The Bell Centre was host to another huge Octagon success Saturday night as the UFC delivered in Montreal again in front 21,000-plus fans.
Though, if I had one complaint from UFC 97 -- apart from the fact that the main event stunk -- it's that internet connection problems in the arena wreaked havoc on us bloggers' abilities to, well, blog. (And no, I wasn't the only one.) I know it's up to the venue's staff to set this up, but please, UFC, don't let this be an issue again!
About that main event, middleweight champion Anderson Silva took and has been taking criticism for another lacklustre performance in victory. Well, criticism is an understatement. He and his opponent Thales Leites were booed heartily throughout the bout, Dana White called the performance (by both of them) "embarrassing," and the media pulled no punches in the post-fight news conference.
While the execution certainly wasn't Silva's best -- he apologized at the press conference -- I think this one is mostly on Leites. Apparently, he thought the "turtle" tactic would be an advisable one to employ.
To be honest, I scored this one 49-45 for The Spider. (Leites definitely won the second round but that's it -- I don't know how one judge gave him the first round. And I gave Silva a 10-8 in the third, not so much for what he did, but for what Leites didn't do. When you go into "your shell" eight times in a round, that's what you get.)
When one reporter said to Silva it seemed like he was afraid to commit to the attack, Chuck Liddell jumped in -- before Ed Soares even had a chance to translate for the Brazilian -- to defend Silva. "He was attacking all the time, but it takes two to fight," Liddell said and basically asked what can you do when your opponent falls to the ground even when he throw a punch that misses. "Someone ask a real question," Liddell piped.
Surprisingly, nobody took that opening to ask Chuck where it was that he misplaced his chin. I love Liddell and I certainly think he can fight and be exciting, but when it's becoming your routine that after a fight you say, "I fought well, I just got caught," it's time to hang 'em up.
As far as Canadian results go, this year's was even better than last year's. There was one less fighting on the card (seven compared to last year's eight, which included one all-Canuck matchup). But while the Maple Leaf went 4-4 in 2008, this year's edition saw five of the seven Canadians take home wins, many of them in impressive fashion.
Sam Stout, shook a ridiculously long wait to earn fight of the night honours in a bout you wish had actually been the main event. And Krzysztof Soszynski got submission of the night for a second time. That's a nice $70,000 each for our home-country boys.
Like Stout, Bocek got "redemption" for a loss in this spot last year, while Kang got his first UFC win and T.J. Grant was victorious in his Octagon debut.
It wasn't as a rosy for David Loiseau, who might be one and done in his return to the top-flight promotion, which is too bad for the Montreal native.
The other major disappointment -- frustration might even be a better word -- was Jason MacDonald's result. He was involved in the aforementioned all-Canadian matchup at UFC 83, when he mashed up Joe Doerksen's forehead with elbows. The tables were turned on him this year, unfortunately.
The reason it's frustrating is because MacDonald suffered a cut above his eye in training a few weeks back that required multiple stitches. It had mostly healed up, but he knew there was a chance it could open up again.
It did. And that, combined with a nice fresh cut from Nate Quarry, filled his face with a crimson mask and gave him little chance to avoid a referee stoppage.
Fortunately for him, when White was asked about where this puts MacDonald, the boss had good things to say about him.
"He always puts on exciting fights," White said. Hopefully that means he's not in any immediate danger to be job searching.
Afterward, I asked White how he thought this year's event compared to last year's, in particular the crowd atmosphere.
"It was awesome. The fans here are well educated, they know what they're looking at. They understand the sport. I love it here. The weather was great again.
"I don't know how many more things you want me to say about how great Canada is!"
As long as you keep bringing events north of the border, you needn't say any more.
You just might want to consider a weekend the Montreal Canadiens aren't competing in the playoffs. (FYI, the weather in Montreal is great in July too.)
