UFC 83 REVIEW
I feel for the sports fans from Montreal. First they have to watch their Montreal Canadiens get beat by their rival Boston Bruins. Then they have to endure one of the worst UFC’s in quite sometime. At least they got to see their hometown hero George St.Pierre win back his title, as he easily defeated Welterweight Champion Matt Serra. St.Pierre showed when he comes prepared to fight there’s not many in his weight class that can handle him. This wasn’t much of a fight, but neither were many of the others with the exception of the Mac Danzig-Mark Bocek battle.
Bocek proved he’s got heart as he got bloodied and beaten but kept fighting until Danzig was able to choke him out. Danzig looked very good, although I thought he should have been able to finish this fight sooner. That may just be a testament to Bocek’s toughness. Michael Bisbing, who I’m not a huge fan of, looked very good in his new weight class and even had me rooting for him. It wasn’t as much wanting Bisbing to win, but rather his opponent Charles McCarthy to lose. McCarthy after taking several punches and knees started making faces as if to say is that all you got. Bisbing showed him there was more where that came from as he battered Charles with even more punches and knees until the end of round 1. As the round ended McCarthy lay on the canvas unable to continue, Bisbing winner TKO. My thoughts, if you’re going to showboat and antagonize your opponent back it up. Anyone can stand there and get pummeled, which is just what McCarthy did. The embarrassment didn’t end there. What was Kalib Starnes thinking? I thought this was a fight. I don’t get into a cage because I would get killed, but if your job is fighting–fight. Starnes meanwhile put on a clinic in back-peddling. Sure he hung on for three rounds, due to the fact that Nate Quarry couldn’t catch him but in the end this even going to decision was laughable. The best part of the fight was Quarry’s post fight tribute to Rocky 4 (“if you can change, then I can change, we all can change”) referring to the Canadians booing him then cheering him. If all this wasn’t bad enough we had to watch as Travis Lutter completely gassed against Rich Franklin. I’m a big Lutter fan, but first not making weight (against Anderson Silva) for a title shot, then seemingly out of shape against a guy known for his cardio is inexcusable. It was hard to say how good Franklin looked because Lutter looked that bad. I tell anyone who’ll listen how this is such a great sport with the best athletes and to be honest that’s not what I saw last night. All and all it was not a great night of fights. McCarthy and Starnes embarrassed themselves and Lutter was out of shape. However, George St.Pierre looked like a champion and Matt Serra showed he’s a class act and gracious in defeat. I just hope the record 22,000 fans that showed up would do so again knowing this was not a typical UFC event. Usually we’re entertained by the fights, not the antics of the fighters.
