Issue 007

September 2005

It is often said that to truly become a champion, you must not only win the belt, but also defend it. If that is the case, then Chuck Liddell just cemented his standing as the UFC Light Heavyweight Champion.

The scene is UFC 54: Boiling Point at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. With temperatures soaring outside the building, Liddell and challenger Jeremy Horn seemingly harnessed that heat and brought it to the cage.

Despite Horn’s absence from the Octagon for nearly four and a half years, the build up to this fight was tremendous. The card featured the return of Randy Couture, Ultimate Fighter Diego Sanchez, a tremendous match-up between Georges St. Pierre and Frank Trigg; but it was this main event, in which Liddell hoped to avenge the first loss of his career, that overshadowed everything else as the days wound down to hours and then minutes before finally becoming the fight.

Going in, everyone felt that if the fight went to the ground, it would be Horn’s to lose. Well, we never found that out. Horn instead took a different tact. He chose to stand and trade with Liddell. In retrospect, that looks to have been a mistake. Though Horn looked to be sharper with his technique than Liddell, it was Liddell’s power and unorthodox style that won in the end.

The fight started off with the two trading strikes, Horn looking rather capable, but it didn’t take long before Liddell found his mark and dropped Horn with a big right hand. Liddell followed him to the canvas, but couldn’t finish him, so he brought the fight back up to standing. This soon became a pattern. Though Horn was mostly content to stand and trade, any time he did end up on the floor, Liddell would back away and make him stand. Showing his maturation as a fighter, Liddell would have nothing to do with the ground, dictating when and where the fight would take place.

Though Liddell’s lack of zest to finish the fight early, even though he had Horn in a precarious position a time or two, was interpreted by some as him tiring; it really looked more like he was just being patient, making sure not to leave himself open to getting caught in a submission or burning himself out as Horn is very crafty on the ground, very difficult to finish. After biding his time, Liddell punished Horn throughout the fight with hard strikes to the head, dropping him for the final time in the fourth round. It wasn’t a knockout as Horn came back to his feet after being dropped, but saying to referee John McCarthy, “I’m done, I can’t see.” At this point, McCarthy stopped the fight, giving Liddell the TKO victory.

Talking to Rich Franklin, one of Horn’s corner men, after the fight, he said that Horn’s vision was blurred from the first round on and

just continued to get worse as the damage mounted. Horn was unavailable after the fight as he went to receive medical attention, but I’m sure he felt something along the lines of Liddell’s pre-fight prediction, “If I don’t knock him out, he’s going to wish I did.”

In the evening’s swing bout, Tim Sylvia made his first UFC appearance since losing to Andrei Arlovski six months ago. He returned in spectacular fashion. Squaring off with Lion’s Den fighter Tra Telligman, Sylvia never appeared to be in any danger in this fight. He used his tremendous height and reach advantage to keep Telligman, who is also a professional boxer, at bay. Sylvia’s stand-up game actually looked as sharp as it’s been since entering the UFC. His punches were nice and tight and he was very patient, countering much of what Telligman was attempting to do. Late into the round, Sylvia found his opening and landed a high kick to the head that put Telligman out cold.

It was a stunning win for Sylvia, but a bit scary for Telligman. As he lay on the canvas, Telligman did not move, save for his shallow, fluttery breathing. He did not open his eyes until just before they removed him from the ring. Still unmoving, they loaded Telligman onto a stretcher with both an oxygen mask and cervical brace on. As we went to press, it was reported that Telligman had regained consciousness and was responsive to emergency personnel.

After having lost his title to Chuck Liddell at UFC 52, the future of Randy Couture was being questioned at every turn. Against Mike Van Arsdale, Couture looked to start re-establishing himself and earn a rubber match with the new champ. 

As the fight started, Van Arsdale showed a lot more boxing skill than expected. In fact, it appeared as if he out-boxed Couture. Although the first round was close, it was Couture that began to establish the pace of the fight and controlled most of the ground action. In the second round, Van Arsdale hurt Couture with the right hand at one point, but again, Couture went to the ground with him and started opened a cut on the side of Van Arsdale’s head.

 By the third stanza, both fighters appeared tired, but Van Arsdale more noticeably so than Couture. It didn’t take long before Couture once again had Van Arsdale on the mat and finally locked on the anaconda choke that he had been working towards all night. With the choke in deep, Couture got the submission win and moved back into contention for the light heavyweight strap

Although Diego Sanchez had a successful run on The Ultimate Fighter reality series, becoming the middleweight winner of the show, he still has not earned the respect of most of the established veteran fighters. At UFC 52, he took his first steps in earning his stripes. Facing longtime veteran Brian Gassaway, a strong Muay Thai stylist, it was believed that Sanchez needed to get this fight to the ground, where he is strongest. That was probably accurate, but it was difficult to tell because he immediately did just that. 

Not giving Gassaway a chance to use his stand up skills, Sanchez held him down and proceeded to offer up a ground and pound clinic throughout the first round. Just when it seemed Sanchez was moments away from finishing, Gassaway worked his way out from under the Ultimate Fighter and survived the round. It wasn’t long into the second before Sanchez once again put Gassaway on his back and relentlessly abused him until the Chicago fighter finally submitted to the punishment.

It was another big step for Sanchez, but now he’ll be asked to start taking fights that will help him back up his claim as “the uncrowned 170-pound champion.” 

Outside of the main event, Frank Trigg and Georges St. Pierre was one of the most anticipated bouts on this card. Expected to be an all out war between welterweight contenders, it was anything but. St. Pierre was in control of this bout from beginning to end. Instead of standing and trading with Trigg as many had expected, St. Pierre used his “special secret strategy” to put Trigg on the canvas and continually assaulted him with brutal ground and pound switching between front and back mount throughout most of the fight.

Towards the end of the first round, Trigg made an attempt to get out from under St. Pierre and eventually ended up with the Canadian on his back in an all too familiar position. A la Matt Hughes, St. Pierre locked on a deep rear naked choke and Trigg had to tap out once more. This one sent St. Pierre skyrocketing towards another title shot and Trigg packing; he was subsequently released from the UFC roster.

In preliminary action, Matt Lindland continued his surge towards a middleweight title shot, as he faced Canadian Joe Doerksen. The shot at the title was already within his grasp, but Lindland did not want to wait until current champion Rich Franklin was done with his commitment to The Ultimate Fighter Season 2 to get a shot. So, he instead decided to fight on the UFC 54 card.

Although this one started off with both fighters going after each other, it was Lindland that eventually established the pace of the fight. Doerksen never gave up, continually reversing the Olympic caliber wrestling, but almost always seeming to have to work from a defensive position. On the feet, it was Lindland edging ahead with well-timed knees and on the ground he controlled most of the positioning and worked a steady ground and pound attack.

After three rounds, it was Lindland that earned the unanimous decision victory. It was another impressive performance for the perpetual title contender, now we’ll just have to wait and see if he finally gets the shot at the title.

In the second bout of the night, former team mates Trevor Prangley and Travis Lutter battled it out. Prangley took control of this one straight from the beginning. He landed knees, he scored takedowns, and he ground and pounded Lutter throughout. The only thing that didn’t go in his favor was when he accidentally punched Lutter in the groin in the first round, then shortly after Lutter’s recovery, he kneed him in the groin and had a one-point penalty deducted from his score. Outside of that, it was all Prangley and it showed as he won a unanimous decision.

James Irvin, making his return to the Octagon after losing his debut, opened the night with UFC rookie Terry Martin. The first round went heavily in Martin’s favour. He scored a couple of solid takedowns and kept Irvin pinned up against the cage for most of the round, grounding and pounding him to earn the round. The second round was hardly a blip on the radar as Irvin casually walked out to the centre of the Octagon and launched a flying knee as Martin shot for the takedown. The knee connected right on and put Martin out cold for nearly 3 minutes. 

Martin, like Telligman later, was removed from the ring on a stretcher with both an oxygen mask and cervical collar as precautions. Martin checked out fine and was even available for interviews later in the evening following the fights.

It was another exciting night of fights for the UFC and a full house with over 13,500 fans filling up the MGM Grand Garden Arena. Look for UFC 55 on October 7 at the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut featuring Andrei Arlovski defending his belt against Paul Buentello and Ultimate Fighter Forrest Griffin taking another step up in competition to face British veteran Ian Freeman.

Full Results

UFC Light Heavyweight Title Bout

Chuck Liddell defeated Jeremy Horn by TKO at 2:46 of Round 4

Tim Sylvia defeated Tra Telligman by KO at 4:59 of Round 1 

Randy Couture defeated Mike Van Arsdale by Anaconda Choke at 0:52 of Round 3

Diego Sanchez defeated Brian Gassaway by Submission to Strikes at 1:56 of Round 2

Georges St. Pierre defeated Frank Trigg by Rear Naked Choke at 4:09 of Round 1

Matt Lindland defeated Joe Doerksen by Unanimous Decision

Trevor Prangley defeated Travis Lutter by Unanimous Decision

James Irvin defeated Terry Martin by KO at 0:09 of Round 2