UFC 108 Rashad Evans VS Thiago Silva

- Rashad Evans VS Thiago Silva

- Dustin Hazelett VS Paul Daley

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 103 - Franklin VS Belfort.



Introductory thoughts about the more significant lineups

UFC 108 brings you a heavyweight collision between two top tier predators who have more things in common than their ability to deliver finishing power via a single punch. Brazilian super-prospect Thiago Silva and "Sugar" Rashad Evans both have a single loss under their - respective - belts and this loss came to them as courtesy as current UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Lyoto Machida. Evans and Silva are looking for yet another shot against The Dragon, who won a controversial decision against Shogun Rua back in UFC 104.

There is a nice background touch as an extra: Rashad comes to the bout fired up on disciplined emotions, as his good friend and training partner Keith Jardine - the dudette who never ceases to surprise us with his latest knockout animations lately, alas!, as the actual sufferer of the KOs - have been put away quickly by Thiago. Evans and Silva are both looking very composed and focused coming to this bout, and, knowing that Evans plans to go back to his wrestling roots in order to be able to combine those with his refined striking abilities, the focal question is whether Silva is able to show elements in his game that he was lacking against Lyoto Machida.

Junior Dos Santos VS Gilbert Yvel

Pride! and - subsequently - mma veteran "The Hurricane" Gilbert Yvel was a force to be reckoned with when mixed martial arts were all about how you kick the living death out of a random Japanese contestant who is able to spot the hair on your chest if he stands on a stool. Of course, it was a very silly statement and has not much - if anything - to do with the truth. Gilbert Yvel is a well established veteran of the sport and a recent addition to the UFC roster, now is the time to see how well he fares against top tier opposition in the deepest waters possible, as Junior Dos Santos already has remarkable wins on his record: the destruction of Fabrizio "Boring" Verdum and Mirko CroCop, who, unfortunately, finds no relevant success in the Octagon recently.

Gilbert Yvel looks ready and able to deliver a performance, although his movement when in the heat of battle, seems to be somewhat: off tonight. Gilbert throws lumpy punches of little precision when engaged, while he is doing more retreat movements in order to be out of reach, than he is doing dodge maneuvers. Then, when he finally chooses to stick around for a while with the probable intention of delivering punishment from close quarters, it is Dos Santos who brings the very same idea to fruition. Gilbert Yvel is knocked down with a solid left hook, then he is quickly-, efficiently disposed of as result of the ground and pound onslaught Dos Santos puts him away with.

Joe Lauzon VS Sam Stout

Easily fight of the night caliber performance from both fighters here. The main reason of this, is the pure competitiveness of the bout, in which Lauzon, who finds early success at harassing his opponent on the ground with dangerous submission attempts, finds himself going through a lot when Stout escapes and answers from standup dimensions Joe never heard of before. Despite the cumulative punishment he receives, Lauzon renders impressive opposition and related fighting spirit that which never shatters during the bout. Stout wins by outclassing Lauzon on the feet who was not afraid to be confronted with the exploitation-of-holes clinic Sam subjected him to. A decision victory for Stout.

Dustin Hazelett VS Paul Daley

In this classic grappler VS striker matchup, dynamite fist Paul Daley comes to the proving ground to resonate yet another radical verdict, this time on the expense of Dustin Hazelett, who is rightfully regarded as one of the most inventive and creative submission specialists in the sport, defeating his opponents with intelligence and anatomical cunningness.

Surprisingly enough, Hazelett looks rather good against Daley in the standup position, making Daley hesitant to engage recklessly in the earlier period of the fight. Then Dustin becomes the more effective fighter out of the two, landing some solid stomach kicks to keep Daley out of the danger zone of the submission specialist. In a fight though, moments of closeness are not particularly hard to search for and especially not hard to find. When the two finally collide to deliver a furious exchange, Hazelett connects with a somewhat solid hand but eats in the raw expression of Daley's most lethal weapon in the process: the left of instant stopping power. Hazelett flies back two-three casual meters or so and lands on his back, then, when he is about to attempt to regain his clarity, Paul already is swarming on him, landing two-three precise shots from the exact place the first bomb came from. The Referee puts an end to the contest, Daley emerges victorious with another quite impressive knockout victory. It was a very interesting match, as Hazelett's analytical standup gave noticeable problems for the Brit, forcing the possessor of the dynamite fists into the role of the puzzled-, into the role of the momentarily clueless. Alas, one punch stopping power is not the risk you want to be subjected to. Hazelett looked very good, yet, maybe he took just a little more risk than it was worth to be taken. And sometimes, taking just a little more risk than it is worth to be taken: is enough to fall quite literally.

Rashad Evans VS Thiago Silva

Thiago looks as competitive in the first two rounds of the fight as the everyday average kindergarten addition does against his bigger brother of a bully, and this is something to say, as Silva is an authentic predator and I am a huge fan of him. Yet, he is now utterly being taken apart by Rashad Evan's masterfully expressed and well positioned aggressiveness, combined with the capitalized WILL - see? - to impose HIS strategies. Silva is getting bullied around as result of body to body grappler combat, Rashad takes him down pretty much at will, even ragdolls him into the cage half across the Octagon - impressive stuff which makes you think you look a training session in which Sugar demonstrates his fighting abilities on a willing training partner who is more than happy to be bullied around.

But, in reality, Thiago is not happy to be deconstructed so properly. You can clearly see the frustration on his face as he is being taken down again and again, and, to be honest, Rashad finds more success in the standup exchanges, as well. Thiago is evidently pissed off, you can see him voicing his disappointment with Rashad on his body - probably in Brazilian language - and, all of a sudden, Thiago loses it. Not the match, though. Not yet, at least.

Silva becomes obviously emotional and goes into a whole different world, to construct the fighting tools he is about to reveal solely from THAT particular domain. Thiago "gives you the Anderson Silva", lowering his hands, sticking his head out to be punched freely, delivering sharp taunting gestures to provoke Rashad into action. This change of the mindstate yields dramatic results: Thiago's spiritual refusal to stuck into the role of the efficiently bullied, comes to relative fruition: he rocks Rashad with a very nice, precise two hit combo, then he is quick to engage the former Champion with a flurry of finishing attempts. This time, both fighters are pretty exhausted, but it is quite surprising to see Rashad Evans trying to chase the chicken legs away, with Thiago Silva standing in front of him, hands on his hips, catching a deep breath. Silva found this emotional will to turn the tides of the battle a little too late into the match, as he was the utterly bullied for the 65%-70% of the bout. Bullied, as in: he was effectively turned off by Rashad's explosiveness and - I think this is the correct word - bravery. In my opinion, Thiago came to fight a cautious-, yet aggressive fight, but Evans came to slam this dude into the ground million times or so. When Thiago came to this particular realization, he became frustrated and managed to form an elegant weapon of well positioned-, though dangerous emotions. It is especially nice to see the two making peace with each other at the end, and boy, I can't wait to see Thiago Silva again as he must have learned a whole lot from this memorable collision. Credit for Rashad Evans for an amazing performance, as he utterly was the better man tonight, the short period in which he was in danger is the result of Thiago's willingness to introduce subtle-, yet legit weapons of emotion you hardly see in the Octagon.

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