WEC 39 took place in Corpus Christi, TX and was headlined by a featherweight title bout between the reigning champion Mike Thomas Brown, who was set to make his first title defense against Leonard Garcia.  The card was rounded out by a handful of lightweight, featherweight, and bantamweight fights.  Notably, Frank Mir was absent from his usual position in the commentator’s booth, replaced for the night by Jens Pulver.  The televised broadcast began with a matchup between the former lightweight champion ‘Razor’ Rob McCullough and former title contender Marcus Hicks.

Rob McCullough vs. Marcus Hicks (155 lbs)

The lightweight bout started out very tentatively, with the opponents circling and clinching for the majority of the first round and no significant offense from either fighter.  Hicks threw jabs and an occasional overhand left; McCullough responded mainly with leg and body kicks.  Early in the second, Hicks landed a left hand that knocks McCullough down;  Marcus latched on to one of his patented guillotines but was not able to finish, and ended up on his back when McCullough escaped.  Hicks got back to his feet and received a barrage of strikes from McCullough to finish out the round; Marcus was reeling on his feet by the end of the second.

The third round had even less action than the first, causing the referee to warn both fighters that he will call the bout a no-contest if they do not engage.  The pace picked up a bit after the warning, but both were still tentative, making for a very tedious fight.   One of the ringside judges called the fight a draw, while the other two saw McCullough as the winner, giving ‘Razor’ Rob a majority victory (30-27, 29-28, 29-29).  A disappointing start to the event.

Fight Grade: 2/5

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In another installment of UK-based UFC events, UFC 95 was broadcast on Spike TV with several hours of tape delay.  The event featured a mixed bag of fights spanning across all of UFC’s weight classes.  In the main event, Ultimate Fighter Season 1 winner Diego Sanchez made his debut at 155 lbs, facing a fellow ‘TUF’ champion Joe Stevenson.  UFC 95 also featured two bouts with title shot implications in the middleweight division as Chael Sonnen took on Demian Maia and Nate Marquardt faced off against Wilson Gouveia.  There were also a number of fresh faces on the card as several fighters received an opportunity to impress the fans in their Octagon debut.  Let’s see how it all turned out:

Josh Koscheck vs. Paulo Thiago (170 lbs)

The fighters circled and exchanged ineffective combinations for most of the first round.  Koscheck was the aggressor until he walked into an uppercut-hook combination from Thiago that dropped Josh to his back.  Koscheck appeared to have recovered instantly but the referee jumped on him and halted the bout before Josh had a chance to get up or Thiago had a chance to follow him to the ground.  Awful, completely unjustified stoppage.

Fight Grade: 3 1/5 2 points deduction for the stoppage

Aftermath: With a little help from the ref, Paulo Thiago is launched right to the top with a first round TKO victory over a perennial UFC contender.  A bad loss for Koscheck in a fight that he really should never have taken will drop him from title contention for the foreseable future.  A rematch would be the most logical next fight in my opinion, to see if Thiago can repeat the feat without ref help involved.

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Ultimate Fight Night 17 marked the UFC’s first event in Tampa, FL.   The card was plagued by injuries and had a late substitution in the main event after Hermes Franca pulled out with an ACL injury, leaving his training partner Jeremy Stephens to take on Joe Lauzon in the featured bout.

Luigi Fioravanti vs. Anthony Johnson (170 lbs)

In the opening matchup, Johnson successfully utilized his reach advantage to keep Fioravanti at bay with kicks and jabs.  Fioravanti attempted to even things out by bringing the fight to the ground but Johnson defended the takedown.  Fioravanti landed a knee to Johnson’s groin in the clinch;  the action was restarted after a brief break then Johnson staggered Fioravanti with a glancing right hand.  Johnson followed up with a series of hammerfists to his opponent and Luigi was not able to recover, forcing the referee to stop the fight.

Fight Grade: 3/5

Aftermath: Another impressive win for Johnson shows that he is ready for a step up in competition; he should be matched with another rising star like Ben Saunders or Mike Swick.  Fioravanti will remain a gatekeeper and will most likely fight a UFC newcomer in his next bout.

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In the past, UFC has usually lined up a star-studded event for the Superbowl weekend.  This year was no exception, with a mega-matchup between the welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre and the lightweight champion BJ Penn in the main event, and the undefeated lightheavyweight contenders Thiago Silva and Lyoto Machida meeting in the co-main.

The remainder of the card was so evenly matched that all eight undercard bouts went to a decision;  five of them a split decision.  It turned out that the close matchups for most part did not make for exciting fights.

Nate Diaz vs. Clay Guida  (155 lbs)

In the opening bout of the broadcast, Guida’s wrestling made all the difference as he was able to control Diaz and maintain dominant position through most of the bout.  Guida had Nate’s back very quickly in the first round, and alternated between back control and top guard for much of the fight, staying out of Diaz’s submissions though not inflicting much damage on his opponent.  Diaz did a better job of keeping the fight on his feet in the third round, but outboxing Guida was not enough to win the fight for Nate.  Guida took home the split decision victory.

Fight Grade: 2/5

Aftermath: The first loss on the record of the ‘Ultimate Fighter’ winner Nate Diaz shows that he needs to improve his wrestling to advance in the very deep decision.  Guida earns a win but will not earn many fans with a grinding methodical style – a big change from Guida’s earlier UFC bouts where he was the exciting fan favorite who often walked away on the losing end of close decisions.

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