UFC 93

January 17th 2008, O2 Arena, Dublin.

Prior to his fight with Rich Franklin, Dan Henderson said “I’m going to take him down and beat the shit out of him”. He wasn’t lying. Though they can usually be found at middleweight, the two top-tier fighters met at 205lb, an odd choice that was never fully explained by either Dana White or the fighters themselves.

Franklin is a smart, technical fighter, while Henderson is in many ways his complete opposite. Henderson relies on his brute physicality, bullying fighters with a combination of big punches and his Olympic-calibre wrestling. Not allowing Franklin to settle into his rhythm, Henderson pressed forward and bullied the former teacher for the first two rounds, only slowing in the third. A strange split decision was called. This reporter scored rounds one and two to Henderson with the third to Franklin, yet one judge scored all three rounds to Franklin, a result that had Henderson scratching his head.

‘Hendo’ will now take a place as a coach opposite Michael Bisping on TUF 9, something Bisping was hoping for. With their two very different styles of fighting, they should prove to be an interesting match, with the former Pride champion by far the Englishman’s toughest test to date.

The heat going into the fight between ‘Shogun’ Rua and Mark Coleman was considerable to say the least. They last met in Pride, where Shogun dislocated his elbow trying to defend one of the fearsome wrestler’s takedowns. The Brazilian was the hot favourite going into the fight, and in the first round he looked a lot closer to his former ass-kicking self than he did when he faced Forrest Griffin. Things went downhill as the fight went on though. Both Shogun and Coleman were struggling from the exertions of the fast-paced first round, and Shogun, notorious for under-training, looked as tired as his 44-year-old opponent.

Though he summoned the energy required to finish Coleman with only 30 seconds left in the fight, Shogun did not look good even in victory. At first, it looked like the stoppage may have been premature, and Coleman (and the crowd) protested. That was until they saw the reply, and the sight of Coleman’s head rattling off Shogun’s fists laid any arguments to rest.

Nicknamed ‘Toquinho’, Rousimar Palhares is one of the new breed of Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighters to enter the Octagon. An aggressive submission fighter who strings together his attacks faster than most can see, he all but walked through the durable 100-fight veteran Jeremy Horn. Palhares took Horn down repeatedly and out-positioned him throughout the majority of the fight, save for a brief period in the second round where Horn came tantalisingly close to finishing an arm-triangle choke. Palhares was dominant throughout the 15 minutes and walked away with a comfortable decision.

It’s pretty clear the UFC had high hopes for Denis Kang. One of the toughest middleweights in the world, Kang is well-known for his exploits in Japan, and had been courted by the UFC for some time. Brought in against the tough Alan Belcher, Kang was expected to establish himself as a possible title contender within a couple of fights, but, as often happens with MMA, things didn’t quite happen according to plan.

Kang started strong, but as he tired in the second a sloppy double leg takedown allowed Belcher to slap on a tight guillotine choke, forcing the Canadian to tap out. No doubt this will be a crushing disappointment for both Kang and the UFC brass, who obviously wanted to groom him as a future opponent for Anderson Silva, but this just goes to prove that there are no easy fights in the UFC.

Marcus Davis and Chris Lytle have a lot in common. They’re both former professional boxers, both on the wrong side of 30, both gatekeepers in the welterweight division, and both are more than happy to tear it up for the fans. In the weeks and months leading up to this fight, Davis announced that “the first man to take this fight to the ground is a pussy”. Neither man wanted to lose face, and they obligingly stood for the entire three rounds. Very similar in their style and approach, the difference between them was their choice in strategy. Lytle came out hard and fast, chasing Davis around the Octagon and tagging him with a couple of nice flurries. Davis was the more conservative of the two, yet landed the cleaner blows and scored with his southpaw left straight over and over.

They didn’t quite live up to their ‘future classic’ predictions, but they definitely entertained the crowd of over 9000 fans, with Davis picking up a close yet earned split decision victory.