All eyes last night were focused on one fight, and one fight alone: the main event. The main event of UFC 145 was hyped up by a heavily anticipated, heavily delayed, match-up between Jon “Bones” Jones and Rashad “Sugar” Evans. However, as the fight card went on last night, in the build to the main event, most were surprised to see that the excitement of all the fighters on this card were going to make for a night of surprises and excitement.
Not since UFC 140 in Toronto has such a strong Canadian contingent been present on a card. The Canuck crew would meet with mixed results last night, but strong performances were present for all:
- To start the night off one Canadian was assured a loss in a tilt between two Canuck rising stars Jon Alessio and Mark Bocek. Unfortunately, for Alessio, the superior ground game of Bocek was too much. Bocek walked away with a clear decision.
- After back-to-back losses, Mark Hominick was looking to rebound against Eddie Yagin. After two strong first rounds by Yagin, Hominick put it out on the line and tired to put away the clearly gassed Yagin. Unfortunately, Hominick’s efforts were too little too and he ended up losing the split decision.
- The Welterweight division has been abuzz with names like Nick Diaz, Carlos Condit and Georges St. Pierre over the last year. Through all of this one of the most promising prospects has been overlooked, in Rory MacDonald. Last night MacDonald continued to impress with a second round TKO against up-and-comer Che Mills.
Watching the Canadian group would have been enough to leave any fight fan satisfied, but there was still more. Two other fighters on the card last night, were in a situation where redemption was a must for each. Miguel Torres was the first of these two fighters, coming back after a “twitter-related” suspension; once considered one of the P4P, needed to prove he ready for a title shot. Unfortunately, Torres was KO’d in brilliant fashion by the up-and-comer, Michael McDonald. The second of the aforementioned fighters, was Ben Rothwell. The former IFL champ has never looked too impressive in the UFC and was solidly positioned on the chopping block. Rothwell saved his job, a forwarded himself “into the mix” within the heavyweight division with a devastating KO over Brendan Schaub.
This all brings us for the fight that we have all been waiting for: Would Jones cement his position as one of the best in the world? Or (as Kenny Florian put it), would this set-up the greatest Light Heavyweight trilogy since Lidell v. Couture? While Jones put together a solid decisive decision, the fight could not be characterized as much more than anti-climactic. Both fighters looked a little too tentative at times, and the explosions were few and short-lived. This being said, I think the result of this fight was more important than the fight itself; for Jones this meant he has already firmed his position as the most dominate champion in the toughest weight class in the UFC.
Does this mean Jones has achieved Anderson Silva or GSP status? Not yet. He still has not yet cleaned out the division, and has a tough roadblock in his way in Dan Henderson. In all fairness to Jones though, in recent memory he has put away tougher competition than either of those fighters combined.
When all is said and done, I give UFC 145 a solid B. Most of the fights were a great watch, and fun to watch – however, the main event was a little bit of a let down.
… and that is the word.
