Uno was going to have to take Edwards down to win because, while he's a good striker, Edwards is a superior striker with a notable reach advantage. Uno's shoot is as quick as there is, but Edwards is a great sprawler.

This was not the electrifying nonstop match people were hoping for by any means. Instead, it was about patience and strategy. Edwards looked like the better pure fighter and had more possible finishes, but Uno won because he dictated the fight through smarts and unconventionality. Uno started the first two rounds in a bizarre Bruce Lee like side stance. It gave him little opportunity for effective striking, but that wasn't exposed until he squared up before throwing in round 3. What it did was confuse Edwards and give him a very narrow target for his strikes. Uno used the stance to maneuver into a position where he could shoot. Although in my opinion it kept him a little too far away to be successful against a guy of Edwards quickness and reaction time, the main thing was that even Edwards controlling him on the mat was a better position for Uno than Edwards having a chance to flurry on him in standup or land some of his trademark knee lifts.

Edwards lost the fight due to his failure to capitalize on submission attempts. Usually he could have backed out instead and forced another standup segment, but it's hard to willfully pass up opportunities to end the match. The best fighters are the ones that seize the opportunity, and Edwards tried to do just that. Had it worked, he'd be a "genius." It's not like Edwards was having much success in standup either. The 7 punch combination at the end of round 1 that the announcers thought might win him the round was actually nothing more than 7 more punches avoided by Uno.

Uno didn't have a great deal of success either, but he did capitalize on positions better. His sweep is a great example of that. He was actually going for a wizard, but the way Edwards was on top of him after stopping that made it possible for him to get the same result, a reversal, though a different technique. One thing interesting about Uno is how he works around his opponent's head. His pivoting around it was what opened up a legitimate chance for a Kimura and an arm bar.

I keep talking about Uno, but as the fight was going on I thought Edwards was going to come out on top. He stopped Uno's takedowns except for a few single legs, and had a lot of time in standup. He almost had the hooks in twice and also had a headlock that I doubt would have resulted in a submission, but we'll never know because he got it on with about 3 seconds left in round 2. Where Uno won the fight was in getting Edwards to stay on the mat because eventually he'd take control and negate the points Edwards had scored with his near submission. Uno didn't do much until round 3 when he did a good job of staying in the dominant position and punching.

Uno always gives you things you rarely see. This is where I was going to bring in the one thing I didn't mention earlier, standing Edwards back for 30 seconds trying for a choke sleeper, but actually that was also done in a previous match they showed later. No one should mistake this for a classic bout, but it was a good extremely close fight. Ultimately, Edwards didn't connect on many strikes and certainly not any deadly ones, while Uno kept himself in positions where he'd have some success sooner or later. Uno won a unanimous decision.

3R

Phil Baroni vs. Amar Suldev

An amazing fight in it's own way. It was short and virtually all striking, but how did Baroni sustain these blows and win? Baroni fights on rage and the adrenaline rush, so maybe he hardly even feels them? Kickboxer Suldev caught him with a jumping knee to the chin, high kick, and a lethal illegal knee to the face when Baroni was on his knees. Suldev even had Baroni's arm extended in an arm bar. Through all this, Baroni took control after a few minutes showing no signs of grogginess and quickly put Suldev away. Suldev looked great offensively, but his ground defense was pitiful. Baroni just moved him from the center into the fence and knocked him out with a series of right hands that busted Suldev open on the ear and under the eye. Baroni is some kind of an asshole dancing around the ring with an American flag, taunting the downed Suldev and his corner, and even laughing at them. This is the kind of crap that has made the NBA lose much of his luster, although the league would still be mainly tolerable if the officials didn't win the games for the Lakers (gotta love those defensive fouls when Shaq knocks you over or elbows you in the face/chin, and that's not the half of it).

Baroni's antics point out the biggest problem with UFC right now. He's a total love him or hate him type. If they don't want punks ruining the league like the NBA (heaven forbid promoting someone people could actually look up to like David Robinson, all they talk about is some alleged incident where he didn't sign for Shaq as if every celeb that just signed 100 autographs isn't an asshole to the 101st person) then they should just get rid of him. All their champions disappear without a peep, so I'm sure few people would miss jabronie. If they are going to keep him, they have to promote him. He's a much more flamboyant Tank Abbott. The difference is Baroni is actually in shape and even has some skill. I don't think he's championship material right now, but certainly he could beat some more than acceptable fighters. We need to be seeing video features of everyone before the matches like in the old days because at this point even the hardcore UFC fans have never seen half the guys on this show before. With a feature on a guy like Baroni, I'd immediately have at least a little interest in this fight because I'd want to see him get his comeuppance. Instead, the only thing that's making me enjoy most of these fights is the quality. Granted that's about the only thing I care about anyway, but there obviously aren't enough people that feel the same for the league to thrive or perhaps even survive. This was a hell of a show, but that's the only thing the league is going on right now. Even with great matchmaking you'll totally lay an egg sometimes. The league has never recovered from the "bore" that was their first show back in the full PPV universe. With this lack of production and the total lack of promotion for the next show (they are down to listing a date and one match), a couple shows like that in a row and they'll be on life support.

1R 2:55

Creighton wisely didn't give Penn the distance for his strikes. Creighton wasn't able to do anything to make Penn respect him though. Penn was fairly dominant, but wasn't able to get his usual good shots in. Creighton was cut from the head, but from accidentally rubbing across the cage rather than a blow. Penn was much more laid back here. He took what was available to him rather than pushing, even forcing. Penn won when the ref stopped the fight due to mount punches. I found this match to be rather dull and non competitive.

2R 3:19

Ricco Rodriguez vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka

Kosaka is always entertaining, but I don't see him beating a highly skilled fighter that has 4 inches and 27 pounds on him. Kosaka couldn't keep him down when he had the advantage and couldn't keep him from landing effective strikes for too long when he didn't. Rodriguez even gave Kosaka a side suplex.

Kosaka's striking has improved, and Rodriguez's has probably been overrated. I won't say he hurt Rodriguez, but he made him decide the mat was where he'd be more effective. Kosaka didn't utilize his famous TK guard at all. In my opinion he did not defend solidly; he just took a lot of chances going for submissions or reversals. It was like he had no confidence in himself, believing he was so overmatched that it would take something drastic. When Rodriguez got the mount Kosaka would bring his legs up. One time he hooked Rodriguez around the waist and got him off, while another he tucked his head through so Rodriguez was rolled over and Kosaka was on his knees.

Kosaka's tactics were great to watch, but you can only get out of big trouble so many times before it catches up to you. After the first round, Tito Ortiz told Rodriguez to put the elbows to Kosaka when he tried for the same old counter. Rodriguez was able to take Kosaka down with ease and get the mount that much more easily. He cut bleeder Kosaka with a series of short elbows then got on his knees and reigned punches until the ref stop. It was an exciting fight because Kosaka did such cool reversals, including almost doing a cartwheel with his head to spin out of an arm bar. You never got the idea that Kosaka was going to pull this off though, just that he was doing his best to postpone the inevitable.

2R 3:25

UFC Middleweight Championship Match: Murilo Bustamante vs. Matt Lindland

Bustamante is so well rounded these days. I thought he'd be overpowered and especially outwrestled, but it didn't happen. Bustamante prepared for Lindland well. He knew Lindland would knee from the clinch, so he worked out a counter where he'd keep his hand down around Lindland's crotch and use it to hook and slam Lindland when he brought the knee up. The wrestler Lindland was uncomfortable on his back. He tried to bridge and turn out, but Bustamante transitioned into an arm bar. This led to the most controversial non finish in UFC history.

Lindland didn't actually tap while in the arm bar, but he had his arm bent like he was preparing to and touched Bustamante's leg at least once trying to figure out how he could escape the submission. Thus, in this regard it was a good thing that John McCarthy realized his mistake and honored the fighters intention to continue. That said, this was the worst call McCarthy has ever made. The reason is McCarthy grabbed Bustamante's hands and got him to release the arm bar. You can't have a ref getting in and breaking a fully locked in legal finisher unless he's stopping the fight. What McCarthy did has to override the fact that it was a mistake. The precedent has to go to the safety of the fighter. Bustamante released the hold immediately because he's an honorable fighter that wants only to win. Rulings like this can only result in guys holding on longer and injuring their opponent.

Bustamante thought he won because he had Lindland trapped and McCarthy stepped in. I'll give you that there was still a small chance Lindland would have escaped, but I don't know that it was any bigger than the chance that Bustamante would have broken his arm. Certainly I've seen many quicker stoppages in UFC from less risky holds or a smaller accumulation of blows. If you want to tell me that the right thing to do is to recreate the position the fighters were in moment before McCarthy interjected then I won't argue with you even though it's pretty hard to do accurately, but what McCarthy did was nothing more than screw Bustamante. He gave Lindland a free escape from a move that he probably didn't have a 5% chance of escaping from. How can one justify going from a locked in arm bar to a standup?

You can say that if Bustamante is the better fighter he'll win anyway, but anyone good enough to get a title fight in UFC is more than capable of winning on any given Friday. The defense against submissions has improved so much that it's extremely hard to perfectly lock in one submission in 25 minutes, much less ask a guy to do it twice. I thought this was going to cost Bustamante the fight because not surprisingly he had a huge letdown after doing his job and finding out a few seconds later that for some reason it wasn't enough. The rest of round 1 was about the only time Lindland controlled the fight, but he was able to do little more than pin Bustamante into the cage with his clinch.

Lindland was often in the top position on the mat, but Bustamante is a BJJ fighter that would just go to his back anytime Lindland had a chance for the takedown. He was just as happy to fight from the bottom, and this avoided any potential damage from a slam. Lindland didn't do anything from the top or from the clinch other than "score" the MMA equivalent of riding time. In standup, Bustamante hit Lindland with a good punch now and then but couldn't put together any combinations. Lindland did get a bloody nose from the punches though.

The key blow was a one-two early in the third round. Lindland mostly avoided Bustamante's left jab, but he tried to fire back immediately with a right which missed while at the same time Bustamante decked him with a short right. Bustamante leaned over Lindland and threw punches. Lindland was half out of it from the knockdown blow, but he kept kicked his legs and rocking back and forth so it was hard for Bustamante to have a good base for his subsequent punches. Bustamante applied a guillotine when Lindland sat up. Lindlind tried to take him down, but actually Bustamante just jumped down when he locked the hold. This time Lindland tapped for sure. This was one of those fights where in the end you just enjoy the great performance by Bustamante. It's lucky he was so good because had he wound up losing it would have been hard to enjoy the fight at all even though it was quite good.

3R 1:33

The best fight on the show. An excellent slugfest where both men showed great hearts and chins. These two never stopped. They had several great flurries of punches, but their opponent wouldn't go down and when they did they wouldn't give up.

Lawler is the bigger and stronger of the two. Riley might have wanted to do more submission work, but Lawler is the better wrestler and he definitely wanted to stay on his feet. What Riley is known for is an amazing chin. Riley's defense is poor though. It's great that he can take a punch, but if he wasn't clobbered regularly he would have won the fight. This was the worst of Jeff Osbourne's announcing because Riley is his local hero in Hook N Shoot, so he was making excuses for him and totally focusing on the positive. Don "The Dragon" Wilson was hardly a great color commentator for UFC, but at least he understood that he was doing something wrong when people were saying "That Dragon sure can take a punch."

Lawler put Riley down with a tremendous one-two combination and went down for the kill, but Riley withstood the flurry and was up in 30 seconds. Riley really punished Lawler for clinching because he had a variety of techniques he could employ. He used knees to the stomach and chin, a forearm, and kicks to the back of the leg. Lawler took half a dozen nasty knees in a two minute span without slowing down much. Riley got behind Lawler against the fence and got on his back for a choke. Lawler blocked for a long time then spun out and exploded with fists and knees. Riley bled, as always.

Lawler won rounds 1 & 3. He could take Riley down anytime he wanted due to his wrestling technique or simply overpowering him. Riley's main asset was his knees, but he just took too much punishment. A unanimous decision for Lawler.

3R

Semenov isn't the strongest or most talented fighter to begin with, but he has awesome heart and determination. They call him Houdini because he almost always finds a way to escape where others couldn't. Semenov's problem was his game was striking, but Salaverry is bigger, stronger, and similarly talented in standup. Salaverry is one of those guys like Tito Ortiz in his "middleweight" days that cuts 20 pounds to make weight and puts every one of them back on by bell time.

Semenov was almost defeated within two minutes from a series of punches. Salaverry had his back, but Semenov countered with a fireman's carry. I think it says a lot about Salaverry that rather than being stunned by the surprising escape, he nearly caught Semenov in a triangle. After going down from a Semenov punch, Salaverry should have beat Semenov with the triangle. Seeing the angles Semenov's arm was bent out without popping out of the shoulder, one wonders if Semenov isn't double jointed.

Semenov also survived being crushed by an illegal knee that wasn't called even though Salaverry paused to apologize. Did I mention this was the worst officiated UFC? Anyway, Salaverry had a big advantage on the mat and eventually all the damage Semenov withstood in his near defeats slowed him down. Salaverry trapped Semenov in a cross mount, punching and elbowing his head for over a minute until the ref stopped it. Excellent fight. Salaverry had the ability to win quickly, but Semenov postponed the inevitable for much longer than he had the right to.

3R

Here's an example of a bad quick ref stop. Radachi decked Berger with a right hook almost as soon as the match started and tried to finish him off by leaning over and punching. It was clear that, while the punch certainly rocked Berger, he still had his faculties. Berger was defending against Radachi's first five punches. A few got through, but certainly not because Berger was on dream street. Berger then went for a knee bar. As you'd expect, Radachi hit him several times while Berger was trying to lock the move in. These were all weak blows though and Berger was still working just as hard for the submission when the ref inexplicably stopped the fight. Radachi's punches were all getting through because Berger needed both arms to apply the knee bar, but they were not damaging blows. The ref was in the wrong position, focusing on the wrong thing, or both. Berger couldn't believe this stoppage, which was roundly booed.

1R 0:27