UFC 79 Nemesis review

Introduction

Mixed martial arts clearly became a significant form of both mass entertainment and - as Bruce Lee put it - an expression of the human body, the latter being, no doubt, the original field of operation of these ancient traditions, now living and breathing through competitive events around the world. Though many may consider men who enter the proving grounds little more than hired human pitbulls to rip each other apart for hard cash and radical amusement, I tend to utterly reject this rudimentary view, concluding that professional level mma is the combat of highly disciplined human spirits, opposing each other for the duration of the bout, probably ending up as unified in the process as we could conceive, simply through their magnificent shared experience of being in a cage where the damage one suffers is the wit one failed to exhibit. That is how, in my opinion, the mma fighter fights against herself/himself.

Japanese people compete to gain an insight of their own current abilities through the collision process of their skills with that of other's. To me, the ultimately glorious moments of mixed martial arts are not of those of KOs and submissions. They are of those of hugging the formal rival at the end of the bout, circulating the most honest, uncompromised, pure respect each fighter deserves simply by stating themselves on the proving grounds, regardless of the results. The ensuing peace between fighters after a good collision is such a palpable, legit sensation that it never got old so far - and won't ever will.

This here is a review of the UFC event UFC 79 Nemesis, time to punch that Read more button, baby!

Introductory thoughts about the more significant lineups

The US based Ultimate Fighting Championship makes continuous efforts to recruit warriors on an international scale whom are absolutely on the top of the mma food chain, Croatian living legend Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic and Wanderlei "The Axe Murderer" Silva of Brazilian origins being of those recent additions to the UFC's warrior palette - the latter returning to the octagon after seven years of dominating the rankings of the Japan based Pride organization.

Many claimed that Wanderlei Silva's reign in Pride was partly based upon the organization's possible strategy to build him up as the special pride of Pride, - sorry about that, truly - positioning him to deliver thorough lessons for the less experienced contestants entering the squared circle. A theory which might have some justification to it, as the Axe Murderer's latest two Pride fights against similarly illustrious characters resulted in defeats, one to Mirko CroCop and another one to Dan "Hollywood" Henderson. All of these three great warriors are competing now in the UFC, though CroCop, coming off of two UFC losses himself, definitely will have to shine and shine superbright when those mythic legs enter the octagon for the forth time.

Silva, coming back to the UFC after two defeats in the Pride rankings, faces one of the greatest challenge of his mixed martial arts career in the form of Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell, who is coming off of two defeats himself, as well - first losing his championship belt to Quinton "Rampage" Jackson via an unsuccessful vengeance match against the werewolf he got already beat by once, then losing a close decision against Keith "The Dean of Mean" Jardine, who performed superbly against a very dangerous, but evidently unmotivated Liddell. Question arose if the Chuck Thing is yet able and motivated enough to come back with the classic Iceman look in his eyes, frankly, the look and attitude he probably could access again only via these two losses, both of them being quite staggering.

Liddell and Silva, both thirsty to prove themselves and once again claim a solid position on the planes of martial arts excellence, no doubt were caught in the best of time to collide against each other as their backs are evidently up against the wall, and they are certainly aware that

the only way out is through

Once he enters the rings or the octagon, Wanderlei Silva, this seemingly calm (s'puse so, huh??) bloke certainly metamorphoses into a monster you won't likely want to play around with, a superaggressive warrior who throws vicious punches and elbows and hardly if ever gives a slowdown to the pace. Liddell, on the other hand, is quite fond of being assaulted, and exploits the holes manifesting during the attackfoams with ruthless efficiency. Among others, his second match against Renato "Babalu" Sobral was a perfect example of this style, Chuck quickly destroying the challenger who certainly deserves credit of being confident/reckless enough to engage The Iceman in such a blatant, furious series of exchanges.

Funny thing is that Wanderlei claimed in the pre-Nemesis interviews that he does not care if he wins or loses, he participates in the fight first and foremost to showcase HIS personal style of fighting, so an aggressive rush and series of rampant assaults he promised to execute against the Liddell Thing.

Liddell is one of my personal favorites, never seen such an easy going guy with nuclear bombs hidden in his fists, and the two defeats he suffered seemed to serve his career well, once again we could behold the eyes of the Iceman as he approached the octagon to face the Axe Murderer in a match that took no less than six years to pull off, according to the UFC.

The main event of the evening is an interim welterweight bout between Matt Hughes and George St. Pierre, with the victor earning the right and the chance to battle against reigning welterweight champion, Matt "The Terror" Serra, a very charismatic and superfunny dude with the personal, quite original touch of a MOB movie character.

Serra is premier causer of a tremendous upset of UFC 69 Shootout, where as Ultimate Fighter Season 4 winner he redeemed his right to compete against George St. Pierre to a belt around his waist, disposing in a surprisingly quick manner of the champion by the day, catching George with some serious punches and finishing him with effective stand up-to ground assaults. Matt Hughes earned himself a somewhat consensual reputation of an organ capable to urinate after explicitly meta(?) stating how he loved the destruction of St. Pierre at UFC 69, shouting an "I LUV IT!" from the audience loud enough to overhear from the neighboring states, even distant continents.

The rivalry between Matt and George might come to a very possible, convincing conclusion by the day of the Nemesis, it is remains a question if Hughes's excellent yet massively traditional wrestling style matches up to St. Pierre's seemingly ever-increasing versatility. The ongoing story of three welterweight topdogs we witness to develop by the time of this particular evening, so a night of memorable moments we should anticipate, and them, we anticipate, indeed.

Chuck Liddell vs Wanderlei Silva

A slugfest ye wanted? A slugfest they deliver, one of the most memorable event of all UFC history, have no doubt about that. The fight goes down in my opinion as a fight of supersolid dignity and ruthless determination, as both warriors are able to claim their great moments while an everpresent awareness of the opponent's superdangerous potential is clearly evident on both men's part.

This is mainly an intellectual, a mental fight, where the man with the greater confidence that his abilities might be capable to overcome the other's is getting the upper hand. After a keenly suspenseful feeling out process, Liddell takes and pretty much maintains the initiative, stalking and harrassing a very intelligently fighting, elusive Silva who represents constant danger with his well placed answers and exhibits cautious awareness of the Iceman's possible moves.

The second portion of the consecutive round is the period where things go quite wicked, an action packed swing feast where both fighters burn a considerable amount of energy, first throwing odd, cocky softening punches in weird yet in quite interesting angles and moments. Things are starting to heat up with The Iceman pushing the pace, - sorry for the metaphoric disturbance, folks - yet, what would certainly prove to be way too much for a fighter below Silva's exceptional attributes and skills, Chuck Liddell's massive trademark assault confronts with a furious debate-readyness on Wanderlei Silva's part.

The round reaches its memorable climax with Silva's back at the fence, a position where Liddell relentlessly and intelligently forces the Axe Murderer to both by utilizing his significant reach advantage and also by offering quite a few connecting bombs and vicious elbows to Wanderlei, opening a cut on the brow. Though Silva is the one to eat the more significant strikes in this intense period, the persistence and the chin of Wanderlei both prove to be exceptionally hard, letting the Axe Murder to exhibit a very mature defensive gameplay in a very dire position, and that is more than enough to wrap the second round up. Both fighters return to their corners from a massive war being worn, the native pace and intensity though is so excessively demanding that the majority of their juice is used up before the imminent final round.

What it is ultimately boiling down to is an action performed by Liddell in the concluding period, an action that is of an instant-highlight-reel quality, a blatant spinning backfist connecting on the Axe Murderer's head, and what a battle we then behold! I have absolutely no doubt that 99% of the entire planet's population would have instantly wrap the floor from that spinning backfist, Silva, being in the remaining 1% though, reacts with a temporary wobble then he is set to go on - but Chuck immediately connects with a very swift left-right combo, while instinctively dodging a dangerous axe swing offered by Silva - by a Silva who is still under the effect of eating in two heavy duty assaults, and still ready to execute such a vicious swing. This combination executed by the Liddell Thing here is certainly very hard to grasp with the unsuspecting eye, but if you watch really carefully or utilize slow motion you can see that he lands two punches in a super rapid succession indeed, the spectator can't help but admire the stamina of the Axe Murderer who remains on his feet, ready to wage this war further on.

They end up at the fence again, Liddell goes in for the kill, these are the moments where the Iceman usually and traditionally ends up triumphant, throwing bombs on an opponent who has no place whatsoever to withdraw to - Chuck's fights against Tito Ortiz are textbook examples of this approach, a method that requires both precision and relentlessness. And, as it became obvious now, after Nemesis: it requires a tremendous amount of energy, too.

These are the moments where Silva showcases a whole set of his skills, partly answering, partly evading, and partly surviving Liddell's trademark fence-assault, mind you, all these he performs in an exceptionally bitter situation where possibilities are extremely shallow and mainly characterized by the Iceman's relentless presence, summoned via the spinning backfist and the follow-up hit, bombs that took off much of Wanderlei, of whom we could now easily say that he is still a special force to reckon with, probably more than ever. A memorable showcase of two very mature and experienced fighters, with both of them running low on gas by the final round, such a vicious pace they dictate and keep up to.

The third round is somewhat of an unspoken, acknowledged "let's survive this together, whatyyasay?"-type of round therefore, we truly can't blame them though, both fighters blewing pretty much all the juice they had during the events of the second period. Chuck even goes for and successfully claims a takedown in the final round, something I can't recall ever see him doing before. A well deserved decision goes for the Chuck Thing, and all respect goes for the Axe Murderer, of whom Liddell admits having a way tougher chin he had thought he has. As for me, I was NEVER keener of nodding me blob, I'm giving you that. A definite classic, and though many claim a knockout would have had place the crown on this magnificent encounter, I tend to regard the event as being more special and glorifying this way, both legendary warriors standing in the end, with an evident, though unspoken possibility filling the octagon's air that they very well might meet again some day.

George St. Pierre vs Matt Hughes

The main event of the evening rendered a stubborn conclusion to a trilogy between two great fighters, a warrior of excessive routine and experience, and a warrior whose readiness and wide array of skill sets seem harder and harder to match up to with each passing day. Now, who is who, ye might ask.

When George St. Pierre scored a dominant victory over welterweight champion Matt Hughes in UFC 65 Bad Intentions, we certainly gave appreciation for an impressive performance on the challenger's part, and yet we were free to assume that Matt simply had an unsuccessful title defense attempt and might very well be back to reclaim the welterweight belt. By the time their second meeting was held, after all - Hughes already owned a victory over the French-Canadian GSP.

The two GSPs fighting Matt Hughes were not the same, though. St. Pierre thinks of their first meeting as he lost that bout even before the first round was started, Hughes being his idol and he, GSP being the clueless, puny contender who somehow managed to trick himself into the delusion that he actually could live up to the skill set of the reigning champion, a warrior who is but a step away from entering the UFC's Hall of Fame. Well, first the delusion turned out to be legit - St. Pierre lost to Hughes via a very effectively sold and also quite keenly purchased armbar, but, you see, St. Pierre really couldn't have won that fight and win the consecutive one, as THAT very loss at their first meeting starts to define the George St. Pierre we behold today, modern mixed martial artist personified, who possesses an ever-sophisticating and ever-widening tool set. Needless to say: the true delusion was that there was a need for inventing a delusion at the first place, when there was no such need, but the loss was needed, anyway, to solidify the belief that the delusion was but a delusion, and a delusion which is a delusion, is but a delusion, indeed, and need not to be dealt with. Makes perfect sense, yes?

UFC referee Big John McCarthy regards GSP as the best welterweight fighter alive. I think John McCarthy happened to see some welterweights in action - even in close action - before, and he does not seem to be one to throw opinions of such compliments easily around, heed those words. Heed those words, and behold if St. Pierre dominates again when a 110% Matt Hughes is unleashed upon him!

Following his upset-loss and belt deprivation to/and by Matt "The Terror" Serra at UFC 69 Shootout, GSP stated that this particular loss is the best thing that is ever happened to him in his mixed martial arts career, in fact, I liked how he accounted the situation, stating that there are thousands of possible grim states between losing the belt and accepting that the belt is lost for the moment, so he tries to avoid all those grim states and accept that the belt is lost, and will focus his attention to gain it back as soon as possible.

As of today, soon as possible seems to be April of 2008, when reigning welterweight champion Matt Serra emerges unto a title defense against the French-Canadian, and according to what we have seen in UFC 79 Nemesis on GSP's part, The Terror will have a lot, a whole lot to deal with if to keep the welterweight belt.

St. Pierre outclasses Hughes in this match, a complete, evident domination without a chance to reach into the third round, Matt is forced to tap out verbally due to an armbar. The trilogy, and ironically: the vengeance is complete. Submitting Matt Hughes still remains as hard as frenchkissing a cobra, mind you, not many - if any - can do that except George. The difference between the two fighter seemed surprisingly big, I'd say it is not correct to say that Hughes is the worse fighter, no. Hughes is obviously a very highly skilled martial artist with a historic UFC record of dreamlike qualities. The truth lies in another, and in a quite staggering dimension, indeed. Heed what Matt Hughes said after the fight.

"No excuses, I came here 110%, George is simply the better fighter."

Words of pure class and sportsmanship, words that reflect a rational yet understandably hurtful inner peace out of Hughes's soul, admitting the limits of his current game when compared to the versatility of the game St. Pierre can, and forces one to play when one is willing to engage him on the proving ground. It remains a definite question if we ever to see Matt Hughes again in the octagon, as GSP poses a tremendous force in the welterweight division, and the UFC's biggest concern for the time being probably is to line up contestants whom could pose a challenge against St. Pierre, a focal protagonist who's skills are clearly surpass the division's standards. Let us see how he performs when Matt "The Terror" Serra emerges to defend the welterweight title.

Lyoto Machida vs Sokoudjou

Lyoto Machida tactically and practically takes apart and submits Sokoudjou, The African Assassin: a charismatic, young fighter who holds two impressive defeats in Pride, but fails to come up with answers to Machida's elusive, unorthodox style and massively tactical gameplay. (Side note: me totally digs the Predator mask Sokoudjou wore when he came in.)

Many consider Machida a boring fighter, personally I think he is one of the most interesting warriors to witness perform, all his moves and maneuvers are well thought of and carefully planned, he may not have came up with the most action-packed bouts to this point, but he definitely personifies supersolid proving ground strategy, earning him a flawless record of 12-0 to date. Machida finally offered something extra as well in the form of the comments he made after the bout, stating:

"I beat the Alaskan Assassin. I beat the African Assassin. What other Assassin do I have to beat to earn the title shot?"

Must admit that I found this statement original and quite funny on Machida's part. Rumors can be heard about a possible match between Tito Ortiz and Machida, THAT would be something to witness. Machida being extremely close to earn himself a go for the belt, his next appearance is a definite must see, if that would be against Ortiz, it just means a significant increasement in the anticipation factor and the obvious need for an extra bucket of popcorn. Two, maybe.

Eddie Sanchez vs Soa Palelei

Total destruction demonstrated by Sanchez, with a referee stoppage when one had the chance of wondering how come Palelei still keeps his head on his neck, and had the chance to ponder this pretty much throughout the whole bout. Crude showdown with Sanchez keeping the upper hand all the while with an iron fist, more of a beatdown, really, than a balanced fight, as Sanchez clearly justifies his will in this fight, rendering a harshly effective performance after his only loss, a loss to Mirko CroCop.

Rich Clementi vs Melvin Guillard

These two duders are NOT liking each other, these two duders are NOT liking each other at all. A short showdown with a nice submission at the end by UFC veteran Clementi to teach promising, though cocky newcomer Guillard a lesson. Even some slight instant drama is delivered by them to open the night. An OK match to start off Nemesis, also an OK match to forget completely.

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Of the remaining bouts I had not bear much interest, therefore I wrap this up, having the definite focal points of the night reviewed here. Hope you had a fine evening and found the review useful - thank you for reading it, and see you next time.

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