Why are so many saying it was a bad decision?
Josh clearly inflicted more damamge by knocking Nog down twice and he had that very tight kneebar at the end of the match.
Nog did very well in positional dominance, but he didnt really do anything with it. His armbar was close, but Barnett was able to escape (and that armbar is more than nullified by Barnett's kneebar). Other than that, I didnt see much damage being done by Nog.
Opinions?
Who won the it all? Glad to see josh win.
1 knockdown that didn't have Nog dazed at all. Nog also landed many good punches standing. Nog got all the takedowns, and got mount twice (improving position on the ground in Pride counts toward aggression and effort to finish, by the way). He had way better GnP than Josh did.
I'm not going to call it a robbery, but I think Nog definitely deserved the decision and was very surprised it went the other way.
What we've certainly learned is that the best catch-wrestler in MMA can beat the best BJJ player...
In any case, it was a fantastic fight for sure.
I agree it was a very close fight--I just dont understand how anyone could say it was a robbery. Could have gone either way IMO, but that kneebar probably won it for Barnett.
needed 1 more round IMO.
TTT 4 JOSH!!!
He's my pick to win it all!
Wasn't robbery, but it was a bad decision in my opinion, and I think it was heavily influenced by Pride's wishes to get a bigger money fight out of Barnett/Crocop against Fedor, and avoid another chapter in the "Fedor is a better fighter in everyway than Mino" series of exihibitions.
"position doesn't count as much in Pride."
Guard doesn't. But passing guard to side control, back mount, or mount counts under Ground Control, Aggression, and Effort to Finish.
I think if these guys fight 10 times, Josh wins 5 and Nog wins 5. They are very evenly matched IMO, and last night was a toss up.
Could go either way, credit to Josh, their ground fight is pretty even, cant think of another person ever done that.
Barnett did not sweep Nogueira, he escapes the mount once. Not sure about the other one.
Nog coninually improved position, several sweeps, takedowns etc.
Barnett got a real close Kneebar, knockdown, close guilotine.
I was going to come on here and yell robbery but I was just disappointed Nog didnt win.
Objectively it could have gone either way, it was a split decision.
"this proves it! mino, former pride champ, was defeated by barnett, who was defeated by rizzo, was defeated by couture, who was defeated by barnett. so, barnett could defeat himself."
LOL!
And thank you people for once voicing that it may have been a bad decision but NOT A FUCKING ROBBERY! It was a close fight, right?
No robbery! Thanks you guys, cant wait to see it, sounds like a wicked fight.
A rematch sounds necessary.
"no dude, watch the Silva vs Mark Hunt fight. Silva did all you mentioned above: got side control, mounted, got the back"
I know, which is why it is ridiculous that the decision went that way.
I'm just pointing out Pride's officially stated scoring criteria. Unfortunately, they often ignore them.
They say time and time again that they judge the fight as a whole, use stopwatches to see how long each fighter is "winning", etc. But when it comes down to it, they more often than not give the fight to the guy who gets one knockdown (ignoring the other 15-19 minutes of the fight), or the guy who lands a flurry at the end (ditto), or the guy who gets more takedowns even if he doesn't pass guard (Henderson/Kondo).
Knockdowns aren't necessarily damage, anyway. These are big guys swinging. Hell, you can shove a guy to the ground. Unless the guy is really rocked,a knockdown isn't necessarily any big deal, and certainly shouldn't in and of itself decide the fight (Nog/Barnett, Henderson/Bustamante).
I felt that when Nog was on top, he was constantly working either with strikes, or to improve position. He pulled some very risky but slick sub-attempts.
When Josh was on top, I felt he barely did any damage and Nog did good at keeping Josh at bay. I actually throught Nog did more damage from the bottom with strikes.
They both had good sub attempts.
I think that through most of the fight, Nog simply outscored Barnett and most aspects. I will watch the fight again.
I thought Nog deserved the win. But it really was close, and certainly not a robbery.
Mino obviously won that fight. I still have him above Josh in the rankings.
It was close, but I think Mino really had the edge in most categories, more takedowns, better ground control/sweeps, more sub attempts. Striking was close, Barnett had a knockdown.
Rematch!