 By Jim Terwoord
Pearl Concert Center – Palms Resort & Casino, Las Vegas NV
It’s over! Season 6 of the Ultimate Fighter reality show that is. But before the boys left the house and our weekly lives, they took the time to provide us with a gnarly night of nastiness that included two of the best MMA fights you’ll ever see.
Mac Danzig and Tommy Speer threw down in the main event for Season Six’s “Ultimate Fighter” and it was never really a contest. Danzig dominated the bigger, stronger farm boy from Minnesota who told us before the fight that “I kinda like hurtin’ people.” In that case, we suggest he pick people other than Danzig, who thoroughly dominated him – taking him down, beating him badly about the head and shoulders and then choking him out – in about two minutes. Look for Danzig to make some noise when he drops down to 155. A cool, confident technician with textbook technique, he will have a lot of MMA lightweights looking in their rear view mirrors.
The “real fight” of the night featured a star spangled match up between lightweights Roger Huerta and Clay Guida in a non title tilt. The fight promised - and delivered - a martial art fan’s feast. The first round featured numerous takedowns by Guida, who totally dominated takedown territory on this evening. It also featured numerous exchanges and technical submission attempts by both fighters. Round two featured more takedowns by Guida, along with considerable punishment to “El Matador” through a merciless elbow ground and pound attack. A hard right hand clearly hurt Huerta who found himself fighting for survival at the second round horn. But apparently all this just got the Matador’s juices flowing.
Coming out for the third, you could see the “eye of the tiger” on Huerta’s face – he was clearly behind, knew it - and was determined to fix it. He caught Guida with a monstrous knee shot that left “The Carpenter” in an alternate universe – and followed it up with a head strike that drove Clay to his knees by the fence. Gaining Guida’s back he sunk in a deep choke and eventually forced a tap out in front of a screaming crowd. The guy needed a knockout or submission and went out and got it at the toughest spot in the fight. Good stuff! Great fight!
The John Kopenhaver and Jared Rollins fight featured two guys who really didn’t like each other - and also provided the best fight of the night. Apparently the dust up the two had on the UFC show was more than TV bluster and it continued right into the cage. The first round saw Rollins take down the “War Machine” almost immediately, but Kopenhaver gained the top and controlled from there, pounding Rollins relentlessly and opening a bad bleeder on his face. “Mr. T” responded with some frightening elbows from the bottom that opened a gusher on the “War Machine” that left both guys looking like they had just walked out of the Texas Chain Saw Massacre.
Round two continued with more of the same – back and forth with both men trading shots and gamely trying to deal with the mutual messiness caused by a profusion of sweat and blood. Joe Rogan called it the “bloodiest fight in a long time” – which is like saying Scarface was “messy.” Round three was looking like Armageddon.
Rollins rushed out for the third and hit Kopenhaver with a knee that would have put most guys in LaLa land, following it with a mean head shot that left the “War Machine” on his back, running on the fumes. Fighting from his back and summoning something few mortals can, Kopenhaver threw Rollins off in a nifty reverse and proceeded to demolish him in a violent thunderstorm of punches that snapped his head off the canvas - earning him a hard fought TKO when the referee jumped in to stop the beating. Sports fans – they don’t get any better than this one!
Other action on the card saw Troy Mandaloniz win via 1st round TKO over Richie Hightower in a fight highlighted mainly by Mandoloniz’s triumphant “hula” victory dance. Ben Saunders decisioned Daniel Barrera in questionable three round unanimous victory. George Sotiropoulos had everyone wondering where he was in the semi-finals against Tommy Speer with an impressive body triangle – rear naked choke win in round 1 over Billy “The Kid” Miles - who may be rethinking bank robbery after the fight. The first round stayed popular in the John Kolosci – Matt Arroyo contest, won by the talented Arroyo with an armbar. The game Kolosci just can’t seem to get a break – although Arroyo almost broke his arm!
Another great night of UFC action. You can talk GSP – Hughes and the Iceman -Ax Murderer all you want. They’re gonna need to go some to top this one! |
