Noguiera vs. Herring This fight should have been over long before it became official. Late in the first round Herring floored Noguiera with a left high kick that left Noguiera reeling on the mat. Herring jumped at his chance for only a moment, and rained down shots at his opponent, before strangely asking for a stand up. The second round started with Noguiera visibly still not all there. Herring proceeded to dance around without much of an offense allowing Noguiera to recover. That was the last and only solid chance “The Texas Crazy Horse” would get and would end up losing a judges decision after a fairly uneventful second and third rounds.
Sherk vs. Franca Aside from one devastating knee that had Sherk down and almost out this match was nothing but a mauling by the Lightweight Champ. Sherk dominated the fight, taking it to the ground at will and then transitioning from one position to the other effortlessly. Franca never was able to get off a good shot and his jiu-jitsu was non existent vs. the much larger and stronger Sherk. After 5 rounds Sherk takes a unanimous decision that we all knew was coming. Evans vs. Ortiz By far the most anticipated and hyped fight of the night. If only it could have lived up to its billing. Tito comes out and immediately scores a takedown on “Sugar”, unfortunately that would be the last significant takedown of the night. Both fighters, for the most part, cancelled out each others takedowns, in some cases with the help of the cage (Ortiz). Evans seemed tentative to let his hands and feet loose the fight, save for a few exchanges in the third. After Tito was hit with a point deduction for the previously mentioned grabbing of the cage in the second round, this fight ends in a draw with both fighters winning a round and round two being scored 9-9. Silva vs. Marquardt After an early flying knee attempt by the champion Silva, the fight went to the very place we all knew Nate “The Great” wanted it; unfortunately he was unable to improve his position and lacked a serious effort at a ground and pound attack so the fight was put back on its feet. Another takedown followed and it seemed “The Spider” was in for a long night, until a nice sweep put him into dominant position on top of his opponent. Silva showed no hesitation in looking for new places to punch holes in Marquardt’s head and scored a first round stoppage with under 10 seconds remaining on the clock to retain his Middleweight title.
Florian vs. Robinson In what ended up being the most exciting fight that made its way to television Kenny “KenFlo” Florian forced his opponent to tap out due to strikes late in the first round. The bout started off with Florian looking to exchange and Robinson wanting no part of it. After battling for position for a few moments Florian ended up on top and began relentlessly attacking with elbows and punches that caused Robinson to tapout. Final Review: This event was much better on paper than it turned out to be live. The main card bouts were for the most part uninspiring with fighters that seemed to have no desire to finish the fight. Fortunately, the Florian fight along with Anderson Silva’s impressive performance saved the night. I would give the main card a B; it probably would have been higher if Herring had finished off Noguiera to pull off yet another upset that has been the trend lately in the UFC. |
