UFC 110: Knockouts and kneebars and headbutts, ho hum

Saturday’s UFC 114 in Australia was a B card on paper that played out like a B card, maybe a B+.

Cain Velasquez made sure everybody knew all the pre-fight hype about him being “the future of the heavyweight division” might not just be hot air. He did it by making Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira look as bad as he did against Frank Mir when Nog was coming off a staph infection and a knee injury. I’d expected Velasquez to use his wrestling to put Big Nog on his back, where Nog would work for a submission while eating punches. But Velasquez took a shortcut and put Nog on his back with punches (after softening him up with kicks) and followed up with a few consciousness-questioning blows for the KO a couple of minutes into the opening frame.

Now Velasquez will have to wait to see how Mir and Shane Carwin fair in their interim title bout at UFC 111; only then will UFC president Dana White decide who faces champ Brock Lesnar when he returns in July. As for Nogueira, it was sad to see a legend fall like that and it certainly drops him from the contender mix, probably forever.

Despite Michael Bisping’s whining to the contrary, Wanderlei Silva clearly won his middleweight debut over the mouthy Brit. Although it wasn’t the highlight reel knockout many – myself included – were hoping for. Nor was it a ground-and-pound TKO or an arm-snapping submission or choke out, any of which would have been acceptable, satisfying outcomes.

Instead, Silva took a unanimous decision. He staved off most of Bisping’s takedown attempts, out-punched him on the feet and had him in serious trouble in the closing seconds of each of the three rounds (including a deep guillotine in the middle stanza that Bisping survived only because time ran out).  In other words, it was a win, just not a domination. No matter. Silva gets back on track with a confidence-boosting win and a likely date with Yoshihiro Akiyama while Bisping gets knocked down a peg or two, literally and figuratively.

Fight of the night was Joe Stevenson versus a much lower-profile George Sitoropoulos, who put on a three-round grappling clinic en route to a unanimous decision in front of his hometown crowd. Definitely keep your eye on Sitoropoulos. It’s a name people are going to be mispronouncing for a while as he makes some waves in the lightweight division, and is probably just one or two wins from a title shot.

Keith Jardine may look like what bikers get tattooed on their biceps, but it wasn’t enough to scare up a win over Ryan Bader. In fact, the sight of Jardine crumpled to the canvas in the third round seemed all too familiar, as though it’s the only way he knows how to lose.

And give it up for Anthony Perosh. He took the fight against Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic on just two days notice and took a beating from the Croation that left him looking like a walking crime scene until the fight was stopped after two rounds. Perosh had heart and it was splattered all over his face and chest. Cro Cop, meanwhile, was less than impressive, to say the least. He dominated, but he didn’t finish the fight against a clearly over-matched opponent. I’m in no rush to hear Wild Boys in the octagon.

A couple of prelims worth mentioning: Chris Lytle kneebarred the hell out of Brian Foster for a first-round submission win that made my knees ache. And Stephan Bonnar and Krzysztof Soszynski battered and bled all over each other until the fight was stopped in the third due to a huge gash in Bonnar’s forehead. Soszynski took the TKO win even though replays clearly show the cut was due to an accidental head butt. The fight should’ve been declared a no contest, although both fighters said afterward that they’d be up for a rematch.