lesner432 By Jim Slattengren: On Saturday night’s UFC 100 fight card over 11,000 fans attended the fight at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas to watch MMA stars Brock Lesner, Georges St-Pierre, Dan Henderson, Michael Bisping, Frank Mir and Thiago Alves go at it in separate fights.

Despite there being several excellent fights on the card, the event was marred by two separate incidents, starting with 38-year-old Henderson throwing a late elbow after having knocked him cold with a right hand. In the main event, UFC heavyweight champion Lesner got in the face of his opponent Frank Mir seconds after stopping him in the 2nd round, gleefully taunting the hurt fighter.

Immediately following that, Lesner marched around the ring shouting and flipping off the crowd much to the horror of Dana White. It seemed as if Lesner was having a flash back to his Professional wrestling days where he tended to play the bad guy. The class of Saturday night’s UFC 100 event was Canadian welterweight St-Pierre, who put on a clinic in how to perform take downs. He looked superb in completely dominating Brazilian Thiago Alves, winning all five rounds with ease over a very tough opponent.

In the main event, heavyweight Brock Lesner (4-1, 3 KO’s) defeated former UFC champion Frank Mir (12-4, 2 KO’s) by a 2nd round TKO. Lesner, 31, had previously been defeated by Mir a year ago by a 1st round submission in UFC 81, so this was a grudge match for Lesner.

Using his 20 pound weight advantage, the 265 pound Lesner toyed with Mir in the 1st round, taking him to the mat and pounding him for most of the round with short punches while Mir was flat on his back unable to fight back effectively. Lesner landed a lot of shot punches in the round and by the end of the round, Mir’s right cheek was badly swollen and he looked beaten.

In the 2nd round, Lesner took Mir down immediately, but then let him up without hitting him. Mir responded by elbowing Lesner in the face. Lesner then took Mir down and kept him there. Mir worked became trapped against the fence and was unable to get away.

Lesner then pounded him with short punches, winding up and getting a lot of leverage on them. Mir made the mistake of turning over and exposing the back of his head to Lesner’s punches. Lesner then teed off with 13 straight punches to the side and back of Mir’s head until the referee stepped in and stopped the fight at 1:48 of the 2nd round.

Mir, his nose bleeding badly and his face swollen, got up off the mat after a brief spell, staggering to his feet. Lesner then moved in and shouted something at Mir. Lesner then began his victory parade around the ring, flipping off the crowd while they booed and cheered him. In the post fight interview, Lesner made mention about wanting to go home and drink some Coors beer and possibly mount his wife. The interviewer looked kind of sheepish and at a loss for words.
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In middleweight action, Dan Henderson (25-7, 11 KO’s) stopped Britain’s Michael Bisping (17-2, 11 KO’s) in the 2nd round after hitting him with a tremendous right hand that sent Bisping down back first landing with his head bouncing off the canvas.

Bisping was out cold and just lying there like a corpse. However, Henderson jumped in the air and landed with an elbow to the jaw to finish him off just in case. It was like hitting a dead person, because Bisping never flinched or stirred and just continued to lay unconscious for at least a minute after. The fight was officially stopped at 3:20 of the round.

Bisping, 30, fought timidly in the 1st round, moving around the ring and trying to avoid getting hit by Henderson’s big right hands. Henderson, a two-time Olympic wrestler with excellent grappling skills, wanted to keep the fight in the stand up mode, no doubt knowing that this is what makes an MMA more appealing to the fans.

In the 2nd round, Henderson began to catch up to Bisping and nail him with right hands. Bisping began to move around even more trying to avoid Henderson at all costs. Henderson had to literally chase Bisping to catch up to him.

It paid when Henderson caught Bisping near the fence and blasted him with a huge right hand that crashed off the jaw of Bisping knocking him cold immediately and sending him down on the mat where he landed with the back of his head bouncing off the mat. Henderson the added a final right elbow, leaping into the air before landing it.

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In welterweight action, UFC champion Georges St-Pierre (21-2, 8 KO’s) toyed with Brazilian Thiago Alves (16-4, 10 KO’s), defeating him by a one-sided five round decision. St-Pierre, 28, took Alves down over and over again in each round, dominating him both on the mat and while standing up.

The fight was thought to be a competitive one going into the fight but St-Pierre immediately made it clear in the 1st round that he was the dominant fighter. By the end of the fight, both of Alves’ eyes were badly swollen and blackened from the many punches he had taken from St-Pierre.

So one-sided was the fight that I kind of felt sorry for Alves, because he was just totally dominated by St-Pierre and looked like a child fighting a grown man. Alves could do nothing right whether it be fighting on the mat or trying to land his punches.

When Alves would try to throw a punch, St-Pierre would immediately take advantage of it by taking Alves to the canvas in a double leg take down and would then keep him there for extended periods of time during which St-Pierre would methodically beat him up. This for me was the best fight of the night because of St-Pierre’s skills.

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In the first fight of the night, middleweight Alan Belcher (14-6, 7 KO’s) was defeated by Yoshihiro Akiyama (13-1, 5 KO’s) by a three round split decision. In the 1st round, Belcher dropped Akiyama with a right hand. However, Akiyama came back to take Belcher to the canvas and keep him down for awhile. Belcher got the better of Akiyama in the 2nd round, landing a lot of inside leg kicks.

By the end of the round, Akiyama looked tired and his left eye was bruised. In the 3rd round, Akiyama dropped Belcher with a right hand to the head. Later on, he dove in and took Belcher to the canvas with a double leg takedown. The fight was very hard to score because Belcher was mostly landing leg kicks, where as Akiyama was landing the sharper punches and doing most of the take downs in the fight.

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In the final bout of the night, welterweight Jon Fitch (23-3, 4 KO’s) used his superior wrestling skills to defeat Brazilian Paulo Thiago (11-1, 2 KO’s) by a three round decision. Thiago caught Fitch in a guillotine early in the 1st round after being taken down to the canvas by Fitch and kept him in the hold for almost two minutes before Fitch could squeeze his way out of it.

After that, it was really not much of a contest because of Fitch’s excellent grappling skills. He spent the next two rounds, taking Thiago to the canvas whenever he pleased and keeping him down for long periods of time. Thiago had some good skills, but he couldn’t contend with the expert wrestling ability of Fitch.

In some ways, Fitch was similar to St. Pierre, only not as good at take downs or quite as good of a wrestler, which is kind of strange because St. Pierre didn’t wrestle in high school or college and Fitch was a wrestler for Purdue.