Alright.  It’s 9:30, and I’m starting my blog-style coverage a little late.  Let’s sum up what’s happened so far:

9:00 – The show starts

9:03 – The sepia is over, and Goldberg and Rogan commence the hyperbole (which is hardly needed for this card, seeing as how the card is insane).

9:06 – End hyperbole, begin first commercial break.

9:10 – Pre-fight hype for Sakara vs. Alexander (which gets me started at 0-1 for the night)

9:14 – Fight begins.

9:15 – Fight ends/commercial break.

9:19 – Post-fight happenings.

9:21 – Commercial Break

9:25 – Hype for later fights, promo for UFC 76

9:28 – Commercial Break

9:31 – Pre-fight hype for the second fight of the night.

To sum up, that’s about a minute of fighting, and 30 minutes of not fighting.  I can’t believe this is the same company that owns the WEC, which puts on an almost flawless pace on the Versus network.  I’m not naïve enough to think we don’t need a bunch of commercials, but if they really only fit five fights on 3 ½ hours of pre-recorded programming, including commercials, that’s ridiculous.  They should’ve learned something after the horrible job done on UFC 70.  Hopefully it’s just loaded more toward the beginning of the show with commercials, as viewership will obviously build as we go on.

All that aside, Houston Alexander looked pretty freaking impressive, huh?  I give that fight a score of (**).

9:40 – What a performance by Marcus Davis.  You will not often see more excitement in a one-round fight.  Davis took a head kick and showed insane composure, in reversing position and getting the submission.  Absolutely phenomenal fight.  (***)

Good thing they keep telling us who’s bringing us the main event commercial free, or else they might have to show commercials through the main event, instead of before, during, and after every other fight.

Oh, and let’s not forget that we’re getting commercials between commercials.  Last time we got a UFC 76 promo between breaks, and now we get one for the next season of TUF.  Oh, and remember how those two dudes got kicked out of the UFC for fighting last season?  I think I saw about three fights break out (not inside the Octagon) during that promo.  Also, seriously, two one-round fights in about an hour is ridiculous.  Free event or no.  I know I’m being a little tough on the event already, even though it’s only about a third of the way over, but what they’re doing just interrupts the flow of a show.  Flow is essential to keep people tuned in.  If you want someone to be here for the whole thing, don’t put on promos between commercial breaks.  When you do that, there’s nothing hooking the viewer to stay tuned.  Sure, you say what fight is next, but that doesn’t mean anything to casual fans.  If you do pre-fight hype before a commercial break, or ring intros, that would be so much better.  The way they’re doing things so far is just completely ineffective.

Great first round of the Cro Cop-Kongo fight (I give it to Mirko but not by a ton), and here in the second, Mike Goldberg just used the word “markedly” to segue into how Cheick Kongo is marketable.  Does he even watch the fights?  I’ve rarely a fan of his, but he seems worse than usual tonight.  Speaking of watching the fight, big second round for Kongo.  That one was his, but he seemed a little gassed afterwards……Alright, so I was wrong,  Kongo used the Fedor formula that Mark Hunt used against Cro Cop, and had Mirko going backwards for two rounds.  Huge win for Kongo, and it’ll be really interesting to see where Cro Cop goes now.  One thing’s for sure:  this is a new Cheick Kongo that we’re seeing now.  Sure, we didn’t see a lot of ground work, but Kongo looked great. 

And now, I’ve got some MMA on my DVR that I’ll watch for about15 minutes while we wait for the next fight.

Alright, and we’re back.  I gotta say, I’m getting a good chuckle out of Matt Hamill’s entrance music, “Born in the USA”.  Excellent choice.  Hey, you’re getting booed anyway, so why not go all the way with it, right?  And of course, Bisping also makes a good choice with “London Calling”.  Good stuff so far, and the fight hasn’t even started.  I love that Bisping has been training with Juanito and Rampage along with Cheick Kongo, but he looks a little too relaxed in there, if that’s possible, before the fight’s starting.

Hamill wins the first round, and it’s not close.  Speaking of fighters who have evolved, holy crap.  Hamill’s standup is a little clunky, but he packs some serious power.

Another round goes to Hamill, and Bisping’s confidence at the beginning of the fight, I think, has been his downfall.  He took Hamill way too lightly.  Hamill has taken him way off his game, and Bisping just doesn’t know what to do.

And now, after watching the third, it’s apparent that Bisping made the adjustments.  Great round for “The Count”, but it’s not going to be enough.  Or…wait a minute.  I wrote that before I heard the decision, and I can’t believe my ears.  What fight were these guys watching?  That was a terrible, terrible decision.  Just awful and disgraceful.  This is where the decision would get called out if there were impartial announcers in the UFC.  That needs to happen.  I mean seriously, this is terrible.  I picked Bisping to win, but there’s no way he won that fight.  I’ll need to rewatch it, but the fact that one judge scored it 30-27 for Hamill has got to mean something.

As a side note, “Good Luck Chuck” looks absolutely horrendous.

Main event time.  Hendo makes his way to the cage with Rage Against the Machine over the speakers.  Nice.  Henderson is loose and relaxed.  Rampage comes to the ring, and he looks murderous.  Did I mention I can’t wait to see this?

Round one was great.  Henderson took it with some nasty shots and some takedowns, but Jackson weathered nicely.  Excellent stuff.

Round two slowed down a bit, and I’d give the very slight edge to Rampage.  He had the escape, took the same position that Henderson had, and did more damage with it.

Round three was very close, but I’d give another slight edge to Jackson.  He caused a bit more damage again, but only by a bit.  I wouldn’t argue if it went to Henderson, though. 

Fourth round is for Jackson.  Henderson seems pretty gassed at this point.  The fifth could very well decide the fight on the cards, if it gets there.

I have no idea who got the fifth.  I’d probably give it to Rampage, but really just by a hair again.  This’ll be an interesting.  And apparently the no-commercial clause doesn’t apply to waiting for the decision.  Nice.

Rampage takes it by unanimous decision, and he takes “walk us through the highlights” quite literally.  I love it.

For my final thoughts, tune into the podcast later on.  We’ll record it tonight, and hopefully it’ll get posted tomorrow.  For now though, the baby is crying and I don’t have the quick fingers to get all my thoughts down.  Enjoy your MMA, everyone.

To contact me, Shawn Ennis, shoot me an email at ennistorch@sbcglobal.net or visit my zone on the forums.