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.