HH was apparently injured, torn MCL before the fight, hence the lower stance and poor TD defense.

Me too.....
I was hoping he will beat other guy..
Well, may be he doesn't have ability to handle him or bad condition.. We never know what's going to happen the fight.
But still bad fight.. I'm Japanese and Big fun of PRIDE FC.
I believe PRIDE is a lot of higher than UFC..
Heath's fight was breaking my believe...(wait for Mirko Crocop...).

Obrien played a great wrestling game, but lacked a bit in the striking/submisison area, though he landed a few good punches. He fought like an early Koschek. And as for Herring, well he just completely dissapointed me. He's a brawler and nothing more.

After all the hype, I agree with Herring being a disappointment. However, I do beleive his MCL bit, after seeing his wacky stance for most of the fight. That aside, I was still not impressed. Whenever he was on the ground, he was not paying attention to his opponent, instead calling, hell COMPLAINING, for a stand-up. That level of frustration shows a great lack of mental preparedness, in my opinion. I will however concede that O'Brien is a bad match-up (being a LnP wrestler) for Herring (not being able to even try to stuff takedowns with a bad wheel makes for a boring fight).

Injury or not, if you're complaining because you're getting bested in one area of the fight, that's just looking for excuses to hide your inability to fight. A bad craftsman blames his tools. If you can't get in there and get the job done, at least be honorable enough to man up and admit you didn't do what you should have.

Herring was disappointing. The fight in general was rather lackluster. As for the Gracie-Shamrock fight, thats going down here in Memphis.

O'Brien (sp?) to his credit had a great shot. And that was about it. His timing on those double legs was incredible and he was quick as well (which of course is a component of timing).

Otherwise he had NOTHING. I was unimpressed with BOTH mens ground games. O'Brien did absolutely nothing once there, especially considering how many times he had Herrings back. What would a better grappler have done there?

Part of that can be attributed to Herring's defense, but honestly there wasn't much to have to defend against from O'Brien once on the ground.

One thing that stands out (and should) is how HORRIBLE Herrings grappling defense was. To be taken down AT WILL and to be able to do NOTHING about it speaks volumes IMO.

Could the difference in the cage from the ring have played any part in this? I believe there are some obvious differences between the UFC and Pride in terms of the cage and rings used that has to be accounted for, if only minimally.

How different the fighters appear in the different environments with the different rules structures, etc.

-John