Back From The Mountains To Seek and Destroy

Hi There MMA Maniacs,

I returned from Ba Gua in the boonies, just outside of Boone, North Carolina in time to view the UFC brand's latest spectacle, number 87, Seek and Destroy. Dana White and his crew did not disappoint me and the techniques, violence and flow of the show welcomed me back from the rigors of a pathologically peaceful setting, like a warm blanket on a chilly evening ...... or perhaps more like a cooling fan on a hot night.

It was Canada versus Brazil when Jason "The Athlete" MacDonald squared off against Brazil's Damian Maia. The first round exhibited back and forth high level grappling, but Maia began to take over in the second, where he took the Canadian down and kept him there under a ground and pound attack for most of the round. Then in the third, MacDonald scored a take down, but Maia quickly reversed him and promptly choked him out. This Brazilian Middleweight is one worth keeping an eye on.

The Ultimate Fighter veterans Manny Gamburyan and Rob Emerson met in the shortest encounter of the evening, when Manvil The Anvil ran his stocky little body right over to Emerson and unloaded a lightening blast of sloppy punches. Emerson threw three quick, straight counter punches and Manny found himself asleep at 12 seconds of the first round.

Cheick Kongo, the fearless African Warrior who was born and brought up in Paris, reasserted his presence in the UFC's lackluster heavyweight division with a first round stoppage of Dan "The Viking" Evensen. Kongo caught the Norwegian with a straight right, right on the button and then smoothly and quickly finished The Viking. Kongo is back and ready to take on the best the UFC has to offer. He probably also does a war dance to the gods every night to thank them for keeping Fedor out of the UFC.

Speaking of the UFC's heavyweight division, Big Brock Lesnar brought his wrestling skills and 1 - 1 record to the big dance and did the light fandango with 28 - 13 & 1 No contest, widely traveled veteran Heath "The Texas Crazy Horse" Herring. Herring had met the best of MMA, but he just couldn't contend with the raw power of the home town Minneapolis (where the show was live) boy. Lesnar showcased his tremendous take down and ground control skills by keeping Herring under him and eating few but powerful ground and pound strikes for most of the encounter. It was all Lesnar and he took an unquestionable decision, but the big man needs to learn to finish on the ground and to refine the raw power of his standing strikes before he engages the best in his class.

Boston's Kenny Florian became the number one contender for the UFC's lightweight crown with his extremely convincing decision win over the popular Roger "El Matador" Huerta. Florian simply shut down Huerta's offence and seemed to be able to take down El Matador at will. The question is what will Kenny do now if light weight champ B.J. Penn gets his shot at welterweight champion Georges St Pierre. Will "Ken Flow" [get that boy a new fight name] wait it out and perhaps get rusty or will he risk a fight before the title shot?

Yep, GSP defended his title with an ease that I never would have thought possible when he was facing the tough Jon Fitch. On paper Fitch had all the skills needed to give the French Canadian a rough night and Fitch had repeatedly demonstrated these skills ...... but somehow he was just no match for the welterweight champion. GSP knocked his man down repeatedly, took him down, controlled him on the ground and just didn't let Fitch get off anything. Fitch showed his toughness by losing a decision, but lasting the entire fight. I think that most fans hope that GSP will answer the challenge of the lightweight champion, Baby Jake Penn next as that would be a contest.

The UFC entertained me yet again and has left me absolutely ready to see The Ice Man take on Rashad Evens and for Rich Franklin to show his skills against the deaf hammer Matt Hamil on September 6th ---- UFC 88.

Good Night - Good Fight,
Frank "The Snake"