UFC 168: Aftermath…Weidman and Rousey Win, Win Big

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When God tells you to retire, you better quit. Or He’ll break you! This is a lesson Anderson Silva and horrified MMA fans learned on Sunday. Nobody deserves to have a leg broken especially on pay-per-view. Silva did better when he clowned around against Chris Weidman, only getting knocked out with a left hook to the jaw. This time he had a limb fractured, his tibia and fibula shattered by a well-placed leg kick checked by a better-placed counter that snapped his lower left extremity.

Two rounds and Weidman defended the middleweight title he took from Silva, uncannily at a near-similar time. In UFC 162, Weidman won in 1:18 of the second round. This time, it took him two seconds less to win in the same round. Again, Silva lovers are saying that Weidman doesn’t deserve the division’s championship belt because of the freak-accident circumstances surrounding the end of the fight. What else do you need Silva-lovers? Another rematch where Weidman will rip Silva’s arm and hit him with it?

Give it up and sleep off the hangover of the “greatest MMA fighter of all time” hype that Joe Rogan and Dana White will throw at you. Fedor Emelianenko is widely accepted as the best ever of the heavyweight division even though he never fought in the UFC. When Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva and Dan Henderson fucked Fedor up there were demands for a rematch. Just about everyone realized that Fedor was old and his time at the top was over and that’s it.

It would be better for all concerned to look forward to Weidman’s next fight, maybe against Anderson’s friend, the rejuvenated TRT-powered Vitor Belfort. That should be a smash…sorry…breaking PPV records…sorry again…as North-American Weidman fans and Brazilian fans purchase the right to see either Weidman destroy another Brazilian challenger or the latter getting back the belt for South America.

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Speaking of another American star, this one of the female persuasion, didn’t Ronda Rousey look good beating Miesha Tate for the second time? Rousey had a harder time this time around, unable to put away an opponent in the first round like she did her first seven adversaries. Tate, with the advantage of having fought Rousey once, knew what she had to do to do better. And do better she did. Taking Rousey to the championship rounds with good striking and ground defense, the champ had to dig deep into her expansive bag of submission techniques but still ended up using her favorite – the armbar. Rousey’s transitions on the ground simply sapped Tate’s strength and will as she tapped in 58 seconds of the middle round of the five-canto affair. She earned a combined $150,000 for two bonuses: Fight of the Night and Submission of the Night. Tate can take consolation in her share of the bonus and that she is the first to last more than a round against Rousey.

Another main-card battle also had its moments when the phenomenal but previously-underrated Travis Browne disposed of veteran and former UFC heavyweight champ, Josh Barnett, with scary elbows to the side of the head with exactly one minute left in the first round. Barnett is a top-10 contender but Browne simply was too smart and fierce for Barnett’s slow-burn methodology. While Barnett once again went to his bread-and-butter wrestling prelude to ground-and-pound or submission, Browne went for the kill with all the strength his 6-feet-7 frame allowed him. Barnett was already out before the referee stepped in to call off Browne.

Browne has been making a habit of exposing formidable veterans. He also knocked out Gabriel Gonzaga with the same right elbow to the head, although against Barnett, he hit cleaner whereas against Gonzaga he hit the Brazilian with a few strikes to the back of the head. Browne is now the recipient of three straight Knockout of the Night bonuses, the previous one against Alistair Overeem, and perhaps will line himself up for a title fight with another win or two.

UFC 168 is one of the best year-enders for the MMA-promotion firm, and certainly boasts of the most gruesome injury in a title fight. It does look like the end of the Anderson-Silva era. The Spider has had a great run as champion. Stories have it that he asked his doctor how soon he could start training. OK. Mister Silva, sir, there is a saying for what you plan in Cebuano: Gadaku lang ang hunahuna. Meaning, it’s all in your mind. What do you want, get your left leg broken again or get a matching break on your right leg? Retire gadammit! You don’t need the money. Your legacy won’t change. After all, you beat Chael Sonnen twice. Heheheh. A Prosperous New Year to you, Anderson, and take care of that leg. It’s the only left leg you’ve got!

UFC 117: Chael Sonnen grinds his way into near upset of Anderson Silva

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Jon Fitch again shows why he is the most boring top-level MMA fighter

Chael Sonnen fights as well as he (trash) talks and gave Anderson Silva more of a beating than he underwent in all of his past 11 UFC bouts.

For most of four rounds and a half Sonnen grounded and pounded Silva and was a minute and 50 seconds away from winning the UFC middleweight belt when his tired body was unable to escape from a triangle choke.

Sonnen’s right hand tapped once on Silva’s left leg but when Silva let go, Sonnen feigned (or perhaps it was oxygen depletion that caused his confusion) not to have submitted.

Sonnen didn’t pretend to be something else. He came in to the Octagon with the reputation of a damn fine wrestler and that’s what he did. He did surprise Silva with some crisp punching, hitting Silva in the very first round with straight lefts that buckled the Brazilian.

Then the takedowns and pounding on the ground ensued. Except when Silva tapped out Sonnen in the fifth round, Sonnen’s Greco-Roman wrestling proved better than Silva’s Nogueira Brothers Jiujitsu.

While controlling Silva on the ground, Sonnen peppered him with punches, hammer blows, elbows, forearms, even some palms and slaps that you could almost see Silva’s round bald head start to get dented and his brain cells fall into place preventing another clownish behavior like in the Thales Leites and Demian Maia fights.

Sonnen is not really a powerful striker. If he had, say, fellow Team Quest Dan Henderson’s force, the fight would not have reached the fifth round and Sonnen would have been the new UFC middleweight king. But such is the way of should, would, and could have beens -- it’s pure speculation.

But the dominance with which Sonnen displayed was pure reality. It is proof that to beat a superb striker like Silva, it takes a superb wrestler. Maia’s world-class jiujitsu could not touch Silva. For jujitsu technique to be applied, one has to get hold of an opponent and preferably take the fight to the ground.

As capable a grappler Silva is, he favors standup battles. But Sonnen did not grant Silva that luxury. He took Silva to the ground every chance he got. It was Sonnen’s misfortune that he was too tired and got careless in the final minutes of the fight and got caught in a triangle choke. If Sonnen wants to win a rematch with Silva and grab the title, he better learn some (or a lot of) defense against submissions.

That is if Vitor Belfort doesn’t beat Silva first. Belfort is like Silva’s mirror image -– they are both Brazilian Jiujitsu black belts who prefer to strike. Belfort has the edge on Silva in the speed department, they are quite even power-wise, but Silva has the savvy advantage. Silva has shown that he can withstand a pounding. Belfort’s chin is still relatively untested. But that is what will make it fun, strikers who will be testing each other out as to who will last.

As both Silva and Sonnen tapped gloves before the fight started, it was no surprise that they hugged and shook hands after the fight despite all the jibes Sonnen heaped on Silva. Silva had to show his respect to Sonnen, battered as he was. This was probably the only time that Silva knelt in the Octagon and sincerely felt like showing respect to an opponent and the crowd. Right after ducking a bullet in the form of a 185.5-pound American-bred wrestler, Silva knelt before Sonnen and laid his belt on the ground.

The Brazilian striking specialist said in the post-fight interview that he doesn’t bear grudges but he wouldn’t have said it if he had lost. It’s easier to be magnanimous in victory. If he had lost, he would probably would have cursed Sonnen in Portuguese and let his manager Ed Soares do the translating.

BORING. Jon Fitch is right now the most boring fighter in the UFC. To start with, he doesn’t have much skills. Then all he does is try to take down his opponents and keep them there. He has submitted opponents before. The easy ones. Against an opponent with good defense, all he can do is sneak in a few ineffective punches before the referee starts to get as bored as the audience and stands up both fighters. Fitch’s win over Thiago Alves was a waste of 15 minutes better spent watching Arianny Celeste walk back to her chair outside the Octagon. What Joe Rogan said of Fitch’s fighting style that he fights ugly but it’s beautiful to watch doesn’t make sense. Boring is never beautiful, Joseph.

Semi-retired or should-be-retired Matt Hughes, on the other hand, is still worth the pay-per-view fee. At 36 years of age and past his prime, Hughes proved he is still relevant in the welterweight division by choking out BJJ third-degree black belt Ricardo Almeida in 3:15 of the very first round. That earned Hughes Submission of the Night honors and a cool $60,000 extra. But this should not put ideas in Hughes’ head that he can still get back his title. Georges St. Pierre still sits comfortably on the welterweight throne and the pretenders to that throne are guys named Josh Koscheck, Diego Sanchez, Mike Swick, Marcus Davis, Dan Hardy, and the aforementioned Fitch and Alves, who could make Hughes feel his age.

UFC 117 has one of the best cards this year even though the battle of giants -– Junior dos Santos and Roy Nelson –- didn’t produce a knockout despite all the leather thrown. There’s still five months left before the year ends but Silva vs. Sonnen will be hard to top.