Article:UFC 81: Breaking Point

The much hyped debut of Brock Lesnar was a dud, at least for Brock Lesnar himself. Frank Mir won the contest via a knee bar. Not really shocking considering Brock's inexperience in MMA. Lesnar represented himself well though. He was just pummelling Mir on the ground. If you took a picture of the two fighters after the match, you would've thought that Brock won. If he ever figures out Brazilian JJ, he will undoubtedly be a beast in the heavyweight division. Though he was inexperience in MMA, Brock was still able to find the face of Mir with his punches. The future is bright for Brock Lesnar, even though match didn't get out of the first round. He just meet the hype and maybe exceed it.

Gotta give credit to Frank Mir. After all that he's been through, he finally got a big win after that near fatal motorcycle accident. He was calm and cool under the enormous pressure of Lesnar. Lesnar took him down after he caught one of Mir's leg kicks. Applied some ground and pound, but Mir stayed composed. Mir grab Lesnar's right leg and it was over immediately. If this was the real Frank Mir, his much hyped dominance might happen. He probably should fight the winner of Heath Herring-Cheick Kongo.

Antonio "Minotauro" Nogueira submitted Tim Sylvia via the guillotine choke. Tim Sylvia was dominating the matchup until Minotauro took him to the ground and won by submission. The fight was a striking battle and Sylvia was dominating. His height and reach was giving Nogueira fits. At one point, Sylvia had Nogueira stunned, but couldn't capitalize. That was probably the turning point in the fight. That incident happened in the first round. Even though Sylvia was still dominating the stand up in round 2, Nogueira was beginning to find his range and figure out Sylvia. In the third round, Nogueira finally got Sylvia to the ground, but was his back. Minotauro swept Sylvia to gain the advantage and had side control at that point. He went for the Kamura but Sylvia began to make his way to his feet. While Sylvia was transitioning, Nogueira applied the guillotine choke and it was over. At the end of the fight, Nogueira said it would be an honor to fight Randy Couture. That would be a very interesting matchup between the two. Don't know if it would happen given that Couture wants Fedor Emelianenko to be the last fight of his career.

There were some other fights on the card. Chris Lytle just destroyed Kyle Bradley. Bradley had no chance! As soon as the bell was rung, Lytle jumped all over him. Throwing haymakers left and right with a couple of knees to boot. A left hook dropped Bradley, then Lytle jumped all over him. The devastation was evident because when the referee stopped the fight, Bradley was pulling full guard on the ref and defending himself. Yes, it was that bad.

Nate Marquardt defeated Jeremy Horn via a guillotine choke. A solid win for Marquardt after getting a beating from Anderson Silva. Working with Greg Jackson and Quinton Rampage Jackson will pay off for him as climbs his way back to the top.

My personal favorite was Tim Boetsch beating David Heath. Tim Boetsch took this fight on ten days notice and kick the crap out of Heath. Damn near literally! I'm a fan of his now. He just picked Heath apart. Landed a couple of hard punches that stunned Heath. Then Heath tried to clinch with Boetsch, but Boetsch was having none of it. So he decided to throw Heath into the cage. That was just awesome. Heath was on his hands and knees. Dazed and confused and just taking punch after punch. The ref stopped the fight and Tim probably gain himself a fanbase after that fight.

Back to the Lesnar-Mir fight. Dana White screwed this up. If you're going to invest in a fighter of Lesnar's stature, you don't pit him against a world class BJJ practitioner who happens to be a former UFC heavyweight champion. That was just plain dumb and a huge mistake, if Lesnar isn't able to comeback after this defeat. Even though, I think Lesnar will dominate once he starts getting familiar with BJJ. White should've given him a "warmup" match. For White's sake and for the sake of the UFC, this investment better work out, or this would be a very embarassing for them. It might hinder them from being taking serious as a sport. Let's hope this isn't true.