UFC 85: Parting Thoughts
By MMA Opinion on Jun 09, 2008
Despite the lack of title fights, UFC 85 managed to produce enough excitement and controversy to supply the MMA community for at least the next week. There are a few prevailing thoughts following this event:
- Thiago Alves does NOT deserve a title shot.
- Brandon Vera needs to drop down to the light heavyweight division.
- Michael Bisping looked great.
- Nate Marquardt was robbed (i.e., the elbow was not to the back of the head).
While I can’t really add much to those points, there were a few other observations that I took away from UFC 85:
- Matt Wiman looked like a different fighter. Wiman is one of those fighters that is always looking to get in there and “bang” rather than formulating a gameplan or use his jiu-jitsu (which has been known to be pretty good). Yesterday, he displayed some beautiful jiu-jitsu, particularly his use of it defensively. His power on the feet was also nothing short of impressive. Tavares took some hard shots in his fight against Tyson Griffin but nothing came anywhere close to knocking him out. Wiman managed to do that and then some.
- When did Matt Hughes get so small? I know that Thiago Alves came in 4 lbs over but damn! Hughes looked like a child next to Alves. I remember Frank Trigg talking about when he tried to choke Hughes out and referring to his neck as a tree trunk. I could not picture it being described that way yesterday. (Insert corny joke about Contry Breakfast here.)
- Nate Marquardt robbed Nate Marquardt. The point deduction for the knee to a downed opponent was warranted and the one for the elbow to that back of the head made up for the one he wasn’t deducted for the blatantly illegal pile-driver.
- Marcus Davis lost.
- Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg can never say the phrases “on the button” and “come over the top” again respectively. I have listened to them use these same phrases for years now and enough is enough. I’ll admit that they were less prevalent at UFC 85, but they were used nonetheless. They are, without a doubt, my favorite commenting team but they can do much better.
- Wasn’t there supposed to be some big announcement at UFC 85?
So what did you guys think of UFC 85? Leave some comments below and let me know.
Filed Under: UFC
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I noticed that there are a lot more Brandon Vera nuthuggers then I thought.
While the stoppage was bad, I have to say that Werdum dominated him and won the fight clearly. People continue to whine about it anyway.
I’ll be the first to admit that I too got wrapped up in the Vera hype. All of his win in the UFC, up until Sylvia, were won in spectacular fashion. He seems to have fizzled during his year away. He looked horrible in his fight with Werdum. I have zero sympathy for him because he was clearly beaten. If he wanted to continue, then he should have at least been bridging and trying to buck Werdum off of the mount. For him to expect any ref to sit there while he is mounted and taking punches for 30 seconds is ridiculous. Yes, the ref did that in the Kimbo fight, but that is the reason the fight was so controversial (among others).
I thought it was a great show. In fact i enjoyed it more than many others i’ve seen over the last months. The lack of hype and huge named fights made it all the more interesting as i went in having no expectations. Bisping was great, although i do agree with some about his lack of power in his punching. People seem to diss Bisping a lot on forums, which I just don’t get. Perhaps it’s some American snobbery as he’s a Brit, I don’t know? Anyway he’s really improved and I’d like to see him get that fight in with Leben as Leben has knock out power and the will to keep going: something that seemed lacking in Bisping’s last two opponents. Marquat made the loss and yet he still goes on about a rematch with Silva. I don’t think he merits it. He was dominated by Silva and his stand up is simply no match for the Spider’s.
The Vera thing is OTT. Werdum would have stopped him anyway so why make him suffer. I think he’s be awesome at LHW.
Glad, in some way, that the predicition on this website was wrong about Hughes pulling off the victory. His one dimensional fighting style was very evident Sat night and although I’ll enjoy the Serra fight, I think he’s days are numbered.
Well… I was wayyyyy wrong on Hughes. I had faith that he would be ready, but he looked small (more than 4 pounds worth) and took another L. It will be interesting to see if he hangs it up, or fights Serra as a finally to his legendary career.
Curtis – I’m with you on Hughes looking small. I’ve never seen Hughes look so small compared to an opponent. Here is his recent blog post about the fight – http://www.matt-hughes.com/blog/2008/06/09/thiago/.
Curtis: I wanted to wait a few days and let the dust settle on the fight before I commented. It is sad to see Hughes go down like that. He really is an icon. He is just over the hill. He needs to hang it up. At this point the Serra fight won’t even be the main fight on a fight night card…
I hate to agree with you but…