UFC on Fox 4 Main Card Recap

The Dragon is back.
Photo by MMAFighting.com

The fourth event that the UFC has held was the most underwhelming on paper leading up to it. It ended up as one of the better events the sport has had in some time. With all of the main card fights being finished and two of them being absolute wars. Not only is this the type of event that you would show to haters of the sport, but also it just happened to be shown on one of the most watched channels in the world. Joe Silva and Sean Shelby knew what they were doing with the matchups on this card.

Possible matchups for Swick: Swick is back, although the first round wasn’t all that great for, now that he has the first fight under his belt, Swick will be much better in his second outing. Thiago Alves is still looking for an opponent in his next fight and Swick’s win certainly put him back up in the upper echelon of 170 pounds.

Mike Swick vs. DaMarques Johnson: After 2.5 years from fighting, Mike Swick finally made his return after a string of nearly career ending injuries. His ring rust wasn’t evident through the first minute of the fight as he was continually rocking Johnson with punches. DaMarques got the fight to the ground and easily won the first round after nearly being finished. Swick came out much stronger in the 2nd and knocked out Johnson after a takedown. Swick followed it up with one of the more emotional post fight interviews as he was in tears asking if we remembered him. Yes we do.

Possible matchups for Swick: Swick is back, although the first round wasn’t all that great for him, he now has that first fight under his belt, Swick will be much better in his second outing. Thiago Alves is still looking for an opponent in his next fight and Swick’s win certainly put him back up in the upper echelon of 170 pounds.

Possible matchups for Johnson: Johnson is undoubtedly close to being released. If he wants to stay with the UFC, he should fight Chris Clements who is also coming off a loss if he wants to keep his job.

Joe Lauzon vs. Jamie Varner: This fight is easily in the lead for Fight of the Year. Jamie Varner nearly finished Lauzon in the first round more than once but Lauzon came back in the second, which was the round that they swung for the fences. They connected on each other multiple times and the ground game was back and forth as they consistently swept each other. Eventually in an amazing scramble, Lauzon caught Varner in a triangle to finish the fight. The fight was amazing and was the perfect fight to show to millions of new viewers to the sport.

Possible matchups for Lauzon: Lauzon’s cardio looked great in this fight. Typically that is his Achilles heel and this time around, that wasn’t the case. Rafael dos Anjos is also coming off a big win over Anthony Njokuani and this fight would send the winner straight into title contention.

Possible matchups for Varner: This fight is still a win in many people’s eyes for Varner. He looked great and deserves a full fight camp against a top guy. The loser of the Cerrone/Guillard fight would make a lot of sense, especially if it’s Cerrone.

Lyoto Machida vs. Ryan Bader: Lyoto Machida arguably has the most technical striking in all of MMA. He is so masterful and beautiful in his counter striking. This performance was absolutely incredible and that second round KO definitely solidifies a title shot.

Possible matchups for Machida: He is already announced to be fighting the winner of Dan Henderson and Jon Jones.

Possible matchups for Ryan Bader: James Te Huna is the next big thing at 205 and Ryan Bader continues to look like a gatekeeper. That fight would be great and huge fight for Te Huna.

Mauricio Rua vs. Brandon Vera: Shocking. That is the only word to sum this fight up. It’s not only shocking that Vera did so well, almost finishing Shogun in the second, but the fact that it is also a frontrunner for Fight of the Year. I personally expected this fight to be rather boring. It was anything but. Vera realized that this was his fight to lose and he came out with a fire in his eyes. He came out as the old Brandon Vera, the one people considered to be the next champion in more than one weight class simultaneously, and he showed more heart than the average UFC champion. Although they both showed cardio issues, they looked amazing and they both showed why they are considered title contenders. Truly shocking.

Possible matchups for Shogun: The fight that everyone has been talking about is Shogun vs. Alexander Gustafsson as a number 1 contender’s match. Yes please.

Possible matchups for Vera: When Vera originally came back to the UFC, there were talks of him and Thiago Silva having a rematch. If Brandon Vera could come out to that fight the same way he did for this fight, he would most likely win.

Click here for the prelim recap.