UFC 100 was a really fun show, plain and simple. On a scale of 1-10 I give it an awesome. Joe Silva deserves a bonus for putting these matches together because outside of a FOTY candidate or a legendary slug fest (either of which can rarely be predicted), this is as good as it gets in MMA cards.
I have yet to see the preliminary bouts but I can make a few comments based on the results alone. Coleman’s win was a bit shocking to me and really raises questions about Stephan Bonnar’s place in MMA right now. I like the guy and he has shown a ton of heart in the past but I really expected him to get a nice rebound here and he didn’t. Jim Miller keeps holding it down for the Miller brothers. I really like those guys. Jon Jones is a star waiting to happen, no telling how far he can go. C. B. Dollway continues to prove over-hyped. Look, maybe the guy has a ton of potential and all that but he hasn’t lived up to it and its somewhat irritating when the UFC pushes TUF guys like this. I am just glad that fight wasn’t on the main card of something… no offense.
The pay per view portion of this card had a lot of excitement and some world class MMA. Akyama won that fight, despite what the announcers say. He was more technically sound on the feet, pushed the pace, and got enough nice solid takedowns for me to give him the fight (29-28). He did not do enough however to warrant consideration for a title shot. He is going to need another fight or two before that is even a relevant question. This brings us to the presumed KO of the night of Henderson damn near killing Bisping with two shots that could have knocked him into UFC 109. Henderson looked to just totally outmatch Bisping and it all came down to two things.
1) Bisping shouldn’t have been circling left
2) Bisping seemed to genuinely not grasp the durability of the Henderson’s chin
This leads to what I think will be a bit of a waiting game at 185. I will be surprised if they give Henderson a shot outright for this. Waiting to see what happens with Marquardt and Maia makes a lot more sense to me. If Maia wins, you can throw a new challenger at Silva. If Marquardt wins, it looks like you have two guys equally qualified for a rematch. Given how invincible GSP looked tonight and how lackluster the upcoming challengers are at 170, a superfight at the end of the year would be crafted of perfect timing, enough to let GSP gage the weight change and enough to let Henderson and Marquardt compete for a title shot. Speaking of GSP… wow. I said before that Thiago Alvez was the most dangerous challenger to GSP but not QUITE yet. Alvez is likely a future champion but I honestly think Fitch put up a better fight against the Canadian super champion and he showed his own improvements tonight as well. GSP is just a cut above at WW, easily more dominate than anyone else but that seems to be more a product of competition within a division than pound for pound greatness. That is, MW and HW are more competitive divisions, but GSP is not necessarily better than Silva or Fedor. Outside of a lucky shot or a fluke injury, I really don’t see GSP losing to anyone at 170 until Fitch or Alvez amp there game up a few more levels and I think that is at least a two years away from being a reasonable expectation. Finally, what can you say about what Brock Lesnar did to Frank Mir tonight. That was flat out ugly. Mir looked like he was hit with a meat tenderizer for 7 minutes. Brock Lesnar had a perfect game plan and went in there and mauled Mir. That might actually be the first ever official public mauling, but it was PPV so it was ok. As I have chimed before, the other big wrestlers are the biggest threat to Lesnar and it is very likely that either Carwin or Velasquez will get the next shot I think Carwin has enough power and solid enough stand up to be really dangerous and Velasquez is well rounded enough keep Brock guessing, but with Cro Cop vs Dos Santos set for Sept., they may book the winner of that against Brock at the end of the year. Either way, Brock looked really impressive and really patient tonight and tonight is Brocks night. I am not sure I would bet on anyone against Brock Lesnar in the mood he was in this evening. All of this is of course assuming that the UFC doesn’t pull a huge coup and sign either Fedor or Barnett after their fight in August. Brock is going to get better with every fight (and his trainers need to work his stand-up… now) so there is no telling how dangerous Brock Lesnar could be next time around.
Here is to a great night at UFC 100. It lived up to the hype so good on the UFC and good on the fighters who went out there to put on a show tonight.
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