Cardio Freak MMA News Report 4.24.08: Looking Back at UFC 83

Posted by Jeremy Lambert on 04.24.2008

Cardio Freak is back with a full breakdown of UFC 83. Georges St. Pierre reclaimed his thrown as the top Welterweight in the world, the stars align for the Matt Grudge Fight, Franklin bounces back, and Lutter proves to have no cardio. Plus the latest on Chuck Liddell's injury and the affect it has on the UFC 85 card. It's more fun than a Kalib Starnes track meet and it's all inside.



Welcome back to Cardio Freak everyone. I am your host Jeremy ‘Round 2' Lambert. Lets talk fighting.

Top Story of The Week

Bell Centre Beatdown

Before Matt Serra vs. Georges St. Pierre concluded, I had my opening paragraph. If Serra went into Montreal and beat St. Pierre, I was planning on comparing UFC to WWE. In WWE, if you're fighting in your hometown, chances are you're going to lose. Had St. Pierre lost, he would have been the 2nd main event fighter to lose in his hometown within the past 6 months. If luck would have it and the 8th seeded Boston Bruins knocked off the top seeded Montreal Canadiens in the NHL Playoffs, that would have been an easy lead in.

Unfortunately for Matt Serra (and the Boston Bruins), the favorite won. Backed by their hometown in a crucial situation, the Montreal Canadiens and Georges St. Pierre pulled off the victory.

Everyone knew the storylines coming into the fight. Serra upset St. Pierre once, St. Pierre is a mental midget, Serra hasn't fought since beating St. Pierre, Serra was once again a huge underdog, and the list goes on. That was all thrown out the window as Bruce Buffer announced the heavily cheered St. Pierre and heavily booed Serra.

It was very obvious early on that GSP didn't want much of the stand up game. Despite being a more well-rounded striker than Serra, GSP took the fight right to the ground against a BJJ Black Belt. Throughout the entire round GSP pounded on Serra but Serra never looked to be in any real danger. Sure his face was a mess as he sat in his corner but the fight never looked to be in any danger of being stopped. In the 2nd round, GSP was more willing to engage. He landed some nice strikes but also took a few punches when Serra was able to get inside. He once again took the fight to the ground. Serra tried his best to catch GSP napping but St. Pierre was wide awake. Instead of taking his back like most fighters would do, St. Pierre stayed to the side of the turtled up Serra and battered him with punches of the face and knees to the body.

While this was occurring, I was awe-struck at the difference between these two men. I knew GSP was a much bigger fighter than Serra but as Serra winced in pain from the knees, he looked like a small child taking a beating from a grown man. As the ref stopped the fight in the waning seconds of round 2, I felt it may have been early. Was Serra taking an ass kicking? Yes. But considering the round was just about over, I thought the ref could have let it go on a bit longer. Upon seeing the replay, it seemed like Serra looked up to the ref as to say, "Stop this guy from killing me." After the fight, Serra didn't complain about the stoppage but at the post event press conference he did state that the knees didn't bother him.

During the post fight celebration, both men were pure class. There was some obvious bad blood between the two heading into the fight but they settled it in the cage and I'm sure GSP bought him a drink after the event. The Montreal crowd even showered Serra with cheers during his post fight interview. He knew he'd win them over; all it took was an ass kicking.

So what's next for each man? There's been a lot of talk of St. Pierre moving up to 185 to fight Anderson Silva in a battle to crown the Pound 4 Pound best fighter in the UFC, arguably the world. I think you've got to hold off on that though. St. Pierre first needs to put together a nice streak as champion, much like Silva has done. If he runs through all the top contenders and Silva continues to do the same, I think you have to match them up but that's years down the line. Right now, GSP needs to focus on a very deep Welterweight division. He's obviously the best and most complete fighter in the division but everyone is beatable. His next fight will likely be against Jon Fitch, which seems to be a bad match-up for Fitch. Fitch is a wrestler and GSP has dominated pretty much every wrestler he's faced. Unless Fitch can prevent the explosive GSP takedown, I think St. Pierre takes the fight.

As for Serra, I think it's obvious as to what's next: Matt Hughes. UFC can't let The Ultimate Fighter 6 build go to waste due to a Matt Serra back injury. The storyline is already there, the hatred is already there, and it's a money fight. UFC would be dumb not to go ahead and do this fight. If Serra wins that fight, it's an easy build for a rubber match between Serra and St. Pierre. If Hughes wins that fight, it gives him a good win and a possible catapult to the Middleweight division and a fight against Anderson Silva.

At the end of the night, it was clear who the #1 Welterweight in the world was. Georges St. Pierre answered a lot of questions on Saturday but also left a lot to be answered. It seems that he's gotten over his mental mistakes, as this was a platform set up for him to completely fail. His camp sets up a great gameplan and he follows it to a tee. He also looks like the most complete MMA fighter we've ever seen and is being hyped as the new breed of fighter that everyone should model themselves after. I still think he's afraid to get hit though. If anyone is going to beat GSP, they're going to have to stop the takedown and hope to catch him on the feet. Problem is, that's a lot easier said than done. His takedowns are explosive and even though it wasn't proven much against a guy like Matt Serra, who was comfortable on his back. It was obvious just how good his takedowns were against Josh Koscheck and Matt Hughes. And even if you stop the takedown, it's not like GSP is a slouch on the feet. Every fighter is beatable because it's MMA and, "shit happens and shit" but it's going to take a hell of a performance or fluke to knock off GSP.

In a fight where he truly needed to perform well, Travis Lutter showed his professionalism (or lack there of). By most accounts, Travis Lutter seems like a good guy. He talked some pre-fight smack about how Rich Franklin was afraid to fight him but I'm all for the pre-fight hype. Before this fight, Lutter mentioned how he was on a mission to get another shot against Anderson Silva, make weight, and beat the champion. Lutter made weight for his fight against Rich Franklin and then proceeded to blow his wad in the first round. When the second round started, it seemed obvious that Lutter was done. Franklin rocked him with a head kick and then beat on him until the ref stopped the fight.

A lot of people like to give guys like Chuck Liddell and Anderson Silva shit, making comments like, "sure they beat people early but if you can drag them into the later rounds, you can win." Aside from the fact that that's a lot easier said than done, it doesn't guarantee anything. Liddell became famous by knocking guys out early and Silva is becoming famous for never having a fight make it out of the 2nd round. Their cardio isn't to the level of a Clay Guida but these guys aren't training for a one round fight like Lutter seemed to do. They're training to go 3 or 5 rounds because anything can happen in a fight. No one thought Silva vs. Liddell would make it to the 3rd round, much less go to a decision. Both men were dead tired after that fight but you can't say either man was as gassed as Travis Lutter. Lutter fucked up the biggest chance in his career by not making weight at UFC 67 and fucked up his chance at redemption by training for a one round fight. Travis Lutter is obviously a talented fighter. He's had Anderson Silva and Rich Franklin in a load of trouble before losing but he's not a guy like BJ Penn who can under-train and get away with it. Like BJ Penn has started to do, Lutter needs to mix his talent with better and more training because he could find himself in the IFL if he doesn't.

As for Franklin, it was a good fight for him. He got caught in an arm bar but he knew how to escape it and did. He punished Lutter anytime he went for a takedown and finally defeated the gassed Lutter in the second round. Rich Franklin is a very likeable guy. Win or lose, he's pure class and is one of the smartest fighters in the game. He's a lot like Kenny Florian where I think he can beat pretty much everyone in the division except for the current champion. He's still a name fighter who always brings the fight and a good representative for the sport so he'll be around for a long time.

Franklin may have found himself a new opponent in the Middleweight debuting Michael Bisping. Bisping looked to be in much better shape for this fight and moved a lot better. He threw a variety of strikes and knees and finally put Charles McCarthy away when it looked like McCarthy shattered his arm blocking a knee by Bisping. While Bisping was impressive on the feet, he still had to survive a submission scare. I don't know what it is with Bisping but he just has a mental lapse that allows him to get caught in a submission in almost all of his fights. He gets out in the end but someone with world class skills is going to finish him. A fight with Franklin seems to be in the cards and that could be a fun stand up battle. The problem with that fight is that I think Franklin will win and if that happens, he's likely not going to fight Silva again and you've killed off the Bisping Middleweight run for the time being. I say give Bisping the immediate shot at Anderson Silva. Bisping has some name value from TUF3, he's a young and fresh opponent, and who doesn't love seeing Anderson Silva just destroy people? They might as well get something out of a Bisping loss instead of matching him up with a guy who, if he beats Bisping, can't fight Silva.

In the nights opening bout Mac Danzig displayed a variety of skills before finishing off Mark Bocek. I knew Bocek was screwed from the beginning when I saw Dan Henderson in his corner. Doesn't he know that Team Quest guys just don't succeed in the UFC? I like to think that Dana White goes up to every Team Quest opponent before the fight, says to them, "if you beat this fucker, I'll give you an extra $100,000", and who the hell isn't going to fight their ass off for that extra $100,000? I also like to think he does all of that just to spite Matt Lindland. It's not that far-fetched, is it?

Anyway, Mac Danzig becomes a small fish in a big pond with his win over Bocek. The UFC Lightweight division is stacked with so many guys of name value and good fighters that it's going to be tough for Danzig to break through. The thing I like about him though is that he has a huge heart and he's worked his ass off to be in the UFC and he's not taking anything for granted.

And I have of course saved the best live fight for last. I stated last week that Kalib Starnes doesn't like to fight and that if he lost this fight, UFC would release him. Praise me now. Kalib Starnes is a fucking moron. It came out early this week that Starnes sucked on purpose to stick it to the UFC for not covering his medical bill and costing him money. Yeah, you sure showed them Kalib. No you're not going to make any money because you don't have a fucking job.

I would say avoid this fight at all costs but if you can find this fight with the post-fight interview included; you must watch it. Nate Quarry, a man with very little charisma, becomes the most charismatic man in the company during this fight. He runs after Starnes in the 3rd round and them employees the Retard Fighting Technique, a technique used by everyone who made it to the 2nd grade. The best part about this was that Starnes actually continued to back off while Quarry ran after him with his hands down and used the Retard Fighting Technique. Starnes was angry after the fight due to Quarry's mocking but fuck him. He's officially on my "Fuck Off" list along with Sean Sherk, Tim Sylvia, and Karo Parisyan. I laughed when a judge gave him a score of 24 and I hope no organization is dumb enough to pick him up. I can't really say much about Quarry other than he looked to be in great shape and threw some sick leg kicks.

In the preliminary fights we saw some more good action, starting with the fight of the night between Jonathan Goulet and Kuniyoshi Hironaka. Goulet showed impressive takedown defense and even better stand up. He got caught by Hironaka in the 1st and was arguably saved by the bell but gained him composure, maybe gave Hironaka a false sense of security, and beat him on the feet in the 2nd round. Goulet is a good gate-keeper fighter but I don't see him making it past that level.

In an impressive UFC debut, Cain Velasquez made quick work of Brad Morris. If Cain was a former WWE World Champion, he'd be Brock Lesnar. He's got an impressive wrestling background and he showed in this fight that he has heavy hands. Luckily for him, he's not Brock Lesnar, which means expectations won't be as high for him so if and when he does succeed, people will fall in love with this kid.

Demian Maia continued to stay unbeaten by defeating TUF3 runner-up Ed Herman. Maia displayed a high level of BJJ in the first round but Herman did a good job of defending everything Maia threw at him. Then, in true Ed Herman fashion, he got caught in a submission and passed out. At least this time he didn't, "tap out like a pussy" like he did against Jason MacDonald. Maia looked very impressive in this fight and I would love to see him matched up against someone who doesn't have a submission lapse in every fight.

Alan Belcher was scheduled to fight Patrick Cote in what was expected to be a stand up battle. Instead, Cote had to pull out and fellow Canadian Jason Day took his place. In what seemed like a much different fight on paper for Belcher, Day was willing to stand and trade with him. In the end, Day got the better of exchanges in his UFC debut and won by TKO. Day earned himself a UFC contract with this fight and it will be interesting to see how he fairs in the Middleweight division. He was known as a submission specialist but he showed really good stand up in this fight against Belcher.

Jason MacDonald and Joe Doerkson renewed their bad blood with some brilliant groundwork in the 1st round and a brutal knockout in the 2nd. It looked like MacDonald may have tapped out in the first but he didn't have a wincing look on his face so it's tough to tell. He looked calm while Doerkson had his arm but you can tell he almost taps. I don't know what was up with the end of the fight where the ref seemed to stop it but MacDonald laid in 2 or 3 more shots before getting up. Maybe the ref got a closer look to see if Doerkson was out, determined he wasn't, allowed MacDonald to throw a few more shots, and then stopped the fight.

In a very close decision, Rich Clementi defeated Sam Stout. At the end of the fight, I thought Clementi had won but if you listened to the announcers, it seemed like Stout was sure to pick up the victory. Clementi obviously won the first round and while Stout threw the better combos in rounds 2 and 3, I thought Clementi landed the better punches. The thing with Stout is that although he has a great chin, he tends to stumble backwards a lot when he gets hit, which looks to be a sign of confusion. I'm not sure if it's to bait his opponent or he really is hurt for a second but whatever it is, I think it cost him in this fight. Clementi showed some good stand up and a good ground game in this fight and is quickly putting together a nice win streak. I look forward to seeing both men again in the near future.

I thought Kenny Florian did a fine job on commentary replacing Joe Rogan. I hope that he or Rich Franklin is given the Randy Couture role of joining the broadcast booth during the main event because I really like to hear a fighters insight to the big fights.

When it was all said and done, the UFC delivered another good event, continuing the 2008 PPV streak. The Montreal crowd was into every fight and helped make for a great atmosphere and every fight with the exception of Starnes vs. Quarry was an entertaining fight. Hopefully UFC will be back in Canada before the year is up because they certainly showed that they love their fighting.

UFC Event News & Notes

Chuck Liddell suffered a torn hamstring and was forced to withdraw from his UFC 85 fight with Rashad Evans. James Irvin has stepped up to take his place. In addition to that, Dana White announced that this event will carry 13 fights in order to try and replace the drawing of Liddell. It's also being rumored that this event will now be free on SpikeTV

A lot of news there so let me break it all down.

Chuck Liddell being off this card sucks and kills the big draw. I was looking forward to Chuck vs. Rashad Evans because I'm a huge Liddell fan and I thought this was a good showcase fight for him. I wish him the best in his recovery. Now a lot of talk has been brought up that Chuck is milking this injury because he doesn't want to fight in London. Chuck has never disclosed his injuries to Dana White but he felt the need to tell him about this one. Dana says that Chuck wanted to fight but he wouldn't allow it. I don't think Chuck wanted to get out of this fight because it was in London or he's scared of Rashad Evans (that's laughable) but I think he opted out of this one because he's getting up there in age and he didn't want to risk anything at this point in his career.

Now you can't replace the name of Chuck Liddell but adding more fights is a decent solution. If those fights deliver, the fans will be happy because they may watch for the names but they stay for the entertaining fights. James Irvin obviously isn't the greatest replacement in the world but all of the top Light Heavyweights are booked for the UFC. Irvin is coming off a quick knockout though and he's an easy sell in a fight for Rashad. The other talk is that Chris Leben vs. Michael Bisping will now headline this show, which could be a fine little battle. I'm sure Bisping would love to fight in England again where he's 2-0 in the UFC and Leben will fight anywhere and anytime. Bisping vs. Leben isn't a PPV headlining fight but at least it's Bisping in London headlining against an exciting fighter instead of Bisping in New Jersey headlining against Evans.

And finally, this thing may not even be on PPV anymore. That leads me to believe that Spike wanted this event but UFC opted for PPV because they thought Chuck would draw enough to salvage the cost of going to London. With Chuck out, you know this PPV isn't going to sell as much so if SpikeTV still wants it, you know UFC would be happy to make that move.

It's a bittersweet situation for UFC and fans but in the end I think it will all work out.

Rich Clementi has stepped in to replace Rob Emerson in a fight against Terry Etim at UFC 84

Hell of a turnaround for Rich Clementi, who had a hell of a battle with Stout at UFC 83. It's a smart move on his part though if he thinks he can win it because it's a tough 155 division and you can use all the wins you can get. Etim is a good ground fighter so I expect this to be a great display of BJJ.

Evan Tanner vs. Kendall Grove will be the main event of the TUF7 Finale. It was previously reported that Diego Sanchez vs. Luigi Firovanti would be the main event

I'm not really big on either of these fights being the main event. Grove and Tanner are both coming off of losses and I remember how up in arms everyone was when it was announced that Liddell vs. Jardine would headline UFC 76. Diego Sanchez is probably the biggest name of all 4 guys but Luigi just doesn't seem to be a viable opponent for him. I think Grove vs. Tanner will be the better fight because chances are Grove is going to get knocked out again.

UFC Fighter News & Notes

As expect, UFC released Kalib Starnes after his fight at UFC 83. Starnes side of the story is that he asked for his release and he didn't perform well due to a broken foot suffered early in first round

Fuck Kalib Starnes. Even if he suffered a broken foot, it clearly didn't affect his ability to run away from Quarry. Even as Quarry dropped his hands to run after him and employed the Retard Fighting Technique, Starnes still backed up. This guy is a joke. He always seems to get these injuries in fights and once they happen, he doesn't want to fight. Every fighter comes into fights injured or gets injured in fights and you don't see them run away from their opponent. I hope to see him at Tim Hortons in the near future.

Mickey's is set to announce the signing of Tito Ortiz

Seems like another "Fuck You Dana and UFC" from Tito. This isn't really a big deal considering UFC locked up a deal with Budweiser, a much bigger company than Mickey's, and they pretty much dropped Mickey's to do it.

Other MMA News & Notes

ProElite lost a reported 27 and a half million dollars in 2007

This is what happens when you buy up a bunch of companies that are worth nothing and then continue to run them separately. Hopefully ProElite has learned from their mistakes and they move forward but it's going to be tough to recover from such a loss. This CBS deal is a make or break thing for them.

Josh Barnett is scheduled to fight at the Sengura 2 show while Matt Lindland will fight on the July 19th Affliction show, headlined by Sylvia vs. Fedor

Good to see both guys get back in action. Barnett looked good in his last fight and you know he's dying to face a top guy like Fedor or Cro Cop. Lindland hasn't fought since his loss to Fedor but he moved up two weight classes for that fight and there was the controversy with Fedor holding the ropes. It sucks that UFC won't give either of these guys a chance but that can't stop them from continuing to fight.

AND IT'S ALL OVER~!

That does it for me. I'll be back next week and for once I won't have 3 million things to do. Take care everyone.