UFC 91 featured the return of the briefly retired heavyweight champion Randy Couture, taking on the challenger Brock Lesnar in the first leg of a four-man heavyweight title tournament.  The matchup was billed as ‘biggest in UFC history’ and so the undercard of this event was overlooked: the only bout besides the main event to receive any publicity was a #1 contender eliminator between Kenny Florian and Joe Stevenson for a shot at the lightweight title.  Three other lightweight bouts took place in the preliminary portion of the event.

Nate Quarry vs. Demian Maia (185 lbs) 

The televised card began with a striker vs. grappler matchup, and the grappler Maia wasted no time bringing the fight to the ground. From there he easily passed Quarry’s guard and achieved mount, then back control, and finished with a rear naked choke forcing a tapout less than halfway through the first round.

Fight Grade: 3/5

Aftermath: Maia once again demonstrates impeccable jiu-jitsu, gaining his fourth victory in the UFC.  Since there are no clear-cut contenders for Anderson Silva’s middleweight belt, undefeated Maia can make a good case for demanding a title shot.  However he instead asks for Michael Bisping in the post-fight interview, stirring up rumors that he may become the coach on the next season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, opposite of Bisping.

Quarry suffers his second loss in the UFC, dashing any hopes of title contendership in the foreseeable future.  Perhaps he can take on Kendall Grove in his next bout.

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WEC 36 was originally scheduled to take place on September 10th in Hollywood, Florida but was postponed due to Hurricane Ike.  The event featured two championship bouts: Urijah Faber defended his featherweight title against Mike Thomas Brown, and middleweight challenger Chael Sonnen was set to rematch champion Paulo Filho for the belt.  However Filho was not able to make weight, and so the bout was changed to three-round affair with no title on the line.  Not that it made any difference in the big picture, as Zuffa (the parent company of WEC and UFC) decided to fold WEC’s 185-lbs & 205-lbs divisions, rendering the middleweight championship belt meaningless after this event.  Also on the card, two former UFC lightweights Jens Pulver and Leonard Garcia met in a featherweight bout that would likely produce the #1 contender for the winner of Faber-Brown.

Jake Rosholt vs. Nissen Osterneck (185 lbs)

In a middleweight bout with a potential shot at a future UFC contract on the line, Osterneck came out swinging from the opening bell, and was dominating Rosholt in the standup.  However Rosholt was able to reverse the course of the round by taking Osterneck down and controlling him on the ground, winning the round despite not doing much damage.  In the second round, Nissen once again attempted to work his standup, and had Rosholt reeling at one point, but lost his balance after throwing a head kick and ended up on his back.  Rosholt capitalized and mounted his opponent; Osterneck had nothing left in the gas tank at this point and was not able to escape or offer any defense to Rosholt’s strikes as the referee Troy Waugh stepped in to stop the bout.

Fair performance from both fighters, though it’s not clear whether either one is ready for a move up to the UFC at this point.

Fight grade: 4/5

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Only a week after UFC 89, which was broadcast on Spike TV from UK, UFC was back on pay-per-view with another event – their first one in Chicago, Illinois.  UFC 90 was headlined by Anderson Silva defending his middleweight title against an unlikely contender in Patrick Cote.  The card also featured four lightweight bouts, only two of which made the televised broadcast.

Tyson Griffin vs. Sean Sherk (155 lbs)

The broadcast began with one of the lightweight bouts:  a matchup between two fighters with very similar styles.  It turned out that Sherk was a little better than Griffin in every area.  Sherk took Griffin down early in the first round and quickly took Tyson’s back but was shaken off.  Sherk achieved several more takedowns over the course of the fight, but was not able to keep Griffin on the ground for more than a few seconds, while Tyson’s takedown attempts fell short. 

By the middle of the second round, both fighters abandoned the idea of ground fighting, and the remainder of the bout was mainly a kickboxing match.  On the feet Sherk had the edge as well with sharp uppercuts and knees and quick combinations of strikes.  Griffin turned up the intensity of his attacks in the third round, but it was not enough as Sherk walked away with a unanimous decision (30-27, 29-28, 29-28) . The bout earned the official ‘Fight of the Night’ award.

Aftermath:  Sherk positions himself back in the lightweight title picture, and has mentioned his desire to face the winner of the upcoming bout between Kenny Florian and Joe Stevenson.  Griffin lost but had a solid performance; this may be a good time to match him up with Nate Diaz, who is still undefeated in the Octagon. 

Fight grade: 4/5

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UFC 89 took place in Birmingham, England, marking the third UFC event in England for 2008.  The event was broadcast on Spike TV with a tape delay.  The main event was a middleweight bout between Michael Bisping and Chris Leben – the fight that was originally scheduled to take place at UFC 85 but was scratched from that card as Leben was serving a brief jail sentence stemming from a probation violation.   The remainder of the televised portion of the card was split up between the welterweight and lightheavyweight divisions, with two matchups in both weight classes.

Marcus Davis vs. Paul Kelly (170 lbs)

The broadcast began with a welterweight matchup between undefeated Paul Kelly and ‘The Ultimate Fighter’ alumnus Marcus Davis, fresh off his first loss in twelve bouts.  Davis controlled the action in the first round with superb footwork, staying out of Kelly’s range while landing punches and kicks from the outside.  Davis took Kelly down late in the round, and was briefly caught in a guillotine before working out of it and pounding Kelly on the ground.  Kelly got back to his feet but still lost the round.

In second round Kelly tried to unload on Davis but once again had a hard time dealing with Marcus’ footwork and finding his target.  Kelly slammed Davis with an explosive takedown; Davis responded with a guillotine of his own and Paul Kelly was forced to tap out.

Aftermath: Back on the winning track, Marcus Davis asked to fight on UFC’s upcoming event in Dublin, Ireland in his post-fight interview.  Considering how frequently Davis appears on UFC’s European events, his request is virtually a given, and Chris Lytle will be his likely opponent.  Paul Kelly was dealt his first professional loss; he too will likely appear on the Dublin card and should face David Baron, who was choked out by Jim Miller on the same night in an untelevised preliminary bout.

Fight grade: 3/5

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The latest installment of Elite XC’s ‘Saturday Night Fights’ on CBS was scheduled to feature the abysmal main event of Kimbo Slice vs. Ken Shamrock.  In a bizarre turn of events, Shamrock received a cut to his eyebrow while sparring in preparation for the bout.  The laceration required stitches, and the Florida Athletic Commission barred Shamrock from participating in the event.  This left EXC scrambling for a last minute replacement to salvage the main event; they ended up pitting Kimbo against Seth Petruzelli, a lightheavyweight who was scheduled to face Aaron Rosa on the untelevised undercard.

Murillo Rua vs Benji Radach (185 lbs bout)

The televised portion of the event began with a #1 contender bout for the Elite XC’s middleweight title, which will be defended by Robbie Lawler against Joey Villasenor on November 8th.  Radach came out of the gates swinging, throwing relentless hooks that staggered Rua and dropped him to his knees.   Rua recovered and fired back, and twice in the first round both fighters found themselves knocked down simultaneously for a moment.  Rua secured a takedown late in the round and worked for a leg lock, but Radach resisted and survived the round.

In the second, Rua seemingly figured out Radach’s stand up game, and was landing flying knees to the body of Benji, backing him up against the fence.  Rua threw another flying knee; Radach countered with a jab which knocked Rua off-balance and dropped him.  Rua was slow to cover up, and Radach landed several huge punches to his downed opponent, knocking ‘Ninja’ out cold.  A great brawl to start off the evening.

Aftermath: Radach will go on to face the winner of the Lawler-Villasenor for the title – that is if the Elite XC organization survives beyond the November event.  Rua suffers a very brutal knockout, another setback to his rollercoaster of a career.

Fight Grade: 5/5

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A brief review of last night’s uneventful Fight Night:

Houston Alexander vs. Eric Schaefer (205 lbs) 

The night began with a matchup of opposing styles, as Eric ‘Red’ Schaefer desperately tried to take down Houston Alexander for the first half of the first round, while getting battered by knees and uppercuts from within Alexander’s clinch.  Once Schaefer finally got the fight to the ground, Alexander had no defense for Eric’s grappling, as Schaefer mounted Houston and applied an arm triangle choke. Alexander tapped out with only seconds remaining in the round.

Fight grade: 3.5/5 

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UFC 88 ‘Breakthrough’ – the first UFC event in Atlanta – was headlined by a lightheavyweight bout between the former champion Chuck Liddell and the Ultimate Fighter Season 2 winner Rashad Evans.  The winner of this bout was virtually guaranteed the first shot at UFC’s new LHW champion, Forrest Griffin.  The other major bouts on this card were Rich Franklin’s debut at 205 lbs against Matt Hamill, and Dan Henderson attempting to score his first UFC win in over a decade against the Brazilian submission specialist Rousimar Palhares.

The first televised match of the night was supposed to be a welterweight bout between Karo Parisyan and Yoshiyuki Yoshida, however Parisyan pulled out of the fight with a back injury the day of the weight-ins, and so another 170 lbs bout was moved up to lead the televised card:

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UFC 87 ‘Seek and Destroy’ was the organization’s debut event in Minneapolis, Minn. and featured the showdown for the welterweight title between champion Georges St. Pierre and challenger Jon Fitch.  The undercard was highlighted by Brock Lesnar making his second UFC appearance against the veteran Heath Herring, as well as a much anticipated lightweight matchup  between Kenny Florian and Roger Huerta.

Jason MacDonald vs Demian Maia (185 lbs)

In the first round, MacDonald quickly gets a takedown then gets caught in Maia’s triangle.  He escapes and gets Maia’s back, attempts a rear naked choke but Maia is able to escape as well.  MacDonald works ground and pound from the top; towards the end of the round Maia gets MacDonald’s back and threatens an RNC of his own. 

MacDonald does enough to win the first round, but the next two is all Maia as he gets takedown early in both rounds and works MacDonald on the ground, mounting him and constantly threatening submissions.  MacDonald survives until the middle of the third round, when he finally gets caught in an RNC he can’t escape and is forced to tap.

The aftermath: MacDonald put up a good fight and will likely remain in the lower half of UFC’s middleweight division.  Maia shows a great display of grappling against a very game opponent, and is only a fight or two away from a title shot should he keep winning.

Fight grade: 4/5

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Back at the ‘The Joint’ in Vegas, WEC 35 brought us another championship triple-header: a rematch between Brian Stann and Steve Cantwell for the lightheavyweight title, a welterweight title bout between Carlos Condit and Hiromitsu Miura, and a lightweight championship match between Jamie Varner and Marcus Hicks.  Here is how it went down:

Damacio Page vs. Brian Bowles (135 lbs bout)

The first televised bout of the night started out at a hectic pace, with Page slipping after throwing a high kick and ending up on his back with Bowles in his guard.  Bowles attempts a guillotine; Page escapes and gains the top position.  Page stands up and they go back to trading on the feet; Bowles attempts a takedown but Page sprawls.  Page goes for a takedown of his own and is caught in a standing guillotine.  He looks like he is trying to slam his way out of the hold, but his arms are trapped and Page is forced to tap out as Bowles pulls him down to the canvas. 

Bowles improves his career record to 6-0 and positions himself as one of the top contenders for the 135 lbs title (currently held by Miguel Torres.)

Fight grade: 4/5

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After their cluster-bomb of a CBS debut, Elite XC returned to network television, loaded with two title matchups:  a middleweight rematch between the reigning champion Robbie Lawler and challenger Scott Smith, and a welterweight bout between Jake Shields and Nick Thompson to crown the organization’s first 170 lbs title holder.  The third title match – heavyweight showdown between Antonio Silva and Justin Eilers – was left off the CBS card and instead headlined the preliminary card broadcast on Showtime.

Shayna Bazsler vs. Christiane ‘Cyborg’ Santos (140 lbs women’s bout)

In the first round, Bazsler aggressively goes for takedowns and submissions, getting a near heel hook at one point, but Santos escapes and batters Shayna with punches and knees.  In the second 3-minute round, Santos completely takes over the fight, landing strike after strike from clinch until Bazsler collapses.  Santos jumps on the top of the cage to celebrate, even though referee Steve Mazagatti did not stop the fight!  A few seconds of confusion ensue; Bazsler gets back to her feet and Mazagatti orders the fighters to continue.  Santos finishes what she started, knocking out the wobbly Bazsler with only seconds left in the round.

Fight grade: 4/5

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After the UFC lightweight title was on hold for most of the year due to the champion Quinton ‘Rampage’ Jackson and the top contender Forrest Griffin coaching opposite each other on the seventh season of ‘The Ultimate Fighter’, the two finally met in the Octagon at UFC 86. With all the hype on the main event, the rest of the card looked somewhat lackluster in comparison, with Cote-Almeida being the only undercard bout with immediate title implications.

Tyson Griffin vs Marcus Aurelio (155 lbs)

Griffin dominated Aurelio in standup, and avoided danger on the ground, through the entire fight. Aurelio was not able to find an answer for Griffin’s striking, never achieved dominant position, and while he threatened numerous submissions from his always-dangerous guard, none of them came close. Griffin won every round on every judge’s scorecard for a 30-27 unanimous decision.

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Seven seasons old, and still going strong, The Ultimate Fighter has become somewhat of a farm system for the UFC.  This season didn’t produce a very high yield:  of the 32 competitors initially appearing on the cast, only seven were scheduled for a bout in the live finale. (One of those scheduled bouts, Tim Credeur vs Cale Yarborough, did not happen as Credeur was banned from competition by Nevada State Athletic Committee due to taking prescription drug Adderall several days prior to the fight.)  The rest of the card was mostly filled with UFC veterans, many of whom were in a must-win situation.

Dante Rivera vs Matthew Riddle (185 lbs)

TUF back-story: A friendly rivalry between a veteran Rivera and a rookie Riddle culminated with Rivera claiming he will retire should he lose this fight, and Riddle promising to have a retirement plaque ready to present to Dante after the bout.

The fight itself turns out to be pretty boring, with most of the bout taking place clinched against the fence.  Riddle gets a takedown towards the end of every round, and achieves mount on more than one occasion.  Ending each round in dominant position is enough to give Riddle the bout, 29-28 on one judge’s scorecard and 30-27 on the other two.  I don’t understand the UFC’s reasoning behind starting out the televised broadcast with this bout.

The aftermath:  Cooler heads prevail, and the retirement plaque never rears its ugly head.  Nevertheless, Rivera is not a UFC caliber fighter.  Riddle is very raw and green but shows potential.

Fight grade: 2/5

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Two weeks after their abysmal CBS debut, Elite XC returned with another card – this one broadcast on Showtime.  The event featured the first defense of the Elite XC’s newly minted 160 lbs title, with champion KJ Noons taking on the challenger Yves Edwards.  Other UFC and Pride FC veterans making an appearance on this card were Murilo ‘Ninja’ Rua, Nick Diaz, and Ron Waterman.  The commentary was provided by Mauro Ranallo and Stephen Quadros, as well as former pro-wrestler Bill Goldberg.

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UFC 85 saw a return of Ultimate Fighting Championship to London, England. The event was officially titled ‘Bedlam’, but often referred to as ‘Cursed’ due to all the injuries and mishaps that caused the lineup to change again and again. ‘Bedlam’ was originally scheduled to be headlined by Chuck Liddell taking on Mauricio ‘Shogun’ Rua in a lightheavyweight bout, but first Rua and then Liddell were forced to withdraw from the card: Rua re-aggravated his knee injury and Liddell tore his hamstring in training. Eventually, the UFC settled on a welterweight main event of Matt Hughes vs. Thiago Alves.

Chris Leben was also scheduled to appear on this card, taking on Michael Bisping, but ran into some legal problems that forced him to withdraw and be replaced by the Canadian fighter Jason Day. With all the last-minute lineup changes, no title bouts or huge matchups, and only two weeks after the spectacular UFC 84, this event was pretty much an afterthought and carried fairly low expectations. Here’s how it went down:

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Back by popular demand!

There are quite a few tough calls to make this week.  FightMatrix was not created to be a prediction-based system, but its accuracy at the elite level is great, so it should be interesting to see how it fares in match-ups where both fighters are highly ranked.  Although, in Bisping/Day and Swick/Davis, we have two fighters who are still getting accustomed to their new divisions.  For entertainment purposes only, I have colored the betting favorites in GREEN where odds are available.  The system’s calls are on the left.

Welterweight
[#4] Thiago Alves vs. [#6] Matt Hughes

Middleweight
[#22] Jason Day vs. [#31] Michael Bisping

Welterweight
[#15] Mike Swick vs. [#17] Marcus Davis

Heavyweight
[#4] Fabricio Werdum vs. [#20] Brandon Vera

Middleweight
[#9] Nathan Marquardt vs. [#25] Thales Leites

Middleweight
[NR] Martin Kampmann vs. [#57] Jorge Rivera

Lightweight
[#47] Thiago Tavares vs. [#66] Matt Wiman

Light Heavyweight
[#19] Jason Lambert vs. [#165] Luis Cane

Welterweight
[#38] Roan Carneiro vs. [#113] Kevin Burns

Welterweight
[#55] Jess Liaudin vs. [#159] Paul Taylor

Heavyweight
[#48] Eddie Sanchez vs. [#56] Antoni Hardonk

Ranking Note: Gray font represents an approximate ranking. An asterisk represents a fighter who is ranked, but too low for an approximation. These two scenarios will clear up slightly as we move forward. “NR” means the fighter is not ranked, due to inactivity, or due to a rating that is at or below the default starter rating.