Article:6 Years Later........

What great, great match by Chuck Liddell and Wanderlei Silva!!! Each man was swinging for the fences from start to finish. Chuck Liddell won by unanimous decision. The first two rounds were explosive, then Chuck got a little tired in the third and somewhat played it safe. It still was a great match. Chuck actually had a couple of takedowns. Yes, that really happen. Twice!! It was probably the match of year, at least in the UFC. They let it all hang out. Unbelievable! The exchanges were intense and powerful. The accuracy of the punches by both men was sharp and pinpointed. It's tough to describe. You have to watch it. Find it on youtube or something. Go see it!!

I actually predicted Wanderlei Silva winning it in the 2nd. I guess that shows how much I know. Did Chuck take Keith Jardine lightly? Probably. Did he do the same with Rampage? I doubt it. He was probably shocked that Rampage knocked out, but I doubt he took Quinton "Rampage" Jackson lightly. When the opportunity came to fight Wanderlei Silva, it seem to have rejuvenated the "Ice Man." I'm still not sold though. That's a tall ladder to climb to get back to the top. There are a lot of really good fighters ahead of him. Chuck Liddell could fight for a title in December or early 2009. Next fight: Shogun Rua vs Chuck Liddell?? I hope so. I don't see why not.

By the way, GSP dominated Matt Hughes. Just a side note. Is GSP for real this time? I'm not a really big fan of him, but what he did to Matt Hughes has probably changed my mind. He REALLY DOMINATED  Matt Hughes. I was really surprised by that. Granted, he's probably the most gifted athlete in the UFC and has all of the tools to dominate for a long time. We've heard that before, but he has never done it. Will he do it this time? Lets go back to the match though. First, George St. Pierre is in the head of Matt Hughes. Before the match even started, we found out that Matt went to his roots which is wrestling, after he left the Milletich Camp. Anyway, when the match started Matt Hughes went to the southpaw stance. Now, I've never seen Hughes fight southpaw, until now. Again, GSP is in Hughes' head so much, that Hughes changed his stance and fighting style. That kick to the head must've gave Hughes nightmares since their last match. Moving on....GSP dominates on the feet and showed good takedown defense. He took Hughes down and pounded out the first round easily. In the second, it was over after GSP got an armbar on Hughes, forcing the tapout. Right before the armbar though, GSP was sitting on top of Hughes with the possibility of a triangle choke while going for the kamura. Then he decided to go with the armbar. He made look easy.

We might have saw the last match of Matt Hughes' career. In the past, he has expressed interest in fight Anderson Silva, but I doubt that will ever happen. He has said countless times that he will be retiring from MMA. That retirement may have came earlier than he wanted. Hughes didn't look good against GSP and looked discouraged after the match. He is the greatest welterweight in UFC history. He has nothing to be ashamed about. When he was the champion, he defended and retain his title 7 times. He's a two time welterweight champion and has beaten some of the best the UFC has to offer in Royce Gracie, BJ Penn, GSP (only one to ever submit GSP), Sean Sherk, Carlos Newton, and Frank Trigg. The best of wishes to Matt Hughes.

Lyoto Machida was....Lyoto Machida. This time though, he submited his opponent, who was Sokoudjou. Sokoudjou has a bright future in the UFC, if his camp can teach him some Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He was very much over match on the ground against Machida. Machida vs Keith Jardine?? That may happen in 2008 and probably should.

Not much else happened from the fight card. Eddie Sanchez defeated some Australian fighter named Soa Palalei. I flipped the channel during that fight. Sanchez was pretty much landing the uppercut at will and his opponent pretty much let him do it. It was that  type of fight. Manny Gamburyan (one of my favorite fighters to watch) submitted Nate Mohr. As usual, Manny was ultra aggressive and took Nate down within seconds after the fight started. While Gamburyan was in Nate's guard, he began to drop some punches, then grabbed Nate's leg and submitted him. It looked bad. From the replay, Mohr's knee looked as though it popped out of the joint. Nate Mohr was in some serious pain afterwards.

Anyway, the fight card was ok. The co-main events lived up to the hype. It's worth paying money just to see Liddell vs Silva. Unbelievable fight!!!