Mixed Martial B0nes

UFC79 was as action packed as we thought it was going to be. We saw some amazing fights and the results were surprising in some of the bouts but most of them finished like we thought they would. There were a large amount of fighters coming off long lay-offs. I don’t know if this is typical in the UFC as this is only the second main event I’ve seen live. You’d think they could scare up a few more seasoned fighters for such a big fight. Luckily, the action didn’t suffer much, the guys without the mat time did that.

• Rich Clementi and Melvin Guillard came to show us a war and it was one up until the last few seconds of the first round. There was some standup action as they traded punches at first but then Clementi took it to the ground where he rules. Guillard went bye bye by rear naked choke. No huggy kissy stuff at the end of this one. There will be a rematch to be sure.
• Lyoto Machida vs. Rameau Sokoudjou featured an extremely crafty veteran picking apart the “African Assassin” Soko. It wasn’t Soko dominating the standup but Lyoto. The finish to this fight came on the ground at the end of the 2nd round. Soko found himself in an arm triangle and that was all she wrote.
• Soa Palelei and Eddie Sanchez were the big boys of the night. “Big boys” meaning the 265 pounds that these two average. This fight lasted about two rounds too long. There was a lot of stand up game in this one but most of it was coming from Eddie on Soa’s face. Palelei has been out of the fight game for three years. Maybe next time they can find someone for Sanchez that will bring a game with them. The ref finally put us out of our misery late in the third round.
• Chuck Liddell vs. Wanderlei Silva was the fight we’ve been looking to see for years. Well, maybe not the first minutes. They both didn’t want to stink it up by doing something stupid quickly. The first round was a standup fest and it played right into Chuck’s game. That Silva didn’t try to shoot and bring it to the ground was mysterious. The second round was about as filled with stand up pounding as we’d seen all night. It ended with with both fighters bloodied up with Silva gushing more than Chuck. The last round saw Chuck shoot first of all things. But then he settled down to pounding hell out of Silva. He moved into him with a spinning backfist and unloaded. That was about it for Silva. Chuck just hung back as the round ended than took him down to the ground in the last few seconds. There wasn’t a knockout but it was still the best fight of the night.
• Matt Hughes vs. Georges St. Pierre was scheduled right after the Liddell/Silva match. I think they were trying to knock out the audience with this decision! GSP took Hughes to the ground and dominated Hughes like crazy never really giving up the top superior position. The second round saw GSP taking Hughes down again. He slammed Hughes a number of times and completely owned him on the ground. At the end of the second it was all over for Hughes and us TUF6 fans by a verbal (“Uncle! Uncle! Uncle!!”) tapout due to a vicious arm bar. So, it looks like GSP vs. Serra is a go. WAH! This really was a disappointing showing by Hughes. Will he decide to step down and become a writer? I hope not. I’m a rookie at this, no need to compete against a veteran like Matt just yet! Stay in there and bring it on next time.
• Nate Mohr vs. Manny Gamburyan took Nate down early in the first round of their match. They traded a few punches and elbows but Manny got him by an ankle lock that maybe broke Nate’s leg. This gives us TUF fans some love by giving Manny a much deserved win in the UFC octagon. I hope we see a Gamburyan vs. Diaz rematch that proves once and for all that Manny was robbed of his chance at glory in the UFC. Watch for the Anvil in the future. He’ll be leaving a bunch of destruction in his wake!