UFC 81: A Review

Coming into Saturday night’s fight card at the Mandalay Bay Resort in Las Vegas, many questions needed to be answered. Had Ricardo Almeida’s four year layoff left him behind the game? Did Jeremy Horn have what it takes to be a top 185 fighter in the UFC? Was Brock Lesnar legit or just hype? Was Tim Sylvia’s goofy ass striking good enough to defeat Minotauro? Many questions were answered, many were left to linger, but the fans were the real winners as this night of fights delivered one helluva punch!

Ricardo Almeida vs Rob Yundt

Originally slated to fight Alan “The Talent” Belcher, Almeida was forced to fight last-minute replacement Rob Yundt when Belcher was sidelined due to a bad case of bronchitis. Yundt, 7-0 in the Alaska Fighting Championship, proved to be outclassed on the ground as Almeida choked him out in a little over a minute with the ever-so-popular guillotine choke. Almeida’s stand up looked a bit shaky but as soon as the fight hit the ground instinct kicked in. Almeida is a very promising fighter that needs perhaps one more tune-up fight before being thrown to the wolves. Interestingly enough, Almeida has a submission victory over Nate Marquardt who was also victorious at UFC 81. Could this be a rematch in the making? I can only hope that Joe Silva listens to reason and lets Almeida get more of the ring rust off. Matching Ricardo against Marquardt right now seems a bit premature and would likely result in an Almeida defeat, turning him into another middleweight fighter with no hype. Ricardo has what it takes to be a top-tier fighter in the middleweight division, but is he up to the task of dethroning Anderson Silva? Only time will tell.

Nate Marquardt vs Jeremy Horn

Nate “The Great” Marquardt showed some crisp striking, good takedowns, and some killer instinct in his submission win over Jeremy Horn Saturday night. Horn has proven himself to be a fighter with heart in many of his wins and even defeats over the years. Who could forget his arm triangle victory over Chuck Liddell which left Chuck unconscious on the octagon at the end of the period? In the rematch, Horn took a lickin’ and kept on tickin’ and didn’t stop fighting until he couldn’t see after taking nearly 20 minutes of brutal stand-up from the former light heavyweight champ. Marquardt proved to be too strong for the veteran as Horn had no answer for any of Marquardt’s many offensive threats. Nate landed combinations at will and pounded Horn on the ground. Horn was mentally defeated in the first round, but was forced to tap in the second due to a tight guillotine choke. With over 100 professional fights, the fight game could be catching up to Horn. He’s lost 3 of his last 4 fights and the talent just keeps getting better. He may need a change in his training or a few months off to contemplate his future. Marquardt, on the other hand, just keeps getting better. His only loss in the last 4 years is to middleweight champ Anderson Silva. Even in his loss, Nate showed great promise against Anderson as he scored some takedowns and landed some shots before getting caught himself. Look for him to fight a couple more times before getting another title shot if his winning streak continues.

Brock Lesnar vs Frank Mir

This fight was hyped more than the main event and for good reason. The storyline was a dream for UFC president Dana White. WWE superstar, Minnesota wrestling champion, and physical specimen Brock Lesnar was making his octagon debut against the former heavyweight champion Frank Mir. Was the Frank Mir of old back? Was Lesnar good enough to make it in the UFC? Unfortunately, we didn’t get any concrete answers to those questions. The record books say Frank Mir won by knee bar, but we can only imagine what could have been! A questionable stand up and point deduction by Steve “Porn-stache” Mazzagati tainted the outcome of this fight and unfortunately left some questions unanswered. Plain and simple, Lesnar was putting it to Mir when he was stopped for hitting to the back of the head. A warning I could see. But a stand-up AND a point deduction for one shot? What the hell? Lesnar rocked Mir with a right hand after the stoppage that sent him to the ground and Brock self-admittedly got a little too comfortable. Lesnar showed little submission defense other than being able to muscle his way out of a sloppy arm bar. The knee bar was set up beautifully, but one would think a leg of Lesnar’s size could easily slip out of a submission that was so close to being avoided. Lesnar showed some potential as he took Mir down at will, did some serious damage with his XXXL hands in a little over a minute, and didn’t seem too gassed after the fight. However, he showed vulnerability to submission when he can’t muscle out of it, sloppy stand-up (although it was obviously powerful), and a willingness to tap very quickly. Mir showed that he had heart, his conditioning seemed to be back for the most part, and that if you leave an opening he will take it and make you pay. Mir moves up in the rankings and will look to get a title shot in the near future while Brock will most likely be back in a couple months to fight a lesser opponent. Lesnar is the latest in great catastrophes of Joe Silva’s matchmaking and now has a lovely 1-1 record to boot. Given a couple fights to showcase his nasty ground and pound would have been a great thing for Lesnar. The fans get to drool at potential matchups and Lesnar gets more experience. Now he’s forced to fight down and is many fights from a showcase title fight. Brock showed some good charisma in the post-fight speech and I wish him well in the future. With another win, I look for the UFC to try out a Mir-Nogueira title fight unless Randy comes back. Either of those matchups are headlining bouts and an MMA fan’s dream!

“Minotauro” Nogueira vs Tim Sylvia

I hate Tim Sylvia. Lump me in the 95% of all the other MMA fans that feel the same way. I hate his looks, the way he fights, and most of all the way he talks. Every fight he is in I root against him. This fight was no different as I cheered on Minotauro. After an emotionally draining two rounds, Nogueira was able to take it to his level and submitted Tim with relative ease and prove, once again, why he is one of the best in the world. Much like Forrest Griffin, Minotauro needs to get the living shit kicked out of him before he wakes up and fights. Sylvia rocked him numerous times in the first two rounds but he just refused to give up. The sweep on the ground was a thing of beauty and the quick tap from Sylvia let us know how effective the guillotine choke was. Tim seems to be growing up as his post-fight speech actually made me give him some respect as he credited Nogueira and gave no excuses for the loss. Sylvia spoke about Brock Lesnar and said he had no future in the sport as he didn’t like to get hit and only moved forward for aggressive takedowns. If Randy doesn’t come back to defend his title, could we see Nog vs Mir and Sylvia vs Lesnar? I sure hope not, as I think Nog would beat Mir and Sylvia would beat Lesnar. That puts the UFC in a bad situation as the only fight would be another rematch between Sylvia and Minotauro. Let us hope some other heavyweights get some play and we get some more intriguing matchups before these two happen.

Miscellaneous

Tim “The Barbarian” Boetsch was an absolute beast in his win over David Heath. Plain and simple, his knees were brutal and the throw to the fence was nothing short of spectacular. I would love to see him back as a swing fight with another explosive light heavyweight. Chris “Lights Out” Lytle looked crazy good in his TKO victory on Saturday night. Lytle vowed to do nothing but go balls to the wall in every fight from here on out as he wants to concentrate on being exciting. Win or lose, Lytle has made his past few fights in the UFC explosive and Dana White and the Fertitta’s would be crazy to not have him on the main card next time.

The next two months are absolutely stacked with great fights in both fight nights and pay-per-views. This is an exciting time for MMA fans and I can only imagine what's in store in the very near future! Until next time...