MMA Aftermath: 5 UFC 124 Notes

The UFC's fourth venture to the Bell Centre in Montreal, Quebec last Saturday night was a tremendous success, with a total attendance of 23,152, producing a live gate of $4,600,000.

The main card was decorated with the full array of outcomes—two submissions, one knockout and two decisions—and one of the promotions biggest stars remained champion with an impressive one-sided performance.

And, as with any UFC event, there were quite a few things the show reminded or taught us.

Here are five things I took away from UFC 124.

Side note: The "Fight of the Night" bonus was apparently decided by online voting from the fans. I did not make this part of my five notes, but clearly no important decisions in this sport should ever be left up to the online masses. Since the bonuses were a whopping $100,000, I consider that a pretty important decision.

5. UFC Broadcast Team Is in Dire Need of an Objective Third Member

While what I really wish is for the UFC to give their broadcast team a complete makeover and bring in some fresh and experienced new faces, the addition of a knowledgeable fighter to their current duo would be a massive improvement for the time being.

I understand that Joe Rogan does a terrific job of educating the casual and new fans on the intricacies of the sport. But for the people that watch every single event, hearing the same repetitive and premeditated analyzations from a guy that has never fought in the cage is really beginning to dumb down the product.

How many times do we have to hear about the difference between the "thud" and the "slap" of a leg kick? Seriously, we get it.

What really brought the change back to the forefront of my MMA wish list was Rogan's calling of Sean Pierson's win over Mathew Riddle on Saturday's undercard, where Rogan was clearly rooting for the over-matched Riddle throughout the fight.

After Riddle took a continuous onslaught of jabs and crosses to his still head for the first two rounds without ever landing a significant strike of his own, Rogan suggested that Riddle had won the second round and the fight was now up for grabs.

Let me state this very clearly: Riddle never came anywhere near winning any of the three rounds in that fight.

Smiling at someone and waving them on when they are teeing off on your face does not score points with the judges. At least it isn't supposed to, but who knows after some of these atrocious decisions of late.

But, Rogan's clear inattention to the mass amount of offense from Pierson, and the complete lack of it from Riddle, was as misleading as anything a new fan to the sport can listen to. Especially after his admirable tirade about the sport's judging problem just a week prior.

And that brings up one more small point. How the hell is Riddle continuing to get fights with the UFC, when some seriously talented fighters are being regularly taken to the woodshed? Granted, the kid is as tough and strong as they come, and has a ton of heart, but no trainer would openly admit he is teaching him the stuff he's showing out there.

For the entire fight I just wanted to scream, "If your jab isn't reaching him, then your cross isn't going to either!" but still Rogan found it effective.

With the addition of a former fighter or a respected trainer, the broadcast team would gain some much needed legitimacy when it comes to giving an insider perspective. Pat Miletich would be a perfect addition, but Strikeforce was lucky enough to scoop him up already.

Still, there a plenty of sharp and vocal talents with experience in the sport that the loyal fans would appreciate their contributions. I always enjoyed Frank Trigg back in the Pride days.

4. Joe Stevenson's Time Has Passed

Yes, Joe Stevenson is only 28 years old. But, with a record of 31-12 that started when he was just 16 years old, the tread has long worn off of the tires.

After being knocked out by Jens Pulver when Stevenson was just 16 and in his third fight, it is truly amazing that he accomplished as much as he did.

In 2005, Stevenson won the second season of The Ultimate Fighter with an exciting three-round unanimous decision over Luke Cummo. Just a little over two years later, Stevenson had worked himself all the way up to a title shot against B.J Penn.

Stevenson went on to lose that fight in lopsided fashion and never really recovered his stature in the sport since.

He is the only fighter with an indisputable win over Nate Diaz in the UFC, and he did follow that up with an impressive stoppage of Spencer Fisher. But his first-round knockout loss to Mac Danzig on Saturday was clear proof that he is no longer relevant in the UFC lightweight division.

Sadly, Mike Goldberg stated that it was Stevenson's son's birthday just seconds before he was knocked out cold. Stevenson has four sons, and if these kinds of losses begin to come more regularly, I hope he can recognize the right time to leave the sport.

3. When Jim Miller Wins, People Don't Seem To Care

Jim Miller is a no-frills kind of fighter. It may not be flashy, but he always gets the job done and never complains about anything.

Still, he has absolutely no following and doesn't seem to have the advantage of any sort of favoritism from the UFC brass.

He is currently on a six-fight win streak over quality opposition, and isn't even in the conversation of title contention.

Saturday night, Miller achieved his highest-profile win over rising start Charles Oliveira with a first-round kneebar submission. Nobody I knew had picked Miller to win the fight going into the weekend, and now that he did, most people don't seem to be giving him much credit for it.

I don't know exactly what it is about the guy, but people just don't really seem to care about him.

What does he do to rectify this? Not ask for title shots and just keep taking out everyone they throw at him. In time, there will be no denying him his place if he doesn't lose.

2. The "0" Never Lasts in the UFC

Going into UFC 124, there were two undefeated prospects receiving a lot of attention on the main pay-per-view card.

After the event, they were just two green fighters coming to grips with losing in their first big step up in competition.

Before the weekend, heavyweight Sean McCorkle and lightweight Charles Oliveira had 24 wins and no losses collectively. But both fighters lost within just minutes of the first round on Saturday.

It was another reminder that when fighters are forced to face legitimate competition on a regular basis, keeping an undefeated record is not realistic.

The fact that this is accepted by most fans is one of the most positive aspects of the sport, compared to boxing.

1. Georges St-Pierre Is Content in Just Winning

In the lead up to UFC welterweight champion George St-Pierre's title defense against Josh Koscheck, St-Pierre repeatedly told the media of his self-imposed importance on finishing his opponent before the final bell.

St-Pierre is clearly one of the best fighters in the world, if not the very best. But the majority of his recent performances have gone the full five-round time limit, much to the dismay of the demanding fans and their short attention spans.

Well, Saturday night it became abundantly clear that St-Pierre doesn't really mind winning every round in the smartest possible fashion by, not so simply, out-thinking every worthy challenger to his throne.

What's important is that he keeps winning, and he's never going to take uncalculated risks in an attempt to further entertain the fickle observers. I guess the fact that he hasn't lost a single round in years will have to be enough to impress his detractors.

What bothers me is the clearly false statements that finishing this fight was the most important thing to him. I really have no problem with him stating that he is going to punish his mouthy opponent for as long as the rules allow.

It's kind of like talking about how much you dislike your opponent before a fight, and then stating that it was all a big show to gain interest following the bout.

Take some advice from Andy Kaufman and never let the audience in on the gag.