UFC 54 Part 2
Fight No. 2 is Diego Sanchez, who was on the Ultimate Fighter reality show last season, making his PPV debut against 33-year old Brian Gassaway. Gassaway is a kickboxer making his UFC debut. His mixed martial arts record is 18-9-3; he's been trained by veteran palooka Shonie Carter. What this all adds up to: they are very carefully selecting Sanchez's early opponents. Fighters trained in single disciplines tend to get eaten alive by cross-trained Ultimate Fighters.
Sanchez gets Gassaway down early. Gassaway clearly isn't experienced in fighting from the ground, but Sanchez just as clearly doesn't have the experience to swiftly put him away. They more or less roll around and hump for a couple minutes. Sanchez gets off a barrage of punches eventually, but Gassaway escapes and get to his feet. Sanchez gets another flurry before the round ends.
Gassaway's only chance is on his feet, and he nails Sanchez a couple times to start the second before Sanchez ended up back on top of him. Well, Sanchez can take a punch. Then again, Gassaway can, too. Sanchez is leaving his back just wide open for potential knees, but Gassaway isn't taking advantage. Gassaway finally taps early in the second.
The crowd's happy since the guy they know from TV won, but I wouldn't put Sanchez in the octagon with any name fighters just yet.
Joe Rogan, the guy from Fear Factor, is as always the color commentator. Rogan used to be the single most irritating announcer ever, in any sport. I swear UFC must have told him to tone it way down, because he no longer comes off like a nine-year old with ADD after a quadruple latte.
Dammitall. The next UFC is from Mohegan Sun, in Connecticut. They held a grand total of one UFC at Mohegan Sun in two years when I was living in New England.
Alright, next up is Randy "the Natural" Couture against Mike Van Arsdale in a light heavyweight matchup. Interesting booking of the matches this time out. At UFC 52, Couture lost the light heavy title to The Iceman Chuck Liddell. There's obviously big money in a Couture-Liddell rematch, but they've instead gone with Jeremy Horn against Liddell for the title in the main event. Horn is one of three people who have defeated Liddell -- Couture and Tito Ortiz are the others -- so the storyline is Liddell is looking to get his win from Horn. Fair enough, but they're risking ruining the momentum for the big Liddell-Couture rematch if either loses.
Couture's 42, Van Arsdale 40. Rogan just made a comment on how nutrition and advanced training methods are allowing athletes to compete longer. Man, that is one can of worms you do not want to open.
In Sports Illustrated a few months back, when they asked various athletes who they personally would pay money to see, Shaq said Couture. Crowd is completely behind Couture.
Van Arsdale is a skilled wrestler and it really shows early -- he used an amateur-wrestling style sit-out escape and reversal to get position.
Great wrestling early on, all sorts of escapes and attempts for positioning to try to get a submission. Couture's on top at the end tries to get a choke in but can't. Very interesting round of fighting, tough call but I have to give a slight edge to Couture since he seemed slightly more in control.
Second round, Couture hits a solid shot and knocks him down near a corner. He spends the next two minutes looking for an opening for a choke, and cuts him open with a couple punches. Van Arsdale gets to his feet halfway through and hits Couture with a solid punch. Not much of note late, both look tired near the end. Couture gets the nod in this round, and more convincingly than the first.
Rick Tocchet is in the crowd. The star power drops straight from Shaq to Rick Tocchet.
Third round, Van Arsdale is moving in slow motion. Couture drops Van Arsdale, sinks in the choke, and is victorious. Get Couture his rematch already.
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