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I might be a bit biased because I saw this live, but this might have been the best UFC card of the year.
Jamie Varner vs. Joe Lauzon was a much more technical version of Griffin vs. Bonnar I, but every bit as exciting. The Staples Center came absolutely unglued in between every round of that fight and popped huge for the finish.
There wasn't a bad fight on the card, except for the heavyweight fight, and even that fight had a finish.
The crowd was very receptive to the main event. Rua-Vera was an exciting slugfest, but the slow pace really kept it from becoming an all out Henderson-Rua type affair.
Again, best card of the year thus far.
FRANK HYDEN, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR: (8.0)
Free cards always get scored higher than usual from me. I liked seeing Mike Swick return, he had a really good performance. Watching Joe Lauzon vs. Jamie Varner and hearing the commentary were two different things. Joe Rogan kept talking up every little thing Lauzon did and ignored most of what Varner did. Lauzon was getting his ass kicked for most of that fight, but to hear Rogan talk it was like a GSP one-sided domination. Speaking of Rogan, this was another bad performance from him. His commentary was way off more times than I could count. Several times he went crazy about a submission attempt even after the other guy had already escaped. It was a bad night for him. Lyoto Machida's performance was like a lot of his fights, frustrate an average striker until he rushes in like a fool and gets knocked out. I would hardly call that impressive. What makes anyone think that a rematch with Jon Jones would go any differently than their first fight? Mauricio Rua and Brandon Vera had a fairly good fight. It was a little frustrating to watch, though, because either guy could have finished the fight much sooner if they had pressed forward. Several times someone got an advantage, but backed away for some reason. That could have been a more impressive fight if either guy had pushed the action.
BRAD WALKER, MMATORCH COLUMNIST: (7.5)
This was an exciting night of fights first the prelims had some really great fights and finished until Nam Phan stunk it up for another non finish; thank god for the Fox card! Johnson and Swick was a treat to watch blow for blow until Swick emerged victorious; Jamie Varner is a gamer, man, the dude went blow for blow on short notice with Joe Lauzon in a serious fight of the year candidate. Then "The Dragon" himself, Lyoto Machida, put the fist to Bader's dome and knocked him to sleep, earning the well deserved title shot. I only got to see three rounds of the main event thanks to AT&Ts crummy DVR settings, but Shogun should have finished Vera much easier than he did - props to Vera for putting up a fight against a top tier fighter like Shogun. It was a fun card; and will someone please tell Phil Davis that "the Koscheck approach" makes fans livid? End the eye pokes!
GRIFFIN MARSH, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR: (10.0)
Consider I'm not scoring this on the level of a pay-per-view buy (I mean I wish the pay-per-views I buy were that exciting). Much of the night saw excellent stoppages, topped off with a pretty slick submission by Joe Lauzon. The UFC hit big tonight, especially if they had a good rating. I loved the fights and wish that pay-per-view cards as of late were that exciting.
JAMIE PENICK, MMATORCH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: (9.0)
This is all on the Fox card, and what a main card it was. All four fights ended decisively, and save for some slow spots in the night's main event, and a couple of tedious early minutes in the first round of Machida-Bader, this was just a fantastically action packed event for the UFC on network TV, and that's exactly what they wanted to see here.
Mike Swick's knockout of DaMarques Johnson was a feel good moment for a fighter who has been out of action for a really long time, and Johnson still gave a good showing until the finish. Jamie Varner broke his hand against Joe Lauzon and yet still nearly pulled off a win on short notice. Unfortunately for him, Lauzon's ground game was still as dangerous in round three as it was in round one, and he got caught in that triangle choke. It was an incredible back and forth fight, one of the most enjoyable fights without title implications in UFC history, and that it came on free television was a bonus.
Machida and Shogun each picked up wins as expected, but Machida earned his quick return to a title fight with an excellent performance. He completely out-classed Ryan Bader, and baited him into that knockout punch. His elusive, counter-striking style was just a nightmare matchup for Bader, and it played out with an air of inevitability.
Rua's win over Brandon Vera was a much more difficult endeavor, and though he got the finish in the fourth round, he was pushed to the limit in this fight and got himself in trouble in spots. Vera put forth a very good effort, one of the best he's had in years, but it still wasn't enough to win a round or keep himself from being stopped. All-in-all, this was an incredibly entertaining night of fights, and served as a great free appetizer to next weekend's UFC 150 pay-per-view.
SHAWN ENNIS, MMATORCH SENIOR COLUMNIST: (9.0)
Now THAT is what a FOX card should look like. Though the main event was much maligned going into the card, the rest of the fights were never questioned for their potential to entertain. With that being the case, each fight delivered, and they combined for the best card the UFC has put on free TV in a long time. Okay, well probably since the last Fox card, but still. The fights were fantastic. Jamie Varner has officially won me over. I've never hated him like some do, but I am firmly in his camp right now. That guy is tough as nails - not only coming in on short notice, but fighting with a broken hand, and fighting the way he did? Incredible. Varner-Lauzon immediately took over my top spot for Fight of the Year, though admittedly I can tend to get caught up in the moment, and I'll need to rewatch Jung-Poirier. The Mike Swick feel-good story didn't look like it was going to have a happy ending for a while there, but in the end it was quite emphatic.
It's the right call to give Machida the title shot if you're going to give it to one of the four. He was the most dominant, and his style is still the most interesting against Jones. Also he's the most likely to be able to do something differently in the second fight (Did I mention I thought Machida was best before the fights?). That fight went pretty much as I expected it to go. Bader couldn't catch up with Machida, he got desperate and charged, and Machida made him pay. That's vintage stuff right there. As for Shogun and Vera, it seemed that Shogun got a lot more than he bargained for. His reaction to winning wasn't elation or euphoria - it seemed to be almost relieved annoyance. Like saying, "it's about time. How did it take so long?" Vera had nothing to lose going into the fight, and he fought like it. I thought the beginning of the end came at the start of the second round when Shogun had him against the fence, but Vera survived. That took guts and determination. Hopefully this is the first sign that he's getting back on track, but in reality his defense is going to have to improve if that's the case.
The prelims also added to the card with some good action. I won't spend too much time on them here, but John Moraga stood out the most to me. He looked extremely impressive against Ulysses Gomez, who is a top-level flyweight. Moraga's only loss is to Jon Dodson, so he seems like a good addition to an increasingly exciting flyweight division. On the opposite end of the spectrum, it looks like Josh Grispi's fall from grace is complete. I thought he had a great chance against Rani Yahya, but there are few who can survive the positioning that Yahya had on Grispi for very long, and Grispi's confidence just seems completely shot. Let him get some wins on the smaller circuit and see what happens. On the whole, this card looked like it could deliver some fireworks, and that's exactly what went down. And that's a great thing for the UFC heading into yet another pay-per-view event next weekend.
Source: http://www.mmatorch.com/artman2/publish/roundtables/article_14040.shtml
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