UFC 100: Parting Shots

UFC 100 brought an interesting mix of standup wars, ground and pound and methodical victories as both champions defended their titles successfully and Dan Henderson “shut Michael Bisping up” (his words, not mine) for now.  What implications do the bouts from UFC 100 have on the titles as we move forward?  Who impressed and who looked flat?  Here are some parting shots on the UFC’s huge event from last night.

Not the Last We’ll See of Lesnar-Mir

I have a lot to say about Brock Lesnar, but we’ll leave that for later on today, as that issue demands its own column.  In the meantime, let me say that I was pretty impressed with his performance against Frank Mir last night.  Mir, for his part, fought a pretty good fight and looked particularly good in the stand-up portion of the bout, especially in the second round.

The problem is, if you make a mistake on the ground with either of these guys, you’re done for.  The only difference is, Lesnar makes you pay for mistakes by landing shot after shot on your dome, while Mir makes you pay for mistakes by cranking a limb or choking you out.  Don’t put too much stock into the quickness of the fight, as this fight was full of the potential to end quickly, no matter which fighter came out on top.

With the two notched at 1-1, we’ll definitely see them do battle at least one more time.  The UFC will likely be wise about it and hold off on the inevitable rubber match for awhile, though.  I’d prefer to see it happen no sooner than 2011, but it should definitely happen at some point. 

Ironically enough, I think that the man Mir just beat, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, poses the biggest threat to Lesnar in the division (not Cain Velasquez or Shane Carwin, as so many others believe), as long as his head is on straight.  He has the jiu-jitsu to catch Brock, and the toughness to ride it out until he does so.  Expect Lesnar’s next few fights to be against the winner of Nogueira-Couture, then Velasquez or Carwin, and hopefully Fedor Emelianenko for the last one.  Then we can talk about a third bout with Mir, if Mir continues to perform well.

GSP Continues to Evolve

There are really two distinct eras in GSP’s career.  There’s the dynamic, flashy GSP that utilized much more karate-oriented techniques early in his career and usually put guys away very quickly.  Ever since the Matt Serra loss, though, we’ve seen a different GSP emerge: the tactician.

While GSP’s tactical style (which is largely a result of working with such a cerebral, game-planning trainer in Greg Jackson) may not be as invigorating to watch as his quick destructions over Matt Hughes (twice), Sean Sherk and Frank Trigg, you can’t argue with the results.  St. Pierre has completely dismantled his latest opponents, usually by way of going into the “championship rounds”, which he has made his own.  His dominating decision win over Thiago Alves was very reminiscent of his five-round beating of Jon Fitch and his last win over BJ Penn, which probably could have gone five rounds if Penn was up to the task.

Sure, it has taken a bit of an adjustment for fans who were used to St. Pierre putting away foes in an aggressive, dynamic fashion, but now GSP has merely focused those attributes and channeled them into nearly-unbeatable fighting strategies.  It’s hard to imagine what welterweight could give GSP a run for his money with the way that he fights now.

Bisping Severely Underestimated Henderson

Michael Bisping was right about some of the things that he said leading up to his fight with Dan Henderson.  He was right that Henderson would not be able to land his right hand a high percentage of the time.  The problem is that Henderson only needs to land it once.

For Bisping to succeed in the standup portion of MMA, he needs to understand that he can be beaten by a less technical striker who has power in one or both hands.  It would seem that Henderson made that point quite emphatically on Saturday night, but will Bisping learn his lesson?  The key here is that Bisping needs to stop underestimating his opponents’ ability in the standup realm, and start using his technical striking advantages in a smarter way.

I know that Bisping trained very hard for this fight, and that he didn’t take Henderson lightly as a threat to beat him.  However, he did underestimate Hendo’s striking, and even circled to Hendo’s power hand, which turned out to be very ill-advised.  It would seem that Bisping’s overconfidence in his own striking has come back to haunt him.

Fitch Wins, But Also Loses

I don’t know if Jon Fitch was rooting for one fighter or another in the UFC Welterweight Championship fight, but I would suspect that he wouldn’t have minded if Thiago Alves had won the title from Georges St. Pierre.

First of all, we already know that Fitch had a difficult time doing much of anything against St. Pierre the first time they faced one another.  Secondly, it’s not necessarily a fact that Fitch couldn’t have employed a similar style to what GSP did to get the better of Alves, as well.

With GSP holding onto the belt, it may take Fitch even longer to get another shot at the title, depending on whether the UFC brass is eager to run a rematch between the two anytime soon.  Of course, while Fitch deserves a lot of credit for getting the “W” against a game opponent, he also didn’t do himself many favors by winning against Paulo Thiago via decision instead of finishing him in impressive fashion.  Fitch is looking at maybe another two or three wins now before he’ll be able to get a title shot.

“Sexyama” Debuts Successfully

What a strange matchup- a Japanese fighter that hardcore fans have dubbed “Sexyama” versus a Muay Thai specialist with a large and unfortunate tattoo of Johnny Cash’s face on his arm.

Talk about contrasting styles.

Still, what a fight!  The two really slugged it out, and I have to admit that I was surprised at Yoshihiro Akiyama was as willing to stand and trade with Alan Belcher as he was.  Sure, he looked to clinch regularly and did take the fight to the mat more than once, but he also seemed very happy to simply stand up with Belcher and exchange some strikes.

Was it a wise strategy?  Oh, I don’t know.  I guess you can’t argue with success.  I was impressed with Belcher’s overall game (including how well he did on the ground with Akiyama), and both of these guys have a pretty good future in the UFC’s middleweight division.  Hopefully, Akiyama’s next fight will represent at least a fighter similar to Belcher’s caliber, if not better.  Perhaps Akiyama will perform even better now that he’s gotten his first UFC fight out of the way.

by Jon Hartley for Fightmania.com

Tags: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Brock Lesnar, Cain Velasquez, Dan Henderson, Fedor Emelianenko, Frank Mir, Georges St. Pierre, Jon Fitch, Matt Hughes, Matt Serra, Paulo Thiago, Sean Sherk, Shane Carwin, Thiago Alves, UFC, Yoshihiro Akiyama