UFC 85 REVIEW

UFC 85 “Bedlam” which took place Saturday night in London, England should be Matt Hughes “swan song”. It’s clear his best day’s have past him by. In the main event Hughes was dominated by rising star Thiago“The Pitbull”Alves. Hughes just does not appear to be anywhere near the fighter he once was. It seems as the sport has evolved Hughes has not. There was a time when Hughes could simply rely on his strength, out-muscle an opponent and ground-and-pound him or maybe submit them with an armbar. No longer does that happen, as the guys fighting today are equally as strong and have much better all around skills. My thoughts are Hughes should walk away now, there’s no sense hanging around for a couple more losses. As far as Alves is concerned, I would like to see him win at least one more fight before getting a title shot (perhaps against a guy like Josh Koscheck). “The Pitbull” has been very impressive in his last two victories (TKO’s over Hughes and Karo Parisyan) but George St.Pierre is in a different league than those two.The rest of the night had some pretty decent bouts. Michael Bisbing wasted little time pounding out a TKO over Jason Day at 3:42 of rd1. It’s time for the UFC to step-up the competition for Bisbing, maybe a Rich Franklin, Yushin Okami or Dan Henderson. Let’s see what he’s all about.Mike Swick continues to look good as a welterweight as he defeated Marcus Davis via unanimous decision. I must admit I was pulling for Davis in this one and was surprised he didn’t try to keep it standing. It might have been due to the fact Swick has the reach advantage but I thought Davis would get in close and do his damage from there. Although Davis was bloodied and Swick spent the majority of the fight with top position it didn’t seem as though he was doing much to end the fight. I did however agree with the judges.Nate Marquardt and Thales Leites put on a spirited fight ending in a split decision with Leites getting the nod. Personally, I thought Marquardt won this fight but with his point deduction for a knee to the head of a downed opponent, it cost him the victory. Marquardt seemed to be right on the verge of breaking the rules a couple times during this fight. With the aforementioned knee, to an elbow to the side of Leites head, (which he was warned for) to the piledriver at the end of the 3rd rd. Marquardt was lucky not to get disqualified.Fabricio Werdums stock has risen even higher with his TKO victory over Brandon Vera. Yes, the stoppage was questionable but Vera was not really doing anything to prevent Werdum from pounding away on him. It seems to me Vera would be better suited for light heavyweight. Werdum on the other hand looks ready for a title shot with possibly one more tune-up fight just to stay sharp. He’s easily a top heavyweight in a very weak division.In what was one of the better fights of the night, Matt Wiman came back from taking some big shots to KO Thiago Tavares in spectacular fashion. Wiman has looked very good as of late winning his last four fights but with a stacked lightweight division he may get overlooked.Overall, I would rate this event a 5 out of 10. I was hoping this UFC would be free considering there was not that “Big Fight”. If we learned anything from watching, its Matt Hughes is no longer a Main Event fighter. We may have witnessed a Legend’s final time in the Octagon.