UFC provided viewers with a free card on Spike TV last night. There were six matches that aired, with Anderson Silva taking on James Irvin headlining the night.
Jesse Taylor, fresh out of AA and returning to UFC, went up against C.B. Dollaway in the opening bout of UFC Fight Night. After dominating most of the first round, C.B. Dollaway got “JT Money” in a Peruvian Necktie, and forced him to tap. Overall, it was an okay match to start the night.
The second fight of the night featured the powerful Anthony Johnson versus the technical Kevin Burns. This was the first big card for each fighter, and I’m sure they both wish they could take a mulligan. Although Johnson is known for his knockout power, it was Burns who came out swinging (and landing), letting everyone know that he has some strength of his own. Both fighters were aggressive in the first round and were able to land a number of good hits. The second round, however, was all Johnson, who came out throwing punches and knees to the face. Throughout the match, Anthony Johnson complained about getting poked in the eye, and midway through the third round, Johnson went down after getting poked once again. The fight was stopped and Kevin Burns won by TKO. Burns is a very classy fighter and it’s doubtful that the eye poke was intentional, so Johnson didn’t complain. All in all, it was an entertaining fight that came to a disappointing and unfortunate ending.
Cain Velasquez took on Jake O’Brien in the night’s only heavyweight matchup. Cain got on top of O’Brien early and then went on to punch him in the face about 50 times…literally. This match ended quickly, but it was still entertaining. I admire Jake “the Irish” O’Brien’s ability to hang in there for as long as he did. He took countless punches to the face knowing that there was no end in sight.
In the next match, Hermes Franca faced off against Frank Edgar in a lightweight bout. Edgar got off to a great start, keeping Franca on his back for a big part of the fight. Franca was able to reverse Edgar into an arm bar early in the match, but aside from that, Franca didn’t do much of anything during the match. Frank Edgar won by unanimous decision in what was a dominating (though not too entertaining) match. It was a great win for him.
Next up was Muay Thai fighter Brandon “The Truth’ Vera against Reese Andy in the main match of the under card. This was, by far, the most boring fight of the night. There was simply way too much standing around. Vera wins by decision. (Yawn.)
In the main event of the night, Anderson “The Spider” Silva, arguably the best pound for pound fighter in the UFC, fought “The Sandman’ James Irvin. It didn’t take long for Silva to show exactly why people consider him to be the best. A minute into the fight, the UFC Middleweight Champion caught a kick from Irvin and countered with a strike right to the chin and knocked him down.
This match featured a lot of hype for not much action. But that’s what happens when one fighter is as dominant as Silva.
All in all, this was a so-so UFC event, which was probably only held to take viewers away from the Affliction pay-per-view. I’m sure glad I didn’t have to pay to watch this.
