HOLLI HEARNE’S UFC 81 POST FIGHT REPORT
Posted on | February 3, 2008 | 1 Comment
UFC 81: Breaking Point results
By Holli Yargo Hearne
The UFC 81 card had some interesting match-ups. Nearly all the underdogs took wins, leaving the expected winners wondering what the heck happened.
Described by Joe Rogan as having a “badonkadonk,” Tyson Griffin, the only person to ever defeat WEC featherweight champion Urijah Faber, nearly handed Gleison Tibau his ass on a platter in UFC 81. Griffin’s stand-up was superior to his opponent’s and his take-down and submission defenses left the Brazilian with no tools to work with. To Tibau’s credit, he went the distance with the compact powerhouse, but when the third round ended, and after Griffin ran a few laps around the cage, it was the young Californian’s hand that was raised. Winner: underdog
New-comer Rob Yundt was in over his head against Renzo Gracie’s protégé Ricardo Almeida. Despite his confidence, Yundt found himself locked into a guillotine. The Alaskan tried to escape by slamming his opponent but the New York native took it on the shoulder, rolling Yundt on top of him while clamping the choke even tighter. Only 1:08 of the first round, the fight was stopped and Almeida was declared the winner. Winner: Almeida as expected.
Nate Marquardt pulled out something of an upset when he squared off with veteran submission artist Jeremy Horn. The two were neck and neck until, in the second round, Horn shot in for a takedown, inadvertently giving the younger fighter his neck for a guillotine choke for the W. Winner: underdog
In what was clearly the fight of the night, WWE superstar Brock Lesnar made his UFC debut against former heavyweight champion, Frank Mir. Mir made his mark on the octagon when he snapped big Tim Sylvia’s arm, leaving the nearly 7-footer with some extra hardware. Shortly afterwards, Mir was involved in a devastating motorcycle accident which nearly cost him his life. His heart for the sport was questionable upon his return to the cage but UFC 81 proved that Mir, now a WEC color commentator, is still in championship contention.
Round one opened with Lesnar throwing heavy hands—mostly because light hands couldn’t possibly be part of his triple XL glove-size repertoire. Seconds into the first round, Mir was on his back taking hammer fist punches to the face that had to feel like real sledge hammers raining down. Mir turned his head to avoid the blows, but Lesnar, in true amateur fashion, continued the onslaught, even punching Mir in the back of the head. This error in judgment led referee Steve Mazzigatti to call a time out, taking a point away from the giant of a wrestler. As it turned out, the point was irrelevant to the outcome. Lesnar put Mir on his back again but Mir turned on the jiu jitsu, sinking an ankle lock only a minute and half into the first round. Winner: underdog
In the main event, Tim Sylvia used his height advantage to punish Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira for two rounds. In the third round, the Pride vet turned on the heat, pulling off a guillotine choke tight enough to elicit an immediate tap from big Timmy. There was no real underdog in this event.
Other televised fights showed Chris “Lights Out” Lytle stealing new-comer Kyle Brady’s dreams of a successful UFC debut when, true to his moniker, he KO’d Brady only 33 seconds into the first round. Brady was so rocked, he pulled guard on referee Yves Levigne before realizing the fight was over. No win for the underdog here.
David Heath must be embarrassed after commenting that his advantage over another UFC first-timer, Tim Boetsch, was that Boetsch was a wrestler pretending to be a striker while he really was a striker. Unfortunately for Heath, Boetsch took the win by TKO just seconds before the end of round one. Heath, the real striker, is most notable for the bloody pounding he took from Renato Sobral and the extended choke which ended their fight which he received after other disrespectful comments he made about Babalu prior to their match. Sobral’s contract with the UFC was yanked following that bout. Winner: underdog…after only 10 days notice.
Rob Emerson out-boxed Keita Nakamura in a three round decision bout. Nakamura succeeded in his take-down attempts but failed to keep Emerson on the ground. By the middle of the second round, Nakamura no longer appeared to have any heart left. The former TUF contender was handed the unanimous decision victory. Winner: underdog.
The only untelevised fight was between Marvin Eastman and Terry Martin. While Martin could easily pass for Mike Tyson’s little brother, intimidating Eastman took him to the distance, securing a unanimous decision win. Again, no real underdog for this one.