Whats up, Fat Lady fight fans!? I would like to apologize for the lengthy delay between posts (I know some of you almost couldn’t take it didn’t even notice) but I have been delayed in posting as I was helping a friend who broke his leg last week function. See, I’m not lazy, just a good person. So with that out of the way, let’s take a very belated, yet worthwhile, look at last weekend’s fights.
First, we have the Klitschko vs. Haye fight and just like I had suspected, Haye couldn’t compete with Wlady. Even though everyone and their mother was hyped up on Haye’s speed it seemed that his speed was nowhere to be found. Klitschko neutralized everything Haye tried to throw at him through his superior boxing skills and working off his jab, Klitschko was able to land more… everything than Haye. This was an easy unanimous decision in favor of “Dr. Steelhammer” Wladimir Klitschko. And yes that is his real nickname. It has to do with him having a Ph.D. as well as throwing steel hammers for punches.
Over in the UFC, the three main fights (though, two of them ended in the first 30 seconds) were worth the price of admission. First up was the upset and submission of the night. Just like Dana White said, “Tito fights his best with his back against the wall.” And that is exactly what Tito did. This was an Ortiz the UFC has not seen the likes of in nearly 5 years. He came out ready to fight and brought it to a very talented Ryan Bader. Tito wasted no time getting inside of Bader with a few combos and was able to take him down easily. Once on the ground Ortiz throw a little ground and pound at Bader and went in for an easy guillotine submission. With this win, Ortiz not only saved his job, but let the 205lb division know the Huntington Beach Bad Boy is back.
The next fight was between Wanderlei Silva and Chris Leben. This fight produced the hardest knockout of the night. Wanderlei, in an effort to come out strong, fell into bad habits. Instead of trying to strike with Leben, Silva tried too hard to be the brawler, while Leben was interested in being the better fighter. Wanderlei charged hard at Leben trying to unleash a wild combination of left and right hooks. Leben was able to block and counter with three devastating uppercuts that put Wanderlei out cold. Silva was so out that after the ref stopped the fight and leaned over Wanderlei to check if he was OK, Silva came to and tried to wrestle the ref, thinking it was Leben, not realizing he just got put to sleep.
The Main Event of the night lived up to everything a fight fan could hope for. Cruz and Faber put on a 5 round war to decide the Bantamweight Champion. I do not think anybody was envying the judges who had to make a decision for this fight. In the end, I believe they made the right choice by awarding Cruz the victory. And I must say, Cruz was quite the fighter to watch. This is meant to take nothing away from Faber, who is an incredible competitor and brought it to Cruz the entire fight. However, Cruz was able to use his superior boxing skills and footwork to dictate the pace of the fight and decide when to stand and when to take it to the ground. Even though Faber thought he won, and claimed he landed the biggest shots (which I think he did) in order to take the belt, a challenger has to completely dominate a fight to be awarded a decision victory. One thing is for sure though; now that Faber and Cruz are tied at one win a piece, the rubber match sure will be interesting.
