Contributors/Columnists
SHAWN ENNIS
JASON BENT
MATT PELKEY
ALEX WILLIAMS
JED GOODMAN
FRANK HYDEN
JASON BENT
JOHN TAYLOR
MAYNARD SWEENEY
MARC PATCHING
MIKE JARSULIC
BRUCE MITCHELL APPLY TO JOIN OUR TEAM
Kenny Florian tuned in the most impressive performance of his career. Going into the show, I thought Florian/Stevenson would be a memorable, prolonged battle, but a bit of a joke in terms of the winner deserving a shot at BJ Penn and the most prestigious lightweight belt in the sport. I was wrong on both accounts. Florian rolled through Stevenson, and while one could have made a reasonable argument before the match that neither fighter deserved to be ranked in a 155 pound Top Ten list, it would be difficult to exclude Florian now. I may not be as jazzed about Penn/Florian as I would be about, say, Penn/Eddie Alvarez or Penn/Joachim Hansen, but "KenFlo" has proven himself a worthy challenger.
Gabriel Gonzaga did what he was supposed to do and looked good doing it. I hope Demian Maia and Dustin Hazelett engage in many competitions for "submission of the night." Their jiu-jitsu games are beautiful to watch.
It was nice to see Aaron Riley notch a win in the UFC. Riley was fighting wars against Yves Edwards as a teenager. Robbie Lawler and Riley made their UFC debuts against each other, and Riley was paid very little (if memory serves me correctly, officially less than $2000) for losing one of the best bouts of 2002. The upset of Jorge Gurgel is his biggest victory to date. Now, no matter what else happens in his career, he will always be able to claim wins in both the UFC and Pride.
Oh, and Brock Lesnar.
Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist: (9.5)
Wow, wow, WOW! What a show last night. The only thing keeping it from a perfect 10.0 is the lack of an absolute classic fight, but that's nitpicking. This was about as good as it gets. I hope the ground fighting haters noticed how sweet a chess match on the mat can be, because last night was an absolute ground clinic. There was a little something for everyone. Great submissions, brutal knockouts, three dominating, showcase performances from three true contenders in their divisions, a three round slugfest, and a changing of the guard in the sport. Oh, and did I mention we saw ALL NINE FIGHTS?! Great job by the UFC to try and build some goodwill with the fans with last night's production. The pacing was fantastic, there was never a boring moment much less a fight, and even the 50cent thing wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Kuddos to the UFC and their fighters for delivering their best effort when the lights were shining the brightest.
Shawn Ennis, MMATorch Senior Columnist: (9.0)
All hail your new heavyweight king. Brock Lesnar did what I considered to be the unthinkable last night in knocking out Randy Couture in the second round. Not only that, but he looked good doing it. The scary thing is that Lesnar is nowhere near his full potential yet. Give him a year and a half and he'll be even more scary. I think we'll see Couture again, but he won't be fighting for the title. It's kind of unfortunate, because I really would have liked to see Couture-Noguiera. Of course, if Lesnar can beat Nog after Nog trounces Frank Mir, maybe we will. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
Fans were given a real treat in UFC 91, as all nine fights were shown, and there wasn't a dud in sight. Kenny Florian looked spectacular yet again and has decimated the lightweight division since losing to Sean Sherk. He's got to fight BJ Penn, and I for one wouldn't count him out in that fight for a second.
Gabriel Gonzaga needs to be given another big fight soon, because he's got too much talent to be in there with the Josh Hendrickses of the world.
I saw that Fight of the Night went to Gurgel-Riley, but I think Stephens-Dos Anjos outdid that fight by a fair margin. Sure, Gurgel and Riley put on a slugfest, but it wasn't Gurgel's best game. I'm getting a bit weary of Gurgel just electing to stand in order to please the crowd with okay kickboxing. Gurgel is a possible contender if he decides to become a complete mixed martial artist. Until then, he'll continue to languish on the untelevised undercard, winning some and losing some. That's fine for a fighter of a certain level of talent, but Gurgel could be better.
I'm also looking forward to seeing Demian Maia fight someone with a good wrestling base. He's obviously got the grappling edge over everyone in the division. But I'm not completely sold on him as a contender yet. He's got to round out his game, or at least show that it's rounded out.
Speaking of guys who have potential, how about Dustin Hazelett? It's too early to say he's going to rule the welterweight division, but he's got better than good striking, and some of the nastiest submissions we've seen. That's the second nasty armbar in a row that we've seen, and the third armbar in four fights. He's already come a long way since his UFC debut against Tony DeSouza two years ago. What's he going to look like in another two years?
Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief: (9.5)
This was such a great show from start to finish. With the exception of the Gurgel-Riley slugfest, every fight had a decisive finish and we were able to see every fight on the card.
The show had a little bit of everything for any MMA fan, and despite the fact that many considered it to be a lackluster undercard, the match-ups were really good and provided for some absolutely great finishes. You really could not complain about anything on this show, and there was striking for striking fans, ground game for grappling fans, brawling for brawling fans, and knockouts for knockout fans.
Demian Maia and Dustin Hazelett are amazing to watch on the ground, and Hazelett's submission of McCrory was one of the most painful things to look at. Hazelett continues to impress, and the 22 year old is going to be an absolute force in the welterweight division for years to come. The ease with which Maia got Nate Quarry to the ground was surprising, but once he got him there it was just par for the course, and only a matter of time until he finished that one off.
Jeremy Stephens delivered the uppercut of all uppercuts, landing with beautiful form directly to the chin of Rafael Dos Anjos. It can be argued that he may have been losing that fight going into the third round, making the knockout all the sweeter for Stephens. That thing will be shown on every MMA highlight reel for a long time.
Mark Bocek and Matt Brown also looked good in picking up submission wins on this card. Bocek absolutely dominated Alvin Robinson on the ground, but Robinson put up a really good defensive fight before finally getting caught in the choke. Brown slightly lost the first round in his fight with Ryan Thomas, but kept up with his gameplan, working actively to secure a submission. That culminated in a nice armbar victory.
Gabriel Gonzaga did exactly what he needed to do against Josh Hendricks. He was obviously the more powerful of the two right out of the gate, and he just decimated Hendricks with that power. In the thin heavyweight division, Gonzaga's quickly moving himself back up the ranks.
Kenny Florian might beat B.J. Penn. The way he fought last night against Joe Stevenson, and the way he was able to do what he needed to while at the same time avoiding Stevenson was special. He showed Stevenson why he was considered the favorite, and this one is a showcase to anyone who hadn't realized it yet that Kenny Florian is the real deal at lightweight.
Speaking of the real deal, can we stop already with the Brock hate? He went out there last night and took home an overpowering victory over a legend in this sport. For those who were still saying he's one dimensional coming into last night, that he's just a wrestler, well he just traded blows with Randy Couture, took a cut above the eye and knocked out the Champ. Maybe he didn't take a ton of shots, but Couture did land a few squarely on Brock and he didn't let it effect him. He almost gave up his back to Randy, but pulled off a beautiful leg sweep that was a major turning point in that first round. Randy tried to get the big man down, but Lesnar was too big for that, too. Finally, when it came to striking in that second round, Lesnar did a ton of damage before the finishing sequence. The standing forearm/elbow that he threw early in that round absolutely wobbled Couture, and Brock stayed on it until he connected to the side of Randy's head. He's scary good, and he's only getting better fight to fight. I can't wait until early '09 to see him take on Nog/Mir. Either way, it'll be a good fight, and just another test for Lesnar's ever increasing stamp on this sport.
