Ennis' Take
ENNIS: Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down for UFC on Fox debut - Dana White, Curt Menefee, one fight, and more
Nov 17, 2011 - 8:00:11 AM ENNIS: Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down for UFC on Fox debut - Dana White, Curt Menefee, one fight, and more

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By: Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist

I haven't done one of these since UFC 82 in March of 2008, so you'll have to pardon any residual rust. But enough with the preliminaries. Let's move on to the event.

Thumbs Up: to the UFC. This is an obvious one, but let's just take another quick moment to bask in the glory of MMA in its grandest form being shown on actual free network television. For years, we keyboard jockeys have been touting the ever-elusive network deal as the sign that MMA and the UFC have gone mainstream (more the latter than the former), and now it's happened. How crazy is that?

Thumbs Down: to whomever decided it was a good idea to let Dana White be an analyst for the event. Dana White is a promoter, and shouldn't be asked or expected to be anything else. Yes, he's the public face of the UFC, but it's simply a bad idea to let a guy with an agenda do analysis. He can't be impartial, and he shouldn't be put in a position where neutrality is expected. White was visibly nervous before the fight and visibly upset afterward – he trashed both his former Champion for his gameplan and his current Champion by insinuating that Velasquez gave the fight away. Not a good thing.

Thumbs Up: to Curt Menefee. I have no idea whether Menefee knows the first thing about MMA, and it doesn't matter one bit. He handled the flow of the show flawlessly and was the perfect emcee for the UFC's first and future network events. If Mike Goldberg were half as good at calling the action as Menefee is at hosting, we'd really have something here.

Thumbs Down: to the decision to show only one fight. As I said in the roundtable, this is a criticism that relies on hindsight being 20/20. Had the fight gone three or four rounds and been ultra-competitive, this would be a non-issue. But the reality is that you can never rely on a result in this sport. I've said it before and I'll say it again: No one knows anything. We don't know who's going to win fights and we certainly don't know how long it's going to take for a fight to be over. To plan for only one fight, especially between heavyweights (who as a general rule don't have a propensity for going the distance), seems short-sighted. Hopefully this is a lesson-learned situation and we'll see better planning on future broadcasts.

Thumbs Up: to Ben Henderson. Since his arrival from WEC, "Bendo" has been nothing short of spectacular. He has owned every fight he's had on the big stage, and he's earned every bit of the title shot that he's getting against Frankie Edgar in Japan. And how about a bonus thumbs up to the fact that this fight is happening? Is there anyone out there who is not absolutely jazzed for this one? I can't wait.

Thumbs Down: to Kid Yamamoto. This version of "Kid" doesn't look anything like the guy we saw until 2007. This isn't a personal dig, mind you. It's simply disappointment. Yamamoto-Faber used to be a dream fight. This is a thumbs-down to the fact that we missed out on that one and so many more now that Yamamoto actually has a chance to fight at his ideal weight on a big stage. He's just not what he used to be. Whether it's due to age, work ethic, or just not having it anymore doesn't make me feel any better about it.

Thumbs Up: to Alex Caceres. Had you asked me a day before the event, I'd have told you that Caceres didn't belong anywhere near the UFC, and that the veteran Cole Escovedo would bust out of his post-return funk and beat "Bruce Leroy" down. Boy was I wrong. Caceres controlled the entire fight both on the feet and on the ground. Any time Escovedo began to gain steam, Caceres neutralized him and took over. He may not be championship material, but if this performance was an indication, he definitely belongs.

Thumbs Down: to the lack of instant replay. Watching live, it looked like Robert Peralta landed a combination of some sort that put Mackens Semerzier down, leading to the finish. But when the replay was shown, it was clear that an accidental headbutt was the cause of the knockdown. At that point, the fight had been stopped and couldn't have been restarted (nor should it have been), but had John McCarthy either looked or been allowed to make a determination via instant replay, the fight should have been ruled a no contest. It was plain as day that Peralta should not have been awarded a TKO victory. The shame of it is also that Peralta very well could have legitimately won the fight. He lost the first round, but I had it even going into the third, and Peralta looked to have the momentum. It's not a fight with far-reaching consequences, but that's why it needs to be addressed now, lest it happen in a more significant and heavily-viewed fight. The proper protocol needs to be made clear to the officials - and they don't get any better than McCarthy, so I can only assume that he didn't think he could use the replay in determining the outcome of the fight. Otherwise I have no idea why he didn't.

Thumbs Up: to Junior dos Santos. Everyone knew the tool that dos Santos could use to win the fight, including Cain Velasquez. That's what makes it all the more impressive. I don't know that I think dos Santos will be the fighter to get the elusive three Heavyweight Title defenses (no one has ever defended the UFC belt thrice), but I also won't count him out. Congratulations to the new Champ.