What was thought to be a relatively uninteresting fight card ended up providing some good fights and interesting developments.

The real story of this event was Chael Sonnen, he did a lot of talking in the weeks leading up to this fight, including comments on Anderson Silva, Nate Marquardt, the business of MMA and his political aspirations.  He claimed that he was a better “fighter” than Nate although he did say that Marquardt is a better striker and submission stylist.  He proved his point last night in what might not have been an exciting fight to watch but it was impressive in the sense that he dominated Marquardt the entire fight.  His win over Okami was impressive but this just shows us how imposing Sonnen can be when he’s this determined and focused.

The other most notable result was Paulo Thiago stopping Mike Swick in the 2nd round.  His striking is what impressed me the most, he looks so awkward out there just standing in front of his opponent with no head movement, then leaning back and flailing his arms around when on the defensive.  Unconventional strikers can be the most dangerous sometimes because you don’t know what they’re doing and that big punch can come out of nowhere.  All the rumors about his “lucky” punch against Koscheck were put to bed last night and one more win against a top opponent could put Paulo within striking distance of a title shot.  After a tough fight last night he’s taking a break today, then returning to work on Monday morning at BOPE in brazil.

Demian Maia has been working on his striking game and he decided to test that out against Miller which i thought was a good idea.  Miller is not particularly dangerous on his feet and Maia needed that experience.  Even though he struggled a bit with his wrestling, Maia could have pulled guard at any time and submitted Miller in my opinion, he just chose to go a different way in this fight.

Serra looked good in his fight, but Trigg should either retire or relegate himself to fighting in the smaller shows.  The problem with Trigg is that although he has a solid offensive game, his defense both standing and on the ground is lacking.  At least he was gracious in defeat for the most part, so who’s next for Matt Serra?

Randy controlled the entire fight and to be honest i think he was carrying Coleman a little bit.  He wasn’t throwing bombs like he did against Sylvia and a few times when Coleman was hurt Randy decided to give him a bit of a breather.  I think Coleman should hang it up before he gets hurt, he just looked so slow out there, even from the opening bell he was sluggish and you can’t be a sitting target out there with all  the powerful strikers in the division.

This event played out better than i thought it would, which isn’t saying much but i was pleasantly surprised by some of the outcomes.