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UFC 109 (2/6 Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay Events Center)
By Zach Arnold | February 6, 2010
Dark matches
- Heavyweights: Joey Beltran vs. Rolles Gracie
- Heavyweights: Tim Hague vs. Chris Tuchscherer
- Light Heavyweights: Brian Stann vs. Phil “Mr. Wonderful” Davis (he better watch out for Paul Orndorff)
- Lightweights: Phillipe Nover vs. Rob Emerson
- Lightweights: Melvin Guillard vs. Ronnys Torres
- Lightweights: Mac Danzig vs. Justin Buchholz
Main card
- Welterweights: Matt Serra vs. Frank Trigg
- Middleweights: Demian Maia vs. Dan Miller
- Welterweights: Mike Swick vs. Paulo Thiago
- Middleweights: Nathan Marquardt vs. Chael Sonnen
- Light Heavyweights (#1 contender’s match): Randy Couture vs. Mark Coleman
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, Zach Arnold | 63 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
This is on Spike, right? Oh, wait, the Couture-Coleman “AARP card on a pole” match is actually a PPV main event??
The rest of the PPV card is ok, but nothing stands out. Certainly, with that turd of a main event, the undercard isn’t strong enough. Rashad-Silva, aka the least desirable main event in UFC history, did 255k buys, and I would be surprised if this breaks 300k. UFC is really playing with fire putting on these horrid fucking cards. Once you lose your audience’s trust, it is dangerous sledding, so to speak. If the UFC consistently puts on awful cards and expects the consumer to be be thankful, then pretty soon people will only buy the super cards. I know everyone is excited to see GSP and Machida and Rampage (and hopefully Brock) return soon, and really their returns cannot come soon enough.
The main event might actually be painful to watch.
I do like the rest of the main card, but maybe not enough to purchase the PPV.
Couture vs Coleman has the makings for an absolutely breathtaking disaster.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this one.
If Coleman wins, and then goes on to beat whoever the champion is, it would be the most unlikely story in mma history. Think about it-a man with no striking, no jiu jitsu, and no gas tank, at the age of 68, is 1 win away from fighting for the most prestigious title in the UFC. LOL that is embarrassing.
I don’t think the winner is getting a title shot. It’s Dana talking too early as he has done before (ala Hendo-Bisping) to hype the fight.
Nonetheless I am cheering for Coleman to win to see him get a title shot. The man can hardly shadowbox for 2 minutes without passing out, and he is 1 win away from fighting for the belt. Wow. Boxing has nothing on this idiocy!
I’m pulling for Coleman big-time. That would be great to have him in yet another main event in 2010.
Go Coleman!
Wasn’t this card supposed to be
Main event: Silva vs Belfort/Nog vs Cain/Brock vs Carwin
Co-main: Couture vs Coleman
Undercard: Rogerio vs Vera, Kos vs Thiago, Serra vs Trigg
Nothing wrong with that card. It’s not the UFC’s fault that people get hurt…to everyone blasting the quality of this card, which availible fighters would you rather see on it? Who would you like Joe Silva to magic out of thin air?
If you don’t like it, don’t buy it. Voting with your wallet isn’t going to change anything here though, as this is not the card the UFC intended to produce.
The card was supposed to be whatever the UFC could afford to put on during a PPV date they scheduled over a year ago. I’m sick of hearing that “they planned for better” is some sort of reasonable excuse. They know cards like this are a possibility, if not guaranteed, when they demand to book 12 PPVs a year ahead of time.
In any case, I honestly don’t hate the card. More “fun” than “meaningful”, I suppose.
I dunno, I don’t know if I’ll buy this one. And I’ve only not bought two PPVs since I started watching UFC…both when I was in Toronto, so I watched them at some chain restaurant instead.
I just don’t see anything on this card that I want to watch.
I’ve decided not to buy UFC 109. I would have if it was the only PPV in February. It is not. UFC 110 is a much much better PPV card.
Ugh.
I can’t even remember the last time I thought the UFC actually had a truly solid main card. All these mediocre events are starting to blend together in my mind.
This card is a mix of mediocrity and garbage from top to bottom.
I’ll catch a stream hoping to see Randy beaten into oblivion.
Going by recent performance, the main event is actually decent. I admit that to a more educated eye it isn’t so stellar. Still, I love the fight since it is a match up I have wanted to see since the early days.
I understand being upset about the main event as it is, but anyone complaining about the rest of the card is crazy. Marquardt, Sonnen, Maia and a bunch of good competitive match ups.
I really do think the UFC should consider the idea of multi-event tournaments. Like PRIDE and K1’s grand prix but limited to one fight per fighter per night to appease the ACs.
Forget the championship belts entirely and have a yearly champion every year like other sports. Like a playoff system with rules to account for injury replacements.
That will get rid of a lot of the meh feeling of these mediocre cards, even if you end up with the same damn fights because we’ll know ahead of time what the roadmap will be.
No more need for champs to stall for bigger US-based events; no need for interim championships. Every fighter knows where they stand that year as long as they fight.
It’s not like TUF doesn’t already do this.
All I know is that if UFCs 101-109 is an indication of how the UFC will continue to promote events in the future, the sport is not going to hold my interest for much longer.
The problem is that they put on two PPV’s in February. They really should have put on a Fight Night and a PPV. Between UFC 109 and 110, the talent is there to put on a stellar PPV and Fight Night. The talent is not there to put on two PPV’s.
“All I know is that if UFCs 101-109 is an indication of how the UFC will continue to promote events in the future, the sport is not going to hold my interest for much longer.”
You didn’t like Penn & Silva on the same card? Or UFC 107?
I thought about those events you’re talking about before I posted, actually. 107 was probably the best with 3 interesting fights; 101 had the 2 fights you mentioned. Beyond this, meh.
Has the sport stooped so low that 3 and 2 decent fights, respectively, now constitutes a good card?
Like you said, fewer events would probably solve this problem. I’ll vote with my wallet.
As soon as UFC got popular back in 05-06 thy started to play with the boxing model of one marketable fight per event. Hardcore fans hemmed and hawwed. But MMA continued to grow in popularity. UFC now feels comfortable fully embracing that model and doing 3-4 stacked cards per year with the rest being a couple name guys in a main event with filler.
Marquardt vs Sonnen has a real good chance to suckto the high heavens. Aside from wanting to see Randy get clobbered, the only fight I care about is Gracie vs Beltran. I used to train with Rolles and like him very much. Beltran KOd a buddy of mine a couple years ago. Oh wait Trigg Serra is on this card. That’ll be fun. I like Trigg.
I like the middle three fights on the main card, but Serra/Trigg and Couture/Coleman don’t do much for me. On the other hand, I’m guessing there’s like a 95% chance we’ll see Rolles.
I’ll catch it at a bar.
It doesn’t feel like a UFC week at all.
WEC officially announced a PPV. It’s a really good cardso far. Aldo/Faber, Henderson/Cerrone 2, & Brown/Gamburyan.
I will be ordering it and hoping few other people do so the WEC never tries PPV again.
I think with this card it’ll be a good night to hit the bar…
It truly is amazing that a card with several good match-up and 2 contender #1 contender matches gets treated like a bad card. It’s obvious that some fans are so spoiled by mma that they won’t be satisfied unless all cards are like UFC 100. Thankfully those of us who don’t have our heads up our asses and appreciate good fights with top fighters will enjoy UFC 109 just like UFC 108.
“I think with this card it’ll be a good night to hit the bar…”
It’ll be interesting to see how much they charge bars to air this. If it’s in the same range as UFC, I doubt bars will be buying it either.
” It’s obvious that some fans are so spoiled by mma that they won’t be satisfied unless all cards are like UFC 100.”
Or some of us are at the breaking point when it comes to the PPV model. Listen, I love watching the Lakers as much as I like watching MMA, but if every game was on PPV, I’d only buy the big games.
Every other sport makes tons of money without having fans shell out $50 every few weeks. WEC going this route is even more ridiculous. Figure out a way to make money without passing the buck to the fans.
Coleman vs Couture is a ridiculous main event. Dana White shit all over Fedor vs Coleman years ago..why is this better? Cuz Coleman’s opponent this time is worse?
And isn’t this card $20 more than Fedor vs Coleman 2? LOL
Rumor has it that Coker’s dropped hints that Strikeforce is thinking of counter-programming the WEC ppv, since they know they won’t have to deal with the live counter-programming from UFC.
I even saw that it brought out ol’ mmalogic to do some astroturfing…funny he was bragging about his inside info re UFC counter-programming the next SF card.
IF Coker does this it will be a real gloves off affair from now on…and won;t be pretty.
On the plus side, maybe this will finally lead to pulling the trigger on folding WEC into the UFC.
Alan Conceicao wrote: “The card was supposed to be whatever the UFC could afford to put on during a PPV date they scheduled over a year ago. I’m sick of hearing that “they planned for better” is some sort of reasonable excuse. They know cards like this are a possibility, if not guaranteed, when they demand to book 12 PPVs a year ahead of time.”
You, sir, are incorrect. They insist on booking 13 UFC PPV events per year, not 12.
EJ, it’s a good card, which is why I’m still watching it, but I doubt my casual friends will be all that interested and I don’t pay $45 for a PPV by myself if I can help it. So bar it is.
Got other plans for the night. The fights on the main card aren’t terribly competitive when it comes to the betting lines, but I honestly think they’re gonna be some competitive bouts. Maia sucks standing; He can easily be upset. I honestly believe Coleman is a better wrestler than Couture, and is more than live at this stage of both men’s careers. Sonnen has a great style and is big enough to nullify Marqhardt standing and in the clinch – I think he wins. Doesn’t say much about Sonnen though as much as it does the middleweight division aside from Silva, in that there’s a ton of guys at Sonnen’s level outside the UFC who could easily compete with these guys.
Swick, Danzig, Tuchuchuchuchsher, Gracie, and Nover I think all win easily. Davis/Stann is competitive, but I think very little of both.
“in that there’s a ton of guys at Sonnen’s level outside the UFC who could easily compete with these guys.”
Really like who? the only guy at Sonnen’s level outside the UFC is his buddy Hendo. Sonnen in 3 of the last 4 fights has beaten Filho, Okami and Nate The Great he’s going to give Silva fits in their fight. There aren’t 5 guys outside the UFC that are even worth mentioning when compared to the top UFC MW’s.
Chael Sonnen and Dan Henderson have about the same level of MMA wrestling. The differences in their game are:
1) Henderson has better submission defense.
2) Henderson has better striking.
3) Sonnen is a better gameplanner.
4) Sonnen uses his best strength (wrestling) to his advantage more).
Dan Henderson could have easily beaten Marquardt like that. However, the fight wouldn’t have gone down like that. He would have tried to fight him standing up and probably gotten hurt.
I think Sonnen has a very good chance of beating Anderson Silva or Vitor Belfort. He matches up well with Silva, and Belfot has always been a front runner who once he gets put on his back and dominated for a round completely crumbles.
Sonnen is going to ride his heel persona all the way to the bank. He’d probably be a few wins away from a title shot if he talked like all the other fighters. Say what you want about him, but the guy is smart and knows how the business works.
Paolo Thiago came out of the night looking like a legitimate contender for the 170 belt–his striking looks much improved and he is a very good athlete. Combine that with his jiu jitsu and size, and he is more of a matchup problem for GSP than all the other guys in the division. His takedowns are horrid though, so if GSP is beating him on the feet, there will no way out for Thiago.
Phil Davis is a great wrestler and athlete who showed lots of promise, but my God does he have the worst hands I’ve ever seen. Stann looked entirely unable to do anything, which didn’t surprise me that much; the two men are in entirely different classes of athleticism.
Marquardt’s strategy was horrid; instead of using angles, when Sonnen walked forward, Marquardt didn’t move side to side but rather just tried to punch Sonnen out with 1 shot and got taken down over and over again. He also showed that he has next to nothing off his back.
Sonnen’s wrestling and scrambling ability gives him a shot against Anderson, but Silva is much faster and longer and smarter than Nate–he is going to be using lots of feints and lateral movements and low kicks to keep Sonnen off guard; his foot speed will be the difference and he will keep Chael at bay long enough to hurt him and knock him out.
Just watched the main event. Coleman looked about 60 and moved like a guy older than that. What a joke of a fight that was!!!
Man, that was really bad. I did manage to enjoy Serra vs Trigg (mainly because it was short..hahahahaha).
Ending this card off with a shitty fight where a Gracie got beat by some nobody they pulled out of Fulsom on work release pretty much wrapped the night up with a bow.
Really like who? the only guy at Sonnen’s level outside the UFC is his buddy Hendo.
LOL, do you really believe that? Sonnen was a fringe contender a couple years ago because he was a limited wrestler/boxer who refused to train to defend submissions. Guess what? He’s still that guy. The difference is that he’s fought a bunch of guys who don’t know how to/can’t work an active guard. When he fights someone who does and they end up on the mat, he gets submitted, like against Maia or against Filho. Maia would tie him up in knots again just like the first fight. Nothing would change.
As for “who is at his level”, I think there’s about 20 guys at this level. They can all trade losses and wins; Trevor Prangley could probably do the same thing to Marqhardt that Sonnen did last night; he’s just never going to get the opportunity. Jorge Santiago could probably beat both of them. He might lose to one and beat the other. None of them establish themselves from the pack. There’s Silva, Hendo, and then a huge drop down to the next guy (who is probably Vitor now).
Sonnen’s wrestling and scrambling ability gives him a shot against Anderson, but Silva is much faster and longer and smarter than Nate–he is going to be using lots of feints and lateral movements and low kicks to keep Sonnen off guard; his foot speed will be the difference and he will keep Chael at bay long enough to hurt him and knock him out.
Anderson’s kryptonite is wrestling. Just one problem; Sonnen’s kryptonite are better strikers and guys who can work armbars/triangles/sweeps successfully from the guard position. Anderson is exceptional at both. Sonnen won’t last 5 minutes and will be gone from the UFC a fight or two later.
Glad to see the insanely overrated Nate ‘the Great’s bandwagon got side-swiped…that guy was easily the most overrated UFC fighter of recent memory. Henderson would have wiped the f****** floor with him, but they convinced people that he was actually trying to duck him.
And before I get accused of being anti-Zuffa or something stupid like that, I specifically mentioned “UFC fighter” because I think there’s a lot more guys outside of the UFC that get much more overrated.
Are you guys saying that basically the entire Middleweight Division is overrated? hahaha
I actually think it might be. I don’t know what it is about that division, but it has never been able to really establish itself like Welterweight & Light Heavyweight.
I can never remember a time in Pride, UFC, or any other organization where I was blown away by the division. Sonnen’s success might just be the icing on the cake on how mediocre it is. But don’t tell me that guys like Marquardt are going to lose to a fighter like Santiago. That is a joke. Santiago got KO’d by Leben and just recently got KO’d while on top of his opponent. Not to mention outstruck by Misaki and only won after he had better cardio.
The problem with the division is that I do not see it getting any better. Even if you took all the talent from DREAM, Sengoku, Strikeforce, and the UFC…. Put them into one division…. The talent overall is just lacking.
Ugh, now all of a sudden Nate Marquardt sucks? Seriously, one loss and the world ends. Dude got Team Quest’d. It has happened before and will happen again, where a mediocre TQ fighter with good wrestling goes against a guy who is great in everything but doesn’t work well off of his back and gets laid on for 3 rounds. No doubt it doesn’t look good, but Sonnen isn’t a great fighter by any stretch of the imagination.
He is a great wrestler, but not much else. We’ve seen it a lot with him, if you are strong in jiu-jitsu and good with joint locks you’ll probably destroy Sonnen. The only thing Silva has to think about is defending Sonnen’s takedowns and he has it won. To Sonnen’s credit, he isn’t easy to knock out, but mostly because every fight is spent 98% on the ground.
I’m not sure Silva’s BJJ is enough to outwit Sonnen, though. We’ll see.
Silva probably won’t need to use his BJJ. His striking is going to keep Sonnen on the outside, and Sonnen will be forced to shoot from like 6 feet away. Marquardt was able to do a lot of damage in the short time that the fight was standing, Silva would considerably worse.
However, Sonnen is still probably the best stylistic match-up to beat Silva. Most of these other top wrestlers like Kos, Sherk, and even Hendo have delusions of grandeur when it comes to striking. Sonnen has no problem at all shooting for the TD right off the bat and spending 15 minutes GNP’ing from the top. Combined with his heel persona, he can actually use that “lame” style of fighting and make himself draw.
Jacare would beat Sonnen but probably lose to Marquart.
(A) No, I didn’t say Nate Marquardt sucks – I said he was really overrated. People acted like he was the second coming and how amazing his striking was and how he was with training with GSP…blah, blah, blah – his game has some holes in it that people were just willing to overlook because he had a pretty KO win. Not to mention everyone forgets the dude got busted for ‘roiding.
(B) No way in hell Santiago beats him – if you’re getting knocked silly by a hammerfist from a guy fighting off his back…. Dude is probably THE most overrate mma guy out there now that Kang got exposed.
(C) I agree with 45 – the division is just a weaker division that is dominated by one guy in particular with one or two other guys that are just above everyone else.
“As for “who is at his level”, I think there’s about 20 guys at this level. They can all trade losses and wins; Trevor Prangley could probably do the same thing to Marqhardt that Sonnen did last night; he’s just never going to get the opportunity. Jorge Santiago could probably beat both of them. He might lose to one and beat the other. None of them establish themselves from the pack. There’s Silva, Hendo, and then a huge drop down to the next guy (who is probably Vitor now).”
Whatever drugs you’re doing you need to stop, Trevor Prangley hasn’t beaten anyone of note in years the idea that he would even be a factor in the UFC MW division just continues to show how overated guys outside Zuffa are. Same goes for Santiago did people forget him getting KTFO by Leben in the UFC, seriously stop it’s embarrasing the lenghts people like you go to bash UFC fighters who are far above their counterparts in other orgs.
If you look at it…. the Middleweight Division is really just a lot of Welterweights who got too big, or Light Heavyweights who didn’t do good enough and were forced to cut down in weight.
Anderson Silva, Nathan Marquardt, Jake Shields, & Robbie Lawler were all once Welterweights. Belfort, Henderson, Sonnen, Franklin, W. Silva, were all once Light Heavyweights. Maia and Okami are the only guys who really started in that division, and even Okami could make 175 pounds a few years ago. And Maia brings a whole new definition to one-dimensional.
The real talent in MMA is at Light Heavyweight, Welterweight, Lightweight, & Featherweight.
I can never remember a time in Pride, UFC, or any other organization where I was blown away by the division. Sonnen’s success might just be the icing on the cake on how mediocre it is. But don’t tell me that guys like Marquardt are going to lose to a fighter like Santiago. That is a joke. Santiago got KO’d by Leben and just recently got KO’d while on top of his opponent. Not to mention outstruck by Misaki and only won after he had better cardio.
Jeremy Horn submitted Sonnen twice about the same time Santiago fought Leben. So what? I wouldn’t bet on Santiago losing to Leben again, nor would any sane individual.
The difference is, as Sonnen said in an interview leading up to this fight, opportunity. Nothing but. He got a shot against Filho in a fight he was supposed to lose and made the most of it. All these derided non-UFC middleweights would likely have done as well or better in similar situations. If you really think Sonnen is an elite middleweight fighter who can even be competitive with Anderson Silva, you’re laughably out of your element.
Anderson Silva, Nathan Marquardt, Jake Shields, & Robbie Lawler were all once Welterweights. Belfort, Henderson, Sonnen, Franklin, W. Silva, were all once Light Heavyweights. Maia and Okami are the only guys who really started in that division, and even Okami could make 175 pounds a few years ago. And Maia brings a whole new definition to one-dimensional.
This is entirely accurate. You look harder, and there’s even more examples; Mayhem Miller anyone? Everyone remember the Frank Trigg middleweight run? Mike Swick: top ten middleweight ring bells? Patrick Cote also got his start at 205. Once ranked Martin Kampmann is now back down to welterweight (and not all that spectacular there either). Wilson Gouveia was a light heavyweight. Jason Lambert dropped to 185 after a middling light heavyweight/heavyweight career.
The middleweight division is a competitive one after you step away from the very top. I think its funny that I’m “on drugs” for recognizing a journeyman as a journeyman. Maybe people need to pay more attention? Not sure.
“The middleweight division is a competitive one after you step away from the very top.”
It is competitive with a lot of the guys at skill level. The problem is that the level is lower then it should be compared to the divisions around it (LHW & WW).
It is competitive with a lot of the guys at skill level. The problem is that the level is lower then it should be compared to the divisions around it (LHW & WW).
There’s some truth to that, I think. Not entirely sure though; Welterweight has a level where you run into having a lot of middling guys – Does anyone really think Nick Diaz is a class either above or below Dan Hardy or Paul Daley? Daley got beat the hell up by Nick Thompson less than a year ago, and he’s like #5/6 in the division according to most. Is it because he’s really evolved, or is it because he’s gotten the right opportunities?
LHW I will agree with though. There’s clearly a couple classes of guys there; The guys that are #15-20 like V-Mat, Babalu, Matt Hamill….they’re all about the same, sure, but you go up to the top ten, and they bash those guys out.