I didn't see that coming...

Damn, apparently Evans knocked Liddell way the fuck out of the title picture, or at least as out of the title picture as one of MMA's biggest names can be, and knocked himself off the "I won't pay to watch" list by Sean Salmon'ing Liddell.

Who now fights Forrest Griffin for the light heavyweight belt in December?

Liddell's out of contention, Machida has no name recognition & can't finish, Thiago Silva's injured (fuck, and more on that in a latter post), and Jackson isn't a viable champ until his criminal trial is over.

I'd say that leaves 3 people:

Evans who has the record and just gave himself some serious name recognition (fight could be billed as "UFC: Ultimate Ultimate Fighter")

Wanderlei has the history & is a decently sized name in the US (fight could be billed as "UFC: Generations")

Silva, assuming he beats Cote & doesn't get a medical suspension, has name recognition in the US & has the credentials. And, it is the easiest of these fights to sell, "UFC: Champion vs Champion."

Enjoy the real start of the NFL season tomorrow (1 game on Thursday night doesn't count as the start). Hopefully, it'll help ease the pain of today being the worst day in the history of free MMA (more on that later this week).

Remember when I said that Kevin Burns was a serious eye injury waiting to happen because of his inability to throw a close-fisted punch with his left hand?

http://budgetmmafan.blogspot.com/2008/07/that-was-lot-of-free-mma.html

I was wrong. Burns seriously injured Anthony Johnson's eye. Johnson talked to MMA Weekly about the extent of the injury and the surgery he had on it.

http://www.mmaweekly.com/absolutenm/templates/dailynews.asp?articleid=6770&zoneid=13

You might want to pass on reading the story because it is pretty nasty.

Johnson's doctor has told him that he'll be out until at least September. And, Johnson hopes to be fighting again in either September or October.

UFC 86 Main Card: I was wrong

Let's recap those fights that I thought would be exciting (& Koscheck vs Lytle)
http://budgetmmafan.blogspot.com/2008/06/july-ppv-battle-main-card-ufc-86-vs.html

Griffin vs Aurelio
While this was a decent fight that featured all aspects of MMA (striking, wrestling, & jui-jitsu), it didn't live up to my expectations. I expected it to be a lot faster paced with a lot more on the ground. Didn't live up to expectations, but still decent.

Koscheck vs Lytle
I should be saying that this fight was better than expected because it shouldn't have gone the distance, but the end of the 2nd round & entire 3rd painful to watch. From about the 3 minute mark in the 2nd round until the end of the fight, I was waiting for the ref or ringside doctor to step in stop the fight. Lytle had a cut right above his eye that Rogan informed us was the size of a "goat's vagina." He was a bloody tired mess. I give Lytle a lot of credit for staying in the fight, but it should have been stopped. Seriously, was the ringside physician in line at the bar during this fight?

Stevenson vs Tibau
Best main card fight, and coincidentally the only one that didn't go to a decision. A lot a solid ground work and submission skills. Solid fight.

Cote vs Almeida
This fight felt longer than Jackson vs Griffin. A lot longer.

Despite what the UFC says, this fight wasn't tactical, it was uneventful.

Cote looked like the guy that started his UFC career 0-4, and Almeida looked like someone coming off a 4 year layoff.

Let's look at this round-by-round:
First round - Decent action, Almeida shows off some solid ground skill. Cote manages to escape.
Second round - Cote moves forward & Almeida backs up for 5 straight minutes.
Third round - I didn't know 5 minutes could feel so long. Cote wins this round by landing 2 leg kicks. Those 2 leg kicks are the only action in the entire round. It was like watching the wood-cutter's tale of the sword fight in "Rashomon" or the 2 gangs squaring off while Mifune watches from the tower in "Yojimbo."

How bad was it? Even Almeida, one of the guys in the fight, was bored
http://www.cagepotato.com/2008/07/08/ricardo-almeida-blames-boredom-for-loss/

It was bad enough that Almeida fell onto my "I won't pay to watch" list & Cote is now really close to making the list. I'm sparing Cote because of his fight history.

Heck, even Dana White called it a boring fight. He also said that Cote will get a title shot. Which begs the question, what the hell does White have against Okami? Did Okami run over White's dog, repeatedly? Okami doesn't get a title shot because he's seen as boring fighter, but Cote gets a title shot after putting together a snooze-fest for the ages? That's messed up.

Guillard vs Siver
That was quick. Fast explosive striking by Guillard and a solid guillotine attempt by Siver. Solid, entertaining fight. Fast, but entertaining.

Not the entertaining card, I'd expected. At least, the UFC is giving us some free MMA later this month in UFC: Silva vs Irvin (aka "Fuck Affliction").

Good luck to the people that didn't take my advice and decided to buy Affliction: Banned instead of UFC 86.