UFC112

UFC112 was billed as one of the UFC's biggest events, being the first in UAE to satisfy their new investors and with two title fights which included two of their flagship fighters. This is not how it turned out however, as despite the controversy of BJ Penn losing a title which he owned and Anderson Silva making a complete twat of himself the fights were average if that.

It must be remembered that this sport is fighting and anything can happen, including shit performances but it was difficult to watch as the fighters involved should have done a hell of a lot better.

BJ Penn just looked like he could easily have won at any point, he looked like he was bored and chose not to up the pace or take Frankie 'The Answer' Edgar to the ground and snap his arm off. That is to take nothing away from 'The Answer' though, his gameplan worked, he had the stamina and never stopped moving his head. He even managed to get BJ to the ground for all of 2 seconds, not that it did him any good apart from in the judges eyes (one of which giving 'The Answer' every round assuming he must have been looking at the lovely ring girls on offer rather than the fight).

The performance of the judges didn't matter however because the action wasn't that brilliant, nobody went in for the kill which would have spiced it up a bit. However, by the standards of the Silva vs Maia fight, it was brilliant. Apart from a few strikes here and there in the first and second round, the best bit of the fight was watching the crowd turn on Silva for taunting Maia to a ridiculously disrespectful level and then run around him avoiding him, and when Maia managed to catch Silva with a few strikes in the last round. Enough said about it.

The usually aggressive Matt Hughes was not fighting as he usually would either. In his fight with Renzo Gracie (who entered the ring in a Man City shirt bizarrely, it is assumed that he is not a fan and likely that he is more interested in Man City's Arabic money), he looked like he was fighting his withered old uncle instead of a man who was being paid to be there, whether that be as a cometitive opponent or someone who was past it for that level. Hughes from appearances as a coach on the Ultimate Fighter comes across as a tool and usually is good value as a fighter due to him being so aggressive but here he just looked like he was letting the older 'legend' off the hook.

Other fights of notice were Terry Etim's loss to Rafael Dos Anjos. Despite looking good on his feet, Terry coped fairly well with a very good BJJ black belt on the floor but it was too much for him. Both come out with credit. Also a mention for Paul Kelly's win but unfortunately The Colonel hasn't been able to watch it as it was on the prelims and ESPN didn't show them. Anyone interested should use the internet machine to find it as it will be available somewhere.

Overall UFC112 can only receive 2 punches to the face out of 5 from the Colonel.