UFC Begins New Years Weekend With Dreams Realized and Dashed

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The Pride/UFC war officially ended Saturday Night.

It is interesting that a show built upon the animosity of the fighters in the top two matches would see so much sportsmanship in those matches. After earning a unanimous decision win, Chuck Liddell expressed his respect and admiration for the man known as The Axe Murderer and Silva responded in kind both earning the cheers of the Mandalay Bay Events Center. Then, after being destroyed by Georges St.-Pierre for the second time in a little over a year, aging legend Matt Hughes expressed his upmost respect for his opponent.

That’s right, it finally happened, and it went the distance. After almost six years of buildup, Wanderlei Silva and Chuck Liddell finally had their fifteen minutes…literally. In a fight that everyone, even Dana White in a now notorious statement, didn’t think would get past round one not only did it, but it was entertaining.

After being knocked out quick by “Rampage” Jackson and looking very off his game against Keith Jardine in September, Liddell may have fought one of the smarter fights of his career. After a career of relying on his fights to win his fights, Liddell relied on his mind in the later stages and it paid off. Liddell’s ground game was finally on display, albeit only bits and pieces of it, as Liddell stymied Silva’s attempts to end the second round and the fight on a high note by gambling and taking the Brazillian to the ground and keeping him there.

The fight did provide the fireworks that everyone went into it expecting as both men exchanged punches for the majority of the fight with Liddell opening a cut above Silva’s eye in round two giving the fans the blood that seemed to go with the hype to this one. It is ironic that Liddell may have clinched himself the fight by simply making Silva chase him while Liddell eyed the clock several times during round three.

While the reaction is mixed, I am among those who believed that this fight was a great fight, not a classic or even a fight of the year candidate, but still a very entertaining fight.

The last time we saw Lyoto Machida he was struggling to finish Kazuhiro Nakamura despite dominating him the entire fight until that point. The last time we saw Sokoudjou he had knocked out Ricardo Arona in under three minutes after knocking out Lil Nogueira in 13 seconds. Nobody would’ve thought that when they met in Vegas that Machida would not only dominate, but also expose the man known as The African Assassin. From the beginning Machida assumed control of the fight and not let go showcasing Sokoudjou’s lack of a ground game—something a bit puzzling since Dan Henderson has been training with him recently—and used it to his advantage securing a submission win at 4:20 of the second round long after Sokoudjou seemed done.

George St. Pierre had shown a Terminator-type attitude leading up to his fight with Hughes Saturday—one that he had less than a month’s notice for—and fought with that same attitude. The first round of St. Pierre’s second round submission win seemed to be one of few examples of a 10-8 (scoring) round in MMA as Hughes landed next to nothing while St. Pierre out struck and out fought Hughes whether standing or on the ground. Round two was more of the same, mainly because St. Pierre didn’t have an additional 10-15 seconds at the end of round one to finish the job. In the end, “Rush” was too much and everyone including Hughes gave off that feeling afterwards that they may have seen the end to Matt Hughes’ career. The likelihood is that the Hughes/Serra fight will take place at some point in 2008, but what after that?

The undercard consisted of Rich Clementi submitting Melvin Guillard in a very emotional fight for the two based on Guillard’s pre-fight trash talking and Clementi’s post-fight taunting. Eddie Sanchez dominated Soa Palelei in a very boring fight, one that did draw boos on and off for the majority of the fight. It ended with Palelei submitting after suffering an eye injury in round three. The one dark match shown featured Manvel Gamburyan tearing Nate Mohr’s ACL while executing an Ankle Lock 1:31 into the fight.

It will be impossible to look at the history of MMA without seeing the names Wanderlei Silva and Matt Hughes. Their exploits in the fight game are well documented and their legends have been signed sealed and delivered. However, they were both on the losing end Saturday night; for Silva this was his third straight defeat to a high-caliber opponent, and for Hughes his second straight to St. Pierre both in dominating fashion. In the case of Silva, his aging isn’t as expected as Hughes’ would be as he is only 31 years old. But like Cro Cop, he’s gotten old quickly in the ring. When they fought Saturday night, Liddell was seven years older than Silva, but had sixteen less fights under his belt with two years less experience in MMA than Silva had. That tells the story right there. Whether or not Wanderlei Silva is done is still up for question, the likelihood is that we’re watching the end of the road. Could he bounce back? Yes.

Still, Wandi has always been about bringing entertainment to the fight game and has made a career succeeding at this with numerous wars, but Saturday was something different. Saturday was about seeing an aging warrior continue to fight like one even in the face of inevitable defeat while those final seconds ticked off the clock.