MMA on DVD: UFC 59: Reality Check
The Backstory: Whether you love it or hate it, The Ultimate Fighter reality series was a huge mainstream success for the UFC, introducing legions of casual fans to the sport and making instant celebrities out of the fighters from the show’s first season. One of the original cast’s most popular members was the self-effacing, clever light-heavyweight Forrest Griffin, whose standup war with Stephan Bonnar in the first season finale gave the show far more credibility than any Nielsen ratings could have.
Of course, purists gagged at the idea that these younger fighters had the skills and toughness of their more experienced counterparts, so after Griffin beat the dangerous veteran Elvis Sinosic, the UFC decided to conduct a little experiment. They set up a fight between the entertaining Griffin and returning UFC legend Tito Ortiz, who’d sat out almost all of 2005 in a contract dispute. Ortiz, long considered one of the best 205-pounders in the world, would be one hell of a measuring stick for Griffin’s progress.
In the other main event, heavyweight Tim Sylvia had earned his long-awaited rematch with heavyweight champion and human wrecking ball Andrei Arlovski. Arlovski had won his last six fights (five by knockout) and had forced Sylvia to submit after just 47 seconds in their first matchup. For his part, Sylvia had scored a highlight-reel knockout of Tra Telligman and gutted out a tough decision win over Assuerio Silva to earn his rematch.
–Live from the Mandalay Bay Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 16, 2006.
–Your hosts, as always, are Mike Goldberg and Joe Rogan.
Thiago Alves vs. Derrick Noble: Noble, making his UFC debut, had forced Alves to submit to a rear naked choke in a 2003 fight, so Alves is looking for sweet, sweet revenge.
Round 1: Noble comes out firing, landing a quick jab/cross combination, which Alves responds to with a leg kick. They clinch, and Alves starts firing knees into Noble’s midsection; Noble breaks free, but Alves pops him with a couple of jabs. Noble snaps off a leg kick, and Alves returns the favor with one of his own, which causes Joe to go into his patented soliloquy about the importance of leg kicks in mixed martial arts.
Noble lands a strong right hand to Alves’s head, and Alves counters with a jab/cross combination that lands flush and a high kick that Noble blocks. Noble throws a high kick that Alves blocks but then lands a leg kick; Alves lands a leg kick of his own but Noble ignores it and bumrushes him with a sharp four-punch volley. Alves backs Noble off with a straight right cross, but then whiffs on a leg kick, which allows Noble to smack him with a sharp punch combination. Noble shifts Alves’s ribs with a couple of quick kicks, then shoves him to the fence and starts throwing hard hooks to Alves’s body and head.
Going berserk, Noble lands about 15 unanswered shots to Alves’s face and ribcage, brilliantly alternating every three punches or so. Alves is obviously hurt, as he wilts, covers up, and hangs on for dear life, but Noble can’t land the big knockout blow. Alves works back up to his feet, with his back on the cage for support. As Noble comes in for the kill, he leaves his chin up, and Alves tattoos him completely out of nowhere with a nasty right cross right on the jaw, putting him flat on his back. Alves then jumps on top of Noble and lands about five unanswered shots before Mario Yamasaki finally stops the fight.
The Verdict: Whenever I explain MMA to someone who has never seen it before, I always mention that all it takes is one small mistake to lose a fight because these fighters are all so skilled. This is a great example of that. My old boxing coaches would go on for hours about the importance of keeping your chin down at all times; as both Noble and Pete Sell have shown us this year, they may have had a point.
It’s too bad that this was a dark match; this kind of opener always gets the pay-per-view audience amped. Alves was losing on the scorecard, but definitely showed both heart and chin in weathering the storm; Noble, on the other hand, was showing off some fantastic precision striking before getting caught with the big counterpunch. Hopefully, the UFC will give him another opportunity somewhere down the line.
Terry Martin vs. Jason Lambert: Martin was trying to recover from a flash knockout loss to James Irvin at UFC 55, while Lambert was last seen easily submitting Rob MacDonald at UFC 58.
Round 1: Martin comes out firing, landing three or four quick hooks to the head; Lambert, having seen quite enough of that, quickly clinches. From the clinch, Lambert starts throwing knees and rabbit punches to the body, but Martin gets free and rips off six or seven hooks to the head and body, and Lambert, reeling, clinches to stay upright.
Both men roll around the fence in the clinch, trying to get an advantage, and Lambert knees Martin in the ribs and quads. Martin smashes an elbow into Lambert’s head and manages to free himself for an instant before Lambert ties him up again. Both fighters try uppercuts from the clinch, but Big John steps in, separates them, and restarts.
Lambert misses a high kick, both fighters clinch, and Martin takes Lambert down. Lambert, bleeding from the forehead, scores a sharp elbow from the bottom and almost locks in an oma plata, but Martin squirms loose, knees Lambert in the ass a couple of times, then tries to get through his guard again. Lambert does a great job of blocking and rolling away from Martin’s punches, and the round is over.
Martin was the clear winner of the round and dominated everything that was pure standup, while Lambert was obviously much more comfortable on the ground. If Martin could get free of Lambert’s clinch, he could end it early.
Round 2: Right away, Lambert shoots in for a takedown, but Martin stuffs it. Both men clinch against the cage, as Lambert nails Martin with punches to the body and tries to take him down, but Martin defends well and stays on his feet. Big John restarts both fighters in the center of the ring, and Martin comes out throwing hooks, but Lambert grabs a clinch again. Martin gets a nice single-leg takedown, but Lambert floats over immediately and takes Martin’s back.
He switches Martin’s body into a face-down crucifix. With his body face-down, Martin’s arms are spread straight out from his sides and he can’t use them to protect himself so Lambert starts dropping punches and elbows. Martin tries to power up to his feet, so Lambert takes his back again, wraps his legs over and around Martin’s hips, and flattens him out face-down again. Lambert then slides forward into rear mount and rains seven or eight shots down onto Martin’s unprotected head before Big John stops the fight.
The Verdict: In my UFC 67 review, I mentioned that Martin definitely needed a win to stay in the UFC; of course, this was before I’d actually seen his previous fights. In both of his losses, Martin was fully in control of each fight before abruptly losing, which is more the trademark of an evolving young fighter than the trademark of a prelim bum. Against James Irvin, Martin didn’t tie his opponent up fast enough and ended up getting knocked out; against Lambert, he couldn’t get free long enough to do any major damage with his standup and ended up losing by TKO. Martin definitely has some potential, particularly now that he’s dropped down to 185, where he’s twice as big as someone like Silva or Jason MacDonald.
As for Lambert, he continued to show a lot of positive intangibles, like patience and adaptability. His countermoves to get Martin’s back were excellent, and in the end, he made Martin fight his kind of fight, both in the clinch and on the ground. I imagine he’d be in the running for a title shot if Rashad Evans hadn’t knocked him cold; instead, he’s taking on ‘Babalu’ Sobral at UFC 68 in what should be a make-or-break match for both fighters.
Scott Smith vs. David Terrell: Smith’s making his UFC debut, while Terrell’s back in the octagon for the first time since losing to Evan Tanner in a middleweight title bout.
Round 1: Smith charges in with a right hand, then takes Terrell down. He moves both of them over to the fence, only for Terrell to snatch an armbar as soon as they get there. Terrell straightens it out and Smith looks to be in deep trouble, but he calmly drops Terrell on his head twice to break. Smith climbs back into Terrell’s guard; Terrell gets back to his feet and tries to take Smith down, but Smith stuffs it and goes back into Terrell’s guard. Terrell kicks Smith off and back to his feet, so Smith walks around the prone Terrell for a minute before backing off and letting him up. Both fighters trade nice leg kicks, and then Smith snaps off another quick leg kick. Terrell fires off a nice straight left before shooting in for a takedown; Smith sprawls and gets to his feet, while Terrell grabs a rear waistlock with both men against the cage.
Here’s where the controversy happens: both men are against the cage; Smith is facing the fence, while Terrell is behind him with his hands locked around Smith’s waist. Terrell occasionally knees Smith in the hamstring, but otherwise, nothing’s happening. Marco Lopez, the referee, steps in to call time for a restart, but as soon as he calls time, Terrell takes Smith down. Smith is visibly upset, protesting to Lopez as Terrell takes his back; rather than restart them from their feet, Lopez allows the fight to continue, and Terrell starts raining punches down onto the back of Smith’s head. After several shots, Terrell switches over to a rear naked choke, and Smith has no choice but to tap.
After the fight, Smith is livid, verbally laying into Lopez and then into Terrell. The crowd, thinking that he’s just a sore loser, starts to boo him as Mike and Joe try to figure out why he’s so pissed off.
The Verdict: Smith and His Eminence, Dana White, would go on to tell this story on season 4 of The Ultimate Fighter, and by all evidence, it seems to check out. You can audibly hear Lopez call time and then back away as Terrell takes Smith down.
Was Smith wronged? Absolutely.
Should he have worried more about Terrell taking his back than about Lopez blowing the call? Absolutely.
Controversy notwithstanding, Smith looked pretty good in there against someone who’d knocked out Matt Lindland and whose last fight was a middleweight title shot. Terrell also looked pretty good, but has apparently come down with a variety of ailments (not sure whether this is accurate, or special code for “personal problems”) ever since and hasn’t been able to fight. Overall, this had all of the makings of an entertaining fight that was tragically, or comically, depending on your point of view, cut short.
Smith, of course, would go on to bigger and better things, but you can bet that this isn’t how he wanted his UFC career to start.
Karo Parisyan vs. Nick Thompson: Parisyan’s last fight was a win by unanimous decision over Matt Serra at UFC 53, while Thompson beat Keith Wisniewski by decision in his UFC debut at UFC 56.
Round 1: Right away, Parisyan whiffs on a huge right hook and grins. Thompson responds with a leg kick, both men land nice punches, and Parisyan gets a judo throw for a takedown, just narrowly missing dropping Thompson on his head. Parisyan climbs into Thompson’s half-guard and misses with a couple of punches; getting nothing there, Parisyan stands up, then dives back on top of Thompson with a right hand.
Thompson ties Parisyan up, but he gets back to half-guard; Thompson then almost powers up, but Parisyan forces him back into half-guard. Thompson then tries a kneebar, but Parisyan steps out, jumps back into Thompson’s half-guard, and absolutely pastes him with an elbow. Fighting out of full-guard, Parisyan then pops up, nails Thompson twice with punches, and then misses a third shot. Thompson lands a sharp right from the bottom, which causes Parisyan to get back to his feet and lurk over Thompson’s prone body. After about 15 seconds of building the suspense, he dives back in with another strong right hand, then moves back into Thompson’s half-guard.
Parisyan straightens up and scores with three quick punches, then grabs Thompson’s left leg and stands up; he waits for a few seconds, then dives in and whiffs on a big right hand. Thompson powers up to all fours, so Parisyan punches him in the head a couple of times on the way up. As both of them work their way to their feet, Parisyan grabs a waistlock, but Thompson drops down and snags Parisyan’s ankle, taking him down. Thompson climbs into Parisyan’s guard, looking to finally unleash his first real offense of the night.
This, of course, was not to be: Thompson lands a nice right hand, but Parisyan won’t sit still, sliding out and clinching with Thompson as both men get back to their feet. Thompson manages to knee Parisyan in the head from the clinch, but Parisyan takes him back down with another judo trip. Parisyan climbs back into Thompson’s guard and moves him up against the fence; Thompson starts kicking from the bottom, so Parisyan stands up, waits for an opening, and you guessed it, dives in with a monstrous right hand.
Parisyan passes into side control and then full mount as Thompson is now in serious, serious trouble: Karo snaps off two rights, then a massive right elbow, then three more nasty elbows, which finally bust Thompson open. Thompson, on his last legs, tries to roll away, but Parisyan takes his back and punches him in the head four more times before Thompson taps out.
The Verdict: More of a showcase for Parisyan’s ground-and-pound skills than anything else, this was about as one-sided a match as you could get. I mean, the fight essentially consisted of three different things happening over and over:
1.)Parisyan working through Thompson’s half-guard.
2.)Parisyan, getting tired of messing around with Thompson’s guard, standing up and then diving in with a right hand.
3.)Parisyan landing elbows to Thompson’s face.
As anyone who saw his fight against Diego Sanchez knows, Parisyan’s one hell of a fighter; like a lot of the other 170-pounders, though, he has the misfortune of having to contend in the deepest division in mixed martial arts. Right now, he’s about fifth or sixth in the pecking order (depending on whether BJ Penn decides to stay at 155 or not), but hopefully he’ll get another shot at someone above him before too long.
Thompson hasn’t done anything in the UFC since this fight, but I think he’s doing fairly well for himself in BodogFight.
Marcio “Pe de Pano” Cruz vs. Jeff Monson: Cruz, a multi-time BJJ world champion, was coming off a mild upset win over the returning Frank Mir at UFC 57, while Monson had won by decision on that same card, pushing his winning streak to 14 fights. You know, I read in one of Scott Newman’s reviews that Monson used to fight as a light heavyweight, but I can’t really see how, because even his muscles have muscles.
Surprisingly, Tim Sylvia summed up Monson’s physique best. When asked why he wasn’t able to choke Monson out at UFC 65, Sylvia dryly replied, “It’s pretty tough to choke a guy when he’s got no neck.”
Round 1: Cruz immediately shows improvement in his striking (best described in the Mir fight as “flailing”) when he starts out with a leg kick and a left/right hook combination. Foreshadowing the problems that he’d have against Sylvia, Monson can’t get close enough to reach the much taller Cruz, who lands another sweet leg kick. Cruz snaps off a pair of jabs, and Monson finally scores with a right hand to the face. Again, Cruz scores with his jab, and pulls his head back just as Monson whiffs with the counter.
Monson eats a left jab but gives Cruz one of his own; returning fire, Cruz lands another leg kick and left jab. Monson tries a three-punch combo but can’t get close enough to Cruz’s face to land any of them. Monson whiffs with an overhand right, and Cruz smacks him in response with a left hook. Monson checks Cruz’s leg kick and then scores with a left jab. Both fighters circle and miss punches as the crowd gets a little restless.
Cruz lands a left hook and then a left jab, and Monson misses with a right jab. Monson rushes in for a clinch as Cruz lands a leg kick; both fighters clinch against the cage, then separate. Joe mentions that both fighters’ ground skills (Monson’s a world-renowned submission wrestler) essentially negate each other, as Cruz blocks an overhand right from Monson and counters with a leg kick. Monson walks through another leg kick and pops Cruz on the jaw with a right, then tags him and actually drops him with a strong left jab. Cruz gets back up quickly and clinches, but Monson takes him down. Cruz slides out of Monson’s grip and climbs back to his feet, and they clinch again. From the clinch, Cruz fires off a couple of knees and tries to take Monson down, but Monson falls on top. He tries to worm his way through Cruz’s guard, but Cruz sits up against the cage, then falls back into guard. Cruz wraps Monson up until Big John stands them up again, and Cruz opens up with a leg kick. Mike and Joe note the irony of Monson, who’s 4-0 as a professional boxer, struggling in standup against the far less accomplished Cruz.
Both fighters clinch on the cage, and that’s the round. It’s hard to give anyone an advantage so far: Cruz was effectively landing his jab and scoring more often with punches, but Monson knocked him down and had two takedowns.
Round 2: Cruz jabs Monson to start and follows up with two leg kicks, but Monson rushes him and takes him down. He tries to fight his way through Cruz’s guard, but then thinks better of it and lets him up to his feet. From there, Cruz throws another leg kick, but Monson straightens him up with one sharp left jab, then another. Both fighters jab away, then Monson catches Cruz with a big right hook. The fighters clinch, and Monson pushes Cruz’s head down and smashes him with a knee to the face. Monson gets a front facelock on the ground, lands a couple of knees into Cruz’s shoulders, and heads for Cruz’s back, landing a couple of kidney punches along the way. Cruz tries to lock up Monson’s right arm, but Monson pulls it out and smashes a couple of hammer fists into the back of his head; while Cruz takes a little abuse, this allows him to roll back over into guard, and Monson backs off and lets him up.
Cruz fires off a left jab and right leg kick, then hits another right leg kick as Monson nails him with a right hook to the head, forcing him to clinch, which nothing comes of. Cruz misses a combination but lands a leg kick; in return, Monson starches him with a left jab but misses a right cross, and Cruz clinches. In the clinch, Monson knees Cruz in the leg a few times, but Big John restarts them after a period of relative inactivity.
Both fighters miss jabs, and then Cruz goes to the leg kick. Joe starts making apologies for the boring fight as both fighters clinch and Big John restarts them. Cruz whips off another leg kick, and after a little circling, catches Monson right on the jaw with a straight kick, and follows that with a jab/cross combination. Monson clinches, brings Cruz to all fours, then takes his back, landing three nasty left hooks to the face before the horn sounds to end the round.
You could flip a coin here, though Monson definitely finished the round strongly.
Round 3: Cruz shoots in for a takedown, but Monson sprawls and gets a front facelock. He tries to switch to Cruz’s back, but Cruz squirts out and both men grapple for position as they get back to their feet. Cruz pushes Monson to the cage, and each man tries to nail the other in the clinch. Big John restarts them again, so Cruz palms a jab to Monson’s face. Monson misses with his own jab, and Cruz shoots in for another takedown, which Monson sprawls out of again. Monson grabs another front facelock and knees Cruz in the shoulders, then switches to Cruz’s back as Cruz tries to roll through and onto his back.
Making it to his back, Cruz puts Monson in his guard, but Monson manages to tag him with a right hand to the head. Both men try to land shots from this position, but Big John stands them up again. Both men trade jabs and then clinch; Cruz tries to take him down but Monson sprawls and then climbs into Cruz’s guard. The action stops there as Cruz ties Monson up, which leads Joe to audibly consider this fight as his worst-case scenario: “a boring slapfight.”
Monson tries to land some punches and elbows from the top while Cruz just tries to avoid being hit; the horn finally blows as the crowd politely applauds. Big John raises Monson’s hand, but by now, no one really cares.
The Verdict: If you got tired of reading “Big John restarts them,” then think about how I felt watching this fight; with five restarts, this “fight” had way too much inaction. The first round was decent, but Cruz had no interest in being the aggressor and Monson could never get remotely close enough to hurt the big Brazilian. Either man could have won this fight, but that’s not a compliment here.
For a guy who’s so interesting outside of the octagon, Monson’s put on some of the most boring fights that I’ve ever seen. Between this fight and the abomination that was Monson-Sylvia, that’s 40 minutes of my life that I can’t have back. Let me put it this way: I’m not interested in seeing Monson fight again. If there’s no way that we can avoid another Monson fight, then the UFC should only allow him to fight guys who are under six feet tall.
In losing, Cruz looked light-years better than on his feet than in the Mir fight; unfortunately, he ended up having to fight Andrei Arlovski at UFC 66 and got cold-cocked.
Evan Tanner vs. Justin Levens: Tanner, the former middleweight champ, is coming off a stoppage loss to David Loiseau (back when that used to mean something), while Levens, a protege of Marco Ruas, is making his UFC debut.
Round 1: Both fighters circle to start, and Levens tries to throw a leg kick while Tanner rushes in to clinch. From the clinch, Tanner lands several knees to the midsection, then ties up Levens’ arm in a top wristlock, yanks it down, and knees Levens in the face. Both men clinch against the fence, and Levens manages to grab a front facelock, but Tanner easily gets free.
Both men circle again: Levens fakes and then misses a jab, then throws a hook as Tanner sucks him into another clinch. Tanner pulls Levens’ head down, but Levens manages to get his hands up to block the knees and slides out of the veteran’s grip. He throws a leg kick, but Tanner clinches again and throws a nasty left hook to the kid’s ribs as they lean against the fence. Both men trade knees, but Tanner takes Levens down and instantly slides into his half-guard. Tanner lands a couple of quick elbows to Levens’ head; Levens tries to sit up but Tanner flattens him out on his back again and pops him in the face with a right hand. With his right hand suddenly free, Tanner rains three sharp elbows down right onto Levens’ face before he can cover up. Levens is still squirming, so Tanner holds his face still with his left elbow and smashes him with another right hook.
As Tanner starts to stand up a little, Levens goes for a kneebar, but Tanner easily steps loose. Levens climbs up to all fours, so Tanner grabs him in another front facelock and then drops straight to his back, locking Levens in a tight triangle choke! Levens gamely tries to powerbomb his way out of it, but Tanner won’t break the hold. Tanner reaches up and pulls Levens’ head down, further complicating matters, and Levens has no choice but to tap out.
The Verdict: This is probably how people expected the Jens Pulver/Joe Lauzon fight to go, where the battle-tested veteran just completely dominates the out-of-his-depth newcomer. Levens might be a solid fighter, but we wouldn’t know, because Tanner put him on the defensive for three straight minutes, overpowering him at every turn.
Tanner’s had some major personal problems over the last two years, and it remains to be seen whether he’ll ever fight again, but this fight shows that he still has some potential as a contender. Considering the state of the 185-pound division (Silva, then Rich, and then a lot of question marks), he could definitely make an impact if he got his act together.
Forrest Griffin vs. Tito Ortiz: Forrest is coming off his TKO of Elvis Sinosic, while Tito hasn’t fought in more than a year due to a contract spat with Dana White. If you also take into account that Tito’s fighting only a few miles away from his hometown of Huntington Beach, this fight essentially becomes the main event, even though it didn’t get top billing.
We get the full pre-match vignette, and what do we learn there?
A.)Both fighters are in fantastic shape.
B.)Tito’s surprisingly respectful of Forrest.
C.)Forrest won’t be intimidated by Tito’s mystique.
Forrest gets off a quality line: “It’s simple: right now, my goal is to beat Tito Ortiz. Do my taxes, beat Tito Ortiz; that’s all I’ve gotta do.”
Stephan Bonnar joins on commentary as Forrest comes down to ringside, and he admits that he’s rooting for his good buddy and fellow TUF alum Forrest. Tito, of course, gets the full introduction, complete with nifty flame graphics. The camera catches Kevin James lingering at ringside sitting next to “Rampage” Jackson.
Big John runs through the pre-fight checklist; Tito, always the picture of sportsmanship, refuses to touch gloves with Forrest before the fight.
Round 1: Forrest misses with a couple of jabs right away, and Tito tags him with a sharp right hook. Forrest jabs away, but Tito pops him right on the button with a stiff left jab. Forrest throws another couple of punches, while Tito snaps off an inside leg kick. Tito sticks another jab right onto Forrest’s nose, and he responds with a weak leg kick. Tito shoots in and takes Forrest down as the crowd goes completely bonkers.
Tito instantly climbs into Forrest’s guard and immediately smashes him in the face with a sick left elbow. He throws about eight or nine punches into Forrest’s ribs and kidneys as Forrest hangs onto Tito’s left arm for dear life. Tito breaks free, straightens up a little, and then destroys Forrest with two more pinpoint left elbows and then a sharp right elbow. Tito plays drums on Forrest’s ribcage as Bonnar sensibly states, “This is exactly what Forrest needs–he needs to get cracked with a few elbows to wake him up.”
We’re still only a minute into the fight! Playing with his food, Tito methodically moves himself and Forrest over against the fence and grinds Forrest into the cage, landing another nasty left elbow and another couple of right elbows. Tito tries to stand up a little, but Forrest ties him up, so Tito tries to tee off on him with another left elbow. Forrest quickly moves his head to the left, so Tito pops him with a couple of right elbows instead. After 90 seconds of pure abuse, Forrest finally shifts his body and gets his head out of immediate danger.
Tito, trying to rectify that situation, stands up a little and prepares to drop some more elbows, while Forrest, tired of getting the shit kicked out of him, keeps trying to move his head back and forth and get loose. Tito finally lands another left elbow, and we see a healthy gash right above Forrest’s eyebrow. Tito keeps standing up and diving in with elbows right on Forrest’s face, and it looks like Team Punishment is back in business. Forrest finally manages to get himself away from the fence: Tito works into his half-guard and tries to pass, but Forrest manages to hold him off, even though Tito lands one more huge elbow before Forrest ties him up again. The poor kid can’t even catch a break as Big John chides Forrest for holding Tito’s head; the instant that he breaks his grip on Tito’s face, Tito smashes him with yet another elbow. Forrest tries to roll to his left, so Tito hooks his right shoulder and punches him in the face a couple of times.
Finally, after three and a half minutes of abuse, Forrest manages to get his feet on Tito’s hips and kicks himself loose as the crowd erupts. He throws a soft left jab, then manages to pry a right cross between Tito’s hands as Mike nearly has a coronary. Tito blocks a jab but then eats another, and Forrest then pops him with a right hook. Forrest misses a jab and sees two hooks to the body blocked, and Tito starts coming forward. Forrest throws out a lazy jab that Tito counters nicely with a right cross; Tito shoots in for a takedown, but Forrest sprawls. Being persistent, Tito simply overpowers him into guard: this time, however, having taken a little break from getting his ass kicked seems to agree with Forrest, and he’s actively throwing punches and elbows from the bottom. Tito tries to sneak some elbows and punches through, but Forrest effectively ties him up until the end of the round.
Wow. Watching that first round was like watching a snuff film: Tito absolutely mauled Forrest, throwing vicious pinpoint shots. Let’s just say that there were more than a few moments where I actively feared for Forrest’s life. At this point, the best thing that you can say about Forrest’s performance is that he can take a punch.
Round 2: Tito walks right out and smacks Forrest with a nice left jab, and Forrest returns fire with a couple of jabs of his own. Forrest throws a lazy leg kick and Tito shoots in for the takedown, but the kid sprawls and scrambles back to his feet. Tito misses a high kick, and Forrest charges in with a three-punch salvo. Forrest throws a couple of jabs that don’t make it to their target, and Tito answers with a left jab and a strong right cross. Forrest fires back with a left jab but misses a right hook, and Tito bops him on the nose with another jab. Forrest throws and misses a variety of punches but manages to land a left jab. He throws a few wild hooks, and Tito scores with a straight right cross; they trade jabs, and Forrest snaps off a quick leg kick. Not wanting to get too close and get taken down, Forrest throws a few jabs that don’t reach Tito’s face, and both fighters trade a few more missed punches. Tito shoots in for the takedown, but Forrest sprawls right out, even though Tito does manage to kick him in the ribs on the way up.
Both men circle while trading jabs until Forrest lands a left jab, misses a cross, lands a nice left hook to the body, and then nails Tito right on the button with an overhand right. Forrest fires off three quick punches, making solid contact with a left jab, then follows up with a jab and a missed uppercut. Tito shoots in for a takedown, but Forrest simply steps back out of the way; Forrest jabs away at Tito, then lands a couple of strong hooks to the sides of Tito’s head. He then scores with three straight left hooks and moves to the center of the octagon as the hunted becomes the hunter.
Tito shoots in for a takedown, but Forrest sprawls again and throws three or four punches at Tito’s head; right now, Forrest is visibly feeding off the crowd and gaining confidence. Still, Tito scores with a nice stiff jab to back Forrest up a bit, but Forrest keeps throwing wild punches, with about a quarter of them actually landing. With a minute left in the round, the crowd starts up an almost-deafening “Forrest” chant as he lands a couple of left jabs. Both fighters circle and trade jabs again until Forrest digs a left hook into Tito’s ribs and follows up with an overhand right. Tito manages to stick a jab into Forrest’s face just before the round ends, but Forrest walks away bloody and fired up.
Tito wasn’t nearly as aggressive this round: after keeping Forrest on the defensive for the entire first round, he let him dictate the pace and the action in the second. Between rounds, we can hear Ricco Rodriguez verbally tear Tito a new asshole in his corner. Mike, Joe, and Stephan all concede that Tito may have punched himself out a little into the first round, which led him to let Forrest off the hook in the second.
Round 3: Forrest comes out with a left jab and left hook while Tito puts a left of his own into Forrest’s face. Forrest then misses a left hook, cracks Tito in the head with a right cross, then goes downstairs with another left hook. Tito shoots in, Forrest sprawls, and both men come up swinging. Forrest jabs away and sprawls again when Tito does another takedown. Back on their feet, Tito lands both parts of a nice left hook/right cross combination; Forrest is throwing punches but can’t get through or around Tito’s hands. Both fighters circle and occasionally jab, but nothing’s landing.
Tito counters a Forrest jab with a couple of sharp hooks to the head, then shoots in for a takedown, which Forrest sprawls out of. At this point, both guys are just sort of poking at each other, keeping a safe distance and throwing lots of jabs and wild hooks. Tito wakes the crowd up by cracking Forrest in the side of the head with an overhand right, but then both fighters resume circling. Forrest keeps throwing lots of punches but landing few, so he switches to a leg kick, and Tito responds by trying for a takedown, which Forrest shrugs off. Both fighters trade leg kicks, and Forrest scores with a stiff left jab as Joe speculates about the bandaging and brace on Tito’s left leg.
Forrest charges and nails Tito with a left hook and a right uppercut on the back end of a six-punch fusillade, then both fighters go back to circling and jabbing. Finally, Tito shoots in and gets a good grip on Forrest, who can’t slide his legs out in time and ends up in guard. From the top, Tito lands a few quick right hands and a left elbow, but the sting is out of his elbows (well, as much as you can take the sting out of elbowing someone in the face). We watch a neat sequence here, as both men know how close the fight is and are struggling like hell to get any kind of position on the other: Tito is trying to pass Forrest’s guard and throwing punches, while Forrest is elbowing Tito in the head as he tries to come forward. Finally, after about 20 seconds in guard, Forrest gets back to his feet and lands a few jabs and a leg kick before the final horn.
Both fighters play to the crowd before Buffer announces the final decision; Eddie Bravo gives his unofficial scorecard, which has Griffin winning, and some of the crowd mistakes it for the actual decision. Forrest sprawls over and over again like a hyperactive monkey while Buffer comes in, but Tito wins by split decision.
Post-decision, the crowd boos loudly during the beginning of Tito’s interview, but Joe shushes them. Tito mentions his torn ACL and LCL ligaments, praises Forrest, then whines about Randy Couture helping Griffin prepare as his post-fight begins to resemble an Oscar acceptance speech. Still, Tito does manage to apologize to Zuffa and to the fans for holding out before everyone’s attention span runs out.
By contrast, Forrest wins even more fans over with a candid speech where he admits that he lost the fight, chides himself for being too nice to attack Tito’s visibly injured knee, generally thanks the fans for being behind him, and promises to make all of his future fights entertaining.
The Verdict: This fight has kinda taken on a life of its own since last April, and while it is very entertaining, here are three reasons why the judges’ decision was the correct one:
1.)Tito just wiped the floor with Forrest in the first round. I mean, there were several points where Big John was close to stopping it, and you may have even been able to make a case with the judges that it was a 10-8 round.
2.)Forrest threw a lot of punches, but didn’t land most of them. By a ballpark estimate, I’d say that Forrest landed about 35% of his punches, a little better than one in three; and Tito, of all people, threw almost as many punches, landed more of them, and landed all of the big shots.
3.)Tito was never really in any danger. Yeah, Forrest snapped Tito’s head back with a couple of punches, but Tito defended well; I can’t think of one point in the fight where it looked like Forrest might end it early. Once Tito got that takedown in the third, the fight was his.
Hey, I like Forrest: I was genuinely pulling for him against Jardine because I figured a win in that fight might get him a title shot, and I’d love to see Chuck have to get in there with someone, anyone, who prefers to throw hands. But anyone who looked at this fight impartially, though, would have to agree that the judges made the right call in making Tito the winner.
Sean Sherk vs. Nick Diaz: Think about all of the talent that the UFC has under contract at 155–Franca, Penn, Guillard, Stevenson, Fisher, Cummo, Huerta, Pulver, Lauzon, Edgar, Hominick, Griffin, Thomas, Florian, Stout, Mishima–and the promotion’s lightweight champ is Sean Sherk?
Anyway, this is Sherk’s last fight at 170 before dropping down to lightweight, and he’s coming off back-to-back losses to the best at that weight, Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre. To be honest, I have no idea how he can cut 15 pounds off that frame because there’s not a lot of useless weight on that guy’s body.
Stuck in a similar pickle, Diaz is coming off back-to-back losses by decision to rising star Diego Sanchez and welterweight stalwart Joe Riggs.
Round 1: Both fighters circle as Sherk jabs away to start. Diaz, the southpaw, is fighting out of this unorthodox crouch where his shoulders are way in front of his knees¡ he must be trying to avoid takedowns, I guess. As soon as I write this, Sherk shoots in for a takedown and Diaz sprawls, but Sherk locks on a front choke as Diaz gets back to his feet. He cuts the choke loose, pops Diaz in the head with a left and right hook, drives him back into the cage, and then clinches. Against the fence, Diaz manages to get his arms inside of Sherk’s, so Sherk smashes him in the head with a couple of elbows and tries to shoot in for another takedown, which Diaz manages to sprawl out of. Diaz slides out and to his left, where Sherk nails him with a left hook to the head. Then Sherk circles Diaz, jabbing occasionally but mostly covering up, while Diaz fakes punches and leaves his chin out.
Since Diaz leaves his head forward, Sherk grabs it and fires off three or four short hooks, and Diaz backs away. Diaz throws a pawing lead jab, and Sherk returns fire with a nasty overhand right to Diaz’s chin, which causes him to clinch. Looking for a takedown, Sherk drives Diaz up against the cage, pulls his head down looking to roll him over, and then knees him in the head. They struggle for position, so Sherk knees him again and shoots against the cage; Diaz sprawls and but ends up sitting upright against the cage.
Sherk grabs a leg and starts moving away while Diaz hops alongside trying to avoid the takedown. Both men tangle along the edge of the fence for what seems like an eternity until the referee stands them back up. Diaz throws another pawing right jab, so Sherk chases it with a jab/cross combination and then tries to take Diaz down. Diaz gets away, but Sherk proves to be the anti-Monson: since Diaz isn’t jabbing effectively, Sherk keeps getting inside and unloading with punches. He hasn’t really put Diaz in too much danger, but even with his short arms, he’s been very effective so far, scoring at will.
Diaz starts to throw his right jab with a little more snap, trying to put it in the back of Sherk’s mind, if not through the back of his head. Sherk rushes in, throws a knee, and then drops down for the takedown, but Diaz sprawls. He grabs a front facelock and tries to maneuver his body to a point where he can knee Sherk’s shoulders and body, but thinks better of it and lets Sherk up. Sherk thanks him for his troubles with a left/right hook combination on the way to his feet. From the clinch, Sherk throws some short uppercuts, while Diaz tries to knee Sherk in the head. They separate, and Diaz throws a lazy jab, only to get popped by a Sherk left hook. Another clinch: Diaz knees Sherk in the ribs, but Sherk knees him in the head and follows up with a jab/cross combo. Sherk tries a takedown against the cage, but can’t force Diaz into guard as the round ends.
For all the grief that people give Sherk, he was relentless in this round, giving a tentative Diaz no quarter and chasing him all over the ring. Even though Diaz’s takedown defense was excellent, Sherk easily won the round standing up. Diaz looks like he poured all of his training efforts into defense and nothing into offense, while Sherk looks confident on his feet.
Round 2: Diaz comes out with a wide right hook and a short left uppercut, while Sherk responds with a jab/cross combination and another takedown attempt, which Diaz stuffs. Both men clinch against the cage: Sherk grabs a front facelock and knees Diaz in the head twice, but Diaz still manages to stuff another takedown attempt. He throws a few short rights into Sherk’s ribs, and Sherk breaks the clinch. Diaz backs away jabbing and tries a few wide hooks, but Sherk straightens him up with a sharp right cross, knocking his mouthpiece out. Diaz restarts with a perfect straight right jab (where has that been all fight?) and Sherk misses a left and right in response. Sherk, now a little more respectful of Diaz’s jab, throws a right hook from farther out, which misses.
Diaz, visibly more confident, throws a front kick and starts trading jabs with Sherk, who’s using a peek-a-boo defense for his face. Now we’re reaching the Monson Zone, where Diaz has found the right range with his jab and Sherk’s having a hard time closing the gap with his T-Rex arms. Diaz lands a nice combination, then tries to knee Sherk in the head. Both fighters grab each other’s heads and try to punch each other in the clinch as Joe comments, “This is like Rock’Em Sock’Em Robots.”
They separate and jab for a few seconds, then Sherk shoots in and Diaz sprawls out yet again. They circle and jab, then clinch, where Sherk knees Diaz and throws punches to his ribs. They break and then clinch again, which Sherk punches his way out of; Sherk misses a couple of punches and shoots in while Diaz knees him in the shoulder. Not sure how much damage that the knee has done, he lets up in his takedown defense, and Sherk gets him to the ground and climbs into his guard. Diaz immediately goes for an oma plata, but Sherk slides out into his half-guard. Diaz reverses and puts Sherk into guard against the fence, then starts smacking him in the face with some grazing right hands, but Sherk reverses and puts Diaz back into guard against the fence. Diaz and Sherk reverse several times on the ground, but Sherk ends up with a front facelock against the fence. Diaz manages to pull Sherk’s legs out from under him, propping him up against the cage, and lands a few shots before the round ends.
This round was far more competitive than the first: Diaz began to get some confidence in his striking (ugly as it was) and hold Sherk off. On the ground, he never sat still long enough to give Sherk an easy target, looking for submissions or reversals the entire time.
Round 3: Diaz, now completely confident in his jab, makes Sherk eat it a couple of times to start the round, but Sherk pulls his head down, knees him in the face, and follows up with a crisp jab/cross combination. After trading punches, Sherk tries for a takedown, but Diaz uses the fence for excellent balance. Sherk lands a knee and another couple of punches, but Diaz stands up and starts circling again. Diaz tries jabbing away, but both fighters end up clinching, which Sherk uses a lot of short punches to break.
Diaz keeps jabbing away, and Sherk keeps counterpunching with his left out of the peek-a-boo, then both fighters circle and trade long-range jabs as nothing much happens. A minute or so of this elapses until Sherk pulls out the spinning back fist (!) and shoots in for the takedown, which Diaz stuffs against the cage. After some grappling, Sherk lifts Diaz up and takes him down, but Diaz hangs on, rolls through, and gets back to his feet in an impressive reversal. Diaz grabs Sherk’s arm and tries a kimura, but Sherk rolls out and both fighters get back to their feet. They clinch and roll along the fence, then trade knees; both guys look pretty gassed here. Sherk punches out and both men head towards the center of the ring: Diaz clinches, but Sherk starts throwing hooks and uppercuts inside the clinch. Sherk keeps throwing shots in the clinch as Diaz holds on, and the crowd is not exactly appreciative of this fight ending with a whimper and not a bang.
Of course, as soon as I type this, Diaz clamps on a guillotine and lays back into guard, but Sherk squirms out right before the horn. Diaz almost redeems his performance by putting on a shirt that says “Serious Pimp” but Sherk wins by unanimous decision.
The Verdict: This was almost the complete opposite of the previous fight: where Griffin-Ortiz was technically lacking but seriously entertaining, this fight was technically sound but a little on the boring side. In short, Sherk-Diaz was a fight that you could appreciate but not necessarily enjoy.
All praise due to Sherk: he pushed the pace and landed the lion’s share of the punches in the standup parts of the fight. He landed almost all of the good shots, but didn’t have enough dynamite in his hands to finish Diaz.
After a somewhat lazy start to the fight, Diaz came on strong and pulled out some outstanding takedown and ground defense against the stronger Sherk. Like Griffin, though, he completely gave away the first round, and that cost him the fight.
Andrei Arloski vs. Tim Sylvia: As I wrote in the Backstory, Arlovski had finished six straight fights early, including his 48-second submission victory over Sylvia himself. Sylvia, on the other hand, had almost kicked Tra Telligman’s head into the front row, and had pulled out a decision win over a tough Assuerio Silva, who was making his UFC debut.
It’s worth noting that even less than a year ago the UFC’s heavyweight division was pretty weak compared to today, where the promotion now has five bonafide title contenders and a bunch of younger prospects.
Sylvia, of course, comments that Arlovski is just “holding his belt and keeping it shiny” for him. You know, I was reading an MMA message board the other day when I came across a thread entitled “Matt Hughes: most hated great fighter ever?” Pretty much everyone who posted agreed that the competition was down to either Hughes or Tim Sylvia, and everyone hated one or both of those guys for what were essentially the same reasons.
That’s when it hit me: the Miletich guys are essentially the Cobra Kai of MMA. And who roots for Cobra Kai?
Think about it: they’re ultra-talented, but they’re also arrogant, somewhat disrespectful, and they don’t take losing very well. Pretty much every major guy on that team–Hughes, Sylvia, Pulver, even Spencer Fisher (who I love to watch) and Sam Hoger–talks a lot of smack before his fights and generally carries himself with an almost intolerable amount of confidence. In an interview, Joe Lauzon–like Daniel-san, another unheralded skinny kid from back east–talked about how all of the Miletich guys were openly making fun of him and his team just before his fight with Jens Pulver; about a minute later, they weren’t laughing so hard.
Pre-fight, Sylvia rolls to ringside draped in the flag, with Pat Miletich and Matt Hughes in tow. Joe mentions that Sylvia’s down to 250, and to be fair, he looks trimmed down and loose. Arlovski, as usual, looks like he’s ready to go five, and Joe rolls off Arlovski’s pretty impressive hit list.
Buffer rolls off the introductions, Herb rolls through the pre-fight checklist, and we’re off.
Round 1: Arlovski snaps off a left jab, and Sylvia tries to counterpunch, but misses; Arlvoski then tries to come inside, but Sylvia turns him back with a couple of short hooks. Changing tactics, Arlovski lands a sharp right hook to Sylvia’s ribs, and both fighters circle. Arlovski throws a strong right-hand lead, but Sylvia holds him off with a right cross. At this point, Arlovski’s taken the center of the octagon, and Sylvia’s moving sideways and backwards.
Arlovski buries another right hook into Sylvia’s ribs, then backs away as both fighters go back to circling and jabbing. This continues as both men circle and probe with the jab, while each tries a home-run shot and misses. Arlovski lands a couple of stiff left jabs, then smacks a big overhand right directly into Sylvia’s chin, staggering him a little. Both fighters square up, and Arlovski follows a right hand to the body with a right leg kick. Again, Sylvia looks like he’s almost exclusively looking to counterpunch.
Following a quick left jab, Arlovski annihilates Sylvia with a Liddell-esque overhand right bolo punch, and Sylvia goes down fast. He recovers very quickly, though, kicking hard with his long legs to keep Arlovski at bay, and gets back to his feet. As Sylvia gets up, Arlovski nails him with another nasty overhand right, but he keeps his feet. Smelling blood, Arlovski lands another looping right, but Sylvia counters with a crisp jab/cross combination. Arlovski rushes in and whiffs on yet another huge right hand; as he does, Sylvia hooks the back of his head with his left arm and smashes him right in the chin with a short right hook.
Dazed, Arlovski goes down hard and tries to roll away, but Sylvia jumps right on his back and blasts him five times in the face before Herb steps in to stop the fight. To say that Tim is excited about this turn of events is a major understatement.
The Verdict: Fifteen seconds. From the time that he knocked Sylvia to the ground until the end of the fight, that’s all it took for Andrei Arlovski to go from million-dollar superhuman drawing card to ex-champion.
As I said in the very beginning, it only takes one very small mistake to lose an MMA fight, and this was no exception. In love with the big overhand right, Arlovski threw one too many, and Sylvia, obviously looking for the big counter, saw his opportunity and took advantage of it. That punch didn’t knock Arlovski out, but it did knock him down, and Sylvia didn’t give him any time to recover.
As for the fight itself? Hey, the last minute of the fight was supremely exciting, but the rest of it still felt like it was in the feeling-out stage.
According to Randy Couture, this was the last time that Sylvia showed any kind of fire or killer instinct; as Randy sees it, once he had the belt, Sylvia became more interested in keeping it by whatever means necessary than he was in knocking opponents out. From a fan’s point of view, it’s easy to hate that philosophy, because it makes for boring fights, such as Sylvia’s two title defenses.
Then again, knowing that the UFC is practically minting money these days and knowing how relatively small that the fighters’ cut is, who can blame Sylvia for wanting to command a champion’s paycheck?
The Final Verdict: With the notable exception of Sylvia regaining the heavyweight title, almost nothing that happened on this card had any major implications on life in the UFC.
Yes, Griffin proved that the guys from The Ultimate Fighter can stand in there with the company’s big boys, but all that his moral victory got him was a rematch with Stephan Bonnar. Tito eventually ended up getting his title shot, but he’d have fought Shamrock again even if he’d lost, because that’s what people really wanted to see.
Outside of that, look at the other winners: Monson’s back into midcard limbo after his ugly title shot, Sherk’s not fighting at 170 anymore, neither Tanner nor Terrell has fought since this card, Lambert’s rise hit a snag with his loss to Evans, Alves is still way down in the welterweight pecking order, and Parisyan can’t crack the top four of the division yet.
All of this would have been excusable if the fights themselves had been particularly good, but they weren’t. They were either entertaining but flawed (Ortiz-Griffin), exciting yet short (Alves-Noble), just getting started (Arlovski-Sylvia, Smith-Terrell), not particularly exciting at all (Monson-Cruz, Sherk-Diaz, Martin-Lambert), or methodical one-sided ground-based ass-whoopings (Parisyan-Thompson, Tanner-Levens).
If you’re looking to rent or buy a UFC card, you’re better off getting the card before this (UFC 58: USA vs. Canada, which I promise to review soon) or the card after this (UFC 60: Hughes vs. Gracie, which the excellent Scott Newman has already reviewed).
As always, anyone with opinions, comments, questions, or feedback can reach me at fight_reviews@yahoo.com; otherwise, I’ll see you later in the week with my review of UFC 58: USA vs. Canada.
