They gave away, or maybe threw away better describes it, this fight on the pre show. This was a good idea, but having a 15 minute fight on a 25 minute pre show where the focus is on getting people to buy rather than on the action just doesn't work. Maybe because I have crummy Cablevision, who never gives anything away, but I never understood the point of the pre show being a hard sell because we only get it if we've already given them my money. Anyway, I was bored into trance then suddenly the fight started. After 3 rounds, I was able to determine that Jeremy Crumpleton was taking on the fighter known as Franca. It was probably partially my fault because I was screwing around with VCRs trying to get the show to still fit, but I couldn't get into a match for a couple reasons. There was a shill scrolling across the top of the screen where the guys faces were, often covering their eyes, and the moment the round would end they'd cut in choppily like when the cable company inserts a local commercial over the national commercial with some substanceless segment that had nothing to do with the match only to suddenly return when the instant they started fighting in the next round. The production on this show was definitely not good, with really amateur transitions and the arena noise going strong while they were showing taped interviews (which was even worse for Sudo's because they just made the dubber's voice louder than his).

The first round was by far the best. It was nonstop action with Crunkilton scoring an impressive takedown at the bell but generally looking to strike, while Franca was at home on the ground where he tried several leg submissions. These guys didn't really concern themselves with defense, but since they didn't pace themselves there still wound up being less and less action as the fight progressed. The highlight of the fight was near the end of round 2 when Franca, who had the guard, nudged Crunkilton off him with his feet then popped up as Crunkilton was backing away and hit him with a left then decked him with a right. Franca soon extended Crunkilton's arm, but like his knee bar in the first round, Crunkilton was on his knees and Franca had no body control, so these locked submissions didn't appear to be worth much. That said, Franca apparently managed to dislocate Crunkilton's elbow in round 3, but Crunkilton kept going without even favoring it. I gave France the fight because he slowed down a lot less. Crunkilton could still get the takedown, but once they were on the ground he was doing nothing more than trying to tap enough that there wouldn't be a restart. These guys didn't seem particularly skilled, but I bet this was a good fight if you were at the show.

In between the 2nd and 3rd round they ran a taped interview the haypenny a dozen bottle blond prop boob Paint-overmate did with seemingly the only two fans in the building. This "interview" lasted a minute, but all the creation could do was get like one word on who they liked and where they were from. It was so pathetic I wondered if I hadn't accidentally locked into a feed of Videodumb. If this was the kind of "entertainment" people wanted they could have saved their $30 and just watched The Anna Nicow Show and Wild On. You have to wonder why they didn't redo this later when there were actually fans in the building and someone with a few brain cells was around to tell the bimbo what to ask. It's bad enough that they aired it at all, but doing so after the live show was in progress made it seem like only a couple of braindead people were in attendance.

3R

 

Genki Sudo vs. Duane "Bang" Ludwig

The controversy and upsets started right away. This was a close match with two mediocre rounds that nobody truly won then an excellent round that both deserved to win. In the first round, Bang watched Sudo dance and backed away instead of waiting for him to screw around and nailing him. Sudo took Bang down and mounted then got side mount when Bang tried to buck him off, but wasn't able to do any damage. Bang did a few knees at the end and was able to dive in with a few punches after he didn't allow Sudo to pull guard. I didn't think he did any damage either, so I gave the round to Sudo for dictating the action and controlling the majority of it.

The fight reminded me of my favorite scene in the documentary AKA Cassius Clay. Ali is going on and on about the greatness of the Ali shuffle, how nobody can stop it and it leads to a flurry because it distracts his opponent. Then Cus D' Amato says this is what I'd do and punches him in the belly when he does it. Bang is a counter puncher, but he realized you can counter movements too. He looked to hit Sudo when he was posing in the second round, and spent the round moving forward instead of backward. Again it was a very close round though. Bang was on top for a portion, but Sudo just decided he was taking the fight to the ground one way or another, so when Bang defended his takedown Sudo just went into guard. Sudo did get a takedown late in the round, but wasn't able to capitalize so I gave the round to Bang.

Sudo took Bang down early in round 3 and finally used his ground and pound. Sudo isn't a powerful ground striker, but he made up for that by being a diagonal one. With good distance to punch and elbow, he quickly busted Bang's nose up. Bang was gushing blood, so John McCarthy called for a doctor check with 2 minutes left. This is where the UFC rules are unfair. Sudo could have banged Bang for another 2 minutes en route to a clear decision victory, but because he was doing so well the fight might have needed to be stopped, his advantage is taken away from him and he's forced to start from scratch. Why not just recreate the position they were in when the doctor check was called?

After the recess, a somewhat recovered Bang avoided Genki's takedown and got on top when he blocked Genki's throw. The fans chanted "USA". Maybe they believe Bang is also fighting "for freedom"? Bang was pretty gassed and hardly relentless, but he made an impression. He stood up and dropped punches to the body, which you never see, and he also closed Sudo's right eye and made the left one start to swell up, too. I scored the round even making this a dreaded draw, but if I had to pick someone it would be Sudo because he was largely dominant for the first 60%, and that was without any help. Everyone had it 29-28 with Bang winning a split decision, so 2 of the 3 must have given the first round to Bang. The Paint-overmate did another legendary interview, this time giving her one sentence "assessment" of the fight then handing Bang the mic.

3R

Tanner's whole game was trying to throw knees from the clinch, but Franklin knew how to defend that and Tanner never gave him anything else to think about. Franklin was able to throw combinations because Tanner was no threat, and chances are at least one was going to get through. Once he caught Tanner good he went in for the kill and Tanner couldn't stop it. Franklin landed 3 right hands in the barrage and, with on his knees prone to several more, Larry Landless wisely stopped it. People thought it was a quick stop, but Tanner wasn't able to defend himself and there's no need to let a guy get creamed just to prove that.

1R 2:40

Wesley "Cabbage" Correira vs. Sean Alvarez

Cabbage improved a lot since his first fight, where he was the Cabbage Patch Punching Bag. He's probably mediocre now that he's improved his takedown defense to the point where it's probably very good. His problem is more with guys that can strike, since his defense is blocking with his head, but Alvarez isn't such a fighter. Alvarez knew he couldn't slug it out with Cabbage, but he couldn't get him down either, so he was basically screwed. This wasn't good matchmaking because Alvarez didn't match up, and both are so far down the totem poll that you didn't need a bad match to sort out the rankings.

Alvarez spent most of the fight burning energy driving Cabbage high for a takedown he wasn't going to get. Ironically, when Alvarez finally went low on the big kid, which is what you have to do when you are in with a 265 pounder, he got the takedown but it cost him the match. He was unable to control Cabbage, so Cabbage just popped back up and unloaded with his favorite left hook, as well as some left knees, until John McCarthy stopped it. Cabbage is still all left hands offensively, but he was really relaxed here, trusting his defense and allowing his opponent to burn himself out until he was prone for the flurry. A poor fight with an exciting finish.

2R 1:47

Dave Strasser vs. Romie Aram

Aram knocked Strasser down with a left hook less than 10 seconds into the fight. He leaned over him throwing punches, but Strasser tied his hands up and got guard. Aram used a lot of energy in this round, but his ground and pound was adequate and he landed a few knees in standup. Strasser did a beautiful high spinning takedown into the mount with 1:45 left, but he did nothing with the position so I gave the round to Aram.

Despite being much older, Strasser won this fight because of his conditioning. Aram burned himself out in the first few minutes, while Strasser was totally consistent and persistent. He kept coming at Aram just as hard the whole fight. Strasser has no power and didn't seem to have much ability to finish, but a fatigued Aram fought very sloppily - always reaching for Strasser and coming in with his hands down - and Strasser was able to capitalize on enough of his mistakes. Aram's nose was bloodied in round 3. A lame minor league fight. Strasser won a unanimous 30-27 decision.

3R

A very good match that was easily the best of the night. They didn't waste any time, and both fighters had some very impressive moments. Lawler got off to a strong start, getting a double leg takedown after they kicked each other simultaneously. Spratt stood up when Lawler tried to pass the 1/2 guard, but Lawler slammed him right back down. Lawler had the mount, but Spratt stood up after giving Lawler his back and landed a big high kick. Two things bothered me about Lawler. First, he wasn't doing anything after he'd get the advantageous position. Second, he was tired before the first round was over, though part of that could have been the residual effects of Spratt accidentally low blowing him. In any case, he was looking too much like the "mature" B.J. Penn for my tastes.

Lawler is supposed to be a good striker, but this fight showed the difference between a trained striker and a brawler. Spratt, whose background is Muay Thai, was very precise and made his blows count. Lawler, who roughs up the average MMA guy, couldn't even hit Spratt when they were at a distance. Spratt was whacking him, usually low, which caused a nasty welt. Lawler was able to get Spratt to fight in close a lot more than he should have, with Lawler really only being able to hit Spratt from the clinch, where he opened up a cut around Spratt's right eye. Still, you had to wonder why Lawler would try to assert his standup style, which every Muay Thai fighter is familier with, instead of keeping Spratt down where Lawler can be effective and there's little chance of Spratt doing any damage. The danger of Spratt in standup was once again demonstrated when he essentially ended the fight with one tree chopping low kick. Granted there may have been another problem because Lawler fought another 4 minutes or so then suddenly quit when he could no longer put any weight on the leg, but Spratt can't throw this kick from his back. Spratt was talking about retiring, but now he's probably one win away from a title shot. He's really no threat to champion Matt Hughes because unlike Lawler he won't let Spratt stand long enough to do anything, but Spratt has now taken steps toward backing up the world class striker tag UFC put on him and looks like he'll beat their crop if they can't take him out of his standup game.

2R 2:29

UFC Welterweight Championship: Matt Hughes vs. Sean Sherk

These two are cut from the same mold, both very powerful wrestlers with excellent take down and punishing but not finishing level ground and pound. They had a competitive match, a very tough and grueling one at that, but not surprisingly it wasn't a very exciting one. As expected, the guy who got the takedown was going to win the round because he was going to keep his opponent down and beat on him until the timekeeper woke up, I mean, until the round ended. Hughes took the first two round, with two takedowns in each. In round 1 he cut Sherk badly to the right of his right eye, though the blood wasn't bleeding into the eye and Sherk's corner was eventually able to take care of it.

Sherk got the takedown in round 3. McCarthy stood them up with 1:10 left, but Sherk, who previously looked inferior in the brief standup segment, landed an uppercut then took Hughes down again. Hughes was cut above the right eye, but it was minor and not a factor. Sherk went for the takedown at the start of round 4, but Hughes defended it then got Sherk down. He lay across Sherk, pinning Sherk's right arm with his left so he could throw elbows back without Sherk being able to block them.

Sherk also got the takedown in round 5. If instead Sherk would have gotten this takedown in either round 1 or 2, the fight would have been basically even going into the last round and been thought of so much more highly. Unfortunately for Sherk, by this time he was too far behind on points for it to matter much, and the perception will probably be that he wasn't that close to beating Hughes.

One difference between the two is Hughes looks to advance position, which satisfies McCarthy enough to avoid the standup, while Sherk has short arms and is content staying in the guard because he can strike effectively from there. If it was an even fight I would have complained about McCarthy's standup in round 5, but Sherk needed to finish Hughes and he wasn't going to do that from Hughes' guard. Hughes controlled the final 1 1/2 minutes after the standup, landing some more damaging strikes than Sherk had earlier in the round, but I didn't he did think enough to steal the round (not that it was going to matter anyway). Hughes won a unanimous decision 48-45, 48-47, 49-46. Sherk should be a force in this division, but for the moment he's still going to be seen as a lesser version of Hughes. In a way I'd like to see a rematch after Sherk gets a couple more good wins because he showed me enough to believe he's capable of beating Hughes, but in a way I wouldn't like to see it because 25 minutes of takedown and ground and pound is pretty dull. I'd much rather see Dennis Hallman end Hughes reign of boredom, but it would make too much sense to give a title shot to the guy that has defeated Hughes.

5R