On Saturday night, the UFC hit The Key Arena in Seattle for the biggest broadcast TV card in the company’s history. The night featured a recurring theme of the new breed vs. the old guard, with old time favourites B.J Penn and Shogun Rua facing the new breed in Rory MacDonald and Alexander Gustafsson. The night also featured a stacked undercard, featuring a good mix of established fighters and Ultimate Fighter alumni. Here are the highs and lows of Saturday night’s event:
The Highs
The night started with a bout which on paper looked like a mismatch between perennial Top 5 bantamweight Scott Jorgensen and The Ultimate Fighter alumnus John Albert, but despite initial impressions, the fight ended up being a one round classic, with both fighters coming close to scoring a finish.
Albert showed his gameness early in the round by pulling off a great sweep, and then later locking in a deep triangle, but with seconds left in the round, Jorgensen took Albert’s back and sunk in a rear-naked choke that forced his opponent to tap just as the round ended. This fight won “Fight of the Night” honours.
In the next bout of the evening, Denis Siver faced a very undersized adversary in Nam Phan. Siver looked like a world beater on Saturday night, landing kicks and punches with pinpoint precision, and it was really a testament to Nam Phan’s toughness that this bout didn’t end by TKO. Many a lesser man would have crumbled if he was under a barrage of Siver’s strikes like Phan was.
Many people were singing Siver’s praises following Saturday night’s performance, but I err on the side of caution. I was cageside in Sweden when Siver faced Diego Nunes in Stockholm at UFC on Fuel 2, and wasn’t impressed with his decision victory in a fight that was a much better litmus test for how well he will do against the upper echelon of the featherweight division. I say he should be given the winner of the UFC 155 matchup between Chad Mendes and Yaotzin Meza for his next fight.
Blackzilians member Abel Trujillo made his UFC debut against high-level wrestler Marcus LeVesseur, and I was very impressed. Not only did Trujillo neutralise LeVesseur’s perceived wrestling advantage, he also managed to land brutal body shots while doing it. In the second round he unleashed a barrage of knees to the body that would force the ref to stop the fight.
Trujillo looked like the complete package — his defensive wrestling, aggression, and striking led me to think that he will be a top fighter in the future. Saturday night’s result also leads me to believe that Tim Means must be happy the sauna knocked him out before Trujillo got the chance.
The final high of the night was Yves Edwards vs. Jeremy Stephens. I’ve been a fan of Edwards for a couple of years, and last night he seemed in top form. Once considered the world’s top lightweight, the last few years haven’t been the best for Edwards, but last night he landed a brutal KO on the younger more powerful Stephens.
All said, Saturday night’s card was the best in a long time.
The Lows
Since I got into this sport there has always been one fighter I have admired above all — BJ Penn — and watching him fight for the last few years has been painful. A fighter once on the path to greatness took the route of yes men. Instead of surrounding himself with a team of elite coaches, his corner Saturday night was filled with cheerleaders who gave him no technical advice during the fight. Penn looked tired after 4 minutes, and it got worse from there. He took punch after punch and kick after kick from the younger, stronger MacDonald, and had no answer for the Canadian’s skills.
In my opinion, the minute Penn decided to move back to 170 lbs he should have retired; he has never been a great fighter at the weight. He talks about his legacy and how he fights for it, but each fight he took at welterweight tarnished his legacy more and more. I often wonder how well he would’ve done if he had spent his entire career at 155 lbs.
I am usually against journalists prematurely calling for fighters to retire, but another fighter with nothing left to prove in the Octagon is Shogun Rua. Once an elite assassin in the ring, Shogun has now turned into a brawler, and frequently in recent bouts he has been picked apart. Although only 31, Rua has injuries far beyond his age, and following his third ACL tear, suffered in his second fight with Lyoto Machida, he hasn’t been the same. Rua has lost the ability to throw a varied array of kicks, which once was his strong point, and now he has reverted to throwing wild overhands in hopes that they’ll land.
I see his performances getting worse and worse as the years pass, and as he has nothing left to prove in the sport, it really makes me wonder if he should quit fighting now, before it’s too late.
