UFC 65: Bad Intentions Review
by: DarthMolen 2 years, 2 days, 13 hours, 12 minutes ago
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UFC
Zuffa Entertainment
The event lived up to it’s name but in a most unexpected way. It was George St. Pierre (GSP) who had bad intentions for Matt Hughes.
GSP was on a mission last night. He wanted the welterweight championship belt and nothing was going to stop him. The MMA world was expecting a competitive match where Hughes and GSP would battle it out as equals in a hard grueling battle to the finish. What they got was a man on a mission, who made Hughes look like an amateur and utterly dominated the match for the short time that it went. Touche GSP.
The first round showed a very tentative Matt Hughes. GSP came out strong with left-rights, leg kicks, and spry movement. He even landed a spinning side kick just like the first match that brought a smile to Matt Hughes' face. What was missing was the aggression from the champ. He didn't aggressively try to shoot or take down and seemed content to get peppered by GSP from the outside. GSP did land two accidental nut shots however in that first round that took the wind out of Matt's sails but GSP remained focus after every restart. Matt was especially tentative after the groin shots when GSP would try to kick for the legs. This time it was GSP in the head of Hughes instead of the other way around.
In the closing minute, Matt finally gets a takedown but GSP reverses and ends up on top and Matt is forced to stand back up. GSP lands a punishing knee in the final seconds and knocks Hughes down but he is saved by the bell.
The second round was even shorter. GSP continued to pepper the champion from the outside, scoring at will and stuffing all of Matt's concerted efforts at takedowns. GSP lands a high kick with his shin to the side of Hughes head at 3:45 left in the round that sends the champ to the mat. GSP immediately pounces and lands a nasty dropping straight and immediately follows it up with some vicious elbows that send Hughes eyes rolling and him flailing in desperation. Big John McCarthy is forced to step in and wave off the dogs.
GSP wins in the second round by TKO. He is the new welterweight champion.
The second card of the fight isn't even worth recounting but I will do it briefly. Silvia fought Monson in the snooze of the night for five rounds with Silvia winning the decision only because he had a 10" reach advantage and Monson never could reach him.
There was only one round, the third round that was worth recounting. After two rounds of standing and staring at each other, Monson finally shot in successfully and scored the takedown. The crowd roared because finally he was past Silvia's guard, in side control, and could actually reach Silvia's head. Silvia showed admirable skills at this point and was able to eventually roll out of side control. Monson then scored a deep guillotine which Silvia gator rolled out of and ended up with Monson in a neck crank. Monson then escaped the neck crank but put the champ, Tim Silvia, almost in a mount position. Tim went for a double armbar but Monson was able to slip out of it due to sweat and rolled Silvia to guard. Tim then went for a leg triangle but wasn't able to tuck the foot successfully and Monson powered out of that attempt.The rest of the match had them standing and staring at each other to a boring finish.
After the match, Tim then called out Brandon Vera in what appeared to be a pre-scripted event. Brandon then came into the ring and posed with Tim. I have some sources and I am going to find out if it was spontaneous or prompted that this happened.
Tim Silvia wins the decision after four inactive rounds and one exciting round.
The surprise of the night was the Drew McFedries / Alessio Sakara fight. Drew took the fight on short notice due to a drop-out and was surprisingly game. The Miletich trained Drew stood up with the Italian boxer and was able to go toe-to-to with the striker.
The first round started with Drew dominating. I don't think Sakara expected Drew to come out and bang. Drew was throwing great combos because he wasn't afraid of a takedown. A couple of his uppercuts were landing and damaging and they jarred the boxer to activity. Alessio shot forward and landed some great body shots followed by damaging left-rights which eventually ended in a straight punch that sent Drew's mouthpiece and spit flying from his mouth.
Drew changed up the fight at this point after getting his mouthpiece replaced (the UFC is being good at this now since Caro Parisyan lost a tooth in a match) and took the action to the ground. He threw the boxer off-balance by taking him down to the ground. Sakara was smart though and immediately popped back up. Drew then went to town with some great combos that sent the boxer to the mat in a delayed leg folding reaction. Drew pounced and Yamasaki had to call an end to the bout.
Drew McFedries wins in the first round by TKO due to strikes at 4:07.
The Joe Stevenson / Mishima bout was surprisingly one sided. Mishima did great and took Joe down with him in top position. The inexplicable action that led to his downfall was him constantly putting his head into a vulnerable guillotine position by Joe's side when Joe was on his back. Joe sunk the guillotine once and Mishima powered out of it. Then Mishima put it back there again and escaped again. The third time was the charm though and Joe locked up full guard this time and forced Mishima to tap out. I guess he wasn't expecting how strong Joe Stevenson was.
Joe Stevenson wins in the first round due to a guillotine choke.
The James Irvin / Hector Ramirez was action packed but painfully sloppy. James Irvin slipped multiple times trying to throw head kicks. Every time he went to kick, his hands dropped to his side and Hector was making him pay with straights. Hector was able to take Irvin down and almost got his back but Irvin powered out and played hurt until Hector closed then tried to go for a back fist and finished with a flurry of punches up until the bell.
The second round started with a flurry of punches yet again but this time James Irvin got the better of Hector and dropped him with a straight right. James started to walk away thinking the fight was over but the referee called him back and he then pounced on Ramirez and ended the bout with a flurry that forced the referee to stop it.
James Irvin wins by TKO in the second round.
The saddest bout shown on the night was the Mir / Vera fight. "The Truth" lived up to his name and quickly made Mir look foolish. I was commenting to a fellow by-stander that Frank Mir looked like a shadow of his former self and the fight bore out my observations.
Frank Mir surprisingly decided to stand and trade with the Muy Thai practicioner and Vera made him pay dearly. Vera tore him apart with straight combo's and some nasty knees that force Mir in desperation to go for a single leg. I saw Frank Mir's eyes as he went for the takedown and they were already rolling. Vera stuffed the attempt easily and continued to pour it on until Frank Mir was forced to go into a fetal position. At this point the referee stepped in and called the bout.
Brandon Vera wins by TKO in the first round due to strikes.
In the other un-televised bouts of the night, Nick Diaz won against Tibau and Josh Shockman recorded his first professional MMA loss against Jake O'Brien.
All in all it was a very entertaining night (except for one painfully long bout) puncuated by an exciting championship turnover where GSP was crowned the new welterweight champion.
On a side note. I had the a unique opportunity to sit by an ex-navy corpman who was detached to the Marines and had served one tour in Afghanistan and three tours in Iraq. He just had twins with his wife and we had a great time conversing and shouting at the TV together.
I just wanted to publicly thank him for his time that he served his fellow man and his country and to especially to thank him for all the lives that he saved.
That goes double to all those that are still over there fighting for ours, and others, freedoms. Puts everything into perspective.
Verra beat Mir’s ass like he owed him money. That was almost embarassing to watch. Doesn’t look like Mir’s going to be anywhere near that heavyweight title in the near future.
The Irvin fight was interesting. Nice to see a Huntington Beach, Ca native (other than Tito) mix it up in the octagon.
Seeing Hughes lose wasn’t all that devastating for me. Honestly, I just think of it this way...what happened the last time Hughes lost? He came back better than ever and beat the crap out of the person he lost to.
Hughes will be back. He is a true champ, and no true champ stays down.
Congrats to GSP, but he’s got a LONG way to go before he can even be considered to be the kind of champ Hughes was.