UFC82: Results. Pride of the Champ and NO ONE ELSE!

The UFC has put on quite a good show in UFC82: Pride of a Champion. UFC82 proved to be its namesake. The two champs, one from the UFC, the other from PRIDE went at it and made it a fight worth shelling out $45 bucks. Since it was on Yahoo and that is international, many of us from around the globe could order it and see it on the "Interweb." My call to action was a bunch of UFC parties at the local Starbucks. Hopefully you fools didn't follow my advice! Starbucks brews their coffee pretty hot and if the patrons over there wanted to fight, they could've ended it pretty quickly with a grande house in your face!

Chris Wilson vs. Jon Fitch This was my trap fight special. It appeared that Fitch had a bit of ring rust in the first as Wilson was coming away with more strikes and techniques. In the second round, Jon woke up and started making a game of it. In the final round, both of them were playing pretty good standup with lots of punches being exchanged. Wilson managed to get a hook into Jon in the final seconds of the round and put a triangle on him but the bell rung before we found out if it worked or not. The judges gave it to Jon preserving his unbeaten streak.

Yushin Okami vs. Evan Tanner Tanner's been out of the Octagon for about two years but he didn't look like it in this match. They really went at each other exchanging punches and kicks. Okami put Tanner down in the first with a great punch. Luckily for Even, he remembered he was in a fight and got back up again, kicking and kneeing Yushin for payback. In the second round it was more of the same but then they got tied up together in a clinch and a solid knee from Okami put Tanner back on couch duty. There's always a good episode of Star Trek or Seinfeld to watch Tanner! I should know...

Alessio Sakara vs. Chris Leben This fight didn't last for too long. Both Sakara and Leben are standup guys that just love to go for the KO. They both landed some very very HARD hits then Chris managed to smack up Sakara with one that sent him to the ground. It was all over after that. Guess the doctor ordered up some ground and pound because that is what Leben delivered to Alessio's head. The ref saw all he needed to see and stopped it. Score a TKO for the TUF#1 vet Chris Leben!

Heath Herring vs. Cheick Kongo The Heavyweights here put on a clinic in submissions and pounding. Kongo seemed to be doing a great job of putting Heath to the ground and pounding on him. For good measure, he landed quite a few knees that rocked Herring as well. Heath was able to answer a lot of what Kongo gave him and bided his time. In the last round, it looked like Kongo was going to finish Heath for good but all of a sudden Heath got on top of Kongo and started the pain. The judges had their work cut out for them. Herring got the decision on this one but I think Kongo may have gotten robbed. Hard to say when you don't know exactly what to look for in a fight. My Newbie-ness will disappear eventually but, for now, I'll work with what I've got and say: Kongo Got ROBBED.

Anderson Silva vs. Dan Henderson This is IT. Championship Time! Round one sees both of our fighters not wanting to make stupid mistakes early on. They start doing a bit of standup and this is what I thought Dan's game would be but he puts Silva to the ground and starts working him and working him well with elbows and fists. I guess *this* was the real game. Round two sees the two fighters kicking. This time it's mostly Silva doing the kicking and then *he* takes Dan to the ground. Henderson manages to wrestle out of it pretty quickly and they go back to standup. Henderson then got pummeled by a knee and dropped to the floor. Then it was bubbeeya bubbeeya that's all folks as Silva began to work on getting the Grand Poobah of MMA win techniques: Rear Naked Choke! That's all she wrote for the Dan crew. Uhhh bubbye now!

This was not too shabby of an event. The fight card had some really good matches. It could have used another title match but I guess there's only so many you can spread out over the course of a year. Anyway, I can hardly wait for the UFC Fight Night event coming in April! Three full hours, that's THREE, 3 hours of free televised goodness. Now all the Chai-latte freaks can suck down their drinks in peace again.