Mixed Martial B0nes

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!

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UFC 85: Bedlam is upon us! I was ready to have a boring no MMA weekend. Maybe catch up on some old war movies or dust off a PS2 game. No such luck. Robo-Matt Hughes commands me to blog away about the next big UFC event. The “fur”ners get another crack at this. The event is being hosted Saturday, June 7th in London. So, we’ll be seeing it at a weird hour 10pm EST / 7pm PST. The fight card is almost as creepy as Robo Matt. What are we getting for our PPV pleasure?

MATT HUGHES VS. THIAGO ALVES Matt got handled pretty soundly by GSP the last time he was out there in the Octagon. He is looking to redeem himself and squash any talk of retirement. He says he’s still got some fight left in him. I hope he at least has enough to fight Matt Serra! We’ve been waiting for this fight since TUF6. Thiago has been mouthing off like a crazed lunatic about how he is going to beat the daylights out of Hughes. I know it’s par for the course with MMA to trash talk but this may be going a bit overboard. I predict a Hughes comeback win. I don’t think this fight will go the distance at all.

MICHAEL BISPING VS. JASON DAY Jason Day took this fight on short notice as Bisping was supposed to face Chris Leben. Leben turned out to be a piece of junk. He had to spend some time in jail for parole violations. So, England’s Bisping takes on a hungry Canadian in Jason. Even though I’d take Bisping against Leben, Day comes in with an impressive 10 win streak. It looks like Day will not make Bisping’s day on Saturday.

FABRICIO WERDUM VS. BRANDON VERA Fabricio has a recent win in UFC80. He is a tough opponent and will be quite the handful for Brandon Vera. With one more win, Werdum will force the UFC to look at him for an eventual title fight. Vera is in his way. He has some pretty solid jiujitsu skill himself and will look to cement his own title shot in this one. Even though Fabricio has more experience, I’m going to have to side with my fellow San Diegan, Vera. KO in the 2nd. Go PADs!

THALES LEITES VS NATHAN MARQUARDT This is a match between two pretty solid fighters. They both are on unbeaten streaks, but Marquardt has the pedigree. Thales has some serious ground game skill while Nathan is the standup guy. I have a soft spot for the standup game so Nathan FTW as they say on the Interwebs!

MARCUS DAVIS VS MIKE SWICK Marcus the “Irish Hand Grenade” Davis is looking at a pretty short fight. Probably less than a round the way Swick works. Basically, Swick is QUICK! They are both standup specialists but I’d have to give the fight to Davis since he’s actually a converted boxer. This may turn out to be the fight of the night the way these guys bang.

So that’s it. Get your shrimp on the barbie. Fill up on bangers and mash. Slurp down a few pints and get some MMA “fightage” on. Saturday should prove pretty interesing even without Chuck Liddell fighting. If you believe *that*, I’ve got a fag(<—That’s a cigarette you loser!) you can suck on!

It is finally over. UFC 84: Ill Will came and went like a shock to the system. Now it is over and done with. Well… for some of these guys, it is definitely over for the rest of the year. A few may be even considering a new career as StarBucks baristas. It’s definitely safer than letting your face get beat to a pulp. They can at least watch the matches on their iPhones on Yahoo. So, how did it go? Pretty surprising in many ways!

Thiago Silva Vs. Antonio Mendes This one didn’t take too long. It was all Mendes for a while there and it looked as though the UFC newbie was going to get his first win. Of course, Thiago had something to say about that with his fists. He got ground control on Mendes and rained down punches. Ground and pound stopped this fight in the first.

Tito Ortiz Vs. Lyoto Machida Ortiz made a name for himself before this event and was trash talking any and everyone. He made sure to burn every bridge he had in the UFC. I guess he figured a win was guaranteed in this match. The first two rounds of this one went to Machida. Tito did not have any answers for Lyoto. It wasn’t until the third that Ortiz figured out what he had to do. He landed a bunch of punches and a few knees. But Machida was able to take Tito down and work some ground game on him. Tito almost gets Machida in a triangle but couldn’t lock it in. So, what happens to Tito now? Who knows.

Wilson Gouveia Vs. Goran Reljic I said that “Stranger things have happened!” in my last post. Well, this is one of them. Reljic was supposed to go down in a blaze of newbie glory. The first round was a kicking mans dream come true in the Octagon. I really thought that I’d go this whole year without seeing some solid kicking but both Gouveia and Reljic were kicking like wild. In the second round, Gouveia had enough of Goran and was putting him down with some solid punches and kicks. Somehow Reljic took the upper hand and put the hurt on Wilson. The ref gave Wilson the night off and Goran the win.

Wanderlei Silva Vs. Keith Jardine The “Axe Murderer” and “The Dean of Mean” had barely enough time to say hello before it was all over. Jardine stepped in and threw a big right but then Silva countered and then kept pounding until the ref realized the fight was over 30 seconds and change into the match! Jardine wasn’t moving at all and it looked almost like the “Axe Murderer” really axed Keith. Luckily, Jardine eventually woke up. Wanderlei, the PRIDE Champion is back in business for another fight at least. Jardine is dusting off that barista resume.

BJ Penn Vs. Sean Sherk Here was the strange fight. I guess the game plan for Sherk was to keep it standup and try not to fall into one of BJ’s many pins and submissions. Unfortunately for him, he and his fight staff didn’t count on absolutely solid and deadly standup skills on Penn’s part. BJ totally dominated the fight. They traded blow after blow and when Sherk decided that the standup wasn’t working, he’d try to get a takedown on BJ. Sorry dude, no dice on that one! It went like this for three rounds. In the last round Sherk was really looking bloodied up. He was still able to fight but really couldn’t land anything that counted. BJ just took him apart. It was so bad that at the end of the round, the ref had to call it TKO because Sherk was on a different planet! BJ wins by TKO??!? I predicted rear naked choke. That’s like a move invented specifically for Penn. A TKO though… That’s something else entirely. Penn’s next opponent had better game plan everything because that’s what it is going to take to defeat BJ! Add the kitchen sink for good measure.

This first of three troubles really was quite a satisfying event. It’s too bad everyone can’t be televised because there were some good matches in the undercard as well. This will prepare us for what’s to come in the near future. I can’t wait!