rounds 9-9 and somehow they all scored it 10-9 for Liz. All three judges scored the fight 29-28 for Liz. Of course there's a big robbery outcry. Look, I scored it 29-29 so I don't think either of them won the fight. They both stunk the joint out and we were the ones who were robbed. Both coaches tried to tell their fighters what to do but neither of them listened. And if Manny Hernandez doesn't tell Liz she's losing after round two, she probably sleepwalks to a loss. Check out the fight video for yourself. You'll see what I am talking about.