UFC 117 Results

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Match Winner Loser Method Round Time

1 Dennis Hallman Ben Saunders Decision (Unanimous) 3 5:00
2 Stefan Struve Christian Morecraft KO (Punches) 2 0:22
3 Tim Boetsch Todd Brown Decision (Unanimous) 3 5:00
4 Johny Hendricks Charlie Brenneman TKO (Punches) 2 0:40
5 Phil Davis Rodney Wallace Decision (Unanimous) 3 5:00
6 Rick Story Dustin Hazelett TKO (Punches) 2 1:15
7 Junior dos Santos Roy Nelson Decision (Unanimous) 3 5:00
8 Matt Hughes Ricardo Almeida Technical Submission (Modified Anaconda Choke) 1 3:15
9 Clay Guida Rafael dos Anjos Submission (Jaw Injury) 3 1:51
10 Jon Fitch Thiago Alves Decision (Unanimous) 3 5:00
11 Anderson Silva Chael Sonnen Submission (Triangle Armbar) 5 3:10

Damn, I have never seen Anderson dominate like that. Sonnen did exactly what he said he was going to do, for about 22 mins. All that time, Silva was working on getting a submision, but Sonnen kept pushing forward and he didn't allow Silva any space. Silva worked subs relentlessly and he finally got Sonnen in an arm bar. I said "Silva on his back did not equal a win for Sonnen." and I was right. Sonnen really put it on Silva and I was very impressed with him tonigh, but Silva is the champ and he found a way to win, period.

JDS/Nelson
Right from the start, JDS just owned Roy Nelson. What I didn't like about Nelson's stance was where he positioned his hands. He kept covering up both sides of his face with his hands and against someone like JDS who can throw punches from all angles, he really limits his vision when he's against the fence and can't move laterally, even if he blocks a lot more shots this way. If he tried that against someone like Cro Cop, those leg kicks would absolutely be brutal because he wouldn't be able to see them coming. And you got to see a bit of that in the third round. That leg kick to the body Nelson didn't move and the frontkick to the chin Nelson couldn't get out of the way. Someone like Shogun utilizes the same strategy, but he only does it with 1 hand on (I believe it's the left side of his face), so he's not only blocking some shots, but he also keeps most of his vision clear and has his right hand more readily available to strike.

The third round where JDS chose to take Nelson down really tells me how confident he is on the ground. A brown belt under the Nog brothers, he was still willing to take take Nelson to the ground (who I believe is a blackbelt from one of the Gracies). He didn't stay down there long, but the fact that he was willing to even go there spoke volumes to me. Something even Silva wouldn't do against Leites or Maia, despite his own blackbelt from the Nog brothers.

Overall, a very impressive fight for JDS and a few fights ago I was calling him and Cain the next generation of challengers for Lesnar after he won the title. While he won't steamroll over Lesnar, he's definitely shown a great overall game so far. I am a little concerned about his conditioning if his championship fight goes into the championship rounds, but he's still got some time to improve after going to a decision for the first time in his career. Oh and props to Roy Nelson for his choice of entrance music


Hughes/Almeida
I called this a very big fight in Hughes career to see how much he has left in the tank and I gotta say, he looked pretty good. On his feet, he held his own against a faster and slightly rounger Almeida (including that knockdown). Once it got to the ground, Hughes didn't waste any time submitting Almeida. The second Hughes postured up with the choke on, Almeida was guaranteed to go to sleep with that much pressure on the hold. While I don't think Hughes has a championship left in him, he's still got more fights in him.


Guida/dos Anjos
First 8 minutes of the fight when Guida is on his feet, he gets outstruck. The only time he was winning the fight, he was on top of dos Anjos and doing his little lay and pray again. He moves a lot down there, but he doesn't really pass to any dominant position, he doesn't do GSP's ground and pound and all he did was a few punches to the body and I counted 1 or 2 punches to the face during those 2 minutes. Then he just lays there again. I can't for the life of me understand why people continue to cheer this guy on. The only time his fights are exciting are when he's getting punched in the face. It's a shame he had the jaw injury though...I think he was on his way to winning the fight 2 rounds to 1.


Struve/Morecraft
While this wasn't on the main card, they did show it, and I do believe that Struve is a main card type guy, so I'll leave some quick comments on this one. When morecraft was on top, Struve was able to get the triangle very easily because of his height (and that's why I chose him for my submission of the night pick, which obviously didn't work out). I am a little surprised that Struve didn't use upkicks with those long legs when Morecraft postured up though. Great comeback in the second round obviously and he was so excited that he threw his mouthpiece into the audience. I feel bad for the guy that the mouthpiece landed on


Fitch/Alves
First off, I hope Alves gets forced out of WW and into MW. It's embaressing that he keeps missing weight, even if it's half a pound (unlike the like 8 pounds he missed against Hughes). It's a fighter's job to make weight and get to the fight. Winning is the goal of the fight, but making weight and actually getting to the fight in the first place is his job and he's failed on more than one occassion.

On to the fight, it was a Jon Fitch fight. He takes you down, holds onto you, and keeps you down on the mat without doing much damage. I called for a decision win, and guess what, Fitch provided another decision win. I'm a little surprised that someone as scrawny as Fitch was able to muscle Alves to the ground so often though. I thought some of Alves' pure strength would've kept a couple of those takedown attemps on their feet, but that obviously didn't work out. Fitch wins, he deserves a title shot based on his record, but he'll never provide an exciting fight regardless of who he fights next (title shot or not).


Sonnen/Silva
First round, the highlight for me was that escape Chael did about 40 seconds in when Silva caught his leg. He turned around and summersaulted away, which I've never seen before and it proved rather effective. Some other quick surprises in the first round were that Chael actually outstruck Silva and then Silva tried to take Chael down, but he ended up getting outwrestled (not surprising) and he ended up on his back. I said before the fight that Chael has very weak stand-up and I'm willing to eat my words. Full credit for bringing it to Silva in that department right from the start. Second round, this is why I like Chael's ground and pound. Slamming his opponent from the ground, double fisted slaps to Silva's face, and he's willing to mix up his posture and strikes from the top. More of the same in the third round, take him down, pound him out.

Into the championship rounds, Silva came out swinging and for a while, Chael obliged and got himself into trouble. Don't know if anybody else noticed, but about 25 seconds into the round, Silva tried his back elbow that got him that vicious knockout back in Cage Rage (I posted that video in your thread not too far back CJ). Lucky for Chael he ducked down for the takedown at the exact same time that elbow was coming. The rest of the fourth round and the beginning of the fifth round was more of the same...until the very end. What an unfortunate end to a great fight on Sonnen's end. And I thought it was a triangle, not an arm bar.

While Sonnen's efforts make him deserving of an immediate rematch, there's been too many of those recently, so I'd like to see Belfort get a shot first before Sonnen gets a rematch. He'll be back though and waiting to take Silva's best using the exact same strategy next time they hook up. No doubt this was Silva's hardest fight so far and he probably took more damage in this fight than in his entire career and I wonder how he'll come back after this.

^^Silva came out with a broken rib.

Nelson is going to have to work on his conditioning, he was completely out classed in this fight. I was thinking JDS was going to throw more leg kicks. His kicks were very effecting against Cro Cop.

I'm hearing bruised ribs.

And maybe JDS didn't utilize kicks as much because he was worried they might get caught and he'd get taken down by Nelson. I don't think he had to worry because as I mentioned before, Nelson's hand positioning doesn't allow him to catch those kicks as easily, but that's the only reason I can think of for him not mixing in more kicks (especially early on).

That is a great point, but no one can question Nelson's chin. He was rocked a few times and kept on coming....and getting his ass kicked. If JDS couldn't finish Nelson, there is no way he will finish Brock and yes, I am taking it for granted that he will win his next fight. Here comes the Pain, Cain. I didn't mean for that to rhythm.

Nelson didn't get knocked out because JDS never hit the same chin two times in a row.

I was surprised by Hughes, do you think this fight will get his career back on track?

Well I don't think it really ever got off track. From 2004 til now, he had 3 losses. 2 to GSP and everybody losses to GSP. 1 to Thiago Alves who didn't even come close to making weight. So really, in the last 6 years, his only 2 WW losses were to GSP, not too shabby.

How fast does GSP beat Fitch this time? or will Fitch do what he always does. Try for TD's and be boring.

Fitch won't be able to take GSP down. GSP will take him down and show him how to ground and pound when on top and not just lay there. Basically do what he did in their first fight:

What are talking about, it appears that Fitch won that fight. Was you surprise at how dominate Sonnen was, against Silva? I sure as hell was.

Once Sonnen took it to the ground, I wasn't surprised at all. Silva's wrestling has always been piss-poor (hence Hendo's success against him until he got caught like Sonnen). Sonnen is relentless on the ground (setting the record for most strikes in a fight I believe), so once it went to the ground, it wasn't surprising that Silva couldn't get back up and was being pounded on for the rest of the round.

The only surprising part was Chael out-striking Silva. He has the chin to walk through punches, but I didn't think he'd get close enough to tag Silva on multiple occasions.

Do you think Sonnen got too confident, after dominating for 22 mins?

He's always confident. He could be losing the first 22 minutes and still think he's the shit.