Upsets Accentuate Any Given Sunday Feel of UFC Live 4 Card on Versus

Posted on | June 26, 2011 | No Comments

By: Rich Bergeron

One second the announcers and crew were questioning Referee Dan Miragliotta for not stopping the UFC Live 4 main event fight between Cheick Congo and Pat Barry. Barry was laying the beating on thick, rocking Congo’s world with lefts and rights. The next second Congo rose off the canvas in a stupor and landed a combination of three punches morphed into one that arced perfectly into the point of Barry’s chin. It was an uppercut, a hook, and a straight right all in one. The speed and power behind the concentrated force of brain to skull contact that created the knockout was something that would make a physics professor drool over. A fighter is as good as his chin, they say often in boxing. Congo wasn’t the only Rocky-esque story of the night, but his skull busting one-punch power off the floor provided the perfect ending to a phenomenal card of fighting. The way Pat Barry had his lights put out by Congo’s right hand reminded me of Rocky Marciano’s knockout shot on Jersey Joe Walcott:

Congo’s underdog KO comeback was improbable, but it was not all that wild when matched up against the co-main event replacement fight between Charlie Brenneman and Rick Story. That was more of a hometown hero turned good kind of fight as Brenneman came off the bench to replace the jettisoned Nate Marquardt after Brenneman’s own original opponent had to pull out of their fight due to pneumonia. He fought three strong rounds against Story and came away with the decision win on a night made in matchmaker Heaven. While the main event captured the real Rocky vibe, the Brenneman vs. Story battle seemed more like it was scripted in Hollywood with Balboa being channeled so well by the Pittsburgh Native Brenneman. Brenneman wore down Story with a tight game plan and a multi-faceted style. He was in command in every area and discipline of the fight and spent the duration of the match looking bold and brilliant.

“I think this is one of the best cards we’ve ever done,” Said UFC President Dana White at the final press conference. He wasn’t lying. It may turn out to be the first card where more fighters get thrown out before it starts than after it’s over.

Matt Mitrione chopped down the oak tree that was Christian Morecraft and made the bigger man look like a lumbering oaf in the end of their two-round tilt earlier in the evening of free fighting on Versus. The Ultimate Fighter Heavyweights Season Standout took advantage of his superior boxing style and stuffed Morecraft’s best takedown attempts until the final onslaught where he came out of the woodwork to dominate the exchanges. “Meathead” won the day with power bomb left and right hands and a slightly better physique and stamina level. He maintained his undefeated MMA record (5-0 now) while Morecraft moves to 7-2 with his first loss since going down to Stefan Struve in a surprise second-round comeback for “The SkyScraper.”

John Howard faced Matt Brown in a long, drawn out technical fight that went the distance. It was a war of attrition with both men holding their own at times. Brown simply had the edge in overall experience and handled his grappling, wrestling, and jiu jitsu mix a bit better than Howard.

Three other fights went to decision on the card, all of them unanimous: Rich Attonito bested Daniel Roberts; Javier Vasquez outclassed Joe Stevenson; and Tyson Griffin toughed it out over Armenian Manny Gamburyan.

Joe Lauzon submitted Curt Warburton in the first round of their preliminary fight with a Kimura, and Charles Oliveira used a rear naked choke to finish off Nik Lentz in the only two submission finishes of the night. To round off the preliminaries, Ricardo Lamas took out Matt Grice with a well-placed head kick and a few follow up punches while Michael Johnson made mincemeat out of Edward Faaloloto with an 18-second knockout.