Hello there, all: I’m Mike Nichols, and you’re going to be seeing a lot more of me, as I’ve joined the legions of recappers, reviewers, and columnists at Inside Pulse as a boxing/MMA reviewer.
So we start today with UFC 67: All or Nothing. As I’m sure everyone knows, this card was originally supposed to be the payoff for season 4 of The Ultimate Fighter, with the show’s welterweight winner, Matt Serra, going up against the new welterweight champion, Georges St. Pierre, while the show’s middleweight winner, Travis Lutter, took on the new middleweight champ, Anderson Silva.
Of course, that was completely shot to hell as St. Pierre injured his knee during training and pulled out of the fight, leaving us with Silva vs. Lutter as the main event. So with this in mind, we start the show live from the Mandalay Bay casino in beautiful Las Vegas, Nevada.
Our hosts are Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan, and right off the bat, they drop a bombshell: Lutter has failed to make weight for tonight’s fight, coming in just over the acceptable one-pound deviation. Anderson Silva, peachy all-around guy that he is, has agreed to take the fight anyway, but the main event is now non-title. Not the best way to start the card off, really.
Since we had a chance to review all of the fights on the card last night, I’m going to list them in the order in which they happened, not in the order that they were shown on the pay-per-view. So just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show.
Jorge Rivera vs. Terry Martin:
One of the more endearing fighters on The Ultimate Fighter’s season 4, Rivera’s coming off a quick stoppage win over Edwin Dewees and looking to make himself a player in the middleweight division again. Martin, on the other hand, is hanging on for dear life, having dropped down to 185 for this fight after ugly knockout losses to James Irvin and Jason Lambert.
1st Round: Herb Dean brings both guys together, and we’re off. Rivera snaps off a leg kick, then throws a kick to Martin’s ribs; Martin, not playing nice, catches Rivera’s foot underneath his arm and holds it there. Rivera hops around awkwardly on one leg for a minute, and then Martin absolutely destroys him with a right hand to the side of the head, crumpling him to the mat. Martin nails him twice more on the ground before Herb mercifully stops the fight. Before I can even finish writing my notes down, the fight is over.
The Verdict: A huge win for Martin, who needed one badly: knocking out a tough and seasoned vet like Rivera in 14 seconds can only look good on a young fighter’s resume. On the other hand, a crushing loss for Rivera, who was looking to move back into title contention. He had to be the heavy favorite going in and ended up getting creamed.
Say what you will about Herb Dean’s quick trigger, but he was definitely right to stop it when he did.
Tyson Griffin vs. Frankie Edgar: As Goldberg tells us, this is a fight between two up-and-coming wrestlers, which elicits groans from our pay-per-view audience as visions of early Rashad Evans or Josh Koscheck fights dance in our heads.
Griffin enters to ‘Eye of the Tiger,’ which immediately makes Edgar the favorite in our group; to compound our growing dislike of him, Griffin has “Ground and Pound†written across the back of his tights, prompting one-liners from every corner of the room. Did I mention that we’d been drinking for a couple of hours by the time this fight came on?
1st Round: Steve Mazzagatti brings the fighters together to start, and they come out trading right away—essentially the opposite of what we thought was going to happen. Griffin gets the better of that, leading Edgar to clinch, which Griffin punches his way out of.
In what would become a recurring theme for the fight, Griffin throws a lazy low kick, which Edgar catches and sweeps out to take Griffin down. Still, Griffin pops back up and pulls out a sweet takedown of his own, but nothing comes of it and Maz brings them back to their feet.
Griffin decides that now would be the time to land that pesky low kick, and Edgar catches it, so the round ends with Griffin on his back and Edgar fighting through half-guard. Again, this fight has proven to be roughly a thousand times more exciting than we thought.
2nd Round: Both fighters come out trading combinations again, and again Griffin gets the better of it, landing a huge uppercut and literally launching Edgar into the fence. Holding onto the cage like his life depended on it, Edgar fends off a takedown attempt; Griffin then moves to clinch, but Edgar just shoves him off.
Lather, rinse, repeat: Griffin throws another low kick, which Edgar catches and turns into a takedown. Back on their feet, Griffin finally starts nailing his leg kicks, one of which (everyone say it with me) Edgar catches and turns into a takedown. With both fighters back to their feet again, Griffin finally scores a takedown on Edgar, but Edgar reverses on the ground and slides into full mount.
For those of you who don’t know, “full mount†means that the fighter on top has managed to get his entire body over his opponent’s waist and is now essentially sitting on his downed opponent’s stomach, leaving the fighter on top with clear shots at his opponent’s head and the poor SOB on the ground with only his hands to defend his head and face, since his legs are now essentially useless. Needless to say, if you’re the guy on the bottom, this is not a position that you want to spend a lot of time in.
For a few seconds, Edgar looks like he’s going to pound Griffin into submission, but Griffin finally wriggles out, and that’s the round. Yet another exciting round of aggression, counters, and reversals, and the fight’s still up in the air.
3rd Round: Griffin opens up with a flurry of leg kicks, and surprisingly, Edgar doesn’t actually catch any of them. Edgar keeps throwing punches but missing; he runs forward to knee Griffin in the stomach but nails him square in the balls instead, which Maz completely misses. Edgar tries to take that opportunity to finish the fight, taking Griffin down, but Griffin ties him up and Maz restarts both fighters on their feet.
Edgar scores yet another takedown on Griffin, but he escapes and both men end up on their feet again. Having still not learned his lesson, Griffin throws another kick, and I think we all know what happens next.
This time, though, it’s a little different: as soon as Edgar takes Griffin down, Griffin grabs a kneebar, straightens it out, and just starts wrenching on Edgar’s leg. Everyone in the room howls in empathetic agony as Griffin just cranks away at Edgar’s knee, but Edgar finally rolls out, and the horn sounds to end the fight.
The judges announce Edgar as the winner by unanimous decision, but as the cliché goes, the fans were the real winners here.
The Verdict: Easily the best fight of the night, this was a fantastic match between two guys who went out there to make a name for themselves. There were points where both fighters could have legitimately ended the fight (Edgar’s full mount ground-and-pound, Griffin’s nasty kneebar); on the other hand, both fighters showed remarkable poise and toughness in managing to extricate themselves from those situations.
Edgar rightfully came out the winner, and hopefully moved himself up the pecking order at 155. While Griffin lost the fight, I can’t imagine that losing a fight like this is going to damage his MMA career. Frankly, I can’t wait to see both of these guys again soon.
Scott Smith vs. Patrick Cote: Smith is coming off his amazing last-ditch knockout win over Pete Sell at the Ultimate Fighter finale, which leads our host, Steve, to refer to him throughout the fight as the “Miracle Punch Guy.†At 0-4 on his UFC career, Cote desperately needs a win, having been on the business end of a one-way beating at the hands of Travis Lutter on the same card.
1st Round: Cote comes out throwing leg kicks; Smith, after a lot of circling, finally lands a sharp combination and a high kick. They clinch, and Smith fires off another quick punch combo. Smith pushes Cote into the cage, ties him up, and lands a couple of quick elbows in the clinch. He tries to knee Cote in the head, but Cote grabs his leg and gets a huge slam takedown, finally waking the crowd up.
Cote lands a couple of punches through Smith’s guard, but Smith pops right back up to his feet, and the horn sounds to end the round.
Seriously—that’s all the action there was in the five minutes of the first round. For a fight between two experienced stand-up brawlers, this is flatlining very quickly.
2nd Round: Cote tries a Superman punch right away, but Smith slips it and nails him with a quick combination. They clinch, where Cote tries to knee Smith a couple of times, but nothing happens and the ref separates them. Cote nails Smith with a left, knocking him back, and then stutter-steps four or five times, faking punches. Smith counters that by holding out the Daniel LaRusso crane pose to mock him.
I’m not kidding, you know: a UFC fighter actually pulled out the crane pose in the middle of a fight. Sadly enough, it was probably the best moment of the fight.
Both men circle and the crowd, visibly restless, begins to boo. Making only Joe Rogan happy, Cote throws a few more leg kicks, and the horn sounds to end the round. No one—and I mean no one—in the arena is pleased.
3rd Round: Both fighters are still very tentative, but Smith finally throws a nasty jab combination, follows it up with a sharp kick to the ribs, and then tries to take Cote down against the cage. Cote breaks free, and they go back to circling, occasionally missing each other with jabs and pissing the crowd off even further.
With yet another lull in the action, Goldberg takes the opportunity to score in the first subtle burn of the night, calling the fighters “two men not concerned at all about exchanging tonight.â€
With three minutes left in the round, Cote gets off a sharp combination, but nothing comes of it. With 10 seconds left, Smith nails Cote with a nasty one-two against the cage, but Cote clinches, effectively ending the fight. Cote wins by majority decision, but we’re all winners, because the fight is mercifully over.
The fans greet Cote’s post-match interview with a chorus of boos, to which Cote responds, “Thank you to all of the people who are booing me tonight. I’ll be back so you can boo me again.â€
Don’t be so sure, Patrick.
The Verdict: On paper, everything about this fight appeared interesting: two experienced stand-up fighters, familiar with each other and both needing a win to really kick-start their careers, leading off a big-money pay-per-view. But as we all learned, appearances can be deceiving.
Impartially, I understand Cote’s game plan; he needed a win to stay in the UFC, and he knew that Smith had one-punch knockout power, so he didn’t really want to risk ending up flat on his back. Solid strategy, however, does not always make for an exciting fight, and no one was remotely happy with how this fight ended.
For Smith’s part, he didn’t really look any worse than Cote. Enough people remember his spectacular fight with Sell that he’ll get another shot at some point, but this could have been a great opportunity for him to advance with a big win or just an exciting fight. Instead, we got neither. Oh, well.
Joe Rogan and his Kurt Warner-esque five o’clock shadow pimp “Rampage†Jackson to the viewing audience, which leads into:
Quinton “Rampage†Jackson vs. Marvin Eastman: Eastman is ridiculously jacked, but Rampage gets the crowd chanting leading to his trademark ring entrance. Bruce Buffer’s pre-match intros are a gift from God, if only because we get to hear him read off the virtues of Mickey’s Fine Malt Liquor, as anyone who ever went to college or grew up in Boston can attest.
1st Round: Both guys come out throwing and looking to impress. They clinch, where Eastman throws a knee, but no one gets a definite advantage. While both guys stay locked in a clinch, the entire room discusses the possibility of Eastman getting a submission by forcing his opponent to motorboat his enormous pecs. By the way, most of the group that I’m watching this with had been playing drinking games for an hour beforehand.
They break the clinch and trade a little more: Rampage nails Eastman with a four-punch combo, but Eastman clinches to save himself. After Big John forces a break, Rampage snaps Eastman’s head back with a left hook/ right uppercut combo to close the round. Everyone’s a little cautious, but there’s still some promise for this fight.
2nd Round: Both fighters circle for a little, then open up on each other. Rampage immediately starts getting the better of that, and Eastman forces a clinch. From the clinch, Rampage slips his right arm inside of Eastman’s left arm and absolutely destroys Eastman with a series of uppercuts.
By the seventh straight uppercut, the fight’s over. Eastman’s out before he hits the ground.
The Verdict: To be fair, Eastman held his own in the first round. Once Rampage got through his early-match jitters, though, he dominated the striking and got a relatively painless win.
Eastman was brought in so that Rampage could avenge an earlier loss and look good in doing so; for his part, he did that well.
As for Rampage, we didn’t see much of his trademark wrestling skills, but he showed some quick, powerful striking, and so the night wasn’t a total loss. Besides, with all of the pre-fight hype, the only way that Rampage could have lived up to expectations would have been a one-punch knockout followed by him walking on water and announcing that he’d discovered a cure for cancer.
Still, Rampage made fans of everyone in the room when, while narrating the replay of his seven consecutive uppercuts in the post-match interview, he said, “I love Marvin—I mean, he’s my brother and all—but it’s time for black-on-black crime, you know?â€
Roger Huerta vs. John Halverson: Huerta’s being groomed as another Next Big Thing in the UFC, while Halverson’s making his debut. We comment on everyone’s tattoos—Halverson has the generic “there’s something pretty edgy about me†package, while Huerta has a massive shoulder tat—and decide to back Huerta.
1st Round: Huerta immediately takes Halverson down, and while Halverson is on all fours, Huerta crushes him with a running knee to the shoulder. Honestly, the initial replays looked like Huerta had kneed him in the head while he was down, which is illegal in the UFC.
In any case, Halverson collapses face down on the mat, and Huerta easily hops on his back and punches him in the head until the ref stops the fight. Just like that, it’s over.
Joe Rogan hops into the Octagon and confronts Huerta about the possible knee to the head. Huerta insists that he kneed him in the shoulder, and finally some reverse angles appear to back his side of the story.
The Verdict: Not technically a great fight, but certainly entertaining. Illegal or not, this was a huge win for Huerta. As for Halverson, I’m not sure whether he’s going to be back after this kind of showing.
Mirko “Cro Cop†Filipovic vs. Eddie Sanchez: Sanchez does his sacrificial walk to the ring, prompting various “dead man walking†comments from around the room. Strangely enough, Cro Cop enters to some slightly bizarre Euro-type circus music. (2/5/07: As everyone and their cousin has mentioned since Saturday night, this was the theme music for PRIDE, Cro Cop’s former employers. I feel like a complete ass.) Everyone around the room also mentions Cro Cop’s (ahem) lack of modesty in regards to his very tight half-Croatian flag spandex. Seriously, dude—cover your junk.
1st Round: Sanchez comes out flailing, but Cro Cop calmly smacks him with a left jab, then a jab/cross combination. Taking the center of the ring easily, Cro Cop stalks Sanchez around the ring; Sanchez is walking right into Cro Cop’s punches and throwing wild hooks that aren’t landing in return.
Finally, Cro Cop opens up with his legendary kicks, shifting Sanchez’s ribs twice in about 15 seconds. He then pulls out a nasty leg kick that serves two purposes: 1.) it has everyone in the audience oohing and aahing, and 2.) it puts the absolute fear of God into Sanchez. There’s no way that he’s getting out of this alive, and the kid knows it.
The beginning of the end: Cro Cop wobbles Sanchez with a huge head kick, then puts him down with a sick left hook. He mounts Sanchez and throws a few punches until the ref stops the fight.
In the post-fight interview, Filipovic adds insult to injury, chiding Sanchez for what he called “running away.†Can you blame the kid?
The Verdict: This was essentially The Terminator set in a UFC octagon. The entire fight was Cro Cop emotionlessly stalking poor Sanchez, who, like anyone in a Terminator movie, threw everything but the kitchen sink at Cro Cop but couldn’t even slow him down.
Sanchez was right: this was a win-win for him: if he lost, he was expected to lose; if he won, he’d have beaten a legend. Back to the drawing board for Sanchez, I guess.
As for Cro Cop, it’s hard to imagine a better debut for the guy. With Brandon Vera in limbo due to contract issues and Andrei Arlovski out of the picture as long as Sylvia has the belt, Cro Cop should be getting a title shot very soon. If I were Tim Sylvia, I’d be peeing my pants right now.
Anderson Silva vs. Travis Lutter: Silva’s coming off his evisceration of Rich Franklin for the title, while Lutter tied Patrick Cote in knots to get this fight. As Mike and Joe mentioned at the beginning of the fight, Lutter failed to make weight, which makes this a non-title bout. The general consensus is that Lutter has the decisive edge on the ground, but that Silva is still the favorite for the fight.
Continuing the night’s theme of mismatched entrance music, Lutter—a native of South Dakota and a resident of Houston, Texas—plays some odd house music that seems like it might be better suited to an aerobics class as he heads to the ring. Silva, on the other hand, instantly endears himself to us by heading down to Redman’s “Time 4 Sum Aksion.â€
1st Round: Not wasting time, Lutter shoots in right away, but Silva slides out. Silva connects with a sharp high kick and then tries to throw a high knee, but Lutter catches his leg and takes him down nicely. Silva keeps a strong guard and eventually kicks Lutter off, but Lutter takes him down again right away. Lutter struggles through Silva’s guard, then passes into side control and eventually into full mount.
From there, Lutter starts raining down punches: for a second, it looks like the champ is in serious trouble, but Silva wraps his long legs around Lutter’s shoulders, slides out, and reverses Lutter to the bottom.
Not wanting any more of this ground nonsense, Silva gets to his feet. Lutter doesn’t follow, so Silva kicks him square in the ass a couple of times to end the round.
Not a bad round for Lutter: he’s basically taking Silva down at will, but he still hasn’t been able to administer to the coup de grace and now looks gassed on his stool from all of his efforts to cut weight.
2nd Round: Again, Lutter takes Silva down straightaway and jumps into his guard. From the bottom, Silva kicks Lutter square in the face, then snatches his arm forward and locks in a tight triangle. Lutter struggles for the better part of a minute, but then taps out.
The Verdict: Silva pulls together a fairly slick win after everyone said that he’d be completely outclassed on the ground. Who’s next for “The Spider?†Personally, I’d like to see him get in there with Mike Swick.
Lutter, on the other hand, had Silva exactly where he wanted him, but couldn’t put him away. In all fairness, he did look pretty drained from having to cut weight; for that, though, he has no one to blame but himself.
Final Verdict: This wasn’t necessarily a bad card per se, but it suffers badly in comparison to the last two cards that the UFC has presented. Some of that was just poor luck (St. Pierre’s injury), some of it was poor planning (Lutter’s weight), and some of it was just poor fighting (Smith/Cote).
With the exception of Edgar/Griffin, the card was short on technically sound fights. On the other hand, it was long on serious beatdowns—which are entertaining in their own right—in the form of the wins by Martin, Huerta, Rampage, and Cro Cop.
In the long run, we’ll probably remember this card more for who debuted more than who fought, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that we didn’t have fun watching it.
Anyone with opinions, comments, or humorous anecdotes, please feel free to share them with me at fight_reviews@yahoo.com. Otherwise, I’ll see you soon here on Inside Fights.
