Some Surprises and a Disappointment

Last night's UFC 75 card provided some surprises and one major disappointment.

Houston Alexander vs Alessio Sakara

Alexander was coming off a first round knockout of Keith Jardine [who's a pretty tough dude]. Although Jardine had jumped all over Alexander and looked to be headed for an early KO, Alexander weathered the storm and ended up knocking out Jardine. So, was Houston the real deal or simply the beneficiary of a lucky punch?

The fight starts quickly with both fighters aggressively moving in. Sakara takes Alexander down, but can't keep him there. Alexander is strong but sloppy. He's throwing punches and lands a knee which puts Sakara down for the count. I'm somewhat surprised to say that Alexander could be a real contender. I hadn't even mentioned this fight in my pre-fight post due to the fact that I wasn't convinced that it would have much meaning. Alexander winning so quickly and easily twice in a row against good fighters has changed my opinion.

Micro Cro Cop vs Cheick Congo

I was surprised at how big Congo is. The guy is in shape and huge. My prediction was that Cro Cop would win and he did take the first round. The second and third rounds were Congo's and I think that the difference was that he fought most of the first round backing up. Cro Cop pushed the action and Congo seemed ill at ease. For whatever reason, Cro Cop allowed [or couldn't stop] Congo's forward motion in the last two rounds and he easily won a unanimous decision.

I have to admit, I was surprised the Cro Cop lost.

Matt Hamill vs Michael Bisping

I like both of these guys, but felt that because Bisping had more experience and was a more rounded fighter, he'd pull out a victory. Talk about surprises and even disappointment.

Both men came in shape and ready to fight. I thought that Hamill would rely on his superior wrestling skills to take down Bisping, but in the end Hamill wouldn't be able to end it and Bisping would pull out a victory. My guess is that's what Bisping thought as well. Well, we were both wrong... sort of.

Hamill came out and stood toe-to-toe with Bisping. He not only was winning the stand-up, but when he took Bisping down, he let him up, only to punish him with more hard punches. The first round was easily Hamill's. The second round looked to be more of the same. Bisping was backing away looking for an opening, but Hamill continued to land the better shots. Bisping knew that he couldn't take Hamill down, so what he really needed was Hamill to make a mistake. When Hamill took Bisping down, he let him up rather than make a mistake and get caught in a submission. Round 3 was basically more of the same.

I had the fight two rounds to one for Hamill. Everyone watching the fight with me felt that Hamill had won [some even gave him all three rounds]. The judges must have been watching a different fight. Bisping won on a split decision! I was surprised and disappointed. I was disappointed because of the bad decision and surprised because Hamill had come out and defied expectations. He didn't rely on his wrestling and won the standup against the more experienced fighter.

We'll see more from both of these warriors. My guess is that at some point they'll have a rematch. Who knows, maybe even the judges of their fight will get to see it.

Rampage Jackson vs Dan Henderson

I picked Henderson to win because I thought that his Olympic-level wrestling skills would be enough to defeat Jackson's punching power. Although Jackson couldn't knock out Henderson, he was still too strong, quick and skilled for Henderson to do much with. Jackson's skills were better than I gave him credit for, and I had him winning a pretty easy decision. So did the judges.

Overall for the night, I was 1-2 on my prefight predictions. The sad thing is that the one fight I did predict right should have gone the other way.