Six Thoughts From UFC 139: Shogun vs. Henderson

Six things to take away from UFC 139

1. Is Miguel Torres Back?

Following consecutive losses to Brian Bowles and Joseph Benavidez, many fans and media members started to label the former WEC bantamweight champion as “on the downside of his career.”

In a sense, this could be true. Will Torres ever go on a 17-fight win streak again in his career? Not likely. But Torres is still only 30 years old and says the demons that plagued him over the last two years have been exorcised.

He looked more like the Torres of old and showed moments of his old greatness and new progress, stuffing several takedowns and letting his right hand go again.

The UFC’s bantamweight division is top-heavy with solid wrestlers (Benavidez, Faber, Jorgensen, Cruz) – a discipline in which Torres is less than stellar.

So instead of asking if Torres is “back,” perhaps the real question is whether he is willing to continue to evolve.

2. Michael McDonald is a Future Champion

Not that any of you will remember this article in three years, but at some point in the fall of 2014, I’ll bring up the fact that I called 23-year-old Michael McDonald winning the bantamweight belt over Frankie Edgar, who made the drop all the way to 135 and claimed the title.

While I’m half kidding about the Frankie Edgar part, I fully believe that McDonald will own the bantamweight belt before his 24th birthday.

At only 20 years old, McDonald has racked up 14 professional MMA victories and only 1 defeat. In three UFC appearances, all wins, he’s collected a Fight of the Night bonus and added a Knockout of the Night bonus with his 56-second dismantling of Alex Soto this weekend.

The natural ability is there and so long as he’s not pushed up the ladder too quickly, it’s more of a “when” than an “if” this talented youngster wins the title.

(next page: Faber v Benavidez?, Wand’s future?)

3. Is Faber vs. Benavidez Inevitable?

We know Urijah Faber earned another shot at the bantamweight title with his second round submission victory over Brian Bowles.

But taking a look at the top tier in that division, it makes you wonder how long Faber and friend/training partner Joseph Benavidez can avoid a (very awkward) matchup.

Should Faber beat Cruz and win the title, how long will Benavidez sit and beat up on other guys at 135 until he finally decides he wants a crack at holding the title?

And what if Faber loses to Cruz? They’ll each have two losses to the champ and due to marketability reasons, both will be denied a third shot at Cruz for at least a couple of years. Do they go on fighting lesser competition (and perhaps crushing other contenders) while being the consensus #2 and #3 fighters within the division?

How long can that last before public outcry and plain old lack of real competition is too much to keep the two from squaring off?

I suppose there’s always a return to featherweight for Faber, or a move to flyweight for Benavidez should that division ever materialize. But until then, I don’t envy their positions, nor that of matchmakers Sean Shelby and Joe Silva.

4. Wanderlei is Still Fun to Watch

I’ll admit: I thought Saturday night would be the last time we’d see Wanderlei Silva inside the Octagon.

With Cung Le’s unorthodox striking and Wand’s propensity for getting KO’d lately, I thought we’d see a highlight reel knockout that would live forever within the “Baba O’Reilly” montage video that live attendees are treated to at UFC pay per view events.

That didn’t happen, however, and the highlight reel moment came in the form of a single image of Le’s nose pointing in five different directions, shattered by the fist/forearm/knee of The Axe Murderer.

After reflecting on that bout, I realized that it wasn’t the legend of Wanderlei that I was excited to see, but the present day fighter himself. Silva is still a really fun and entertaining guy to watch in the cage.

This is not a Cro Cop or Chuck Liddell situation where their skills have declined to a point that they’re not all that great in the cage and they’re also not that much fun to watch. Liddell’s final three fights were all lopsided KO losses that came within the first seven minutes of the bout. Cro Cop’s last three went a little longer, but the results and sentiments were the same.

The inner fan in me wanted to see my childhood favorites fight. But it was the memory of what they were – not what they brought to the cage – that fueled my desire.

Wanderlei on the other hand, is still putting on wildly entertaining fights inside the cage and, as evidenced by Saturday night’s performance, might still have a little left in the tank. Time will tell how much is in that proverbial tank, but for now, it’s good to realize that still I’m hyped to watch the Wanderlei of today fight instead of dreaming of days gone by.

(next page: Was main event a draw?)

5. To Draw or Not to Draw?

I scored the Dan Henderson vs Shogun Rua uber fight in favor of Rua.

I’ll continue on by saying that I had no problem with the official outcome siding with Henderson 48-47 on all cards, with Henderson winning the first three rounds and Shogun the final two. And I’ll go a step further and say, that as I sat in my seat at “The Tank” in San Jose, I fully expected Bruce Buffer to waltz into the cage and announce that yet another epic main event battle in 2011 had come in on the judge’s scorecards as a draw.

While I scored the first round for Shogun, I can certainly see how you could see if for Henderson, as both fighters had the other totally rocked. But what cannot be debated is the dominant manner in which Shogun won round 5.

He was in mount for over 4 minutes and Dan Henderson did absolutely no offensive damage whatsoever. He wiggled and squirmed just enough to keep the fight from getting stopped. The case for a10-8 round was a strong one and, had I not already given Shogun the first round (and therefore the win), I would have gone 10-8 to avoid giving him the loss.

This made me realize that it’s not how you judge, and it’s why judging is so damn difficult. A 10-8 round is a 10-8 round, no matter how it alters the outcome of the fight.

So it makes me wonder, did the judges from Saturday night do the same thing I did – take a look down at their scorecards and see that had they scored the final frame a 10-8, that it would have resulted (at least on their card) in a dreaded draw?

Considering the amount of 10-8 rounds that have been scored this year, I’d be inclined to say they did.

6. The Best Fight of All Time?

I’ve been to a lot of MMA events. Over the last 5+ years of traveling to cover this sport, I’m positive I’ve never witnessed another fight with so much drama, action, twists and turns as the one Dan Henderson and Shogun Rua put on this past Saturday night at UFC 139.

Every time you thought someone had the fight wrapped up, the other battled back, making you believe he had a chance to finish the fight. There were knockdowns, submission attempts, takedowns, ground and pound, and even a little blood. Okay, there was a lot of blood.

But it was everything an MMA fight should be. It was a “Dana will take care of you for a long time” type of fight.

I know many will have others as their all-time favorite, but for my money, Hendo/Shogun will go down as my personal “Greatest of All Time.”