UFC 117 REVIEW PART 7: FINAL THOUGHTS

STRUVE VS. MORECRAFT

Stefan Struve has been known to be a very well rounded fighter in the heavyweight division, with excellent striking and grappling skills. But when he came up against Christian Morecraft, his skills seemed to be just a bit lacking. He clearly lost the first round to the UFC newcomer. “Dominated” would be an understatement. Morecraft quickly gets Struve on the ground and ground and pounds him for nearly 4 straight minutes. Struve has tremendous heart, though. He kept active the entire time by defending every chance he could and throwing submission attempts every once in a while. There were several times when referee Herb Dean seemed very close to stopping it, though, but Struve kept at it and survived until the end of the round.

The second round begins and Struve’s face is busted up. Morecraft quickly pressures him against the cage with a flurry of punches, but Struve gets one clean counter in and BAM! Knocks Morecraft down and after some ground and pound of his own, finishes the fight less than a minute into the second round. Astonishing comeback from “The Skyscraper”!

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 6: FITCH VS. ALVES

Activity level. That’s pretty much what made this fight. During the weigh-in, Thiago Alves supposedly could not make the weight by half a pound and refused to cut it, choosing instead to lose 20% of his purse. With the money he’s currently making with the UFC, that’s a pretty huge sum, and something not a lot of people would agree worth losing over cutting only half a pound. But when you’re willing to lose a tremendous amount of cash just to avoid losing that little weight, you know something’s wrong.

ALVES' SURGERY

This fight was originally supposed to take place at UFC 107,but an anomaly of some sort in his brain that required immediate surgery forced him to drop out. As one would expect, it was quite a harrowing time for Alves, but the surgery was a complete success and he recovered very quickly from it.

REVENGE!

Alves had previously lost to Fitch at UFC Ultimate Fight Night 5, way back in 2006, so this is yet another revenge match on the card. Another interesting motivation is that whoever wins this fight gets the top contender spot against the winner of the St-Pierre / Koscheck fight at UFC 124. Alves certainly had a lot riding on this fight. Unfortunately, his performance didn’t really show it. While he wasn’t exactly lazy throughout the fight, his activity level seemed rather lackluster, especially compared to that of his opponent’s.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 5: GUIDA VS. DOS ANJOS

Clay Guida. Wrestler. Striker. Engine with unlimited fuel. Wild man. Carpenter. Dude with extremely crazy hair. He actually reminds me a lot of Blanka from the Street Fighter series by the way he looks and acts, but I digress. Guida is primarily known as a dominant wrestler who likes to grind his opponents out until they have nothing left to give. He literally never runs out of gas. Never. And he goes full steam from the very first bell to the very last. Rafael Dos Anjos, on the other hand, is a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu expert who is also known to possess some incredible Muay Thai. So, he could knock Guida out or possibly submit him.

THE FIRST ROUND

For most of the first round, it would seem that the former was the most likely to happen. The round took place almost entirely on the feet and Dos Anjos seemed to be getting the best of Guida in the stand up game every time. Guida’s no slouch in his kickboxing, but Dos Anjos was obviously performing a level higher that night.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 4: HUGHES VS. ALMEIDA

Alright, revenge match time! “You killed my master!” Or rather, “you defeated my master”. After Matt Hughes defeated legendary MMA fighter Renzo Gracie at UFC 112, Ricardo Almeida, one of Gracie’s top students, apparently targeted Hughes and asked specifically for this fight. He seriously wants to avenge the loss of his instructor. Hughes, on the other hand, doesn’t think the same way. He’s not Gracie hunting or bearing a grudge or anything. He just wants to fight and win impressively against whoever the UFC puts in front of him. Just another day in the office.

And what a day in the office it was! After a few quick exchanges and getting comfortable, Hughes landed a clean left hook on Almeida’s jaw and toppled him to the other side of the cage. He immediately capitalizes, jumps on top of him, gets his head in a classic wrestling headlock, SQUEEZES, and puts him to sleep.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 3: NELSON VS. DOS SANTOS

Roy “Big Country” Nelson” is not your average MMA fighter. He is an extraordinarily fat heavyweight that does not look the least bit athletic, yet he comes always fully prepared to fight, has a chin that can take a ton of punishment, has knock out power in both hands, can go three full rounds without seeming to get tired, has a black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, and has years and years of experience in the sport. He was a former champion in a different organization and, after winning the tenth seasonof The Ultimate Fighter, is now steadily climbing the ranks of the UFC heavyweight division.

I previously wrote that Big Country seemed slimmer in his fight against Stefan Struve than he did in The Ultimate Fighter, and I believed that I would see similar progress in his preparation against Dos Santos. This was not the case. Though Nelson thoroughly prepared for this matchup, his belly did not make it obvious.

Junior “Ciganto” Dos Santos, on the other hand, is a young man in the sport of MMA, but has quickly shot up the ranks of the UFC heavyweight ladder, defeating all of his opponents in a very particular decisive manner: namely, a fierce knockout. If he does the same against Roy “Big Country” Nelson, then he will get a title shot against the winner of the Lesnar – Velasquez fight at UFC 121 in October.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 2: SILVA VS. SONNEN

I've already written at length about the hype that culminated into this main event but what actually happened?

Anderson catches Chael very early on in with a straight right, but Chael remains composed, striking back at the champion. The two exchange punches and kicks for a while, and Sonnen does a very impressive roll escape after Silva catches one of his kicks. The crowd cheers for Silva.

Then, the near-unthinkable happens: Sonnen manages to sneak past Silva’s usually impenetrable stand-up defenses and dazes him with a clean left straight punch. Silva backs up, but strikes back at his charging opponent. Silva takes Sonnen to the ground, but the challenger quickly stands up and delivers several more clean punches to the champion’s chin. Oddly enough, Silva wasn’t defending any of them. In fact, he had his hands down.

UFC 117 REVIEW PART 1: INTRO TO THE MAIN EVENT

Should Chael Sonnen win? Does Anderson Silva deserve to stay UFC middleweight champion? These thoughts flooded mixed martial arts fans from across the globe for months on end as Chael Sonnen, an extraordinary wrestler who has beaten a who’s who of champions and top contenders in various organizations throughout his professional MMA career began his epic series of verbal tirades against the current middleweight champion of the UFC.

Sonnen, part wrestler, part politician, and all mixed martial artist, had been talking some of the most extreme forms of trash against champion Anderson Silva for months and months on end, partly to hype up the main event, partly to deliver more confidence to himself, and partly because he actually believed the stuff he was spewing. In a recent interview with Ron Kruck on Inside MMA, Sonnen explains that he never once talked trash against Anderson Silva, simply because he defines “talking trash” as making stuff up just to make your opponent look bad. He says that he never once made any of the negative talk he shared with the various media sources up. He says he believes it all to be true, even when he says that Silva could never be taken down before because he was always soaked in baby oil. He even outright calls him a “cheater” for doing so.