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UFC 68: The Uprising
By Erin | March 3, 2007
Chris Lytle states that this is a “must-win†for him. I’d say its much more of a “must-win†for MattHughes. Chris Lytle losing to Hughes wouldn’t be that surprising or detrimental to his career.
UFC is claiming 19,000 in attendance. If that’s true, that’s an amazing crowd.
Mike Goldberg says that if Tim Sylvia wins tonight, “it’s time for the nay-sayers to go awayâ€. No, it’s really not. He’ll still be Bob Sapp With No Charisma, and he’ll still wear his belt to the bathroom (thanks to UFCJunkie.com for that visual, yick).
Renato “Babalu” Sobral vs. Jason Lambert
I may be rooting for Babalu, but Lambert at least has some cool music. Babalu comes out looking quite evil, which of course, just makes me love him more than ever. Sigh.
Round 1. Bit of an issue coordinating the pre-fight hand slap, but they eventually figure it out. Babalu gets an early charge and takedown and ends up in Lambert’s half guard. Lambert gets full guard and Babalu moves get him stuck against the fence. Lambert tries to get up but Babalu keeps him down and gets Lambert’s back. Babalu starts working for a rear naked choke but Lambert gets it back to standing. Lambert gets a few good shots in and the fight goes to the ground as the round ends.
Round 2. Babalu throws knees while Lambert goes for the uppercut again. Lambert gets a takedown against the fence but Babalu gets it back to standing for a second before it went back down. Lambert is dropping some good punches but Babalu is managing to stay in the fight. Big John stands them up and Lambert gets a NASTY punch. Babalu is down. Big John calls the fight.
Well crap. I still love you Babalu.
Winner: Jason Lambert via knockout.
Lambert declares that he wasn’t worried about this fight at all in the post fight interview. Bah.
Footage of Tim and his belt entering the area is shown, followed by a shot of Randy and his hotty wife. Ha, that’s a fun juxtaposition.
Matt Hughes vs. Chris Lytle
Lytle comes out to what I believe is Motorhead (I could totally be wrong though). I dunno whether that’s awesome or dorky. Very possibly both. Matt has his traditional “Country Boy Can Surviveâ€. I vote he changes it to “Devil Came Down to Georgiaâ€, as that is at least a fun song. At least it’s not “Save a Horse†though.
Round 1. Whoa, referee has weird hair, very “teenage surferâ€. Lytle is big with the punches early, Hughes goes for a takedown and Lytle grabs his neck. Hughes moves over to half guard and starts throwing punches to Lytle’s ribs. Hughes moves to side control and starts throws elbows on the side of Lytle’s head. Lytle snakes his legs around Hughes’ head and manages to hold him off until the end of the round.
Round 2. Hughes goes for another takedown against the fence. Hughes gets side control and drops some elbows. Hughes moves to full mount and Lytle is bleeding. Lytle uses the fence to get on top and Hughes grabs an arm. Lytle goes to move out and Hughes gets the dominate position again. Round ends.
Round 3. They keep talking about how Lytle needs this win so badly, I’m just not seeing it, it would look much worse for Hughes to lose. Hughes gets the takedown and moves to side position. Hughes starts working Lytle’s arm but lets it go before doing much with it. Matt grabs an arm in the last few seconds, but Lytle slides out before Hughes can lock in the arm bar. Round ends.
It’s a really good thing that Hughes’ brother has distinctly different hair, otherwise that would be kind of disconcerting to see them next to each other.
Winner: Matt Hughes via unanimous decision.
Ad for UFC 69. I don’t really like Koscheck, but will soooo be cheering for him against Sanchez.
Rich Franklin vs. Jason MacDonald
Roommate Jen does not approve of MacDonald’s choice of music as he is not a rock star. All of Franklin’s team is working the Neopolitan color scheme tonight. Anderson Silva is shown in the crowd, sadly lacking his Artic Tundra coat.
Round 1. MacDonald snags a leg but Franklin manages to keep it standing against the fence. Franklin throws a knee and they move back to the center of the ring. MacDonald moves the back to the fence and they trade low knees. Back to the center and MacDonald goes for a takedown but ends up on his back. Franklin throws some punches before they get back up. MacDonald finally gets the takedown but Franklin switches them and then backs off as the round ends.
Round 2. MacDonald grabs Franklin’s leg and really won’t let go. Franklin gets out and they go back to stand up. MacDonald monkey-clings to Franklin’s back before Franklin slips his head out and gets the top position. Franklin moves over to full mount and starts throwing punches. Franklin gets MacDonald’s back and is just mean with the hits and he switches back to full mount as the round ends. MacDonald cannot continue and the fight is called.
Winner: Rich Franklin via TKO
Wooooooohooooo! Go Franklin.
Anderson Silva comes to the ring (hey stupid crowd, no booing Silva!) and they share a Manly Hug. Silva compliments Franklin and looks forward to the rematch, Franklin comments that Dana said they can do the rematch in Cincinnati. I wouldn’t get too excited about that yet as we know how Premature Dana Announcements seem to go.
Andrei Arlovski is shown in the crowd, looking damn good, woof.
Martin Kampmann vs. Drew McFedries
Round 1. McFedries gets a good shot in early but Kampmann manages to get back up. McFedries gets several good shots over the course of a few minutes before Kampmann takes the fight down. Kampmann gets side control and drops a few knees to McFedries’ ribs. Kampmann gets an arm triangle and McFedries is out. Ref Herb Dean calls the fight.
Winner: Martin Kampmann via submission.
I’m wondering why Kampmann sounds like Al Pacino in “Scarface†every time he says “manâ€. It’s kinda odd.
Joe Rogan wonders why people don’t like Tim Sylvia. Do I need to go over this again?
Randy Couture vs. Tim Sylvia
Randy comes out the “Back in the Saddleâ€. Ahh Randy, you are definitely the Second Hottest Guy Old Enough to Be My Father.
Miraculously, Sylvia has entrusted his belt to one of his corner men. Has the Apocalypse come early?
Round 1. Randy gets a nasty shot early, Sylvia goes down and Randy gets his back. Sylvia hangs out until Big John tells him that he won’t stand the fight up at which point he starts working to get out. Randy works for a rear naked choke until the end of the round.
Round 2. They exchange punches before clinching against the fence. Randy gets the takedown and ends up in Sylvia’s guard. Sylvia manages to fend Randy off a bit with his legs and Big John stands them up. Randy gets a leg sweep as the round ends.
Round 3. Punches exchanged with Randy getting the better of the exchange. Randy’s all Bobbing n Weaving, woot. Round ends. Dude I could live forever without ever hearing Tim belching in the corner again.
Round 4. Sylvia blocks one takedown but gets dropped on Randy’s second try. Randy is in Sylvia’s full guard and gets a few shots to Sylvia’s face in. Big John stands them up and Randy is really borrowing Liddell’s overhand punches. Randy gets a takedown into side control and starts working Sylvia’s arm. Randy gets full mount and almost gets Sylvia’s back. They go back to standing as the round ends.
Round 5. Stand up to a clinch against the fence followed by a takedown by Randy into half guard. Tim grabs a leg and tries to twist around but Randy slips around to side control. Randy throws some knees to Sylvia’s body and a few elbows before moving into full mount. Sylvia almost gets up but Randy takes him down again. Round ends.
Go Team Randy, you rock like a hard rocking thing.
Winner: Randy Couture via unanimous decision!!!!!
Roommate Jen is giggling her ass off and I’m practically dancing.
Tim mentions an injury in his post fight speech, the crowd boos and rightly so.
Definitely a good night of fights, sad that Babalu lost, but Franklin and Couture both won, so I’m happy.
Topics: All Topics, Erin Bucknell, MMA, UFC | 15 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
The Lamber fight actually helps to legitimize Rashad Evans. I have always thought the Lambert was a quality opponent, and Evans beating him should have put him in the worldwide Top 10. I think Lambert’s win here solidifies just how good Evans really is.
I would put Couture exactly where Sylvia was, at #5, and put Sylvia at #6, and push the rankings down from there.
Franklin proved he is a legit contender, and not just a flash in the pan. A top 5 Middleweight in the world.
Randy fought a brilliant fight. The man’s an MMA genius.
FF
Franklin didn’t prove anything.
Have him fight Lyoto, then we’ll see what happens.
Well, if he and Lyoto were the same weight class…..
Franklin didn’t prove much by beating MacDonald; everyone knew beforehand that he is a completely different class of fighter than MacDonald and it showed. I don’t think MacDonald even threw nor landed a single decent looking punch the entire fight. How can someone so inept on the feet possibly be considered a world class fighter? (unless he is a wrestling or jiu jitsu God)
Randy’s win provoked the happiest response I’ve ever seen from a mma fight. I was literally jumping up and down with excitement. Syliva blaming an injury was weak; he should have blamed the fact that he never learned how to throw more than 2 punches in a row (and a very slow row at that), he has the foot and hand speed of a slug, he doesn’t have much of a chin, he doesn’t move his head, and that he basically was content to throw arm punches all night while Couture was throwing bombs on his face.
Seeing a 43 year old wrestler completely undress a “great striker” like Sylvia on the feet really shows how much work is still to be done to get mma striking up to par. Congrats Randy, he is a fucking animal and I almost don’t want to watch him fight Mirko because I’m scared of what will happen to him.
Nice Job Erin. Always interesting to hear a women’s point of view, especially since I keep hearing how women are big part of the UFC audience. I guess Babalu will be back for that reason alone!
Heh, thanks. I hope they would keep him around more for the fact that he’s a pretty talented fighter than the possibility that the chicks dig him. Especially since I have weird taste and should not be taken as a baseline for all women, lol.
Randy has now been in 2 of the most emotionally satisfying MMA fights I’ve ever seen. First, he thoroughly beats Tito Ortiz and second he does the same to Tim Sylvia. I’m not sure which one was better.
Lets hope the winners of Arlovski-Werdum and Crocop-Gonzaga have to fight eachother first for the right to face Randy Couture. Looks like Randy came out without a scratch but it’d be nice to give him an extra 2 months off to relax and recover.
Could somebody have purposely injured Syliva during training to give Couture the advantage? I think it is very possible and it isn’t right to boo someone just for telling it like it is. If the guy is not at 100 percent, he should get a rematch.
Didn’t Frank Gotch have somebody injure one of his opponents during training so he could win a fight? Could this stuff be happening all the time? Will this go on in the future?
I think fighters need to quit getting injured during training.
To quote the legendary Boxing trainer (and commentator), Gil Clancy:
Fighters are never truly at 100% for a fight and using injury as an excuse seems pretty weak, IMO. If you lose in part due to an injury, suck it up and prove it was due to it next time, don’t start crying about it. And if the injury is really bad, perhaps you should call off the fight (like GSP did against Serra).
Oh, and George Hackenschmidt accused Frank Gotch of having one of his ringers should on him during training, but I seriously doubt that Pro Wrestling at the time wasn’t 99% worked (otherwise how could quite a few of Wrestlers of the time wrestle several times a week if they were constantly in danger of getting seriously hurt and wouldn’t it make most sense to do shoot-style works to get as much money as possible from the marks?) and this wasn’t just a post-match vignette of the day, anyway.
God…Sylvia is just BAD, BAD, all kinds of BAD. I hope that dispells the idea that he’s even anywhere near an “elite” HW and that he’d beat guys like Aleks, Hunt, Fedor etc.
Randy completely exposed how thin the talent had been in the UFC’s HW division until Dana opened up his wallet and brought in some studs. I’d say the anemic HW division just got a whole lot more interesting.
Erin, definatley a better report than that last card. Keep up the improvement,
Zach Arnold, you must agree that this report is a definate improvement on the last effort. Try to keep an open mind Zach.
Huh, I did the report the exact same way I do all of them. Interesting that you thought this one was better.