Upsets and Controversy For UFC 104 Fighters, and What The Future Holds

(Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images)

 October 24th 2009 was one of the most controversial UFC events in recent years. A title holders win questioned, a debut fight stopped too early, and what the event might do to these fighters future.

 I'm am going to start with the Cain Velasquez. The man is now 7-0 and is nothing short of deserving it. The night of the UFC 104 event he was fighting Ben Rothwell, a former IFL star, who was making his UFC debut. Velasquez was clearly up against a very challenging opponent. Rothwell had won about 5 times the amount of fights that Velasquez had, so experience was a factor. Rothwell weighed in a little under thirty pounds more than Velasquez. He also had between three to six inches in height of Velasquez. So all of this definitely played a role in everybody's prediction of the fight.

 Rothwell came out decent, all for about 15 seconds. Velasquez immediately took control and didn't let go. The whole fight Velasquez punished Rothwell like he was a rookie. One takedown happened, mainly. Velasquez took Rothwell down and kept him there. If Rothwell got up, within two seconds he was down again. The whole fight was Velasquez ground-n-pound. The referee could have stopped the fight many of times before he did.

 Velasquez didn't defend himself from the get go. If I counted correctly, he threw at most five to eight punches, and maybe landed three of them. The part that started the argument was when the referee finally did stop the fight. Velasquez was landing punch after punch, but yes Rothwell was slowly but surely getting up. The ref stopped the fight when Rothwell was maybe 3/4 of the way of standing. I myself agree with the ref, he gave Rothwell numerous amounts of opportunities to defend himself and he didn't. He chose a time that was his own point of sayin " Ok this guy isn't doing what he should be doing " and he stopped it.

 Velasquez deserved the win and deserves what is in his near future. Velasquez and Shane Carwin was suppose to fight to declare the number one contender for Lesnar's title. They gave the fight to Carwin when Lesnar had no real opponent, because of the Fedor contract not going through. So in my eyes the winner of the Lesnar-Carwin fight should be Velasquez's opponent. If that is not the road the UFC wants to take, then the only other idea that I could come up with is the winner of the Mir-Kongo fight at UFC 107.

 It would be more interesting if Mir won the fight, because by my knowledge they have yet to fight while him and Kongo fought at UFC 101. Rothwell being the loser of the fight should get the loser of the Mir-Kongo fight.

 It is plain and simple in your's, mine and even god himself's eyes that Shogun should have won that fight. Either the judges were on crack or there was something else influencing them ( hint hint ). I myself want an immediate rematch for Machida and Shogun's next fight. But if that is not the path the UFC takes then I would prefer the winner of the Couture-Vera fight at UFC 105, or Rich Franklin.

 Brandon Vera is on a roll, and would make an excellent rebound opponent for Shogun. A: Shogun should fall at most one fight below another title shot and B: Randy Couture is an amazing fighter that can do it all. But in my eyes he needs to stick with one weight class. You can only get so far flip-flopping back and forth.

 Franklin, on the other hand, has also come off of a loss and he has been fighting at the light-heavyweight class, and could use a name like Shogun to pick himself up after his loss. Franklin has nothing to prove to anyone but it would be good to have the chance to get a victory over Shogun. That's my thoughts on him.

 Machida plain and simple just needs to get ready for a rematch with the man that should be champion Maricio " Shogun " Rua. He stated that don't blame me, blame the judges, that it is their job to decide and with his " Self discipline and respect for his opponents " should know that he lost that fight regardless of what the judges said. I like Machida, I really do, mainly for the reason that he KO'd Rashad Evans and temporarily shut him up. But he needs to realize, lighting don't strike the same place twice, even if it is lucky lightning.

 Those are my thoughts on the nights events, give me your opinion and tell me what you think about these guys' future.

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