A look back at UFC 114: grudge match of the ages...or not.

I realize this rant is a little bit late, but the new UFC game is out, and let's just say I enjoy watching CGI Keith Jardine get ktfo about as much as I do the real Keith Jardine. Now that I am at work, I really have nothing else to do but post some good home grown MMA rants.

So I don't know about the rest of you who tuned in for Evans v Rampage, but I feel a bit of a fool for buying into the whole "grudge match" hype for the fight. Didn't the promo reel do a really good job of making you think this would actually be a fight where fighters, you know...throw punches? I thought so too. I guess it wouldn't have made for a very compelling reel to show Rashad tweeking his nipples and test marketing himself as the new African Snuggie. It seems like everyone was thinking Rashad would actually try to fight Rampage, except for Rashad, of course. He wasted no time in giving Jackson an affirming hug for 15 minutes. I understand you have to fight to your strengths, but when your strength is tying up your opponent and doing nothing until you get restarted, how is this scoring points with the judges? In Japan, that kind of stalling will get you a yellow card (which is a demerit with the judges and costs a fighter a tenth of his purse), but in the States it will get you a unanimous decision. Something's not right here.

It wasn't a total loss however. We did get to see Rashad do the stanky leg for a little bit in the third, and it was a mere glancing blow that did it. So what do we take from this fight?

Simple, Machida put to bed any notion of Rashad being a real fighter. Rashad didn't want to fight a hurt Thiago Silva, and he showed that he wanted no piece of Rampage. Now Rashad gets to fight Shogun for the title, and if Shogun is fully functional (get well soon) Rashad will find that trying to wrestle him will work for him about as well as it did for Randleman when he fought Shogun (which is to say not well).

Bottom line for Rampage? Juggling two careers doesn't work when you are in the elite of one of them.

As for the rest of the card?

Cyrille Diabate was as exciting and deadly as I was hoping he would be. You got close Cane, but close only wins in horseshoes and lay in pray (ask Rashad).

A big WOOT for Melvin Guillard showing that Louisiana has some of the world's best athletes. I remember watching him in New Orleans beating up amateurs thinking to visionary2g, "Man this kid is something special. He's going to make waves in the UFC someday." Boy I love it when I am right.

Watching Diego Sanchez get worked every which way for three rounds is just a sublime joy in life. This fight showed exactly what mediocre skills in every arena will do for a fighter in the upper eschelons of the division....not a damn thing. You can bounce around weight classes all you want Diego, but at some point you will always have to face someone good, and then you'll lose again. Maybe you should have worked harder on your "yes cartwheels". Suffice it so say I can't wait to see Hathaway in the cage again.

Lil Nog showed once again what being a Nogueira is all about. That guy is all heart. He doesn't have the greatest skills in the game, but so few fighters have what it takes to actually subdue him.

Now to the big fights on the main card, Todd Duffee v Mike Russow and Bisping v Miller.

I think every hardcore MMA fan was waiting for the Duffee fight like it was the release of the next secret sex tape of ____________. Let's just say we were VERY eager and excited to see it. And 99% of the fight didn't dissapoint. We got to see his great footwork, his masterful takedown defense, his dynamic striking, his amazing quickness, his devastating power.....and then we got to see his chin.....dammit. I think everyone in the bar looked around in bewilderment after that shot as if to say, "Well that wasn't supposed to happen. Stand them back up so Duffee can finish beating the snot out of this guy." Alas it was not meant to be. In all honesty, as far as losses go, that's not a bad way to lose. Everyone knows Duffee was dominating Russow terribly, and we got to see more than 6 seconds of what he can do. He'll be back, and I feel sorry for whoever it's against.

And last and actually pretty much least, the Bisping fight. It takes a rare fighter to get me to go from really respecting and liking him to putting him on that special list of fighters I want to see get maimed every time they fight (also on the list are the likes of Lindland, Hughes, Sherk, Tim Sylvia, Jardine, Rashad Evans, and pretty much any wrestler who treats MMA like it's wrestling with some other shit thrown in). Suffice it to say I was pulling for Miller. Miller is known for his grappling prowess and his scrapiness. I can dig a fighter like that. Unfortunately, I don't dig fighters who are stupid in the cage. Miller fought over two rounds of the fight thinking that his prowess lay on the feet. Wrong, Miller, wrong. For over two rounds we saw Miller make Bisping look good before Miller remembered takedowns were allowed in MMA. It was too little too late. It was a no brainer decision for Bisping, and I was left feeling very unfulfilled at the fight not developing like it could have.

All in all it was a solid card, but any card will be judged on the merits of its main event. In this respect one can think nothing else but that this card was a failure. We were packaged and promised a grudge fight for the ages...some black on black crime! But what we actually received was some black on black man love, and no one wants to pay money to see that. Let's hope that the public remembers from now on that Rashad had a nickname once before he knocked a few guys out, "the neutralizer".