Issue 154
May 2017
There must have been something in the water in the spring of 2007.
Underdogs kept having their day in the biggest fights. Randy Couture upset Tim Sylvia to become the oldest UFC champion at UFC 68 and Gabriel Gonzaga took out Mirko Cro Cop with a head kick at UFC 70, but the biggest surprise was sandwiched between them in Texas.
Surely a blown-up lightweight from The Ultimate Fighter couldn’t defeat the most dynamic fighter ever seen in the welterweight division?
DA SPYDA'S WEB
The ‘Submission of the Night’ was a beauty. Kendall Grove continued to prove that The Ultimate Fighter champions were to be taken seriously when he put Alan Belcher to sleep with a picture-perfect D’Arce choke.
ROCKY IS HERE
Georges St-Pierre was the embodiment of the new breed of mixed martial artist. He appeared to have no weaknesses and was running through everyone at 170lb.
In his last fight, he’d avenged his only defeat by destroying Matt Hughes – the greatest fighter in division history. Matt Serra earned his title shot by winning a reality show with a disputed decision over Chris Lytle.
Few people gave ‘The Terror’ a chance. The odds against him were unheard of for a UFC fight. Then, he caught GSP with a looping right hook. ‘Rush’ was on rollerskates. He tried to recover but suffocated under a barrage from the challenger until the fight was stopped. It was unbelievable. Serra had pulled o the biggest upset in UFC history.
POSTER BOY
Throughout 2007, the UFC pushed Roger Huerta as hard as any of its biggest stars. He was young, good-looking and an exhilarating athlete. His ‘Fight of the Night’ with Leonard Garcia was his breakout moment and immortalized as the subject of the UFC’s first Sports Illustrated cover.
ALL TALK
Fans were pumped for Josh Koscheck vs. Diego Sanchez. ‘The Nightmare’ was a huge fan favorite putting his undefeated record on the line in a grudge match against an old rival from TUF 1.
A war of words and physical confrontations built this one up to be one of the most anticipated co-main events of the year, but in practice, it was a dud. Boos echoed around the arena as Koscheck cruised to an easy decision win, but fans were lucky to see a fight at all. Sanchez almost retired days earlier when he was incorrectly told he had Hepatitis C.
That diagnosis was later corrected to a bad staph infection, but he was still in no condition to compete.
STAR SIGNING
A seismic shift in the MMA landscape was underway. The UFC had just completed its takeover of Pride Fighting Championships and it was ready to bring over its biggest guns to shake up its roster. It’s Richter scale-bothering announcement on this night was that one of the best heavyweights to ever do it, ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira, was down to start rumbling in the heavyweight division.
Nice leather jacket, too.
ALSO FIGHTING AT UFC 69
- Marcus Davis is known as a striker, but he surprised Pete Spratt with an Achilles lock to win his third straight UFC fight. ‘The Irish Hand Grenade’ was becoming a guaranteed source of entertainment.
- It looked like Skeletor had come to fight Luke Cummo, but it was actually Josh Haynes. ‘Bring the Pain’ fought at 205lb during TUF 3 and cut to 170 for this fight. He looked awful and lost by KO.
- They weren’t due to fight until UFC 73, but that didn’t stop Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans going at it in the cageside seats. Good job Forrest Griffin was there to break things up.
