UFC 87: Florian Doesn’t Finish Fights, but Emerson Does!

UFC 87 lived up to its name as quite a few fighters attempted to seek and destroy their opponents. One fighter who did a good job of seeking, but didn’t quite destroy…Brock Lesnar, but we’ll get to that later. The show started and the Bud Light logo was still in the middle of the canvas, whew. Maybe InBev will drop the sponsorships once everything gets sorted out or maybe Zuffa has a solid contract with an alcoholic beverage aside from Mickey’s. For the sake of the sport, I hope it’s the former.

Demain Maia vs. Jason Macdonald
I didn’t expect this fight to last as long on the ground as it did. Jason Macdonald wasn’t joking when he took the fight to the ground and almost ended it a few times, but Demian Maia was just one step ahead. I did expect Maia to win this fight on the ground, but Macdonald did a great job of staying alive. I don’t think Macdonald should be ashamed of his performance considering that Maia has now won 5 out of his 8 fights via submission. Oh yea, he hasn’t lost a fight either. Is he on the road to fighting Anderson Silva once Patrick Cote gets dominated at UFC90?

Roger Huerta vs. Kenny Florian
Well Roger Huerta can sleep soundly tonight knowing that his first loss since 2004 came at the hands of the guy who says he “finishes fights”, but didn’t finish this fight. Are you confused yet? Many people, myself included, wrote off Huerta as the gatekeeper for UFC newbies and nothing more. We didn’t see Huerta as a title contender of any sort even after his epic battle with Clay Guida that provided us with some of the best final round staredown animated gifs ever to be seen. Huerta certainly proved a lot of people wrong as he traded with Florian and stayed alive for 15 minutes of brutal fighting against the fighter who promised to finish it before the final bell. Was it the “evil eyes” of Huerta, as some of my friends called them, that kept him in the game, or was it his aggression throughout the three rounds that allowed him to keep Florian from finishing his first fight since his loss to Sean Sherk in October of 2006? Either way, Huerta did display a lot of heart and should be kept in the UFC lightweight division. If Huerta and Dana White have a falling out, I’m pretty sure that DREAM or Affliction would love to scoop him up.

Rob Emerson vs. Manvel Gamburyan
Wow. I never saw Rob Emerson hurt somebody so bad. Well, let’s try to forget about his gang banging days and think only MMA here, ok? The “quiet” guy of The Ultimate Fighter 5 couldn’t catch a break for a while, but has rebounded with a decision over Keita Nakamura and a decisive knockout over Manny Gamburyan in a whopping 12 seconds into the first round. Perhaps we’ll see Emerson rebound from his TUF 5 days.

Heath Herring vs. Brock Lesnar
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a slow motion punch as fast as Brock Lesnar’s right hand that shock Heath Herring’s world to the point of a back flip. Nor have I seen one fighter charge at another fighter like they were going to tackle them; head down and nothing to lose. Lesnar has a lot to learn before he can beat someone who has a ground game, but he sure is one strong dude. Herring couldn’t do a thing on the ground as Lesnar just dominated the ground game to the point of almost laying and praying with the occasional shot here and there. If I could give Lesnar one tip on how to become a better overall fighter, it would be pretty straight-forward; forget wrestling and learn Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Face it, the guy is so strong that he doesn’t need to lay on top of another guy for 15 minutes, he could pull out a few submission attempts and save himself 10 minutes of uneventful ground fighting. As for Jesse Ventura, shown on the big screen between rounds, I have one thing to say to you; don’t waste our time, you worthless hack.

Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch
There were times throughout this fight where I thought that I was watching fireworks. I heard the occasional “oh” and “ah” throughout the 25 minutes of fighting along with a chorus of “oh” “Ah” “OHH!” in the third round. That was all thanks to St. Pierre who showed that he has no problem dominating anyone in the welterweight division these days. The judges did not pretend they lived in a world of 10-9 rounds as the scorecard showed 50-43, 50-44, and another 50-44. I couldn’t agree more as St. Pierre has really shown us the definition of “well-rounded” with his stand up and ground game domination tonight. Oh how I wish we could find a way to see St. Pierre vs. Anderson Silva before either fight someone loses their title. Maybe the UFC can counter the second Affliction event with that fight, huh? Yea, we all wish. So does anyone think that BJ Penn, strategically thrown in the cage during the post-fight interviews, has a chance against St. Pierre these days? That should certainly be a fight many would love to see.

One final note, did anyone notice the level of sportsmanship between St. Pierre and Fitch? It’s funny to listen to anti-mma critics talk about how MMA fighters are no better than bar fighters. How many bar fighters fall to their knees out of respect to the opponent at the end of a fight?