As has been well publicized, UFC 111 was broadcast live from over 300 theaters across the America. The premier experience seemed to be the Viewing Party at Radio City Music Hall, NYC, which broadcast the event in High Definition on a 70′ x 35′ screen, supposedly the largest ever for a UFC broadcast. The venue was also the host of the prefight weigh-ins and Q&A the day before.
Though I’ve always been a fan of watching fights from the convenience and affordability of the living room sofa, given the proximity, my friends and I could not pass up the opportunity to watch what looked to be an amazing card with hundreds of other MMA fans. After all $25 for experience seemed well worth it. Well actually the total cost comes out to $30 after paying the mandatory Ticketmaster fee, purchasing advance tickets in person is not an available option; it costs even more if you want to avoid waiting on the will call line.
Doors opened at 7:15 and any concerns we had about the poor manner in which the Radio City personnel managed the line was quickly nullified as we realized there was plenty of room for everyone. We quickly snatched up the best seats in the house outside those reserved for the first 200 ticket buyers. About 20 minutes later they began broadcasting the first part of the UFC 111 Primetime series. A little after 8 PM Jason Ellis began the Q&A with Stephen Bonnar. The two were soon joined by Chuck Liddell and Cain Velasquez, and later by Matt Serra.
The line-up for questions was a mixed bag of legitimate questions, admiration and praise, blatant self-promotion and flat out stupidity. One loser’s question actually devolved into him calling out the panelists. Jason said he would take him up in the offer if he put on 20 pounds and they could fight at bantamweight. Unfortunately I was stuck holding seats and could not go up to ask my questions, which were both for Velasquez. The first was “while no one wants to begrudge anyone their right to cultural pride, what is your response to those who feel that if a white fighter were to sport a white pride tattoo he would be branded a white supremacist?” My second question was, “what do you think if Mir’s increased size and strength, what effect do you think it will have on the fight, and does he entertain making similar changes in preparation to fight Mir, Carwin and/or Lesnar?”
At 9 PM the prelims began. I picked Brown by decision and I thought he did a good job initially of stuffing Almeida’s relentless takedown attempts. Almeida won the first, but appeared to be gassing. I thought Brown would be able to turn on the offense in the second round, but instead Almeida got top position, punished Brown and landed a real slick rear-naked choke. As expected and predicted Diaz peppered Markham consistently and Markham could not take the punishment. Both fights were good. As a bonus we (all) got to see Rousimar Palhares lock up a quick heel hook on Tomasz Drwal and twist for dear life. The ref had a hard time pulling him off. I’m sure there will be fall out for the stoppage, but I think it is simply the nature of the sport. Fighting is just a dangerous business.
At 10 PM the pay per view began and for a while the audio and video weren’t synched up and it felt like we were watching a bad Chinese dubbed movie. Mike informed me via Josh Gross‘ twitter that the problem was in fact DirecTV’s and not specific to our broadcast.
Mark Bocek was really impressive until Jim Miller swept him with a beautiful kimura and dominated the majority of the 1st round. Bocek dominated in the 2nd, but Miller was super impressive defending a rear-naked choke with one arm trapped in a body triangle for almost the entire round. The third round was pretty even, but I have to give it to Bocek. I definitely want to go back and watch the round, but off the top of my head it seems like a hometown decision, but an excellent fight non the less.
Jon Fitch did what Jon Fitch does against Ben Saunders. Once again Fitch wins a decision. At least this time he was very impressive, as he persistently pressed the action and tried to finish Saunders. However, I’m sure people will still complain about the grappling only bout, because that’s what (some) MMA fans do. And Dan Mirgliotta does what he does and makes bad calls, specifically some unjustified, or at least poorly justified, stand-ups when Fitch was being offensive from a dominant position. It should also be mentioned that UFC brass deserves big ups for giving Saunders original opponent Jake Ellenberger his show and win money and an opportunity to get slipped into one of the cards already in the pipeline. Maybe he’ll fight Thiago Alves and we can see the winner matched up with Fitch soon after.
Fabricio Camoes made some really slick submission attempts and transitions, but Kurt Pellegrino reversed and may have pulled out the first round. Either way Pellegrino totally dominated the entire second round leading up to his rear-naked choke victory and $65,000 Submission of the Night bonus. A good night for the local talent.
Frank Mir looked great heading into his fight with Shane Carwin…until they started fighting that is. Unlike many I appreciate Mir trying to put on size to combat the stronger opponents he’s having to face. But isn’t the whole point so he can do things like reverse Carwin against the cage? Well obviously he couldn’t and even when he wound up with Carwin against the cage, he was reversed. The other problem I saw for Mir was that while he striking may have improved in a traditional standup fighting positing, he was totally on defense when they clinched. This allowed Carwin to switch from trying to take him down to landing some hard close shots. Had Mir mixed in some offense in the clinch I think he may have had a good chance of disrupting Carwin’s game. But he didn’t and Carwin’s short punches paved the way for some bombs that culminated in a serious bludgeoning that left Mir unconscious on the canvas and Carwin $65,000 richer via a Knockout of the Night bonus. So much for Mir as a contender. I like the guy and hopefully we’ll still get to see him back as a WEC commentator where he can tower over the lighter fighters by an even more noticeable proportion. Either way I look forward to the Carwin/Velasquez/Lesnar shake out.
When I first made my picks for the main event my instinct is to pick GSP by unanimous decision, just like with Fitch. But I thought GSP would be able to finish Hardy, who I never thought was the most deserving challenger. I figured GSP would start off very cautious and calculating, trying to get Hardy’s timing down and afraid to end up on the wrong side of a counter hook. But I figured GSP would get Hardy and down and by the second round Hardy would be so battered he would give a submission. Well either Hardy was tougher than I thought or GSP didn’t try hard enough. Maybe a little of both, but I think more of the latter despite my screaming “BREAK IT” when GSP locked on the armbar and it became evident that Hardy was simply not going to tap. (Maybe GSP should train with Palhares a bit.) I’m sure many an MMA fan will criticize GSP for being able to end the fight and some will even proclaim the fight boring. But I have to disagree. Just like I enjoy watching Anderson Silva and Lyoto Machida slip punches, or Shinya Aoki and Demian Maia masterfully lock up submissions, watching GSP destroy all comers with a takedown ability that seems to elude all his peers is a pleasure to the eye. Notice how he uses his striking to setup his takedowns, or as a counter to a strike. Notice how he rarely drives his opponent up against the cage like so many other wrestlers do, instead spinning them straight into the canvas. Once on the ground GSP was extremely dominant, punishing Hardy and moving for multiple submissions. I think the score card of 50-43 says it all.
I must also mention that Mike was so prophetic in calling GSP’s moves I thought his glowing droid must be some high tech palantír. He was calling the exact timing of superman punches and counting down to the takedown so accurately I wondered if the whole thing was on tape delay and he had some hidden tap to the live feed. If only Hardy’s corner had his insight, things would surely went differently. And if Mir isn’t healthy enough to commentate WEC 48, tell Reed Harris to give Mike a call.
At least 70% of the audience departed while the rest of us were treated to the Rodney Wallace vs. Jared Hamman preliminary bout. While both fighters gassed, leaving me to have to be reminded that they were not in fact heavyweights, they both did a good job landing and taking a considerable amount of punishment. As Rogan (constantly) pointed out, Wallace’s massive frame does him no favors in a sport regulated by weight divisions, but he still landed a lot of hard punches, got takedowns like it was second nature and showed decent potential in his hips from the bottom. Meanwhile Hamman absorbed all those shots and kept coming enough to pull the unanimous decision. Despite my thoughts that this was a good fight, I cannot fathom the rationale for giving this fight Fight of the Night instead of the Miller/Bocek battle.
All in all I have to say I really enjoyed the experience. Four times a year I will definitely consider doing it again, even if it isn’t at Radio City. A friend reported only paying $20 at his local theater, but it did not include many of the amenities that we had the opportunity to experience. I certainly am grateful that I choose to do it for what turns out to be one of, if not “the” best events of the year. Certainly this was UFC 84 caliber and Radio City was much better than the Hooters I chose for that. I’m also grateful that my wallet gets a break for UFC Fight Night 21 and I have some time to breathe before UFC 112, which also looks to be pretty amazing. The Zuffa machine continues to roll on in its dominance, and I’m happy to be a fan.
Don’t forget to rate all the fights from UFC 111
