Clash of badasses: Liddell vs. Silva. Holy salami-slicers, Batman, has MMA evolved since this fight! 😯 (notes in post)

UFC 79, on December 29, 2007.

Here we see two of the tippy-top in their division going at it, and while they're both identifiably professional MMA players, the number of fundamental mistakes I'm seeing is... almost bewildering. Flabbergasting. Forehead-smacking. You get the idea.

Now I'm only just a fan, so take this with a mountain of salt, but from what I could see:

• both of them sitting in the pocket, like... the entire fight
• consistent failure to move their heads off the centre-line as they traded
• broadcasting their strategy in the most obvious possible way
• a weird preference for single-shots vs combinations [Liddell]
• so many looping shots (generally inefficient by today's MMA standards) [Silva]

Anyway, that's enough from me. What you got..?