Smark Rant: UFC 38 Brawl At The Hall

The Ultimate Fighting Championship 38:  Brawl At The Hall!

–               Live from the Royal Albert Hall in London.

–               Your hosts are Mike Goldberg & Jeff Osborne.

Light Heavyweights:  James Zikic v. Phillip Miller

The graphic says “Lightweights” for some reason, but they’re at 199 pounds so clearly they’re light heavyweights.  Zikic is the hometown boy, back before there many talented fighters coming out of the UK.  His nickname is “The Messiah”, which seems a tad arrogant even by MMA douchebag standards.  They clinch on the fence and have an awkward battle for a takedown, and Miller ends up on top of that trainwreck.  Miller gets control on top and throws a couple of good shots into Zikic’s guard, then takes him down again and ties him up on the ground.  He gets some solid elbows from side control as the round ends.  10-9 Miller.

Second round and Miller shoots in for another takedown attempt and really fights for it on the fence, finally pulling Zikic down by the ankles.  Miller gets the back briefly, but Zikic fights back with a pair of rights to slow him up.  Miller continues with his relentless takedown attempts, and nearly gets the back as a result.  Miller switches to the top and gets full mount, but Zikic manages to escape again.  Miller throws from the top instead, but the round expires.  10-9 Miller again.

Third round and Miller shoots again, but can’t get any more than one leg.  He hangs on to that tenaciously, but Zikic counters with a guillotine attempt on his feet, leading to Miller pulling guard to get out of it.  Zikic is aggressive from the top and tries to pass the guard, but can’t apply a triangle and ends up on the bottom as a result.  They stand it up and Zikic tries to end it with boxing, but time runs out on him.  10-9 Zikic, but it’s too little too late.  Miller wins a good fight by unanimous decision.

During the downtime, Osborne talks about how WWE used the Newton-Hughes finish on one of their shows (for an Undertaker-Kurt Angle match to be exact), but the full story is actually even weirder.  In fact, they taped the choke-powerbomb finish for Smackdown, but the audience didn’t understand what had happened well enough to get it over on TV.  So they re-shot the match before airtime, using production assistants as a crowd in order to get a better reaction.  Never let it be said that Vince McMahon doesn’t care about his art.

Lightweights:  Genki Sudo v. Leigh Remedios

Remedios is another Brit, and Sudo comes across as something out of pro wrestling.  Lots of showboating to start, but Sudo quickly gets serious and takes Remedios down.  Remedios fights up, but Sudo shocks him (and me!) with a FLYING TRIANGLE!  That’s insane.  Remedios somehow survives that with his arm intact, but Sudo easily wraps him up with another triangle on the mat and throws punches to the exposed head.  Remedios is way out of his league here.  10-8 Sudo and hopefully he finishes this thing quickly now.

Second round and Sudo continues hamming it up, then kills him with a perfect judo throw.  Remedios tries to fight him off, but Sudo gets the back in lightning-fast manner and finishes with a rear naked choke at 1:38.   Why did this guy not become a huge star?

Middleweights:  Eugene Jackson v. Mark Weir

Just as I’m about to type a snarky remark about how Jackson is a relic of the past already, Weir charges in and KNOCKS HIM THE FUCK OUT with one punch.   Well that made my point for me.  That was it for Jackson’s UFC career, thankfully.

Heavyweights:  Frank Mir v. Ian Freeman

Freeman has been training with Josh Barnett, so hopefully they’re not drug testing tonight.  They trade some good shots and Mir actually goes down, allowing Freeman to push the advantage against the fence.  Mir tries a crazy kneebar, but Freeman just keeps throwing knees and won’t let up.  Mir desperately grabs the heel and tries for a heel hook, but can’t get any momentum.  Freeman lets him up and Mir tries for another submission on the leg, but Freeman keeps pounding him with elbows mercilessly.  Mir is just getting mauled here.  Big John calls time and stops the fight because Mir can barely stand!  Wow, you had to think that Freeman was brought in as a victim for hotshot Mir, and he just destroyed Frank instead.  Obviously Mir would take the lesson about improving his standup to heart and he’d get much better.  Perhaps he should have watched this fight again before the Shane Carwin fight as well.

Welterweight title:  Matt Hughes v. Carlos Newton

Newton goes in for the takedown, but Hughes ends up on top.  Newton very nearly sucks him into an armbar, but Hughes rolls with it and escapes.  Man, what is with Hughes and armbars?  First Dennis Hallman and now this.  Goldberg’s read of the crowd:  The English love Canadians because we have the Queen on our money, so they’ll be cheering for Newton.  Yeah, um, OK.  Anyway, back in the real world, Hughes controls on top until the end of the round.  10-9 Hughes there.

Second round and they grapple until Hughes ends up on top again.  Not much going on, as Hughes is completely dominant in a wrestling environment and Newton can’t any leverage.  10-9 Hughes again.

Round three, and Hughes gets another easy takedown, then moves into side control and then gets full mount against the fence.  He patiently pounds on Newton’s face and then tries his own armbar, but Newton has one move left and escapes it.  Newton actually gets the back from there, but can’t quite sink the choke as the round expires.  Strong finish for Newton, but it’s still 10-9 Hughes because he was on the verge of winning while in full mount.  Still, trying an ARMBAR?  You don’t exactly think of Hughes for his submission skills, and there’s a reason for it.

Fourth round and sure enough, Hughes gets the takedown and controls on top.  Newton can’t escape side control, so Big John stops it and Hughes retains by TKO.  Total dominance by Hughes, and even Newton admits it in the interview afterwards.

Another good show, although the UK experiment didn’t help the UFC’s business any.  Hopefully they’ll have more than one champion by the next show.  But I’m not holding my breath.