UFC 93 Results: When Winners Also Lose

Davis vs. Lytle was good, but not great.

Davis wanted it to be a “Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar” fight and he set himself up for disappointment. It won “co-fight of the night” but won't be a fight of the year candidate.

Davis looked tentative throughout the first two rounds while Lytle was throwing haymakers. Despite that, Marcus was the more technical fighter and he put it together in the third round and won by split decision.

The split decision wasn't surprising. While Davis won the fight, he didn’t look overly impressive against a gatekeeper.

They had a “gentlemen’s agreement” to keep the fight standing but Davis is trying to solidify his position as a top 10 welterweight.

Personally, I would like to see Marcus Davis in a rematch against Mike Swick. But Davis had some interesting comments in a pre-fight interview. He said that Swick had an upcoming fight with Thiago Alves in February.

Either Davis is confused or has some inside information.

Rousimar Palhares clearly won a decision over Jeremy Horn. But Horn was supposed to be a gimme fight to build Palhares up. I guess no one told Horn that. Many were picking Palhares to win by first round submission but Horn put up a good fight despite taking some punishment.

One thing is for sure: Palhares is far from a title fight. He might be one of the strongest P4P fighters in MMA and his BJJ is world class, but his lack of stand up game and inability to finish a fight with an over-the-hill fighter like Horn is a setback.

Alan Belcher was getting dominated by Denis Kang in every aspect, but apparently he has been working on his BJJ. Alan hung in there and when the opportunity presented itself, he capitalized and caught Belcher with a nice guillotine.

While the win was big for Belcher, it proved he is not a Top 10 middleweight.

Belcher still has some work to do if he wants to hang with the big boys, which he admitted in the post-fight interview. On a site note, Belcher reminds me of a fellow Muay Thai fighter, Kit Kope.

Shogun Rua avenged his loss to Mark Coleman. It was “co-fight of the night” mainly due to Coleman’s gutty performance, but Rua didn’t wow anyone.

Many were predicting Shogun by TKO or submission in round one or two. It took Shogun until the last minute of the fight to TKO an exhausted Coleman.

Shogun also looked drained throughout the fight as Coleman took Rua to the ground numerous times. Rua is now set to fight Chuck Liddell at UFC 97 and he will need to improve his conditioning between now and then.

In the main event between Henderson and Franklin, neither man lost except maybe Franklin’s eye due to the inadvertent, but nasty, eye poke in round three. Despite a near draw, based on the action, Henderson got the split decision.

Franklin won the stand up game landing several good shots on Henderson. Franklin attacked with a combination of punches and kicks and Henderson looked gassed after round one.

Henderson landed a few shots of his own but ultimately won the fight by getting the action on the ground just long enough to score points with the judges.

The loss won't hurt Franklin. Overall, he looked good and shouldn’t fall in the light heavyweight standings. Expect to see him back in action against a top 10 fighter by the time UFC 100 rolls around.

As for Hendo, he will join Michael Bisping as one of the coaches on TUF 9. He will be heavily favored to beat Bisping, unless it’s in England, and with a win could get the rematch he desires with Anderson Silva.

So which winner was the biggest loser? I would have to say Rousimar Palhares.

As far as the actual losers, Dennis Kang was the probably the biggest loser. He would have been an immediate top 10 fighter in the middleweight division and many thought he could be a threat to Anderson Silva.

Kang dominated Belcher and should get a second chance, but the loss means he will start from scratch on a UFC undercard.

Lytle drops to 5-9 in the UFC and further cemented himself as a gatekeeper. Normally, a fighter in his position would be cut, but Chris is a well-liked guy, and he helps the UFC determine what top 10 material looks like.

As for Jeremy Horn and Mark Coleman, they are afterthoughts when it comes to UFC relevance, but don’t be surprised to see these to MMA veterans keep plugging along.

If you put a wig on Mark Coleman, does anyone else think he looks like Mickey Rourke in the movie "The Wrestler"?

Anyone interested in Mark Coleman vs. Ken Shamrock in a legends match at UFC 100? Probaly not.

In the nights most attention-grabbing news, it was announced that Rampage Jackson will take on Keith Jardine at UFC 96. That show needed a main event, but I am a bit shocked about this match-up.

Overall the fight card was decent but certainly not great. Here is looking forward to UFC 94.

Brian Oswald is a staff writer for Inside Fights.

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