Mixed Martial B0nes

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UFC 85: Bedlam came and went this weekend. Then something disgusting happened: Work!!! I guess you have to do some work in order to pay for the pay per view or the Yahoo or the bar. Day jobs just kill your blogging hours. I know, WAH!. We see that poor refereeing will be the theme of the show. Did Matt deliver on his promise or will he get on that big train to Palooka-ville? We’re about to find out.

MATT HUGHES VS. THIAGO ALVES Matt Hughes, arguably a Hall Of Famer in the UFC if there is such a thing is NOT the real deal anymore. He’s too slow vs. the younger competition he faced in Thiago Alves. The first round of this fight saw some good ground work by Hughes go wasted because he didn’t do anything except lay there for a while. Maybe a few punches here and there but not enough to make a difference. Alves just overpowered Hughes with his legs. Indeed, the second and last round was ended with a kick/punch combination that put Matt *on* the mat! Maybe NOW he can be matched up with his slow “brother” Matt Serra so they can settle TUF6 once and for all!

MICHAEL BISPING VS. JASON DAY I was thinking that a 10 win streak by the hungry Jason Day would seal a victory over Bisping. I was really really wrong. They exchanged a few punches in the short stand up game of this match. Then Bisping took it to the ground and just wailed on Day. There was no more Day after that as the Night that is known as Michael Bisping rained darkness in a ground and pound fury.

FABRICIO WERDUM VS. BRANDON VERA The theme of this UFC event seems to be “controversy.” In this match, Werdum did some fine standup while Vera kept going for the takedown. When Wedum was done clobbering Vera he took him to the ground and started with the ground and pound. Vera just was not making progress in the match. At this point the ref took pity on Brandon Vera and stopped it. It was all Fabrico Werdum. Don’t believe Vera’s protests. He claimed he could have continued. I’m thinking he meant continue on to Sunny San Diego and reflect on a fight that he could have won.

THALES LEITES VS NATHAN MARQUARDT These two guys actually delivered a “war.” The first round could have easily been Nathan’s last as Leites really landed a great right that took Narquardt out of commission for a while. He actually was able to come back and beat the stuffing out of Leites. From then on, it appeared that Nate was not going to let this fight get away from him. The ref, however, was driving this match and he assigned a penalty to Nathan a couple of times. By the third, we see that Nate is really going to win this battle. Of course, the judges saw it differently. Lesson for the kiddies: Never leave it up to the Judges!

MARCUS DAVIS VS MIKE SWICK I predicted fight of the night for these two. I think I was right. They really got to banging away at each other in some stand up in the first round. As the fight went on there was an awful lot of ground game being displayed. It was surprising to see Swick do a lot of his damage on the ground. He was really dominating the whole fight with only a bit of trouble coming from Davis. The last round featured lots of good solid strikes by both of these guys. Swick got the upper hand, however and he managed to get a takedown on Davis and then just mercilessly punched Davis until the ref said “Stop! Hey, that color red gushing out your face may work in the den!” The Judges saw fit to award the fight to Swick.

This turned out to be a pretty good event. Maybe it didn’t have quite the star power that other events, like UFC79 and UFC84 but it featured some very good matches. Hopefully we see more of the same when UFC 86 rolls around!

Oops! I guess I am… I’ve looked at my stories for the last couple of months and it’s REALLY looking like I don’t spend any time on anything other than the UFC and it’s little bro the WEC. I guess it’s kind of understandable but there are other leagues and types of martial arts out there. It’s just that the UFC and the WEC keep pumping out event after event and it’s hard for a guy with a day job to keep up. Soooo, without further adieu, here are five other happenings in the world of MMA that are worth checking out:

1) The World Combat League. This is Chuck Norris’ baby. If you like standup action and can’t stand the site of two half naked guys hugging each other for 3 to 15 minutes, this is the place for you. He’s organized it into a team sport. There’s no pu$$yfooting around here. You go flat out for 3 minutes and don’t you dare back down. It’s some pretty exciting stuff in an oddly old school way.

2) The International Fight League. If you want the teams and the grappling together, then you have to go here to the IFL. They try to inject a little bit of the NFL nomenclature here so you’ll here a lot of “it’s different once you get to the playoffs” and “it is what it is.” It still *IS* MMA though. So if you need MMA with your NFL, this is the league for you.

3) Yaw Yan Ardigma Makati. Fighting from the Far East. Filipino MMA is pretty brutal stuff. We likey!

4) Elite XC. This league has been around for a while and fights could be seen on Showtime but there really hasn’t been any reason to pay up for these fights until now. Why now? 2 words: Kimbo Slice.

5) The Iron Ring on BET. BET???!!? Yes *that* BET. And again, there really isn’t any reason to waste your time watching this show except for two… no make it THREE big aaaaish words: KIMBO FREAKING SLICE!