It’s been almost a week since UFC 87, and I’ve got to say, the visuals of what was such a thrilling card are still fresh in my head.
Yet even more than that a question still lingering in the old noggin is: “Just how good is GSP?”
After watching the whole main card of Saturday’s event in Minnesota, I could honestly say it would have been a fantastic one even without the main event of Georges St. Pierre vs. Jon Fitch.
Jason MacDonald’s ground battle with Demian Maia was one of the most technically entertaining fights I’ve seen in a while — certainly not what was expected — and as a Canadian fan left me on the edge of my seat at multiple points.
Rob Emerson’s 12-second knockout of Manny Gamburyan was thrilling inasmuch as it was so stunning.
Roger Huerta vs. Kenny Florian may not have been the most exhilarating but it was enjoyable just because of the respective abilities of the two fighters, and how you could really appreciate Florian’s skillfulness.
And then Brock Lesnar showed that he has arrived as a mixed martial artist, putting on show against a very experienced and always entertaining Heath Herring.
After four fights I felt like I had just watched one main event after another. And then GSP and Fitch showed up to fight for a championship belt, and suddenly I’ve forgotten all about those other ones. That’s quite an accomplishment.
So that main event really proved two things:
1) Georges St. Pierre is head and shoulders above anybody else in his division right now, perhaps anyone else in the UFC.
2) Jon Fitch is one tough cookie.
In a bout that not many gave Fitch much of a chance in, St. Pierre indeed came out and was beating the snot out of Fitch. (Though not literally, as some may have thought when an early GSP fist that hit flush on Fitch’s jaw sent something white in colour flying out of what looked like Fitch’s nose. For those who are curious, a co-worker and I reviewed the video frame-by-frame, and it didn’t come from Fitch at all. It came off GSP’s glove. It appeared that it was some paint from the logo on the mat that had stuck to GSP’s glove. In an earlier bout, it looked like some had gotten on Jason MacDonald’s back as well. The whole process of watching the video from different angles and trying to figure out what it was had the feel of that JFK scene from Seinfeld!)
Anyway, like I said, Fitch was getting thoroughly beaten by GSP, yet he hung in there — for a full five rounds. Nobody had ever done that before. (Four guys have gone three rounds with GSP before, but never five.) And Fitch wasn’t just surviving. Instead of staying on the defensive, Fitch continued to try to look for ways to win the fight. You’ve got to give him a heck of a lot of respect for that.
The fight offered up a couple other firsts. Fitch came into the fight unbeaten in the UFC, and nobody had ever passed his guard. St. Pierre was able to put an end to both of those with relative ease. And you can’t help but be in awe of GSP for that.
As far as whether St. Pierre is in fact the best in the UFC pound-for-pound, we will see about that soon enough, when he faces lightweight champ B.J. Penn, and could face middleweight champ Anderson Silva down the line. I like his chances.
EXTRA THOUGHTS:
– Brock Lesnar’s performance was spectacular, but he’s got to drop the WWE theatrics. The lasso gestures were funny, but pointing and laughing at your opponent the moment the bell rings just doesn’t look good. At best it’s unprofessional and at worst childish. Especially when you view it against the sportsmanlike actions of other winners on the night. Maia hugging MacDonald, Florian giving props to Huerta, and GSP and Fitch kneeling together in the centre of the cage (with Fitch later lifting him in the air!). It’s that kind of mutual respect that makes MMA special.
– Referee Yves Lavigne, who worked three of the five fights on the main card, showed again why he is perhaps the best referee in the business. Lavigne could have easily stopped the GSP-Fitch fight early on — in fact an inexperienced ref may well have. But Lavigne, who says he does research ahead of time on all the fighters on a card he’s working, knew just how tough Fitch is and how much abuse he could safely take and still be able to put up a fight. So he let it continue, and it resulted in the Fight of the Night.
In earlier bouts, Lavigne’s quick reaction probably saved Gamburyan some serious injury after he was knocked cold by Emerson. And he kept a close watch during the Maia-MacDonald fight, in case it needed to be called, and warned Maia’s camp when the fighter was close to gouging MacDonald’s eye. Good on Yves.