‘by Dave Meltzer
Dave@wrestlingobserver.com
Welcome to our coverage of tonight’s UFC PPV show. For those checking after the show, we’re looking for your thoughts on the show, so you can leave a thumbs up, thumbs down or thumbs in the middle along with a best and worst match to dave@wrestlingobserver.com.
On the pre-game show, they are billing Tim Sylvia vs. Andrei Arlovsky for the title. The least they can do is put a crawl underneath explaining the situation, but that isn’t happening.
They opened the show announcing Sylvia wouldn’t be fighting. Dana White claimed Sylvia was an honest guy who wasn’t taking steroids of late. White looked pretty nervous making the announcement. They intimated that Sylvia would face the Cabbage vs. Arlovsky down the line.
Wes Sims vs. Mike Kyle is the opener. Kyle scored a knockout right at the end of the first round. Most of the fight was Kyle on top in the guard. When they did a stand-up, it was clear Sims was gassed. Sims has a bite mark on his chest. Kyle used a savage right.
Robbie Lawler vs. Nick Diaz is next. Excellent first round. Both were rocked once. Very close round, I’d call it even even. All standing so far. Diaz knocked the hell out of Lawler on a counter with a short right to end the fight early in the second round. Great fight.
Cabbage vs. Andrei Arlovsky is up next. First round went exactly as you’d think. Arlovsky connected with all sorts of combinations and Cabbage stumbled once, but generally took them. Question is if Arlovsky is going to get tired throwing punches, because from a skill standpoint, Cabbage is overmatched. Second round saw Arvlosky nail him with punch after punch and eventually knocked him down and the ref stopped the fight.
Yves Edwards vs. Hermes Franca is next. Interesting first round. Some standing and some on the ground. Edwards won the round, but Franca had a strong takedown and a strong high kick late in the round. Franca did a lot of ground work in the second round and went for a few submissions. Third round is going to decide it. Very close third round. Franca was going for more on the ground and more aggressive standing. All three judges had it 29-28, a split decision in favor of Edwards. I’d have probably gone the other way but it was close.
They are showing Chris Lytle vs. Tiki Ghosen, which was a prelim match. Well, thank God they are using the extra time better this time. Very competitive first round, mostly standing. Ghosen had a good combination late to even it out. Lytle used a headlock choke early in the second round for the submission.
Main event time. Liddell is smiling coming to the ring. He looks in good shape for Liddell and very confident. Ortiz looks the opposite. Several people in Vegas who had picked Ortiz to win switched today. Ortiz looks smaller but he’s ripped.
First round was all on their feet. I’d give it to Liddell. Crowd is for Ortiz big-time. Ortiz couldn’t take him down but Ortiz didn’t back down standing.
Liddell threw a barrage of about 18 straight punches rapid fire and knocked Ortiz out early in the second round. Ortiz was very gracious in defeat. Liddell said he was really on, peaking on the show.
Genki Sudo beat Mike Brown with a triangle armbar. Sudo looked very good.’