UFC 118 REVIEW PART 5: THE PRELIMS

LAUZON VS. RUEDIGER

Diaz vs. Davis is my favorite fight of the night (and it was awarded as such), but, aside from Couture's performance against Toney, this is another of my favorite bouts of the evening. Joe Lauzon and Gabe Rueidger are both veterans of The Ultimate Fighter Season 5,but Lauzon had the better performance.



Lauzon showed tremendous skill throughout the show and became a fan favorite, and he continues his growth in MMA while continuing to fight in the UFC. Ruediger, on the other hand, could not make weight for his fight and had a very odd attitude about tthe whole fiasco, causing him to be kicked off very early in the show, and making others speculate that he would never compete in MMA again.

Fast forward three years later and the two meet, with Ruediger supposedly having fully conquered his struggles with weight and is on a tear in the smaller shows. Will Reudiger show that his efforts throughout the years to revive his MMA career have paid off exponentially and that he can beat some of the best in the UFC?

In a word, no. Lauzon completely dominates and destroys Ruediger in only 2 minutes. He gets him on the ground fairly easily and slaps on an arm bar. It actually almost looked like Ruediger was one of the spectators at one point. He literally could not do a thing against Lauzon. Amazing performance indeed.

Gabe gets another shot at the UFC, though. He took the fight on only two weeks and stepped up. The UFC execs like that kind of attitude, so Gabe gets to prove that he deserves to still be a part of the UFC another night.

WINNER VS. LENTZ

I've written about boring wrestlers in my review of Maynard vs. Florian for the same event, and, while that fight wasn't necessarily under the same heading (though I'd have to say kind of close), this fight certainly fits that description.

Nik Lentz controlled Andre Winner throughout the entire match. He was able to take him down at will and hold him on the ground from the very first to the very last bell. Fantastic game plan if you're Nik Lentz, as it takes full advantage of his well-developed wrestling skills. For everyone else? Not so much.

Of course, that includes Andre Winner. Winner loses the fight because of his lack of wrestling skills. Rashad Evans spoke of the fight after the event and comments that the UK fighters still lack a good wrestling base, and will always have a significant disadvantage against a good wrestler unless they address this concern. This fight is a prime example of that.

This also is not a good thing for the fans. Holding your opponent without finishing has become a very effective strategy in MMA these days, making many fighters with good wrestling skills adopt it quite easily. This helps them win in most cases, but it also makes for very boring fights. Fans won't like these types of bouts and MMA executives like Dana White recognize that.

Fighters like Jon Fitch are already constantly criticized for such tactics, making the executives wary of including them too often in future cards and moving them up the ladder for title contention. True, the fighters have to win, but the sport they're in is also a form of entertainment, and as such, they have to make it exciting. Otherwise, fans won't watch it anymore.

MILLER VS. SALTER

Dan Miller vs. John Salter is one of those fights that starts out really slow,  ends with a great finish. The first round was a standard brawl, but with both fighters seeming a bit too tentative, both standing up and on the ground, resulting in a fairly unexciting five minutes. Salter won the round because of a few successful takedowns, but, otherwise, both of them were pretty evenly matched.

The second round starts out very much like the first. Some average and slow exchanges on the feet, and then Salter attempts another takedown like in the first. Miller, however, manages to catch Salter's neck this time around, and lock in a very successful choke. It's also not any old choke; it's a Ninja Choke! Miller squeezes tight and Salter taps.

Again, pretty boring start, but it ends with a fantastic finish. It could have probably won submission of the night if Joe Lauzon didn't also do an awesome job.

Check out more amazing photos of UFC 118 over at the official UFC website!