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UFC 138: The mystery UK show that was better than not-advertised
By Zach Arnold | November 5, 2011
Location: November 5th at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham, England
TV: Spike TV
Dark matches
- Welterweights: John Maguire defeated Justin Edwards after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Featherweights: Chris Cariaso defeated Vaughan Lee after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Welterweights: Che Mills defeated Chris Cope in R1 in 40 seconds by TKO.
- Heavyweights: Phil De Fries defeated Rob Broughton after 3R by unanimous decision.
- Featherweights: Michihiro Omigawa defeated Jason Young after 3R by unanimous decision.
Main card
- Light Heavyweights: Anthony Perosh defeated Cyrille Diabete in R2 in 3’09 with a choke.
- Lightweights: Terry Etim defeated Edward Faaloloto in R1 in 17 seconds with a choke.
- Welterweights: Thiago Alves defeated Papy Abedi in R1 in 3’32 with a choke.
- Featherweights: Renan Barao defeated Brad Pickett in R1 in 4’09 with a choke.
- Middleweights: Mark Munoz defeated Chris Leben after R2 by TKO due to corner stoppage.
Takeaways
Thoughts on Dana White booking Josh Koscheck against Carlos Condit on the 2/4 Las Vegas main card headlined by St. Pierre vs. Nick Diaz? When will Anderson Silva fight next?
Where exactly does Mark Munoz fit into the Middleweight picture? He celebrated after the stoppage like he won the title. Leben showed up more muscular (the last time that happened in the UK…) but gassed out quickly after Munoz kept smothering him.
I thought the UK crowd was great at UFC 138. Very surprised at the superstar-like reaction they gave to Thiago Alves. ESPN actually gave results for this show on their news ticker, which means they promoted the show about as well as Spike TV did. What a deal that turned out to be.
Topics: Media, MMA, UFC, UK, Zach Arnold | 18 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback |
It was pretty crazy seeing John Maguire and Justin Edwards put on a tradional mma display in the UFC octagon like that and then to hear the crowd really appreciate it. Only in England you say? Pity.That should have been fight of the night.
Bad booking. If Koscheck wins (probably by lay and pray) then what? Book GSP/Kos 3? After GSP routed him in two fairly uneventful fights already? Condit is the next logical contender so don’t blow it.
Munoz being anywhere NEAR the number one contender slot for the title shows how weak the MW division is. Anderson needs to leave MW if he beats Chael, or some smaller LWs like Shogun and Rashad should cut to 185
Great night of fights. I enjoyed basically the entire card.
The one thing I noticed was how there was not one mention of the UFC on FOX.
Random Comment…
I purchased the UFC Encyclopedia. It’s great. It’s huge. It’s rather indepth. There are some changes they could make for the next volume, but it’s a great first effort. At the book store it was $50. It was only $30 on Amazon.
“It’s rather indepth”
Unless, of course, you want to read about fighters on the Zuffa
shitlist, or guys from the SEG era (excluding Royce, who gets a lot of love).The fact that Ken & Frank Shamrock had to share a page while other fighters got as much as four pages is ludicrous. Carlos Newton, a one-and-done champion with only three wins in the UFC, got as much ink as both Shamrock brothers COMBINED, despite the fact that Ken was one of the biggest draws in UFC history and Frank was one of the most dominant UFC champions ever.
Both Shamrock’s got bigger entries then current champions Jose Aldo & Dominick Cruz.
The fighters who got 2 or more pages in the Encyclopedia are (UFC records as of time of print in parenthesis)…
4 Pages:
Mark Coleman (7-5)
Randy Couture (16-7)
Rich Franklin (13-5)
Royce Gracie (11-1-1)
Matt Hughes (18-6)
Chuck Liddell (16-7)
Tito Ortiz (14-8-1)
BJ Penn (12-6-2)
Dan Severn (9-4)
Anderson Silva (13-0)
Georges St. Pierre (15-2)
2 Pages:
Vitor Belfort (8-4)
Forrest Griffin (9-4)
Quinton Jackson (7-2)
Brock Lesnar (4-2)
Frank Mir (13-5)
Cain Velasquez (7-0)
The fewest number of fights on the 4 page entries is Mark Coleman with 12. On the 2 page entries, Velasquez has 7 fights and Lesnar has 6. And they are also the current Heavyweight Champion and the biggest draw in the sports history respectively.
Frank Shamrock has 5 UFC fights. That’s it. He deserves about a half of page. Did fighters like Carlos Newton probably get too much room? Sure. But the guys who got the real big feature spreads all deserved it more then Frank Shamrock.
Ken Shamrock deserved a bigger entry, that’s about it. He is the one glaring issue of the early years. But 3 of the 10 biggest entries are really pre-Zuffa era guys in Coleman, Gracie, & Severn.
Not to mention that each event gets it’s own page, with only a real handful getting 2 pages. The past was given just as much room as the present.
The book is fantastic….
I can’t speak for the book either way but Frank Shamrock had a total of 5 UFC fights. I don’t think that qualifies you as “one of the most dominant UFC champions ever”. Especially because after his biggest win (Ortiz) he basically decided he was the best ever and wasn’t going to fight anymore.
Condit vs. Koscheck is the right move, nobody is going to buy Condit as a legit contender until he beats a highly ranked name fighter. If he does beat Koscheck he will be deserving of a title shot in the eyes of most fans.
I agree that its a reasonable thing to expect from a contender.
But Diaz cant get out from underneath the blanket.
Or Fitch.
Thats why they gave him someone to strike with instead.
And just outside of the merits of the actual matchup, dana disregarding his own word in such a callous way so that Condit has to hear about it on the internet chafes me as an aspiring moral human being.
And why doesn’t he let his children visit their grandmother anyway?
😉
Sorry, but WTF was up with Leben?!!
He walked in looking like the Hulf & fought like the Mummy…
Everything was W-I-D-E & almost ludicrously S-L-O-W.
And TOTALLY gassing after a round in a five round fight? Really?
Yeah, I know. Leben is Leben.
Consistency has never been among his strong traits, but damn, After those big back to back wins just weeks apart last year when it seemed like he might be able to get a nice run going, he’s back to mid-card status with the potential for another loss sendinding him packing…
It’s hard to tell whether Leben gassed or whether those NASTY body shots that Munoz was landing on the ground took their toll. It sounded like Munoz was whacking a heavy bag with a baseball bat every time he went to the ribs. People are way too quick to jump on the ‘he gassed’ train without taking damage into account.
As far as Leben’s job being in jeopardy with another loss …. not a chance. Leben is on the TUF 1 gravy train. It’s pretty clear that all of those guys who turned out to be legit fighters will have jobs with the UFC as long as they want. Griffin, Bonnar, Swick, Koscheck, Sanchez, Florian, Quarry & Leben are all on a VERY long leash. Even a middling talent like Alex Karalexis managed to hang around for five years based on his status as a TUF 1 guy.
Good points Steve.
But, I still stay that something was definitely off about Leben last night.
He looked way too bulked up, tight & slow. And, while Munoz did a GREAT job of adding to Leben’s problems big time by doing some very hurtful damage to his body with some viscious shots downstairs, I still say there was no way thay Leben came into the contest in the shape necessary to go five rounds. Hell, not even three in my book. Not at that pace…
And, yeah, as long as “The Crippler” ( this is one Leben fan though, who MUCH preferred his old, short lived monicker of “The Cat Smasher” ) is capable of following up losses like this with wins like he had over Silva last time out, then I’m sure his job IS safe.
Still, Leben’s had a long hard run & the wear & tear is going to make those wins harder & harder to come by. Especially with the old school guys that he can take advantage of & compete with ( like Silva ) coming to the ends of their own careers.
There will always be plenty of stand & bangers with questionable chins that the UFC can sign any time they want to get Leben back on the winning track. The sport is chock full of guys who are tailor-made for Leben’s game.
I do think leben was a little out of shape walking in (it couldve been from the time difference.
But i also think the continued failed guillotine attempts took their toll too.
If each one of his cuts down to ’85 is going to be of the “shattering” variety though, Leben might have to seriously consider a move to 205 though.
Where, he might be outsized by some, but, not by all.
Well I guess Diabete is going nowhere in a hurry.
And that doesn’t say much for the closing months of Persoshes physical career either.
If only they could work something out to keep SF on showtime I’d gladly watch guys like these fool around for free.
It would even be worth sitting through advertising plastered all over the screen, the matt, the microphone and everybody’s buttocks.
But expecting me to pay for stuff like that is kinda insulting.
The fight was free on basic cable?
I love the fact that Condit is being forced to face Koscheck. This is clearly a
fuckyou from Dana, first for Carlos pussying out from facing Kos on short notice, and then anotherfuckyou for Condit’s douche manager saying that Condit didn’t agree to back out of the title fight with GSP, but was rather forced/bribed out (yea, noshit).Dana is basically saying “oh, you want to ruin a card and then talk
shitabout getting bumped? Ok, here is a nice loss on your resume.”If the dude can’t stop the
wrestlefuckfrom Koscheck then he has no business being in the ring with GSP