The Smark Rant For UFC 16

The Ultimate Fighting Championship 16: Battle in the Bayou!

– Live from New Orleans, LA.

– Your hosts are Mike Goldberg and Jeff Blatnick.

– Another weight class is introduced tonight with the first ever Lightweight tournament, featuring a couple of future big names in the sport. But for the most part, the format is drifting towards the current one, with the rest being title matches or “Superfights”. The actual look of the show is drifting closer to today as well, with the “Tale of the Tape” graphics and overall presentation getting to the point where you could drop it into the current product and not have it look totally embarrassing.

Lightweight tournament semi-finals:

Mikey Burnett v. Eugenio Tadeu

Tadeu is another BJJ guy, and Burnett is making his debut fresh out of the Lion’s Den here. Kind of a funny gaffe by Bruce Buffer, as he introduces Big John McCarthy as the referee for the evening…while standing right in front of Joe Hamilton, the actual referee for this match. Oops. Hamilton laughs it off anyway. They jump in throwing to start and Burnett gets a quick takedown, but they go back to standing up right away. Burnett is just going crazy, throwing huge bombs and then trying for a standing guillotine. Tadeu tries to get to the fence, but that just allows Burnett to sink it in further, until Tadeu slips out and goes to the guard. While they work on the ground, Mike Goldberg immediately shows why he’s better than Bruce Beck, by feeding Blatnick softball questions (“Now what does he mean by ground game?”) so that he can go off and show his expertise on the sport of wrestling. Goldberg still does that with Rogan as well, and he really understands his role that way. The ref calls for a restart after about 5 minutes of that, and they’re throwing big shots again right away. Tadeu is reeling and Burnett won’t let up, so the ref stops it and awards it to Burnett at 9:44. Great fight! Sadly, Burnett cannot continue on tonight.

Pat Miletich v. Townsend Saunders

They trade knees from a clinch, but get nowhere. Miletich gets a quick right to stagger Saunders and pulls guard to take him down. He works from the bottom in something like a butterfly guard, trying for an armbar, but Saunders won’t take the bait. Saunders, unable to pass the guard, goes for an ankle, but Miletich won’t let him have that. He tries a couple of more times, but gets nothing, and Miletich does an awesome reversal out of the guard and gets full mount out of it. It was like Saunders catapulted him up and into mount, very neat. Miletich tries for the kimura, but Saunders escapes with sheer force and gets top position again. And after 12 minutes, we go to overtime. Too close to call at this point. They fight on the fence and neither guy can improve position, so Miletich releases and gets in a knee and a glancing shot to the head. I think that bit of striking might win it for him. Saunders desperately takes Miletich down and gets some strikes from the top to end the fight, but I think Miletich did enough to take the decision. And the judges say: Pat Miletich by split decision. Can’t really argue either way.

Middleweight Superfight: Jerry Bohlander v. Kevin Jackson

I sense this will be more of a destruction for Jackson than the UFC would have liked. They trade leg kicks, and then Jackson pounds him to the mat with some good shots, and Bohlander goes to the guard. Jackson throws from the top, but Bohlander very nearly traps him in an armbar, but Jackson has a slick reversal out and he sprawls to prevent Bohlander from getting position again. Back to their feet and Jackson gets another takedown and top position. Not much going on there, so Big John stands them up. Jackson actually uses a headlock takedown, but they end up back in the guard again. Jackson’s obviously weak on submissions, because he was in perfect position for a side choke there. Back to the guard, but this time Bohlander traps him with an armbar, and Big John has to stop the fight at 10:43 because Jackson refuses to tap. Man, Jackson really got exposed there.

Lightweight tournament final:

Pat Miletich v. Chris Brennan

Miletich gets a couple of leg kicks, but Brennan shoots in with the takedown. Miletich gets on top, but Brennan nearly hooks in a guillotine. Miletich works from the top with short punches and although there’s seemingly nothing happening, Brennan apparently taps at 9:04. Replay shows that Miletich had a choke on the fence, although the camera angle is so bad that you can barely tell. Dull fight, either way.

Heavyweight Superfight:

Kimo v. Tsuyoshi Kosaka

Interesting way for Kimo to return to UFC. Kimo comes out throwing as usual and somewhat surprisingly gets a deep leglock, but can’t tap Kosaka. Kimo allows it to move to the guard instead, but that goes nowhere and they stand it up again. Kimo gets a takedown and side mount, and then manages to pass the guard and gets full mount. Kosaka actually escapes by nearly getting an anklelock, and they stand up. Kimo is running out of gas as Kosaka throws at will and Kimo wearily fights back, but they hit the time limit and we go to overtime. Kosaka immediately takes him down, but Kimo gets one of his own, and we’re into the guard, which Kimo immediately passes. Kosaka elevates out and into top position, punching from there until time expires. Unanimous decision for Kosaka, and even color commentator Tank Abbott enjoyed the fight, so you know it’s a good one.

Middleweight championship:

Frank Shamrock v. Igor Zinoviev

Apparently this is a unification of sorts between the UFC’s title and the dead Extreme Fighting Middleweight title. Frank won the belt at Ultimate Japan in what was considered something of a surprise at the time. Shamrock gets a brutal slam to take Zinoviev down and he’s OUT, and that’s it. Frank Shamrock is just tremendous and I look forward to watching him while I can. A memorable knockout to end a pretty damn good card. Not the best show for standup action, but some good technical work on the ground and a GREAT knockout to end means I’m happy.