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UFC 58 – Review
By Rob Sayers | March 4, 2006
By Rob Sayers
Tonight with a belly full of Amber Boch and wings, I sat down at the Hooters in Jackson, MS to watch UFC 58: USA: Vs Canada.
I was actually surprised by the number of people who showed up to watch the event. Tonight was a testament to the growing popularity of MMA.
Mark Hominick vs. Yves Edwards
The first fight aired was the return of the lightweights to the UFC. The former uncrowned LW king Yves Edwards faced Mark Hominick. The entire 1st round seemed even, as did the 2nd until Hominick scored some major body shots which convinced Edwards to take the fight to the ground. Soon after, Hominick started work on a triangle which at first appeared easy to escape, but as Edwards attempted to posture up, Hominick secured a leg which brought Yves back to the ground when he finally tapped out early in the second round.
Nathan Marquardt vs. Joe Doerksen
In stark contrast to his UFC debut against Ivan Salaverry, 7-time KOP champion Nate “The Great” Marquardt fought a war against UFC veteran Joe Doerksen. The fight was fairly even at first, with Nate getting the best of most of the encounters. As the fight wore on, Marquardt became more and more dominant. In the end, he managed to do enough to win the unanimous decision over Doerksen.
Georges St. Pierre vs. B.J. Penn
The highly anticipated match between Georges St. Pierre and former UFC Welterweight champ B.J. Penn did not disappoint. B.J., in a cocky move, actually wore his belt into the ring. I can’t imagine the UFC brass is to happy with this. However, GSP managed to dispel any notion that Penn is still the champ after securing the split decision win.
I think this fight asks the question: Is GSP really that good, or has B.J. Penn lost his former magic? I also ask the question — what was that one judge thinking who scored the fight in favor of Penn? I think it’s pretty clear that GSP won at least the last 2 rounds, with the 1st being a toss up.
Either way, St. Pierre has secured yet another title shot. Where Penn goes from here remains to be seen.
Mike Swick vs. Steve Vigneault
Swick again affirms his nickname “Quick” with another speedy victory. After a bit of stand up that seemed to get no fighter anywhere, Vigneault attempted to take down Swick and was caught in a guillotine in the process early in the first round.
Rich Franklin vs. David Loiseau
Many predictions were made before this fight, and many people thought the Crow wound be victorious, but Rich “Ace” Franklin proved once again why he is the MW champ. Round after round, Franklin dominated the standup and ground aspects of this fight, scoring on punches and getting a few impressive takedowns. Loiseau did get one knockdown, but was unable to follow up with anything significant. In the end, Franklin was able to take the unanimous decision.
All in all, I was impressed with the card. The fights that actually aired on the PPV were very entertaining and competitive. Penn being defeated definitely shakes up the rankings a bit. I’m looking forward to GSP vs Hughes II, as I think it will be a much better fight then their first encounter. However, who is next in line for Franklin? Swick? Leben? I’m interested to see how that division shapes up.
Topics: All Topics, MMA, Rob Sayers, UFC | 8 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
Overall a pretty good show. Most of the matches were at least decent and GSP/Penn and Franklin/Loiseau were fantabulous. My full thoughts are up on my website. Anyone else catch the GSP bootie shake?
http://www.mma-snark.com
Franklin is going to be out of commission until the October Show at the earliest if his hand really is broken. Hopefully in that time some more competitors can be established at 185.
Right now Marqaurdt might be his best fight or Matt Lindland if they want to bring him back. God forbid Lindland becomes the champion. Swick could eventually provide an interesting matchup for Franklin. I think it would look a lot like the Quarry/Franklin fight. Leben would get eaten alive by the champion.
If Dave Terrell stays healthy he and Franklin could be absolutely phenomenal and hands down the best available fight.
Riggs should move back to 185 and reestablish himself, same goes for Salaverry.
Why is David Terrell being considered as a top contender when he hasn’t fought in over a year? Sure he KOd Lindland 1.5 years ago, but since then, he was mauled by Evan Tanner and hasn’t been seen since. He’d need 2-3 fights before he was put in line for another title shot.
Terrell has been injured. He hurt himself in training.
He also wasn’t “mauled by Evan Tanner”. Terrell had Tanner dead to rights and made a simple mistake. Go back and rewatch the fight. He took it to Tanner and had him rocked. The mistake Terrell made is that he tried to put on a guillotine choke from the guard. You learn in jiu jitsu to take 2 deep breaths before trying that move and then to only give it 30 seconds. The problem with applying the guilotine from the guard is that when you arch back you restrict your lungs from being able to pull in a full breath. If you don’t get the tap you make yourself winded. That’s what happened to him and why he couldn’t get Tanner off himself after Tanner got out of the guillotine.
You are right that he needs 2-3 fights before he gets a shot again at the belt. But he’d be a great matchup for Franklin.
Pretty good show. My quota for crowd shots of C-list celebs and stripperettes was met as usual. The brunette bunny next to Chxck worked overtime to give the show enough boobage. And nothing chokes me up more than hearing Michael Clarke Duncan use his James Earl Jones III voice to breakdown mma for me. My curiosity was peaked by the unknown magician in the crowd–I was expecting him to make a stripperette disappear or something (maybe that came after the show). And nothing is more entertaining than Joe Rogan beaming in from the Twilight Zone; him confusing Nathan Marquardt for Nate Quarry was a classic Roganism. Rich went into his Ace Ventura routine cutting jokes after his fight. Unfortunately, Chxck is still a tongueless mute whose sole contribution to the show was sticking his nostril on Willas finger. How in the world the UFC found time in all of this entertainment to stick in 5 fights amazes me. Truly, we are blessed.
I remember he had Tanner for one or two moments, but the fact of the matter is he shot his load on the guillotine, then got beaten virtually into the submission when it didn’t work. He simply gave up after Evan escaped the guillotined and elbowed him silly. It was a massacre at the end. Yeah, he looked decent against Tanner, but so did other guys Tanner beat (Baroni, Lawler, etc.). Tanner is the type of fighter who makes fighters look better than they are, even in winning. In any case, in the end, Terrell was crushed against the Octagon, being rained down with elbows and punches and taking a crapload of abuse before Herb Dean stepped in.
I agree with everything except the first round between Penn and GSP being a toss up. I thought it was straight domination by Penn. He cut GSP, broke his nose, and had octagon control. I do agree that GSP won the last two rounds, so he won the fight.
I’ll have to rewatch, I was a bit tipsy both when I watched the fight, and when I wrote the review 🙂