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RICH HANSEN, MMATORCH COLUMNIST: (5.0)
Solely for Joe Lauzon and Jim Miller
So, I'm watching the Fuel TV post-fight show, despite the presence of the grating Karyn Bryant, and the Todd Duffee vs. Phil DeFries fight was covered in the opening segment. I think that says it all, but since I get paid by the word...
UFC 155 sucked, okay? Sorry. True. The title fight was abysmal. I mean, it wasn't TUF 10 or Rothwell-Hunt, but it sure as hell wasn't Fedor vs. Nog (1 or 3), either. It wasn't Cormier vs. Barnett. It was most comparable to Couture vs. Sylvia, with a split crowd. Meaning, a decent at best fight that people desperately want to claim as something more than what it turned out to be. Nobody remembers the 2005 World Series, and no one's going to remember this fight, partisans aside.
Boetsch vs. Philippou? Brutal.
Okami vs. Belcher? Too Okami.
Leben vs. Brunson? Imagine if they fought in Denver.
Pickett vs. Wineland? Great... for about seven minutes.
Guillard vs. Stephens, I mean Varner? Enough said.
Moraga vs Cariaso? Tedious, until the last 15 seconds. Kind of like sex when you're 60 years old.
But damn if Jim Miller and Joe Lauzon didn't save UFC 155 for me. I don't do eloquent prose, so I won't try to do it justice. Just find a stream if you didn't see it. One of the five best fights of the year, maybe even the best fight of the year.
ANWAR PEREZ, MMATORCH COLUMNIST: (6.0)
A very promising card on paper, but save for the last two fights, this card hardly delivered. Even exciting fighters like Chris Leben and Tim Boetsch failed to deliver any excitement and the crowd was dead until the phenomenal bloody brawl between Jim Miller and Joe Lauzon. A great fight that really woke the crowd up and delivered on the promise of their announced fight months ago. Cain Velasquez and Junior Dos Santos had a big fight feel and delivered in spades. The only reason this card didn't get a lower rating was because of the last two fights, this one especially. It went longer than it had any right to, but Velasquez put a hurting on Dos Santos in route to regaining the championship. The announce team may want to say that Velasquez looked impressive in regaining his belt, thing is, he couldn't finish a guy that he should have put away in the second. Either way, a solid win for Velasquez, and guarantee, we WILL see a third fight between Dos Santos and Velasquez.
ERIC HOBAUGH, MMATORCH CONTRIBUTOR (8.5)
The under card on FX was good, but not great. Looks like Jamie Varner is preparing for another run at a title. What was the judge that scored the fight 30-27 for Guillard doing instead of watching the fight?
First up was Chris Leben vs. Derek Brunson. It was good to see Leben in the Octagon after serving his 12 month drug suspension. This was a rock em sock em robots kind of fight. How many times have we seen Leben look like he was done and come back for a last minute KO win? It was not to be in this back and forth battle. Leben looked like he had a bad case of ring rust. I am not sure how many more times we will see Chris Leben in the cage. I think his best days are behind him. Brunson has a bright future and with Greg Jackson in his corner the sky is the limit for him. Brunson won a rather boring decision victory.
Yushin Okami vs. Alan Belcher started slow and dead even on my score cards for the first round. Round two went to Okami because he was able to get Belcher to the ground and maintain his dominant position. Round three was an exact duplicate of the second. Belcher will need to once again go back to the drawing board. He was only a fight or two from a title shot before this fight. With this boring loss to Okami he will have much work to get back into title contention. Okami looked better than he has in a while, but I think he will never again challenge for a title.
The first round in the Tim Boetsch vs. Costa Philippou was very even with neither fighter gaining an edge. Boetsch looked as if he had an injury to his right hand and pulled his punches when he threw that hand. In round two Philippou started to gain the advantage with his superior striking and he used some ground and pound to cut the forehead of Boetsch. The fight was stopped in the third round and Boetsch lost because he was not defending himself. Boetsch will need to reload and find ways to improve if he wants to stay in the mix at 185. I am not taking away anything from Philippou, but Boetsch had a possible broken hand, a cut due to an accidental head butt, and his eye was closing from an eye poke. Philippou did not look great and will need to do way better in his next fight if he wants to climb the ranks on the middleweight division.
Joe Lauzon vs. Jim Miller started with Jim Miller landing early and often. Miller opened a cut with a nice elbow and the blood flowed. Miller was dominant from the opening bell to the closing bell of the first. Joe Lauzon looked as if he had been shot in the face he was so bloody. Miller took Lauzon down in the second and stayed in full mount or half guard for more than half the round. Louzon was able to sweep and ended up on top for the second half of the round. Joe Lauzon looked as if he had been shot in the face he was so bloody. GREAT FIGHT! The third round was all on the feet and I scored the third for Lauzon. This fight was to this point in the PPV the fight of the night. What a shame that one of these fighters had to loose. This fight will be a fight of the year candidate. Miller won a close decision. Miller takes another step forward in his progression for a title shot. Lauzon lost this decision but I think this loss will not hurt him too much in the standings and he will be given another top ten fighter in his next fight.
Junior dos Santos vs. Cain Velasquez started fast with Velasquez being the aggressor and landing often. I thought that Velasquez had to fight the perfect fight to win. He destroyed Junior in the first round. The second started like the first ended. Junior was taken down at will and could do nothing with Velasquez. This was an unbelievable fight. Cain looked unstoppable. Round three was the same as round one and two. Round four was an exact duplicate of the third. Round five was another total dominant performance by Velasquez. JDS will be back and this loss will make him a better fighter. Velasquez will hopefully meet Overeem soon and that will be an all-time great fight. If JDS can put a win or two together we could see an awesome trilogy with Velasquez. So many times the fights do not match the hype. Tonight they were better than the hype. I am looking forward to many exciting fights in 2013.
JAMIE PENICK, MMATORCH EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: (6.0)
The Facebook prelims were mostly exciting, the FX prelims were pretty good, and then the pay-per-view card got off to a momentum-halting start. The Leben-Brunson fight was awful, attributed to a long layoff from Leben and short notice from Brunson, and even Dana White admitted they made a mistake in putting it on pay-per-view. Then the Okami-Belcher fight was a frustrating viewing experience with Belcher having success, then making little mistakes that allowed Okami to control from top position. And it wasn't all that entertaining. Follow that with a less than thrilling fight that saw Tim Boetsch fall to an eye poke that led to a third round loss against Costa Philippou, and the UFC desperately needed the main and co-main events to step up.
The co-main absolutely saved this card from being a complete dud, as Jim Miller and Joe Lauzon battled for 15 thrilling minutes. Miller's first round beating was ridiculous, and lesser fighters than Lauzon wouldn't have been able to continue from there. But continue he did, and though he wasn't ever able to really get back into the fight, he made things interesting with his submission attempts. It was just a fantastic fight, and late entrant into the "Fight of the Year" discussion.
As for the main event, it was a tale of two fights. The first two rounds were excellent, and hate the fight on its way to all-time great status, and the final three represented everything many loathe about heavyweight MMA at times. Too much clinching, too little offense, and two very tired fighters. Velasquez did plenty to win the rounds, but the fight was essentially decided in that first round.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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