Hughes falls to St Pierre

It is a perilous position when you’re sat at the top of your division, although for someone like Matt Hughes (who is often referred to as the most dominant champion the UFC has ever seen) it started to seem quite comfortable. His only loss in the last five years came to BJ Penn, when the Hawaiian caught him napping and choked him to submission. He revenged that loss less than two months ago by beating Penn in a thrilling encounter, pounding his way to victory.

Every fighter at 170lbs (77kgs) in the USA was hungrily eyeing up Hughes’ belt and those who tried to wrest it from him failed, including his challenger in this fight, Canadian firebrand Georges St. Pierre. Hughes had submitted St Pierre with a picture perfect spinning armbar with only one second left in the first round of their fight. Since that encounter in October of 2004 Hughes went on to rack up four straight wins against opponents such as Royce Gracie and Joe Riggs, while St Pierre won five fights over men like BJ Penn, Sean Sherk and Frank Trigg.

A telling sign before this contest may have been the way in which St Pierre handled the common opponents he and Hughes shared. Penn had defeated Hughes in their first fight in (for many) a surprise victory. St Pierre edged out a split decision over Penn, while Hughes was in more danger than the Canadian ever was before he managed to trap Penn on the bottom and win by TKO. Hughes had two close scrapes with Trigg, the second of which saw him extremely close to losing. In contrast, St Pierre blasted trig out of the water.

Going into the fight Hughes had already mentioned that he would retire once he sees his current UFC contract out (he has two fights remaining after this one). Rumours of complacency in his preparation are rife and it may well be that Hughes has simply taken his eye off the ball. Against someone like St Pierre, that’s a crime punishable by an ass-whooping.

Its not often you see a fighter of Hughes calibre shown up, but in every respect that’s exactly what St Pierre did. Unfazed by the ongoing mind games Hughes had been playing (going back to their stint as coaches on series 4 of The Ultimate Fighter), St Pierre went into the Octagon focussed and prepared for the fight of his life. His performance was slick, composed and clinically efficient – truly the mark of a champion.

Why didn’t Matt Hughes grapple with St Pierre? Maybe he had seen the Canadian display a virtuoso performance against Sean Sherk 12 months ago. Sherk, an accomplished wrestler and someone often described as “a min-Matt Hughes”, was thoroughly dismantled via a combination of sweet striking and a pounding from top position. Hughes has always been one to prefer top, and maybe he thought that if he were to tangle with GSP too early he might be the one to end up on the bottom. The problem though was that he simply couldn’t match the ex-karate fighter in terms of movement, and he was mercilessly targeted both high and low with an assortment of punches and kicks.

More than once St Pierre took Hughes’ legs away from him with chopping kicks, and he knocked him down with a four-punch combination late in the first round. Hughes might not have survived for the second had it not been for the bell, but regardless of the intervention of the timekeeper, it was merely a stay of execution for the Miletich-trained fighter.

St Pierre needed only one minute and twenty-five seconds of the second round to do what only one other man has done. Of Hughes four previous losses, two had been by submission to Dennis Hallman. Another was the first BJ Penn fight, where Hughes tapped to a rear naked choke, with the other being a brutal knockout courtesy of Jose Pele Landi-Jons in an obscure one-off event held in Kuwait in 2001. St Pierre added the second stoppage loss to Hughes’ distinguished record by way of a left high kick, followed with a barrage of punches and elbows on the mat.

Did Hughes take GSP lightly? Has he lost focus at 33 years of age and 8 years into his MMA career? Only he can answer, and his statement was clear and surprisingly humble. “This is not one of those things where I have to go out and 'redeem myself' so I can look myself in the mirror,” Hughes posted on his website. “I just got beat by a guy who was better than me that night and I can live with that. Physically and mentally, I'm fine.”

St Pierre jetted off on holiday immediately following the fight, with his luggage substantially weighed down with what once was Hughes belt. His next fight will be against TUF 4 winner Matt Serra in February, who earned his title shot by defeating Chris Lytle in November.

Sylvia bores his way past Monson

This is my opinion, and you may not like it. If so, you have the right to disagree, but I have a strong suspicion the majority of people will back me up when I say that Tim Sylvia is the worst thing to happen to the UFC heavyweight division since, well, since Tim Sylvia arrived in the UFC. I am sure the “Maine-iac” is a nice person and all. He probably likes to paint with watercolours in his free time, does charity work and rescues lost kittens. What he doesn’t do is give me any reason to watch with interest the UFC heavyweight title being contested.

The heavyweight title has always carried with it grandiosity, had an element of mystique about it. The heavyweight champion is meant to be the best of the best, the Alpha male of all the fighting champions. It used to be a question on everyone’s lips, who would win between a heavyweight MMA champion and the boxing heavyweight champion of the world? Anyone with knowledge of MMA would rightly say that it would be the MMA fighter, due to their ability to fight in every range.

Considering someone like Sylvia, you have to wonder exactly how he got where he is. Is it a case of innate fighting ability, something he was born with? Or is it due to the fact he is 6’8 and cuts from around 280lbs to make the upper heavyweight limit of 265lbs? Most likely it is the latter – that’s not to say that he isn’t talented, but purists and avid followers of the sport always dread situations like this; when a giant with little to no fighting ability can reign as champion over talented fighters simply due to the fact they are far, far bigger. Look at the brief period where Bob Sapp was the terror of the K-1 heavyweight ranks for evidence, or the current case of the Russian boxing giant Nikolai Valuev (a 7-foot 145kg monster).

Sylvia’s trainer Pat Miletich readily admits he wasn’t the most gifted of athletes. At well over 300lbs, he couldn’t even handle a skipping rope and remains flat-footed to this day. He does have the ability to land a devastating right hand though (look at his fights with Cabbage Correira, Gan McGee, Andrei Arlovski, Ricco Rodriguez and more for proof). His huge size makes him a problem for just about any heavyweight out there, and none more than 5’9” Jeff Monson.

Monson had gotten his title shot by chewing his way through a bunch of C-class heavyweights. Yes, the UFC are that desperate to build up their heavyweight division. It is a fair point that Monson hadn’t lost since back in 2002 (to Forrest Griffin believe it or not) but had he really earned his shot at the title? If you think about it, probably not, but the UFC desperately needed fresh blood to take on Sylvia (a fourth match with Arlovski would have had people throwing up in disgust).

The fight turned out to be a predictable affair. Monson, the champion grappler, would shoot over and over and over, desperate to get the fight to the floor. Sylvia showed an amazing lack of willingness to stalk the stumpy challenger, rarely making use of his massive reach advantage. His punches had their effect and he shockingly out-grappled Monson on the mat, but over the course of 25 mins he avoided ever committing to any attack and cruised to a decision victory, much to the disgust of the crowd. Thank god they had St Pierre destroying Hughes to keep them happy.

Vera mangles Mir

Brandon Vera is another of these fighters being groomed as the next big thing at heavyweight, but the difference between Vera and fighters such as Monson, Kongo et al, is that he actually has some skills. It was with these skills that he destroyed the plump Frank Mir, smashing his way through the Las Vegas-based grappling expert in only 1.09 of the first round.

Vera punished Mir after dropping him with some vicious knees and punches, hammering away at the jiu-jitsu fighter until the referee saved him from further punishment. Mir has become a joke; a shadow of the fighter who was breaking limbs and tapping people out left, right and centre. His motorbike crash of 2005 could be to blame but with consistently poor performances the UFC have to look to replace him as soon as they can.

Vera could go on to big things. At 29 he is not young but he is relatively inexperienced at only 8-0-0. Lets hope the UFC don’t push him too hard, too soon, as he could potentially be a star in the making. He is light though at only 225lb, and one wonders why he hasn’t thought of dropping to take his chances at light heavyweight.

Who’s the Daddy now?

Joe ‘Daddy’ Stevenson won TUF 2 by out-grappling his fellow competitors to bag a place in the UFC welterweight division. Short but well built, he has dropped to the newly reinstated lightweight ranks and is tipped as one of the main chasers of Sherk’s 155lb title. He would face an opponent in the form of PRIDE veteran Dokonjonosuke Mishima, himself a noted submission grappler.

After a good takedown from Mishima, Stevenson worked his guard and caught the dangling head of his Japanese opponent just over two minutes into the fight. Stevenson apologised for winning in such a way, saying “Hey, I wanted to stand up with this guy!”

Round Up

Italian light heavyweight hopeful went down to Drew McFedries in a very entertaining four-minute war. They swapped punches and kicks with energy until Sakara crumbled under pressure toward the end of the round. Miletich trained McFedries was wide open and got hit a lot, but showed remarkable resilience to come through and win.

Local fighter James Irvin pulled off a gutsy performance and tagged Hector Ramirez with a straight right 2.36 into round two. Ramirez out-boxed and out-grappled Irvin until that point, yet slowed halfway through the second round. Irvin, who has trained with Randy Couture and Rampage Jackson in the past, bowled over the Hispanic fighter with an unorthodox switch-stance strike.

‘Nasty’ Nick Diaz showed why he’s still a welterweight contender by despatching Gleison Tibau in only two and a half minutes via strikes, almost winning by armbar well before that point.