UFC162 follow up (spoilers).

Well that was an exciting card, that’s for sure. Here’s a few musings on what went down. Start to finish.

Mike Pierce proved in the second round of his fight against David Mitchell that he’s not entirely boring, as we all thought. He laid the fucking smackdown with a series of devastating blows.
Brian Melancon a relative unknown absolutely obliterated Baczynski on the bell of the first round, with a brutal Fedoresque guard pass KO.
Barboza became the first man in the UFC to finish someone with leg kicks, twice. They looked horrendous.
Gabriel Gonzaga channeled his inner Gorilla and likely knocked Dave Herman completely out of the UFC with a brutal punch in just 17 seconds.
Norman Parke vs Kazuki Tokudome sent me to sleep, because their fight started at about 2am here. I wanted to catch up on some rest before the main card.
Chris Leben vs Andrew Craig really didn’t grasp my attention enough to pull me out of the stupor.

MAIN CARD, booya.

Cub Swanson showed the world that he really is that damn good. After a hard first round, in which Siver controlled the wrestling with his middleweight like frame, Swanson was able to get his rhythm and pick apart and Siver was incredible accuracy.
Holy fucking Muñoz. Boetsch got bullied like he punched Mark’s sister. I haven’t seen ground and pound like that since Fedor’s pride days. Every blow was disgustingly powerful. If you turned the volume up loud enough, you could hear Tim’s spleen screaming in agony, begging him to tap to strikes. He didn’t though, he’s a barbarian, and he’ll be pissing blood today.
Tim Kennedy vs Roger Gracie. Kennedy managed to stifle enough of what Roger was trying to do, actively take down etc. I’ll say more on this in a moment.
Frankie Edgar vs Charles Oliveira, this is easily fight of the night. At no point did Frankie look like he was in trouble, but the fight gave the impression of being back and forward when it was actually very one-sided. I think what surprised most people is how much of a fight 23-year-old Charles was able to put up against one of the pound for pound best in the world.
Chris Weidman vs Anderson Silva. It started off as expected, with Chris shooting landing a takedown quickly and starting to work his top game. Anderson nullified it effectively and the end of the round hit. In the second, Chris’s takedowns were no longer working, as Anderson kept him at range and was constantly hitting underhooks ready to sprawl. So why the fuck did Anderson decide that with someone as dangerous as Chris Weidman, it would be a good idea to start goofing around like a grade A fucking cunt. Anderson staggered when Chris landed shots, playing possum and firing back every so often with nasty looking flurries. Chris remained calm throughout, not taking the bait that so many fighters have before. Chris clipped Anderson again, he planted his feet and pretended to go wobbly at the knees. With this Chris followed up with another shot that missed, and a follow-up. The follow-up knocked out Anderson cold, because he had nowhere to go, the fucking idiot. A few follow ups on the ground and we have a new champion. Great fight, I look forward to a new generation and resurgence of the middleweight division.

This doesn’t affect Anderson’s legacy. He’s still the greatest of all time, he just finally got caught doing the shit he’s been doing for 7 years in the UFC now. It’ll be interesting to see what he does next, as he stated in the post-fight interview that he does not want to fight for the title again, however he recently signed a ten-fight deal with the UFC. What the hell are they going to do with him now that the superfights will have lost their spark?

One final thought. The Gracies. Now we all know that Royce shocked the world and showed as all Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and its mystique back at UFC1. He had marginal success in his career but never really evolved. Of the Gracie family, there really are only two that have ever been a threat. Renzo and Rickson. The former because he was a vicious little man who would bite the throat out of a horse just to drink and the latter because Rickson was of course a fucking beast. Outside of that, I’m going to say it, the Gracies have been unimpressive. I don’t think they should be focusing on Mixed Martial Arts anymore. They should stick to what they’re good at, and let’s face it, Roger’s ground game is a thing of beauty on the mats. Throw variables like punches into the mix and only very few truly adapt. They helped get the sport where it is today but short of a new breed of Gracie actually training MMA alongside BJJ from an early age, I don’t see us ever seeing a truly threatening one.

adeus motherbitches.