-Regression to the mean. Learn it, live it, love it. Has Minotauro Nogueira slowed down since his Pride heyday? Of course. But world class athletes don’t just fall off cliffs at 33. Nogueira showed tonight that his performance against Frank Mir was an aberration, the result of a staph infection and knee injury that had him in the hospital a week prior to the bout.
This was arguably Nogueira’s best performance since his fights with Josh Barnett at the end of the Pride era. He showed off all facets of his MMA game, out slugging Couture standing, holding his own in the clinch, and showing off his vaunted jiu jitsu game. Great, great stuff and it’s good to see him redeem himself.
-Take nothing away from Randy Couture. Nogueira won convincingly, but Couture held with him for 15 minutes. If Randy still wants to fight, I don’t see any reason he shouldn’t, though I think pipe dreams of him getting in there with Anderson Silva or Lyoto Machida should be iced, if not cooled.
-Is my analysis of Jardine’s seeming lack of fundamentals the cause of his loss or is Thiago Silva better than people have given him credit for? For Jardine, one wonders where he goes from here. I assume the UFC gives him a bounce back fight, but his future in the division is in serious question.
For Silva, this fight was a great bounce back from the Machida domination. It’s always interesting to see how a guy comes back after being steamrolled, even more so when it’s the first loss of their career. Thiago answered emphatically, and I’d like to see him take a fight with someone like Rich Franklin.
-Hard to say much about Nate Marquardt or Todd Duffee. Very impressive stuff.
-I had been big on Jake Rosholt as he came up, but had cooled after his last WEC fight and UFC debut. He’s regained my interest after this fight. He looked much, much tighter standing. Leben still snuck a big left in there to knock him down, but he stayed composed, recovered, and got back in the fight. Still, he didn’t just press forward looking for takedowns, but fought controlled and technically.
-Ed Herman proved he’s a tough dude after surviving the end of round one, but I’m sure he regrets his macho show trying to come out for the second. I’m even more disappointed in his corner who should have his long-term best interests in mind. It was clear when he came back to the corner that he had tweaked his knee pretty bad, and there’s no reason he should have been answering the bell for round two. Now, in all likelihood, he has medical bills and a lack of income to look forward to.
-Finally, one last note on the main event. Just a fantastic bout. Great action, great drama, great atmosphere. This is right up there with Condit/Kampmann, Torres/Mizugaki, and Brown/Faber II as fights of the year, and both rounds one and two are up there for round of the year. Anyone arguing against five round non-title fights should really explain themselves after this one.
Photo by Tracy Lee.via yahoo.com