Korean Zombie vs. Leonard Garcia
UFC has generously put a quality on SpikeTV for free. Really great ESPN commercial with St. Pierre in an octagon instead of a cubical at ESPN headquarters. Hope they start showing this one regularly.
First fight is the Korean Zombie versus Leonard Garcia. Expect zero head movement and lots of punching. As always, if it goes to the judges, Leonard Garcia will automatically win. Leonard has been saying that he is going to fight more strategically.
Round 1- Both fighters look uncharacteristically tentative. Leonard has landed some big hooks already. Leonard gets reckless and ends up falling down. Korean has the North-South and is looking for an arm bar. He lost it.
Still North-South, but Leonard is able to stand up. Zombie landing knees, second of which with Leonard’s hand is on the mat. That’s a bullshit rule and I’m glad big Dan didn’t call him for it. Zombie takes Leonard’s back, but isn’t able to do anything with it as the round ends.
Round 2- So far this is not the all-out slugfest that we expected. Leonard throws a nice flying knee, while the Zombie lands a bodyshot to counter. Leonard is grinning like an idiot now. Leonard does not have the sense of urgency that he should have considering that he has lost the first round.
Leonard takes a knee to the face. The Korean lands a leg kick and then a jab. Another flying knee. Korean lands a kick to the face and is in top control. Zombie posturing up and landing big elbows. Has Leonard’s back, but again, there is not much time left.
Zombie with a twister. Leonard tapped with maybe two seconds left. He really should have tried to tough it out. Zombie wins by submission. He should win submission of the night. I can’t remember the last time I’ve seen a guy finish a fight with that move.
We just saw a fighter who is known for brawling try to be tactical by keeping his distance and picking his spots. The thing about Leonard is that although he throws bombs, he has never been a precise puncher. He usually wins by moving forward and swinging wildly.
While it is great that he is trying to develop as a fighter, we are not sure that this sort of style is well-suited to Garcia given the lack of precision in his punching. He doesn’t land a large percentage of his punches, so when he’s not throwing nonstop for the whole fight, he doesn’t do much damage.