After last Saturday’s ridiculous PRIDE event, I was seriously looking to be underwhelmed by UFC 68. Three former champions were fighting: Matt Hughes (Welterweight), Rich Franklin (Middleweight), and Randy Couture (Light Heavyweight and Heavyweight). Honestly, Matt Hughes and Rich Franklin are both amazing and deadly fighters, so I won’t go too far into the fact that the UFC fed them cans to get them back on the road to contendership. The real gem of this evening was the main event. Randy Couture came out of a 1 year retirement after losing the Light Heavyweight belt to Chuck Liddell for one reason, to beat Tim Sylvia (the Heavyweight champion at the time). Tim is 6′8″ tall, 265 lbs, and a really REALLY boring fighter. He is the epitome of the cautious fighter using everything he can to win without actually putting himself in any risk. He can afford to do that with his incredible height and reach. The casual MMA fan may say, ‘What’s wrong with doing what you can to win?’ The answer is, absolutely nothing. However, this is a combat sport. You should have to FIGHT to win a match. Tim Sylvia will just peck away with crappy jabs knowing his opponents aren’t big enough to swing back or get in for the takedown. Then the judges have to give him the win due to the lack of real action happening. Randy Couture was tired of it too. Randy is 43 years old, 6′2″ and weighs about 220 lbs. He is one of the best and most popular fighters to grace the sport for sure, but with ‘jab-a-thon’ Tim fighting, it was hard to pick Randy for the win. Especially since this was his first fight out of retirement and the fact he was coming off to a bad loss to Chuck.

Anyway, here are some thoughts about the few fights I cared about:

Renato Sobral VS Jason Lambert: This fight really surprised me. Sobral is (was) considered one of the best Light Heavyweights in the world, easily being in the top ten. Jason Lambert is no slouch either though with his healthy record in the octagon. Sobral has fantastic BJJ and finishes most of his fights via submission while Lambert is definitely more of a striker. Honestly, I called this one for Sobral, but it was not to be. OUTCOME: Middle of round 2, Lambert finishes ‘Babalu’ via KO (punches). Great fight for Lambert though. Now he needs to get his revenge on Rashad Evans and he will become a true Light Heavyweight contender.

Matt Hughes VS Chris Lytle: This was Matt’s first fight after the devastating loss to Georges St. Pierre and his first NOT being champion in a very long time. He was by far the most dominating champion in UFC history during his reign and he has said he wants his belt back. Chris Lytle is a TUF runnerup. That’s honestly all I can say about him. He’s a good boxer, but has always gotten tooled by top competition. Matt Hughes did what Matt Hughes does best. He took his opponent down, got a dominant position, and beat on him the entire fight. Lytle made 5-6 really sloppy guillotine attempts, but none of them were deep. However, Lytle did a great job defending while in bad positions. OUTCOME: Matt Hughes wins via decision. A lot of people attribute the decision victory to Matt’s unwillingness to finish the fight. I don’t think that’s the case to be honest. Say what you want about Hughes, but he consistently finishes fights. The fact that he won by decision really points to Lytle being good at defending.

Rich Franklin VS Jason Macdonald: Rich Franklin got DECIMATED by Anderson Silva during his last fight and lost the middleweight belt. He wanted this fight bad. It was going to be interesting to see how he would fare during his first fight after. He is a good striker, has good submissions, and is generally very big for 185 lbs. MacDonald is a good submission wrestler with really good cardio. This happened exactly like I thought. OUTCOME: Rich Franklin via TKO round 2 (MacDonald’s corner actually threw in the towel between rounds 2 and 3). Franklin took him down, got in a good position and pummeled him. It was good to see Rich back in form. Lets hope he can bring something into his rematch with Silva.

Randy Couture VS Tim Sylvia: Oh sweet Captain America. Tim is much bigger, taller, and heavier than Randy, and is generally thought of to be a better striker. Randy on the other hand is an amazing greco-style wrestler and is known for takedowns and ground-and-pound. I called this fight for Sylvia via boring 5 round decision, but was planning on cheering for Randy and hoping for something different. OUTCOME: WOW! Randy DOMINATED Sylvia. He out-boxed him, took him down at will, got good position, and really did some major damage. Couture wins by decision in one of the coolest matches I have ever seen. Go Captain America! Sylvia of course spouted some nonsense about an injury coming into the fight, but I was too happy to care about whatever excuses he made. Randy Couture at 43 years old is the new UFC Heavyweight Champion of the world.

2007 is shaping out to be a fantastic year for MMA.

The best way to describe Saturday evening’s PRIDE event is this: Un-freaking-believable.

First of all, this card is stacked by some really big names. The main event featuring two current title holders, Dan Henderson (Welterweight champ) and Wanderlei Silva (Middleweight champ) with the Middleweight belt on the line. Some of the best fighters in the world in all divisions were competing that night and honestly, I expected a bunch of one-sided slaughtering due to most of the good fighters fighting cans. This was most definitely not the case and I ended up seeing some of the best underdog victories in MMA history. Here is what I am talking about:

Frank Trigg VS. Kazuo Misaki: This was the second fight of the night. Frank Trigg is currently known for two things. He is the English-language color commentator for PRIDE, and he loses constantly via the rear naked choke submission. Words cannot express my true hatred for Frank Trigg. He is a horrible horrible commentator and says things that constantly make me angry. Misaki is an amazing Welterweight and the winner of the last PRIDE Welterweight Grand Prix championship. This means he won a tournament featuring the best Welterweights in the world. He even beat Dan Hnderson (current Welterweight champion) but did not take the title because of the tournament setting. OUTCOME: Trigg wins an honestly deserved unanimous decision. I wanted him to lose so bad.

Antonio Rogerio Nogueira VS Rameau Thierry Sokoudjou: This was by far the biggest upset of the night. A quick background on Nogueira (lil nog) basically entails that he is one of the best boxers in Brazil, AND a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Black belt (His brother Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira [big nog] is considered one of the top 3 heavyweights in the world, and the best grappler in MMA). Lil nog is also considered to be among the top contenders for the Middleweight belt. Sokoudjou on the other hand, has no background. He’s a judoka. Nobody has ever heard of him before, and most folks considered him a can to be fed to Nogueira on his road to a title shot. OUTCOME: Sokoudjou wins via KO in TWENTY-THREE seconds. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I would honestly say finding a stack of cash on my doorstep when leaving for work in the morning is more likely than the outcome of this fight. This proves anything can happen in MMA.

Takanori Gomi VS Nick Diaz: This was the fight I wanted to see most of all. Gomi is the current PRIDE lightweight champion. He is a great striker, has good cardio, and has beaten the best in his division. Nick Diaz is no slouch either. A pro boxer, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu brown belt, and successful UFC veteran. He is most famous for his childish smack-talking and cursing when doing appearances. Gomi was the clear favorite to win, and I would have bet money on him too. OUTCOME: Diaz wins by GOGOPLATA. Seriously, a gogoplata. Not only this, but he honestly dominated Gomi even when standing. Good for you Nick! Now grow up, stop being a tool, and keep winning fights. Honestly, I do not know why the Lightweight title wasn’t on the line for this fight, but Diaz surely deserved it.

Main Event - Wanderlei Silva VS Dan Henderson: This is a fight that I would have sworn would end one of 3 ways. Wandy by decision, KO, or TKO. This is a meeting between two champions well established in their division as good strikers and have both enjoyed long reigns at the top. Wanderlei is a Chute Boxe veteran and has proven his knees and wild punches truly lethal. He has a killer instinct and is very fun to watch. Henderson has been dubbed ‘Decision Dan’ by some folks, mostly because he wins a lot of fights through the judges. He has been known to throw a heavy right hand. OUTCOME: Henderson wins via KO in the third round! What a slugfest this fight was. I am an instant Dan Henderson fan after his domination of Wanderlei Silva who is considered to be one of the best fighters in the world.

This was one of the best MMA events I have ever had the pleasure of viewing. If you would like to watch some of the fights, contact me and I will try to work something out.