UFC 138 Birmingham -Full Press Experience

Post date: 07-Nov-2011 21:58:16

UFC 138 Birmingham

Full Press Experience

The Real MMA Show travelled down to Birmingham for UFC 138 this week and I have to say we were pleasantly surprised. This card was given a lot of stick for not having the big named fighters but the boys who were fighting put on a show.

We arrived on the Thursday at the Hilton for the pre-fight press conference and Master Wang was not slow in firing his question at Chris Leben (what is your favourite sandwich filling?). We then managed to secure interviews with Chris Leben, Mark Munoz and Brad Pickett who all played the media game well. Oh and just in case you were wondering his favourite filling is chicken tikka.

On the Friday we attended the question and answer session with Mike Goldberg and Rashad Evens. Goldy was his usual slick self but the surprise of the day was Rashad who entertained the crowd with honest answers and kick ass impressions of Mike Tyson and his mum. This was followed with the fighter weigh inns and the only fighter to struggle was Thiago Alves, who even after losing his underwear was still sitting at 172. After a short time he was able to rectify this and blamed the scales not himself or the Dolce diet.

On fight day we were treated to a pre fight dinner by the UFC which Master Wang and myself could not refuse. We then moved to our Press seats which at third row from the cage were pretty good, we settled in and got ready for some action.

Home town hero Vaughan lee was first up against Chris Cariaso. Lee was able to control most of the first round in the clinch or on top as Cariaso was slow to find his rhythm. The second round was much different as Cariaso was able to take advantage of lees poor movement landing hard shots and a takedown where he finished the round in mount. The third round was much of the same with Cariaso moving from mount to the back looking for a choke. The fight finished with a spilt decision loss for lee which did not please the crowd but on reflection was more than a fair result.

Che Mills was the next Englishman in the cage and he faced former TUF 13 participant Chris Cope. The crowd loved Copes catch phrase “wow” and chanted it until the fight began. The fight itself only lasted 40 seconds with Mills finishing Cope with a series of punches and knees which earned him a $70,000 knock out of the night bonus.

Michihiro Omigawa vs Jason Young was a hard fought affair which went three rounds. The difference in this fight being Omigawa’s judo and his top control. Young had some success on his feet landing some hard head kicks but could not get the Japanese fighter to stop coming forward. In the end Omigawa had to settle for a decision victory as Young some how managed to shrug off a deep heel hook in the third, making it through the fight.

Next up was the battle of the British heavy weights Rob Broughton vs Philip de Fries. This was a fight which the crowd did not enjoy as De fries avoided any exchanges on the feet for all three rounds. He instead worked his takedowns and ground control to win a unanimous decision. A big strong boy, with a good ground game, will be intresting to see if De Fries develops his striking game now he is in the big time?

The Justin Edwards vs John Maguire fight did not start well for Maguire as he had to walk off a low blow very early in the first round. After what looked like some smooth dancing Maguire was ready to go, Edwards then followed this up with a spinning back kick to the body and a right hand that sent Maguire to the floor. Maguire was quick to recover and finally started to fight his fight which is wrestling and bjj. He then controlled the rest of the fight finishing the third round looking for a rear naked choke. The judges scored the fight 30-27 to Maguire who could not believe he was talking to Joe Rogan after the fight. Good to see a strong brittish fighter have the tools to nutralise a strong american wrestler, we see a bright future for Maguire!

The first fight of the main card was Terry Etim vs Edward Faaloloto. This fight was looking like a three round stand up war but Etim had other ideas. After a brief exchange Faaloloto did not want anymore in the exchange and shoot sloppy for a takedown, Etim locked in a tight guillotine and Faaloloto was forced to tap inside the first minute. Etims performance sees him fresh and ready for a quick turnaround, expect to see him back in the Octagon very soon !!

Cyrille Diabate vs Anthony Perosh on paper was as close to a classic striker vs grappler fight as you will get in modern mma. The fight started slowly with both veterans being very cautious. Diabate who was Dan Henderson’s stand up coach on the ultimate fighter used his length well to land some punches and kicks whilst avoiding the takedown. Perosh eventually gets the fight to the ground late in the first round but is unable to make his advantage count. In the second round Perosh gets the fight to the ground much quicker and quickly transitions to mount. From this position he attempts to set up an arm triangle but as he dismounts to finish the submission Diabate rolls and gives up his back. Perosh quickly flattens him out and applies a rear naked choke. Diabate is forced to tap at 3.09 in round 2. Perosh has probably the most apt name in MMA – The hippo!

Next was a battle of two large and very explosive welterweights. Thiago Alves who always struggles to make the 170 and Papy Abedi who usually fights at middle weight. Abedi comes forward early and lands a front kick to the face Steven Seagal style but Alves seams unhurt.(HE is lucky it never finnished Alves as Seagal would have been looking for some recognition.hahah) They then trade a series of hard punches but Alves lands a sweat left hand which puts Abedi down. Alves follows him to the matt and throws some vicious punches and elbows. Abedi turns to shield himself and gives up his back; Alves quickly sinks the choke and finishes the fight in the first round. This being the first win for Alves via submission within the Octagon, Alves looked overly emotional, excited and relived with this victory over a relatively unkown European fighter!!

The co main event on this card was Brad Pickett vs Renan Barao. Pickett had been out for almost a year with a back injury and was still to make his ufc debut. Barao who has a crazy 26 fight win streak was ready to prove he could make the step up in competition. As with most Brad Pickett fights it’s quickly turns into a brawl, his one punch knock out power punches being thrown from the back row,in the pocket both fighters land heavy shots, with Picket coming off a little worse but even being tagged hard by Barao, Picket shows his granite chin and keeps advancing. On this occasion Pickett comes of worst as Barao lands a flying knee and then several hard punches. Although Pickett is still alert Barao takes his back and sinks in the choke to finish the fight at 4.09 in the first round. The future is looking very bright for Barao, is he next for a title? Could he be the dethroner!!

Chris Leben vs Mark Munoz is not only an exciting fight on paper it’s also a possible number one contender fight. Munoz quickly gets the fight to the ground but Leben uses the cage to get right back up. They then spend some time against the cage swapping body shots. Leben then scores a takedown of his own with a nice trip. Munoz does not take long to get back to his feet but eats a few shots on his way up. The fighters push against the cage and Leben scoops Munoz up and put him down but he gets straight back up. However Leben has his neck and drops down with a guillotine attempt. Munoz slips out and gets to his feet first, landing some heavy punches on the crippler. The round ends with Leben stuffing a takedown and landing some elbows. Leben is visibly tired at the start of the second round and Munoz gets him to the matt. Munoz lands some serious ground and pound which cuts the crippler. He is able to get up but is quickly put back down and eats more punishment. Leben then stands and secures Munoz neck and drops down for a choke but his arms are burnt out. Both fighters get back to there feet and the ref stops the fight to allow the doctor to look at Lebens eye. The fight is allowed to continue and Leben again attempts a guillotine but ends up on bottom where he receives more punishment. The round ends with both fighters on there knees swapping punches but unfortunately Leben is not fit to continue and Mark Munoz is declared the winner. Mark takes his opertunity with Joe to state his case for a shot at the spider !!

We then head to the post fight press conference and I put the questions to Dana White I think most Scottish and UK mma fans want the answers to . What is happening with the ufc's UK TV deal, will it be ESPN or fox and will Scotland get an ufc event in the near future. Dana replied that the TV deal will be sealed soon and that Scotland will get a fight card but probably not before Sweden do. Master Wang then asked if the ufc would consider allowing pride rules for the ufc Japan card, Dana struggle with Wangs strong accent and replied with a “you are killing me hear brave heart”, which got the press confrence laughing.

In conclusion I think this event proved that you can’t judge a fight card until after the event as although it lacked big names every fighter put on a show. This main event was billed as the first five round non title fight but perhaps they chose the wrong fighters to take part as Leben vs Munoz was never going to last five rounds. All the British fighters showed that they deserve to be in the big show and will hopefully make it to fight across the pond. We would like to wish Paul Taylor a speedy recovery as he was unable to participate due to a recent car accident. Thanks to the UFC Big Marshall Z and Nick Braund for making the Real mma shows expreince flawless .

Muscle Mole