Wowww! To all of you that have watched the fights, I have to admit that it was one of the best events of 2007. Although we weren’t too excited with some of the results, the fights were as amazing as we thought they would be.
Lyoto Machida proved to be the better man of the match when he faced Rameau Sokoudjou. Although Sokoudjou seemed like the aggressor, Machida was able to handle the entire fight with his ground skills. Machida held Soku to the ground several times, helping him slip in the triangle choke to submit him in the second round. Soku is known for his speed and knockout abilities, but he wasn’t able to capitalize against the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu expert Machida.
Also on the fight card was Eddie Sanchez who faced the very powerful Soa Palelei. Soa was the favorite according to our UFC 79 betting odds, but Sanchez came back to show all of us that he wasn’t 11-1-0 for nothing. Sanchez was able to defeat Palelei via TKO-eye injury in the third round even though it looked to be an official win via TKO-strikes.
Chuck Liddell took on Wanderlei Silva in one of the most anticipated bouts of the year. It seemed like the fight could have gone either way as they let their arms loose and swung away with heavy punches to the face and body. Silva wasn’t impressed with Liddell’s technique, but in the end it was Liddell who landed the better punches as he took home the win last night. Silva is now under a lot of pressure as he loses the last 3 MMA fights of his career. This is where everyone will start asking him that question…Is this the end of the Axe Murderer? We all must understand that these 3 losses weren’t against a bunch of nobodies…these were against very tough opponents. Even though Wandy lost last night, the fight still could have gone either way.
As for Chuck, he is satisfied with his win as he overcomes the 2-fight losing streak he had and re-lives another episode of the road to the next UFC light heavyweight championship at 205 lbs. On the other hand, Silva will just have to move on and think about what is next for him. He must put this loss behind him and train hard for the next opponent as he hopes to catch up on the UFC light heavyweight race.
George St. Pierre is currently the interim welterweight champion of the UFC after he defeated the former welterweight champ Matt Hughes via a submission-armbar in the second round. The match-up was pretty action-packed, but GSP was clearly the dominant fighter in this match. GSP worked long and hard for a submission and he claims victory for now against Matt Hughes , but he’s really after the true champ-Matt Serra as he stated right after the fight.
For the rest of the results of the UFC 79-Nemesis, click here
