Sam's Recap
Before I start with the main card, I’m going to point out the most impressive people from the prelims. First, Chris Weidman, who I think will be a very big threat for every middleweight, won in devastating fashion by choking out a game Tom Lawlor with a beautiful d’arce choke at 2:07 of the first round. Even though I knew that Weidman would win, I had no idea he would run through Lawlor so easily. This was a good lead-in to the Spike prelims, for a couple of quick KO’s. Michael McDonald, the youngest fighter in the UFC who I believe will have a very bright future ahead of him, absolutely destroyed the new up and comer, Alex Soto, in only 56 seconds. Soto seemed to be a pretty good challenge for McDonald but he proved me right that he has something special, the skill to be a future champ at the bantamweight division. After watching a young lion trying to prove himself to the world, we watched another young lion hungry to get back into title contention after losing two straight fights by guillotine. Ryan Bader KO’d the not-so-game Jason Brilz in a quick 1:17 of the first round, showing us that the old Ryan Bader may be back but that loss to Tito Ortiz will forever haunt him.
I was amazed that the most boring fight of the whole card was Stephan Bonnar’s. Not only was he in the fight, one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, but also Kyle Kingsbury, who is also a very exciting fighter. Now, I’m not disappointed in Bonnar, don’t get me wrong, I’m actually quite proud of him. He fought smart. When was the last time that we saw Stephan Bonnar fight smart? He knew that he had a better ground game than Kingsbury and he exploited that. If there was anything that I would be disappointed about was the fact that he didn’t finish the fight when he had multiple opportunities for submissions.
In that the fight between Kampmann and Story was going to be one of the closest fights on the card and I was right. Although Story looked really good in the opening frame of the fight, he clearly gassed himself out by trying to just barrage his way through a victory against Kampmann but, to Story’s dismay, Kampmann is one tough dude, and one hell of a fighter. Kampmann showed that he is ready for another title run in the welterweight division.
In probably the most impressive performance to date, Urijah seemed to be back to his good ol’ days when looked very impressive with his standup to then finish Bowles with a guillotine choke, to earn himself another crack at Dominick Cruz. One of the most impressive ways you can beat someone I by absolutely dominate them on the feet, rock them, and then finish them off with a submission. Showing that you are better then them at every aspect of the game. Urijah proved to us that he is a new and improved “California Kid” who is ready to settle this with Dominick Cruz in the very anticipated rubber match they will have later in 2012. TUF coaches anyone?
Usually on every event there is a fight that I would prefer to get wrong: Nog vs. Schaub, Hughes vs. Koscheck, Cro Cop vs. Nelson, etc., most of the time, it’s a fight with a fading legend we all think should just retire. But when they actually win their fight, it makes me happy. In this instance, Wanderlai Silva vs. Cung Le. I hated the idea of this fight. I wanted Wanderlai to retire after his fight with Leben but, of course, he said no. Instead he showed that he still has the old Wnaderlai still hidden somewhere deep down inside of him and the vintage Wanderlai came out and rocked the HP Pavilion with a brutal TKO victory over Cung Le. I was so happy that he won his fight, he looked so happy, everyone (except for Le and his team) were happy. Who doesn’t love Wanderlai? He’s one of the most entertaining fighters in the history of combat sports and he is also one of the nicest guys in MMA? Who doesn’t like that combination? Anyway, Wanderlai looked awesome, I just hope he retires on a high note.
It’s hard for to start to talk about the main event this past Saturday, it was so good and so exciting and so thrilling, words just can’t do it a justice. Yes, it was that good a fight. You should be very disappointed in yourself if you missed it. An absolute slugfest from the very beginning. The first three rounds were Henderson racking Shogun into oblivion with his enormous right hands with Shogun barely able to keep his composure and still some how come back from near defeat to back Henderson into the cage and continue to punch him. The first three rounds were all Henderson with the third round being one that could be argued as a 10-8. After the first two rounds, Shogun was definitely the fresher fighter going into each round. In the fourth round, Shogun found the sweet spot on that rock hard chin of Henderson’s and rocked him badly. Henderson was stumbling all over the place barely keeping his balance while Shogun continued to punch him right on his chin. After Henderson gathered back his equilibrium, Shogun took him down, battered him a little bit and then Henderson sweeps him onto his back, it was quite amazing. In the fifth round, Shogun came out and immediately took Henderson down and battered him for the entire fifth round, I don’t think Henderson landed a single punch. Now this is the most controversial part of this legendary, “fight of the century” candidate just had to have. Henderson won on every single card 48-47, while most of the MMA world thought it should have been a 47-47 draw. I am part of the people who believe it should have been a draw; Henderson gets the first three rounds, Shogun gets the 4th and 5th with the latter being a 10-8 round. After all this talk of how it should’ve been a draw, how about a rematch? I’m game for that rematch.
Before I start with the main card, I’m going to point out the most impressive people from the prelims. First, Chris Weidman, who I think will be a very big threat for every middleweight, won in devastating fashion by choking out a game Tom Lawlor with a beautiful d’arce choke at 2:07 of the first round. Even though I knew that Weidman would win, I had no idea he would run through Lawlor so easily. This was a good lead-in to the Spike prelims, for a couple of quick KO’s. Michael McDonald, the youngest fighter in the UFC who I believe will have a very bright future ahead of him, absolutely destroyed the new up and comer, Alex Soto, in only 56 seconds. Soto seemed to be a pretty good challenge for McDonald but he proved me right that he has something special, the skill to be a future champ at the bantamweight division. After watching a young lion trying to prove himself to the world, we watched another young lion hungry to get back into title contention after losing two straight fights by guillotine. Ryan Bader KO’d the not-so-game Jason Brilz in a quick 1:17 of the first round, showing us that the old Ryan Bader may be back but that loss to Tito Ortiz will forever haunt him.
I was amazed that the most boring fight of the whole card was Stephan Bonnar’s. Not only was he in the fight, one of the most exciting fighters in the sport, but also Kyle Kingsbury, who is also a very exciting fighter. Now, I’m not disappointed in Bonnar, don’t get me wrong, I’m actually quite proud of him. He fought smart. When was the last time that we saw Stephan Bonnar fight smart? He knew that he had a better ground game than Kingsbury and he exploited that. If there was anything that I would be disappointed about was the fact that he didn’t finish the fight when he had multiple opportunities for submissions.
In that the fight between Kampmann and Story was going to be one of the closest fights on the card and I was right. Although Story looked really good in the opening frame of the fight, he clearly gassed himself out by trying to just barrage his way through a victory against Kampmann but, to Story’s dismay, Kampmann is one tough dude, and one hell of a fighter. Kampmann showed that he is ready for another title run in the welterweight division.
In probably the most impressive performance to date, Urijah seemed to be back to his good ol’ days when looked very impressive with his standup to then finish Bowles with a guillotine choke, to earn himself another crack at Dominick Cruz. One of the most impressive ways you can beat someone I by absolutely dominate them on the feet, rock them, and then finish them off with a submission. Showing that you are better then them at every aspect of the game. Urijah proved to us that he is a new and improved “California Kid” who is ready to settle this with Dominick Cruz in the very anticipated rubber match they will have later in 2012. TUF coaches anyone?
Usually on every event there is a fight that I would prefer to get wrong: Nog vs. Schaub, Hughes vs. Koscheck, Cro Cop vs. Nelson, etc., most of the time, it’s a fight with a fading legend we all think should just retire. But when they actually win their fight, it makes me happy. In this instance, Wanderlai Silva vs. Cung Le. I hated the idea of this fight. I wanted Wanderlai to retire after his fight with Leben but, of course, he said no. Instead he showed that he still has the old Wnaderlai still hidden somewhere deep down inside of him and the vintage Wanderlai came out and rocked the HP Pavilion with a brutal TKO victory over Cung Le. I was so happy that he won his fight, he looked so happy, everyone (except for Le and his team) were happy. Who doesn’t love Wanderlai? He’s one of the most entertaining fighters in the history of combat sports and he is also one of the nicest guys in MMA? Who doesn’t like that combination? Anyway, Wanderlai looked awesome, I just hope he retires on a high note.
It’s hard for to start to talk about the main event this past Saturday, it was so good and so exciting and so thrilling, words just can’t do it a justice. Yes, it was that good a fight. You should be very disappointed in yourself if you missed it. An absolute slugfest from the very beginning. The first three rounds were Henderson racking Shogun into oblivion with his enormous right hands with Shogun barely able to keep his composure and still some how come back from near defeat to back Henderson into the cage and continue to punch him. The first three rounds were all Henderson with the third round being one that could be argued as a 10-8. After the first two rounds, Shogun was definitely the fresher fighter going into each round. In the fourth round, Shogun found the sweet spot on that rock hard chin of Henderson’s and rocked him badly. Henderson was stumbling all over the place barely keeping his balance while Shogun continued to punch him right on his chin. After Henderson gathered back his equilibrium, Shogun took him down, battered him a little bit and then Henderson sweeps him onto his back, it was quite amazing. In the fifth round, Shogun came out and immediately took Henderson down and battered him for the entire fifth round, I don’t think Henderson landed a single punch. Now this is the most controversial part of this legendary, “fight of the century” candidate just had to have. Henderson won on every single card 48-47, while most of the MMA world thought it should have been a 47-47 draw. I am part of the people who believe it should have been a draw; Henderson gets the first three rounds, Shogun gets the 4th and 5th with the latter being a 10-8 round. After all this talk of how it should’ve been a draw, how about a rematch? I’m game for that rematch.
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