These events were on back-to-back Saturdays, one of which was free on Spike-TV. Both events are recent enough that I can still talk about them, but I'll keep them a little brief and talk about some of the main points.
UFC 89 featured a main event fight between Michael Bisping and Chris Leben. Before that though, Marcus Davis got an easy win over Paul Kelly by submitting him in the 2nd round by a guillotine choke that was easy to slip in. The next fight between Paul Taylor and Chris Lytle went the distance, with Lytle winning the decision. Though the crowd was unhappy (mainly because Taylor was the hometown hero), Lytle was definitely the winner, though Taylor put up a good fight. The upset of the night went to the next fight between Rameau Sokoudjou and Luiz Cane. After Sokoudjou threw some hard hits throughout the first round, he was already tired out, and Cane dropped him late in the 2nd, and the ref stopped the fight due to technical knockout.
Keith Jardine vs. Brandon Vera was the co-main event, and a fight where I was anxious to see Jardine beat the crap out of Vera. Jardine managed a split decision (should've been unanimous, but oh well), and hopefully Vera will get knocked way down the ladder. Then was the main event: The Count (Bisping) vs. The Crippler (Leben). Bisping was a slight favorite, and sure enough Bisping got the decision win in a fight that both made entertaining. Interesting to note that Leben actually dropped his hands, and allowed Bisping to take some swings at his face to show his toughness. Never seen that in a real fight before. The event was good for a Spike-TV event, and I was glad with the results.
My in-laws were nice enough to come up for the fights on UFC 90, and for me having as many people around to watch the fights together make it more entertaining. The first fight was between Sean Sherk and Tyson Griffin. As expected, this was the most entertaining fight of the night, both standing and trading shots. Sherk got the better of the exchanges, and won by decision. Very good fight between two of the best lightweights around. Immediately after was a shocking knockout victory for Junior Dos Santos over Fabricio Werdum. Dos Santos was in his first fight in the UFC, and Werdum was close to earning a title shot; so you would think this would be a "gimme" fight for Werdum. Just over a minute in, Werdum was knocked out by a huge uppercut. Should be interesting to see where Dos Santos goes now. After all this excitement so far, it got toned down during the Rich Clementi vs. Gray Maynard fight. As I knew would happen, Maynard took Clementi down constantly, kept him down, and pummeled on him a little to earn a decision win.
Next was another promising fight in the co-main event between Thiago Alves and Josh Kosheck. This fight was exciting as promised, with Alves getting the decision win (he came SO close to knocking out Kosheck a couple of times, which I would've loved) and securing his future welterweight title shot. He is definitely a promising contender. Then it was time for the middleweight title fight between Anderson Silva and Patrick Cote. Silva is one of my favorite fighters of all time, and I was expecting another impressive finish. Instead, I got a disappointing surprise. After a slow 1st round, Silva started rocking Cote throughout the 2nd, and seemed ready to finish him in the 3rd. Instead, Cote took a hard step that popped his knee, and forced the referee to stop the fight, and declare Silva the winner via technical knockout (due to Cote's injury). Up until the main event, the fights were impressive and entertaining. Although the main event ended badly, it still had the potential to be good. What did upset me was the aftermath where some general sports writers bashed the fight saying that neither fighter looked good. Yet when I talked to those who know the MMA sport, they saw that Silva put up a good fight, Cote stayed strong in a losing fight, and it was all bad luck in the end. Lets hope MMA gets some better recognition than that bull.
Anyways, the next event is in November, and has some promising fights. You'll be hearing about that soon too.
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