UFC 83

For the first time the UFC was in Montreal, Canada. Set for a big fight night at the sold out Bell Centre, with a new record of 21,000 in attendance! George St Pierre and Matt Serra headed up the fight card to set the record straight on who is the real Welterweight Champion. British hero Michael Bisping would be making his middleweight debut. Most people think its about time Bisping moved from light heavyweight to his more natural middleweight. Now we will get to see what the true impact of the change will be. Bruce Buffer even showed off his French language skills to welcome Canada to the UFC! The crowd where pumped and ready like hungry dogs waiting to be fed!

Mark Bocek vs. Mac Danzig

BJJ fighter Bocek was all ready with his home crowd to back him up. With the likes of Dan Henderson in his conner he was well covered. The Season 6 TUF winner Mac Danzig looked cool, calm and professional as always. This would be a good test for both fighters.

Round 1
Danzig comes out and backs Bocek up against the cage with punches. Bocek covers up and avoids most of the danger to return the pressure. Boceks level changes for a single leg takedown, which he changes up to a double leg in order to drive Danzig to the floor. Danzig works to his feet. Danzig uses a fig 4 to block, but Bocek keeps pressure on until he gets the takedown. On his back Danzig attacks with angles and looks for the triangle, but ends up with a omaplata (shoulder lock using his leg) but Bocek defends and punches out. Danzig stands using the fence only to get put down again.He pulls his left arm loose and fires a right hand that scores. Danzig goes high with his hips as he looks to slap on an armbar or pass for a triangle, but Bocek senses danger and postures up to avoid any danger.Danzig, with a sweep, reverses Bocek and takes the Bocek’s back and top position, where he lands some leather before the round ends. Ground and pound payback.

Round 2
Danzig started strong working behind his jab. He landed a powerful right knee to the chin of Bocek, which put him down. Danzig went in for the kill with strikes to the head from in Bocek’s half-guard. Danzig progressed the position but Bocek drove for a single leg to counter. This allowed Bocek to fight back to his feet. But Danzig landed a jumping right knee right into the face of Bocek. The fight goes back to the ground with Danzig on top. He passed to half-guard and then to mount before taking Bocek's back where he worked to control the position. Danzig changed to strike down from side mount then stands back up. Bocek is still game and worked a punch combination to a single leg. But Danzig made the sprawl to Bocek’s back and landed some strong punches.Bocek made it to guard, but Danzig didn’t give him a break!

Round 3
Bocek now has a mall cut under this left eye. Also a lot of bruising and swelling. They circle Danzig lands a leg kick and another straight right. Bocek runs in with punches, showing a lot of toughness. It pays off as he scores the double leg, which he had to fight hard to keep. Danzig held guard, but worked hard showing a lot of BJJ skills. He walked his legs high and looked for a shoulder lock, which he changed to a gogo plata which is a shin across the wind pipe choke, but Bocek is able to escape. Danzig kicked out from his guard and was able to re stand. In the clinch Danzig landed another great knee that opened up a cut. Bocek turned away from the pressure striking of Danzig and the referee called the doctor in to have a look at the cut. Bocek’s face is a mess, but the fight goes on. Danzig looked like he was ready to end this fight and put the pressure on with solid strikes to a takedown and pass to the mount. Danzig punched from the mount until Bocek turned where Danzig was able to finish the fight with a choke.

Charles Mc Carthy vs. Michael Bisping

Bisping looked in excellent shape! Showing that middleweight suits him well. The crowd showed a lot of love for Bisping giving him a big welcome into the octagon.

Round 1
Jab from Bisping to start the round. McCarthy shoots for the takedown but Bisping showed good defence. McCarthy was swinging for the fences, but Bisping stayed cool and punched down the middle where they clinched up. Bisping took head control and worked knees and a nice upper cut. McCarthy covered up but the strikes were working a way through. Big jumping knee from Bisping! He looked very fast and totally outworked McCarthy with knees and punches. McCarthy needed to turn the fight around and timed a big double-leg. Bisping held half guard. McCarthy worked to pass and took Bisping’s upper back where he looked for the arm bar. McCarthy set into a deep arm bar. Bisping showed good ground savvy by rolling to stack McCarthy and keep the pressure on until he could work his arm free. Once back standing, Bisping backed McCarthy to the cage and unleashed knees and upper cuts all day long! McCarthy went down just as the round ended. McCarthy was complaining of a forearm injury and is unable to continue. It looked like Bisping’s knees did the damage as McCarthy tried to cover up. After the fight Bisping said "I've always been a middleweight, but I suppose my stubborn manliness, whatever you want to call it, got in the way. I preferred fighting the bigger guys. This is my natural weight class. I feel great. I didn't have to cut any weight. I didn't put a sweat suit on. I didn't get in the sauna. I didn't do none of that. So I'm excited to see what I can do at 185." Bisping keeps growing and this was an excellent performance at middleweight for him. The division now has another big middleweight in town.

Nate‘ The Great’ Quarry vs. Kalib Starnes

Working with American Top team Kalib Starnes is still growing new skills. Canadian fighter. Quarry is a work machine and always comes in focused and ready to rock and roll. Now, this fight went all 3 rounds. But the whole fight can be summed up to this: Quarry chased, pressured, kicked and punched and then he chased, pressured, kicked and punched some more. Starnes sprinted away and ran for the whole fight! Even the hometown turned on their boy. The best part of the fight was in the last round when Quarry did a ‘running man’ impression to Kalib and then armbarred himself as he was running after his run away. Quarry looked very strong as always. It was all Nate Quarry. Quarry gave a fun Rocky 4 speech to the Canadian crowd to show his good humour after a frustrating fight. "If I can change, and you can change... WE ALL CAN CHANGE!!" That was the highlight of the fight!

Travis Lutter vs. Rich Franklin

Franklin looked very focused for this fight. He just lost his father a few months ago and you can be sure as a fighter he would want to put on a good fight tonight.Lutter is known for his excellent BJJ skills. But he has so far not shown he has fully made the transition from BJJ fighter to MMA fighter. This will be an interesting match up.

Round 1
Franklin started off with punches landing a right hand. Lutter shot straight in for a single leg takedown. Franklin defended well. Lutter and Franklin clinched against the cage. Lutter pressured for the takedown and pulling Franklin down from his back. Lutter could not control the position, but ends up with cross body. Franklin keeps working and made it to half guard where he works his hooks for a sweep or reversal. Lutter got back to half-guard and keeps good pressure and took the mount. Lutter looked for an armbar, which is on the way when Franklin worked a textbook super smooth bridge spin and roll to escape.Lutter keeps after Franklin with a single-leg chase. Franklin counters and Lutter who is not slowing down. Lutter’s round as he pushed and controlled the round.

Round 2
Lutter now looks very tired indeed. Franklin stopped some slow takedowns attempts from the now slow motion Lutter. An exhausted looking Lutter then tried to pull guard in a hope of keeping the fight in his world.Nice head kick from Franklin landed. Lutter has started to let go of the fight. He looked for another takedown but Franklin escapes and stands’ knowing the fight is falling into his hands.Lutter is gassed and Franklin was able to hit him at will at this point. Knees and punches to the head, Lutter now has no defence and falls down.Franklin punched down on Lutter and the referee ends the fight at 3:01 of the second round. This seems to be Lutter’s MO, dangerous for the first round and then gases in the second. Lutter is a great BJJ guy, but maybe MMA doesn’t suit his body. The pace is very different and sometimes hard to train right for. Franklin showed good heart on the ground and his conditioning helped him out. But what is next for Franklin? This fight showed more of what Lutter could have been able to do if he conditioned right for the fight rather than a show reel for the likeable Franklin.

Georges ‘The Rush’ St Pierre vs. Matt ‘The Terror’ Serra

Welterweight Championship fight! This story started with then underdog Matt Serra, taking the belt off GSP with a quick first round TKO. A back injury stopped Serra taking on Matt Hughes. Therefore GSP stepped in and took on Matt Hughes at short notice. GPS destroyed the ex Champ to take the interim Belt. Now its time to make clear who holds the welterweight title. Serra has first-rate BJJ skills, but once again is the underdog for this fight. GSP has shown with his defeat of Matt Hughes that he has world-class skills in all areas now.

Round 1
Serra leads with a right hand to the body and St. Pierre drops directly into a successful takedown. Good game plan as it looked like Serra was set up an overhand to catch GSP. Serra held half guard, but GSP was in control striking from the top GPS looked to pass. Serra was holding half guard with a lock down to stop GSP progressing. He then manages to pull full-guard. Some good right and left hands land from GSP who then postured up and rained down on Serra. GSP was still looking to progress his position but Serra is a game fighter and not making it easy.In the end GSP made the progress to side-control. Serra gave his back to make an escape, which was working until GSP pulled him back down to tell him off with elbows to the head. Serra now looked a bit beaten up, but gets to his feet only to be hit with a GSP trademark superman punch kick leg combination before being taken back down. The punch was like a clap of thunder! Back to the ground and more strikes from GSP. It was GSP all day.

Round 2
Serra looked under a ton of pressure at this point. You could see it in his eyes. But he
is a game fighter and was still in the game. GSP catches a Serra low kick and drove him to the mat with an overhand to guarantee the deal. Serra was up quick and sent a superman punch back to GSP. Serra landed a light head kick and followed with a right hand, trying to get back in the game. GSP stepped up the pace again using his lighting fast jab and good footwork Double leg from GSP took the fight to the ground once again.Serra worked to his knees, but GSP paid the body of Serra with hard knee strikes. Serra rolled nicely into guard, but GSP powered in with punches. Having no real answer Serra rolled again over to his knees but more knees to the body are waiting for him. In order to defend again Serra rolled to guard, but GSP is everywhere he goes!ow GSP passed Serra’s Guard. Serra had no choice and turtled up allowing GSP to send home very heavy knees to the body again with more hooking punches. Serra has no defence or answers for GSP.Referee stopped the fight 4:45. After the Fight GSP said "My strategy was to make a physical fight, make him tired as much as I can because I know I have the athleticism. So I was trying to mix as much as I could up, down, up, down. Ground and pound, not play jiu-jitsu game because jiu-jitsu, that's his strength. So that's how I won the fight: I tired him out and then I took the fight."Serra is a tough fighter and GSP really played a good strategy to control the fight. Both guys showed a lot of class after the fight. Giving each other a lot of respect. GSP now looks so complete! Good fight card for the Canadian fans to see for their first live UFC!

Alan Orr is a disciple of Robert Chu Sifu and the European representative of the Chu Sau Lei Wing Chun system. Teacher of Tui Na Chinese Massage Therapy

He is also the UK representative for Guro Mark Wiley in the Filipino martial arts and Sensei Eddy Millis of Shark Tank in NHB/Grappling.

Web:
www.alanorr.com
www.thechinesemedicineacademy.co.uk
www.warriorfunctionaltraining.com

For further information Tel: 07958 908 196 or email: info@alanorr.co.uk