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By: Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist
With UFC 153 in the books and Anderson Silva yet again confirmed as the greatest ever and someone who does things that are impossible, it's time once again to take a look at the good and the bad from one of the UFC's most entertaining cards of the year to this point.
Thumbs Up: to the Brazilian crowd. Once again they bring the noise and add an enjoyable ambience to the event. Are they unbelievably biased toward Brazilian fighters to the point that if US crowds acted in that manner they'd be called horribly xenophobic? Absolutely. But their enthusiasm is infectious and fun to watch.
Thumbs Down: to the UFC's continued insistence on not mic'ing the crowd or the entrance music in a way that enhances the broadcast. It's driven me crazy for years and it's never gotten better. When you can hear the announcers talking in regular voices and they're easy to hear over a crowd that is obviously really loud, you're not capturing the atmosphere in a way that makes viewers want to pay for a ticket to experience the show live. The crowd, especially a good crowd, should be a significant part of what makes a show enjoyable. And if it's a really hot crowd, that comes through to a certain extent. But if it's a regular crowd, the broadcast does them absolutely no justice. I feel the same way about the entrance music. Why can't they pump that into the broadcast in a way that we're not hearing the audio just over the venue's speakers? Entrances are fun, or at least they should be. And the way they're currently produced makes them superfluous.
Thumbs Up: to the main card delivering the goods. Too many times in the recent past, the preliminaries have outshone the main card. Not at UFC 153. Even with an expanded six-fight main card, every bout delivered.
Thumbs Down: to the officiating. From the referees to the judges, it was a bad showing all around. The opening fight had a terrible decision going in favor of Cristiano Marcello over Reza Madadi. There were unwarranted standups by referees all night long. The Glover Teixeira-Fabio Maldonado fight should have been stopped in the first round, but was allowed to continue another round, resulting in Maldonado taking far more punishment than should have been necessary to finish the fight. There were repeated fence grabs and shots to the back of the head that only resulted in warnings (if even that.) Jon Fitch scored a clear 10-8 round against Erick Silva in the third, and not a single judge scored it that way. It didn't affect the fight, but it's basic stuff. That round was dominant to the most casual observer; let alone someone who has the power to affect the outcome of the fight. Just an embarrassing night overall for the refs and judges.
Thumbs Up: to great grappling. Demian Maia, Phil Davis, and Jon Fitch all put on grappling clinics. Maia scored one of the nastiest submissions I've ever seen in making Rick Story's nose bleed from what appeared to be a rear naked neck crank. Phil Davis repeatedly out-wrestled Wagner Prado en route to a beautiful transition into an anaconda choke. Jon Fitch used superior positioning to beat Erick Silva down in the third round especially. In an era where elite grapplers sometimes abandon their bread and butter in order to either stay away from opponents' strengths or try to earn some bonus money, it's nice to see guys who aren't afraid to use their greatest strengths to win fights in dominant fashion.
Thumbs Down: to the Submission of the Night winner. I love Big Nog, and I get that he's the sentimental favorite, and he made Dave "jiu jitsu doesn't work on me" Herman tap out, but Maia's neck crank and Davis' anaconda choke were both better. Hopefully there were some discretionary awards handed out there.
Thumbs Up: to Gleison Tibau and Francisco Trinaldo. They put on a great fight that will probably be largely forgotten. Also, I'm not trying to imply anything here, but those dudes are both enormous for 155 pounds. If I turned on the TV and saw the two of them without knowing who they were, I'd think they were middleweights.
Thumbs Up: to Anderson Silva's greatness. Stephan Bonnar isn't a world-beater. But he's extraordinarily tough. Remember, Bonnar went three rounds with Jon Jones, taking a lot of shots along the way. (Granted, this was Jones a relatively long time ago, but still.) Anderson Silva landed one perfectly-placed knee, and the fight was over. For a guy who's fought Lyoto Machida, Jon Jones, Rashad Evans, etc without being stopped except by cuts, that's a pretty remarkable thing. Conventional wisdom was that Bonnar would have to fight in tight quarters to use his perceived strength advantage against Silva. When given the opportunity to escape the tight quarters against the chain links of the Octagon, he elected instead to stand against the fence and invite Bonnar to hit him. He let himself get hit and didn't react other than to shake each shot off as if it were so many gnats. And then one knee later, the fight was over. Anderson Silva. There's never been anyone better, and we don't know how long he'll still be around, so appreciate while you can what you have the opportunity to witness. This stuff doesn't come along all that often.
Questions? Comments? Hit me up on Twitter - @shawnennis, shoot me an email – ennistorch(at)gmail.com, or leave a comment below.
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STAFF COLUMNISTS: Shawn Ennis - Jason Amadi
Frank Hyden - Rich Hansen
Chris Park - Matt Pelkey
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