UFC 102: Hometown Heroes Fall, Yet Non-Stop Action Enthralls

One thing was for certain as I watched UFC 102 on PPV tonight, except for Evan Dunham who won the split decision against Marcus Aurelio, the hometown heroes of Portland, Oregon, did not fare well at the Rose Garden.

The excitement in the atmosphere at the beautiful venue was almost palpable through the television as the first match between Brandon "the Truth" Vera and "the Polish Experiment" Krzysztof Soszynski started.

Both men were there to fight a war and even though Joe Rogan quickly proclaimed that Krzysztof "was very badly hurt by a liver shot" from the first kick Vera landed, the fight progressed with fists thrown, kicks landed and non stop action as first one fighter then the other worked their opponent into the cage and attempted submissions on the ground.

After Brandon won by unanimous decision, He announced that he would be glad to go back up a weight and meet Brock Lesnar at Heavyweight.

Issuing challenges to fighters who happened to be sitting at ringside was one of the themes of the night, as after a very rapid knockout of Demian Maia, who many thought was bound to add Marquardt's scalp to his submission coup stick, Nate said that he" knew that he was the one who could beat Anderson Silva."

A very sveldt looking Anderson Silva, dressed up in a beautifully tailored suit and appearing to have stepped directly from the cover of Gentleman's Quaterly Magazine, did a classic double take at hearing Nate's challenge and seemed to be asking, "who, me?"    A very comedic moment of a night filled with surprises

Marquardt had caught Maia as Maia had a big forward motion preparing to throw a kick at him and clocked him so soundly on the chin that no further blow was necessary. Maia was out helplessly lying on the mat.

No Henderson to Bisping double whammy here. A respectful and undoubtedly appreciated  respite from further damage for  a very worthy and fortunate opponent.

The Greg Jackson-Jonathn Chaimberg luck did not extend to fellow camp mate Keith Jardine in his fight with Thiago Silva, though I was sure left wishing that it had.

Keith came out looking just great; as fit as ever (is it possible for this man's gut to be any flatter?).

Jardine moved fast and had good jabs and footwork, less jerky than usual, and even smoothly changed stances to a southpaw once before the momentum of the match changed.

Thiago made sure when he had felled Keith, to position himself so as to be in a position to add a few further blows for insurance, but the ref kept Keith from incurring further damage, which was very ood work on his part.

Strangely enough, after an interpreter repeated Joe Rogan's questions, Thiago answered each query in very clear English.  It was slightly ironic to sit at home wondering if the translation was necessary at all or arranged for the folks in Brazil to understand what Rogan was saying. How very odd it seemed.

Ed Herman fought Aaron "A Train" Simpson and suffered a very severe injury to his left knee, which was very ugly to witness, especially since Rogan called for several replays of the event to show it from every possible camera angle.

Chris Leben, another hometown lad was having his usual brawling  type slug-fest with Jake Rosholt, which ended in a choke that actually saw Chris go out after attempting to tap. 

He appeared to be having a seizure afterwards and continued to spasm and flail while the ref attended to him. Never a good scene to witness.

After the fight Chris looked sad but already resigned to being defeated in front of possibly the most pro-Leben crowd for which he has ever fought.

By the time a smiling Randy Couture was being thoroughly adored by the crowd and poor Antonio Rodrigo Minatauro Nogueira was being booed heartily, I was so pumped up for the fight that when my son asked, "who are you for, Mom?" I couldn't even decide because I was so in awe of watching a bout between two legends of the sport.

Although I never decided on who I hoped would be the winner, Randy had managed to escape several submission attempts and Nogueira won the bout by unanimous decision.

As gracious as ever big Nog acknowledged that Couture had been his hero and inspiration, before Randy just as respectfully gave props to Minatauro for the win.

Naturally Rogan had to bring up the question of retirement, and to his credit, Randy said he would let the dust settle before decideing anything, but was still willing to fight for the UFC.

One of the biggest surprises of the night for me was hearing Joe Rogan say, "Can you believe that Brock Lesnar is yelling advice to Randy?" and then seeing Brock do just that a few moments later while Randy struggled in a submission hold that would have meant the end for a lesser man..

As Joe and Goldy summed it up, the Nogueira that fought and defeated Captain America tonight was not the same man who lost his fight with Frank Mir.

Nog did say that he would be "pleased" to be allowed to meet Lesnar in the octagon in the future.

Frank Mir should be counting  his blessings that this was not the same man he fought.

A friend of mine was livid when it was suggested that Nog had "been fighting while sick" during the fight with Mir. "Excuses, always ready with the excuses," was the gist of what he said.

But now after hearing all the details about the staph infection that had laid Nogueira up in the hospital just a week before the fight, I can see where Frank Mir caught a really lucky break.

In my opinion, and I am sure Randy's too, Frank Mir could not have so handily beaten big Nog and Brock Lesnar would have had his gigantic 4X sized hands full trying to handle him.

When I was asking in an earlier article, "What is Wrong with UFC 102," it was a rhetorical question. The resounding answer after the show tonight should be, "Absolutely nothing!"

Not only was it a stellar production, it had a record 7 second knockout by a very excited Todd Duffee who had Tim Hague flat on the matt in what he disputed with Joe Rogan was six rather than seven seconds.

I think Todd was just kidding and was tickled when he said a loud shout out to his mother. You see I am from a generation when athletes always said a big, "Hi Mom!" any time they were given the chance.

Viewing UFC 102 has left me so high with excitement, I apologize for any inaccuracies portrayed in my recollection of the events.

Usually I take notes, but in the excitement of even more than I had hoped for from a PPV event, I completely forgot that I am a sportswriter and became the very worse kind of fan who is so carried away with emotion that the whole evening,though very enjoyable remains a blur.

To my critical readers, "No, I was not drinking anything except water."

We will all just have to live with the results.