Boston is a fun place to hold a sporting event like the UFC, unless you are not from the New England area. Any fighter from within 100 miles of Beantown was cheered for like Tom Brady saving a school bus full of orphans from driving over a cliff.
Joe Lauzon took on Gabe Ruediger, who the crowd reacted to as if he had just taken the frozen head of Ted Williams and kicked it into a bowl of “claaaaam chowdah.” Joe worked Gabe over and had little trouble running through a workshop before submitting him in the first round with an armbar.
When Nate Diaz isn’t jumping people with his brother, he trains to fight legitimately. The fight against Marcus Davis was different from his fight against Jason Miller mostly because Marcus was looking at him knowing he was going to get in a fight. Nate had a 6 inch reach advantage which he used to keep Davis away. Diaz opened up 3 cuts on Marcus’ face, one on the eyelid which looked like someone kicked a hole in the carcass of a rotten pig. By the end of the fight, Marcus Davis looked like the Terminator after he had cut half his face off. Marcus showed a lot of heart in this fight, he kept fighting through. Not wanting to tap out in front of his home crowd, Marcus did not tap to Diaz’s choke hold and fell asleep. I lost a lot of respect for Nate Diaz in the first few seconds of this fight. He threw up his hands and kept taunting Davis, I was hoping Davis would connect a bowel loosening right hook to Diaz’s jaw.
Kenny Florian fought Gray Maynard, for 15 minutes. It was long, but Maynard showed his superior wrestling skills and scored the takedown. Florian almost has a submission but Maynard was able to slip out. Maynard won by decision.
Demian Maia fought Mario Miranda who is from the Seattle area. I used to train with Mario so it was tough to watch someone you know loose a fight. Maia was on Mario like bed bugs on a hotel mattress. Miranda slipped out of some amazing submission attempts, but in the end the fight went to Maia via decision.
With all the trash talk from James Toney, I was hoping he would at least land a punch before being taken down by Randy Couture. Randy threw a barrage of elbows and hammer fists in to Toney, who decided it would be a good idea to post up on his elbow and lean against the fence. One could almost feel bad for the former boxing champ; he looked like a kid who just found out the awful truth about Santa Claus. I felt bad until the flashbacks of him holding a dress wearing Randy Couture doll, or all of the unintelligible interviews. Randy proved what Royce Gracie proved in UFC 1, a single discipline will not work in MMA, which is why it’s called mixed martial arts; it’s a mix of everything. I wish James the best of luck if he decides to continue with his MMA career, he will be a devastating striker.
It has been a long time since I have seen Bj Penn be the first to walk out to the octagon. He looked focused and calm where Frank Edgar was hoping around like a monkey on a 3 day sugar binge. Bj simply had no answer for Edgar’s speed. I have always been a fan of Bj Penn, he just looks like a guy I would have fun hanging out with. I imagine we would get in to all sorts of shenanigans on the island. Bj had a couple good takedowns at the beginning of the last 2 rounds, but he was unable to stop Edgar who retained his belt after 5 rounds.
