Contributors/Columnists
SHAWN ENNIS
JASON BENT
MIKE JARSULIC
MATT PELKEY
ALEX WILLIAMS
BRUCE MITCHELL
JED GOODMAN
FRANK HYDEN
JASON BENT
JOHN TAYLOR APPLY TO JOIN OUR TEAM
My friends and I had a big viewing party tonight as part of this monster sports weekend and this card delivered some good moments. Nate Marquardt looked extremely impressive as he dismantled Martin Kampmann like a cheap watch. Kampmann is a lot better than that but Nate made it look easy.
I was quite disappointed in Dan Henderson and Rousimar Palhares. A win's a win, I suppose, but that fight was lackluster to say the least. Everyone was more interested in seeing if my friend could juggle 3 watermelons than this fight after it became clear it was going to be a snoozer. My friend failed to juggle all 3 but he did manage to break the largest watermelon over his head by accident.
Matt Hamill did much better than I thought he would. I guess his training is accelerating at a quick pace. It seemed only a matter of time before Rich Franklin finished him, though. I'm not really sure where Matt Hamill goes from here. Perhaps that fight with Stephan Bonnar finally comes about?
The crowd here is worked up for the main event. The vast majority of the people here are rooting for Chuck Liddell and none of us really gave Rashad Evans a chance of winning. When Rashad dropped Chuck the place fell silent. One of us (it might have been me) yelled out "Oh, spit!", but more like what people really say after witnessing something amazing. This could be a turning point for Chuck. All signs seemingly point to him never returning to the form he used to have. I still think he can be a very good fighter, but I think it's over for him being a great fighter. He is 38 years old, after all.
I was 6-3 in terms of picking the winner, but I was a miserable 1-8 in picking the finishes. That brings my current record to 16-8 for picking the winners, but 2-22 for picking the finishes.
Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist:(6.0)
A marginal thumbs up from me for this show. Fight of the night goes to Dan Henderson and Rousimar Palhares. The third round slowed to a crawl and left a bad taste in your mouth, but the first two rounds were fun and downright interesting. It was great watching Palhares desperately try to get Hollywood (his real nickname, by the way) down to the ground, and Hendo punishing Palhares each time on the way out. The couple of times Palhares was able to get it to the mat were tense moments for Hendo and fun ones for us as it seemed like it would only be a matter of time before Henderson would succumb to a submission. That being said, it wasn't a great fight. It was just the best in a mediocre night. Rich Franklin put on a great performance against Matt Hamill, but it always seems to turn into a sparring match when friends fight. Where were the takedowns? I understand Franklin was punishing him with leg kicks, but couldn't Hamill have at least ATTEMPTED one or two in the second and third rounds. As for the main event, it was a typical Chuck Liddell fight, with an atypical ending. Usually its a boring round one with Chuck delivering the KO punch in the second, not the other way around. But my goodness, that was the cleanest punch I think I've ever seen. I still don't think Chuck is done, but he might want to be careful about which opponents he says yes to from here on out. Overall the show was a letdown for me. It was paced beautifully, with none of that commercial crap we all hate so much, but there just wasn't any fight to get REALLY excited about.
Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief:(7.5)
This show gave us a spectacularly shocking knockout in the main event, and then just a good solid card the rest of the way. I agree with Matt that none of the fights got you really excited, but I thought it was still an above average under card as a whole.
I really liked the Henderson vs. Palhares fight, and although it dragged in the third round, it was still the best fight outside of the main event. Henderson came in with a great game plan and showed great skill in being able to keep the fight standing through most of the three rounds. Palhares, when he was able to get the fight to the ground, showed exactly why Hendo wanted no part of it, and he'll prove to be a dangerous opponent for others in the future as well.
Jason MacDonald and Jason Lambert was the next best fight for me, with a lot of really good ground action leading to a satisfying submission finish.
I was disappointed that Matt Hamill did not try to take the fight to the ground with Rich Franklin. He didn't look like he had any honest takedown attempts, instead opting for some half assed ones following multiple shots. Rich Franklin is just such a good fighter, and seeing how both him and Nate Marquardt performed on this card goes to show how much further above the fold Anderson Silva truly is.
Speaking of Marquardt, that was one damned impressive display against the previously unbeaten in the UFC Martin Kampmann. He just destroyed him, and he may prove a much tougher challenger to Silva in their next go around.
All in all, this was another enjoyable Pay Per View offering from the UFC, and things are only going to get better the rest of the year here. Exciting cards are on the horizon, and that can only mean good things for the sport, and for its fans.
