I think we are all in agreement that UFC 91 was a phenomenal show and one of the best UFC shows of all time. It had everything you could ever want on a MMA card.
Let’s get to the feedback.
Big D
Show overall rating: Thumbs WAY UP
Best Fight: Jeremy Stephens vs. Rafael Dos Anjos
Worst Fight: Mark Bocek vs. Alvin Robinson
One of the best UFC Cards EVER. Top to bottom I was never bored. We saw all types of styles. We saw great standup, we saw great ground fighting. It was a great card TOP TO BOTTOM. There were NO bad fights at all, and even the one that went the distance had a handful of beautiful standup combinations and trading. This was PERFECT MMA, and I’m so happy that so many new fans were exposed to good MMA. Long live the UFC.
Alan
Show overall rating: Thumbs Up
Best Fight: Jorge Gurgel vs. Aaron Riley
Worst Fight: Mark Bocek vs. Alvin Robinson
Awesome show all around.
Duan
Show overall rating: Thumbs Up
Best Fight: Jorge Gurgel vs. Aaron Riley
Worst Fight: Mark Bocek vs. Alvin Robinson
Best UFC card in quite a while. This was one of those shows which turned out far better in execution than it looked on paper. Great night of fights from beginning to end rounded off with a historic Main event.
This show also did a great job of establishing new contenders.
I’m one of Kenny Florian’s biggest doubters, but even I couldn’t begrudge him a title shot after how he handled Stevenson. Gonzaga looked like a monster again; one more big win and he should be right back in the title race. And Damian Maia looks like a legitimate threat to anyone in the 185 pound division.
It was also wonderful to see Aaron Riley back in UFC, and he definitely earned his spot with a performance like that. Ending the broadcast with the Bocek vs. Robinson prelim made for something of an anticlimax; trying to follow on from the huge main event and the excellent Riley vs. Gurgle war just seemed impossible. Great show, none the less.
Brock Lesnar talks with ESPN about his fight with Frank Mir standing to his right.
Dave Meltzer says it’s a changing of the guard.
Meltzer says that when Royce Gracie won the first UFC, it showed that size didn’t matter. Fifteen years later, Brock Lesnar shows that it does.
UFC gives out fight bonuses for UFC 91.
Knockout of the Night — Jeremy Stephens
Submission of the Night – Dustin Hazelett
Fight of the Night — Aaron Riley vs. Jorge Gurgel
This is the biggest UFC show of the year, and if you believe Dana White, the biggest UFC show of all time. I’m not so sure about that, but this is definitely the most interest I’ve had in a big time main event since probably Chuck Liddell vs. Rampage Jackson. And I might be more excited for this one.
Brock Lesnar punches Heath Herring
1. Demian Maia vs. Nate Quarry
It didn’t take long for Maia to get Quarry down. He got his back, put on a body triangle and eventually got the choke. Quarry never had a chance.
Winner: Demian Maia by way of 1st round submission
2. Gabriel Gonzaga vs. Josh Hendricks
Gonzaga just overpowered Hendricks in the clinch and was hitting him with knees. He knocked Hendricks down with a right hand and Hendricks just laid on the ground waiting for it to be stopped.
Ryan Thomas (170) vs. Matt Brown (171)
Alvin Robinson (155) vs. Mark Bocek (155)
Jeremy Stephens (155) vs. Rafael Dos Anjos (155)
Jorge Gurgel (155) vs. Aaron Riley (156)
Live matches
Dustin Hazelett (170) vs. Tamdan McCrory (170)
Demian Maia (185) vs. Nate Quarry (185)
Gabriel Gonzaga (256) vs. Josh Hendricks (238)
Kenny Florian (156) vs. Joe Stevenson (156)
Randy Couture (220) vs. Brock Lesnar (265)
I polled my friends and family who are either very casual UFC fans or die hard fans like myself.
I simply asked them who they thought would win tomorrow’s super fight, and how.
Ten people responded to the poll and out of those ten, seven said Brock would win to only three for Randy.
Out of those seven, four thought Brock would by KO, while three thought he’d win by decision.
As for those who chose Randy, two thought he’d win the fight by submission in the second round, while one saw him winning a decision.
It definitely seems that the casual fans see Brock as a monster and Randy as an aging legend and that’s very true and also how the UFC is trying to position this fight. But it was interesting to me that of the three people who thought Randy was going to win, two thought that he’d submit Lesnar and very early. I’d be very surprised if Brock put himself in that position early in the fight. If Randy wins by submission, I think it’d be much later in the fight.
I wrote a preview yesterday where the writers of this blog and two guests made predictions and out of the six of us, four thought Randy would win. And that’s very different from the poll of my friends and family.
I wrote a piece on Hard For The Yard today about the upcoming UFC Heavyweight Tournament which starts this Saturday with the Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture fight. The second match up is scheduled to be Antonio Rodrigo Nogueria vs. Frank Mir at UFC 92 with the winners of each match unifying the UFC heavyweight title.
Dana White once said this was going to be the biggest fight in UFC history. I’m not sure if anyone is buying that anymore, but it’s definitely the biggest fight of the year. You have the ultimate legend in Randy Couture, and the new monster in Brock Lesnar. If you think about it, it’s cinematic. You have the aging legend who thinks that he’s always brought in to lose. You have the up and coming star who doesn’t care about the man who stands in his way. If there’s a better reality of the Rocky story, I’m not sure what that is. Well, I guess Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia. But this would be the sequel.
My FightGameBlog brothers have put together their predictions for this fight, as well as the Joe Stevenson vs. Kenny Florian fight. Also, since Cactus Jim is out of the country, I asked Dewey Hammond from Hard For The Yard and Stevie J from Angry Marks to chime in with their predictions.
The show opens with Randy saying not fighting for over a year has been tough since he likes to compete. Dana and Randy are shown flying on a jet to ESPN studios in early September and they meet Brock in the hotel. Dana says this is going to be the biggest fight in UFC history.
The discussion is about Brock’s inexperience with Randy’s side saying that it’s going to be too much for him, while Brock’s side says that they said the same thing about Heath Herring.
Brock says Randy has to push 275 pounds around the octagon. He says that Randy won’t be able to control him like he has other wrestlers. Brock says that Randy’s going to be a stepping stone. Yikes.
Randy says what’s really important is the journey. Randy talks about his first UFC show at UFC 13. He beat Tony Halme and Stephen Grant to win the heavyweight tournament.
Randy says he was being set up to lose to Vitor Belfort. But he beat Belfort and then beat Maurice Smith to win the UFC heavyweight title.
They talk about Randy leaving the UFC but don’t explain why (money) and fighting in Japan for three years before beating Kevin Randleman to win the UFC belt again in 2000.
MMA Mania reported earlier today that Fabricio Werdum is no longer with UFC.
Fabricio Werdum was unable to come to terms with UFC officials on a new contract after his surprising 81-second knockout loss to Octagon newcomer Junior “Cigano” Dos Santos at UFC 90: “Silva vs. Cote” on October 15, forcing the Brazilian and the promotion to go their separate ways.
Werdum leaves the UFC with a 2-2 record, losing to Andrei Arlovski and Junior Dos Santos while beating Gabriel Gonzaga and Brandon Vera. It seemed like he was going to get a title fight after beating Vera, but with Randy Couture’s comeback, he was placed on the on the back burner. And his lack of being a name draw obviously hurt him. Had he faced either current champion (Couture or Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera), those fights wouldn’t really have done great business. Add that to the fact that Brock Lesnar is a great draw already and Frank Mir, who they’ve already given weeks and weeks of TV exposure to, is being built for Nogueira, Werdum was lost in the shuffle.
This is not a great market for fighters right now as Affliction would seem to be the main possible US destination for Werdum. But there’s also the possibility of fighting in Japan again, but it’s not like the Japanese MMA market is full of luxuries.
Though I’d been following the UFC for about a year through newsletters and the Internet, I hadn’t bought a PPV until UFC 43. I was a big Chuck Liddell fan, mostly because my co-worker Jeremiah Miller was a college buddy of Chuck’s. He gave me a signed poster that I still have today and I’ve been a big Liddell fan since. Jeremiah was even named in Chuck’s biography.
I remember buying this show mostly because my then wife was out of town on business and I had two toddlers to watch all weekend. When they went to sleep, I didn’t really have anything to do and figured that because I was a young dad home alone with his two young boys, I deserved to spend some money on an event. But also, I expected Chuck Liddell to win the interim light heavyweight championship in his match with Randy Couture and I wanted to see it happen. Let’s just say that I wasn’t a happy Chuck fan that night.
Couture wasn’t necessarily a set up for Liddell that night, but the fight was there for Chuck to win. Couture was a former heavyweight champion, but he was 38 years old and people were saying that he was now over the hill. He dieted down to make the 205 lb weight limit and looked to have nearly zero body fat. The reason Randy and Chuck were fighting rather than Chuck and Tito Ortiz (who was the champion at the time) was because Ortiz bailed on the fight. After beating Ken Shamrock (which was actually the first UFC PPV I ever saw), Tito seemed noncommittal about fighting Chuck after pretty much saying that he had to take care of Shamrock first and then he’d be ready. When push came to shove, Tito wasn’t there so Dana White and company decided to put Liddell in there with Couture to determine the interim champ. And then, Ortiz would have to face the winner.
The show opens with Randy saying not fighting for over a year has been tough since he likes to compete. Dana and Randy are shown flying on a jet to ESPN studios in early September and they meet Brock in the hotel. Dana says this is going to be the biggest fight in UFC history.
Couture wasn’t necessarily a set up for Liddell that night, but the fight was there for Chuck to win. Couture was a former heavyweight champion, but he was 38 years old and people were saying that he was now over the hill. He dieted down to make the 205 lb weight limit and looked to have nearly zero body fat. The reason Randy and Chuck were fighting rather than Chuck and Tito Ortiz (who was the champion at the time) was because Ortiz bailed on the fight. After beating Ken Shamrock (which was actually the first UFC PPV I ever saw), Tito seemed noncommittal about fighting Chuck after pretty much saying that he had to take care of Shamrock first and then he’d be ready. When push came to shove, Tito wasn’t there so Dana White and company decided to put Liddell in there with Couture to determine the interim champ. And then, Ortiz would have to face the winner.
