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UFC 79 – Nemesis coming to fruition has been a story in itself. Originally Matt Serra was set to fight Matt Hughes for the welterweight championship, however; with Matt Serra being injured, it appeared to ruin a great main event. Sometimes things end up working out for the best and the UFC were given what was considered an even better headliner when both Matt Hughes and Georges St. Pierre stepped up and offered to fight for the third time. To add to the significance, this would be a match for the ‘interim’ welterweight championship. Along with the Hughes and St. Pierre fight, the scheduled and long awaited Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva bout helped to make this card perhaps the most anticipated of 2007. And here are the results and how my picks went:

In the main event, both Hughes and St. Pierre came out looking confident as the crowd anticipated a great third match between these two high level competitors. GSP looked very dominant in the first round, causing Hughes’ corner to offer him reassurances after the first round. Hughes seemed fairly unphased. The second round was more of a repeat of the first with GSP stuffing not only Hughes’ take down attempts, but taking Hughes to the ground and reddening his face with ground and pound. After GSP wore out and overwhelmed Hughes, he scrambled on the ground with him at first appearing to try a kimura but then grabbing onto Hughes’ arm and cinching in an armbar which forced Hughes to tap. This was an ironic style of victory because Hughes was supposedly the more dominant ground fighter with his stellar wrestling background. St. Pierre demonstrated the new breed of fighter as a weapon in all areas. GSP looked dominant in every aspect of his game. Upon winning, GSP refused to wear the ‘interim’ welterweight belt claiming that Serra was still champion and that he would look forward to a rematch when Serra is healthy. GSP has all the motivation he needs for the rematch with Serra which was an embarrassing loss. If GSP is able to become the undisputed champion at that point, he could be quite an unstoppable force for a long time to come. I picked GSP to win this fight, putting me at 1-0.

Chuch Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva has been one of the most anticipated fights and was finally able to manifest due to Zuffa purchasing Pride where Silva had been fighting. This was a difficult fight to pick for many reasons. Chuck has not looked very good in his last couple of fights and being 38 years old and seemingly not having the same tolerance to age as Couture, he is not the same fighter as he used to be. Even still, a good striker is always dangerous and Chuck’s counterpunching style would seem to fit well with Silva’s aggressive predisposition. I ended up picking Chuck to win this fight and the deciding factor was that it was Silva’s first UFC bout since the Pride acquisition. Very few fighters coming over from Pride have been very impressive in their UFC debut. I had expected that Chuck might be able to knock out Silva and he did land quite a few flurries of strikes that were equivalent to attacks that knocked out previous opponents. Silva did prove that he had a solid chin and stood with Chuck for all three rounds. Silva did look hurt at different times but never went down. Chuck slipped a couple of times but bounced back up and continued. In the end Chuck won a unanimous decision and will start a climb back to the light heavyweight championship. In the meantime, in true Liddell style, he had an after party to attend. My record went to 2-0.

One of the most interesting fights of the night was between Rich “No Love” Clementi and Melvin “The Young Assassin” Guillard. There was a great deal of trash talking between these fighters and the hand gestures continued into the octagon itself as Guillard flipped off Clementi who returned a gesture of his own. In the fight itself, Clementi looked dominant and eventually got Guillard’s back with about a minute left in the first round and upon submission, Clementi made a gesture above Guillard which infuriated the young assassin. Guillard spewed that this feud was not over as he was leaving the octagon. I picked Clementi to win so I moved to 3-0.

A quick run down of the other fights…

Manny Gamburyan made quick work of Nate Mohr submitting him with an ankle lock in the first round and seemed to injur Mohr in the process. I chose Gamburyan to win this fight. I couldn’t go against Manny as he was extremely motivated after having to tap out and forfeit his chance to win the Ultimate Fighter TV show due to a recurring shoulder injury. Still perfect at 4-0.

Undefeated Brazilian Lyoto Machida took on the African Assassin Sokoudjou who was hyped up by a highlight reel showcasing quick and devastating wins. Again, with Sokoudjou being out of his element in the octagon, I chose Machida to continue his winning streak. Although it did surprise a lot of people when Machida won, it was even more shocking to see Lyoto be so dominant over the African. Machida reminds me a lot of Anderson Silva in that he is a very deliberate striker with precision in his movements. Machida could be a real threat at light heavyweight and I think he was too tough of a challenge for Sokodjou in his first UFC fight. I sported a 5-0 record after this fight.

Another newcomer – Sao Palelei took on Eddie Sanchez in the heavyweight division. Eddie Sanchez was expected to lose by many as Sao Palelei had a highlight reel of his own of dominant performances outside of the UFC. Eddie Sanchez stood with Palelei who seemed to gas and eventually the referee stopped the fight after Sanchez had bloodied Palelei’s face to the point where his vision was impaired. I picked Sanchez notching me up to 6-0.

More undercard results:

James Irvin defeated Luiz cane due to a first round disqualification. I picked Irvin, going to 7-0.

Tony DeSouza lost to Roan Carneiro due to a TKO in the second round. This was my first loss causing a 7-1 record.

Canadian Mark Bocek overwhelmed Doug Evans and won a decision. This was my second loss, now 7-2.

Dean Lister won a decision over Jordan Radev. I picked Lister, improving to 8-2.

All in all, this was arguably the best Pay Per View for the UFC of 2007. The UFC really needed an event like this to not only look good on the marquee but also live up to its hype. UFC 79 did not disappoint, offering many entertaining fights. It is consistent events like UFC 79 that will show the rest of the MMA world that they are the leader in the MMA industry.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 30th, 2007 at 4:51 pm and is filed under Picture Shows / TV, UFC and MMA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.