Monday, June 27, 2011

UFC on Versus 4 Results

What a crazy event this turned out to be. There were some really great fights with spectacular finishes, but the big news was Nate Marquardt not being medically cleared and being cut from the UFC. What the heck did he do? Other fighters have tested positive for drugs and not been banned, so what could possibly be the reasoning here? We'll find out Tuesday, supposedly.

Let's get to the results:

Rick Story vs. Nate Marquardt (no fight)

This fight didn't happen, as I've said. Instead we got Charlie Brenneman filling in for Marquardt at the last minute.

Charlie Brenneman def. Rick Story (unanimous)
Brenneman had seen his own fight disappear when TJ Grant got hurt. Wonder how Story felt about this? And remember - Story was himself a late replacement for Anthony Rumble Johnson. Story had nothing to gain from this fight and everything to lose. As is the custom in these UFC situations, the guy with everything to lose did in fact lose. This put Brenneman on the map but seriously derailed Story's title aspirations. Despite the victory, Brenneman did not look good. He took Story down a couple of times and laid and prayed his way to the decision. He benefited from a generous ref who did not stand them up despite a lack of action. This is one area where the game has to change. Oh, and since the event took place in Pennsylvania, there were newbie refs for some fights - and it showed. One ref was simply awful, allowing one fighter to take too much abuse and he is the same one who let Brenneman steal his fight.

Cheick Kongo def. Pat Barry (KO 1)
Wow. CRAZY ending. Barry had this fight sewn up, charged in for the kill and got caught by Kongo for the massive come from behind KO. It was shocking, really, that the fight had not been stopped sooner. Kongo was clearly not defending himself, with his hands at his sides and wide open for abuse, but Barry woke him up with punches instead of putting him away. The ref did in fact put his hands on Barry when he was pummeling Kongo as if to stop it, but quickly took them off. I dunno...as soon as a ref puts his hands on a fighter, that ought to be it. The fighter is actually SUPPOSED to relent at that point. But the ref was Dan Miragliotta - the same guy who let the Lesnar-Carwin fight go, allowing Lesnar to recover and win the fight. Barry should have won this fight - but he didn't. Like Sell-Smith, this will be on the highlight reels forever. (0-1)

Matt Brown def. John Howard (unanimous)
This fight was boring as hell. Not sure what the heck Howard was thinking - he tried to take Brown down and gassed out in the process. Stupid. Brown got the win that he desperately needed, but, like Brenneman, he did not impress. He'll probably keep his job, though. (0-2)

Matt Mitrione def. Christian Morecraft (KO 2)
Great fight, as anticipated. These guys threw bombs and Mitrione proved he is a force to be reckoned with. He put Morecraft on his ass a few times but the ref let it go (he really should have stopped the fight sooner). This was the same ref as the Brenneman-Story fight, though. Let's hope Mitrione sees better opponents in the future. Pat Barry, maybe? (1-2)

Tyson Griffin def. Manny Gamburyan (majority)
Did not see it, but after a slow start it seems Griffin dominated the fight. (2-2)

Javier Vazquez def. Joe Stevenson (unanimous)
SURELY Joe Daddy will be cut after this. I mean, come on! He has not evolved since TUF and has shown he cannot hang with the big boys. Apparently he was dominated in this one. This loss means he is 3-7 in his last ten. That's disgusting. (3-2)

Joe Lauzon def. Curt Warburton (sub 1)
Apparently Lauzon put on anopther sick clinic. Dunno how he looked so bad against Sotiropoulos, but let's hope this is the beginning of a comeback. (4-2)

Rich Attonito def. Daniel Roberts (unanimous)
Apparently Roberts gassed and could not recover. (4-3)

Charles Oliveira def. Nik Lentz (sub 2)
We might see a rematch or no contest out of this one as the end apparently came as a result of an illegal knee that the ref missed. That allowed Oliveira to get the rear naked choke to finish what was till then a very entertaining fight, I hear. (5-3)

Ricardo Lamas def. Matt Grice (TKO 1)
Maybe the weight cut hurt Grice. (5-4)

Michael Johnson def. Edward Faaloloto (KO 1)
I hear Johnson looked decent. (6-4)

Meh. A winning record, but not so great. I hope I get to see some of those undercard fights on Unleashed.

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