UFC 82 - The Aftermath

Well MMA fight fans you could not say that this event was a disappointment. What a fight card! On the surface it did not have near the number of "headline" fights of others past UFC events, but except for the Herring-Kongo fight all of them seemed to leave me satisfied with the $40 investment. Maybe 2008 will be what 2007 could have been, which is a year of tremendous MMA fights. You would have thought that since most of the good PRIDEFC fighters came to the UFC in 2007 that there would have been a ton of great fights. The reality was that most of the great fighters were already in the UFC and the PRIDEFC fighters were either over hyped or overly dependent on Roger Clemens' trainer for performance enhancing "lidocaine." Enough of my soapbox and on to the review.

Fight Night @ The Beach Award Winners:

* Best Fight Award: Chris Leben vs. Alessio Sakara
* Worst Fight Award: Heath Herring vs. Cheik Kongo
* Chuck Norris Award: Anderson Silva
* Over-Hyped Award: Cheik Kongo
* "Who Was That" Award: Dustin Hazelett
* "I Got Jacked Up" Award: Evan Tanner

UFC 82 Results (Main Card):

1. Anderson Silva def. Dan Henderson, submission (rear naked choke), 4:52 R2

My Pick: Dan Henderson by TKO in 3rd Rd - wishful thinking...

This fight was great, if you were an Anderson Silva fan. The Spider looked awesome and even though I have never considered him the best pound for pound fighter, I will have to admit my opinion is slowly changing. Admittedly, I picked Henderson to win this fight and after the first round I was feeling like that was a great pick, but boy was I wrong. It was not even close. In the second round Silva completely outclassed Henderson in all aspects. He was better standing up and on the ground. His superior striking forced Henderson to try and pull guard at which point Silva choked him out with his superior BJJ skills.

Bottom line: Anderson Silva is truly the undisputed best middleweight on the planet. Who's next? Probably Yushin Okami, but I just don't think it will be very competitive. Yushin is big, strong and very good, but unfortunately for him Silva is looking like the "Roy Jones Jr." of the UFC - which means another successful title defense for The Spider.

2. Heath Herring def. Cheick Kongo, split decision

My Pick: Kongo by decision...I should have listened to my gut rather than all of the HYPE

Disappointing - that is the best word to describe my thoughts on this fight. Who would have thought that Cheik Kong (the man who out-struck Cro-Cop) would decide to take the fight to the ground? I mean that is possibly the dumbest strategy of the night. I really believed that Kongo would win this fight. I like Herring, but after watching him give the Nogueira fight away I just figured he would come in out of shape and a bit "washed up." Maybe Kongo figured that Herring would give him the fight too? Not sure, but Kongo just seemed to have no desire to stand with Herring and then found himself completely confused when he was on his back. In the end, Herring's control and dominance in the final round seemed to lock up the win for him.

Bottom Line: Kongo looked like he had never fought in the octagon and Herring looked like he was actually motivated to win. I think if we see Herring like this in another fight against Nogueira then we may have another title change in the Heavyweight division.

P.S. - Dana keeps saying the heavyweight division is loaded, but I still think the best guys are over 40 and/or not even fighting in the UFC (Couture and Fed0r). In addition, with the collapse of Arlovski, Cro-Cop and Tim Sylvia this division is suffering. Brock Lesnar has potential, but is at least a year (or two) and a few more fights away from actually competing for a championship. Until then, the heavyweight division is lame and not very interesting.

3. Chris Leben def. Alessio Sakara, TKO, 3:16 R1

My Pick: Leben by TKO in 2nd Rd - I was almost perfect with this one

This was my favorite fight of the entire PPV. The Crippler is back and in a big way. I am a huge Chris Leben fan and it is not because he is the best fighter, but it is because he actually comes to fight. This fight did not last long, but in typical Leben style it was full of action. Most of the fight was actually controlled by Sakara. He actually looked pretty good. His striking was more precise than Leben's. Sakara landed more shots and actually rocked the hard headed Leben on several occasions. However, Leben's constant moving forward style allowed him to land incredibly damaging shots even while he was being hammered by Sakara. After being knocked around for most of the round, Leben finally caught Sakara with a left hook right to the temple which buckled Sakara's knees and ultimately led to the TKO. Even though Sakara seemed to be frustrated by the decision to stop the fight, he was clearly not defending himself and Leben was teeing off - which is a very bad combination.

Bottom Line: Leben seems to be back and is absolutely focused on what the fans want to see - "Slangin' and Bangin." Leben is probably not much of a threat to the middleweight crown, but he sure is exciting and you know in this sport a good striker always has a slugger's chance. Good luck Chris!

4. Yushin Okami def. Evan Tanner, KO (knee), 3:00 R2

My Pick: Okami by KO in 2nd Rd - Right on the money

OVER MATCHED - Evan Tanner should stay retired or whatever he was. This sport has passed him by. There was a day when Evan Tanner could compete, but now the 185 lb. class is better, bigger and stronger - which spells problems for an over achieving Tanner. I have never thought of Tanner has an overly gifted fighter, but his hard work and hustle has been a good formula for success in the past. However, you need more than hard work and hustle nowadays to be truly competitive. This fight was about as lopsided as the Silva-Henderson fight. Okami was not only bigger and stronger, but he was just outright better. His strikes were sharper and more damaging, while Tanner seemed to really be struggling to inflict any damage. Eventually it was powerful knee to Tanner's chin that dropped him like a hot bag of turds.

Bottom Line: Okami finally got a KO finish in the UFC and appears to finally positioned for a title fight. Tanner needs to retire or maybe fight somewhere else, like EXC or WEC where he could still be competitive.

5. Jon Fitch def. Chris Wilson, unanimous decision

My Pick: Fitch by decision...Right once again!!

Chris Wilson gave John Fitch all he could handle. Chris Wilson seemed to definitively win the first round. His striking was far superior in that round, but Fitch stepped it up in the next 2 rounds to grind out the win. Fitch is definitely a talented fighter and will be a tough fight for most, but given what I have seen so far it is hard for me to understand why everyone keeps saying he is the top contender in the welterweight division. He has beaten some pretty decent fighters, but he has not impressed me yet. He has a tendency to fight like Koscheck and Rashad Evans, which is not a compliment. Those guys all seem to eventually get their opponent on the ground and then lay on top with the allusion of "controlling the fight." This really annoys me and I would love to see Fitch show some finishing skills and end his fights.

Bottom Line: Fitch will more than likely get a shot at the winner of the GSP-Serra title fight. If I am right, then that would mean he fights GSP and while I believe it would be a more competitive fight than GSP-Koscheck, the outcome will be the same - GSP winning and successfully defending his title for the first time. So all in all I think he is basically a forgettable fighter with good skills.

6. Josh Koscheck def. Dustin Hazelett, TKO, 1:24 R2

My Pick: Hazelett by decision...totally based on my hope and general hatred for Koscheck

Wow...many things about this fight were interesting to me, the first of which being this kid Dustin Hazelett. He looked awesome for 21 years old and had an answer for everything Koscheck tried (except for the head kick). Koscheck was not effective at taking Hazelett down and seemed to eat a lof of leather in the process. Hazelett's problem was (I think) his over confidence. While I am the first to bash Koscheck, I will also state for the record that I think Hazelett's overconfidence was a serious problem in this fight. He did not protect himself well, and got caught by a head kick to the right ear. However, even though he lost, Hazelett's striking and BJJ ground game were very impressive. In complete fairness to Koscheck, I will admit he looked as good in this fight as I have seen him look in a fight. Koscheck was actually trying to do something besides take down and lay on top of his opponent. Maybe I would like Koscheck more if he sticks to fighting first-timers that don't know how to really compete in the UFC yet. Could be his niche?yu

Bottom Line: Hazelett looked great and should have an awesome future with his good balance of solid striking and awesome ground game. Koscheck should keep fighting with an agressive and "strike first" mentality and stop tyring to only out-wrestle his opponents. We get it - you are a great wrestler, but now let's focus on becoming a great MMA fighter.

Remaining Undercard Fight Results:

7. Jorge Gurgel def. John Halverson, unanimous decision
My Pick: Jorge Gurgel by decision

8. Diego Sanchez def. David Beilkheden, submission (strikes)
My Pick: Diego Sanchez by submission in R2

9. Luigi Fioravanti def. Luke Cummo, unanimous decision
My Pick: Luigi Fioravanti by TKO in R3

10. Andrei Arlovski def. Jake O'Brien, TKO, 4:17 R2
My Pick: Andrei Arlovski by decision

Wrap Up

Great card, great fights and tremendous talent pool that seems to be ever increasing in all divisions, except for the heavyweight division where it appears to be actually shrinking. You know it must be pretty bad when the answer to losing Couture is to bring back a washed up Mark Coleman and have him fight the lone hope for the UFC heavyweight division, Brock Lesnar. I don't think anyone has been submitted by a neck crank since Coleman did that in the Pride Grand Prix back in 2000. With that said I would give Coleman a 1% chance to beat Lesnar, but just when I thought nobody in the UFC gets submitted by leg locks anymore then came the Mir-Lesnar fight. Maybe Coleman can pull out the ole' neck crank and get one more win for his Hall of Fame career.

My overall record was 7-3 in this event, but the real upside was that I actually called the round right in several of the fights.

Keep in mind that the next UFC Fight Night is coming up on April 2nd. This looks like it could be the best UFC Fight Night ever. I can't wait.

Article Source: http://MMAWriters.com

Please Rate this Article

# of Ratings = 1 | Rating = 5/5