MMA Musings

On Saturday night in Brazil Fabricio Werdum submitted his hero, Minotauro Nogueira, capping off an event with a record-setting number of submissions (7).

The heavyweight match pitted two legendary Brazilians in front of their home country crowd. Both men entered the Octagon looking confident in their preparation. Big Nog’s corner included middleweight champion and training partner Anderson Silva, which lent the expected gravitas.

At 6’ 4” and 264, Werdum only has seven pounds and an inch on Big Nog, but somehow loomed over the battle scarred veteran. Not to be intimidated, Big Nog began moving forward and pressing Werdum, who answered with heavy leg kicks and a takedown which nearly ended in full mount. Big Nog was able to scramble to his feet again and continued moving forward.

UFC 160’s incredibly stacked card lived up to most people’s expectations Saturday night, which began with a bloody preliminary fight, and ended with two stellar heavyweight match ups.

In the title fight, Brazilian Antonio ‘Bigfoot’ Silva proved he’d learned from his previous loss to Cain Velasquez by stuffing two takedown attempts early. Bigfoot took a low stance, and looked to keep the fight standing. After finishing Travis Browne and former K-1 fighter Alistair Overeem, it seemed like a smart  tactic for Silva. This is where Velasquez gets props.

UFC on FX 8 was held in Brazil this week, and despite some less than exciting undercard bouts, there were intriguing matches, especially the headliner with Brazilian Vitor ‘The Phenom’ Belfort versus American  Luke Rockhold.

Former Strikeforce middleweight champion Rockhold was taking a big bite in fighting Belfort in Brazil. Belfort has been at the top of various MMA heaps  throughout his long career, dating back to 1996. Rockhold held a height and reach advantage, but with only 11 fights to date, those were the only cards he held over Belfort.

Rockhold looked  lethargic to start, and even fell when he threw a kick. He was robotic compared with the quick-twitch, experienced  Brazilian. Perhaps it was the jitters. But just  as Rockhold loosened up and showed solid technique, Belfort hit him with a spinning heel kick right to the cheekbone, ending the fight in under three minutes.

UFC on Fox 7 in San Jose, California, had a plethora of KOs, eight in total, tying the record for a UFC event.

Lightweight

Benson 'Smooth' Henderson successfully defended his belt against a game and worthy Gilbert 'El Nino' Melendez. Former Strikeforce champion Melendez gave Henderson fits in the first round, but the champ regained his composure in the second to outscore Melendez easily despite the judges awarding a split decision.

It wasn’t the only idiotic decision made by the judges on this night---Francis Carmont was awarded a unanimous decision over Lorenz Larkin after displaying nothing---so it was a good thing most fights ended in KO.