UFC 102 was undoubtedly one of the best cards of the year. We saw the battle of legends as Antonio Rodrigo Minotauro Noguiera proved that his loss to Frank Mir may have been a fluke as he won a unanimous decision over Randy Couture in a war. Besides that, Thiago Silva resumed his winning ways, Brandon Vera continued to bore us, Nate Marquart shut his critics up and we caught a glimpse of what could be the future as Todd Duffee and Jake Rosholt made huge impacts with stellar victories, the latter an unprecedented 7 second knockout. Let’s see what the FightGameBloggers had to say…

Duan
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Best Fight – Randy Couture vs. Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera
Worst Fight – Brandon Vera vs. Krzysztof Soszynski

A really good main event to round off a solid night of fights. I said going into this show that I felt both Randy and Nog needed to retire, and nothing I saw tonight has changed my perception on that. Both guys really gave it their all and it turned out to be a super dramatic fight. However, I still thought they both looked really old in there. I share Alan’s concern about one of them getting hurt. The movement just isn’t there, reflexes are gone, and they are worryingly easy to hit. These are not things that can be fixed, and I am not eager to see either one matched up with a top young fighter.

I have always thought that Marquardt has the best chance of beating Silva out of the current crop of 185 pounders. He has come on a lot as a fighter since his last title shot, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what he can do differently this time around.

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- 16,088 for a gate of 1.92 million dollars

- KO of the Night to Nate Marquardt

- Submission of the Night to Jake Rosholt

- Fight Of the Night to Couture and Nogeuira

- All bonuses were $60,000

- Dana said they’d probably go to Seattle first and then possibly back to Portland.

- Dana says that he won’t do 5 round non-title fights.

- He says both Marquardt and Henderson are both in the mix for a shot against Anderson Silva.

- He says that Brock was cheering for Randy hoping to fight him again.

- Randy and Dana just said that they signed a new contract and he doesn’t only have one more left. He says it’s for 28 months and for 6 more fights.

- Dana says that Chuck Liddell was texting him all night, wanting to fight again.

- Big Nog says that it was the most important fight of his career even though it wasn’t for the title because he was fighting one of his heroes.

The show opens up in a roller rink, which could be the same roller rink in which a shooting occurred last weekend. Yep, it’s the same one. Mayweather says he didn’t have anything to with it, though they searched his house and seized some hand guns. I wonder if the show mentions his uncle’s recent issues.

He says his retirement was because his body needed to heel and also because he needed to find out who he was as a person, but boxing was still in him.

Uncle Roger says all athletes come back and Floyd specifically loved that lamplight. I think he meant limelight. He also says Spanish fighters are tough, but they rely on their heart, not their brain. He said the difference between Marquez and Mayweather is that Marquez is good, but Mayweather is great.

Marquez is being trained by Nacho Beristain, who you’ll remember trained Oscar De La Hoya for his fight with Manny Pacquaio. This will be Marquez’s 56th fight of his career. He’s won titles in 3 different weight classes.

He says that even though the first fight was a draw, that he beat Manny Pacquiao. And he said that he clearly beat Pacquiao in the second fight.

The fight is at 144 pounds, 9 more than Marquez has ever weighed in the ring.
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We’re going to keep this poll up until it’s fight time.

Who wins in boxing’s next big superfight?

On one hand, you have the returning best pound for pound boxer Floyd Mayweather. On the other, great Mexican boxer Juan Manuel Marquez.

Vote in the poll on the right hand side and let me know who you’re taking come September 19th.

We’ll have live play by play of UFC 102. I’ll refresh the site after every round.

Though we don’t have a ton of votes in our poll, Randy Couture was the heavy favorite. Not too many people are giving Big Nog a shot.

It looks like we’re opening up with Brandon Vera vs. Krzysztof Soszynski. I hope Vera doesn’t wear those short tight shorts.

1. Brandon Vera vs. Krzysztof Soszynski

Vera’s shorts are short, but he’s not smuggling bananas thankfully.

Soszynski came out early and aggressive until Vera hit him with a body kick. Vera kept him at bay for the rest of the round, with the exception of when they clinched, but Soszynski wasn’t able to stay inside. Vera wins the round with some pinpoint kicks.

Vera controlled the second round too. Soszynski is trying to push Vera but Vera’s being very careful, and whenever Soszynski tries to get in close, Vera’s slippery. Boring fight, but it’s at Vera’s pace and his pace is slow and methodical these days.

Vera picked it up just a little bit and it was his most impressive round. He took Soszynski down and pounded on him a bit. Good performance by Vera in a very methodical kind of way.

Winner: Brandon Vera by way of unanimous decision

2. Demian Maia vs. Nate Marquardt
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Thanks to Steve J from AngryMarks for doing the play by play of the weigh-ins and letting us use it for our post.

Everyone came in at weight.

1. Evan Dunham (155) v. Marcus ‘Maximus’ Aurelio (156)

2. Nick Catone (185.5) v. Mark ‘The Filipino Wrecking Machine’ Munoz (185.5)

3. Todd Duffee (251) v. Tim Hague (263.5)

4. Justin McCully (238) v. Mike Russow (260)

5. Gabriel Gonzaga (259) v. Chris Tuchscherer (258)

6. Aaron Simpson (185) v. Ed ‘Short Fuse’ Herman (185.5)

7. Chris ‘The Crippler’ Leben (185) v. Jake Rosholt (185)

8. Brandon ‘The Truth’ Vera (205) v. Krzysztof ‘The Polish Experiment’ Soszynski (205)

9. Nate ‘The Great’ Marquardt (185) v. Demian Maia (185)

10. Keith ‘The Dean of Mean’ Jardine (205) v. Thiago Silva (205)

11. Antonio ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira (231) v. Randy ‘The Natural’ Couture (220)