UFC 98 Recap

UFC 98 certainly helped to clean out the bad taste of UFC 97. With a card full of exciting fights, UFC 98 did not disappoint. It wasn’t the best card ever, but it had its fair share of classic moments with some superb submissions and knockouts. Impressively, a couple of the fights that went the distance remained interesting throughout as well.

Let’s take a look at some of the minor fights, first. My condolences to Dan Miller for his painful loss against Chael Sonnen. That early attempt at a guillotine choke must have just wrecked Miller’s arms. Seriously, despite his attempts at a few more submissions, Miller just got pounded into the mat by Sonnen once that guillotine choke came off. I’m not sure that the choke alone was what did it for him, but I do think that the punishment Miller took in the first round essentially set him up to lose the other two. To be honest, it was a bit unbelievable that Sonnen couldn’t finish him off, despite absolutely dominating for almost all 15 minutes of the fight.

I wasn’t sure about the decision to stop the Drew McFedries vs. Xavier Foupa-Pokam fight. Sure, McFedries was dominating and Foupa-Pokam had taken a lot of hits, but looking at him just after the fight had stopped, it seemed as if he still had the capacity to fight. It was a tough decision, though, and I believe the ref is always right to err on the side of fighter safety. It was too bad for Foupa-Pokam, but an incredible display of dominance for McFedries.

The Frank Edgar vs. Sean Sherk fight was a pleasant surprise for a fight that seemed bound to go to Sherk. I’ve heard that Dana White said he couldn’t see how Edgar could have won that fight. Probably everyone was thinking the same thing. It was a good technical fight, though, with Edgar avoiding the bigger strikes of Sherk while scoring more points with faster flurries. He took all three rounds 30 – 27 ending in good condition, so his game plan can hardly be faulted.

Matt Hughes vs. Matt Serra was a fun fight, except for the entire second round. That round was terrible to watch, but an excellent strategic decision on the part of Matt Hughes. He really did just lie on top of Serra for the round, though it should be said that Serra didn’t try to do much other than eliminate his striking power and stop transitions. I think Serra was relying too much on a referee stand up and thus got lazy about attempting submissions. Hughes made attempts to pass and continued to do damage, and this seemed enough for the ref not to take away his advantage.

The first and third rounds were pretty close, so it’s hard to know for sure which round won it for Hughes. I was a bit surprised it wasn’t a split decision and I feel that the judges probably didn’t all judge Hughes as having won the same rounds. Nevertheless, it was entirely expected that Hughes would get the decision once he wasn’t submitted in the third round, so I doubt anyone could reasonably say that Hughes didn’t earn his victory. Hopefully it will teach a lesson to everyone going up against wrestlers – you have to spot when they are looking to simply steal a round with ground control, because that one free round will keep them fresh and ahead on the judges’ score cards.

Finally, the championship fight between Lyoto Machida and Rashad Evans was spectacular. Considering their unique styles, I expected a lot of circling to begin with, so that didn’t bother me. Evans did not commit at the right time, and this is probably what lost it for him so quickly. Let’s not be unrealistic here – Machida would have won regardless, he was clearly superior. I just think that Evans would have lasted longer had he dropped his strategy of countering and decided to commit to an exchange of his choosing. As it happened, though, Machida found the right opportunities and had the killer instinct to just keep hitting once Evans was clearly fading. Still, you have to give Rashad Evans props for his ability to keep standing and punching even after so many big hits.

Now it’s time to look forward to UFC 98 and hopefully a few wars between fighters that are looking for a second chance. It’s billed as The Comeback, and it would be great if Rich Franklin could get back on the path to title shots, as I think he’s a fighter who has not quite lived up to his full potential. I’m hoping he still can.