UFC 138 delivers, Munoz thrills and Leben chills
We say it all the time, don’t we? The cards that look the worst on paper often end up delivering the most thrilling evenings of punching and kicking.
Such was the case with UFC 138. You’d be hard-pressed to find many UFC fans who were genuinely excited about watching this card. It’s not that it was a terrible card, because it wasn’t – it’s just difficult to get traction for a show of this nature (read: an England show shown tape-delayed on Spike TV) when it is smack-dab in the middle of a run of fairly epic UFC events.
But in the end, as with so many others, this card was great. The main card delivered five finishes in five fights, and four of them were submissions. We saw the rise of brand-new middleweight and bantamweight contenders, the return of an English lightweight hope and much more.
1. Mark Munoz is a bad dude.
Mark Munoz and his journey from Yosuka to potential UFC middleweight contender saw many stops and starts along the way.
The early days of his career weren’t all that special. There was nothing about him, outside of his vaunted wrestling skills, that truly made you believe he had what it took to dethrone Anderson Silva. And yet here we are, a mere three years later, with Munoz have dispatched four consecutive tough opponents and standing on the threshold of facing Silva, a friend and mentor, for the middleweight championship.
Munoz, a legendarily polite and respectful man outside of the cage, is as ferocious as they come inside of it. While many feel his corner stoppage victory an underwhelming way to end such a thrilling card, consider this: how many people have battered Chris Leben to the point where he decides it might be a wise decision to be better safe than sorry?
Leben’s entire game, throughout his entire UFC career, has been his ability to take enough punishment to stop a horse and then come back firing with zombie-like punches. That’s what endears him to fans, what gives him his longevity. And yet Munoz, the owner of what might be the most powerful punches in the middleweight division, was able to leave Leben sitting on his stool for the start of the third round.
He’s always been a great wrestler. We knew that. But his striking game is catching up quickly, which makes him someone to be feared in that division. And yes, that includes Anderson Silva, who Munoz said he’d like to face for the title after dispatching Leben. With Silva’s seemingly unmovable desire to not face Chael Sonnen again, we might just see Munoz get the nod.
2. Chris Leben made an intelligent decision.
Leben’s decision to avoid coming out for the start of the third round wasn’t just a smart move – it was also the surest sign yet that the former Ultimate Fighter bad boy has grown, not just as a fighter, but as a human being.
Three years ago, the odds were very good that Leben would’ve made the decision to continue last night’s fight despite being unable to see in one eye. That was the Chris Leben of old. He excited the hell out of you with his always-coming-forward style, but he took mountains of punishment in the process.
What Leben didn’t need last night was more punishment from Mark Munoz. He’d already taken plenty. By conceding that his vision wasn’t up to snuff, Leben took a big step forward in maturity.
We’ll still need to have a conversation at some point about using “Mad World” as his walkout song, though.
3. Look out, Dominick Cruz – Renan Barao is coming.
Twenty-seven wins in a row.
That’s just about all I need to say, really, though I’ll say more. Renan Barao has long been considered a potential championship contender, dating back to the days when he dispatched foes with ease on Brazilian independent cards.
After his first-round submission over Brad Pickett, however, Barao can no longer be considered a prospect. He’s a title contender. He may not get the next shot, because the winner of the Urijah Faber/Brian Bowles fight in two weeks will surely be on the receiving end of that honor. But Barao is “in the mix,” as Dana White is so very fond of saying, and if he notches another dynamic win in 2012, he’ll get his crack at Cruz.
Terry Etim’s career thus far has been defined by potential. It was an oft-spoken refrain: if Etim could live up to his potential, we might finally see our first Briton capture UFC championship gold. If Etim lived up to his potential, he might go be able to run through that lightweight division. He’d be everything that Michael Bisping wasn’t, which is to say that he’s a nice guy and people generally like him in addition to being a good fighter.
Etim’s 17-second submission of Edward Faaloloto wasn’t a revelation of any sort. Faaloloto was an epic underdog, the largest on the show, and the only hopes he had of beating Etim were the kind generally held by severe underdogs who steadfastly refuse to believe that the world is about to crash down around them.
The only thing beating Faaloloto proved is that Etim is a superior fighter who can come back from a 19-month layoff and look like he never left the gym, not even for a second. It’s not much, but it was enough for Etim.
5. Joe Silva and Sean Shelby are pretty good at their jobs.
It happens more often than not: a UFC card looks terrible on paper. We decide that it’s probably the worst UFC card in history and vow not to watch it. We have other things we can be doing on a Saturday night. And then Saturday rolls around and we watch it anyway, because we’re fans and fans watch everything they can – even that ProElite card featuring Tim Sylvia jiggling his way to a unanimous decision in the main event.
So we watch these UFC events, these cards that are supposed to be a disservice to regional fans or an afterthought tacked onto the end of a lame-duck contract. Much to our surprise, the damn things end up being awesome. They blow our theories about television ratings and television contracts and too many shows and parting shots out of the water.
UFC 138 proved, once again, that Joe Silva and Sean Shelby know what they’re doing. Styles make fights, no matter how famous you are, and awesome fights are awesome fights.
Follow Jeremy Botter on Twitter @jeremyheavymma
