UFC 99 Results. A bit of a weaker card
Saturday night we all gathered to eagerly watch the Franklin/Silva fight, among others.
But all in all, the excitement level seemed a bit lower this time around. Did it just get hyped up less because they want to put all of their hype behind UFC 100? Did they save any good fights they could for that card?
I find that in most UFC cards, me and most of my friends can rattle off half a dozen exciting fights planned. But on this one, there was Franklin/Silva, and um… I know Kongo is fighting someone… other than that I’m not sure. I had not even heard that Cro-cop was going to be making a comeback on this card.
In the fights though:
Dan Hardy takes it to Marcus Davis.
This was a decent fight. A fair amount of pre-fight angst about American’s (or at least Irish Americans) and Europeans. Hardy took the decision on this one (and I think deserved it.) It really looked to me like Davis was gassing for a good part of the fight. I’m not sure if this was due to strikes, cardio, or rather jet-lag and fighting in Germany had any part of it (Euro-jetlag is a killer.)
Cain Velasquez man-handles Cheick Kongo:
This fight was shocking to me. Not because Cain won, but due to several other factors: first, Kongo kept going to the ground. Cain had good takedowns to be sure, but Kongo would go to the ground even when he didn’t need to. This was really shocking because every time they were on their feet Kongo would rock Velasquez. Either Kongo just didn’t have the energy to keep it on the feet, or he was making some really bad decisions. Another factor of note in this fight was that it really shouldn’t have gone the distance. Cain is a really strong player, but showed in this fight that he doesn’t yet have the submissions, nor the striking to really end fights the way he needs to. This is definitely overcomable, as we have seen a lot of fighter (such as Rashad, and Lyoto) develop from boring fighters that go the distance to real finishers. Cain has a good solid base of skill and strength to work from. I think he will be impressive in the long run.
Franklin beats Silva:
Unfortunately this was not the blood and guts brawl that I think a lot of us were hoping to see. It was good to see Silva acting more technical, using his head and skills rather than just wading in their. I think a lot of that comes from getting knocked cold by Rashad. He must be questioning his chin a bit. This is not the fearless bulldog we saw against Chuck Liddell. Though I think in the long run this will be a good style change for Silva, unfortunately it made him a less exciting fighter to watch. Franklin played it smart, and just picked at him all fight long, which the style change from Silva allowed him to do. Not a boring fight by any stretch, by I expected it to be a heck of a lot more.
Other results included:
Mike Swick over Ben Saunders by TKO.
Spencer Fisher over Caol Uno by Decision (although Caol really surprised me with his speed and ability after being away from the UFC for so long)
Terry Etim over Justin Buchholz
Denis Siver over Dale Hartt
Paul Taylor over Peter Sobotta
Paul Kelly over Roli Delgado
Stefan Struve over Denis Stojnic
John Hathaway over Rick Story
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