Sunday, August 17, 2014

Big Bad Blog Video Theater-Sara McMann vs Lauren Murphy

Here is the fight video of Sara McMann vs Lauren Murphy from last night's UFC show in Bangor, ME. Last time we saw Sara, she folded like a cheap suitcase after UFC Women's Bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey nailed her with a knee to the liver. Sara thinks it was a fluke and wants back in the title picture. Sara is wrong about a lot of things. She needs a dominant win over former Invicta Bantamweight Champ Lauren Murphy. Sara is bigger, stronger and has Olympic caliber wrestling. At the start of round one, Sara scores a takedown but doesn't advance her position. Instead Lauren is landing elbows from the bottom. Obviously this was the strategy given to Lauren by her coach John Crouch at PLab in Phoenix. Keep it standing if she can. But if Sara scores a takedown, be active from the bottom. It's risky strategy because judges may not see it Lauren's way. Generally speaking, top position is king. When Lauren wasn't scoring with elbows, she was keeping Sara close so Sara couldn't do anything. I think Lauren should have tried to escape anyway because of the risk of remaining on the bottom. Sara did not advance her position so I scored round one 10-9 for Lauren. I don't believe a takedown itself is enough but remember some judges will see it differently. Round two was very similar except that Lauren wasn't active from bottom position and it became lay and pray and the ref stood them up. I scored round two 10-9 for Sara because of her two takedowns. Round three was very similar to round one. Lauren's ground strikes gave her the edge 10-9. So I scored the fight 29-28 for Lauren. But I was not surprised that the judges scored it as a split decision for Sara. Was it a robbery? It doesn't matter because a win like that is as bad as a loss for Sara McMann. She needed to dominate and she was ineffective after her takedowns. Sara said afterwards that Lauren's strikes from bottom position were not significant. But Sara's inability to advance her position after the takedowns made Lauren's strikes more significant than they should have been. If she thinks a squeaker like that is going to advance her to title contender status, she is out to lunch. Enjoy the video!


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2 comments:

  1. Cynthia10:05 AM

    Ha! I actually expected Sara to try the safe way for the fight. She doesn't have the exact mind of a win-all fighter like Ronda. I was slightly surprised by the plan of Lauren and thought she would fight hard for the stand up. You are right that she needed to make escape from the takedown; she failed to do that and lost the score. Sara still fights like an athlete, not a MMA fighter. Ronda does way better than her and I can't imagine how big the gap is if Ronda continues to improve.

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  2. frankp31610:44 AM

    I think John Crouch's strategy for Lauren was if she makes Sara pay for takedowns by aggressive striking from bottom position, Sara will stop trying to take her down. It didn't work and the result was Lauren was tentative standing because she was concerned about takedowns.

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