UFC 100 recap

Date July 12, 2009

Photos courtesy Ultimate Fighting Championship

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Three things I learned after watching UFC 100:

1) Brock Lesnar is going to be UFC heavyweight champion for a long time. For the first time, the UFC has absolutely dominant champions in pretty much every weight division now that Lesnar is clearly the cream of the crop in the UFC HW division. Frank Mir never had a chance. Lesnar is such an incredible mix of power and speed and strength that I haven’t seen from any other heavyweight ever. It’s unfortunate we’ll probably never get to see Lesnar fight Fedor Emelinanenko, because I was so impressed with how much better Lesnar looked last night that I think he not only has the best shot at beating Fedor, but that I’d predict a Lesnar win if the two ever were to fight.

2) It’s time for Georges St-Pierre to step up to middleweight. After dominating the one clear-cut contender in the welterweight division in Thiago Alves, consider the 170-pound weight class cleaned out. Right now, i think the winner of Mike Swick vs. Martin Kampmann is the guy in line for the next title shot. Yikes. Neither one of those guys has a prayer against St-Pierre, leaving absolutely nothing left to gain at 170. It’s time for St-Pierre to move up and fight Anderson Silva in the single biggest fight the UFC is capable of putting on right now.

3) Dan Henderson is simply the man. One of the nicest, most humble, classy guys I’ve ever met in MMA, and yet, he is responsible for a couple of the most brutal knockouts I’ve ever seen. I didn’t think he’d ever be able to top his KO of Wanderlei Silva in PRIDE, but he did exactly that with his trademark overhand right that put Michael Bisping to sleep. Bisping was clearly out before Henderson followed up with another huge punch on the ground and had no idea what happened when he regained consciousness. I know I just called for St-Pierre to step up and fight Anderson Silva for the middleweight title, but Henderson now clearly deserves a rematch after impressive wins over Rich Franklin and Bisping back-to-back. Bisping hopefully learned a lesson in humility because after talking all the trash he did during the Ultimate Fighter reality show, he wound up becoming a poster boy for the next installment of UFC’s Ultimate Knockouts.

And with that, I’ll leave you with a very interesting question. I’ll have an answer for you guys in a couple of days, and it might not be the answer anyone wants to hear.

Question of the day: Who will be the first of the five UFC champions to lose his belt first? B.J. Penn (lightweight), Georges St-Pierre (welterweight), Anderson Silva (middleweight), Lyoto Machida (light heavyweight), or Brock Lesnar (heavyweight)?

Category Posted in Fights