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Frank Hyden, MMATorch Contributor: (10.0)
Jim Miller looked very good dispatching Matt Wiman. He was impressive and he dominated Wiman. Great showing by Miller. Wiman gets credit for surviving the whole fight. Equally impressive was Tim Credeur. Any time you can make your opponent unable to answer the bell you've crushed him. Nate Loughran had a No Mas moment. It looks like his rib or ribs are broken.
The Steve Cantwell armbar was brutal and not for the squeamish. I understand not wanting to tap to a choke of some sort; usually the worst that could happen is passing out, but there's no reason for Razak Al-Hassan to have not tapped in that armbar. I'll be very surprised if he doesn't have major damage to the tendons and ligaments in his elbow. That was a foolish move and too dangerous for words. I don't understand the logic behind such a move because you know Cantwell has to keep going until the ref stops the fight. Stuff like this is why referees stop fights early. If Mario Yamasaki had stopped the fight seconds earlier some might have called it an early stoppage. It would have saved Al-Hassan from himself, though. It's always a fine line the refs walk.
Mike Swick lived up to his nickname with a fast knockout. I don't know what it is with Jonathan Goulet but whenever he loses it's early in the fight. If he makes it past the first few minutes it's like that gives him the confidence to go out there and win. Swick was impressive. Ben Saunders was a knee machine. He threw more knees in less than 2 minutes than a lot of guys throw in 10 fights. Brandon Wolff couldn't hold up under such relentless pressure, and he's got the marks to show for it.
Josh Koscheck landing bombs shouldn't be a surprise considering his improvement from fight to fight. However, he just lost a month ago and he's more known for his wrestling. I thought he would have tried to control the fight on the ground and avoid Yoshiyuki Yoshida's judo throws but I guess some huge right hands to the face work even better. In a night already full of impressive wins this just adds to it. The UFC needs to keep Koscheck.
I'm usually a pretty easy scorer anyway, but this card was free so I'm going 10. I had more fun watching this than some paid shows. I went 6-4 in picking the winners. My career record is 54-38.
Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist: (8.5)
The score gets a bump for the cause, but not necessarily for the presentation. Its a very important cause to bring as much awareness to as they can, but it almost turned into a telethon. The (pseudo)celebrity appearances and soldier story pieces were a good idea, but it became overkill after a while. Did we really need to see them before and after every fight? The soldier pieces I can certainly understand, but the celebrities all seemed to be reading the exact same script. Would it be so hard to actually speak from the heart? If you don't care, then don't show up for the paycheck. Also, I hated the way they went to a commercial after the hype for every fight. It was annoying. I want to see the hype, the tale of the tape, and then the first round. Then you can show me commercials.
Ok, enough bitching about the production. Let's talk fights. Jim Miller is a beast. Matt Wiman's heart was the only thing keeping him in that fight after the guillotine. If only he had the strength to stuff a takedown. Nice performance by Tim Creuder, but I just don't see him being successful against anyone B-level or higher. After those two fights the show really picked up.
Luckily I saw the arm break in the Cantwell-Al Hassan fight coming a mile away and was smart enough to look away before the real damage happened. Speaking of which, I'm so glad they didn't show the Corey Hill leg break. Apparently, they realize we're NOT all sadists. Cantwell-Bonner? I'd like to see it. Good to see the return of "Quick." He was starting to become my own personal cure for insomnia. I hope Swick realizes fighting like that is his ticket up the ladder in the Welterweight division.
That was just a brutal display of Muy Thai from "Killa B" Ben Saunders. I rewatched the fight, and I counted a total of two punches thrown by Saunders, and they were both completely inconsequential. All knees and kicks (mostly knees). Just a phenomenal performance. He looked like he was two weight classes bigger than Brandon Wolff. I know the fight wouldn't have any advantages for Mike Swick, but a Saunders-Swick fight looks really appetizing after last night.
Well I didn't make any formal, public predictions on the event, but I have to admit I was wrong about the main event. I really thought Yoshida would come in with a great gameplan and confuse Koscheck with his Judo prowess. Not so much. Koscheck reasserted himself as one of the top 170 pounders in the world. That knockout is behind only Evans-Liddell for KO of the year. All around it was a very good show as far as fight quality, and it helped raise a lot of money for a great cause. Dana White and Co. are really building up some positive karma right now. Let's hope it continues tonight and beyond.
Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief: (8.5)
With low expectations for the card and coming in just hoping for an enjoyable event that was going towards a good cause, UFC gave me all of that and more. The card was not the greatest on paper card, even for "Fight Night" standards, and yet almost all of the fights exceeded my expectations and provided us with a hell of a night of fights for free. Those that enjoy the more violent side of the sport got their fix and then some with this show, with one of the most brutal submissions ever and some extreme displays of punishing dominance from Ben Saunders and Josh Koscheck. All in all, they raised money for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund and gave us a night's worth of good to very good fights, and with a lot of pay-per-views coming our way as we turn the corner into 2009 they're certainly giving us reasons to want to pay for bigger fights than these.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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