Sunday, July 04, 2010

UFC 116 Resuts: Leben, Lytle, & Harris Impress While Lesnar & Bonnar Survive






















Jon Madsen defeats Karlos Vemola by Unanimous Decision. That went pretty much exactly as expected. Karlos needs to move to Light Heavyweight and develop some sort of gameplan though I doubt he will while Madsen is just boring as hell.

Daniel Roberts defeats Forrest Petz by Split-Decision. Not much to say here save it should have been a Unanimous Decision.

Gerald Harris earned the win via KO Slam! over Dave Branch. David was definitely game in this even fought matchup that is until Branch started staying in Gerald's arms allowing himself to be slammed. The 1st slam was weak at best but the 2nd time brought unconsciousness to Branch and an emphatic end to the bout. This should win "Slam Of The Night" honors and Harris is still, very quietly mowing down the Welterweight division.

Kendall Grove bests Goran Reljic by Split-Decision in a bout I have not watched and probably will not watch.

Ricardo Romero submits Seth Petruzelli by Straight Armbar in the 2nd round on Spike TV. The "Silverback" came out swinging and showcasing his new found punching power as he battered Romero around for the 1st round as Ricardo just went into survival mode in what could have been scored a 10-8 round. Its more Seth as he attacks furiously landing a big knee and bloodying up Ricardo. Finally in his world on the floor, Romero fakes an attempt at the Americana and locks on the armbar forcing a loud painful tap from Seth who may have injured his elbow based upon his screaming like a little girl. Nice come from behind win for the Jersey Shore native in his UFC debut.

Brendan Schaub straight dummied Chris Tuchscherer with a 1st round TKO victory. The "Hybrid" bent the "Crowbar" early sending fatty to the canvas for a quick beating and probably the end of the "training partner of Brock Lesnar" in Zuffa. Schaub doesn't impress me until he does this to a competent opponent.

George Sotiropoulos defeats Kurt Pellegrino by Unanimous Decision in their Lightweight war. George hurt Kurt in the 1st round with a two punch combination and from there just outwitted and outworked "Batman" the entire fight. At the very end of the fight Pellegrino landed a knee and put Sotiropoulos down but time expired saving his savant like effort. The Aussie is turning heads and scaring Lightweights as he climbs legitimately into the mix at the top of Frankie Edgar's division.

Stephan Bonnar TKO'd Krzysztof Soszynski in the 2nd round though bloodied and battered. The "American Psycho" needed the win to be more than a joke in the UFC and to avenged his controversial loss (a headbutt in the previous fight should have resulted in a NC not a TKO via cut) in the 1st fight. Both men came out swinging for hell and fairly reminiscent of Bonnar and Forrest Griffin's 1st fight. Soszynski was clearly better on the feet early as he cut up both of Stephan's eyes and forehead causing all the blood. Seeing red got the "Psycho" going in the 2nd as he saw Krzysztof's gas tank emptying and landed the best knee to the body of his career. Now floored it was trouble for the Team Quest fighter as Bonnar poured the pressure on earning a victory for the 1st time since 2007 to the elated TUF forefather.

Chris Lytle submits Matt Brown with a Straight Armbar in the 2nd round. Lytle hurt Brown with an uppercut and took him to the floor with a guillotine. He’d let it go only to effortlessly move to mounted triangle showing the most beautiful effective transition in recent memory! Keeping the hold in place he made a second move to armbar which forced The “Immortal” to verbally tap which is just that much more humiliating. "Submission Of The Night" yet again for Chris making it 9 fight night bonuses overall and 6 in a row!!

Chris Leben upsets Yoshihiro Akiyama via Triangle Choke. There is something to be said about Leben’s ability to lure opponents into his striking wars. Especially when Chris is hurt he seems to become more dangerous because he just lets go and gives whatever he has left. Akiyama actually hurt and wobbled Leben on the feet something that only Anderson Silva has been able to accomplish. For the 1st two rounds and most of the 3rd Yoshihiro got the better of the "Crippler" wherever the fight took place. Leben landed some big shots for sure but if this had gone to the judges cards, which it almost did, the Japanese/Korean superstar would have won.

Before the bell rang for the final round, Chris oozed charisma as he responded to the crowd that boomed cheers down upon both combatants showing their pleasure at the first two rounds and a desire for an epic third. What seemed like a sub par “co-main event” actually stole the show and won the Fight Of The Night honors and potential “Fight Of The Year” winner. In the final round Leben continued to lose the fight on the floor but always stayed in it. Akiyama got careless and most likely weary at the end and Leben locked on a triangle choke to which Akiyama slipped and fell deeper into eventually forcing the tapout and the end to a great war. To say Leben’s stock has soared in the last two weeks (defeating an undefeated prospect and nutting up for an even bigger opponent in dramatic come from behind fashion) as will his popularity as video of the fight makes its way through the Internet.

Brock Lesnar survives Shane Carwin and retains the UFC Heavyweight Championship with an Arm-Triangle Choke submission win. The big boys came lumbering out and Carwin rocked Lesnar with an uppercut that sent him reeling against the fence and then into some absolutely brutal G&P. It seemed like the referee would stop the fight at any moment but it continued with Brock moving but doing little else to "defend himself" as the rules state. It was a dramatic 10-8 round but you could almost feel Shane slowing down and beginning to fade. Surviving with a gift from referee Josh Rosenthal, Brock came out smiling for the 2nd round after Carwin winked at him. Lesnar got that Division-I wrestling takedown and adeptly worked to side control where he locked on the arm-triangle choke. Not deep at 1st, Shane seemed content defending but then Brock locked it down and he was trapped realizing to late he could not escape and tapping out for the 1st loss in his career.

Lesnar seemed relieved and a bit more humble after this win as Shane Carwin went to the back more mentally distraught than anything where he began to hyper-ventilate and was taken to the hospital for fatigue. Obviously Carwin wanted this bout badly and is disappointed in himself though he should realize he won the fight in the 1st round if any other referee had been in there. I'm not saying I disagree with the decision, I'm just saying 9 times out of 10 this fight would have been stopped.

All that being said the title fight was sloppy and pretty basically simple moves from the standup to the floor. It is laughable to think these are the best two Heavyweights in the world considering people like Fedor Emelianenko, Josh Barnett, Fabricio Werdum, Alistair Overeem, are still out there and I'd actually put Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos before Shane Carwin so let's not all just wet our pants with glee over Brock's return just yet. Lesnar meets the man called Cain next and the winner of Santos vs Roy Nelson gets next after that. Chris Leben and Yoshihiro Akiyama stole the show while the "Crippler" called out inured Wanderlei Silva next and overlooked Lytle needs more credit for his amazing MMA iq.
9-2 on the picking side and I don't know what I was doing trying to pick Tuchscherer. I apologize for that error.

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