UFC FN recap...

Here's my UFC Fight Night Recap...

I'll start with the main event. The highly anticipated debut of Anderson Silva, the current middleweight champ (185 lbs.), fighting as a light heavyweight (205 lbs.). Taking on knockout artist James Irvin. The build up hype, the elongated entries, the overly emphasised introductions from the ring announcer, the referee instructions in the center of the octagon, last about a thousand times longer than James Irvin did in the fight! They came out and sized each other up for a few seconds. Silva lands a big leg kick, and Irvin tries to answer it. They "dance" again for a moment or two, another kick from Silva, maybe a fake jab or two are thrown, and Irvin loads up for a body kick. Silva catches Irvin's leg, and throws a straight right that lands right on the jaw of Irvin. Silva continues to hold the leg, and Irvin lands on his back and immediately goes into fetal position. Silva stands over Irvin and unloads a barrage of rights onto the side of Irvin's head. They seem to be doing little damage, so Silva changes his punch angle and lands two other punches right on the button, and sends Irvin to la la land. This all happened in 61 seconds. Awesome! Silva is indeed, the pound for pound, greatest fighter in the UFC today.

Brandon Vera vs. Reese Andy. I was really hoping to see the Brandon Vera of a few years ago. Coming out strong and aggressive and finishing his fight. That wasn't the case. He gave a lot of "respect" to Reese, and by the second round they were both pretty gassed. Brandon was able to remain busier, and out work Reese, but it was a pretty uneventful fight. Brandon won by unanimous decision. I hope as he becomes accustom to fighting at 205, he'll be back to his old winning ways.

Hermes Franca vs. Frank Edgar. The 155 pound weight division is always exciting, and this was no different. Both guys came out and fought at a blistering pace. Hermes was looking for that big punch to land, and Frank was looking to take the fight to the ground. For the most part, frank was able to avoid any major punches, and was also able to take Hermes down to the mat quite often. Once on the mat, Frank was able to land a lot of damage; punches, elbows, hammer fists, etc. Hermes is world class in ju jitsu, but Frank was able to pull out of the numerous submission attempts. Only by the very end of the 3rd round was Hermes finally able to land those big shots he had been looking for the whole fight, and if Frank wasn't careful, he was going to be looking up at the ceiling lights asking "what happened?", but time ran out and the fight was over. Frank won by unanimous decision.

Cain Velasquez vs. Jake O'brien. These heavyweights came to fight! They both came out aggressive, but it was Cain that was able to get the upper hand early, and put himself on top of Jake's chest with both of Jake's arms pinned down. Jake's left arm was trapped between Cain's legs, and the right was pinned down by Cain's head, which allowed Cain to wail on Jake's huge head undefended for what seemed like a really long time. Jake tried to buck him off, and get his arms free, but he couldn't get out, and the ref had to stop it. That fight lasted a little over 2 minutes, but it had a ton of action. Cain will find himself a contender for the heavyweight belt before he knows it if he keeps it up.

Anthony Johnson vs. Kevin Burns. Anthony likes to knock guys out, but Kevin was able to withstand any punches, and was able to land quite a number of his own shots on Anthony. You could tell early that Anthony was getting frustrated. Anthony was complaining about getting fingers close to his eyes during the fight. Kevin even got a warning about having his fingers out in his jab. Kevin was able to take Anthony down, and work on him from that position. Kevin looked like he was winning the fight. He kept Anthony on the defensive for most of the fight. In the 3rd round, about halfway through, Kevin throws a jab, and one of his fingers goes into Anthony's right eye. Anthony lets out a yell and falls to the ground. The ref ends the fight. Most people are figuring that Kevin just lost by disqualification due to the warning he got earlier about fingers in the eye. After a commercial break, we find out the official decision... Kevin wins by TKO? That was a surprise. Not that Kevin didn't earn it per say, he was winning the fight, but he did inadvertently put a finger in Anthony's eye. During the post fight interview, we learn that Kevin in unable to throw a regular left punch due to constantly breaking his hand doing so, so he has to throw a palm strike. The crowd was unimpressed with his apology and explanation. In a real show of class, Anthony tells the crowd not to boo Kevin, he fought a great fight, and didn't deserve the boos. It was still an unfortunate way to have a fight end though.

Jesse Taylor vs. CB Dollaway. For some reason, I don't remember a whole lot about this fight. I must have been distracted by the kids or Anna or something. What I do remember though is the sweet submission CB used to win the fight. CB was in a side control position with Jesse's elbows and knees on the mat. CB reach over Jesse's shoulder and under his other arm. Then CB put his leg over Jesse's head while cranking on his neck from his overunder grip, and Jesse had to tap. It's a choke submission called a "Peruvian necktie". Nice.

The last fight we got to see was between Rory Markham and Brodie Farber. Both guys looked to stand and trade punched in the opening moments, and it doesn't take long for Brodie to land the better punches and start rocking Rory. Rory does his best to answer the punches, but only ends up getting punched more. He's got a good chin because he's taking some pretty clean shots. Rory starts to circle out to avoid the bigger shots, and Brodie follows him with more punches. Rory was able to create a slight distance between himself and Brodie while he circles out, and as Brodie winds up for another punch, his hands are slightly down, and Rory shoots off a high kick that lands cleanly on Brodies head, and knocks him out instantly! Brodie hits the mat like a corpse. Yikes! Brodie came to a few moments later, but Rory definitely put the stamp on that fight. We'll be seeing that on highlight reels for years to come.

An excellent night of fights. The one thing I noticed with watching the fights on Spike was the ratio of fights to everything else (the hype, the introductions, the commercials, the entrances, etc.) is actually pretty low. Luckily I was watching the fights a little later in the evening so I was able to fast forward through most of the non-fight stuff. BUT if all I have to do is wade through that stuff to get free fights... I'll do it. It sure beat having to fork out money to see the same quality of fights.

"But Ken, how did you do with your picks?" Well, I'm glad you asked. Of all the fights I had an opinion on, the only one I didn't pick correctly was CB Dollaway winning over Jesse Taylor. There are even a few fights that I picked the correct method of winning. But I won't pat myself on the back too much, the next UFC PPV is August 9th, and in MMA, anyone can win at any moment, so I'll make some picks, and we'll see how I do with that one.