UFC 91: Review

What an exciting night! Not one fight from the main card went to decision and most of them ended in the first round. Thankfully that had all those undercards to fill up the time or else this event would have ended within the hour.

I was accurate on the picks I made in my PREVIEW: UFC 91 article. I got 3 out of 4 of my picks correct;

Demian Maia

Maia secured a rear naked choke on Nick Quarry at 2:13 of the first round. That rest of that round pretty much went his way as well. His striking game was on par with Quarry and once it went to the ground, Quarry could not respond.

Gabriel Gonzaga

Gonzaga got a TKO(strikes) victory at 1:01 of the first round. He pretty much dominated Josh Hendricks the UFC rookie. However Hendricks deserves a ton of respect for being able to stand with Gonzaga and exchange blows. He really couldn't do much against a fighter of Gonzaga's calibar.

Also I have to say the referee in this match was an asshole. He pretty much made Gonzaga strike a finished Hendricks. Once Gonazaga knocked down Hendricks, he went and struck Hendricks again, who did nothing to defend himself. He winded up for another punch but hesitated expecting the ref to stop the match there. Gonzaga then looked at the ref almost asking him, "you want me to hit him again?"

He did.

Kenny Florian

Florian submitted Joe Stevenson with a Rear Naked Choke at 4:03 of the first round. I thought this match was gonna go to the cards but I really underestimated Florian's ground game. Still I knew Kenny Florian would not lose this match, he couldn't lost contention for the lightweight belt, and he secured his spot as the number 1 contender for BJ Penn's title.

Brock Lesnar

Lesnar was able to drop Couture in the second round and secured the win with a TKO. It was a pretty even fight.

I underestimated the advantage Lesnar had with his size. He was 40lbs heavier and so much larger. When things went to the ground it was hard to even see Couture under Lesnar. Still Couture gave Lesnar a challenge and was slowly wearing him down.

There is so much to cover for this that I'll write a blog dedicated to Couture and Lesnar match within the week

Also there was a main event that I did not cover in my preview since it was initially scheduled an undercard. It turned out to be my favorite match of the night.

Dustin Hazelett
Hazelett submitted Tamden McCrory with an Armbar at the 4 minute mark of the first round. What made it really awesome was the way Hazelett controlled McCrory while securing the Armbar. His use of the rubber guard made it impossible for McCrory to roll out or get out of that position.

The rubber guard is getting more and more popular.

Anyways the UFC awards went down like this

Fight of the Night: Aaron Riley vs Jorge Gurgel (an undercard bout)
Knockout of the Night: Jeremy Stephens (another undercard bout)
Submission of the Night: Dustin Hazelett

Anyways my favorite match of the night was the Gonzaga match, probably just cause that delay in throwing that final punch.



Overall it was a great event and I hope to see more of this calibar.