| UFC 73 Fight Summary |
plus more UFC Notes
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CP) - In the end, UFC 73 didn’t change much.
Middleweight Anderson Silva and lightweight Sean Sherk defended their titles and Tito Ortiz and Rashad Evans decided nothing. The two light-heavyweights fought to a draw, thanks to Ortiz being deducted a point for holding onto the cage in the second round, and then bickered like spoilt teenagers at the post-fight news conference Saturday night.
While the fight was a 28-28 draw on all three judges’ cards thanks to the point deduction, Evans was a clear winner in the late-night sniping.
"You got lucky," Evans told the Huntington Beach Bad Boy, who wore sunglasses to hide facial damage.
"You didn’t do nothing. The only thing you did was you took me down and you held me. . . . Take off your glasses, let your face tell the story," urged Evans.
"How about the end of the third round when you just lay down like a little bitch and got pounded out?" he asked.
They may have been Evans’ best attacks of the night.
"You were running the whole time," said Ortiz, who initially tried to take the high road after the fight.
Watching the repartee with a smile on his face, UFC president Dana White told the news conference there would definitely be a rematch - "hopefully not in the next three minutes."
Elsewhere on the card, Heath (The Texas Crazy Horse) Herring gave Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira a scare before the former Pride heavyweight champion rallied for a unanimous decision in his UFC debut.
Welterweight Chris Lytle won submission of the night honours from the UFC, with Jason (The Gizzard) Gilliam tapping out at 2:15 of the first round - caught in both a triangle choke and armbar.
And Jorge Gurgel won fight of the night honours for his unanimous decision over lightweight Diego Saraiva in a battle of American-based Brazilians. Gurgel, whose face was a lumpy mess, won’t be celebrating any time soon. He was taken to hospital after the win, suffering from a broken jaw and urinating blood.
"He’s OK. but he’s in rough shape," White said.
While there was no title on the line for Ortiz and Evans, it was clearly the fight the fans had been waiting for. Silva and Nate Marquardt suffered coming on directly after - the crowd of 14,317 at Arco Arena seemed spent.
The bigger Ortiz pressed the action for most of the fight but failed to make it pay. He put Evans on his butt several times, but was unable to follow up with his vaunted ground-and-pound. He later pointed to back problems, saying he had undergone injections two weeks prior to the fight.
Ortiz, who was cut under the eye in the first round, locked in a guillotine choke as the second round ended but a contorted Evans was saved by the bell. The fight ended with an Evans takedown, and a bleeding Ortiz on his back.
Evans (15-0-1) seemed more focused on defence. And Ortiz (16-5-1) was unable to deliver on offence.
"I just needed to do a little bit more to get the job done," Evans conceded.
The judges gave Ortiz the first two rounds and Evans the third. With the point deduction by referee (Big) John McCarthy in the second, it made for the draw,
Ortiz had no problem with the point deduction for grabbing the fence to avoid the takedown, a penalty many fans in the arena missed. Both Ortiz and Evans disputed the other judging.
Silva once again showed his striking prowess, hammering a grounded Marquardt from above until the referee stepped it at 4:50 of the first round. Marquardt, a highly regarded 185-pounder, could not withstand the Brazilian champion’s power.
"He’s a killer," said White.
Sherk lived up to his nickname, outmuscling and outlasting game challenger Hermes Franca for a unanimous decision in a bout fought almost exclusively on the ground.
Sherk, a powerfully built wrestler, took the smaller Franca down right off the bat, only to find himself in a guillotine choke. He eventually escaped and spent almost all of the round on top of Franca - and that’s the way the fight continued.
Franca caught Sherk with a string of choke attempts and several nasty knees to the head but the champion shook all of them off.
White took exception to fans who booed parts of the Sherk-Franca bout.
"People who were booing during that fight are out of their minds. What do they want? Trapdoors to come open and like bobcats or tigers to come running out of there? That fight was awesome. It was one of the most technical fights you’ll ever see."
Sherk takes on B.J. Penn next, probably in November. Silva will fight Rich Franklin in October in the former champion’s home of Cincinnati.
Herring did his best to spoil Nogueira’s UFC coming-out party, toppling the heavy favourite with a kick to the head late in the first round. But he seemingly let the big Brazilian off the hook by backing off.
Herring, whose face was a mess of cuts and bruises, clearly regretted the decision later.
"I didn’t think he’d be able to get up," Herring said after his third loss to Nogueira.
Nogueira did and went on to score a unanimous decision - 29-28 on all three judges’ cards. It marked his third career win over the American.
In the first bout of the night, Toronto lightweight Mark Bocek lost his UFC debut by first-round TKO at the hands of Frank (The Answer) Edgar.
For a fight between a wrestler (Edgar) and jiu-jitsu black belt (Bocek), there was a lot of striking with the Canadian getting the worst of most of the exchanges, although he did break Edgar’s nose with a left that staggered him.
The bout was halted with five seconds remaining in the round with Edgar pummelling a turtled Bocek. Upset at the outcome, Bocek declined to speak to reporters.
In other action, light-heavyweight Stephan Bonnar returned from a drug suspension by submitting Mike Nickels at 2:14 of the first round by rear naked choke. And lightweight Kenny Florian scored a first-round TKO over Alvin Robinson in the final fight of the night.
Notes: Pride star Hayato (Mach) Sakurai watched the card. He is coming over to join UFC and will fight as a welterweight. … Dana White said the UFC 75 bout on Sept. 8 in London between Pride title-holder Dan Henderson and UFC champion Quinton (Rampage) Jackson will be a title unfication bout. White also said the bout was sold out. … Mirko (Cro Cop) Filipovic has asked for a fight with Nogueira, assuming the Croatian beats Cheick Kongo at UFC 75. … White said Pride star Josh Barnett had been released from his contract. … The live gate Saturday was US$1.5 million.
| " | "He's a killer," said White. |
Sense when does the challenger get to fight in his own town(Franklin) hell I know you want a white champion but lets be fair to the Champ! The same Fans that are forced to stick with the UFC were all switching to PrideFC in the thousands before the Buyout now WE have no choice except that Dana will put aside the good old boy club, and let the best fight the best. we should be seeing some kind of a bracket of who fightd who then move up to the winner of the opposing bracket! …John