Smark Rant: UFC 37 High Impact

The Ultimate Fighting Championship 37:  High Impact

– Live from Bossier City, LA.

– Your hosts are Mike Goldberg, Jeff Osborne, and FRANK MIR.  Yeah!

Lightweights:  Caol Uno v. Yves Edwards

Uno bounces all over the cage and uses a weird backwards stance, probably just to be weird for the sake of it, but it doesn’t help him get a takedown.  Edwards holds him in a facelock and they turn it into a clinch on the fence.  Edwards uses a leg trip for the takedown, but can’t do anything on the ground with him.  Round goes 10-9 Edwards.

Second round and this time Uno gets the takedown and works for the arm, but can’t quite sink in a kimura.  Edwards wisely jams his forearm into Uno’s throat to get out of it, but Uno spins back on top again.  The ref yells at them to get going, so they stand up again.  Edwards ties him up and throws some good knees from the clinch, so Uno takes him down again.  Nothing going on, so the ref stands them up and Uno is aggressive with striking before the bell.  10-9 Uno there for aggression, although Edwards had him in a Carlos Newton headlock as time expired.

Third round and Edwards rushes in and quickly gets the back on the mat, foiling an Uno takedown attempt.  Uno switches out of that, but Edwards moves into an armbar.  Uno reverses out and gets the back as they do a really great chess match on the ground, but Edwards reverses out of that and they stand it up again.  Great sequence there.  Back to the ground with time running out, and the round expires with no clear winner evident.  That was hella-close.  If I had to pick, I’d say 10-9 Uno.  Judges say:  29-28 Uno, 30-29 Uno, 29-28 Uno.  30-29?  I guess that was a 10-10 third round AND first round, from Cecil Peoples of course.  A super-technical ground fight, which was a nice change from the slugfests we’ve had lately.

Middleweights:  Phil Baroni v. Amar Suloev

The big news out of Baroni’s camp:  He’s been training like he’s never trained before!  Mike Goldberg is many things, but a tough questioning journalist is the very least of them.  Baroni showboats and jives, so Suloev kicks him in the head and then absolutely destroys him on the fence, unfortunately including a knee to the head of a downed Baroni.  He was just saved by Big John there because he was DONE.  And then Suloev takes him down like a punk and gets the back, but Baroni reverses and passes guard with explosive force.  And then he UNLOADS and Big John stops it.  Baroni’s thoughts:  “FUCK YEAH!”  Wow, I would not have bet on that ending.  Baroni looked like a star here, but he just never was able to put it together.  And classy guy he is, he wipes sweat at the recovering Suloev in the name of the good ol’ USA.  Yeah, that act’s been done by Tito already.  Hell of a fight while it lasted!

Lightweights:  BJ Penn v. Paul Creighton

This should be quick, as Creighton took this on short notice.  Creighton tries for a takedown and gets stuffed, and Penn wraps him up and throws knees from the clinch.  Creighton tries for the takedown again, and Mir questions the wisdom of deliberately going into Penn’s guard.  I agree.  They fight against the fence and Penn throws knees from there.  Creighton tries for a single-leg, but Penn totally blocks him and pulls guard, then lets him up.  They clinch on the fence until the end of the round.  10-9 Penn, he was totally in control the whole round and I don’t know why he didn’t push harder for a finish.

Second round and they’re clinching on the fence and the ref quickly stops them.  They’re back on the fence again, and this time BJ beats him down to the mat, but can’t go anywhere with it.  Creighton tries to lure him into his guard, but Penn mounts him and finishes at 3:22.  Another dominant win for Penn, as he recovers nicely from the loss to Pulver.

Heavyweights:  Ricco Rodriguez v. Tsuyoshi Kosaka

Weird to see Kosaka in the Zuffa era.  TK takes Ricco down, but he walks the wall and gets his own throw.  He works for an armbar, then suddenly passes guard and gets full mount.  Kosaka gets a slick escape and goes for a leglock, forcing Ricco to stand it up again.  Back to the mat and Ricco gets an armbar out of nowhere, but TK calmly rolls out of it and back into the guard again.  Ricco passes again and gets full mount, but TK spins out again.  They slug it out on their feet and the round expires.  10-9 Ricco.

Round two and Ricco gets another takedown, but TK gets up and stands up with Ricco.  Ricco takes him down and sure enough passes guard again.  He throws bombs from full mount and they stop it as a result, at 3:25.  Very much a “passing the torch” type of fight.

Middleweight title:  Murilo Bustamante v. Matt Lindland

Lindland goes into the clinch right away, but it backfires when Bustamante gets the takedown.  They do some good work on the ground and Bustamante snaps off an armbar…but Big John prematurely breaks it up before Lindland taps, made worse by Bustamante releasing before he was sure.  Weird.  So they start again from standing and fight from the clinch until the end of the round.  Well you have to give that one to Bustamante, 10-9.  Replay shows Lindland might have tapped, but it’s hard to say.

Round two and Bustamante gets a surprising takedown on Lindland.  Lindland reverses into a choke attempt, but gives it up and they stand again.  Lindland takes him down this time, then they stand again, with Bustamante pulling guard to get it to the ground again.  Not much going on, so they stand it up again.  Bustamante gets a few good rights, and that’s the round.  Another 10-9 for Murilo.

Third round and Lindland goes DOWN from a right and Bustamante dives in and tries to finish, but Lindland survives.  Bustamante hooks in a guillotine instead, and Lindland taps (for real this time).  Bustamante is really on a roll at this point, showing boxing and wrestling skills at a high level.  But, and this is becoming a sad trend with the promotion at this time, Bustamante would vacate the belt and leave for Japan after this, giving us THREE vacant titles out of five.  When Tito Ortiz is the most stable champion on the roster, something is really wrong.

So nothing terribly notable from this show, but it’s a solid one for hardcore fight fans, with no bad fights.

Next time:  UFC 37…and a half?!