UFC 105: Coming Through In Spades

Entering UFC 105, there were six UK fighters who clocked in as betting-line underdogs. Of those six, four emerged victorious, with three occurring on the evening’s main card.

It’s been a telling statistic because there was a lot of at stake for the UFC’s UK fight scene on Saturday evening. It wasn’t at all inconceivable that losses could be chalked up for Ross Pearson, James Wilks, Michael Bisping, and Dan Hardy.

While the likes of Pearson and Wilks bouts are better looked at as a gauge on where each fighter might fit into their respective in their young UFC careers, the consequences were far greater for the likes of Bisping and Hardy.

Honestly, the UFC UK front office may have breathed a sigh of relief had they broke even between Bisping’s and Hardy’s performances, but imagine their elation when not only do the two Brits score benchmark victories, but do so in a highly impressive fashion.

Bisping’s mental toughness was a point of contention heading into his outing with Denis Kang. How would he respond after succumbing to one of the year’s five best knockouts, courtesy of circling into Dan Henderson’s right hand.

One of the tenets of mental toughness is resiliency and after a dreary opening round, Bisping laid a blueprint for victory early in the second frame, overpowering Kang on the mat.

While a bit startling considering Kang’s black belt status off his back and Bisping’s hardly-revered ground and pound, “The Count” made the Canadian look like an amateur during the ground exchanges in the second round.

The Brits can be at peace now that their poster boy hasn’t fallen off the wagon, but I’ll go one further and say the UFC might have secured it’s top UK main event to date with the outcome that transpired one fight later.

All four of Dan Hardy’s UFC bouts have been overseas and while it certainly didn’t purvey the typical face-heel dynamic last night, I don’t think it’s off-base to see Hardy/Georges St. Pierre headlining a future UK card.

But just the fact that this possibility is even being explored is staggering in it’s own right, because not too many people gave Hardy a hope in hell against Mike Swick. I’m convinced now that we’ve been criminally underselling Hardy for a while.

Regardless of Swick not being as versatile with his striking as Hardy, the Brit ate Swick alive for the greater part of standup exchanges. Even when Swick tried to bully Hardy into a ground exchange, Dan’s takedown defense was more than up to snuff.

I’m not sure I was so keen on Hardy’s persistence in attempting the takedown, especially during exchanges where he clearly was getting the better of Swick, but a 30-27 loss is something Swick hasn’t tasted in a while.

While it’s an entirely thing to defend St. Pierre’s otherworldly takedown as opposed to Swick’s, but Hardy certainly legitimized himself last night and that certainly isn’t a bad thing.

I’m from the school of thought that MMA needs more fighters like Hardy.

He’s got the look and the natural braggadocio that is rarely seen in this sport anymore. People jumped Brock Lesnar’s jock for his actions against Frank Mir in their last bout, but I applauded the champion every step of the way.

For every upstanding, transcendent, worshipped figure like St. Pierre, there needs to be that natural heel and Hardy fits the mold to a T.

Best of all, the man can back up his smack talk, which is the scariest asset of any over-confident fighter.

Of course, we’d all be remiss without giving Ross Pearson his due. Another fighter who was seemingly written off by a lot of fans, Pearson obliterated a scrappy Aaron Riley and picked up right where he left off from his stay on The Ultimate Fighter .

It’s hard to really gauge the credibility of this victory—Riley is now 2-4 in the UFC—but once again, this was another fight where the Brit was the underdog, admittedly a surprising one.

And what about Nick Osipczak? Granted it’s a preliminary fight that hasn’t leaked to the masses yet, but after seeing Matt Riddle literally suffocate the likes of Dan Cramer and Steve Bruno with his top game, it certainly raised an eyebrow to see Osipczak have a game counter for that.

Regardless, there was a stout chance UFC 105 could have been a wreck for the UFC’s UK fight class, but outside of James Wilks cardio wilting down the stretch against Matt Brown, Saturday night couldn’t have gone much better for the UK fight scene.