UFC 89 Bisping VS Leben 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 89 Bisping VS Leben, time to punch that Read more button, baby!

Introductory thoughts about the more significant lineups

Human transformation is one of the most fruity things a human can go through - assuming it points to- and even progresses along the positive direction. Chris Leben is after a radical positive transformation, one which you can not miss out on. The heavy hitter Ultimate Fighter contestant who had a deeply intimate relation with many advanced forms of body abuse: punished all in the Octagon with the dynamite Nature gave him as a left hand. It was current UFC Middleweight Champion Anderson Silva who stopped The Crippler, and, as Chris expresses, this loss was a life changing experience to him. Meaning Leben.

Reciting this, and seeing that it was indeed, are two completely different things. Leben comes to you as a sober, well composed individual, letting you, inviting you to appreciate the mere path he took to reach to this point. Not everybody is able to do this. Some do fall tremendously after a loss, sustaining damage that might never let one to heal completely. Sad, yes? Veeery. It's always nice to see this notion being laughed at by an individual who summoned proper power to better herself/himself, though. It is "himself" time now.

Leben is facing Michael Bisping, the number 1 mma Favorite of Britain, and, it must be rightfully so - and we know that it is, anyway - because the Brits love a good fight, and they know when they see one. Bisping never looked as he would be in a dire despair on the Proving Ground, this fighter definitely has an aura of "semi-invincibility" around him by the day, sewn out of charisma, skills, and the undeniable fact that all, cite that I, herein: all is yet to see a Michael Bisping whose hive is in fatal danger in the Octagon. Leben assures us that Michael did not see a striker of his caliber yet, while Bisping tells us that he has more to offer in more areas than Chris does.

The next focal attraction of the night is Keith Jardine taking on Brandon Vera. Well, some claim you can not open a debate about tastes and preferences, I think this is an utterly false notion. Let us notice: debates about tastes and preferences often do yield the most fruity of results. Or bloody. But those debaters do not get the point at all. While it would be nice to state that one does not have the right to eradicate any opinion, including this one, question also forms if one have the right to state an opinion that deliberately lacks all flexibility. Such an opinion surely could be incapable to count with certain information that is about to ensue yet by the birth of the opinion. Yes?

Question forms: where am I going with this?

I'll tell you: I'm going to this to the Octagon phenomena of Brandon Vera. I don't know if his style is my cup of tea. But, since I do ask this question, it's probably not. The dude seems to have a hard time recently of deciding which weight class he should fight in, then, when he decides, he comes out, assuring us that he will shatter all conceptions we ever thought to be true about mma, then, he puts up such a

booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooring

fight with Tim "I am not afraid of Fedor" Sylvia that the bout in question forces you to write down the Top 5 Things More Boring Than Watching This Fight Is, being sure that those mental constructs are very rare, and very precious ones to be greeted by. Therefore, should be recorded and remembered. So, Brandon Vera, who, at least reminds me of Sagat from Street Fighter II, always comes out to redefine mma, yet goes away recently with redefining excuses. He always has two of those, each hidden carefully under the gloves. "Yes, I broke my hand and that kind of changed my gameplan, and yes, I was totally OK when Werdum sat on my chest and started to throw bombs to smash my face in while I was totally helpless, but the stupid Ref interfered at the THIRD bomb and didn't want to see my nose being crushed beyond recognition, MAN, are! you! kidding! me!"

One dude I never heard an excuse, even a slight reminder of those from, and I serioulsy doubt if someone ever will, is: Keith Jardine. Whow, I love this fighter. He is indeed a mean apparition, he totally could be the definite role model for a dark fantasy video game boss character, wouldn't you agree? A very humble and calm person in real life, the former debt collector - imagine the delight when he knocks on your door - is the only warrior who defeated two UFC Champions of the recent era. Indeed, he holds wins over Chuck Liddell and current Champion Forrest Griffin. Jardine's career is a roller coaster so far: he gets temporarily murdered by Wanderlei Silva in UFC 84 Ill WIll, and now he returns to eradicate the current hopes of Brandon Vera of establishing himself as Za! Force! to Rekonvid!

Marcus Davis vs Paul Kelly

Hardened veteran Marcus Davis is coming off of a loss against Mike Swick, - see the account of the aforementioned performance taking place in UFC 85 Bedlam: < - (t)here - thus the Irish Handgrenade arrives to the Birmingham Octagon with sober hopes- and related determination to administer a thorough lesson for a younger and very powerful talent of mma in the persona of local favorite, Paul Kelly. The evenly placed start period, characterized by cautious respect from Kelly's- and sobriety of Davis's part is about to get tensely, welcomely prolonged during the entire first round. Marcus exhibits crystal clear command of safe distance which he can offer major resistance from, eventually luring the younger contender to make a takedown attempt in the second round. Davis's ground techniques are not of those you want to regard as jokes that no one ever heard: the Handgrenade sinks both arms in at the fence and scores a submission victory over Kelly: guillotine at its best and worst, depending on which perspective you witness its radical unraveling from.

Paul Taylor vs Chris Lytle

Fortunately, Chris Lytle could keep the same head Josh Koscheck have blooded up in UFC 86 Jackson VS Griffin. Lytle holds a stagnate, nevertheless significant position in the UFC, similar to that of Jason McDonald's: whenever some tremendous talent seems to rise with intent to resonate an mma verdict of primal significance, it is a safe bet to throw that particular singer to the lair of Chris Lytle or Jason MacDonald's. Fate did ot yet decide whether to make a stable filler fighter from Lytle, or to make true superstar out of him. Chris rendered a very stable performance against Matt Serra in the finale of the 4th season of the Ultimate Fighter TV Show, his "loss" is but the result of his marketability: Serra and his cinematic charisma is much easily marketable, so, in such a close fight as the two of them did put up, it was no question who should and who MUST go away with the W when such an even match is delivered.

Paul Taylor is a crazy British man who runs on crystal clear energy and expresses its tremendous flow in furios pace and a constant willigness to exchange without breaks - but, not necessarily without breaks. Taylor made one huge slugfest with fellow English gent Paul Kelly whom we have just seen getting submitted by Davis. Though Kelly and Taylor delivered a very memorable tempo in UFC 80 Rapid Fire, one of them had to lose by the night, so, one of them did, indeed. Coming off of a win he harvested in UFC 85, Taylor is on the not too secretive stalk to claim precious trophy in front of the home audience, as a win over Lytle is a huge accomplishment for every warrior on the Faceth of this Eartheth! Sorry, could not resist. I mean: I could, but changed my mindeth and hath committedhath it anyway.

Taylor and Lytle have a mutual, firm determination of presenting the fight of the night for the audience, and let me tell you that this cited determination is of the eloquent caliber, and is forged out of pure, rampant relentlessness waiting to be precisely expressed by both of these contenders. Scarce are the times when a furious starting pace decides to stuck around to characterize the whole bout, yet, this is the case herein. Lytle and Taylor came here to wage a toe to toe war with hands shapeshifted to the forms of blazing guns with a seemingly unlimited supply of ammo. No feeling out process here, more precisely: the entire bout is a feeling out process, a series of back-and forth questions and answers, yet the lingo is superintense right from the beginning. This massively standup oriented quality collision is but occasionaly interrupted by brief periods of takedown attempts or clinch assaults at the fence. Both warriors prove to be possessors of excellent chins - one per kopf of course - and fists, - two per kopf of course - in addition, combine the mutual love of fighting that connects these great warriors, and you get as strong of a candidate for a fight of the night as you ever hoped to get a thorough look at, indeed. The match goes to the distance, filling out its glorious 15th minute, in which Taylor manages to present exceptional effectiveness. It's not enough to take Lytle apart, but gives you the definite impressions that he managed to leave a strong stimuli on the retinas of the Judges. Not so. Chris Lytle goes away with the decision W. Both warriors seem a bit puzzled by this outcome, but, most importantly: they show respect: intact and immaculate to each other after the fight, not if this particular respect would spend a split second in absence when they fought. Quite the contrary: this is the tremendous feeling that fuels this fight to be as good as it is. A classic collision, not much doubt about that.

Sokoudjou vs Luis Cane

Brazilian heavy hand Luis Cane is no longer a newcomer to the UCF Octagon, you could see his ass being disqualified in UFC 79 Nemesis due to an illegal knee on the downed opponent. Cane returned in UFC 85 Bedlam and definitely destroyed a relatively reckless Jason Lambert. Luis is about to face Sokoudjou, the African Assassin, someone whom we have seen in UFC 79 Nemesis, and he lost by that particular night, too - only that he did it to - hold on to your chair - another man. Sokoudjou lost to Lyoto Machida, to be exact. Machida's question after the fight remains a classic. "I beat the Alaskan Assassin. I beat the African Assassin. What other Assassin do I have to beat to get a title shot?"

Sokoudjou comes out on fire - not literally, but metaphorically - and maintains dominant Octagon presence throughout the feeling out process in which he offers primal aggression, placing plenty of kicks and shots on Cane's body. Though the African Assassin starts with tremendous readiness to deal quality damage, Luis is prepared enough to take what Sokoudjou has to offer. These are the moments by which Joe Rogan gives us a quite cunning notion, pointing out that surely there are fighters with blatant power in theirs legs and fists, yet, as soon as such a fighter meets with someone who is ready and able to take their BEST shots - that's when the nice mindgame starts which will tell us a whole lot about that particular fighter. Not to mention how much it will tell for the fighter itself - AND his opponent.

By the second round you realize that Luis Cane played a very sober game here: Sokoudjou comes in much less aggressive probably due to the relative exhaustion he got into throughout the rigorous pace of the first round. His actions and attacks are still very dangerous, and he can still demonstrate explosiveness, yet a moment comes by to greet a Luis Cane who is about to take the initiative. Some rather precise kicks to the body and vicious knees on the face are offered by the Brazilian, and, prior you could say "Coal mining is a wonderful thing, Father, but this is something that you will NEVER understand", Sokoudjou goes down from a two punch combo hit, while the next moment, naturally finds him being ruthlessly assaulted by Luis, punching out a TKO on the African Assassin at the fence.

Great performance by both fighters. Sokoudjou met a guy who was prepared enough to finely get along even with the most ruthless African Assassin to date, and, luring this dangerous Predator unto deep waters by the second round: the Brazilian capitalized on Sokoudjou's emptying gas tank via tremendous wits and an impressive display of powerful precision. A focal moment of the night.

Shane Carwin vs Neil Wain

Shane Carwin comes to this bout with an immaculate record that - logically enough - holds no loss, and, making supershort work of bulky Britain warrior Neil Wain: Shane Carwin leaves this bout with his immaculate record intact- and growing. This massive man handles matters really fast so far: his latest match prior to this in UFC 84 Ill Will never saw a second minute. In fact, out of the 10 professional mma matches Carwin won so far - only one, cite that I, herein: 1 managed to get past the second minute. Dudette is an animal, got to keep an eye on him, hope he does not mind the slime.

Keith Jardine vs Brandon Vera

An interesting feeling out process to characterize this one - interesting in the regard that Jardine decides to take Vera down right after the first moment and its inherent introductory exchanges of mild efficiency did occur. Brandon connects with some elbows from the ground, one of those opens a cut on the top of Jardine's head. While the brief ground period to characterize the middle sequence of this round does not yield particular results, its ending certainly delivers pretty much cinematic drama, as Brandon rocks Keith with an uppercut, but Keith answers and buckles Vera while he - Keith - is on the recover run. The Dean of Mean offers some rather good quality fence assault, but, good quality fence assault often gains the attention of higher powers that will make attacker and attacked move in such improbable manners that no shots will connect, no matter how fluently - SIC! - they should. Check the final seconds of the first round - Keith executes amazing combos on the naked air, though, if he would do the same on Brandon - then surely we would have had the Epic Victor! here.

From this point on, the match takes on a stable, consistent character by which you will notice that Keith hardly throws his leg kicks around. This is the result of Brandon connecting with a rather funky push-kick on Keith's knee, which you will see - the kick, not the knee, more precisely: both - in the replay. That does not look good for sure. In this here fight, Keith probably has a battered knee to wage this war on with. The noted, consistent character of the bout outlines, then, eventually thoroughly delivers a stable thrill factor which though fails to push the meter to the Epic Excitement! region this time around. Keith wins the bout with a split decision.

Quite admirable performance by both fighters, we got to see though that it was more of the match of getting out of harm's way than the match of defining the path harm might be invited along. Keith and Brandon aren't destined - dare we say: designed? - to deliver together what we want, that being: Epic Battles. This is not to say that the match was not good though - it's just that you need to say that it wasn't.

Michael Bisping vs Chris Leben

Chris Leben propels himself forward for 15 minutes of the 15 minutes the bout is scheduled for, creating a pleasant possibility for Bisping to retreat constantly and poke precise counters while on the evade run. Leben's epic left surely has its dangerous moments in this impressive collision, even better: we got to admire The Crippler's readiness to come forward no matter what: by some rather passionate peak sessions, you will even see Leben completely throwing away his defenses, provoking Bisping to strike his "naked" face. If you do not count a coating of blood on the face as some sort of appliance, that is. Bisping is too good of a fighter to being defeated by a strategy that builds solely on the urge to unleash harm, regardless how prepared the harmer is to eat in all the punches and kicks rolling in harm's way.

While Leben was truly super-integral in this bout, I have the impression that Chris's tremendous desire to knock Bisping out took dimension away from his - Chris's - game, a circumstance to claim a toll on The Crippler's current performance and the resultant record. Leben behaves very classy after the bout, addressing the Birmingham audience via an impromptu minishow with an intact message in it. Since this kind of expressed- and well channeled Octagon charisma is the trait to separate stock fighter - what a hideous expression, heh, sorry about that - from the Fighter You Will Remember, we can be sure that Leben will be back. Bisping defends his home turf in a quite impressive manner, there is no place to smuggle doubt through about the decision, not this time. The Count leaves the Octagon with his reputation intact- and growing, and well deservedly so, no doubt. Watch the leg kick Bisping's little son delivers on his dad's leg. The kid already has promise, don't you think?

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

If you enjoyed this here article, check out my comic: Planetseed
If you are to circulate magnificently pleasant vibrations: Buy me Beer