Another great night of fights(well almost all UFC events feature great fights anyway). I actually almost forgot that this PPV was Frankie Edgar's title defense against The Prodigy that is BJ Penn. I thought that the COuture-toney fight was the main event. So it was like a bonus, seeing the title fight in the end!
The first fight was bloody. It was Marcus "Irish Hand Grenade" Davis against the young buck Nate Diaz. A classic "striker VS grappler" match-up, though Davis has a decent ground game, and Nate isn't afraid to mix it up on the feet. And guess what happened. You would expect Nate to get outclassed on the feet because Davis is a legit boxer(used to box in the amateur circuit). But he was tooled by Nate and was even submitted on the ground. Davis was sleeping when the fight ended.
Here's Davis. Even the ring doctor looks like WTF?!?
2nd fight was a title contender match-up between Gray "The Bully" Maynard and Kenny "Ken-Flo"(yes, I know the moniker sucks) Florian. I expected The Bully to outwrestle KenFlo to a unanimous decision. And that's exactly what happened. Poor Kenny. With all that Muay-Thai and jiu-jitsu skills(he's a black belt), he just can't cut it against the Bully's wrestling.
3rd on tap was the Demain Maia-"Super" Mario Miranda fight. Maia was originally slated to face Alan "Teh Talent" Belcher but Belcher had to withdraw because of a damaged retina or something in the eye. If he doesn;t watch it, he could go blind and won't be able to compete in MMA anymore. But I have a feeling that he would be back.
Anyway, the 3rd fight was kinda' boring. I thought Super Mario was good on the feet. But Maia just managed to strike with him, and even take him to the ground. That fight should've included Belcher for it to be more exciting.
The 4th match was the co-main event of the evening between Randy Couture and James Toney. This was the fight that pits a boxer(Toney) against an MMA fighter(Couture). Just as I predicted, Toney was taken to the ground(where he looks like a fish out of the water). But I didn't expect Randy to submit his ass. It is also kinda' stupid for me that Randy earned his Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu black belt(it was handed to him by his Jiu-jitsu coach during the post-fight interview) after he submitted Toney. Randy should submit a black belt too to earn his own black belt, that's what I think how it should be.
The main event surprised me again. This was a rematch between "The Answer" and "The Prodigy"(the Prodigy lost on the first one) so I expected BJ Penn to come out stronger and do a dominating performance on Edgar. Oh how stupidly mistaken my prediction was.
BJ looked like he didn't upgrade anything in his game. It actually looked like Frankie did more adjustments on his game plan. He still looked like Mighty Mouse in that he was whizzing and darting here and there. And what's more, he repeatedly took Penn down! Until earlier, no one at lightweight has actually dominated BJ Penn like that. Frankie Edgar shows us that heart and skill could shut pundits and experts(I being one of 'em) up!
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