Saturday night's UFC Live event was special, but not just because it was broadcast on Spike TV, as opposed to pay-per-view. It also kicked off a week that will see the start of another season of the UFC's hit reality series, "The Ultimate Fighter," plus UFC 135 in just seven days, where Light Heavyweight champ, Jon Jones, will try to defend the belt against Quinton "Rampage" Jackson.
But enough about what's yet to come. There was plenty of action down in New Orleans at this event and even though the fight card might not have been littered with marquee names, the matchmaking was pretty solid, in my opinion, and I really enjoyed trying to break down each fight before the event took place. Keep reading for all the details on what happened.
Alan Belcher submitted (by strikes) Jason MacDonald in the first round. I like both of these guys, because they bring a lot of athletic ability and aggression to the cage every time they fight. You would be hard pressed to find either one of them involved in a boring fight, so I liked the match-up a lot. What I was less clear about was how it would go. I'd probably give Belcher a slight edge just based on his experience and the quality of opponents, but honestly, I don't think that made much of a difference in this fight. Belcher was fighting close to home and coming back after a long layoff, so you knew he was going to bring it. MacDonald appeared to be the first to force his agenda, when he literally drug Belcher to the ground and into his guard. He ended up paying for that by getting blasted with big punches from Belcher, though. He tried to get some submissions going, but Belcher's strikes were the difference. MacDonald just couldn't find an answer after a while. He was hurt by some of the strikes and verbally tapped out.
Eric Koch defeated Jonathan Brookins by unanimous decision. Brookins is one of the more impressive winners of "The Ultimate Fighter," but Eric Koch is a beast. He trains alongside the likes of Anthony Pettis and Pat Barry under the tutelage of Duke Roufus and the guy strikes like a demon. Brookins is really well rounded, though, so I was pretty intrigued by this fight as well. Not surprisingly, Brookins was looking for a take down from the start. He couldn't get it, but managed to keep Koch clinched up against the fence for the majority of the first round. When they did separate, Koch's striking advantage was apparent. Brookins wanted a take down badly, but couldn't make one stick. He was controlling the location of the fight, but Koch was the only one really landing anything, so I was already starting to wonder how the judges were scoring the fight before the second round was over. Brookins did finally get a take down in the last minute of the second round, but Koch was back up after about 20 seconds. I don't know that the third round did any more to help determine a winner. Koch did a little bit better job of circling and not letting Brookins push him back into the cage, but they ended up back there by the end of the round. I still didn't know what the judges were going to do, but I was actually surprised to see Koch get a unanimous decision. I'm not arguing with the decision, but I thought they'd go with Brookins, because he pushed the fight where he wanted to. He wasn't able to do anything else, though, so that was obviously why the judges ruled the way they did.
Court McGee defeated Dongi Yang by unanimous decision. Honestly, I forgot all about Court McGee since he won the 11th season of "The Ultimate Fighter." He's been out with injuries for a long time, so we it had been quite a while since we'd seen that magnificent chin strap in the octagon. I never really knew much about Yang to begin with, so I went into this fight with a completely open mind and ready to see how it played out. I view McGee as a pretty well-rounded guy, who prefers to stand and that's pretty much how the entire first round went. Both fighters seemed content to strike, but McGee was getting the better of it. They stayed on their feet in the second round as well, but I thought that Yang was finding his rhythm and starting to score with some combinations of his own. These guys definitely saved the best action for the third round. Just when I thought McGee was probably going to walk with the decision, Yang tagged him with a left hook that had him stumbling to the ground. McGee ate a knee as he got back to his feet, but did his best to shake it off. He bloodied Yang's nose up, but McGee looked wobbly to me as the fight entered the final two minutes. Yang was gassed out, though, and McGee's conditioning came to the fore. He took Yang down twice late in the fight and was trying to lock up a guillotine as the final bell sounded. Despite getting knocked down once, I thought McGee definitely deserved the decision and showed a ton of heart in getting it.
Jake Ellenberger TKO'd Jake Shields in the first round. Like a lot of people, I picked Shields to win this fight, but I also wasn't discounting Ellenberger's chances to do something exciting. Ellenberger is dangerous on his feet and it was pretty obvious that Shields would want to get the fight to the ground ASAP. He never did, though. The clinched up a couple of times, but Ellenberger was able to separate. He landed a couple of really hard knees while they clinched, though, and Shields dropped like a rock. Ellenberger wasted no time jumping on top of him and throwing a barrage of strikes to Shields' head, forcing the ref to stop the fight. It was a huge win for Ellenberger and a massive loss for Shields. Only time will tell, but I'm already curious about what's next for each of them.
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