UFC 140 Parting Shots

Your experience may differ, but after four days and multiple viewings of UFC 140, I still feel like I’m processing everything that took place. For someone that saw Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in his glory days in Pride, seeing Big Nog get submitted was a strange enough sight. Seeing Lyoto Machida get not only subbed for the first time, but knocked out cold the same night just made the show that much harder to digest.

You’d think that we’d learn to never say never in this sport by now. We saw Matt Serra send Georges St. Pierre stumbling around the cage before the great welterweight champion had to tap out, unable to get his bearings as Serra relentlessly hounded him. We saw Nick Diaz stand toe-to-toe with Takanori Gomi when Gomi was possibly the most feared lightweight on the planet, then gasped when Diaz finished him with one of the rarer submissions in the game, the gogoplata. Oh wait, that fight never happened? My bad.

Hell, we even saw Tito Ortiz, who was featured on Saturday night but failed to do much of anything against the younger Nogueira brother, rock Ryan Bader and then choke him out for his first submission win in ten years and first meaningful win in five. Yet, somehow seeing things like we saw at UFC 140 can still take us by surprise.

Of course, that’s for the better. If I ever get so desensitized to the “anything can happen” nature of MMA that seeing something like Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic get head-kicked out of consciousness by Gabriel Gonzaga fails to make my jaw drop, it will be a sad day.

So I don’t mind the fact that I still shake my head when I not only see the great “Minotauro” not only get submitted, but get his arm broken by Mir. Mir has taken other trophies in his career, sure, but this was different. Nobody does that to Nog. Nobody. The fact that Mir appeared to be nearly out of it just moments beforehand only accentuated the surprise factor. One second, Nogueira passes up what appears to be a foregone conclusion of a TKO in order to go for the sub instead, and the next second, he’s headed for the hospital and Mir’s making his Frank Mir face (eyebrows raised and duck lips) and strutting around the cage.

And as I mentioned in my UFC 140 Preview, the majority of the “what have you done for me lately?” MMA community may have forgotten about Machida, but I hadn’t. Not too long ago, this guy was amazing all of us with the way he dominated his opponents. Then, on Saturday, he was the first person since- when…ever?- to take a round from Jon Jones. What happened? Jones responded Anderson Silva style and said, “enough of this crap.” Takedown, slicing elbow strike, short left, crafty guillotine choke and it was a wrap.

It’s easy to forget when you see someone like Nogueira on the mat holding his arm in pain, or someone like Machida dropped unceremoniously to the mat as Jones coolly walks away, but these guys were once the aces of their respective weight classes. Even when both showed proof of actual weaknesses in the cage, they were never treated the way that they were on Saturday night. It’s important to give Mir and Jones all the credit in the world, because they both accomplished something that was unprecedented four days ago.

Quick Shots

–So, how do we appraise Jones and Mir, and furthermore, Nogueira and Machida after those two fights? Here’s the short version: Jones is looking impossible to beat and likely faces one last stiff test in the form of Rashad Evans, and Mir is better than I thought and looked like a borderline top five heavyweight, though I suspect that fighters like Shane Carwin, Brock Lesnar and Cain Velasquez will still give him trouble.

Nogueira still has something left in the tank and you have to feel for him, as he had Mir right where he wanted him but couldn’t capitalize because Mir protected well and covered everything but the back of his head. Meanwhile, Machida will simply join his rival Mauricio “Shogun” Rua in the ranks of those who are great fighters, but have shown to have little for Jones. Machida has a better chance at a future rematch since he actually won a round against the champ, though.

–Is Tito Ortiz done? He probably should be. If not, it is simply due to the charity of the UFC, and I would be surprised to see them give him another shot after a growing list of others have been not-so-subtly nudged toward retirement when in his position.

–Every time I see a fight like Chan Sung Jung vs. Mark Hominick, I feel as exhilarated as anyone else, but then immediately feel badly for the fighter who came up short. Hominick trained for three months for that? It’s hard not to feel bad for someone when they don’t even get a real chance to show what they’ve been working on. Wouldn’t that be the worst part of being a fighter? All of that preparation, the flight, cutting weight, staying in the hotel, all the pre-fight nonsense and everything for a seven-second TKO loss?

Say What?!?

It told me he bleeds, so let’s do this!- Jon Jones in the post-fight press conference explaining his thoughts after he cut open Lyoto Machida in the second round of their bout.

Not an outlandish quote like those that I usually choose, but a great one. It’s long been thought that something like cutting your opponent can be a momentum-changer and confidence-builder, and there’s tangible proof of that fact. Jones seemed to immediately change gears after he did some damage on the mat, and the rest is history.

The Beautiful Loser Award

This goes to Big Nog, who seemed seconds away from finishing Frank Mir before he was warned about punching the back of Mir’s head and decided to go for a submission finish instead. I still feel that Nog got a little greedy and wanted a feather in his cap by tapping out Mir, but he did look much better than in their first fight until he left his arm out there and got in trouble.

Movin’ On Up Award

On the prelims, Jake Hecht looked pretty impressive while putting away a fairly tough UFC veteran in Rich Attonito. Hecht was making his UFC debut and has now won eleven of his last twelve fights, standing at 11-2 overall. Hecht will need to work on his takedown defense and ability to stand up when put on his back, but showed impressive composure while coming back from a tough first round to TKO Attonito in his first UFC appearance.

Holy $#!% Award

This could go to either of the co-main event fights, but I have to go with Mir because he looked so close to defeat before he had the audacity to attempt a kimura on Nogueira himself. Mir’s hubris paid off and Nogueira could not escape the hold, leading to a sight none of us ever expected to see.

On a side note, it’s never good to see a fighter get injured, but when someone sustains an injury or passes out because he refuses to tap out to a submission hold, it’s a good reminder to all of us that an armbar, kimura or rear naked choke is every bit as devastating as a clean left hook.

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Tags: Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Chan Sung Jung, Frank Mir, Jake Hecht, Jon Jones, Lyoto Machida, Mark Hominick, Tito Ortiz, UFC, UFC 140