I was foolish enough to look at Joe Silva's fight selection for this event and decide not to go. In hind sight that is a decision I will regret. The UFC doesn't come to the UK very often and I'd gone to the last event here back in October 2010 at UFC 120 at the O2, London. Seeing what I thought to be a lower quality card for star power and given the fact that I am extremely broke at the moment, I made the bold statement that I would not go to another UFC in England unless it had some real big names on the bill. Let me officially go on the record as saying I now rescind that previous (and very stupid) statement.
I have just got done watching the show from last night that I Sky Plus'd off of ESPN and I was pretty blown away. The main card fights were absolutely first class. Terry Etim, Liverpudlian UK MMA superstar, back from a 19 month break due to a rib injury absolutely stole the show with his 17 second submission finish of Edward Faaloloto by a fantastic jumping guillotine to his standing opponent, pulling him to the ground and drawing the tap. With this victory Etim equals Damian Maia for Submission of the Night awards with 4. An amazing return for one of the UK's top prospects.
Etim choking out Faalolott
The second televised fight was a classic example of the striker vs grappler debate. Australian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, Antony Perosh fought French kickboxer, Cyrille Diabate in a good paced two round affair where who controlled the balance of the action was basically dictated by where the action took place. At the beginning of both rounds there was a spell where the fight was carried out standing and Diabate showed his obvious class and out struck the Aussie (hate the way Mike Goldberg says that) using his Muay Thai talent. Unfortunately for "The Snake", the action in both rounds didn't stay on the feet. Perosh managing to secure some fairly scrappy takedowns, in the first he got to mount but didn't manage to finish the fight, in the second he got to mount and decided to soften Diabate up with some ground and pound. As a result of this, Diabate gave up his back to protect himself which was a written invitation for the Bjj ace to slap on the Rear Naked Choke for the sub victory.
Perosh finishing Diabate via RNC.
Now the third fight shown on tv was actually the second prelim fight of the night, and this was really the fight I was wanting to see. Ché Mills, former Cage Rage Champion, who happens to train with Trojan Freefighters and Checkmat BJJ, was on his UFC début taking on former Tough Enough season 13 alumni Chris Cope. And what a welcoming to the promotion it was for the Brit. Mills issued a 40 second beatdown on the American punctuated by two particularly violent knees, one that started Cope's down fall, the other that finished it. A couple of follow up punches to his downed opponent were all but immaterial as the damage had already been done, the ref stepped in to stop the fight and I was jumping out of my chair. Ché looked over the moon with his performance and the British crowd were really popping loud for him. He was also lucky enough to be awarded the $70,000 dollar bonus for KO of the night for his performance.
The pleasing sight of Ché Mills tko-ing Chris Cope.
After the fight as Ché was exiting the Cage, who should be the first to congratulate him, Chico (Mendes) my Bristol instructor. I was like "hey, that's Chico!!!" to my five year old son who really didn't care one bit.
With the fourth fight (3rd Mian card bout) came another quick submission victory, this time at the unlikely hands of Thiago Alves against Papy Adebi. Alves, predominantly known for being a Muay Thai wrecking machine showed off his immense MT skills from the start, eventually hitting Adebi with a two punch combo that dropped him to the floor. Jumping into mount, Alves then peppered his opponent with punches and elbows, one of the latter of which bust Adebi open somewhat. None of this served to finish the bout though and Adebi rather unwisely gave up his back then eventually succumbed to a rear naked choke. This submission marks Alves' first tapout in the UFC and his first career sub that wasn't due to strikes showing that he's really trying to develop his game.
Alves closing out play with a text book RNC.
The Co-Main event was a Bantamweight throw down between Brad "One Punch" Pickett and Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Black Belt, Renan Barão. The fight was a lightning paced punch up between the two, with the Brazilian looking more technical but the Brit landing some heavy blows and tasty combos. It was all academic once it hit the ground though courtesy of a combination from Barão, the talented grappler easily taking the back and then locking in a RNC with minimum effort at just over the four minute mark. A great match with both guys earning themselves bonuses for fight of the night. During Barão's interview with Joe Rogan after the match there was a great cameo appearance from Braulio Estima acting as the in ring translater and doing about as good a job in the role as anyone I've ever seen do it. Much better than some (cough cough Ed Soares!).
Yet another Rear Naked, this time Renan Barôa over Brad Pickett.
The Main Event was another good punch up between Chris Leben and Mark Muñoz. Both came out aggressive but "The Filipino Wrecking Machine" taking the upper hand due to his wrestling and Leben didn't look himself cardio-wise. The action carried over to the second round though with Muñoz going on to severely batter Leben's face down the left side during a positive bit of ground and pound. Referee Mark Goddard gave Leben the opportunity to call it when he stopped the action to ask if he could see alright. Leben said he could so the bout continued but the damage had been done. After the second round Leben's corner threw in the towel saying their guy couldn't see out of his left eye. Leben didn't seem to argue with this decision.
As I said earlier, the bout didn't look the prettiest on paper but action-wise it was a scorcher and from a Bjj fan's perspective it was the best UFC in a long while. Looks like I best go to the next one in the UK then.
Til next time \m/
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