This is what some UFC 93 fighters needed.

What an interesting card this was. Some crazy fights we had. Fighters were gassed they were. The UFC should refund people a portion of their Pay Per View bill they should. 

I was really interested to see what Mark Coleman was going to look like and my worst fears were confirmed. It was as if we had gone back in a time capsule to UFC 1 for that fight.  On one hand the fight was intriguing to watch, but not because it was two of the top MMA fighters in the world testing their skill, but because I was hoping that not only would the completely exasperated Coleman not drop dead in front of my eyes, but for a few moments it even looked like he may win.

An even bigger question about this fight than what happened to these fighters’ cardio is why could Shogun not finish Coleman off sooner? And then to reward their performances with “Fight of the Night” honors was either an insane ploy to try to convince everyone what we saw really was an example of MMA greatness or Dana felt so sorry for the legendary Coleman he wanted to reward him out of sympathy.

I was glad to see Phil Baroni in Mark’s corner. It was great to see him cheering Mark on between rounds telling him he was a legend and he was winning. It’s obvious Phil has enormous respect for Mark and considering all the history of this fight, it was just picture perfect having Baroni right there cheering his fighter during the fight. One odd thing I noticed though was between rounds one and two there was no cut man in Coleman’s corner puttin on vaseline or putting ice on his head or back or anything of the sort. It was just Phil and another guy “pep-talking” Coleman and giving him some water. I thought that was odd.

The kickboxing bout between Chris Lytle and Marcus Davis was very entertaining for sure. At one point Davis went into a full sprint to escape Lytle’s barrage of power, which was actually very effective and probably saved him. Davis’s technical precision against the power of Lytle was a good contrast of styles. Good fight.

Jeremy Horn is a legend and I found myself cheering for him during the fight. No one gave him a chance of winning including myself so to see him not only survive but even come close to finishing the bout with a choke at one point was exciting. Horn’s defense kept the very dangerous Palhares from finishing him or even come close to ending the bout. As much as I like Horn, I don’t understand why they keep bringing him back. I can’t even remember the last time he won in the UFC. As other people have pointed out, he seems to have lost that fire and passion. Having said that, he did a lot better than I thought he would and Palhares actually looked a lot worse than I thought he would.

The main event was entertaining. I had picked Franklin to win but he just couldn’t seem to land enough meaningful shots. He had some good body kicks but his punching accuracy seemed off. Henderson’s leg kicks were nice but the real difference was his wrestling, taking Rich down and controlling him seemed to make the difference. He didn’t really hurt Rich but he controlled the action more. It was a good fight, I just thought Rich would be able to stop him. People have started calling Dan Henderson “Decision Dan.” He needs some finishes for sure.

I think Denis Kang suffered from the infamous “first time Octagon jitters”. Everyone knows he’s better than what he showed. I honestly think his nerves got the best of him. Belcher took advantage of the situation and choked him out so you gotta give Belcher props for that. Belcher always wears odd shorts. There’s something about his Mississippi accent combined with his flamboyant attire that is just damn confusing, 

Ring girl Edith was back! I know a lot of fans were glad to see her and that’s the first time I can recall having three ring card girls at the same time in a very long time, maybe since the orange shorts days.

Could the UFC really be happy with this card? I haven’t heard the post fight presser yet but my initial reaction after the event was to call my friend who was planning to purchase the 9pm PPV and tell him not to waste his money. This event should have been a freebie on SPIKE TV. Could the UFC foreseen how things would have gone to make that decision beforehand? Maybe not entirely, but when you put a forty-four year old man who hasn’t fought in over two years and Jeremy Horn on the main card you have to assume there’s two fights right there that aren’t going to be stellar. That leaves three, maybe four other fights to carry the Pay-Per-View.

One of the arguments is that the UFC is putting on so many cards now that the QUALITY of the cards is dropping. That is definitely something that should be looked at. If you expect fans to shell out fifty to a hundred bucks a month on your Pay-Per-Views the main card needs to be absolutely stacked. 

We very rarely run opinion pieces here at PRO MMA (http://promma.info). I used to visit forums where I could let all this stuff out but just don’t have the time these days. So instead, once in awhile I just need to get this stuff out. Keep in mind these are just my opinions and really mean nothing. If you have a different opinion, please share it or if you agree, feel free to share that as well.

By:  Jack Bratcher

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