THE CHANGING FACE OF MIXED MARTIAL ARTS --UFC 92 .....Knockouts ....Knockouts ... Knockouts

The UFC's big end of the year show, "ULTIMATE '08" turned out to be a shining example of THE NEW FACE OF MMA. Gone are the days when the Gracie family members could pull guard, hold on tight, wait for their opponent to tire out from struggling against their weight .......... and then slip an arm bar or choke through their weary opponent's now sloppy defense. For a few years now MMA promoters in general and the UFC in particular have been remembering why actual professional wrestling gave way to its faster paced cousin exhibition wrestling ninety years ago. Quick submissions are as exciting as knockouts, but extended ground grappling is just too slow for the modern pace of life .......... and has been for a long time. As changing MMA rules shorten the time limits of non progressive action mat time and speed up stand ups, the pace of the fights accelerate proportionately. This faster action with less mat time results in a larger number of dynamic knockouts, but a lesser amount of submissions. UFC 92, AKA Ultimate '08 became the prime example of this change in the sport when All of the major fights ended in KO's or TKO's .... And the "Submission of the Night" award wasn't awarded ........... Because there wasn't a single submission on the entire card!

The evenings main event Lightheavy Weight Championship match between Season #1 The Ultimate Fighter winner and popular champion Forrest Griffin and the undefeated Season #2 TUF winner "Sugar" Rashad Evans featured two rounds of continual stand up action. Griffin seemed to be using his longer arms to good effect and with a good punch landed at the end of the 2nd round, he seemed to be slightly ahead. Then in the 3rd round Sugar Rashad asserted his dominate wrestling skills and scored a single leg take down -- off a well scored punch ... and then started swinging leather like a mad man and scored a ground and pound TKO win to become the new UFC Lightheavy Weight Champion.

In the co-main event of the show, Brazilian Jujitsu master black belt Antonio "Big Nog" Nogueira faced American Brazilian Jujitsu expert Frank Mir. Nogueria is a former PRIDE FC heavyweight champion and entered the ring holding the ambiguous "Interim Heavyweight Championship" that was born of the late UFC - Randy Couture contractual dispute. Mir is a former UFC Heavyweight Champion and handed current champ Brock Lesnar his only MMA loss so far. These are two big grappling masters who can both move on the mat like lightweights and both have an arsenal of submission techniques ........ although Big Nog's arsenal is bigger and even Mir knows that. So what did these big 250 LB grapplers do --------- they slugged it out. Mir has been working fastidiously on his stand up skills and Big Nog has trained with the Cuban national boxing team for years and has always been known for the amount of punishment that he can take and still come back to win. Not even Frank Mir gave Frank Mir much of a chance against Nogueria's awesome skills. But the muscular former champ came out swinging and determined to keep the fight standing ... and low and behold he knocked down Big Nog --- twice - in the first round. Given Nogueria's reputation for coming back no one was overly impressed by the knock downs, again including Mir himself. But -- when Mir scored another knockdown in the 2nd round, he pounced on Nogueria like a Big Cat and rained down ground and pound punches until Big Nog was semi conscious and the ref was forced to stop the action and give the TKO win to Frank Mir. Now Mir will meet Brock Lesnar for the title which is a rematch that both men want.

The third big fight of the evening was the third meeting of Vanderlei "The Ax Murderer" Silva and former lightheavy weight champion Quinten "Rampage" Jackson. Their first two matches had happened years ago in Japan for PRIDE FC and Silva had won both of those by KO. Both of these veteran warriors had slipped some since their glory days and perhaps Silva has slipped a little more --- but he had the psychological advantage of two KO wins over his opponent. As the first round began Silva controlled the stand up action with shorter punches and crisp knee strikes. Then suddenly Rampage landed a monster left hook --------- and Vanderlei Silva was OUT --- COLD! Jackson had his revenge in style with a spectacular Knock Out win and has probably earned a shot at Sugar Rashad Evans' light heavyweight strap ---- but the Rampaging One has already stated that the fight he really wants next is another revenge rematch ----------- this one with the man who relieved him of his light heavyweight championship --- Forrest Griffin.

Rounding out the evening of knock outs, up and coming heavyweight Cheick Kongo TKO'd Mustapha Al-Turk, TUF Season #7 star Clarence B. Dollaway got a TKO win over Jersey Boy Mike Messenzio and yet another former TUF standout Matt "The Hammer" Hamill scored a TKO over NCAA Wrestling champion Reese Andy.

MMA has a new face! A broken face of scintillating Knock Out Stoppages ---------- and I Like This Face! I won't see this face for a while though as I'm headed to the other side of the world where they actually don't show the UFC. But -- I'll be back in time for UFC 94: welter weight champ Georges St. Pierre defends his title against light weight champ Baby Jake Penn, on Jan. 31st. Penn may just be the very best BJJ technician in MMA -------- what do ya want to bet he slugs it out with GSP? Till then-----

Good Night - Good Fight,
Frank "The Snake"