UFC 99 Headline Lands with a Resounding Thud

The fight card of UFC 99 had been called into question in the weeks leading up to it, asking if it was PPV worthy and if possibly UFC 99 should have aired free on Spike. The event itself will likely do little to silence these questions.

Headlined match between Mirko Cro Cop and Mostapha Al Turk got the night off to a very poor start. Al Turk bum rushed Cro Cop, who showed better boxing than many fans may remember Cro Cop having. Al Turk ate several hard punches and was knocked down a few times.

Then as Al Turk lunged forward he was poked in the eye as Cro Cop threw his hand out. And for seemingly the umpteenth card in a row a ref failed to react and a fighter likely was hurt because of it. Cro Cop was declared the winner, with out throwing a single kick, much less one of his patented head kicks. It was a harbinger of things to come.

Cheick Kongo took the fight with Cain Velasquez on extreme short notice and the match was highly touted. Velasquez is a former AZU wrestler, like every other UFC prospect these days, and owned a sparkling 3-0 UFC record, all wins by way of TKO. 

Kongo is one of the premier strikers in the UFC heavyweight division and presented Velasquez with a serious problem on the feet. 

What followed was three rounds of the exact same thing, both fighters came out and Kongo would throw a short, quick combo that would blow right through Velasquez and absolutely rocked him.

Velasquez would then drag Kongo down to the ground, take any position he wanted and then rain down effective strikes that lacked the power to end the fight. Kongo looked confused and panicked on the ground and while he avoided being finished he had almost no way to get back to his feet.

I am a huge fan of ground fighting, I am not a stand up war or snooze kind of guy but watching 15 minutes of Kongo taking his medicine on the mat without any real threat of Velasquez ending the fight had me wondering what else was on.

The match raises serious questions about Velasquez's ability to finish fights and also the way Kongo's two strike combos landed cleanly at will raises the idea that Velasquez could be easily floored in a stand up war.

The main event was a 195lb catch weight fight of two fighters headed in different directions, Rich Franklin was moving up to 205 lbs and Wanderlei Silva down to 185 lbs. The fight was billed as "the fight the fans wanted to see" but I was hard pressed to find an MMA fan that was actually asking for this fight three months ago.

The match ended up being exciting for periods but in the end it was a slop fest. Franklin danced on the outside, jumping in for two and three hit combos in a solid display of stand up skill. Wanderlei showed disdain for the idea of combos or linking strikes, coming in with wild shots, not really connecting cleanly on any but one.

Joe Rogan seemed determined to sell the fight and made even glancing shots sound like a Rampage hook to the jaw. While the fight was entertaining and Franklin put on a solid showing, he preformed far below the standard he set in 185 lbs.

Likewise, Wanderlei look severely effected by the weight cut to get to 195 lbs, his cardio seems badly effective and with 10 more pounds to go to get to middleweight, it raises questions about his ability to be a contender at that weight.

The UFC 99 headline was a massive disappointment, not delivering the action that many predicted and it was surpassed by some of the lower main card matches such as Mike Swick vs Ben Saunders or Marcus Davis vs Dan Hardy.