UFC 140
Review and Analysis

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The penultimate UFC event in 2011 has come and gone and while there wasn't anything as spectacularly classic as Dan Henderson vs Shogun Rua at UFC 139, all the fights on the main card were exciting to watch and provided their own drama.

Mark Hominick vs Korean Zombie Chan Sung Jung

If the fighters hadn't touched gloves at the beginning of this fight, the Korean Zombie would have taken the UFC record for the quickest KO ever. As it was he still tied it at 7 seconds. Personally I thought Hominick was being a bit cheeky to touch gloves then go straight into a punch...if you want to come out fighting, come out fighting...but he paid the price for his over-enthusiasm when he found himself completely defenseless against Chan Sung Jung's counter punch. That was it basically: touch gloves, one punch from Hominick and a counter from Sung Jung but the Korean Zombie made sure of his win by following up with a few punches to the downed Canadian before the match was stopped.

Not a lot can be said here except that will be the last time we see Hominick charge out so recklessly and the last time the Korean Zombie is able to claim a win in less time than it took him to close the distance with his opponent in the first place.

Claude Patrick vs Brian Ebersole

Two well-matched fighters, neither of whom could find an advantage.

In the first round Ebersole went for a take down and Patrick attempted a guillotine. Striking was evenly matched, though I would give a slight advantage to Ebersole for damage. Very little between the two fighters though.

Nothing separated the fighters in round two and I would score that 10-10. Curiously though going into round three Ebersole's trainer told his fighter that Patrick was winning and Ebersole agreed with him. This at last seemed to have lit a fire under Ebersole and he opened the round with an ugly, energy sapping take down. Nevertheless, he gained the advantage and followed up with a second, cleaner take down later. Patrick was more threatening on the ground near the end of the third, but Ebersole had done enough to scrape a split decision.

Tito Ortiz vs Antonio Rogerio Nogueira

The former king of ground and pound succumbed to the kind of punishment he had been dishing out to opponent's when he was at the height of his career. Tito looked sharp as the fight started and looked like he was there to do a job. His striking was more disciplined than that of Lil Nog and he held his own in the clinch. Ortiz got clipped by Nogueira about 90 seconds into the fight though; not hard enough to send him sprawling, but hard enough to put him on the defensive, but that was enough. It was the beginning of the end.

Tito took a very painful beating for almost two minutes, and full credit to him for doing so, but Lil Nog maintained his dominant position and eventually the ref stopped the fight when Ortiz could no longer defend him sufficiently well or fight back.

Frank Mir vs Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira

This fight, along with the title fight, was the most interesting of the night. Mir was dealing with Big Nog well in the first couple of minutes, using good upper body movement (for a heavyweight) to initially pre-empt Minotauro's boxing before the fight went to a clinch that resulted in Mir taking down Nogueira. The fighters rose to a clinch again before finally separating to striking range. At this point the fight turned.

Mir got seriously caught on the chin with a one-two combination and was wobbling on his feet, his arms down, his head unprotected. What happened next has to rank as one of the biggest mistakes of Big Nog's career. While a Nick Diaz - also an excellent boxer - would have stayed patient and stayed at arm's length to pick his dazed opponent apart Nogueira closed for the clinch, gave up his advantage and played into Mir's strong point: his Jiu Jitsu.

From the clinch the fighters went to the ground and Minotauro tried some ground and pound before attempting a submission. By this time Mir had recovered and began to counter. What followed was some excellent No Gi BJJ that saw Mir gain a kimura hold...after a desperate attempts to escape Big Nog refused to tap out and - visible to all viewers - he ended up with his shoulder separated.

The fight was Nogueira's for the taking. He had the edge from the get go but surrendered his biggest advantage - his boxing skill - and ended up giving Mir time to recover and pull out the win.

Jon Jones vs Lyoto Machida

This fight went pretty much as I had predicted it would. In the first round Machida was able to either avoid taking any damage from Jones or counter attack successfully against Jones's single direct attacks. At one point Lyoto delivered a telling blow that revealed the insurmountable difference between the two fighters: physique. We saw in Jones's fight against Rampage that the era of the unorthodox fighting style was over. Jones made a few attempts to be unorthodox with Rampage but Jackson was too well prepared and nothing Jones threw was effective. Against Machida there was a single spinning elbow attack that came nowhere near to connecting and that was it. What won the fight for Jones was his build: he is another UFC champion who is effectively and comfortably a weight class higher but who is able to bring his weight down for a fight. Lyoto's scoring punch may not have KOed somewhere smaller, but Machida's record does suggest that it would have been enough to stun his opponent and therefore allow for more techniques to be delivered as follow up attacks.

That was the best chance of the night for Lyoto and his failure ushered in a new era of dominance was Jones; not one based on an unorthodox fighting style, but one grounded in his size, weight, strength and reach. As much as traditional martial arts may prefer to deny it, mixed martial arts demonstrates that size does matter. In his last couple of fights Jones hasn't won because he has confused his opponent's with some 'non-classical' MMA style; he has won because neither Rampage Jackson nor Lyoto Machida have the physical attributes to match him. I am not taking anything away from his hard work. I heard in an interview with Ariel Helwani that Jon Jones works out four times a day during his camp. But those four a day workouts were not what saved him when Machida came crashing in with a punch in the first round; it was his ability to absorb the power of the punch without being knocked senseless that did it.

During the first round Machida only looked like he was in danger when he stayed inside the pocket too long and Jones was able to get a hold of him. The second round started as the first round had finished and Machida still looked like he would have a chance of drawing the fight out over five rounds and taking a points victory. Halfway through the round though Machida was slow to react to a take down attempt, which became a clinch into a take down. Jones landed an elbow and opened up a gash on Machida's forehead. I thought it was all over at this point but Machida did well to escape and return to a standing clinch.

After separating the fighters landed simultaneous punches that again saw Jones's build save him and give him the advantage in the trade. Machida was shaken and Jones drove him into the cage wall where he executed an excellent standing choke for the win.

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