UFC 105 Couture VS Vera review

now with awe defining gif animations

- Randy Couture VS Brandon Vera

- Michael Bisping VS Denis Kang

- Dan Hardy VS Michael Swick

Though many may consider men who enter an mma proving ground little more than hired human pitbulls ripping each other apart for massive money and radical amusement, I tend to reject this view via a yawn of black hole, concluding that professional level mma is the combat of highly disciplined human spirits, opposing each other for but 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. The reaction of one's opponent is the reaction to whatever one could offer as offense.

Notice that 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, pure respect spirit and related (?) intelligence may come upon, the limitless respect each fighter deserves simply by making an attempt of expressing themselves thoroughly, honestly on the proving grounds. The biggest respect one could give is the assumption that one needs every skills- and wits to neutralize the rival. A fight is nothing less than the expression of these skill sets, put though to the test utterly and completely, instead of infinitely theorizing about them. The most glorious moment of the bout emerges in the form of the ensuing peace between the fighters, a legit, palpable sensation, unifying the former enemies and the grateful audience once the collision reached its conclusion.

This is a review of the latest UFC event to date, UFC 105 - Couture VS Vera.



Introductory thoughts about the more significant lineups

UFC 105 invites mma institution Randy Couture to showcase his skills against Brandon Vera. The Natural - who has a particular sentence to resonate for every question he is confronted with and this sentence is this: "I think I am the best fighter I have ever been so far" - comes back to the Octagon after suffering two losses against top tier opposition. He gave the best challenges to Brock Lesnar so far, yet, in my opinion he looked pretty shallow against Minotauro Nougeira. Criticizing Couture's age is getting older than the man itself is though and The Natural silenced those critics on numerous occasions already, yet everyone knows that he will never be able to do that for good, because it is the nature of the sport to question The Natural. And he likes to be questioned, too, as this is the mere condition his love of competition forms fuel from. Randy Couture is about to collide with Brandon Vera, evident-, but not necessarily justified underdog of the bout. Couture needs a spectacular win to evidentiate the legitimacy of his action of moving down a weight class, while Vera truly needs nothing "much more" to do than to hand Couture a loss, as beating Legends is what make you one in the sport.

Michael "The Count" Bisping rebounds, following his epic loss against Dan Henderson. UFC 105 is coming to you from Manchester, so there are chances that the audience will take the place apart if Bisping loses - especially so if he wins. Charismatic Bisping faces off against solid mma presence Denis Kang, who already is a well established mma force as result of the impressive wins he delivered in Asia, primarily. Many do say that a loss shows more of who the fighter really is than a win does. The particular performance following a devastating defeat is absolutely crucial. This is Bisping's first "after-the-first-decent-loss" fight, and, as such, the collision enjoys pretty much unified attention.

Hard and rather passionate hitter Dan Hardy puts everything on the line against Michael Swick, who - Swick - thinks of himself as a fighter that deserves this win more than Hardy. It is easy to underestimate Hardy as he would be little more than a random idiot/bully on a punk concert, but truth is that his game is getting quite mature and what you see in his eyes is not what you see in those of the random idiot/bully at the punk concert. It should be another interesting match and it also worth mentioning that the fighter walking away with the W is likely to step up against UFC Welterweight Champion George St. Pierre.

Ross Pearson VS Aaron Riley

Ultimate Fighter winner Ross Pearson takes apart veteran Aaron Riley in this impressive display of surprisingly steep technical dominance, one which forces out a doctor stoppage in the second round, courtesy of the doctor, offering his opinion on the cut on Riley's face, all this invitation courtesy of the Referee. Here is a gif animation of Pearson evading a dangerous high kick with ease and related, lazy elegance:










And here is the flying knee that crushed the nose of the mma veteran, resulting in a doctor stoppage:










Matt Brown VS James Wilks

Former Ultimate Fighter contestants in the Octagon. Matt Brown is quick and efficient at taking the role of the aggressor, luring Wilks into territories the Brit needs to survive on. Though Brown ascends as evident aggressor even in the second round, - check this gif animation of a flying knee he connects with -

Wilks remains in the fight and exhibits relative efficiency, despite being notably dazed by The Immortal. The conclusion of the second round saves Wilks from a triangle wrapped around his neck, yet The Brit comes back with a strong and efficient willingness to deliver colorful submission attempts of his own in the third and final round. These fail to come to fruition though, as Brown manages to muscle himself out from a kimura attempt, fueled with the imminent intention of pounding out a stoppage on the Brit. Following a full mount, he accomplishes this via ground and pound and here is the gif animation of it:










Michael Bisping VS Denis Kang

Kang greets Bisping with a right hand that sends the Brit hometown favorite to the canvas, yet The Count demonstrates a very involved level of the ground game against the black belt jiu-jitsu practitioner, who is, naturally enough, is swift to engage Bisping on the ground, looking for any accepted means necessary to emerge victorious. Here is a nice moment performed by Bisping. Notice how he uses his hips to escape from the initial position in which Kang enjoys side control. At the end of this amazing gif animation, you will see that The Count finds himself in full guard. Now, for the gif animation:

Also notice the gif animation below, which, as result of editing the flow of recorded time, displays the right hand that rocked the Brit, and, of which The Count had no recollection of after the round. Also notice Kang's attempt to connect with an air to ground missile. Plan: solid, realization: piteous. Take heed and bear witness on how the mma veteran falls on Bisping, losing all the momentum required to call the action a proper attack.


In the second period, a cautious Bisping decides to feel out the opposition in order to score a takedown. The Count finds great success at deconstructing the grounded rival, who is unable to invite Bisping to close quarters jiu-jitsu this time. The Brit maintains the role of air-to-ground molester, sticking to this method even after Kang manages to escape and invite Bisping to the standup. As hinted, The Count succeeds at pulling off yet another takedown, this one is even more beautifully executed than the first was. Bisping effectively takes the defense of Kang apart as the round is closing to its end, therefore the Referee puts a well decided stop to the contest by the moment Kang is being harmed beyond necessity. Bisping came back and he came back hard, rendering a tremendous performance when he needed it the most, and, fortunately, he accomplished this against an opponent of relevance, not against a random chunk of animated meat. Here is a gif animation on how Bisping owned Kang tonight.










Above: Bisping giving the hurtrealbad.

Dan Hardy VS Mike Swick

When engaged, Hardy is quick to greet Swick with a solid left counter punch, inviting Mike to have a go at a takedown attempt instead. The story of the round revolves around Swick's relentless-, yet virtually wasted effort to command Hardy to the ground. In the opening round, Swick is coming short in the striking game as well, as Hardy administers more damage via more accurate connections, even better/worse: the round itself comes to a conclusion with the local favorite landing some rather solid shots on a Swick who shows good aggressiveness, yet finds nothing but punishment as reward. In the second period, Hardy rocks Swick with a highly successful combo formed out of two elegant strikes, of which I deliver a gif animation with ruthless efficiency. Here it is:

Though wobbly, Swick is granted the chance of grateful recovery as result of Hardy's puzzling eagerness to take The Quick to the ground as opposed of punching/kicking the casual sobriety out from the talented American for the sake of a memorable (?!) moment or two. Pronounced and prolonged clinch sequence at the fence to follow up, in which Hardy finds success at delivering relatively limited amount of punishment, except for the decent body shots he lands on the opposition. The Referee eventually breaks them apart and the round has a chance of concluding itself with the fighters striking it out on their - respective - feet. Swick finds more success in this sequence, performing elegant and precise counter strikes when Hardy is about to engage him via sheer-, skillfully directed aggression. Skillfully, yet, this time, not efficiently directed aggression.

The third and final round invites hands to ignite. Swick shows increased amount of initial willingness to engage his rival on the feet, yet he is about to pay for it in this final round, as Hardy manages to daze The Quick once again. Following some nice and precise shots to soften The Quick up a bit, Hardy finds himself in the clinch of his rival and remains content with it - accepting the invitation to the close quarters onslaught. This time, Hardy manages to take down Swick by lifting him up into the air, then, some brief-, yet successful ground and pound work ensues, in which Swick gets a cut on the side of the head, which was not present before the match, by the way. Since no action of subsequent relevancy is occurring, the Referee commands the contestants to stand up, thus this memorable collision finds its conclusion with its participants battling out the remaining seconds on the feet. A well deserved decision victory goes for Dan Hardy, who will be the first Brit to step up against current UFC Welterweight Champion George St. Pierre, who is in attendance tonight. He expresses his admiration towards Hardy's current performance and states that he will be ready-, and honored to defend his belt against Dan. As for Mike Swick, who thought he should be able to win against Dan Hardy easily: I thought that, too. That makes AT LEAST two of us. A tremendous victory for Hardy for a tremendous performance.

Randy Couture VS Brandon Vera

Randy Couture is notorious of being able to force his gameplan on the opposition. Now the gameplan is to muscle Vera up to the fence and push him into it, looking for the takedown while at that. The largest chunk of the story of this match revolves around this particular intention exhibited by The Natural. The other parts of relevance are praising Vera's standup skills, that which with the Philippine manages to punish Couture up to the point of a knockdown, courtesy of a nice body kick, followed up by a solid flying knee to the body that forces Couture to escape desperately from his momentary position. Randy does not break though, manages to regain his composure each time he is subjected to danger, and, remains capable to enforce his clinching ways and will in the Octagon. Notice nevertheless this nice action by Brandon "The Truth" Vera:

This was Vera's big chance of stopping the Legend, in my opinion, yet he came short in the ground and pound department. A couple of decent bombs instead of these friendly caresses might have had done the work. If it is up to Randy though, The Hall of Famer satisfies with being able to push Vera into the fence all night long, looking for the takedown without remorse, failing utterly at finding it. Vera lands some accidental punches of piteously limited convince power from the clinch while being pressed against the fence, but the talented Philippine shows no cunningness to improve on his position dramatically with the Legend on him. Ironically enough, late into the match it is Vera who takes Couture down, but, by that time, each fighter is exhausted beyond mercy and truly keeps on fighting as result of the momentary approval granted by some mysterious hidden force of the universe, and you truly wish that the match would reach the end.

Since Randy dictated strict control of the Octagon and forced the game he wanted to play while Vera failed at doing that, The Natural goes home with a W. Brandon's actions of true relevance are the effective midsection molestations and a bitterly accomplished takedown, but, apart from these solid accomplishments, the story of the fight was Couture's control of the positions, and, as such: his control of the match. The Truth tastes a whole new level of disappointment. This match, in my opinion, was not about who won it, it was about who have lost it. I expected a little more, cite that I, herein: a LITTLE more form both men. Not much more, but a little more. I expected Couture to be able to state a Final Verdict of Radical Stopping Power once muscled his rival to do his bidding via keeping him at the fence seemingly at will, while I expected Brandon Vera to be able to offer relevant resistance once Randy pushed him to the side of the cage for such prolonged sequences of time. By the way, this gif animation shows you The Unspeakable:

A match with mild-, yet characteristic entertainment value to it, as Couture was super-fervent at closing the distance whenever he had the chance, but he managed to deliver a solid challenge for Vera even when the two were boxing it out on the feet. These sequences may seem as non-existent though, simply because the majority of the fight is about Couture muscling Vera around, controlling the position and negating all offenses The Truth may have in mind. From a certain point of view, the Natural's intent to seal a victory with minimal risks taken, is understandable, as he sure would have been looked like yesterday's attraction if to lose a third consecutive time. This match though, regardless of who have won and who have lost it, does not cast the most fruitful light on its participants, in my opinion. You are of course free-, even encouraged to oppose this view and state your own via leaving a nice comment or two. It is all good, all good.










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