JOE’s Fergus Ryan sampled the UFC experience in Birmingham last Saturday night and left the LG Arena wanting more.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship rolled into Birmingham last weekend for its only European show of 2012. Much had been made of the lack of activity in Europe and fans were quick to state how underwhelmed they were by the card. Despite the absence of a marquee name, however, the event sold out in quick time and was the LG Arena’s biggest grossing event in the arena’s history.
UFC president Dana White is adamant you can’t judge a card till the final bell of the final fight, ad what UFC 138 lacked in big name attraction it made up for in honest endeavour. Though not every fight was a barn-burner there was more than enough quality action to keep the genuine MMA fans happy.
Despite the complaints about the card you would never have guessed it once The Who’s ‘Baba O’Reilly’ started up to signal the first bout. The energy and noise in the Arena was phenomenal. We’ve argued before in these pages the often quoted ‘styles make fights’ mantra isn’t entirely accurate. Fighters make fights! The style you train in can never prepare you for walking into an Arena with over 10,823 fans screaming hard enough to make their lungs bleed.
The opening fight set the tone for the evening. In his UFC debut Vaughan Lee gave a very good account of himself in losing a split decision to Chris Cariaso. Having lost the first round Cariaso used his experience to get on the inside of Lee’s punches and take the fight to the floor, dominating on the mat and thereby taking the decision.
The UK fans didn’t have to wait long for their first hometown victory, however. Che Mills blitzed TUF graduate Chris Cope with a series of knees and some fight finishing ground and pound. After the first flying knee sent Cope to the canvas the referee was on the verge of stopping the fight. Somehow Cope got back to his feet in time to eat another knee and collapse to the mat under a hail of punches. In addition to the win, Mills fattened his bank account by $70,000 in just 40 seconds by winning the ‘KO of the Night’ bonus.
Michihiro Omigawa is much better than his 13-10 record would have you believe. He showed tremendous patience and precession in executing a flawless game-plan to beat Jason Young, spoiling the young English fighters UFC debut.
The only snoozer on the card was the heavyweight match that saw Philip De Fries defeat Rob Broughton. The fact that Joe Rogan didn’t see it worth his while to interview the winner spoke volumes.
Fight of the Night
Though it wasn’t Dana White’s pick, I would have awarded John Maguire and Justin Edwards the ‘Fight of the Night’ bonus. I spoke to Maguire the night before his fight and he explained how he felt his ground game was competitive with US wrestlers. Based on a lot European fighters’ inability to stuff a takedown, you could have been forgiven for raising the sceptical eyebrow at Maguire’s confidence. But he won all three rounds exactly how he said he would. The 30-27 victory for Maguire doesn’t reflect how competitive Justin Edwards was in the fight. It was warranted, however, as Maguire clearly won all three rounds. Ironically it took the knock-down after 20 seconds by Edwards to fire Maguire into action. Brought in as a short notice replacement, Maguire’s performance must have guaranteed him a recall to the UFC.
If the crowd were fired up for the start of the main card, Terry Etim’s spectacular 17-second guillotine victory made the room turbo charged. Having spent 19 months sidelined with injuries, the Team Kaobon fighter is back better than ever. The quality of Etim’s submission was underlined by him scooping the ‘Submission of the Night’ bonus.
Maybe inspired by Etim, the remaining fights on the card were all submission victories. The next fight was a battle of the ages, literally. 38 year old Frenchman Cyrille Diabate battled 39 year old Aussie Anthony Perosh. BJJ black belt Perosh took a round to work out Diabate’s timing. Once the fight hit the mat, Perosh knew how to finish.
Thiago Alves was uncharacteristically moving in reverse for much of his fight with Papy Abedi until the Brazilian Muay Thai specialist sparked the Swedish debutant with punches and finished the fight with an equally uncharacteristic submission.
Renan Barao looked awesome in his quick submission victory over Brad Pickett. Both fighters will offer stiff competition for future opponents in the bantamweight division.
Main event
The main event fight was the first non-title five-rounder in the promotion’s history but nobody expected it to go past the early rounds as both Chris Leben and Mark Munoz possess incredible power in their left hands. It was clear by the end of the first round something was amiss with Leben. The first inkling something was up was the sight of Leben skulking around the hotel looking thoroughly miserable on weigh-in day. Staring at the floor he barely acknowledged any well-wishers in his vicinity. In contrast Mark Munoz was chatting through a constant smile while posing in photographs with fans at every opportunity.
It has been since revealed that Leben cut around a stone and a half the day before the weigh-in much to the authorities concern. Clearly the fan favourite on the night, Leben was running on fumes by the end of the first round. In typical warrior fashion he refused to quit as Munoz pounded on him for much of the 10 minutes the fight lasted. By the end of the second Leben’s corner thought better of allowing him off the stool.
Even though the promotion has made massive strides in popularising the sport of MMA, the UFC still remains incredibly fan friendly and a very inclusive experience. Unfortunately for Irish fans to get this experience will probably require some travel. When I asked Dana White at the post fight press conference if he had plans to return to Ireland (UFC 93 was held in Dublin in January 2009) he was unwilling to commit to a date. “I don’t know when we’re coming back… I wanna go back to Ireland, Ireland was great, we had a great crowd down there. It all depends on getting the right TV deal though.” Fingers crossed the TV deal happens sooner rather than later.
Results round-up:
• Chris Cariaso defeated Vaughan Lee via split decision (28-29, 29-28, 29-28).
• Che Mills defeated Chris Cope via TKO (strikes) at 0:40 of round 1.
• Michihiro Omigawa defeated Jason Young via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
• Philip De Fries defeated Rob Broughton via unanimous decision (29-28, 29-28, 29-28).
• John Maguire defeated Justin Edwards via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27).
• Terry Etim defeated Eddie Faaloloto via submission (guillotine choke) at 0:17 of round 1.
• Anthony Perosh defeated Cyrille Diabaté via submission (rear naked choke) at 3:09 of round 2.
• Thiago Alves defeated Papy Abedi via submission (rear naked choke) at 3:32 of round 1.
• Renan Barão defeated Brad Pickett via submission (rear naked choke) at 4:09 of round 1.
• Mark Muñoz defeated Chris Leben via TKO (corner stoppage) at 5:00 of round 2.
Bonus awards ($70,000 bonuses)
• Fight of the Night: Brad Pickett vs. Renan Barão
• Knockout of the Night: Che Mills
• Submission of the Night: Terry Etim
– Fergus Ryan
(Main Picture: Mark Munoz; credit: MMAJunkie.com)
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