Best Match: Tito Ortiz's verbal run-in vs. Mark Coleman.
Worst Match: Ground ‘n’ Pound and the new decade.
Thumbs: Being held down and pounded into submission...or maybe it just passed out from boredom.
Dana White strengthens his claim as the Vince McMahon of his generation by pulling off one of Vince’s favorite blunders: plagiarizing other people’s blunders. Elevating ground ‘n’ pound practitioners numbed UFC into a malaise it barely escaped from with its life in the mid-90s. So 15 years later, Dana highlights a card with GnP guys -- one so far over the hill, he may be underground + (worse yet) some up-and-coming GnPers guaranteed a spot on future PPVs. UFC should impose a limit of one GnPer per show -- two if one of them is named Fedor or Lesnar.
Nate Marquardt has been building a rep as a charismatic and exciting fan favorite. So Dana has Chael Sonnen hump him for 15 minutes...well, 14, with Nate almost pulling it out in the last 60 seconds. Still, it wasn’t enough, and we now have Chael Sonnen in a headline PPV match to look forward to. Gee, maybe Phil Davis will be on the undercard. Former war hero and WEC champ Brian Stann could have had a big future in UFC if he’d been eased along and allowed to develop his skills. But Dana feeds him to Davis, an elite wrestler who can’t do anything on his feet or on the ground with submissions. The inevitable occurs with inevitable slowness. Davis wins and Dana further buries WEC even after he’s bought the promotion (sound familiar?) Stann looks ten years older afterwards; I’m afraid to look in the mirror, because I think I may look ten years older after watching this undercard.
Trigg-Serra could have used Shonie Carter as guest referee or a “loser has to keep his hair” stip. Miller vs. Maia could have used a kendo stick. Danzig vs. Bucholz could have used a ladder and briefcase with a contract for another fight hanging above the octagon -- and maybe an Arn Andersonn run-in just to be sure...and a blank contract as a swerve just to make sure neither of these guys gets another PPV fight.
The potential for tedium inherent in a Couture-Coleman match had me dreading it in the ‘90s. In the 10s, it just felt terribly wrong and freakish -- in a really sad and dull sort of way. About two minutes in, Coleman looked like he did the last two minutes of his Maurice Smith fight, depriving us all again of disliking him enough to take any joy in watching him get beat up (no mean feat). And Coleman’s post-match interview had me thinking Congress may create a Nowinski Commission to investigate the long-term effects of MMA fighting on brain function. But Tito saved it with a verbal run-in -- though he may have doomed us to another Mark Coleman PPV headline fight in the process. Maybe Dana will put Kevin Randleman vs. Takada on the undercard and give Nick Bockwinkel a ringside seat.
Turk Regan
Howard Kleuter
Thumbs in the middle.
Best fight: Guillard-Torres
Worst fight: Beltran-Gracie
KO: Serra
Sub: Thiago (sorry, Randy)
Was anti-stoked for the card and watched the individual fights after the fact so taking it in real time:
Rolles Gracie is a disgrace. He had a visibly out of shape last minute smaller guy in front of him, he himself actually unlike most Gracies can throw a punch, and he just gassed out and pussied out and gave up his booty when the guy didn't collapse at the sight of him. Horrible. He should get his purse withheld and be suspended, not that I think we're gonna see him again in the US in MMA anyway, after that.
Davis was stepping up in class vs. Stann but the pretty much infinite gap in natural talent more than made up for it. He obviously needs to round out his game with striking technique and submissions but his wrestling is so good he can be a force in the division just on the strength of it.
Guillard vs. Torres was a great fight. Guillard is looking much more focused and disciplined, andTorres more than lived up to the rep. Amazingly Rogan and Moldberg (whose inane babbling is really getting out of hand, along with Buffer's screaming) manage to fail to recognize Jose Aldo as Torres' chief second. Guillard saved himself from a massive slam off riding Torres' shoulder in the 2nd by grabbing the fence and got away with it. Any case, great fight and about as close as it gets, with Gullard's defense countering Torres' aggression and good technique everywhere by both, and I really think Guillard won it in the last five seconds by reversing the throw in midair and coming down in mount and teeing off.
Danzig vs. Buckholz was also very good and all action, with Danzig finishing strong to cop the decision.
Unfortunately the theme of the main card should have been Night of the Living Dead. Trigg shows up with hair looking like he used that Grecian Formula shit that turns it green and with nothing and Serra knocks him cold with the first serious punch of the fight. Trigg doesn't even know what happened, just like when Kos knocked him silly, and protests afterward. He needs to retire before he gets his brains permanently scrambled. He is so far past shot it isn't even funny and everybody apparently besides him and UFC knew it a long time ago. Why they ever rehired him is amazing.
Maia surprises by outstriking Miller for three rounds, and probably would have stopped him in the 1st except for the dramatic opportunity from the low blow, but it wasn't much fun to watch.
Thiago is a strange case. His standup is mostly technically horrible, with his head up in the air and swinging wild, but he also has these slick little punch-kick combos that come out of nowhere at random, and he hits so hard and takes a shot so well that he gets away with a lot. But meanwhile his JJ is as good as it gets. That D'Arce was the quickest-acting sleeper I've ever seen---Swick was out in about three seconds. But what do you do with him now? Rematch with Kos? Fitch-Alves winner? Next title shot? (Especially with UFC's pretzel logic booking.)
Sonnen keeps Marquardt grounded for almost the whole fight. What little Nate manages to get off all does damage, but nowhere near enough. Sonnen at least manages not to cut a moronic douchebag racist promo afterwards. Have to give him props though, he fought a perfect fight and at least is staying more aggressive than he used to from the top rather than just laying. Looking forward to Anderson sending him to a nice white hospital in a nice white neighborhood.
Ten seconds into Couture-Coleman, it's clear Randy takes this any time and any way he wants to. He could have laid back at long range and boxed and ended it sooner. Coleman is a total zombie. We need a word stronger than 'slow'. He seems twenty years older than Randy. He does achieve hero status during his promo after the fight when Tito walks by the cage and yells something in which the word 'motherfucker' can be heard, and Coleman comes back to the mic with the difficult-to-argue observation 'Fuck you, Tito. You're a fucking cunt. Any time, douche bag.' Entertainment-wise, sorta saved the card, which overall pretty much lived down to expectations.
Crimson Mask
I have been looking forward to this card for awhile. As a big Coleman fan for a number of reasons this was a show I was buying no matter what. I came in knowing full well that I might see Coleman lay on Randy for 3 rounds or Randy hug Coleman against the cage for 3 rounds, so my enjoyment of this show was not hinging on the main event...
As it was, the card gets a slight thumbs up.
Best Fight: Chael Sonnen vs Nate Marquardt and Guillard vs Torres
Worst Fight: Maia vs Miller
Sonnen vs Marquardt was not the result I wanted to see, and was such a strange fight. I've never seen a guy dominate so badly but maybe be so close to losing the whole time like Chael Sonnen.. That cut was absurd and he was obviously fighting at reduced capacity in the late 2nd and 3rd rounds. But Nate was either too gassed or too beaten up to defend take downs, or create space on the ground to fight back much after the elbow that opened the cut. His two openings in the 3rd round were amazingly dramatic, and this was a strange, exciting fight.
Guillard vs Torres was just a really fun fight and Guillard caught the eye of a friend who had never seen a UFC event before and really put on a show. However, he seemed too content to be flashy and put on a show and sometimes forgot to score points on his opponent.
Trigg vs Serra was one hell of a knock out.
Maia's fight was just dull. I hope he really sticks with the Nogs and develops his boxing though.
The main event was sad to see Coleman not even try his wrestling. But Randy looked really good since even if Coleman wouldn't use his wrestling it says something to do what he did against the cage and on the ground.
When Rolles Gracie's fight wasn't shown all night until the end I expected either a boring decision or an embarrassing loss for him when it played at the end. I was sad that the latter came true because that was one of the worst showings I've seen in the UFC in awhile.
Christopher Gilleski
| I give UFC 109 Relentless a thumbs in the middle Best match: Guillard vs. Torres. I thought the Marquadrt vs. Sonnen match was disappointing. I was expecting a more exciting fight. Sonnen is a good wrestler and he deserves the win, but I don't think he stands a chance against Silva and Marquardt does because I think Silva will just out strike Sonnen before Sonnen will get a chance to use his wrestling. Marqardt stands a better chance of answering Silva's punches and kicks with his own. The Couture/Coleman fight was what it was. Coleman should have retired after he got beat by Fedor years ago. His post-match yelling at Tito was better than his performance in the cage. Phil Davis was impressive, I'm guessing he's going to have another fight soon. Worst match: Rolles Gracie vs. Beltran. The submission of the night would definitely go to Thiago's choke out of Mike Swick. |
Jason McNeil
Dave,
Great UFC card. I was hoping for a little more of a back-and-forth match for the main event, but it was still an exciting contest. Couture's music may now replace Dan Henderson's as the best mma entrance song.
Chael Sonnen was quite impressive. I was expecting a early knockout by Marquardt, as that has become the norm with him lately, but the exact opposite came to fruition. Great fight!
Thumbs up to the card
Best Match: Sonnen vs Marquardt
Worst Match: Serra vs Trigg, just because it ended so soon.
Matt Wright
Send us a news tip: newstips@wrestlingobserver.com
Note to webmasters/reporters: When recapping news from this site or from our newsletters, please include a link to www.wrestlingobserver.com
For the most in-depth and detailed news and analysis on pro-wrestling and MMA, always turn to Wrestlingobserver.com/Figure Four Weekly Online, the #1 website of its kind on the Internet. Members receive online access to both the Wrestling Observer and Figure Four Weekly newsletters and growing archives, Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and Dave Meltzer three times per week, the popular Bryan and Vinny Show twice per week, additional radio shows including Figure Four Daily with Alvarez, Mike Coughlin's Five Star Radio, the Dr. Keith Lipinski Show, The Adam and Mike Big Audio Nightmare, Tough Talk and the Karl Stern Wrestling History Show, the infamous BOARD, and more! Members also have full access to the thousands of hours of audio in our radio show archives which date back to 2005. For your convenience, we offer secure online payments using your VISA, Mastercard, American Express, Discover card or PayPal account. Don't miss out on the fun, sign up now! Don\'t miss out on the fun, sign up now!
Want full access? QUICK AND EASY $10.99 SIGNUP!
