UFC 70 Mayhem In Manchester

Gabriel "Napao" Gonzaga shocked the world with his defeat of Mirko Cro Cop. Not the win exactly, because many gave him a great chance to win via submission or decision, but Napao won by beating Cro Cop at his own game, with his greatest weapon! The match began with little action until Gonzaga took Cro Cop to the ground. From there, he educated Mirko on throwing cutting, vicious elbows. Cro Cop did little to defend the assault and was cut early and often. Gabe was just owning him, and then in a surprising and controversial move, ref Herb Dean stood them up, though Gabe had a lot of action on the ground and the stand up seemed odd. At any rate, instead of the reset helping the stand up fighter Cro Cop, it led to his brutal demise. Cro Cop circled Gonzaga with his hands at his waist. Then, fast and out of nowhere, Gonzaga threw a high leg kick as Mirko had done so many times in the past, that straight KO'd Cro Cop who was out before he hit the floor! Mirko landed awkwardly on his right leg possibly injuring his knee and more probably breaking his ankle. Having seen Cro Cop devastate his opponents so often with the maneuver, it was all the more shocking to see him decimated by it. It was a scary couple of moments, as Cro Cop lay motionless for what seemed like forever, as Gonzaga celebrated, and medics tended to the fallen warrior.

After the match, Heavyweight Champ Randy Couture met his new #1 contender in the ring, as he and Gonzaga exchanged compliments and hands. Gonzaga looked much bigger than Randy, and Couture even admitted he thought Gabe would be the tougher fight for him. It will be interesting to see just how quickly this match is set.

Mirko eventually got to the stool (shakily) and would walk from the cage under his own power. He returned to Croatia where his normal swarm of media met him. He said, "The way I fought, I deserved what I got." He claims he is not injured at all, and was walking without even a limp. Interesting to see what comes next for Cro Cop. I hope he takes some good time off to heal the concussion, work on keeping his hands up, and he must, MUST develop some ground defense!

Hometown hero Michael Bisping got the TKO win, as expected, or Elvis Sinosic. What was not expected, was after Mike dominated the 1st round and bloodied the crap outta Elvis, that he would get caught by a right hook and drop to the canvas. It was a scary moment for the British crowd, as Elvis locked on a tight kimura, which Bisping refused to tap to. Mike turned things back over and got on top where he reigned down body and head shots with blazing speed until the ref mercifully stopped the match. Bisping came to the ring so amped up that he cut a blistering pace throughout the entire fight, throwing wildly at all times, but causing much damage anyway. It made the win all the more sweet as Mike was tested in those short moments, but had the presence of mind to recover and get the win. Maybe next for "The Count," we can expect a step up in talent to perhaps a Jason Lambert, Babalu, or maybe even K. Jardine.

Andrei Arlovski got a decision win over Fabricio Werdum in perhaps the worst fight of all time. AA won the 1st round with an uppercut knockdown of Werdum, and the next 2 rounds consisted of occasional leg kicks, some slapping punches, and a lot of boo's. AA apologized to the crowd, but perhaps his is the one who should get the moniker of "boring fighter," and not Tim Sylvia. Absolutely terrible.

Cheick Kongo survived the ground game of Assuerio Silva, and then pummeled him on the feet to a decision victory. The obvious holes in Kong's ground game are still there, but there is no denying his strong presence on the feet. Still far far away from the title scene, as Joe Rogan said, "Someone needs to kidnap Kongo and take him to a ju jitsu tournament."

Ryoto Machida got another one sided decision win over David Heath upping his record to 14-0. Time for a real step up in talent for his next fight. What can this guy do at 205?

Alessio Sakara finally decided to fight like the man he used to be, and got the highlight TKO over Victor Valimaki. Now go to Cage Rage and stop bothering people.

Terry Etim took an absolute ass wuppin, but survived to come back and choke Matt Grice into unconsciousness. 10-0 and a big win for the Brit.

We went a brutal 5 & 5 on our picks, and there is no excuse for that! Apologies all around and we will get back to form for the next event, which looks like UFC 71 Liddell/Jackson 2.