Well, several people, including Dana and the referee say they didn't hear the bell. How true that is though, I don't know. But yeah, he should have been deducted 1 point for that, no matter if it was on purpose or not, as it is the fighters obligation to listen to the bell (I assume?).

But he got poked several times (one which made his eye start to bleed and that troubled him a bit during the fight).

Mendes heard the bell as he put his hands down... and then he consequently heard another bell... the one in his head after Aldo clocked him.

Ref wasn't doing his job though as he was out of position with under 10 sec left.

His hands were up when Aldo threw the 2 last punches. Mendes was knocked down prior to that and had taken a lot of damage and was basically just surviving the last 30 seconds. Should be deducted a point still though.

Fortunately it wouldn't have made a difference if the point was given so no major travesty.

Looking back I think it was my favorite UFC title fight I'll be surprised if it doesn't get FOTY.

Think its a bit harsh on Aldo to claim he's a dirty fighter because of those punches. If your training everyday to throw striking combinations it becomes automatic without any thought the second/third punches follow the first. It wouldn't surprise me if he didn't hear the bell he's concentrating solely on fighting and everything else becomes like a blur.
The referee is the one at fault for not getting there quick enough.

It's your job to obey the rules

I don't think it's a DQ but if Mendes couldnt continue it should have been a NC and as it stands should have been a 1 point deduction

I think Aldo's dirty. He faked fouls, throws after the bell and 'got injured' to avoid an incoming drug test and subsequently got a Brazil fight. Hopefully Conor or Frankie dethrones him soon.

I think Aldo's punches at the end of the 1st were fine.

I am just playing it back and if you split the horn sound into two halves, he threw the powerful last right just at the start of the second half of the horn sound.

He did not throw any punches "after the horn", in fact as chad is falling backwards, the tone of the horn is dissipating slowly downwards.

What is actually impressive is that the horn sounded just as Aldo was pulling his fist back from that first right, which is a faction of a second before the above gif, he then swiftly pushes forward a left during the first half of the tone sound, and then smashes Chad with a powerful right during the second half of the horn.

He was basically absolutely on the line with his punches, he could not have thrown them any later even by as much as say 0.050ms,

You have to defend yourself at all times and Chad was not able to do that because of the huge right uppercut that started it off.

If Aldo had thrown the right after the horn sound then he should have had one point deducted.

The above gif displays fighting activity "during", the horn starting in the first 12th of the horn say, not after,

What you can say however is when Aldo threw that first right (not in gif) and was starting to pull his fist back and the horn sounded because that is when it started and led on to the left and big right.
IF he heard the horn at that point... then the fighting in the above gif is un-sportsman like, but it was DURING the horn, if you dunk a 3 pointer whilst the buzzer is going it counts.


Also, very importantly, as much as Aldo was not affected by the horn sound, nor was Chad, its not like Chad dropped his arms, looked into the refs eyes and started heading back ... he was as in the thick of it as Aldo was,

that said there does appear to be a stopping action in Chad as if he did hear the horn and was stopping. He was on the downward at this point how ever but it does look like he heard the bell and stopped or he was actually hugely concuss and getting the second half of the combo, he was not vivid that's for sure, he was out on his feet.

I'm pretty sure every fighter has broken the rules a few times in the heat of the moment, stuff like knee's to the head while hands are on the ground, or punching someone in the back of the head. The ref should have done a better job, but still Aldo holds part of the responsibility and should have been deducted a point. But I don't think it's enough to throw him into the dirty fighter category based on that action alone. I mean, u'd have to call Kennedy a cheater, Anderson Silva a dirty fighter (remember that shorts hold he did on Sonnen), Travis Browne a cheatr (remember his elbows to the back of the head of Gonzaga,


) etc, never seen you call Browne a filthy cheater.

Also, what fouls did he fake? From what I remember on the replays, he did get poked, and Mendes foot landed on Aldo's groin after his attempted knee. And saying he "got injured", well that's just hearsay coming from Mendes camp and unless we have evidence, I think it's the wrong route of accusing him.

Swoop has always been an Aldo hater lol let him hold onto his biases and move on.

I disagree with this. Its a fighters job to fight entertain the fans and make as much money as possible doing so. Its the referee's job to make sure fighters fight within the confines of the rules. I'm not saying fighters should look to cheat but its the referee's job to make sure you don't get an unfair advantage by cheating or penalizing you if you do.

It's the fighters job to follow the rules, and it's the referees job to enforce the rules. Aldo didn't follow the rules, and the referee didn't enforce them. Simple as that.

those elbows to the back of the head should have meant a life time ban?
You can die from **** like that,

LOL, how can you possibly disagree with that sentence.

Lol looks like we have some Aldo fanboys in these parts. Over his career he's done a lot more to be a dirty fighter then just throw a couple late punches. Not taking anything away from his talent as he has tons of it.

lol it was literally right on the bell, its not dirty AT ALL by aldo, ****ing ALWAYS keep your hands up, its not the ref nor the bells ****ing job to save your ******ed ass for not defending yourself.

Just for the record. Seems like nobody in the stadium could actually hear when the round ended. Dana said the same thing. He didn't know there was controversy until his phone started blowing up.

Because I have fought in both kickboxing and mma and know that when your fighting instinct takes over you can easily do something outside the confines of the rules without thinking about it. Obviously there are different level Mike Tysons ear chewing is one extreme however fence grabs, grabbing shorts, punches a second after the bell are a little different. Its a fight someone is trying to hurt you your adrenaline is pumping through your body, your in a state of fight or flight and fighting exactly within the ruleset is not your priority.

Imagine Palhares is clinging on to your leg about to tear off your achilles tendon or rip your knee ligaments apart within the ruleset your screwed you know he's going to get it. You can tap hope he doesn't injure you and put you out of your job for 12 to 18 months possibly end your career or perhaps you can kick him in the face lose via a DQ but have the opportunity to fight 3 more times that year and make 100k extra then if you let him rip your leg off. What is your job? to provide for yourself and your family or to make sure you fight within the correct rulese?

I just think people are too quick to jump on fighters when they stray outside the ruleset and think the emphasis should be on the referee's especially in cases such as this where its not clear cut. Everyone's opinion is different but I don't think its a radical statement to disagree that its a fighters job to follow the exact ruleset its the same in every sport, sure they should and if they obviously disregard them to an extreme they will lose there jobs (Daley, Palhares.)

There are thousands of instances where athletes cheat and it benefits them, there team, there nation. In fact some coaches will tell there players/fighters to cheat because ethically correct or not in sport you make the most money winning not by just part and adhering to the rules.

All that is fine and dandy, but fighters are still expected to follow rules. I mean, don't they sign a paper saying they won't fight after the bell rings and stuff like that? You know, I will follow the rules of combat, and in that includes not fighting after bell, after referee intervenes etc. So, just saying it's not their job to follow the rules it' wrong.

Ok well first of all it wasn't right at the bell as it had stopped ringing before he landed the first of the last 2 punches. As far as not being able to hear it yea maybe if your stone cold deaf. Damn thing was like voice of God loud. I don't think aldo is the only one to blame though. The ref should have been in better position.

yes and habitual cheaters should be tossed out by their ears.

Thing it's actually easier to hear the bell on TV (they're able to remove lot of noise due to sound technology) than it is to hear it cage side when the fans chant like the brazilians did. This is evident from both the referee not hearing the 10 s timer bell, as he stood so far away, to many people who were cageside saying they didn't hear the final bell.

I don't think Aldo is a particularly dirty fighter, he's not saint though, but I wouldn't throw him in the same category as some other fighters.

Watched a nice program discussing rule breaking on the Fight Network.

What it comes down to is fighters are actively starting to gauge exactly what they can get away with and are incorporating that into their strategy to win.

If a fighter knows he can get away with 2 fence grabs, 1 low blow, 2 eye pokes, 2 shots to the back of the head and 1 late punch without losing a point then if he doesn't utilize them he's not trying his hardest to win.

Nearly every fight has multiple fouls and refs are consistently not taking points. If refs started deducting points the amount of infractions would greatly go down.

Once the NHL started dishing out suspensions for all head shots (body checking with the shoulder to the head) the amount of times these things occurred has reduced drastically.

I'm not saying people don't make honest mistakes, and I'm not looking for Aldos head because of the late punches. But if you play a sport for a living, it is your job to play that sport by the rules. It's as simple as that. Yes people break those rules from time to time on purpose and by accident, but it is still there job to follow them.

They should auto deduct a point for second fence grab, eye poke, nut shot whether intensional or not.

Lots of groin shots happen due to sloppy inside leg kicks and eye pokes due to hands being open when striking. This would significantly reduce if they knew a point was taken on the second offense.

Back of head shots finishing a fight would be an auto NC. It would happen far less if fighters knew their win bonus was on the line.

I would also have a point deducted if it's ever shown on the replay that a fighter is faking the foul (as Kos used to).

Anyone with significant thoughts on Diaz vs Silva?

Originally I was thinking it would be an easy win for Silva but I had a long discussion about it with a friend this weekend and now I'm wondering if Diaz has value at +300 and above.

Silvas strengths (at peak)
Silva had his confidence in the past due to his iron chin, he'd leave it out and walk through shots.
Silva is a reaction fighter using his speed advantage to out fox his opponents
Silva uses leg kicks to slow his opponents down
Silva has high level BJJ and is dangerous from his back
Silva has huge KO power

Now I believe Silvas chin is shot, the first fight KO wasn't a huge punch (although awkward) and the flash KO in the second fight was an arm punch without much on it. Diaz can generate similar power to either of those with his style.

Silva hasn't looked sharp since the Bonner fight in 2012 (which was also at 205 likely the better weight for him to show a speed advantage). Since then he hasn't won a round and has been finished twice. Obviously we also had the nightmare leg injury

Due to the leg injury I can't see him being able to throw leg kicks like he used to (from an anxiety perspective). I also feel even the threat of a leg lock on the ground will cause him to panic (wiedman was close in the first fight). I'm not sure I can see an 40 year old coming back from an injury like that in this sport and it not having a huge impact on his speed and confidence.

My only real concern is how Diaz looks now and whether he'll have ring rust.

Any thoughts appreciated.

(Best current price on Diaz +345)