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| Did UFC 82 meet expectations? |
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| Written by Martin Smith |
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The buildup to UFC 82 was certainly hyped around two fantastic fighters. Dan Henderson, the PRIDE Middleweight Champion against the seemingly unstoppable UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva was to be a genuine classic fight between the two best middleweight fighters in the world. The preliminary card was also stacked with a huge amount of talent. How Andrei Arlovski went from UFC Heavyweight Champion to the preliminary undercard should be a mystery to many. His contract dispute with UFC owner Dana White left his fight with Jake O’Brien free to air on UFC.com. That must’ve been a huge disappointment for O’Brien. His undefeated streak against a former UFC Heavyweight Champion should’ve been on the UFC PPV and probably near the top of the card. With the heavyweight division lacking a dominating fighter, the company should be focusing on things like O’Brien’s undefeated streak, not punishing his career because he is fighting a guy who is in dispute with the company’s owner. Let’s not forget, O’Brien defeated Heath Herring with a knockout at the beginning of 2007. This PPV was quite special. Every fight had something about it, whether it was Dan Henderson trying to fight the unstoppable Anderson Silva, Jon Fitch maintaining his undefeated streak against UFC debutant Chris Wilson and the Rocky like Evan Tanner making his emotional comback against Yushin Okami, the card simply had almost too much to offer. The main PPV, which had two fantastic knockouts, was topped off by the announcement of Mark Coleman’s return to the ring to face Brock Lesnar. My initial reaction wasn’t exciting, I simply couldn’t believe it. What is Coleman thinking? Over a week later, I’m still left scratching my head and wondering if Coleman knows exactly what he’s doing. We’ll leave that discussion to another column though. The fight between Jon Fitch and Chris Wilson was never going to be a classic, but I think many agree that both fighters are talented enough to at least move up the card slowly and there’s no doubt that such a victory now has Fitch closing in a Welterweight Championship match. Fitch needs to be fighting the likes of Matt Serra or Georges St-Pierre soon. Infact, don’t be surprised if Fitch faces one by the end of this year. Evan Tanner’s return had many longtime UFC fans almost salivaring at the fairytale storyline. As I said in my predictions, many websites expected Tanner to win and to me, that was very surprising. Tanner, in his prime, was a very good fighter, but anyone can see that he simply isn’t in his prime anymore. He was facing a Middleweight fighter in Yushin Okami who is ranked one of the best in the world. Tanner will come back strong one day, but the number of people who predicted him to steamroll through Okami was laughable. Yushin Okami is a fighter who has relied heavily on the judges over the last two years, but with a MMA record of 16-3 since early 2004, Okami is a very talented fighter. Winning by knockout, that sets him up perfectly with Anderson Silva, who he defeated controversially back in early 2006 after an illegal kick delivered by Silva. The rematch should, and probably will, be a classic. Can Okami defeat Silva? I think he certainly will give him a run for his money, and he might be one of a few fighters who can take Silva to the judges. Speaking of controversy, two things that definately interested me were the finishes to the fights between Chris Leben and Alessio Sakara, and Heath Herring and Cheick Kongo. The Herring/Kongo fight, which finished with a split decision and also ended my unbeaten correct prediction record, should have gone to Kongo in my eyes. I felt Kongo did enough in the first two rounds to earn the victory and although Herring clearly won the last round, the decision to give "The Texas Crazy Horse" the victory surprised me a little. However, Heath Herring definately has the potential to have a fantastic 2008 and even Cheick Kongo can take credit from the fight. Both fighters will certainly be having an eye on Antonio Nogueira and don’t be surprised if Herring challenges Nogueira for the Heavyweight Championship soon. Of course, much of that depends on Randy Couture. The Sakara and Leben finish was almost identical to the Frank Mir/Brock Lesnar controvery at UFC 81. Simply, the match shouldn’t have ended until it was certain the fighter couldn’t continue. I always felt Sakara could’ve continued the fight and should’ve been allowed, at least, another ten seconds to defend himself. Not that it would’ve made a difference. Leben looked unstoppable in this fight. Interestingly enough, Sakara’s last five fights have all ended by TKO, with Sakara losing three times. With his MMA record since the start of 2006 being 3-4, it’ll be interesting to see where Sakara goes from here. For Leben, he will no doubt be moving up the Middleweight rankings and it certainly wouldn’t surprise me to see him fighting someone like Dan Henderson soon. The main event to this fight was the battle of the Middleweights as Dan Henderson collided with Anderson Silva for the unification of the Pride and UFC Middleweight titles. Many people believed, leading to the fight, that Henderson was probably the only man in the world who could potentially stop Silva. Just a little bit of pressure then. As I said in my predictions, the first two or three rounds where vital for Henderson, and if he got through them, he could’ve definately favoured himself to win by points. He just had to last the five rounds. I felt Henderson controlled the first round well, but it was kind of like waiting for a tiger to hunt its prey, you always knew Silva would come back, and when he did, he certainly did go for the kill. Silva is by far one of the best Middleweight fighters to ever step in the Octagon and looking around the world, I really do struggle to think of somebody who would genuinley take Silva to the judges. No doubt, Yushin Okami, Chris Leben, Rich Franklin and maybe even Dan Henderson, will fancy themselves to beat Silva one day, but with the way Silva is fighting at the minute, you wouldn’t find many who would back against "The Spider". The almost certain rematch between Henderson and Silva will be interesting but can Henderson beat Silva? I honestly don’t think he can. For me, Silva is unstoppable. He really is that good. This PPV had everything a MMA fan should want to watch. I loved it. UFC 83 is approaching fast and although I don’t believe it will live up to UFC 82, it should still be a very good show. With our own Michael Bisping facing Charles McCarthy, and the main event rematch of Matt Serra vs. Georges St-Pierre, we should have a great card. UFC needs more events like the one just gone. With the likes of Fitch and Okami showing impressive form, the UFC really does look set for another amazing year. Now let’s get our Canadian flags ready, UFC 83 should be another great event. |