UFC 97 Hangover

Some thoughts while I recover from my UFC 97 hangover...

- There are many words to describe UFC 97's main event; debacle, fiasco, calamity, embarrassment, train wreck, farce, catastrophe, hell even catastro-fuck.

For whatever reason Montreal as a fight location brings out the worse in some fighters. Kalib Starnes was simply the first to fall victim to the city's mysterious black hole power. Thales Leites is now the second. For most of the five round affair Leites fell to his back in an effort to pull gaurd while Anderson Silva stood over him with shrugged shoulders. Silva is not immune from criticism for his showboating and antics in the Octagon. While it takes two fighters for a fight to work, and clearly Leites didn't want to fight, Silva didn't endear himself by playing grab hands and failing to attack his opponenet on the ground. 

While Leites will receive the bulk of the criticism and Silva his share, the real culprits in the whole damn affair are Dana White and UFC matchmaker Joe Silva.

Before this fight we knew that Leites wasn't a legit contender nor a legit top-ten middleweight. And its not like the UFC didn't have middleweight talent to throw at Silva; Yushin Okami, Demian Maia and Nate Marquardt all deserved title shots before Leites. Yet for whatever reason the UFC brass decided that Thales Leites -- who only defeated Nate Marquardt due to Marquardt's illegal blows and Leites lost to a non top-ten welterweight Martin Kampmann -- was more deserving than the previously mention fighters.

The fans were completely justified in chanting bullshit, for that is exactly what Silva vs. Leites was, bullshit.

- At least Sam Stout and Matt Wiman put on a great performance before Silva and Leites decided to play grab hands.

- Hopefully the UFC and Dana White are prepared for L.A.C. (life after Chuck).

- Chuck Liddell is preparing to ride off into the sunset. Unfortunately he won't be the conquering hero leaving on his own terms. Instead he will be the broken down athlete whose sport has passed him by. A sad fate for all involved.

- Joe Rogan gave Liddell every opportunity to announce his retirement. I can't blame Liddell for not seizing the moment.

- Shogun is back.

- I can't get over the fact that in all the UFC promos and pre-fight press, they never once mentioned the fact that Shogun's conditioning was poor due to the fact that he tore his ACL and was still recovering from the surgery. That is kind of an important fact. 

- I am still amazed at the passion that Liddell endears within the MMA fan base. For whatever reason he has become an icon for fans. Personally I never found him to be tremendously appealing. He was always boring interview and his origins were never remarkable, like Manny Pacquiao. But Liddell had, and still has, an image that is unshakeable. The mohawk, the beard, the Iceman, all stuff of legends that fans have latched on to and will be sorely missed.

- I have written this before but after watching thirty promos for Fighting I am going to pull my hair out. The movie is a direct rip off of Lionheart with Jean-Claude Van Damm. How can you do this him! It was his one good movie, next to Sudden Death.

- Mike Goldberg interviewing Cung Le for fighting was a little bit awkward. When Goldie referenced the Frank Shamrock bout my eyebrows were definitely raised. It was extremely odd to hear a UFC employee actually reference another promotion without attacking it in the next sentence. 

- Bad night for WEC light heavyweights. Observers knew that the division was thin but tonight proved how weak it really was. Brian Stann looked like he had never grappled before as Krzysztof Soszynski easily took him down and submitted him. Stann's WEC nemesis, Steve Cantwell, did fair better but he was still defeated by Luis Cane.

- My favorite bar for watching UFC events is now closed. Damn you recession!