MMA Musings

UFC 159 took place on April 27th in Newark, New Jersey, but not without hitches. I boycotted the fight because in my opinion the title fight between Jon 'Bones' Jones and Chael Sonnen reeked of pro wrestling: Dana White and the UFC were pandering to a subset of fans with this fight, and in the process alienated others.

Prior to this match, Sonnen had lost miserably to Anderson Silva in a middleweight title fight. Later, Sonnen chimed in when a title fight at light heavyweight between Jones and Dan Henderson was cancelled because of an injury to Henderson, one that had happened a few weeks before the scheduled match but only came to light days prior.

Another free UFC event this weekend features many intriguing matchups, including a lightweight title match, a long-anticipated heavyweight fight, and a Canadian from Lethbridge, Alberta, who impressed in his first Octagon appearance.

Lightweight

The headliner is lightweight champ Benson 'Smooth' Henderson putting his belt on the line against former Strikeforce champion Gilbert 'El Nino' Melendez. It’s a fight many have wanted to see for a while, due mainly to the fact that neither has an ‘off’ button. Each has only two losses.

I tend not to give props to fighters until they’ve proved themselves in the big show. As good as Melendez is, his resume is not up to snuff when compared with UFC fighters. But Melendez is just too talented and hard-working for this to be an easy fight for Henderson.

UFC 158 in Montreal came with oodles of middleweight fights, the required rabid Quebec fans, and their European-style soccer cheers and chants, including, “Na na na na, hey hey hey, goodbye” when Nick Diaz announced his possible retirement after losing every round to Georges 'Rush' St. Pierre in the title fight. 

GSP did not want a boxing match with the talented boxer, and chose a distance more like a shoot boxing match: out of Diaz’s fist range, but within takedown range.  The plan worked well for the first two rounds. Diaz, among MMA’s top three Brazilian Jiu Jitsu black belts, tried rolling out of bottom position and isolating GSP’s arms, but GSP was too fast and technical for the Stockton tough guy.

Something strange was in the water for UFC on Fuel 8 in Japan. It starts with the crowds there in the Saitama Super Arena. They sit on their hands compared with North American crowds. There were a few chants running through the stands, though, especially for the Japanese fighters like Takanori Gomi and Yushin Okami.

Middleweight

The fight that didn’t interest me beforehand---Wanderlei 'The Axe Murderer' Silva v. 'All American' Brian Stann---was a war and in my mind fight of the night and of the year so far. Both men were knocked down in vicious flurries. One exchange looked like a hockey fight, with both fighters clutching the other’s shoulder and swinging for the fences.

Stann actually looked to get the better of the exchanges overall, as Silva was aggressive but looked to counterpunch. Late in the first blood began streaming from Stann’s nose, particularly when he was on top of Silva as the bell rang.