Perez's Take
PEREZ: The UFC 144 Highlight Reel - Five Top Moments From "Edgar vs. Henderson" Card in Japan
Feb 26, 2012 - 2:00:04 PM PEREZ: The UFC 144 Highlight Reel - Five Top Moments From "Edgar vs. Henderson" Card in Japan

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By: Anwar Perez, MMATorch Columnist

This was another quality night of fights. The UFC spared no opportunity to make the return to Japan a high level event. The UFC even added two more fights to the card that it pushed back the end time of the card to 2AM ET. It was well worth it as a fan because all the fights turned out to be entertaining, and it had a good pace with only a few spots that dragged.

5.) Joe Rogan and The Interpreter

This is really a minor highlight, but seeing that everything had to be interpreted because of the fight being in Japan, and Joe Rogan doing the interviews in English (not that he may not know Japanese), the interpreter was a nice surprise. She had a notepad with her, and this rainbow colored puffball pen, that if for nothing else was memorable. A nice gesture from the UFC, and also, a necessity in keeping the live Japanese crowds involved with the fights.

4.) Pride and K-1 Stars Return Home

When the UFC have events outside of the UFC, they usually try to pack the card with local stars to play to the home crowd. With this card, the UFC not only booked local stars (Kid Yamamoto and Yoshihiro Akiyama), but also fighters that became famous and made a name for themselves in Japan via the Pride FC and K-1 organizations. Fighters like Mark Hunt, Takanori Gomi, and Rampage Jackson came back to the land of the rising sun to remind the Japanese fans why they loved those fighters before. For Hunt and Gomi, great TKO finishes highlighted their return to Japan and advanced their UFC careers back on the up-ward trajectory. Now, as for Rampage Jackson, well...

3.) Rampage Jackson Falls Flat

Athletes that have a flare and attitude to them often get a pass as long as they produce positive results. It happens in every sport, and MMA is no different. Many fans know of the attitude and antics of Rampage, and have come to accept them because "he wins fights." Well, now he's just a fighter that talks a lot of nothing because he came out with big flare and a great intro playing to the Japanese crowd with the Pride theme song playing in the arena. Once he got in the cage, nothing. He had one slam that got the crowd thinking the Rampage from Pride was going to destroy Ryan Bader. Yet, Bader looked like the better fighter, smothered him on the ground, and forced him around in the clinch. Rampage looked lost. He looked defeated. He looked like another in a long line of fighters (Tito Ortiz, Forrest Griffin, etc.) that should be thinking of what life would be like after MMA.

2.) Ben Henderson Gets Revenge on Anthony Pettis

Now, Ben Henderson defeated Frankie Edgar in the main event of UFC 144 for the Lightweight Championship. He was once the WEC Lightweight Champion, and was defeated on his way out against Anthony Pettis. When the WEC was folded into the UFC, Pettis was to fight Edgar in a unification/undisputed championship fight, yet due to injuries on Edgar's part, Pettis took a fight against Clay Guida and lost that chance. Henderson went on a three-fight win streak, his last one against Clay Guida, and earned a chance at the championship against Edgar. Pettis bounced back with a win against Jeremy Stephens, and went on to defeat Joe Lauzon last night on the main card. Now, how did Henderson get revenge? He was able to slip by Pettis after losing the WEC Championship to him, and now is the lightweight champion in the top organization in the world. In their fight (only one so far), Pettis won the battle, but after last night, Henderson won the war.

1.) Tim Boetsch Shows True Japanese Fighting Spirit

Japanese fans and MMA journalists always talk about the Japanese fighting spirit. The idea is that it's the will inside of a person to keep fighting, no matter the odds. Well, Tim Boetsch had it in spades. He was clearly losing to Yushin Okami, having been battered in the first two rounds, and looking like what a heavy bag would if it had a face. In the third round, he came out determined, and showed an enormous amount of fortitude by taking the fight to Okami, and not letting him get away from him. He battered him with uppercuts, and punches that just took the life out of Okami, and kept pushing the attack on Okami before the fight was stopped. No way Boetsch would have won the fight any other way, as he was losing via points, looked battered, already bruising. Only thing he could do was finish Okami. Boetsch showed that if your back is against the wall, you need to step forward and take hold of your situation. Boetsch showed what true fighting spirit is about.

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