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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It’s been a long weekend and a Charger loss in the AFC title game has thrown us SanDiegans for a loop. UFC80 Rapid Fire brought us some great fights. Maybe next time we’ll spring for the PPV in order to catch the new blood in the Octagon. Here’s how it finished:

Kendall Grove vs. Jorge Rivera This really didn’t take too long to figure out. I thought the TUF champion Grove was going to put the hurt on Rivera but Jorge beat Kendall to the punch in the first round. Next time don’t turn your back Kendall!

Jason Lambert vs. Wilson Gouveia This was a fight for the submission fans of MMA. Both Lambert and Gouveia traded submissions and chokes. Lambert was handing out a bit more punishment in this round but Wilson was keeping him in check. It looked like we were in for a long night at the start of the second round as they started their grappling work in the stand up game. Then Wilson decided “Forget that noise!” and decked Jason about thirty seconds into round two. Not all MMA fights end on the ground apparently.

Marcus Davis vs. Jess Liaudin This was a pretty short match. All of it was standup and it featured kicking and punching. When you can land clean and solid kicks and punches, there’s no need to shoot to the ground game. Davis KO’d Liaudin a minute into the first round without too much trouble.

Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Fabricio Werdum The momentum shifted in this fight from Gabe to Fab. The first round was all about Gonzaga putting Werdum to the ground by leg sweeps and shooting, then a little pound action. Near the end of the round, Werdum figured out what was up and started dishing out some submissions of his own. At the start of the second, Gonzaga stuck with his game plan of kicking while Werdum mixed it up with a bunch of punches and terrific knees to the face. Ouch. A few of those put Gabe into LaLa land and the ref stopped the beating late in round two.

BJ Penn vs. Joe Stevenson The title fight of the night and, arguably, the best. BJ really put the hurt on Joe early on. He rattled him with punches and then worked his ground game. Joe managed to strike back and punched out of a few clenches but then BJ elbowed his head and opened up a geyser of blood. In the second round, Stevenson knew he was going to have to come out aggressive to beat Penn. He swung wildly and landed a few good shots but BJ’s counters were much better. The match had to be stopped for a bit so the doctors could check out the bloody mess that was Joe’s head. They probably should have done Joe a favor and stopped it as it was all BJ after that. He landed a punch that put Joe down on the ground. Another punch made Joe turn his back to BJ and that’s just Sleepy-Time-Bye-Bye for most Penn opponents. Rear naked choke by BJ wins him the title and a shiny new belt. Tip for future BJ opponents: NEVER TURN YOUR BACK ON BJ!