UFC 93 results and post-event thoughts.

First off, I want to say that I didn’t purchase this on PPV, and as the main event ended, I felt I made the right choice.  In my humble opinion, and with the exception of a few fights, I thought the event wasn’t that great and I’m extremely thankful that UFC 94 is only two weeks away, which will hopefully erase whatever sour taste this card may have left in some people’s mouths.  After the jump, you’ll find some quick results, as well as my thoughts on the fights and where I think the fighters should go from here….

Quick Results (courtesy of MMAJunkie):

• Dan Henderson def. Rich Franklin via split decision (29-28, 27-30, 29-28)
• Mauricio “Shogun” Rua def. Mark Coleman via TKO (strikes) — Round 3, 4:36
• Rousimar Palhares def. Jeremy Horn via unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 30-27)
• Alan Belcher def. Denis Kang via submission (guillotine choke) — Round 2, 4:36
• Marcus Davis def. Chris Lytle via split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
• John Hathway def. Tom Egan via TKO (strikes) — Round 1, 4:36
• Martin Kampmann def. Alexandre Barros via TKO (strikes) — Round 2, 3:09
• Eric Schafer def. Antonio Mendes via TKO (punches) — Round 1, 3:35
• Thomasz Drwal def. Ivan Serati via TKO (punches) — Round 1, 2:02
• Dennis Siver def. Nate Mohr via TKO (strikes) — Round 3, 3:47

and now onto my thoughts on the fights….

Dan Henderson vs. Rich Franklin:

Decent fight in my opinion, both guys were a little gun-shy I felt, both had numerous opportunities to do more than they did, but I’m only assuming that they respected each others ability to not go all “balls-to-the-wall” on each other.  It sucked seeing Rich lose, I would have really liked to see he and Bisping fight, I think that he stands a better chance at beating Bisping than Henderson does, and I think overall he’s more exciting than Dan is, however…that’s not how it went and I’ve got to deal with it.  Dan did his thing, looked a little sloppy in the third, but he pushed the pace pretty hard in the first two rounds so that can be expected.  It’ll be interesting to see how he coaches on the next season of The Ultimate Fighter, and it’ll be pretty exciting to see if the “veteran” can beat the “up and comer” following the end of the show.  I honestly expect the winner of Henderson/Bisping to be in line for a title shot after Yushin Okami gets his promised fight with current champion Anderson Silva.  Either way, I think Silva’s going to be the champ regardless of who he fights…

Next for Dan Henderson: TUF 9 and then Bisping…duh

Next for Rich Franklin: So many match ups for you at either 185 or 205, don’t worry about this one, you’ll be back…

Mark Coleman vs. Mauricio Rua:

Some might hate me for this, but this was a disgusting fight.  I was so let down by Shogun, he’s not only shown that he still doesn’t have the cardio, but he still lacks any takedown defense, his striking is still sloppy.  He’s not shown a bit of improvement since his loss to Forrest Griffin.  I was actually more impressed with Coleman than I was Shogun, and let it be said…if this is the type of Mauricio Rua the UFC can expect from now on, I don’t expect he’ll be in the organization much longer.  Lets look at the list of people who would beat him right now:

• Luiz Cane
• Rich Franklin
• Dan Henderson
• Rampage Jackson
• Keith Jardine
• Thiago Silva
• Lyoto Machida
• Chuck Liddell

I also don’t know how in the hell this fight won a “fight of the night” award either, Dana White must’ve felt sorry for Coleman and his family and done that as a gesture of good faith.  Either way, this fight sucked, both guys looked like shit, Coleman needs to stop fighting and leave his legacy where it’s at…and MMA needs to forget about seeing the “old Shogun“, because that guy is gone and dead.

Next for Coleman: Retirement please.

Next for Shogun: Give him someone like Luiz Cane ( he’s not fighting Keith Jardine at UFC 97 anymore), and then get him out of the UFC, he’s not going to amount to anything in this organization, wheras Cane is a badass with huge potential…

Rousimar Palhares vs. Jeremy Horn:

What’s more impressive, the fact that Palhares broke his hand in the first round yet still won a dominating decision, or the fact that Jeremy Horn made it past the 2nd round?  I’ll take Palhares’ broken hand to be honest.  I’ve broken bones before, it hurts even when you’re not using it.  Palhares still continued to throw punches and work some serious ground and pound for 15 whole minutes…that takes either a large amount of adrenaline or some serious mental ability.  I was impressed with him to be honest, and I thought that he needed a fight where he was taken the distance and forced to work to get a win.  It shows alot, and I think that the UFC has a bright 185lb fighter on the rise.  He’s shown he can defeat vets past their prime (Salaverry and Horn), but also shown he can’t handle the top guys yet (Dan Henderson), Palhares is in a perfect position to be molded into something great.  As for Horn…..dude, give it up, start a gym, train students with all that knowledge you have, and live easy….you’ve done enough.

Next for Palhares: Ed Herman, a credible opponent who you should be able to dominate.

Next for Horn: Retirement.

Alan Belcher vs. Denis Kang:

I predicted that Belcher would win, by TKO and not a submission, but in the 2nd round.  I felt comfortable saying that, like I said before, I’ve always thought Kang was overrated.  His submission defense is horrible, definitely the one weakness in his game that I don’t think he’ll ever be able to fix.  I enjoyed the fight though, Kang did look good on his feet, and had he kept it standing he probably would have won a decision.  I don’t think Alan is championship material, the beatings Kendall Grove and Jason Day laid on him solidify why I think that, but he’s exciting and I think this fight definitely gives him some credibility within the middleweight division.  It’ll be interesting to see where the UFC puts both guys from here, I assume Kang will get a can to get him on the winning track considering he’s the UFC’s way of branching into Korea, and I expect Belcher will get another legit opponent.

Next for Kang: Some can, plain and simple.

Next for Belcher: Nate Quarry, Goran Reljic, or even Demian Maia.

Chris Lytle vs. Marcus Davis:

I don’t think this was even close to what Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar did, I’ll simply think of this fight as a decent kickboxing fight.  Neither of these two showed me anything new, but I think all around it was a good fight to kick off the aired portion of the event.

Next for Davis: Anthony Johnson.

Next for Lytle:  Whomever, you’re the 170lb gatekeeper.

Quick Thoughts:

• John Hathaway is a badass and I can’t wait to see more of him.
• Eric Schafer represented Wisconsin well tonight.
• Antonio Mendes will probably be out of the UFC.
• Ivan Serati got his ass kicked.
• Kampmann looked good at 170lbs, he and Mike Swick need to fight!
• Dennis Siver’s spinning back kick to Nate Mohr was awesome!

And that’s that….comment are appreciated but not expected, hopefully UFC 94 will be better than this, kinda hard not to considering how awesome both GSP and BJ Penn are in making fights exciting….

Score for UFC 93:

5/10 - Eh, some good fights, some shitty fights, glad I didn’t order it.