(A little left hook action, courtesy of MMA Weekly.)
The main event at UFC 87 may have been a methodical, one-sided affair, but it was enough for Georges St. Pierre and Jon Fitch to each pocket an extra $60,000 for “Fight of the Night.” Fitch’s gritty performance in the loss apparently impressed both Dana White and GSP. The champion had this to say after the bout:
“I tried to finish him many times. I was like, my god what am I going to have to do to beat this guy? It was discouraging.”
Dana White was also impressed by Brock Lesnar‘s performance in his decision victory over Heath Herring, though not enough to give him any bonus money (at least as far as the official record is concerned). He did give him this praise, though, and praise is almost as good as money (no it isn’t):
“I’m telling you I’m blown away by his performance tonight,” said White. “One of our guys said it looks like he’s hitting him with lunch boxes. The guy is a phenomenon. I’ll be honest, I didn’t think he could come in here with no fights and compete at this level, he proved me wrong.”
Lesnar was pretty pleased with himself, as well, asking no one in particular: “Can you see me now?” Rumor has it that he may face Cheick Kongo next. After his victory over Dan Evensen Kongo claimed that he deserves a title shot and “everybody knows” it. Sure we do. Anybody with an impressive one-fight winning streak is obviously deserving of a title shot.
Knockout of the Night honors went to Rob Emerson for his quick destruction of Manny Gamburyan, and Demian Maia picked up Submission of the Night for his rear naked choke of Jason MacDonald.
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Lesnar beat a very game Heath Herring, my congrats to him for that. But to say he is the future... too far over the top.
Roger Huerta vs Kenny Florian was a decent fight. Florian provided a solid stand up game and took Huerta's back numerous times. I'm a bit upset he didn't submit him with those openings , but I wasn't in the cage so I'm guessing it was harder than it looked. Huerta just seemed off to me though... His balance and timing just wasn't there. Maybe only once did he actually attempt a kick with any sort of power or balance behind it. He must have tried that lazy superman punch half a dozen times and never even set it up with a decent kick. At that level it's going to be hard to be successful without throwing combinations before your kicks. Look what happened to the Sandman... No punches and a kick that was caught and countered. Muay Thai 101, or maybe 102 :) Maybe he had a staph infection or something. I don't know, but he definitely didn't have the same tenacity and fire that he did against Clay Guida. Granted Florian's standup is far better than Guida's but Huerta had to know that coming in and should have prepared better. He is a professional athlete indeed, but I didn't see it that night...
Oh and I think Fitch's chin is built out of granite... haha.