UFC 66 – thoughts and results

It’s been the talk of the fight sports world for the last month, and last night it came and went with a bang.  The most hyped event in the history of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC 66 featured a main event of Chuck Liddell, one of the two most dominant men in the sport (the other being Pride’s Heavyweight champ, Fedor Emelianenko) taking on perhaps the biggest cross-over name in MMA, Tito Ortiz, in a battle for Lidell’s light heavyweight title.  I am happy to say that the event lived up to the build.  For quick results, the winners are listed in bold.

The opening bout of the evening featured The Ultimate Fighter season 3 winner Michael “The Count” Bisping beating Ed Schafer by TKO in the first with a flury of viscious bombs (a trend throughout the night).  Bisping, an undefeated MMA fighter out of England, withstood a shaky opening few minutes before taking control of the bout and showcase some dominant striking ability.  The Count will be a major player sooner rather than later in the light heavyweight division.

The second fight feature Andrei “The Pitbull” Arlovsky returning from injury to defeat Marcio Cruz in similar fashion to Bisping’s previous victory.  I have seen highlights of Arlovsky’s past fights with him being dominant and agressive, but the only full fight I had seen of his was the b-r-utally boring third fight he had with Tim Sylvia, where he evidently injured his leg in the opening round and couldn’t do a thing on it for the rest of the fight (which thankfully explains the suckitude of the fight).  Arlovksy looks like a bad ass, with wild hair a full beard, and fangs.  If indeed he is completely healed up, and it seemed that way from this fight, he should be headling the heavyweight divsion by the early summer.

Jason McDonald continued to make a name for himself as he scored a minor upset over Chris Leben via choke out.  McDonald has now submitted two Ultimate Fighter competitors in a row in fairly impressive fashion.  I am interested to see how he will do against a higher class of fighter going forward.

In the second upset of the evening, Keith “The Dean of Mean” Jardine pummeled Forrest Griffin to tears (literally), continuing the early TKO trend of the fight card.  Jardine looked really impressive hear against a legitimate second tier fighter in Griffin.  If he is able to get one more impressive win he may be in line for a light heavyweight title shot by the summer.

With the action moving at a quick pace we had time to see a fight from earlier in the evening before the event went live on pay-per-view.  In another entertaining, action-filled fight, it was was Thiago Alves (a Brazilian fighting for American Top Team, go figure) KOing Tony DeSouza with a brutal knee.  DeSouza looked like a homeless man entering the fight with a scruffy beard and thick hair, and he ended up leaving the fight looking like the loser of a bum fight.

Brucer Buffer then informed us it was time for “our maaaaaaaaiiiiiiiinnnnn event of the evening.”  Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell successfully and dominatly defended his light heavyweight title by stopping “The Huntington Beach Badboy” Tito Ortiz with a flurry of clubbing shots in the 3rd round.  Liddell actually was raining shots down on a prone Ortiz in the first round as well, but the referee must have felt that Ortiz was defending the blows well enough to keep the fight going.  The second round saw Ortiz look better, but there was never a moment when Liddell seemed like he was in any serious trouble.  The Iceman has dominated the sport of MMA for the last few years, and I would sit here and speculate as to who could possibly beat him, but the answer may have been sitting at ringside during last night’s event.

In what is nothing short of major news for the UFC, they announced officially during the pay-per-view that both top heavyweight talent Mirko “Cro Cop” Filipovic and light heavyweight talent Quintin “Rampage” Jackson have signed deals with the UFC and will be making their Ultimate Fighting Championship debuts at UFC 67.

Rampage fought and defeated Liddell in Pride a few years back, and evidently is the only man to defeat the Iceman and not have the favor returned.  Rampage Jackson is one of the most entertaining fighters out there and I am giddy about him signing with the UFC.  If you are not familiar with him, check this out:  Rampage Bomb.

Cro Cop is one of the top all around talents in MMA, and instantly becomes the top contender (savior?) to take the heavyweight title off of Sylvia.  Check out his impressive win over Wanderlei Silva here, via the Cro Cop Kick, in the Pride Open Weight Tournament.

So as we await the seemingly inevitable title fight between Liddell and Jackson, here is the video of their first encounter back in November 2003:  Pride Final Conflict.