This show was consistently better than last week's Strikeforce event. Though there was no match as exciting as Nick Diaz vs Scott Smith or moment as memorable as Brett Rogers knocking out Andrei Arlovski, the UFC fighters generally battled at a higher level of skill. That said, without any greatly entertaining or historically significant bouts, I couldn't give the card above a 7.5.
I had Wanderlei Silva edging Rich Franklin over the last two rounds to win 29-28, though the fight was close enough that neither side can reasonably complain about the loss. It was a very good match in which neither fighter made a case as a serious world title contender. Cain Velasquez needs to work on his strike defense, but he demonstrated incredible recovery time, not to mention wrestling skills and cardio. I would give him a better shot than Randy Couture or Minotauro Nogueira at defeating the winner of Brock Lesnar/Frank Mir. Mirko Cro Cop showed he was better than Mustapha Al-Turk. His performance was not impressive enough to suggest he should be the favorite over any Top 10 heavyweight.
Dan Hardy/Marcus Davis was an entertaining mid-card scrap; Spencer Fisher/Caol Uno was not. It's amazing that Uno, the top ranked 155 pounder in the world at the end of 2000, loses today to someone of Fisher's caliber and it's not big news. Uno is past his athletic prime, but he doesn't look that much slower today than he did back then. The fact that his loss was not particularly noteworthy has more to do with how much the sport has grown and evolved. The top fighters of today are just, on the whole, more athletic and more skilled. The skill discrepancy is the same reason that Kevin Randleman, once the UFC heavyweight champion, is now a 205 pound journeyman.
Frank Hyden, MMATorch Contributor: (7.5)
Cro-Cop looked pretty good, but it wasn't like he took out a top heavyweight. No offense to al Turk, but I want to see Cro-Cop take on tougher foes. The Marcus Davis vs. Dan Hardy fight was a pretty good one. There should definitely be a rematch. It was a close fight, but I think Hardy won without a doubt. Even if you give Davis the 1st round, Hardy won the other 2. You never know how a judge will score a fight so you never want to go to decision. If Davis didn't get cut he might have been able to win the round, and the fight. Without question, they should rematch them right away.
I personally thought it was hilarious when Mike Swick yelled at Ben Saunders for not doing much but holding him. That kind of fighting didn't fly well at the party I was at, and Swick was basically saying exactly what everyone here was thinking. Fighting to not lose won't get it done in there with a guy like Swick. Saunders can be murderous with his knees, Swick did a good job avoiding being caught with his pants down by one of those knees. Swick again sent a message that he's a dangerous force in the octagon.
Cain Velasquez had a coming out party of sorts. He's still only 6-0, but he's showing he's got good game. I don't think he's ready to challenge for the title just yet, but he certainly deserves a chance against top-level fighters. Cheick Kongo was just outclassed. It was a fairly dominant performance by Cain, who needs to be tested with a hard fight.
Rich Franklin rebounded well from his controversial loss to Dan Henderson. Where does Wanderlei go from here? If he does go to 185 he's got a series of fresh match-ups, but here's a guy that's lost several fights over the last few years. I think Dana should give Wanderlei a tune-up fight at 185 to see if he likes the weight first. I'd love to see Wanderlei vs. Chris Leben myself. This was a good night of fights that was outshined by WEC 41, it was about on par with the Strikeforce show. I rate shows based on the company, thus this show suffers compared to other recent UFC shows. It was good, but it wasn't great. Not that anyone was expecting greatness heading in to this show.
Matt Pelkey, MMATorch Columnist: (6.5)
A slight thumbs up for me, and a slightly disappointing show. On an event like this, where there's no title fight and not a lot of star-power, we expect a lot of fireworks. With the exception of the main event, I felt like every fight was a minor letdown. Davis-Hardy was a pretty darn good fight, but with all the bad blood beforehand I think we were all expecting someone to get knocked the eff out. I actually really liked Uno-Fisher. Definitely different than what I was expecting, but in hindsight maybe that's what I SHOULD have been expecting. Formal apology time: my bad Mike Swick. Very nice performance, and he deserves a shot at someone along the lines of Martin Kampmann. I was baffled by Ben Saunders' performance. He just didn't come to fight. Back to the drawing board for him, I guess. Cro Cop looked about how I expected, and then he dicked over the UFC. Not sure that was a smart move on his part, but to each his own. We'll see if Dana White ever picks up the phone for him again. Cain Velasquez sure did have his chin tested. Turns out its not so good, but his recovery ability was pretty fantastic. He severely outclassed a one-dimensional Cheick Kongo, but in the process showed us that he still has a lot of improving to do. Franklin-Silva was what we all expected, minus somebody's unconscious being scraped off the mat. Franklin gets a nice win on the resume on his way back up to 205, and Silva proves he still has some fight left in him. A win-win for the UFC, all things considered. I don't regret watching this event, I'm just not as excited coming out of it as I thought I'd be.
Jason Bent, MMATorch Columnist: (8.99)
We found out Cain Velasquez just might be for real, that Wanderlei Silva just might have a few fights left in the tank and that Cro Cop may be the first fighter to ever really screw Dana White.
Sure, Tito jabbed at him in the press and wore the silly t-shirts, and then we had that whole boxing thing, but White was always in control. One would just have to ask Matt Lindland or Jon Fitch in order to find out just how itchy White's trigger finger is. Well, Cro Cop not only jammed it in, but broke it off in there and sent him on his way.
Cro Cop obviously scored the win over Al Turk on Saturday night, but due to the inadvertent eye poke leading up to the finish it will be interesting to see how far the protest goes. Would Cro Cop have won the bout? Yes. However, an eye poke did cause the opening to finish it and in a perfect world we could go back in time and have the referee see the infraction.
Of course, if any of us could go back in time it would be Dana White, and he would do so in order to have not agreed to a one fight verbal deal with Mirko Cro Cop in hopes of working out something further down the line. Cro Cop took advantage of an opportunity to fight on a prominent UFC card, in front of a large number of his "hometown" fans and against a stiff of an opponent which would guarantee that he not only scored a win but looked marketable in doing so. Which means he now gets the three fight deal with DREAM and is coming in fresh off of a UFC bout which simply adds another shade of gloss to him from a marketing standpoint. Dana White may be the evil genius but Mirko Cro Cop one-upped him. Cro Cop poked Al Turk in the eye and just f'd Dana in the "A."
I truly think the Davis-Hardy bout should have been later on and perhaps Fisher-Uno would have opened the show. In fact, a casual fan was seated next to me and watching the card and even asked me why this was the opening bout after all of the pre-show hype. In the half-hour leading up to the PPV airing, you would have thought Hardy-Davis was the freaking main event, or at least co-main event, but here it was jerking the curtain. It was a solid fight and maybe not the slugfest we expected but a dandy nonetheless, and Dan Hardy at least gets a solid name on his record and earns the chance to try his hand against bigger game.
Wanderlei Silva is not back and with drug testing, unified rules and a cage it is likely he never will be; but he performed very well Saturday night. I scored the fight 29-28 for Franklin and no matter what Joe Rogan says, I cannot score the second round for Silva, but all of that being said it is Silva who comes away being the more talked about fighter. Franklin got the win but he did not kick Silva's ass, or beat him up, and he definitely didn't knock him out. Just like Franklin losing to Henderson at UFC 93 did little to hurt "Ace," this loss to Franklin will do little to hurt "The Axe Murderer" in terms of where he goes from here.
Frankly, I wouldn't mind seeing Silva vs. Silva for the 185 lb. title after Anderson takes on Forrest Griffin at UFC 101, and I would imagine that I am not alone. It certainly isn't the best fight available and Wanderlei perhaps deserves it much less than say, Nate Marquardt could or a Demian Maia, but in terms of box office gold and some really exciting press it would be great for everyone. Plus, Wanderlei Silva would definitely make it so Anderson actually fights. As for Franklin, I see him getting the next title shot if Lyoto Machida defeats "Shogun" Rua, and that would be one hell of a championship bout.
This was a three hour event and not a single preliminary fight made air, save for the "Submission of the Night" focus on Terry Etim's D'arce choke victory over Justin Buchholz. UFC 99 was a much better card than it had any right to be, as this just wasn't the sexiest or most appealing card on paper to the masses. However, it delivered from start to finish and it was definitely something no one would have minded paying for.
I am rating this one on a different scale than say one I would rate UFC 100, and this is because our expectations for an event like UFC 100 are off of the charts and it will have to be an AMAZING event to live up to all of the hype. UFC 99 was under the radar and made its way onto the map with its performance from top to bottom. UFC 99 was the C student who turned in an A- paper.
Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief: (7.5)
This was a very solid but not great outing for the UFC. With their six scheduled fights making air the card just felt a little bit slow and a little flat outside of a couple of bouts.
Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva put on a great back and forth main event, and it was definitely deserving of the "Fight of the Night." I still contend Franklin is one of the best fighters in the game, and his decision loss to Dan Henderson and two losses to Anderson Silva don't shake that for me. He's a force to be reckoned with at 205 lbs and I almost hope he takes some extra time off in between bouts to wait for one of the top five light heavyweights to open up. He is honestly only a fight away from being in the top five mix himself in that division, and a bout with say, Forrest Griffin, after Griffin's bout with Anderson Silva in August, could be a good one. As for the fight itself, Wanderlei Silva impressed even in the loss. If he can make that drop to 185 without too much trouble he can be a force with guys around his size.
The rest of the card had some good action, notably from Marcus Davis and Dan Hardy as well as the performance put in from Cain Velasquez, but it just wasn't up to what it could have been. The war of words leading up to Davis and Hardy suggested a different type of bout than the one we got, Ben Saunders looked nothing like the fighter that was running a three fight win streak coming into the bout with Swick, Cro Cop just looked ok against an overmatched Al-Turk (and the eye-poke helped that one finish quicker) and while Caol Uno vs. Spencer Fisher was a good battle between two very evenly matched competitors it just wasn't the most entertaining from this card.
So again, it was good, but not great as we await next month's UFC 100. Oh, and we have another free event next weekend to tide us over as well.
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