metricjulie

Submissions!! Blood! Bad blood! Rear-naked chokes! UFC 107 was easily one of the best fight cards of 2009. It’s right up there with UFC 100 featuring Georges St-Pierre and Brock Lesnar. A quick review of what went down this past December 12, 2009. As always, I posted my predictions before the fights, and here they are.

Welterweight bout

Jon Fitch vs Mike Pierce

metricjulie’s prediction: Fitch by unanimous decision.

Result: Fitch by unanimous decision.

I don’t have much to say except that I was positive this fight would go into a decision, because Fitch’s last 5 fights had gone to decision and I know he has a hell of a chin since he survived 5 five-minute rounds with a fighter of which you may have heard pounding on him, something St-Pierre. To this day, GSP says Fitch was his toughest opponent and most difficult fight, mainly because of his strong chin and the fact that GSP was unable to knock him out. Indeed, Fitch resisted 25 minutes of GSP treatment and looked like this after the fight he lost by unanimous decision to the welterweight champion. He has been flying under the radar in the welterweight division, and maybe his inability to finish fights is one of the reasons. In any event, his fight against Mike Pierce, a relatively unknown wrestler, was a little boring and somewhat sloppy. However, the guerrilla jiu-jitsu black belt was able to secure the win

Fun fact about Jon Fitch: He has degree in Physical Education with a minor in History.

Lightweight bout

Kenny Florian vs Clay Guida

Kenny "KenFlo" Florian vs Clay "The Carpenter" Guida

metricjulie’s prediction: Florian by submission in the second round.

Result: Florian by submission in the second round.

What a crazy cat Guida is. He is solid, has great endurance and is quite explosive with all that energy he has. He trains with Greg Jackson, a trainer I have admired for years (GSP’s trainer). I was excited to see him battle the poised and intelligent fighter that is Kenny Florian. I have been a huge fan of Florian’s for years and was especially stoked to see him in Philadelphia this summer at UFC 101. He lost devastatingly to BJ Penn and I was excited to see him come back stronger. Luckily for me, he did not disappoint and inflicted much damage with his dangerous knees and elbows. Florian knocked Guida to the ground in the second round and was able to secure his favorite move (and MY favorite move), the rear-naked choke. It was a pretty bloody fight, as you can here following an elbow by Florian:

Fun fact about Kenny Florian: He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Arts & Sciences from Boston College, majored in Communications and worked in a translation company. Remind you of anyone you know?!

Heavyweight bout

Frank Mir vs Cheick Kongo

metricjulie’s prediction: Mir by TKO in the first round

Result: Mir by submission in the first round

This was the trashtalk fight. I LOVE some good trash talking. In fact, it got so heated between these 2 fighters that they did not even have a proper staredown; Kongo presented Mir his back, and Mir mimicked a choking movement in his direction. Then in the octagon, they didn’t touch gloves. The only way this fight could be more entertaining would be a lightning-fast KO or submission. How about a left hook followed by a guillotine choke in 1m12s? How about if the fighter had to tell the ref that the other fighter was out and the ref had to lift his arm to confirm that it was limp and that he was out cold? Since Kongo was fine shortly after the choke, we are allowed to say that the fight was AWESOME. Didn’t Mir call the choke when Kongo turned his back to him during the weigh in? Tsk, tsk, Kongo.

Fun fact about Mir: He is a color commentator for World Extreme Cagefighting.

Lightweight championship bout

BJ Penn vs Diego Sanchez

metricjulie’s prediction: BJ Penn by submission in the second round

Result: BJ Penn by TKO in the fifth round

BJ Penn was truly a god out there in the octagon against Diego Sanchez. Poor Sanchez never really stood a chance, despite all the heart he put into it. Penn completely dominated Sanchez throughout the entire fight, as Sanchez was clearly unable to adapt his gameplan to Penn’s strategy and kept going for the same takedown attempt time and time again, while it never worked. Penn maintained the pace at a relatively low level, but perhaps that was part of his plan – to wear Sanchez out with a long and grueling fight? A kick to the head (the forehead) cut Sanchez up pretty badly and the doctor said enough was enough and stopped the fight at 2m32s of the fifth round.

Photo by Dave Mandel http://www.sherdog.com/

Honorable mention

Stefan “The Skyscraper” Struve, the 21-year-old, 6′11 (that’s six-foot-eleven) UFC newcomer fighting out of the Netherlands, wins by decision over Paul Buentello. The kid looked good. It was a little slow and sloppy at times, but a baby newcomer vs an old-timer = not the most exciting fight ever. Still, as I mentioned in the GSP vs Hughes 2 fight, a show of class between 2 fighters is always an amazing moment, and Struve and Buentello shared such a moment during their fight. (I wanted to find a screen capture, a picture or the link to the fight, but none of it is available on the interwebs at the moment). They exchanged punches in such a fluid motion, one after the other, it was almost like their hits were choreographed for our viewing pleasure. After they executed their respective combos, they smiled, laughed and if I’m not mistaken, either shook hands or high-fived. I really want to find a screen shot or picture to show you. It was such an amusing moment.

Dishonorable mention

Three fighters did not make weight for UFC 107 and 2 fighters agreed to a catchweight bout (195 lbs)  in lieu of their scheduled middleweight bout (at 186 lbs) because of one’s apparent inability to cut below 190 lbs. I don’t know about you, but when you are fighting at a professional level with the big boys & top dogs, there is really no excuse for not making weight. That is just my opinion, further backed up by my fifteen year-old brother who trains in an MMA school. So there.

Despite all the switched up fight cards and injuries, 2009 ended on a fairly high note in the world of mixed martial arts and UFC. UFC 108 is scheduled to take place on January 2, 2010.