FRANKLIN DECISIONS SILVA IN UFC 99 MAIN EVENT

From a business standpoint, the UFC’s first trip to Germany will clearly fall short of their success in the UK.  From poor ticket sales to a downright hostile German media, it’s been one headache after another for Dana White and company.  On Saturday afternoon US time, however, that was all forgotten thanks to an entertaining if somewhat uneven fight card highlighted by a spectacular main event between Rich Franklin and Wanderlei Silva.  Franklin would ultimately win the unanimous decision victory, but the fight itself far exceeded the expectations of most fans.

For the most part, Franklin ‘picked Silva apart’ throughout the course of the fight (to quote UFC color commentator Joe Rogan) and deserved the unanimous decision verdict.  What made the fight exceptional were the occasional glimpses of the ‘old’ “Axe Murderer”.  Late in the second and third rounds, Silva tagged Franklin with hard punches that left him clearly stunned.  He did well to weather the storm and maintain control of the fight, but the uncertainty was enough to make the main event a very entertaining and exciting fight.  Silva demurred on talk of retirement afterwards, though his tone gave some indication that he’s leaning in that direction.

In the co-main event, heavyweight phenom Cain Velasquez survived a few nervous moments to put in a wall to wall domination of Cheick Kongo.  Velasquez was rocked by Kongo’s punches early in rounds one and two, but quickly recovered to take the fight to the ground where he mauled the Frenchman.  The result was an impressive victory for Velasquez over a top level opponent, but his struggles against Kongo’s standup game left several unanswered questions.  The most compelling concern, of course, is that Velesquez might have a ‘weak chin’ and simply not be able to take a punch particularly well.  His problems could also be tactical or simply a case of not having enough patience—rushing his takedown attempts and eating punches rather than work for a less risky opportunity.  In any case, his stand up defense needs to be upgraded significantly before he can think about competing against the likes of Brock Lesnar or Frank Mir.

The event also featured the UFC return of former PRIDE open weight GP champion Mirko Cro Cop.  Cro Cop was making his return to action from knee surgery, and the Croatian striking machine got off to a slow start against overmatched Mostapha Al-Turk as he clearly sought to protect his rebuilt wheels.  Of particular note was the fact that Cro Cop didn’t throw a kick the entire fight—his bread and butter during his PRIDE dominance, which evoked the mantra “right leg hospital, left leg cemetery”.  Once he let his hands go, however, he demonstrated emphatically that he’s still got serious power.  He ended the fight late in the first round by flooring Al-Turk with an overhand left followed up with some hammer fists on the ground.  Al-Turk survived this onslaught, but when the referee returned the fight to standup he caught a poke in the eye (similar to the one suffered by Josh Barnett in his PRIDE OWGP Final matchup against Cro Cop).  This caused him severe difficulty, but likely only hastened the inevitable Cro Cop TKO victory.