Light Heavyweights: Chuck Liddell v. Amar Suloev
You’d think Liddell would be getting title shots at Tito by now, but they’re such good friends that would never happen. They trade punches to start and Suloev tries a high kick without success. That’s all Chuck wants to take, and he starts pounding on Suloev’s face and mixing in leg kicks. To his credit, Suloev doesn’t go down, but he doesn’t really want to engage either. Chuck gets lazy and Amar nearly hits him with a high kick, and that’s the round. 10-9 Liddell but he nearly got knocked out a couple of times.
Round two and Chuck is still going low with the kicks, and Suloev backs off and tries to bait Liddell into a knockout punch. And it almost works. Chuck can’t finish him and Suloev keeps hitting hard to counter, really getting Chuck’s timing down. Things slow down a lot as Suloev avoids Liddell and neither can gain any traction. 10-9 Suloev, but you could go either way and he wasn’t gonna win the fight that way anyway.
Round three and Liddell is throwing the leg kicks, but can’t get Suloev to stay still long enough to knock him out. And the crowd boos the inaction. There’s just nothing going on, but Liddell is landing more shots, so 10-9 Liddell, for a 29-28 win on my scorecard. Judges say: Liddell 30-27 all around. No big argument from me.
Middleweight title: Dave Menne v. Murilo Bustamante
Menne stops a takedown attempt and they clinch on the fence, but Bustamante gets it to the ground. They stand it up again and Murilo gets a solid takedown, then quickly gets the back and both hooks in. Menne calmly reverses out of what would have been a bad place to be. Back to their feet and Bustamante runs him into the fence off the clinch, and that’s round one. 10-9 Bustamante.
Second round and Bustamante catches Menne with a hard overhand shot to put him down, and then hammers on the downed Menne until Big John stops it at 0:43, to give Bustamante the Middleweight title! I’m really liking Bustamante the more I see of him, so good for him.
Heavyweights: Ricco Rodriguez v. Jeff Monson
Monson runs right into a knee coming in, but manages to get a takedown out of it instead. They fight on the fence before Ricco takes it to the ground and nearly gets an armbar. Back up, but Ricco gets an effective leg trip to get control on top. We get some lay and pray non-action until the end of the round, when Ricco tries an armbar too late to matter. 10-9 Ricco.
Second round and Ricco is throwing knees, but they end up against the fence again. Hugging follows until Ricco gets a weak shot and they wind up on the ground. That goes nowhere until Ricco finally shows something by doing a Sakuraba-style passing of the guard. They stand up and Ricco gets a nice high kick as the round ends. 10-9 Ricco.
Third round and Ricco gets another takedown to hold Monson down, and then lets him up for some standup. Monson nearly gets a great shot in, but Ricco hammers him down and finishes by TKO at 3:00. I don’t like where this is going any more than you do.