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Jed I. Goodman, MMATorch Columnist UFC 94 is now history. A sold-out crowd of 14,885, the largest attended UFC show in MGM Grand Arena history watched Georges St. Pierre absolutely dominate B.J. Penn. When eight of the ten fights go to the scorecard, but it's Lyoto Machida that gets "Knock out of the Night" you know it's a special evening. The Yes & No for UFC 94.
No to Dana White's UFC 94 blog - In fact no to all of them. Look, I am not a hater, I give White his due and his extreme importance to the sport of MMA. Bankrolled by the Fertitta brothers, he has done so much for the sport, he's like the Eric Bischoff of MMA, if you will. That being said, have you seen his video blogs? No wonder the fighters destroy the TUF house each season and have lame betting contests. That's Dana White's mentality. It seems like all White does during the day is curse, eat junk food and try to make lame bets to belittle people and prove how cool he "thinks" he is. Perhaps there are those that love his low brow antics. Me? I'd prefer to see more "Primetime" and less "Jackass".
Yes to Georges St. Pierre (18-2, 11-2 UFC, 8(T)KOs, 4 Subs) - What more can you say about St. Pierre? Since losing to Matt Serra almost two years ago, the twenty-seven year old has won five in a row, against a who's who of top ten contenders. On Saturday he re-hydrated to have a more than fifteen pound weight advantage over Penn. Now Penn is a great fighter, but when you are facing an opponent of equal greatness the bigger guy is usually going to win.
I loved St. Pierre's strategy for the fight. Once again Greg Jackson's camp breakdown of the fight was so detailed I'm convinced they were using physicists, mathematicians and engineers to construct the ultimate game plan. Among the many things St. Pierre said in the post interview and press conference was that Penn has very good hand speed and small and agile shoulders for that speed. He said he wanted to make Penn tired by having him push him away, forcing the blood to go to his shoulders and thus making his hands less fast. Like I said, physicists and engineers.
No to "vaseline-gate" - Corner man Phil Nurse, while applying vaseline to St. Pierre between the first and second rounds, allegedly put vaseline on his back. Penn's camp has now filed a complaint with the Nevada State Athletic Commission. It did not make a difference in the fight and it was wiped off before St. Pierre was back in the ring, but Nurse should have known better and should still be fined and/or suspended for the rules violation.
Yes to Karma - Penn had called St. Pierre a quitter during pre-fight interviews. However, it was Penn in the precarious position on Saturday night. Being pummeled during the fourth round he refused to quit. Instead, he had his corner throw in the towel after the round ended.
No to Herb Dean - I hate when referees stop a fight to soon, but the St. Pierre-Penn fight went too long. It was already the fourth round, Penn had maybe won one round and was taking a beating. I don't think there would have been any complaints if Dean had stopped the fight toward the end of the round.
Yes to Clay Guida (25-9, 5-3 UFC, 4(T)KOs, 12 Subs) - The official TUF killer. First Mac Danzig now Nate Diaz. Let's see if he can continue his dominance of TUF winners, perhaps he can fight the winner of Diego Sanchez and Joe Stevenson next.
No to Fight of the Night - As much as I enjoyed Guida defeating Diaz, it wasn't fight of the night. By spending the second half of the fight surviving to keep his win and not taking chances, Guida prevented the fight from becoming a true classic. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the fight, it just wasn't the best of the night.
Yes to Lyoto Machida (14-0, 6-0 UFC, 4(T)KOs, 2 Subs) - Who's boring now? I have liked Machida since his first UFC fight at UFC 67. I mentioned above that Guida survived to win without putting pressure on Diaz. Now, while Machida has been criticized in the past for his "lack of aggression" the difference between the two is that he doesn't just fight to survive. His art is simply avoiding the offense of his opponent, while countering when he sees an opening. Thiago Silva's strategy for this first was completely wrong and Machida was able to capitalize for his first knock out in the UFC.
White has said that if "Rampage" Jackson beats Keith Jardine he gets Rashad Evans next. However, if Jardine beats Jackson, Machida gets first shot at the title. I'm rooting for Jardine just because I think the strategy and tactics between Evans and Machida would make for a true chess match in the octagon.
No to the lost art of submission - This is the second "numbered" UFC show in three fights that did not have a single submission on the card. Is this just coincidence or are fighters changing their styles to become more "entertaining"? Later in the week I will have a full article dedicated to this.
Yes to Jon Jones (8-0, 2-0 UFC, 5(T)KOs, 1 Sub) - He has less than a year of experience, but you can add the twenty-one year old to the already stacked light heavyweight division. We will see how he fairs in future fights, but on Saturday night with spinning back elbows and flying front kicks, he put on quite a show. There are plenty of fighters to match him up with next time, but I'd like to see him against a striker like Houston Alexander or Tim Boetsch.
No to Karo Parisyan(19-5, 9-3 UFC, 9 Subs) and Dong Hyun Kim (11-1-1, 1-1 UFC, 6(T)KOs, 1 Sub). - It won't go down like the miscarriage of justice between Michael Bisping and Matt Hamill, but it was still a bad decision. The idea of two judo fighters may have sounded good, but they were so evenly matched they spent most of the time clinching. The bottom line is that the longer the fight went the more uneventful and ineffective they got. There performances certainly won't help their cause to be on the main card their next time fighting.
Yes to the overall show - Not a great show, but fun nonetheless. We got to see the future of the light heavyweight division with wins by Jones and Machida. And while I know there are some that have been upset with White for having title holders fight each other rather than their number one contenders, I am not one of them. I am more interested in seeing the sport grow bigger and what better way to have it grow than by putting the dream matches together. Thiago Alves and Kenny Florian will both eventually get their title shots, but Saturday night was about seeing superstar versus superstar. Did it live up to the hype? No, but then how could it? However, with a thunderous crowd there to enhance the atmosphere it definitely was exciting.
I hope everyone had fun this Superbowl weekend and thanks again for being loyal readers.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
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