UFC 73: Put It in the Books!

Let's just get right to it (in no particular order).

Anderson Silva - Nate Marquardt
After some early fireworks, Nate got Silva down to the ground, where the champ looked very comfortable. The fight was then stood up, went back down again, and after escaping Nate’s guard, Silva destroyed the challenger with laser fists to earn the first-round TKO. Silva’s striking from anywhere is unreal! Thanks for coming out, Nate.

Sean Sherk - Hermes Franca
Sean Sherk is simply overwhelming.

Franca secured a tight guillotine within seconds of the opening bell and landed huge knees at the start of Rounds 2 and 4, but did little else as the champion shrugged off the big shots, secured slams, punished Franca with knees and punches from the ground, and maintained dominant position all night.

Sherk's power, athleticism, and conditioning were suffocating, and all Franca could do was survive what turned out to be a very convincing unanimous decision win for Sherk. Sherk is a nightmare at lightweight, and I'd love to see him face my man Joe "Daddy" Stevenson next.

Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - Heath Herring

Big Nog came out to The Rolling Stones’ "Gimme Shelter," which also appeared in Goodfellas. Points for that.

Nog dominated most of the opening round, but late in the round, Herring landed a monster kick to the Brazilian's unsuspecting jaw that seemed to have sent him to another planet. Herring chose not to engage Nogueira, a BJJ blackbelt, on the ground and ran out of time to finish Nogueira in the opening period. Nogueira still seemed dazed at the start of Round 2, but he recovered and outworked Herring to win the last two rounds and secure the unanimous decision.

Overall, this fight worked out nicely. Bog Nog won his UFC octagon debut, and Heath Herring demonstrated the skill and the toughness that will make him a tough match-up for anyone in the division. A Herring-Arlovski fight could be amazing (if Arlovski engages).

Kenny Florian - Alvin Robinson
Florian demonstrated great tosses, takedowns, and ground fighting early on, passing Robinson and landing shots from on top. Robinson escaped Florian's mount, popped up, threw some nice shots, but was taken down again. It was then that Florian mounted and showered Robinson with elbows and punches. Robinson had enough and tapped out to give Florian the first-round TKO win. Very impressive.

As Randy Couture said, Florian looked very composed under some heavy pressure from Robinson. Naturally, the BC grad masterfully talked the viewing public through the dreaded Mickey’s replay.

Tito Ortiz -Rashad Evans

I didn't care for either fighter and had no problem with this fight going either way. Fittingly, it went neither way and was ruled a draw. Yuck. I predicted earlier that a close decision would go to Tito. And it would have, but a second-round point deduction from Tito for grabbing the fence cost him the dubya.

Tito looked like a monster tonight and started the fight well, but - to Rashad's credit - was never able to get his trademark ground-and-pound going. Rashad, on the other hand, did plenty of dancing around the perimeter of the cage but never mounted any real effective, efficient offense. He secured a third-round takedown with ten seconds left in the fight and almost seemed pleased that the draw, though not a win, kept his loss total at zero.

Predictably, Tito expressed his feelings that he won the fight and called for another fight to settle it. No thanks.

Undercard
Frankie Edgar def. Mark Bocek at 4:55 of Rd. 1 by TKO!!!!!
Chris Lytle def. Jason Gilliam 2:15 of Rd. 1 by triangle choke.
Jorge Gurgel def. Diego Saraiva by unanimous decision.
Stephan Bonnar defeated Mike Nickels by Rear Naked Choke at 2:14 of Rd. 1.

This was a great night of fights, but now it's bed time. Giggidy.

Nate Marquardt: More Than Worthy

There's been some recent Internet discussion as to whether middleweight Nate "The Great" Marquardt is truly deserving of his July 7 championship fight with Anderson Silva. He does, and here's a quick list why:

- Nate is a 7-time King of Pancrase!!!

- Nate holds an umblemished 4-0 UFC record with wins over Ivan Salaverry, Joe Doerkson (helluva fight), Crafton Wallace, and Dean Lister (one of the most acclaimed grapplers anywhere).

- Consider the relatively talent-thin middleweight division. If Travis Lutter got a crack at the belt, then I'd say Marquardt's shot is long overdue.

- Middleweight studs Matt "The Law" Lindland, Paul Filho, and Dan Henderson were not options.

- After one UFC fight against the grossly overmatched Chris Leben, Anderson Silva was given a title shot against Rich Franklin.

- Nate approved me as a MySpace "friend" faster than any other fighter.

I'm not quite ready to declare with any degree of certainty that Marquardt will supplant Anderson Silva atop the 185-lb. mountain at UFC 73, but by no means is such a thought outlandish. The UFC middleweight division needs a great fight - or at the very least, something to keep the fans buzzing - and I'm hoping this will be it.