Lesnar, St Pierre defend titles at UFC 100

In the biggest card perhaps in UFC History, Brock Lesnar unified the UFC Heavyweight championship by battering former Frank Mir for one and a half rounds before finishing him in the 2nd. Lesnar quickly took the fight to the mat where he punished Mir from half guard with booming right hands. Mir repeatedly gave the thumbs up to his cornerman, but it was clear by the damage on his face that he was feeling the effects at the end of the first round. Round two saw Mir have some brief success on the feet, scoring with a knee to the body and a knee to the head that seemed to momentarily stun Lesnar. Lesnar then took Mir to the mat, recovered from the blow, pushed his head into the fence and finished him off with several right hands from half guard. Lesnar’s performance was somewhat overshadowed by his post fight reaction where he yelled abuse into Mirs face as he was recovering, flipped off the booing crowd, attacked major sponsor Bud Light and told Joe Rogan he was going to ‘get on top of his wife tonight.’ He was since apologised for the outburst.

I really think whoever it is that is going to beat Lesnar is going to have to be able to stuff his takedowns and Randy Couture showed that it is possible in their fight before he got caught. He’s just too powerful on top, especially if he’s in half guard where he can pin his opponent and isolate their head. I think if Lesnar is forced to stand up for a period of time against a dangerous striker there’s a good chance he’s going to get knocked out. Couture was outstriking him until he got caught and would have done a lot more damage if he wasn’t outweighed by 60 odd pounds. That being said, you can’t not be impressed with Lesnar. He’ll beat anyone at his fight if he can get them there and with his foot speed and physical strength it’s going to be hard to stop him getting you where he wants you.

In the co main event, Georges St Pierre outpointed top challenger Thiago Alves over five rounds by outwrestling and to a certain degree outstriking the dangerous striker. GSP landed with sharp combinations before countering Alves’ counters with takedowns. While GSP wasn’t able to control Alves like he was other recent opponents, the ease at which he took him down was scary and he likely would have finished him had he not injured his groin. Scores were 50-45, 50-44 (not sure which round was 10-8) and 50-45 all for St Pierre who made the 3rd successful defence of the title he won last April from Matt Serra. Where GSP goes from here I don’t know. He’s basically cleaned house at 170lbs with this win.

In a battle of top Middleweight contenders as well as TUF9 coaches, Dan Henderson put forward his most impressive performance in years and maybe even ever by knocking out British star Michael Bisping in the 2nd round. Henderson quickly took control of the striking which was really Bispings only chance in this fight against the two time Greco Roman Olympian, rocking him frequently in the first round with his booing right hand. Bisping became desperate and tried to take Henderson down but was shrugged off and laughed at. Midway through the 2nd round, Henderson walked Bisping into his right hand and knocked him cold, landing one more huge right hand for good measure. The knockout was one of the most brutal I’ve seen in MMA and will probably go down as KO of the year. With the win, Henderson earns himself a rematch with Middleweight champion Anderson Silva, who submitted Henderson at UFC 82 for the UFC and PRIDE Middleweight titles.

Yoshihiro Akiyama scored a controversial split decision over Alan Belcher in the organisations ‘fight of the night.’ Jon Fitch outworked Paulo Thiago for a unanimous decision win. UFC Hall of Famer Mark Coleman broke his four fight losing streak in the Octagon, defeating TUF1 runner-up Stephan Bonnar by unanimous decision after an old school display of ground and pound. Coleman showed improved stand-up and increased cardio in outwrestling Bonnar over the three rounds for a 29-28 victory. Jon Jones kept his unbeaten streak alive with a submission victory over lay and prey specialist Jake O’Brien. Jim Miller outpointed Mac Danzig in a bloody war that left the Octagon covered in blood for the rest of the evening while Dong Hyun Kim outpointed TJ Grant over three. Tom Lawlor and Shannon Gurgerty scored quick submissions over CB Dollaway and Matt Grice respectively in the other bouts of the evening.