Once again this year, I had the opportunity to visit Montreal.  This is the third time in the last three years that I have been to Montreal, and once again the city did not disappoint.  Montreal is a fabulous city, and one that I would have no problems living in.  The culture is diverse, and the majority of its inhabitants are bilingual.  This – to me – is important because my French is very rusty.  This is not to say that I would not grasp the language fairly quickly if I was living there…but you know, feeling lost due to a language barrier bothers me.

This time, I took my camera and I took a ton of photos.  The last couple of years, I did not take a camera and after the trip ended, I was kicking myself for not doing so.  Hindsight always being 20/20, of course.  This year, I made up for it in droves by taking over 1,000 pictures.

In any event, we (me and a couple of guys from work) booked a trip up to Montreal to witness UFC 113 live in person.  I was previously in Montreal for UFC 97 and UFC 83.  Each of these events are awesome to attend live in person and I urge anyone with an interest in Mixed Martial Arts to make an effort to attend at least one live event in person.  The atmosphere is electric and the UFC puts on a great show.

The main event was a rematch between Lyoto “The Dragon” Machida and Mauricio “Shogun” Rua for the UFC Light Heavyweight Title.  In their first encounter at UFC 104, the champion Machida retained his title in a very controversial decision.  Many people thought that Rua had defeated Machida – ergo the immediate rematch.  The second fight did not disappoint, as Shogun became the new UFC Light Heavyweight Champion with a devasting first round knockout.

Many people believed that beating Machida was impossible.  His style – Karate – is unique to Mixed Martial Arts and up until his first fight with Shogun, he was considered virtually impossible to hit.  If you can’t hit your opponent, you certainly have no way of winning the fight.  In the first fight, Shogun solved the Machida puzzle by using low leg kicks and aggressively punching.  This threw Machida off of his game and forced him into counterpunching randomly.

The strategy was similar for the second fight.  However, this time it did not take Shogun that long to solve Machida.  He used the same strategy to pummel Machida and knocked him out at 3:35 of round one.  He caught Machida with a hard right that knocked him down and then followed with a shot to the eye to finish the fight.  It was a quick fight with a brutal knockout, which made many fans happy.  It was a decent fight in my eye, and while some people wanted to see a longer fight, I was just happy that it ended decisively. 

Personally, I have never been a big fan of the judges.  The judging in Mixed Martial Arts is more often than not very suspect.  The judges – however admittedly – have a very difficult job to do.  They sit at ringside (on three different sides of the cage) and watch the fight from a singular angle.  They do not have the benefit of commentary, television, or instant replay.  As a result, it is entirely possible that they may not see something that is pivotal to the fight.  Thankfully the judges did not play a factor in the outcome of this fight.

In the co-main event, Josh Koscheck defeated Paul “Semtex” Daley via unanimous decision.  Koscheck used his wrestling and neutralized Daley throughout the bout.  The match was not without controversy, however, as Koscheck “pretended” to get hit with an illegal knee in the first round (which cost Daley a point).  It was not honorable in any way.  After the bout, Daley punched Koscheck in frustration.  That is a definite no-no and earned Daley a one-way ticket out of the UFC.  Many people thought that firing Daley and banning him from the UFC forever was far too harsh, but in my opinion an example had to be set.  It is no different than Renato “Babalu” Sobral not releasing the choke on David Heath at UFC 74 following the bell.  I don’t care if the fighters don’t want to be friends, or shake hands following a fight, but there can be zero tolerance of aggressive actions outside of the cage (or in this case, the fight itself).

The fight of the night was Jeremy “Lil’ Heathen” Stephens vs. Sam “Hands of Stone” Stout.  This was a back and forth affair that saw Stephens take the split decision.  I have to admit that even though the fight was close and the crowd did not like the result, the judges scored the fight accurately.  Stephens won the first round, and I think eeked out the second, but Stout clearly won the third round as Stephens tired.  I was hoping that Stout would have been able to finish the fight, but ultimately Lil’ Heathen’s chin held out against the barrage of rocks thrown by “Hands of Stone.”

The comedian of the night award had to go to “Filthy” Tom Lawlor.  At the weigh-ins, he did the funniest Dan Severn impersonation that I have ever seen.  I was in tears, laughing so hard.  Then, on the way to the cage, he was doing his best Apollo Creed impersonation.  It takes balls to come out to “Living In America” in Montreal.  He lost a very competitive fight to Joe “El Dirte” Doerkson.

The “OMFGWTF” award of the night went to Jason MacDonald, who, two minutes into his return to the Octagon, landed awkwardly on a takedown and broke his shin in two places.  This was the first fight of the night and it was a very sickening injury.  I’m sure his opponent, John Salter, did not want to win in that manner, and I would like to see these two fighters rematched because I think that their styles could make for a very competitive fight.

The “Disappointing Fighter of the Night” easily went to Kimbo Slice.  Kimbo – via his reputation – has (had) a lot of hype behind him.  He faced Matt Mitrione at UFC 113 – and was stopped via strikes in the second round.  Mitrione is a very large man in need of a tan, and much like his unofficial nickname on the tenth season of The Ultimate Fighter, he reminds me of the meathead from Archie Bunker fame.  I even made up the name before I knew that he was coined with it by Rashad Evans.

Regardless…Kimbo did nothing in this fight other than throw a few wild punches.  Mitrione took him down at will, attempted submissions, and generally used his reach to out-box Kimbo at his own game.  I was hoping that Kimbo – after four years of training – would be able to show some kind of takedown defense, but alas I was disappointed.  Kimbo was cut from the UFC following this fight (a move I did not agree with as the man only has one UFC loss on his record), and hopefully he lands on his feet in another organization.  Normally I wouldn’t care where I fighter goes, but Kimbo seems like a decent guy who is doing everything that he can to earn a living to support his wife and kids.  Inside the cage he is menacing, outside of it he seems like a big quiet teddy bear.  His fortunes are likely best served in Japan, where they will pay top dollar for fighters who have that type of aura and charisma about them (…in Japan, the actual ability to fight is almost secondary…).

Patrick Cote made his return to the Octagon after an eighteen month layoff due to injury.  His opponent was Alan Belcher, a rising condender in the 185 lb. division.  The ring rust was evident in Cote less than a minute into the bout, as he was unable to find his range against Belcher.  He submitted to a rear-naked choke in the second round, after Belcher dropped him on his face (obviously, stunning him).  I was surprised that Belcher won, I had picked Cote in this bout despite the layoff.  Moreso, I was suprised that Belcher won via submission – it is not something that he is known for.  I had predicted that these two guys would stand and slug with one another, but given the fact that both of these guys have dynamite in their hands, I guess they were leery of each other’s power and decided to turn it into a mat war instead.

In other fights, Mike “The Joker” Guymon defeated Yoshiyuki Yoshida (by decision, for which he was very emotional and very happy), Johnny Hendricks (who reminds me of an Ewok-in-training) defeated T.J. Grant by decision, Joey “The Mexicutioner” Beltran defeated Tim Hague (by decision), and Marcus “The Irish Hand Grenade” Davis defeated Jonathan Goulet by strikes in the second round.

All in all, it was a fantastic event, and of course I will attend the next one in Montreal if I have the means to go.  It was better than last years event (UFC 97, which was marred by the snooze-fest between Thales Leites and Anderson Silva), but not as good as UFC 83 (which featured Georges St. Pierre rematching Matt Serra).  It goes to show you how much the main event plays a part in the overall quality of the show.  If the main event is good, then people will remember that the show was great.  If it is not, then they have the notion that they got ripped off.

While in Montreal, we did a few other things.  On Friday, we ventured up to the Bio Dome and the Olympic Stadium.  We just saw the outside of the Stadium, because to be honest none of us had the desire to go inside.  The monstrosity that is the hotel that looms over La Stade Olympique should, in all honestly, be torn down.  Actually…just tear the entire thing down and rebuild it.  I think that Montreal would benefit from a classic stadium, using architecture from the 1800′s (much like Camden Yards in Baltimore…I’ve always loved that stadium).

The Bio Dome is a unique place.  I have never seen anything like it.  It looks (and is) huge on the outside, but because it houses so many various environments it does not take long to walk through.  It is basically an indoor zoo.  You start in the Tropical section, which will take you about twenty minutes to walk through.  In the twenty minutes though, you’ll drop about ten pounds.  I have to remember that this is not the environment for me – I don’t like it when my breasts sweat.

I did enjoy the wildlife though.  Birds, a crocodile, something that looked like a flamingo…they were all there.  As well, a myriad of various tropical fish.  There is no way that I could identify them all, but I have the pictures with the names on them.  What I liked was how the environment completely changed as you went through the different areas.  Thankfully, the sub-arctic envirionment was behind glass, or it would have been mighty cold (though I would have loved to have interacted with the penguins).

After we finished up at the Bio Dome, we took the Metro (which runs on tires and railroad tracks…tires!) to get to the Bell Centre for the UFC 113 Weigh-Ins.  We were early so we stopped by La Belle Province for a quick bite to eat.  La Belle Province is a burger joint, with their claim to fame being $1.00 hot dogs.  The food was palateable, but I would have preferred something a little more decent.

The weigh-ins were a very good tease to the main show – Tom Lawlor’s impersonation of Dan Severn standing out – and the history of Lyoto Machida and Maurico Rua for those who were not in the know.  Say what you will, but the UFC does a great job building up their shows.  The weigh-ins were covered live by ESPN, another sign that the sport is gaining more mainstream popularity.  There were approximately 6,000 people there for the weigh-ins and pre-fight buildup.

We went up and down Rue Saint Catherine a few times, and we stopped at Reubens for a nice large smoked meat sandwich.  We did a fair amount of shopping, because Saturday was a really shitty day.  It rained and the wind blew like crazy.  That was o.k. though – in my previous two stops I had never been through the Montreal underground (where all the good stores are).  The Bay is eight floors high!  And of course, we went through all eight floors, just to see how they laid out the store.  Then, we went into the main mall and wandered around where I found a few MMA t-shirts.  The other guys found some shirts that they were looking for as well, merchandise that they couldn’t find in Toronto.

The goods in Montreal tend to be a tad higher priced than in Toronto, but they offer a much better selection and quality of product.  I don’t mind paying good money for quality, though i do mind paying $75.00 for a t-shirt.  The MMA t-shirt business is a gold mine, in that you could manufacture these shirts for less than $20.00 – and sell them for at least 100% profit.  If I had any chops with respect to designing and marketing, I would probably get into the business.

We filled up our remaining time by eating in various restaurants around the city (St. Hubert, of course!!!!!) and watching the playoff series between Montreal and Pittsburgh.  Montreal was the underdog in this series, and we were fortunate enough to catch Games Five and Six while in the city.  The fans in Montreal are extremely passionate about their hockey club, and as they were (unexpectedly) climbing deep into the playoff picture, people were out in droves to support their club.  Even in McDonalds – they had big screen televisions and people were glued to them.  You don’t see that in Toronto – because you actually have to qualify for the playoffs first! 

As in previous years, I would have liked to have gotten down into old Montreal a bit more.  It’s funny, even though you plan the time to do things, you invariably never get to see everything that you want to see.  It’s a good thing that I keep going back.  Eventually I’ll see it all!  Montreal is a fantastic city and I wouldn’t have much problem living there full time.  As it stands though, I’ll settle for visiting regularly.  Even when Mixed Martial Arts is eventually licensed in Ontario, and the UFC puts on a show here, I’ll still make the trek up.

With the Vancouver 2010 Olympics in full stride, rumblings have been surfacing of trying to lobby the International Olympic Committee to make mixed martial arts a trial sport at a future Olympic Games.

Given the global expansion of the sport, I fully endorse the idea.  Nothing would be better for the sports legitimacy than allowing it to run side-by-side with wrestling, judo, boxing, and the other combat sports now a part of the games.  Allowing the athletes to compete for and represent their countries would be nothing short of spectacular for them.

Initially, I do see some logistical problems.  To qualify for the Olympics would require a number of qualifing tournaments, meaning professional fighters would have to train for and fight amateur fights outside of their respective organizations.  This would not allow the organization that they are signed with to use them as much.

For example, most professional fighters fight three times a year, with an eight week training camp.  After each fight, they generally take a couple of weeks off.  For them to cycle into another training camp for the Olympic Trials, right after a fight, may be tight.  They may be forced to fight only twice a year for the organization that they are contracted to.

The other factor would be insurance.  The fighters, or their contracted organization, would have to purchase insurance in case they were injured during the Olympics or the trials leading up to them.  If the fighters are not fighting due to injury then the company that they work for is not making any money off of them.

Another factor that has both positive and negative implications is that it would also allow us to see fights that we would normally not be able to see.  Perhaps Brock Lesnar vs. Fedor Emilianenko?  Jake Shields vs. Georges St. Pierre?  Shogun vs. Mousasi?  As I fan, I would salivate over the potential.  As a businessman, I would never want to give these fights away for free.

The good news is that Dana White, president of the UFC, is all for it.  They have many top tier fighters and seem to be willing to make the necessary adjustments should the sport be granted an Olympic trial.  Zuffa, the parent company of the UFC and WEC, sees this as another sport-building opportunity.  It would allow for instant world wide recognition of the sport.

It has been a whirlwind couple of days for Mixed Martial Arts in Ontario.  The Premier of Ontario, Dalton McGuinty, stated yesterday that legalizing Mixed Martial Arts in Ontario is not a priority for his government.  I am not quite sure what is gained here by making such a bold statement – especially in the light that the province of Ontario is not in the best of financial shape, and all of those tourist dollars will certainly help contribute to its coffers.

Perhaps McGuinty is ignorant about the sport.  Perhaps he is just being Premier Dad – by this I mean he has banned other things that he thinks are dangerous, such as pitbulls and using cellphones in cars.  The bottom line is very simple.  The sport is safe compared to many other sports out there.

The obvious comparison is to boxing.  How many boxers have died due to trauma suffered in the ring?  Let’s look at some other sports.  Pro Wrestling.  While very few wrestlers have actually died in the ring, how many have gone on to meet their maker prematurely.  The answer is surprising – over one hundred at last count.  Professional football.  Did you know that the likelihood of players being injured at some point during their career as a professional footballer is 100%?  Yet all of these sports remain legal in Ontario.

There have only been two recorded deaths in mixed martial arts since its inception (as vale tudo in Brazil) in the 1950′s.  Both of these fighters who died has previous trauma prior to entering the arena and should not have been cleared to fight in the first place.  While I will grant that the refereeing in a mixed martial art event may be somewhat dubious at times, all referees know and understand that protecting the fighters safety is their number one priority.  If a fighter is unable to intelligently defend himself, they will stop the fight.  If a fighter taps out (which, by the way, is considered an honorable thing to do), the fight is stopped.

Mixed martial arts initially had shaky beginnings when it was introduced to the United States in the early 1990′s.  The contests were unregulated, the fighters (for the most part) were single disciplined, and the referees were new to the sport as well.  There were few, if any rules.  Truly, as Senator John McCain put it, it was “human cockfighting” and was nearly outlawed entirely.  The UFC was relegated to broadcasting shows from abroad and in backwater towns.  They were nearing bankruptcy until they were purchased by Dana White and the Fertita brothers.  They established a parent company, Zuffa LLC., and subsequently put the UFC banner under it.

They realized, that in order to salvage the company and begin to make money, they had to become regulated by the various athletic commissions within the individual states.  Doing so would require the drafting of a unified set of rules.  While a lot of people like to bash the UFC regularly (and sometimes, some of that criticism is well deserved), the fact is that Zuffa spent millions lobbying and becoming certified in New Jersey and Nevada.  There was a point in time that they considered folding the company.

Once the athletic commissions were on board and regulating the fights, the sport started to slowly grow and become more and more accepted.  Zuffa, to their credit, began to market the sport aggressively and finally turned the corner in the Spring of 2005 with the launch of The Ultimate Fighter TV Series.  That show – and the final fight between Stephan Bonnar and Forrest Griffin – thrust mixed martial arts into the eyes of the mainstream public for the first time.  Less than five years later, it is expanding at a geometric rate.

Now – here are the facts as the sport relates to Canada, and Ontario specifically.  The man who gets bashed the most in Ontario is the athletic commissioner, Ken Hayashi.  He is a lightening rod of criticism for those people who want mixed martial arts legalized in this province.  Safety issues aside – which we have already debunked for the most part – the simple fact is that the federal criminal code prohibits prizefighting.  Below is the text from the Criminal Code of Canada:

Engaging in prize fight
83. (1) Every one who
(a) engages as a principal in a prize fight,
(b) advises, encourages or promotes a prize fight, or
(c) is present at a prize fight as an aid, second, surgeon, umpire, backer or reporter,
is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
Definition of “prize fight”

(2) In this section, “prize fight” means an encounter or fight with fists or hands between two persons who have met for that purpose by previous arrangement made by or for them, but a boxing contest between amateur sportsmen, where the contestants wear boxing gloves of not less than one hundred and forty grams each in mass, or any boxing contest held with the permission or under the authority of an athletic board or commission or similar body established by or under the authority of the legislature of a province for the control of sport within the province, shall be deemed not to be a prize fight.

R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 83; R.S., 1985, c. 27 (1st Supp.), s. 186.

This law dates back to the mid-1800′s, a time when the only combat sport around was boxing!  The strict interpretation of the law would indicate that Mr. Hayashi is right, and that participation in mixed martial arts events in the country of Canada is illegal.  Regardless of any municipal or provincial laws, federal laws superceed them.  However, in so saying that, it is my opinion that Mr. Hayashi has chosen to ignore the spirit of the law.  This is, however, his choice.

As it stands, Ontario is the only province that has outlawed mixed martial arts.  Every other province has chosen to adhere to the spirit of the law, rather than its strict interpretation.  These events are safe, have a proven track record, and are regulated.  Furthermore, they bring in millions of tourist dollars to the province.  The provinces reap the rewards from the monies spent, but they also make money off of the gate (in some cases, as much as 4%), and it means that there will be more jobs for contractors and commission employees.

The UFC held its first event in Canada in April of 2008.  The Bell Centre sold out in less than two hours.  The gate was in excess of five million dollars with over twenty thousand seats sold.  The event was regulated by the Quebec Athletic Commission.  They assigned the referees and the judges, and were responsible for any pre and post fight drug tests.  Ontarians, it is estimated, spent 1.4 million dollars in the province of Quebec that weekend.  The second event, in April of 2009, generated just as much revenue.  These numbers do not include the many smaller events and promotions that take place monthly around the province.

The City of Vancouver recently licensed MMA competition and their first event will be held in June.  Tickets are not on sale as of yet, but it will be interesting to see the demographics and how fast they sell out.  On a personal note, as I have been to every UFC in Canada, I wonder if I can catch a cheap flight out to British Columbia?

As for solutions, I think that the UFC is correct in lobbying the federal government to update the criminal code.  This removes any impediment that the Ontario government may have in legislating MMA in this province.  The UFC is smart; they do not want to stage unregulated shows on Indian reservations.  They want to do it right, by the book.  They want regulation for the sport, because without it mixed martial arts cannot grow safely.  They also are willing to spend the money to get this done because they know how much money and interest will be generated by an event in this province.  Mark my words – when the sport is legal in Ontario – the UFC will have no problems holding an event in the Rogers Center.  75,000 people cheering on their favourite fighters.  It will be crazy.  It will be insane.  It will be fun.  It will be very profitable, for both the province and the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

The pre-sale for tickets to UFC 113 in Montreal (on May 8th) did not go very well initially.  People who were in the virtual waiting room for hours on end suddenly were booted out for no reason, and then when they finally got in the pre-sale code they had did not work.

I’m not sure where the blame lies, be it with the UFC or the Bell Centre.  But – I do know a lot of people were very irritated that they had to waste ninety minutes while the problem was fixed.  It is a little bit nerve racking, because you don’t know if the problem is on their end or yours.  Add to the fact that because the events in Montreal sell out so fast, it is very likely that you will not be able to get a ticket.  However, in so saying that, me and my buddies got our tickets, so from our perspective in the end it doesn’t really matter.  We have great seats and did not pay an exorbitant amount of money for them.

Unlike the first two years that I have been, this time I’m taking my camera and taking a lot of photos.  I have met a few fighters in my travels each year to Montreal and hopefully this year is no different.  To a man, every fighter that I have met has been receptive to the fans and classy.

This post is a bit of a deviation from my normal posts about MMA in that this time I am not recapping an event or postulating upon the outcome of a fight.  This post is about a website that caters to fans of the fight game.  In an industry that is brand new, Revgear has been around for thirteen years.  As it stands, I have been going through their website for a couple of hours now.  Unlike many websites, that primarily carry only t-shirts, Revgear carries an insidious amount of product.  T-shirts are only a small part of their business.  They offer fight gear, training gear, and instructional dvd’s for almost any combat sport.  In addition to their own brand, they carry many famous labels such as Bad Boy and Master Toddy’s.

The website itself it very well presented.  It is fast, easy to navigate, and clean.  The product descriptions are clean and thorough.  Checkout is a breeze, and you do not have to create an account to do so.  California residents will have to pay sales tax (as the site is based in that state).  The shipping charge seems reasonable domestically, but shipping internationally could get expensive depending on what you would like to order.  That is not Revgear’s fault, however (though I would make a suggestion to ship all of their products to Canada via 3-day Fedex (Air).  They will save a fortune that way.) 

Revgear gives back to the fans and fighters by sponsoring them, as well as tournaments.  They also sponsor high profile fighters such as Marco Ruas and Bas Rutten.  All in all, despite the amount of product on their website, I can see Revgear adding more and more brand names in the future and growing their company.  The dollars are out there now, especially in Mixed Martial Arts.  I am going to pickup some Revgear products, and when I get them I will follow up with an additional post on their quality.

I did not get a chance to catch UFC 103 until recently, ergo the reason for the delay in this post.  One thing I can say is that Vitor Belfort established with emphasis that he is a force to be reckoned with at 195 lbs…and that he’s probably more dangerous at 185.  Can he compete with the best pound-for-pound fighter in the division, Anderson Silva?  Time will tell, because there is a plethora of interesting matches upon the horizon.

The middleweight division is quickly filling up with quality fighters.  You have Belfort, Dan Henderson, Nate Marquardt, Yushin Okami, and (even though his record of late is not stunning) Wanderlei Silva.  Even though it will never happen, I would love to see an eight man tournament for the right to face Anderson Silva for the title.  As it stands, even a four man tournament would be cool.  Belfort vs. Hendo, and Marquardt vs. Silva.  Unfortunately that leaves the unmarketable Okami as the odd man out.  Or – give Belfort a title shot – and have a four man tournament with the rest of the fighters.  If the UFC wants, they could bring in arguably the best 185 lb. fighter not in the promotion – Gegard Mousasi (who these days is fighting heavyweights) and throw him in the mix.

Alternatively (or in addition), they could ask Georges St. Pierre to move up in weight.  A fight at catch weight between GSP and Anderson Silva would do great business for the UFC.  This is a possibility because GSP has cleaned out the welterweight division and there are no fighters on his level currently with the promotion.  I would love to see them bring in Jake Shields, but he is currently signed to Strikeforce.

Many people think that The Spider would completely destroy Rush in a fight.  I tend to disagree, and not because GSP is Canadian.  Both fighters are classy individuals and I respect them a lot.  I have seen both fight in person and have watched almost all of their fights.  Breaking down this matchup, Silva would have the edge in striking and if the fight came down to a BJJ match.  GSP would have the edge in speed, takedowns, and ground and pound.  I would estimate that both men are equal strength-wise.  Both men are also in prime physical condition and can go five rounds without breaking much of a sweat. 

From either fighters perspective this makes for an intruiging matchup.  If GSP can get the takedown and control Anderson against the cage, thereby neutralizing his long limbs and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills, he will win a decision.  Despite both fighters being black belts, I think Silva has the advantage BJJ-wise (hell, he trains with Demian Maia, Lyoto Machida, and the Noguiera brothers).  Standing with Anderson would be a mistake, and I’m sure Forrest Griffin would agree.  GSP certainly knows this, and has to stay away from The Spider’s lethal boxing and muay thai skills.

For Anderson Silva to win, his gameplan would have to be to use that lethal striking effectively.  To date, no opponent has been able to effectively counterattack Silva’s striking.  Furthermore, while his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu skills may be more polished than those of GSP, I think St. Pierre is versed enough in the art to ensure that he does not get trapped in a submission.  It would be a close ground matchup that would depend heavily on which fighter is on top.

In other UFC 103 action, Mirko Cro-Cop was beaten soundly by Junior Dos Santos, effectively ending his mixed martial arts career.  He announced his retirement in the post-fight news conference.  He has has a distinguished career, but after twenty years of fights the beatings have caught up to him.  While there are no certainties regarding retirement in this sport, I think Mirko’s time has passed.  With so many multi-dimensional fighters on the horizon – younger, hungrier fighters – the writing was on the wall.

In other fights, Tyson Griffin beat Hermes Franca, Koscheck beat Trigg, and in an upset Paul Daley beat Martin Kampmann.  Kampmann and Mike Swick were supposed to fight for a shot at GSP’s welterweight title, but an injury to Swick forced the substitution and Daley took full advantage.  I would think that a Daley vs. Swick matchup is coming soon to a UFC near you, with a title shot on the line.

It’s not often that an advertised main event truly lives up to the hype.  Sometimes the fight is not very good, or it is overshadowed by another fight on the card.  Last night at UFC 102, Randy “The Natural” Couture and Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira put on a fight that may one day be considered once of best of all time.  Two veterans, with more combined experience that any two other fighters on the UFC roster, battled back and forth for fifteen minutes.  In the end, Nogueira won a unanimous three round decision over The Natural.  Both fighters picked up an extra $60,000 for Fight of the Night honors.

Randy Couture is 46 years old and he fights like a 36 year old.  Nogueira is only 33 years old, but he is a veteran of almost 40 professional fights.  He is a submission wizard and one of the best heavyweight fighters of all time.  He is the only fighter to have held both the UFC and PRIDE heavyweight championship belts.  Couture is a veteran of 26 professional fights and although his record of 16-10 is not spectacular, it is deceptive.  He is the only five time titleholder in the UFC and has been in more championship fights than any other fighter.  He has also never been submitted inside the octagon.

Both of these fighters are favorites of mine.  Inside and outside the ring, they are both classy and respectful.  They never have a bad word to say about their opponents and never engage in trash talking.  They are also very technical fighters who generally have a fantastic gameplan going into the ring.  Fighting Nogueira must be like fighting a boa constrictor.  Once he gets ahold of you, escaping is almost impossible (and to Couture’s credit, he did that time and time again last night).  Randy Couture is the illegitimate stepchild of Dick Clark and Sun Tzu; his strategy is generally flawless, and the man is ageless.

In the co-main event, Thiago Silva shook off his disappointing loss to Lyoto Machida and knocked out Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine in the first round.  It was a competitive fight for all the 95 seconds that it lasted.  Jardine is a herky-jerky fighter to put it best.  He punches and kicks from odd angles, and that throws his opponent off.  His leg kicks are some of the best in the division as well.  Thiago Silva fights in a much similar fashion to his namesake Wanderlei Silva.  There is no style, no flair:  The man comes right at you using vicious strikes and Muai Thai.  His intentions are to knock the yellow off of his opponents teeth.  He is also a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt, but rarely do we get to see him utilize it.  The finish of this fight came when he caught one of Jardines leg kicks, threw him off balance, and knocked him out on the ground.

In other fights, Nate “The Great” Marquardt lived up to his moniker by knocking out Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu master Demian Maia in a mere 21 seconds.  I was hoping for a longer fight, as I would have loved to see how Maia’s jiu-jitsu skills matched up to the all around abilities of Marquardt.  However, Marquardts first punch of the night caught Maia flush on the chin, and he was down for the count.  You never want to use lucky in an MMA fight, but perhaps fortunate would be a good choice of words.  Neither man broke a sweat.  Marquardt also picked up an additional $60,000 for Knockout of the Night honors. 

Brandon Vera won a unanimous decision over Krzysztof Soszynski.  Soszynski was a late replacement for Matt Hamill, who was injured during training.  Vera was simply to fast and too skilled for the much bigger Soszynski.  He gave it the old college try, though, and I think that once he matures a bit more “The Polish Experiment” will be a force to reckon with in this division.  He needs to change up his training, in my humble opinion.  To fight a skilled, fast fighter such as Vera, you have to overwhelm and smother him.  You have to negate the speed, and make him work.  Unfortunately, this will make for a bit of a boring fight, because you have to lay and pray a la Matt Lindland.  Keep the smaller man down, stay on top of him, and make him carry your weight.

As an aside – Krzystof Soszynski is the happiest guy in mixed martial arts today.  Watching him come down to the cage, his pre-fight antics, grinning, smiling, and pointing – you can tell the guy is just happy to be inside the cage, earning his bread by fighting professionally.

Knockout of the Night honors should have gone to Todd Duffee, who set a UFC record with his debilitating seven second knockout of Canadian Tim Hague.  Both fighters were huge, each 6′ 3″ tall and around 260 lbs.  I didn’t expect this fight to last long, and it sure didn’t.  After knocking Hague down with his second punch, Duffee quickly followed up and put Hague away for the quick KO.  The seven second stoppage bested the previous record of eight seconds, which had been shared by Don Frye (UFC 8 over Thomas Ramirez) and James Irvin (UFC Fight Night 13 over Houston Alexander).

Jake Rosholt secured a third round submission win over Chris Leben with a beautiful arm-triangle choke.  Leben, fighting in his home state, did not tap and went to sleep.  Prior to the submission, it was a back and forth fight with Leben landing hard shots, and Rosholt scoring takedowns.  Rosholt received Submission of the Night honors for his win.

Ed Herman fell to Aaron Simpson when he could not continue because of a knee injury suffered by one of Simpson’s takedowns.  After recovering between rounds, he wanted to continue but 17 seconds into the second round his knee betrayed him and the referee had no choice but to stop the fight.

All in all, despite the lack of a title fight on the card, this was one of the better events that the UFC has put on.  I’ve said it time and time again, that if the main event is good then the card just looks even better.  We watched this one in house, as it was a bit of a send off to one of the regulars who is taking his act up north for awhile to go to college.  We did up a BBQ with some burgers, taters, and chicken.  All in all, a pretty good night.

UFC 101 is in the books!

Anderson Silva, with his spectacular first round knockout of Forrest Griffin, redeemed himself in the eyes of many fans and proved that he belongs at or near the top of any official or unofficial pound-for-pound ranking of the best fighters.  The knockout came at 3:23 of the first round, after Silva had knocked Griffin down twice and essentially toyed with him.  Post-fight, Griffin ran from the ring back to the dressing room, which seemed a little odd.  We later learned that he had a dislocated jaw and lost his hearing in one of his ears.

I feel sorry for Forrest Giffin.  His chin betrayed him yet again, and Anderson Silva made him look foolish by comparison.  Anderson Silva is a very unorthodox fighter, much like his friend and training partner (and current UFC light-heavyweight champion) Lyoto Machida.  Griffin is a good, strong fighter but Anderson Silva is a horrible matchup for him.  I think that the only type of fighter out there today capable of beating Anderson Silva will be one that has tremendous ground and pound skills and excellent takedowns.  Dan Henderson and Randy Couture (at 205 lbs) come to mind.  Nate Marquardt has looked good in his last few fights, but his litmus test comes next month at the hands of Damien Maia.  Should he get past the jiu-jitsu wizard, then another shot against Anderson may be in his future as well.

Personally, I think an interesting matchup for Anderson Silva would be Tito Ortiz.  Tito has the size and the wrestling ability to counter Silva’s strengths.  A healthy Ortiz also has lethal ground and pound, which I think may be Anderson’s kryptonite.

In other action, B.J. Penn submitted a game Kenny Florian in the fourth round of their lightweight title fight.  Kenny was putting up a good fight, but I think that his strategy was flawed.  Penn at 155 lbs. is the best in the world at this moment, at that was clearly on display last night.  He did not dominate KenFlo like he did in his previous lightweight title fights against Sherk and Stevenson, but was easily the better fighter, winning all of the rounds up to the submission.

Penn, who often receives lots of criticism for his suspect conditioning, was in top form last night.  The conditioning argument, however, does not hold much water.  Looking back at his previous fights, the last time conditioning played a factor was back in 2006, against Georges St. Pierre.  Since that time, he has fought Hughes (lost), Pulver (won), Stevenson (won), Sherk (won), GSP again (lost) and finally Florian (won).  The loss to Hughes was primarily because he broke a rib in the second round and could not breathe in the third.  The lost to GSP was because he was overwhelmed by a bigger, stronger, and faster fighter.

Don’t get me wrong; I am not a B.J. Penn nuthugger.  However, facts are facts.  B.J. Penn is 10-1-1 as a lightweight, with a dubious record when he moves up in weight.  It is not easy giving up a lot of weight to your opponent.  Not only do you struggle to push him around, but you are carrying more weight on your own frame as well.  In any event, it looks like B.J.’s next title defense will be against Diego “Nightmare” Sanchez.

Sanchez is 21-2 overall.  At lightweight, he is 2-0.  He has decision wins over Clay Guida and Joe Stevenson.  He was a force at welterweight, but like Penn was being bullied by the larger fighters in the division.  This should be a good matchup because Diego will push Penn, and will not be dominated on the ground.  Both fighters are great talents and I am eager to see the outcome of their matchup.

In his last fight as a middleweight, Ricardo Almeida dominated the monstrous Kendall Grove on his way to a unanimous decision victory.  Almeida is moving down to welterweight, where he will fight the likes of Koscheck, Fitch, Alves and perhaps GSP.  While that would seem to even the odds, it scuttles a potential matchup against fellow jiu-jitsu wizard Demian Maia.  That is a fight I would have loved to have seen.  While the ringside fans may have booed because they may have found the fight boring, the would fail to realize the tactics involved in a bout such as this.  Another good potenial matchup for both Maia and Almeida would be Dean Lister, a submission specialist whose only losses have been by decision.

Other results include Aaron Riley avenging a previous loss to Shane Nelson, and Johnny Hendricks TKO’ing Amir Sadollah in 29 seconds.  This was somewhat of a controversial stoppage, but what you have to keep in mind is that it is the referee’s primary job to protect the fighter.  Sadollah was not intelligently defending himself, and he does not have the pedigree, record, or longevity in the sport to allow the referee to give him a few extra seconds to recover.

Kurt Pellegrino used his wrestling and jiu-jitsu to stuff Josh Neer to a decision, as did George Sotiropoulos in submitting George Roop.  There was no more time allocated on the pay-per-view broadcast to show any more of the preliminary fights, as the rest of them went to a decision.

Overall, it was a good card.  Traditionally, we host the UFC events at home, but due to the media room being reconfigured (as my roommates have guests staying with us) it was not possible.  Ergo, we went over to Greyfriars Pub in Oakville to watch the fights.  The decor of the pub was done well, with bookshelves on the outside almost giving it a library (or den-like) feel.  The food was decent and the prices were reasonable.  As the 10:00 start time for UFC 101 drew closer, the bar filled up fast.  We were there rather early, about 8:45, so we got some decent seats and had a great view of the action on the screen.

UFC 102 airs on August 29th, 2009 from the Rose Garden Arena in Portland, Oregon.  There are no title fights on the card, but it is headlined by two veterans in their first fight against each other.  Captain America, The Natural, Randy Couture, takes on the Brazilian submission specialist Antonio Rodrigo “Minotauro” Nogueira in a heavyweight matchup.

This will be an interesting fight to call.  Nogueira has been in the ring against everyone, and aside from Fedor Emilianenko prevailed against them.  In his last fight against Frank Mir, he was knocked out for the first time in his career and truthfully, it looked like all of those fights had finally caught up with him.

Couture’s most recent fight was a TKO loss against the reigning heavyweight champion, Honkey Kong (Brock Lesnar).  Traditionally, Couture’s only weakness has been against hard counter-punchers such as Chuck Liddell and and big, strong wrestlers such as Lesnar.  Traditionally, his submission defense has been excellent, but in this case he is not facing the student.  He will be staring across the ring at the professor, the master of the anaconda choke, Minotauro Nogueira.

Other bouts at UFC 102 will be a light-heavyweight tilt between Keith Jardine and Thiago Silva, and a matchup between Nate Marquardt and Demian Maia.  I think that Maia should take this match by submission – there is nobody in the world who practices jiu-jitsu at his level in MMA.  As for Jardine and Silva, I do not know who will win but I doubt that this one will go past the first round.

UFC 100 is in the books!

There were two title fights on the card.  In the first title fight, the UFC Welterweight Champion, Georges St. Pierre, retained his title in a five round domination of Thiago Alves.  In the main event of the night, the UFC Heavyweight Champion, Brock Lesnar, emerged victorious over Interim Heavyweight Champion Frank Mir by way of TKO in the second round.

Lesnar was far more composed in this, his second fight against Mir.  In the first fight, Mir submitted Lesnar with a kneebar less than two minutes into the fight.  You can blame the loss on a questionable decision to stand the fighters up, or on Lesnars inexperience, but a loss is a loss.  This time, Brock was far more disciplined, pinning Mir up against the cage and reigning down blows until referee Herb Dean had no choice but to stop the bout.  It would be remiss of me not to mention Lesnar’s post fight rant, which was very unprofessional.  I understand that fighting for him is very emotional, but that does not justify running down his opponent or the sponsors or suggesting that he’s going home to bang his wife.  In the post-fight news conference, Lesnar was apologetic and said he recieved a verbal tongue lashing from Dana White, the President of the the UFC.

Georges St. Pierre continues to impress me.  Despite tearing his abductor muscle in the third round, he continued to fight as if nothing was wrong and dominated the much larger Thiago Alves for the rest of the fight.  In the post fight interview, you could see that he was in tremendous pain.  The quote of the night has to go to his trainer, Greg Jackson, upon hearing from his fighter that his groin muscle was torn, he said, “I don’t care!  Hit him with it!”

When talking about the best pound for pound MMA fighters, three names come to mind.  Fedor Emelianenko, Georges St. Pierre, and Anderson Silva.  Many people would love to see a superfight between GSP and Anderson Silva, but that to me is a long way off.  First, Georges St. Pierre has to heal up, and Anderson has a tremendous challenge ahead of him next month at UFC 101, when he faces Forrest Griffin.  Furthermore, for a fight of this magnitude to happen, GSP would have to begin a slow weight build to 185 lbs.  That would leave the welterweight division devoid of a champion for awhile (not that that is a big deal, because GSP has essentially cleaned out the division).

Personally, I would love to see a fight between Jake Shields and GSP.  Jake Shields is one of the best fighters in the world, and is not signed to a UFC contract.  At this point in time, I think he would provide the only significant challenge to GSP’s dominance at welterweight.  Rumor has it, however, that the next title fight will be between GSP and the winner of Martin Kampmann and Mike “Quick” Swick.

In other action, the knockout of the year so far has to go to Dan Henderson.  His big right hand knocked Michael Bisping all the way back to England.  It was sweet justice for Hendo, who had to endure Bispings’ taunts throughout Season Nine of the Ultimate Fighter.  It was made doubly sweet as Bisping laughed off Henderson’s knockout power, suggesting that he had not knocked anyone out in five years and hits like a little girl.

This fight was not competitive from the beginning, with Henderson stalking Bisping relentlessly and Bisping circling away.  Bisping tried a takedown on the former two-time Olympic wrestler, which brought a smile to Hendersons face.  “Nice try, Mike,” was probably what was going through Henderson’s mind.

In other action, Jon Fitch grounded out another victory against Paulo Thiago, and Alan Belcher lost a controversial decision to Akiyama.  Another shining example of why you do not leave anything in the hands of the judges. 

I think Akiyama would be better fighting at 170 lbs, as he looked very small compared to Belcher.  This is because Japanese fighters (especially those that previously fought in Pride and Dream) do not cut weight like their American and Brazilian counterparts do.  Speaking of cutting weight, I think CroCop could do serious damage as a light heavyweight as well.  It will be interesting to see how Wanderlei Silva does at 185, after fighting all those years at 205.  At 195, he looked good against Rich Franklin, despite taking the loss.